Star Trek: The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard (2017) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Friday. I'm back with another book review, where I'm taking a look at the next book in the Star Trek: Autobiography series published by Titan Books. I don't have the Spock one, so up next is The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard, which was written by David A. Goodman, who also wrote The Autobiography of James T. Kirk, which I reviewed on Monday. Like with the Kirk one, this book mostly contains spoilers for certain events shown on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the movies Star Trek Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), and Star Trek Nemesis (2002). There's no mention of Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) though, similar to how the Kirk book didn't mention the events of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989). I will be talking about those spoilers because this book expands upon several episodes as well as the movies that are brought up in the book as well. So let's get into it.

Because The Autobiography of Jean-Luc Picard was written and published before Star Trek: Picard (2020-2023) was even thought of, it presents alternative outcomes for both the fate of Picard's mother, Yvette, and the years after Nemesis and the 24th Century backstory for the 2009 Star Trek movie. While season 3 of Picard was great, the first two seasons weren't, and while Yvette's death is still tragic (she died after a fight with Irumodic Syndrome, the disease that killed Picard's body in the first season of Picard), it's preferrable to her suicide due to mental illness. And the events both between and after the backstory from Star Trek '09, are much more optimistic than those depicted in Picard. Jean-Luc and Beverly got married between Nemesis and '09, and they even invited Q to the wedding (he disguised himself of course), and then after being the Federation ambassador to Vulcan for several years, Jean-Luc retired from Federation service to the Picard Vineyard and started producing the family wine, while Beverly took command of the USS Pasteur, as she had done in the Anti-Time Future seen in the TNG series finale, "All Good Things...". Again, a much more preferrable outcome than the one we got in Picard.

However, the bulk of the book actually focuses on Picard's career aboard the Stargazer, including his rise in the ranks and the lead up to him being forced to take command after his captain was killed and the first officer, after being in command for a month as the captain. It shows the ship's role in the war with the Cardassians, the near war with the Klingons just before the Enterprise-C's sacrifice at Narendra III solidified the Federation-Klingon Alliance, and the tragic death of Jack Crusher, which was combined with Picard's encounter with the Chalnoth as mentioned in the TNG season 3 episode, "Alliances", so that the Chalnoth killed him while he was trying to rescue an away team that Picard had sent down. He also met Guinan during this period too.

The part that interested me the most though was the period between the abandonment of the Stargazer and Picard assuming command of the Enterprise-D prior to the TNG pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint". Picard becomes a troubleshooter for Admiral Quinn, who appeared in the season 1 episodes, "Coming of Age" and "Conspiracy", where he would go around the fleet and solve problems.

This period in Picard's history was originally depicted in the 2007 novel, The Buried Age, which was written by Christopher L. Bennett as part of the Lost Era. However, while that book had a much smaller viewpoint to focus on, as Picard only met Guinan, Deanna Troi and Data during this period, this book was much larger as he not only met Data and Deanna during this period, but he also met Tasha Yar, Geordi La Forge, and Worf during this period as well. Which is interesting because, while we knew of how Picard met Geordi through dialogue in the season 5 episode, "The Next Phase", and we also know alot about Geordi's Starfleet career prior to serving on the Enterprise, we have nothing in canon that talks about Worf's career or Tasha's. Being that Worf was a Lieutenant Junior Grade during the first two seasons of TNG, it stands to reason it hadn't been that long since he'd graduated from Starfleet Academy and therefore had had only one assignment prior to being assigned to the Enterprise. It also expands upon Worf's role on the ship during season 1. While he only acted as a relief officer for the Tactical, Ops, and Conn stations on the Bridge for most of the first season, he was also a member of Tasha's security team, hence why he was with the team that tried to apprehend Lore in "Datalore", and why Picard chose him to replace Tasha as chief of security after her death in "Skin of Evil".

I think what I like most about this book is that it does give names to some of the unseen crews and captains who were killed or assimilated during the Battle of Wolf 359. Apart from Sisko and the crew of the Saratoga, Admiral Hanson, and the few people who were there that we met in various episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, who had been assimilated, we never saw the larger scope of the battle, only that of the people I mentioned like Sisko and Hanson. But knowing that Captain DeSoto, who we never saw on screen, but who was Riker's commanding officer prior to Riker transferring to the Enterprise, as well as a friend of Picard's, Marta Batanides and Corey Zweller, who were Picard's Academy friends as seen in the season 6 episode, "Tapestry", and his former Ops officer on the Stargazer, Cheva, who is original to this book, were all there and all killed when their respective ships were destroyed, makes it that much more personal for Picard, which in turn, makes it much more personal for me as a reader.

I also like how it handles the aftermath of Picard having been captured and tortured by the Cardassians in "Chain of Command", giving weight to his disorientation when meeting Sisko in the pilot episode of DS9, "Emissary". While we got things from Picard's perspective on his first meeting with Sisko in the novelization for "Emissary", this was the first attempt to attribute him missing who Sisko was and what ship he'd served on prior to being assigned to the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards for the next three years, to his uneasiness at being at a Cardassian station as a result of his recent captivity.

