Right after the image of the new USS Enterprise from JJ Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek was released, everyone under sun offered up their thoughts on how this ship compared with the original from the 1960′s television series and other versions. Our very own Dr. Geek gave his first impressions earlier this month.

But what do the stars of the original series think of the revamped starship?

In a recent video posted at the Shatner Project, William Shatner, pretty much gave his blessings on the new design, which keeps the iconic saucer shape.

Watch the video here [...]

As one of the lucky few on this sad planet who rank among the undead, I consider myself thankful for so many great things this world of clueless meandering flesh-bags has to offer — Slow-moving victims who always seem to trip and fall at the most inopportune times, meat-lockers at the morgue with cheap locks, royalty checks from the continual demand for my appearance in the hottest video games (thanks Left 4 Dead, CoD:W@W), and HD motherfcukin TV, my people. Are ya with me?!

Well, today I intend to curl my undead ass up with a nice glass of blended brains and give thanks for all these great things and more, all while watching endless hours of grue and gore on Monsters HD. They’ve got a marathon of me and my peeps running rampant on the silver screen going on all goddamn day, and I couldn’t be happier. Check out the skinny on this succulently screamin’ screen schedule right here [...]

It was a story that would never gain the notoriety of a Batman or Green Lantern, but was written just as well, if not better in most cases. The DC series Checkmate, written by Greg Rucka and penciled by Jesus Saiz, has long been a fan favorite that happened in the background of the DCU.

It was not the first time that Checkmate made an appearance, nor was it the first time that it earned a title for itself. But it was probably the first time it was tackled with such aplomb and skill as when Greg Rucka jumped on board.

Originally run by Maxwell Lord, the mastermind behind the OMAC’s, and the man who eventually shot Blue Beetle Ted Kord, Checkmate was used to control the 1980’s Justice League. But Lord’s intent all along was to bring along the destruction and control of metahumans across the globe.

But now, in the wake of Infinite Crisis, Checkmate has been brought under UN Security Council control, and its unique chess-board-like leadership is ruled by the “Rule of Two”; for each metahuman involved there is one human. Their job is “maintaining the global balance between humans and metahumans.”

At the top of Checkmate are two Kings and two Queens. White runs intelligence gathering and black runs operations. White Queen is Amanda Waller, formerly head of the Suicide Squad, and still up to her devious machinations, alongside White King Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern. However, Scott is soon replaced by his bishop, Mister Terrific. Black King is Talen Beni Khalid, alongside Black Queen Sasha Bordeaux, one of the few remaining underlings from Lord’s time at the help of Checkmate [...]

Last Sunday, Comedy Central aired the Stephen Colbert holiday special A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All!”, which featured musical appearances from Elvis Costello and Willie Nelson and several other special guests. The special has now been released on DVD and we here at Geeks of Doom have 3 copies to give away to our readers!

Three (3) winners will each receive:

– (1) A Colbert Christmas DVD

For more info on the DVD see the About section below and our previous coverage for video clips from the special.

TO ENTER: Fill out the form here and submit.

RULES: One entry per person. All entries must be in by Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 9pm EST. This contest is only open to residents of the United States. No international entries will be accepted. Void where prohibited. Winners will be chosen randomly from valid entries and will be notified by email.

In the relatively short amount of time that Empress Eve and I have been running Geeks of Doom we’ve had a multitude of stuff just show up in our mailbox. Some of these packages have been pretty geeky cool, like the one-of-a-kind props sent to us by the animators of the upcoming stop-motion feature Coraline. Others have been hard to swallow, like the cans of unreleased soda for us to sample (get it? Swallow… I make a pun). So yeah, some downright diverse shit just shows up in our mailbox on the daily, and after a time we started calling these unsolicited mystery packages Doom Deliveries, a moniker that works on multiple levels.

