star trek magic

Star Trek Magic glimpses behind the scenes at what creates the magic we experience of film & tv- & other!

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The 2009 Star Trek movie reminded me of the debt I owe to Star Trek, not just for its entertainment value but also for the ideas and concepts it brought to my awareness, for the role models the actors made come alive, for the magic and wonder it inspired.

Many people have contributed to making Star Trek live – in TV and movies, in novels, in convention gatherings, through many different variations.  Through this site I want to acknowledge what they have done and get a peek through their eyes at the magic that came together.

Live Long and Prosper!

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Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

A friendly reminder regarding spoilers ! At present the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the continuations of Discovery and Prodigy , the advent of new eras in gaming with the Star Trek Adventures RPG , Star Trek: Infinite and Star Trek Online , as well as other post-57th Anniversary publications such as the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic and spin-off Star Trek: Defiant . Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{ spoiler }}, {{ spoilers }} OR {{ majorspoiler }} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old (even if it is minor info). Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. THANK YOU

Indistinguishable from Magic

• View history

• 1 Description
• 3.1 Characters
• 3.2 Starships and vehicles
• 3.3 Locations
• 3.4 Races and cultures
• 3.5 States and organizations
• 3.6 Science and classification
• 3.7 Occupations and titles
• 3.8 Other references
• 4 Chronology
• 5.1 Related stories
• 5.2 Background
• 5.3.1 Timeline
• 5.4.1 Translations
• 5.5 External link

Description [ ]

Summary [ ].

In 2161 , shortly after the end of the Romulan War , the Intrepid is undergoing repairs to her hull in deep space when Captain Jason Lambert – on the hull in an EV suit overseeing repairs – observes a flare nearby. In the process of reporting a possible Romulan minefield to Starfleet , communications are abruptly cut off and no trace of the Intrepid is ever found.

In 2383, the USS Enterprise is exploring the Agni Cluster in order to locate potential colonies for the remaining refugees of the Borg Invasion two years earlier. But the crew is soon distracted by the discovery of the Intrepid NX-07, pocked by micrometeorites and aged, drifting in space. After the vessel is determined to be safe, Geordi La Forge and Jasminder Choudhury transport over to discovery a horrifying sight – the dissolved residual remains of the crew, victims of an apparent failure of the inertial dampeners . When Starfleet decides to send in the USS Challenger , Geordi is temporarily reassigned under its captain, Montgomery Scott . Soon Geordi learns Guinan will be joining him on the Challenger , along with a number of other familiar faces already assigned to the vessel, including: Nog , Leah Brahms , Reginald Barclay , Alyssa Ogawa , and a time-traveling thief the Enterprise apprehended fifteen years earlier, Berlinghoff Rasmussen .

Shortly after the destruction of the Intrepid , the 22nd century inventor, Berlinghoff Rasmussen (or B.R.) encounters the 26th century historian, Dominic Kent in Trenton, NJ. After following Kent for several days, Rasmussen breaks into his apartment – in order to determine if Kent stole an invention of his – only to discover evidence that Kent is from the future, including a small time-ship. After Rasmussen confronts Kent, the professor eventually acknowledges his origins but continues to be evasive with details about his time. Nevertheless, the two men fall into an unusual friendship. Having hidden the time-pod to prevent Kent’s escape, the professor asks Rasmussen to grant him access to obtain medication stored aboard – but when Rasmussen fears it is a ploy to escape, he refuses, and Kent dies.

After the Challenger crew gets the Intrepid functional, and the former crew’s dissolved remains collected, a Klingon vessel decloaks and attacks, luring the Challenger away from Intrepid . It soon becomes apparent that the Klingon vessel was stolen, when a Ferengi marauder and another Klingon vessel decloak and – led by DaiMon Bok and with Rasmussen’s help – a group of pirates steal the Intrepid . ( TNG episodes : " The Battle ", " Bloodlines ")

When the Intrepid is underway, Rasmussen and Bok invite the Starfleet officers to continue working on the vessel – which Geordi accepts in hopes of finding some way to contact the Challenger . As Geordi and the others resume work, he tries to understand the agenda of the thieves and sow discord between Bok and Rasmussen. Meanwhile, on the Challenger , Nog uses his father’s authority to extract information from the thieves’ captured comrades, eventually leading the crew to realize that Bok is taking the Intrepid to the Split Infinite – the intersection of a cosmic string and a neutron star – in hopes of riding the string back in time. Onboard the Intrepid , Geordi learns the same terrifying truth and realizes that Rasmussen plans to take the Intrepid back to the 22nd century – while Bok makes a daring effort to save his son. In the process of preventing Bok from escaping into the past, the Challenger used the closed timelike curve of the Infinite to force the Intrepid further back in time until the Big Bang destroyed the vessel. In the final pitched struggle, Rasmussen escaped and Scotty was injured.

Shortly afterward, Dr. Ogawa informs Captain Scott that injuries sustained during the battle – coupled with his age – prevent him from meeting Starfleet fitness standards. Subsequently, Scotty chooses to retire from Starfleet, become a civilian specialist, and promotes Geordi La Forge to captain, giving him command of the Challenger . Meanwhile, the Tal Shiar obtain intelligence of Bok and Rasmussen’s efforts to travel through time and began researching their methods.

The investigation of the Intrepid leads Geordi to postulate that something akin to trans-slipstream is responsible for the vessel’s circumstances – and the data share peculiar similarities to telemetry transmitted by the USS Hera shortly before her disappearance, under the command of Geordi’s mother. This leads Geordi and the Challenger to investigate the trans-slipstream wake. Meanwhile, a sabotaged Romulan vessel carrying Sela , the chairman of the Tal Shiar, is forced into Federation space and rescued by the Challenger shortly before the Challenger is struck by an alien force. After bringing systems online, the crew find themselves outside the galactic barrier , and they soon discover the USS Hera floating in the void.

As the crew works to try and restore all of Challenger' s systems, Sela plots to take control of the ship and suspects that Starfleet secretly controls the trans-slipstream technology. A series of bizarre readings leads Geordi to order an away team to the Hera , led by Scotty. The shuttle disappears en route, at the same time that strange alien vessels appear on the scene - the presumed trans-slipstream travelers. However, the away team soon wakes on an alien world, surrounded by evidence that the crew of the Hera survived and built a colony there. A number of even stranger occurrences leads Barclay and Scotty to propose that they occupy a toroidal continuum fold - a phenomenon which could explain why the Hera initially exhibited a mass far beyond its size.

The away team soon discovers fifty-seven survivors from the Hera , including the former first officer, Savar. The Vulcan explains the psycho-reactive nature of the living planet the team has crashed on, and explains the futility of attempting to travel back through the toroidal continuum fold to reach Challenger .

Meanwhile, on their side of the fold, the Challenger crew watches the alien vessels amass a small fleet before the Tomalak's Fist , the Romulan vessel searching for Sela, is displaced into the same area of space as the Challenger . When Guinan confesses memories of the alien vessels from her time in the Nexus , Sela stages a takeover of the Challenger but agrees to cooperate when Dr. Ogawa develops a way for Guinan to communicate with the aliens. The alien vessels are, in fact, alien lifeforms of immense size and power -- who express surprise and regret upon learning that their travels in the Milky Way Galaxy were harming its residents, and they agree to be more careful in the future.

