Star Trek: The Next Generation -- 20 Years

Today's date is generally acknowledged as the airdate of "Encounter at Farpoint", the first episode of The Next Generation. It's hard to believe that it has been 20 years. Besides being a continuation of the franchise, it started the boom in syndicated programming that continues on today (although not like the heyday of the '90s).

Trekmovie.com put up a link to the first TNG preview from 1987, and they will be posting more tributes over the next few days.

There's a very insightful post on that preview page linked above that says TNG is still too close in time to judge properly -- not "period" like the Original Series, but recent enough that the flaws are too apparent and it looked "dated". I'd have to agree, and further state that after the first two seasons the effects got much better and hold up to today's standards. The third season is probably the sweet spot, especially what is still the best TV cliffhanger to date, "The Best of Both Worlds, part I".

"Mr. Worf....fire!"

Trek Remastered -- "The Man Trap"

This weekend's episode is "The Man Trap", the one with the salt vampire. This has always been a favorite of mine. Little bit of trivia: although it was sixth episode filmed, it was the very first one aired. Take a look at the 30 second preview at trekmovie.com.

Another game blog

You may remember a great gaming blog I mentioned here before titled Deep in the Game. The author took down the site. Now he's back with Deeper in the Game.

Many of the posts on the new blog are about the design and playtest of a game he's working on, but there are also some posts with the same clever creativity as the old site.

3 new gaming blogs

Over the past few months three new gaming blogs popped up and became very popular. My own guess is that their respective authors were inspired by two other popular sites, Treasure Tables and Jeff's Gameblog. I haven't read a lot on any of these new blogs but what I've seen and read about elsewhere has been pretty good. They are generally about D&D but the ideas presented can be used in any RPG. Check them out:

• Stupid Ranger
• Dungeon Mastering
• Musings of the chatty DM

Latitude Zero on DVD in December!

In a previous DVD update, I mentioned that Media Blasters was working on this title for eventual release. Sci-fi Japan recently posted an update on MB's upcoming Japanese titles including LZ. They are going all out by releasing a two-disc set on December 11th.

The Japanese version is about 15 minutes shorter than the English international release, which seems unusual. It will be interesting to see what they cut. The English-speaking actors spoke their lines in English, of course, so I wonder if their voices were dubbed into Japanese or if subtitles were used.

A minor film in the Japanese monster/sci-fi genre, Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds, is out from Media Blasters the following week. I'm curious about it since I've never seen it -- not even the MST3K version.

Trek Remastered -- I missed it

I tried to stay up and watch the 1am showing of "The Galileo Seven". I fell asleep. I woke up, saw about 40 seconds of it before a commercial break, then fell asleep again during the commercial. I guess I'll have to record it.

Click on that link above for video of the new FX shots.

Trek Remastered -- A new season starts

This weekend is the start of the new season for The Original Series Remastered, and the kick-off episode is a great one -- "The Galileo Seven". The shots of the new effects are just astounding and I can't wait to see it.

Now here's the problem. No, not really a problem but an annoyance. The local Fox station aired the first season and did a nice job with it. Lots of commercials (at the beginning) and two airtimes, once on Saturday evening and a rerun of last week's ep late Sunday night/Monday morning at 1am. The Saturday slot would move to 2pm during baseball season, but still they made an effort to run it in a decent time slot.

This season it appears that the local affiliate is now the CW station, and from what I can discover the only time Trek airs is the late Sunday/early Monday slot. Most of the weekend lineup consists of sci-fi and horror movies, which could be good. I admit I got spoiled with two chances to watch Trek each weekend, but come on... are three hours a day of court shows necessary?

Too many movies

It has been a long time since there were so many movies out in the theater that I wanted to see at one time: The Simpsons Movie, Stardust, 3:10 to Yuma, Shoot 'Em Up, Balls of Fury, War, and Superbad. I guess I'll be renting a bunch of DVDs in about 6 months or so when they are released...

The Return of the RPGBlog

Zachary Houghton had ceased updating his RPGBlog site for a short time, but now he's back with Version 2. Although the old site was mostly news and reviews, the new blog will focus (for now) on his experiences as a newly-elected ENnies judge for the '08 awards.

I've updated the link in the sidebar with the new address.

Gen Con 2007, Part 1

A very brief overview with more later:

The swag bag was good again like last year. An Axis and Allies booster, A World of Warcraft CCG starter, a Star Wars mini, and a sample pack of Tokkens (I want to pronounce that like "Dokken"). When we found out that the GAMA booth was handing out Origins '07 goodie bags, we all picked one up. I got some of the items that the others didn't want, so more Pirates boosters and Cineplexity samples for me!

