I came across an article today quoting Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders, producers of Smallville. I was thrilled when I read there was a rumor attached to the new series, “The Graysons,” starting next fall.

 My hope was that the whole series was a rumor. Just one big, sick, pretty un-funny joke. Unfortunately, I never get that lucky.

 No, the rumor was simply that “The Graysons” won’t be a replacement to Smallville as we all hoped. This was the precursor for yet more bad news: the CW and the producers have every intent on letting the now-stale Smallville overstay its welcome for at least another season.

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, news came out recently that another show based on the DC universe is coming to the CW for next fall’s lineup. It’s not the Flash. It’s not a Justin Hartley Green Arrow spin-off from Smallville as a lot of us may have hoped for. And naturally, because of the success of Batman Begins and Dark Knight, a Bruce Wayne series is indefinately out of the question. So what’s the next best thing?

Apparently, a prequel about Robin. “The Graysons” will follow Dick Grayson (D.J. in this series, as if anyone but the uber-nerdy knows his middle name is “John”) and his family in the circus, before his parents are murdered and he goes on to become Robin.

Sound as lame to you as it does to me? Several other bloggers have mentioned that the reason these Batman spin-off shows haven’t worked out (most notably “Birds of Prey,” made it rest in peace but be often played on home DVD players) is that they’re missing the very important element of BATMAN. And while that might be true, Dick Grayson has proven since the 80s that he can stand on his own two feet without Bruce– Nightwing has been a popular solo book for DC for years.

The problem with doing a prequel series is that there’s nothing to inform the character. His parents’ death IS his origin. You can do it with Clark Kent (as I still submit Smallville is an excellent idea with mostly poor execution past the first season) because, beyond his crashing to Earth and knowing his planet was destroyed, there’s no defining moment in his history where he decides to don a costume. The events of his upbringing in Smallville could very easily help explain why he’s a super hero and not a tyrant.

But Robin has that defining moment. I can’t imagine that anything interesting can be said about him before that. I suppose the show could be mostly about his parents, but how can you keep an audience buying this premise when it’ll be 2009, and circuses aren’t exactly popular anymore. Plus, Dick needs to be about 8 or 9 when the show starts– if he’s 15 or 16 at the beginning and the series gets a good run, when does he become Robin? At 22 or 23? But I’m betting it’s another teen angst show like Smallville was to begin with. I’m still wondering how this Clark Kent could ever become the Superman we respect and love, and I don’t want to wonder about that with Robin.

And finally, if Birds of Prey didn’t make it, a show that lent itself to super villains, action, and a comic-book style show, how can the CW possibly expect a family show that will have to force itself to look anything like a comic book to survive?

LLAP

-Cap’n Logan

Last week, I wrote a little guide about collecting all the available box sets for the Bruce Timm Animated DC Universe, and thought I might do the same for Star Trek. The obvious difference in collecting the Trek universe is that there’s more of it and the box sets are much more expensive. So instead of focusing on the universe consists of, as I did with the DCAU, I’ll give you a hand in finding the cheapest ways to procure the Star Trek box sets and films at the most reasonable prices online– I have found the best prices on Amazon.com. Be sure to check eBay as well– occasionally you’ll find a better deal, but so far, I’ve found Amazon to be much cheaper, especially when you consider shipping. You can get free super-saver shipping on all of these sets, and if you buy from a private user, they’re only about $3.00 apiece to ship. Also, if you don’t mind buying used, be sure to check local Game Stops and Suncoasts for good deals.

Star Trek: The Next Generation was the first series to be released on DVD by season, and they originally cost over $100 a set. While most shows are released between $40 and $60 a season, Star Trek has always been one of the most expensive shows to buy. That’s probably because Paramount knows it’s selling to a very expansive fanbase who will spend more to buy a show they’ve been waiting to have this kind of access to for decades. But now that all five series have been released and a lot of used sets are winding up back on the market, prices are going down. If you haven’t started buying up your favorite series or you’d like to try and own all of it but you couldn’t see spending $100 a set, you’re in luck– right now, it’s not too difficult at all to own every season of Star Trek for less than $50 a box set.

The Next Generation

My advice is to buy an entire series at once, whenever possible. That’s where the best deals seem to be. Last year, a TNG 20th Anniversary box set was released. Not only can you get the whole seven-season run for one price, but it’s a great space-saver because it’s also all in one very pretty box. I own this set and am very pleased with it. It includes evey episode, all the special features from the original season sets, and a disc with several new and interesting featurettes. Originally $455.99, you can pick it up on Amazon.com now for $326.99. Before you accidentally spill your coffee all over your keyboard because that still sounds like a lot of cash, keep in mind that it’s only about $47 a season. Also, watch for deals on all of these sets– very often, a private seller on Amazon will have a brand new set for even less than that. I bought mine for $280. 

