DC Comics's Star Trek Overview Part 11: Mini-series and One-Shots (1987-1996) (Finale)

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm pretty good. It's Wednesday, which means it's the final time I'll be writing about Star Trek comics published by DC Comics. When I began this series back in August I didn't know how often I would write these posts, how in depth they would be or if I would just stick to the four main series and their annuals and specials given that's what I'm most familiar with. But now, 11 weeks later, I'm wrapping it up because I've talked about the entire line except for these last few series that cover both Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation. So, one last time, let's get into it.

First up is Who's Who in Star Trek, which was a two issue mini-series that was published in 1987. It's basically an encyclopedia of every character in TOS, including the first DC comic book series that started in 1984. DC had done a series like this for the DC Universe, which celebrated the publisher's 50th anniversary in 1987. The first issue goes from A to Mc. I never had this issue.

I did have the second issue though. I got it as a birthday or Christmas present from my sister one year. This is the issue where I began to really understand just how big the early series was. At this point I'd only read Star Trek: The Mirror Universe Saga which collected issues 9-16 of the 1984 series and then issue #4, so I hadn't read any of the crew's missions on the Excelsior or the Enterprise-A from that series yet. This was in like 2005 or 2006, sometime either as I was still in high school or had already finished high school. 

Next up is Star Trek: The Modala Imperative, a four issue mini-series that DC published in July 1991. I've never read this mini-series, but according to Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki, the story has the Enterprise visiting a planet that Kirk visited when he was a younger officer, around the time that Captain Pike was in command of the Enterprise. It also tells how this mission was Chekov's first landing party, though according to Memory Alpha, the story's stardate places it concurrent with "The Menagerie Part I", which is before "Space Seed". But again, this is a comic book series so it's not canon with what we know of TOS lore, with Chekov having not joined the crew yet, or at the very least not having any association with the senior officers of the ship. 

Two months later, DC began publishing the sequel series, Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Modala Imperative, which has Spock and McCoy returning to Modala on the Enterprise-D at a time when Modala was fighting for independence. That's all I know from the short blurb on the Memory Alpha page for the first issue. For some reason I never got either of these mini-series, and I've never actually seen them out in the wild. At least, not the trade paperback or all of the single issues together. I think I found the first issue of the TOS series at a comic book sale once, but I didn't grab it.

Next up is Star Trek: Debt of Honor, which was published in 1992. It was a trade paperback sized one-shot graphic novel that took place between Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989). I already did a Comic Book Longbox post on this book months ago, so I won't go too indepth on this book here. I had two copies growing up. The first my dad bought for me, and the second I got as a gift from the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation when my parents and I visited the set in January 1993. This book was my introduction to the work of legendary comic book writer, Chris Claremont as I wouldn't read any X-Men comics until I was an adult, and Claremont didn't work on any of the Batman comics I had when I was a kid. 

Next was a four issue crossover mini-series between Star Trek: The Next Generation published by DC Comics, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a comic book series based on the third live action Star Trek TV series and published by Malibu Comics. Each publisher put out two issues with parts 1 and 4 published by DC and parts 2 and 3 published by Malibu.

I actually had part 4, which was the second issue published by DC when I was a kid. Despite it being the final part of a four issue mini-series I wasn't lost with what was going on. Being that, up to this point, the crossover mini-series was published from 1994 to 1995, I'd only been allowed to watch "Emissary", the pilot episode of DS9, I wasn't familiar with the characters, aside from Chief O'Brien since he'd been a character on TNG for the first five and a half seasons. It was a decent story though. While I'd gotten rid of my original copy before we moved in 2016, I picked up another copy at a comic book store that Brad and I went to the weekend right before we first into lockdown back in 2020.

Next was another four issue mini-series called Star Trek: The Next Generation: Shadowheart. I vaguely remember my dad having the first issue when I was eight or nine, but I never saw it again after the day he brought it home so I don't even know if he actually kept it or not. I just remember seeing the cover and holding the issue in my hands, as well as seeing the ad for it in one of my issues of the TNG ongoing monthly series. This was a Worf centered story that had to do with Klingons, Worf's adoptive brother, Nikolai Rozhenko, and his biological brother, Kurn. Because this mini-series started around the time that Star Trek Generations (1994) had come out in theatres, we'd already met Nikolai in the season 7 episode, "Homeward", which this mini-series takes place before. It wasn't like with the Star Trek: The Next Generation: Starfleet Academy YA series, where Worf's adoptive brother was named Simon.

And finally we have Star Trek: The Next Generation: Ill Wind, the last TNG four issue mini-series. Unlike the crossover with the DS9 comic and Shadowheart, I don't remember seeing Ill Wind advertised in my Star Trek comics. I think that's just because by the time it was coming out, I wasn't getting either series anymore. I also wasn't going to comic book stores yet so I never saw the issues on the racks. In fact, I haven't even seen this mini-series in back issue bins of the comic book stores that I have been to. So I'd be interested to find the mini-series as there's no collected edition for it as DC was just starting to do collected editions for their mainline story arcs, such as Batman: Contagion and Superman and Lois Lane's wedding by the time this mini-series ended in 1996. 