I didn't bring as much spending cash as I had hoped to, so I limited my purchases. Most often I try to pick up only those things that I can't easily get through a shop. My big purchases included:

• Savage World of Solomon Kane rulebook with T-shirt, GM screen and art prints
• Bawidamann Cosmonaut T-shirt
• 40 Years of Gen Con book
• AT-43 Gen Con exclusive figure
• Robert E. Howard Blbliography from McFarland (out-of-stock but ordered at 30% off)

My brushes with greatness:

• Rode in the hotel elevator with Chris Pramas
• (Almost literally) bumped into Ken Hite in one of the dealer's room aisles
• Got an autograph from Frank Mentzer
• Spoke with artist Wayne Reynolds at the Paizo booth for about 15 minutes. I, and another really nice guy who's a regular on Paizo's board, had his full attention as he talked about where he finds his inspiration -- from English seaside towns to Turkish riveted armor.
• Met and had books signed by noted Robert E. Howard scholars Paul Herman and Dale Rippke.

In another post I'll have some photos I took at the show.

Prepping for Gen Con 40

As I've said before, it's not so much that I have to prepare anything to take to Gen Con -- I'm not playing, running, or setting up a table -- but I like to do the research about new releases, show specials and any freebie swag to be had. I haven't done that as much this year. The time just slipped away and the con rushed up on me too soon. I've seen a few things here and there but I'll have to keep my eyes open for more stuff at the show.

A few random thoughts:

• Green Ronin is announcing a new license on Friday and releasing a ton of new product including a bunch of Freeport items and the retrospective Hobby Games: the 100 Best.
• 200 copies of Pinnacle's Savage World of Solomon Kane will be available.
• 4 seminars are scheduled for Robert E. Howard Day(s), but I've heard little about what else might be planned.
• The Diana Jones Award and the ENnies will be handed out.
• Q-Workshop is releasing a special set of Cthulhu dice.

This year should be bigger than ever as it's the 40th anniversary of the show. Robin Laws wrote the book on the history of Gen Con, so that's something I'd like to pick up at the show (though it should be available in stores, too).

A watched pot never boils

I was offline most of last week for vacation, and since I wasn't watching all the usual news sites, all hell breaks loose:

• Conan comic cancelled at #50, relaunches with issue #1
• Laszlo Kovacs, Ingmar Bergman, Tom Snyder, and Michelangelo Antonioni all passed away.
• Zachary Quinto ("Sylar" on the TV series "Heroes") has been cast as Spock in the new Star Trek movie.
• WizKids announces Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean PocketModel Game.

Savage Sword of Conan reprints!

There's been talk in comics circles for a couple of years now concerning Dark Horse Comics and their possible reprints of the classic Marvel magazine Savage Sword of Conan. It wasn't a secret, but the chatter was all about how it would be done -- straight reprints of the original black-and-white artwork or newly-added color.

Much of this was because of the "remastered" coloring on Dark Horse's Chronicles of Conan, the reprints of the Marvel Conan comic book. Like most things, some fans loved it and some hated it.

Now that the advance solicitation information is out there, it's clear that these will be black-and-white art. No word yet if any of the covers will be reproduced and if so, in color or black-and-white. I don't care so much about the Boris covers, but reprints of the Earl Norem and Neal Adams covers would be appreciated (and the very pulp Tarzan-esque cover for issue 3 by Michael Kaluta). It seems that these volumes will be much like the Marvel Essentials line of reprint trade paperbacks. And since the blurb mentions "Savage Sword Conan stories", I guess we can assume that they do not have the rights to reproduce stories of the other characters that appeared in those pages, most notably Kull and Solomon Kane.

Here is what's known so far. It should appear in the August issue of Previews:

The Savage Sword of Conan

Written by Roy Thomas, art by Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Alfredo Alcala, Pablo Marcos and others.

In the mid 1970s following the colossal success of Conan the Barbarian, Roy Thomas helped expand the universe of Conan to showcase further stories and the talents of some of the comics industry's best with the equally popular Savage Sword of Conan magazine. Now, for the first time in over thirty years, these primal tales, featuring Robert E. Howard's most popular character, are available in this, the first in a series of massive trade paperbacks, collecting all Savage Sword Conan stories beginning with issue one.

Included in this volume are tales by Roy Thomas, featuring the breathtaking art of such legends as Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Alfredo Alcala, Jim Starlin, Al Milgrom, Pablo Marcos, Walter Simonson, and more.

Also included in this tome are Conan's few appearances in the title Savage Tales -- for the complete Conan collection!

* Reprinting Savage Sword of Conan for the first time since its original publication. This is the first volume in the series.

* Launching Dark Horse's black-and-white Dark Horse Presents omnibus format. 500+ pages for the value price of $17.95!!!

542 pages, black and white, $17.95, in stores on Dec. 19.

I in ur computur...

...stealin' ur Internetz.

Here's an article from Time Magazine about the "lolcats" phenomenon. As my brother-in-law says, they're about a year too late.

Dragon Dynasty DVDs

It wasn't so long ago -- just about three or four years, in fact -- that Bob and Harvey Weinstein were despised, hated even, by the Hong Kong action/kung fu movie fan community. When they were still with Miramax and Disney, they purchased the rights to many classic and new HK action movies and either released shoddy versions to the screen or DVD, or they sat on them and withheld them from the market. Fans were livid and put together petitions and letter campaigns. I failed to keep up with the latest news in that realm so I lost track of what was happening on that front.

