Stalled Trek: Amutt Time

One of the first Kick Starter projects I backed and the movie was great fun, I own the DVD and have backed the upcoming The Wobbling Dead which has launched a mini campaign to cover additional costs in DVD replication.

Devil's Bargain

Devil's Bargain was the first book from author Tony Daniel that I've read, a stand alone original series Star Trek novel which proved itself to be rather entertaining despite a rather ominous cover on the paperback.

The story begins with the Enterprise on a humanitarian mission to the planet of Vesbius which was once a Federation world but took an independent path while still keeping close trading ties to nearby Federation worlds. An asteroid is closing on the world and Kirk is shocked to find that the people are not going to leave but have been digging huge tunnels believing they will survive the initial impact and immediate fallout but Spock is clear in that it's an extinction event. As the story unfolds we find that the 20,000 or so people on the planet have a very good reason for not wanting to leave their world and it is tied to their talents in genetic manipulation which has also given birth to an element of xenophobia within their culture.
I stayed away from the feature that was done on Devil's Bargain and Tony Daniel in the Trek.Fm podcast Literary Treks Ep 14 last year, in any media I don't like to be spoiled beyond in a books case the blurb so the story and it's twist came as a nice surprise. It's an interesting idea that ideas and beliefs no matter how they have been worked through by generations past continue to raise their heads sometimes in a similar situations and sometimes in a totally different situation.
Without giving too much away one of the best aspects of the book was the interweaving of an original series species into a significant aspect of the story, when Tony writes about them experiencing their first taste of space travel and the freedom offered by what amounted to an unexpected space walk it was inspirational. The way the minds of the youngsters were expanded to encompass the wonders and joys the universe could offer counterpointed some of the attitudes on Vesbius clearly defining the goals of Star Trek story telling.
Devil's Bargain is currently available as a paperback and ebook from Amazon UK and US and other many other retailers such as the Book Depository.
Literary Treks 14
Tony Daniel Facebook Page

Bill & Ted Steelbook

The Blu-ray steelbook of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure arrived this week, the movie is twenty five years old if you can believe that:)

Such a fun movie, not without it's flaws and with an interesting back story but it's so easy to sit back and simply enjoy the exploits of these two young men as they journey through time.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure IMDB  WIKI
Bill & Ted's Excellent Online Adventure And Podcast

North To Alaska

A package from Amazon US just arrived and contained the Blu-ray of the John Wayne comedy North To Alaska which also stars Stewart Granger and Capucine, a fun movie even though from what I have read not the best experience to make. Initial impressions are of a very nice transfer, audio nothing to shout about but video is more important for these older movies otherwise you might as well stick to the DVD. IMDB

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 5

Return of the Fighting 69th

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Episode 8

A freighter is stolen from the hanger of the Earth Defence Directorate and is chased down by a squadron comprised of Buck, Wilma and two younger pilots on a training mission. The stolen freighter gets away and it is revealed that it was carrying some recently discovered weaponised nerve gas agent due for destruction and we learn that two arms dealers with a grudge against Wilma and the Earth now have the capability to wipe all life from the face of the Earth. Corliss and Roxanne have their base within an asteroid field making it almost impossible to navigate with modern fighters and so in an inspired twist the idea is proposed to bring out of retirement Wilma's former instructor who along with his former squadron (Fighting 69th) using slower and older fighter/bombers to raid the base and destroy the nerve gas.

Buck and Wilma are captured during the mission and the remaining ships hide in the asteroids, within the base they team up with a deaf human slave girl (Alicia played by Katherine Wiberg) who helps them to escape just prior to the base being destroyed by the relics of the Directorate.