Not long after this mini-series ended, both the TOS and TNG monthlies ended and the comic book license for Star Trek transferred from DC and Malibu back to Marvel Comics, where it had gone when Star Trek: The Motion Picture came out in 1979. It would only be there until 1998 due to dwindling sales with the overflow of Star Trek comics coming out from the company. At least, according to Memory Alpha, that's the story everyone believes. 

Personally I think it's because by the late '90s Star Trek just wasn't as popular as it had been in the '80s and into the mid-'90s when TNG ended. The ratings for Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001) had been in a slow decline on UPN since the first season, hence why Seven of Nine, played by the wonderful Jeri Ryan, was introduced in season 4, and box office numbers were down for Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), despite that movie being directed by Jonathan Frakes, who had also directed Star Trek: First Contact (1996), and had been written by Michael Piller, the man who was responsible for TNG's success in the early '90s. Plus Playmates Toys's line of Star Trek toys had dropped as well, with them not even being sold in Canada. Aside from a couple of issues of Star Trek: Voyager, I didn't know much about the Marvel Comics line of Star Trek comics since I wasn't getting Star Trek: Communicator magazine yet, and I never saw them at the hospital gift shop the way I had the DC comics line. I also didn't have friends who were comic book readers in the late '90s the way I did in high school, college, and now, as an adult. Plus Marvel wasn't exactly everywhere the way it has been in the 2000s and the 2010s with the MCU and the Fox, Sony, and Universal Marvel movies.

And that is it my friends, the end of our journey through the DC Comics Star Trek comic book line that ran from 1984 until 1996. While 12 years is a long time, it's now been surpassed by IDW's comic book line which started in 2007, eleven years after DC's line ended.

I hope you all enjoyed this lengthy, indepth series. I had so much fun writing these posts. These are the comics that got me into comics when I was a kid and even now, thirty years after my dad first picked up Star Trek #31 and Star Trek: The Next Generation #31 at the local hobby store that he still goes to today, though it's in a different location than it was thirty years ago, the DC Comics Star Trek comics line is still my favourite comic book line of all time, even above the regular DC Universe series that I've read over the years. And I wanted to share that love with you in the hopes that you have as fond memories of this run as I do. I also wanted to share it with you in the hopes that if you haven't read these comics before you have been inspired to do so. 

That's gonna be it for me for now. But I'll be back soon with more blog stuff. Until then have a great night and I will talk to you all later. Take care.  

Power Rangers Reviews: Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997)

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty good for November 1st. I'm back with another Power Rangers review. Today I'm shifting into Turbo with Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie which came out in 1997, before Power Rangers Turbo began airing a few weeks later and served as the pilot for the season. So let's get into it.

Because the show's ratings had been revitalized with the shift from Mighty Morphin to Zeo, Saban decided the time was right for a second movie despite the fact that the kids who saw Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie in theatres only a year and a half before, had grown up and while the show's ratings had gone up, Power Rangers wasn't as popular as it had been between 1993 and 1995. And because Zeo was wrapping up the movie began filming before production on season 5, Power Rangers Turbo, began. Which makes sense since the movie was set up to lead into the fifth season. Which is also kind of a problem because, while the first episode of Power Rangers Turbo does a recap montage of the movie, but if you were unlucky enough to have missed seeing the movie in theatres, you might be have felt lost when you turned on the TV to watch the season premiere. 

I didn't get to see this movie when I was a kid. We didn't even own it on VHS. In fact I didn't see it until I found it on DVD for $5 at Walmart in early 2007. So when I began watching Power Rangers Turbo I wondered what had happened to the Zeo powers and the Zords, and why the Power Chamber looked brighter, with the MMPR costumes and Power Weapons replaced with columns of coloured light. So when I did watch the movie for the first time, I found out that the Rangers simply gave up their Zeo powers and exchanged them for Turbo powers, as well as exchanged Zords, and there's a very good explanation for the change in the Power Chamber. By the way, that "very good explanation" thing is a joke. If you've watched Power Rangers Super Megaforce (2014) you know why that's a joke. Anyways, there's no in universe explanation for why the Power Chamber looks different, though fans have had some theories over the years.

The biggest theory is that the Power Chamber that the Zeo Rangers used was located underground, due to the Rangers being tossed into the tunnels under the old Command Center building by the Zeo Crystal in the first episode of Power Rangers Zeo, and them stepping into the green mist goo didn't show whether they went up multiple levels. As for the Power Chamber used in Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie and Power Rangers Turbo, it's in the old Command Center building as shown in the season finale of Power Rangers Turbo, which I'll be getting to next week. But for the purposes of this review, they built the new Power Chamber set for this movie and then just kept it around for the TV show for the sake of continuity since this movie is in direct continuity with the TV show, unlike Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. Of course that didn't stop them from using stock footage of the Command Center exterior from the previous movie for the exterior of the Power Chamber, but it doesn't bother me anyway.

I've heard some people say they stopped watching Power Rangers during Turbo because the new Blue Ranger, Justin (played by the wonderful Blake Foster), was annoying. Personally, I never had an issue with Justin as a character in the TV show. He's only annoying in this movie because the script made him extremely annoying. But the TV show made him less annoying. But I mean, while the character is annoying in the movie, he's acting just like any kid his age would if they had just become a Power Ranger. I mean, Blake Foster is only a year and a half older than me, and like me, he watched Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, so not only was the actor excited to be playing a Power Ranger in a movie and on the TV show, but the character he plays, Justin, lived in Angel Grove and knew who the Power Rangers were, so naturally he was excited to be a Ranger. So I get it, even though I do think there were moments where he was a little too over the top in his excitement.

