The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Movie Discussion

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Sorry for my absence over the last two weeks. I got a cold at Comiccon that popped up two days after I posted last here on the blog, and then last week I had a medical appointment. I'm back today though, and I wanted to write about my experience watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show for the first time last night. This isn't a review per se. I'm just gonna talk about the movie and my experience watching it. Let's get into it!

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was first released in North America on September 26th, 1975. So I guess, I'm talking about this movie only three days before its 50th Anniversary. One of the reasons I think that this movie didn't do well when it first came out is because of the era it came out in. Critics at the time said that Tim Curry seemed to be having the most fun when filming the movie and you could see it on screen. Which is true as that's one of the things I noticed when watching the movie last night.

The cast is really good, and Tim Curry was amazing in the role. Barry Bostwick, who I know as Mayor Randall Winston in the 1998 sitcom, Spin City, kind of surprised me because anything I've ever seen him in, which isn't a whole lot, he usually steals the show. Not this time. In fact, his character, whose name is Brad, barely does anything, which places the focus solely on Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Curry) and his fellow alien beings. Which was refreshing even from the kinds of aliens I'm used to seeing in Star Trek and Star Wars.

I'd never seen this movie before last night. I'd heard of it, but had never seen it. I actually had the chance to see it in either 2004 or 2005 when my high school's Student Council organized a Rocky Horror Picture Show Night. However my parents couldn't give me a ride to the school for the viewing, and none of my friends could drive yet, so I wasn't able to go. That was probably the first time I'd heard of the movie. 

Naturally, it was mentioned on The VHS Club Podcast last week during their episode on cult classics. Not realizing that I had access to it via Disney+, I didn't really think anything of it. But, after dinner last night I went on Disney+ to see if Empire Records was on there so that, maybe, I could do another virtual movie night with Katie (and Nat this time) from The VHS Club, like she and I did with Clueless earlier this year. It is, so yay. However, having watched Katie and Nat's episode on cult classics last week, when I saw that Empire Records was on there, I went back to the search function, and typed in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" thinking that there was no way it could be on there, not knowing that it was released by 20th Century Fox, which Disney owns now. Sure enough, it popped up and that's when I decided that that would be the movie I would watch for last night.

With it being a movie that came out pre-internet, and it being a cult classic, I was able to escape knowing anything about the movie throughout the course of my life. So, I had no idea what to expect when I put on the movie last night. Aside from Tim Curry being in it, it being a musical, and it being based on a stage show, I didn't know a thing about the movie before watching it. Even Katie and Nat kept things really vague when they talked about the movie on the show last week, since it wasn't the focus of the episode. So I was surprised throughout the movie, which was fun.

At this point in my life, I've seen more movies (and shows) that Tim Curry is in than I have movies (and shows) that he isn't in. But seeing him in his film debut was a real treat, because I've enjoyed him in everything I've seen him in, including Home Alone 2. I loved Richard O'Brien, the originator of the stage show the movie is based on, as Riff Raff as well. 

I don't really know if I can pick one favourite song from the movie. However the two songs I enjoyed the most were "The Time Warp" and "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me". The beats were just really good on those two songs. 

I'm never going to a midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, as it would be too overwhelming for me, but I will definitely watch the movie again in the future. I had so much fun watching it last night and I was so nervous going into it because it's such an iconic movie. It was fun and if you've never seen it before, I highly recommend watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show on streaming, on DVD or, if you really feel you can manage it, one of the midnight showings.

I think that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon for another blog post at some point. Don't know when yet though. Until then have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Ottawa Comiccon 2025 Haul and Discussion

 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Geek Cave. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I had a great day yesterday. That's actually what I'm here to talk about today. This weekend was the 2025 edition of Ottawa Comiccon and I went for the day yesterday. Of course, I went with my best friend, Brad, and another friend of ours, Emily, joined us. There weren't any celebrity guests this year that I was interested in. They were either from Horror franchises that I've never seen, or from the Marvel Netflix shows, or other things that I'm not interested in. That's okay though because the shopping was excellent, and so was the company. 

