Multiverse Tonight - The Podcast about All Your Geeky Universes
Multiverse Tonight - The Podcast about All Your Geeky Universes
Don't Call Me Shirley
Feeling the chill in the air? So am I, as I cozy up in my revamped recording space surrounded by new autographs and a trusty bookshelf. Join me, Thomas Townley, on Multiverse Tonight as we navigate the geek universe, starting with my take on John Scalzi's audiobooks, "Starter Villain" and "Redshirts," brilliantly narrated by Wil Wheaton. DC fans, prepare for an emotional tribute with the upcoming HBO documentary on Christopher Reeve, a hero both on and off the screen. And Marvel enthusiasts, you'll want to hear why they've ditched QR codes from their comics, aiming to preserve the classic reading experience.
From cosmic adventures to heartfelt farewells, the entertainment world offers plenty to discuss. Sterling K. Brown teaming up with Henry Cavill for the live-action Voltron film promises a thrilling ride for fans of the legendary franchise. Plus, mark your calendars for Valentine's Day 2025 as Paddington in Peru slides into the spotlight, promising to charm audiences anew. We also pay our respects to the beloved game show host Chuck Woolery and comedic mastermind Jim Abrahams, whose legacies leave a lasting imprint on entertainment. Tune in for a heartfelt mix of creativity, nostalgia, and a few goodbyes.
Thanks for listening! Come visit the podcast at https://www.multiversetonight.com/
Tonight remembering the Band of Steel, marvel Throws Away QR, star Trek on the Switch, and remember Chuck Woolery and Jim Abrams. All that and more on this edition of Multiverse Tonight.
Speaker 2:Comic books, sci-fi, fantasy and more. If you're looking for a roundup of geeky news, you're in the right place. This is Multiverse Tonight, and here's your host, Thomas Townley.
Speaker 1:Well, hello everyone and welcome to episode 228 of Multiverse. Tonight I'm, of course, your host, Thomas Townley, and, uh, it's a cold one today. It's, you know, upper 30s, low 20s at night. You know the winter is finally settling in, you know, but I've been keeping myself busy. If you are watching on the video, you'll notice the wall behind me. You'll see more autographs are being put up.
Speaker 1:I've got a new bookshelf right there behind me as well For all my DVDs and media items, but while the past two weeks I've been listening to a couple of books on tape or audiobooks for you 21st century people. When I started out they were actually on tape, so yeah, I'm old. Anyway, first off, I'd like to talk about John Scalzi's latest book, starter Villain, and it's an excellent book. Folks Pick it up, read it. I really enjoyed the humor and the smart humor of it, basically taking you through why billionaires realistically aren't that rich you know, especially if their money's locked up and locked up in other things.
Speaker 1:But it was a a great book. I, you know I liked, uh, listening to it. I did have, trump, some problems with Wil Wheaton, I think. Towards the end of the book, for some reason, his reading became very stilted, you know. It became a line, another line, another line, another line and so on. It's like you know he just he seemed to be almost bored with his narration. Seemed to be almost bored with his narration. But, that being said, it's a good book. Give it a good 4 out of 5 stars. So I encourage you to go get that. Also, I went and listened to one of his earlier books of John Scalzi's Red Shirts.
Speaker 1:Most of you might know this. I've known about this book. I've just never had the need, the want to really read it. It's like, eh, do I need to really read this? But I thought, what the hell Might as well? And, yeah, I agree, it's an excellent book. John Scalzi is an excellent geek writer. He makes very good points throughout the book and Wil Wheaton's narration on this one is actually pretty good. It's actually pretty lifelike to me. Anyway, I do encourage you to go read those. Give this one basically a 4.5 out of 5. Anyway, yeah, anyway is my crutch word.
Speaker 1:Let's go on with the DC Comics News and we begin dc comics news with superman. The christopher reeve story, the award-winning documentary from filmmakers ian boh and Peter Edugi McQueen, which is set to premiere on HBO at 8 pm Eastern Pacific time on Saturday, december 7th and will also be available to stream on Max. Now recently winning six Critics Documentary Awards, including Best Documentary Feature, superman Super Slash man, comes to HBO and Max after hitting theaters in wide release on October 11th. Now the filmmakers. The film examines how. The film examines how late Superman star Reeve persevered following a life-altering accident by using his fame to speak of hope and to change our perception of paralysis, all while remaining a dedicated activist, actor and filmmaker to both dad and loving husband, to Dana Reeve, the beating heart of the family. Chronically Reeve's personal and professional life before and after the near-fatal horseback accident which left him paralyzed in 1995 from the neck down. The doc uses Reeves' own words as an intimate input from his closest family and friends to paint a rich, nuanced picture of a man who refused to be defined by his physicality and who proved that you don't need tights and cape to be a hero.
