Review by C.J. Bunce

Literally hundreds of books and journal articles have been written on the three seasons of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek.  What more can be said about the making of this series?  After all, there is a well-maintained website chronicling seemingly all you would want to know about “the original series” called Memory Alpha.  Plus, nearly every major player involved with the creation of Star Trek has written a book on it, from Herb Solow and Robert Justman’s Inside Star Trek to William Shatner’s Star Trek Memories, Gross and Altman’s Captains’ Logs, to Stephen Whitfield’s The Making of Star Trek, Allan Asherman’s The Star Trek Compendium to the more recent entry Block and Erdmann’s Star Trek: The Original Series 365.  But what writer/researcher Marc Cushman’s new These are the Voyages TOS Season One does is pull information from all these sources plus resources like Starlog, Daily Variety, and TV Guide articles as well as delve into an archive of production work papers from the UCLA Performing Arts Special Collections never before tapped for such an exhaustive work on the series.  These are the Voyages is a treatise on Trek, a comprehensive history of a crowning achievement in science fiction, but also a history of television itself in the 1960s.

These are the Voyages delves into each episode in a level of detail that has not been reached before.  For each episode the author gives a brief picture of where the U.S. stood via pop songs on the radio and national events.  Cushman then introduces a plot summary and nicely extracts the critical theme of each episode—separating Star Trek from frivolous weekly episodes of competing series with each episode’s focus on some weighty issue for mankind.  Pulling margin notes, memos, and script drafts together with interviews, both old and new, Cushman recreates the making of each episode from a production standpoint and–even more illuminating—he recreates the development of each story into the final script.  Who was responsible for the romance between Edith Keener and Captain Kirk in City on the Edge of Forever?  (Not Harlan Ellison).  When did Gene Roddenberry’s rewrites contribute to or take away from the story writers’ original vision?  What would NBC let the production get away with (like William Ware Theiss’s many actress costumes) and what did they censor (such as how brutally red-shirts could be offed)?   Why did Romulans wear helmets in Balance of Terror?  How much of those famous introductory words to each episode were actually penned by Gene Roddenberry, and how many takes did William Shatner need to get it right?

Cushman also records here for the first time in context the puzzling Nielsen’s ratings that supposedly ultimately prompted NBC to drop Star Trek altogether. Here we see another story emerge: Did NBC simply disregard Star Trek’s significant margin share, hidden from the public back in the late 1960s?  Could they just not get past the idea that a genre TV series could survive?

We also get to see something we never get to see—the actual salaries and per-episode pay given to each major Star Trek actor.  We get to see the time and sweat poured into getting each story as perfect as the deadlines would allow, the aggravation and toll on cast and crew of long days and work schedules. Where past works on Star Trek give a single perspective on decisions, These are the Voyages presents many views of the most controversial and lets the reader decide.  Why was Grace Lee Whitney really cut from Season One so quickly?  Why were the episodes created in one order, only to be presented differently, with many episodes not re-broadcast in syndication for several years?  Which episodes were the most costly?  How did the producers swing building a prop shuttlecraft Galileo for no out-of-pocket cash?

These are the Voyages intersperses in its narrative a treasure trove of black and white behind-the-scenes images, most never before published.  Here you’ll find clapperboards galore, views of sets all the way to their off-camera boundaries, on-location images, producers and other creators with series stars, guest stars in their many futuristic costumes preparing for filming, and much more cut footage.

Professors of the history of technology or the history of television will find here material that will amplify their teaching and studies of this period, all anchored by the weight and influence of none other than Lucille Ball and Desilu Studios.  Everyone’s favorite classic comedienne was even onsite late hours pressuring the production to meet its schedule.  Readers will also encounter hundreds of other television shows in this first volume as Star Trek relied in great part on the creative talents behind so many classic series, but also movie creators, too.  What key role did the cinematographer of Gone With the Wind play in establishing the lasting look of the universe of Star Trek?  What actors would appear in the original series and come back in later Star Trek series?

Challenges for the next two volumes covering Season Two and Season Three are many.  So much content in Season One revolves around the trials of getting the production off the ground.  What similar challenges will we find facing the production in Season Two?  With a Season Three that is full of episodes hardly as compelling as those of the first two seasons, how will Cushman hold our interest through the end of the series?  As much as you can pack into such an immense work, fans will always want more.  William Ware Theiss and Wah Chang created costumes and props for the series, and Cushman includes a few comments by these creators, including that fact that Theiss felt forthright enough to comment on the substance of scripts to Roddenberry himself, but readers will want even more from these creators in future volumes–if more is available (we’re a greedy bunch).

Co-written by Susan Osborn, Volume One clocks in at a hefty 580 pages, with a foreword by John D.F. Black and Mary Black.  If book one is any indication, Star Trek fans will have another thousand pages of densely packed content to sift through in the coming months as later volumes are released.  A three-book boxed set will be a must.

If you already have a shelf full of the 40 years of non-fiction books written about Star Trek, you may not think you need another book on the original series.  However, if you don’t, and even for those who think they know everything about Star Trek, you will find These are the Voyages TOS Season One an exhaustive, indispensible resource and a most compelling and interesting read.

Editor’s Note:  You can also check out the Kickstarter campaign where the publisher is making available signed copies of this series.  Books can also be purchased here.  The scheduled release date is August 12, 2013.

If you want to check out many other past Star Trek books, you can find an extensive list of resources we previously discussed here.

Art designers or aspiring art design students will want to pick up Mark Salisbury’s new look at creating sets, costumes and props for a world of the future in Elysium: The Art of the Film.  Incorporating commentary from the up-and-coming science fiction director of the geo-political sci-fi thriller District 9, Neill Blomkamp, this new large format hardcover delves into the creative process from early ponderings to the imagery that made it to the final film cut.

Like listening to the first demo tapes of your favorite band or scanning the rough sketches of your favorite artist, taking a peek at the development of Hollywood magic through various aspects of a film can teach you a lot about a designer.  Watching the development of a cyborg exo-skeletal costume from inception to final crafted piece challenges the reader to agree or disagree with what is cut and what isn’t.  What physical elements, like utilitarian tubes and pipes, plastics or metals, make us think of the visual “future”?

Blomkamp’s work brings with it a signature questioning of wealth and poverty, the powerful and the powerless, and he does this with the backdrop of a science fantasy posing as science fiction.  It may be Blomkamp’s own street cred–having one of the only science fiction films nominated for an Academy Award on his resume–that allows him to get away with creating an impossible orbital station without explaining how it could possibly work.  Blomkamp says he sees himself first as a visual artist more than director or writer, and he credits bringing together the right creators to help implement his vision.  With his new film Elysium that meant bringing in the team from the Weta Workshop, famous for their designs in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films.  The book includes concept art from Weta designers Christian Pearce, Aaron Beck, Ben Mauro, Leri Greer, and Stuart Thomas.  Also notable is the contribution to Elysium by Blomkamp idol and classic sci-fi designer of Blade Runner and Tron, Syd Mead.

Being a book highlighting the visual, Elysium: The Art of the Film has relatively little text, but what it contains by way of development of hand weapons, scouting for locations, revealing how star Matt Damon ends up as a borg, and what makes a cool-designed robot and slick future cars, all make for an interesting compilation of ideas.  It very much mimics an artist’s notebook or idea log.  One two-page spread highlights advertising logos used to create the feeling of reality for moviegoers, and each looks like it really could be a trademark for some technological–or mundane–future business.  The book is smartly segmented by Earth and Elysium, mirroring the story elements that divide the bleak future from the utopian future–and all seem to be carefully crafted and well-planned.

Add Elysium: The Art of the Film to your film “behind the scenes” library.  Elysium: The Art of the Film is available directly through Weta here or via Amazon.com here.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Review by C.J. Bunce

This month Dark Horse Comics is re-releasing the 2007 guide to the history of Conan the Barbarian, Conan The Phenomenon: The Legacy of Robert E. Howard’s Fantasy Icon.  Not in print the past few years and costly to obtain via online retailers in its original hardcover edition, this new paperback edition includes all of the original edition’s visually dense look at the history of Conan, which will appeal to longtime fans and new fantasy fans curious about this classic sword and sorcery character.

The overview of Conan begins with a prologue by Michael Moorcock that delves into the historical context of Robert W. Howard as creator of Conan the Barbarian in his very short time as a writer (he died at 30).  Moorcock explores why the character was an outgrowth of the times of the early 20th century.  The book then takes a unique look at the influence of living in bleak rural Texas on the young writer and how it came through in Howard’s creation of Conan’s world.

According to Conan The Phenomenon author Paul M. Sammon, many fans of Howard’s Conan writings in pulp magazines helped Conan stories to forge ahead despite the death of his creator.  Posthumous publications and a loyal fan following ensured that Conan would continue to be reimagined over the years.  Along with Howard’s own Conan the Conqueror (his only Conan novel, renamed by the publisher) Gnome Press published his stories (in now highly collectible books), and this was followed by new novels published by Lancer.  It was the Lancer paperback books that brought Conan to millions of readers.

One of the greatest influences on the phenomenon of Conan is the importance of artist Frank Frazetta as the visual counterpart to the outgrowth of Robert E. Howard’s writings.  His cover art on the Lancer books is now synonymous with Conan.  Would Conan be as pervasive today if not for Frazetta’s fantastical cover art?  What Conan fans will be happy with more than any other element of Conan The Phenomenon are the many painted covers by Frazetta included, along with covers and artwork throughout the history of Conan in books, comics, magazines and film.

The next great shift Sammon discusses is Conan finally introduced in both comic book form and in fanzines in the 1970s and 1980s.  Marvel Comics acquired the comic book rights from the estate of Howard and millions more of a new generation would encounter the sword and sorcery genre defined by Conan.  Sammon recounts the various comic book writers and artists that created the world most Conan fans know the character by today.