Never too old to fly

First off I didn't buy a freighter could outrun Starfighters even with modifications, lets not even get into how it got into another star system. Once again we meet some fighter pilots who are simply not even close to being the best of the best, they were not professional and ultimately downright stupid. Interesting to see that Earth humans are slaves in some areas of the galaxy and that yes there is another spy in the directorate, how else would they know about the nerve agent and it's transportation. A good use of the bar scene from the last episode, painted yes but the same and Wilmas nick name being Dizzy Dee, never was going to be Double D was it but she's still rocking those oh so tight pants. There was some good interaction between Wilma and her former instructor who she had to force into retirement,  Peter Graves played Major Noah Cooper and it was a good touch to have what could have been a filming model used as a prop. Corliss and Roxanne were wonderfully over the top, both scarred and damaged after their ship had burnt and crashed after Wilma brought them down a few years previously.

Corliss and Roxanne

Good to know that sign language doesn't change in 500 years even though Alicia acts rather recklessly but it's perhaps a part of the story that added some depth and gave us the extra happy ending yet for all that it's pure nonsense scifi when it comes to the attack on the base. Spaceships acting like they are craft dependent upon gravity and lift to fly but in the spirit of many a story we get the big payoff with a little twist to just delay the cheering the writers expected of us:)

A rather good episode, very good if often used central plot and cheesy enough to make you smile without the need to condemn the episode from the couch.

Return of the Fighting 69th IMDB

Unchained Woman

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Episode 9

Buck once again goes undercover for the Earth Directorate in an attempt to remove a prisoner from a prison facility on a world with no set extradition treaty with the Earth. The woman Jen Burton played by Jamie Lee Curtis was the girlfriend of the space pirate Malary Pantera and they believe she will know the identity of his source within the directorate who is supplying the shipping information allowing him to attack the convoys. The escape goes well but the bad guys thanks to their spy know of the plan and capture Wilma while Buck and Jen have to deal with a very very driven andorid guard who just doesn't know when to quit.

Big on Red

So a prison break story, had for a second the hint of a tale of turmoil within a women's correctional facility but wasn't to be yet who are the bad guys? Wilma and company illegally seize a spaceship, stun the android guard and remove the prisoner to allow Buck to take his place, they then engineer a explosive and break out again from a legal facility. It was also a little obvious who the spy within the Directorate was, he came across all shifty right from the get go but at least we had the writing and delivery to support his existence and ultimately his reveal and capture. Credit to the android guard who really has a boner for Buck, ignores dozens of escaping prisoners to follow Buck and Jen and then take on the whole town it seemed and yes a good use of an old western set on a studio backlot. The young Jamie was full of beans, a snug outfit and buns of steel when dragged covered in sand from the clutches of the sand eel (?) and lets not forget watching get on all fours facing away from the camera, oh my:)

A nice set piece as the wall exploded and the android raided the party, lucky for Wilma and Buck but a little silly to see that just removing the prison bracelet was also that was required to fool this obviously advanced android. I did laugh myself silly as Buck threw away his blaster and proceed to fight hand to hand, granted it looked good but come on.

Unchained Woman again it had it's moments, a little slow and drawn out in places but the eye candy was rather impressive, the android guard very Terminator and we had a excellent performance by Robert Cornthwaite as the Ambassador.

Who hired the stripper then?

Unchained Woman IMDB

Just Because.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 4

The Plot to Kill a City, Part 1 and 2

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Episodes 6 and 7

Buck goes undercover to aid in the capture of a notorious criminal and when a threat to the Earth is uncovered he agrees to pose as this criminal and infiltrate the group who are targeting New Chicago. You know as plot synopsis goes that pretty sums up the episode and this is a two parter so hopefully a lot more was going on but surprisingly not that much.

Party got out of hand.

So the episode in a little more detail, not quite sure why Buck was helping Wilma capture Raphael Argus since as we know he is not officially part of the the defence force infact they make a point of asking for his help when he poses as Raphael. We'll let it pass otherwise there wouldn't be a show called Buck Rogers and come on who would want to miss Buck hairy chest an all not to mention Wilma rocking the slinky dress as they go on their mission. The Legion of Death were a little bit comic book and hard to take them seriously, there is nothing about them that really provokes fear and since the Directorate have files on them it seems strange they are freely moving around the galaxy but I guess in this "universe" the Earth is really a second rate player. Anyhow Buck successfully infiltrates the group and even dodges the proverbial bullet when he meets Joella Cameron played by Markie Post a former girlfriend of Argus who for her own reasons plays along with Buck, fortunate that:)

