Now that the new year is here, I thought I’d make a list of exciting things (exciting to me, at least) coming up in 2008 in various avenues of geekdom. If you’ve read my blog before, you know I’m a big follower of comics, television, science fiction, and comic-related film, so naturally those interests greatly influence this list. But even if you aren’t into everything I am, you might find something intriguing on this list you didn’t know about.

10. They Might Be Giants: Here Come the 123s (Feb. 5, 2008)

If you’re not familiar with They Might Be Giants, they’re kind of an underground, folk/rock duo that’s been around since 1985 and made over a dozen albums. In the last decade, they’ve become much more mainstream, touring with a full band and performing some TV themes, including the one for Maclom in the Middle. In 2005, they signed a contract with Disney Sound to do children’s albums. They released one kids cd, “NO!,” around ‘03, and it was successful enough they decided to do more. There first with Disney was called “Here Come the ABCs,” a DVD/CD set with animated videos for every song. It’s very old school Sesamie Street-esque, but very clever and very fun. “Here Come the 123s” was supposed to be released in October, but it was pushed back for unknown reasons. It too will be a DVD/CD set. The Giants are known for their clever lyrics and melodic song writing. They also use more accordion than Weird Al Yankovic. This follow up promises to be as funny as the previous one. And trust me, if you like quirky humor, you’ll enjoy this stuff even if you don’t have kids.

9. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Jan 14, 2008)

It’s a little hard to imagine Terminator without Arnold, but we’re all going to have to get used to it. Not only is Fox releasing a new series that tells the story between the second and third films, but he won’t be in T4 either (2009). The rumor, by the way, is that Christian Bale is supposed to play John Connor in that movie, so I’m interested all of the sudden. A similar thing happened with The Sarah Connor Chronicles for me. I’m not a big Terminator fan, being one of the few who thought T3 was a pretty good movie. I kind of rolled my eyes last summer when I read press releases about this new show. Until a couple weeks ago, when I realized Summer Glau was going to be the main Terminator. I loved her as River in Firefly and Serenity, and considering that role, she’s perfect for this one. My only fear is that it’s on Fox, the network that seems to cancel every good show it has going for it. Maybe with the writer’s strike still on, though, this one will get a fair shake.

8. Iron Man (May 2, 2008)

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Iron Man isn’t my favorite Marvel superhero, and after some of the stuff he pulled during Civil War, he might even be one of my least favorites (although it’s debatable whether he was even in character during that event). But I’m not just putting this on the list because it’s a Marvel film. You’ll notice The Incredible Hulk isn’t on this list, but from what I’ve heard, it’s supposed to be much better than its predecessor. I have to admit that Iron Man’s trailer makes it look really exciting, and the style of the picture is already reminding me of Ghost Rider, which I enjoyed. What I’m looking forward to most is seeing a superhero film directed by Jon Favreau, the hilarious comic actor who played Foggy Nelson in Daredevil, and who has a short list of directing credits, including Elf, the only Will Farrell movie I’ve ever been able to stomach (not that I was in love with it or anything).

7. Lego Batman the Video Game (Fall 2008)

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After the surprisingly hilarious and extremely fun Lego Star Wars and Lego Star Wars II video games, I’ve been looking forward to this for a while now. I wish the release date was a little sooner, as this has been in the works for quite a while, but it’ll probably be worth the wait. The Lego Star Wars games stuck to the feel and the plot, more or less, of all six films, with a Lego twist. You had to build your way out of challenging puzzles while also fighting Sith lords and Stormtroopers. I expect the Batman game to be similar, but the ads make it clear that it will have a distinctly Batman feel, and I’m sure the game play will have to be somewhat different. Lego has been doing some very creative things with these licensed characters they’ve managed to pick up, and being a huge Batman fan, I think this is their coolest concept so far.

This is more of a morbid curiosity than anything, but I’m looking forward to finding out who finally takes up the now-deceased Steve Rogers’ Captain America identity this month in issue #34. I hated that Marvel killed him off last year, but it will be quite interesting to see who is the next Cap and whether the fans will continue reading the book with a new man in the costume. The costume itself was revealed by Marvel a couple months back and it’s very reminiscent of his old 1940s look; yes, the new Cap will be carrying guns. I’m hoping Bucky Barnes gets the job, but we’ll know soon enough.