I do remember being surprised that Kimberly was in this movie when I saw the trailer for it on TV. Mainly because, even though I was ten years old at this point, it wasn't as easy to keep up with news about the franchise the way it is today. Social media didn't exist yet, and I didn't have access to the internet yet. Plus entertainment shows like Entertainment Tonight didn't talk about Power Rangers like they had back when the series started in 1993, and YTV didn't cover anything about Power Rangers anymore since it no longer aired the show. Seeing Jason didn't surprise me because he'd just given up the Gold Ranger powers and being that previous seasons had started out with six Rangers, I figured he would be in the movie since, as far as I knew, he was still on the show.

I don't have anything to say about Bulk & Skull in this movie, because like with the previous movie, they're pointless here. However, I would like to point out that this was the last appearance of Richard Genelle as Ernie as he left the show with this movie so he could deal with some personal stuff. He sadly passed away in 2008. I haven't talked about him in these reviews yet, but I loved Ernie as a character. He was friendly, and helped the Rangers out numerous times in the first four seasons of the show. Even when he was unknowingly helping out the Rangers by giving them things they needed to fight Rita's monsters. He also trusted the teens with the Youth Center when he had to step out for a moment.

Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie was released on VHS on July 8th, 1997, which was about midway through Power Rangers Turbo. Like I said, my parents didn't rent or buy this movie for me when I was a kid. 

As mentioned in my review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, it was released on DVD on a two sided disc with this movie in 2001. In 2003 both movies got individual DVD releases. This is the edition I have in my current collection. It was also re-released on DVD in 2011 and 2017.

Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie got a Blu-ray release in 2019. Because the Power Rangers: Seasons 4-7 DVD box set, which included Power Rangers Turbo, didn't get a re-release like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series had, this movie only has the one Blu-ray release.

Unlike Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, which had it's own merchandise line, including a toyline, the only merchandise Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie had was the movie on home video. No comic book adaptation, no toyline, nothing. And I think that's because there was such a short turnover between the end of filming for Power Rangers Zeo and the start of production on this movie that Bandai America just didn't have time to get a toyline out since they were already working on the toyline for Power Rangers Turbo and they couldn't just repurpose the show's toyline the way they had with the toyline for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie back in 1995. And I suppose they could've done the Turbo Megazord and then repackaged it as part of the TV show season 5 toyline the way they did it with the Ninja Megazord and the Falconzord in 1995, but they didn't have time since the Power Rangers Turbo toyline had to be out by the time the show started, less than a month after the movie's release.

 The problem with Turbo: A Power Ranger Movie is that it only made $9.6 million at the box office against an unknown budget. While the advertising for the movie was fine, it wasn't nearly as big as the advertising for the first movie had been. And because of that the general audience wasn't there the way they were for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie two years earlier. The fans were, and Power Rangers's fanbase is pretty sizeable and always has been, despite the franchise's niche nature. That's one of the reasons the 2017 movie didn't do well at the box office. While the fans were there for it, the general audience just wasn't. In the case of Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, it had several things against it. The first is that it was a Power Rangers movie, at a time when the franchise just wasn't the phenomenon it had started out as in 1993. The second is that it was a superhero movie coming out in 1997. The third is that it came out in March of 1997, when the Star Wars special editions were all still out in theatres with Return of the Jedi: The Special Edition having come out only two weeks earlier. Given a choice between seeing a Power Rangers movie or a Star Wars movie, I'd say most kids in 1997 would've chosen the Star Wars movies.

Overall this isn't a great movie and it's nowhere near as nostalgic for me like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie is, but it's a decent opening episode for Power Rangers Turbo, which is really what it should've been given that it was treated by both Saban and 20th Century Fox as a TV special rather than as a theatrical feature film like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie had been. It's okay, but it's not as good or as memorable as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie is. Which is fine. 

That's it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for the final part of my DC Comics's Star Trek Overview series and then I'll be back next week for my review of Power Rangers Turbo. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

Power Rangers Reviews: Power Rangers Zeo (1996)

 Hey everyone! Happy Halloween! How are you all doing today? I'm doing very well. I'm back for my review of Power Rangers Zeo (1996), a.k.a. season 4. So let's get right into it shall we?

Power Rangers Zeo is the last season of Power Rangers that I watched the entirety of as it aired until Power Rangers Ninja Storm came out in 2003. I was nine years old when this season started airing and was getting into my 10s/teen years and being that I went to schools that were intolerant as it was, I distanced myself from Power Rangers for fear of being bullied for still loving it as much as I did. Particularly because I didn't have any friends who were into it the way I was. Until 2001 when I started high school. But I'll get to that in my reviews of the early to mid-2000s seasons. 

I firmly believe that Zeo is an underrated season and is often dismissed as just a continuation of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993-1995). It had alot to accomplish and even though it did the best it could, the show was starting to drop in popularity, which was a downward spire that began after Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie came out in the summer of 1995. Hence why Saban chose to finally change costumes after three seasons of the Rangers using the same suits and arsenal despite getting new powers and Zords every season. In fact, Zeo also changed villains entirely too, though Rita and Zedd do return in the back end of the season, around the time that Jason returned to be the Gold Ranger. Which, by the way, being that I haven't watched the entire season like this since it was airing back in 1996, I was actually surprised at just how late in the season it is when the Gold Ranger actually shows up.

