Though it’s not official yet, word has it that Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s first season will be available as a DVD box set in February 2002, with the second season right behind it in April (though our guess would be later in the summer, with the critically acclaimed third season to follow around Christmas ’02). We’ll keep an eye on this development – and, of course, you’ll be able to support theLogBook.com by pre-ordering your copy from theLogBook.com Store.
To the surprise of a great many fans who expected another Crusade-style debacle, TNT has renewed Witchblade for a second season, which will air next summer. Be on the lookout for the Witchblade LogBook real soon.
LeVar Burton is one of many stars of the groundbreaking miniseries Roots who is participating in a 25th anniversary TV documentary on the origins of the miniseries (and the acclaimed Alex Haley on which it was based) and the effect it had on television and our culture. Surprisingly, the documentary was turned down by ABC, which originally aired Roots. The documentary will instead air in January 2002 on NBC.
The WB has given a new series based on L. Frank Baum’s Oz books the green light – but before you think Dorothy’s back, look again, because we’re not in Kansas anymore. The new show, said to be darker than the original Wizard Of Oz film, picks up the action over half a century after the Wicked Witch is dead, and involves new characters. No word on when the show will premiere – or, considering the fate that befell former Star Trek writer Ronald Moore’s Dragonriders Of Pern series, if it will premiere.
Pre-orders are now being taken at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk for the feature-loaded double-disc DVD Director’s Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, featuring commentary from director Robert Wise, special effects wizards Doug Trumbull and John Dykstra, composer Jerry Goldsmith and actor Stephen “Decker” Collins. The second disc includes three retrospective documentaries on the movie, its restoration, and its place in Star Trek lore, all of the original theatrical trailers and TV promos (plus a new trailer just for this re-edited edition), outtakes, deleted scenes, and even some material on Enterprise. Also, UK fans, who normally lag many months or even a year behind US Star Trek DVD releases, will be elated to find out that this title will be available on their turf in early December. Help support theLogBook.com by pre-ordering your copy through 
Director Kevin Smith – an admitted longtime Star Wars fan with a habit of working references to George Lucas’ universe into his films such as Clerks and Chasing Amy – scored a real coup by getting Mark Hamill to turn in a lightsaber-swinging cameo in his new film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. There’s just one problem, though – Hamill didn’t think his cameo would even be credited, let alone be used to promote the movie. (This could be because Jay and Silent Bob hasn’t exactly been greeted favorably in pre-release movie reviews and the studio may be looking for any way to get moviegoers to buy tickets to see it.) No word on whether or not the Lucasfilm camp has any comment on the matter.
It happens to the best of us, sometimes – it turns out that the rumor of Warner Bros. Home Video releasing nothing-but-the-show DVDs of future Doctor Who home video releases in the U.S. are not true. Instead, we can expect VHS-only releases to resume in February 2002 with Attack of the Cybermen, though alternating months will see releases of DVD titles already released in Britain, probably starting with Remembrance Of The Daleks. However, the 1996 TV movie, which was recently released on DVD in England, is not on the schedule of U.S. DVD releases.
BBC Video has confirmed that the second Doctor Who DVD title slated for release in spring 2001 will be Tom Baker’s second adventure, the all-time classic Ark In Space, concerning the time travelers’ fight to preserve the last remaining outpost of humanity from an all-consuming race of insects. In a first for the Doctor Who DVDs, Ark will feature the option of watching this four-parter in one of two ways: in its original form, or in a new version with newly rendered modern-day CGI effects. There will also be the obligatory audio commentary and a host of other features. Ark will likely be released in March in the U.K., with a U.S./Canada release likely later in the year.
As we reported last week, the entire North American ELO tour has been cancelled, leaving fans crying foul (particularly those who had already paid Ticketmaster Online’s exorbitant “convenience charges” and other fees) and leaving the band stunned (the cancellation wasn’t their idea). But despite the cancellation of the U.S. tour, an ELO Zoom Tour DVD is still coming out later this year. How? It’s a compilation of two west coast shows in May which formed the basis of a PBS special (which, adding to the band’s streak of good luck this year, hasn’t aired in many markets). We’ll have pre-order information as soon as possible.
