Hour 1 of Prime Time Geek Episode 20 is brought to you by this sound clip from the all-new, all-awesome Star Trek film from director J.J. Abrams, featuring Jim Kirk’s (Chris Pine) first meeting with a slightly unnerved Dr. Leonard McCoy (Karl Urban) as they sit together aboard the shuttle that will whisk them off to Starfleet Academy. One of the best things about the new Trek film that in my opinion cannot be hailed enough is the performance of actor Karl Urban, who simply vanishes into the role of “Bones” McCoy and makes him real in a way that I can only imagine the late DeForest Kelley would have enjoying viewing. I’ve sung the praises of Urban before–despite career lowlights like Pathfinder and Doom, the man’s done solid, engaging work in Hollywood, including supporting turns in The Bourne Supremacy and Chronicles of Riddick. His characters, however secondary they might be to the leads in a film, are always interesting, and that’s something I believe is wholly attributable to the actor himself. But Star Trek should be a breakout performance for him–watch out for more leading roles for Urban as the Hollywood starmaking machine sits up and takes notice of who everyone talks about when they walk of seeing Trek.

In addition to my full review of Star Trek, Hour 1 of PTG this week features reviews of DC Comics‘ Power Girl #1, by writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray and illustrated by Amanda Conner (click HERE to listen to PTG’s interview with Palmiotti and Conner about Power Girl and her new series!), and The Flash: Rebirth #2 by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, both of which are definitely worth your while to pick up if you haven’t yet. We wrap up the hour by reviewing the penultimate episode of Smallville for this 8th season, “Injustice”, which is definitely worth watching if only to have a great example of less-than-stellar scripting, direction, and acting. For those of us more discriminating Smallville fans who fondly remember when this show was compelling and when we could wholeheartedly recommend the show to others as “good, fun” television, this point in the series is an all-time low, and if you’re like me at all, the only thing to look forward to about this week’s finale, “Doomsday”, airing on Thursday, May 14th, is that it is, in fact, the end of the season and we’ll be spared anymore inane silliness for the summer.

At this point, especially if you disagree with me and you think this season of Smallville has been great, you may be thinking, “Well, if you think it’s so lame, then why the hell do you keep watching?” It was put best in a forgotten Blake Edwards film from the late ’80s called Skin Deep, starring the late John Ritter. Ritter’s character, Zack, is a writer who, in the face of writer’s block he can’t overcome, has ruined his marriage by drowning himself in booze and extramarital affairs. At one point early in the film, after getting verbally jabbed for his now-lackluster wit by his agent, Zack asks, “If you think my stuff is crap, then why do you keep representing me?”

The agent’s response was (and here’s the point, folks), “That’s like asking a heroine addict why he keeps shooting up. It’s because he keeps hoping for the euphoria of that first high, even though he knows deep down inside that it will never happen.” And there’s your answer to why I keep watching Smallville. Hope springs eternal, and I, like Clark, never give up hope that things can get better.

Hour 2 of Prime Time Geek Episode 16 is brought to you by another clip from the upcoming J.J. Abrams-directed revival of Star Trek, courtesy of Collider.com. In this little bit, we get a particularly snarky Kirk going out of his way to piss off “Acting-Captain” Spock (Zachary Quinto) just after Kirk and a very out-of-sorts Montgomery Scott (Simon Pegg) beam directly aboard the Enterprise while the ship is traveling at warp. This little bit seems to give audiences a little more about why we’ve seen Spock beating the crap out of Kirk on the bridge in the trailers, and considering little Jimmy Kirk’s attitude, I don’t blame Spock for hauling off on him. These clips go a long way toward telling us who Kirk is going to be in this film at least at the beginning of the film: arrogant, iconoclast, smart-ass, in-your-face insubordinate jerk whose mouth is quicker than his head. It will be interesting to see how we get from there to the Kirk we know of old. Once again, you can hear the audio for the clip right at the beginning of the podcast, and you can watch the clip in its entirety below.

Hour 2 features an impromptu visit from Mad Mario, Highlord of Home Theater, who returns to his role of movie and TV reviewer after delving into console games last week. He shares his always-colorful observations on “Hancock“, the Will Smith superhero-action film from last summer, as well as FOX’s Fringe and Dollhouse. But perhaps most vociferously, Mad Mario delivers his scathing opinions on the film work of Samuel L. Jackson, and in fact dared listeners out there to find one, JUST ONE, good movie featuring SLJ. If you can think of one, and actually defend the film’s worth, head over to somacow.net/forum, go to the Prime Time Geek Message Board, find the thread for the ongoing discussion of Sam Jackson’s work, and post your thoughts. Should provide for some interesting fodder. One film I didn’t think of during the show to mention was Patriot Games–yes, it’s a small role, but he’s IN it and that’s all that counts.

Finally, the final segment of the hour, “Felix is Fuming”, finds me gasping for breath with what little voice I have left by this point and discussing the number of great television shows that are “on the bubble” as far as being picked up for next season and why the broadcast networks continue to kill good TV before it has a chance to really hit its stride. This season, due in part to the lousy economy, a good number of shows face the axe, and most of those shows fall into the “genre show” catagory, shows like Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse, Eleventh Hour, Fringe, and NBC’s midseason alternate-reality series,Kings. Pushing Daisies and Life on Mars have already bit the dust this season. Who’s going to be next? And though I’m a fan, I really must ask, “Why the hell isn’t Smallville on that list??”

