Fast Thoughts on “The Mandalorian” Season 2 Trailer

The trailer for the second season of “The Mandalorian” dropped online on Sept. 15.

As was the case with the first season trailer, the spot doesn’t offer too many revelations. What it does offer are some cool looking images of things to come when the series returns on Disney+ on Oct. 30. 

The main thrust of “The Mandalorian” Season 2 will be returning Baby Yoda to “an order of sorcerers called Jedi.” At this point, none of us knows how many seasons it will take to return the child… or if that will even happen.

The trailer starts off with a shot of a wounded Razor Crest (Mando’s ship) flying over a planet.

We get a couple scenes showing Mando (Pedro Pascal) — a.k.a. Din Djarin — on a snow planet with Baby Yoda. Some have suggested this is Ilum, the planet that Starkiller Base was built on in “Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens.”

I’m going to go a different direction and say the planet is the Mandalore world known as Krownest, home of Clan Wren. Rumors have suggested that Sabine Wren — who was a main character in the “Star Wars: Rebels” animated series (read my review) — will make an appearance this season. 

One Mandalorian we do know will appear in the second season is Bo-Katan Kryze (who appeared in “Star Wars: Rebels” and “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”). Katee Sackhoff voiced the character in both animated series, and is set to play the warrior in “The Mandalorian.” We’ve also heard that Boba Fett will be part of the second season.

Mando and Baby Yoda then appear to be on the planet Mon Cala (that’s my best guess, anyway). The aquatic world is featured in “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” (a series I’m currently working my way through) and is home to a species called the Quarren (did any of you own Kenner’s “Squid Head” action figure in the 1980s?) as well as the Mon Calamari (Admiral Akbar’s species).

We glimpse Mando and Baby Yoda moving through an area that looks like a wharf. It’s kind of nice to see an old-fashioned looking shipping operation in a “Star Wars” property: 

We also see the pair at sea on a boat. The vessel is manned by Quarren. I’m curious to know where they are headed:

Among the shots on wharf, we glimpse a character (that appears to be WWE star Sasha Banks) who looks like a Jedi (I’m not sure if it is someone already known, or a new character). I suppose it could also be someone more sinister in nature. The cloak might be a red herring in the plot: 

There are a number of cool snippets in this trailer. Without knowing the arc Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and the rest of the minds behind “The Mandalorian” have in store for the second season, it is hard to tell how they fit in context.

I liked the quick clips of X-wing starfighters chasing down the Razor Crest: 

It was also nice to see Cara Dune (Gina Carano) and a goateed Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) on Navarro in the trailer: 

At the end of the trailer ,we see a pair of Gamorreans fighting with vibro-axes in something that looks like an old-school boxing ring: 

Gamorreans served as Jabba the Hutt’s guards in “Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi” (and have appeared in other SW properties over the years).

Favreau teased the appearance of Gamorreans on Twitter after the eighth episode of the first season of “The Mandalorian” aired on Disney+ last December (I talked about Gamorreans in my review of that episode). 

Overall, I thought this was a decent trailer for “The Mandalorian” Season 2. While it didn’t break any new ground, it also didn’t reveal any spoilers. It is great that there are new adventures on the horizon. 

For example, we didn’t learn anything new about Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) or the storied Darksaber we saw him use to slice through a ship’s hull in the closing moments of the first season finale. 

I’m looking forward to seeing what they have in store for the upcoming season, and am excited for the premiere on Oct. 30. 

Previous post: That Crazy Era When They Charged $15 for a Single “Star Trek” Episode 

That Crazy Era When They Charged $15 for a Single “Star Trek” Episode

I thought I’d share a bit of nostalgia on what is dubbed as #StarTrekDay (the original show debuted on Sept. 8, 1966)… 

The past month, Bridget and I have been helping my dad clean out his home to prepare for sale as he downsizes and simplifies his life. 

As you might imagine, we have gone through all sorts of random items in boxes, stored away long ago in dusty nooks and crannies. 

Among the items I found were some of my old “Star Trek” (the original series) episodes that I purchased on VHS many moons ago. 

That might seem like a commonplace activity in 2020, but in the 1980s home video was a different beast. 

The idea of “owning” a “complete season” of any TV show seemed sort of insane back then. 

Most TV series never saw the light of day on home video during the VHS/Betamax era. Every so often you’d see a studio release a pilot episode or two-hour episode on VHS and market it as a “movie” (as MCA did with the pilot episode of “Miami Vice” and the season 2 premiere episode as “Miami Vice II: The Prodigal Son”).

If you wanted to have a complete series on home video, you recorded it during a broadcast (generally in EP or SLP mode so you could fit the most episodes on a tape). 

I recorded many episodes of the 1960s-era “Star Trek” on our Panasonic VCR during the 1980s. It aired Sunday nights at 11 p.m. on KMTV in Omaha. The quality resulting from recording episodes on VHS was so-so, but it was all we had at the time.  

I was 12 when we purchased our first VCR (1985), and I wasn’t allowed to stay up and pause recording during the commercial breaks. 

Not only that, KMTV didn’t always broadcast the episodes in order, and certain episodes were rarely broadcast. 

In February 1985, Paramount Home Video tried to remedy that situation when they released the first slate of “Star Trek” episodes on VHS and Beta. 

I really wanted to purchase those episodes. I recall that our local Applause Video chain had them in stock the day they released. 

Unfortunately, the episodes retailed for $14.95 each. That meant you’d spend around $1,200 if you wanted all 79 episodes of “Star Trek” — and that price wouldn’t even include sales tax. 

When I started earning my own money (from a paper route I had), I purchased a dozen episodes of “Star Trek” on VHS. The price point meant I had to “pick and choose” the episodes I liked the best. 

One of the episodes in the photo above — “The Trouble With Tribbles” — debuted at #20 on Billboard’s list of “Top Videocassette Sales” for the week ending Nov. 29, 1986. By all accounts, the episodes sold well. 

I purchased my episodes at Musicland at Crossroads Mall. They had a couple shelves that housed all the episodes. We lived two blocks from the mall, so I was a frequent visitor. 

The VHS episodes didn’t have any special features. They were uncut (episodes broadcast in syndication are trimmed to accommodate extra commercials) and they included the original broadcast spot for the next episode. 

A few years ago, Bridget bought me “Star Trek — The Original Series” on Blu-ray during Prime Day on Amazon. It includes all 79 episodes (the original broadcast versions are there, along with remastered versions that have enhanced visual effects). In addition, the 20-disc set includes a variety of bonus materials strewn throughout. 

If I recall correctly, the entire series was sold on Blu-ray for $59.99. That’s a far cry from the $1,200+ you would have spent collecting individual episodes on VHS. 

It’s fascinating to see how TV on home video has evolved, and how much easier it is to access content. It’s also interesting to note that the “archival” qualities of VHS weren’t particularly robust (or long lasting). 

You can stream all three seasons of the original “Star Trek” on various VOD platforms (such as Netflix, Prime Video, CBS All Access, and Hulu). 

It is all so much more convenient than the 1980s… and much more affordable. 

Previous post: Book Review: Sparks Fly In “Vince Flynn - Total Power” By Kyle Mills 

Book Review: Sparks Fly In “Vince Flynn - Total Power” By Kyle Mills

It’s been a strange year. 

The world is living with a global pandemic. The current situation has created a myriad of problems in our society, serving up enough drama to fill up social media timelines and dominate news coverage. All of this is sure to become fodder for volume-upon-volume of historical texts in the future.

In light of world events, it seems only fitting that thriller writer Kyle Mills’s latest Mitch Rapp novel concocts a scenario more stark, crippling, and terrifying than the real-life scenario we find ourselves in today. 

“Total Power” (scheduled for release Tuesday, Sept. 15) was written before COVID-19. Yet Mills has had a knack for being prescient with his recent Mitch Rapp novels. 

Mills’s 2019 novel “Lethal Agent” (read my review) dealt with a deadly virus (a coronavirus bio-weapon) that could decimate populated areas of the world like wildfire. What seemed like an interesting geopolitical hook a year ago seems downright prophetic this year. 

Mills recently told the MitchRappPod podcast: “At this point, as a thriller novelist, you can either kind of run from what is happening in the world — because it’s complicated, sometimes a little depressing — and kind of bring your focus in on your character.” 

The author opts to “go big or go home.”  

What I’ve enjoyed about the six entries Mills has crafted in the Mitch Rapp series is that he doesn’t shy away from tackling macro geopolitical issues. 

“Total Power” finds Mitch Rapp & Co. dealing with calamitous scenario that takes down the power grid across the United States. 

I don’t think most Americans realize the ramifications of a total power outage in the United States. 

