This week we discuss what we think would have happened in certain situations pertaining to Star Trek. For instance, what if Kirk never replaced Capt Pike in the original series? What if Tasha Yar had never died on The Next Generation? What if Voyager was actually a good TV show? Stuff like that. It gets pretty interesting postulating what would have happened to the different series if things went in another direction. So join us and our guest, Chris Lockhart, for a fun Star Trek discussion.
The Nerd Lunch crew returns for episode 27. You are welcome, Internet. This week we are joined by Jason Liebig, proprieter of one of the newest and best nostalgia sites on the Internet machine, CollectingCandy.com.
Jason joins us for a lively discussion about candy. We talk about the actual candy, but we also discuss candy packaging, marketing and the problems inherent in collecting candy that is thirty years old. It’s a fun discussion and I guarantee you’ll learn stuff that you’ll immediately want to forget. And at the end of the episode we give a shout out to a good friend of this blog, Trish, who has never listened to a podcast. Hopefully, this will get her to start listening (at least to our awesome podcast).
Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner. And yes, we are still on the Zune Marketplace despite recently getting a negative review from someone.
And so I continue my journey down the yellow brick road. A few weeks ago I finished the original Wizard of Oz book by L Frank Baum and posted my review here. Now it’s time to continue the series with Book 2: The Marvelous Land of Oz.
I mentioned previously that I’ve read the original Oz book several times. I have never read any of the other books in the series. EVER. So this was the first time I’d delved in to the original Baum Oz sequels in my life. Needless to say, I was a little nervous but also excited.
First, a little background on this book. It was published in 1904, four years after the original Oz book. Baum had not intended to write a sequel. There was a stage play adaptation of the first book in 1902 that became very popular. Baum actually dedicates the book to comedians David Montgomery and Fred Stone who portrayed the Tin Man and Scarecrow in that stage production. It should also be noted that this book’s story and structure was written with an eye towards adapting it as a stage play. You will notice these elements as you read the story. Baum also stated in the foreward that he decided to write the sequel due to the large volumes of mail he received from young fans asking for more adventures in Oz. Baum included the Tin Man and Scarecrow in the book because they were the most popular characters with fans.
Now, to the book itself. It’s actually not bad. Baum’s boundless imagination really shines through. The structure of this book is very similar to the first Oz book, but Baum populates the story with so many fun and interesting characters you can’t help but be charmed by it. Dorothy doesn’t appear, though she’s mentioned a few times. Neither does the Cowardly Lion appear. The story seems to take place a few years after Dorothy’s departure. It centers on an eclectic group led by new character Tip who is being raised by the witch Mombi. He flees the witch after she threatens to turn him into a garden statue and takes a walking talking pumpkin-headed man named Jack with him. Along the way they acquire a Saw Horse, the original Scarecrow, King of Emerald City and the original Tin Man, Emporer of the Winkies. They also acquire HM Wogglebug, TE and a magically re-animated creature called the Gump.
The group meets HM Wogglebug, TE.
This group travels across Oz after an army of girls takes over the Emerald City. The group try to get to Glinda the Good Witch to get her help in expelling the army. There’s a lot of talk about the Wizard and Baum certainly does his fair share of ret-conning the character of the Wizard. Amongst the denizons of Oz the Wizard is no longer considered a non-magical “humbug” but a bumbling good natured fellow who happened to be a bad wizard (although an actual “wizard” nonetheless). It is also shown that the Wizard wasn’t as reclusive as he was during the first book. No one had really ever seen him before when Dorothy arrived at the Emerald City, but in this book Mombi mentions at one point that she was visited by the actual Wizard and that he taught her several magical tricks as payment for a big favor she performed (revealed later in the book). There is even a discussion of who ruled Oz before the wizard showed up, which I think is interesting Oz history. This means the Wizard showed up, battled the previous ruler of Oz, won and then usurped the throne. That’s most definitely a change in character for the previously bumbling character. And I like it. But this is just the beginning as we see an army of girls sack the Emerald City, the Scarecrow lose all of his stuffing (again!) and have it replaced with actual money and a magical chase through Oz featuring Glinda the Good and Mombi. We even see the Deadly Desert that has been mentioned in both books that surrounds the land of Oz. This “deadly” desert in later books will turn anyone who touches it into sand. Just not this time. Anyway, the group of heroes save the Emerald City and there is much rejoicing.
Oh, I forgot, this book mentions several times the Tin Woodsman’s proper name, Nick Cutter. I don’t remember that being mentioned in the first book, but it’s mentioned in this book several times. I thought that was weird. When it came up at first I was like, “Who the f**k is Nick Cutter?!”. It’s the Tin Woodsman. Interesting trivia for you.
