Star Trek: The Next Generation S01E01, "Encounter at Farpoint" (1987) TV Episode Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. So when I planned out this series, going over all of the pilot episodes from the classic Star Trek shows (1966-1969, 1973-1974, and 1987-2005) as well as revisiting the first episode of Strange New Worlds, I completely forgot that the anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation was coming up this week. It was on Thursday, and this week just happens to be the week that I'd be reviewing that premiere episode, "Encounter at Farpoint". So here we are, talking about Star Trek: The Next Generation and its pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint". Let's get into it!

 After the success Paramount had had with the Star Trek feature films in the '80s, they decided that it was a good time to bring the franchise back to television. But with William Shatner and the cast of TOS now being too expensive for a weekly TV series, and deciding not to recast the iconic characters for the new series, Paramount went with a series set about 100 years after the events of TOS. With original series creator, Gene Roddenberry, back at the helm, the new concept became Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Unlike with TOS, where the main characters were very clearly Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, TNG has a more ensemble cast, with each character getting episodes focused on them. Except for Tasha Yar in season 1, though she would get a few episodes dedicated to the effects her death had on other characters in later seasons. Mostly Data and Worf being that they were the characters most affected by Tasha's death. But that has nothing to do with this episode. I've talked about "Encounter at Farpoint" alot on this blog, and on various blogs that I've run over the past almost nine years, none of which exist anymore. So, I won't say much more about it. However there are a few things that I'd like to point out about it that I noticed upon my billionth rewatch last night. 

The first is that Riker spends nearly half the episode looking for Data. Why? I mean, even in TOS they had commpanels to contact crew members on from anywhere on the ship. So why did Riker spend so much time looking for Data? From a real world perspective, it was something that either Roddenberry or D.C. Fontana put into the script to pad it out a bit so they could get to that 2 hour limit, but from an in universe perspective, it doesn't make any sense unless Data wasn't answering his communicator, but if that were the case, if I were Riker, I'd be sending Yar and a security team to look for Data, not doing it myself. But, I'm not Riker. From a real world perspective, it's an interesting way for Riker to meet both Worf and Data considering how close he's going to be to both characters in the future.

Also, I find it interesting that after the Enterprise has reconnected its saucer section to the stardrive section, Picard, Data, Yar, and Troi don't return to the Bridge. Picard just leaves Worf in command until Riker arrives on the Bridge, which he apparently doesn't do right away because he's off looking for Data after talking to Picard in the Observation Lounge. Worf is just in command for a good chunk of the episode. 

"Encounter at Farpoint" is my most watched Star Trek pilot episode. Mainly because it's the episode I've owned multiple times over the years. I've had it on two VHS releases, the Collector's Edition and the retail release, the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Q DVD box set, and the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1 DVD box set. I've also had it digitally. And of course back in the day of VHS, where most shows only had a few episodes on home video, and it was expensive to get all of TNG on VHS, I watched the episodes I had available to me. Which was most of the first season, a few episodes from the second season, two episodes from the third season, and one episode each from seasons 4 and 5. Plus whatever we had recorded off the TV. So the episodes I had were the ones I watched the most of well into the 2000s since I wouldn't get the DVD sets until the early 2010s and it would be another decade before I would get Voyager on DVD. But we'll get to that in two weeks.

As I mentioned in my review of the Collector's Edition VHS release I appreciate the slower pace of "Encounter at Farpoint" because it gives us time to get to know these characters a little bit, and gives us time to get used to these characters. Especially back in 1987 when fans were so used to Kirk and his crew, having watched their adventures for 21 years at that point. And while we knew alot about Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Scotty, and a little bit about Sulu and Chekov, that happened over the span of 25 years between the TV show and the first six movies, and it wouldn't be until Strange New Worlds that we'd find out anything about Uhura and Nurse Chapel. Whereas with "Encounter at Farpoint", we learned a bit about Picard, a bit about Riker, a bit about Data, a bit about La Forge, a bit about Crusher, a bit about Yar, and a bit about Troi. Worf got nothing in this episode. But he was a last minute addition so they couldn't write much into the script for him without a complete rewrite.

Overall this was a decent beginning to TNG, which would only get better and the seasons went on and spawned an entire era of Star Trek on television, which ended in 2005, and then restarted in 2017 with Discovery, leading to the current era of Star Trek on television. And of all of the Star Trek shows that came out between 1987 and 2005, TNG had the most merchandise, which I will talk more about when I get around to doing either series or season reviews for Star Trek.

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for this week, but I will be back next week with more reviews and other blog posts. So until then have a great rest of your weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

Star Wars: X-Wing: Wedge's Gamble (1996) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I'm back for another Star Wars Legends book review. This week I'm discussing the second novel in the X-Wing series, Wedge's Gamble. Like with my Rogue Squadron review, there will be spoilers in this review, so if you've never read this book before, or if you haven't read it in a really long time, then, if you're interested, please do so before reading this review. Let's get into it.

Before I get into the book itself, I wanna talk about the era of Star Wars that this book was published in. I kind of touched on it a little bit in my Rogue Squadron review, but only to the extent of which other novels had been published before Rogue Squadron came out. This time I want to talk about the novels of this era as a whole, where Star Wars was as a franchise in May of 1996 in general, as well as what novels were published immediately before this, and immediately after this.

May 1996 was an interesting period of time for Star Wars. We were about seven months away from the theatrical release of The Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition, which was starting in January 1997, George Lucas was still developing The Phantom Menace at this point, and they'd just launched the franchise's first multi-media campaign with Shadows of the Empire, which encompassed books, comics, video games, toys, and a soundtrack. This multi-media campaign would only be done two more times in the franchise's history with the Clone Wars multi-media campaign in the early to mid 2000s, and the High Republic multi-media campaign starting in 2021, and will be ending in 2025, which is most likely when the Disney+ series, The Acolyte, comes out. If it doesn't come out next year that is.

Before Wedge's Gamble, the four novels that came out were book 1 in the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy by Michael P. Kube-McDowell, Before the Storm, book 4 in the Young Jedi Knights YA series by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, Lightsabers, book 3 in the Junior Jedi Knights Young Readers series by Nancy Richardson, Promises, and Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry. In fact, Shadows of the Empire came out the day before Wedge's Gamble did. The four books that came out after Wedge's Gamble were book 5 in the Young Jedi Knights series, Darkest Knight, book 2 in the Black Fleet Crisis trilogy, Shield of Lies, book 6 in the Young Jedi Knights series, Jedi Under Siege, and the next book in the X-Wing series, The Krytos Trap, which I'll be reviewing next time.

In the '90s almost every Star Wars novel was written and published in a prequel vacuum. And by that I mean that the prequels wouldn't start coming out until 1999 and George kept an extremely tight lid on plotpoints, characters, ships etc. In fact, George even refused to allow the novels and comics to be set during the prequel era, because all of it would be overwritten by the movies themselves. Tales of the Jedi was allowed to happen because the comic book series was set thousands of years before Episode I, so none of those stories would interfere with the story George was telling in the movies. In fact, the only Star Wars novels to be published after The Phantom Menace was released was the ninth book in the X-Wing series, Starfighters of Adumar, and the last short story compilation, Tales of the New Republic. Everything else was published before the prequels came out. In the case of Wedge's Gamble, and pretty much every novel published before Return of the Jedi: The Special Edition was released in theatres in March 1997, Coruscant is described pretty differently than how it would be shown in the movies and everything going forward.