5. Lost Season 4 (Jan 31, 2008)

I have spent so much of my time in the last year while catching up on previous seasons of Lost theorizing, like so many others, about what the heck is going on in this series. The series is planned to end in three more, short 16-episode seasons and we should finally have a good explanation by the end. I’m hoping more of the puzzle pieces are fit together in the next 16 episodes because I’m starting to have a hard time keeping all the events straight. I can’t even remember all my own theories sometimes! But the show is extremely well-written, thoughtful, and well-acted, and unlike many who have lost patience with it, I still believe all the frustrating mystery is worth it if there is a decent pay-off in the end.

4. Justice League: New Frontier (Feb 26, 2008)

This is the latest in the new Bruce Timm series of direct-to-dvd DC Universe dvds. These are not part of the regular Bruce Timm universe (Batman TAS, Justice League, Batman Beyond, etc) but rather movie adaptations of graphic novels. As a result, the voices are recast for every movie, so don’t be surprised not to hear Kevin Conroy as Batman this time around. The first of these was Superman: Doomsday, which was based on the Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen comic arcs in the mid-90s. It was rather well-done but very condensed, since an hour and a half wasn’t enough time to do all four of the false Supermen– a single clone takes their place. I get the sense that this film will be closer to the original graphic novel, and that the producers had more fun making it. This story sets the Justice League in the forties. Interesting voice casting includes Lucy Lawless as Wonder Woman and David Boreanaz as the Green Lantern.

3. End of the Writer’s Strike (Sometime, hopefully, in early 2008…)

Still showing no signs of being resolved any time soon, the Writer’s Guild of America Strike has halted production of television shows and films since October. Obviously we haven’t seen the film industry slow down quite yet because of how long it takes to make a movie– all the films coming out late 2007 and early 2008 were already written long before they went into production. However, several films that were slated for this year are already on the back burner, and regardless of when the strike ends, 2009 will probably be a slim year for the industry, unless a lot of movies are slapped together as quickly as possible, in which case it will alternately be a lame year for the industry. Favorite shows of mine, such as Chuck and Heroes, had short, half-seasons last year and won’t resume production until this is resolved. I understand why the Guild went on strike (mostly to get royalties from paid downloads of their television shows) but I would have expected the industry to be quicker to give them what they want, considering half a billion dollars have already been lost in just three months. I’m also looking forward to the strike ending so I’ll have more to write about!

2. Star Trek (Dec 25, 2008)

Naturally, being the huge Trekkie I am, I’m looking forward to the new Trek film. I like what I’ve seen from Abrams on Lost and I think he’ll do the series justice. The cast looks quite strong. I’m a little worried about it being a “reboot” because there are rumors of time travel being involved, which would change the timeline and be the cause of rebooting the series. However, I’m just happy to get some new Trek, and something fresh by a new team. I’ll reserve judgment until Christmas.

1. The Dark Knight (July 18, 2008)

It’s the sequel to, in my humble opinion, the best superhero film ever made. A lot of fans of Tim Burton’s ‘89 film don’t agree with me, but I happen to like the darker turn the Batman comics made in the ’90s with Nightfall and later No Man’s Land. As much as I love the ‘89 version, it was more about the Joker than it was about Batman. Chris Nolan’s Batman Begins gave us a strongly developed Batman character and a villain who (although he wasn’t quite the Ra’s Al Ghul from the comics) thought he was saving the world. It’s a comic book movie that is shot intelligently and tells more than the same old superhero origin picture. The Dark Knight won’t be an origin film for either Batman or Joker, so much more of the plot will have to be told outside of flashbacks. It’s a Joker we haven’t seen before, closer to the one in the comics and yet maybe even a little scarier. We’ll finally see Harvey Dent be the DA, Bruce Wayne’s friend, and become Two-Face all in one film. And frankly, I just can’t wait to see all those powerhouse actors (Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, etc) together again. Here’s the full trailer in case you haven’t seen it.

LLAP

-Cap’n Logan

Last Thursday (11-15) I had the rare pleasure of seeing the original Star Trek episode “The Menagerie” remastered at an AMC movie theater. If you’re not up to speed, the entire original series is currently being remastered and brought back to television since last fall. Denise and Mike Okuda, the visual effects wizards who are the masterminds of much of the contemporary Trek series (Next Generation to Enterprise) have been overseeing the project, and they enhance and update the visuals while still staying true to the feel of the originals. As one of the other effects guys on the project said in an interview (shown in a delightful set of special features in the theater before the main event), they try to create effects that would have been done had they had the technology back in the 1960s. So now all of the planets, ships, spacial anomalies, painted backgrounds, etc. are enhanced by CGI and they really look fantastic. If you haven’t taken the opportunity to watch any of this yet, check your local listings– there’s one on every week, and there’s still a year and a half left of new remastered episodes coming out. Also, the first season is now available in HD DVD.