My favourite part though is seeing what happened between TNG seasons 1 and 2 and seasons 2 and 3 in regards to how Geordi became chief engineer, how and why Pulaski replaced Beverly, and how Beverly returned to the Enterprise before the beginning of season 3, AND how Ten Forward was built and how Picard informed Guinan that he'd figured out how to build a bar on his ship, and that he wanted her to tend it.

I would've liked to have seen Ro Laren being mentioned and how through her Picard came to know the Bajorans as he mentioned to Sisko in "Emissary". I also would've loved to have seen what effect Ro's defection to the Maquis in "Pre-emptive Strike", which was the last regular episode of TNG before the series finale, beyond what we actually saw at the end of that episode. But for whatever reason, Goodman chose not to include anything having to do with Ro or the events in "Pre-Emptive Strike". Which is fine, but after we saw the resolution of Picard and Ro's storyline in season 3 of Picard, it would've been interesting to see that resolution told in this book since it was written and published only a year before Star Trek: Picard was commissioned by Paramount and Paramount+ (when it was known as CBS All Access).

Other than that there really aren't any particular TNG episode I would've liked seeing Picard's perspective on in this book. All the major and personal events in Picard's life are included here, and it's very well written.

Overall, this is an awesome book. I actually like it better than the Kirk one, again, also by Goodman. I think it's because Picard is my favourite Star Trek Captain, next to Janeway and Pike. If you're a Picard fan or just a fan of TNG in general I definitely recommend reading this book. It's very indepth and we get to know characters like Walker Keel and Jack Crusher, who only appeared in one episode, or appeared in holographic form and in flashback in the case of Jack.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more reviews and other posts. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Star Trek: The Autobiography of James T. Kirk (2015) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing great. I had my second Dungeons & Dragons session yesterday, and I had alot of fun. I ended up staying up a bit later and ended up finishing reading The Autobiography of James T. Kirk by David A. Goodman, and published by Titan Books. Which is what I'm reviewing today. Because this book is basically an in universe autobiography of Kirk, the spoilers in this book are for stuff we never got to see on TOS or in the movies, but there are also spoilers for the TV show and the movies up to Star Trek Generations (1994). Let's get into it.

One of the things that I love about this book is that it connects the events between movies. So many novels and comics have attempted to tell the story of what happened between each movie, be it Kirk's second five year mission as captain of the Enterprise between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan, or what happened between the '60s TV show and The Motion Picture but because they were all written independent of each other, none of them line up with each other. Same with the events of how Kirk took command of the Enterprise after Pike was promoted to Fleet Captain. 

I also like how reflective Kirk is in this book. We see him as a leader, and this larger than life person, but in this book, he's just Jim Kirk. The man, instead of the myth. And that's extremely refreshing. Especially when the book shows the events that shaped Kirk into the captain we saw on the TV and movie screens. We got to see how he managed to become an admiral again between the first two movies, when he was Captain Kirk again at the end of The Motion Picture. We also see his internal struggle with why he blew up the Enterprise in The Search for Spock, following the death of his son, David at the hands of the Klingons.

Speaking of the Klingons, the movies seemed to imply that his hatred of Klingons started with the third movie, but this book showed that Kirk always hated Klingons, even as a kid. Which is interesting, because we only see a fraction of Kirk's life on the TV show and so we never saw what happened before the show.

This book was written and published in 2015, so there isn't anything from the first two seasons of Discovery, either season of Short Treks, or Strange New Worlds included in the book. Which is bizarre in a way because it doesn't include anything from any of the novels published by Simon & Schuster or the earlier Del Rey and Bantam TOS novels either. It just sticks to the movies, the TV shows, and background material that we've learned about throughout the show and movies. The animated series isn't mentioned either, but there weren't alot of Kirk centric episodes in TAS so the show was skipped over in the book. 

Overall, this was an interesting read. It sheds alot more light on Federation and Starfleet politics during Kirk's career, which we hadn't had in the franchise yet at the point when this book was published, so it was interesting to see how characters we either never saw but were mentioned, like Nogura, or we only saw in a few movies, like Morrow and Cartwright, were connected. If you're a fan of the original Star Trek TV series, and you haven't read this book before, I recommend it. 

That's it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more blog posts. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

The First Sitcoms I Ever Saw - A TV Show Discussion

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I'm going to be talking about the first sitcoms that I ever saw. There are eleven of them and I don't remember in what order I watched them in, so I'm gonna go in alphabetical order. Also, there was gonna be twelve of them, but I really don't want to talk about The Cosby Show for obvious reasons, so I left it off the list, even though it is one of the first sitcoms I ever watched. I'm also not including M*A*S*H on this list either, because, even though Wikipedia does list it as a sitcom on the page for that show, I don't consider it to be one. Let's get into it.

