Tag Archives: Star Trek

May 16 2012

Top Ten Season Finales

As the traditional TV network season dies down, many shows will conclude their seasons with memorable finales. Many sci-fi, fantasy and horror shows have had some of the most-talked about finales that included thrilling cliffhangers, WTF revelations and dramatic game-changing developments. WARNING: Major Spoiler Alerts Ahead.

10. “Lucifer Rising” Supernatural (Season Four); Sam and Dean Winchester are betrayed by their allies who want to bring about the coming apocalypse by unleashing Lucifer upon the Earth.

9. “How To Stop An Exploding Man” Heroes (Season One); the show fell apart after its terrific first season but many episodes from that season are still great including the season finale that featured several super-powered heroes confronting the power-stealing villain Sylar.

8. “Zero Hour” Star Trek: Enterprise (Season Three); the conclusion of the season-long Xindi arc finds Captain Archer and the Enterprise crew on a last-ditch, desperate gamble to prevent the alien Xindi from destroying Earth. Aside from all the action and ship battles, the episode had a surprise ending which unexpectedly stranded our heroes on an alternate Earth during World War II.

7. “Over There, Part 2” Fringe (Season Two); Olivia Dunham and Walter Bishop continue their mission in the parallel Earth to retrieve Peter Bishop. Viewers are treated to a fascinating look at another Earth with doppelgangers, advanced tech, quarantine zones and many alternate cultural Easter eggs, plus a nefarious plot to destroy our universe. The cliffhanger was pretty nifty too with Olivia trapped in the parallel universe while her sinister double takes her place.

6. “Die Me, Dichotomy” Farscape (Season Two); the show’s main character, lost-in-space astronaut John Crichton, had a neural chip implanted in his brain by his enemy Scorpius in order to access Crichton’s hidden knowledge about wormholes. Throughout the episode, Crichton battles himself as the chip asserts control of his mind and makes him attack his friends and results in the death of his would-be lover Aeryn Sun. After a doctor finally removes the chip, Scorpius appears, takes the chip and leaves behind a helpless, broken Crichton on the operating table so he can live with the agony of what happened.

5. “Chrysalis” Babylon 5 (Season One); this season finale would prove to be the swan song for the show’s main character Jeffrey Sinclair (replaced off-screen in season two by John Sheridan) as ominous events unfold. Sinclair’s station security chief unsuccessfully attempts to stop a conspiracy to assassinate the Earth Alliance president. His efforts leave him shot and in critical condition. Meanwhile, the mysterious aliens called the Shadows emerge and attack an outpost of one of the major races, thus setting the stage for a deadly galactic war. Towards the end, Sinclair’s ally D’Lenn undergoes a physical transformation to fulfill a prophecy as Sinclair laments elsewhere that “nothing’s the same anymore.”

4. “Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II” Battlestar Galactica (Season Two); fleetwide presidential elections are held pitting President Roslyn against the enigmatic Baltar. An issue of the election and the series itself is whether or not the fugitive humans should abandon their quest to find Earth and settle down in a discovered habitable world. The episode jumps ahead more than a year later and shows how miserable the humans are living in their makeshift shanty towns. Things get much worse when their enemies, the robotic Cylons, arrive on the planet and the humans’ new leader Baltar surrenders the colony to the Cylons.

3. “Through The Looking Glass” LOST (Season Three); the final minutes are a true game changer for LOST. The castaways are trying to find their way off the mysterious island as flashbacks show a despondent Jack Shephard back in L.A. at the end of his road. For a while it was the standard format for the series, feature flashbacks on certain characters while advancing the present-day plotline. However, aside from the foretold death of a popular character, LOST stunned fans with the revelation that the episode’s flashback was actually a flash forward and that Jack was desperate to return to the island.

