The official title is Family Guy: Something, Something, Something Dark Side and it's out on DVD December 22. I'm already thinking this may be better than Blue Harvest.

Since the show's inception, Family Guy has always been at its best when Brian and Stewie take off on their epic adventures, be it "The Road To Rhode Island", which earned the show its first Emmy nomination, or the recent "Road To Germany", where Brain, Stewie and Mort travel back in time to WWII Germany. Obviously Stewie has still been tinkering with time-travel technology, because tonight the duo visit alternate histories and alternate realities including one in which the Japanese won WWII, and a HottieVerse, where even Meg is a knockout:

Riffing on Planet Of The Apes, the boy-and-his-dog dynamic is turned upside down in Dogverse, in which humans are subservient to dogs, which includes a human Brian.

Other multiverses visted include; Disneyverse (yes, it's musical) A Post Apocalyptic 'Verse,
Robot Chicken 'Verse (thank you, Seth Green) and a Real Life 'Verse, which features a real baby and a yellow lab bickering. Undoubtably, "Road To The Multiverse" will take its place with the other amazing "Road To" episode of Family Guy and may just be - dare I say it? - the best one ever.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - The Complete First Season Box Set
The name says it all: the entire first run of George Lucas' CGI take on what happened between Attack of The Clones and Revenge of The Sith gets a four-disc box set, complete with seven "director's cut" episodes, 22 behind-the-scenes featurettes (One for each episode), and a 64 page booklet explaining it all. If only they'd stuck the movie in there too.

Nov 10
Monsters, Inc. (BluRay Edition)
Pixar's 2001 take on the commodification of imagination - That is what it's really about, right? - gets an enormous 4-disc edition with its Blu Ray release. Expect many special features.

Up
Talking of Pixar, the movie of the summer - Go on, you can admit it now - comes out with multiple editions. There's a single disc version, a double disc DVD with commentary, alternate ending featurette and digital copy of the movie, and a four-disc Blu Ray that includes DVD and digital copies of the movie and all manner of special features (More on the marriage between Carl and Ellie!) and Making Of documentaries.

Nov 17
Farscape: The Complete Series Box Set
Yes, that would be 25 discs collecting the entirety of Rockne S O'Bannon's space opera, along with original promos, documentaries, episode commentaries, and all the other special features you'd expect from something like this.

Star Trek
JJ Abrams' Past Is Prologue bravely faces the Home Theater Frontier in a variety of formats: Bare bones single disc DVD, double disc DVD with digital copy of the movie, behind the scenes documentaries and lots of deleted scenes (including Klingons, for those who wondered where they were in the movie), and three disc Blu Ray with all of the above, plus more docs, a BD-Live link to NASA, Enterprise simulator and outtakes.

December 1
Terminator Salvation
Will it be the Director's Cut or the version released in theaters? Will that depend upon which version you pick up, DVD or Blu Ray? Will it actually be a good movie this time around? So much is still unknown about the home version of this summer's McG-director actioneer, but it's definitely coming out December 1st.

December 8
Family Guy: Something Something Dark Side
It's The Empire Strikes Back done-Family Guy style, which still freaks me out a little bit. Between this and the Robot Chicken episodes based on Star Wars, I wonder if George Lucas ever wonders whether he should be making even more royalties than he actually is?

Lost: The Complete 5th Season
A month before the show returns for its final season, I... Uh, I mean, you can start catching up and obsessively rewatching last season for clues as to where it's all going, and what Jacob was really up to all this time. A month should be long enough, right? Right?

Like the movie preview, we've split this preview into months (and, inside those months, into weekly releases), but with releases still unconfirmed and unannounced, we've pushed November and December together. Don't worry; it'll make sense when you click on the links below.

September
October
November/December

Syndrome (The Incredibles)

You, sir, truly are Mr. Incredible! You know, I was right to idolize you. I always knew you were tough, but tricking the probe by hiding under the bones of another super?! Oh, man! I'm still geeking out about it!

Fannish Traits: Fashioning himself as Mr. Incredible's sidekick Incredi-Boy for one, but even the business of making the ultimate superhero-killing machine and luring Mr. Incredible to his island lair to fight it was fannish in its own warped way.
What Drove Him to Evil: A demoralizing rejection at the hands of Mr. Incredible left him with a inferiority complex and bitter grudge against the superpowered community.