Joella with Twiki

The Directorate is attacked once again when it's launch bays are sabotaged revealing a paid traitor in their midsts, it seemed strange the guy was casually watching the mayhem considering if the place blew he was going with it but it does explain how bombs were being planted in the complex. It seems easy for any bad guys to directly enter a secure complex or simply bribe a human into acts of treason but again it has to be or the story goes nowhere. Buck having passed the initiation is learning of the ultimate goal of striking New Chicago via it's power generation complex which uses a matter/anti-matter system which to me seems suicidal on a planetary surface, I would have thought cooling would be a serious issues since it's built in a wasteland so no water and of course no benefit from the vacuum of space.

Well to cut a long story short and believe me this two parter had plenty of padding Buck is unmasked but successfully convinces the League his is a freelance assassin looking to score big which gives him time to make an escape with the aid of a Varek and eventually follows the League back to Earth where they have already secured access to the power plant by threatening one of the few engineers who have access. Now this was very clever, intelligent use of influence to get what they want combined with convincing the mark they are thieves rather than terrorists. It was however a little silly how such a high value facility is so lightly protected especially considering we know the galaxy is a dangerous place and Earth no longer seems to have a defence shield. So the terrorists disrupt the magnetic containment of the matter and antimatter and then Varek again makes the decision to act and a fight breaks out which gives the defence force enough time to arrive and secure the control room. It was rather amusing how often these bad ass Legion of Death use stun weapons, I thought the engineer had bought it but no he was up and about in time to offer the almost suicidal task that was required to prevent the explosion. Varek again steps forward and phasing through the containment and resets the controls but is tagged by a stray atom of antimatter, no sure how he survives but it gives us that "all will be well" moment as Wilma treats him as normal person and offers help to ease his pain. 

It's not done though, the rest of the Legion flee the planet and Buck and Wilma in their starfighters give chase, now we get the ridiculous use of telekinesis to control Buck's ship which given the speed, mass and range seems a little bit much. Not to worry though Wilma saves Buck and the crowd cheered, even a couple of decades ago the hero being saved by a sidekick let alone a woman was rare in an action show. The episode wraps up with a comic moment as the gang get together and we see that Joella will be starting a new life and Twiki may be channeling Buck a little too much:)
The Plot to Kill a City isn't a bad episode, the plot isn't good enough to sustain two episodes though which is where your attention could end up going bye bye, edit it down and it would be a pretty tight story with some very good ideas. On the eye candy front they went to two, Markie and Wilma were rockin' and even the naughty Sherese could turn a few heads if she smiled once and a while:)

Just Because:)

The Plot to Kill a City: Part 1 IMDB

The Plot to Kill a City: Part 2 IMDB

Goodies

I picked up a few things from Amazon this week, the first the German Blu-ray boxset of the cancelled Primeval New World after it had a small but significant price cut. The others were two original series Star Trek paperbacks, the first by Greg Cox and the second by Tony Daniel.

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For - Official Trailer

I still enjoy watching the original movie but it's not exactly a story telling masterpiece and neither is this one but no doubt it'll be fun to watch.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 3

Vegas In Space

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Episode 5

A young woman Felina Redding is kidnapped by rivals of her employer as she has seen some critical data that will allow them to undermine the criminal operation she is unknowingly involved in. Her employer the often investigated by never proved crime lord Amos Armat approaches the Dr Huer with an offer, rescue the girl and he will turn over all his records which include the smuggling, slave trading, extortion etc etc he has been involved in and as a bonus the specs for the latest design of Hatchett fighter that is proving to be too good for the Earth's Starfighters. Buck along with Major Marla Landers go undercover at the huge gambling city that is run by the criminal syndicate controlled by Morgan Velosi and who is responsible for the kidnapping. Buck is in heaven out playing the computer based gambling machines and befriends a hostess Tangie but the mission eventually is discovered and they have to fight their way out of the tightly controlled city with the help of Tangie and with the successful rescue Armat provides the proof and data he agreed to and we find that for his daughter he would sacrifice everything.

