Book Review - Planet of the Apes: Tales from the Forbidden Zone

Next up for the month is a return to the Planet of the Apes. It’s been a while since I’ve talked about the franchise. Even though it’s a somewhat solid franchise, I haven’t done much in looking at things outside the movies. I haven’t even watched the animated TV series and the live-action TV series yet. Before you ask, yes, they do exist. A few months ago, I was having a bit of an itch for some POTA stuff. I finally watched the latest movie (War for the Planet of the Apes). I also found out about today’s pick, Plant of the Apes: Tales from The Forbidden Zone.

This book was released last year by Titan Books. It contains 16 short stories from modern writers about the original POTA movies. There are even stories about both TV series. Most of them fill in things or give backstories to certain characters. The rest end up being “what-if” stories or just weird stories.  Dan Abnett, Kevin J. Anderson, Ty Templeton, Greg Cox, and Paul Kupperburg were just some of the writers in this collection. They were also the only ones I recognized from other works. Rich Handley and Jim Beard ended up being the editors to the collection.

Planet of the Apes: Tales from the Forbidden Zone

Editors: Rich Handley and Jim Beard

Writers: Various

BRIEF BLURB: This collection of short stories look at the original Planet of the Apes movies and TV shows. Some include backstories, continuations of canceled shows, what-if stories, and stories that look at other types of apes.

Random Thoughts On... Star Wars: The Dark Empire Trilogy

So, Solo: A Star Wars Story was released this weekend. Some of my favorite movie reviewers (Jeremy Jahns, Chris Stuckmann) didn’t have great things to say about the movie. Since I'm off work for the weekend, I thought I'd take a bite and go see it for myself. It was okay for the most part and surprising in a couple of places. Today’s post isn’t about the nerf-herding pilot with a nice smile, though. It’s time to, once again, jump back into the original Expanded Universe, aka “Legends.” Today, it’s Tom Veitch’s Dark Empire Trilogy.

Star Wars: Dark Empire, a six-issue miniseries, was released by Dark Horse in 1991. It was originally supposed to be released by Marvel, but things didn’t work out. Also, the writer, Tom Veitch, had to work things out with other writers like Timothy Zahn and Kevin J. Anderson because they were also doing things in the Expanded Universe. Its sequel, Dark Empire II, was released in 1994. The final story, Empire’s End, was released a year later. Tom Veitch wrote all three books. The artwork for the first two was provided by Cam Kennedy while Empire’s End had artwork done by Jim Balkie.

For some reason, this image of Luke in the Vader mask has stuck with me for years.

 It was around 2004 or 2005 when I first heard about Dark Empire. I actually found Dark Empire II at MTSU’s library. I was searching for something Star Wars-related and I found it in the young section. A few years later, I again ran into the Dark Empire Trilogy (which collected Dark Empire, Dark Empire II, and Empire’s End) at Pulaski’s public library. I didn’t finish reading it, though. Over the years, I’ve added the first two entries to my collection. Since Marvel has Star Wars now, all of their Expanded Universe series is on Marvel Unlimited. I was able to finally finish off the trilogy there. Since Empire’s End was only two issues, that was easy to do… a little too easy.

Tales From The Trades! - Iron Man: Armor Wars

I know I've said this, but I think Iron Man’s an alright character. Even with the Iron Man movies out there, I just don’t feel drawn to the character of Tony Stark. I even got one of his most important storylines ("Demon in A Bottle") on the shelf and I still haven’t read it yet. Maybe I’ll finally crack it open after this month’s over. Even though I haven’t been the biggest fan of Stark, I thought Matt Fraction’s run (the parts I read anyway) were pretty good. I’ve even liked his moments in certain Marvel events. Plus, there’s that Robert Downey Jr. dude who’s making the waves. Then, there’s this story.

Iron Man: Armor Wars contains Iron Man #225-232. The actual storyline is called “Stark Wars,” but I guess “Armor Wars” just stuck out or something. I found this at McKay’s  years ago and thought I’d finally check it out. David Michelinie and Bob Layton handled the story. Both of these writers had done a lot with Iron Man during the 70’s and 80’s. M.D. Bright handled the breakdowns while Layton handled the finishes in the main story. Barry Winsdor-Smith handles the art for #332. So, what does happen when Tony Stark finds out IM tech has been pilfered? He becomes a bit of a douchebag as usual.