2. “Call To Arms” Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season Five); the peaceful Federation goes to war with the Dominion in this exciting season-ender. This development is a first for the Star Trek shows, which often preached peace above all. Viewers were treated to an effects-laden spectacular as hordes of Dominion ships attacked the Deep Space Nine space station. The episode ended with so many outstanding closers, each of which would’ve sufficed as any show’s final moments. For example, the episode could’ve just ended with Captain Sisko’s speech to his Bajoran colleagues that he will return, or with Dominion lackey Gul Dukat being “welcomed” to the station, or with Dukat’s discovery of Sisko’s baseball indicating that Sisko and company are coming back. The episode then topped itself with a final breathtaking scene of Sisko’s Defiant warship joining a vast Starfleet/Klingon armada ready to do battle.

1. “The Best Of Both Worlds, Part 1” Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season Three); this was the first and best cliffhanger shown on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The cybernetic and invulnerable Borg race begin an invasion into Federation territory with the goal of reaching Earth. Despite their best efforts, the Enterprise and its crew are nearly powerless to stop the Borg, which leads to a crisis of confidence faced by Captain Picard. Meanwhile, First Officer Riker has to contend with an overly ambitious officer/Borg specialist who is out for his job. The tension runs way overboard as Picard is kidnapped by the Borg but the true jaw-dropping moment comes when the Enterprise crew attempt a rescue. They find that Picard has been horribly transformed into a Borg, who then coldly orders the Enterprise crew to surrender. Equally as chilling was Riker’s three-word response, which ends the episode…to be continued.

Honorable Mentions:

“Besides The Dying Fire” The Walking Dead

“Redemption” Star Trek: The Next Generation

“The Jem’Hadar” Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

“Basics, Part I” Star Trek: Voyager

“The Parting Of The Ways” Doctor Who

“Shock Theater” Quantum Leap

“The Fall Of Night” Babylon 5

“The Day We Died” Fringe

“Evil Is Going On” True Blood

Waldermann Rivera

Jan 5 2012

2012 Hallmark Ornament Highlights

Sure it’s after Christmas, but for us fans of Hallmark ornaments it’s a fun or frustrating time (depending on how successful you are in hunting) for bargains as genre-based ornaments go on sale for half off or more.

As we’re busy gobbling up 2011’s ornaments, let’s look ahead to this year’s ornaments. Most of them will go on sale sometime in July with the rest coming out in October. Incidentally, the full lineup of Hallmark ornaments won’t be officially revealed until this spring. But for now here are the known 2012 ornaments based on cool stuff we like. In other words, this ain’t about fuzzy elves or reindeer!

Star Trek

U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Hallmark is releasing this replica of Captain Picard’s Enterprise. Collectors will know that this ship was produced in 1993. The difference between these two is that this one can be displayed on a stand (similar to Hallmark’s 2006 version of the original Enterprise) and is battery operated. Presumably it will feature lights and sounds; hopefully Jerry Goldsmith’s majestic score will also play when a button is pushed.

Dr. McCoy

The third in the Legends of Star Trek series. This figure of everyone’s favorite Starfleet doctor is a companion piece to the other entries in the series, Kirk and Spock.

Two Spocks Meet

Not sure what is the official title of this diorama. It’s a recreation of sorts (without the Star Trek delta shield logo in the background) of that scene near the end of the 2009 Star Trek film where the old Spock from the real universe meets his younger alternate self.

Star Wars

If you’re a Star Wars fan then this is your year. Without contemplating any convention exclusives, a total of five ornaments will be released by Hallmark. They include:

TIE Interceptor

Barely glimpsed in Return of the Jedi (but that’s nothing new when it comes to Star Wars merchandise), nonetheless it will be beautifully detailed as are most Hallmark ship ornaments.

Han Solo on a Tauntaun

From The Empire Strikes Back, Han sporting his winter duds on his soon-to-be doomed riding animal. For any non-fan, the animal is a tauntaun used as beasts of burden by rebel soldiers and personnel on the frozen world of Hoth. Han took this animal out at night to look for his friend Luke who…oh never mind, it looks neat! Trust me it will make a solid gift for a Star Wars fan and it won’t cost a lot either, probably selling for less than $20. Then again from looking at the fact that the ornament has a base which would fit batteries it could mean the price could be jacked up. But it’s still a good gift!