Buck with Tangie

Vegas In Space was entertaining but lets go into a little more detail. Loved the kettle drums in the opening sequences, very 2001 and really added value to the show, a nice callback (and money saving idea) to continue with the Hatchett fighters but with new operating software which was also central to the plot. How great was it to see Cesar playing the bad guy of course but really grabbing the scenes he was in and of course Alicia became a familiar face from the more popular US soaps and really hit the mark with her scream not to mention looking stunning. I did think it was a little much that Buck was practicing his putting in his room with a hole in the floor, not sure how sensible that was but of then Wilma appeared in the spandex and well everything else became background:) I'm pretty sure it was Major Landers who went on the mission with Buck because Wilma couldn't get out of those pants fast enough to join him but interesting at this stage to sideline a lead actor.

Landers in disguise with Velosi

I loved the idea that computers couldn't cheat, poor deluded fools and of course surely card counting was not reintroduced to this century by Buck Rogers but good to know prostitutes and indentured slaves are still a viable proposition as we see with Tangie showing quite a bit of skin for a family scifi show. The rescue was pretty well done, it relied on the stupidity of the goons of course and some strange designs of the complex with no sound proofing, two doors on private rooms but not to worry. I laughed myself silly wondering where Tangie was supposed to hide the blaster, there are limits and Buck seemed to have little regard to casualties when blowing up the hidden charges he had placed earlier. Finally we get the conclusion with Felina meeting Amos and the bargain being honoured and we learn why he was willing to sacrifice everything, family it seems despite his own terrible crimes meant something to him and the line "Good, it's best that you don't" sums up the episode nicely.

A fun episode with a nice idea behind it despite the cheese with Buck being the gifted one bringing his "human" touch to this world computerised gambling systems, he thinks for himself as he says but it's basically a variant of card counting. An excellent line up of guest actors starting with Cesar Romero playing Amos Armat and Richard Lynch as Morgan Velosi, Juanin Clay played Maj Marla Landers, Pamela Susan Shoop played Tangie and Ana Alicia was Felina Redding.

Vegas In Space IMDB

New Blu-rays

Never let it be said my tastes are focused just on the blockbusters nor on the cheap creature features despite what the postie delivered today:)

Gozilla Official Trailer

Looks spectacular:)

Favourite Bikini

Not for me to wear you understand just that over the years a bikini kinda hits all the right notes and in both cases they are nothing to do with a fashion show or porn just normal movie and tv offerings. Looking at these side by side and obviously years apart it may be that I just have a thing for shocking pink and if that's the case well who knew:)

Geena Davis in Earth Girls Are Easy

Lesley-Ann Brandt in Killer Women

The Folded World

The Folded World by Jeff Mariotte is the latest novel in my resurgence of interest with the original Star Trek series stories which I grew up reading first from the James Blish era and right up to the latest breed of authors who are tackling the adventures of the NCC1701. The Folded World tells the story of the Enterprise while on route to the homeworld of the Ixtoldans encounters a spatial anomaly which has trapped a number of space ships including the USS McRaven which was also making the trip to the ceremonies intended to seal the incorporation of Ixtoldan into the Federation. The ambassadors on board the Enterprise pressure Kirk to ignore the anomaly and any rescue attempt as they believe the official ceremony is too important to their world and future for Federation representation to be absent. However Kirk as you would expect will not abandon any Federation ship and her crew and once they figure out how to breach the anomaly two shuttles are dispatched and the investigation begins.

The novel was published on April the 30th 2013 and is available as a paperback and ebook, I actually bought the paperback since the price differential did not make any sense to buy the ebook. It's a flaw in the pricing which at least to me seems to indicate a much lower profit margin on the physical media than the electronic so I'll pay a few pence more to own the book rather than a few hundred kilobytes of data.