Wedge's Gamble begins a month after the ending of Rogue Squadron. The Rogues are assigned to Borleias, Bror Jace has been killed, and the Alliance is preparing to take Coruscant from the Empire. The liberation of Coruscant was something hinted at in Rogue Squadron, but it probably surprised people that this is only the second book in the series, and the Alliance is already preparing to take Coruscant. I know it actually surprised me a little bit when I first read this book when I was only eleven, almost twelve. What also surprised me is that Wedge's Gamble isn't just the same space battle scenarios that Rogue Squadron was. Because Ackbar had wanted Wedge to include pilots who had other skills, such as covert operations experience, Rogue Squadron was in the perfect position to go to Coruscant and gather intel on the planet for the Alliance so they could mount their attack on the planet. So the majority of this book takes place on Noquivzor, which is an Alliance base that Rogue Squadron operated out of during the operation on Borleias, and Coruscant, along with a quick trip to Kessel to pick up Black Sun operatives to be used as a distraction for the Imperials on Coruscant.

We actually have a bunch of new characters that we're introduced to in this book. Aril Nunb, a Sullustan pilot who is basically Wedge's second in command given Tycho's situation, Pash Cracken, the son of the head of Alliance Intelligence, Airen Cracken, Asyr Sei'lar, who is a Bothan, Inyri Forge, the sister of Lujayne Forge, one of Rogue Squadron's pilots who was killed in Rogue Squadron, Zekka Thyne, a criminal who is a personal nemesis of Corran Horn, Iella Wessiri, Corran's former partner in CorSec, Fliry Vorru, a former Black Sun executive who was exiled to Kessel by Prince Xizor sometime prior to his death in Shadows of the Empire, and Lieutenant Virar Needa, the cousin of the late Captain Needa, the officer Vader killed in The Empire Strikes Back. We also meet Lujayne and Inyri's parents on Kessel, but they're only in that one chapter.

We also see the Provisional Council including Princess Leia, Mon Mothma, and Borsk Fey'lya. I'll talk more about him when I review the Thrawn Trilogy, but I love Borsk Fey'lya. And by love I mean, I love to hate him. He's like the one politician that has absolutely no reason for being anywhere in the Rebellion other than Bothans died to get the plans for the second Death Star. That's it. And because the Bothans are so smug and prickly when it comes to politics, whenever Borsk shows up it's a toss up whether he's going to piss someone off or get offended by something Leia or Han or Ackbar says. I was actually surprised to find out that Wedge's Gamble is the first appearance of Borsk in the EU since the last book in the Thrawn Trilogy, The Last Command, which was published in 1993. I honestly thought he appeared in Children of the Jedi, Darksaber, and the Corellian Trilogy all published in 1995, but nope he doesn't appear at all. 

We get alot more of Corran's POV in this book since we spend alot more time with him and Erisi than we do Wedge and the rest of the Squadron, due to how they were covertly placed on Coruscant for their original mission of fact finding. While we get more of Wedge in the last few chapters once all the Rogues, along with Asyr, Inyri, Iella, and Mirax, gather for their mission to take down Coruscant's planetary shields. Also, I think we switched to Wedge's POV so that Corran's death isn't seen from Corran's perspective. Well, I say death loosely, because he isn't actually killed. He's captured by Isard when she flees Coruscant to go to her black ops prison facility, Lusankya, which we still don't know very much about at this point. The rest of Rogue Squadron and the Alliance, plus Kirtan Loor, are all led to believe that Corran was killed.

When I first read this back in 1998 I actually didn't pick up on this, but as an adult the way Erisi behaves in this book is actually a clue to her being the Imperial spy in the squadron. I know, that's a spoiler for The Krytos Trap, but it's kinda hard not to mention here, because she acts like an Imperial. Not just on hers and Corran's trip to Coruscant, but even before when Wedge gives them their assignment and she's trying to find out if the rest of the Rogues are going to Coruscant or not. She also tries again with Winter, a character that I'll talk more about in my review of Heir to the Empire, who is Corran and Erisi's contact on Coruscant. There's some of that with Erisi in Rogue Squadron, but the way it's played there it's supposed to be something that both the reader and Mirax dismiss as Erisi just being upset that she can't go with the rest of the squad to Borleias for their final mission there. Here, it's played as weird, but not entirely off-base for Erisi. But having hindsight with having read The Krytos Trap and The Bacta War, and having 25 years to read these books over and over again, it's alot more obvious to me than it was when I first read it back in 1998.

One thing I don't like in this book is Corran's regression by the end of the book. He learns Tycho's backstory in chapter 3 and decides to trust Tycho, even though Wedge is the only one who does fully trust him. Which is fine, but by the end of the book he openly hates Tycho and is ready to reveal him as the spy in Rogue Squadron. And that makes no sense given that, aside from chapter 3, and this part here, Corran and Tycho had absolutely no scenes together, and Wedge's explanation as to why Tycho was on Coruscant when he was declared missing after Warlord Zsinj's attack on Noquivzor, should've been enough to to subdue Corran, even if he thought he'd seen Tycho talking to Loor in a bar on the planet. Corran is usually way more level headed than that. Like, this works as circumstantial evidence against Tycho at the end of the book when he's arrested for murdering Corran, but it doesn't work in relation to Corran himself, given his training as a CorSec officer. 

At some point between 2014 and 2017, Wedge's Gamble was reprinted by Random House. Again, Wookieepedia doesn't give a release date for this edition of the book. I have the original 1996 edition on my shelf, so I can't exactly check it to see when the reprint date is. So I have to assume that it was re-released around the same time as Rogue Squadron. And because I have a few of the Legends reprints of the Bantam era novels of the '90s, and they were published in 2014 or 2015, I think it's safe to say that the re-release of the X-Wing series happened sometime between 2014 and 2015. 

The book was re-published as part of the Essential Legends Collection in 2022. I was actually very surprised to see any books from the X-Wing series get re-published in this line just because, while they're fairly popular among Star Wars fans, I didn't think they were regarded well enough to be included in this line. Especially since the X-Wing series isn't as important, or as relevant, as the Thrawn Trilogy or Kenobi are. I suspect that they were included because of the Rogue Squadron movie that Patty Jenkins was supposed to be making, but with that movie up in the air, it's kind of weird to me to include the series in a collection of essential Legends books.

Overall I love this book. It does suffer from Stackpole's inability to write an ensemble cast properly, but the story is compelling as are the characters we do spend time with here. It's also not my favourite of the four Rogue Squadron books, but I still really enjoy it. Like with Rogue Squadron, I first read this book back in the fall of 1998, when I borrowed it from my friend, Garrett. I was in grade six and about to turn twelve at the time. It still holds up though. And trust me, not every Star Wars novel from this era holds up. 

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for my review of "Encounter at Farpoint", the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which debuted 36 years ago yesterday. So until then, have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

Marvel's Star Trek Overview Part 5: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1997-1998)

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Wednesday. I'm back with the fifth installment in my Marvel Comics Star Trek overview series. This time we're taking a look at Marvel's DS9 comic book series that ran for 15 issues from 1997 to 1998. Like with the last two installments, I haven't read this series before, so I'm not going to have very much to say about it beyond the little bit I've been able to find on Memory Alpha about it. With that out of the way, let's get into it.