The closest I ever came to experiencing something like that was after an October ice storm in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1997. 

Our home was without power for 10 days due to the damage wreaked by thick ice on leaf-covered branches. I remember watching as those ice-laden trees took out power lines in our backyard. The blue sparks created an eerie mood as power lines bent and snapped. 

The type of outage I experienced was inconvenient, but temporary. 

Mills does a solid job weaving details about the catastrophic implications a mass power outage would bring to a nation. 

This is the type of scenario we could’ve seen the late Tom Clancy tackling during his prime, doling out intricate details over the course of a 900-page tome. 

In many respects, the way Mills handles different threads in “Total Power” reminds me of those meaty Clancy books of the 1980s and 90s (but written in a page-turning style built for today’s thriller audience). 

The opening pages of “Total Power” find Russian sleeper agent Sonya Voronova meeting with a mystery man who goes by the moniker “PowerStation.” The man has an intricate plan designed to take down the U.S. electrical grid, and he’s looking for an international power broker willing to support his evil machinations.

(The official Vince Flynn website offers the first three chapters of “Total Power” for free, and you can sample them by clicking here.)

Meanwhile, Mitch Rapp is in Spain, hunting down associates of Sayid Halabi (the ISIS leader at the center of things in “Lethal Agent”). Mills provides us with an entertaining “action set piece” during this particular sequence (something reminiscent of a “Mission: Impossible” movie).

In fairly short order, “PowerStation” unleashes his sinister plan on the United States. Things fall into place like a tightly constructed Rube Goldberg machine.

I enjoy when Mills puts Rapp in a scenario with multiple tentacles — something with a scope and scale that exceeds the operator’s “tough guy” capabilities. 

This is why the “team” aspect of recent Rapp novels has become far more important. 

Obviously, there is Scott Coleman (along with the crew at SEAL Demolition and Salvage) who does a lot of the heavy lifting. In addition, CIA Director Irene Kennedy continues to be a guiding compass in these stories. 

But it is a cadre of smaller players who add depth and dimension to the novels. 

Some are long-recurring stalwarts (like tech whiz Marcus Dumond), while others pop up and are integrated in a more meaningful way as the stories progress (such as Rapp’s love interest Claudia Gould — a former operative and wife of the assassin who killed Rapp’s wife in “Consent To Kill”). 

Mills is equally adept at introducing new players. 

For example, the character development of sleeper agent Sonya Voronova was particularly interesting in “Total Power.” At first, I thought she was going to be a “one off” who wouldn’t last past the early pages in the narrative. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see the course Mills steered Voronova. 

I also liked the integration of the Jed Jones character. This Idaho survivalist served as a useful “utility” to dispense exposition in the story. 

He seemed like a character who could have stepped off the pages of the Pat Frank’s 1959 post-apocalyptic thriller “Alas, Babylon” (a fiction novel we were assigned to read as part of political science class I took at the University of Nebraska at Omaha).

I’m not going to delve into any of the particulars of the “Total Power” plot. I don’t want to spoil anything for readers eagerly awaiting the book. 

Current events definitely add a unique flavor to “Total Power.” The things we’ve experienced in 2020 — including strains on our supply chains and mass civil unrest — create a sense of verisimilitude as you read “Total Power.”  

The overall effect makes “Total Power” one of the more “frightening” thrillers I’ve read in recent years. 

Mills ingenious plot — combined with his clean writing style — makes for a compelling reading experience. 

It is my favorite of the six books Kyle Mills has written in the Rapp series, and my favorite thriller of the year (so far). 

“Total Power” amps up the suspense and overloads the reader with topical voltage that should resonate with thriller aficionados.

I had the opportunity to read the “Exclusive Mitch Rapp Ambassador Edition” of “Total Power” as part of the VinceFlynn.com’s “Mitch Rapp Ambassador” program. My wife and I have had the honor of being ambassadors the past two years, and have had fun being involved with our ambassadorial duties. 

For example, the official Vince Flynn Twitter account held a month-long contest last spring (dubbed #MitchMadness) where fans could vote for their favorite Vince Flynn novel cover in a head-to-head bracket contest. 

A number of the ambassadors recorded videos in support of one or more of the books. In this video, Bridget and I show our support for the 2006 “Act Of Treason” cover:

Kyle Mills recently signed a new three-book deal with Emily Bestler Books. I like the direction Mills has taken the series, and am looking forward to experiencing more of his stories in the future.