Barclay and Scotty devise a method to communicate through the fold, which leads the Challenger to mount an ill-fated mission to open the toroidal continuum fold -- with the help of the Tomalak's Fist -- by widening the fold with a static warp bubble. After the entire complement of the Challenger is transported to the Tomalak's Fist , the former effects its widening of the fold, allowing the Romulan vessel to fly through to the rogue planetoid. The away team is transported up, but not before Geordi is able to finally say goodbye at his mother's grave. The living planet begins responding by launching "antibodies" to attack the Romulan ship. But after Dr. Ogawa informs the rescued Scotty that his organ failure may be irreversible, the ancient engineer chooses to lay his life on the line. After stealing away to the Challenger , Scotty holds the ship until the Tomalak's Fist travels back through the fold and destroys the Starfleet vessel to un-fold space and close the opening. But at the instant the ship implodes, Scotty is transported away -- unsure if he'll survive inside the toroidal continuum fold, but prepared for the possibility of death.

After the living trans-slipstream ships deliver the Tomalak's Fist back home, Sela delivers the Starfleet crew to the USS Enterprise . With the destruction of the Challenger , the crew prepares to go their separate ways, with Geordi returning to the Enterprise , retaining the rank of captain of engineering. Having began a romantic relationship during the assignment, Leah Brahms chooses to stay for a time with Geordi. A final occasion brings them together for the memorial service of Scotty, held aboard the Enterprise and attended by Spock, Sonya Gomez and other familiar faces.

References [ ]

Characters [ ], starships and vehicles [ ], locations [ ], races and cultures [ ], states and organizations [ ], science and classification [ ], occupations and titles [ ], other references [ ], chronology [ ], appendices [ ], related stories [ ].

• TNG episode : " A Matter of Time "
• TNG episode : " Interface "

Background [ ]

• This novel is David A. McIntee 's first Star Trek novel; his previous two Star Trek stories were a short story and novella.
• The novel was initially pitched as a duology, but was commissioned as a single book. [1]
• The novel was initially to be released under the general Star Trek brand, but it was later decided to release it under the Star Trek: The Next Generation banner. [2]
• On page 100 Geordi remarks that he has been chief engineer on two Enterprise s for 19 years, placing this story in 2384, based on LaForge attaining the position of chief engineer of the Enterprise -D in 2365 just prior to the episode The Child .

Connections [ ]

Timeline [ ].

• 2011 , April - First published in mass market paperback by Pocket Books

Translations [ ]

External link [ ].

• Indistinguishable from Magic article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• 1 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
• 3 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition

Den of Geek

Star Trek: Discovery Episode 7 Review: Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad

Harry Mudd returns in a standalone episode that sends the Discovery into a time loop.

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This Star Trek: Discovery review contains spoilers.

Star Trek: Discovery Episode 7

Time loop narratives are a mainstay of Star Trek storytelling. The Next Generation did it to particularly memorable effect with “Cause and Effect,” directed by Jonathan Frakes (aka Riker). The key to a good time loop episode, as Frakes demonstrated admirably, is to make sure that enough stays the same for the loop to exist, while changing enough to keep the audience interested.

“Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” found a good balance in its fifty minutes, showing the time loop con man Harry Mudd sent the Discovery into from various perspectives. It was especially successful in moments like the Lorca murder montage, which, told from Mudd’s perspective, saw the bitter conman killing the Discovery captain again and again in various ways. 

In any time loop narrative, it is important to have at least one character who begins to suspect that a time loop exists. For “Magic,” this was Stamets, who continues to go through changes since he injected himself with giant space tardigrade DNA.

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Discovery played a bit faster and looser than I would have liked with the rules of the time loop. (How were so many characters able to retain so much information as the time loop progressed? Stamets isn’t  that  good at explaining.) However, this episode was so much fun and moved at such a jaunty pace, it was hard to care too much. Or at least it became apparent at a certain point that, to enjoy the episode, one had to look past some of the logic. 

The main emotional thrust in the episode came in the exploration of Burnham’s love life. The time loop began, at least for Burnham, at the attendance of a very bro-y Starfleet party aboard the Discovery. Burnham gazes longingly at probably-a-Klingon-spy Tyler, while a tipsy Tilly (who, in a lovely turn of events, seems to absolutely rock at parties) questions Burnham about her feelings.

It’s a bit of an invasive about-face for a show that has shown only sporadic interest in character relationships, but a welcome one. As the time loop progresses, Burnham must use her burgeoning connection with Tyler to find out more about Mudd. When Mudd kills Tyler in one of the time loops, Burnham, in a bad ass moment, sacrifices herself in order to get Mudd to reset the loop.

While I’m not sure Burnham’s “secret” that she’s never been in love was the best code for Burnham to use with Stamets, it did provide a solid theme for the episode. Burnham has experienced so much of the galaxy, and experienced so many feelings during her rocky time in Starfleet, but she has never been in love. The fact that Burnham and Tyler share their first kiss in a time loop they will never be able to remember is probably suitably tragic for a couple that seems doomed, if Tyler’s suspicious background turns out the way so many suspect.

Eventually, the Discovery crew work together to trick Mudd at his own game, sending him back into the waiting arms of his “beloved” Stella (played by Wynonna Earp ‘s Nicole Haught!). Something tells me we’ll be seeing this con man again, hopefully in a similarly standalone episode. Watching “Magic” made me wonder if  Discovery  wouldn’t be better sticking to a higher degree of standalone episodes that focus on character-driven progressions rather than plot-driven ones.

“Magic” wasn’t the most plot-tight episode Star Trek has ever given us, but it was a lot of action-packed fun — an hour that kept the characters and audience on its toes. Discovery could do a lot worse (and has) with its middle-of-the-season episodes. We could do with more episodes that focus their action on the “everyday” happenings of this ship and her crew and that rely on classic Star Trek formulas to help define its characters and their relationships.

Kayti Burt | @kaytiburt

Kayti is a pop culture writer, editor, and full-time nerd who comes from a working class background. A member of the Television Critics Association, she specializes…

Star Trek: Discovery’s future tech is now indistinguishable from magic – and that’s a problem

Opinion: Sorcery in sci-fi clothing is still sorcery

Spoilers for Star Trek : Discovery season 4 follow.

Without futuristic technology, there would be no Star Trek . Sure, the innovative stories and famous Kirk/Spock/McCoy axis had something to do with the show’s early popularity. But, if the Enterprise didn’t have transporters, warp drive and subspace communication, its original five-year mission would have floundered before it had even left Spacedock.

Back then, boundary-stretching tech was a narrative-driven and practical necessity. 1960s network TV budgets wouldn't allow a spaceship to land on a new planet every week. Meanwhile, forcing viewers to watch the crew on decades-long voyages between worlds – waiting years for Starfleet to respond to their enquiries – would have been commercial suicide. But beaming up and hitting warp factor five soon became integral to the franchise’s DNA, and the ground-breaking tech would later be joined by the holodecks and LCARS displays seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

When Star Trek: Discovery travelled to the 32nd century at the start of season 3, however, the tech content went up to another level. Beyond exploring even stranger new worlds and seeking out newer life and civilizations, Michael Burnham, Saru and the rest of the crew suddenly found themselves in a universe where programmable matter, portable transporters, and phasers that materialize in the palm of your hand are taken for granted.