Conan The Phenomenon includes listings chronologically of the complete catalog of Conan works going back to Howard’s original stories.  A chapter is devoted to the struggle to get Conan to the silver screen with the film that would star Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1982′s Conan the Barbarian, including details about the thoughts behind the swords created for the film and casting decisions.  Other modern novelizations are recounted as well as scholarship on Conan, including fanzines and useful websites.  The overview of Conan wraps with where Conan stories currently flourish–in the pages of Dark Horse Comics.

Conan The Phenomenon: The Legacy of Robert E. Howard’s Fantasy Icon is available in paperback in comic book stores September 18, 2013, and October 1, 2013 in other bookstores.  A discount edition is available at Amazon.com.

Review by C.J. Bunce

When Arrow’s pilot was previewed at San Diego Comic-Con back in 2012 we had our first indication that the series would be a big hit.  The pilot remains one of the best first episodes for any TV series, and on its new Blu-ray release viewers get to see what an incredible looking show this really is.  This Tuesday, September 17, 2013, Arrow will be released on both DVD and in an awesome Blu-ray combo pack that you won’t want to miss, and today’s your last day to pick it up at its discounted pre-order price.  Thanks to Warner Bros. borg.com got an advance preview of the Blu-ray combo pack, and if you missed any of the 23 episodes aired this year, or you haven’t seen the series at all, now is the time to catch the best live action DC Comics effort since 1990′s The Flash.  Check out the “Arrow” tag to the lower right of the borg.com home page for past coverage of our favorite new hit.

Optimum Quality.  The nine-disc Blu-ray combo pack includes two complete sets of the episodes and features:  the DVD on five discs and the Blu-ray on four discs.  (One to keep and one to loan to friends?)  It also includes a code for Ultraviolet viewing access.  The picture and sound quality are perfect, and watching the episodes straight through you realize the series was designed in a very seamless way compared with so many shows that have repeated scenes at every commercial break.  Not so here.  The navigation menus are the best we’ve seen so far–easy to navigate–and they include a full menu for all the discs on each disc so if you have the wrong disc inserted you’ll always know which one you want.

All 23 Brilliant Episodes.  The series started off with a complex pilot, and that was a movie-quality effort to begin with.  Subsequent episodes never seemed to let up.  Our favorite was the three episode arc featuring Helena Bertinelli’s Huntress, played by Jessica De Gouw, one of the top character retellings in this new Green Arrow universe.  We were surprised how much we didn’t mind Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, and Marc Guggenheim taking liberties with the 70-year history of the Green Arrow canon.  The set includes great episodes featuring characters unexplored before, including the very modern and realistic tech guru Felicity Smoak, played perfectly by Emily Bett Rickards, and the entirely new character, Oliver’s confidant John Diggle, played by David Ramsey.

Three well-known genre actors lent gravitas to the series’ first season: Susanna Thompson (Star Trek Voyager, Deep Space Nine) as Oliver’s mother Moira, Paul Blackthorne (The Dresden Files) as Detective Lance, and John Barrowman (Torchwood) as Malcolm Merlyn.  Even Alex Kingston (Doctor Who) was featured as Laurel’s mother.  And the first season of Arrow was jam-packed with other DCU heroes and villains, including Laurel Lance, Slade Wilson, Shado, Roy Harper, China White, Deathstroke, Deadshot, The Count, Firefly, and The Dodger.

But the key reason why Season One was so successful is multi-faceted lead star Stephen Amell, who was so comfortable in such a dramatic and action-heavy role.  As you’ll learn in the special features, Amell provided his own stunt work in many cases, and all of the “workout” scenes were 100% Amell.  And he simply nailed the cocky and confident role of Oliver.  For a character to betray so many friends–and date and dump so many women–in his first year on-screen, it takes a pretty charismatic actor for viewers to continue to like this guy.

Packed with Features.  Happily, this is not a set where you’ll be able to run through all the features in one sitting.  It includes the obligatory gag reel.  It also has many deleted scenes, including some that actually amplify the motivations of the characters–not just cutting-room floor fluff to add to the discs for the sake of adding minutes of content.

In the feature “Arrow Comes Alive” the crew and cast discuss the decisions behind this DC Comics retelling that explain a lot that viewers and long-time fans of Green Arrow will be interested in.  One key revelation is that the series is not called Green Arrow in part because Queen is not yet Green Arrow, but by the end of the series the producers hope he will grow into the character we know from the comic books.

The set includes highlights from an interview with writers and key cast members at the Paley Center for Media, which includes more thoughts behind why the writers didn’t adhere to Green Arrow or DCU canon.  Moderated by noted comic book writer Geoff Johns, this feature is surprisingly rich in content.

But the best feature of the set is “Arrow: Fight School/Stunt School,” which includes interviews with Amell, stunt management and stunt coaches as well as his own stunt man double and scene breakdowns of key stunt work.  I don’t recall a feature from any production–TV series or movie–that was as fun to watch all the details of the creation of stunt work.  The entire set is probably worth purchasing just for this great feature.

The Blu-ray combo pack of Arrow: The Complete First Season lists at retail price of $69.97, but you can pre-order it today for only $42.99 from Amazon.com.  The DVD set lists at retail for $59.98, but you can pre-order it today for only $36.99 from Amazon.com.  Act fast as prices can change at any time.  Catch up now because Season Two begins Wednesday, October 9, 2013.

PBS is airing a new documentary series tonight and re-broadcast October 22 focusing on the impact of comic book superheroes on America and American culture, in Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle.  It’s a good history lesson in the creation of the modern comic book and the development since the 1930s of the comic book art form.  Packed with interviews with key creators and industry professionals, and comic book page and TV and movie clips, it tells a history of America as much as the comic book medium.

Not surprisingly the documentary, funded by both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, focuses on U.S. comics and comic stories tied to patriotism across the past 100 years.  Written and directed by Michael Kantor, it covers how changing times is mirrored in comics, but also dictates the stories of comics, from the Great Depression, to World War II, McCarthyism in the 1950s and the Cold War in the 1960s to 1980s, the psychedelic 1960s, drugs in the 1970s, to Watergate and terrorism.

Hosted by actor Live Schreiber, the documentary provides a chronological history of comic books in three one-hour segments.  Part 1, “Truth, Justice, and the American Way,” covers the first 10 cent comics, Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster and the creation of Superman, early comics reprinting previously published works leading up to DC Comics and Marvel Comics, The Shadow, Bob Kane and Batman, Captain Marvel, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and the creation of Captain America, and women in comics as creators and characters.  The good and bad side of comics is discussed, including the Comics Code, how comics dealt with racism and violence, and Frederick Wertham and his book Seduction of the Innocent and how it impacted the buying public.

Part 2, “Great Power, Great Responsibility,” keys in on Stan Lee and Spider-man, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers, The Flash, pop art, the Batman TV series and comic books as camp, the development of action figures and tie-in toys, artist Jim Steranko and surrealism in 1960s and 1970s comics, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, Neal Adams and Denny O’Neil and their groundbreaking Green Lantern/Green Arrow series, “issue” comics and “event” comics and the myth of new comic books as rare collectibles, comics in TV series like Wonder Woman and The Incredible Hulk, and vigilante justice in books like The Punisher. 

Part 3, “A Hero Can Be Anyone,” wraps up the documentary with the rise in popularity of comic book conventions, superheroes on the silver screen, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, the 1989 Batman movie, Alan Moore’s Watchmen, The X-Men, Todd McFarlane and his work including the Spawn series, the marriage of Superman and Spider-man and the death of Superman, and the current world of mega-movie franchises.

Faults of the series include an over-emphasis and possibly too much screen-time in each of the three segments devoted to Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Spider-man, to the exclusion of major segments of comic books like crime comics, horror comics, romance comics and Western comics, as well as hardly any emphasis on women in comics, with no mention of the first female superhero and its creator, June Tarpé Mills.  Independent comic book publishing barely gets mentioned, and animated comics, video games, and digital and online comics are all but an afterthought included at the end of the series.

Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle is still a good overview of comic books and their growing impact on pop culture and ultimate inclusion in the mainstream culture in the past few decades.  Few comic book documentaries have previously covered comic books this well before with input from so many key comic book industry professionals.  Check out With Great Power… The Stan Lee Story, for another documentary focused on Stan Lee and Marvel Comics, reviewed here at borg.com last year.

Superheroes tracks the benchmarks of comic book history you’d expect to see in a general overview, including key issues Action Comics #1, Detective Comics #27, Amazing Fantasy #15, and Green Lantern #76.

Look for commentary on various segments of comic book history from a broad range of comic book talents, old and new, including Joe Kubert, Jerry Robinson, Carmine Infantino, Michael Chabon, Mark Waid, Neal Adams, Stan Lee, Denny O’Neil, Grant Morrison, Joe Simon, Phil Jimenez, Joe Quesada, Jeph Loeb, J. Michael Straczynski, Jim Lee, and Andrea Romano.

Check local listings for airing times and possible future airings. Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle is also available on DVD and Blu-ray at Amazon.com and a tie-in book, Superheroes!: Capes, Cowls, and the Creation of Comic Book Culture, is available at Amazon.com here.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Happy Halloween!

Readers of borg.com will be familiar with Kim Newman.  For years he has been a favorite horror and fantasy writer of millions of readers across the globe.  I have reviewed two of his novels in his Anno Dracula series here in the past two years, Dracula Cha Cha Cha (the re-release made our Best of 2012 list) and Johnny Alucard, reviewed here this month.  The Anno Dracula books describe a detailed and complex parallel world where Bram Stoker’s Dracula was a biographical account of a real vampire and vampires were integrated into our culture over the course of a century.  Kim graciously agreed to an interview with me recently about the latest book in his Anno Dracula series.

CB:  Kim, thanks for chatting with us here at borg.com today about your new release Johnny Alucard.

KN:  Thanks for having me.

CB:  Were there any real world people or fictional characters from early drafts of Johnny Alucard (or in prior Anno Dracula novels) that were left on your “cutting room floor”?  Any that you still want to find a home for in the Anno Dracula universe?

