Many sci-fi fans wonder what classic Doctor Who might look like if the BBC bosses of the '70s and '80s could have budgeted more than £6 per episode for visual effects.
A new Who DVD set from BBC Video features a specially remastered episode that offers you just that experience.
Doctor Who: "The Black Guardian Trilogy" serves up a trio of 1983 Who episodes featuring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor in a life and death struggle against a supernatural evil force.
A team of restoration and digital effects artists took the final episode of that trilogy ("Enlightenment" -- a well-written, high-concept adventure featuring a simulated sailing race in deep space) and laid in 21st Century CG visuals.
If you're like me, and I know I am, you've wondered what it would like if the U.S.S. Enterprise descended on the Hollywood Hills.
Fortunately, Paramount held the big DVD and Blu-ray release party for J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie at the Griffith Park Observatory Monday night, and the Enterprise took up a standard orbit around the famous planetarium landmark.
While the film's creators and cast mingled inside the observatory, a high-definition multimedia system projected video images of Trek visual effects up against the building's walls.
So, for a few moments, the Enterprise (almost to scale) swooped in for a visit before heading away at warp factor one.
Director Stephen Sommers might want to discourage the production of animated lead-ups to his feature films. They keep outdoing the movies they're supposed to set up for audiences.
Before his Van Helsing reached theaters in 2004, Universal released Van Helsing: The London Assigment. Written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, the animated half-hour was clever and action-packed. Van Helsing? It was not clever and action-packed.
Now, the DVD release of G.i. Joe: Resolute, an 11-episode series of animated shorts that originally aired on Adult Swim before the release of Rise of Cobra, brings a cooler and more visually compelling "Yo, Joe!" to screens.
On an Adult Swim schedule where every show is strange in some way, Xaviermay be the strangest of the bunch. The title character is a hairy birdman with a beak and legs with knees that bend the wrong way. And a snake hand. And a loincloth. And two different colored eyes. And six nipples (I could go on, but...) He talks like a surfer dude, mashing up new age double talk with double entendre, inhabiting a sort of alternate, SIMS-like earth and killing or damaging irreparably all he seeks to help.
The effect of this only intensifies when you watch a lot of episodes of Xavier in one sitting, which is what you can do with the new Xavier: Renegade Angel Seasons 1 and 2 DVD. In its usual dose of fifteen minutes per episode, it's odd. Watch it for two hours, you start to see spots. Even the animation, which stresses the bright colors and blocky movement of computer generated graphics, pushes you off kilter. It's an overused description to say something looks like a cartoon on acid, but if ever a show actually deserved the description, it's Xavier.
I know I'm dating myself, but I'm really looking forward to watching the second season of thirtsysomething on DVD.
The first season was released back in August, and I had a blast catching up with great characters like Michael and Melissa Steadman, Elliot Weston and Gary Shepherd. Season two hits DVD in January, thanks to the good folks at Shout! Factory, known for putting out great sets like the packed Freaks and Geeks collection and the recent Transformers "G1" collector's set.
Some people might only think of thirtysomething as "that '80s show about whiny yuppies," and that's fine. But the Emmy-award winning drama brings back a lot of great memories for me. As I mentioned before, I used to watch it with my mom, who I'm pretty sure related to Patricia Wettig's frustrated homemaker Nancy Weston and free spirit Melissa Steadman, played by Melanie Mayron. (As for my dad, I'm not ashamed to say that he's more of a Timothy Busfield type!)
Leoben, that tricky toaster, was right: All of thishas happened before, and all of it is happening again.
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan retells major events from the first two years of the celebrated sci-fi series through the eyes of the Cylons. It weaves together recycled scenes from the series with new footage to reveal a first-hand account of the Cylon agenda, or "plan."
The result is a film that feels incomplete, episodic and disjointed. It plays less like a movie and largely like a disk full of high quality bonus material. Most of what happens here feels irrelevant to the series -- almost like it was tacked on to the BSG mythos to satisfy completists and hardcore fans. Still, it's worth watching to see Dean Stockwell carry the film with a fearless performance as the scheming and duplicitous Brother Cavil. The veteran character actor takes center stage in The Plan, and your enjoyment of the film will rest largely on how much you like, or dislike, Cavil and his major role in the series.