None of that’s a problem in itself, of course – the morphing starships and floating computer displays look amazing, while expecting nothing to have changed in the 900 years between Discovery’s original time zone and the 32nd century would be as ridiculous as suggesting that our present looks the same as Richard the Lionheart’s.

But, when technology can do anything, anytime you want it to, it has a tendency to suck the drama out of a story more quickly than a malfunctioning airlock.

A kind of magic

2001: A Space Odyssey author Arthur C. Clarke famously said that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” But this is the plane of existence on which Star Trek: Discovery now resides; its tech so sophisticated and ubiquitous that the crew’s gadgets are essentially spells, charms and incantations wrapped up in sci-fi clothing. When Commander Stamets casually uses his personal transporter to travel from Engineering to the Bridge in a blink of an eye, he might as well be apparating out of a fireplace with Harry Potter and the Weasleys – he doesn’t even need to say a magic word to do it.

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Ironically, the show’s writers seemed to acknowledge the pitfalls of pushing the technological envelope too far when they first transported the show to the 32nd century. The future Federation that the Discovery crew first encountered was a shadow its former self, the so-called Burn having rendered all warp travel impossible. With that minor inconvenience now resolved, however, travel between worlds is back on the agenda and there are seemingly no limits to what Starfleet can do.

While many fantasy writers are wise enough to understand that sorcery has the potential to overpower a story without rules to restrict its use, there’s little evidence Star Trek: Discovery is applying similar restraint with the technological witchcraft at its fingertips. 

The tech is also used in a frustratingly inconsistent manner. In season 4 episode ‘Anomaly’, for example, Stamets accompanies Cleveland Booker on a dangerous mission to gather information on a vast, mysterious entity – except he doesn’t, because he’s actually back on Discovery, neural-linked to a holographic version of himself. 

This poses a huge question for the future of the show: if it’s possible for a member of the crew to work from home, projecting themselves into an avatar that responds to its surroundings in real-time, why would anybody ever leave the ship on a risky away mission? 

And why did Captain Burnham, just a week earlier, abandon her place on the bridge to fly into a debris field when her virtual self could have done it instead? Okay, we wouldn’t have seen her undeniably cool spacesuit materialize from the ether with the elegant ease of Iron Man’s nanotech outfit, but you can’t help feeling the use (or non-use) of the tech is based on the whims of the writers’ room rather than the needs of the story. 

In fact, they effectively have to contrive a situation to remove that technological safety net – when the only thing a crew has to worry about is a planet-gobbling mass of dark matter, Star Trek is entering perilous territory.

Tech's appeal

The show is now so futuristic that it’s in danger of losing any connection to the real world. While Star Trek has always stretched the laws of physics, often by necessity –curse you, Einstein, with your troublesome relativity and your E=mc2 – there’s traditionally been some effort to explain away the made-up science in almost-plausible terms

In Discovery, however, tech-magic is so integral to the fabric of the show that it seems to exist almost for its own sake. Indeed, when Burnham creates a forcefield around herself to make a private call in ‘Anomaly’ – a rip-off of Get Smart’s intentionally ridiculous Cone of Silence – you can’t help wonder why she didn’t just take it in the next room. Is walking no longer the done thing in the 32nd century?

Discovery forgets that technology that works shouldn’t be more than set-dressing; a tool to establish a sense of time and place, but never the story in itself. It’s worth remembering that most of sci-fi’s best tales about future tech delight in telling us what happens when it goes wrong – it’s pretty much the entire reason for Black Mirror ’s existence.

The show’s expanding toolkit of programmable matter, morphing starships and holographic stand-ins is in danger of being to Trek what the Sonic Screwdriver too often is to Doctor Who – a magic wand that can do whatever the writer needs to resolve a tricky plotline.

There are countless examples of The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine and Voyager crews pulling some piece of technobabble from thin air to solve a problem – or inventing some miraculous piece of tech to save the day – but there’s usually at least a hint of scientific reasoning to help it make sense. If Discovery continues to use its tech-magic without restriction, the lines between sci-fi and fantasy will start to blur.

So maybe it’s time for the writers’ room to pin that famous Arthur C. Clarke quote to the office wall, because Star Trek is better off leaving the magic to Star Wars .

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 4 stream on Paramount Plus in the US on Thursdays. The show airs on Pluto TV in the UK.

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Richard is a freelance journalist specialising in movies and TV, primarily of the sci-fi and fantasy variety. An early encounter with a certain galaxy far, far away started a lifelong love affair with outer space, and these days Richard's happiest geeking out about Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and other long-running pop culture franchises. In a previous life he was editor of legendary sci-fi and fantasy magazine SFX, where he got to interview many of the biggest names in the business – though he'll always have a soft spot for Jeff Goldblum who (somewhat bizarrely) thought Richard's name was Winter.

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If you were to believe my teaser from last week , you'd expect me to be sharing stories about the designs of various Lorwyn cards. Of course, following that logic, you might have expected me to write about planeswalker design during Planeswalker Week last week. Neither, it appears, is going to happen (well, yet), but I'll take a paragraph or two or six to explain why. When I'm done, you're get to read a column I didn't know I was writing until I sat down at the computer.

Okay, let's start with last week. Once upon a time, I used to travel everywhere Wizards would send me. My first summer here (the summer of 1996 for the trivia junkies) I only spent three weeks in the office. If there was Magic being played in a convention or a tournament somewhere around the world, I was there. Then I met Lora (a.k.a. Mrs. Rosewater) and my travel slowly started on the decline. I began by no longer going to random places that I was going to simply to go. Then I cut back on conventions. Then non-Pro Tour tournaments. Finally, when my twins were born, I struck the following deal with Lora: I would go to just two tournaments a year. (I touch upon this in more detail in Life Lessons, Part II if you care to hear more.)

The first would be the Magic World Championships . Randy Buehler might have passed me to take the record for longest consecutive Pro Tour streak, but I am still the only person on this planet that has attended every Magic Worlds. As it is the crème de la crème of Magic competition, it seemed like a tournament to keep attending. The second tournament I attend is the Magic Invitational. It's my baby. While I've made a lot of Magic cards, this is the only tournament I've ever created. I'm a proud papa and if I had to cut back to two trips a year, how could I not watch my baby grow? (If you want more info on how the Invitational came to be I wrote a feature article about it many moons ago.) It turns eleven this year.

Meanwhile, you might be aware that I write a column every Monday. (If not, welcome to Making Magic—you might want to check out the archive . Scarily, I've written over a million words worth of articles about Magic , most of which is available if you click on my name at the top of the page.) Now, when some writers leave town they'll have someone else fill in for them. I'm not so much into that. Making Magic is also my baby and I'm a mite bit protective of my babies. Sure, I'll swap columns every once in a while for fun, but pretty much I want to be the guy writing this column. Add to that that the number one fact I write this column is that I enjoy writing (if that wasn't number one I wouldn't have been writing about Magic for thirteen years, let alone a weekly column for six) and I've made a dedication to write every column.

