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Exclusive Interview: “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Revenant” Author Alex White

 

Having twice explored the Alien universe, and created one of their own in their Salvagers trilogy, writer Alex White is going where they’ve never gone before with their new Star Trek novel, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Revenant (paperback, Kindle, audiobook). In the following email interview, White explains how this novel came together, when in the show’s chronology it takes place, and what non-Trek stuff influenced this noir-flavored sci-fi space opera story.

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DVDs/Blu-rays Reviews TV

“Rick And Morty: Season 5” Blu-ray, DVD Review

 

Were Rick and Morty real people, they would both shit on me for wanting to watch a TV show on Blu-ray or DVD, especially one that’s on a streaming service I’m subscribed to. And don’t even get me started on what Summer would say. But I don’t care, because after watching Rick And Morty: Season 5 on Blu-ray, I can suffer their verbal slings and arrows, confident in the knowledge that this is the best way to watch this hilarious sci-fi animated show.

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DVDs/Blu-rays Movies Reviews TV

“Beavis And Butt-Head Do America” Blu-Ray Review

 

In 1996, when Mike Judge made Beavis And Butt-Head Do America, the idea of turning a TV show into a movie wasn’t new. Mission: Impossible had come out a few months prior, The Fugitive had done it 3 years earlier, and the ’60s Batman show had beaten all of them to the punch by thirty years. But America was the first time a cartoon for adults was making the leap since The Flintstones‘ 1966 film The Man Called Flintstone, and fans (and studio executives) were unsure of what would happen. Turns out, they need not have been concerned. Beavis And Butt-Head Do America was not only a big hit, but it was regarded as one of the best adventures these idiots ever went on (and still is).

Which makes it really odd that Beavis And Butt-Head Do America is only now being released on Blu-ray (though far less so when you realize this year marks the movie’s twenty-fifth anniversary…and that Judge is now making a sequel for Paramount+).

Still, for fans who’ve been enjoying this movie on DVD for the past two dozen years, the question is, should they upgrade?

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Books Movies TV

Exclusive Interview: “Star Trek: Coda, Book III: Oblivion’s Gate” Author David Mack

 

With Star Trek: Coda, Book III: Oblivion’s Gate (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), writer David Mack is ending the Coda trilogy that launched in September with Book I: Moments Asunder and continued in October with Book II: The Ashes Of Tomorrow. Except unlike most trilogies, Star Trek and otherwise, David Mack didn’t write all three. Or even come up with the idea for this saga on his own; Moments Asunder and The Ashes Of Tomorrow come courtesy of fellow Trek scribes Dayton Ward and James Swallow, respectfully. Though in the following email interview, it’s Mr. Mack who gets stuck answering my questions about how this all came together, and how this trilogy earned the title of Coda.

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Books Movies TV

Exclusive Interview: Secrets Of The Force Co-Writer Mark A. Altman

 

While there’s been tons of behind-the-scenes books about Star Wars, writers Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman are trying to do something different with Secrets Of The Force (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook) by not only presenting it as an oral history, but having that oral history be, as the subtitle explains, “Uncensored” and “Unauthorized.” In the following email interview, Altman (who was my boss at Geek Monthly) explains how this book came together, what it does and does not cover, and why they feel oral histories work for these kinds of making-of books.

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DVDs/Blu-rays Reviews TV

Star Trek: Lower Decks: Season 1 Blu-ray, DVD Review

 

Nearly twenty years after William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and the rest of the Enterprise crew played Star Trek for laughs in the Futurama episode “Where No Fan Has Gone Before,” Starfleet is getting colorfully comedic again with Star Trek: Lower Decks, an animated comedy that’s also the newest addition to the Star Trek cannon. And while it takes more than one episode to really get good, watching all ten on the Star Trek: Lower Decks: Season 1 Blu-ray, DVD, or limited-edition Blu-Ray steelbook is the best way to see it happen.

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DVDs/Blu-rays TV

Lovecraft Country: The Complete First Season Blu-Ray, DVD Review

 

Science fiction, fantasy, and horror have often been utilized as vehicles to explore social issues. One of the first interracial kiss on television, for example, happened on the original Star Trek, a show that, just a few weeks later, would air an episode about a race war on a planetary scale. It’s a tradition that’s continued, and in grand style, in the epic TV show Lovecraft Country. And while the Blu-ray and DVD editions of Lovecraft Country: The Complete First Season are missing some key extras, these discs are still the best way to watch this thrilling and thought-provoking show.

Oh, but first, I’ve been asked to include the following:

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-rayTM I reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.

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DVDs/Blu-rays Reviews TV

Star Trek: Picard: Season One Blu-ray, DVD Review

 

There was a time when seeing an actor return to the role that made them famous meant their career had stalled and they needed the money, and what they did with this return usually reflected this. But no more. Just as Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill made triumphant returns in the recent Star Wars movies, so too did Patrick Stewart when he again took up the mantle of Jean-Luc Picard for the streaming show Star Trek: Picard, which has just been released on Blu-ray, DVD, and limited edition Blu-ray steelbook, all of which do this show justice.

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DVDs/Blu-rays TV

South Park: The Complete Twenty-Third Season Blu-ray, DVD Review

 

One of the fun things cartoons do that live action shows don’t is mess with their intros. The Simpsons are famous for constantly changing the couch gag and what Bart writes on the blackboard, while Family Guy have occasionally had characters interrupt the chorus line in theirs. But while most of the episodes on the South Park: The Complete Twenty-Third Season Blu-ray and DVD sets have very different openings as well, the changes go far beyond the start of the show.