The first issue of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was published in January 1997. Well, that was the cover date. The issue was actually published in December of 1996, but cover dates are almost always a month ahead of when the issue is actually published for whatever reason. Unlike the DS9 comic published by Malibu Comics from 1993 to 1995, which took place during the first three seasons of the show, this series takes place during seasons 4 and 5. Which means that not only is Worf in the comics, but at some point they transition from the uniforms introduced in the show's first season, to the ones introduced in the 1996 feature film, Star Trek: First Contact, which were then used starting ten episodes into season 5. 

The writer for this series was Howard Weinstein. Weinstein had been the main writer of the second volume of DC Comics's TOS comic book series from issue 17 to issue 75, occasionally handing writing duties off to another writer for an issue. He's also written several novels from the TOS and TNG novel series by Pocket Books. And, he also wrote an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series in 1974. So his association with the franchise is longer than most novel and comic book writers who have written for the franchise over the years. 

This series brings back some recurring characters from the franchise. Lwaxana Troi, who is the mother of Deanna Troi from TNG, Commander Tomalak, who was a Romulan commander that Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D encountered several times over the course of season 3 of TNG, as well as once in season 4 and again in the series finale at the end of season 7, and Commander Tebok, the first Romulan commander that we met in the season 1 finale of TNG. Which is surprising, since Tebok hasn't been seen in an episode or movie since 1988 when the TNG season 1 finale, "The Neutral Zone", originally aired. And Tomalak hasn't been seen since the TNG series finale, "All Good Things...", originally aired in 1994. And while this series was coming out only three years after that episode aired, it's still surprising to have both of those characters show up in a DS9 comic book series.

As with the other Marvel Star Trek comics that included issues set in the 24th Century, the DS9 series was involved in the "Telepathy War" story arc. Unlike the others though, DS9 had two issues dedicated to the crossover. The first was issue #12. Honestly, I think this crossover was a bit too ambitious for Marvel to be doing with Star Trek comics, especially since Early Voyages and Untold Voyages, both of which I'll be covering in future installments of this overview, both take place during various periods of time in the 23rd Century, this crossover feels like too much of an effort for a comic book line that very few people were reading, and even fewer people even knew about given Marvel's status at the time. Because, don't forget, Marvel was facing bankruptcy at the time the Star Trek comics were coming out.

Issue #13 was the second issue dedicated to the crossover. What strikes me about the DS9 comics in comparison to the other Marvel Star Trek comics, including the original 1980 series, is how busy the covers look. Even compared to modern Star Trek comic book covers. I do like the logo used for the series though. It's bigger than the one used on the TV show, which I also like. 

Like with the Voyager series, the Deep Space Nine comic ended with issue #15. And like with all the series I've covered in this overview, the writers and artists working on this book weren't aware that Marvel was losing the Star Trek license and had prepared a miniseries similar to the Voyager one that I'll be covering in a few weeks. Unfortunately it was canceled before it could be published, and the license moved to WildStorm, which was owned by DC Comics by that point. 

One of the reasons I'm doing this overview is because there's next to no coverage on the Marvel run of Star Trek on the internet. There's some background information on Memory Alpha, but YouTube is devoid of reviews, overviews or retrospectives on this era of Star Trek comic book publishing. There's a little bit on the DC era, but most of the coverage is on the IDW Star Trek comics or on the original Gold Key comics from the '60s, when TOS was in its original TV run. And I think that's because Star Trek comics aren't big sellers and have never been even though DC's run sold enough that it was able to keep going for twelve years, which is the second longest comic book run in Star Trek's history. IDW is the only other publisher to have the license for as long as it has, which is almost 17 years and counting.

That's it for me for today. I'll be back soon with my review of "Encounter at Farpoint", the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Next week I'll have reviews out for season 3 of Only Murders in the Building and for Star Wars: Ahsoka as both shows are airing their finales next week. And, at some point, I'll have a review for the second novel of the Star Wars X-Wing series, Wedge's Gamble. So until then have a great night and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014) Movie Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? Did you all have a good weekend? I had a quiet one compared to last weekend, but it was still pretty good. I'm back with a movie review. I know, it's been a while since I've done one of these. But last night I watched Seth MacFarlane's 2014 film, A Million Ways to Die in the West and I thought that now is a great time to write about it. Especially since we still don't know if The Orville has been renewed for a fourth season or not. There will only be a minor spoiler in this review so I can talk about my favourite scene, so let's get right into it.

Released theatrically on May 30th 2014, A Million Ways to Die in the West, which was Seth MacFarlane's second live action film that he directed, after Ted in 2012, was panned by critics. It also underperformed at the box office due to the fact that it came out the same day as Maleficent, and it was in competition with 2014's other heavy hitters, X-Men: Days of Future Past and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 which had come out only a few weeks earlier. 

Seth MacFarlane is also a very interesting individual. Most of us know him as the creator of Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show. Which are all shows that have been turn-offs for alot of people because of how offensive the humour in those shows can be. The same thing can also be said of his first and third live action feature films, Ted (2012) and Ted 2 (2015). I was one of those people who disliked his work because of how bad Family Guy got with the jokes that went on for too long and the ones that were just really offensive. However, I've come to respect and appreciate him and his work through the time I've spent with it while watching the first three seasons of The Orville, a show that most see as a parody of Star Trek, but is actually so much more than that.

I vaguely remember seeing the TV spots for A Million Ways to Die in the West while I was watching TV, usually Arrow, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Big Bang Theory or How I Met Your Mother. But otherwise I didn't hear anything about the movie since I wasn't watching general movie reviews on YouTube at this point in time. And after doing a search for reviews of the movie on YouTube, I didn't find any beyond four that were really negative. So it's probably just as well that I didn't watch those reviews back in the day because it would've turned me off this movie more than I already was given my perceptions of it due to it being a Seth MacFarlane movie that came out at a time where I had gotten over my initial enjoyment of Family Guy and American Dad and wasn't inclined to check out anything else made by him after having seen Ted the year before this movie came out.

Fast forward to last weekend, I was at a thrift store with Brad and I found this movie on DVD and being that it was cheap, I decided to pick it up being that my tune had changed about Seth and his work due to having watched all three seasons of The Orville, and having watched seasons 1 and 2 all the way through twice. Honestly, I really enjoyed it. Sure, there were some jokes that were...uncomfortable, but unlike with Blazing Saddles (1974), the uncomfortable jokes are meant to highlight the problems that westerns had when they were being made in the '50s and '60s, where the Indigenous people, or "Indians" as they were called back then, were almost always the villains of the westerns of that period. Thankfully that's not the case here, otherwise this would be a very different review.

The cast is pretty great. You have Seth MacFarlane as Albert Stark, a sheep farmer, Liam Neeson as the villain, Clinch Leatherwood, Charlize Theron as Anna, Albert's love interest/Clinch's wife, Amanda Seyfried as Albert's ex-girlfriend, Louise, Neil Patrick Harris as Louise's new boyfriend, Foy, who owns what would be the equivalent of a modern day hair salon, Giovanni Ribisi as Albert's best friend, Edward, and Sarah Silverman as Edward's girlfriend, Ruth. The only performance that I felt wasn't great was Neil Patrick Harris's. Normally he's one of my favourite actors in any movie or TV show I see him in, but Foy felt like a 19th Century version of his character from How I Met Your Mother, Barney Stinson, being that this movie was filmed in the summer of 2013, which was between seasons 8 and 9 of How I Met Your Mother. So it felt like that Neil Patrick Harris was just playing Barney here and that kinda sucked. Especially since Barney's role in that show is extremely problematic. At least in the early seasons of the show. So I ended up not enjoying his performance in this movie as I usually do.