KN:  The novel features various real filmmakers/artists who talked about – or got quite far on with – Dracula projects that didn’t happen, or who made Draculas that aren’t the ones I imagined.  Ken Russell (whose Dracula script has been published) and Ingmar Bergman (who talked about being interested in the book) were on the list, but I couldn’t see a way of including them.  I do cast around for some key players – when I needed a fictional Los Angeles cop for a part, I could have selected several 1970s TV characters though the one I went with is the best fit.  That whole section of the book is informed a lot by 1970s TV shows, especially The Rockford Files – but I didn’t see a way of including Jim Rockford as a character since I’d used another LA private eye in an earlier chapter and he’d just have repeated the lesson.  I tend not to list characters I’d like to use and then find excuses for them – I think of the situations, the story points, or where my main characters are, and then look around for real or borrowed fictional or amalgamated characters who suit the purposes of the set-up.

CB:  What kind of feedback have you received from living people who have ended up in your Anno Dracula series?

KN:  None, so far.  Of authors whose characters I’ve appropriated, Charlie Grant, Les Daniels, Paul McAuley and F. Paul Wilson have been appreciative.

CB:  You’ve spent a great deal of time now with our tour guides in the Anno Dracula world: Kate, Genevieve, and Penny.  Do you have a favorite?  Do you feel you know everything about them after all this time documenting their travels?

KN:  I like writing them all – probably each is my favourite when I’m with them, which may say as much about me as them.  I do know more about them than has been in the books so far, but I also know there are gaps and grey areas that I might or might not pay attention to in the future.

CB:  As a reader it’s exciting to see what you do with your densely packed world of real and fictional characters. Have you considered taking the structure of the universe building in Anno Dracula to delve into any other parallel worlds—not based on Dracula–but based on other characters that interest you?

KN:  I did something similar with Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the d’Urbervilles, which riffs on Conan Doyle’s characters, and ties in slightly with an upcoming book, Angels of Music, which takes The Phantom of the Opera as a source text.  My novella “A Drug on the Market” takes an Anno Dracula-like approach to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, though it’s a sequel rather than an alternate universe – considering the effects on society if Dr. Jekyll’s serum were to become a commercially available patent medicine.  I’m interested in playing with my own toys as well as other folks’, though.

CB:  You’ve said in interviews before that you enjoy low-budget 1970s films like Quentin Tarentino has used as inspiration for his own film creations–Any thoughts on venturing into other genres, maybe creating your own grindhouse, or even science fiction, steampunk, etc. worlds, outside of the horror realm, like more of your Hound of the d’Urbervilles?

KN:  My Diogenes Club collections, which are a very loose series, essentially do this, sometimes using my Anno Dracula characters in a world that more closely resembles ours … I think all my books hook together in an evolving multiverse I don’t really want to codify too much for fear of tying myself down.

CB:  Your references to characters, some real, some fictional, some passing, some in key scenes, all show a broad knowledge of books, TV and film.  Do you have any favorites or recommendations for your fans as we approach the Halloween season?

KN:  Lately, I’ve been looking at Sergeant Cork, a forgotten 1960s Victorian detective series which is out on DVD (six volumes, from Network).  It’s a remarkable show, with an interesting mix of history and gothic-melodramatic crime stories and a rigour and toughness that compares favourably with contemporary TV.

CB:  What projects are you currently engaged in and what’s next out for publication?

KN:  Next up is An English Ghost Story, a novel I’ve been promising for ages.  In the meantime, Titan are reissuing my novels The Quorum and Life’s Lottery, in smart new editions.

CB:  An English Ghost Story–sounds right up my alley.  Can’t wait to read it!

Thanks to Kim Newman for being with us today.

Have a happy and safe Halloween!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Review by C.J. Bunce

After the completion of the Star Wars prequels, George Lucas sat down and went frame by frame through all six Star Wars movies, examining literally hundreds of thousands of images and selecting about 250 screen grabs from each film, frames that he believed showed particular artistry, each in its own right.  The result was 2011′s limited edition of 1,138 boxed sets called Star Wars: Frames, sold for $3,000, and now only rarely available with one set being sold at Amazon.com for a whopping $11,500.  Thanks to Abrams Books, Star Wars: Frames is being re-released this month in a far less expensive but complete edition, collecting 1,472 stills from all six films in the Star Wars saga.  It is without a doubt the definitive visual work on Star Wars, in a rare league of deluxe book editions along with long out-of-print Dressing a Galaxy: The Costume of Star Wars and Sculpting a Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Model Shop as the best Star Wars books ever released.

This more affordable, unabridged version of Star Wars: Frames includes two hardcover books, each covering one of the two movie trilogies in 368 pages, housed in a hefty Death Star-themed silver box.  Listing at a published price of $150, you can buy it for less than $100 at Amazon.com.  The only difference between the $3,000 version and this version is the original was issued in a six-book set (one book for each film instead of one for each trilogy), with each image taking up a full page, packaged in a wooden crate instead of cardboard.   The content is the same.  Star Wars: Frames will be released November 5, 2013, but we received an early review copy this week.  The book lives up to its promise, in surprising ways.

Moving through the classic original trilogy first, we learn from the foreword by J.W. Rinzler that this is not just George Lucas’s view of the best images of his films, but it also includes visuals that help keep the beat of the story.  So immediately you see key images that showed up in decades of marketing materials, on notebooks, stickers, trading cards, cardboard puzzles, and anything you can imagine.  But you also see in-between frames that allow you to examine background detail your eye may never have caught before.  You may be inspired to start a list of the best of the best–could this be whittled down further to the 50 best images of each film or even the top 10 (or one, as we looked at back in 2011 here at borg.com)?

The biggest surprise is that this should be a book for discussion among fans.  Why did he select this shot of the Jawas in the Tatooine gorge instead of the memorable image of the Jawas carrying R2-D2?  Where is that classic view of Han Solo and Chewbacca firing off the ramp of the Millennium Falcon?  Lacking any text other than the forewords by The Star Wars comic book and “Making of” series writer Rinzler and director Guillermo del Toro and books dedications, each spread features four large widescreen “letterbox” images on impressive, high quality and highly detailed 15.7 inch x 14.1 inch pages in 20 lbs. of books.  The rationale for the selection of each frame then is left to the imagination of the reader.

Lucas reviewing final edits to his out-of-print, limited edition version of Star Wars: Frames.

What also comes across is the scene by scene design artistry of one movie over the other.  Maybe not surprisingly the most artistic compositions of the movies appears to be Episode IV: A New Hope, yet equally eye-popping is the imagery of Episode II:  Attack of the Clones.  Yes, devoid of clunky dialogue and stilted acting, Attack of the Clones is full of beautifully designed visuals, including shots inspired by Maxfield Parrish.  You also notice that the movies heaviest in action–Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith–have far less iconic stills.  The Empire Strikes Back, arguably the best of all the films, in particular is in need of its rousing John Williams soundtrack, although it clearly has its defining moments, including the contemplative Yoda on Dagobah, the AT-ATs and tauntauns on Hoth, and the capture at Cloud City.  Even The Phantom Menace has brilliant sweeping cityscapes, although this is eclipsed by many images of the endless pod race scene.  Yet, maybe more than before, it becomes clearer what Lucas was attempting to do with the prequels.

What is missed or overlooked in the quick scenes and edits of the films in the special effects realm can be seen and studied now in Star Wars: Frames.  That the futuristic spacescapes of Attack of the Clones look so much like Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, and that A New Hope looks so much like a David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai, Dr. Zhivago) production, add to the elements that stack in favor of this boxed set.

Is Star Wars: Frames a must-have for Star Wars fans?  No question.  For a study in design and movie making this set will be one you pull from the shelf again and again.  Get your discounted copy here at Amazon.com.

 The earliest modern source for what it means to be “borg” is no doubt Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, perhaps the most famous and widely reproduced work of fiction–and certainly the most adapted over the past 200 years in books, plays, television, and movies.  Originally titled Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus, Shelley wrote her book in a series of notebooks from an idea she had from a dream while pondering what to write for a competition to write a “frightening tale”.

Published first in 1818 with a run of 500 copies, her original manuscript notebooks survived. If you happen to be more than a few decades old, you remember the days of pages of handwriting, before word processors and PCs, and long before the days when schools stopped teaching handwriting.  Tasks we can perform quickly today only years ago took far greater effort, and the thought of writing something as lengthy as an entire book long-hand seems so very archaic in 2013.  And exhausting.

Original handwritten page from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein manuscript.

Thanks to the new Shelley-Godwin Archive, you can now read for the first time the entire handwritten and hand-edited manuscripts from Shelley’s five original notebooks.  Maintained by Mary Shelley, and recently purchased by the Bodleian Library, Oxford, in 2004, from her descendant, Lord Abinger, clear digital scans have been uploaded to the Web–easily readable including printed text for comparison.  Most interesting is the documentation of her thought process as she started and re-started sentences as she created this monumentally influential work.

Here is the link to the Shelley notebooks. And if you’ve ever wondered what was the first film adaptation of Shelley’s Frankenstein, it’s a 1910 version produced at Thomas Edison’s studio, J. Searle Dawley’s Frankenstein, showing the crazed doctor and a hideous version of his monstrous creation.  At just under 13 minutes, the 102 year old film can be watched for free here:

We’re just a little more than four years away from the 200th year of Frankenstein.  It’s incredible how pervasive Shelley’s story has become.  Simply look to yesterday’s entry about the new RoboCop and Almost Human–directly influenced by the story of the world’s first reanimated man.  Could the author have had any idea what kind of life of its own her novel would take?

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Disney has issued a casting call for November 14, 2013–this Thursday–for a 17-18 year old female and a 19-23 year old male to star in Star Wars Episode VII, to commence filming at London’s Pinewood Studios in early 2014.  The casting call will be held in Chicago, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Park West in Lincoln Park.

A similar casting call is out for Great Britain.  A call was held in Bristol November 9 & 10.  Glasgow will hold a casting session at Wasp Studios November 16 & 17.  Manchester will hold a casting session at Progress Centre November 16 & 17.  London will hold a casting session at Apiary Studios and Dublin will hold a casting session at Filmbase, both November 23 & 24.