So back to the story itself, it starts on a world which we are given very little information about, it's pre-technology and seems to be under the thrall of superstition but with very real events happening which leaves the local population dying and/or missing. We then take a big step away into the world we know from Star Trek with the usual crew and ship with one or two additional characters which play their part especially Miranda Tikloko who was the sole survivor of the canon events from Balance of Terror. She was at the time of the slaughter of the outposts by the Romulans onboard a shuttle and survived by shutting down and going dark and was undetected. She continues to suffer from the trauma of seeing her friends die and being alone in the void of space and McCoy is trying to work her through her issues but it's clear she has earned her place on the crew and is performing her duties to the level expected of the flagship.
Alas I can't really go into many details about the events onboard the derelicts within the folded region of space just that there are many ships from different races and in this area of space where time is in flux and chaos rules being dead doesn't always mean you are not still there.
Some of the reviews I've read for the book have not been too complimentary however many have also stated they were not original series die hards but as huge fan of the original series the story worked very well and had echoes of other stories which dealt with graveyards of ships but added in the mystical element and a huge conspiracy to hide events from the long distance past. The character of Miranda worked very well and her survivor guilt which Kirk also had to deal with after Tarsus IV was a key part of the story, it did add a lot of weight and onboard the derelicts within the folded space becomes critical to their hopes for survival.
Overall I enjoyed the book and while everything eventually makes sense it did take me a while to put everything into place, the opening chapters dealing with this mysterious people felt too unattached to the story I was expecting and I wonder if maybe one or two readers would have been turned off before getting into the Trek they may have been expecting.
The Folded World Amazon UK & US
Jeff Mariotte Official Site

Guardians of the Galaxy Trailer

I really do not know what to think about this movie from the trailer, not having any fallback position from having read and of the comics I assume it's going to be a comedy but with dark overtones, I think.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 2

Planet of the Slave Girls

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Episode 3 and 4

A virus spreads throughout the Earth's defence force and even into other cities around the planet, as a search for a cure goes on investigations lead to a planet which was the common link between all the food products that were being imported. The planet Vistula is an agricultural world which supplies Earth and has a governor appointed from Earth and a native population who it seems are happy to export their worlds produce so Buck and Wilma in the guise of returning an ill pilot to his homeworld arrive looking for answers. As it turns out things on the planet are not all sunshine and roses, the native population are being dominated in fact in some cases enslaved to work in the fields and processing plants and a local leader called Kaleel is fanning the flames of rebellion from his base in the Sea of Stone. Ryma a young native woman helps Buck to gain access to a processing plant but she is then captured along with Wilma and taken to Kaleel, Buck and Duke attempt to follow into the desert but are shot down and while they eventually reach the "secret" base it's decided that Duke will steal a fighter and warn Earth of the threat and Buck will rescue Wilma. Kaleel it seems has been dosing the food to weaken the Earths defence force with the aim to launch a major attack on the planet with the aid of a former Earth officer renowned for his tactical ability. Buck rescues Wilma but is unable to prevent the launch of the attack force but it is met in battle by a handful of pilots who are fit enough to fly including one very special pilot making a cameo in the series. Despite being outnumbered the tactical choices being made by Duke thanks to taking in some of the lessons given by Buck thanks to his Air Force days allows them to wipe out the attacking fleet. Back on Vistula Buck faces down Kaleel who is quickly losing his hold on his followers and once confronted and unable to use his "powers" his rebellion is broken. 

 A Stargate In Operation

Planet of the Slave Girls while very much in line with pulp scifi titling is pretty inaccurate for the episode, yes the planet has slaves but their gender is not a plot point yet the idea of colonialism and external control is rather deep for a show such as Buck Rogers. It seemed obvious that Earth wasn't asking too many questions as to how it's food was being grown and delivered nor how their appointed governor ( Roddy McDowall ) was running things when even a brief glimpse would have by his own actions and status indicated something was very wrong. That said overall the episode worked pretty well so lets get into some specifics both good and bad.