The first show I wanna talk about on this list is Cheers which aired for eleven seasons on NBC from September 30th, 1982 until May 20th, 1993. For the few of you who don't know what this show is about, Cheers was about the people in a bar known as Cheers, where "Everybody knows your name" as the theme song put it. It starred Ted Danson, Shelley Long (Seasons 1-5), Kirstie Alley (Seasons 6-11), Woody Harrelson, John Ratzenberger, Rhea Perlman, Nicholas Colasanto (Seasons 1-3), Kelsey Grammer, George Wendt, and Bebe Neuwirth. Even though the show has been off the air for the last 31 years, it's legacy has been a lasting one as it had a successful spin-off in Frasier (1993-2004), which just returned on Paramount+ in 2023. It was on CJOH here in Canada during its entire run, though it did air on Global as well from 1990 to 1993. I don't remember which channel we watched it on though.

 Next up is Dinosaurs, which aired on ABC in the U.S., and CHRO here in Ottawa, from April 26th, 1991 until July 20th, 1994, with reruns airing on Family Channel in 1992 until sometime in the late '90s. I loved this show growing up. Particularly Baby Sinclair. Kevin Clash, who is well known as Elmo on Sesame Street from 1985 until 2012, voiced Baby Sinclair. The show was created by Michael Jacobs, who is known for also creating My Two Dads in 1988, and Boy Meets World in 1993. 

 Then we have Family Matters, which aired for eight seasons on ABC from September 22nd, 1989 to May 9th 1997, and for one season on CBS from September 19th, 1997 to July 17th, 1998. We all know Steve Urkel. The show was part of ABC's TGIF block for the first eight seasons before changing networks in 1997. It was definitely not on ABC anymore by the time my family and I were watching Boy Meets World, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Teen Angel, and You Wish. I actually didn't watch it on ABC though. Here in Canada it aired on CTV (CJOH is the CTV station here in Ottawa) alongside Full House, another Miller-Boyett Productions series which I'll be talking about a little bit later.

Next is The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which aired for six seasons on NBC from September 10th, 1990 until May 20th, 1996. I honestly don't remember what channel it aired on here in Canada. I think it was CHRO, but it also aired on various channels when it went into syndication in 1994, including CBC. So it's possible that it aired on CBC the whole time, but I'm pretty sure it was on CHRO or CJOH, or we just watched it on NBC when we had access to NBC.

And then we have Full House, which aired for eight seasons on ABC's TGIF block from September 22nd, 1987 until May 23rd, 1995. This was probably my favourite sitcom when I was a kid. I think we stopped watching it after season 6, even though we still had CTV/CJOH after we moved to the log house, because I don't remember watching the final two seasons until they aired in reruns on CTS (Crossroads Television System) in the mid-2000s. I do remember Jesse (John Stamos) having a mullet in the first season, which I watched in reruns, and the episode I remember the most was "The House Meets the Mouse Part 1", which was the first part of the two part season 6 finale where the Tanners, along with Jesse, Becky, Nicky, Alex, Kimmy, and Joey head off to Walt Disney World. 

The reason I remember this episode so well is because my parents taped it for me just in case I couldn't watch it as I was in the hospital at the time, and those small hospital room TVs only had ten channels that could be shown on it at a time, and they were always pre-set so until you turned them on, you never knew what channels you were going to get. There was also a little panel on the side, which you could flip open and reset the TV channels to whichever ones you wanted that were part of Canadian cable packages at the time. During my time in the hospital we always tried to set the TV to CBC, CTV, CHRO, PBS, and YTV, as those were the channels I watched the most with all the kids programming on CBC, CTV, PBS and YTV, and with Star Trek: The Next Generation airing on CHRO, I had to have that channel. Especially if I didn't have any of my TNG VHS tapes with me.

Get Smart, which aired for four seasons on NBC from September 18th, 1965 until March 29th, 1969, and for one season on CBS from September 26th, 1969 until May 15th, 1970, is a show I remember watching all the time. Of course by the time I was growing up in the late '80s and the '90s, the show had been over for 20 years. However, it aired in syndication on YTV from 1990 until 1995, and that's where I remember watching it. I remember watching it around midday along with The Flintstones (1960-1966) and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends (1959-1964). Of course, it stars Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, the titular character of the show. As mentioned in my post on Inspector Gadget, Don Adams would go on to voice Inspector Gadget. It's appeared on other channels here over the years since then, but I haven't seen it in about twenty years, though my dad has the first season on DVD.

Growing Pains, which aired for seven seasons on ABC from September 24th, 1985 until April 25th, 1992, is a show I only vaguely remember watching. The reason being that it hasn't returned in syndication in my area since it went off the air in 1992. The only reason I remember watching it is because it aired alongside Who's the Boss? on Global in 1989-1990, during the time my dad taped all of those episodes of The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin for me, and there's a commercial for both shows on one of the tapes. Obviously Alan Thicke appeared on various shows over the years, and Kirk Cameron is the brother of Full House star, Candace Cameron-Bure, though he hasn't had anything high profile come out in decades (I am well aware of his status though). 

I honestly don't remember what channel I first watched Happy Days, which originally aired for 11 seasons on ABC from January 15th, 1974 until July 19th, 1984, on. It was in syndicated reruns obviously, but it's not listed on YTV, so I didn't watch it there. I remember watching it on CTS in the mid-2000s along with The Muppet Show, Full House, and reruns of early seasons of 7th Heaven, but I don't remember where I watched it in the early '90s. Fonzie, played Henry Winkler was my favourite, though Don Most as Ralph Malph and Anson Williams as Potsie were hilarious. This was also my introduction to Ron Howard as an actor, which is cool. 