Well, this Tuesday brought one of the more intriguing Doom Deliveries to date. The intrigue began with the circumstances of its arrival, which took place as I was out for a lunch break. When I returned to my office there was a small metal briefcase on my desk, the kind with a numerical tumbler lock. The one thing that immediately tugged at my stomach was that it wasn’t in a parcel that had been mailed to me, but had been seemingly hand delivered — this in disregard to the fact that my office door was locked and I work in a moderately secured building. I had taken notice there was a small manila envelope taped to the top of it with simply “Dave” handwritten on it, but being me, I ignored it and immediately tried to open the lock with one of the old standards. 666 (ala Pulp Fiction), 911, 411, 212, 718, 917… nothing. That’s when internal Dave said, “Okay, genius. How about you open the envelope?“

After 88 episodes of groundbreaking, gritty television, The Shield is finally over. It was a crown masterwork of police procedural drama, utilizing such creative storytelling that viewers should feel blessed simply to have witnessed its unfolding. But if there’s been one flaw with this show, it’s that it’s always been just a little bit too in love with its main characters. Time and time again, we’ve seen Vic and his Strike Team worm their way out of every single legal conundrum and gang-related bear trap that has been thrown their way. This crew has done some pretty sick, twisted stuff over the past few years, and they had much to atone for leading into the finale. Creator and showrunner Shawn Ryan had plenty of opportunities to send some of these characters to jail or to kill them off, but he always seemed reluctant to do so. Not that we ever really wanted him to: It seems a warmed over observation, but part of the brilliance of The Shield was making you root for every single one of these characters. With season 7 being the show’s last, Ryan had nothing to lose anymore; he could deal with the characters and bring their arcs to a conclusion in whatever way he wanted to. The question after all these years of torture, corruption, and murder is, would Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) walk away? Or would he finally get caught?

With just one 90-minute-long episode left, I desperately wanted there to be a reckoning, some final closure for all the injustice that has been doled out, or at least some closure. To a huge extent, this series finale thoroughly delivered.

[WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE FINAL EPISODE OF THE SHIELD].

Universal’s 2-disc special edition of Wanted arrives on DVD and Blu-ray this Tuesday and will be loaded with extras. For now, check out the sneak peek clips here below taken from the bonus materials from the upcoming release.

The first one — “Searching for the Hero” — is a behind-the-scenes interview-style feature about the search for the actor to play Wes, the action hero of Wanted, the role that went to James McAvoy. The other one — “Angelina Jolie Kicks My Ass” — in another behind-the-scenes feature with McAvoy talking about how Angelina Jolie, who plays the sexy assassin Fox, kicked his butt. Both clips have Jolie’s response to starring against McAvoy.

Also being released this week is the limited edition Wanted DVD Collector’s Edition, which includes the Book of Assassins, Collectible Postcards, and Motion Film Cell. See the video below of all the goodies that come with this collector’s set.

Be sure to check back at Geeks of Doom real soon for your chance to win a copy of the Wanted DVD Collector’s Edition!

Ever wonder what it might be like to have a Star Trek phaser of your very own? I have. Ever since I saw Kirk and Spock fire at a rock, a Horta, or a crazed crewman, I’ve been intrigued with the possibilities of coherent light. This led to early perusal of The Way Things Work: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Technology for the explanation of how lasers worked and time spent pouring over ads in Edmund Scientific catalogs for real lasers. Eventually, I got to do some experiments with lasers in my college physics classes, but I was still not completely satisfied.

Though the Executive Series Fusion has the size, dull matte finish, and heft of a high quality laser pointer, it means serious business. Meant for the optics enthusiast, it is bright — insanely bright. You can see the beam in darkened rooms. You can also damage objects. You can make holes in dark-colored balloons and dark trash bags and cut black electrical tape. The Wicked Lasers web site even says it will light wood or paper matches [...]

Kung Fu Panda tells the tale of Po (Jack Black), the son of a noodle maker who somehow becomes the sacred Dragon Warrior. In order to defeat an unspeakably evil foe, Tai Lung (Ian McShane), Po has to learn the art of kung fu and gain the respect of Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) and the Furious Five: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Crane (David Cross), Monkey (Jackie Chan), and Viper (Lucy Lui).

When Kung Fu Panda first showed up, most people just assumed that it was another “just thrown together” animated flick for kids with Jack Black as a panda. Fortunately, the movie ended up surprising a whole lot of people and made a killing at the box office. Many considered it to be the best animated movie from DreamWorks Animation since Shrek.

I can admit that I was one of those people who thought it would suck and I too ate my words.

Kung Fu Panda is a very funny, very charming family movie — family movie meaning it’s not just for kids, it’s for every single person out there to enjoy. The fantastic balance of humor, heart, action, and beautiful visuals makes it very hard not to enjoy this movie, even if you’re a Jack Black hater [...]

