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Of all the spinoffs that make up the Star Wars Expanded Universe, I don’t think any project reflects the vision of a single creator who isn’t George Lucas more than Cartoon Network’s animated Clone Wars shorts. While executive producer Genndy Tartakovsky worked with Lucasfilm to incorporate the film series’ sound design, music, and certain familiar vehicles and characters, the look, pacing, and style are very reminiscent of Tartakovsky’s work on Samurai Jack. If you like that aesthetic style and want to see it explored in the Star Wars universe, this series is for you. If not, you’re probably going to want to pass on the DVD. (more…)

Ahhhhh…that’s a little more like it. Following the muddled mess that was Star Trek: Voyager’s fifth season, season six is a breath of fresh air, and yet it still could’ve been so much more. Some of that regret comes in the form of the arrival and hasty departure of writer Ronald D. Moore. Fresh from his stint on the just-finished Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Moore wrote one episode (perhaps predictably - since he almost single-handedly spawned the operatic Klingon political epics of Next Generation - a Klingon-themed episode centered around B’Elanna) and co-wrote another, and then left the series after what was widely rumored to be a spat with Brannon Braga, who got his start as Moore’s co-writer in Next Generation’s fourth season and was now running the show with Rick Berman. (more…)

A Doctor Who DVD release that’s so hard to classify that you can’t even nail it down to a single Doctor, Lost In Time is essentially an assemblage of orphaned episodes. In the early 70s, before the home video market boomed and certainly before the arrival of the release-everything-in-the-vaults monster that DVD would become, the BBC’s archives were short on space and, largely due to a failed fire inspection of all things, a massive purge of old shows whose commercial value was deemed negligible was scheduled. Many of the adventures of the first two Doctors vanished into this void, never to be heard from again. Thanks to avid film collectors, ardent fans, and the recovery of episodes sold to foreign countries, some single 25-minute episodes of these “lost” stories have been found once more, but the multi-part serials of which those episodes were a part may never be seen complete again. Hence, “orphaned episodes.” Hence, Lost In Time. (more…)

In retrospect, the fifth season of Voyager is fraught with problems. After the departure of executive producer and Voyager co-creator Jeri Taylor, the show seems to flounder around, trying to find its new voice. It would eventually find one, but not in this season, and it wouldn’t be a voice strong enough to salvage the show as a whole. The problem isn’t Seven of Nine. The problem isn’t an increased reliance on digital effects and CGI animation. The problem at this stage of the show’s development was that a series that, for all intents and purposes, had two female leads who were now being written by a young, almost all-male, writing staff. When one of those leads is meant to be a distinguished starship captain in her 40s, one of Starfleet’s best…you begin to see the problem. (more…)

If this DVD had been prepared for a U.K. release, it doubtlessly would’ve included another amazing documentary featurette, this time discussing the late, great Douglas Adams and his contributions to - and impact on - Doctor Who. And that would’ve been worth the purchase price alone. However, The Pirate Planet - as with the rest of the “Key To Time” stories comprising the show’s 16th season - was rushed into DVD production for U.S.-only release, with very few extras. (more…)