Results tagged “star trek”

Here are some of the new book, DVD, game and movie releases for the week!

Hardcover
First Lord’s Fury (Codex Alera, Book 6) by Jim Butcher
Halo: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe by Tobias S. Buckell et al.
The Power of Tolkien’s Prose: Middle-Earth’s Magical Style by Steve Walker
The Cardinal’s Blades by Pierre Pevel
Hidden Currents by Christine Feehan
Luna Park by Kevin Baker and Danijel Zezelj

Paperback
Swallowing Darkness by Laurell K. Hamilton
The Princeps’ Fury by Jim Butcher
Beyond the Wall of Time, Book Three by Russel Kirkpatrick
Black Ships by Jo Graham
Dark Side of Dawn: The Nightmare Chronicles by Kathryn Smith
Definitely Dead: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel by Charlaine Harris
Flesh Circus by Lilith Saintcrow
Immortalby V.K. Forrest
Jailbait Zombie by Mario Acevedo
The Knight of the Red Beard by Andre Norton and Sasha Miller

Video Games
Assassin’s Creed II
Left 4 Dead 2
God of War Collection
Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
Call of Duty: Word at War: Zombies
King’s Bounty: Armored Princess
Elven Legacy: Siege

DVD Release
Stark Trek
Farscape: The Complete Series
Galaxy Quest [Blu-ray]
Evangelion: 1.01 You Are (Not) Alone - Movie

In Theaters
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Planet 51

Here are the book, video game, DVD and movie releases for the week!

Hardcover

• Under the Dome: A Novel by Stephen King
Star Trek: The Art of the Film by Mark Cotta Vaz and J. J. Abrams
• Torch of Freedom (Honorverse) by David Weber and Eric Flint
• Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: The Pathfinder Bestiary by Jason Bulmahn
• The Lippolik Conundrum by Kami Dee Helm
• The Early Work of Philip K. Dick, Volume 2: Breakfast at Twilight and Other Stories by Philip K. Dick
• Reincarnations by Harry Turtledove and Sheila Williams
• The Authorized Ender Companion by Orson Scott Card and Jake Black
• Burn Me Deadly: An Eddie LaCrosse Novel by Alex Bledsoe
• Destroyer of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner
• Jaclyn the Ripper by Karl Alexander
• Wings of Creation by Brenda Cooper
• A Young Man Without Magic by Lawrence Watt-Evans

Paperback

• The Darwinian Extension: Transition by Hylton H. Smith
• Phantom by Paul Tremblay and Sean Wallace
• The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington
• The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia
• Blade of the Immortal: Legend of the Sword Demon by Junishi Ohsako and Hiroaki Samura
• How to Make Friends with Demons by Graham Joyce
• Son of Perdition: The Chronicles of Brothers by Wendy Alec
• The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2009 edited by Rich Horton
• The Casting Trilogy: Full Circle by Pamela Freeman
• An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe
• The House of the Stag by Kage Baker
• Shadow Walker by Marion David Russel
• Swan Song by Robert McCammon

Video Games

• WorldShift
• Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans
• Dragonology
• Final Fantasy XI: Vana’diel Collection 2010
• Star Trek: D-A-C

DVD Release

• Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut [Blu-ray]
• Naruto Shippuden - The Movie
• Dragon Ball: Season 2
• Justice League: The Complete Series
• Godzilla [Blu-ray]
• Near Dark [Blu-ray]

In Theaters

• 2012

Here are the other book, DVD and movie releases for the week!

HARDCOVER BOOKS

• Batman: Cacophony by Kevin Smith

• Dawnthief by James Barclay
• The Grave Thief by Tom Lloyd
• The Quiet War by Paul J. McAuley

• Shaun of the Dead [Blu-ray]
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection [Blu-ray]
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete Second Season
• Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf or Death

• Pandorum
• Surrogates

Labor Day Weekend essentials:

Barbecues…check.
Laying out at the beach… check.
Star Trek… check.

Okay, I know Star Trek isn’t everyone’s idea of something to do this holiday weekend, but I just had to add it to my list—the newest movie in the franchise is making its way back into IMAX theatres with a limited release beginning this Friday!

And Labor Day is meant to celebrate the achievements of workers and unions, right? So why not take it a step further and spend some time with the hard-working crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise?

Captain James T. Kirk has ever gone boldly.

William Shatner does likewise.

A few days ago, on the Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien had an epiphany: The farewell speech by Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin was, indeed, a poem, one not meant to be understood but instead one able to evoke certain feelings in those who hear it.

To deliver the poem, Conan hired one of the most infamous orators of our time—William Shatner. For decades Shatner has had a very distinctive delivery mechanism to all of his lines. He is often parodied but never duplicated. As a science fiction geek, I’m happy to see the world of Star Trek cross over into our own oft crazy world to—hopefully—lend some kind of real meaning from all of the madness.

So. Engage!!

I was perusing the internet(s) this morning when I ran across a thought-provoking blog post by author Robert V.S. Redick.

