Bone is coming to Netflix!

One of my favorite comic books is coming to Netflix. Self-published by Jeff Smith in the 90’s,  Bone is the story of 3 cousins who are exiled from their hometown of Boneville and eventually arrive in a medieval village called Barrelhaven. Smith has tried without success to get the series animated by both Nickelodeon and Warner Bros, and I actually thought it was never going to happen. And now it is! So, I’ve decided to pick out who I think should do the voices for each character. I’ll include previous roles so you can picture them better in your head.

 Fone Bone: Our protagonist would be voiced by Maxey Whitehead, best known as the voice of Alphonse Elric in  Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.

Smiley Bone: Fone’s tallest and inept cousin would be voiced by Bill Farmer, currently the voice of Goofy.

 Phoney Bone: The richest Bone in Boneville would be Rob Paulsen. He’s best known as the voice of Raphael in the 80’s version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Yakko Warner on  Animaniacs.

 Thorn: The heroine of Bone and Fone’s romantic interest would be voiced by Michelle Creber, best known as Apple Bloom on My Little Pony Friendship is Magic.

Grandma Ben I have two choices for this one. My first pick is Betty White, but if she dies before this becomes a reality, I’d settle for Tabitha St. Germain, who played two roles on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Rarity and Granny Smith. I think her Granny Smith voice would be perfect.

Lucius Down: The tough-minded bartender of Barrelhaven would be voiced by John DiMaggio, aka Bender on Futurama. I’d probably want him to do his Aquaman voice he did on Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

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Top 10 Best Star Trek TNG #9: Ship in a Bottle

This is an episode that I think isn’t talked about much, and I have to ask why. It’s well-crafted, and it has a great premise.

Before I start talking about this episode, I have to talk about a couple episodes that precede it. First is “Elementary, Dear Data”. In that episode, Data and Geordi are playing Sherlock Holmes on the Holodeck with Dr. Pulaski, who replaced Dr. Crusher for the second season. Geordi got sick of Dr. Pulaski constantly ribbing Data about his only following the script of what normally happens in a Sherlock Holmes mystery and not doing actual detective work. (Dr. Pulaski, just because Data doesn’t have emotions doesn’t mean he has to put up with your attitude. I can totally understand why Geordi was annoyed with you. Man I hated Dr. Pulaski) So to prove a point, he asked the computer to create an opponent based on Professor Moriarty for Data to defeat. The result is a completely self-aware version of the brilliant criminal. He’s like the Holodeck on God Mode. The only reason he stops is that Picard convinces him that it would be in his best interest, that someday they may learn a way for him to leave the Holodeck. This would lead some elements that would be explored with Star Trek Voyager’s Emergency Medical Hologram.

Couch Potato: Duck Tales Reboot Recap

Last year, I blogged about the pilot episode of the Duck Tales reboot. Now that season 1 is over, I thought I’d talk about my thoughts so far.

First of all, I really like what they’ve done with the nephews and Webby. Huey, Dewey, and Louie each have their own individual actors. This is important because the writers want us to think of them as individual characters rather than a trio. (In fact, no one is doing voices for more than one character this time around.) Huey is the leader and the planner, the smartest of the three. Dewey is the bravest and most heroic. Louie is a bit on the selfish side and greedy. This is not the first time this has been done (it was also done on Quack Pack, but I feel that wasn’t as successful.), but I think it really works here. Webby has also been changed. I want people to understand something. I never hated Webby like some fans apparently did. (I didn’t even know she was hated) I just thought she was bland. She moved the story along. Maybe bland was a better word for how I felt about her. But now, she’s been changed to an energetic girl who seems to enjoy danger a bit too much. I like this new change, and it makes her much more engaging than the original.

David Tennant is doing great work as Uncle Scrooge. He doesn’t seem all that different from the original portrayal, and that’s good. If it worked before, don’t change it.

Donald Duck is much more a part of the show than he was in the original. I love this idea! I hated that he spent so much time with the Navy in the original Duck Tales. I like him being this overprotective substitute father, as it’s a more favorable portrayal than he usually has with the nephews. They seem to have more respect for him this time, which I like.

Couch Potato: The Return of Duck Tales

This August, an old favorite cartoon of mine is getting a new lease on life. Duck Tales is returning to TV on August 12, and will start on September 23. I thought this would be a good time to introduce the cast. The show was based on comic books created by Carl Barks, who originally created Donald Duck’s nephews while working at Disney’s animation studio. However, he eventually branched out into what he is most famous for–creating comics featuring Donald Duck and his family. All the characters live in the town of Duckburg.

