Star Trek: Prodigy Season 1 (2021) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? Did you have a good holiday season? I had an interesting one. I got alot of cool movies, toys, comics, books, and movies from friends and family. It was definitely a weird Christmas for me though. Today I'm here to review the first season of Star Trek: Prodigy which finally wrapped up yesterday after more than a year since it premiered. I'm going to be as spoiler free as I possibly can, but I might have to mention a few things in order to talk about the season. So, if you've been watching the show and haven't seen the season finale yet, or dropped off the show after episode 10 came out at the beginning of this year, then this is your spoiler warning. Let's get into it.

When Star Trek: Prodigy was announced as an animated series aimed at children back in 2019, I was concerned because any franchise that has been primarily geared towards adults, but could be watched by children, and have tried to be refocused towards only kids, or only adults, have never quite gotten it right. Either because the show or movie or whatever medium it is is still trying to get as big an audience as possible or they skew too far in whatever direction the show is being geared towards, be it children or adults. But with Kate Mulgrew involved as the voice of Hologram Janeway, I had to at least check out the show if I was able to since Nickelodeon shows tend to air on either Teletoon or YTV, and I don't have Teletoon. And for the first ten episodes, I enjoyed it. It was a bit more on the kids side of things, but there was still enough there for adults watching it to get something out of it. That changed with the second half of the season. Before I get to that though, I would like to talk about the characters a little bit.

Our main characters are Dal R'El (voiced by Brett Gray), a being made up of the DNA of basically all of the major races in the Star Trek Universe, except for the Borg, Gwyndala "Gwyn" (voiced by Ella Purnell), a member of the Vau N'akat race, whose father is the antagonist in the first half of the season, Jankom Pog (voiced by Jason Mantzoukas), a Tellarite, Zero (voiced by Angus Imrie), a Medusan, whose race was first introduced in the 1968 TOS season 3 episode, "Is There in Truth No Beauty", Rok-Tahk (voiced by Rylee Alazraqui), a Brikar, whose race was first introduced in the 1993 young adult novel, Worf's First Adventure, the first book in the Star Trek: The Next Generation - Starfleet Academy series, Murf (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), a Mellanoid slime worm, and Hologram Janeway (voiced by Kate Mulgrew), an Emergency Training Holographic Advisor that the kids found on the mysteriously abandoned USS Protostar deep in the Delta Quadrant. 

The entire cast is likeable, though Dal and Jankom can be a bit obnoxious at times. And the voice cast, despite some of them being very young, is excellent. I do wish we could've learned more about each character across the 20 episodes of the season, rather than a big info dump in episode 11, the first episode of the second half of the season. But, given my experience with Power Rangers being produced by Nickelodeon from 2011 to 2019, I should've expected this sort of thing to happen.

One of the things that I loved about the first half of the season is that, while there were nods to past Star Trek shows and movies that the adults watching the show would enjoy, particularly episode 6, "Kobayashi", which I talked about in a previous blog post, it stood on its own as a perfectly good Star Trek series that kids and adults could watch together or on their own. And you still had dramatic tension because not only are the kids getting to know each other and are learning how to get along with each other, but they also have the Diviner and Drednok after them. Especially with Gwyn being the Diviner's daughter.

But, I think what happened with the second half of the season is that Nickelodeon put the same restrictions on Prodigy that they had on Power Rangers throughout its time on the channel. But that's only sheer speculation on my part as we probably won't find out for sure for years, if ever. The only reason we found out about those restrictions on Power Rangers is because the casts of Megaforce/Super Megaforce and Dino Charge/Dino Super Charge have talked about it in interviews, after their seasons were over. That probably won't happen with Prodigy, especially not with the adult cast such as Kate Mulgrew, Jason Mantzoukas, and Dee Bradley Baker.

It's not that the season was bad or anything. The problem is that all of the mystery, intrigue, and character development from the first ten episodes were gone in the second half and there was just nothing going on the entire season until the last three episodes. In fact, you could probably take out six or seven episodes in this entire second half of the season, and it wouldn't do much to change the story. The biggest problem is the same one that the seasons of Power Rangers that were on Nickelodeon had. The season finale was a two-parter, and part two had nothing happen with the entire season just ending abruptly. Now, luckily it ended in a way that makes room for a second season, which is good because it was greenlit for a second season when the first season was announced. 

It was nice that Kate Mulgrew also got to voice an older Admiral Janeway in the second half of the season as well as Hologram Janeway. It just felt right to have actual Janeway back since Seven of Nine is on Picard and Tom Paris had appeared on Lower Decks. It also felt right to have Chakotay, voiced by Robert Beltran, return as well, even if it was just in holo-recordings and flashbacks to when Chakotay took command of the Protostar. It kinda felt like the writers took elements from the post-series Voyager relaunch novels, where Starfleet Command sent Voyager back to the Delta Quadrant with a fleet of starships in order to do more exploration and to contact some of the friendlier races that Voyager had encountered during its seven year journey back to the Alpha Quadrant. Except in the case of this show, rather than having Voyager go back to the Delta Quadrant with Chakotay in command, they wrote it so he took command of the Protostar and go back that way. So I thought that was pretty cool.

At the end of the day Star Trek: Prodigy is aimed at kids but if it weren't for it being on Nickelodeon as well as Paramount+ I suspect the second half of the season would've been much better than it ultimately ended up being. However, I don't think this show will last beyond the second season because it took over a year for all 20 episodes to air, and most animated shows these days, particularly those on streaming services have around ten to twelve episodes. But, Nickelodeon clings onto that archaic 20 episode episode count for some reason. Just like they did with Power Rangers in the 2010s. And it didn't help that there was a short break between episodes 5 and 6 for the holidays, and then that huge break between episodes 10 and 11 for Discovery season 4, Picard season 2, Strange New Worlds season 1, and Lower Decks season 3 to come out, so the series lost its momentum from having those first five episodes come out before the holidays, and then lost even more momentum coming off the long break after episode 10. So we'll see what happens, but I think that, unless they have kids who love it, people didn't return for the second half of the season. I don't know for sure though because I'm not on Twitter anymore and that's where I saw alot of discussion about the show happening, even if they weren't talking about the episodes week to week. 

I think that out of all of the modern Star Trek shows, Prodigy would work better if you binged it all at once rather than watching it week to week. Especially the second half of the season as it just moved too slowly and ended up not being very interesting. It's like they chose to put all of the filler episodes into the back end of the season rather than spreading them out across the entire season. 

It is hard for me to recommend it though unless you have kids. But watch the first few episodes if you haven't watched the show yet and see what you think. Maybe you'll like the second half of the season more than I did. It's not the worst Star Trek show ever, but it also isn't the best either. It's on the lower side of the middle. 

Alright my friends, that's gonna be it for me for this year. 2022 was such an amazing year for this blog. I got to do stuff that I've wanted to do on here since I started blogging back in 2015. In 2023 I'll be doing more of that stuff. Including continuing my reviews of Power Rangers, which I'll be getting back to after I've watched seasons 1 and 2 of Stargirl and do a few other movie reviews as well. Don't worry though my Power Rangers reviews aren't going anywhere. I'm also going to review single issues of comic books rather than entire story arcs and trades. It saves time. And I'm getting back to some reviews of novels in 2023 as well. So thank you for sticking with me and this blog in 2022, and here's to 2023 being another awesome year for the blog. Until then have a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you all in the New Year. Take care.

Jingle All the Way (1996) Movie Review

 Hey everyone! Happy Friday, maybe, if you're not caught in a winter storm. I'm here to do my Christmas movie review for 2022, and this year I'm reviewing Jingle All the Way, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad, along with Jake Lloyd. I don't know if I'm actually going to have a whole lot to say about this movie, just because I watched it for the first time last night so I don't have any childhood memories of this movie, beyond seeing the commercial for it on TV, and I have no nostalgic feelings towards this movie. I understand that some of you do. So with that out of the way, let's get into this movie.

Jingle All the Way is one of those movies that you had to have grown up with watching, and been a certain age when it originally came out back in 1996 to get any sort of appreciation for it. I wouldn't say that the movie is bad, it's just of its time but not really in a good way. While I watched the movie, I kept trying to find that one thing about it that makes people love it even after 26 years. But everytime it seemed like I had found it, the thing would be ruined by an unnecessary joke or some ridiculous part would happen and it kept me from being invested in anything going on. And it could've been a movie I should've been heavily invested in because trying to find the Christmas present you want for a particular person, especially so close to Christmas Day and not being able to get it is something I think we've all been through before. Especially if you're a parent. 

