The Blu-ray deal of the week over at Amazon is Star Trek: Stardate Collection – Blu-ray Edition for only $56.49 (that’s 60% off the list price of $139.98); the DVD is also discounted right now to $40.49 (that’s 60% off the list price of $99.98).
Both the Star Trek: Stardate Collection DVD and Blu-ray box sets contain the 10 original movies of the Star Trek film series before the JJ Abrams reboot: The first six files with the original 1960s television series — The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan, The Search for Spock, The Voyage Home, The Final Frontier, and The Undiscovered Country — and the four movies with The Next Generation cast — Generations (the crossover with the original cast), First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis.
Sometimes we hate bad guys. The combination of excellent writing, directing, and acting for a villain can get us lost in the story and in our distaste for the character. I have a huge amount of respect for actors and television shows that can pull this off; however, there is another type of antagonist that I think we can all appreciate just as much, if not more. I’m sure you guessed it by the title: it’s the maniacal big baddies who not only scare us, but also make us laugh with glee. Check out this list below of crazy television bad guys we can’t help but love. I think you’ll agree – but feel free to comment and let us know who your favorites are too!
Here’s 5 Crazy TV Bad Guys We Can’t Help But Love…
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Unification Blu-ray
Starring Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, Leonard Nimoy, Denise Crosby, Mark Lenard
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release Date: November 19, 2013
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 5, which includes all 26 episodes of the season, along with bonus features, is out for the first time on Blu-ray this week. As with previous season Blu-ray releases for the series, Paramount is also offering up an additional separately-sold Blu-ray spotlight from the season, this time for the two-part episode, “Unification.” Titled Star Trek: The Next Generation – Unification, this Blu-ray offering includes both parts of “Unification” edited together as one 90-minute episode, along with full-length audio commentary, an exclusive deleted scene, an exclusive documentary on the two-part episode, and TV promos housed in a cardboard slipcover that opens up to reveal the U.S.S. Enterprise and some of the characters from the episode.
“Unification” was a two-episode storyline that aired near the beginning of Season 5 of Star Trek: The Next Generation and it has the distinction of being the first TNG episode that aired after the 1991 death of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who also created and served as executive producer for this spin-off. So, there was a lot of emotions behind this one at the time.
No one ever involved with the Star Trek franchise has benefited from its enduring popularity and cultural legacy as much as William Shatner. And why shouldn’t he? This is Captain James Tiberius Kirk we’re talking about here, one of the most popular and recognizable heroic figures ever created. Shatner saw his own fortunes as a struggling young actor with great talent and promise rise considerably in the 1960’s when he signed on to play Kirk after the original pilot episode of Trek with Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike was poorly received. The show may have only lasted three seasons in the first place, the third of which was made possible by one of the most effective fan letter-writing campaigns in the history of civilization, but its countless television and feature film spin-offs helped the franchise become the cornerstone of a geek nation that stretches to every corner of the planet and one day possibly to worlds yet unexplored. Shatner is one of the show’s greatest champions, its most iconic character and star, and to this day continues on as a tireless promoter for Star Trek‘s undying themes and the power of its fans and alumni to inspire greatness in themselves and others. Plus, those residual checks must be pretty nice.
Most recently Shatner wrote and directed The Captains Close Up, a 5-part series for the cable channel Epix that expanded on the intentions of his 2011 documentary feature The Captains. Each of the five episodes were devoted to interviewing and profiling the actors who played Starfleet captains in the original Trek and its four television spin-offs and multitude of big screen sci-fi adventures. The entire series has been released on DVD courtesy of Entertainment One, and with a combined running time of two-and-a-half hours on one disc makes binge watching essential and well worth the time of any Trek devotee.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press