Speaker 1:Now let's go on to the Marvel Comics News no-transcript. However, comic series like Wolverine and Uncanny X-Men all had this wave of new QR content, but now it seems that Marvel has decided to get rid of it in light of fans' pushback. Writing on Substack, marvel senior editor Tom Breverhut clarified the publisher's use of this next-gen technology in response to a fan question, explaining the reasoning for Marvel's QR codes in the QA and why they were subsequently removed after a fan noticed the lack of QR codes back in the freshly released Storm 1. While many fans were not thrilled about the QR codes, river notes that the secret additional page was meant to be bonus content as opposed to an incomplete story. In his explanation of the QR code's removal, riveroot also noted that the current ongoing X-Men series, which no longer contains the QR codes, will include fewer pages, since the additional content was not meant to be consequential to the story. Nevertheless, many readers were not fans of the multimedia marketing campaign, and so Marvel's decision to discontinue it makes sense.
Speaker 1:Upon the release of Marvel's new code system, there was an outcry from unsatisfied fans who were perplexed by the attempt at innovation and mixed media. One major concern was that physical comic books were introducing a digital aspect, meaning people would have to use their phones to scan the code and read the final page on a small digital screen. Many noted that the new format made reading the last page difficult, as it was not in its intended upscale form. Marvel's Tom Brivert commented on the matter in response to the fan's query quote question does Storm number one lack of a QR page mean the practice is done? Initially it was said that would be from the Ashes books, but, oh my God, it made my day having to have the last page printed instead of hidden away. I'm a bit confused about what does and doesn't have one. It seems like Dazzler didn't, but Wolverine did.
Speaker 1:I ended up picking up a few books because of missing pages. Would have been better. Nice to see this advertised, don Brevard. Well, first off, I know what you don't want to believe me when I say this, andrew, but none of those X books was missing a page, and what this meant for Storm is that you actually got a few fewer in that title than you did on the others, because those QR code pages were bonus content, not actual necessary part of the story at all.
Speaker 1:In the end, though, given all of the pushback, what we saw from fans on the initial ones, I simply stopped doing them for the books launching in September and later. Why put in an extra effort just so the fans would be unhappy with us? It didn't make sense at that point. As Brevert stated, it was his editorial decision to discontinue the practice, which, quote, didn't make much sense. Unquote to double down on the stuff that the fan base disliked about it. Unfortunately, marvel's inclusion of the QR codes at the end of X-Men books was a departure from its usual format, leaving a lot of readers confused about its intended purpose. So there you have it, folks. Yeah, they tried to innovate something new. You didn't really get it, so they're going to stop. Yeah, it is what it is.
Speaker 1:Anyway, let's have some, let's have a little bit of Star Trek news. Haya Toys is back with another exquisite miniseries figure and they step into the final frontier once again. This time, christopher Pike, the iconic character from the Starship universe, who was first introduced as the captain of the Starship Enterprise back in the original 1966 pilot episode of the Cage, played by Geoffrey Hunter, has, of course, now been played in later iterations by Bruce Greenwood in the Kelvin timeline and most recently, anson Mount in from start, who started Star Trek discovery and now strange new worlds. Hiya toys is now stepping into the strange new worlds with new, a new one eighth teenth scale figure, with Pike coming in about four inches tall and packed with detail. He is featured in his yellow command uniform and will come with a communicator phaser and a beam-me-up base with the Star Trek logo.
Speaker 1:Hopefully, more strange New World figures are on the way and we'll have fans build his crew in the glorious 118th scale. Fans can expand their Star Trek roster once again with Hyatoids for $24.99. Pre-orders are now live and he is set to get released in December of 2025. For many years it's been slim picking for Star Trek games on the Nintendo and while we've got our fingers crossed that Star Trek Resurgence will get ported sooner rather than later, star Trek Prodigy Supernova Solid Co-op Adventure from Tessera Studios has been the only game to go boldly on the Switch, oh that, and the TNG table and pinball effects.
