Category: Musings

Super Sentai Ends In 2026

Source: https://comicbookmovie.com/sci_fi/power-rangers/toei-officially-confirms-50-year-super-sentai-saga-concludes-in-2026-a225228

The end of Super Sentai after fifty long years is nigh… and I’m not quite sure what to think. I figured that it would survive in some form or fashion without the Power Rangers partnership, but I didn’t think that it would also die off. I know that PR isn’t technically dead because Hasbro is going to milk that thing for all it’s worth, but we went from three decades of consistent product to nothing and it’s been a shithole ever since.

Yes, there are rumors of this and that, but until something substantial happens and not just some random hack writer’s fantasy sways at Screen Rant being passed off as actual news, there is no reason for me to believe that this franchise is dead and buried. Hell, Boom’s fancy new Prime series is supposedly coming to an end after sixteen issues and no word on what comes afterwards, if anything comes at all.

I wish I could be more upbeat about this, but right now, it seems like all we have to look forward to whatever Hasbro can squeeze out of those Mighty Morphin Member Berries for all their worth. Folks hoping that we’d go beyond that point had better get comfortable. You’re probably gonna get more MMPR whether you want it or not. Gone are the days when a WWE wrestler pulls down another WWE wrestler’s pants to reveal that they’re wearing Power Rangers Time Force underwear. That ain’t happening anymore. Now they’ll be wearing Ptera Ranger socks or something.

Eh… whatever. I’ve got the old shit to rewatch on Youtube… and the DVDs… I’m feeling fine right now.

Boo Goes The Doctor – How Chef Handles Castlevania Wall Meat

I’ve taken the liberty of asking ChatGPT how Gordon Ramsay would react to Castlevania Wall Meat. This is the response I was given…

Continue reading “Boo Goes The Doctor – How Chef Handles Castlevania Wall Meat”

Re-Ignition On Netflix

In dabbling the Netflix for my one-month stay on the service, I noticed that they still have the old MMPR episodes. For reference, this is Netflix Canada; not sure about the US, but the only things left on the service are the three seasons of MMPR, Beast Morphers, and the Dino/Cosmic Fury package… oh, and Once And Always is there too.

Curiously, they’ve replaced the 2010 reversioned MMPR run with the “new” Re-Ignition episodes. For those who don’t know, Re-Ignition is Hasbro’s latest recycling of the first season of MMPR; apparently upscaled to HD with AI hackery and with each episode having a tacked on “Mighty Morphin Minute” at the end of each episode featuring some poor voiceover dude trying so hard to be hip and cool to the younguns and failing miserably. I hope he got paid regardless. Anyway, Netflix has all sixty episodes of Season 1 under this Re-Ignition gimmick while Youtube is still at Episode 54 (the Trick Or Treat episode… one of a number of Halloween-themed episodes in MMPR was uploaded in the first week of December.)

So for those who are indifferent towards this whole rebranding thing, rejoice! There’s only six more episodes to go before this thing closes up shop and chances are we never talk about this again unless Hasbro decides to go full bore with this thing because it’s cheaper than putting out a brand-new show from scratch.

This is where I’m reduced to when talking about Power Rangers these days.

Damn, that’s depressing…

No Interest In John Cena’s Last Match

Well, they decided on the finals of the “Who Gets To Retire John Cena” tournament that will take place on this week’s Smackdown and it boils down to either GUNTHER or LA Knight. All due respect to both superstars, I honestly don’t care. GUNTHER doesn’t really need the rub from such a match and while I’d like to see LA Knight be used more effectively than he has been, somehow I don’t see him beating John Cena. If anything, they’re giving John one last guy to feed if the former Eli Drake ends up being the last guy.

I’ve maintained that there was only one guy that I had any interest in seeing wrestle John Cena. That guy had mentioned it in interviews and made it a mission of sorts. I’m disappointed that the match hasn’t happened, though I’m honestly not surprised, either. This John Cena retirement tour has been a thing that happened. Not necessarily a good thing, not necessarily a bad thing… well, if you want to count that heel turn as a bad thing, go right ahead, but it just felt like a complete waste of time. It’s either going in a direction that was left to drift because one of the key instigators of that direction decided that he had to go now (his planet needed him) or it’s just rehashing shit that I’ve already seen before and replaying all the classics. And hey, credit where it’s due; people have eaten up the rehashing of the classics… but I just prefer to revisit those matches in the archives.

So yeah, this last match is no buys for me… but then again, a lot of wrestling these days seems to be no buys for me. I’m wondering if the universe is telling me something.