Other casting calls  have been announced for Nashville (Nov. 24); Austin (Nov. 22); and Troy, Michigan (Nov. 17).  An application and more details are available here.

What roles are being offered?  You could be Rachel or Thomas, the stars of the new Star Wars film.  Rachel and Thomas…  Huh?  These are like Blue Harvest was to Return of the Jedi, names being used to veil the details of the actual story.  Could they be one of Han & Leia or Luke’s kids?

Who are they looking for?  All you 40-something Star Wars uber-fans don’t click on your Travelocity ticket just yet.  Here’s the scoop on both roles:

Seeking: Young woman to play 17-18 Years old. Must be beautiful, smart and athletic. Open to all ethnicities (including bi- and multi-racial).

Rachel: Was quite young when she lost her parents. With no other family, she was forced to make her way alone in a tough, dangerous town. Now 17 she has become street smart and strong. She is able to take care of herself using humor and guts to get by.

Always a survivor, never a victim, she remains hopeful that she can move away from this harsh existence to a better life. She is always thinking of what she can do to move ahead.

Seeking: Young man to play 19-23 years old. Must be handsome, smart and athletic. Must be over 18.

Thomas:  Has grown up without a father’s influence. Without the model of being a man, he doesn’t have the strongest sense of himself. Despite this, he is smart, capable and shows courage when it is needed. He can appreciate the absurdities in life and understands you can’t take life too seriously.

If you make it to a casting session and want to share please let us know as we’d love to talk about it here at borg.com.

Star Wars Episode VII is scheduled for release in theaters December 18, 2015.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

It could go down as the best auction of The Lord of the Rings props and costumes ever sold at auction simply from four of its offerings.  Called “The Trilogy Collection–Props and Costumes from Middle-Earth,” Julien’s is offering several items on the auction block next month.  The key items being auctioned belong to a group of screen-used props that were given away as part of a Hasbro Toys/New Line Cinema contest to promote the release of the third LOTR installment, the 2003 Academy Award winning best picture The Return of the King.  Described as “one of eight main character props used heavily in The Lord of the Rings,” look for Aragorn’s sword, Frodo’s ”Sting” sword, Eowyn’s sword, and Gimli’s battle axe, each expected to fetch prices ranging from $30,000 to $70,000, with Frodo’s sword expected to sell between $100,000 and $150,000.  These four pieces are the true headliners of the Julien’s auction, and by themselves would make for a great auction.  Although it raises the questions: Why didn’t these props get dispersed to fans in the sweepstakes, and if they were given away how did four of the props end up in the same place?

It’s because collector Troika Brodsky is selling his collection of four of the sweepstakes prizes he tracked down and bought from prizewinners discussed here.  He refers to the Frodo sword in the linked article as a stunt prop, based on wear and damage.  An interview about his entire collection being auctioned can be found here.

The bulk of the most visually stunning props and costume components in the auction, according to the catalog, were “created from molds taken from the original hero prop and… hand-painted and weathered by the skilled craftsman at Weta Workshop during the production of The Lord of the Rings.”  The descriptions of many also state ”This prop was part of a collection of authentic production-created movie props procured by official New Line Cinema licensee, United Cutlery directly from Weta Workshop and Three Foot Six Productions between 1999-2004 for reference in producing a collectible replica version for fans of the film franchise.”  In other words, the props and costumes were made by the Weta Workshop, but from the catalog it is difficult to know whether they are production-made replicas or could be something else.

So buyer beware–if you decide to bid on any of the following, do your own research and bid with the knowledge that it is not known for certain whether any of the actors listed likely ever handled these items, and whether any were actually used on-screen and in what capacity: John Rhys-Davies’ Gimli’s helmet (expected to sell for $40,000 to $60,000), the High Elven Warrior Helmet ($15,000-$25,000), King Elendil’s helmet ($10,000-$15,000), the Shards of Narsil ($25,000-$50,000), Christopher Lee’s Saruman’s wizard staff ($40,000-$60,000), Sean Bean’s Boromir sword and scabbard ($15,000-$25,000), Bernard Hill’s King Théoden sword ($8,000-$12,000), the Witchking crown ($12,000-$20,000), Ringwraith Nazgul sword ($20,000-$40,000), David Wenham’s Faramir helmet ($10,000-$15,000), Faramir’s sword ($15,000-$25,000), Ian McKellen’s Gandalf the White wizard staff ($50,000-$70,000), Witchking warmask ($30,000-$50,000), Sauron’s helmet ($40,000-$60,000), and Sauron’s gauntlet ($25,000-$50,000).

Replica Gimli helmet produced by United Cutlery from the production-made Gimli helmet in Julien’s auction, selling on eBay for $350.

Are these auction estimates simply too high if these are only production-made replicas?  In comparison, production-made replicas for various Star Trek TV series and movies might sell for $1,000 apiece today.  The replicas that Weta made from the above pieces molded from The Lord of the Rings props stated above still sell in the neighborhood of only $1,000 or even less in the aftermarket.  However, if the pieces are indeed stunt or hero pieces, then a higher auction estimate is certainly warranted.

Other items at auction are several Hobbit ears and prosthetic feet, some Weta-designed life-sized displays that incorporate stunt and hero costume elements, filming miniatures, minor weaponry, and nine prototypes of “the One Ring”–including the final design master that is expected to sell between $50,000 and $80,000, with the rest of the rings estimated at $10,000 to $20,000.  Unfortunately the rings include no script-inscribed text, but fortunately they also come with no dark powers.

Julien’s “The Trilogy Collection–Props and Costumes from Middle-Earth” auction takes place Thursday, December 5, 2013, and more details are available at their website.  The catalog is available for $60 including shipping and an online flipbook version is available at the auction house website.

EDITOR’s UPDATE:  We received a detailed response from the auction consigner and updated the article above at his request.  As happens many times, auction companies don’t fully explain in their catalogs all they could about the provenance of an item.  Usually it is promising too much.  This may be a different case here.  We stand by the article as originally written based on the plain language of the auction catalog, which gave viewers reason to believe that many of the props and costumes were, at best, production-made replicas.  We encourage potential bidders (1) to do their own research, and (2) contact the auction house or consigner directly with any questions before bidding.  Thanks to consigner Troika Brodsky for supplying his response.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Reality TV is going back to the basics with the fall Syfy Channel series Naked Vegas, and creating something fresh and novel in the process.  The tantalizing title might bring viewers to give the show a try, but it’s the team effort of the five cast members taking on strange client requests and the stunning results of their artistic skill that will keep them coming back for more.  Naked Vegas is the name of a recently developed business by body painting artist Kelly “Red” Belmonte.  Finding her niche by taking her make-up skills to the one city where you should be able to get recurring body painting gigs, she brings together three artists and a friend with some business savvy and we get to watch what happens.  And in an age of tired competition series, it’s a refreshing and fun show to get hooked on.

If you’re looking for name calling, melodrama, and snarkyness, look elsewhere.  You might think this series was modeled after the long-successful Food Network cake shop reality series Ace of Cakes.  Like that series the team is doing a full-time job and like the actual real world, results are expected and required and failure cuts at your reputation and could tank your future business prospects.  But after the first three episodes there are no signs of failure here.  Camaraderie and collaboration win out over attitude and emotions, as the skilled team produces stunning works of human art.

The artists include people with their own personality and style and their varying backgrounds contribute to discussions and decision-making where the boss–Red–actually listens to everyone and backs down happily when her team has a better idea.  Nicholas “Nix” Herrera was a Face Off Season 2 contestant whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Playboy, Fangoria, Makeup Mag, and Wizard Comics.   Wiser Oner is a graffiti street artist whose clients have included Absolut and Bacardi.  Heather Aguilera specializes in belly painting and brings her work as a model to understand both sides of the human canvas.  Wiser and Nix are well spoken and good teachers, explaining the art techniques in ways novices could adapt for their own make-up projects.

Rounding out the team, like Mary Alice of the Ace of Cakes series, is business manager Drew Marvick, a friend of Red’s who brings a quirky humor to the show and is often used as test subject for paint experiments.

The ”naked” in Naked Vegas comes into play in the almost naked subjects of the art projects.  Covered just enough to meet public decency standards and basic cable TV, the models and painted clients reveal more than you might think.  And so far it ends up with tasteful results.  Episode 1 features a couple who wanted to be made up in horror-themed attire for their Vegas wedding.  Another segment focuses on a lingerie designer who wants to showcase her work not with fabrics but with body paint.  Episode 2 has the artists develop “devil pirate” designs for a music video client, and three aliens for a party held by the CEO of Alien Tequila.  But last night’s show gave us a hint at the full potential for the series and the artists, featuring body paint as illusions.  They first brought Vegas royalty in as a client as they created an elaborate card trick for Penn and Teller using painted contortionists.  The second half of the show featured urban camouflage as they painted two models into the corner of a high stakes room at a local casino.

Fun, refreshing, and entertaining, Naked Vegas appears Tuesday nights on the Syfy Channel.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

BBC America is providing 50 years of Doctor Who fans with an unprecedented volume of new content this week as well as marathon runs of episodes as we gear up for an epic 50th anniversary worldwide simulcast of the new episode “The Day of the Doctor” featuring Doctors and Companions then and now, this Saturday at 1:50 p.m. Central/11:50 a.m. Pacific.

After a day-long Doctors Revisited marathon featuring a behind the scenes look at Doctors #1 through #10, last night BBC America premiered Doctor Who: Tales from the TARDIS, showing interviews with the cast of the series over the years, and The Science of Doctor Who with Brian Cox–an interesting lecture-format special by the rock musician turned physicist talking about theories of space and time.  Don’t miss out on this week’s schedule of features.

Here’s the rundown of what’s on:

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19

Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Marathon – All day, starting at 9 a.m. Central – Get caught up with the adventures of Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Marathon – All day, starting at 1 a.m. Central – Get caught up with the adventures of Tenth Doctor David Tennant.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Marathon, Part 1 – All day, starting at 8 a.m. Central — Get caught up with the adventures of Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22

Catch up on a full run of Doctor Who Takeover Week specials:

Doctor Who: The Companions  — 1 a..m. Central.

