Category: Retro Fix


These Are the Voyages–Book explores Star Trek fandom and abandoned TV series

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August 13, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

TV historian and Star Trek expert Marc Cushman is back to continue his second trilogy of books about the development, production, and struggles behind the first two decades of Star Trek.  In These Are the Voyages: Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek in the 1970s, Volume 2 (1975-77), at last we get to delve into the biggest Star Trek project never delivered: The 1970s Star Trek: Phase II series that would be parted out and become Star Trek: The Motion Picture and later Star Trek: The Next Generation.  And that’s not all–ideas and early scripts for Phase II continue to be tapped in the 21st century Star Trek series and films.  Even better, Cushman digs into the ever-developing Star Trek novels, conventions, and more, which became the practice grounds for the wider, broad world of pop culture fandom as a whole.  How did Star Trek finally movie forward from the original series to become what it is today?  How did the fans play a major role in making that happen?   Continue reading →

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Alien: 40 Years/40 Artists–Artists pay homage for 40th anniversary

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August 10, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

Forty years of Alien.  It’s worth celebrating.  Ridley Scott blended science fiction and horror in a way never seen before, and it’s in large part due to the uniquely dark imagination of H.R. Giger, who we’ve discussed for years here at borg.  Plus he gave us one of sci-fi’s greatest heroines (in Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley) and cats (in the ginger crewmember Jonesy).  We’ve taken a look at multi-artist tribute concept books before at borg, including the massive The Thing Artbook, Star Trek: 50 Artists/50 Years, and The Mike Wieringo Tellos Tribute books.  Anytime we showcase a major benchmark in comic book titles, like Detective Comics 1000th issue, Wonder Woman’s 750th issue, and The Amazing Spider-Man Issue #800, or charity projects like the Wonder Woman 100 showcase, we’re seeing the same thing: a variety of artists interpreting an icon of popular culture.  In Alien: 40 Years/40 Artists, we’re seeing another artist challenge, and the result is among the best of the bunch.  The new tribute arrives at bookstores tomorrow, so you have one more day to pre-order it at a discount here at Amazon.

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A memorial tribute, and some stay-at-home movie recommendations

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August 9, 2020

I was thinking about re-publishing a list of war movie recommendations in November for Veteran’s Day, recommendations provided by my father, Milton L. Bunce, Jr., movies that I recommended here at borg years ago.  He passed away Saturday at the age of 79, and as a tribute to him I thought I’d go ahead and share again now two sets of recommendations of movies he enjoyed, which also influenced me and my movie preferences over the years.  These are 20 films, one list of classic war movies that he thought reflected his own experiences in the U.S. Navy, and another, showing the preferences of a kid growing up during World War II at the local movie house.  My father went to the movie theater every Saturday with his sister, and spent the day enjoying many of these great films on the big screen.  If you have more time at home as many do this summer, what better opportunity to catch a classic you may have overlooked?

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Discovery’s Shark Week returns this month

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August 2, 2020

It’s back.  Discovery′s annual Shark Week programming returns this month and is bringing along a new giveaway.  From August 9 to August 16 look for your annual week of shark-centered features.  Shark Week is television’s longest running summer TV event.  And you know what that means–Narragansett is back with an online store full of tie-ins to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws to coincide with Shark Week 2020.  Not only is Narragansett one of America’s oldest companies (they turned 21 in 1911), Jaws made its beer famous again in 1975 when Robert Shaw′s character Quint downed a can and crushed it to look tough in front of Richard Dreyfuss′s character Hooper.  Hooper created the the most humorous moment of the film, countering Quint by crushing his Styrofoam cup.

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More SDCC 2020–Nathan Fillion talks Buffy, Castle, Firefly, and The Rookie with familiar faces

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August 1, 2020

Nathan Fillion–with a moustache?  One of the more interesting panels from this year’s San Diego Comic-Con and one certainly not to miss for Browncoats everywhere is a panel devoted exclusively to the star of Firefly, Castle, and The Rookie.  It’s definitely one of those atypical panels (even for 2020) like we saw Fillion host back in the days of Nerd HQ, this time with added wacky editing and Fillion stepping in to provide commentary along the way.  That’s right, Fillion has enough pop culture street cred to get a panel to himself.  But he also knows how to share the stage.

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SDCC 2020 free Souvenir Book–Your first step into the larger world of Comic-Con

Filed under: Comics & Books, Con Culture, Fantasy Realms, Movies, Retro Fix, Sci-Fi Café — Leave a comment
July 23, 2020

In a normal year for San Diego Comic-Con, we at borg would be taking photos and checking out the new products, panels, and movie trailers, and trying to share as many as possible.  But first we’d go through the badge line and get our annual, over-sized haul bag, which we’d probably keep folded up anyway because it makes it difficult to move around.  But with that bag is the annual “Comic-Con book,” which is not a comic book, but an official book about half of a medium-sized city telephone directory (what’s a telephone directory?).  The book would be full of discussions about anniversaries of comic and pop culture events and salutes to individuals who have gained some portion of iconic status for fanboys and fangirls everywhere.  But you never read this during con week.  Why?  You’re too busy trying to cram in all you can before the show is over.  Sometimes you don’t even find this book until two months after you get back home after the con and are revisiting your swag.  This year, the SDCC staff has made it possible for everyone to download a copy of that book.