The Munsters, which aired for two seasons on CBS from September 24th, 1964 until May 12th, 1966, is another show that I remember watching, but I don't remember what channel I watched it on. It's possible that I watched it on YTV, but I can't find it on the list of former shows that aired on the channel on Wikipedia. The show was my introduction to classic horror film figures such as Frankenstein's Monster (Herman), Dracula (Grampa), Dracula's Daughter/the Bride of Frankenstein (Lily), and the Wolf Man (Eddie). I haven't seen this show in forever, but I remember loving it. As much as I love the Addams Family, I think I've always preferred the Munsters, because I watched the original '60s show, whereas I don't remember ever watching The Addams Family. I watched the '90s cartoon adaptation and the live action movies, but the only live action TV version I watched was The New Addams Family, which aired on YTV from 1998 to 1999.

Roseanne, which aired for nine seasons on ABC from October 18th, 1988 until May 20th, 1997, and then for one more season on ABC from March 27th until May 22nd, 2018 before transitioning into The Conners (2018-Present), which I also watched a few episodes of, is the show that introduced me to Laurie Metcalf, Johnny Galecki, Sara Gilbert, and John Goodman, with three of them going on to work on The Big Bang Theory, with Galecki playing Leonard, Laurie playing Sheldon's mom, Mary, and Sara playing recurring character Leslie Winkle. And of course, Goodman has been in alot of movies that I've enjoyed over the years. It's also a really weird show because, even though it got canceled in 2018, it still lives on with The Conners, which has been on longer than I expected it to be.

Finally we come to the final show on this list, Who's the Boss?, which aired for 8 seasons on ABC from September 20th, 1984 until April 22nd, 1992. I have more fond memories of watching Who's the Boss? than I do watching Growing Pains. Not that I didn't like Growing Pains, but I preferred Who's the Boss?. I think it's because of the combination of the dynamic between Tony, played by Tony Danza, and Angela, played by Judith Light, and the fact that Mona, played by Katherine Helmond, was lots of fun. Of course, Alyssa Milano being on the show didn't hurt either. Her character, Sam was pretty cool. Like with Growing Pains, I don't remember watching Who's the Boss? after the first six or seven seasons when it was originally on, as I remember watching it on Global, but I don't remember watching it anywhere else until the mid to late 2000s when it was on in syndication on a channel that I don't remember the name of. It was a Canadian channel though and on our cable package at the time, the channel was in the fifties. 

And that's it. That's my list of the first eleven sitcoms that I ever watched in my entire life. This is another topic that I've been wanting to talk about for a while now, and with many of these shows either already 40 years old or more, or about to reach their 40th anniversaries, I figured that now would be the perfect time to talk about them. I'll be back soon with more posts so until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

The Return of the King (1955) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Apologies for my absence for the last three weeks, but I've actually been busy. I started playing Dungeons & Dragons last Sunday (April 7th) and I had alot to do to get ready for my first session. But, I'm back and ready for more blog posts. Today I'm reviewing The Return of the King, the final part of The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. I'm probably not going to talk about spoilers in this review, even though the book is 69 years old at this point, but just in case I do include spoilers, this is your spoiler warning. Let's get into it!

Published on the 20th of October, 1955, nearly a full year after The Two Towers was published, The Return of the King is the final book in the trilogy. Even though I saw the movie after it came out in 2003, this was my first time reading the book and I was surprised how action packed it actually is. People often criticize Tolkien for having long descriptions about  everything, but honestly, I only felt that, outside of the Appendices at the end of this book, the long descriptions and lore building exposition are really only limited to The Fellowship of the Ring as not only is it the first book, but when it was originally published in 1954, there was a chance that people hadn't read The Hobbit, and so the book also had to include Bilbo's background as part of the long history of the One Ring.

Like with The Two Towers, The Return of the King divides itself between everything going on in Gondor with Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf and the rest who are fighting the War against Sauron, and Frodo and Sam's quest to destroy the Ring. The second half is further split up between Sam and Frodo's quest, which ends in this book, and the return to the Shire, where Saruman, following his defeat by Gandalf in The Two Towers, has set himself up as the Middle Earth equivalent of a Mob Boss or petty dictator. 

While many people complain that the book has multiple endings, the world of Middle Earth is so complex and dense that a book of this scale needs multiple endings in order to wrap everything up so that there aren't any dangling plot threads left at the end of the story. We also basically know what happened to everybody as a result so that, as the audience, we aren't left wondering, "What happened to Gandalf?" or "What happened to Bilbo?" or "What happened to Frodo, Merry, Pippin, and Sam?" or any other permutations of that "What ever happened to?" question. What Tolkien doesn't do is bog the story down in details about what Aragorn and Arwen were doing after the story. He saved those for the first of the Appendices, Appendix A. 

Speaking of the Appendices, I didn't bother to read all of them, but I did read Appendix A, and found it quite informative. I also read Appendix B, which basically gives a chronology or timeline of all the events that happened in Middle Earth from the First Age, right through to the end of the Third Age, which is when The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place. The others I didn't bother reading as it's way too much information and stuff I didn't need to know to enjoy the story unless I wanted to learn to speak and write the Elf, Dwarf, and Hobbit languages. Which I don't.