Also, I keep forgetting just how many movies Amanda Seyfried has been in because, while she isn't this huge movie star, she pops up every now and then in a movie that's high profile enough for her to be talked about. Mean Girls (2004) was her film debut, and that's the first movie I ever saw her in, though, until this movie, I haven't seen any of her other movies, as she tends to be in ones that I have no interest in. She's still a good actress though, and I enjoyed her performance in this movie.

My favourite scene in this movie is a very brief one, where Albert is passing a barn and sees flashing light coming from it. He goes to investigate and sees an older man trying to place a tarp over a very recognizable car. Yes my friends, Christopher Lloyd appears as Doc Brown from Back to the Future, with the De Lorean. Being that the Back to the Future Trilogy and this movie were released by Universal Studios, it was easy for MacFarlane to put Doc Brown and the De Lorean in this movie. And because Back to the Future Part III (1990) takes place in 1885, only three years after this movie takes place, it's easy to place this scene during Back to the Future Part III.

The DVD, which was released on October 17th, 2014, is pretty decent for a 2014 DVD release. And by decent, I mean that it actually has bonus features on it. There's no deleted scenes, but there is a gag reel, a commentary track, and a ten minute behind the scenes featurette. The Blu-ray has more bonus features obviously, but this isn't too bad compared to other DVD releases that came out around the same time this one did.

Overall, I really enjoyed A Million Ways to Die in the West. It's not the best movie ever, nor is it my favourite, but it was fun with a good cast and an interesting premise. Of course humour is subjective, and this movie isn't for everyone. But if you're into these kinds of movies, and you haven't seen this one yet, definitely give it a chance. Especially if you're a fan of Seth MacFarlane's work, be it his animated shows like Family Guy, the Ted movies, or The Orville.

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back on Wednesday with the next installment of my Marvel Comics Star Trek overview, where I'll be taking a look at Marvel's Star Trek: Deep Space Nine comic book series. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Star Trek: The Animated Series S01E01 "Beyond the Farthest Star" (1973) TV Episode Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Friday. I'm back with another Star Trek episode review. This week I'm taking a look at the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, "Beyond the Farthest Star", which celebrated its 50th anniversary almost a month ago. There won't be too many spoilers, because, nothing really happens in this episode. So let's get into it.

Unlike the two previous pilot episodes I've reviewed during Star Trek Month, and unlike the pilot episodes I will be reviewing in the coming weeks, "Beyond the Farthest Star" feels more like a season premiere rather than a series premiere. Because TAS feels like a continuation of TOS more than it does a separate show, even though there's a four year difference between TOS and TAS, and the fact that one is live action and the other is animation. Because of that, this episode didn't need to reintroduce the crew of the Enterprise to the audience the way Star Trek: The Motion Picture would only six years later. Especially because TOS's syndication run was already three years old at this point, and chances are the people watching the show in 1973 were already watching reruns of TOS, quite possibly on Saturday mornings, alongside TAS. At least in some markets.

Written by Samuel A. Peeples, who had also written "Where No Man Has Gone Before" eight years earlier, this episode is very similar in some ways to "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Both have a malevolent force trying to take over the Enterprise after destroying another ship. In this case, a being that requires a symbiotic relationship with technology to get around. 

Aside from Leonard Nimoy as Spock, and Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, I found the voice acting to be stiff in this episode. Even Shatner as Kirk is less enthusiastic than he was in TOS. I think it might be this cast, because I've seen other shows produced by Filmation, around this time and none of the other voice actors on those shows feel that way. I think it also doesn't help that their facial expressions are hindered because of the animation style that Filmation shows have. But even then, the voice acting really doesn't get much better as the series goes on. 

From a writing standpoint, this episode felt like it could've been done on TOS rather than a cartoon made for children to watch on Saturday mornings. It felt like Star Trek. Which is good, because it's hard enough to have Star Trek go from Prime Time to Saturday mornings, and have it aimed at kids. 

Star Trek: The Animated Series is the one Star Trek series that I had the least access to when I was a kid. While TOS was on in constant reruns and TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise were all airing new episodes throughout the '90s and 2000s, not to mention reruns airing for all four of those shows as well, TAS didn't air in reruns until 1997, when Teletoon started airing it at 11 or 11:30 at night, far too late for me to be watching it. I vaguely remember seeing a couple of episodes on VHS, as the home video releases for the series had two episodes per tape on them, one time when I was in the hospital, but I don't remember what episodes or when exactly I saw them. I just remember it was one of the times I was in the hospital when I was spending alot of time in the hospital. So it was anytime between 1990 and 1994. I wouldn't see the whole series until 2007 as I got the series on DVD from my brother and sister for my birthday in 2006. I liked it, but I still prefer TNG and later Star Trek shows over this one.

Overall, this is probably the weakest pilot episode of the classic era, simply because it doesn't introduce the characters in the way that it probably should've, given it was aimed at kids, and the kids might not know who Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are, since they might not have been watching reruns of TOS yet, depending on how old they were in 1973. It is an interesting watch though as it's not a kids show in the sense that adults can enjoy TAS as much as kids can, in the same way that they could with TOS. So from that perspective, this is more like the season 4 premiere of TOS than the pilot episode of a separate show. 

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

Marvel's Star Trek Overview Part 4: Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (1996-1998)

 Hey everyone, I'm back for the next installment of my overview of Marvel Comics's Star Trek comic book series. This week I'll be talking about Starfleet Academy which chronicles Nog's time at Starfleet Academy as part of Omega Squadron, which isn't a TV show thing being that Nog is a DS9 character, but it's still an interesting concept. So let's get into it.

Beginning publication in December, Starfleet Academy is the last of the three series that relaunched Marvel's Star Trek comic book line in 1996, following Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek Unlimited in November. As mentioned before the series follows Nog, played by Aron Eisenberg on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as he enters Starfleet Academy as the first Ferengi to join Starfleet. He joins Omega Squad and the series follows this unit. The publication arm, both comics and novels, really had an obsession with Starfleet Academy in the '90s as several Young Reader seasons focused on TOS, TNG, and Voyager characters during their Academy days, plus The Best and the Brightest was published 14 months after this comic book series started.

The twelfth issue was the first part of the Telepathy War storyline that was running through all of these books in 1997. As usual I'll talk about this storyline when I get to the one-shot issue later on, but, for now I'll just say that it was ambitious for Marvel to do what was basically a Marvel Universe level storyline in a line of Star Trek comics that weren't selling very well. Especially at a time where the publisher was facing bankruptcy.

Issue #18 is unique because Marvel published two versions. The first was the standard version. However, the second version is written completely in Klingon. Including the front cover. Which is weird and interesting, but not something that should be done if you're trying to get non-Star Trek fans to pick up your comic. Which is most likely why they did a regular, English, version as well. Even most Star Trek fans can't read or speak Klingon. So it's definitely a weird decision on Marvel's part.

Issue #19 ended up being the final issue. According to Memory Alpha, the series writer, Chris Cooper, had plans for further issues, but found out at the last minute that Marvel had lost the license, effectively canceling the series, so he had to change the ending of this issue in order to wrap the series up.