I'm not a big Schwarzenegger fan so I haven't seen a whole lot of his movies. But he was usually pretty good in the movies I have seen him in, except for this movie. There was just something about his character in this film that made it really difficult to feel any sort of sympathy for. Even when he had the worst luck. Sinbad, an actor I've heard of, but have never seen in anything, wasn't any better. In fact, the only main cast member I thought was any good, was Jake Lloyd. Despite him being younger than he was when he played Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), he was actually better in the movie for how little he was actually in the movie for. And the rest of the cast was fine. Nothing spectacular. Apart from Martin Mull of course. And this movie came out a year before Mull would first appear as Vice Principal Kraft on Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996-2003)

I wish this movie had just been about Turboman because that would've been way more interesting. And I don't mean that in a Toy Story kind of way either. I actually mean that the movie should've been Turboman with Schwarzenegger playing the character. Sure, it would've been just as cheesy as any comic book superhero based movie that came out in the mid to late '90s, but it would've been more fun to watch. The Mall Santa crime ring was a funny sequence, but that's only because Jim Belushi is in it.

Overall Jingle All the Way had the potential to be an amazing movie. Instead it was just what it was. Ridiculous and weird. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's just not for me. Like I said, it's one of those movies where you had to be a certain age when it first came out to really enjoy it. I'm not even sure if I would've enjoyed it when it came out back in 1996. I don't actually remember being interested in it whenever I saw the commercials for it on TV. Which says something as to why I never saw it when I was a kid.

Anyways my friends that's going to be it for me for this week. I'm going to wait to watch and review Strange World until after the New Year because, except for season 1 Star Trek: Prodigy, which ends next week, I wanna have some time off for the holidays. So join me next week for my review of season 1 of Prodigy. Until then Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Star Trek #2 (2022) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone! Yeah, it's been another busy week. I had planned on getting a post up yesterday, but I got derailed by a surprise outing with two of my closest friends right after breakfast. But we went to the comic book store and, along with a few other comics, I was able to pick up Star Trek #2, the latest issue of the latest ongoing monthly Star Trek comic book series that I reviewed the first issue of last week. There will be some spoilers for this review just because a character showed up in this issue and joins Sisko's new crew, and it's hard for me to talk about the issue without talking about the familiar character. So, if you're buying this series but haven't read this issue yet, then please do so before reading this review. Let's get into it.

This is such a good series. As I mentioned in my review of the first issue, this series has gotten me excited about Star Trek comics in a way that I haven't been for the longest time. It's well written and the artwork has been fantastic so far. It also feels like the kind of serialized episodic storytelling that was prevalent in the first season of Discovery as well as in a majority of Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise in the late '90s and early 2000s. It's also how the Star Trek comics published by DC handled things too. And it's what I like, because I don't feel like I need to read every issue or watch every episode, but that if I am able to, I get to see the story and characters progress over the course of the season of Television, or the issues of the comic book series. 

If you saw the covers for this issue online, you already know that Worf shows up. Which is cool, because he's both a TNG character AND a DS9 character so he fits pretty well with this mixed crew that Sisko has. And because at this point, Worf is still the Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire, it's almost inevitable that the Theseus would need his help if they were going to the Klingon Empire. And they had to go to the Klingon homeworld, Qo'noS (pronounced Kronos to all of you non-Trekkies reading this review). And because we can't seem to have a Star Trek series, be it television show or comic, that Sisko is in and the Klingons aren't antagonistic in some way, shape or form, Worf is once again having to choose between his duty to the Federation and his people. And I don't know if this was a choice by Kelly and Lanzing or by Editorial at IDW, but it doesn't work quite as well here as it did on DS9 or the few times on TNG where the crew dealt with renegade Klingons, namely the House of Duras. I think it's because the reason in this issue isn't great, and doesn't fit with the more humble version of Kahless that we met in the TNG season 6 episode, "Rightful Heir". He's acting more like Gowron did in the last few seasons of DS9 than he is the Kahless we saw on TNG.

It always feels like every writer who has to deal with Worf in a story, be it an episode, novel, or comic, has to undo everything Worf did on TNG. In the season 4 finale/season 5 premiere, "Redemption", Worf helped to install Gowron as the Chancellor of the Klingon High Council in order to prevent Toral and the Duras Sisters from taking the position, which would lead to renewed hostilities between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. But then in DS9, Gowron ended up dissolving the treaty between the Federation and the Empire anyway, simply because Sisko refused to condone the Klingon attack on the Cardassians, and then later, Worf was forced to kill Gowron in combat because he became a detriment to the war effort against the Dominion. Then, in "Rightful Heir" Worf helps to convince Gowron to allow Kahless to be installed as emperor, as a figurehead position, allowing Gowron to remain in power. But now, in this issue, Kahless has become a hinderance to Worf assisting Sisko on his mission.

Again, it's a good idea, but I don't think that Kelly and Lanzing are capable enough to deal with something like that. Especially because they ended up taking the more ensemble approach to this issue than they did in issue one, and so we really don't get much time with Tom Paris, Scotty, Crusher, or the new characters, T'Lir and Sato. I do like the interaction between Paris and Worf, simply because Tom is married to B'Elanna Torres, who is half-Human, half-Klingon, and he knows how a Klingon will react to certain situations better than basically anyone else on the crew, outside of those who served with Worf on the Enterprise-D. 

My favourite scene is a really simple one where Sisko is once again trying to convince a higher lifeform to help the crew complete their mission at their planet in Klingon space, but they don't trust him because he came from the Prophets, and is a Human. So Data steps up and ends up convincing the higher lifeforms to give their assistance. On it's own, it doesn't offer anything we haven't already seen with Data in the past, but it also ends up easing Sisko's wariness of having an Android, even one as decorated as Data is, for a first officer and starts a friendship between the two officers. Which is one of the many reasons that I love Star Trek. Even in the ensemble cast format that the franchise has usually excelled at, the shows have always been good at more intimate, emotional moments between two characters. And that's what we got here with Sisko and Data. It's awesome.

We have a new artist with this issue, Oleg Chudakov. Again, not familiar with their work, but it's interesting. The scenery isn't as detailed here as it was last issue. It's also very tight shots, with very few wide shots with a few exceptions. And actually the tighter shots remind me of the old Marvel and DC Star Trek comics, particularly the original 1980 Marvel series and the 1984 DC series, where there were alot of tighter shots, especially for Bridge scenes. So that was really cool to see in newer Star Trek comics, which usually prefer to use as wide of shots as possible. 

Overall, this was a great issue. As I said at the beginning of the review, it's well written, well plotted, and the artwork is cool. I definitely recommend checking this issue out. Especially if you enjoyed the first issue. This looks like it's gonna be a solid storyline, and I'm here for it for as long as I'm able to keep up with it.

That's it for me for today. I'll be back on Friday with my review of Jingle All the Way, which is the Christmas movie I've chosen to review this year, and then I'll be back on Saturday with a review of the latest Walt Disney Animation Studios film, Strange World, which is dropping on Disney+ on Friday now that its theatrical run is over. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Go To Christmas Albums from Childhood

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing okay. It's been difficult around here lately, which is why I haven't felt like doing more Christmas related blog posts this week like I originally intended. But, I wanted to do SOMETHING for the blog today, so I'm going to talk about five Christmas albums/CDs that we used to listen to at Christmas time that I still listen to today. This is gonna be in more of an overview style post rather than a review, so, don't worry, there won't be spoilers, since there's no story and characters to talk about. So let's get into it.

Before I get into the albums themselves, I wanna set the stage by talking a little bit about what Christmas was like in my house when I was a kid. When I was a younger kid, from about 1990 until 1995 or 1996, my siblings and I would open our presents from Santa, and our parents, as well as our stockings, at home, and then we would go over to Nana's and Grandpa's (my mom's parents) to open our stockings and presents from them, and we had brunch. Then we'd go home for a little bit, and then we'd drive to Grandma and Grandpa's to open presents from them and have Christmas Dinner with my dad's side of the family. Then when we were a little bit older, and Grandma and Grandpa had moved up to the cottage full time, we'd do Christmas Day with Nana and Grandpa, and then we'd drive up to the cottage on Boxing Day and stay overnight. This actually continued well into my teen years in the 2000s. And then, eventually, Grandma and Grandpa started going to Florida in November, rather than after Christmas, so they would leave our presents with my parents to put under our tree before they left, and we'd talk to them on the phone while Nana and Grandpa, and my uncle, would come over for brunch on Christmas Day. During that entire time, we'd have the five albums I'm gonna be talking about. So let's start.

