Doctor Strange is the movie of choice for me this weekend, taking the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a direction they have never gone before. It is a perfect choice for the week that includes Halloween, and it would be an even better choice if Quantum Physicists were honored as completely in the same week. It is not the only option this time around, since we also have Trolls for the more family oriented audience.
This week brings Star Trek Beyond, yet another excellent episode from the rebooted Federation universe. There are all kinds of options on this release including multiple collectors sets with one or more different spaceship models, getting all three rebooted movies in one box set, and various exclusive bonus content add ins combined with cards and artwork, depending on who you decide to pick it up from. It looks like a whole lot of shopping outlets have jumped all over the Star Trek 50th celebration. Nine Lives is a family fantasy with Kevin Spacey as the cat and Christopher Walken as the guy who put him there. The 2016 animation Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders is based on the 60s TV show and features Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar doing the voices for their characters from that series.
In Anime, Snow White with the Red Hair is about an herbalist with unique relationships with the royalty of two countries, and yes this is a medieval fantasy. Psychic School Wars is a 2012 movie about a time traveler awakening psychic abilities in students in the hope of avoiding a future disaster, but he may end up causing one in the present. To Love Ru Darkness 2 is season 4 of that franchise, with devil dolls and alien girls taking over the school.
The new track from ONE OK ROCK is called Taking Off, and it is every bit as good as you would expect. You can grab it now at Amazon, iTunes, and all the other usual places. Then because one is never enough with this band Last Dance and the live montage of Cry out.
The MCM London Comic Con is taking place this weekend, and just like the US variations there are a ton of trailers and announcements expected, and they have already started. This one is for the streaming sci-fi police procedural Wireless, staring Andrew Lee Potts (Primeval, Alice, Stan Lee’s Lucky Man) and Lucy Brown (Primeval, The Village). There are 9 episodes posted on the web site, feel free to binge your way through them!
This time around Humble Bundle is offering a Doctor Who Comics Bundle currently with about 50 titles in it. If you haven’t hit Humble Bundle before, they have deals on various nerd-approved things, often including ebooks, games, and audio dramas. You get to select what price you will pay, but if you pay above a specified amount you unlock additional titles. Each deal comes with a charity being supported, and you also get to select what percentage of your payment goes to the creator, what goes to the charity, and what goes to the site itself for setting it all up. I generally just leave the percentage at the default since it is usually very equitable, and for the Doctor Who Comics Bundle the charity is Children In Need, a most worthwhile organization. As little as $15 unlocks all 50 issues of the comics and puts money into the Children in Need coffers; or if you are not a Doctor Who fan, look into their other current bundles, odds are good you will find something you like coupled with someone you want to support.
A classic lost story of Doctor Who will be available in select movie theaters for one night only. On Monday, November 14th, Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks will be on the big screen thanks to BBC Worldwide. This was the 1966 story with the very first regeneration, when William Hartnell’s Doctor was killed off, and regenerated into Patrick Troughton’s version of the character. No one had any idea if it would work or if they would lose the audience, but with 20/20 hindsight it is obvious it worked very well indeed. The original broadcast now only exists as a handful of 15 second film clips totaling maybe 3 minutes or so, and a number of semi-complete audio recordings. So they compiled, cleaned up, and merged the best of the audio into the full soundtrack, and had a team of animators create the visuals to go with it. I have never heard this particular story, and while I could just buy the DVD and watch it at home (it becomes available in November as well) I feel the need to be in a large auditorium with a bunch of other serious Whovians and experience it for the first time it has been shown in public in 50 years.