Iron Man: Armor Wars

Writers: David Michelinie and Bob Layton

Pencils: M.D. Bright and Barry Winsdor-Smith (#232)

Inks: Bob Layton

Colors: Bob Sharen, Nel Yomtov, and Barry Winsdor-Smith (#232)

Letters: Janice Chang and Bill Oakley (#232)

Editor: Mark Gruenwald

Tales From The 50 Cent Bin! - The World of Krypton

Next up for the month is a return to the world of Superman. Maybe I should say Superman’s world? He does have more than one, you know. There’s Earth, Lois, “MARTHA!!!”, and a little planet called Krypton. Usually, when we see Krypton show up in the comics, it’s there to get “blowed up real good!” Not many stories center on what Krypton was before its destruction, though. They’re few and far between. You did have some stories in the 70’s about Krypton’s past. You’ve had a couple of modern stories. Then, there’s today’s subject.

Today’s pick is the 1987 miniseries, The World of Krypton. When DC rebooted Superman’s timeline, all of that history was thrown out. This left John Byrne, the head writer on the Superman books at that time, to rebuild everything from scratch. Instead of a utopian-like planet in space, Byrne made Krypton into a cold, dying, emotionless planet. If you’ve recently visited comic stores, DC reprinted the first issue when Krypton, a new Syfy show, premiered. By the way, I still haven’t watched that show yet.

I found all four issues in the cheap bin years ago. It’s one that I’ve held off of reading for a while. I guess I was waiting for a time like this. John Byrne handled all the writing for the 4-issue mini. Handling the pencils was Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy. Rick Bryant was the inker for the first three issues while Carlos Garzon handled the last issue. So, how did a lively, utopian-like planet become such a stale, soulless place?

Superman: The World of Krypton

Writer: John Byrne

Pencils: Mike Mignola

Inks: Rick Bryant and Carlos Garzon

Colors: Petra Scotese

Letters: John Workman

Editor: Mike Carlin

Favorites - Favorite Star Trek Episodes Involving Time Travel

Well, this didn’t take long to put together. As I said in my last list, Star Trek made time travel into a fine art. All of the series (even Discovery) have conducted in some time travel. While most of the episodes tend to be good, some of them tend to be the best the franchise ever produced. Trek has pretty much run the gamut with these stories, so finding 15 of them would be hard to do. I was going to try and rank them, but that ain’t happening. I will put my favorite up top though. If I leave one off, just know that it’s just my opinion.

1. TNG’s “All Good Things…”

I might as well start the list off with one of the best last episodes ever. It’s also a good time travel episode. In the episode, Captain Picard is somehow being transported between the past, present, and future. While the past sequence should be familiar to fans of the first season, the future is something else. It is the future, after all. I won’t spoil anything here but he does find out who caused it and why it’s happening. It ties into someone he met during the first season. It’s truly one of the best.

2. Star Trek: DS9’s “Trials and Tribble-lations”

It’s the meeting of two crews, sort of. The episode takes place during the fifth season of the show. In it, Someone uses an orb of the Prophets to send The USS Defiant to the 23rd century during TOS’s “The Trouble With Tribbles.” In order to find out who is behind it and keep the timeline safe, the crew has to integrate itself into the crew of the 23rd century. They literally go all out on this. The scenes where the DS9 crew interacts with the TOS crew are pretty cool and still hold up now. It’s an episode that honors both eras of Trek.

3. Star Trek’s “City on the Edge of Forever”

This is considered to be one of the best episodes from franchise and it’s easy to see why. In the episode, the Enterprise finds the Guardian of Forever, a sentient time portal. When a crazed McCoy goes back in time and changes history, Kirk and Spock must go back and set things right. Things get a little complicated when they find out what they need to do, though. It’s an episode that has both Kirk and Spock at their best. It also has a nice but tragic romance. It’s definitely one of the best from the series and the franchise as a whole.

4. Star Trek: First Contact

This was the 8th movie from the franchise and the second one involving the TNG crew. In the movie, the Borg try to take over Earth by going back into the year 2063. The Enterprise-E follows them and does what it can to stop them. Not only does the crew have to stop the Borg, they need to help Earth achieve first contact with aliens. It’s part “Borg Shoot ‘Em Up” mixed with running into “great” men from history. It revamps the Borg in good ways and bad (The Borg Queen is okay). The crew itself and the folk from the past also make it a good watch.