General Grievous

As a fan of this character from Revenge of the Sith and The Clone Wars cartoon, I’ve been hoping they would release this Jedi slayer, which if you’re into the villains of the movies, make a great addition to that collection or on your tree. (A fan can geek out by putting all the Star Wars villains together in one spot!) The cape and lightsabre are a nice touch. Too bad they didn’t have him with all four arms extended, but that would probably make the ornament even more fragile. Future editions can feature his raspy voice.

Darth Maul

This is Maul’s second ornament, the first one was released in 2000 a year after The Phantom Menace came out. Fortunately, the pose is different in this year’s model and not a re-issue with a new paint job. Those kinds of ornaments are reserved for convention to go on sale in the secondary markets for obscene amounts of money.

Lego Stormtrooper

Hot on the heels of the successful Lego Darth Vader ornament comes this one of the white-clad cannon fodder. Perhaps Lego droids or Yoda are up for 2013.

Waldermann Rivera

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Dec 26 2011

Star Trek Ornaments Wish List

One thing that was noticed while scavenging Hallmark stores for discounted ornaments were the abundance of Star Trek ornaments. This was unusual, most of the time a fan was lucky to find a spaceship ornament the day after Christmas.

Well there are plenty of Romulan Bird-of-Prey spaceships available in several stores. Meanwhile Boba Fett’s Slave I spaceship from Star Wars is impossible to find. That is surprising given that a version of Slave I was released in 2002. The original was heavy and hard to put up on the Christmas tree since its weight pulled down branches. It was painted in blue to reflect that it was the one seen in Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones and it didn’t have sounds or lights. This year’s model was painted green as seen in The Empire Strikes Back and had sound.

Regarding the characters this year, Star Trek couldn’t even compete. Hallmark released two separate ornaments: one of Spock, the second in their Legends of Star Trek series, and a diorama featuring a scene out of the classic episode “Mirror, Mirror.” With Star Wars, three ornaments were produced, one of Yoda that has sound, a limited edition of Bossk that sold out quickly when released earlier this year and a diorama featuring Han Solo’s confrontation with Greedo. The only one still seen in stores was the diorama and that was in small quantities.

So is this further proof that Star Wars is clearly edging out Star Trek in popularity at least when it comes to ornaments? There was a time when Trek ornaments were highly sought after items. The very first Hallmark ornament of the original Enterprise still commands a high price in secondary markets as does practically any Enterprise ornament. Yet some character ornaments and ships are duds.

But this year’s plethora of Romulan ships is startling given that even in years when clunkers were released (namely the Borg cube, the Rio Grande runabout, the Scorpion fighter ship and the Vulcan command ship) they were hard to come by after Christmas.

The glut of character ornaments isn’t that surprising. spockWhen it comes down to it, the Star Wars character ornaments are almost always more interesting and dynamic. Whereas the Trek ornaments feature basically humans in drab poses, the Star Wars characters are very colorful and larger than life. This isn’t meant to revive the old Trek vs. Wars debate, it’s just to point out that there is a disparity between the two franchises lately when it comes to ornaments. The first Trek character ornaments looked more interesting and featured them in various poses. Like this Spock ornament released in1996.

Compare this 2005 Khan ornament:

With this one of Chewbacca:

Now ask yourself which makes a better ornament? A better looking gift for collectors?

Let’s be clear, Star Trek ornaments are not doomed. It is possible to put out ornaments that capture the fans’ eye. The ship ornaments from the past three years (the Reliant, a Klingon battle cruiser and 2009’s Enterprise) looked fantastic and were difficult to obtain after the holidays. And by looking at older diorama scenes and characters anyone can tell that Trek has plenty of life left in it when it comes to ornaments. Trek has a vast library and history with viable subjects. Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas used to sell ornaments featuring aliens from the shows, Hallmark should consider that at least trying the aliens or obscure ships as a limited edition trial balloons or convention exclusives.

Here is a list of what Hallmark could produce in the next few years. Add to the list any ship or character introduced in any upcoming film or show.

