Weird Revisted: Monster Apocalypses

The original version of this post appeared in October of 2013...

Zombie apocalypses have been done to death with films, books, and tv shows. Other classic monsters deserve their (proverbial) day in the sun, too:

Vampires: The most obvious non-zombie contender for virtually extinction of the human species. Richard Matheson's I Am Legend and it's various movie adaptations have already ventured into this territory (as has the film Stake Land and the TV show The Strain) --and the comics Planet of Vampires and Vampire Hunter D have already shown on vampire overrun post-apocalypses. Trading bloodsucking for flesh-eating is almost too obvious.

Piscoids: Cast them as Creatures from Black Lagoons, Manphibians, or walking catfish men, fishy humanoids are ready to climb from the depths and overwhelm the surface world. Perhaps a full-fledged takeover is the ultimate goal of the Deep Ones in Shadow Over Innsmouth? Global warming and rising sea levels would no doubt be part of their plan. A piscoid apocalypse might wind up looking more like Waterworld than Walking Dead.

Werewolves: Like vampires and zombies, werewolfism is passed by a bite, making them a reasonable stand-in. I don't know of any media werewolf apocalypses, but Dog Soldiers sort of does the "trapped in an isolated farm house" riff of Night of the Living Dead. Depending on exactly how the werewolves worked, things might be pretty tough for humanity: zombies are slow and dumb, while vampires have to sleep in the day time. Werewolves have neither of those limitations. Of course, their just humans in the day, trying to scourge for survival just like everybody else. Only at night would they join packs of killers to howl at the moon as they hunt through the ruins.

Frankenstein's Monsters: This seems like the biggest stretch given than Frankenstein had only one monster (or maybe two, depending on who you believe). Still, two monsters can overrun the world (unless they're giant, which still movies us out of zombie apocalypse analogous territory). Technology has advanced a lot since Frankenstein's day, though. Wein's and Wrightson's Un-Men in Swamp Thing (and Burroughs' Synthetic Men of Mars, for that matter) point the way: Mass production of monsters. In some ways, this would resemble an alien invasion apocalypse or robot apocalypse more than a zombie one--though perhaps the monsters "consume" humans by dragging them back to their secret factories to use as raw materials for more monsters?

Wednesday Comics: Waiting for the Omnibus

 A couple of DC Omnibuses I've been waiting for sometime are finally available.

One was solicited over a year ago, then cancelled only to be resolicited again. As of last week, it was finally released. The Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years Later Omnibus vol. 1 collects the series by Keith Giffen and Tom and Mary Bierbaum that imagined a darker future for the United Planets and the now adult members of the Legion.

This was the run that got my interested in the Legion of Super-Heroes.

The publication of the Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus vol. 3 was probably never in doubt, but it's been one I've been eagerly anticipated since they embarked on this series. Batman RIP has good, but marred by changing ideas of what the series was going to be and the need to fit in with the Final Crisis event. Batman and Robin was better still, but to my mind Batman Incorporated is the best of Morrison's work it takes the Silver Age-y flourishes with a modern sensibility that had surfaced from time to time in the early portions of his run and makes it the centerpiece of the seris. 

Star Trek Endeavour: The Clarity of Crystal

Episode 2: "THE CLARITY OF CRYSTAL"

Player Characters: 

The Crew of the USS Endeavour, NCC-1895, Constitution Class Starship (refit):
Andrea as Lt. Ona Greer, Chief Engineer Officer and Lt. Taryn Loy, Geologist
Bob as Capt. Robert Locke
Gina as Cmdr. Isabella Hale, Helm Chief
Jason as Lt. Francisco Otomo, Chief Security Officer

Eric As Lt.Cmdr. Tavek, Science Officer
Tug as Dr. Azala Vex, Trill Chief Medical Officer

Synposis: Checking in on the research station on the inhospitable Erebus III, the crew of the Endeavour discovers the unscrupulous head of the station is drugging the scientist in an attempt to make psionic contact with an ancient crystalline computer network.

Commentary: This is an adventure I wrote based off a session for a Star Trek Starships & Spacemen game back in 2013. When this group finishes the adventure, I may redo the notes to be Star Trek Adventures congruent and reshare them.

This adventure (inadvertently) featured yet another planet you couldn't transport down to. I'll have to avoid that in future adventures.