First up is the 1997 CD version of Christmas with Elvis. I'm pretty sure that my dad got it for his birthday in 1997, but he may have bought it himself. I just know that he had it by the time my 11th birthday, because I remember listening to it while I opened The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told. My favourite songs on this album are "Santa Claus is Back in Town", "Blue Christmas", "White Christmas", and "Winter Wonderland". It doesn't even feel like Christmas time until I've put this album on and have heard these four songs. My dad still owns the CD, but I ripped it to my computer years ago, and I put it on my iPod every time I get a new one...yes, I'm aware that I sound like I'm in like 2009 or 2010 instead of 2022, but I'm in my 30s, digital music, besides ripping the songs from the disc onto the computer, was just becoming a thing when I started high school in 2001, with the iTunes Store not becoming a thing until I was nearing the end of grade 10 in 2003. Anyways, this album is pretty great.

 Next up is an odd album called Smith Kids Christmas, released by SmithBooks, which is the name of some of the shopping mall bookstores, also known as Coles, owned by Indigo Books and Music, which also owns Chapters, a bookstore that I have many fond memories of from when I was a kid. I can't find any information about this album anywhere. No release date, nothing. Not even on the CD itself. But I remember having it as early as 1996, but no earlier than that. It was another one that my dad played in the rotation of Christmas albums. But, unlike Christmas with Elvis, I inherited this CD for my own collection once my brother, sister, and I were grown up and my dad took it out of the rotation. My favourite songs on this album are "Let It Snow", "Frosty the Snowman", and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". The rest of the songs are great too, obviously, but those are the ones I like the most.

These next two I'm gonna talk about together, just because they're two volumes of the same series, Christmas All-Time Greatest Records. These are all the classic Christmas songs sung by the legendary artists such as Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Merle Haggard, Lena Horne, Bobby Helms, Brenda Lee, the Beach Boys, Judy Garland, and the Andrews Sisters. My favourites on these albums are "Silver Bells" by Merle Haggard, "Little Saint Nick" by the Beach Boys, "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" by Donny Osmond, "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms, and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee. I know, it's cliche, but this is Christmas time, there are only so many Christmas songs out there, so why not go with the classics?

 The last album on this list is another compilation album. It's similar to the Christmas All-Time Greatest Records albums, except it's all country music. Hank Williams Jr., Merle Haggard, Andy Williams, Sawyer Brown, Bobby Helms, and Brenda Lee are all on here with both "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" repeated from the previous albums I talked about, but like I said, why not stick with the classics? My favourites on this album, aside from the two songs repeated from the previous collections, are "Pretty Paper" by Don McLean and "Winter Wonderland" by Merle Haggard. 

Unlike the first two albums on this list, I don't remember when my dad got these compilations. They came out in 1990 and 1991 respectively, so it's basically anytime after that that he would've gotten them. I just feel like we've always had them unlike the Christmas with Elvis and Smith Kids Christmas albums. But growing up my dad had them on every year and as we had a multi-disc changer CD player, all five of these albums would play all day on Christmas Day. At least, when we were home anyways.

That's it for me for today. I just wanted to talk about these Christmas albums since I've never done that before on any of my blogs. Like I said, I wanted to do more Christmas related content on the blog this year. So, that is it for today. I have a Christmas movie that I want to review before next weekend and then, aside from my review of season 1 of Star Trek: Prodigy, which is finally ending in two weeks, I am taking two weeks off for the holidays. So stay tuned for those reviews. Until then have a great evening and a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you later. Take care.  

Star Trek #1 (2022) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted anything since last week, but I've actually been busy this week. I was out for a late birthday celebration with Brad on Monday, so I was out for most of the day. I got a few comic books while we were out and they're some pretty good ones, including the three issue story arc from Detective Comics which introduced Stephanie Brown back in 1992 and the facsimile edition of The Brave and the Bold #28, which is the first issue that the Justice League of America came together from 1960. Not to worry, I'll review those issues in the very near future. Today I'm here to review the first issue of the new ongoing Star Trek series published by IDW Publishing that just came out about a month or so ago. Because it's a brand new comic there won't be any major spoilers so that if you haven't read it yet and are interested in reading it, you can still see what my thoughts on the issue are before reading it yourselves. So let's get into it.

When I saw the cover art reveal from IDW on Twitter, via the official Star Trek Twitter account, I actually got excited as Star Trek hadn't had an ongoing comic book series that wasn't based on TOS or the Kelvin timeline movies (2009-2016) since the late '90s when Marvel published series based on both Deep Space Nine and Voyager under the Paramount Comics imprint. WildStorm did a bunch of one shots and mini-series in the early 2000s and IDW has mainly done mini-series and limited series since they got the license in 2007. And because, aside from The Q Conflict, I haven't been all that interested in Star Trek comics since Marvel wrapped up the license in 1998 following drop in sales, possibly due to so many Star Trek comics coming out at once, so I haven't gotten excited for a new Star Trek comic in a really long time. 

So Benjamin Sisko is returned to our plane of existence by the Prophets, also known as the Wormhole Aliens, as they reside within the Bajoran Wormhole to deal with a threat to the entire universe. With the help of Captain Picard, Sisko is given command of the U.S.S. Theseus (NX-1987), a starship that was commissioned back when Kirk was first in command of the Enterprise during the mid-23rd Century, and then refitted and rebuilt under the supervision of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott. Sisko's command crew consists of Lieutenant Commander Data as First Officer, Doctor Beverly Crusher as Chief Medical Officer, Scotty as Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Tom Paris as Conn/Helm Officer, Ensign Sato, an Andorian, as Communications Officer, and Ensign T'Lir, a Vulcan, as Science Officer. 

I actually find it interesting that the writers, Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing chose representatives from the first four Star Trek shows to be the main cast of this comic book series. Especially because CBS/Paramount has been extremely uninterested in doing anything with DS9, aside from Quark and Kira appearing in an episode of Lower Decks earlier this year. Paris kind of makes sense since he's appeared on Lower Decks in season 2, and Voyager getting alot of attention lately with Janeway and Chakotay appearing on Prodigy and Seven of Nine being part of the main cast of Picard. Data and Crusher also make sense since Data has appeared on Picard in season 1, and Crusher will be showing up on the show in season 3, and a holographic version of her appeared on the holodeck in Prodigy. But Scotty is kinda out of left field on this one, mainly because the last time we saw him, he was retired from Starfleet. 

Of course this issue features appearances by Jake Sisko, Kira Nerys, and Jean-Luc Picard. Which is pretty cool. Though I do wish Bashir or Ezri Dax had appeared too given that, as far as I know, they're still on the station during the time this story takes place, which is between the Voyager series finale, "Endgame", and Star Trek Nemesis (2002). But, given that we haven't had any canon material with them in it since DS9 ended in 1999, I don't know for sure. Especially because in the Star Trek novel universe Bashir was still on the station, but Ezri was captain of the U.S.S. Aventine, which wasn't assigned to the station. 

The artwork is spectacular. I'm not familiar with Ramon Rosanas's artwork, but they do a really good job of the look of the ship, the Bridge, and other details that are important for establishing this story's part of the Star Trek Universe. I especially love the way the Bridge was designed and it's your standard Star Trek Bridge, but it's one that's specific to the Theseus, which is a great ship design by the way, similar to how the Bridge of the Enterprise-D was unique to that Galaxy Class starship. 

Overall this was a great issue. It was basically all setup for the coming issues, however many there will end up being, but it was really good setup. It's also pretty awesome that Sisko is the main character of the comic, because, like I said CBS/Paramount has been avoiding doing anything with DS9 ever since the show ended in 1999, aside from the novels and the occasional comic book here and there, as well as putting the show out on DVD of course. If you're a Trekkie and want to read it, I would recommend it. It's a bit harder for newcomers to read this series though just because it's so tied to Star Trek's rich lore, specifically DS9's, that without having seen DS9 and several episodes of TNG, it would be much harder to get into on its own.