Fast forward to 2006: The Weinsteins, having left Miramax the previous year to form their own company, set up a label called Dragon Dynasty to release some of their HK films. They appear to have a deal with Shaw Brothers because Dragon Dynasty is offering several Shaw classics. Most of the DD line are Fortune Star releases, including a couple of Jackie Chan's best movies. Others titles include the Chow Yun-Fat classic Hard Boiled and all three Infernal Affairs films.

So far I've picked up two of the four available Shaw Brothers titles, My Young Auntie and The One-Armed Swordsman (which hasn't been released on legal home video in this country until now). Those are acknowledged classics but the other two Shaws are huge: The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (aka Shaolin Master Killer) and King Boxer (aka Five Fingers of Death)! I need to do some checking of reviews and so forth, but these look fairly complete. If so, it's very good to have these finally available on DVD in wide release.

In a later post I'll cover the Shaw Brothers films being released by Image Entertainment in Region 1, and then maybe as complete a listing as I can make of all the R1/R3 Shaw discs.

Trek Remastered -- earlier episodes and "The Omega Glory"

"No – no! Only the eyes of a chief may see the E Plebmnista!"
"This was not written for chiefs."
- Yang Scholar and Kirk

I missed "Spock's Brain" on its initial showing a few weeks back and it wasn't shown in the normal rerun slot the next week. I'll have to wait for the DVD.

However, I did catch "Plato's Stepchildren". I know this is one of the least-favorite for many fans, but to me it is underrated. Maybe nothing happens except the humiliation of the crew, but as I've said before, even bad Original Series Trek is better than nothing. There's still some good points in that script even if the execution is flawed.

This weekend's episode, in time for Independence Day, is "The Omega Glory". You might remember this as the Cold War analogy with the Yangs and the Kohms, and Kirk reminding them that the words apply to all people. I brought the videotape of "Omega..." in to my high school U.S. History class during our unit on the Constitution -- major geek check, there.

...and we're back!

Wow. Has it really been three weeks since the last post? Oops. I've been very distracted lately. More real posting starting tomorrow.

The replacement driver

This sounds like it's either the premise of a Hong Kong or Korean action movie, or a Cyberpunk RPG scenario:

Cityscape: Seoul: Taking the wheel for a drunken stranger

"Speed is money in this business," said Hur, 43, who received 15,000 won, or $16, for driving his customer to his destination.

"You want to get as many orders as possible before dawn breaks," he said, after making the drive of 20 kilometers, or 12 miles. "I sleep in the day, work at night, six days a week."

Hur is a "replacement driver" who makes his living by delivering inebriated people and their cars home. There are tens of thousands of them operating in this hard-drinking metropolis of 10 million people. They go to work when Seoul streets blossom with neon signs and thoroughfares fill up with streams of cars returning home. They end their shifts well after the last neon lights blink out in the early morning mist curling up from the Han River.

Trek Remastered -- catching up

I haven't posted anything about recent Trek episodes in quite some time. Here's a list of them:

• "Errand of Mercy" - 05/12 - The Organians impose peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.
• "Patterns of Force" - 05/19 - The Nazi episode.
• "Shore Leave" - 05/26 - Be careful what you think of...it comes to life.
• "Bread and Circuses" - 06/02 - The Roman Empire episode.

It's interesting that the "costume" episodes were all bunched together: "A Piece of the Action", the Chicago gangster ep, was on the last weekend of April.

I was pleasantly surprised by a couple of these shows. I forgot how good they are. "Errand..." and "Patterns..." have some good Kirk and Spock dialogue, and "Bread..." has great Spock and McCoy scenes that highlight their grudging friendship. And regardless of how preposterous the setup may be, "Patterns..." and "Bread..." are great stories.

This weekend: "Spock's Brain".

30 years of Star Wars

Update: I changed the title of this post because Dr. Rotwang used it first. I should have know I wasn't that clever...

Last Friday was the 3oth anniversary of the release of Star Wars. It's difficult to describe just how ground-breaking the film was and how inspiring it continues to be for legions of fans around the world. Maybe I'll write about it later, because I was there from the very beginning to see it all. Hard to believe there are people watching the new trilogy who weren't even alive when Jedi was released...

Here are a few links to stories about the anniversary and the phenomonon:

Star Wars Rewired: Interviews, Galleries and More http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/news/2007/05/lucas

Thirty years later, 'Star Wars' force still being felt
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/23/star.wars.30/index.html

How Star Wars Changed Everything
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1625074_1625073,00.html

The Science of Star Wars
http://www.forbes.com/2007/05/24/star-wars-science-tech-cx_mh_0524magic.html

(Since this one is from Forbes Magazine, it's a bit more conservative on the prospects of Star Wars Science, especially on lightsabers. Hey, guys, it's a movie...relax. Anyway, you can read more than you ever wanted to know about lightsabers at Wikipedia.)

Star Wars Celebration IV
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/10656.html