A dice tray. After years of dropping dice on the floor and having them gradually spread out over the table its great to just keep them all together.

I can’t wait to see the list of best movies of the 2020s next week! These retrospective ones have been great, but it will be good to know which films to go to over the coming years, and which I can safely skip...

Who’s the say that the chips didn’t function properly? It didn’t seem like the Bad Batch were deployed with Jedi very often, so they were probably off on a commando mission during Order 66 rather than following a Jedi General around. In the aftermath of the revolution, it wouldn’t make very much difference whether…

Any idea how/when we’re getting it in the UK? I didn’t particularly think we needed a comedy Star Trek cartoon, but if they’ve gone to the trouble of making one, and its at least as funny as the trailer makes it out to be then I’m willing to give it a try. I kind of feel like its the wrong way to try to win back…

They didn’t. They replaced Saskia Reeves with Alice Krige. Susan Sarandon plays Wensicia, Irulan’s sister and the head of House Corino. Reeves was good in part one, but Jessica doesn’t have as much to do in the second trilogy, so I can see why she didn’t want to come back for it. Krige does do a good job though.

It is one of my favourite film scores of all time. I think I may have listened to it more times than any other individual album at this point.

Have you watched Children of Dune? It gets right most of the same stuff as the first series, but improves upon some of the less good bits. A few parts are recast mostly for the better, but none really for the worst. I feel that Newman gives a better performance in the sequel, and McAvoy is great.

“if only some toy manufacturer would cater to my very specific interests and make one.”

Do you know about the Star Trek Official Starships Collection?

I wouldn’t expect an overhaul of race rules in Icewind Dale personally. More likely there will be a full “named” rulebook later in the year with expanded character options. They usually have one, in addition to their adventures and setting books.and si far they’re alternating character rules and monster books so we’re…

X Wing’s “Solo” mode had better let you play as the Millennium Falcon.

Thanks. I don’t at present have a blog, but it might be a good idea! I’ve been thinking for a while that I should do one about worldbuilding and RPG design, so if that ever gets off the ground then stuff like this that more broadly explore the themes and history of Sci Fi and fantasy could definitely have a place.

That is a fair comment. I guess my stance is that its not a bad film per se, although of course everything can be debated, rather it wasn’t the film which most people hoped and expected it to be. I think much of that can be pinned to the fact that it wasn’t the same genre as the film that originated the franchise.…

Thank you, some really interesting analysis. 

Thanks! I realised it was turning into a bit of an essay part way through so decided to roll with it and did a second draft before posting. A few typos still snuck in which I'll need to fix though!

Thanks!

True, I definitely get the impression that it was something the writers came up with as they were exploring the story, and later introduced by “word of god” rather than being something that was part of the original design. I think they all got a bit caught up in wanting to know more about that mystery, and many of the…

I absolutely agree. Prometheus is definitely where the shift begins, Covenant is just where it becomes inescapable. You can just about find a cosmic horror story in prometheus, despite its veering sharply into the Gothic, just as you can kind of see Gothic elements in Alien. In covenant that transformation is now…

We can but hope!

Well put. Alien shows you how everything goes wrong, and so, in the final estimation its obvious that it would.

The problem with Alien Covenant, and by extension however Scott continues that story is that it plays the Alien story as Gothic Horror rather than Cosmic Horror.