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more Christmas reviews. Maybe even something tomorrow or on Friday, depending on how things go. So until then have a great afternoon and I will talk to you all later. Take care.  

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #79 (1996) Christmas Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. It's a dark, dismal day here in the Geek Cave, so I'm here to talk about a comic book that takes place during Christmas. And keeping with the '90s nostalgia theme I apparently have going on this week, I'm taking a look at Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #79 from 1996. So let's get into it.

Legends of the Dark Knight is a comic book series that ran for 214 issues from 1989 to 2007 and took place during Batman's early career, post-Year One. This series acted as a gateway for new readers and fans because the stories very rarely impacted anything going on in the larger DC Universe, and they weren't impacted by the larger Batman and DC continuity. Though particular issues were involved in big Batman and DC story arcs such as the Knightfall saga, Zero Hour, No Man's Land, and War Games. When the first issue came out in 1989, it was marketed as the first new Batman solo book since Batman #1 came out in 1940, and it was also the first new Batman comic to come out since Batman and the Outsiders debuted in 1983. The DC Comics Wiki also says that it was published in the wake of the 1989 movie, but I don't know if it was published because of the movie's popularity or if DC Editorial planned to publish the series before the movie came out. 

Issue #79, "Favorite Things", has Batman chasing a gang of criminals who stole something of great value to him from Wayne Manor. The gang, known as the Chessmen are just random thugs who stole something from Wayne Manor. Honestly, this is an okay issue. The problem with it is that we don't learn what the Joy Boys took from Wayne Manor until the last two pages and while I like that it was a toy train that Bruce's parents had given him for Christmas the last Christmas that Bruce would have with them before they were murdered, not knowing what it is that was taken and has Batman so enraged makes it hard to connect with him because you don't know why he's so determined to get this item back and there are so many other interesting things going on in this issue that just get left there. 

The writer for this issue is Mark Millar and I'm not a huge fan of his work. Kick-Ass is okay but Kick-Ass 2 is kind of meh. And while writing for Batman is very different from writing his own books, this is not his best story. It's very all over the place and like I said, he had some good ideas with the Joy Boys, a gang who idolizes the Joker, similar to the Jokerz in Batman Beyond, which would start airing only three years after this issue came out, as well as everything going on with the Chessmen, and the guy they paid to keep the stuff they stole until things settled down. But, he doesn't explore any of that, which is unfortunate, because in alot of cases, the supporting cast, and cast of villains are often more interesting than Batman himself, which is why the villains were so much the focus of movies like Batman Returns and The Dark Knight and why characters like Robin, Nightwing, and Batgirl work so well on their own in the comics. 

The artwork is fine. The artists are Steve Yeowell and Dick Giordano. Yeowell is mostly known for working with Geoff Johns on his run on JSA, a series that was basically an extension of Johns's Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., the book that introduced Courtney Whitmore, a.k.a. Stargirl. There is one inconsistency though. Early on in the book, Batman has the yellow oval around the Bat symbol on the chest of his Batsuit, but then it's gone on the very next page and for the rest of the issue. Because Batman doesn't add the yellow oval to the Batsuit until a little before Dick steps down as Robin and Jason Todd takes over the mantle, at least at this point, though it gets moved to after Jason's death sometime in the 2000s, having the yellow oval on the Batsuit in this issue is a bit weird since it's before Dick has even become Robin. 

Overall, this isn't a great issue. If you want to read it it is included in the 2005 trade paperback collection, Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told Volume 1, not to be confused with the 1988 trade paperback collection, The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told. But honestly it's a pretty skippable issue and doesn't really add anything to the overall Batman mythos as the toy train never comes up again. In fact we don't even see it in any other Batman media. It's good, just not great.

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

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Alpha's Magical Christmas (1994) Christmas Special Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. It's time for another Christmas Special Review. Today's Christmas Special Review is going to be on the 1994 direct-to-video special, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Alpha's Magical Christmas. Which is something I chose not to review in my Power Rangers Reviews series. So, let's get into it.

Aside from the VHS release of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995), Alpha's Magical Christmas is the only Power Rangers VHS tape I ever owned. It was given to me as a birthday or Christmas present from my bus driver in either 1994 or 1995. There's no real story other than Alpha is lonely on Christmas Eve as the Power Rangers are busy helping Santa, because apparently Lord Zedd decided not to attack Angel Grove on Christmas Eve, for whatever reason. The bad guys don't even show up in this special. It's more like the children's musical tapes that used to come out in the '80s and '90s like the Wee Sing series or the Barney & The Backyard Gang/Barney Home Video tapes that were coming out alongside episodes of Barney & Friends (1992-2010), than a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers release. 

While I've seen this special numerous times over the year, watching it on the bonus features Disc from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series hit differently this time for me. Mainly because of Jason David Frank passing away a few weeks ago as he's in this special as Tommy both in flashbacks and at the end of the special where he, Kimberly, and Billy teleport to the Command Center, morphed and with their helmets off, to wish Zordon and Alpha a Merry Christmas.

So the in-universe continuity of this special is a bit wonky, but the real world continuity is a bit weird too. So Alpha's Magical Christmas was released on home video on October 19th, 1994, the day after Season 2, Episode 18, "White Light Part II", which was Tommy's debut as the White Ranger, though he's still as the Green Ranger in this special, but it came out a few weeks before Steve Cardenas, Karan Ashley, and Johnny Yong Bosch would debut as Rocky, Aisha, and Adam in "The Ninja Encounter" and before they replaced Jason, Trini, and Zack as the Red Ranger, Yellow Ranger, and Black Ranger in "The Power Transfer". In fact, it even shows clips of Rocky, Aisha, and Adam from episodes of the TV show that wouldn't air for two to three weeks. Now I saw this special after Rocky, Adam, and Aisha had debuted, so their debut and the Power Transfer weren't spoiled for me, but I bet that they were for alot of kids because of this tape. 

One thing that I find absolutely hilarious about this special is that the control consoles in the Command Center all get removed while the Christmas decorations and Christmas cookies are being made by Alpha and the kids. I mean I know they can be unplugged thanks to the first episode of Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers but I completely forgot that they were modular too, which is obvious because of how the Command Center set was built, and because we saw old control consoles in the Command Center's basement in Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers as well as the first episode of Power Rangers Zeo. But it's just funny that they just aren't there when the children are around, but return just before Kimberly, Billy, and Tommy arrive. Also, when Zordon told Alpha to press the big red button on the console, which isn't there on the show, Alpha blindly presses it even though he doesn't know what it will do if he presses it. I mean it just ends up bringing a Christmas Tree into the Command Center, but if someone, and by someone I mean Zordon, told me to press a big red button in the center of the console I might ask what it does first, just in case it ends up being something that shouldn't be pressed unless we really REALLY mean it. Yes, that was a Spaceballs reference. 

That's really all I have to say about this special since there's no real story to it and the Power Rangers really don't have anything to do in it. I just wanted to mention when exactly it came out in relation to the TV show because it's really odd that it came out before Rocky, Adam, and Aisha debuted on the TV show, yet they're in it. Plus Tommy is wearing his Green Ranger costume, even though he was already the White Ranger. 

That's gonna be it for me for today my friends, but I'll be back tomorrow for another Christmas comic book review. So until then have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Invincible Episodes 1-3 (2021) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone! How were your weekends? Mine was pretty great. Busy, but great. So I went to my sister's for dinner on Saturday night to celebrate my birthday, which was yesterday, and while I was there we watched the first three episodes of Invincible, a show that I've been wanting to watch since it dropped on Amazon Prime almost two years ago. Being that I don't have Prime, I wasn't able to watch it as it was coming out. And since we only got through the first three episodes of the series, that's what I'm going to be reviewing today. I'm not gonna have a whole ton of spoilers in this review, just so those of you who are interested in watching the show, but haven't yet, can still see what I thought of these first three episodes. So let's get into it.

Based on the comic book series created by Robert Kirkman, who is well known as the creator of The Walking Dead, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley, and ran from 2003 to 2018, Invincible is an animated series that was also created by Robert Kirkman. It's so good!!!

Over the last few years I've been building up my Invincible comic book collection by picking up the trade paperback collected editions, but since I don't have all of it yet, I've only read the first eight issues of the comic, which are collected in volumes 1 and 2 of the original regular sized trades. So when I heard that an animated series was going to be coming out, I was intrigued. But because it's on Prime, and I don't have Prime, I couldn't watch it. Which sucks because it's really good. The show, like the comic is about Mark Grayson, whose father is a superhero named Omni-Man, who is also from another planet, and because Mark is half alien, he also develops superpowers and becomes Invincible. There's also the high school aspect and the usual teen superhero stuff that we all know and love. 

