The Art of Star Trek (1995)

The Art of Star Trek (1995)

Authors: Judith + Garfield Reeves-Stevens | Illustrators: Various | Page Count: 298

'If we define art as "the activity of creating beautiful things," then STAR TREK's futuristic, alien, often bizarre imagery most assuredly qualifies.'

I do sometimes 'state the obvious' for the benefit of folks that are curious but aren't a part of a particular franchise's fandom, but a book titled The Art of Star Trek explains itself. So if there's anyone still in any doubt as to what the content is, then you're probably reading the wrong blog.

What can't be gleaned from the cover alone is the sheer range of content inside, from rarely seen production sketches to familiar but still awesome key art, some of which has been used on posters and commercial home video formats for decades, and all presented on lavishly glossy paper stock.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (2002)

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 (2002)

Genre: Sport  |  Players: 1-2  / Up to 8 online  |  Developer: Neversoft

If the shouty parts of the internet are to be believed, a majority of Tony Hawk game fans consider Tony Hawk's Underground (2003), aka THUG, to be the turning point for the franchise, the game where it went from strength to shambles. I differ in that I feel THPS 4 was that point because it was the title that changed the core structure upon which all else was built. THUG just took it to the next (lowest) level.

Gone are the quick 'arcade style' individual runs, replaced by a more open-world, free-skate environment called Career Mode in which tasks or goals have to be initiated by speaking to NPCs, and to do that you first have to find the damned NPCs in the now larger environments.

Making each area more expansive may sound good in theory, but in practice it means that there are less nearby objects to combo to and you have further to travel to find the next goal each time you complete one. You can choose goals from a list in the menu once you've discovered them, but why would you want to do that?

King Kong: The RKO Movies (1933)

King Kong (1933)

Dirs. Merian C. Cooper + Ernest B. Schoedsack

Given the film's revered status among film historians, and that it's considered an inspirational milestone in the evolution of special effects, it's not unreasonable for a modern viewer to expect to be wowed at every turn when viewing KK for the first time.

But it's worth keeping in mind that it was made in 1933 and much of the budget went on the aforementioned effects, so there's a lot of less than stellar moments in-between.

Having said that, when the gargantuan Kong does appear, which is about 47 mins into the 104 mins run time, it should be easy to see why it achieved what it did, doubly so if you feel, as I do, that stop motion animation has a sense of wonder and magic that CGI lacks.

Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light (1987)

Visionaries: KotML (1987)

Dirs. Various | 13 episodes, approx 22 mins each

Like many 80s cartoons that were aimed at children the primary goal of Visionaries was to generate interest in a commercial toy line - in this instance the maker of the shelf plastic was toy giant Hasbro.

It wasn't a successful venture for the company. The cartoon lasted just one season (13 episodes) and the figures ceased production after just twelve months, while an equally short-lived bimonthly tie-in comic book published by Star Comics folded after just six issues. The only reason I know of its existence is because I had a couple of the figures as a kid and I bought the comic (when I could find it in stores).

The central gimmick of the toys was a holographic sticker positioned on each character's chest that looked half-cool and half-stupid; at least, it did to me back in the day. But I'm writing now about the cartoon, not the toys, so I'll not dwell on that.