In most seasons of Power Rangers the sixth Ranger or extra warrior, depending on the season, usually shows up around episode 17 or 18, especially in the longer seasons such as the first two seasons of Mighty Morphin. The post 2009 seasons, which were only 22 episodes long, bring the sixth Ranger in around the seventh or eighth episode. But here, the Gold Ranger doesn't show up until episode 27 and then Jason doesn't get the Gold Ranger powers from Trey of Triforia until episode 34, which is more than halfway through the season. Sure the season is only 50 episodes long, but for the sixth Ranger to not show up until more than halfway through such a long season is unusual.

I also felt surprise at just how late in the season it is when Billy leaves the show permanently. Well, not so permanently now since he's returning for the MMPR 30th Anniversary Special next year, but back in 1996, it felt pretty permanent. At the time we didn't know why. It wouldn't be until years later that we'd find out why David Yost left the show. And sadly, it's for disturbing reasons, which I won't go into here, but if you're a Power Rangers fan, you know why he left. Anyways, Billy left the show with only two episodes left after his departure episode. He left in the second part of a two part episode called "Rangers of Two Worlds", which is the very first fully blown team-up episode where the previous season's Ranger team and villains return to team up with the current season's Ranger team and villains. But because five out of the six Zeo Rangers were originally the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Amy Jo Johnson (Kimberly), Walter Jones (Zack), Thuy Trang (Trini), and Karan Ashley (Aisha) either weren't available or just weren't invited (typical Saban move) the Aquitian Rangers from Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers came back instead. Actually, it's because Chouriki Sentai Ohranger, the Sentai series that Zeo took it's ground fight, Zord Battle, and villains footage from had a crossover movie with Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, the Sentai that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 3 and Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers got it's Zord Battle footage from and Ranger suit footage from, it made sense to bring in the Aquitian Rangers.

One thing I enjoyed about this season is that the Rangers's school lives was the focus of the early part of the season, with various school assignments, that led to King Mondo getting inspiration from for his schemes, being the main plot of these episodes. And every Ranger got an episode of their own too. I mean Tanya got two episodes in very close proximity to each other. 

One complaint I've heard from people is that Tommy had nothing to do once he became the Red Ranger. Um, yeah, because the writers finally realized that this is Power Rangers not the Tommy Oliver Show Featuring the Power Rangers. So much of the first two seasons of Mighty Morphin focused so heavily on Tommy simply because entitled kids refused to eat until they brought Tommy back. And you know what, those kids are probably the same entitled jerks who made fun of me for being a geek in high school, and are probably being jerks to people now that they're adults too, so the fact that they basically bullied the writers into bringing back a character, who had a cool costume and a cool Zord, but otherwise wasn't any better than the other five Rangers, or even that interesting a character for that matter, is a bit maddening. 

Don't get me wrong, Tommy did have a few solid episodes this season. It's just the writers didn't feel the need to cater to the "Tommy Oliver is the BEST Ranger!" crowd and focused on other Rangers. Though I do sort of feel like Kat got shafted hard this season, after being a huge focus in the last few episodes of Mighty Morphin, though she did have one or two decent episodes. Rocky and Adam were actually better this season. Adam did anyway, Rocky had some moments that were dumb at best, problematic at worst, but again, not here to talk about that kind of thing.

Bulk, Skull, and Lieutenant/Detective Stone were almost completely separated from the Rangers this season. Their subplots were completely apart from the Rangers this season and that made it a better season because, as I stated in my season 1 review, there were alot of episodes in the early days that felt longer when they took five minutes for Bulk & Skull's slapstick humour in what was meant to be a serious and intense scene. And I think that in this season more than any other, Bulk & Skull saw the most growth as people. 

My one negative with this season is that way too much was happening in the second half of the season and we barely got any "human moments" out of the Rangers. By that I mean they spent a good chunk of time morphed, at the Power Chamber, or morphed AND at the Power Chamber. As I have said in many comic book and comic book based TV show and movie reviews, I'm not watching these shows and movies for the big, prolonged, superhero vs supervillain battles. I watch them for the characters and their stories because at the end of the day these shows and movies should be about people rather than superpowers and fight scenes, but that's a rant for another day. 

 As mentioned before, Zeo was adapted from the 19th Super Sentai series, Chouriki Sentai Ohranger, which from everything I've heard about it was the most serious, most intense, Sentai series ever made. I've never seen it so I don't know if that's actually true or not, but trust me, there are some ridiculous scenes in Zeo that are from Ohranger, not shot for specifically for Power Rangers. This is also the first season of Power Rangers that uses footage from a single season of Sentai since Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 1 since the second and third seasons used a combination of Zyuranger, Zyu2, Dairanger, and Kakuranger. It's also the first season to use mainly Sentai footage of the villains inside their base of operations since the villains this season aren't just Rita and Zedd again like they were for all of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers. The only time original footage was shot of the villains was in the back end of the season because Prince Gasket, the eldest son of King Mondo and Queen Machina, is the older version of Prince Sprocket (Mondo and Machina's younger son) in Ohranger and since Sprocket didn't transform into Gasket and appeared in scenes together, they had to shoot all new footage of the two of them together.