What this means is that if I'm going out of town, I need to write two columns the week before I go. (This was one of the reasons that my kithkin column was below average in length—but hey, if I can't be short on Kithkin Week... Heaven knows I didn't apply that strategy to Dwarf Week ) That meant the two nights before I left for Germany (this year's Invitational was held in Essen, Germany—but more on that soon) I stayed up late and wrote my column for Kithkin Week. It wasn't Kithkin Week, you say. Yeah, I figured that out after I got back from Germany. My best defense is "I thought it was Kithkin Week." I didn't have access to my email that I could have checked the theme weeks on so I used my memory. (Curse you middle age.)

What this means is that I'm playing Swap Week with myself. Planeswalker Week got my Kithkin column so it will only be fair next week when Kithkin Week gets my planeswalker column. As it turns out, that's much better for me (and hopefully you) because I don't want my planeswalker column to be shorter than average. It's an awesome story and I want to give it the space it needs to do it justice. So no, I'm not skipping out on telling you all the cool info on planeswalker design. I'm just making you wait. (But don't worry, the end is in sight.)

Which leads to the final question for my intro. (Yes, this is just like shows like "Ugly Betty" that surprise you mid-show with the opening credits.) Why aren't I talking about the design of individual Lorwyn cards today? I guess the simple answer is something else came up. Part of the great joys of writing a column is I pretty much get to write about whatever strikes my fancy. Sure, I have to touch upon Magic design (and even then, I've had numerous columns that pretty much weren't about Magic design) but given that and staying in-theme on theme weeks (well, except when I mess up and then leave for a week) my column is pretty much carte blanche. When I sat down today I decided that I wanted to write about something else. Don't worry though, you'll get the Lorwyn design stories soon enough. I have a lot of non-theme weeks to fill so I'm not about to toss away perfectly good material.

And that in slightly under a thousand words is why I didn't and am currently not doing what I was supposed to. (I'm a rebel, Dottie, a loner.) With that out of the way, let's get to today's column.

Sweet Sixteen

I just spent the last week in Germany at Essen Spiel, what I believe is the largest game convention in the world. (I spent the first day walking around all of the convention only to realize the next day that I missed five halls!) I was there to attend the Eleventh Annual Magic Invitational. The event ran smoothly. It was a very close tournament for all fifteen preliminary rounds. The finals went to a third deciding format. The winner was Tiago Chan from Portugal. But all that stuff you can read about here . I'm going to talk about this year's Magic Invitational, but not about the tournament itself.

Huh? You see, the Invitational is a very unique event. Why? Because it's as much exhibition as competition. Many of the choices we make concerning the Invitational are more about the public than the players. My plan today is to walk you through several of those choices and explain the issues behind them. In short, I'm going to examine the state of Magic through the lens of the Magic Invitational.

Let's begin by looking at one of the defining traits of the event—the formats.

I was going to take time to describe each format to you but then it dawned on me that I already did that work. For the Invitational I recorded five short videos explaining each format. I'm going to start the section on each format by showing you the video to explain the format at hand. Be forewarned that this is about as low tech as it comes. The whole thing was me in a tiny meeting room about twenty feet from Scott Johns's desk. I was told there were going to be some jazzy graphics but I suspect that nothing was able to compete with my wildly gesticulating hands. If you've never heard me do a podcast, this will also be a chance for you to hear my voice for the first time. I've been told by many that it isn't what they expect. The line "I thought it'd be deeper" seems to come up a lot. Anyway, here's the first video.

2007 Magic Invitational: Introduction and Cube Draft

That's what I sound like. And look like, but you've had the little picture of me to give you a rough idea since the column started. And yes, I've aged since that picture was taken (while I was petting a cheetah at the Magic Invitational in Cape Town a little over six years ago).

Why did I choose to do a Cube Draft? Because it's offbeat and fun. Very fun. Very, very fun. (I'll show you two decks I drafted in a moment.) One of the most important roles of the Invitational is to remind everyone that a) Magic is a fun game and b) Wizards actually remembers that fact. Much like the Un -sets (another one of my babies—so many babies) the Invitational exists to reinforce that Magic has more to it than simply competition.

Why invite the top pros then? To better drive this point home. Having a bunch of casual players sitting around enjoying wacky formats doesn't have the punch of watching the top competitive players in the world do so. (This begs the question of what Evan Erwin—a.k.a the Storyteller—was doing there. I'll get to that before this column is done.) By the way, I need to stress that the Invitational is seen very positively by the pros—partly because there is a lot of honor in being invited to the all-star game, but even more so because it's a fun tournament. A very, very fun tournament. It's not often that they get to interact in a tournament setting where the stress is on having a good time rather than staying constantly focused on winning. There are certain pros that I've seen laugh more at a single Invitational than at every Pro Tour I've ever attended.

Which brings us back to the Cube Draft. When I was putting together the formats, I put out a call for suggestions. Later that day, Aaron Forsythe came up to me and said, "We have to do a Cube Draft."

Why did Aaron insist on doing one? Because it's one of his favorite formats to play of all time. He wanted to share it with the players and he wanted to share it with the world. Anyone can make a Cube Draft (okay maybe not of the caliber Aaron and Paul Sottosanti put together for the Invitational—click here to see the complete list). Just take the most powerful and/or fun cards you own and put them together. The joy of Cube drafting is the thrill of seeing all these powerful and fun cards intermingle. Seeing thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth picks that you might take first in a normal draft is a blast. (In my mono-red deck below, I managed to get Seal of Fire to table—that is, to come back around during the draft.)

I selected Cube Draft to simply reinforce the message that Magic can be fun. I'll leave this section by showing you two Cube decks that I drafted. We got the Cube put together about a month before the Invitational. R&D took advantage of this to hold numerous Cube drafts. What follows are the two decks I built from the ones I did. Doing these two drafts was some of the most fun I've had in Magic in years. It turns out, by the way, that the mono-black deck I drafted was very powerful and completely above my skill level. The deck never lost—when other people played it. The mono-red deck, on the other hand, was just my speed. There's not much in Magic more thrilling than the first turn play of " Mountain , Lightning Bolt you" knowing that you're doing what you're supposed to. Anyway, I don't get much chance to show off deck lists so here you go:

Mono-Black Cube Draft Deck

Creature (9)

Sorcery (6), instant (4), enchantment (4), colorless (17), common (24), uncommon (5).

Mono-Red Cube Draft Deck

Sorcery (5), instant (7), artifact (2), enchantment (1), tribal instant (1), colorless (19), common (25).

Note that some cards were swapped out based on our early Cube drafts, so you might notice cards in these decks that didn't make the final Cube.

Auction of the People

First, a little word from me:

2007 Magic Invitational: Auction of the People

Was it obvious that we didn't bother practicing?

No format has been played at more Invitationals than Auction of the ________. While we occasionally take a breather and let professional deck builders take a turn, the vast majority of the auctions have been Auction of the People. Why do I keep including this format every year? Three reasons:

#1 – The Invitational is supposed to be a tournament for the people. As such, I really wanted to find a way to let the audience participate in the tournament. We do this in two ways. First, we've made voting a big part of how players get selected. And second, we frequently do Auction of the People to allow the audience to build something that the pros will play. And trust me, it's a hoot to see the pros play with cards that they have not only never touched, but simply have no idea what they are. During the Auction we had to pull up Gatherer so that we could read off cards to the players. In addition, it's great to see the pros have to figure out how the decks work when the motivations are more about pulling off a cool trick than optimizing resources.

