Can shoes or cologne be considered fanboy collectibles? We'll find out together as a very different breed of Star Trek collectibles arrives in time for the post-Thanksgiving gift buying frenzy.
J.J. Abrams made Trek sexy again -- especially the original TV show from the 1960s. So Paramount and CBS put their marketing and licensing people to work. What did they come up with from just inside the Windsor Gate on Melrose?
The Vermont Teddy Bear Company is offering shorter, furrier versions of Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock (right) for about $100 each. I've acquired one of these, and they're well made with a lot of attention to detail in their little uniforms.
Also, make sure you check out the Airwalk Terrain Hi Skate Star Trek StarFleet Edition sneakers from Payless. For $50, you get a really well-made urban sneaker that just happens to bear a Starfleet insignia. And they come in the departmental uniform colors of the original Enterprise crew -- gold, blue and red.
If you're like me, and I know I am, you've wondered what it would like if the U.S.S. Enterprise descended on the Hollywood Hills.
Fortunately, Paramount held the big DVD and Blu-ray release party for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie at the Griffith Park Observatory Monday night, and the Enterprise took up a standard orbit around the famous planetarium landmark.
While the film's creators and cast mingled inside the observatory, a high-definition multimedia system projected video images of Trek visual effects up against the building's walls.
So, for a few moments, the Enterprise (almost to scale) swooped in for a visit before heading away at warp factor one.
Who would buy Hammertime on DVD? I'm actually asking. Is that something that you would actually watch again after you've already watched it on TV?
There are some good complete series sets being released this week, though: Andy Richter's Andy Barker, P.I., a Rome gift set, Farscape, and a new box for The Sopranos.
William Shatner has appeared on The Tonight Show to give his typically awesome take on the Twitter messages that Sarah Palin posted to her account when she was Governor of Alaska. Last night he appeared again to recite the Twitter "poetry" of her arch-rival Levi Johnston.
After all, CBS Paramount has done very, very well with that original Star Trek episode. It's regarded as -- and is -- the all-time best show in the entire original ST canon. Ironically, Ellison never liked what Roddenberry and company had done with his script.
The male nerd interest quotient just shot way up for Legend of the Seeker.
Actress Jolene Blalock (Vulcan T'Pol in Star Trek: Enterprise) is joining the cast of the New Zealand-based, Disney produced fantasy series as a recurring villain. According to a Disney press release, Blalock begins filming this week as "a mysterious Sister of the Dark who possesses very powerful magic."
It'll help you a lot to understand this next but if you're a fan of the show, but Blalock will not only threaten heroic Richard (Craig Horner) and "his quest to defeat evil forces," but her real goal is to destroy the lovely female lead, Kahlan (Bridget Regan).
I wanted to add a spoiler warning with this post, but sadly, John Cho, who plays FBI agent Demetri Noh on ABC's FlashForward, is pretty tight lipped about all the big reveals that are coming up this season. I had the chance to speak with him recently, and despite my continued harassment, he's good at keeping secrets.
But, that doesn't mean fans will have to wait long for answers to start rolling in about the mysterious massive blackout that allowed everyone in the world to see into the future.
"I have been excited by and impressed by how much they're revealing this early on," he said. "There's been serious bombshells on a weekly basis ... I feel like they [the writers] are very conscious about giving the audience a lot of information."
A television obituary has slipped through the cracks. Dick Durock has passed away. Who is Dick Durock, you ask? Why, he played the title character in the Swamp Thing movie written and directed by Wes Craven and its subsequent poor follow-up, as well as the television series based on the movies. Also, he played an evil Hulk in The Incredible Hulk television series and was a stuntman on various television shows including Star Trek.
I remember watching that Incredible Hulk episode as a kid, and my first thought was "that second Hulk isn't anywhere near as muscular as the first." Still, in his prime Dick Durock could have undoubtedly kicked my ass.
Just to prove how tough Dick Durock was ... I don't know many people who have long battles with pancreatic cancer. Usually, that takes you out in a hurry. If you could stand up to Lou Ferrigno, pancreatic cancer was in for one hell of a fight.
This is the first week in quite some time that I'm definitely, definitely, definitely going to buy one of the DVD sets that is being released. And that would be 30 Rock. Can't wait for the fourth season to start in October.
As for The Mentalist, I love it but I can't imagine watching the episodes again, you know?
This clip from Funny or Die had me laughing out loud several times. It's called Hostage: A Love Story, and stars Heroes' Zachary Quinto as a guy trying to rob a restaurant. It really throws the whole "crazed gunman takes a hostage" story for a loop. You'll see the ending coming, but it's still a very effective short film.
By the way, the police were called twice during the filming of this because they thought Quinto was a real crook.
The science fiction blog Io9 has a chart up at their site that tracks the themes that have been used on sci-fi TV shows since 1970. How many shows have been about time travel, robots, aliens, space travel, and/or mutants? Is there a trend to the themes of sci-fi shows over the years? (Here's the complete list of shows they looked at to create the chart.)
As the fall release date for the J.J. Abrams Star Trek DVD closes in, Star Trek merchandising is making a comeback.
Everything Trek made a huge bull rush earlier this summer when the first major run of merchandising took hold. Everything from bottle openers to iPod got the final frontier treatment. Now the DVD is shaking the space trees again.
The long-rumored Star Trek colognes beamed their way into stores last week -- immediately becoming a product that folks might want to try as curiosity without ever admitting they bought it.
Pop culture lists that have 100 or more entries, whether it's a list for television, film, music, books, advertising, whatever - are too long. When you list 100 of anything, you're not really getting down to the "best" (or "worst," if that's the theme of the list), you're just giving a list of 100.
Supertremendous.com has their list of the 100 most iconic TV show intros. You can read the first 90, but I wanted to concentrate on the top ten. That list includes The Brady Bunch, The Simpsons, M*A*S*H, Knight Rider (???), and The Twilight Zone, along with the number one pick after the jump. Can you guess it before you click?
Can shoes or cologne be considered fanboy collectibles? We'll find out together as a very different breed of Star Trek collectibles arrives in time for the post-Thanksgiving gift buying frenzy.
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.
You have to admire the tenacity of writer 
The male nerd interest quotient just shot way up for Legend of the Seeker.
I wanted to add a spoiler warning with this post, but sadly, John Cho, who plays FBI agent Demetri Noh on ABC's 
A television obituary has slipped through the cracks. Dick Durock 
At 8, ABC has a new, two-hour Dancing with the Stars, followed by the series premiere of The Forgotten.
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.
The science fiction blog 
As the fall release date for the J.J. Abrams Star Trek DVD closes in, Star Trek merchandising is making a comeback.
Pop culture lists that have 100 or more entries, whether it's a list for television, film, music, books, advertising, whatever - are too long. When you list 100 of anything, you're not really getting down to the "best" (or "worst," if that's the theme of the list), you're just giving a list of 100.
The TV Squad Podcast: The Prisoner, '80s TV, soap news and more
Let's talk about spoilers ...
The Prisoner -- An early look