As Zeo reached its halfway mark, Saban began production on another TV show for Fox Kids called Big Bad Beetleborgs, which premiered on September 7th, 1996, two days before Power Rangers Zeo episode 21, "Brother, Can You Spare an Arrowhead?" aired. Adapted from the Metal Hero Tokusatsu series, Juukou B-Fighter (1995-1996), Big Bad Beetleborgs is about three kids, Drew, Jo, and Roland, who become superheroes known as the Beetleborgs, after they enter a haunted mansion, meet a phasm named Flabber, who is basically the Genie from Aladdin, and he grants them their wish of becoming their favourite comic book superheroes, the Big Bad Beetleborgs to fight the Magnavores, villains from the comics. I loved Big Bad Beetleborgs when I was a kid, because it focused more on the comedy and the everyday stuff rather than the monster of the week aspect that the early seasons of Power Rangers focused on. This will be a post all of it's own, don't worry.

Of course, Zeo had it's own toyline. It was a much larger toyline since Bandai America could release all of the weapons, Zords, morphers, villains, and Ranger figures, which they hadn't really done since the first season of Mighty Morphin since Rangers and villains carried over from season to season. I only had two figures from this line, and I didn't get them until I was an adult. I got rid of them after my parents and I moved in 2016 though because I decided to focus on building my Mighty Morphin Power Rangers toy collection. 

While Mighty Morphin Power Rangers had books, comic books, toys, puzzles, playing cards, pogs, clothing, VHS tapes, and audiocassettes/CDs that were released from 1993 until 1995, Saban severely scaled back on the merchandise for Power Rangers Zeo. In fact the season had a single comic book issue and that's it. Published by Image Comics on September 1st, 1996 and was actually Rita and Zedd's first appearance in the continuity of Zeo since episode 2, "A Zeo Beginning Part II" as they wouldn't reappear on the show, outside of Adam's dream in episode 23, "It Came From Angel Grove", until Jason becomes the Gold Ranger. This issue has the Zeo Rangers teaming up with Rita and Zedd to prevent the Machine Empire from using the residual Mighty Morphin energies leftover from Rita and Zedd destroying the Ninja Power Coins in the third episode of Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers. This issue was supposed to be the first in an ongoing series, with a changing title as Power Rangers Zeo was only the show's title for one season, but for some unknown reason Image Comics lost the Power Rangers license before the issue even came out and this ended up being the only one despite it ending on a cliffhanger. But with notorious comic book artist, Rob Liefeld, being credited as the editor on this book, I can see why Image lost the license. 

Only two VHS tapes were released for this season. Power Rangers Zeo: Zeo Quest is the first and it's mostly bits and pieces of the Rangers's Zeo Quests from Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers and then the two part premiere of Zeo, "A Zeo Beginning" and then Zeo's Halloween episode, "It Came From Angel Grove" had a VHS release, and that's it for the season. This fuels my theory that Power Rangers became less popular after Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie came out until it became the niche superhero franchise that it is today. Because at the height of it's popularity in 1994 and 1995, during the end of the first season and during the second season, MMPR had so much merchandise coming out from clothing to comic books, AND a theatrical feature film, so to have things scaled back, particularly on the home video front is interesting.

Power Rangers Zeo was released on DVD in two volumes. The first volume, containing the first 25 episodes of the season, was released on November 12th 2013 and the second volume, which contained episodes 26 to 50, was released on February 11th, 2014. I got both volumes from my friend Kelly a few years ago when I was still staying at her place for the weekend twice a year. 

Zeo was also released as part of the Power Rangers: Seasons 4-7 DVD boxset, along with Turbo, In Space, and Lost Galaxy in the summer of 2013, along with tons of bonus features. From what I can see online, all six discs were in one case rather than split up into volumes. One of the bonus features was Power Rangers: The Lost Episode, which was the 1999 airing of the original pilot version of "Day of the Dumpster" hosted by Austin St. John and Walter Emmanuel Jones. 

Overall I enjoyed watching Zeo all the way through for the first time since 1996. It was interesting, fun, funny in places, and I never got bored of it like I started to be by the end of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 3. As I said at the beginning of this review, Zeo is a very underrated season of Power Rangers and it often seems to get dismissed as just a continuation of MMPR even though it's more than just that. Because, it is a continuation, no matter how you look at it. But it's a continuation that opened up the Power Rangers Universe in a way that MMPR was barely able to do by the end of it's run. And the franchise would continue to do so until 2011, but I'll get there when I get there.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for my review of Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997) as it's next in the sequence. My plan is to finish the first six seasons, with Turbo and In Space, by the end of November and then I'll take a break and get into some movie and comic book reviews before returning to Power Rangers in the New Year. So until tomorrow, have a great evening, Happy Halloween, and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

DC Comics's Star Trek Overview Part 10: Star Trek: The Next Generation Specials (1993-1995)