As much as I hate to see the summer end each year, I look toward the waning days with eager anticipation, knowing the latest Mitch Rapp thriller is on the way. 

Even if you’ve never read a Mitch Rapp thriller before, I think you’ll have a good time reading “Total Power.” 

I’ve pre-ordered a copy (two, in fact) of “Total Power” in hardcover. You can order your copy here.  

Totally recommended. 

Previous post: Book Review: "Assassin's Strike" By Ward Larsen 

Book Review: “Assassin's Strike” By Ward Larsen

“So let’s get down to it. Who do you want me to kill?” — David Slaton in “Assassin’s Strike” 

For the second year in a row, I've had the privilege to be able to read an advance copy of thriller writer Ward Larsen’s latest tome. This year’s entry is titled “Assassin’s Strike” and it is the seventh novel in his David Slaton series.  

When I reviewed “Assassin’s Revenge” in 2019 (click here to read my review), it marked the first time I had tried one of Larsen’s books. 

I described Larsen’s prose as “razor sharp” in that review. The author’s crisp writing skills are also on display in “Assassin’s Strike.” 

“Assassin’s Strike” finds former Mossad kidon (assassin) Slaton tasked with a mission to extract Ludmilla Kravchuk, an interpreter with the Russian foreign ministry. As the story begins, she is tasked as an interpreter for Russian President Petrov. 

Kravchuk hears some disturbing information during Petrov’s summit with Iranian President Ahmed Rahmani in Damascus, Syria. 

A series of events at the hotel where she is staying sets into motion some life-changing choices for the unwary interpreter. Afraid for her life, she contacts the Czech embassy (the point of contact for the United States in Syria) telling them she information to impart.  

That’s where our hero comes in. 

“So you want me to go in, snatch a woman out of central Damascus,” Slaton tells CIA handler Anna Sorensen, “then make a run for the nearest border.” 

Slaton is a family man working on a sense of normalcy on his Idaho ranch (his wife Christine and son Davy were featured in 2019’s “Assassin’s Revenge”). Like others in the genre before him, Slaton follows the classic espionage trope of agents getting lured back into the game. 

The story globe trots through a number of exotic locales — Syria, Uruguay, Israel, Sudan, and Saudi Arabia. At the core of the story is a mysterious antagonist known as “Sultan.” 

Ward used to be a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. For those of you who have read previous reviews, you’ll know that I have a love for military aircraft — an interest that was encouraged when I was a kid. 

Ward likes to include those sorts of aircraft in his novels. “Assassin’s Strike” features the BAe Hawk. Whenever I see an aircraft mentioned in a novel, I typically pull out my worn copy of “Jane’s World Aircraft Recognition Handbook.” 

The Hawk (which originated in the United Kingdom) was first flown in 1974 and has been exported all over the world to places like Finland, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. It has been used in the intervening decades by various air forces around the world as a trainer. 

Sprinkling in tools of the trade helps create a sense of authenticity in Larsen’s novels. 

As much as those details add a sense of verisimilitude in his books, it is the small, oddball moments in espionage novels that often stick out to me. 

One of those small moments is a scene in the novel where Slaton is having a discussion with former Mossad compatriot Anton Bloch in a small cafeteria. The mention of the “thick steak” and “potatoes Lyonnaise” in the sequence has stuck with me the past couple of days. 

“The cattle are grass fed and free range, whatever the hell that means,” Bloch tells Slaton of the steak. 

I’m not sure why those things stand out to me in novels of this nature. Maybe I was just hungry when I read that passage. 

Regardless, those moments help add depth and dimension to a story. I’m always happy when authors toss them into the mix. 

“Assassin’s Strike” is an entertaining entry in Larsen’s David Slaton series. While Slaton has been compared in literary circles to famous protagonists like Ludlum’s Jason Bourne and Silva’s Gabriel Allon, Larsen has managed to set the character on a unique path all his own. 

I’m glad I’ve gotten to know the novels of Ward Larsen over the past two summers. If you like to journey through interesting voices in the spy genre, Larsen’s books are worth the trip. 

To learn more about Ward Larsen, visit his website at www.wardlarsen.com. 

Order your copy of “Assassin’s Strike” by Ward Larsen here. 

Previous post: TV Review: “For All Mankind” is an Engrossing Drama (Apple TV+ Series)