Speaker 1:However, according to an eShop listing, santa is bringing Trek fans to the present on December 25th in the form of Star Trek Legends, the publisher, cubic Games. One of the two keen fans may recognize the title as Emerald City Games' strategy-based RPG, which launched on Apple Arcade back in 2021 and got a Steam release. Now, in the game, using the Nexus, the MacGuffin from Generations that got Kirk and Picard together, it will be a means of bringing together the famous franchise faces. Legends involves recruiting heroes and villains and going out on missions, engaging in turn-based battle with all the cartoons rendered in a pleasant cartoony style. Now, no one's played the game anywhere else, but it's, of course, non-canon, with Star Trek royalty duking it out on different teams. Ultimately, despite the story, making numbers go up seems to be in the name of the game and involves it looks like microtransactions could be involved, but maybe not. Now let's. Here's the blurb from the eShop Prepare for adventure.
Speaker 1:Dive into the action with characters spanning the entire Star Trek universe. Take command of the USS Aramis and recruit a team of legendary Star Trek characters. As you embark on daring missions, experience epic turn-based combat and make choices that influence the game's entire story. Assemble your team. Ever wanted to master Spock's falcon neck pinch or battle with Worst Deadly Batleth? Now is your chance. Recruit, command over 70 iconic characters from the Star Trek universe, including Kirk, spock, picard, janeway, data, burnham Pike and many more. Send your Star Trek team on critical missions that will test your crew's skills and ingenuity.
Speaker 1:Earn special rewards by completing collections of characters based on Star Trek shows that appear in or the traits they possess. Plus, you can earn combat bonuses by using multiple Star Trek characters from the same collection in battle. As captain of the USS Armus, you shape the fate of the cosmos. Choose your crew strategically. Each Star Trek character has their own specific skills and abilities to help you outwit, overpower and overcome your enemies. Every decision you make could be the difference between triumph and defeat. Take command, captain. The galaxy awaits your leadership. Dive into the exclusively crafted 3D world of Star Trek Legends. Explore beautifully rendered 3D worlds and interact with fully realized animated characters in this epic Star Trek RPG. The cost will be $11.99, with several DLC characters and three packs for $1.99 apiece.
Speaker 1:Hmm that sounds like it might be worth $12. Anyway, let's get on with the Geek News, and geek news begins with Idris Elba getting ready to help power the masters of the universe for Amazon MGM Studios. Elba is in final negotiations to play Duncan, aka Man-at-Arms in the live-action feature adaptation of the popular Mattel toyline. Travis Knight is directing the movie. That has Nicholas Galzatine set to star as He-Man, alongside Camilla Mendes as Teela and Alison Brie as Evil Lynn. The Masters of the Universe film will hit theaters July 5th 2026 from Escape Artists and Mattel Films.
Speaker 1:Sterling K Brown will star in the live-action Voltron film for Amazon MGM Studios. Brown will join in the live-action Voltron film for Amazon MGM Studios. Brown will join previously announced cast members Henry Cavill and Daniel Quinn Toye, a film newcomer who has appeared in On Tuition in Bad Alts and served as Tom Holland's understudy in Romeo and Juliet on the West End. This spring the film also features Rita Ora and John Kim Earlier. This year Brown was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for his role in Cord Jefferson's American Fiction and appeared with Jennifer Lopez and Simu Liu in Netflix's Atlas. Previous credits include Oscar-winning, emmy-winning performances in the People vs OJ Simpson, american Crime Story and this Is Us, as well as the Marvelous Mrs Maisel Black Panther Hawk. For Jesus, save your soul.
Speaker 1:Brown is next set to star in Dan Fogelman's Hulu series Paradise, alongside James Marsden and Julian Nicholson. Plot details are currently being kept under wraps. The producers include Todd Lieberman via Hidden Pictures, bob Copler, thurber and Robbie Films and David Hopperman. The Voltron TV franchise follows a team of space explorers who pilot a giant super robot. The franchise was adapted from several Japanese animation television shows by Toy Animation and has spawned several American series, including Netflix's eighth season of Voltron Legendary Defender, american series, including Netflix's eighth season of Voltron Legendary Defender. Us audiences will have to wait a little longer to get their Paddington fix, as the successful film franchise's third installment, paddington in Peru, shifts from a January 2025 release to Valentine's Day. Instead of debuting on January 17th, the family film will now bow on February 14th, which also happens to coincide with President's Day weekend.