Robert is the author of the widely-acclaimed debut novel, The Red Wolf Conspiracy. We met at the 2009 NY Comic Con and after only talking to him for a few moments I was struck by how thoughtful and balanced he approached the conversation. Later that night at the Random House con party, I realized Robert is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met.

So when he decided to write a blog post about Star Trek and how the series has progressed over the last 40 years, I was curious what he had to say.

After the huge success of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, what Robert had to say shocked me a bit.

Read the post HERE! And definitely comment on it.

After reading it twice, I think Robert is daring people to comment!

Here are the other book, DVD and movie releases for the week!

HARDCOVER BOOKS

• Halo: Uprising by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev
• Star Trek by Alan Dean Foster

• The Year of Disappearances by Susan Hubbard
• Medicine Road by Charles de Lint and Charles Vess

• Friday the 13th (Extended Killer Cut)
• Ghostbusters [Blu-ray]
• Lost: The Complete First Season [Blu-ray]
• Lost: The Complete Second Season [Blu-ray]
• Spaceballs [Blu-ray]
• Transformers: The Complete First Season

• Dead Snow (limited)
• Year One

Here are the other book, DVD and movie releases for the week!

BOOKS

• The Empress of Mars by Kage Baker
• A Grey Moon Over China by Thomas A. Day

• Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection
• Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

• Angels & Demons

I swear it isn’t my intention to write a weekly movie review here at Suvudu. OTOH, the mere fact that there are enough science fiction, fantasy and comic book films coming out to make it a viable possibility is really kind of awesome. I love living in a world where the geeks have won.

Now, look. I go to movies to be entertained. I’m willing to forgive plot holes as long as they don’t distract me in the moment, and I’m almost always willing to be pleasantly surprised. I had hopes, but not much confidence, in Wolverine, and was, well, pleasantly surprised.

But Star Trek. Man. I remember watching the original episodes (in re-runs) when I was less than five years of age. I watched TNG and DS9 and most of Voyager and…hardly any Enterprise, honestly. I loved the even-numbered films, particularly Star Trek Saves The Whales and Star Trek Does Hamlet. So the possibility of JJ Abrams screwing this up was nerve-wracking to me. Forget half-naked Hugh Jackman; Star Trek was this summer’s must-see TV (as it were) for me, and I couldn’t restrain my hopes. I was either going to love it or be crushingly disappointed.

The fact that the trailers, right from the very first one with the Enterprise in spacedock and Leonard Nimoy’s “Space: the final frontier” voice-over, were apparently hard-wired to my tear ducts was both a positive and a negative sign. If I was that affected, maybe they were doing it right. But if I was that affected, holy crap, if they screwed up I was going to spend a week sobbing under the bed.

As far as I’m concerned, they hit it out of the ballpark. (Continued without spoilers below.)

As a fan of the original series, I find myself oddly optomistic about the new movie. There’s been a good streak of classic SF series remakes lately (if you can call Dr. Who and Battlesatar Galactica a streak). I’ve been watching the trailers and there are signs that this movie was made by people who “get it.” They understand what was good about the original characters and what made them last long enough to reinterpret.

The original TV show lasted only 3 years, the original spin-off ran for 7, and the one after that for another 7. That’s a lot of TV. So, the question is: what was the best overall episode? Or, if you think that’s comparing apples to oranges, what was the best episode for each of the spin-offs.

As much as I enjoyed the Deep Space 9 episodes “Absolom” and “The Wire,” I’m going to put in my vote for an original series episode: “The Devil in the Dark.” It is a surprisingly good piece of science fiction writing, and, unlike most of the original series eps, it worked better for me when I went back and watched it as an adult than as a kid.

So, what’s your vote?

Here are the other book, DVD and movie releases for the week!

BOOKS

• Enemies & Allies by Kevin J. Anderson
• Diamond Star by Catherine Asaro
• Shadow Valley by Steven Barnes
• Flood by Stephen Baxter
• In the Stormy Red Sky by David Drake
• Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
• Fall of Light by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Starfinder by John Marco
• The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun by J.R.R. Tolkien

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Twilight

• Star Trek

Let’s start out with two statements of fact. I like Star Trek. I like time travel. Given both of these, one could assume that combining Star Trek and time travel would yield something composed of insurmountable geeky joy. But I dunno.

Let’s step back. If you haven’t read anything about the upcoming JJ Abrams Star Trek flick, I would recommend you stop reading now. If you have read anything, then you know its events revolve around a character traveling back in time, and the more I think about it, the more I’m getting apprehensive about the whole device, and I’ve drafted a few brief points that explain why.

1 - Is it needed? If JJ Abrams just said he was rebooting Star Trek, I’d get it and give it to him. Does he really need to spend a movie explaining how he’s rebooting Star Trek, when if he just opened with a young Kirk, Spock, and Bones, I’d jump right in and let him take it away? I don’t need a framing device to get us there.