Spaceships:

  • The U.S.S. Kelvin seen from the 2009 Star Trek movie, that’s the ship that Kirk’s father died in by ramming it with the Narada. NOTE: This will be an ornament for 2013.
  • The shuttle crafts and pods seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
  • The NX-01 Enterprise, yes they made a metal-plated ornament back in 2002 but it wasn’t lit and too heavy to put on a tree.
  • From Star Trek: Voyager how about Chakotay’s Maquis ship or the Equinox? Tie it in with the anniversary of the show for relevance.
  • For Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Hallmark could put out the Jem’ Hadar fighter ship or a Cardassian Galor-class ship.
  • The shuttlepod used by Kirk and Scotty to inspect the Enterprise refit back in the first Trek film. The characters should be clearly visible.
  • The Excelsior or Enterprise B, like the Miranda-class ship (most famously represented by the Reliant) this class of ship was often seen in the movies and shows.
  • Other possibilities include Picard’s first command the Stargazer, the Narada, future Spock’s jellyfish-shaped ship from 2009’s Star Trek, a Borg Sphere, the Phoenix from Star Trek: First Contact and even do a mini-ornament set featuring all the known Enterprise ships.

Characters and Dioramas:

  • Kirk wearing the spacesuit seen in “The Tholian Web.”
  • A diorama with Spock and his parents from “Journey to Babel” and aliens like Andorians are a must.
  • Harry Mudd or Cyrano Jones (the latter should have a tribble in his hand).
  • A pre-Starfleet Kirk on his motorbike from 2009’s Trek film.
  • Hallmark could consider releasing the original Trek characters like Kirk and Spock wearing their red uniforms from the movies. The red will contrast nicely on trees.
  • Major characters like Spock or Picard wearing those white spacesuits.
  • A Gorn (or a Gorn vs. Kirk diorama by those famous outcroppings), Gul Dukat, a Jem’ Hadar, or a Borg drone.
  • A view from a runabout or the Defiant bridge with the Bajoran Wormhole on the viewscreen. Lights and sound are mandatory.
  • A diorama depicting the fight on the Narada’s drilling platform where Kirk and Sulu face off against the Romulans from 2009’s Trek.
  • Some kind of diorama featuring the Klingons during one of their ceremonies, there are many to choose from.
  • The first meeting between humans and Vulcans from Star Trek: First Contact.

Jose Soto

Dec 9 2011

Gift Ideas For Fans That Won’t Break Your Bank

The deadline for buying a decent gift is approaching fast. OK you’re on a budget, or the secret Santa list gave you someone you’re not close to but know that he or she is a genre fan. Sure you’d love to gift some kind of toiletry gift set or a desk calendar, but let’s be real here. He or she will really geek out for that super expensive Batman statue by Sideshow Collectibles or anything along that vein. But we’re on a budget here or you just don’t feel like breaking your bank and there’s no way you can reasonably afford to get the ultimate Jurassic Park trilogy Blu Ray gift set that comes with a T-Rex statue.