Worst Star Trek Episodes: Spock’s Brain

And here it is folks, my #1 pick for the worst Star Trek episode of all time: “Spock’s Brain”. This is a legendary episode, and in every bad way possible. There’s a story around that Gene Coon, who produced Star Trek along with Roddenberry, and wrote many of the episodes, wrote the script of “Spock’s Brain” as a joke because he didn’t like the idea of Fred Frieberger replacing Roddenberry as producer. Prior to working on Star Trek, he was on Lost In Space. Personally, I have to disagree with this. Yes, Lost in Space was less serious than Trek, but I still consider it part of the sci-fi genre.

Worst Star Trek Episodes: Plato’s Stepchildren

Gene Roddenberry wanted Star Trek to be an inspiration to the future. In fact, it’s one of the few optimistic visions in science fiction. It is a future in which all colors and creeds of the human race come together to explore the final frontier.

“Plato’s Stepchildren” is probably Star Trek’s most controversial episode. It features TV’s first interracial kiss. So, why do I place it here? Because I cannot let controversy make me give it a pass. I have nothing against the scene personally. But how we got to it is a path I did not like.

The story begins with Kirk, McCoy, and Spock beaming down to a planet, investigating a distress call. They are greeted by a friendly dwarf named Alexander. They meet the planet’s inhabitants, (called Platonians) who have created a society based on the ideals of the Greek philosopher Plato. These Platonians are ageless, and with the exception of Alexander, all are telekinetic.

The Platonians have actually lured the crew because their leader, Parmen, is ill. Parmen isn’t alone, but Kirk objects. The Platonians demonstrate their abilities on Kirk and McCoy, making them dance like jesters and imitate horses, with Alexander riding Kirk. This was the moment that made me hate the episode.

Dishonorable/Honorable Mention Star Trek Episodes

Before I unveil my top 3 worst and best Star Trek episodes, I thought I’d unveil what didn’t make the cut for worst and best. So, this post will be my “dishonorable” and honorable mentions for the countdowns. We’ll start with the ones that weren’t bad enough to be in the worst countdown.

• “The Man Trap”–when NBC started its run of Star Trek, they had three choices for the premiere episode: “Charlie X”, “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, (the true pilot, after “The Cage”, which was reworked into the two-part episode “The Menagerie”)and “The Man Trap”. The first two episodes would have been good choices, but instead “The Man Trap” was chosen. This had a bad monster with bad make-up on top of it.

• “Catspaw”–This was meant to be a Halloween episode, with all the trappings: a creepy castle, sorcerers, and monsters. In short–nothing that should be in a Star Trek episode! To be honest, this is really “so bad it’s good”.

• “Day of the Dove”–An entity powered by hate traps the Enterprise and Klingons. To eliminate the entity, Kirk proposes a wary alliance. And no, this has nothing to do with how the Klingons are actually allies in the Next Generation version.

The next three are my “honorable mention” for the best episodes.

*”Piece of the Action”–The Enterprise finds a planet with a society that finds a book on Prohibition-era Chicago. This episode is silly, but in a good way.

*”This Side of Paradise”–The Enterprise finds a planet on the brink of destruction, however none of the inhabitants wish to leave because they’re enthralled by plants that spray spores that make you content to remain on the planet. It’s another great story from DC Fontana, and one of her best character studies for Spock.

*”Errand of Mercy”–This was actually a contender for my favorite Klingon episode, but I liked the uncertainty in “A Private Little War” better. The Klingons made their first appearance in this episode, and it’s a great introduction.

 

Best Star Trek Episodes: Journey to Babel

As I said in my review of “The Way to Eden”, DC Fontana was one of Star Trek‘s best writers.  So many great stories came from her, including this one.  It’s also one of two episodes starring Mark Leonard.

This episode was a glimpse into Spock’s character and introduces his parents, Sarek (played by Mark Leonard) and Amanda. Sarek would later go on to appear in Star Trek: The Next Generation, in fact he was one of three characters from TOS to do so. (the others being McCoy and Scotty)

We also get some great world-building in this story, particularly in the introduction of the Andorians. While the Andorians did not appear in any more episodes of TOS, they did appear in the prequel series Enterprise. There is tension between the Andorian ambassador Thelev and the Tellarite ambassador Gav, leading him to assassinate Gav.

Sarek seems cold towards Spock, as if he rejects his joining Starfleet. Amanda, however is more compassionate towards her son. This dynamic is a great glimpse into Spock’s character, especially when Sarek goes into cardiac arrest and Spock is asked to donate his blood. He refuses because Kirk was attacked when he confronted Thelev.