So, in the first book, the beheadings count was up to 42, all but one being doled out by Mr Cutter. However, there are no beheadings in this book which causes the series average to plummet to 21. I’ll be keeping track of the beheadings as I read. We’ll see if anyone gets their heads chopped off in Book 3 (fingers crossed).
So if you are interested in more Oz goodness, definitely give this book a chance. It’s a fun read.
Here is my checklist of the Oz books and I’ve checked off the ones I’ve read so far. Up next is Ozma of Oz.
Here are some of my creations (click the images to make them BIGGER).
Global Thermonuclear War (War Games) – I did a bunch for WarGames. This was the first one that popped into my mind. How cool would this game be?
Falken’s Maze (War Games) – Another WarGames creation. The name of this game appears in the scene where David Lightman lists the games available from Joshua (aka WOPR). I think Eddie Deezen even tells Matthew Broderick to research Falken’s Maze to learn about the enigmatic programmer. Atari released a similar maze game called Maze Craze (from which I got the picture on the cartridge).
Joshua’s Tic Tac Toe (War Games) – Essentially just a themed Tic-Tac-Toe game. This may seem a bit thin, but Atari actually released a 3D Tic-Tac-Toe game which could probably be re-branded and maybe skinned to match the movie game.
WarGames: NORAD (War Games) – This is not necessarily based on anything specific in the movie. It could be a conglomeration of all the Joshua Games or maybe even a video game recreation of the final NORAD sequence in the film. I just thought it sounded cool.
We have a new assignment for The League this week. The League of Extraordinary Bloggers, that is. This week, Brian asks what 80s kid/teen movie would we want to see a sequel to today, including the original cast members. And what do we envision those characters to be doing now?
Great question Brian, and I really had to think about this one. I’ve talked about my views on movie sequels here. I also talked about them for Episode 20 of the Nerd Lunch podcast. Essentially, I like sequels. If I enjoy the characters then I want to see those characters again. However, Hollywood has totally perverted the idea of a sequel and it makes it hard for good legitimate sequels to get a break.
Anyway, for this week’s assignment, I briefly thought about sequels to Ferris Bueller and The Goonies. But if there were sequels to those, I would have wanted them to be in the 80s or early 90s. Not now. Shawn over at Branded in the 80s pondered a third Teen Wolf movie starring Michael J Fox and Jason Bateman which quite literally blew my mind. How did I not think of that? However, I agree with him, the time for that sequel would have been around 1991 when Fox was still up for it. Doc Hollywood Fox would have been awesome in a Teen Wolf Three. But I digress.
So, I thought about it and I think I would really like to see a modern day sequel to the 1983 hit, War Games starring Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman and Ally Sheedy.
War Games is one of my favorite movies from the 80s. Broderick is so great as the goofy, funny, computer dork David Lightman. Ally Sheedy was amazingly cute as Jennifer Mack, Lightman’s crush and eventual love interest. I highly identified with Lightman in this movie. I was into computers and a bit of an introvert. Especially many years later in high school. I even got in trouble a few times for saying snarky remarks in the middle of class. However, I did not have the incredible computer setup that Lightman has in his room. That collection of hardware is amazing. For those that don’t know, it was a sort of “kit-bashed” IMSAI 8080 computer. A-mazing.
Also, another reason I love this movie is that the director, John Badham, was raised in my hometown of Birmingham, AL (even though he was born in the UK). There is a scene in the movie in which a tour group at NORAD is identified as being from Birmingham, AL. This is an homage to Badham’s hometown.
So, in my modern day sequel, what are the characters from the movie doing today?
Dr John McKittrick – After the events of the original movie, Dr McKittrick kept in touch with David throughout college. He even supplied him with recommendations to MIT. McKittrick would help David get a job with NORAD after graduation. McKittrick would mentor David for many years within NORAD until he is appointed the director of the National Security Agency (NSA). As Director, McKittrick would bring David over from NORAD as a high level code breaker. At the time of the sequel, McKittrick is only a year or two from retiring as Director.
David Lightman – After high school, David is accepted into MIT with a full ride (obviously helped by some highly placed government recommendations). David graduates with honors and begins working for NORAD as Dr McKittrick’s protege. David would work with McKittrick for many years afterward. After McKittrick is appointed the Director of the NSA, David would accept a high level job with his mentor. He would eventually gain the coveted title of Head Cryptographer. As the HC, David oversees the NSA’s version of WOPR called DECODR. It’s a code breaking super computer used to crack highly encrypted data. Late one evening, the DECODR comes across an encryption it can’t break and David receives an email stating that this “unbreakable code” will be auctioned off to the highest bidder in 24 hours. Lightman calls in McKittrick and they must figure out who wrote the encryption and how they can solve it before the encryption code is released into the wild.
Cavalcade of Awesome 