The visual style for this show is very reminiscient of the late '90s-early 2000s superhero animated shows like Batman Beyond and X-Men: Evolution. It's bright, almost cheerful in a way, and very clean looking even when there's gore all over the place. Yes there is alot of gore in this show, but that's because it's in the comic. And of course it's Robert Kirkman, who created The Walking Dead, so it would be weird if there wasn't alot of gore. And I think that's why I was okay with it in this show when I'm not big on a ton of violence and gore in my superhero shows and movies. Because I've read the first eight issues of the comic, I'm used to it and so I was prepared for it in the show. Plus the comic, and by extension the show, knows where to use the gore and where not to use it. And it never gets super extreme like it might in something like The Boys or Kick-Ass. 

The cast for this show is amazing. You have Steven Yeun as Mark Grayson/Invincible, Sandra Oh as his mother, Debbie, and J.K. Simmons as his father, Nolan/Omni-Man for the main cast. But then you have Seth Rogen as Allen the Alien, Mark Hamill as Art Rosenbaum (the show and comic's version of Edna from The Incredibles), Zazie Beetz as Mark's girlfriend, Amber Bennett, Zachary Quinto as Robot (the leader of the Teen Team, the Teen Titans analogue), Gillian Jacobs as Eve Wilkins/Atom Eve, Walton Goggins as Cecil Stedman, director of the Global Defense Agency, and so many other animated voice actors such as Clancy Brown. Basically it's a Who's Who of performers, not just from animation, but from live action TV and movies as well. I'm not familiar with Steven Yeun, but basically everyone else I've either heard of or seen in movies or on TV over the years.

Like every other adaptation of comic books or novels, some things are switched around or removed entirely. Like in the comic Amber isn't introduced until her cameo in issue #8 and then it's probably either issue #9 or issue #10 when she makes her first full appearance, but on the show she's introduced in the very first episode. Which is interesting. And the entire plot from the first four issues of the comic, involving Mark and Eve's teacher turning kids into biological bombs, targeting shopping malls, is completely removed in favour of focusing more on Omni-Man and his and Debbie's relationship with Mark, as well as a focus on the Guardians of the Globe (Kirkman's version of the Justice League). Which, in a way streamlines it a little bit since they only have eight episodes to tell the first season's story in, but it also doesn't give much for the Teen Team to do before things really start happening in episode 2.

There also seems to be more of a focus on the teen drama elements as well, which are in the comic, but they're very much between Mark, William, Eve, and Amber once the whole teacher stuff is dealt with in issue #4. On the show it's much more broad and more similar to what we've seen in the first Spider-Man movie as well as in comics like Robin (1994-2009) and the X-Men comics.

Also, the Mauler Twins, who are the first bad guys that Mark fights in the comic prior to getting his Invincible costume, are introduced in the first scene of episode 1, during an attack on the White House, which Omni-Man and the Guardians of the Globe stop. In the comic, Mark catches them stealing game boxes from a toy store the first night he practices flying in issue #2. They appear again in episode 3 of the show.

Overall these are an amazing introduction to the show. Particularly for those who have never read the comic, which is probably a good majority of the audience watching the show. I had so much fun watching these episodes, and I think my sister and her partner enjoyed them too. I'm looking forward to the next time I'm able to watch the show again. It's definitely not for everyone though, so if this kind of show isn't your thing, that's okay. But for those of us who love this kind of thing, yeah, I definitely recommend watching Invincible. 

Alright my friends that's going to be it for me for today, but I will be back tomorrow for another Christmas special review. Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Willow Episode 1 "The Gales" and Episode 2 "The High Aldwin" (2022) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Thursday. Today I'm going to be talking about the first two episodes of the new Disney+ series, Willow, which is a follow-up to the 1988 film created by George Lucas, even before Star Wars had come out, and directed by Ron Howard. There might be some spoilers but I'm going to do my best to be spoiler free in this review. In case I end up not being spoiler free, if you're interested in this show, go watch these first two episodes, before reading this review. With that out of the way, let's get into it.

Despite his name being the title of the show, Willow Ufgood, played by the always wonderful Warwick Davis, is not the focus of Willow. In fact he doesn't even appear until the end of the first episode, outside of flashbacks to the movie. And that's okay with me because it's more of an ensemble cast than the movie was. Which is great. 

Many years after the events of the movie, Willow has become the High Aldwin of the Nelwyn people, like the old man we saw at the beginning of the movie. Meanwhile in Tir Asleen, Sorsha (Joanne Whalley) is now the Queen and is raising two children, Princess Kit (played by Ruby Cruz), and Prince Airk (played by Dempsey Bryk), as well as continuing to look over Elora Danan, who is now grown up. When dark forces enter the realm once again, Kit, her friend/love interest, Jade (played by Erin Kellyman), a thief and Madmartigan stand-in, Boorman (played by Amar Chadha-Patel), and Prince Graydon (played by Tony Revolori) must find Willow and ask for his help in the fight against a force so powerful that even Elora might not be able to stop it.

I loved these first two episodes. Unlike the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, and every Star Wars show and movie after that, Willow doesn't just throw things at you, asking, "Remember this from the movie? Remember that from the movie? Huh huh?". No, it's a true sequel. Willow is there, but Sorsha takes a backseat and the show is truly focused on Elora, Kit, Airk, and Jade. The creative team behind this series, which I will get into a little bit later, allowed the new characters to really shine, even after Willow showed up at the end of Episode 1. Whereas once Han and Chewie showed up in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) the focus immediately shifted from Rey and Finn to Han and Chewie and more elements from the Original Trilogy (1977-1983), which is why The Force Awakens is considered to be a carbon copy of Star Wars (1977). Which I appreciate so much because Willow, Sorsha, and Madmartigan had their story in the original movie, and it's time to let the younger characters take over and drive the story.

The cast on this show is amazing. You have Warwick Davis and Joanne Whalley reprising their roles as Willow and Sorsha respectively, you have newcomer Ruby Cruz as Kit, Ellie Bamber as a character named Dove, Airk's love interest, you have Tony Revolori, who played Flash Thompson in all three MCU Spider-Man movies as Prince Graydon, and Erin Kellyman, who really did a wonderful job in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) as Enfys Nest, and as Karli Morgenthau in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021). There are many others as well, too many to list them all.

I actually really love that the princess has to save the prince from the bad guys this time around. I'm not sure I'd be okay with another princess gets kidnapped by evil forces and the prince, be it brother or love interest, needing to go rescue her plot. Especially because this series, so far, is the quintessential, typical Fantasy Adventure story of a fellowship going on a quest in order to stop the forces of evil from destroying or taking over the kingdom. 

In my review of the movie that I did on the Review Basement two years ago, just after Disney and Lucasfilm announced this series, I said that Willow (1988) was a mix of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, with slightly more focus on the Lord of the Rings elements. Well, these first two episodes are even more like The Lord of the Rings and I'm pretty sure they made some subtle references to The Lord of the Rings in the episodes, which is kinda weird, but hey you gotta do what you gotta do I guess.

There was alot more humour in these first two episodes than I remember there being in the movie too. Yet, it didn't undermine the darker, more intense, moments at all. In fact this show strikes a fairly decent balance between lighthearted and funny, and serious, dramatic moments, which I really appreciate because I prefer a balance between the two sides in the shows and movies that I watch...and the books and comics that I read. 

The characters are great though if I had to pick a favourite it would have to be a tie between Dove (played by Ellie Bamber) and Prince Graydon. As I said before, Tony Revolori was fantastic as Flash Thompson in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and he's a similar kind of character in this show. I've never seen Ellie Bamber in anything else, but apparently she plays Clara's sister in The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018). She's great here and Dove is such a fantastic character, though there's more to her than meets the eye and there's a reveal about her at the end of episode 1 that I kind of guessed at earlier in the episode, but wasn't entirely sure it was what I thought it was until the end of the episode. It's just she wasn't a huge focus of the first episode, it was mostly because Kit, Airk, and Jade and Dove just happened to be associated with Airk.

