Nov 17 | Originally hired as co-executive producer to help with the second half of the show's first season, Kevin Murphy has now taken the reins of Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel on Syfy, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He now serves as an executive producer along with Ronald D. Moore, David Eick and Jane Espenson and oversees the day-to-day functions of the show.
Nov 12 | Star Trek star Zachary Quinto is loosely attached to star in the romantic dramedy Whirligig, reports Risky Business.Quinto would play the lead role in the independent Canadian film, which is aiming to shoot early next year. The movie centers on a man who, in a misguided attempt to woo an older woman, befriends the woman's adopted son.Chaz Thorne is directing the pic, based on a screenplay by Michael Amo, creator of the Canadian supernatural series "The Listener."
Nov 11 | The CNS Foundation, is hosting an on-line charity auction at www.charitybuzz.com. One of the items they are auctioning is a signed movie poster of the new Star Trek movie which has all the cast members and writers. The president of our organization is Carol Abrams, JJ's mother, and she arranged for the donation from Bad Robot Production Company. J.J. Abrams is also a major donor to their organization. The funds raised will go to help find a cure to neurological disorders in children. The auction link is here.
Nov 10 | Candice Bergen, Charles Lisanby, Don Pardo, Gene Roddenberry, Tom and Dick Smothers and Bob Stewart have been selected as the next inductees into the Television Academy's Hall of Fame. They will be honored at a Jan. 20 ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel. "This year's inductees have challenged and shaped popular culture, changed television for the better and entertained us royally while doing so," TV Academy Chairman-CEO John Shaffner said. More info at the Hollywood Reporter
Nov 08 | Unreality-SF.net has interviewed Star Trerk author James Swallow about some of his upcoming projects. He talks about Titan: Synthesis and Seven Deadly Sins: The Slow Knife, as well as some forthcoming Doctor Who and Stargate stories.
Star Trek Year Four The Enterprise Experiment #3 Review by Patrick Hayes aka PatBorg The cover: The Sharp Brothers have drawn up my favorite IDW cover. Kirk and a Klingon in close battle. The Klingon is about to go at him with a knife, while Kirk's phaser blast is just missing his foe. And if you have a very twisted sense of humor, it looks as though Kirk's left knee is about to "go where no man has gone before." Overall grade: A+ The story: D.C. Fontana and Derek Chester's tale continues as a specific Klingon from TOS takes a big presence in this story. Because of this presence the story escalates into some old school Trek storytelling and action that was fun. Not giving away anything, there are tons of references to things to come that you'll get if you've been a Trek fan for some time. If you're new to Trek, don't worry, these references won't hurt your understanding of what's going on. In fact, even if you've missed the previous two issues, you could start the story with this issue and be just fine. Page 6 was my favorite in this issue. It shows an event that's always been bugging me, and now it's been addressed. I always appreciate when a Trek story shows/answers something like this. And a famous group of aliens from one TOS episode also are brought up quite a bit, and I'm very glad they are. I should say that this was the most heavily scripted Trek comic I've read in a long time. There is a lot to read. Was it bad thing? No, in fact, it made me feel as though I was getting an actual "graphic novel" as opposed to a comic book. Overall grade: A+ The art: Gordon Purcell continues penciling the series and it's great. His layout is bar none. Just look at page 1: you've got the exterior of a Klingon cruiser that frames the other three panels, the last of which is full bleed beyond the borders of the panel that shows the power (and impact) of the Klingon's fist. This is how comics should be done! You've got to give Purcell credit for also being able to lay out a book so that the dialogue balloons don't overpower his work: pages 10 through 13 are evidence of this. Purcell's interpretation of TOS's characters are also top notch: there's no question ever as I'm reading the book as to who Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Chekov, Sulu, Scotty, or Uhura is. Now there is something that sticks out: starting on page 13 the artwork begins to look like Steve Ditko took over the pencils. I'm