I've never read this series before. I've never even seen any issues of it out in the wild. I'm hoping to someday, but unlike Voyager, because of my strong connection to the TV show, and Early Voyages, because of how good it is, I don't have as much of an interest in this series. So if I find an issue or two, great, if not, oh well. I have nothing against Nog. In fact, Nog is one of my favourite characters from DS9. However, there is no way you can do a show, movie, comic book or novel with Starfleet Academy as the setting, where it doesn't feel like the characters are just in college or where it doesn't feel like it's ripping off Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, which I reviewed a book from that series in the last couple of years. So that's why I'm not as interested in the Starfleet Academy comic book series, as I am in Early Voyages.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'll be back sometime in the next couple of days with my review of the first episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series, "Beyond the Farthest Star". Also, next week's segment of this comic book overview series will either be a day late or a day early, because I have an appointment next Thursday and I don't think I can get one of these out on the same day. So until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Star Wars: X-Wing: Rogue Squadron (1996) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I'm here to review the first book in the Star Wars: X-Wing series, Rogue Squadron, by Michael A. Stackpole. This is going to be the first in my Legends novel review series where I'll be reviewing, over a long period of time, as many of the Legends novels as I can. I won't be doing it in the usual publication order or in universe chronological order that many YouTube channels and blogs use for their Star Wars Legends book and comic book reviews. There will be spoilers since Legends ended nine years ago, and started nearly fifty years ago with the novelization of A New Hope in 1976. So let's get into it.

 The X-Wing series is my favourite series of Star Wars novels of all time. Because it's one of the few novels set in the Star Wars universe, Legends or Canon, that doesn't rely on Han, Luke, and Leia to be the main characters. Instead it focuses on Wedge Antilles and other minor characters from the Original Trilogy, like Admiral Ackbar and General Salm. It also introduces us to Corran Horn, who becomes one of the major Legends character in the New Jedi Order era and onward. And by major character, I mean someone who shows up for more than a few books, not a focus character like Jacen and Jaina became in the New Jedi Order series. It also introduces us to a new organization within the Empire, Imperial Intelligence.

Up to this point we'd had Grand Admiral Thrawn, Admiral Daala, and various petty warlords and Imperial factions that ended up not having anything to do with the Empire, now known as the Imperial Remnant. But I think this is the first time that Imperial Intelligence is focused on as the main baddies. on Wookieepedia's list of appearances for Imperial Intelligence, it doesn't give a first appearance for Legends, however the Canon page for the organization states that Imperial Intelligence was introduced in the Star Wars Sourcebook, which was published for West End Games's Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game (1987) and the earliest novel published that it appeared in was The Last Command by Timothy Zahn in 1993. 

Rogue Squadron consists of Commander Wedge Antilles (a Human from Corellia) as Rogue Leader, Peshk Vri'syk (a Bothan) as Rogue Two, Nawara Ven (a Twi'lek) as Rogue Three, Bror Jace (a Human from Thyferra) as Rogue Four, Gavin Darklighter (a Human from Tatooine) as Rogue Five, Riv Shiel (a Shistavanen (wolfman) from Uvena III) as Rogue Six, Rhysati Ynr (a Human from Bespin) as Rogue Seven, Erisi Dlarit (a Human from Thyferra) as Rogue Eight, Lieutenant Corran Horn (a Human from Corellia) as Rogue Nine, Ooryl Qrygg (a Gand from Gand) as Rogue Ten, Lujayne Forge (a Human from Kessel) as Rogue Eleven, Andoorni Hui (a Rodian from Rodia) as Rogue Twelve, and Captain Tycho Celchu (a Human from Alderaan) as Rogue Null/the squadron's Executive Officer.

We're also introduced to Emtrey, a military protocol droid assigned to Rogue Squadron, and Mirax Terrik, a smuggler who is Wedge's childhood best friend and whose father, Booster Terrik was sent to Kessel by Corran's late father, Hal Horn, during Hal's time in Corellian Security (CorSec). I love Mirax. She is one of my favourite characters in all of Legends and that's because she's smart, but flawed, she's brave but not stupidly so, and she's a more competent smuggler than Han Solo was. Plus she is a main character of these first four books so we end up spending alot of time with her. Particularly in comparison to characters like Lujayne, Andoorni, Peshk, and Bror, who get almost no screentime in the book. I mean Peshk Vri'syk has little to no dialogue and he doesn't have any kind of backstory, other than the fact that he's a Bothan. At least in this book. We end up learning a little bit more about him in the next book, Wedge's Gamble, through another Bothan character introduced there. Which is fine, but if I were reading Rogue Squadron as a standalone novel or it was my first time reading the series, I wouldn't know that we got more info about Peshk since he gets killed during the first attack on Borleias, and we get no character development or backstory for him in this book.

Corran Horn is an interesting character. I really like him, but I also understand that he's not the be all end all of Star Wars characters, be it from the movies, TV shows and comic books. He's flawed. He's a loner but tries to get along with the other squadron members. The fact that he's a loner is picked up on by Lujayne Forge pretty early on in the book, in chapter four in fact. It's the only actual conversation that Corran has with Lujayne, but it's something that both Wedge and Tycho see in him as well, and they help him to overcome that problem in this book, though it still creeps in from time to time. Especially when he's not with Ooryl and Mirax in later books.

I do like that this book is the start of Corran and Mirax's relationship, and they don't get together until between books 3 and 4, due to events that happen in the next book. I like that their relationship isn't a full blown romantic relationship in this book. It's an antagonistic friendship at first due to the fact that Corran's dad arrested Mirax's dad and sent him to Kessel for five years, but it eases up as the book goes on. Which is very different from many romantic relationships in novels that I've read. Both from the '90s and more recently. It's kind of on par for a Star Wars romance though since Leia and Han's relationship started off as antagonistic in A New Hope before blossoming into a full blown romance by the end of Return of the Jedi.

One of my favourite parts of this book is the briefing for the first attack on Borleias. Wedge, Ackbar, and Salm are wary of Laryn Kre'fey, the Bothan general who presents the New Republic's forces with his plan to capture Borleias as a stepping stone in their campaign to conquer Coruscant. And because they're wary, they question the Bothan, knowing that Bothans do things despite them not being good ideas. Even though Salm and Wedge had been at odds with each other throughout this whole book because of Salm's belief that Tycho can't be trusted due to his time being a captive of Ysanne Isard following a mission to Coruscant that went bad, and because of Rogue Squadron being a bit looser in terms of discipline and following regulations due to their status as the New Republic's spearhead, it shows that these two people, particularly after the Vladet incident a few chapters earlier, hold enough respect for each other to understand that they're on the same side, and want to see each mission succeed, even if they go about it in different ways. Plus, Kre'fey is a jerk and both are uneasy with him and his plan since it involves both of their squadrons.

Speaking of Isard, she and Kirtan Loor are interesting villains. As I mentioned earlier, this is the first time in the publication history of Star Wars novels that a particular branch of the Empire is the focus of the bad guys's side. Thrawn, Daala, Pellaeon, and the other Imperial leaders we've met up to this point have all been military or political figures in the Imperial Remnant, but this is the first time we get the head of a branch other than the main military, as the main villain. I hate Isard and Loor, but I love to hate them. Like, with Thrawn and Daala, and even Pellaeon, you have military geniuses in command, whose only goal is to re-establish the Empire. But with Isard, her only goal is to destroy the New Republic, and THEN worry about re-establishing the Empire, and she had assets in place to take steps in that destruction. Loor is just so arrogant and dumb, despite his photographic memory, that he is so easy to hate, which is great.