Overall, The Return of the King is a great ending to this epic tale. The characters are fantastic, there's humour, there's heart, and the ending of the book is positive and upbeat. Especially after Frodo and his friends save the Shire from Saruman. Honestly, when Tolkien described the Shire in that second to last chapter, where everyone is oppressed and the place had become dark and gloomy, it reminded me of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time when you return to the Kokiri Forest as Adult Link only to find it to be dark and gloomy and completely overrun by enemies like the Deku Babas and Mad Scrubs. But I guess that's what happens when you spent your childhood playing fantasy games, watching children's fantasy shows, and immersing yourself in the realm of geekdom.

Having now finished reading The Lord of the Rings, I certainly have become more of a fan of the trilogy itself. However, apart from The Hobbit, which is still my favourite of Tolkien's work, and one of my favourite books of all time, I have no interest in reading Tolkien's other works. Even the ones set in Middle Earth. The reason being that they do take quite a bit of time to read and, as someone who reviews books on this blog, I'd basically have to stop reading other books altogether and focus my entire attention to reading the works of Tolkien and I don't feel like doing that. Even if I didn't review books on this blog, I'd have to stop reading anything else altogether just to get through everything. As it is it's probably going to be a long time before I read The Lord of the Rings again, but, I will read it again at some point. Maybe it'll be something that I do annually, as I do A Song of Ice and Fire and the Star Wars: X-Wing series. 

I recommend reading the books. Especially if you're a fan of Fantasy and love storytelling in that realm. If you can get past the density and long exposition, this is a great series to read. Especially on those cold winter days or rainy days in the summertime. I'm not sure if I'd classify The Lord of the Rings as a trilogy to read on the beach or by a pool, but it's still a great read. It was definitely much easier to read in the three volume edition than it was in the seven volume edition that I used to have.

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today, but I'll be back soon with more posts. I promise it won't be another three weeks before that next post comes out. So until then, have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (1954) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I'm back with a book review. I finished The Two Towers last night before bed so here I am to talk about it. This is probably going to be a slightly shorter review since all the background was given to us last time, and I already gave you my history with Tolkien's work, specifically The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Like with last time, because this book is 70 years old, I will be including spoilers when I feel the need to do so. So if you have not read The Two Towers, or any of The Lord of the Rings for that matter, please do so at some point either before you read my reviews of the books, or after, depending on when you feel like reading them. Alrighty, let's get into it.

While The Fellowship of the Ring is more whimsical and fun, particularly in the early chapters of the first half of the book, The Two Towers continues on the more serious tone of the second half of Fellowship. This book is much darker than the first part. Though Merry and Pippin do provide some comic relief in the first half of the book.

So the first half of the book, The Treason of Isengard follows Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli as they follow the trail of the two Hobbits who'd been captured by Orcs, as well as their journey to Isengard by way of Rohan, following their meeting of the Riders of Rohan, led by Eomer. They also discover that Gandalf has returned and has replaced the fallen Saruman as the chief of the Wizards in Middle Earth. It also features the Battle of Helm's Deep. 

When I first read this part of the book about a decade ago, when I still had the seven volume box set, I was confused as to why Frodo wasn't in this half of the book, thinking that as the main character, he should be the main focus since we're supposed to be following him on his journey to get rid of the Ring. Now, Frodo and Sam are some of my favourite characters in this trilogy, with Sam being my favourite, so I was confused when I discovered that we don't see them at all in this section of the book. Especially because I saw the movie in theatres back in early 2003 and that began with Frodo and Sam, which then switches back to the rest of the Fellowship before returning to Frodo, Sam, and Gollum near the end of the movie.

Reading it this time around though, I think it was a good call on the part of Tolkien to split the book up so that we have the Fellowship and everything going on in the rest of Middle Earth in the first half before zeroing in on Frodo, Sam, and Gollum for the rest of the book. Especially because of how long they're with Faramir in Gondor before heading towards Mordor.

I think my favourite part of this first half is where we meet Treebeard and the Ents in Fangorn Forest. The Ents are so deliberate about everything they do, and the fact that they do things in their own time, not rushing about. Again, Tolkien continues to develop Middle Earth without completely stopping the story to do so. 

I find it interesting that while Gandalf was killed fighting the Balrog in the last book, some higher power returned him to Middle Earth to replace Saruman as the White in charge of the Wizards. Almost so there's a balance between good and evil. I know, that's putting it in very simple terms, but, Gandalf and Saruman are like Professor Xavier and Magneto in some of the comics, and in many of the X-Men movies and TV shows, or the Emperor and Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars Trilogy (1977-1983), and various other characters who each represent a side in a conflict. I find it interesting because, at least within the scope of this trilogy, and its immediate prequel, there aren't gods like beings like the Morphin Masters from Power Rangers or the Father, the Daughter, and the Son from Star Wars. Yet there must be because Gandalf was sent back following his death.