Doctor Who: Tales from the TARDIS – 2 a.m. Central.

The Science of Doctor Who — 3 a.m. Central.

The Destinations of Doctor Who — 4 a.m. Central.

Doctor Who in the U.S. — 7 a.m. Central.

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Marathon, Part 2 – All day, starting at 8 a.m. Central — Get caught up with the adventures of Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith.

Doctor Who Explained (U.S. Premiere) – 7 p.m. Central — This all-new special explores the mysterious and two-hearted alien who is The Doctor through exclusive interviews with principal cast members from the show’s 50-year history.

An Adventure in Space and Time (U.S. Premiere) – 8 p.m. Central, the story of the beginnings of Doctor Who starring David Bradley as First Doctor William Hartnell.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23–THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF DOCTOR WHO

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Marathon, Part 3 – All day, starting at 12:00 a.m. — Get caught up with the adventures of Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith.

Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor (World Premiere / Global Simulcast ) – 2:50 p.m. Eastern / 1:50 p.m. Central / 12:50 p.m. Mountain / 11:50 a.m. Pacific.

Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor (Encore primetime broadcast) – 6 p.m. Central — BBC AMERICA will premiere exclusive interviews with Matt Smith and David Tennant during the broadcast.

The Graham Norton Show with guests Matt Smith and David Tennant (U.S. Premiere) – 9 p.m. Central — Doctor Who stars Matt Smith and David Tennant make their first appearance together on the show, joined by Emma Thompson, singer Robbie Williams and comedian Jimmy Carr.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24

Doctor Who: Matt Smith Countdown – All day, starting at 8 a.m. Central — counts down the top 11 episodes from the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, as voted on by fans.

The Doctors Revisited – The Eleventh Doctor (U.S. Premiere) – 7 p.m. Central – Matt Smith first stepped into the TARDIS in 2010 and, after starring in the 50th Anniversary Special on November 23, will regenerate into Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor in the Christmas special.  The special is followed by the Eleventh Doctor two-part story, “The Impossible Astronaut” and “Day of the Moon,” the first Doctor Who episodes to be filmed in the U.S.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25

Doctor Who: Day of the Doctor in theaters across the U.S.  More details can be found here.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

If you really want to see the best of popular comic book publishing titles in 2013, you need look no further than Dark Horse Comics’ series The Star Wars.  You have a great independent publishing house with the enviable license to the greatest genre franchise, add in an original script by a young, pre-fame George Lucas, an adaptation by Star Wars expert J.W. Rinzler, and the best interior art panel work in the industry, and you have the first four issues of a sci-fi classic in the making.

Regular comic book readers, and diehard Star Wars fans already know about The Star Wars, first a 1974 script that is the stuff of sci-fi legend that has sat in a file drawer for nearly four decades–Lucas’s first draft of Star Wars, before editing, when all the big fantasy ideas first danced around his mind, and now a limited edition monthly series.  What is amazing is that your average passing Star Wars fans may not be aware of this new comic book series that is bringing the original source material to the public for the first time in dense, colorful, action-packed pages.  We’re no doubt that the hardcover edition that will ultimately bring together the eight-issue series and a director’s edition due out next week (“The Official Guide to a Different Galaxy”) will be a mainstream bestseller.  Dark Horse Comics just needs to get this series in readers’ hands.

So what’s the big deal?  Artist Mike Mayhew’s incredible panel art.  Mayhew pulled from the unused, original design concepts for Star Wars to re-design an entire, comprehensive, fleshed out galaxy.  Beginning with the Starkillers, a father named Kane who is a cyborg and sons Annikin and Deak, Mayhew looked to Flash Gordon and Ralph McQuarrie for inspiration.  Annikin takes on many plot points that would later fall to Luke Skywalker, yet if The Star Wars was released with Star Wars we’re thinking this Annikin would have been perceived as the coolest Jedi, bringing in some of the hot head qualities we know from a certain space smuggler.

In The Star Wars, General Luke Skywalker is a veteran of many battles in his 60s.  But the greatest challenge must have been designing Han Solo himself, who in 1974 was a large green hulk. Mayhew designed the look entirely himself to have the general silhouette of Swamp Thing or the Martian Manhunter, a boisterous fellow who carries the humor and mass of Chewbacca.  Imperial General Darth Vader is not a cyborg or Sith in The Star Wars–he’s a villain to be sure, but here Mayhew pulled in elements from the famous uniform from the films.  Stephane Roux created the new Imperial troopers, who bear a similar look to Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art, complete with the “light swords” that would one day be coined lightsabers.

The cityscapes, the gaseous planet Alderaan (not Cloud City), the ships, all feel like they belong in the “other” Star Wars universe, with familiar “camera angles,” and design detailing, yet for the most part they are new–you’ll feel like you’re reading a Star Wars book, but the world is just slightly askew.

The honesty in the 1974 script comes through in Issues #1-4 as Rinzler seamlessly pulled Lucas’s work, which had some gaps, into a complete story.  You’ll find darker components here than the story you know, beloved characters get killed, the Empire is made up of several Flash Gordon-inspired Emperor Ming types, and the deeper political themes that weren’t as well carried out in The Phantom Menace make more sense in the context of this different story.  The action is plentiful–we wouldn’t be surprised if Disney looks here for element ideas for its coming Episode VII film.

The Star Wars Issues #1-4 can be ordered from your local comic book shop and Issue #0, consisting of some great background and art not found in the monthly will be released next Tuesday, December 31, 2013.  Issue #5 is expected to hit the shelves in February 2014.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Well it’s been one long year, with plenty to do and see, plenty of good and not-so-good to read and watch, and we’re certain we read more and reviewed more content this year than ever before.  And that in no less way was true for TV watching.  At the same time we waded through all that Hollywood had to offer and honed in on the genre films we thought were worth examining.  We went back and looked at it all and pulled together our 25 picks for our annual Best of the Best list.  Today we reveal the best content focusing on the moving image, and tomorrow we’ll run through our picks for the best in print and other media.  We hope you agree with many of these great creations of the entertainment industries, and wish everyone a great 2014!

Year’s Best Fantasy Fix – The Wizard of Oz in Theaters.  It’s a film that has been viewed on TV so many times you might take it for granted.  It’s historically been on many movie reviewers’ Top 20 movies of all time.  But when you watch The Wizard of Oz on the big screen in the middle of a year of modern blockbusters you realize how it can stand up against anything Hollywood has to offer today, even after 70 years.  Remastering the print for a new generation to see it in theaters was a highlight for movie watchers this year.

Year’s Best Sci-Fi Fix — Almost Human, Fox.  Like Continuum last year, the new series Almost Human created a future world that is believable and full of extraordinary technologies based in today’s science and touching on social issues of any day.  And even putting aside its buddy cop and police procedural brilliance, every episode plunged us into future police grappling with incredible technologies–DNA bombs criminals use to contaminate a crime scene, identity masking technology to avoid facial recognition video monitors–it was the best dose of sci-fi in 2013.

Best TV Series — Orphan Black, BBC America.  What rose above everything on TV or film this year was BBC America’s new series, the almost indescribable Orphan Black.  From its initial trailers that piqued our interest, to the surprise series consisting of one actress playing multiple roles that dazzled from out of nowhere, magical special effects, and a unique story of clones and X-Files-inspired intrigue propelled Orphan Black to be our clear winner for Best TV Series of 2013.

Best New TV Series – Sleepy Hollow, Fox.  Although Orphan Black triumphed over all series new and old, plenty of new series impressed us this year, from Bates Motel to Vikings, and from Dracula to Almost Human.  But we’ll give Fox’s Sleepy Hollow a nod for a completely different and successfully implemented idea–taking a classic story and bringing it forward to the present day while also including plenty of time-bridging to make this a complete fantasy treat with some creepy haunts as well.

Best TV Comedy Series — The Michael J. Fox Show, NBC.  Despite initial cringe-worthy promotions that we only later learned were intentional in-jokes that went to the heart of the series, Michael J. Fox’s return as a headliner in The Michael J. Fox Show quickly became the first series to watch each week from the DVR queue.  Both Fox and his cast of family members and co-workers provided plenty of spurt-the-drink-out-of-your-mouth laughs.  And the funniest acting performances of the year belonged to Juliette Goglia as the daughter struggling to find herself.  With a half-hour sitcom that felt like a full hour of comedy, The Michael J. Fox Show gave us exactly what we want, more Michael J. Fox on TV and a hilarious half hour to look forward to.

Best British TV Series — The Hour, BBC America.  From great series like the The Bletchley Circle to Doctor Who, from the spooky Lightfields to the uncommonly popular Downton Abbey, to the brilliant new series Mr. Selfridge, we think the most distinguished performances and intriguing story could be found in season two of BBC America’s The Hour.  Carrying on after the gritty 1960s look at the early years of the BBC in its first season, the complex story and relationships of journalists producing a 60 Minutes-like news hour, played by Romola Garai, Dominic West, and Ben Whishaw (James Bond’s newest Q) could hardly have been better.  And we got a dramatic preview of the broad range of Peter Capaldi’s gut-wrenching performance as the show’s boss just before Capaldi got tapped for his role as the 12th Doctor on Doctor Who.  Too bad the BBC cancelled The Hour, on a stunning cliffhanger no less.

Best Reality Show — Naked Vegas, Syfy Channel.  We never thought we’d include a reality series on a “best of” list, but this year’s Syfy reality series Naked Vegas provided an uncommon look at co-workers who work in a unique and artistic industry as they tried to win over their clients with their skill.  Don’t look for any bickering or contrived drama here, these guys all showed us that in the real world you need to cooperate with each other if you want to run a successful enterprise.  And the incredible sci-fi and fantasy creations by some of the make-up industry’s top artists were some of the coolest things we saw on TV all year.