#2 – Deck building is a fundamental part of the game. As such, I try hard to always make sure there are two formats that require creative deck building skills. One format is left in the hands of the invitees (we'll get to this year's format for this soon) while the other is left up to all of you. The important difference is that the pros are going to build a very specific type of deck, one based on being as efficient as possible. The decks for Auction of the People are judged on a completely different scale. One deck was selected because its builder found a way to get another A to Z reference on his same 26 cards (in the first name of the artist). Obviously the deck suffered for such a sacrifice—but only in terms of power, not in terms of coolness, which was how the auction was judged.

#3 – This is a practical concern. Preparing for a tournament with five formats is quite hard (and even I know that the Invitational does not receive the kind of preparation a Pro Tour would). As such, we've tried to build in some ways to make things easier. One way is to have two Limited formats. Another is to make a Constructed format that doesn't require the players to build decks. Sure, the players have to spend a little time judging the decks but that is far easier than taking the time to make them.

If you haven't yet seen this year's decks, check them out here and then you can see how the decks did here . The message of this format is that deck building (and by deck building I mean crazy, quirky, do-you-own-thing kind of deck building) is a fundamental part of the game. Decks like these should be embraced just as much as lean, mean, efficient tournament decks.

• Winston Draft

Explaining this draft is what led to the idea of doing the videos as Winston is so much easier to explain if you can just show people. By the way, the other person in this video is Magic creative manager Jake Theis.

2007 Magic Invitational: Winston Draft

Some formats were chosen to point up certain aspects of the game. Others, like Winston Draft, were chosen for no other reason than we wanted the public to see it. Booster draft is a lot of fun, but it requires eight people. Often times it's hard to get eight people. But Magic has two-person drafting formats. One of them, Solomon Draft, was a staple at the Invitational for years. So why didn't we use Solomon Draft this year? Because the format has proven to have a few problems. One, it takes forever.

Quick humorous aside: At the Fifth Magic Invitational in Sydney Australia, I discovered one day that our tournament organizer had given away our room at 8:00 pm. When I confronted her, she said that she had checked our schedule. We were starting at 10:00 a.m. and only had four rounds scheduled. We would obviously be done by 8:00 p.m., so she gave up our room to another group. "You don't understand," I explained. "Three of the rounds are Solomon Draft!" (She got us a new room to play in.)

Two, it's a little too skill-intensive for casual players. It requires too many decisions, all of which are public for scrutiny and all of which need to be remembered when you played. We wanted to showcase a two-person draft so we surveyed the ones we had and it was clear that Winston was the winner. It was much quicker than Solomon, many of the decisions were hidden, and the decisions, while plentiful, were fewer.

For those curious how Winston came to be, it was invented over ten years ago by none other than Richard Garfield (I might have said that in the video, I don't remember). It was originally called "Let's Make a Deal" Draft as it had much of the flavor of "Choose Door 1, 2 or 3" from the game show. The name was later changed because "Let's Make a Deal" Draft was an unwieldy name. Urban legend has it that Richard got enough complaints about the name that he then picked a name at random, choosing the name on a deck of cards he often carried with him. The cards were Winston cigarette cards (don't ask me why Richard had them—and no, he doesn't smoke).

Of the five formats we showcased in the Invitational, none has received more immediate favor than Winston Draft. So many people have told ne how excited they were to learn that you could draft with just two people. If you've never done one, I heartily urge you to save the next six booster packs you run across until you find a friend to draft with you. As is a theme to the Invitational formats, it's a lot of fun.

• Choose Your Own Standard

Once again I'll send you over to Video Mark:

2007 Magic Invitational: Choose Your Own Standard

How many of you caught what my pointer was? Yes, you can go back and look. It's a lightsaber. I needed a pointer and that was all we could find in the cubicles near the meeting room we shot the video in. Why am I holding a red lightsaber? Hmm.

Choose Your Own Standard was chosen for a very different reason than the other four. I picked it because I wanted to try it out. Yes, unlike every other format at the Invitational, no one has ever played this format before. Why? Because I made it up to solve a problem that I feel exists (or more accurately will exist).

Here's the problem. If we want to let you use a card that is twelve years old, the only way we have to do that is to allow you to play in a format where twelve years' worth of cards are allowed. This makes the power level shoot up through the roof and means that the vast majority of cards in the format are unplayable. Also, it makes it very hard for someone who hasn't been playing for twelve years, and thus doesn't have those twelve years worth of cards, to join. While I believe this problem is bearable in the present day, I feel it's just going to get worse and worse over time.

My solution was to try and find a format that allowed access to some of the old cards without allowing access to all of the old cards. While the format would be more powerful than Standard, it would be far less powerful than Legacy, and even less powerful (I believe) than Extended. In addition, the format creates interesting choices that have a lot of nostalgia to them. For example, at the event Craig Jones decided to play a red burn deck. He knew instantly that he wanted Tempest Block as one of his two blocks. The second block, though, took him days of pondering. He spent a lot of time thinking back to what burn spells each block had to offer before ultimately choosing Mirage block with its Hammer of Bogardan and Fireblast.

Why was it so important to try out? Because R&D was unsure whether the format would work. How much diversity would there be? Would the decks be fun to play? Would players like the format? The answers, by the way, turned out to be a lot, yes and yes. (On the first count, every block save Mirrodin and the unfinished Lorwyn Block saw play, including every core set allowed in the format.) I'm not sure of the future of Choose Your Own Standard as a format, but the Invitational definitely put it into people's minds.

Not much of a video for this one but how can you not finish the cycle:

2007 Magic Invitational: Vintage

The Invitational can show off cool formats and even test out new ones, but it does have one other use. The Invitational is a good place to pay homage to formats that are hard to use elsewhere. R&D is a fan of Vintage as a format, but the limitations in the availability of the card pool, especially outside the U.S., make it a format that we can't really push in high-level play. The Invitational, though, is the one high-profile event that we do which is able to handle formats like Vintage. And so we've made a conscious choice to use the Invitational as a means to show off formats we like but have trouble supporting on a grander scale.

The second bone we threw the Vintage community was to invite one of their premier spokespeople and current world champ, Steve Menendian, as R&D's pick for the event. Which leads us into our next topic: the invitees.

Invite Club

The formats aren't the only ways for Wizards to make a statement about the game. The other important decision is deciding who to invite. By who, I'm not referring to the specific person as we've been leaving a lot of the specifics to all of you. What I am referring to is what slots are represented. Certain accomplishments are a gimme (last year's Invitational winner, World Champ, and Pro Tour Player of the Year, for starters) but beyond that invitations are granted based on roles that we feel are important to encourage.

We want to stress international diversity, so we invite players from each region. We like to encourage players scurrying the globe to play in every Grand Prix they can, so we have a Road Warrior category. We want to highlight the importance of deck innovation, so we make the Resident Genius category. Each category reinforces some aspect we want to encourage. Which brings us to the controversial category of the year—the Storyteller category.

