Christmas: Day 17

 

THE WREATH OF KHAAAAAAAAN!

via Annie Shapiro

Christmas: Day 12

Make it so, make it so, make it so...

New, Improved Star Trek Into Darkness

Energize the hyperlink for a description of the new and improved Uhura vs Klingon scene from Star Trek Into Darkness.

You will hear his voice in your head as you read this

Can you name all the Time Machines?

In the amalgamated Star Trek and DC Universe the despotic immortal caveman Vandal Savage has captured many devices used to travel through time. Can you name all the various time machines and where they appeared?

The fanboy in me is a little disappointed that I don't see the Ivy Town University Time Pool used by the Atom in there, unless it is that glowing blob under the balcony. There are three I'm not sure of.

From IDW/DC Comics Star Trek and Legion of Super-Heroes #5 (2012).

MOTHER OF GOD

I THOUGHT THE FUTURE WAS PAPERLESS

New York City on the Edge of Forever

Since the Star Trek universe was re-booted a few years ago all the Trek-continuity is now invalid and erased. Doing this exposes an entire new audience with disposable income to the Star Trek concepts without all the baggage of passe special effects and dated 1960s allegory.

Another benefit of tossing out and virtually ignoring the decades of Trek history allows all the classic stories to be mined and re-imagined for contemporary consumers. Ruthlessly mining the past will create, at the very least, several decades of chapters to the Trek franchise that are familiar (though not overly dismissive) to the aging fan base yet offer the gloss of being new and improved for the current generation.

In whatever media format new Star Trek chapters will be created older aficionados will appreciate the full nudity the original series was not allowed to reveal and updated, awe-inducing special effects applied to re-imagined tales. Those new to Star Trek will recognize that the franchise is self-aware enough to be mocking the product itself and therefore not be embarrassed or think the show is too corny to spend money on tickets.

The classic time-travel episode The City on the Edge of Forever is probably the best choice for an adaptation into a new chapter in the Trek franchise. Imagine what would happen if the the Guardian of Forever had sent a frenzied Doctor McCoy to the New York of 1976 instead of the 1930s?

What if it was David Berkowitz, the infamous Son of Sam serial killer, who spread a reign of fear through mid-1970s New York, and not a doomed hobo who discovered the phaser dropped by McCoy in the alley? What if the Son of Sam used a phaser instead of a pistol in his crimes?

In the original story pacifist Edith Wheeler had to die to prevent a peace movement that would allow the Nazis to take over the world. In the 2011 story a massacre would have to be reversed and more than one innocent would have to perish for the timeline to return to "normal".

Too dark? Not for today's audiences. The rebooted Star Trek is far more sexual, gritty and realistic than the near Utopia envisioned by Gene Roddenberry. Genocide was one of the themes of the 2009 film and millions of people died unseen in throw-away scenes of destruction. So a killer stalking the streets of New York with a terrible weapon that erases people from existence, the drama involved with reversing the events, would not be too far out of the realm of possibility for an updated chapter of the new Star Trek universe.

Hmmm...I feel a fan-fic coming on.

Thank you, IDW

Zombie Tribbles? Old school Gold Key Comics homage cover? As part of their cross-over series Infestation, IDW just stroked my geek bone really, really hard.

Sleestak on the Edge of Forever

I know I'm the only one, but the thought of Kirk and the Gang traveling through time and risking Universe-altering paradox to stop Enik the Altrusian from winning Final Jeopardy is hilarious*.

Just think, if I was waiting in line at the San Diego Comic-Con this art would not have existed. The road not traveled, indeed!

* The winning answer was "Who is Hayley Mills?"

Now with more lens flare

Got this Beam-Me-Up Star Trek movie tie-in badge in my dinner cereal last night. Not that I'd ever wear it, red is Engineering and that's what division Security is under, right? Wearing anything associated with a Redshirt is just asking for it.

Besides, there isn't any way to attach the badge to a shirt short of using a hot glue gun. I don't know what this thing does other than light up behind the insignia and at the tip and then only if you press the button pretty hard.

The picture on the box led me to believe there was a base for the badge included so it could stand up and look cool on a desk. But there isn't. Unfortunately, all it does is lay there. As far as promotions go the badge is kind of lame even as a flashlight. It would have been geek-cool if it had sound FX, could stand on it's side without falling, a clip to attach to your underwear or even a little hole in the body somewhere to run a chain through so you could attach it to your keys. Like the movie, the badge has potential and seems like it was intended to do something cool, but the company gave up somewhere between the licensing and the design stage.

Redshirt Blues

At last! A "Redshirt" speaks out about his lot in life.

Yeah, he's pretty dead. From Star Trek: Mission's End #3 (May 2009).

And not to be missed by any Star Trek fan, 2001's Redshirt Blues by David O. Rogers. A fun look at what those poor security troops have to deal with on a day to day basis in the Trekoverse.

Stand Down

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, 1932-2008.