TV Talk - Battlestar Galactica Season 3

Next up for the month is a return to that ragtag fleet that’s being chased by really attractive robots. Yes, it’s Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica. It aired between October of 2006 and March of 2007. Unlike the previous season, this one was more like a regular TV show since there wasn’t a big break between episodes. At this point, I was all in with BSG. With Season 2 ending the way it did, you know I had to come back for more. Luckily, little got in the way of my watching. I might had missed three or four episodes overall. I don’t know why but this season took a while for me to re-watch.

Hmm… so how do I describe this season without revealing what happened at the end of Season 2? That’s simple; I don’t. So, Season 2 ended with fleet finding a habitable world and colonizing it. A year later, the Cylon fleet finds them. What ships that were left airborne jumped out of there and whoever was left on New Caprica was in the hands of the Cylons. The Cylons end up being “benevolent rulers” over humanity. During that time, some of our regulars like Tigh, Tyrol, and Anders (who’s more or less a regular) start a resistance against the oppressors.

Season 3 begins as six months have passed and New Caprica is still under occupation. While things start to get worse on the planet, the fleet finally returns to save the people. Even though the fleet is reunited and gets back on the path to Earth, there was a heavy cost and a lot of damage was done. Throughout the season, the Galactica tries to look for more clues to the 13th Colony. The fleet also has to deal with what the Cylon Occupation did to them. We also learn even more things about the Cylons and find out that there are five more models that haven’t been revealed yet. As usual, the end of the season brings even more questions as well as the return of someone who was lost during the season.

Favorites - Favorite Non-Star Trek Time Travel Stories

If there’s one trope in science fiction that’s been used as well as misused, it’s time travel. Heck, the Star Trek franchise has made time travel into a fine art. I’ve always liked time travel stories whenever they would show up in movies, TV, video games, and books. Sometimes, you’ll get the usual plot where someone is sent back in time to right a wrong. I’ll call that the “For the Future!!!” syndrome. Other times, someone messes up something that changes the present time. Then, we have the awesome “I’m trapped in a loop and I can’t get out!” plot. You get other ones along the way, but those are the ones that I tend to notice.

So, here is my list of favorite time travel stories from movies, TV, video games, and books. I thought about splitting this one up since there are a lot of movies, but I’ll just make this a long one. Besides, I can really only think of one game that really did time travel well. It’s not in any order but I will put the best up at the top. Since I couldn’t stop listing Trek episodes, they’re going on a separate list of their own. With all that said, “Allons-y!”

1. Terminator 2: Judgement Day

The Terminator franchise is pretty much the standard for good time travel stories… well, most of them. While the first movie is really good, T2 stands above it as being the superior movie. It was also the one I saw first since I didn’t see the first one until I was teen. T2 continues the story of Skynet, an AI from a dystopian future, sending a more advanced Terminator into the past to kill John Connor, the leader of the human resistance. This time, the human resistance sends its own reprogrammed Terminator in order to protect John and his mother, Sarah.

Everything about the movie is good. The story is great, the action is awesome, and the characters are cool. This movie showed that Arnold Schwarzenegger could actually emote. Ed Furlong was fun as John and Linda Hamilton rocked as Sarah Conner. Robert Patrick was really cool as the T-1000. He was really imposing villain. T2 did everything a sequel should do and more. If only they stopped there, though.

TV Talk - Star Trek: Discovery Season 1

Sarek: So, what do you think?

Michael: Well, you're not half-bad.

Sarek: I am not talking about my new body. I am talking about the show.

Michael: Well... it's not too bad.

You know, I thought I was done. I thought that we had probably seen the last of new Star Trek on TV. Since then, there have been constant re-watches of Trek on TV and online. Thankfully, I was glad to be somewhat wrong. Considering how this show has been viewed, I'm not sure for everyone else feels that way, though. In 2015, it was announced that we would be getting another Star Trek TV series. We found out that it would be set in the regular Trek universe (the Prime Timeline) and that Nicholas Meyer (the director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) would be involved. Bryan Fuller, a pretty popular producer, was also the showrunner.