Okay, so, I need to talk about Samwise Gamgee in the second half of the book. He puts up with so much in those ten chapters. From Gollum, to being captured by Faramir and his people, to fighting Shelob the Spider monster. I loved the part where, fed up with Faramir's suspicion of them, tells them off by telling them about Frodo's quest, and WHY the Ring was so dangerous, using Boromir as an example of how the Ring's power can corrupt even the most noble hearted person if in their possession long enough. And THEN when Frodo has been taken down by Shelob and Sam believes that he's dead, he takes the Ring and chooses to continue the Quest on his own. He doesn't complain one bit about it because of how devoted he is to Frodo.

Speaking of Frodo, he doesn't get a whole lot to do in this book. It's almost like the second half of the book is Sam's story, not Frodo's. Which is fine, because, again, I love Sam. I just find it interesting that the actual protagonist of the book/trilogy of books doesn't have alot going on in the middle part of the trilogy. But, in a way that's also a good thing because oftentimes with long running book series, or TV shows so much happens to the main character in the first few books or first few seasons that by the time the book or TV series ends they haven't done anything in seasons and the audience stops caring. But if you have a trilogy of books it's okay to have a part of it where the main character doesn't have as much to do and another character is focused on.

As for Gollum, he's not as scary as I remember him being. Maybe that's just because this version of Gollum isn't played by Andy Serkis and we don't get into his head at all, as the book stays focused on Sam and Frodo in the second half, while we have several scenes of Gollum talking to himself, away from Sam and Frodo. 

While Merry and Pippin are almost the comic relief, I like that we do spend so much time with them at the beginning of the book. Just because they felt like tertiary characters in The Fellowship of the Ring, and we didn't get to know them very well, beyond the scope of their roles in that book. Here though, we get to know them very well and I think they're interesting characters.

I didn't talk much about Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli in the last review, simply because, again, the focus wasn't really on them. But here, they're far more interesting than they were in the first book. Especially Aragorn as we find out that there's even more to him than we were led to believe in the first book, as he was the heir to the throne of Gondor. I find it fascinating that Aragorn, a supporting character is taking his own Hero's Journey, alongside Frodo. I don't often encounter this in the movies and TV shows that I enjoy watching, as they mostly have an ensemble cast, where the focus isn't on a single individual, or the show and movie in question has a singular main character, and the supporting cast doesn't do much. Again, using simple terms, this shows that everyone is the hero of their own story. In Aragorn's case he's a king who was hidden away following the deaths of his parents many many years ago. Frodo is a simple Hobbit from the Shire, who has a job to do.

Overall The Two Towers is a really good book. There's so much I could talk about but this review would be way too long if I attempted it. Instead I'm just going to say that if you've never read The Lord of the Rings, definitely give it a try, because I'm really enjoying it now that I have the trilogy in the three volume version (with The Hobbit).

Alright my friends, that's it for me for this week. I'll be back with more blog posts. Until then, have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.  

Jetsons: The Movie (1990) Movie Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing well. I'm back for another movie review and this week I'm covering a movie that is one of my favourite movies of all time, Jetsons: The Movie, which was the last piece of Jetsons media to come out following the series's revival in 1985, and The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones in 1987. It was also the final movie directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera before their deaths in the 2000s. So, let's get into it.

Released on July 6th, 1990, Jetsons: The Movie was a box office disappointment, garnering $20 million on a budget of $8 million. I think that's because it had several things going against it. The first is that it was released two days after Die Hard 2 and a week before the Whoopi Goldberg film, Ghost. In addition to that, Dick Tracy was still in theatres, and, like with the TV show it's based on, Jetsons: The Movie just ended up falling by the wayside as a result of having so many heavy hitters in theatres at that time.

After being promoted to Vice President by Mr. Spacely, George Jetson and his family, Jane, Judy, Elroy, Astro, and Rosie the Robot, have to move to a space station near Spacely's Orbiting Ore Asteroid, a mining facility that has had several accidents and glitches, resulting in four previous heads of the facility leaving. The family has to adjust to living in space, with new friends and neighbours, while George and his employee, Rudy 2, must get to the bottom of the problems the plant is facing. 

So, it's your typical TV show episode in movie form. However, it also has alot of social commentary about things that people were concerned about in the '90s, such as pollution. Watching it now though, it also has some social commentary about things that we're concerned about in the modern world. Like greedy corporate tycoons, and the effect they've had on the world.

My favourite scene in the movie is when George finally stands up to Mr. Spacely at the end of the movie, after years of being a corporate stooge for Spacely. Spacely has always been a miserable person, but he's basically an outright villain in this movie since he knowingly mined the asteroid, despite the Grungees living there. So to have George finally stand up to him and say, "No sir Mr. Spacely" was absolutely satisfying to me. 

Based on The Jetsons, which was an animated sitcom that aired on ABC from September 23rd, 1962 to March 17th, 1963, and then returned for two more seasons in syndication from September 16th, 1985 to November 12th, 1987, Jetsons: The Movie starred George O'Hanlon as George Jetson, with Jeff Bergman stepping into the role after O'Hanlon died while recording dialogue for the film, Mel Blanc as Mr. Spacely, who also died during the film's production, leading to Bergman stepping into that role as well, Don Messick as Astro, Penny Singleton as Jane Jetson, Patric Zimmerman as Elroy, and Janet Waldo as Judy. Oh, right, let's talk about that cast change.