I really hate a preview of an episode to kick off the broadcast, I want to be surprised and amazed as I watch not before hand thank you very much. Anyhow I liked the Stargate method of covering vast differences in this scifi universe, credit to actually considering a method of travelling to distant star systems with a nice special effect to boot. When Wilma and Buck come across Major Duke and his charge Regis Saroyan under attack I simply did not understand why Duke was upset with their intervention, the young pilot who is being trained was in a battle for his life, it isn't a do or die test of his abilities at this stage or any stage. The ongoing conflict between Duke and Buck (Wilma in the mix doesn't help matters) is at times fun but doesn't make any sense whatsoever. In practical terms the tactics Buck proved worked and the computer combat systems having proven unreliable it was ridiculous not to embrace the new combat options. It was made worse by Major Duke himself openly negated the teaching which was fed into the younger trainee pilots, simply bad military discipline throughout. I did like the AI named Carl who had a very dry character and of course his "death" also worked pretty well making the sabotage of the search for a cure have a little more drama. When we get to meet Kaleel played wonderfully over the top by Jack Palance we see he has some sort of ability, it's not clear if he is a mutant or even native to Vistula but as an evil villain he works very well for this pulpy sort of scifi.

Kaleel - Jack Palance

The Sea of Stone which his the secret base of Kaleel and his strike force was also a clever idea, on the surface it seems strange that there is such a large desert area on this agro world but it makes sense that you can't have a planet that is all moderate climate ideal for agriculture, you have the opposite. It was also a nice twist to find out it's Kaleel himself that is supporting the slave trade for his own material benefit with the side effect of stoking the rebellion coupled with his ability to kill with glowly hands. I'm not quite sure where they got the infrastructure to build such advanced vessels in the middle of nowhere, nothing indicates they were bought in but we'll let it go but they also had a weapon that could leech power from aircraft/spacecraft which seemed a pretty good device to have. All that aside we know the Earth has a defence shield so regardless of how many fighters the Earth could send into orbit it's not as if any alien fighter was going to get through to attack the planet directly. 

Governor Toban Saroyan

A big thankyou to the writers and director for the wet look Wilam and Ryma, great idea to stick the two women into a very hot prison cell which had them perspiring like crazy and lots of skin on display, of course Buck blowing up a grenade inside a helmet to throw himself into rafters was rather silly. I also felt sorry for the women who were still no doubt sticky when they had to perform in the desert, that could not have been comfortable at all. That said both Wilma and Ryma (Brianne Leary) were strong characters who achieved a lot themselves despite being saved by a man but credit where it's due for making a good attempt to provide good female role models. The big easter egg in the episode was one of the pilots who came out of retirement to defend the Earth against the approaching alien fleet, a certain Brigadier Gordon played by the one and only Buster Crabbe and the interchange between the two characters/actors was fanboy nirvana:)

Overall a fun episode with a lot of flaws.

• Planet of the Slave Girls IMDB
• Jack Palance
• Buster Crabbe

Zombeavers Trailer

If you know me you know what to expect:)

The Rings of Time

I've suddenly and rather unexpectedly got an itch to jump back into Star Trek the original series novels, now I have a rather large collection of the paperbacks which kept me entertained in my younger years but the market has changed as the more modern series took precedence on the store shelves. That said we are seeing a lot more TOS novels from multiple authors so I'm going to indulge myself and given the pricing of the ebooks I'll stick to the paperbacks despite issues over shelf space:)

This week I read the novel "The Rings of Time" written by Greg Cox and published in the UK on Feb 16th 2012. The story makes full use of the well known original cast lineup in a story which deals with consciousness swapping and time travel plus a little geo-political subplot thrown in.
There may be minor spoilers but I'm going to try to avoid anything that couldn't ruin the surprise but come on the genre is well trodden and if you are reading Star Trek the characters could very well be more important than the story they inhabit:) In Rings of Time Greg drew upon the character of Shawn Christopher who was mentioned in the TOS episode "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" and is the commander of the first manned mission to Saturn and that mission intersects with the Enterprise two centuries later as it nears another ringed gas giant and the rescue of a mining colony trapped within a collapsing ring system. The two stories continue side by side as the pages are turned until they both come across the same alien probe in their respective timelines, events transpire slightly differently but the results led to complications on the NASA ship Lewis & Clark and the Enterprise as both are thrown into a pressure cooker of events and conflicting situations.