On top of hanging out with Brad and Emily all day, I saw two friends from high school, DJ and Stephanie, who I've known since middle school and elementary school. I met DJ when I was in grade 5 and I met Stephanie when I was in grade 8. I also saw some of my favourite vendors that I see every year. I always have fun seeing them, especially because they're at pretty much every geek event in Ottawa. The weather was pretty decent the whole day so we were able to eat outside. Apparently it rained a couple of times while we were in the convention, but it wasn't raining when we had our lunch, and it wasn't raining when Brad and I were leaving for the day. So it was pretty fun. Now, you may be wondering what I got at the convention. Let's get into it.

I got eight VHS tapes and a DVD. Five of the tapes were bought for me on Saturday as Brad was at the convention all weekend, and I got the other three, along with the DVD, when I was there yesterday. Looking at the top row from left to right, the first two Star Trek: The Next Generation tapes were ones I had when I was a kid. I've talked about the "Encounter at Farpoint" tape a few times here on the blog, but "When the Bough Breaks" was another first season episode that I had when I was a kid. The rest of the TNG tapes aren't any that I've owned before, but they're some of my favourite episodes of Star Trek. The Star Trek: Voyager tape was quite the find as Paramount didn't release the show on VHS until 2000 and only the first three seasons getting released. Even then only about half of season 3 was released.

So the vendor that I got the Star Trek tapes from is a huge Trekkie, like myself, so Brad had been able to grab "Encounter at Farpoint" and "The Q and the Grey" for $5 in a 2 for $5 deal. Then I bought "All Good Things..." from him yesterday morning for $2. Brad and I went back to Bill's booth yesterday afternoon to say goodbye on our way out the door and Bill told me to pick two more Star Trek tapes and he'd give them to me for free. So that's when I grabbed "When the Bough Breaks" and "The Emissary". So that was really cool.

I grabbed Mallrats on Blu-ray about a month ago during Brad's and my last hangout, and I enjoyed it when I watched it. So, when Brad showed me that a vendor had it on VHS on Saturday, I asked him to grab it for me. He also grabbed the Ewoks and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers tapes. The Ewoks tape is one we had when I was a kid. However, my siblings and I only got to watch it once or twice because the top-loading VCR we had in our space at the time, decided to be a dick and eat the tape on us, rendering it unwatchable. So I was really excited when Brad showed me the picture of it I asked him to grab it for me. The Power Rangers tape is one that Grandma rented for me along with the other four episodes in the "Green with Evil" saga in around 1995, after she'd taken my siblings and I to something. It was either a children's entertainment concert or a movie. I don't remember which, but she rented all five tapes for us. So I saw it from the top of the case and I instantly knew what it was, even if I didn't know which part of "Green with Evil" the tape was.

The 101 Dalmatians DVD was a great find too. Bill had it with the small selection of DVDs he was selling along with the VHS tapes he was selling. I grabbed it because it was the last DVD I needed to complete the Walt Disney Platinum Editions DVD line that I'd been trying to find for a few years now. So now that I have all thirteen releases, I can watch all of them, including the bonus features, and then do an entire blog post on the line as an update to my History of Walt Disney Home Video series that I did a few years ago. So that'll be fun. 

 I also picked up five comic books while I was at the convention. Four Star Trek comics and one Star Wars comic. Aside from Star Trek: Voyager #1, I had all of these comics when I was a kid. My dad had the Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Series Finale comic, but he let me read it once and I always remembered it. So, when I found it for $5, I grabbed it. Star Trek #31 is the first comic I ever got when I was a kid. That, and Star Trek: The Next Generation #31, which I'd already bought a new copy of a while back, so having both issues in my collection again is amazing. The Queen Amidala one-shot that Dark Horse published in 1999 as a tie-in to Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace was another comic I had when I was a teenager. So to find it again, with the picture cover that my original copy had, was spectacular.