a fan of Ditko, but the book credits Gordon Purcell. Here are some examples: page 13 at the bottom -- Kirk is pointing with two fingers. Did the Shat ever do that? That's a Ditko point if I ever saw one (I'm showing my geek stripes now: there are certain artists whose names for me instantly put a picture in my head for certain characters -- Ditko Spider-Man, Kirby Hulk, Swan Superman, Byrne X-Men, Zeck Captain America, etc.). Now look at page 14, specifically the last two panels. Did Purcell pencil that Kirk? Doesn't look like it. And look at that mano y mano with the Klingon. That's textbook Ditko fighting stances. It looks like Kirk is Spider-Man and the Klingon should be the Scorpion. Look at the Klingon getting fried on page 15: doesn't that look like someone receiving a blast from Dr. Strange? By page 16 it looks as though Purcell returns: that is a Purcell Kirk. The remainder of the book looks like Purcell, until the very last page. Doesn't that look like something Ditko would have drawn as well? So, there are three possibilities for the abrupt change in art on these four pages: 1, Purcell didn't draw them; 2, Purcell didn't draw them as detailed as necessary for Terry Pallot to ink; 3, Terry Pallot didn't ink as well as they needed to be. Again, I love Ditko (who doesn't?), but these three pages stood out for not looking like the quality that Purcell has done in the past. Because of this, I'm lowering my grade a tad, for three pages that stood out, not for being bad but for being so different from the majority of the book. Overall grade: A- The inks: Aside from my questions in "the art" review, Terry Pallot does the outstanding job that I expect to see: crisp and clean, with one exception. Now this could be Purcell's choice artwise, but I'm putting it under Pallot's purview because it's an inker's call here: clouds caught my eye because of the way they were shaded. Look at that page 6 I keep going on about. Panel 4's clouds are inked with heavy slashes. Upon seeing them this way I caught myself looking at the "art" and not the "cloud" it was supposed to represent. I came out of the story I was in and got stuck on the "art." Page 16, panel 2 is the worst offender of this: black slashes are used to shade a cloud behind our heroes. It really looks like elementary school cloud work. I would have preferred it without the black slashes. I'm nickel and diming here, I know, but it bugged, okay? Two panels out of an entire book, though, are not reason enough to slam the work into the ground. Overall grade: A The colors. Reading the credits on this one aspect of the comic are like trying to decipher a movie's screenwriting credits: "Colors by John Hunt with Jason Jenson and Mario Boon." Okay, I'm going to translate that as first half of the book was by John Hunt and the second half was done by Jason Jenson and Mario Boon. Even with three colorists I can see no change half way through the book. The book's colors are dark when something serious is afoot, such as on a Klingon bridge or when there's a battle, and they lighten up when there's conversation in a hallway on the Enterprise. I especially am grateful when I see that colorists try to match the overly vivid 60s lighting of planets in comics, and a fine job is done here. For three people doing one job, it's a job well done. Overall grade: A+ The letters: Multiple credits here as well. Robbie Robbins and Chris Mowry do the duties and it's a pretty straightforward job of dialogue and narration. Nary a sound effect to be had, which is sad, in a way, because there's some space sounds that could have been done (it's not Serenity folks, Star Trek ships make noise!) and a nice surface battle. Overall grade: A Editorial question: ScottDunbier, the cover credits list this as Star Trek: Year Four: Enterprise Experiment Part 3, but on the inside cover "Year Four" is not mentioned in the title underneath the shuttle, nor is it in the microscopic print down at the bottom by the IDW logo. But when I look at the IDWords page in the back of the book, June Releases from IDW Publishing lists the book as Star Trek: Year Four: The Enterprise Experiment. Anal fans want to know, Should we include "Year Four" in the title? Should we include "The" before "Enterprise Experiment?" I'd like to be able to file the darned things correctly. I'll be waiting in The Android's Dungeon for your response. The final line: With only four pages that seemed odd pencil-wise, I still found this to be an enjoyable comic and one worth your money. Overall grade: A
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