Imagine yourself sitting in a finished basement room with wood panel walls, a nice thick shag carpet, and a long low console television. In the 70s, I remember running from house to house to see everyone’s color screens because I had a black & white at home. An episode of Star Trek in full color glory was a rare form of Nirvana for me. I wasn’t really as uncool as that sounds. Don’t let it fool you. Pretty soon our current infatuation with HD will seem just as naive.

Start Trek: Phase II is an amazingly expert series of fan films made by and starring James Cawley. Aside, from the new faces playing familiar roles, the show nails the original Star Trek look head on. I mean for goodness sake there’s an entire Enterprise bridge set that is perfect. Everything works! A lot of hard work goes into these films and they serve admirably as new Star Trek episodes. Fantastic.

Here’s the Phase II web site.

With thanks to Paul Gallagher at Dangerous Minds.

This is an Italian animated TV series about an inventor who gets sucked into the virtual world inside his cell phone. You know… like most Americans do… while they are driving at 75 mph on the freeway and they smash into a concrete pylon, spattering their dull brains across five lanes of traffic. And most deservedly so. But this little animated preview looks inviting. I like it. The series is made by Marco Bigliazzi and Fabrizio Bondi of Toposodo Episodic Productions.  The series has its own web site.

This is a five-part documentary by British filmmaker Adam Curtis about the rise of nuclear energy in the United States. These sections make up A is for Atom which is a 1-hour segment of a much longer science and politics television series called Pandora’s Box.  It chronicles the development of the nuclear power industry and shows clearly how little was ever understood about what would happen or what should be done during a nuclear accident.

Because he is 100% truthful, he drives the show’s host a little bit crazy.

Filmmaker Jon Behrens’ Psychotronic 16 blog has posted an episode of a 1967 Japanese television show called Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot.  The show was based on a popular manga series.  It’s another example of that fantastic toy-like Japanese approach to science fiction and adventure that kids of the sixties and seventies were so familiar with.

Go watch the episode.

Humorous, cheesy and somewhat difficult to sit through!  It’s got robots that are Dalek imitations, Gerry Anderson-style figures, vehicles and headquarters! This is the 1964 pilot episode for a puppet science fiction TV show that never aired. Paul Starr featured Ed Bishop, the actor who later played Commander Straker in the classic 70s UFO series, in the lead role.  The show was created by Roberta Leigh who had already produced Space Patrol.  In this episode, atomic power plants on Mars begin to explode and Paul Starr must investigate a threat to take over the red planet.

A collection of vintage toy commercials put together by Jon Behrens. Do kids play war anymore?

Emerging in utmost secrecy from his well-hidden fortress of urban art, Banksy has brought his/her unique brand of urban art-terrorism to The Simpsons. Last night’s episode featured an opening sequence directed by the incognito artist. We see the Banksy logo painted across a billboard and then the sequence suddenly takes us into what looks like an asian sweatshop of animators working on Simpson’s animation and making Simpsons toys. My favorite part is the suffering unicorn.

Most people are caught completely unaware by the artist’s secret nocturnal visits to leave behind images that provoke.  However, I can’t imagine that the producers of The Simpsons were unaware of Banksy’s activities.  The only person who seems unaware is some mid-level Twentieth Century Fox employee who keeps taking the videos down from YouTube for copyright violation.  Would it be permissible for someone higher up at Twentieth Century Fox to take said employee into the parking lot and run over that person’s mouse hand with a Humvee?

Update: The higher-ups at the studio appear to have listened and graciously disabled the meddling fingers of whoever was deleting the video from YouTube.  So posted above is the Simpsons opening in all its glory.

Two fantastic, insane and rambunctious little alien characters travel around in a steampunk spaceship.  The WotWots is a children’s television show from Peter Jackson’s Weta Workshop, the company that did the special effects for Lord of the Rings.  This introductory episode shows the two WotWots landing at the zoo to explore the various animals there.  The WotWots are very inquisitive and energetic little beings with a great joy for adventure.  I like it.  It looks really good and the characters are the best I’ve seen in years.

Thanks to Boing Boing for posting this.