I think my favourite finds, besides the VHS tapes, are the soundtrack for The Phantom Menace on CD, and the original paperback edition of Path of Destruction, the first book in the Darth Bane Trilogy. I've never owned any of the Star Wars soundtracks on physical media, and with The Phantom Menace being the first brand new Star Wars movie to be released in my lifetime, I had to grab it. Especially because it was $5. I listened to the CD this morning and loved every minute of it. Path of Destruction, along with the rest of the Darth Bane Trilogy, is a Star Wars novel that I've been wanting to read for a while since it came out at a time where I wasn't keeping up with the then current Star Wars novels, between trying to catch up on The New Jedi Order and some of the early 2000s Clone Wars novels, as well as graduating from high school and then going into college, I didn't have time to really keep up with the number of Star Wars novels that were coming out at the time. I read the first chapter before I went to bed last night. It was pretty good.

All in all I had so much fun at Ottawa Comiccon this year for only the second time I've been to the convention since 2019. Going on the Friday last year was great, but I really didn't have a whole lot of time since the con doesn't open until 3 pm on the Friday. So I'm glad I was able to go on the Sunday this year. It was a lot of fun. And, like I said, I got to hang out with friends and see people I haven't seen in a while. So it was worth the price of admission for sure. 

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more posts, including this week's Geekdom in 1996 post. So until then, have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Geekdom in 1996: Star Trek: Voyager S03E02, "Flashback", and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine S05E06, "Trials and Tribble-ations"

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. So, on Friday night I watched the premiere of Geekvolution's new movie, Superhero Rewind: The Movie, on YouTube. For those of you who don't know, Geekvolution is a YouTube channel that has been around since 2008 when the channel's host, Captain Logan, began his review show, Superhero Rewind, where he reviews every superhero movie ever produced. The movie is a sequel to Cap's webseries, Spawn Year, which came out from 2012 to 2014. Anyway, in the movie a version of Captain Logan from 2044 goes back to the year 1996 to convince his 12 year old self (played by his oldest son, Jayson) to never start Superhero Rewind in the first place.

Watching the movie has inspired me to start a new blog series called Geekdom in 1996. In this series I'll be talking about something geeky that came out in 1996 whether it's a book, a video game, a movie, a comic or a TV show, that I've seen previously. It doesn't matter when I saw it, as long as I've seen it. In this installment, I'm talking about two special episodes of Star Trek. Let's get into it!

I decided to do a double feature of the two 30th anniversary episodes of Star Trek that came out in the fall of 1996. Because I'm going in airdate order, the first of these two episodes I'm talking about today is the second episode of the third season of Star Trek: Voyager, "Flashback", which aired on Wednesday, September 11th, 1996. Unlike the two part episode, "Unification", which acted as the 25th anniversary of Star Trek episode for Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Flashback" isn't a present day teamup between TOS and Voyager. Instead it reveals that Tuvok was a member of the crew of the USS Excelsior, under the command of Captain Hikaru Sulu during the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, which came out in 1991 to celebrate Star Trek's 25th Anniversary.

Besides George Takei and Grace Lee Whitney, who reprise their roles of Hikaru Sulu and Janice Rand from TOS, the production crew was able to get the majority of the people who played the Excelsior's crew in Star Trek VI to come back to reprise their roles from the movie. I think there was only one or two people who were in the movie that weren't in the episode. Which is pretty impressive considering the movie filmed six years earlier and had come out five years earlier. Obviously they recreated the Excelsior's bridge. 

I remember when I first saw this episode. It was Boxing Day 1996, the Canadian channel that Voyager aired on at the time reran the episode, and my family were up at the cottage to have Christmas dinner with my dad's side of the family. Grandma had put the TV on after we had had dinner and opened presents and the episode was on. This was before I was on the internet, and I wasn't getting issues of Star Trek Communicator, so I had no idea that George Takei was returning to play Sulu in the episode. So when he popped up out of the cloud of coolant from the ruptured plasma conduit, I was pleasantly surprised as Sulu was, and still is, one of my favourite characters in TOS. Other than Rand appearing in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and in the "Tabukan Syndrome" story arc of DC Comics's late '80s-mid '90s Star Trek (TOS) comic book series, which chronicled Sulu's first mission as captain of the Excelsior, I didn't really remember her that well from TOS. Because of that, her return wasn't as big for me as Sulu's return was.