A Tale of Two TV Show Episode Guides

It would be reasonable to ask what's the use of a print episode guide to a TV show in an age where the internet makes the basic information readily available on the likes of Wikipedia or IMDB? If you're dead set against it, I won't be able to convince you, but I would say a good episode guide doesn't just relate facts easily amenable to one internet search. At a minimum, a print episode guide should collate information that would likely require multiple searches to get, but a truly good episode guide presents a depth of research not generally achievable on the internet. It moves beyond the basic facts to give insight into episodes for someone already familiar with the basic facts.

The three volumes of These Are the Voyages: TOS by Marc Cushman and Susan Osborn are the most comprehensive guide to Star Trek the Original Series available. Cushman's commentary on the episodes as tv drama is limited (though as much as many other guides available), but he presents a wealthy of information on the development of each episode from story idea to final aired version, with quotes from interview with creative staff and memos from producers and network execs. 

If it has a flaw, it is that it is not concise. Every season is its on volume, and every volume is sizable. But then, the audience for this sort of detail would just go Wikipedia if they wanted surface detail.

Scott Palmer's The Wild Wild West: The Series is sizable and pricey, but is lacking in the sort of details that make These Are the Voyages worthwhile. The appeal of Palmer's book is that, unlike with Star Trek, there are few books on The Wild Wild West available. In fact, there's only one other: The Wild Wild West, The Series by Susan E. Kesler. 

Where Kesler's book resembles Alan Asherman's The Star Trek Compendium in being a similar sort of thing to These Are The Voyages, but much less detailed and confined to one volume, Palmer's book only gives a detailed plot summary of every episode, a list of the primary actors involved (with pictures), and a number of stills from the episode. In the number of photos it exceeds the other works mentioned, but that's the only way. There is not insight into the creation of the episodes. It doesn't even list the screenwriters. 

So is it valueless in this age of the internet? Well, it does contain information you'd need to go to Wikipedia, IMDB, and Aveleyman to get, so it simplifies your searches, but it's got a high price tag for that. My recommendation would be Kesler's book, if you can find one.

Buck Rogers XX5e: Venusians

Venusians are a genetically modified strain of humanity, with smaller, closer set ears than is typical for humans of Earth, and a nictating membrane over their eyes. The tend to heavier-framed due to Venus' thicker atmosphere.

There are three cultural groups the partially terraformed Venus of the 25th Century: the Aerostaters, Ishtarians, and Aphroditians.

The Aerostaters are nomads you engage in trade and herding from their dirigible cities. They are stereotyped as friendly and fond of festivals and large parties.

The Ishtarian Confederation dominates the planets surface-to-orbit transport. They are most known for their theocracy and mystic religion.

The Aphroditians are natives of the southern continent. They are descendants of the original colonists of Venus and live in a society constructed around large fiefs controlled by one of several families. The people are mostly farmers or miners. They are stereotyped as shrewd traders, but also stubborn and hot-tempered.

Venusian Genotypical Traits
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution and Wisdom scores increase by 1. You may also increase your Strength or Intelligence by 1.
Age. Same as humans.
Alignment. Any.
Size. Venusians are Medium.
Speed. Base walking speed is 30 feet.
Nictating Membrane. You have a Advantage against attacks which might cause you to be Blinded.

Revisiting the Wild Wild West

Here's a periodic reminder that Jim Shelley and I are continuing our selective re-watch of the Wild Wild West weekly on the Flashback Universe Blog.

You can catch up on installments here.

Star Trek Ranger: Patterns of Vengeance

Player Characters: The Crew of the USS Ranger, Federation scout ship:
Aaron as Lt., j.g. Cayson Randolph, Operations Officer
Andrea as Capt. Ada Greer
Billy as Lt. Cmdr. Sobek, Ship's Counselor
Paul as Cmdr. D.K. Mohan, Chief Helmsman

Supporting Cast:

Lt. T'Sar, Science Officer

Ensign O'Carrol, Security Officer

Synposis: The USS Ranger encounters the derelict USS Brackett, lost 22 years ago. They find all the crew dead having inexplicably murdered each other. Then, the Ranger away team begins to fall prey to the same strange madness.

Commentary: The USS Brackett (named for science fiction writer Leigh Brackett) is a Malachowski class ship as seen in Star Trek: Discovery. It's naming follows a pattern of naming Malachowski class ships for science fiction writers, including the USS Clarke and the Asimov (in the Christopher Bennett novel The Higher Frontier).

This is the second episode for Science Officer T'Sar. She was inspired by Phil Noto image: