The Unknown Poster

if I recall, the original cartoon was a three episode mini series to test the concept. Then it was picked up. So those original three episodes are really good. I also enjoyed the series after the movie came out when they used the Autobots from the animated film (Rodimus, Magnus etc). They did several multi-episode archs (Return of Optimus Prime etc). They were really good.

One thing he did well with First Contact was capture the closeness of the crew. He understood the relationships. First Contact was really good. Sure it had its issues (the ease at which the Borg went back in time, the ease at which the Enterprise followed and then returned, the silly way Cochran was portrayed versus how he was portrayed in TOS). But it was enjoyable. I would love to see the "Actors Cut" of Nemesis that Stewart has talked about. Supposedly Nemesis had a lot of great character scenes that were all cut because the director didnt know the series and just tried to make an action film.

Wab Kinew understands.

lol Yeah it was distinctive. I always thought he did it because he was so big that it was sort of a compensation thing with working with smaller actors. Frakes isnt a great actor but he nailed the character. Which to me was the strength of TNG. Spiner and Stewart (especially) raised everyone's game but everyone else were very good in their specific roles. In a way that Voyager lacked, in my opinion. I didnt care about anyone on Voyager. On the other hand DS9 had the best collection of actors and they too captured a similar spirit and chemistry of the TNG cast.

CBS might be bringing it all in-house for their streaming service. Netflix actually tried very hard to get CBS to let them make a new series due to the popularity of Star Trek on Netflix. This made CBS realise how popular it still was and, I think, in the wake of the backlash against the two films, fans wanted Star Trek to get back to its roots as a thoughtful TV show. The new series will be the cornerstone of CBS All Access (their streaming service) and the word is they will bring on the series' back under that umbrella. The TNG HD conversions didnt sell as well as they had hoped. They were somewhat over-priced and there weren't "extras" as a hook like with TOS. With TOS, they re-did effects. TNG they didnt. But they will probably make money in the long run through syndicating the HD or using them for All Access. So there is word now they are going to give DS9 and Voy the HD treatment so they can use them on All Access as well. Ofcourse, we probably wont get All Access, but CBS has said that the international distribution deals already in place for the new series will cover at least 60% of the cost of production so it seems like a no brainer that the series will be successful and I imagine we will get it on terrestrial TV. There are already rumors that Showrunner Fuller and Exec Producer Kurtzman arent seeing eye to eye.

The long layoff sucked for sure. David Chase was a bit odd. I guess it added to his brilliance in more ways than it hurt. But I remember him seeming really offended that Tony became an anti-hero. So he went out of his way to set things up that the fans wanted and then didnt deliver. At the end of the run, things sort of fell apart. I remember they actually added two extra episodes after filming began because Chase realised he couldnt finish the story in time. And yet, they had a couple of episodes that really didnt matter in the big picture and they terribly rushed the final story concerning New York. So it makes you wonder how it wasnt mapped out properly. Chase felt that the characters were all irredeemable and was upset that fans "loved" them so his intent was to make the fans feel bad about loving the characters and to show that there was nothing redeemable about them or nothing good would come of them. So it was sort of a negative in that way. I would have ended it a bit differently. There is one character I would have had "rise to the occasion" and end up as Boss at the end...

I cant quite remember the backstory in the first film, but they arrived in present day, right? I liked the animated version better where the war was millions of years ago and they crashed on earth and weren't awakened until present day. Splitting hairs I guess. But the cartoon really nailed it. If I recall, they werent even going to use Prime's voice until a fan backlash.

I had the pleasure of having Sammy Zayn work for us twice. He worked as El Generico at the time, a hooded gimmick. He was considered by many to be the best wrestler in the world at one time. He's good. He has a real chance of filling the Bryan void.

So jealous!

It flows WAY better when you watch it in succession on DVD. The long delay between seasons hurt it a bit. I remember thinking things didnt make sense or didnt flow logically but when I watched the DVD's (binged), it was much more enjoyable.

Whenever I hear someone say they've never seen the Sopranos it makes me very envious. I WISH I could go back to a time before I had ever seen the Sopranos so I could watch it right now in its entirety for the first time. It's the greatest TV show of all time, even when it was maddening at times. I've watched the entire series many times (first run, repeats and then the gf bought me the entire series on DVD and we've watched it at least three times since). Its THAT good.

Neville suffered a broken ankle and broken shin and is out past WM. Tough break.

Yeah I agree. I had forgotten about Soundwave. I knew they couldnt make him a boombox I guess. But they could have come up with something more creative. Its like they chose to make the Decepticons all plain villains. I imagine it was by design. Good guys had personalities, bad guys were just evil. But having bad guys with personality enhances the story and their relation to the good guys. Also, the whole Matrix or whatever the called it seemed pretty convoluted. If they just remade the Transformers movie (the animated one from the 80's) but with life action actors and CGI robots, it would probably be better than all but the first film.

Role in BE! I recall reading Winters said he didnt want to try and bring James in at the beginning because everyone would compare it to the Sopranos. In fact the person Nucky was based on resembled Gandolfini way more than Steve Buscemi but they wanted someone not like Tony. So he said he had an idea for James for a later season. Would have been awesome. You're right though, BE seems to fly under the radar alot. People talk about Sopranos, Game of Thrones etc but BE, not so much. Oddly, my GF watched it but never loved it like she loved Sopranos. But blame me! Im taking the blame around here for everything from locked threads to the Watergate scandal so this is one blame I'll gladly take! ;-)

I believe the Megatron voice actor from the cartoons is alive and should have been cast. I think he auditioned. Shocked he "failed" his audition compared to what they used. I believe he was used in more recent animated work though. Unfortunately, I believe the Starscream voice actor has died. Yeah it was Chris Latta. He did Cobra Commander too. Should have had someone mimic his voice to give Starscream some personality.

Hey if a lawyer convinced her she has a case, and presumably she does if this Judge is letting it go, then more power to her. But it's still awfully crazy. At worst its protected satire/parody. At best, it's a character meant to be a composite of a stereotypical Hollywood starlet. Could open a can of worms because Rockstar has poked fun at others, even more obviously than Lohan... One future remedy might be to just hire Lohan to portray the character in the video game. Perhaps she'd have a better sense of humor if she was collecting a cheque.

I dont know if its an attempt to make the robots look more "realistic" but it just doesnt work for me. They all seemed too alike. The force-fed humor didnt help ofcourse. Prime is the best partly because they use the original voice actor. What they did to Megatron was criminal. And Starscream. He seemed like just another evil robot. They need to take more inspiration from the cartoon, make the Robots easier to "see" and understand the differences. And fight scenes where you cant tell who's who or what they're doing just dont work (same with Superman vs Zod in MoS). The first Transformers movie wasnt bad. The military aspect was really good. The others just went downhill. The one good thing though, even though the movies kept making money, Paramount acknowledged that creatively they were lacking and it would eventually impact their revenues and have set out to fix that aspect, assembling a "writers room" of acclaimed talent to chart a course for the future of the Franchise. its a shame they didnt do that with Star Trek!

Did you know Winters said he had a role in mind for James Gandolfini if he hadnt died? I wonder if he would have had him playing a very un-tony like character... I would have loved if he was a "Soprano" from the old country coming over.

Better question is, can the FBI hunt down and incarcerate Anonymous members?

Hogan vs Gawker Founder of Gawker Media Nick Denton claimed that a sex-tape featuring President Obama would not be newsworthy in the Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker sex tape trial this week. Denton also refused to answer whether he’d post a Bill and Hillary Clinton sex-tape, stating that he doesn’t believe they have sex. The claim comes after Gawker posted a sex-tape featuring former wrestling champion Hulk Hogan and is now being sued for $100 million because of it. After being asked in the trial whether he believed a sex-tape between President Obama and his wife Michelle would be newsworthy, Denton testified, “I confess I would have problems with that one, because I know that there would be a lot of public interest, but I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t like the story, not for any reasons of political affiliation, but just because there’s no, there’s no hypocrisy…” “[They] seem like a loving couple and if the tape does nothing but establish the fact that they are a loving couple, I don’t see that it would have any real value in changing perceptions or establishing any truth.” Upon being asked the same question about former-President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, he stated, “I don’t believe they have sex, so that question­… But now you are getting into realms of absurdity.” Gawker is not very conservative when it comes to their guidelines for posting private sex-tapes. In 2013, Denton professed in a deposition that he would post a Miley Cyrus video if one were to appear before him, stating: “Her performance at the VMAs was pretty sexual, and, as a result of that, I would assume, this would be my best guess, that there’s no kind of current story, but I would guess there would be more interest in her sex life.” The blogging network has also faced previous lawsuits, including one for releasing a video showing Grey’s Anatomy star Eric Dane and his wife in “various states of undress” without their permission, leaving us to wonder why they posted it if their stance on Obama was that loving couple footage is not news-worthy. Popular film director Quentin Tarantino previously accused Gawker Media of making “a business of predatory journalism, violating people’s rights to make a buck” after they shared the leaked script for Tarantino’s then-upcoming film, The Hateful Eight. Former Gawker Editor-In-Chief A.J. Daulerio came under fire last week after proclaiming under oath that he’d only draw the line with posting a sex-tape if it featured a celebrity aged four or under, prompting a wave of horrified reactions and backlash on social media. Daulerio also admitted that he didn’t care whether the leaked tape had made Hulk Hogan emotionally distressed and added that he found it “very amusing.”

Glover has improved his offensive game a bit by going from non-existent to barely there, but its a move in the right direction. I think Glover is still two years away at least. Poolman could be interesting...

Since that was untrue, i consider it an insult. it was off topic and had nothing to do with the discussion. It only served to bring an off-topic debate/argument to the forefront again and hinder the thread. It was uncalled for and irrelevant. You also referred to "talking to a wall" which I dont take personally as it was pretty lame but was an insult nonetheless. Regardless, I imagine you'll have some witty parting shot to take since I committed the sin of replying to a post directed at me. This is all off-topic and there are good discussions going on here among several posters. My advice is to let us go back to talking wrestling and if off-topic repartee is really needed, use PM's...

it seems to be on HBO every night with back to back episodes. I dont look for it but I find when Im about to turn off the TV and go to bed, I stumble upon it and cant stop watching. And I agree, Richard was tremendous! What a great character. His "Scarface" moment at the whorehouse was awesome. I was cheering in my living room! Also love Chalky. Everyone was good. Great series. And Vinyl is following suit.