I do want the "best of the best" represented at the tournament. That said, I don't think it hurts the integrity of the tournament to have a slot or two dedicated to stressing the importance of other aspects of the game. No one expected Evan to win (including Evan). The point of the invitation (and the slot) was to send a strong message that building community is a huge part of the game. The people who take the time week in and week out to grow and strengthen that community are important—so much so that we feel they deserve the honor of a slot. Be aware that this slot is not limited to non-pros. If a pro player is able to take on the role of storyteller to the point where the public wants to see him at the Invitational, he (or hopefully someday she) will get to go.

Probably the reason I was most excited to have Evan attend the Invitational is that I'm dying to see his take on the event. I know from talking to him how much of an honor the invite was for him. I assume this thread might pick up what has been called the "pros vs. joes" debate. My two cents for the debate is this. The Invitational, like Magic , is different things to different people. If one invite can make so many people happy without disrupting the tournament (and I can definitively say from my point of view having watched the entire event that I do not feel Evan's presence in any way disrupted it), what's wrong with it? To use an analogy, when designing cards I have to focus on the audience for that particular card. I cannot let the opinions of others who the card isn't meant for sway me from my design. To me, the Storyteller slot is much the same. If the slot really upsets you, it wasn't designed for you.

Rockin' Round Robin

Let me end today's column by throwing a few questions out for the thread and email:

• Do you like the Magic Invitational?
• If so, why?
• If not, why?
• Is there anything the Invitational is not doing that it should?
• Is there something it is doing that it shouldn’t?
• How did you feel about this year’s coverage of the Invitational?
• Is there anything that should be added to the coverage?
• Subtracted from the coverage?
• Auction of the People (Alphabet Decks)

I am very interested in your feedback. The Invitational is always in flux and feedback like this will help guide where it goes.

That's all I got for today. Join me next week for Kithkin Week.

Until then, may you enjoy watching your babies grow up.

Mark Rosewater

The Orville: 7 Ways It Captures That Classic Star Trek Magic

The Orville might not be a Star Trek show, but it feels like one. Here's why long-time Trekkies adore it so much.

The Orville is odd duck. On the surface, it seems like a spoof of Star Trek , but that's an oversimplification. In contrast to Seth MacFarlane's other work, it tends more towards loving homage than outright parody.

In fact, fans might be shocked to discover how faithful it is. The Orville essentially aims to be an old-school Star Trek show. It forgoes the action spectacle of the modern renditions and returns to the thoughtful utopian vision of the years past. Aside from the obligatory sex joke here and there, the series is actually truer to the Star Trek spirit than any of the franchise's contemporary entries. Ironically, these qualities have led many Trekkies to jump ship and enlist on MacFarlane's crew.

7 Intellect, Not Emotion

Star Trek was always the thinking man's space adventure. It tackled complex issues in an intelligent way . Rarely was there a definitive right or wrong choice in a given conflict. Rather, the writers weighed the merits of numerous perspectives. Sadly, the writers behind Discovery and Picard neglect to do that. In those shows, the characters look at problems through the lens of gut emotional responses, giving less thought or depth to differing perspectives.

RELATED: Star Trek Characters Who Just Make The Dumbest Decisions

The Orville considers those opposing viewpoints. Even issues which seem obvious are only simple on the surface. Resolutions don't come without measuring the moral, ethical, and political ramifications. Otherwise, it would oversimplify any multicultural dilemmas it raises.

6 It's Not Just An Action Show

To appeal to a wider audience, Star Trek has incorporated more and more bombastic battle scenes into its recent entries. They have adapted a breakneck pace straight out of Star Wars and enough explosions to make Michael Bay blush. These sequences may be entertaining, but they were never what Star Trek was meant to be, as the franchise was never big on action spectacle. Granted, part of that came down to the low budget. Such limitation bred creativity, though, and helped establish the series as a more thoughtful sci-fi property than its peers .

The Orville is similarly scant on thrills. Like the works that inspired it, the show prefers to contemplate each scenario before resorting to violence. Even then, the action is usually basic and short-lived. This arguably makes it more impactful.

5 Aesthetic

Again, budget was never the appeal of the original Star Trek . That's plain to see in the original series with its dime-store props and recycled sets. Even with The Next Generation and the following shows in the '90s, the franchise wasn't nearly as showy as its sci-fi contemporaries. The tools, costumes, and environments looked functional without much gloss or sheen. That all changed in the 2009 movie, however.

With that film and the TV shows which came after, Star Trek has sought to emulate big-screen blockbusters. It has more elaborate designs, lens flares everywhere, and CGI as far as the eye can see. Though visually impressive at times , this newly-minted style feels a bit too busy.

RELATED: Family Guy: Episodes That Are Better Now Than When They First Aired

MacFarlane and company don't have that budget. At the very least, they don't flaunt it. The Orville has a simplistic interior, and its crew sport streamlined uniforms which seem easy to wear. Any prosthetics are usually conservative in their use, never impeding an actor's expression. Everything here looks lived-in. This should make it comfortable viewing for those fans missing the quaint aesthetics of yesteryear.

4 Standalone Episodes

Many modern TV shows, especially streaming shows, opt for serialized storytelling. A season functions as a ten-hour movie, each episode leading directly into the next. Watching any individual chapter yields confusion over what came before. Star Trek is no exception to this, but that wasn't always the case.

In the past, the series subsisted on episodic adventures. There might be an overarching plot in the background, but every episode could stand on its own. Even the long-form Deep Space Nine stitched its narrative together with smaller adventures. It presented a tale and resolved it before the credits rolled. This helped with syndication, as there was no guarantee that viewers would see the episodes in the order they were produced. The Orville functions with the same format . Subplots may carry over, but it mostly relies on standalone stories. If it was a network show, it would leave audiences satisfied every week.

3 Familiar Faces

Another area where MacFarlane shows his love is the team that he wrangles. Many actors here worked on previous Star Trek shows . The most prominent is Penny Johnson Gerald. Known for her recurring role as Kasidy Yates on Deep Space Nine , she plays the Orville 's resident doctor. In addition, the show features guest appearances from Brian George, Marina Sirtis, Robert Picardo, Tim Russ, John Billingsley, and numerous others. It doesn't stop there, though.

RELATED: Actors You Forgot Were In Star Trek

The series also has some familiar names behind the camera. Former Star Trek writers like Brannon Braga, David A. Goodman, Andre Bormanis, and Joe Menosky. Not only does their inclusion lend legitimacy to the show, but it also allows the voice of the old Trek to shine through, explaining why it feels so familiar to longtime fans.

2 The Crew & Their Relationships

A ship is nothing without its crew, and recent Trek staff don't always inspire confidence in that area. Their relationships feel contrived, often told instead of shown, and lack chemistry.

The Orville mirrors old Trek shows in achieving that chemistry. Like the Enterprise , Deep Space Nine , and Voyager before it, this vessel's crewmembers feel like a cohesive unit. They engage in small talk, have fun together, and take an interest in each other's lives. Any strife that arises is more believable as a result.

A core pillar of Gene Roddenberry's vision is hope. With Star Trek , he created a future where humanity has overcome past conflicts and come together for a better tomorrow. What's more, they've forged friendships with countless alien species , united in their quest for peace and exploration.