The creative team on this show are Ron Howard, Jonathan Kasdan, and Wendy Mericle, with Jonathan and Wendy acting as showrunners. Of course Ron Howard is legendary and directed the original movie this show is a sequel to, so seeing his name still attached to the show is awesome. I'm not super familiar with Jonathan Kasdan, but he's the son of Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Return of the Jedi (1983), and The Force Awakens for Lucasfilm and is a director in his own right. Jonathan's writing credits include Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000), Dawson's Creek (1998-2003) with Jonathan writing for the show from 2000 to 2002, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and the upcoming fifth Indiana Jones movie (2023), which doesn't have a title yet. Wendy Mericle is probably best known for, and is what I'm most familiar with of her work, being one of the showrunners for Arrow (2012-2020) from season 3 to season 6, alongside Marc Guggenheim. 

As I said before, I loved these first two episodes, but I do have some concerns. The biggest one being that it's an eight episode season on Disney+. As we know from most of the MCU and Star Wars Disney+ shows is that sometimes eight episodes isn't enough to tell the kinds of stories these creators really excel at telling be it in movies or on Television, especially because of how epic the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars have to be as franchises that began in movie theatres. 

The advantages that Willow has over the other two franchises is that, A) there isn't the pressure to be big and bombastic as the other two franchises feel like they have to be to be successful, because there's only one movie and a handful of ancilliary material including three video games based on the movie, and a trilogy of sequel novels written by comic book legend, Chris Claremont, which were published between 1995 and 2000, and B) it's a High Fantasy Adventure series coming off the heels of Game of Thrones (2011-2019), House of the Dragon (2022-), The Legend of Vox Machina (2022-), and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022-). So I don't think it's going to run into the same story problems that the MCU and Star Wars Disney+ shows have. And eight episodes will probably be enough.

The other concern I have has to do with the music selection for the closing credits. The music in the show is fine, it was done by James Newton Howard, and is very reminiscient of James Horner's original score for the movie. But they use modern day songs for the end credits and it doesn't fit with the tone of the show, the way it did for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) and Ms. Marvel (2022), or any show set in modern day rather than a Fantasy setting. So hopefully they either stop doing that after episode 2, or they just contain it to the closing credits.

One more thing I like about the show is that every episode seems to open with the classic fairytale storybook opening that Disney animated movies have done anytime it's a movie based off a fairytale. And each episode has Chapter and then the number of the episode above the name of the book before slipping into the episode itself. Which is pretty cool. 

Overall I had such a good time and if you're into Fantasy I highly recommend you check out these first two episodes. It's so much fun and like I said, the humour doesn't undermine the more intense, serious moments, which doesn't always happen with these types of shows. So definitely check it out if you have the chance.

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

Star Trek: The Next Generation #2 (1988) Christmas Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I'm back for another comic book review. Today's comic is going to be Star Trek: The Next Generation #2 from 1988, the only Star Trek comic to be Christmas themed. So without further ado, let's see how Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D deals with the Grinches, and no, that's not a joke. Let's get into it, with Spoilers!

Following the events of issue #1, the Enterprise-D is enroute to Starbase 33 for maintenance when they're waylaid by a ship crewed by an unknown race of beings. At the same time the crew is celebrating Christmas with Picard, Troi, Yar, the Crushers, the Bickleys (I'll get to them later), and La Forge joining in on the celebrations while Riker and Worf remain on the Bridge to handle things with the new race they just encountered. But things take a turn for the worst when a strange phenomenon is discovered aboard the Federation flagship and reveals just who the crew's new alien friends truly are.

Wow, I actually did a summary of the issue. Lol. As I mentioned in part 4 of my DC Comics's Star Trek Overview, the first six issue mini-series published for TNG in 1988 is the weirdest series of them all. Mainly because Mike Carlin, who was the writer on all six issues of the mini-series, did stuff that no other Star Trek comic would ever do, akin to what Gold Key Comics did with their TOS series in the '60s. Though I don't think the Gold Key TOS comics ever had the crew of the Enterprise meet a race of Grinches at Christmastime. They would definitely have a couple like the Bickleys in the series though.

Wesley Crusher is actually annoying in this comic book series, though he isn't AS annoying in this issue. As I mentioned in my series overview, these issues were written several months before the TV show even aired and all Carlin had to go on was the scripts for the first five or six episodes. Because of this the characters, while they look like their TV show counterparts, they don't act like them. That includes Data, who acts more like a child or someone who doesn't fit in with their peers. And that just makes Wesley more unbearable than the way Wil Wheaton portrayed the character after "Encounter at Farpoint" and "The Naked Now", which are the only two episodes where Wesley is annoying in the show. 

The artwork is decent, though I'm not sure about the crew's off-duty outfits. Troi's dress is the only one that makes sense. Picard's jacket doesn't and neither do Beverly Crusher's, Yar's, or Data's. Wesley and La Forge's still feel like how many creators portrayed futuristic clothing to be at the time this issue was published. It actually reminds me of Kryptonian clothing shown in the Superman comics from the '50s, right up to when John Byrne revamped Krypton and the Kryptonians in Superman: The Man of Steel #1 in 1986, only a year before this issue was published. 

I also find it interesting that the issue is titled "Spirit in the Sky!". I don't know if Carlin, or series editor Robert Greenberger, named it after the 1969/1970 Norman Greenbaum song, "Spirit in the Sky". Mostly because Carlin doesn't even mention in his 2007 interview with Star Trek Magazine whether it was him or Greenberger who came up with the names for the issues. It's also something that I don't know if other comic book writers have talked about either. Like is it the writers who comes up with the titles for the issues, or is it up to Editorial to come up with them?

Overall this is an okay issue. These early TNG comic book issues are pretty weird and aren't the greatest. It's not the fault of Carlin, the artists or the editor. They were rushed into production and all they had to go on was production stills, which is why Picard and the rest of the main characters still look the way they would on the TV show, and scripts for the early episodes of the first season since "Encounter at Farpoint" hadn't even aired yet when Carlin began writing the comics. With Eaglemoss having gone under I don't know how easy it's going to be to get this issue. I was lucky because I was able to get the trade paperback collection of the mini-series, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Beginnings, that DC published in 1996, but it's not in print anymore, and I think even IDW's reprint of the trade is out of print now since it was published in 2013. But you might find this issue or either of the trade paperback collections of the whole series at conventions.

That's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for my review of the first two episodes of Willow, a Disney+ series that serves as a sequel/follow-up to the 1988 Ron Howard film of the same name, starring Warwick Davis as the titular character. So until then have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Barney & The Backyard Gang: Waiting for Santa (1990) Christmas Special Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. My birthday is this weekend so I'm looking forward to that, and it's a little less than four weeks until Christmas. Which means it's time for Christmas themed reviews, which I started last week with my review for The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. I'm gonna have comic book reviews that are Christmas themed, more than I did last year, and I'll have one Christmas movie review up closer to the day. Today though I'm going to review Barney & The Backyard Gang: Waiting for Santa which was released on VHS on May 11th, 1990, so nowhere near Christmastime. It's also the best-selling Barney tape ever, probably because it was the only Barney Christmas special until Barney's Night Before Christmas was released in 1999. There isn't a whole lot to talk about so there will be spoilers in case you didn't grow up with this tape. Let's get into it!

 While The Backyard Show (1988), Three Wishes (1988), and A Day at the Beach (1989) sold relatively well the original releases of the tapes, and their earliest re-releases most likely, were mainly sold in Texas, where the show was in production. And with Barney & The Backyard Gang actually being a separate license from the one for Barney & Friends and other Barney releases, unless you grew up with these tapes, you might not even be aware that this set of eight VHS tapes even exists. Waiting for Santa was the first tape to be released knowing that there was an audience for Barney outside of Texas. It's also the first tape where Barney is a magenta colour rather than the darker purple that he was in the first three tapes of the series. 

Barney and the kids, Amy, Luci, Tina, Adam, and Michael are asked by Santa to help the new kid at Tina's school, Derek, by taking him to the North Pole so that Mrs. Claus can show him that Santa knows that Derek has moved recently. While there the kids meet a snowman, who could've been Frosty had the Lyons Group, the company who owned Barney at the time, had the license to that character, and they pretend to be Elves and sing and dance, while Mrs. Claus and Barney remind them of what Christmas is all about. Then they all go home and Barney, Michael, and Amy fall asleep on the couch, while Barney reads The Night Before Christmas to the kids and Santa shows up. As you can see, not much happens in it.