2 - Will it piss off the locals? If the new flick ultimately negates all of Trek canon, what will the die hard Trekkers have to say? If this time travel thingy equates to cancelling out all of TOS, TNG, DS9, etc., is that just a wee bit too bold for fans who’ve memorized Picard and Sisko’s family trees and had the likeness of the Enterprise E tattooed to their flesh? If suddenly none of this is real any more, are they gonna be cool? If JJ just did a reboot, classic Trek could keep on going in its reality while JJ played in his, but if the new movie kills the classic reality, will there be a teeny tiny bit of backlash?

3 - Will it confuse the newbies? JJ is rebooting Star Trek, making it young, hip, cool, and accessible to the masses. Got it. But if this is the case, is the wisest choice to wrap the reboot around a device that pulls in the original continuity. If you don’t know Star Trek and walk into a movie full of spaceship fights, phaser fights, fist-to-fist fights, and hot green chicks, that’s awesome. But if you walk into a movie with all the above and an old guy from the future of the future talking about how we’re in the past of the future and he’s altered events changing the future of the future, might you have a hard time wrapping your brain around it? Will time travel be a barrier to entry for the general movie going population who don’t know or care about canon?

4 - The past of the future is cool enough. When Enterprise came out, I didn’t like, care for, or get the point of the Time War storyline. Why couldn’t the story just have been about the first starship named Enterprise? Why did it have to tie the past of the future into the future of the future? It’s centuries before TNG, DS9, etc. but it’s still centuries ahead of the present. It’s already cool. It doesn’t need to constantly call back to Trek’s future iterations. I’m getting the same feeling here. JJ’s Star Trek looks sexy, fresh, and new all by itself, and I don’t need him to start pulling in the future of the future. More than that, in any science fiction story, the audience is asked to believe a lot, and asking me to come along for time travel on top of warp drive, transporters, phasers, and all the like might just be too much.

All that being said, All Good Things is an astonishing episode, I loved the one where they found Data’s head buried in the middle of the desert, and I’ve even got a thing for First Contact, all of which is Star Trek which revolves around time travel. Then again, it’s all Star Trek which revolves around time travel which preserves the status quo — and JJ’s flick is kinda going to tell us that status quo doesn’t exist any more.

But maybe that’s what Star Trek needs.

Upon watching the new and probably final Star Trek trailer, I sat there stunned and then said to no one:

Holy Expletive! That was Bad Expletive!

JJ Abrams, who I have enormous respect for as a director and writer of high intensity / high emotional movies, has hit a chord inside of of me with this new trailer. I knew this movie would be good, and I still have no idea how closely these new actors will be able to pull off these established and well loved characters, but after viewing the trailer below I have more confidence! Surely more confidence than I did walking into Watchmen.

May is looking like a very good month, indeed! May 1st we get Wolverine, then on May 8th we get to go trekking!

So what do you think? Great trailer? Could the movie be equally great? Does the Eric Bana nemesis come from the future, since he mentions James T. Kirk “was a great man, but that was another life?” Great stuff, can’t wait!

Whether you like American Football or not, the one thing geeks the world over get to look forward to come Super Bowl Sunday is advance looks at forthcoming sci-fi and fantasy movies! While the Super Bowl yesterday was an amazing game, I watched the commercials with the same intensity as I watched the game—maybe even more so!

I felt like today would be a good day to compile the various trailers we saw yesterday into one post. Even though I am really looking forward to Star Trek and love almost anything Will Ferrell is in, the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen trailer really stood out for me. Giant robots, great action, and Megan Fox!

After the jump you will find trailers for: Aliens vs. Monsters, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Land of the Lost, Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Up!

Which is your favorite?

Anyone else as interested as I am in seeing the forthcoming J.J. Abrams Star Trek? Boy, I hope so! I’d love to have some great Trek movies again every other year; it will take many people seeing the new movie and hopefully it delivers!

We still have many months to go before Abrams releases Star Trek on May 8, 2009. But Entertainment Weekly has released a new article and many pictures from the new movie! Coupled with that, here is an Interview with Producer Damon Lindelof!

Like what you see and hear? I do!

I have never watched a full episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. I admit it. I’m never going to live that little nugget of truth down from my fellow geeks. But, in my defense, three of my favorite movies of all time are Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. I fell in love with Kirk, Spock and Bones; I fell in love with how these characters interacted, the Enterprise mythos and the adventures they found themselves on.

When Star Trek: First Contact came out featuring the New Generation characters, I too loved it—but in an additional way. I enjoy those characters a great deal and have watched dozens of episodes and all of the movies, but it was the storyline of First Contact that I really embraced: We were allowed into the past where we saw Zefram Cochrane, the creator of warp drive, initiate a brand new era of “faster than light” travel for Earth and what would ultimately become the Federation and space exploration.

Cue the Star Trek theme music for J.J. Abrams, creator of Alias, Lost and Mission Impossible III—and the new Star Trek prequel!