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The Princess Bride redux–100 actors create a backyard version of the fantasy classic for charity

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July 19, 2020

Why do you wear a mask?

I think they are just terribly comfortable.  I think everyone will be wearing them in the future.

Since–like everyone else–actors are unable to do their jobs until the risk of the COVID-19 pandemic has passed, many have offered up some of their time over the past 120 to 150 days to provide fans with extra interviews, table reads (like the Community table read we discussed here at borg), and comic-cons at home, creating some content for the fan base we wouldn’t have otherwise had access to without this strange new normal of sheltering at home, social distancing, and masks.  If you don’t subscribe to or know what Quibi is, you may have missed the latest–an ensemble of actors from popular to more obscure re-enacting scenes from Rob Reiner’s fan-favorite fantasy, comedy, and romance, The Princess Bride.

The style is all intentionally low budget–think of the kind of backyard films you might have made as a kid, and in fact, the film is called Home Movie: The Princess Bride.  But it’s great fun, all filmed with quarantine safety rules in place (those filming together were already living together), and the kind of thing any classic film fan base would be overjoyed to see created.  The best part is learning who had actual historical costumes in their closet to work with (Mad Men man Jon Hamm had a Renaissance shirt in his closet, as did comedic actors Neil Patrick Harris and David Spade, and Rogue One’s Diego Luna), those who didn’t, and who might be better actors than you’ve given them credit for.

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A Snake Lies Waiting–U.S. edition of Jin Yong’s next Condor Heroes novel is coming

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July 17, 2020

In the past ten years at borg, the best fantasy adventure series we encountered was both a series of novels and a television series.  When you think of epic adventures we may immediately think of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, George Lucas’s Star Wars, cinematic international stories of Akira Kurosawa like The Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, and Rashomon, classic fantasy like Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes, Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Conqueror, and historical fiction like Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel, C.S. Forester’s Lieutenant Hornblower, and even further back into the past tales like Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte De’Arthur, the Maya’s Popul Vuh, the Old English Beowulf, the Old Norse Poetic Edda, and even the stories of Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey.  All of these are tapped for inspiration by writers in one way or the other each year.  But there’s an equally incredible series from the past century that has been read by more than 300 million readers that we’ve recommend, which fully belongs among these classic works–Jin Yong′s Legend of the Condor Heroes, and the third volume, A Snake Lies Waiting, will be coming soon to a bookstore near you.  We have a first look at the cover for the volume 3 above and the fourth volume, A Heart Divided, below, arriving in bookstores next year.

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Giant Friday the 13th collection is coming your way from Shout! Factory for 40th anniversary

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July 15, 2020

How did this become horror update week?

Fans of the Friday the 13th series will want to take note of the most comprehensive set of franchise films and features yet available.  All twelve films from the series–beginning with the 1980 classic through the 2009 reboot and including, for fans of all things borg, the cyborg Jason Voorhees in Jason X–are all collected on 16 Blu-rays in the Friday the 13th Collection–Deluxe Edition arriving before Halloween. The collection is housed in a “rigid slipcase” and will be accompanied by an exclusive, limited edition 36″ x 24″ lithograph featuring new artwork from artist Devon Whitehead, and an exclusive, limited edition 24″ x 36″ Friday The 13th 40th Anniversary poster featuring new artwork from artist Joel Robinson (both shipped rolled, not folded).  Only launching this past weekend, the lithograph/poster set was first limited to 1,313 units, which has now been expanded to 7,000 units (available via Shout! Factory website sales only).  The appeal for fans who have purchased prior versions is in the extras: All of the previously released extras are included plus all-new bonus materials, including new audio commentaries with cast and crew.

Check out all the details and how to get your hands on this set below.

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The Birds, Rear Window, Vertigo, and Psycho are coming your way in new 4K (and more) boxed set

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July 14, 2020

Universal Studios is at last releasing a boxed set of the best of director Alfred Hitchcock in the highest quality yet.  The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection is a new 4K Ultra HD library that will include The Birds, Rear Window, Vertigo, and Psycho.  Psycho fans take note: The set includes two versions of the film, including the original uncut release that did not air anywhere for decades.  With hours of extra features, the downside is the audio commentary doesn’t include any of the many actors discussing the film that are still available all these years later.  But each disc does include contemporary interviews with the master of suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock.  Each film is a classic, and each a recurring favorite on the American Film Institute lists of top films.  Check out the details for the 4k release below.  You can pre-order the collection now here at Amazon.

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