As mentioned Waiting for Santa was a first for alot of things that would appear later on in Barney & Friends. It was the introduction of Derek, the first time Barney is a magenta colour, though the costume doesn't quite match up with how the character looks in Barney & Friends or on the cover of the 1993 to 1998 re-releases of Waiting for Santa (as you can see above), it's also the first time that the show doesn't revolve around the kids playing in Amy and Michael's backyard prior to Barney coming to life/appearing, the first time Barney does his "Barney Shake" trick, though he only uses it two more times, both in the The Backyard Gang series, and the first time Sandy Duncan doesn't appear as Amy and Michael's mom as she was a big part of the reason the first three tapes got made since she was a pretty big TV star at the time and had voiced Todd's girlfriend in The Fox and the Hound (1981). 

Rewatching it last night for this review, I noticed that, aside from shots of Barney's flying sleigh from the front as the gang are heading to and from the North Pole, which had clearly been shot in front of a green screen, this tape is the one that has the highest production quality to it though I don't think the budget was increased for it, given that it was a low budget, independent, production. Aside from Barney in Concert (1991) and Rock with Barney (1991), you know that the kids and Barney are on a soundstage somewhere because the sets look like they were produced for a stage production rather than a TV show or movie and that the backgrounds are backdrops. Particularly during outdoor scenes (and that goes all the way through the first six seasons of Barney & Friends too). But here, except maybe for the outdoor scenes at the North Pole, it doesn't feel like it was filmed on a soundstage, and I think that's because alot more happens on interior sets, like Amy and Michael's living room, Derek's bedroom, and Santa's Workshop than on exterior sets. I mean even Amy and Michael's garage in The Backyard Show looks like it was built for a stage production rather than for a movie or TV show. 

This is also the first episode in the series, where the five remaining kids from the previous three tapes, Michael, Amy, Adam, Luci, and Tina are all starting to look and sound older in comparison to how they were in the first three tapes, which is interesting considering this tape, along with the next one, Barney's Campfire Sing-Along, was produced in November of 1989.

I actually wanted to talk about the production date for a moment. A long time ago, when I did my Disney Sing-Along Songs: Disneyland Fun (1990) review, I stated that there was probably six months to a year before the tape's release date that the show was filmed. So everything filmed for Disneyland Fun was probably taped in either late 1989 or early 1990 as that tape's release date was August 14th, 1990. The production date for Waiting for Santa confirms this in a strange way as it was produced in November, 1989 and was released in May, 1990. So that kinda gives me a good idea of the turnaround between the filming of Disneyland Fun and it's release on VHS. Which is why I wanted to bring it up in this review. 

The acting is decent for a show made for kids. One of the reasons my siblings and I loved the Backyard Gang tapes and the first two seasons of Barney & Friends is because of the kid characters. They were all pretty relatable, even though they were actually older than any of us were at the time. In this episode though, Derek was the most relatable because we moved several times between 1991 and 1997 and each time I was concerned that Santa wouldn't be able to find us because we'd moved. And of course Barney, played by David Voss and voiced by Bob West, is fantastic as well. This is the in between stage version of Barney where he isn't the original Barney & The Backyard Gang Barney with the dark purple colouring and the much deeper voice, nor is he the Barney & Friends Barney with the more iconic voice. He's like a mix of the two, with a slightly deeper voice, but with the magenta colouring for the suit. 

The songs on this tape are pretty good too. Only four of them would appear in episodes of Barney & Friends or other Barney Home Video releases right into the 2010s. Those songs are "Jingle Bells", "Winter's Wonderful", "Skating, Skating", and "Jolly Old St. Nicholas". The rest of the songs sung in this episode are only used in this episode and then were never used again.

Waiting for Santa is actually the last Backyard Gang tape that my siblings and I got when we were kids. I think we got it for Christmas in either 1993 or 1994 from the grandparents as I know it was the 1993 re-release (the cover is shown above) rather than a later re-release, I just don't remember when we got it exactly. It was way after we'd gotten the 1992 re-releases of The Backyard Show and Rock with Barney, the only other Barney & The Backyard Gang tapes that we owned, though we rented and borrowed all but one of the remaining five tapes in the series. But I think I'll do a separate VHS Corner post about Barney & The Backyard Gang as a whole, and the various VHS releases the series had the late '80s and throughout the '90s.

Overall this is a great Christmas special for little kids, and for those who grew up with Barney, whether you watched the Backyard Gang tapes as they were coming out, discovered Barney with season 1 of Barney & Friends, watched the final two seasons of Barney & Friends in 2009 and 2010, or only know the character through the Barney Home Video DVD releases that came out in the 2010s, after the TV series ended in 2010. Because Lyrick Studios let the license for Barney & The Backyard Gang go in 1997, and only Waiting for Santa and Barney in Concert would get re-released after that, Waiting for Santa in 1998 and Barney in Concert in 2001, kids who watched Barney in the 2000s and the 2010s wouldn't know about The Backyard Gang especially once Barney videos stopped being released on VHS in 2006 as none of the Backyard Gang videos ever got released on DVD. I'll get into that more when I talk about Barney & The Backyard Gang as a whole in a VHS Corner post sometime in the near future. 

Waiting for Santa is on YouTube if you have kids who might like to watch an early version of Barney, or if you loved Barney growing up and either would like to revisit this early episode, or see what Barney was like when he first started if you're someone who is younger and grew up with Barney after 2001. I recommend it as a fun Christmas special.

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today. I will be back tomorrow for a comic book review. Not quite sure which comic yet, but it'll be a Christmas related issue for sure. I don't have a ton of those, so we'll see. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.     

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022) TV Review

 Hey everyone! How're you all doing today? I'm hanging in there. I got some news about a good friend of mine a few hours ago. He had a stroke this afternoon and is in the hospital. A friend of his let me know, and will keep me updated as he finds out more. In the meantime I'm here to review The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which just came out on Disney+. There won't be any spoilers in this review, so if you haven't seen it yet, you can still read this. Let's get into it.

When Guardians of the Galaxy first came out back in 2014 I didn't believe that it could work as a live action movie set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe which had only blown up in popularity two years earlier with the release of the first Avengers movie. Comic book fans, at least those who were aware of the Guardians of the Galaxy, felt that the movie was a huge risk since these characters weren't widely known, even in the comic book community, and it being a purely Science Fiction film at a time where that genre wasn't doing great, and even Star Wars had just popped back into mainstream culture with the hype of the then upcoming Sequel Trilogy and accompanying one-off A Star Wars Story films. But it worked, and I loved it when I saw it in theatres. And while I wasn't as happy with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) when I finally got the chance to watch it, when The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special was announced back in 2020 I was excited. Especially because the possibility of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 had only just been confirmed after James Gunn had been fired by Disney only a year or two before.

It was fun. Basically Mantis (played by Pom Klementieff) and Drax (played by Dave Bautista) decide to save Christmas for Peter Quill (played by Chris Pratt) after hearing Kraglin (played by Sean Gunn) tell the story of how Yondu (played by Michael Rooker) shot down Christmas when Quill was a kid, not long after the Ravagers had taken him from Earth, as we saw in the opening of the first movie. To do so they go to Earth to kidnap Kevin Bacon and bring him to Knowhere as a present for Quill.

Groot (Vin Diesel), Nebula (Karen Gillan), and Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) all appear in this special though their rolls are very minimal here in comparison to the previous two movies, and Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Which is fine because it's a 44 minute special rather than a two to three hour movie, but I do have a question about Groot. Why does he look like a guy in a suit rather than the CGI being that he's been throughout the rest of the MCU? Rocket and Cosmo the Space Dog are both CGI, but Groot isn't, unless they redesigned him for this special to make him look like he was a guy in a suit. 

I found Drax to be more annoying in this special than he was in the second movie though I did love the way Bautista portrayed that. It's just the character is annoying now that his revenge plot against Thanos is over since Thanos was killed in Endgame. And yes, that was a spoiler for Avengers: Endgame, but it's been almost four years since that movie came out, so if you haven't seen it yet, it's your decision. Bautista still does a great job playing him though.

I was really glad to see Mantis get the spotlight in this special since she really hasn't had a whole lot to do in the last three movies she was in. I'm not familiar with the character from the comic, but I found the character lacking in the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie and the two Avengers movies she was in. So I'm happy that she had more to do here because I thought she was cool but without a whole lot to do in her previous appearances.