The Original Series

Believe it or not, TOS was one of the last series Paramount got around to releasing by season, but it was well worth the wait. These sets have some of the best packaging, the restored picture and sound is very nice, and it includes some of the most intresting special features, including interviews with a lot of producers and crew from the show still living. I managed to find all three seasons packaged together at Suncoast for $150. Right now, Amazon has them for only $107! That’s only $36 a season.

Deep Space Nine

I made the mistake of buying these by season as I found them, so I still have four seasons left to go and I haven’t been able to find them for any less than $50 a season by themselves (I know I said $50 a season isn’t bad, I found the other three used for $35) But you can get the entire series together on Amazon for $237.99. That’s only $34 a season! Now you see why I wished I had waited…

Let me warn you that with DS9, while the special features are as fantastic as on every Trek set and they’re well worth your money, the packaging starts to fall apart after a while. There are a lot of flimsy plastic pieces that pop off. It’s unfortunate, because the presentations of the discs themselves is some of the best– this was the first se to have a book-like case, which flips one disc after another rather than a whole fold-out case where you have to spread the entire thing out to get one disc, as was the case with the first TNG release (the new set as mentioned here is book-like). Again though, still very much worth the money if you love the series.

 Voyager

Voyager is still one of the most expensive to buy new when you find it in stores (next to Enterprise). On Amazon, the entire seven-season runs costs about the same as the TNG set– $334.95. That’s about $48 a season. This is the only series I haven’t picked up yet, so I haven’t found any better deals than that.

Enterprise

This is the one show that remains around the $100 mark a season if you find it new in stores, probably because it’s the most recently produced and released. I just ordered this one and haven’t received it yet, but as I understand it, it’s the only series with outtakes and commentaries. I think it also has the neatest-looking packaging. I bought mine for about $180 on Amazon, but full price right now is $249.98– about $62 a season. At this very moment, however (if you’re reading this weeks after I’ve posted it, this may not still be the case) some private users have it for much cheaper, as low as $178.99.

Movies

There are two releases of each of the films– a single disc, and a double-disc special edition. I highly recommend these later releases because they have a lot of fascinating behind-the-scenes features. Amazon has the entire box-set of the 10 films for $72.99, which is about what I paid for them a year ago. That’s only about $7 a movie, which is very inexpensive.

The Animated Series

It’s not considered part of the Star Trek canon, so you can have a “complete” collection without owning TAS. However, a lot of people have discovered the short-lived 22 episode series through this new box set and were pleasently surprised by it. It was produced in 1973 and includes the voice-talent of the entire original series crew (except for Walter Koenig). This show is on Amazon now for only $36.49.

Star Trek Remastered

The remastered seasons of TOS are also being released in Blue-Ray/DVD box sets by season. You can’t buy them all together yet  but the third season will be released Nov. 18. If you don’t know about these, the remastered episodes are being done by Michael Okuda (Trek visual effects wizard from TNG through Enterprise) who has used CGI to seemlessly improve the visual effects of TOS without distracting from the original work. Things in space (ships, planets, etc) have been completely reimagined, some backgrounds have been added to, but the soundtrack remains the same and very little has been done to anything in the foreground (the aliens all look exactly the same, though the Gorn blinks now). Season 1 is going for $79.99, season 2 for $59.99, and season 3 will be $66.99.

If you go with Amazon’s current prices and buy directly from them instead of a private user, here’s what you would spend total (assuming you don’t already own any of these):

All Five Canon Series: $1256.91

All Five Series w/Remastered instead of TOS: $1356.88

All Five Series + Movies: $1329.90

All Five Series (w/Remasteed instead of TOS) + Movies: $1429.87 

EVERYTHING: $1573.36

Chances are, you don’t have $1600 lying around to blow on Star Trek. But if you buy you favorite series first and work you way backwards slowly, these things are bound to keep going down in price. If you had bought each of these by season when they first came out, i would cost you several thousand dollars to own the entire canon.

And just think about how many hours of entertainment you’re getting. Just counting the regular canon, there are 703 episodes. If you watched one episode every day, it would take you two years to watch everything. And if you did nothing but watch Star Trek without sleeping, it would take you just under three weeks.

LLAP

-Cap’n Logan