Of all of the characters from Voyager, Tuvok made the most sense since he's a Vulcan, and Vulcans have fairly long lives. And I felt he didn't feel shoehorned into the scenes from Star Trek VI that they recreated for this episode. I also felt that the episode filled in the gaps of what Sulu and the Excelsior were doing inbetween their scenes in the movie as they don't really have that many scenes in the movie. 

There was a novelization for the episode, which I had in the 2010s, but I don't think I actually got around to reading it. Partly because by then I was fully steeped in finishing The New Jedi Order and trying to keep up with the Voyager relaunch novels that were coming out at the time. 

"Trials and Tribble-ations" is a completely different story. Because I didn't watch DS9 until it was on in reruns when I was in high school in the early to mid 2000s, I didn't see this episode until either the mid 2000s during one of those reruns, or I was an adult and I got all of Star Trek (up to that point) on an external hard drive. Regardless, I've seen it a few times, but not nearly as often as other people have.

The episode originally aired on Monday, November 4th, 1996, and unlike "Flashback", this episode didn't rerun on Boxing Day. Or, if it did, it was later at night, after I'd gone to bed. TOS isn't my favourite Star Trek series. I appreciate the show for what it did as the series that launched the franchise, but also what it did for pop culture, and society as a whole, but I honestly prefer the TOS movies over the TV show. However, "Trials and Tribble-ations" really highlights the differences between the TOS era and the TNG/DS9/Voyager era. Not just in terms of technology like communicators and tricorders, but also the visual style of each era. DS9 is visually darker and more atmospheric, while TOS is bright, colourful and cheesy, similar to how the 1966 Batman TV series looks. Weirdly enough the two visual styles blend well together in this episode.

Having seen the bonus features on this episode from the DS9 season 5 DVD box set, as they're included, along with the episode, on the "Trouble with Tribbles" disc in the TOS season 2 Blu-ray set, I understand how much of an undertaking making this episode was. Not just in getting the actor who originally played Arne Darvin in the original episode, Charlie Brill, to come back to reprise the role, but, also placing the DS9 characters seamlessly into the original footage from the 1967 episode of TOS. They also had to recreate the original Enterprise as well as Space Station K-7, and the Klingon Battle Cruiser, as the original effects from the '60s wouldn't hold up on 1996 television in a new episode. There's even a shot from the TOS episode, "Mirror, Mirror" from the end of the episode where Kirk meets the main universe's version of Marlena Moreau, whom he met in the Mirror Universe, which was altered to have Sisko take Marlena's place, so that Sisko could, after a fashion, meet Kirk, since the de-aging techniques that movies and TV shows use today, didn't exist back then, so they couldn't film a brand new scene with William Shatner and Avery Brooks together. 

Story wise, both episodes are pretty straightforward. The time travel in "Trials and Tribble-ations" is well explained with the Orb of Time from the Prophets, and even Tuvok's mind meld was an easy way to understand how Janeway and Tuvok ended up on the Excelsior with Tuvok taking the place of his younger self. 

I really like these two episodes. While "Flashback" is nostalgic for me because of when and where I first watched it, "Trials and Tribble-ations" is just a fun episode that blends TOS and DS9 together perfectly.

That's it for me for today. I'm not sure if I'm going to do other blog posts this week because I have to go for my annual ultrasound on Friday, I'm doing groceries tomorrow, and I'm getting ready for Ottawa Comiccon which is this weekend. I'm going on Sunday since I had to change my plans slightly due to the ultrasound happening early Friday morning. But, I'll be back here as soon as I possibly can. If I don't see you before Comiccon, have a great rest of the week and I will see you next week. Take care.