After rising to popularity when her self-titled debut album, Tiffany, was released in 1987, Tiffany Darwish, known professionally as Tiffany, was cast as Judy Jetson, replacing Janet Waldo, even though Waldo was still relatively healthy and had still been voicing the character in the revival of the TV show, as well as in The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones. Universal executives decided to replace Waldo with Tiffany figuring that with her popularity, her being in the film would result in stronger box office numbers for the movie. 

The problem is that by the time the movie came out in 1990, Tiffany was no longer as popular as she had been only two years earlier when production on the movie began. This is due to the fact that music tastes had changed in the '90s, with rap, hip-hop and heavy metal becoming more dominant, leaving behind bubblegum pop and dance music behind. Also, Tiffany's fanbase was made up of teenagers, and the target audience for the movie, which was children and adults, wouldn't know who she was unless they were kids who had older siblings or adults who had teenage children who listened to to her music. And because it's an animated movie, you don't see her on screen, only Judy, so all people who saw the movie would see her name, but it wouldn't necessarily mean anything to them, unless they had that connection I mentioned earlier. 

Personally, I like Tiffany as Judy, as it lends a bit more believability for an 18 year old to be voicing a 17 or 18 year old character. Having said that though, I do think it was unfair for Universal to replace Janet Waldo after she'd already recorded Judy's lines for the movie, just on the off chance that a once teenage pop idol might bring in more money for the movie based on an already popular TV show that had been running for nearly 30 years between its original network run, its revival in syndication, and the numerous reruns that the show has had over the years. I think the situation helps with the fact that the movie's voice director, Andrea Romano, who is most well known for hiring Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and the Joker respectively in Batman: The Animated Series, only two years later, asked to have her name removed from the movie in protest against the cast change. Though her name still appears in the end credits, not as the voice director.

Also, before I get to talking about the movie's soundtrack, being that we were just talking about Tiffany, can I just say that I didn't realize that Brad Garrett voiced Bertie Furbelow, as his first role in a movie. Like, I know him as Ray Romano's brother, Robert, on Everybody Loves Raymond, but it's crazy to me that his movie career began with this movie.

 Tiffany also recorded three songs for the movie's soundtrack, which were "Home", "You and Me", and "I Always Thought I'd See You Again". "I Always Thought I'd See You Again" is one of my favourite songs. Other songs on the album was "We're the Jetsons (the Jetsons Rap)" by XXL, "With You All the Way" and "Stayin' Together" by Shane Sutton, "Maybe Love" by Steve McClintock, "Through the Blue" by Gayle Rose, "Mall Theme" by John Duarte, and "The Jetsons Theme" by the Stunners. The movie also has a score by John Debney, though that wasn't released as part of the film's soundtrack album. Shane Sutton has a song called "First Time in Love" in the movie, during the scene where Judy and her boyfriend, Apollo Blue, go to the Drive-In Movies just before Jane calls them to help look for Elroy and Teddy 2. However, it doesn't appear on the soundtrack, nor has it ever been commercially released.

Honestly, the music is one of my favourite parts of the movie. To be fair, it absolutely dates the movie, particularly with Tiffany's songs, but anytime a song is playing during a scene, especially "Stayin' Together" and "You and Me", I automatically start dancing and singing along.

I remember watching the movie on VHS when I was a kid. I don't remember who got it for me, or when exactly I got it, but I watched it so often when I was a kid. I also don't remember if this movie was my introduction to the Jetsons. I'm pretty sure I saw the TV show in reruns before I saw the movie, but I don't actually remember for sure. I remember watching reruns of The Flintstones at noon, usually with reruns of The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends on YTV after that, but I don't actually remember watching The Jetsons until after I saw this movie. Eventually we got rid of all of our VHS tapes, but after I started collecting them in 2019, I got another copy of the movie on that format, as I hadn't seen it in over a decade.

Despite Jetsons: The Movie having been out on DVD since 2009, I never got my hands on a DVD copy of the movie at all in the 2010s. Even with the DVD's re-release in 2015. So, finally, last week I pulled the trigger and bought the movie on DVD off of Amazon since I've also have never seen a copy at any of the thrift stores I've been to, or even other second hand media stores I've been to. I watched it on DVD for the first time last night for this review, and it's awesome. There aren't any bonus features on this release, but getting to watch the movie on DVD is great. Especially since the movie is in widescreen.

 Sadly, this was the last piece of media to feature the Jetsons until 2017 when The Jetsons & WWE: Robo-WrestleMania! was released direct-to-video. I've never seen that movie, but Jeff Bergman is the only voice actor to return from previous productions featuring the characters, as he took over as George and Mr. Spacely during production on Jetsons: The Movie, with Grey Griffin as Jane, Danica McKellar as Judy, Tress MacNeille as Rosie, and Trevor Devall as Elroy. Despite the show still airing in reruns, I think the box office failure of Jetsons: The Movie, and the subsequent deaths of the original cast members and of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, forced Hanna-Barbera to focus on other characters like the Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, and Yogi Bear, among others, instead. Especially with the 2001 closure of the studio and its absorption into Warner Bros. Animation. I love the Jetsons and I feel they're still relevant in this day and age, so I hope they get a comeback in the near future.

