Sci-Fi Storm

So, I think it’s time for that cut-the-cord vacation. Another cruise, maybe. If only I didn’t have to work.

It appears that due to some mixup, BBC America’s online shop shipped the “Season 7 Part 2” Blu-ray disks to pre-orders early – before the final episode has aired on the channel. This means that a lot of people can (and have) watched the season finale episode, “The Name of the Doctor” – and at least several seem to have no problems spoiling it for others. And given that the episode is likely going to answer some long-standing questions, as well as set up for the 50th Anniversary episode later this year, if you don’t want to be spoiled, you may want to be EXTREMELY careful around the Internet this week…

Although people who purchased [sfs=1287]The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey[/sfs] were able to watch Peter Jackson’s presentation and preview of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug live (and if you missed it and have an Ultraviolet code, you can still watch it), you can watch an excerpt of the question and answer section right here…and you might recognize a couple of the people asking questions…
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The second installment of the LEGO Star Wars spoofs, The Empire Strikes Out, is [asin=B00AXFK96M]out on DVD[/asin] this Tuesday (no Blu-ray release this time, at least not yet.)

Get your lightsabers and LEGO bricks ready because your favorite characters are back in the brand new LEGO Star Wars special, LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out. Catch up on what’s happening in the galactic LEGO Empire with these tidbits about Lego Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out with a fun catch-up on its predecessor, The Padawan Menace.

WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR IN THE EMPIRE STRIKES OUT
On top of all the old Star Wars characters making their debuts as LEGO characters, you will also see more references to the franchise films than ever before, so keep your eyes peeled Star Wars fans.
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Oh my…Hulu has made available every episode of all the live-action Star Trek series for free! They are available for a “limited time”, which I’ve heard is the end of the month, so get watching!

And I checked – they appear to be the original uncut episodes of the original series, although with the remastered effects, at least with my spot-check of “The Trouble With Tribbles”, which has the vodka/scotch scene intact.

Tomorrow is the big day – the first installment of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is released on [sfs=1287]Blu-ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1288]DVD[/sfs] tomorrow. And while we have to wait until December for part 2, The Desolation of Smaug, we can now journey back to Middle-earth to our heart’s content to see how the journey began…(don’t forget…you can use your Ultraviolet code from either version to access the Peter Jackson Q&A session and get the first sneak peek at The Desolation of Smaug on 3/24!)

(And I’ve discovered that I’ve probably been pronouncing Smaug wrong for many, many years…I’ve always just said “Smog”, but it seems it should be two syllables, something approximating “Sma-oohg”.)

First, let’s talk a bit about the feature…An Unexpected Journey covers approximately the first third of the book, up through the Gollum and goblin fights. From my own memory I thought it covered a lot more of the book, but it really is about a third. And it holds pretty true, at least from my memories of the book, which are probably about 15 years removed. It does start with a link-in to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, in the form of the older Bilbo (played Ian Holm again) writing in the Red Book, while explaining to Frodo (Elijah Wood) about his big adventure, showing events that took place just prior to his birthday party but weren’t shown in the The Fellowship of the Ring. This serves as a gateway in to the story using the familiar characters, and then flashes back to the younger Bilbo (now played by Martin Freeman), just before he is about to receive quite a few unexpected visitors.
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Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson will host a live first look at The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second film in The Hobbit Trilogy, on Sunday, March 24 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern/12pm Pacific at www.hobbit.com/sneak. Just added: The live event will now include a Q&A with Jackson and fans! Video questions can be submitted beginning March 12 through March 19 on “The Hobbit” Facebook page, or through the Vine mobile app using the hashtag #askPeterJackson. Fans can also Tweet links to video questions using the hashtag #askPeterJackson. The live event will be limited to holders of an UltraViolet™ code, available by purchasing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which arrives on [sfs=1287]Blu-ray Combo Pack[/sfs], [asin=B00BEZTMWW]Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack[/asin] and [sfs=1288]2-disc DVD Special Edition[/sfs] on March 19. Visit thehobbit.com/sneak for more information.

We still have to wait until December for the next part of The Hobbit – but we don’t have to wait that long to watch Part 1 at home. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be release on [sfs=1287]Blu-Ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1288]DVD[/sfs] in three weeks, on March 19th. Pre-order now!

Syfy has finally settled on an air date for Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome: February 10th, at 9/8c. Blood & Chrome is the Cylon War prequel to their hit series, which started as a web series, then considered for a full blown series, then back to a web series (and denied it was meant to be on TV) – and likely a lame-duck series at that. But who knows…if the ratings are really good – plus sales of the [sfs=1272]Blu-ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1273]DVD[/sfs] on the 19th, maybe they just might consider at least doing more webisodes.

Amazon appears to be working deals right now for several pilots to turn into series for its streaming video service, but there is apparently one series they are talking about going straight to series – Zombieland, which was a movie in 2009.

What is interesting is that it was originally envisioned as a TV series as early as 2005, developed for CBS. CBS passed on it as did Syfy, so it was redeveloped into a movie starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse “I’m not Zuckerberg” Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin and is known for providing all the rules you need for surviving the Zombie Apocalypse (remember, Double Tap!) Most recently, Fox was interested in it as a half-hour comedy.

Sony Picture TV is the studio, and original writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are on board to write and co-executive produce, and original producer Gavin Polone would executive produce.

Just a reminder – PRometheus is out on both [sfs=1261]Blu-ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1262]DVD[/sfs] this coming Tuesday, October 9th. Order now and you could still get it on Tuesday, and help us pay the bills!