Star Trek: The Animated Series

When Star Trek was cancelled and rerun in syndication, Gene Roddenberry realized there may be a way to save the franchise.  To test the waters, he brought the license to Filmation in 1973. It sadly only lasted for 22 episodes and two seasons. In fact, when I started watching it, I actually thought Netflix was unable to get the whole show until I did research on Wikipedia.

For the most part, there are notable differences between this and the original series.

1. While most of the original cast reprised their roles, Walter Koenig was unable to reprise his role as Ensign Pavel Chekov. Instead, he was replaced by a three-armed and three-leffed Edosian helmsman named Arex (voiced by James Doohan). However, Koenig did write a script for an episode.
2. As hinted above, the animators took full advantage of the freedom of animation that could not be replicated in live-action, resulting in characters who probably wouldn’t have existed in any live-action format (like Arex.) In addition to Arex, we also have anthromorphic aliens such as Communications Officer M’ress, (voiced by Majel Barrett) who occasionally took Lt. Uhura’s position.
3. The theme from the original series was still under copyright from NBC, and thus couldn’t be used. Instead, a similar theme was composed, with Kirk still giving the narration.

It is the first two differences that have caused many fans to exile this series from the franchise’s continuity, much like the spin-off novels and comic books. However, I don’t think the series shouldn’t be watched. I was entertained and found the writing almost on par with that of the original series, despite a somewhat lighter tone as the series was intended for children. It was a welcome sight to see guest characters from the original shows such as Cyrano Jones and Harry Mudd, two antagonists from the original series.

To close this article, I thought I’d list my top 5 best/worst Star Trek Animated episodes. The series can be viewed on Netflix and is also available on DVD. If you’re curious, check it out.

Top 5 worst episodes:

5. “The Practical Joker”–A mysterious disturbance causes the ship’s computer to develop a penchant for pranks.

4. “The Ambergris Incident”–While exploring the watery planet Argo, the crew is transformed into water-breathers.

3. “The Terratin Incident”–A supernova causes the crew to continuously shrink in size.

2. “The Counter-Clock Incident”–An unusual spaceship causes the Enterprise to enter a dimension where time flows backwards, causing the crew to slowly revert to childhood.

1. Beyond the Furthest Star–A malevolent entity possesses the ship’s computer.

The top 5 best episodes:

5. “Mudd’s Passion”–The Enterprise once again meets Harry Mudd, who has been peddling an aphrodisiac.

4. “The Slaver Weapon”–The crew is captured by the K’zinti, a race of cat-like slave traders in pursuit of a superweapon.

3. “The Jihad”–A quest to retrieve a stolen artifact may be integral in preventing a warlike race of bird people from taking over the galaxy.

2. “More Tribbles, More Troubles”–Cyrano Jones has stolen a creature that preys on Tribbles from the Klingons.

1. “Yesteryear”–Spock is almost erased from history and must return to the setting of “City on the Edge of Forever”, where we also get a glimpse of Spock’s childhood. Spock must repair the damage done to his timeline or risk never existing at all.

Worst Star Trek Episodes: The Apple

It’s widely known that Gene Roddenberry was an atheist. For the most part, Star Trek didn’t show this. “The Apple” is one exception.  Here, his atheism is on full display.

The story begins with the Enterprise arriving at Gamma Triangula VI. Despite seeming like a tropical paradise akin to Eden, the environment is hostile, claiming the lives of three away team members. However, they cannot return to the Enterprise because an energy field is draining the ship’s energy reserves.

Kirk orders the away team towards a primitive village, where they meet the planet’s inhabitants. They refer to themselves as the “Feeders of Vaal”, and are led by a man named Akuta, who wears antennae that allow him to communicate with their deity, Vaal. While conversing with Akuta, Kirk learns they are not permitted to procreate or even fall in love.

While exploring, Kirk and Spock come across a stone idol, which Kirk discovers is Vaal. Vaal is displeased with the crew, especially since they are exposing its Feeders to intimacy (they happen to see Chekov and a woman kiss) and orders Akuta to teach his people how to kill. Kirk realizes that he must now destroy Vaal and free Akuta’s people.

Like many atheists, Roddenberry misrepresents Christianity in this episode.  To him, Vaal represents God.  (Note: I know he didn’t write this episode, but he did approve it, so he still has some responsibility.) It’s obvious the planet is supposed to represent Eden, even though the vegetation attacks the crew at the beginning.  In fact, after he destroys Vaal, Kirk wonders if humans were even meant for paradise at all.