My least favourite part is Corran and Bror's rivalry. It's annoying because I knew people in high school and college who were in a fierce rivalry with each other for no other reason than they didn't like the other person and it's unnecessary. Also, every time I read this book, Erisi's behaviour is very suspicious, but not to the point where it reveals anything from future books. There's a spy in Rogue Squadron, though we don't find out until the end.

I also think that Stackpole has alot of difficulty utilizing the ensemble cast in this book. As mentioned earlier, the book focuses the most on Wedge, Corran, Mirax, Loor, and Isard, while characters like Nawara Ven, Rhysati Ynr, Erisi Dlarit, and Gavin Darklighter have almost no screentime outside of the POV of Corran or Wedge. Even Tycho doesn't get much screentime, despite being a close friend of Wedge. While it does get better as these books go along, but when Lujayne Forge, Peshk Vri'syk, and Andoorni Hui died later in the book, particularly Lujayne, it didn't impact me as much as Chewie's death in Vector Prime (1999) did, and definitely not as much as it would've if Wedge or Corran or Mirax had died instead. Particularly Wedge. I do have to say that Ooryl is one of my favourite characters in this book. Just because the Gands are such an interesting species, who, beyond the bounty hunter, Zuckuss in The Empire Strikes Back, we never see in Legends OR Canon, and now, because of Ooryl, I want Gands to show up in one of the Disney+ shows or one of the upcoming movies, so we can learn more about them. Especially because we always get Twi'leks, Rodians, Wookiees, and Mon Calamari.

I first read this book back in late 1998 when my best friend at the time, Garrett, lent it to me. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, this was the first Star Wars novel that Garrett lent me, and the third one I read, after Galaxy of Fear: Eaten Alive and The Han Solo Trilogy: The Paradise Snare. It's the book that made me a Star Wars fan. I'd watched the movies a few times, but when I realized we were getting brand new characters, and that Han, Luke, Leia, Lando, Threepio, Artoo, and Chewbacca weren't going to appear in this book, it made me realize that, Star Wars was much larger in scope as a universe than what the movies portrayed the universe as, I was hooked.

 Originally published on January 1st, 1996, it's easy to forget that Rogue Squadron was published relatively early in the Bantam era of Star Wars novel publishing. It came out before Shadows of the Empire, and before the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy, but after the Corellian Trilogy and after the early one off novels like The Truce at Bakura and The Courtship of Princess Leia. It was reprinted in February 1996, which is the edition that I have as that's the one that stayed in print until some time between 2014 and 2016 when the Legends banner reprint that Del Rey put out after Disney bought the franchise in 2012. Wookieepedia doesn't list a date for the 2010s reprint, but most of the early Legends banner/2010s reprints came out between 2014 and 2016, with 2017 being the latest it would've come out.

Rogue Squadron was re-released again on September 7th, 2021 as part of the Essential Legends Collection, which is starting to look like is re-releasing ALL of Legends instead of a select few novels like it was marketed as when it first started in 2021. I prefer the original cover that depicts the first battle of Borleias but the Essential Legends Collection cover is cool too. 

Alright my friends, I think that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for the next installment in my Marvel Star Trek comic book overview. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Donkey Kong Country: The Legend of the Crystal Coconut (1999) Movie Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well, for a Tuesday. I've got a movie review for you today. I know, it's been a while since I've done a movie review, but, I watched a movie last night and decided that I wanted to talk about it. I'm going to be talking about Donkey Kong Country: The Legend of the Crystal Coconut from 1999. Let's get into it.

The Legend of the Crystal Coconut is actually four episodes of the 1997 animated series, Donkey Kong Country, edited together into a feature film. Of course many TV shows have done this for home media releases including Gargoyles, Batman Beyond, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, Justice League, and Darkwing Duck, among others. However, in this case, the episodes are all the ones featuring Kaptain Skurvy and his pirate crew. Before I get into the movie itself, let's go back and talk about the history of the show.

On October 17th, 1997 Teletoon began broadcasting. Now known as Cartoon Network (not to be confused with Cartoon Network in the United States), Teletoon was a cable channel dedicated to cartoons and animated series. In the first couple of years of the channel's history, it mostly aired shows produced here in Canada, with the occasional American show being broadcast. 

 One of the first shows to air on the channel was a 3-D animated TV show adaptation of Nintendo's Donkey Kong Country series. The series was also called Donkey Kong Country. It featured Richard Yearwood as the voice of Donkey Kong, whose name is shortened to DK by the other characters. I used to watch this show all the time when I was a kid. It was great. At least to me. I know there aren't very many people who have a fondness for this show. I loved it though.

The movie was interesting. I first saw this movie in either 2000 or 2001 when my parents rented it for me on VHS. My siblings were either away, or out for the night with my grandmother and I was going to be home with my parents, so they rented it for me. And I know it was either 2000 or 2001 because I didn't have my TV/VCR combo set in my room yet, so I had to watch it on the TV in our family room. 

There isn't a general plot to the movie, since it's four episodes of the TV show edited together. But the basic premise is that Donkey Kong and his pal, Diddy, have to protect the Crystal Coconut from King K. Rool, and his henchmen, Klump and Krusha, as well as keep it out of the hands of the pirate, Kaptain Skurvy and his crew, Kutlass and Green Croc. Naturally, DK messes up, alot, but he saves the day every time.

One of my favourite parts of this movie is when Krusha accidentally lets it slip that DK had given him and Klump the Crystal Coconut, and King K. Rool orders Klump to return it to Cranky's house because he thinks it might be a trick played on them by DK and Diddy. I laughed because only a few scenes earlier, King K. Rool didn't care how Klump and Krusha had obtained it, only that they HAD obtained it. Plus for a moment it actually felt like the bad guy was actually learning, but this is a '90s TV show. The bad guys never learn.

Another favourite scene of mine is when Kaptain Skurvy sings "Pirate's Scorn", which is a song that explains why Skurvy wants the Crystal Coconut. Funny thing is though, I never actually heard this song in the show itself until I saw this movie. Back when Teletoon first started it had an interstitial segment between shows called MusicToon. Basically it was music videos made from songs sung in the shows Teletoon aired at the time. "Pirate's Scorn" was one of them and I always saw it when I was watching reruns of Scooby-Doo, and episodes of an animated series I used to watch called Bad Dog. This was during the show's final run in late 1999 to early 2000. 

But I think my most favourite part is seeing these characters interacting with each other again. I haven't seen Donkey Kong Country since it ended in 2000, and I only ever saw this movie once, so it was fun seeing it again through this movie. It's not the best show ever, nor is this the best movie ever, but I had so much fun watching the show 25 years ago, and I had just as much fun watching this movie last night. And to me that's the worth of this show and this movie.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. However, I will be back tomorrow for a book review as I'm almost finished reading the first novel in the Star Wars: X-Wing series, Rogue Squadron. So until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Star Trek: The Original Series S01E03, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (1965/1966) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I'm here to talk about the second pilot episode of Star Trek, "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Despite rejecting "The Cage", NBC felt Star Trek had a strong enough concept that they ordered a second pilot, which was unprecedented at the time. There will be spoilers, given that this is an almost sixty year old show. Let's get into it.

The weirdest thing about this episode for me is that, despite it being the pilot for TOS, it aired as the third episode of the series, on September 22nd, 1966 (September 20th in Canada), a full two weeks after the series premiere, "The Man Trap". According to Memory Alpha, because this episode had alot of exposition, either the network or Desilu decided it wouldn't make a very good premiere episode. Yet, it's jarring having it come out as the third episode since the uniforms are different, the Bridge looks slightly different, and Uhura, Rand, Chapel, and McCoy aren't in the episode. Sulu and Scotty are, along with Kirk and Spock.