Overall this was a fun special. I've heard some people say that this felt like the signal to end the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, but honestly, I thought it did a great job of setting the characters up for the third movie. Better than Endgame did anyway. If you're looking for a fun Holiday special to watch, I definitely recommend this one. Even if you aren't generally a fan of James Gunn's work. 

That's it for me for today folks. I'll be back soon with another review. Until then I will talk to you all later. Take care my friends.  

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures #1 (2022) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Thursday. Today I'm here to review a comic that I got during my last outing with Brad, but it's not Thunderbolts #2. It's another issue #1, this time from IDW Publishing. It's the first issue of a series that I didn't even realize had come out until I saw it on the month old rack for IDW comics at my local comic book store. It's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures #1. There won't be too many spoilers but there will be some, so if you haven't read the issue and are planning on doing so, please read it first and then read this review. With that out of the way, let's get into it.

When I was a kid there was a comic book series that was loosely based on the 1987 Ninja Turtles cartoon published by Archie Comics called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, which is one of my favourite comic book series of all time, though it did diverge from the cartoon after the first nine or ten issues. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Saturday Morning Adventures feels like a spiritual successor to the original Archie Comics run from the late '80s and early to mid '90s. I say spiritual successor because this issue seems to stick closer to the character and set designs from the cartoon rather than the designs used in the Archie Comics series. Particularly for the Turtles, Splinter, and April. The villains weren't altered any from their cartoon counterparts. 

In this issue there's heavy rain in New York City, preventing the Turtles from going out on patrol. Which is very strange to me because I'm pretty sure the Turtles have been out in the rain in the cartoon this comic is based on, so why they couldn't go out even though there was heavy wind and lightning as well as the rain, but, that's the conceit of this issue so I'm going with it. As a tool to help them with their training, Donatello has created a VR video game that, naturally, goes haywire during a power surge, so the Turtles are stuck in the game until one of them wins it. I won't say which Turtle wins the game, but it's not Raphael. 

While I was reading this issue, both times, I imagined I could hear the voice cast for the Turtles, Splinter, Shredder (he's in the VR simulator), and April (she appears at the very end) because that's how close to their cartoon versions these characters look. It's also the tone of the book too. I mean this could literally be an episode of the 1987 cartoon from season 2 or season 3 without it being an actual adaptation of an episode of the series. Which is pretty good.

Erik Burnham is the writer of this issue and Tim Lattie is the artist. I'm not familiar with either of their work, but they did a really good job at capturing the essence of what the 1987 cartoon was. Though I am a little confused about something. Did they update the series to be set in modern day or is it still set in the '80s and/or '90s? The reason I'm asking is because Donatello built a VR system and mentioned that it's more advanced than other VR systems out there, but the TV set they have is the same one they have on the show, the VR set itself looks like a really big computer station or arcade cabinet, and the video game box that we see at the end of the issue looks like a game released for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. It doesn't really matter because the ridiculousness of the original cartoon works no matter what decade the comic book is set in, I was just curious because all Wikipedia says is that it's a four issue mini-series by Burnham and Lattie and that's it. 

I really enjoyed this issue as it brought back the feeling I have reading the original Archie Comics series from the '90s. And of course it reminds me of how much fun I had watching the 1987 cartoon when I was a kid. It's cheesy, it's stupid, it's fun and I loved it. If you're a fan of the 1987 cartoon or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures I recommend picking this issue up as well as issue #2, as it's also out by now.

That's gonna be it for me for today folks. I'll be back soon for another review. Also, I left Twitter recently and my last post didn't do very well, only getting three views in the last 24 to 48 hours, so if you could share this review with others I would very much appreciate it. Particularly because the higher views does give me the incentive to continue with my Power Rangers review series as well as posts like my overview on the DC Comics Star Trek comic book series and as much as I love doing those kinds of blog posts, they do take quite a bit of time to do and if nobody's reading them then there's no point in me doing those kinds of posts anymore. Thanks. Anyways, that's it for today. Have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Was Animorphs Influenced by the Success of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers?

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I have another off the wall kind of post for you today. I'm going to be talking about whether or not Animorphs was influenced by the success of the Power Rangers (1993-Present) franchise, specifically Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993-1995). So let's get into it.

Power Rangers and Animorphs are two of my favourite media franchises of all time. Both came out in the late '90s to early 2000s and both were hugely successful for their respective mediums. However the popularity of them never reached what the MCU accomplished in 2012 following the release of The Avengers. Today, while both franchises are still popular with their respective fanbases, mainstream pop culture has left them behind. But, did Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and its success have anything to do with the creation of Animorphs only three years later? First, let's take a look at each series and see what they have in common with each other.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was a TV series created by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy that ran on Fox Kids in the United States, and on YTV and Global TV in Canada, from August 28th, 1993 to November 27th, 1995 that blew up into this multimedia, multi-season, franchise about five teenagers who get the ability to change their form from a friendly alien in order to save the world from not so friendly aliens, with multiple members joining the team later on. The franchise also had...

...a book series...

...a comic book series...

...a movie...

...a toyline...

...episodes on VHS, and...

...video games.

Animorphs is a book series created by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant, which was published by Scholastic from June 1996 to May 2001. It's about five teenagers who are given super powers by a friendly alien in order to save the world from not so friendly aliens, with multiple members joining the team later on. This franchise has...

...a TV series that aired on Nickelodeon in the United States and on both YTV and Global here in Canada...

...a comic book series...

...a movie (it's in the works)...

...a toyline...

...episodes on VHS, and...

...video games. Sound familiar? Because those are the only similarities between the two franchises, aside from both being staples of the '90s and early 2000s. While Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and Power Rangers as a whole, is a straight up superhero series, Animorphs is not. Animorphs is a teen/war drama series that gets extremely dark with varying shades of gray rather than the straight up good vs. evil that Power Rangers does. 

I am highly doubtful that Animorphs was influenced by Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in any way simply because Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant's first child, Jake, wasn't born yet when they started developing Animorphs in 1995. And while Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was at the height of it's popularity in early 1995, it was still vastly popular with children, not with adults, and both Katherine and Michael were entering their 40s when Animorphs was in development. It's possible that Scholastic may have been looking for a book series that fills the spot that MMPR was filling on television, but that's not what they got from Katherine and Michael. In fact they got an amazing Sci-Fi series that they found difficult to market. Which makes sense because Animorphs is not your typical Scholastic published children's book series.

Now the only way I could see Power Rangers influencing Animorphs at all is in the live action TV series that aired on Nickelodeon, Global TV, and YTV from 1998-2000. The TV show, which had a smaller budget than Power Rangers has ever had, removed much of the darker elements of the books, including the morally gray aspects of the characters. In the TV show, the characters are very black and white. Visser Three and the Yeerks are the bad guys, the Animorphs and the Andalites are the good guys. And Visser Three is more like Rita and Zedd in the TV show version too. And while I can see Nickelodeon wanting a piece of the Power Rangers pie, the TV version of Animorphs was in development in 1997, during Power Rangers Turbo and at a time where Power Rangers was under threat of cancellation due to ratings being so low. Plus, as we saw in my last Power Rangers review, Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997) was a box office failure, so I doubt that Nickelodeon was looking for a show that was like Power Rangers whenever they chose to produce the Animorphs TV show.

Also, by the time Animorphs premiered on September 4th 1998 in the U.S. and September 15th here in Canada, Power Rangers In Space wasn't even halfway through it's original run yet, so I don't think the decision to renew the series for a seventh season had been made by Fox Kids yet. Despite Power Rangers and Animorphs sharing certain elements, such as both being about teenagers using super powers to save the world from an alien invasion force, and the way both had books, TV shows, comics, toys, home video releases, and video games, the authors of Animorphs didn't have Power Rangers in mind when they created the series, and Power Rangers wasn't popular enough for it to have the influence it once had by the time the Animorphs TV show was in production.

That's all I have to say about that. It's something that's been on my mind for the last couple of days as Power Rangers has been on my mind between me having watched up to the first five episodes of Turbo over the last couple of months, and the passing of Jason David Frank over the weekend. And Animorphs has been on my mind lately too. So naturally, I came up with this blog post. 

That's it for me for today but I'll probably be back tomorrow for a comic book review. Maybe issue #2 of Thunderbolts, maybe something else. We'll see. Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care my friends.