The story was certainly an interesting read, I really did enjoy picturing the Lewis & Clark ghosting towards Saturn in all the modern CGI effects glory and mixing with the tradition imagery from Star Trek. The main cast of characters were written well but none of them even Kirk was really pushed and we did get more depth from the supporting cast especially those from the 21st century Earth which wasn't a bad thing. Greg it seemed made an effort to reference as much of the original series as possible, at first that was fun but maybe he went a little over the top but again that's simply my personal taste and I think as we see more Trek written in our modern market the issues with dealing with Trek's history as it pertains to Earth's timeline will be harder to resolve and to be accepted. The end of the 20th century did seem far away when Trek came to our screens with an almost limitless vision of what they next couple of decades would bring and modern writers I believe are more grounded or at least the market isn't looking for the more fantastical Trek.

Color-composite Cassini image of Saturn’s northern hexagon (NASA/JPL/SSI/Jason Major)

I can recommend the novel to any original series Star Trek fan and the use of a canon character and in the case of the storm on Saturn a real phenomenon adds weight to the story and once again you wonder just how good a series could be with these characters and modern tv production.

Greg Cox Official Site

Amazon UK & US available in Paperback and E-Book.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Rewatch Part 1

Awakening 

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century 
Episode 1 and 2

A long time ago in a world which indeed seems far away young Michael got took to the pictures with the rest of his family to watch a science fiction movie, not usual but rare since his father was not keen on the genre. Years later an older and wiser Michael who is still a huge fan of science fiction can look back and see that maybe dear old Dad knew a little about Erin Grey and Pamela Hensley because there was something compelling about those two up their on the big screen:) The time is right to have a rewatch of the Buck Rogers television series, the movie which certainly did ok on the big screen was like Battlestar before it a Glen A Larson production and the packaging of a movie and tv edit paid off in revenue and promotion, pretty clever really. I'm going to be watching the movie edit, it's that different to the tv version but there are few things the censors of the day though inappropriate for network television. The film kicks off with some split screen video and narration before entering into a very interesting if dated opening credit sequence and then into the story proper. Buck frozen for 500 years is found in deep space by an alien ship and brought onboard, revived and interrogated they return him to his original state and plant a tracker on his ship believing he will be safely taken to Earth and thus reveal the design layout of the planets energy based defence shield. On Earth Buck is viewed with some suspicion but one of the computer AI's who control the worlds infrastructure believes Buck's story and then benefit of the doubt leads him into a reckless adventure in the ruins of "old" Chicago. The tracker is discovered on Bucks ship and he is sentenced to be executed but when the Draconian ship under the command of Princess Ardala approaches Earth Buck along with a defence squadron led by Colonel Wilma Deering fight off a pirate attack yet the Princess denies knowing Buck again raising further suspicion. Buck gets a life line when the princess personal asks for him to attend the welcoming gala and he proceeds to boogey on down which rather shocks the more restrained humans who now like in "new" Chicago and he uses his seduction techniques to flee Earth with the princess with the aim to find the proof he needs to save himself and protect Earth. Eventually the Draconian deceit is revealed and the Draconians are sent packing with the bad guys shaking their fists vowing to return with Wilma and the council embracing Buck as one of their own albeit 500 years out of his own time. Ok then first off like BSG this is a dated show but if you can get over that style of tv production and yes even the movie felt like a tv show and of course the fashions then Buck Rogers is a lot of fun but not without it's flaws:)

We'll kick off with the opening credits, very cool but a little blatant in the sexualisation of two of the main stars but then again nothing that Bond wasn't doing so we can let that pass. It was a little silly saying Buck was frozen at temperatures beyond imagination, pretty sure they knew what absolute zero was back then but even worse the Draconians using Earth based time units, easier for the audience but come on. Also as with BSG I don't think they even attempted to convey how big the universe is, the Draconians have conquered three quarters of the universe, I don't think so, even a quarter of the galaxy would be impressive. I was seriously impressed how powerful the Earth's defence shield was, they have some uber power generation on planet which does get addressed in a later episode. It was very interesting to see that the humans have allowed AI's to make decisions on how the planet and it's cities are run yet still allow the humans the freedoms to live as they please and of course we get Twiki the little robot who acts as a mobility device for the AI's, cute and funny but networking would surely be the more efficient method.

