So how fast is the Millennium Falcon’s hyperdrive, anyway?

We know—unlike Obi-Wan Kenobi, seriously wizard don’t you read SmugglerFeed?—that this is the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. But we also know that a parsec is a measure of distance, and since Han doesn’t specify how long it took the Falcon to make this sub-12 parsec shortcut, we don’t actually get an idea as to how fast the ship can go.

Oh, but she’ll do “.5 past light speed” which…doesn’t tell us much either. Obviously ships in the Star Wars galaxy can go faster than light speed otherwise there’d be no…

The output from the HISHE team has been less this year it seems, but they do occasionally drop some greatness on us. Given that Joe and I are going to be talking Star Wars with Jim Metzendorf this evening when we record The MovieByte Podcast, this one is pretty timely and addresses something that’s always bothered me. The Stormtroopers are supposed to be the elite soldiers of the empire, and yet most of the time it seems like they can’t hit the broad side of a barn. Worse, Obi-Wan Kenobi points out to Luke at the beginning of A New Hope that the blast points are “too accurate” for sand… Read The Rest

Early this morning — well, late this morning in the U.K., but very early for us in the U.S. — Sony Pictures, MGM Studios, and Eon Productions teamed up to reveal some long-awaited details on the 24th James Bond movie. From the Bond stage at Pinewood (“where budgets go to die,” joked director Sam Mendes) the first details of the film were revealed.

The Bond 24 title will be Spectre.

...

Spectre is the fictional terrorist organization introduced in the novel Thunderball, and represented on screen beginning in Dr. No.

The name stands for SPecial Executive…

Wow, “All Good Things…” is 20-years old. It’s still a shining example of what Trek in the mid-90’s could be. It’s quite telling that Brannon Braga and Ron D. Moore excitedly hammered out this loving wrap-up to Next Gen in a matter of days, while with Generations they spent much more time on it, fretting about the motion picture debut of the TNG crew, and it is hardly the unanimous success that “All Good Things…” is.

“All Good Things…” is great TNG-era Trek.

While I’m talking about Star Trek...

It’s hard for me to say that All Good Things is the absolute best episode of Star Trek, but…

Roberto Orci is giving up the helm of the USS Enterprise, and will no longer direct the third installment of Paramount Pictures’ “Star Trek” franchise, sources confirmed to Variety.

Orci wrote the first two films in the series. The reason for his departure was unclear.

Orci got the helming job after J.J. Abrams had to exit the sequel due to his commitment to direct Disney’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

Paramount and Skydance Prods will have to act quickly to secure another director, as “Star Trek 3″ is being eyed for a 2016 release.

(sigh, it’s not Star Trek 3, it’s Star Trek…