Star Trek is now a blockbuster action movie franchise. It just is. There’s no going back after the success of the bombastic Star Trek Into Darkness. Frequent explosions and gravity-defying action scenes are what the average viewer expects of the franchise now. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against action — action has always been a part of the Star Trek formula. Note I said a part of the formula.

But wait — would it be possible for future Trek movies to provide both big action and the more intelligent, character-driven stuff the series was once known for? Could both new and old school Trekkies walk out of a new Star Trek movie feeling totally satisfied? I think it could happen if the makers of the next movie look toward these 10 Trek episodes for inspiration…

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It’s fairly safe to say that Microsoft was really, really not expecting what’s been going down over the last twenty-four hours or so. Mocking supercuts, angry fans, and a litany of bad press is not generally something a video game console maker wants to see dominating the news cycle. So, what went wrong, why, and can it be fixed? Read the rest of this entry »

Psst, hey, kid. You there. Remember the ’90s? No, this isn’t Buzzfeed, hear me out. Dude, remember the ’90s? Remember Shaq-Fu? Oh dude, tell me you remember the game where Shaquille O’Neal gets pulled into an alternate dimension while on his way to a charity basketball game, then proceeds to fight a cyborg with martial arts in a game involving no basketball whatsoever? That would be a stupid and insane concept for a video game, you say? Oh, but it happened, kid. I seen it.

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…Yup, this is a Neil Jordan movie all right.

Pretty much everybody who isn’t a fifteen-year-old girl hates Twilight, and even the middle-school contingent has moved on to better books like The Hunger Games. But studios are still out to exploit vampires, and at least they got a guy who knows his way around fangs to make it. Read the rest of this entry »

The Pugs of Middle-Earth by Pupstarsonoma. [via]

It’s that time of the week when we post a mixed bag of intriguing costumes we’ve spotted recently. Some of it’s new; some of it isn’t; all of it is worth highlighting.

Are you a cosplayer or photographer who would like to be featured on Gamma Squad? Upload your photos to our Flickr group to be considered.

Onward to the gallery:

(Click pictures to enlarge.)

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One of the unfortunate side effects of Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm was the cancellation of The Clone Wars cartoon series, which had been running on Cartoon Network in one form or another since 2003. Really, The Clone Wars was pretty much the best thing coming out under the Star Wars banner for nearly a decade, and it will be missed by a good chunk of fans.

But hey, did you really expect there wouldn’t be a new Star Wars cartoon series now that Disney owns the franchise? Come on. Hit the jump for information on the upcoming animated series, Star Wars Rebels…

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This video didn’t have to be this way.

A redditor named sooperskip posted a vertical video of his squeaky-voiced four-year-old daughter Mia excelling at Marvel trivia. This stay at home dad to the four-year-old and a one-year-old boy says Mia is a fan of The Marvel Super Heroes animated show. Her fan status shows in the video below as she shows off an encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel characters.

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Cover for ‘Half-Past Danger’ #1, from IDW

It’s a fairly busy week for fans of the smaller publishers. We’ve got the full retail list, as well as reviews of books from Dark Horse and IDW. Read the rest of this entry »

Pictured: Page 372 of The Big Book of British Smiles.

June 14th can’t get here fast enough. The second trailer for Man of Steel shows what happens when humanity “suffers the consequences” for sheltering Superman. It opens slowly with a threat from Zod, then progressively edits the shots shorter and shorter with a progressively larger number of explosions. It’s like seeing a bunch of Man Of Steel GIFs back to back. I know because I’ve done that. Twice.

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