PTG Episode 16, Hour 1 is brought to you by this clip, courtesy of MTV, from the upcoming Star Trek film directed by J.J. Abrams. The audio of the clip starts off the podcast, and you can listen AND watch the clip in its entirety below. In it, well, little Jimmy Kirk (no, he’s not quite James T. Kirk, not to me, not yet) succeeds in impressing Cadet Uhura with his knowledge of xenolinguistics, but makes much less of a favorable impression upon her would-be Starfleet Academy chaperones. Certainly explains why later we see him with a bloody nose and a split lip. Hour 2 will feature another released clip from the new Trek, so be sure to check back here at primetimegeek.com for that.

Hour 1 gets in gear by presenting all the rumors and stories surrounding Joss Whedon’s slow-to-catch-on new series on FOX, Dollhouse, and the question of whether or not it will actually return for a second season or instead become the latest chapter in the ongoing saga entitled, “Joss Whedon: The Broadcast Networks Hate You.” Now seriously, the stories behind Dollhouse and the other ill-fated Whedon-crafted TV series that met their ends before their times, Angel and Firefly, could not be more different, but when the end results are the same, does it matter? The man is a gifted craftsman of character drama with a talent for quippy, pop-culture aware dialogue that is a perfect fit with today’s 19-39 demographic, yet FOX continually shows nothing but ineptitude in terms of handling and marketing his work. Friday night, running after the terminally-ill Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, THAT’S the best time slot idea they could come up with, really? The web was abuzz with negative premonitions once that was announced, and that was weeks before the series even debuted! Here at PTG we humbly submit that Whedon would be best served by the folks over at NBC/Universal, specifically their cable networks: Sci-Fi Channel (soon to be SyFy), USA Network, hell, even Oxygen at this point, would treat a Whedon property with a whole lot more respect, and in today’s television landscape, probably bring in better Nielsen numbers, to boot.

The DC Comics Spotlight falls on Batman: Battle for the Cowl #2, and boy, is this book turning out to be a letdown. Yes, the writing is at fault–Tony Daniel, for all this ability to draw great scenes, is no master of dialogue or characterization–but one must look to the editorial leadership at DC and the decision to put a first time writer in charge of a heavily-hyped series that will at its end produce a replacement for one of the company’s most popular and well-known characters. The issue itself isn’t bad, and the pretty art helps make it passable, but it’s simply not GREAT, and this series, above all the other Battle for the Cowl tie-ins, needed to be a home-run for fans to even consider embracing the “next” Batman, who we all know will only be filling the bat-cowl for a short time, anyway.

And finally, we wrap with the first installment of the new segment on PTG, “Felix is Fuming” (sound byte intro to come), where I rant and rave about something in the comic book world that truly pissed me off in that particular week. Wait, me ranting and raving about something? How is that any different than any other segment, you ask? Apparently, not much, but hey, you might hear in these segments a few “colorful metaphors” get bleeped out from week to week.

(and yes, this entry might be record-setting in terms of the number of hypenated words used in the text …)

I met that Ferengi last time I was there. He tried to sell me a wormhole.

And you thought Star Trek coming to blu-ray was good news.

Sci-Fi Wire, the Sci-Fi Channel’s official news website, is reporting that Star Trek: the Experience, which beamed up Star Trek fans and guests for the final time at the Las Vegas Hilton last October, will reopen on May 8th, coinciding with the premiere of J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek film. Here’s some of the text from the story over at scifiwire.com:

“It is a bit premature to talk about it, but I can confirm that a contract has been signed,” Liz Kalodner, executive vice president and general manager of CBS consumer products in New York, told SCI FI Wire exclusively. “I do not have any further comment.”

The move would be part of the city’s effort to redevelop the older part of downtown Las Vegas—situated at the end of the Strip of large casinos—into a more vibrant tourist and residential area. The Neonopolis project is one of the centerpieces of the area.

The news that Star Trek: The Experience was closing was one of the saddest bits of geek news I had the opportunity to report on last year. Without question, the attraction was among my favorites in Vegas, and I know a great number of Star Trek fans who never got to go and experience it for themselves. No doubt, this new incarnation will be different than the original, which existed for ten years at the Las Vegas Hilton before new ownership decided they had better uses for the vast amount of space the attraction took up, with its motion-simulator rides, Klingon Encounter and Borg Invasion 4-D, its Museum of the Future, Quark’s Bar and Restaurant, and the best Star Trek gift shop that’s ever existed. The good news is that when this new ‘Experience’ opens, it will have Quark’s and the gift shop at the very least, and perhaps the Museum, retooled to include props and memorabilia from Abrams’ new film, with rides a possibility.

I already know the first words that will fall from my lips when I get to visit this new ‘Experience’ for the first time … you may recognize them, as they were part of the clip that led off Hour 2 of last week’s show:

“My friends … we’ve come home.”

Maybe it’s just me, but it looks EXACTLY the way Abrams describes it, a combination of the TOS and movie Enterprises, except it’s haphazard, like the two were thrown together crudely, not smoothly blended together. I find it disconcerting … be interesting to see it in motion during the trailer attached to “Quantum of Solace” …