Overall, I still love Jetsons: The Movie. It's funny, interesting, and alot of fun. It's pretty cheesy, but for me it's cheesy in a charming '90s way. It's also pretty dated, especially with the music used for it, but I absolutely love it. Even though it failed at the box office and critics didn't care for it, I still recommend watching it if you've never seen it before. Especially if you're a fan of the TV show.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more posts. So until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Essential Marvel (1996-2013) and DC's Showcase Presents (2005-2016) Discussion

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. It's Wednesday, which means I'm here to talk about comic books. This week I'm going to be talking about two trade paperback collected editions from Marvel and DC that are very similar to each other. They're the Essential Marvel and DC's Showcase Presents series, which each collect about 20 to 30 classic comic books from the '50s, '60s, and '70s (the Marvel Universe proper began in 1961) on low quality paper and in black and white to cut down the costs of producing such collections. I'm going to start with the Essential Marvel series just because I don't have as much experience with it as I do the Showcase Presents series, and I don't have as much to say about it. Let's get into it.

Running from October 1996 to December 2013, Essential Marvel launched with The Essential X-Men Vol. 1 (shown above), The Essential Wolverine Vol. 1 (not shown), and The Essential Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 (not shown). The Essential X-Men Vol. 1 didn't begin with the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby issues from the '60s. Instead it began with Giant Sized X-Men #1 from 1975 and continued on with the Len Wein, Dave Cockrum, and Chris Claremont's run that revitalized the X-Men after poor sales throughout the '60s caused Marvel to stop producing new X-Men stories, leaving the rest of the series from 1970 to 1975 to be reprints of already published issues.

The only volume I've ever owned of the series was The Essential Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1, with an incredible cover by Bruce Timm, the co-creator of Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited. This volume collects the first 24 issues of X-Men, which covered Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's entire 11 issue run, the one issue that Stan did with Alex Toth, Stan's 7 issue run with Werner Roth as the artist, and the first five issues of Roy Thomas and Werner Roth's run. It's a decent look at the original X-Men comics.

Showcase Presents ran from October 2005 until January 2016, and collected classic DC books from the '50s, '60s, '70s, and '80s. The series began with Showcase Presents: Green Lantern Vol. 1 and Showcase Presents: Superman Vol. 1. I've only ever had three volumes of this series but they were some of my favourite books and I went back to them pretty frequently.

The first volume I ever got was Showcase Presents: Teen Titans (April 2006), which collects the first three appearances of the Teen Titans as a team from The Brave and the Bold #'s 54 and 60, and Showcase #59, and the first 18 issues of Teen Titans. While I'd watched the 2003 Teen Titans animated series on YTV, reading this volume made me fall in love with the original Titans team which, at the time, consisted of Robin (Dick Grayson), Kid Flash (Wally West), Wonder Girl (Donna Troy), Aqualad (Garth), and Speedy (Roy Harper), with a guest appearance by Beast Boy (Garfield Logan) in Teen Titans #6, prior to Beast Boy joining the Doom Patrol.

 The next volume I got was Showcase Presents: Batman Vol. 1, which was published in August 2006. This volume contains Detective Comics #327-342, and Batman #164-174. These issues cover the changeover to the "New Look" Batman that Julius Schwartz introduced in Detective Comics #327 (1964) as well as the introduction to the Batpoles, the Batphone (simply called the Hotline in the comics), a new Batmobile, and Dick Grayson's aunt, Harriet Cooper. All elements that would make it into Batman (1966-1968) and Batman: the Movie (1966). It also introduced me to the death of Alfred, and his subsequent appearances as the villain, the Outsider. I didn't even know that Alfred had been killed off in 1964 because he'd been brought back to life in the comics in response to the character's popularity in the TV show and theatrical movie.

 The third and final volume that I got was Showcase Presents: Green Arrow (January 2006), which collects all of Green Arrow's stories from Adventure Comics #250-269, The Brave and the Bold #50, 71, and 85, Justice League of America #4, and World's Finest Comics #95-140. These issues cover Green Arrow's adventures from 1958 to 1969, up to the character's revamp by Bob Haney, Neal Adams, and Dick Giordano. I got this volume at Ottawa Comiccon in 2013, not too long before season 1 of Arrow ended, so this was my first time reading Green Arrow comics.

Despite these books being in black and white, this was a fantastic way to get these older stories as the DC Archive Editions, and Marvel Masterworks hardcovers were, and are, so expensive and the DC Chronicles trade paperbacks only covered Batman, Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman, with the Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman volumes only publishing the original '30s and '40s/Golden Age issues and the current DC Omnibus as well as the Marvel Epic Collections are also very expensive. So these volumes were my favourite way of being able to read the original Teen Titans comic book series, pre-revamp Green Arrow stories, and some of the Batman stories that the 1966 TV show and movie took elements from.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. Just a quick post today. I'll be back soon for more posts. So until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.