As time went on, we started to get more news about the show. We found out that the show would revolve around a Lt. Commander. We also found things may look more different than we thought. It didn't exactly sound good since it seemed like the show could be another reboot. Also add the fact that it would be exclusive to a new streaming service called CBS All-Access in the US while the rest of the world would get it on Netflix. Then, add the fact that stuff was going on with the higher-ups with the show. For example, Bryan Fuller stepped down (or was let go?) from being the showrunner.

Finally, we saw footage... cue the rage and love. I think the phrase "millions of voices screamed out in terror" could fit but it really wasn't that bad. It seemed that opinions were all over the place. I was just waiting to see it. Anyway, the show premiered on CBS (only the first two episodes) and CBS All-Access on September 24th, 2017. We got 15 episodes spread out between September 2017 and February 2018. I actually waited until the first seven episodes were out before I joined another streaming service.

Star Trek: Discovery takes place a decade before Captain Kirk's five-year mission began. It revolves around Michael Burnham, a female commander who was raised on Vulcan by Sarek after her parents were killed by Klingons. Her actions ignite a war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Without spoiling too much, Burnham is invited by Captain Gabriel Lorca of the USS Discovery to join his ship and help win the war. The series goes down a rabbit hole full of twists, turns, reinterpretations of existing material, and Harry Mudd.

Weird Star Trek Episodes - Man of the People aka "Troi's Gettin' Old, Hot, Bothered, and Scratchy!"

Counselor Troi, did you throw on my old man makeup again? I must say that it at least looks better on you than I and that is not saying much!

Well, it’s time for another weird episode from the Star Trek franchise. I haven’t done many of these in a while.  You can only watch so many weird episodes of Trek. I’d rather watch the good ones. Anyway, today’s episode is from Season 6 of TNG. That was a fine season for the show but I can’t really say that about this episode. “Man of the People" was the third episode for the season and it involves Counselor Troi going through the gauntlet again. It tends to happen a lot with her.

The episode starts out with the Enterprise finding a transport being attacked. Apparently, they’re being attacked because a diplomat, Ramid Ves Alkar, is on board. They save the transport and save Alkar who’s with his really overprotective mother. Starfleet orders the Enterprise to take Alkar to his destination since he’s needed for an important peace negotiation. While he’s on board, Alkar takes a liking to Troi and his mother isn’t liking it one bit. The mother then suddenly passes away. Dr. Crusher wants to run an autopsy, but Alkar’s customs won’t allow that. He then gets with Troi to do some sort of funeral ceremony that involves weird stones.

After the ceremony, Troi starts to feel… turned on sexually. She makes advances at Alkar but he refuses her. This leads her to find some random Ensign. Riker finds out about this and is kind of weirded out. It even gets weirder when Troi starts to age rapidly, act unprofessional, and not wear her uniform. She even came on Riker at some point and scratched his neck badly. She tries to get with Alkar again but he refuses. When the Enterprise makes it to the planet and Alkar is preparing to leave, a really old Troi finds his party and tries to kill his female assistant in a jealous rage. Instead, she stabs Picard.

Is that the "Talk to the Hand" maneuver, Sensei Worf?

Random Pics for the Month - Nine Things About Battlestar Galactica's Starbuck

Well, it's another May and another Sci-fi Month. It's time to dust off this old segment and return to the 12 Colonies of Kobol. So, what can I say about Starbuck? All of the Starbucks?

Starbuck was once a man... a cool but sometimes annoying man. Also, he looked good in white.

Starbuck saved the last episode of Galactica: 1980. Seriously, that show sucked!!!

Kara Thrace is one cocky woman.

Kara Thrace loves to get into trouble.

Kara Thrace loves to be the attention of all men. Seriously, whether you're old, lost one eye, egotistically smart, a daddy's boy, some sports star, or some random black dude who has a blog, Kara's got your heart by the strings.

As I said, Kara Thrace loves to get into trouble.

Kara Thrace loves to tick off the people she cares about. She even ticks off the audience at times.

Kara Thrace does actually resemble the old man a bit.

Finally, Kara Thrace's ending still confuses me. SERIOUSLY, WHAT WAS UP WITH THAT?

Overall, Starbuck was a character that could be anything: interesting, cool, sexy, annoying, and cocky.