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I started watching Power Rangers Zeo last night so look out for that review on Monday. I know, it's Halloween but I'm not a big Halloween person, so I don't have any other plans that day. So here I'll be, talking about a 26 year old season of television from my childhood instead. But that's on Monday. Today I'm here for the penultimate part in my DC Comics's Star Trek overview where I'll be talking about the three Special issues for Star Trek: The Next Generation. This is actually the last segment to focus on a particular comic book series. For the finale I'll be talking about various miscellaneous mini-series for both TOS and TNG that came out during the twelve years that DC Comics had the Star Trek comic book license. But for now, let's dive into TNG on it's own one final time. Let's do it.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Special #1 is the only one I've ever owned. Same with Star Trek Special #1, which I talked about in an earlier post. And because I still have it in my collection, I can talk about it at a much greater length than I can the other two issues. There are three stories in the issue. The first has an away team from the Enterprise-D dealing with problems on a Federation colony where these little ape-like creatures use their telepathic powers to ignite the worst fears and desires in the colonists as well as the away team which consists of Commander Riker, Doctor Crusher, Lieutenant Worf, and Guinan. As well as two officers, one in medical and the other in security, who are one off characters for this story. The second story has Worf and his son, Alexander, on shore leave so that Alexander can go through a Klingon rite of passage, which are always interesting to see. There are also two pin-up pieces of art. One is of the Enterprise-D and her crew, and the other is of Tasha Yar facing off with Armus, the alien being made of an oil slick that killed Tasha in the season 1 episode, "Skin of Evil". The final story is about Spot, Data's cat, and his journey around the corridors of the ship after escaping from Data's quarters during Data's conversation with Worf. 

The second issue also has three stories. The first story has to do with Ensign Ro saving Riker's life in a situation similar to what she went through prior to her debut in the season 5 episode, "Ensign Ro". The second story is basically a follow-up to the one-shot graphic novel, Star Trek: Debt of Honor, as it features two of the main characters of that book, Jamie Finney, the daughter of Kirk's friend Benjamin Finney, and Commander Kor from the TOS episode, "Errand of Mercy". According to the synopsis on Memory Alpha, the two of them have to redeem their honor in the 24th Century. The third story is about Captain Morgan Bateson, played by Kelsey Grammer in the TNG season 5 episode, "Cause and Effect", having difficulty adjusting to life in the 24th Century. He ends up getting some help from Montgomery Scott, who has also recently found himself living in the 24th Century after being rescued by the crew of the Enterprise-D in the season 6 episode, "Relics". Since I never owned this issue, that's all I have to say about it.

The final issue only has two stories. The first one is a typical story you'd see in a TNG novel or comic published in the '90s. There's a murderer running around, killing all of the officers who had been the chief engineer of the Enterprise-D and Geordi is the next target. Meanwhile Picard is trying to negotiate a trade agreement. According to Memory Alpha this story is based off of an unused story considered for the TV series sometime in the early '90s, as this issue came out in 1995, after the TV series had ended and Star Trek Generations (1994) had been released in theatres. It was also written by Michael DeMeritt, who was a second unit director on Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001), so that's cool. The final story, according to Memory Alpha, has Lieutenant Robin Lefler, Wesley Crusher's girlfriend, showing Scotty around the Enterprise-A, which is in the Starfleet Museum at Starbase 122, but they have to deal with Captain Koloth, who wants revenge on Scotty for the Tribbles thing in the TOS episode, "The Trouble with Tribbles". Memory Alpha says this story takes place between "Relics" and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode, "Blood Oath", which, spoilers, saw the deaths of both Koloth and Kang.

That's it for this part of the overview. There's one more part to go but that'll have to wait until next week. Until then look forward to my review of Power Rangers Zeo on Monday, and I'll probably have one or two other posts this week and next week too. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

The Sword in the Stone (1963) Movie Review

 Hey everyone! Happy Friday! How're you all doing today? I'm doing pretty well. Well, I ended up not getting my booster shot today, so I'm here to do that movie review that I promised you all that I'd do today if I didn't get my booster. That movie is Walt Disney's 1963 classic, The Sword in the Stone, directed by Disney Animation veteran, Wolfgang Reitherman, and with a story by Disney Story veteran, Bill Peet. I watched the 1991 Walt Disney Classics VHS release before bed last night. Let's get into it.

The Sword in the Stone is one of those movies that I have come to appreciate more as an adult than I did when I was a kid. Mainly because the Wizard's Duel scene between Merlin and Mad Madam Mim scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. In fact the entire Mad Madam Mim sequence scared me when I was four or five years old, which is basically when I saw it for the first time because it was either in late 1991 or in early 1992 when I first saw the movie since we were still living in the city, and the movie had been re-released on home video as part of the Walt Disney Classics in July of 1991. Watching it as an adult though, I really enjoyed it.

One of the most fascinating things about this movie is the fact that Merlin has knowledge of the future and tries to force that knowledge onto Wart, despite Wart being from medieval times and not understanding these futuristic things because they aren't available in what is the present day of the movie. It'd be like trying to teach me about warp engines or transporters or other technology that doesn't exist for us here in the year 2022. I'm not going to understand any of it. And that's how it ended up being for Wart in this movie. Which is interesting to see. 

Merlin isn't as good of a character as the three fairies from Sleeping Beauty, but he's pretty good. I like his interactions with Mad Madam Mim both before and during the Wizard's Duel. In fact that whole sequence is incredible. Though I think Merlin accepted Mim's challenge because if he hadn't there would've been no point to Mim being in the movie and there wouldn't've been an action sequence in the movie at all. 