However, it’s not too hard to get by with gifts costing $25 or less. Here are some ideas. Ornaments Hallmark puts out the best ornaments and have catered to genre fans. This year has many offerings, but forget the spaceships, they cost more than $25 and aren’t very interesting except for die-hard collectors. (They consist of a little seen Romulan ship from the original Star Trek and a second version of Boba Fett’s Slave I ship.). So that leaves the character ornaments. Unfortunately the Star Trek ornaments aren’t too interesting (generic looking Spock ornaments, one that is out of the price range), while the Star Wars stuff aside from a LEGO Darth Vader seems repetitious (yet another Yoda ornament, and a costly Han Solo/Greedo diorama that doesn’t adequately answer the question of who shot first) Hallmark put out some reasonably priced cool stuff that could be collectible. First up is a Cylon ornament from the original Battlestar Galactica that features that infamous electronic speech pattern from the robots. There’s also the Nautilus submarine from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, a cute Gizmo wearing a Santa hat from Gremlins (already selling out so run out and get it, there are more fans of that film than you think), and a good selection of super hero figures. The Spider-Man and Batman ornaments are kind of bland but there are ornaments of Green Lantern and Thor that look good and the original Batmobile is a classic. If the person on your list is more of an animation fan, there are dozens of ornaments priced under $25 featuring characters from Disney, Pixar, Peanuts, Dreamworks, and the Rankin-Bass holiday classics like Rudolph and Frosty. If Hallmark doesn’t suit you, many companies put out their own ornaments themed after popular genre characters. Take Target or the Disney Store for example, they put out ornaments that are just as good as Hallmark. Blu Rays/DVDs This is easy, find out what his or her favorite film and see if they have it in their collection. If the film is not there, then voila! Run over to Best Buy or Wal-Mart and pick up the DVD or Blu Ray. DVDs priced from $5 and up are everywhere, while Blu Rays are starting to come down in price. If they just bought a Blu Ray player and need to upgrade then that’s a no-brainer. Practically all of this year’s genre offerings are available including Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, Super 8, Thor, Battle: Los Angeles, and even obscure fare like Another Earth. Statues and Figures It’s true that most statues are mega expensive, but a quick look at sites like eBay and Amazon will yield very good results. For instance if you’re not too discriminating just look at the clearances, Amazon has this bust of Venom from Spider-Man 3 for under $10. And if you’re intended is into anime then the sky’s the limit with the available choices. You also can’t fail with bobblehead figures and even action figures. DC Direct and Marvel put out some terrific well-detailed and affordable figures that don’t have to be played with, they look great just plastered up in their display boxes. Though that kind of defeats the purpose of a toy, then again these are intended for grownups, um, never mind. Books and Collections Good choices here, find out what author they enjoy and get them the latest work. Amazon had Stephen King’s 11/22/63 for under $20 and his other stuff on paperback for half that price. It’s best to get nice, thick novels that take a while to read. Better yet, if they have tablets, then get the digital versions, the prices are great. The same goes for comics. Graphic novels and collections of story arcs are perfect and usually affordable. A nifty trend tailor made for gifting are the Vault books. Part memorabilia collection, part coffee table book, they include looks at Star Trek, Batman, Spider-Man and more. Usually they’re called for example Alien Vault and are sealed. They run a bit high on price but if you have time, you can find some for the $25 range with some careful shopping. Gift Cards The ultimate fall back and in many ways the best gift. Get your in-law or co-worker or buddy who has everything a gift card from any merchant and let them run wild. Even the larger comic book stores will sell their own gift certificates. Just be a little creative in the wrapping to make the gift more memorable. No matter what, it is pretty easy to get a gift for a genre fan. Annette DeForester

Nov 29 2011

The Occupy Movement As Predicted By Star Trek

All the incarnations of Star Trek have been noted for helping to inspire new advances in technology like tablets, cell phones (which is funny since the original show’s communicators look so outdated to what we have today), scanners and so on. And Star Trek has paved the way for new ways of how we view ourselves, notably in terms of racial and sexual equality. But one thing lately has popped up that may be overlooked given all the tensions going on in this country lately.

Namely the entire Occupy insert a city or neighborhood Movement. No matter where one stands on the Movement, it has to be agreed that this phenomenon could easily foment and lead to ominous developments. This was seen in the two-part Star Trek: Deep Space NIne story “Past Tense” where Captain Ben Sisko and members of his crew are trapped in the early 21st century and are caught up in the so-called Bell Riots. Taking place in San Francisco in 2024, the Starfleet personnel are mistaken for being unemployed and disenfranchised and are placed in a ghetto-like “Sanctuary District” and inadvertantly change history.

As Ben Sisko and his crew try to correct the timeline by being active participants in the Bell Riots (chiefly by Ben Sisko assuming the identity of Gabriel Bell who was killed while defending him; Bell would become an important figure in helping to bring about social justice in the U.S.) the plight of the District residents are shown. For the most part, many of them have been unemployed for a long time and are unable to get any kind of support from the government. Just look at the latest news stories to get an idea of what the Bell Riots participants were protesting. It’s easy to see how today’s current protests, which are already becoming violent, could lead to those opposing the Occupy Movement for a severe government crackdown in order to restore order.

This isn’t meant to support one side or another, it’s just to point out how relevant Star Trek remains to this day and not just in terms of cool gadgets. Hopefully these Bell Riots that involved Ben Sisko and company won’t come to pass. Then the one thing the “Past Tense” episodes will get correct is the prediction that the Yankees won the ’99 World Series.

Lewis T. Grove