Sony has released a new poster for their upcoming Terminator Salvation.

The cool thing about this poster is that it is kind of a mini teaser trailer within the poster, which is admittedly a very cool thing if you ask me.

Screw holographic “moving” posters — give me one of these I can hang on my wall and I’ll love you forever.

Check out the poster at Sony’s official Terminator Salvation site.

Terminator Salvation hits theaters on May 22, 2009.

Another year, another ABC 25 Days of Christmas event where, in conjunction, we here at Geeks of Doom are once again giving one lucky reader a related prize pack!

From December 1 through December 25, ABC Family channel will air over 200 hours of holiday-themed programming including two new original movies, A Miser Brothers’ Christmas and Snow 2 Brain Freeze. Click here for the full event programming.

One winner will receive the following prizes:

– (1) 25 Days of Christmas programming guide, with tree ornament
– (1) 25 Days of Christmas Reusable Shopping Tote
– (1) 25 Days of Christmas Poster

TO ENTER: Fill out the form below and submit. Entry form is here after the jump.

RULES: One entry per person. All entries must be in by Monday, December 1, 2008 at 9pm EST. This contest is only open to residents of the United States. No international entries will be accepted. Void where prohibited. Winners will be chosen randomly from valid entries and will be notified by email.

An updated version of the previously released trailer for JJ Abrams‘ Star Trek is now online.

What’s the vision? It’s only a few seconds, but it’s huge. If this had been in the original version of the trailer, everyone who have went completely insane with delight.

Near the end, it’s the last piece of footage shown from the film before the title comes up — our first look at Leonard Nimoy as the Elder Spock, oh glory be!!!!

Head over to AICN for your pick of three exclusive high-res QuickTime versions, or check out the low-res one here [...]

November 29th is author Greg Rucka’s birthday, so naturally, we here at Geeks of Doom, with grateful assistance from InStockTrades, are celebrating with Greg Rucka Week! Five Days. Five Reviews of some of his best work! To cover all he has done would be insane, and much of his work — ike 52 and No Man’s Land – is not his alone. But we’ll do the best we can, and we hope you enjoy.

And there is no better way to start out a week of reviews dedicated to Greg Rucka then to focus on the perennial favorite, Queen and Country.

It originally started out as a comic book, published by Oni Press and first released March of 2001. Since then, however, it has gone on for 32 issues, spawned two novels, and a film adaptation which has been stuck in development for some time.

The series focuses on Tara Chace, an operative of the Special Operations Section of SIS, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service. However, unlike other spy books, Queen and Country (QnC for short) starts in reality, rather than fiction [...]

In my mind, there is a Holy Trinity of filmmakers. Three directors who, among all their work, you could find any and every reason for watching a film. There’s Akira Kurosawa, there’s Stanley Kubrick…

And then there’s Billy Wilder.

Wilder lived the longest, died the latest, won the most Oscars, displayed the most versatility and yet somehow, for some strange reason, is the most underseen and underloved among this recent group of self-styled movie geeks. Yeah, everyone’s seen The Shining and A Clockwork Orange, and yes there are some who try to boost their cred by watching Seven Samurai, but it’s depressing to see how few have seen at least one Wilder film…. Or even name one.

With the possible exception of Howard Hawks (who made films as dissimilar as The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo, His Girl Friday and the original The Thing), no mainstream Hollywood director has ever shown Wilder’s utter refusal to be pigeon-holed into one kind of movie. Wilder made films as disparate as The Apartment and Double Indemnity. As Stalag 17 and The Seven Year Itch. As the long lost Ace In The Hole and the woefully underrated The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.

For people who were already excited about the new Star Trek from J.J. Abrams, now comes even more exciting news: the movie will indeed show in IMAX theaters when the film is released on May 8, 2009.

Apparently — even though it wasn’t filmed in IMAX at all — they will convert the film to 70MM specially for showing on the massive screens. Even with it not being filmed using the format, this comes as no real shock to anyone. Star Trek is shaping up to be a dominant summer force, so using the biggest screens of them all was kind of a given.

IMAX has been steadily growing in popularity for mainstream movies, and after what The Dark Knight pulled off this past summer, you’re only going to see them get more and more popular [...]