Twiki

When we are introduced to Colonel Wilma Deering she is the by the book military commander, she isn't overly impressed with Buck yet is very pro-treaty which doesn't quite make sense, from purely a military perspective an envoy from a race that has used force to gain territory and resources can't really be trusted. Buck's little trip to old Chicago did feel totally wrong, it's amazing so much was left intact after the nuclear war and the existence of the mutants made little sense, they were obviously healthy in their own reality but where was the food and water and the environment outside of the city was not viable. They messed it further up with the existence of the black market, so economically driven mutants then who value the precious metals in Theo the AI, nah doesn't work.
We now enter space and I do like the design of the Earth fighters, they do look like they are viable for both atmospheric and space flight at least upto a point and it was a good idea to have them so dependent upon combat computers rather than manual flight control, it does gel with the AI's on the plant. However as we see that pirates are fully capable of defeating the predictable tactics of the computers and only Buck saves the day even though why would he be so proficient with a vehicle he really had no right knowing how to fly with the skills required. All that is forgotten though as Princess Ardala the woman with little or no self image issues or lacks confidence thanks the Earth squadron for destroying her own ships (that's a secret) and also gets Buck off the hook with her demands for his attendance at the gala. Ah the gala in which we have to put up with some music and dancing which had no place in civilised society but no denying that Pamela looked stunning and played the role wonderfully as did Erin in dress uniform who suddenly realised she was acting a little protective of "her" man.

Hubbahubba

It was a nice twist to have Kane ( Henry Silva ) as a human, not quite sure how he got such an high position in the Draconian fleet but my guess is he betrayed his heritage and people died, he certainly wasn't to be trusted and of course he has designs on Ardala himself so not fan of her dancing display and reminds her there are 29 other daughters of the Emperor who would be happy to serve. Oh I loved the freeze ray, well Buck needed something to explain how he defeated the huge "Tigerman" and Princess and a little amusing that she suddenly got all shy and covering herself up when things started going wrong.
So Buck took it upon himself to sabotage the Draconian attack fleet by sticking a banana in their tail pipe, I kid you not that's what he did but the banana was a munition, thankfully the guards on the hanger deck were too busy doing something else. With the destruction of the fighters and the warning given to Twiki and Theo (who stowed away on the Draconian Shuttle) the Draconia comes under attack from Earth's fighters and is destroyed but Ardala and Kane escape and you know I'm fine with that, both of them are a little over the top but good comic book style villains.

Twiki looks happy

Overall I enjoyed Awakening, I don't think the movie edit is really that much of a must see over the tv edit but obviously the whole show is produced to a level of camp and tongue in cheekiness which over the years has been the downfall of too many scifi production but works quite well for Buck Rogers.

• Wilma Deering - Erin Gray
• William "Buck" Rogers - Gil Gerard
• Princess Ardala - Pamela Hensley
• Dr Huer - Timothy O'Conner
• Kane - Henry Silva
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century IMDB
• Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Wiki

Far, Far Away

Surprisingly I don't actually listen to any Star Wars podcasts despite the franchise playing a major part in my scifi loving life. GeekNation have launched their own and without pointers to other shows I may as well start with these guys:)

Star Trek Phase II

I've just watched "Kitumba" which is the latest episode from Star Trek New Voyagers / Phase II and as you would expect every production gets better and better. The story was interesting and the production was very very good, some excellent makeup and prosthetic work especially offering us both types of Klingon and well the CGI was just beautiful, the K't'inga class warships were stunning. The acting and dialogue in places struggled but overall and great example of an original series production from outside of the studio system and even better how cool was it to see Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers) on my television once again:)

Oh and I just loved the fight scene, can't have Star Trek without a shirt ripping and punch throwing brawl and even the references to Enterprise and the 2009 movie were quite fitting:)
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