All-purpose, running Geek thread (formerly Battlestar Galactica thread)

Good point. I remember hearing that same story, but I forgot that was why they didn't kill Duke. When I wrote the post, I had the picture in my head of Duke taking one of Serpentor's snake things to the chest while saving Lt. Falcon.

I also remember how much of the plot they stole from Transformers. Bring in a recognizable actor to provide the voice for a new character who is young and irresponsible, Judd Nelson playing Hot Rod in Transformers and Don Johnson as Lt. Falcon in G.I. Joe. Said irresponsible character does something stupid, leading to the heroic leader being gravely injured (Optimus Prime and Duke.) Bring in a new set of villains to take over the existing ones to help the real goal, introducing a large group of new characters to sell more toys. Bring in an aging actor to voice the big bad, Burgess Meredith as Golobulus and Orson Welles as Unicron. Many of the voice actors, like Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, were in both movies. Of course, the irresponsible young guy redeems himself and helps save the day.

And yes, I loved that crap.

Edit: The really sad part is the only part of all that I had to look up who played Golobulus. I knew it was somebody I'd heard of, but couldn't remember who did it.

 

Report: Two big stars out of Star Trek 4 after talks break down

I've seen this a few places, but I'm not sure it is confirmed. The story is that Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth are dropping out of Star Trek 4 over money. I'm not sure how Hemsworth was going to appear in more than a flashback because he plays Kirk's father, who was killed in the opening minutes of the reboot. I don't see how they do it without Pine.

 

IIRC, that was also the end of the G.I. Joe cartoon series. The toys and comic lived on for several years after that before going on hiatus, but if there was another season of the cartoon I can't remember ever seeing it.
The Transformers cartoon had one or two more seasons and did a really good job of making the movie mean something. They built upon the new mythology and characters they introduced and revisited some of the events. Almost every time they were on Cybertron, for example, Unicron's head was shown orbiting the planet. When they brought back Optimus the first time, they had that creepy ass scene at the deep space mausoleum with all of the Autobots killed in the movie. I always thought those types of things were great reminders that, yeah, the Transformers have been through a lot of shit recently and things aren't at all like they used to be.

 

I believe you are correct about the original G.I. Joe. There was what they called Series 2 that started in 1990 with many of the same voice actors, but it was a bit of a different feel to it.

If you've never seen it, check out G.I. Joe: Resolute. IMDb.com lists it as a television series, but it was a bunch of short episodes strung together that formed a complete story that is about an hour long. There are clips on YouTube and I'm sure you can find the full hour somewhere. It takes about five seconds in to discover that it was very different from the original television series.

Transformers did continue after the movie, though not for long. They even brought back the song from the movie when Optimus Prime returned and saved the day from some weird spores that turned everybody they touched into homicidal maniacs.

 

I always heard good things about Resolute, but have never seen it. Everything I've heard is that it's much closer in feel to the comics, which I was a huge fan of, so I'm sure I'd enjoy it.

Not sure if you ever read the comics, but there was a moment in there that was its equivalent to what the movie was trying to be in the cartoons. It was right around the time of the first Gulf War, and the Joes went on a mission to a desert country that went bad. Seven or eight of them, including some longtime Joes like Doc, Breaker and Quick Kick were killed. Doc got blasted by an M-60 right between the eyes at point-blank range.
That kicked off a story arc where they fought a war against Cobra in this country, and some other Joes got killed along the way. Battle Force 2000 was literally obliterated by an artillery barrage. One member of the team survived. Always thought Larry Hama kind of enjoyed doing that.
Anyway, the book was never really as good after that. Not sure why, but it just didn't have the same feel to it as before. But they injected a dose of "reality" into the series a lot of people had been clamoring for, and those seven or eight issues were very, very good. It was the tail end of the Marvel series' high water mark, IMO.

 

It says they wanted MCU money. As you say, Hemsworth is Kirk's dead dad, so how could he even come close to expecting a huge payout? Are they flashing back or resetting the timeline?

 

Sounds like time travel would be a central part of the plot, unless it's full of Godfather II-style flashbacks.

 

Since we were on the topic of animated series from our youth, I recently got Amazon Prime and discovered they have Batman: The Animated Series. Not everything holds up, but it was a great series. I just ran across one of my favorite lines from the "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?" Batman is speaking about a sleazy corporate type targeted by the Riddler. Batman and Robin save him, but he sells his company to Bruce Wayne for a big payday. The guy gets his money, but the Riddler is still out there. They show him terrified as he tries to go to bed.

Batman's closing line was, "How much is a good night's sleep worth? There's a riddle for you." Of course, Kevin Conroy's voice adds to the delivery.

 

Honest Trailer for Deadpool 2, with Deadpool, so you can imagine it goes in a different direction.

 

I just read that Netflix will be adding Black Panther Sept. 4, which is a pleasant surprise. I got the impression that Disney wasn't going to allow Netflix to add any more MCU movies with its own streaming service on the way.

Also, Iron Fist Season 2 will drop Sept. 7. I can't say I'm particularly excited about it, but I'm sure I'll watch and hope they can do better than the first season.

 

Nerd alert!

All 20 Marvel Studios Marvel Cinematic Universe Films Are Returning to Theaters with the Marvel Studios 10th Anniversary Film Festival

 

My wife wanted to watch Infinity War last week, but I don't think she had seen an MCU movie since she watched most of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1. I told her she shouldn't watch Infinity War until catching up on at least some, if not all, of the other MCU movies.

My initial suggestion was that she needs to have seen at least: Iron Man, all three Captain Americas, one of the Guardians films (preferably Vol. 1), The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Thor, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Dr. Strange.

She balked at catching up on all of that (she had seen Iron Man, Guardians and Thor), so I said she shouldn't see Infinity War until she watches Civil War, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther and Dr. Strange.

Anything I missed that she must see before watching Infinity War? I filled her in on Bucky Barnes' sitch and we've watched Civil War and Black Panther.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, she did see Spider-Man: Homecoming, so that's a good one to have seen.