Speaker 1:The shift positions the family film on a double holiday weekend, which means a large percentage of K-12 students will be out of school for an extended break and, of course, looking for something to do or you know, so the logic goes Panic in 3 debuted in the UK earlier this month and scored a record-breaking opening weekend collecting 9.65 million quid or $12.4 million US the biggest debut for British films since 2021, no Time to Die. The first two Paddington movies also have earned in excess of $600 million globally, with the third installment aiming to make the franchise a billion-dollar hit franchise. And finally, tonight, some sad news. First off game show veteran, chuck Woolery, who hosted the original versions of Wheel of Fortune and Love Connection, died November 23rd. He was 83 years old. Woolery's passing was announced on X by his longtime friend and Blunt Force Truth podcast co-host, mark Young. Quote is with a broken heart that I tell you that my dear brother at Chuck Woolery has just passed Texas home after experiencing trouble breathing.
Speaker 1:Woolery started his career as a country singer and was half of the pop duo. The Avant-Garde was hired as Wheel of Fortune host when the show first launched in 1975. After hosting the show for seven years, he departed over a salary dispute and was replaced by Pat Sajak, who would then pretty much run the show for almost eternity. Quote Chuck Woolery was without the real deal. He was an original. There was no one like Chuck Woolery's Wheel of Fortune co-host Susan Stafford said in a statement Our seven years as the original host and hostess of Wheel of Fortune were like magic. Our deep friendship continued after our time on the show. He was an original. There was no one like Chuck. He had so much energy. It was the same warm, caring, genuine person offstage as he was on. It was very spiritual and we shared a true love for God, which made it even more worthwhile. So grateful to know I will see him again. Love Connection also launched in 1983 with Woolery as its first host, a job he held for 11 years. Other game shows he has hosted or co-hosted through the years include Scrabble from 1984 to 1990 and Short-Lived 1993. Revival, home and Family from 1996 to 1998, the Dating Game no-transcript, creed from 1999 to 2000,. And Lingo from 2002 to 2007. He also hosted his own show, the Chuck Woolery Show, which had a brief run in 1991. Woolery also guest-starred as himself on a number of series, including it's Gary Shandling Show, melrose Place, sister, sister and Scrubs. In 2012, he began hosting a nationally-sending radio show Save Us, chuck Woolery. Years later, he morphed it into a podcast which was retitled Blunt Force Truth.
Speaker 1:Known for his conservative views, woolery found himself in multiple controversies over the past decade involving such subjects as COVID and anti-Semitism. Chuck Woolery was 83 years old and he'll be back in 2 and 2. Finally tonight, jim Abrams part of the writing, directing, producing team behind such comedy touchstones as Airplane, the Naked Gun Films and Police Squad, died Tuesday at Santa Monica Home at the age of 80. His son, joseph Abrams, confirmed the news to the Hollywood Reporter. Along with Abrams, david and Jerry Zucker, abrams also was behind laugh-inducing and often intentionally groan-inducing comedy films, including Top Secret and the Top Gun Spoofs, hot Shots and Hot Shots Part Deux Students of the Mel Brooks School of Anything for a Laugh. The trio paired absurd situations with deadpan lines and fueled Leslie Nielsen's unlikely rise to leading man after 30 years in the business.
Speaker 1:The trio got their big start writing the Kentucky Fried Movie 1977, a series of decidedly un-PC vignettes directed by John Landis that ranged from silly to uproarious to what the hell and back. Example a TV news anchor deadpants from behind a desk I'm not wearing any pants film at 11. Several of the independently made pics risque and unapologetically crude sketches would be inappropriate to do. But it was in 1990 that it all changed for Zucker, abrams, zucker, also known simply as Zazz. The trio barely assaulted theaters with Paramount's Airplane, a no-hold-barred send-up of 70s disaster movies that starred Leslie Nielsen alongside Robert Hayes, julie Haggerty and a cameo cast of 50s and 60s TV stars and others playing it ever not so straight. Who could ever forget Peer Graves' fish-eating pilot, barbara Billingsley's jive-talking passenger, robert Stack's aerocerbic military vet, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's slow-boiling co-pilot? Oh wait, that was Roger Murdoch.