That peace is lost in recent entries. The characters still deal of racism and hostility, and they spend an obscene amount of time lamenting how little progress has been made in the last few centuries. In some recent entries, the setting is now more akin to a dystopia than a utopia.

The Orville isn't nearly as dark, and not just because of its comedic creator. The various races and species here are on good terms. No matter how weird they look or sound, racism is off the table for every galactic denizen. It's a friendly future which viewers would want to live in, one where optimism is alive and well.

MORE: Underappreciated Space Western Shows

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Published Oct 27, 2023

The Not-So-Magic 'Magicks of Megas-Tu'

For its 50th anniversary, we revisit this Animated Series episode.

StarTrek.com

What's the best Star Trek episode? The worst? The funniest? The most emotional?

We could argue this until the sun bloats into a red giant and eventually envelopes Earth's orbit. (Note to self and/or Geordi La Forge: We've gotta figure out a game plan for when that happens.) The point is, it's hard to be too declarative about Star Trek . But I can definitely tell you what the weirdest episode of Star Trek is. It's not the one where Abraham Lincoln appears floating (and seated!) in space. It's from the under-discussed Star Trek: The Animated Series , and it is called “The Magicks of Megas-Tu.”

"The Magicks of Megas-Tu"

From the writer Larry Brody, who later penned the Star Trek: Voyager episode “ Tattoo ,” “The Magicks of Megas-Tu” may seem more like a half-remembered dream than programming intended for kids. I've watched it twice recently and, quite frankly, I don't think I could give you a beat-by-beat breakdown of what happens. It might be a case of storytelling incompetence, but I'd like to believe that this episode is working on such a higher plane that its distant nature is some sort of high art. At the very least, it's quite beautiful to look at.

The Enterprise heads toward the center of the galaxy in the hopes of finding a “creation point” that might be creating new matter. I'm not a cosmologist, but I don't think this is quite accurate. Firstly, there's a black hole at the center of our galaxy, and secondly, the idea of matter escaping a central point is more of a universal big bang. The expansion of new matter, such as it is, would be at the outer rim in my understanding of the concept. Either way, I'm sure that this focal point would not be a place of curved, primary-colored beams leading to a subsequent “drop” through some sort of pan-dimensional portal. (I mean, I haven't been there, but I'm just saying.) But when the Enterprise crew reaches their destination that's what they find, and on the other end of that portal is an interesting fella.

He is a half-man, half-goat who goes by the name of Lucien. Everyone pronounces it with a soft “c” except for Spock, who uses “Lew-sheon.” (Maybe Leonard Nimoy did his voice work on a different day.) He takes the bridge crew down to his planet, which is an amorphous swirl of non-corporeality.

“I'd forgotten how much bodily integrity means to you humans,” Lucien chuckles, and zaps them to a more familiar, Earth-like setting. He then explains how everything they see stems from “magic.” The examples he cites seem more out of vaudeville than a scientific lesson of advanced states of being. He shows a realtor creating a crystal castle out of thin air and a woman who makes herself beautiful to catch the man of her dreams.

Back on the Enterprise , Spock realizes it is logical to accept that in certain places logic does not apply. He uses “magic” to move his chess pieces telekinetically. Not to be outdone, Sulu closes his eyes and blammo – there appears a beautiful female companion!

These fireworks come at a price, and soon the crew find themselves back on the planet's surface and in stocks. The imagery recalls the Salem Witch Trial, and Lucien's fellow Megans are putting humanity on trial... against Lucien's will.

It seems that, centuries ago, the Megans were on Earth, but were run out of town and deemed evil. Much like Q to Picard, the head Megan prosecutor condemns Kirk, but he pleads that progress has been made. At first it seems like he's going to win the case through conversation, but the Pilgrim-looking species from another dimension starts shooting red power spheres out of his palms.

Spock tells Kirk to fight with magic, and what follows is basically indescribable. You kinda need to see this “fight” to believe it. Lots of colors, though, as this is a Saturday Morning cartoon. For one moment, it looks like Kirk is trapped inside a giant wrapper of Fruit Stripe gum.

The Animated Series is by no means Star Trek 's brightest moment, but there were many times when it got pretty interesting from a visual perspective. All the stops are pulled with this one. A flashback story about the Megans zooming to and from Earth shows figures in strange uniforms hurling through space. The final battle scene is an exciting explosion of bright, primary colors.

The punchline comes when Lucien reveals his other name — Lucifer. So, the “good guy” in this episode is the Devil? Humanist James T. Kirk brushes this away, “We're not interested in legend. He's a living being!” Then the episode ends. You could NOT get away with something like this today.

If "The Magicks of Megas-Tu” is baffling to an adult, one can only imagine what a kid watching this October of 1973 was thinking. If you have memories of seeing this one in your youth, we're itching to hear about it!

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This article was originally published on December 12, 2014.

Jordan Hoffman is a writer, critic and lapsed filmmaker living in New York City. His work can also be seen on Film.com, ScreenCrush and Badass Digest. On his BLOG, Jordan has reviewed all 727. On his BLOG, Jordan has reviewed all 727 Trek episodes and films, most of the comics and some of the novels.

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Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad

• Episode aired Oct 29, 2017

As the U.S.S. Discovery crew attempts to let loose at a party, an unwelcome visitor comes aboard bringing about a problematic and twisted sequence of events. As the U.S.S. Discovery crew attempts to let loose at a party, an unwelcome visitor comes aboard bringing about a problematic and twisted sequence of events. As the U.S.S. Discovery crew attempts to let loose at a party, an unwelcome visitor comes aboard bringing about a problematic and twisted sequence of events.

• David Barrett
• Gene Roddenberry
• Bryan Fuller
• Alex Kurtzman
• Sonequa Martin-Green
• Shazad Latif
• 56 User reviews
• 37 Critic reviews

• Michael Burnham

• Paul Stamets

• Sylvia Tilly

• Captain Gabriel Lorca

• Dr. Hugh Culber

• Stella Grimes

• Baron Grimes

• Deck Crew #1

• Keyla Detmer

• Medical Officer

• Deck Crew #2

• Discovery Computer

• Joann Owosekun
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia The map showing the territories of the Federation and Klingon Empire show Klingon outposts called 'Khitomer' and 'Rura Penthe'. Both planets played a big role in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) , and Khitomer is also noteworthy as the place where Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) spent most of his youth.
• Goofs When Michael Burnham and Paul Stamets are dancing in the hallway in the background a lady in a bright red dress and a man walking out of the hallway into a room. Two cuts later they again walk into the same room.

Paul Stamets : As days go, this is a weird one.