Many of the voice cast is pretty familiar as those that are have been in other Disney animated movies both before and after this. Like Jimmy Macdonald, who does the voice of the Wolf (no dialogue) was the second voice of Mickey Mouse once Walt Disney stopped voicing the character. And of course I can't forget Sebastian Cabot and Junius Matthews. Sebastian Cabot narrated the first three Winnie the Pooh shorts, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966), Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974), as well as the 1977 movie which was a compilation of those three shorts, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. He also voiced Bagheera in The Jungle Book. Junius Matthews voiced Rabbit in the Winnie the Pooh shorts and the compilation movie before his death necessitated him being replaced by Will Ryan for the fourth, and final, Winnie the Pooh short, Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore (1983).

Oh, and Sir Pellinore, Ector's friend who tells Ector and Kay about the jousting tournament was voiced by Alan Napier, the actor who played Alfred on Batman (1966-1968) and in Batman: The Movie (1966), and the great grandfather of James Napier, the actor who played Connor, the Red Ranger on Power Rangers Dino Thunder (2004). I had completely forgotten that Napier voiced Sir Pellinore in this movie so when I heard him speak his voice was familiar but I couldn't quite place it since it's slightly deeper than it is on Batman. Not too much deeper, but just enough that you wouldn't recognize it without looking it up on Wikipedia or IMDB. 

Speaking of that fourth short, it was released theatrically alongside the 1983 theatrical re-release of The Sword in the Stone. Which is pretty cool.

Honestly I think this movie did with Merlin what Aladdin (1992) would do with the Genie 29 years later. They're both magical, they both act as a mentor to the lead character, and they both have to save the lead from the villainous character of the movie. 

Originally released on VHS on March 25th, 1986 as part of the Walt Disney Classics lineup, The Sword in the Stone was re-released on July 12th, 1991 in that same lineup. As I mentioned earlier, I saw the movie on VHS sometime in either late 1991 or early 1992. We never owned it but we rented it instead. I found a copy of the 1991 VHS release at a local thrift store when I was out with Brad on Tuesday. I had also previously found the 1994 Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection VHS release not that long ago either, as well as the 2008 DVD release too. I watched the 1991 VHS release for the purpose of this review last night. There aren't any previews before the movie, just the Walt Disney Classics logo. Which is what I suspected when I did my Walt Disney Classics overview on The Review Basement two years ago. So it's neat to experience it for myself after 30 years. 

Overall I really enjoyed watching The Sword in the Stone again. It's not the best Disney animated movie, but it's still really good and pretty fun to watch. Even though we only rented it once when I was a kid, I actually had the storybook adaptation of the movie that Disney put out in the '90s, so I read it quite often. Of course it's on Disney+ so if you've never seen it, I recommend giving it a watch.

Alright my friends that's it for me for this week. I will be back next week with more posts, including a few more comic book reviews as well as the second to last part in my DC Comics's Star Trek overview, and a potential post on the mid-season premiere of Star Trek: Prodigy, which is finally returning after six months of not being on. So until then have a great night and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

Batman '89 (2022) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty good. I'm back with a comic book review. Today I'm taking a look at the 2022 hardcover collection, and the story it collects, Batman '89 by Sam Hamm with art by Joe Quinones. I got the hardcover on Tuesday during an unexpected outing with my best friend, Brad. Because the book is still fairly new, I'm not going to give too many spoilers, if any. So let's get into it.

For those of you who don't know, for the last nine years DC Comics has been publishing comic book series based on their TV and movies based on their characters. They've kind of been doing this for years as they've been doing it with their animated shows since The Batman Adventures, based on Batman: The Animated Series, began publication in 1992, but aside from comic book adaptations of some of their movies, DC didn't publish anything based on their shows and movies until they began publishing the comic book series based on Arrow (2012-2020) in 2013. That same year DC began publishing Batman '66, a comic book series based on the original 1966 TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward, and that's kind of where things began to kick off for comic book series based on DC's TV show and movie properties as they went on to publish Superman '78 and Wonder Woman '77 along with series based on The CW's The Flash and Supergirl. 

Batman '89 is a six issue limited series written by Sam Hamm, who wrote the script for Batman (1989) and the first draft or two for Batman Returns (1992). It's based on ideas that Hamm had come up with with Tim Burton for the movie that became Batman Forever (1995) when Burton was going to direct it and Michael Keaton was going to be Batman in it. Which is a pretty cool idea. Especially because Michael Keaton's return as Batman in the movies has been reduced to being in The Flash (2023) since Batgirl got canceled. But that's neither here nor there.

This series takes place a few years after the events of Batman Returns and Gotham has gotten worse. It's not specified how many years after Batman Returns but it's been enough time that Bruce Wayne has a bit of gray in his hair that wasn't there in the 1992 film. Though Catwoman still looks like Michelle Pfeiffer would've in 1994 or 1995, whenever her Catwoman movie spin-off would've come out had that gone forward. It's also been long enough that Harvey Dent, who was played by Billy Dee Williams in the 1989 film, has started to grow corrupt and begins to hate Batman and Commissioner Gordon. Though it hasn't been so long that Harvey looks the way Billy Dee looked in the mid to late '90s rather than how he looks now. 