The Tripods are back! The BBC’s classic SF series based upon John Christopher’s White Mountains trilogy of novels has been remastered for DVD, and it’s being released in full-season box sets. The first season tells the story of the coming of the Tripods, huge alien-controlled mechanical vehicles which stalk the surface of the Earth, “capping” humans at the age of puberty to keep them docile and subservient. The special effects were above average for mid-80s BBC fare. Sadly, this DVD set is being released only in the U.K., and as such the Region 2 discs won’t play on North American machines (aside from all-region DVD players). You can capture The Tripods on DVD in 
The Sci-Fi Channel is resurrecting an impressive number of the past several years’ best-loved SF series. Latest example? It turns out that the “final season” of Stargate SG-1 isn’t quite so final. The Sci-Fi Channel will pick the series up from Showtime for a new season of 22 episodes, set to begin filming in January 2002. Sci-Fi will also begin airing daily reruns of SG-1 starting late next year, possibly to coincide with the broadcast of the new episodes.
Citing too many cooks in the kitchen, Majel Barrett Roddenberry is bailing out of Earth: Final Conflict and Andromeda, two weekly syndicated shows spawned by unfinished scripts and outlines written by her late husband, Gene Roddenberry. Barrett feels that star/producer Kevin Sorbo is in the driver’s seat with Andromeda, a show she says is right on track, but she joins many fans in voicing disapproval with the newfangled direction of Earth’s upcoming fifth season (which seems to be dispensing with a majority of series continuity and the show’s mapped-out story arc), along with the fact that every guest appearance she made on the show meant a trip to Canada. Her recurring character on Earth, Dr. Belman, will not be reappearing (though it’s unknown how this will be addressed in the show’s storyline). Majel also confirms that while she thinks the upcoming Star Trek spinoff Enterprise has promise, it will be the first Trek series not to feature her as the voice of the ship’s computer.
Until 1986′s Trial Of A Time Lord came along, it was – at twelve 25-minute installments – the longest Doctor Who story ever. And its length can be interpreted as the apex of Dalek-mania in Britain in 1966. But sadly, the master video copies of The Daleks’ Master Plan no longer exist, aside from a mere two out the show’s twelve episodes – so the BBC Radio Collection is releasing it as part of their restored audio archive of missing stories. The Daleks’ Master Plan, set for release later this month, is a mammoth five-CD box set which also includes the one-off 25-minute episode Mission To The Unknown, which featured none of the regular Doctor Who cast, and was used not only to give those actors a break, but also to serve as an episode-length teaser for the Dalek epic to come mere weeks later. An extensive liner notes booklet on the making of the story will also be included. Pre-order your copy of The Daleks’ Master Plan from 
Things are starting to look dire for diehard ELO fans who’ve waited 15 years for the band’s resurrection. The entire North American tour has been cancelled (including a show in North Little Rock that the webmaster had planned to attend) with no indication that it will be rescheduled for 2002 or at all. Additionally, the next wave of remastered versions of the band’s classic albums has been delayed from August to “sometime after September,” and a previously-announced 2-disc multimedia reissue of the band’s first album may or may not be released in September after being pushed back at least twice. On an unrelated note, Not Lame Records’ Lynne Me Your Ears multi-artist 2-CD tribute to ELO and bandleader Jeff Lynne (first reported here in July) is still on track, but has been delayed to November or possibly December, according to a rep from Not Lame. (That source also informs us that the above cover art is provisional, and not necessarily what will be seen when the compilation ships.)
Big Finish Productions’ newest Doctor Who Audio Adventure, Project: Twilight is now available (complete with its stunningly moody sleeve, one of the highlights of this year’s vastly improved cover art). Starring Colin Baker and Maggie Stables (who also headlined last month’s Bloodtide), it’s a modern-day drama set in a shady gambling den in southeast London. Project: Twilight is also notable for being the first to feature music by Jim Mortimore, who has himself written several Doctor Who novels for both Virgin and BBC Books. You can find it now in 
It’s official! Love it or hate it, Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones is coming to theaters next May – and word has it that we’ll probably see the first trailers for Attack Of The Clones attached to this fall’s eagerly awaited Harry Potter film.
Early last week, Amazon.com started taking pre-orders for the first Babylon 5 DVD – only to close the ordering page mere days later. The release date was the first week of December. Now we are told that Warner Bros. Home Video has indeed confirmed the release date, but Amazon may hold off on allowing pre-orders for a while. We’ll let you know when they open the floodgates (or, if you like, the jumpgates) again – the pre-orders piled up in less than a week to put the first Babylon 5 DVD right on the edge of Amazon.com’s DVD Top 10.