• Connections Featured in After Trek: Lethe (2017)
• Soundtracks We Trying To Stay Alive (uncredited) Written by Barry Gibb , Maurice Gibb , Robin Gibb , Pras Michel (as Michel Prakazrel), Wyclef Jean & John Forte Performed by Wyclef Jean featuring Refugee Allstars Sampling "Stayin' Alive" performed by The Bee Gees

User reviews 56

• russmillerwy-957-682439
• Oct 29, 2017
• How can a living creature (the gormagander) live in space?
• October 29, 2017 (United States)
• United States
• Official Site
• Pinewood Toronto Studios, Port Lands, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Studio)
• Roddenberry Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 47 minutes

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The Art of Walt Disney: From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdom and Beyond (Disney100 Celebration Edition)

Why we like it: Disney has been celebrating its 100th anniversary all year with festivities that have included an avalanche of commemorative merch . This book by author and photographer Christopher Finch has become a classic for Disney fans since its original release back in 1973, and it’s now available in a revised, updated, and aesthetically spiffed-up new version. According to publisher Abrams Books, it offers “a comprehensive history and tribute to the career and legacy of Walt Disney” and “was the first to reveal the wealth of concept art, animation drawings, and archival material that is created in the course of animating films.”

Price: $100 Where to buy: Abrams Books , Amazon

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: The Art of the Movie

Why we like it: Ramin Zahed’s official tie-in book delves into the 2023 Sony Pictures Animation sequel, the second in the eye-poppingly dynamic series that kicked off with the 2018 Oscar winner Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse. Creating the dazzling array of characters and settings explored in the multiverse tale was no small task, and this up-close look at Across the Spider-Verse contains “exclusive concept art, sketches, character designs, and storyboards from the visually innovative film, as well as interviews with key creators such as writers/producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who offer insights into their creative process.” Check out an excerpt from the book here .

Price: $40 Where to buy: Abrams Books , Amazon

Spielberg: The First Ten Years

Why we like it: Most directors don’t have decades-long careers full of so many hits you need an entire volume to chart just “the first 10 years,” but Steven Spielberg isn’t most directors. The time period spanned by author and documentarian Laurent Bouzereau’s book—1971-1982—includes deep dives into now-classic features like Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Price: $70 Where to buy: Insight Editions , Amazon

Dune Part One: The Photography

Why we like it: While sci-fi fans wait ( and wait ) for Denis Villeneuve’s next Frank Herbert adaptation, Dune: Part Two, there’s no better eye-candy feast than this collection of images from the Oscar-winning first film, shot on location by unit photographer Chiabella James. The book also features commentary from stars like Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson (who also wrote the preface), Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Zendaya, and Jason Momoa, plus a foreword by executive producer Tanya Lapointe and an afterword by Brian Herbert. Get a look inside the book here .

Price: $60 Where to buy:   Insight Editions , Amazon

A Masterpiece in Disarray: David Lynch’s Dune - An Oral History

Why we like it: And then there’s David Lynch’s Dune—not a multi-Oscar winner by any means, but a cult classic that’s inspired plenty of curiosity over the years. Author Max Evry gathers new interviews with stars like Kyle MacLachlan, Sean Young, and Virginia Madsen, as well as “creatives, film executives, and insiders” and even director Lynch himself to excavate the true story behind this legendary and oft-misunderstood 1984 Hollywood oddity. Read an excerpt here .

Price: $22.99 Where to buy:   1984 Publishing , Amazon

Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road

Why we like it: This Hugo-nominated book by New York Times pop-culture journalist Kyle Buchanan offers “a full-speed-ahead” oral history of George Miller’s stunning 2015 action epic , which won six Oscars and racked up audience acclaim despite a brutal production plagued by harsh weather and notoriously dangerous conditions. Miller and stars Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy are among the interviewees in the book, which traces “Fury Road’s unexpected origins, through its outlandish casting process to the big-studio battles that nearly mutilated a masterpiece ... and astonishing facts behind a shoot so unconventional that the film’s fantasy world began to bleed into the real lives of its cast and crew.”

Price: $23.19 Where to buy:   HarperCollins , Amazon

Labyrinth: Bestiary - A Definitive Guide to the Creatures of the Goblin King’s Realm

Why we like it: Any fan of Jim Henson’s 1986 fantasy would break out into a spontaneous performance of “Magic Dance” upon receiving this collector’s volume by S.T. Bende, which explores the “wondrous beings and chaotic critters” that populate the movie as well as the tie-in comics and novelization. What’s more, the book includes “a stunning sketchbook featuring exclusive artwork from award-winning illustrator Iris Compiet, a selection of three beautiful art prints, and a signature card signed by the artist.”

Price: $200 Where to buy:   Insight Editions ; if you don’t need the extra flair, Insight Editions and Amazon also have a version for $35

The Wicker Man: The Official Story of the Film

Why we like it: Released in 1973, The Wicker Man is still the definitive folk-horror movie—and is just as chilling now as it was over 50 years ago. This book explores the movie’s origins, deploying “fascinating behind-the-scenes photography, new interviews, exclusive artwork, and never-before-seen material from the StudioCanal archives” to weave its tale.

Price: $50 Where to buy:   Titan Books , Amazon

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - The Making of the Classic Film

Why we like it: Every Star Trek fan’s coffee table needs two things: a bowl of revenge (served cold), and this handsome volume chronicling the making-of 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It contains “rare and previously unpublished archival material, behind-the-scenes photography, production art, cut scenes, script extracts, and much more, alongside new and exclusive interviews with the creatives, including director Nicholas Meyer.” Get a peek inside the book here .

The X-Files: The Official Archives: Cryptids, Biological Anomalies, and Parapsychic Phenomena

Why we like it: This release from author and X-Files superfan Paul Terry is styled as a collection of “case files” pulled from the desks of FBI agents Scully and Mulder (check out a look inside and an author interview here )—making it a fun reference volume for fans wanting to know more details about the show’s most fascinating and monstrous cases. Terry has a second volume, The X-Files: The Official Archives: Volume II: Extraterrestrial Activity and the Syndicate, due out next year; you can learn more about that here .

Price: $50 Where to buy: Abrams Books , Amazon

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Magic Carpet Ride

• View history

Cochrane holding a recording of "Magic Carpet Ride"

" Magic Carpet Ride " was a song performed by the Human rock and roll group Steppenwolf .

Zefram Cochrane , a fan of rock and roll music, played "Magic Carpet Ride" during the launch of Earth 's first warp ship , the Phoenix , in 2063 . Copilots William T. Riker and Geordi La Forge , and Deanna Troi in mission control, were rather bemused by Cochrane's taste in music, of which Troi received an unexpectedly loud introduction, as she was wearing a headset. ( Star Trek: First Contact )

In 2381 , a hologram of Zefram Cochrane played the song, while Mariner , Boimler , Tendi , Rutherford , and Gavin were aboard the Phoenix replica . ( LD : " Grounded ")

• 2.1 Background information
• 2.2 External links

I like to dream yes, yes, right between my sound machine On a cloud of sound I drift in the night Any place it goes is right Goes far, flies near, to the stars away from here Well, you don't know what we can find Why don't you come with me little girl On a magic carpet ride You don't know what we can see Why don't you tell your dreams to me Fantasy will set you free Close your eyes girl Look inside girl Let the sound take you away Last night I held Aladdin's lamp …

Appendices [ ]

Background information [ ].

"Magic Carpet Ride" was written by Steppenwolf members Rushton Moreve and John Kay , and was released in 1968 as a single and on the album The Second .

"Magic Carpet Ride" is copyright MCA Music (BMI). Excerpts from the song are published under "fair use" rules.

The song can be found on the soundtrack for First Contact .

External links [ ]

• " Magic Carpet Ride " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Magic Carpet Ride " at Wikipedia
• 2 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)