THE BITE COMMENTAIES #10 – Sith At 20

This past May marked the 20th anniversary of the third Star Wars prequel film, Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith, which finally paid off its long-running story of how Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker fell to the dark side and eventually became Darth Vader. And if you want to me to tell how I felt about the film at the time, I thought it was the only really good film out of the prequel since everyone died. And I wasn’t the only one who thought that because a bunch of people I went to see the film with thought it was the only really good prequel out of the bunch because everyone died.

Now we all know that statement is a bit of a fib. Not everyone died, obviously; this isn’t Rogue One, for cryin’ out loud. But the cast of characters that were introduced in prior prequel films were either killed off or cast aside to make way for the characters that people actually cared about to come along and have the adventures they had back in 77 and the circle would be complete or some deal like that.

Continue reading “THE BITE COMMENTAIES #10 – Sith At 20”

Sea Devils Serial Gets New Re-Release Despite RTD’s Efforts

Source: https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/doctor-who-sea-devils-special-106375.htm

The classic Jon Pertwee-helmed 1972 Doctor Who serial, The Sea Devils, is getting a fresh new special edition edit coming to BBC’s exclusive online streamer gimmick, due in December. Not mentioned in the story is RTD’s attempts to get the special renamed “The Homo Aquas” since he considers the original “Sea Devil” name to be “racist” and actually considers the Doctor to be the villain since he was played by a white dude. The BBC, naturally, told him to fuck off and go back to his silly Christmas special.

The Sea Devils: Special Edition sees release on December 7th.

A Sixty-Two Year Journey To Get To Doctor Boo

On this day, about sixty two years ago, the very first telecast of Doctor Who aired on BBC television. I never saw that first story in any way, shape, or form. Maybe one day, I can rectify that, but for now, I just want to talk not about the wonderful program Doctor Who that has endured six decades, but rather the bludgeoned two year parody I refer to as Doctor Boo.

Actually, I don’t want to talk about that show, either… but I felt it’s as good a time as any to catch up on any news regarding the show’s future that doesn’t involve Big Finish or an abortive children’s television fare.

Continue reading “A Sixty-Two Year Journey To Get To Doctor Boo”

John Cena Tourney Stirs Up Nontroversy

Alright, so this John Cena tournament where whoever wins gets to retire John Cena at some Saturday Night show somewhere is baffling to me. Not so much the concept of it, which at least looks like it’ll have bigger stakes than just a hokey retirement match after John Cena won his first Intercontinental championship last week on RAW… but rather some of the reactions to the content.

So Jey Uso beats the Miz to advance in the tourney and people are all of a sudden up in arms because they wanted Miz to win since he “deserved it” for some reason. Granted, Miz has some history with John Cena – don’t feel bad if you don’t remember since he was the spare tire in the feud between Cena and Dwayne around that time – but for people to suddenly say that Miz “deserves” one more match with Cena? Really? Are we upset that Miz didn’t win or are we upset because Jey did?

It’s no secret that there are those who feel Jey Uso is getting a bit of the personal project treatment – the guy WWE decided to push as the next big main event guy despite people not wanting anything to do with him. Personally, I’ve got no issues with the guy. He’s entertaining enough, he has charisma, and his matches are fine. I was more than willing to give this guy a chance during his run as World Champion and honestly thought he should won it again in his match against Punk. I’m no Jey apologist, but compared to some of the guys this company tried to push that didn’t work, Jey Uso is the farthest thing from a failure as you can get.

But, for some reason, Jey Uso is the guy people want nothing to do with and Miz should have been the one… the guy who has done nothing of significance in years besides show up for work and be the steady veteran who works with the younger guys to get them to that next stage. That’s not a knock on the guy; the fact that he’s still around and still active is something to commended, especially in this day and age… but other than a brief fart as WWE Champion during the “prevailing circumstances” a few years back, when was the last time Miz was involved in anything truly worthwhile? Because I honestly can’t think of any.

And then there’s the nontroversy over LA Knight’s mystery opponent, which people presumed was going to be Edge… despite the fact that he’s still under contract with another company. Or maybe it could have been Chris Jericho, who may or may not be rumored to be coming back to WWE… and if that’s the case, do you really want to waste that return on a night where he jobs to the former Eli Drake? Where’s that Dummy button?

And so instead, we get Zack Ryder… and look, I’m happy for Matt Cardona. He had a good run in the indies, he built himself some name value, and I’m glad to see that WWE saw enough value to bring him back for a short deal. I do wish he had come back under his own name rather than revert back to the Woo Woo guy, but hey, a return is a return and people were genuinely happy to see him based on the reaction he got on Smackdown.