I actually remember watching this episode on CBC when I was a kid. Because of the different uniforms, Uhura, Rand, Chapel, and McCoy being absent, and the fact that the opening "Space the final frontier..." monologue is missing from the opening credits sequence, though it was added into the remastered version in 2007, which is the version I watched on DVD last night. 

The thing is, I remember watching TOS when I was a kid, even before I saw a bunch of episodes in the 2000s, when it first aired on Space Channel, but there's only one or two episodes, because, unlike TNG, I didn't have alot of episodes on VHS, and we didn't tape the episodes off the TV. I'll be honest, I appreciate what TOS did for TV in the '60s, and the fact that it started this amazing franchise that I love so much, but I'm not a big TOS fan. I prefer the six original TOS movies over the show, and TOS walked so that Star Trek as a franchise could run. I also just had way more exposure to TNG when I was a kid in the early '90s because, not only were new episodes still airing, but we had so many episodes taped off TV, AND I had most of the first season on VHS thanks to family members buying the tapes for me for Christmases and birthdays right up through 1996 or 1997. 

Having said that, I do enjoy this episode. It's still pretty raw in terms of Star Trek lore and the cast figuring out their characters, but it's a really good episode. For example, Spock steps up when Kirk is doubting whether he should kill Gary Mitchell, played by Gary Lockwood, after Gary gets turned into a god-like being during the Enterprise's trip through the barrier at the edge of the galaxy. As Spock says when Kirk asks him why he thinks he's right when Doctor Dehner, played by Sally Kellerman, who is a trained psychologist, says that Gary isn't a threat, "Because she feels, I don't". And that sums up who Spock is extremely well, even this early in the show. I feel like, outside of background details and personal history, Spock is the most fully formed character this early in TOS and that's why he feels right in this episode. Gene Roddenberry knew what he wanted Spock to be, and was able to get that almost right away, even as Leonard Nimoy was figuring out how to play Spock. 

Gary Mitchell, a character who shows up here, and then isn't mentioned again until the season 2 premiere of Lower Decks, "Strange Energies", is on the verge of being unlikable. Aside from how he treats Dehner before they get zapped, the way he treats Kirk in Sickbay when Kirk first visits him, and then the way he talks to Kelso, played by Paul Carr. And that's Lieutenant Lee Kelso, not Michael Kelso. Just in case you get confused with that. 

Dehner was a good character, but was wasted in this episode. Same with Yeoman Smith, played by Andrea Dromm. Honestly, Smith had less to do than Janice Rand, played by Grace Lee Whitney, did in the entirety of the first season of TOS, and the two movies she appeared in. Yeah, women in '60s TV were not written well, even in a show as progressive as Star Trek was. 

Overall, this is a pretty good episode, though if I'm being honest, I think "The Cage" is a better episode. "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is still good though. I just think it could've been better. But hey, it convinced NBC to pick Star Trek up as a series, so that's pretty good.

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

Marvel's Star Trek Overview Part 3: Star Trek Unlimited (1996-1998)

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. So, I'm back to discuss the second comic book series in the Marvel Star Trek line from the late '90s. This isn't going to be a very long post because I've never read this series before, so I don't have an opinion on it and there isn't much information on the series either. So let's get into it and talk about Star Trek Unlimited, published by Marvel Comics.

Star Trek Unlimited was a ten issue mini-series published by Marvel Comics from 1996 to 1998. The first five issues contain two stories. One is about the crew of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701, and the second is about the crew of the Enterprise-D or the Enterprise-E depending on when in the Star Trek timeline the story takes place in.

Issue #6 was part of the "Telepathy War" storyline that ran through pretty much every Star Trek comic book series Marvel was publishing at the time. I mentioned it briefly in last week's section on the Voyager comic series. This issue was part 4 of the storyline and is a TNG era only issue.

Issue #7 contained only one story, but it was a crossover between TOS and TNG thanks to Q and Trelane being involved somehow. Now I'm wishing I had read this series, because it sounds pretty interesting to have a single series with TOS and TNG stories included, since both series had just come off long runs at DC Comics at this point in time. 

Issue #8, not shown above, contained 3 stories, a TOS story, a TNG story, and a DS9 story. For the remaining two issues, issue #9 was a TOS issue, and the final issue, shown above, was a TNG issue. 

As I mentioned, I've never read any issue of this series as I haven't had access to it. The Marvel era of Star Trek comics weren't super available here when I was a kid. As I mentioned in the previous installment of this series, I was lucky that other people were able to find the two Voyager comics that I had when I was a teenager, and that I was able to find both of those issues again a few years ago. The vast majority of this era have been elusive because they just didn't sell well at the time, and those that do have these issues don't want to give them up necessarily because they've never been collected in any trade paperback and Eaglemoss's Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection hardcovers are pretty expensive. Not to mention that run doesn't collect all of the Marvel line. Just the Voyager and DS9 runs, and Early Voyages, which I'll be talking about in three weeks. 

That's it for me for today. Like I said, it's a short post this time just because I don't own any issue, so I can't talk about the artwork, and I've never read these issues so I have no idea what they're like as stories. The next two installments of this overview series will be short too because they're also runs I've never read and have never seen the artwork for. I'll be back soon with my review of the second TOS pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Star Trek: The Cage (1964/1988) TV Pilot Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing okay. I ended up not going to Ottawa Comiccon this morning, which is why I'm doing this review rather than shutting myself off from the rest of the world until dinnertime. Today, in honour of yesterday being Star Trek Day in the U.S. and the 6th being Star Trek Day in Canada, I am going to review every pilot episode of Star Trek that I have access to. So that is Star Trek (1966-1969), Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973-1974), Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-1999), Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001), Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005), and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022-). This week I'll be starting with the original pilot, "The Cage" that was produced in 1964 but didn't air until 1988). There will be spoilers because with the exception of the first episode of Strange New Worlds which aired last year, all of these episodes are over 20 years old. So let's get into it.

Watching "The Cage" is like looking at a time capsule, because everything that became Star Trek started with this pilot, but at the same time nobody saw it on home video until 20 years later, and it didn't air on TV until TNG had already started. Though we did get a recap of it in the TOS season 1 episode "The Menagerie", which was the only two-part episode that TOS ever had. It's also familiar because this could be considered the pilot or proof of concept for Strange New Worlds being that Pike, Spock, and Una are all here, even if nobody else from the show is. Not to mention it's revisited in season 2 of Discovery and it's what inspired Akiva Goldsman and Henry Allonso Meyer to do Strange New Worlds. It's also what Gene Roddenberry wanted Star Trek to be in the first place.

One of the things that I love about this episode is that it's a rough draft of what Star Trek would become. The terminology is raw, the lore is not locked into place yet, it's just Star Trek. While Jeffrey Hunter's Pike is a pretty different character from Anson Mount's Pike, he's still recognizable as Captain Christopher Pike. I can see Mount's Pike reacting the same way that Hunter's Pike does in this pilot. Even going as far as having Una, simply known as Number One in this episode, setting a phaser to overload in order to convince the Talosians that they don't want to be in captivity. The problem I have with Hunter's Pike is that this is the only episode we get with him. However, I do like the slight character development we got for him. 

The Vina stuff wasn't great, but this was 1960s Television even if it never aired in the 1960s. Even still, having her only purpose being to seduce Pike is less than stellar. Especially for someone as enlightened as Roddenberry was, despite his many MANY flaws. Susan Oliver, the actress who played Vina did a great job. It's just the role wasn't great. 

I was surprised that Una's role in this episode is more than what I remembered it being. Especially compared to the character we know in Strange New Worlds. She actually takes command and figures things out without Spock or Tyler or Boyce making suggestions to her. Speaking of Doctor Boyce, I think I like Doctor M'Benga better. John Hoyt isn't as charming or as fun as Babs Olusanmokun is.

While looking primitive even by the standards of the original TV show, the Enterprise looks pretty good. You could tell they didn't have the interior sets fully planned out yet as we really only had four rooms shown and a very small section of the corridor. We had the Bridge, the Transporter Room, the Briefing Room, and Pike's quarters, which look very different from what Kirk's quarters look like in the show proper, and VERY different from what Pike's quarters look like in SNW. You can also tell that they are sets made out of wood and paint. 

The Talosians are probably the weirdest aliens we see in the early days of the franchise, simply because they aren't just people with really bad wigs on. The problem I have with them is related to the problem I have with Vina. Vina seems to have been there for 18 years, yet they didn't realize that Humans hate being taken as captives. Nor did they do so when the Enterprise arrived. I guess there wouldn't be a story if they'd done that, but still, this episode wasn't about misunderstandings between people from different cultures or anything like that. So it was just a bit wonky how that played out.

So I never saw this episode when I was a kid. It never aired in reruns on CBC, I never got it on VHS and I've never had it on DVD. The first time I ever saw it was in 2009. The remastered version of TOS had been airing for the last three years and Space Channel aired it as the final episode of the series. Then about two or three years later I was on one of the old Yahoo! Star Trek forums, and one of the people I talked to on there sent me an external hard drive containing every Star Trek movie and TV episode up to that point (11 movies, 5 live action shows, and 1 animated show), and "The Cage" was included. I'm still hoping to get TOS season 3 on Blu-ray since I have season 1 on DVD and season 2 on Blu-ray. 

Overall this was an interesting start to my favourite media franchise of all time. As I said earlier, not only does it serve as a what-if? pilot for TOS, but it serves as the pilot for Strange New Worlds. If you've never seen it before, I recommend checking it out as it's a rough draft for what Star Trek eventually became. 

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'll be doing alot of Star Trek content over the next little bit between my Marvel Comics's Star Trek overview, Star Trek book reviews, and these pilot episode reviews. But until then have a great rest of your weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.  

Marvel's Star Trek Overview Part 2: Star Trek: Voyager (1996-1998)

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. It's hot outside today, but it's September, so the cold is coming. Today I'm back for the second part in my Marvel's Star Trek overview series. In this part we'll be talking about the comic book based on the fourth live action Star Trek TV show, Star Trek: Voyager. This is the only '90s Marvel Star Trek comic that I read when I was growing up and I only ever had two issues of it. So let's get into it.

With a cover date of November 1996, Star Trek: Voyager #1 was released on September 25th, 1996. I've never read this issue, all I know about it is that it's the first part of a three part story involving a group of Talaxians that the Voyager crew are trying to rescue from a weird ion storm that trapped both ships.

Issue #2 was actually the second issue I got when I was a kid. And I actually didn't get it right after it came out. Instead I got it as a birthday or Christmas present in 2002 or 2003, so I was actually in high school when I got this issue. What's weird to me is that these Talaxians were hired by the Trabe to capture Voyager. The Trabe was a race that had originally enslaved the Kazon (the big bad of season 2 of Voyager) and when the Kazon rebelled, the Trabe lost their homeworld and a vast majority of their space fleet. In the TV show, the Trabe only showed up once in the season 2 episode, "Alliances", where after being under attack by the Kazon for several weeks, resulting in severe damage to Voyager and some casualties, Captain Janeway attempted to make peace with them, but ended up in an alliance with the Trabe instead, which also went south pretty quickly.

According to Memory Alpha, in an interview that Voyager comic book writer, Laurie S. Sutton said in an interview published in issue #9 of The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine which was published in 1996, that she'd originally planned to use the Kazon and have them take over Voyager, but, being that comic book issues are written about a year or so before the issue is due to come out, she started writing these first three issues while the Voyager production staff were writing the script for the season 2 finale, "Basics", which had Voyager being captured by the Kazon, so Paramount informed Sutton that her story would conflict with the season finale and so she changed the big bads from the Kazon to the Trabe, because they're the only other bad guys Voyager had encountered in the Delta Quadrant up to that point who wanted to take the ship, being that the Vidiians just wanted to harvest the crew's organs to replace their own to combat the Phage. Which I'll get into when I actually review Voyager at some point later on. 

I discovered the series when I got issue #13 for either a Valentine's Day or an Easter present in early 1998 since I couldn't have chocolate at the time since I was being completely tubefed at the time. I know it wasn't a birthday or Christmas present. This issue was part of a story arc that ran through the four comic book series that entirely took place in the 24th Century or included issues that took place in the 24th Century, which was all of them, with the exception of Early Voyages. 

The artwork in this series is weird. The first eight issues, as well as issues 10-12, were done by Jesus Redondo, and issue #9, and #'s 13-15 were done by Terry Pallot. As you can see from the cover of the first issue, Redondo's artwork is a bit more cartoony and all of the characters look angry, even if they aren't supposed to be. Pallot's art style is more realistic looking. I'll give you two examples.

The picture above is Jesus Redondo's artwork from issue #2. As you can see, it's much more cartoony than Terry Pallot's artwork, which you can see in the picture below it. Pallot's character designs for the show's main characters are much closer to the actual actors and actresses on the show than Redondo's character designs do

The series was canceled after issue #15, though there would be a mini-series called Splashdown that came out between April and July of 1998. I've only ever owned and read the two issues I mentioned before so I don't have that much actual experience with this series. 

Originally the Star Trek: Voyager comic was going to be published by Malibu Comics, which had been publishing the Deep Space Nine series since 1993. However, just as things were being finalized for Malibu to do the comic, Marvel bought the publisher, and Paramount had transferred the license from Malibu and DC, who had done the TOS and TNG comics up to that point, to Marvel, creating the Paramount Comics imprint.

1996-1998 was a very interesting time for Marvel as not only was the company on the verge of bankruptcy but Star Trek wasn't the only IP Marvel had the comic book license for during this time. They'd just lost the Disney license, and had wrapped up the comic book series based on Gargoyles they'd been doing, and they'd also been publishing two comic book series based on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. One called Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and the other called Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Ninja Rangers. And of course Marvel had had everything from Star Wars to Transformers in the '80s. 

Overall, the Voyager comic is an interesting read if you can get your hands on it. Aside from the Eaglemoss hardcover collected editions, the Voyager series was never collected. There aren't even any trade paperback collections from IDW. So they can be pretty difficult to find. I've never even found any beyond the two I got when I was a teenager in long boxes at sales or even the back issue bins at comic book stores. But, if you do find some, definitely pick them up. 

That's it for this part of the overview. Next week I'll be diving into Star Trek Unlimited, a series that tells stories from TOS and TNG since neither series had their own Marvel Comics series this time around. It's also a series that I've never read before. So it's probably gonna be a shorter post than this one ended up being. Don't worry though I have other posts coming up before Ottawa Comiccon this weekend. So until then have a great evening and I'll talk to you all later. Take care.