If you haven't checked out Ken Burns' documentary The National Parks: America's Best Idea on PBS yet, now you can actually buy it. The 12-hour series hit DVD and Blu-ray on Oct. 6, and offers a stunning look at our national parks, including Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, and the Gates of Arctic in Alaska.
When you think about it, it's truly amazing how these natural wonders have become part of our lives, even if we've never been to them. Burns covers 150 years of the parks, starting with the concept in the mid-1800s and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks, Andy Garcia, Sam Waterston and others.
The cool thing about the DVD / Blu-ray sets is that you get three hours of bonus material, including a making-of featurette, Musical Journeys Through the National Parks, Contemporary Stories and Outtakes.
The "Ask TV Squad" column, published every Wednesday, answers your questions about current and past TV shows, as well as about the celebrities appearing on TV. Every week, I will pick a question (or more) sent to us and provide answers in the column. If your question is not picked for a column, it may be answered in a subsequent column. To submit questions to the "Ask TV Squad" column, you can post them below in comments or email them at asktvsquad@gmail.com.
This week, I answer questions about online TV shows, a new series called Miami Trauma, and NYPD Blue DVDs.
Why must Panasonic, Sony, Samsung and that lot constantly develop new technologies in an attempt to break my bank account? First it was things like flat television and high definition. Now, Panasonic is joining the ranks of other television manufacturers to produce a high definition television that can handle both 2D and 3D images. But this time, they're enlisting Hollywood to help them sell it.
The idea is that Hollywood is producing more 3D films and this technology will enable the sale of 3D DVDs. It could even potentially be the feature to push Blu-ray sales to the level of regular DVDs (assuming it's only on Blu-ray).
Do we really need to be able to watch 3D movies at home? It sounds like one of those things that seem extraneous at first then once you have it in the home you have no idea how you lived without it. 3D television has been talked about for years now. We'll have to see if this is the event that pushes it more to the mainstream.
I love Andy Richter, but he seems awfully stiff every time I watch him on The Tonight Show. I prefer to remember the guy from his early days on Late Night, his short-lived show Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and his other short-lived show, the hilarious Andy Barker, P.I.
Like Danny reported back in May, Andy Barker, P.I. is finally coming to DVD. Shout! Factory will release the entire series on Nov. 17. The two-disc set will include all six episodes, some with commentary by Richter and producer Conan O'Brien, plus a retrospective feature and a doc about the show's amazing writers, including Jonathan Groff (How I Met Your Mother), Josh Bycel (Psych), and Jane Espenson (Buffy, BSG). Click through for a better look at the DVD cover art.
Straight from the Press Room at Fox, the complete series of Futurama (Seasons 1 to 4, plus the four movies) is being released October 13 in a collectible Bender head for the low, low price of $169.98 ($199.98 Canadian). Of course, once those new Comedy Central episodes are shown, this won't be the complete series anymore. Don't tell Fox. They need to sell DVDs.
I wish I could justify getting this set, but I already purchased the first four seasons of the show on DVD and this isn't worth getting just for the four direct-to-DVD movies. Dear Fox: please release the four movies in a collectible head of Richard Nixon. Or one of the other characters. Which collectible head would you prefer to have?
The box set is also being released in honor of Futurama's ten-year anniversary. Can you believe this Simpsonsknock-off is ten years old already? Just kidding. Family Guy is the Simpsons knock-off.
... At least that's what Stargateproducer Robert C. Cooper is saying. Cooper has written scripts for another Stargate SG-1 DVD movie and the first Stargate Atlantis flick, but those projects are on the back burner for now. Cooper and MGM are focusing on the launch of Syfy's Stargate Universe before those movie scripts go into production. Oh, and the sh*tty economy isn't helping either.
"We're just waiting for the right opportunity. We want to be successful with it. The studio wants to be successful, and we really don't want to proceed with something in the wrong climate, which I think financially it is right now," Cooper told Sci Fi Wire.
I'm looking forward to Stargate Universe, but I'd love to see the franchise continue releasing DVD movies every few years. Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum were great and they sold well on DVD, but projected DVD sales for new projects aren't looking good these days.