If you know your TOS you know that “The Menagerie” is the series’ only two-parter and it uses footage from the original pilot “The Cage” as flashbacks to Captain Pike’s encounter with the Talosians. I haven’t seen it in a long time and it was mouth-watering to watch it on the big screen. It was a limited screening but got so much interest it was opened for a second night, so I’m hoping that success convinces Fathom Events to do something like this again.

Watching Captain Christopher Pike again really got me thinking: what if the network had accepted the original pilot and Star Trek went on from there? I’m aware that, of the many things Roddenberry was asked to change, Pike wasn’t one of them, and the real reason Jeffry Hunter decided not to go on with the series was that his wife didn’t take it seriously and thought it would destroy his career. But let’s say that didn’t happen either. I wonder if Star Trek would ever have achieved the success it has without Captain James T. Kirk. Would Pike have become the icon Kirk is now? Would the ratings of the syndicated re-runs have been as popular even after the show was canceled? Or would it have been more successful and never been canceled?

First off, I kind of doubt that last question. Star Trek was way ahead of its time and a lot of people who become huge Trekkies with the re-runs simply didn’t know about it while it was still new– Jeffry Hunter couldn’t have changed that. It’s quite difficult to compare the two Captains because one only got two episodes (and in his second, he’s completely paralyzed and can only speak with a button that blinks once for “yes” and twice for “no”). Kirk had 79 episodes and seven films, so we know a lot more about him. From the little we do know, though, Pike seems a little more by-the-book than Kirk, maybe a little more no-nonsense, and he certainly isn’t the womanizer Kirk is. Kirk would never have resisted all the sexual temptations on Talos no matter how much danger he was in. Heck, in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” Kirk kisses the robot girl just because she’s standing there! And Kirk would never have been able to deal with a female first officer like Number One, so I wonder how that dynamic would have played throughout the series, again, assuming the network signed off on it.

Perhaps Kirk’s womanizing isn’t exactly the essence of Star Trek, and yet it is one of the charming things about it. No one could get away with that on TV now, but for whatever reason, it’s one of the things that still makes Kirk so fun to watch. Shatner’s borderline melodramatic portrayal of him, especially when delivering a big morality monologue or when acting like he’s in intense pain, is the other side of his character that helped give him iconic status. I suppose the real question is this: is Captain Kirk Star Trek? Was he given iconic status because the series became so successful, or was it the other way around? I would argue that Spock was always at least as popular, if not more so, than Kirk, and he would have existed with Pike or Kirk (the network asked Roddenberry to get rid of him too, because he looked too much like the devil, but he wouldn’t budge). So perhaps, just because of that fact, Trek still would have gone on similarly to the way it did, and we still might have ended up with five series and 10+ movies.

But I can’t help but thinking, unless his supporting cast loosened him up a bit, that the show might have been more serious with Pike at the helm. The network called “The Cage” too cerebral, and when Roddenberry lost Pike, it seems to me like he invented a somewhat less cerebral Captain. Only Spock remained from the original cast of “The Cage,” so I wonder if in a scenario where the studio liked everything Roddenberry did, the other iconic characters of Trek might have never existed as well. Number One (hopefully she would have been given a real name at some point) would have been the first officer, and there would have been a different doctor. Who knows if McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, or anyone else would have ever been in the show. And could Trek have gone on without those characters, too? Seems unlikely since the trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy really came to carry the series.

I’m looking especially forward to how Pike is portrayed in the new film. Perhaps this new Pike will help us to answer some of these questions, since it’s looking like he’ll be a prominent part of the movie. We’ll have the chance to compare both Kirk and Pike at the same time. But this will be J. J. Abrams’ take on Pike, not Roddenberry, so our original question can never be truly answered. Perhaps some day we can find some parallel universe where Jeffry Hunter was the star of Trek instead of William Shatner and finally know once and for all. But hopefully while looking for it we don’t wind up in some horrible universe where Star Trek never existed. That would certainly be looking in a mirror, darkly.

LLAP

-Cap’n Logan