Speaking of Commissioner Gordon, he was played by Pat Hingle in the four Batman movies that came out between 1989 and 1997, but the Commissioner Gordon in this series doesn't look like Pat Hingle at all. In fact he looks more like the version of the character from Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995). Oh and apparently Harvey is dating, and later becomes engaged to, Barbara Gordon, the Commissioner's daughter, who is normally Batgirl and then Oracle in the DC Universe. 

If you've read the scripts for both movies, and the comic book that he wrote and DC published in 1989, Batman: Blind Justice, then you can tell that this was written by Sam Hamm. It's well written but things escalate pretty quickly for basically no reason and the pacing is super fast, almost as if he was writing a movie script or a one shot comic book rather than a six issue limited series. The artwork is also spot on, except for, like I said, Commissioner Gordon for some reason. 

I think it's cool that Bruce was able to fix the Batmobile since it had been pretty badly damaged in Batman Returns. I also like that Bruce still has the original Batsuit from the 1989 movie as well as the suit he had in the 1992 movie. It's in line with Batman in the comics, because he has kept every Batsuit he's ever worn and even goes back to older ones sometimes. To be clear, he's still wearing the Batman Returns Batsuit in this series, but you do see the previous suit hanging up in the Batcave as well as the Batarangs from both movies, which is neat to see. 

I don't think I have much more to say without giving away spoilers, but I enjoyed this book. It was interesting to see plans for a third Batman movie that ultimately never got made come to fruition in comic book form. Even though Keaton is returning as Batman in The Flash, it would be more difficult to do a third movie directed by Tim Burton today as the casts from the first two movies are either not with us anymore (Pat Hingle and Michael Gough) or are much older than they were thirty years ago. Oh and neither Alexander Knox, nor Vicky Vale are in this series either. I definitely recommend checking this book out if you have the chance. It's a pretty good six issue story.

That's it for me for today my friends. I might or might not be back tomorrow for a movie review. It's going to depend on whether I end up going to get my booster shot in the morning or not. If I do, my arm is gonna be stiff and sore, so I'm not going to feel like doing the review. So if I'm not back for a movie review tomorrow then have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

DC Comics's Star Trek Overview Part 9: Star Trek: The Next Generation Annuals (1990-1995)

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Wednesday. Today we'll be talking about the Annuals for DC Comics's Star Trek: The Next Generation comic book series. I've only read half of these issues so I won't be able to provide much detail for three out of the six issues. In other words this could possibly be a short post. Let's get into it.

All of these annuals came out in conjunction with the annuals for the TOS comic book series that was running concurrently with this series, so publication details are exactly the same as the TOS annuals. Based on the cover I can tell that TNG Annual #1 is a Q story, written by Q himself, John De Lancie, which makes sense since George Takei (Sulu) wrote the TOS Annual #1 that came out at the same time as this issue. I actually don't mind it when an actor from the Star Trek shows and movies writes a Star Trek novel or comic since they know the characters pretty well. Especially when they were playing the characters.

Annual #2 is a Riker story and has something to do with him meeting an old childhood friend according to Memory Alpha. This is another one that I've never owned or have found anywhere. If I do find it and end up picking it up then I'll do a full review on it.

Up next is Annual #3 and this is the first TNG Annual I ever got. In it Geordi goes to a planet that he'd been to as a young ensign as a friend of Geordi's from that world, reports that his mother is acting strange for some reason and so are many people on his world's ruling council. It turns out they've been infested by the Yeerks....excuse me, I mean the alien parasites from the TNG season 1 episode, "Conspiracy". These parasites were never seen on any of the shows after that one episode and I don't think they've appeared in any novels or any other comic book series. I don't have this issue anymore so I haven't read it in years. I remember liking it.

Annual #4 is my favourite of the six annuals. It has Trills, Romulans, Andorians, a saucer separation, Picard being forced to be host to a Trill criminal's symbiont, and Riker once again trying to outmaneuver Picard as he did in "The Best of Both Worlds Part II" when Picard was assimilated and operating as Locutus. It also sees the return of Ambassador Odan, the Trill we met in the season 4 episode, "The Host". Now this issue came out in 1993, before too much of Trill society had been developed and fleshed out on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. So there are some discrepancies in this issue that would be ignored once the Trill took a more active role on DS9. I still have this issue in my collection.

Annual #5 is the last issue I got when I was a kid. I don't have it in my collection anymore but I did enjoy it. After the Enterprise-D investigates an abandoned space station near an unstable natural phenomenon, Data is killed when the phenomenon strikes the unshielded station and the Enterprise. The rest of the issue is Geordi trying to repair Data and the ship since most of the Enterprise's systems were knocked offline during the blast that disrupted Data.

Annual #6 is the final issue of the annuals. It's also one I didn't have when I was a kid. The story is a direct continuation of the Convergence storyline started in Star Trek Annual #6. Of all the Star Trek annuals I haven't read this one and TOS Annual #6 are probably the ones I want to read the most. Just because it's a TOS/TNG crossover that doesn't happen all that often in Star Trek in general. 

That's all for the TNG annuals. Next week I'll be talking about the three TNG Specials and the following week I'll be wrapping up this overview with miscellaneous Star Trek comic book series that DC published between 1984 and 1996 and don't fit into either of the main series, TOS or TNG. I'll also be back with a comic book review. So until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you later. Take care.