The Captains Close Up
DVD
Directed by William Shatner
Starring William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks
Entertainment One
Release Date: August 13, 2013

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.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Hive
Trade Paperback
Story by Brannon Braga
Script by Terry Matalas & Travis Fickett
Art by Joe Corroney
Ink Assists by Matt & Shawn Fillbach
Colors by Hi-Fi
Letters by Shawn Lee
Original Series Edits by Scott Dunboer
IDW Publishing
Release Date: March 27, 2013
Cover Price: $17.99 | Sale price: $9.88

The Star Trek: The Next Generation: Hive trade paperback collects the hit IDW mini-series from 2012, written by legendary Star Trek writer/producer Brannon Braga.

Script writers Terry Matalas and Travis Fickett take story writer Brannon Braga’s concept and carve together a passable script. What the big problem is, is that Braga tries to tell THE definitive Star Trek: The Next Generation story here, but it feels more like an expanded episode of the TV series. In short, The Borg has launched and finally taken over the Alpha Quadrant. All that stands between them and total domination is, of course, Jean-Luc Picard. Picard comes up with a plan to finish The Borg once and for all, but he needs help from another former Borg, Seven of Nine. Will they succeed? I think you know the really predictable answer to that.

Every day here at Doom HQ we receive tons of tips from our readers about really cool stuff from the world of geek, as well as promotional materials for new films, comic books, collectibles, and much more. While we do our best to bring you as much of it as possible, we don’t always have enough geek manpower available to cover it all on a daily basis. But we hate the idea of all of this really cool stuff wasting away in our inbox. How could we NOT cover it? Hence why we’ve resurrected our long-defunct column Bits Of Doom, now rebranded and revamped as Doom Digest, a collection of easily digestible bits of news, videos, photos, and other goodies.

Today: Dean Pelton’s outfits on Community, a trailer mash-up for Total Recall, William Shatner sings, a Star Trek Voyager cake, a scene from Men In Black 3, plus Bits Of Doom.