If you ask the average zoologist what makes mysterious creatures like Bigfoot or El Chupacabra so impossible today when once scientifically-dismissed species like the Mountain Gorilla or Giant Squid are now common enough concepts, they'll probably say, "The difference is the gorilla and the squid are real, and Bigfoot isn't."
The scientific dismissal isn't keeping Animal Planet from releasing a new DVD featuring stories of cryptozoological oddities.
Announced this week and set for release this fall (October 6), Lost Tapes operates under the thesis that, while thousands of new species are discovered and classified each year, there are some creatures that science still refuses to recognize.
It's been 40 years since a bunch of dirty hippies enjoyed a few wasted days of sex, drugs and rock n' roll under the delusion that indulging youthful exuberance would change the world. Now, the work from the artists of that era are resurfacing to celebrate the anniversary.
To honor the memory of Flower Power and hating anyone older than 30, Infinity Entertainment Group is releasing The Mama Cass Television Program on DVD next month.
The show was a one-off, long-lost TV special, taped as a pilot for an ABC variety series that never materialized.
Hot on the heels of our Mad Men DVD giveaway, we have three copies of another hit show. We've got three copies ofTwo and a Half Men: The Complete Fifth Season on DVDfor three lucky, random commenters.
To enter, leave a comment below before 5:00PM Eastern, Friday, July 17 simply telling us why you'd like to own this DVD set. As always, we'll randomly choose three winners amongst the eligible entries. Some other details:
To enter, leave a confirmed comment below stating why you'd like to own the Two and a Half Men DVD set.
The comment must be left before July 17, 2009 at 5:00PM Eastern Time.
You may enter only once.
Three winners will be selected in a random drawing.
Three winners will receive a Two and a Half Men: The Complete Fifth Season DVD (valued at $44.98).
Open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
Many sci-fi fans wonder what classic Doctor Who might look like if the BBC bosses of the '70s and '80s could have budgeted more than £6 per episode for visual effects.
Director Stephen Sommers might want to discourage the production of animated lead-ups to his feature films. They keep outdoing the movies they're supposed to set up for audiences.
On an Adult Swim schedule where every show is strange in some way, 
I know I'm dating myself, but I'm really looking forward to watching the second season of 
Leoben, that tricky toaster, was right: All of this has happened before, and all of it is happening again. 
If you haven't checked out Ken Burns' documentary 
The "Ask TV Squad" column, published every Wednesday, answers your questions about current and past TV shows, as well as about the celebrities appearing on TV. Every week, I will pick a question (or more) sent to us and provide answers in the column. If your question is not picked for a column, it may be answered in a subsequent column. To submit questions to the "Ask TV Squad" column, you can post them below in comments or email them at 
Why must Panasonic, Sony, Samsung and that lot constantly develop new technologies in an attempt to break my bank account? First it was things like flat television and high definition. Now, Panasonic is joining the ranks of other television manufacturers to produce a high definition television that can handle both 2D and 3D images. But this time, they're enlisting Hollywood 
I love Andy Richter, but he seems awfully stiff every time I watch him on 
Straight from the Press Room at Fox, the complete series of Futurama (Seasons 1 to 4, plus the four movies) is being released October 13 in a collectible Bender head for the low, low price of $169.98 ($199.98 Canadian). Of course, once those new Comedy Central episodes are shown, this won't be the complete series anymore. Don't tell Fox. They need to sell DVDs.
... At least that's what 
If you ask the average zoologist what makes mysterious creatures like Bigfoot or El Chupacabra so impossible today when once scientifically-dismissed species like the Mountain Gorilla or Giant Squid are now common enough concepts, they'll probably say, "The difference is the gorilla and the squid are real, and Bigfoot isn't."
It's been 40 years since a bunch of dirty hippies enjoyed a few wasted days of sex, drugs and rock n' roll under the delusion that indulging youthful exuberance would change the world. Now, the work from the artists of that era are resurfacing to celebrate the anniversary.
Hot on the heels of 
TV Squad Ten: Top Ten ESPN shows from worst to first
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
Have any questions for Vik Sahay of Chuck? Ask them here!