But then we go on the social medias and “Aw man, the Woo Woo guy? You could have brought back anyone else – Edge, Jericho, even Big Vito for Russo’s sake – and instead you bring back the fucking Woo Woo guy? Are you serious, broski?!”

Okay, listen… those names you mentioned. Barring their current circumstances, if there was any chance of them coming back, do you honestly think we’re wasting it on LA Knight on Smackdown? Don’t you think they deserve a bigger deal than a throwaway match on some random RAW or Smackdown?

Besides, aren’t you glad that it isn’t GUNTHER who ended being the guy? Because that’s another one that the social monkeys don’t want to see anymore because… fuck knows at this point.

By the way, aren’t these the same morons who cried fouled when WWE released R-Truth from his contract and the noise got to a point where they just had to bring him back? Even gave him a re-invention of sorts? Where’s that guy now? Where’s the outrage for Truth being left out of this thing? Do you even remember the guy still being around? Imagine how much more Ron Killings could have done elsewhere… he would have killed.

As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one John Cena match that I want to see happen. Do I think it will? Probably not, because I don’t enough people believe…

Nah, I’m pushing it.

It’s Dangerous. It’s Devious. It’s A Grievance With Xevious 7800 On Atari 50.

So the Namco Legendary DLC for Atari 50 was released this past Thursday and contained a number of Atari ports of classic Namco arcade hits. You’ve got the 2600 version of Pac-Man that everyone hates (no, shut up. Nobody likes this game. Fuck you.) as well as the 8-bit versions. You’ve got 2600 and 5200 versions of Galaxian and Dig Dug, while also getting the 7800 versions of Galaga, Dig Dug, and Xevious. The game even includes the arcade Dig Dug and Xevious since Atari published both games in the U.S. once upon a time, which is nice to know.

Less nice is the fact that Xevious on 7800 is stuck on single-button mode, which means you fire both your laser cannon and ground blaster at the same time. In the original release, using a 7800 gamepad or ProLine Joystick allowed you to fire both weapons separately like in proper Xevious gameplay. The fact that this has been omitted from the Atari 50 release upsets me greatly because this is painting a falsehood that Xevious on 7800 couldn’t fire both weapons separately and that’s simply not true. Hopefully, a patch will come along to fix this error because it’s a serious blemish on an otherwise fine lookback at the interestingly fascinating Atari/Namco relationship.

Paramount Moving On From Kelvin Trek

For those who haven’t gotten the memo, apparently Skydance – the new management at Paramount – has decided to move on from the long-dormant Kelvin timeline of Star Trek films (the 2009 JJ Abrams movie, Into Darkness, and Beyond) and opt for a fresh take on the franchise. Well, that’s mighty big of them to admit it after years of teasing pitches that went nowhere and tapping directors who’d stay in the lobby for a bit before moving on to greener pastures elsewhere.

I mean, was I hoping for another Chris Pine-helmed Trek movie with that cast? Actually, you know what? I kinda was. I make no qualms about admitting that I liked those movies. They were perfectly fine films for what they were – and yes, even Star Trek Into Darkness has its moments despite being the weakest of the bunch. I mean… shame that Beyond didn’t make the box office numbers the folks in charge wanted, but that’s on them for trying to turn Star Trek into something it wasn’t rather than try to make it, you know, Star Trek… something that even Chris Pine suggested; lower budgets, stronger stories.

When Star Wars became a hit and Paramount decreed that Star Trek would be a motion picture, they didn’t make another Star Wars with Star Trek colors. They made a very cerebral film with pastel shades and some Star Trek terminology… and then they made The Wrath Of Khan, a Star Trek movie that people actually liked unless your name is Gene Roddenberry, who was probably upset that nobody used his JFK time travel plot as a movie idea. The problem these days isn’t that you couldn’t make that type of movie or television series work today. It’s that nobody is willing to try… at least, not within Star Trek.

Could you make a Star Trek movie work in 2026? Sure, you can. It involves making a Star Trek movie that’s true to its core tenants and also features a compelling stories with compelling characters. Something it’s done in the past and can do again. It just requires people who are capable of crafting such stories.

So yeah, a part of me is sad that we’re not getting another Kelvin Trek because I’d very much like to see where that universe goes from there… but on the other hand, now that we’ve definitively closed the book on this thing, we can all move on with our lives and look forward to the next big thing in Trek lore… whiny fans whining about why those hacks at Paramount aren’t making their Legacy show or some bullshit like that, I don’t know.

Later.