Speaker 1:Comedy geeks of a certain age probably all ages revere the film's litany of quibble lines such as Do you like films about gladiators? How soon can we land? I can't tell. You can tell me, I'm a doctor, we have clearance, clearance, roger roger, what's the vector? Victor, this woman has gotten to a hospital. A hospital what is it? It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now. Et A hospital what is it? It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1:Airplane was a commercial and critical hit that made it to the New York Times 2003 list of the best 1,000 movies ever made. It earned a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Screenplay, a Golden Globe nom for Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical and the Writers Guild another medium, a Writers Guild Award for best comedy adapted from their medium. It also was selected in 2010 for the National Film Registry, which will ensure its survival, conservation and increased public ability of the nation's film heritage. The pick spawned a 1982 Kitchen Sink sequel that brought most of the band back together and continued the knee-slapping or face-palming punchlines, unrepentant sight gags and impressive line readings Fourth wall be damned. It also led to Police Squad, a brilliant but short-lived 1982 ABC sitcom that starred Nielsen as LAPD detective Frank Drebin and earned Abrams and Zuckers an Emmy nod for writing.
Speaker 1:Now you'll get to 1988 and Nielsen's Trebon, now a lieutenant, hit the big screen in the Naked Gun, which combined airplane shameless gaggery with the elements of Brooks and Buck Henry's Get Smart, crossed with 70s cop dramas Subtitles from the Files of Police Squad. The film co-starred Priscilla Presley as Trebon's love interest and OJ Simpson as his accent-prone fellow cop, and borrowed some of the jokes from the series as it spoofed a US visit by Queen Elizabeth. The impeccably coiffed and collected Drebin and company returned in 1991 with the Naked Gun 2 1⁄2 the Smell of Fear, and again in 1994 with the Naked Gun 33 1⁄3. The trilogy combined to gross more than $216 million globally and a reboot starring Leslie Nielsen and directed by Lonely Island's Akiva Schaefer, was set to hit theaters in August. Along the way, abrams and his childhood friends, the Zucker Brothers, continue to twist parodic knives into unsuspecting genres, skewering the spy game with Top Secret starring Gif Val Kilmer and Omar Sharif. Top Gun with Hot Shots, which starred Charlie Sheen and Carrie Elwes, with Airplane Alum, loic Bridges, ephraim Zimbalist and others. Hot Shots Part Deux followed in 1993, and the films combined to bank more than $312 million worldwide.
Speaker 1:Born on May 10, 1944, in Shorewood, wisconsin, abrams also directed Big Business and, with the Zuckers, 1986's Ruthless People. He wrote and directed the 1998 organized crime send-up Mafia starring Jay Moore and Bridges and, in something of a genre departure, also helmed the 1990 dramedy Welcome Home, roxy Carmichael, which starred Renona Ryder and Jeff Daniels. Last year he saw the publication of Surely you Can't Be Serious, a memoir penned by Abrams and the Zuckers about the making of Airplane that borrowed its title from Hayes' famous line that fed Nielsen's more famous retort I am serious, don't call me Shirley. Along with son Joseph, survivors include Abrams' wife of nearly 50 years, nancy, son Charlie, daughter Jamie and three grandchildren. Again, jim Abrams was 80 years old, and that brings us to the end of this edition of the show.
Speaker 1:Now please be sure to check us out on social media. We're on Blue Sky and Twitter at Multiverse. Tom, although I'm really not much on Twitter anymore, it's most likely you know, I'm just kind of lurking there Threads, facebook and Instagram at Multiverse Tonight, and if you've gotten some value of the show, would you please pay it back. Head on over to multiverstenightcom where you can find our Patreon and Ko-fi links. Check out the show notes, visit our TeePublic store, leave some feedback and so much more. And this is your first time listening. Thank you and welcome. Go ahead, hit that subscribe button, share it with others. Special thanks to Shane Ivers for the intro music and Lobo Loco for the outro theme music. Thanks for watching this edition of Multiverse Tonight. We'll be back in two weeks with more sci-fi and comic book news. Now please exit the universe in an orderly fashion. Good night. Multiverse Tonight is a production of Half-Baked Genre Productions. Copyright 2024. This podcast.