Best Series Finale — Burn Notice, USA Network.  So many series either let their stories wander off into syndication, never to answer all the questions raised, or just plain end badly.  USA Network’s Burn Notice actually provided us with a finale equal to the best episodes of the series, even surprisingly killing off the least likely candidate we could have guessed.  With some lackluster episodes in its final two seasons we thought it was time for the series to go, but the finale actually made us change our minds, and leave us hoping series co-star Bruce Campbell will make a spin-off as Major Crimes was able to do after The Closer.

Best Performance by an Actress — Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black.  The success of the TV series Orphan Black relied almost exclusively on the mesmerizing performances by Maslany as several different clone characters, many times appearing on-screen and interacting with each other, despite each being played by Maslany.  How could any actress keep all these characters straight?  From the soccer mom turned killer, Alison, to the cop pretender Sarah, and the tech geek Cosima, Maslany delivered one of the best performances in TV or movies this year.  We just hope she doesn’t get plucked away for major movie roles before we get to see more seasons of Orphan Black.

Best Performance by an Actor (tie) – Jeremy Piven, Mr. Selfridge.  In what could have been a forgettable recounting of the American creator of a famous British department store early in the last century, PBS found a gem in its series Mr. Selfridge.  A perfect supporting cast filled out this historical drama, but at the helm was the surprise casting of Jeremy Piven as the flawed but brilliant entrepreneur of all entrepreneurs.  His portrayal of Selfridge was nothing short of motivational and inspiring as his character tried to build on his past business acumen to stay ahead of trends and become the man to watch in old London town.  He revealed a fellow full of both humor and pride and left us wishing for more.

Best Performance by an Actor (tie) – G.W. Bailey, Major Crimes.  Bailey is hands down the best character actor on television.  His Lieutenant Louie Provenza goes from humorous comrade to grave detective to flippant employee to paternal mentor so easily he conveys the feeling that we’ve known him forever.  We trust him no matter what he’s doing and fully understand why Captain Raydor trusts him and why the rest of the squad follows him.  And despite approaching a tenth season in the role he just keeps re-inventing Provenza and he just keeps getting better.

Best Guest Appearance – Lee Majors, Dallas.  Not every actor from classic TV (or anyone else for that matter) can do at 73-years-old what they did in their prime.  So we couldn’t have been happier to see the expressive, classy, and confident Lee Majors in three episodes of the second season of TNT’s Dallas reboot. An old acquaintance trying to rekindle a relationship with Linda Gray’s Sue Ellen Ewing, Majors’ character got the bad end of her scheming, but we still hope the series finds a way to bring him back to the show.

Best Genre Film — Star Trek Into Darkness.  Also the most controversial genre film of the year, of all the fun movies we saw, including the runner-up The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, as well as enjoyable flicks like Red 2, Ender’s Game, Skyfall, Oblivion, Riddick, and crazy fare like Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer, and Hansel & Gretel, Vampire Hunters, and less enjoyable fodder like Man of Steel and A Good Day to Die Hard, nothing kept us on the edge of our seats and excited us like the thrill ride that was Star Trek Into Darkness.  As long-time Trek fans we didn’t mind the way Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman manipulated a beloved classic story arc and gave our new cast of young actors some great situations to get themselves out of.  It’s also the only film this year we watched over and over.

Best Animated Work – Beware the Batman TV series, Warner Bros. Animation.  Another of several works that updated a classic icon, Beware the Batman updated its superhero story as CW Network’s Arrow was able to do–providing a stylish and sleek look at a DC superhero and a litany of villains that have previously taken a back seat in the DC Universe.  We’ll never look at Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred the same way again.

Best Genre-Related Advertisement — The Rock “Got Milk” ad.  It’s Dwayne Johnson.  It’s a sci-fi alien invasion.  It’s a superhero mini-movie.  And it’s a “Got Milk” ad.  What more could we ask for?  If you missed it, check it out here.

Most Satisfying Delivery — 56 Up.  The original reality series that provides an update every seven years finally returned this year, and the results were as exciting and gripping as ever.  Check out our rave for Michael Apted’s landmark real-life “time-travel” film series at borg.com from this summer here.

Best Nerd Moment — Comedian/Actor Patton Oswalt filibuster on Parks and Recreation.  borg.com writer Jason McClain has been singing the praises of NBC’s Parks and Recreation since the beginning, but the whole country became believers when the show’s producers released an unedited extemporaneous bit of improv magic and nerd love as Patton Oswalt appeared at a city council meeting in an attempt filibuster pending legislation.  The result propelled Oswalt to become one of the high kings of nerddom.  If you missed out, check out the video here.

Best Second Wind – Arrow.  As great as the first season of CW’s Arrow was, we were worried that the end of season one was telling us this would be one of those series that fizzled in its sophomore season.  Our concerns were misplaced.  Season Two of Arrow, expanding Felicity Smoak’s character, dealing with the Merlins’ deaths, the eagerly awaited appearance of a new Black Canary, the reveal of the new Barry Allen/Flash, and the growth of Stephen Amell’s character Oliver Queen, all provided plenty for fans to stay excited about.

Best Single TV Episode — “The Twelve Days of Krampus,” Grimm.  Although we could easily have selected the “Alison goes crazy and tortures her husband” episode of Orphan Black or the introduction of Barry Allen on Arrow, we think one of the best episodes ever of NBC’s Grimm was this season’s Christmas episode, “The Twelve Days of Krampus.”  What child would ever be bad again after watching this story of the mythological anti-Santa, Krampus, as he takes bad kids into the woods to save for snacktime, leaving a lump of coal as his calling card?

Best Genre Movie Score — Pacific Rim, Ramin Djawadi.  We’re convinced one of the reasons the big-budget monster movie Pacific Rim was such a hit was because it was backed by a standout soundtrack.  The heart-pounding, grandiose, and dramatic score made Pacific Rim a better movie.  The Iranian-German composer of Iron Man, Deception, Game of Thrones, and the 2014 release Edge of Tomorrow, Djawadi is carving himself as the new choice for mega-hit movies.

Best Worldwide Genre Participation Event – BBC’s 50th Anniversary Celebration of Doctor Who.  With things like worldwide premieres of big films like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, or the celebration of the 50th year of James Bond with the release of Skyfall, the biggest event was the BBC’s celebration of 50 years of Doctor Who, consisting of weeks of documentaries looking back at all the prior Doctors, a new mini-film featuring the Eighth Doctor Paul McGann, a mega-marathon of the past three Doctors’ episodes, and a 50th anniversary episode that was even released for one night in theaters.  No doubt more fans joined the Doctor Who bandwagon this year than ever before as a result.

Biggest Doctor Who Event – Selecting Peter Capaldi as 12th Doctor.  It’s not every year that the BBC selects a new Doctor for its series Doctor Who, and fandom reacted positively to well-known British actor Peter Capaldi as the newest pick for the role of time lord.  And with the regeneration of Matt Smith’s Doctor to Capaldi’s on Christmas Day this year, we got a brief glimpse at how much fun the future holds for fans of the good Doctor.

Biggest Star Wars Event — Casting Episode VII.  With 2012′s big news that Disney’s Lucasfilm acquisition would begin producing the seventh Star Wars movie, it became real this year when the production began a U.S. and U.K. casting call.  Although we haven’t heard much since then, we know some lucky actors out there are getting the biggest break of their lives, and they’ll all be household names in the next few years.

Biggest Star Trek Event — The Best of Both Worlds Theatrical Release.  Although we hear that the new revitalized Blu-ray editions of Star Trek: The Next Generation will likely not result in any more theatrical releases, those who were able to view the classic two-parter “The Best of Both Worlds” as part of the Fathom Events series got a once in a lifetime treat this year to the best of Trek from the small screen to the big screen.

Best Single Thing for Genre Works – Veronica Mars Movie Greenlit by Fans.  A year ago who’d have thought we’d be eagerly waiting for a new movie based on the cancelled TV series Veronica Mars?  Thanks to the crazy new beast that is Kickstarter, fans–not Hollywood moguls–determined what they wanted to see next.  Will it change the way Hollywood works?  Probably not.  But it provides a new niche to let fandom speak up and be heard.

Best Science News of the Year — Archaeologists Unearth King Richard III.  What are the odds that archaeologist on a dig find a shard from a medieval clay pot?  How about finding a burial site and then learning through radiocarbon dating, contemporary portraiture comparisons, and DNA analysis of descendants of a British monarch that they have uncovered the legendary King from a Shakespearean play?  As compelling as the discovery of King Tut by Lord Carnarvon in the 1920s, locating King Richard III is a once in a lifetime discovery we all got to witness as it unfolded.

So what do you think?  Come back tomorrow as we reveal the best of the comic book world for 2013, as well as our choices for the Best of the Best of other genre-related media.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

We tried on for size almost every new book that was released from comic book publishers like Dynamite Comics, Dark Horse Comics, IDW Publishing, Archaia/BOOM!, and Image.  We tried to sample the best of all that Marvel and DC Comics had to offer, too, and although we didn’t have enough time to review everything we did try to put out there for your consideration those titles we thought our readers might like to check out, especially those with a sci-fi, fantasy, or retro bent.  Our pull list included issues from Afterlife with Archie to Django Unchained, from Liberator to Larfleeze, and from Velvet to The X-Files.  This past month we have reviewed the year-long run of the best of these titles, as we narrowed our selections to 21 of the very best entries in genre entertainment outside of TV and movies, which we revealed here yesterday.  So here are the rest of our picks for the Best of 2013.

Best Borg Appearance, Kane Starkiller, The Star Wars.  Borgs showed up everywhere this year, from the lead characters on Almost Human, to Doctor Who, to countless comic book series including Justice League and RoboCop.  Our favorite appearance came from the young mind of George Lucas as he created the original script that would later be edited into the original Star Wars trilogy.  And through Dark Horse Comics’ The Star Wars monthly comic book event we learned one of his best ideas was merged into other roles and one of his best characters entirely cut.   That character was Jedi Kane Starkiller who revealed to all his cyborg chest implants that kept him alive, later to heroically offer his own technology to save his friends.

Best Comic Book Series –  Miss Fury, Dynamite Comics.  A uniquely crafted tale, a compelling and seductive superhero, great action panel after panel, sourced in a long-shelved classic character of the Golden Age of comics.  Rob Williams and Jack Herbert’s Miss Fury is a carefully rendered update that rings true to the edgy spirit of the world’s first female superhero.  Beautiful panels set up an ever-changing time and place and pull readers along for the ride.  And stuck-out-of-time Marla Drake and her alter ego Miss Fury could not have looked better, whether carving out her place in the 1940s or as she was teleported into the future.  It’s a series no one should miss.

Best Comic Book Writing – Matt Fraction, Hawkeye.  Last year revealed one of the best comic book series we ever read, focusing on that “other” superhero archer, the second tier Marvel Comics superhero Hawkeye.  Matt Fraction gave us the most interesting set-up and look into the daily life of a superhero who isn’t Captain America or Iron Man.  This year he kept up the momentum in his Hawkeye monthly series, providing stories that challenged readers, each issue taking a different peek into Clint Barton, another costumed superhero called Hawkeye, and their trusty dog.

Best Comic Book Art – Mike Mayhew, Rain Beredo – The Star Wars.  We still don’t know how an artist can create so much world building in a single year.  And how do you re-imagine something as iconic as the original Star Wars design and give us something  to rave about?  Mayhew’s pencils in the limited series The Star Wars are pretty much second to none (and Beredo’s color choice is superb as well) and we can’t wait to see how they wind up their adaptation of George Lucas’s original script for the beloved Star Wars universe.

Breakout Comic Book Writer of the Year — Aaron Gillespie, Bionic Man.  Gillespie quietly rebuilt the Bionic Man franchise this year as he took over the reboot of Steve Austin, The Six Million Dollar Man, launched by Kevin Smith and Phil Hester.  In doing so he offered up an interesting update to the 1970s original borg hero, and brought along plenty of humor and retro fun.  We think Gillespie is the writer to watch in the coming years.

Breakout Artist of the Year - Greg Smallwood, Dream Thief.  It blew us away that a new comic book artist could bring along so much original style in his first major published comic book series.  Smallwood’s layouts on the Dark Horse Comics limited series Dream Thief and his cool and gritty anti-hero left us eagerly awaiting what he has up his sleeves next.

Best Single Comic Book Issue — Hawkeye, Issue #11, Marvel Comics. Although Afterlife with Archie, Issue #1 also blew us away with its creepy twist on the classic characters, the best single issue of any comic book series we reviewed was Hawkeye, Issue #11 written by Matt Fraction with art by David Aja.  Check out our review here of this great issue told entirely from the perspective of Clint Barton’s sleuthing dog Lucky.  Pure awesomeness.

Best Comic Book Marketing Event — Lenticular Villain One-shot Month, DC Comics.  We can’t get enough of all things retro and what is better than lenticular images?  How about taking 52 monthly titles and devoting them to a litany of villainy and giving each a 3D lenticular cover?  A genius of an idea, DC Comics’ villains vandalized the regular monthly series for one month this year and the result was loads of fun.  And we can’t stop listening to the return of that high-pitched sound from our youths as those books scrape against each other.

Best Comic Book Cover Artist — Alex Ross.  Last year we were able to pull out the best covers for 2012.  This year we found ourselves arguing over the best Alex Ross cover of the year.  As just a sample, Ross created noteworthy cover art for Star Wars #1-4, Battlestar Galactica #1-3, Grimm #1, Dream Thief #1, Miss Fury #1, Django Unchained #6, Fantastic Four #1, Masks #1-8, The Owl #3, The Shadow #4 and 13, The Shadow: Year One #1-6, and Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist #10.  Plus Astro City, Doc Savage, Pacific Rim, Peter Cannon, and Lords of Mars covers!  The man must never sleep!  He produced so much, each of which could be a year’s best, that we’ll have to run down his best of 2013 on a later day.

Best Comics Collected Edition: Mouse Guard: The Black Axe, Archaia.  Putting aside Archaia’s unique book format for the world of Mouse Guard, David Petersen’s unique one-two-punch of storytelling and artistry in his world of mighty mice continues to entertain readers with the gripping and personal trials of these heroes on their latest epic quest.  Petersen may have offered up his best work yet this year in Mouse Guard: The Black Axe, a harrowing and bittersweet account of the last of a breed.

Best Use of Comic Book Medium — Liberator, Black Mask Studios.  Matt Miner’s Liberator mini-series took a hard-nosed look at animal rights this year through its vigilante heroes, expanding the knowledge of readers lucky enough to get their hands on the series.

Best Comeback – Mike Grell, Howard Chaykin.  It’s not like these guys really went anywhere but we just wanted to say how fun it is after all these years to walk into a comic book shop and to be able to buy new books drawn by Grell and Chaykin.  With Grell on the Arrow series and Chaykin with projects like Satellite Sam, fans of classic styles can get their fix and new readers can get introduced to work from the old pros.

Best Non-Fiction Genre Work — The Hobbit Chronicles, Weta Workshop.  Reviewed here at borg.com earlier this year here, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Chronicles: Art and Design provides an unprecedented look at last year’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, through lavish photos of art design, sets, costumes, and props, by the folks at Weta.  With coffee table books released and re-released in 2013 including Star Wars Frames, Firefly: A Celebration, Princess Bride: A Celebration, and Bazooka Joe, it was a great year for books about movies, TV, and other genre properties.

Best Reviewed Book - Johnny Alucard, Kim Newman.  Although Stephen King’s new book Joyland was also a great read, Kim Newman’s new Anno Dracula series novel Johnny Alucard, in his parallel universe of vampires living amongst us, was deep in world building and complex relationships with fictional and non-fictional characters throughout, as Newman’s anti-hero Johnny rises to power.

Best Retro Reviewed Book – Nothing Lasts Forever, Roderick Thorp.  Just like we enjoyed Martin Caidin’s original novel Cyborg that inspired The Six Million Dollar Man TV series, Thorp’s original work, Nothing Lasts Forever, which was turned into the movie Die Hard, was a great window the hard-working cop who saves the day.  Fans of the Die Hard series left wanting after the new movie this year need only check out this book for some great fun.

Best Auction and Catalog of the Year — The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Auction, Julien’s.  This December the first and maybe last auction of screen-used props and costumes from a private collection hit the auction block.  The Trilogy/Middle Earth catalog itself was a feast for the eyes of fantasy fans–a sourcebook in its own right for close-up photos of these rare pieces.  The auction results included the sale of one of Gimli’s axes for $180,000.

Best Album – Smash Mouth, Magic.  Plenty of good music hit the airways this year, including Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, the Skyfall soundtrack, and the extended Night Visions album from Imagine Dragons.  But our favorite was the long-awaited release of the next Smash Mouth album, Magic.  Including remixes of several of the songs, it added another great party album to the band’s catalog of great tunes.  Check out our review here.

Best Song/Best Video – Space Oddity, Cmdr. Chris Hadfield.  Sure, there were great songs on the airwaves this year, including Adele’s Skyfall, and Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, but was anything cooler than astronaut Chris Hadfield recording and filming his own cover of David Bowie’s Space Oddity in outer space?  We don’t think so.  Twenty million viewers on YouTube would agree.

Best New Tech –  3D Printing.  It was the year everything could get printed, from human organs to bones to edible pizzas.  It’s the next big thing.  3D printing took off and tricorders are on their way in 2014.  The future is now.

Best Toy Line — Honey Trap Army, Gentle Giant.  At several hundred dollars per figure, these toys were not for everyone, but if they’d only produce a mass market version we think everyone would get a set.  A direct-to-toy series that was not based on any existing property, the sculpts for Gentle Giant’s incredible femme fatale fighting team, the Honey Trap Army, were simply beautiful.  Check them out here to see what we mean.

Best Action Figure — 12-inch Retro Rocket Firing Boba Fett.  Gentle Giant’s line of 12-inch action figures based on the Kenner line of 3.75 inch figures from the 1970s and 1980s was nothing short of brilliant.  No toy series was more nostalgic to fans who grew up with the original trilogy, so when they issued a rocket-firing Boba Fett based on the unreleased prototypes, the result was toy gold.  Check it out here.

So that’s our list.  Don’t forget to check out the first part of our Best of the Best list for 2013 here.

And have a happy new year!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Review by C.J. Bunce

Many times when a movie is heavy with CGI and matte paintings, the overall look can suffer.  Not so with Riddick, coming to Blu-ray and DVD on January 14.  In his third live-action performance as Riddick, Vin Diesel finds his character marooned on an unnamed desert planet in its own primitive, almost Jurassic stage.  The first half of the film showcases the night-visioned anti-hero in an almost Conan the Barbarian-like quest for survival in a very Frank Frazetta-inspired fantasy world setting.  It’s a setting that really pops in the new hi-definition Blu-ray format.  We’ve previewed the Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios, including its extra features.

Riddick manages to surpass the epic second franchise entry Chronicles of Riddick with its more basic and tightly-written survival story.  We get a cameo from Karl Urban’s Vaako, including some of those great Necromonger soldiers and futuristic costumes familiar to fans of the series.  But this Riddick has more of the feel of the first entry into this world, Pitch Black, also written and directed by David Twohy.  Because Twohy has maintained control over the universe and its characters, the three films (plus the early animated entry, Dark Fury) all make for a cohesive and well-designed saga.  Twohy discusses his take on the character at length in the special feature “The Twohy Touch.”

Along with the stunning Monument Valley on Mars sets is some excellent CGI and motion capture creature work, including vicious mud-demons which take Riddick down a Ridley Scott-esque path toward films end, and some dog-like jackal beasts.  Riddick ends up raising one of these dogs as he finds his way through challenges to grasslands and an abandoned science station, where much of the remaining action takes place.  He sets off an S.O.S. beacon which brings two opposing groups of bounty hunter mercenaries, one to get the bounty for his head in a box, the other a military based group with a more personal agenda.  Their two ships become Riddick’s target for a plan to leave the planet.  His shadow ninja abilities allow him to drop in on these mercs, and create his own form of psychological war.  And his early encounter with the mud-demons plays into the coming rainstorm and his face-off with the mercs.

Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff, in her first major motion picture role, is part of the military team, led by Boss Johns (Matt Nable), an actor with Charles Bronson features, who ultimately gets the other team under his direction.  That team is captained by Santana, played by Spanish actor Jordi Mollá, who plays the role like one of Javier Bardem’s villains.  Their crews and their interaction at the abandoned station gives the film a setting that would be familiar to the crew of Firefly’s ship Serenity.  The same elements that made H.R. Giger’s Alien ships so prominent, like mundane technology and corridors, make the dark side of space travel come to life here.

Twohy doesn’t take Riddick’s R rating too far–it mainly allows the characters to throw in some street banter and provides some blood and gore in a few death scenes that are actually integral to the plot, including a satisfying end to one particularly vile merc.  For movie watchers looking for some dark sci-fi that falls short of the horror genre and were disappointed in last year’s other sci-fi release Prometheus, Riddick may fill the void.  Along with Firefly, Aliens, and Conan the Barbarian, elements of Predator and John Carpenter’s Snake Plissken make Riddick a fun sci-fi action film.

Looks for some cool “space hogs” in the movie–Harley Davidson-inspired hover bikes.

The Blu-ray includes the DVD, and Digital HD/Ultraviolet code for Internet download.  It includes both the theatrical release and a slightly longer director’s cut, about ten minutes of the twenty minutes Twohy cut from his original script.  The special features include a good interview with Diesel, where he credits his Facebook followers with his getting Riddick in theaters, in the feature “Vin’s Riddick.”  “The World of Riddick” takes a look back at the franchise, while “Riddickian Tech” gives a good window into the making of the props and sets.  “Meet the Mercs” includes interviews with the cast.  The Blu-ray also includes the previously released animated short “Riddick: Blindsided,” showing some backstory and including dialogue from the full-length film.

A great home edition for fans of the series, actors Vin Diesel and Katee Sackhoff, and anyone after a good sci-fi flick, Riddick is available in stores January 14, 2014.

Planet Comicon announced that Captain James T. Kirk himself, William Shatner, will be a featured guest at Planet Comicon 2014.  He will join seven members of the previously announced cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation with autograph and photo opportunities as well as a panel being planned for the third day of the show.

Along with Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, and Wil Wheaton, Shatner will make this year’s event the biggest ever assemblage of Star Trek headliners in the region.  Star Trek fans will have unprecedented access with three days of signing and panels for the Next Gen crew and Sunday for Shatner.

Planet Comicon 2014 is March 14, 15, and 16 at the Kansas City Convention Center at the downtown Bartle Hall at 301 W. 13th, Street in Kansas City, Missouri.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

The latest installment in Weta Workshop’s hardcover series focusing on the art and design of The Hobbit movies provides the most-in-depth look yet at the developmental stages of bringing J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantastical world to the big screen.  Through hundreds of pencil sketches, detailed accounts of the thoughts behind decisions, painted concept art and costume development, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles–Art & Design provides a comprehensive account of the mastery in bringing ideas to life.

The structure of the book follows our heroes’ journey through the film, in chapters like “Queer Lodgings” (Beorn the Skin-Changer’s house), “Flies & Spiders,” “The Woodland Realm” (the elves), “A Ruined form of Life” (the Orcs), and “Inside Information” (all about Smaug).  Each chapter provides a focused look at the unique worldbuilding for each disparate part of the film, from set design to backstory to costumes.  Many chapters offer better looks at details that were only glimpsed briefly in the film, like the city of Dale in its heyday, seen onscreen only in flashback.  It’s an opportunity for those parts of the filmmaking–given just as much thought and work as anything in the movie–to be seen and admired in their full glory.

A chapter on the Elves of Mirkwood showcases the costumes for King Thranduil, Legolas, and Tauriel, as well as the woodland realm where the dwarves are imprisoned during the film.  There’s a special focus on the wine cellars where the dwarves make their dramatic barrel escape.  Much time is given to the development of Tauriel, a new character created for the movie. Comments from Evangeline Lily (Tauriel) provide insight into her character: “Tauriel had to embody the grace of Galadriel and Arwen, while representing the fighting stealth and power of Legolas and Elrond.”

The most stunning pages of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles–Art & Design reveal the development of the Lake-town sets, the intricate detail that went into each room, each viewpoint from wide-angle to inside Bard’s place.

The design of the book itself is up the high standards of the past volumes in the Chronicles series by Weta, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Chronicles–Art and Design and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles–Creatures & Characters.  Like those volumes, this new book features an embossed leather-like cover and beautiful end pages.  An insert features a pull-out, quad-folded print of the portrait of Stephen Fry’s Master of Lake-town, as seen in the film.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles–Art & Design is available directly from Weta at their website here.  An autographed edition signed by four of the Weta creators including writer and Weta artist and designer Dan Falconer is already sold out, but may be available in the aftermarket.  We hope that after the next three volumes (Cloaks and Daggers for The Desolation of Smaug, and two volumes from next year’s finale in the trilogy, There and Back Again) are released, Weta returns to The Lord of the Rings series to release a similar series of books, since those films did not get a similar set of stunning volumes.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

An awesome way to wrap up three days of convention activities, TREKtacular is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for fanboys and fangirls to see some of the biggest Star Trek names all in one place in a Midwest venue.  To be held as Planet Comicon 2014 comes to a close, TREKtacular will feature a lively show with the entire original bridge crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation minus Picard, along with Star Trek original series star and now pop-culture icon William Shatner.  The event will be held in the Kansas City Convention Center at 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday, March 16, 2014.

Featured celebrities for TREKtacular include Jonathan Frakes (Commander Will Riker), Brent Spiner (Lt. Cmdr. Data), LeVar Burton (Lt. Cdr. Geordi LaForge), Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher), Michael Dorn (Lt. Cmdr Worf), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi), and Wil Wheaton (Ensign Crusher), plus host William Shatner.  Planet Comicon attendees may purchase autographs and photographs with the celebrities on “Celebrity Row” during the convention in advance of TREKtacular.

Tickets for this event will go on sale tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Central time, through Ticketmaster, and range from $49.50 to premier seating at $149.50 (a steal considering the number of guests being brought together and comparable event prices at the Sprint Center across town, and cheaper than good seats at a Chiefs or Royals game!).  There’s been a lot of buzz generated and demand is high so make sure you buy early tomorrow before the event sells out.  And for those who can’t make it to the convention, you don’t have to buy a ticket to Planet Comicon to attend this event.

More information is available at the Planet Comicon 2014 website.  Come and join borg.com for this incredible NextGen reunion, and a chance at seeing William Shatner in action!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Expect more Viking intrigue and action, more Viking drama, and a realistic historical look at Viking life in Season Two of Vikings, premiering tonight at 9 p.m. Central/10 p.m. Eastern on the History Channel.  The series introduces new characters and shakes up the very fabric of the universe centered on the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok.  Based on Viking sagas and characters from Norse mythology, Vikings is a series filled with both political posturing, hand to hand combat, giant sailing vessels, and a realistic look at the Viking world.

Last week I interviewed series lead Travis Fimmel, who plays Ragnar, and series newcomer Alyssa Sutherland, who has a key role in Season Two as Aslaug, a princess who drives a wedge between Ragnar and his family.

Fimmel sees his role as the Viking warrior as the best project he has yet taken on.  “It’s definitely my favorite.  It has a lot to do with Michael Hurst, who created [Vikings].”  He credits his positive experiences on Vikings to the crew for the show.  “The Irish people do a tremendous job.  They’re very talented and very efficient and really make the best of the budget we have.”

The series is filmed an hour south of Dublin, Ireland.  During filming Fimmel lived in the country on a lake near one of the Vikings sets.  Although he plays the leader of the Viking tribe, he sees himself as just one of the crew off the set.  “I don’t let them treat me any differently–We all make fun of each other… We all get on very well.”

As you’d expect, filming the epic Viking longboat scenes is as much fun as it appears.  “We had a lot of tremendous fun on the boats.  This year we go out on the ocean–and it’s just beautiful.  Beautiful landscape.  The boat stuff’s really enjoyable.”

Fimmel confirmed that full-scale longboats are used for the series, created based on historical research, and not just filming models or CGI creations.  “They’re made to scale.  They definitely float and definitely work and definitely sail.”

Alyssa Sutherland, who was introduced in the last episode of Season One as a temptress of sorts for Ragnar, portrays a princess from Norse mythology who played a pivotal role in the legend of Ragnar.  Sutherland also gets some scenes on the Viking longboats in Season Two.  “This season I got a bit of boat time, she said.  ”We were really lucky.  It was this gorgeous day.  The perfect day to be out in the boat in the islands.  You really do feel a part of it.”

As the daughter of Sigurd and the shield-maiden Brynhildr, Sutherland’s character Aslaug is decked-out in beautiful, historically drawn ninth century costumes.

Sutherland said it was a treat to be able to work with the talented Vikings costume designer, Emmy Award winner Joan Bergin.  “Right at the beginning of the season when I went in for my first fitting, before I went in to see her I knew [the costumes] were going to be stunning…  She just knocked my expectations right out of the park.  It was fabulous.”

The authentic costumes help inform Sutherland’s character and performance.  “Working in these costumes–it’s so much easier to get into character when you have something on you that makes you feel so much a part of it…  Costumes are a really important part of your character and feeling you really are that person…  They really are gorgeous.”

Working on the set of Vikings brought some authenticity to the experience for Sutherland, and that authenticity helped her to portray the character of Aslaug. “Everything–every detail, from the sets, the costumes, the hair and the make up, the props… Absolutely everything has so much detail in it.  I’ve been on other sets and it feels a little bit like a set.”

She says with the Vikings series, it’s a different experience.  “Everything is so realistic.  It’s really hard to describe unless someone sees it.  It just makes being in character and being a part of the story so much easier for an actor.”

Catch the Season Two premiere of Vikings tonight at 9 p.m. Central/10 p.m. Eastern on the History Channel.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com