Henchman #21 (The Venture Bros.)

Dude I can't believe we didn't get blown up. We're like those guys on TV who never get shot. Yeah we're like main characters.

Fannish Traits: He keeps a closet full of collectible weapons, has a side job with the Atomic Comic Collection Connection, and debates whether the Smurfs are mammals. Fortunately, #21 lives in a comic book world, and his genre savvy is one of the things that keeps him alive.
What Drove Him to Evil: #21 was actually kidnapped and pressed into the Monarch's service at age 15, but he keeps up his henching because he finds it kind of awesome.

The Trio (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Warren: What the hell is that?
Andrew: Death Star, dude! Wicked, huh?
Jonathan: Uh, thermal exhaust port's above the main port, numbnuts.
Andrew: For your information, I'm using the Empire's revised design from Return of the Jedi.
Jonathan: That's a flawed design!

Fannish Traits: In addition the van with the Death Star mural, dialogue amongst the Trio (Andrew and Jonathan in particular) is a constant stream of science fiction and comic book references (notably, Jonathan claims fluency in Klingon). And their attempts at bank robbery and Slayer killing are pretty much straight out of the supervillain handbook.
What Drove Them to Evil: Repeated social, scientific, and mystical missteps, which required the Scooby Gang's constant meddling. That, and they hoped it would get them girls.

Superboy-Prime (DC Comics)

On my Earth, I read all about you, Polar Boy. You were a substitute Legionnaire who was let into the clubhouse because people felt sorry for you. Y'know, I almost feel sorry for you. Almost.

Fannish Traits: Raised in our universe reading comic books (and named after Clark Kent), Superboy-Prime is so distraught with the current direction of the DC Universe, that he tries to retcon the universe so it resembles the DC comics of his childhood.
What Drove Him to Evil: Pretty much the entire DC writing staff.

Control Freak (Teen Titans)

All these would've worked on the real Titans. It's just, your powers are... stupid! I don't wanna fight you anymore.

Fannish Traits: It's no surprise that, with his obsession with science fiction and television, Control Freak becomes an accidental fan of the Titans themselves. He's genuinely miffed when he has to face off against the Titans East instead of the main Teen Titans, and he's pissed when he realizes he's not on the list of their most notorious villains — after all, he's a recurring character.
What Drives Him to Evil: Mostly, because villains look cool.

Joe Jackson Stevens (Powers)

Every time they report about her, they ruin her. Every time they say her name, they chip away at her soul. The Indians say that a photograph steals your soul. Imagine if they are right. The world has no rights to her soul. If only I could get her attention.

Fannish Traits: Despite an avowed hatred of capes, Stevens has a profound obsession with Retro Girl, as evidenced by his diary entries and some rather sticky photos found in his apartment.
What Drove Him to Evil: Stevens is just plain unbalanced. He goes Mark David Chapman on Retro Girl because he wants to preserve her unblemished memory for the masses.

Red Mist (Kick-Ass)

Seriously. This whole superhero thing's been bubbling away for years, but you were the first to get out there and have the balls to do it, man. I'm your biggest fan. This is like meeting Elvis or something.

Fannish Traits: Mist claims to be such a huge fan of Kick-Ass (and superhero comics), that he follows Kick-Ass's lead and dons a ridiculous red suit to fight crime.
What Drove Him to Evil: It's not clear that Red Mist was ever on Kick-Ass's side, but whatever the case, he was probably getting paid good money to turn on his fellow vigilante.

Tim the Fanboy (Fans!)

These guys are the president and vice-president of a very cool club! They've fought a vampire, a mind-control conspiracy, and an ancient god! Share in the coolness! Join now!

Fannish Traits: Whereas most members of Bilberg University's Science Fiction Club are fans of science fiction, Tim is a devotee of the Club itself, turning down a spot at Harvard so he could worship at their feet. That, and he dresses like Harry Potter.
What Drove Him to Evil: Tim tends to become utterly devoted to a cause, only to turn on it completely when it lets him down in the slightest. When the Science Fiction Club is overwhelmed by the time traveling warlord General Maximillianna, Tim decides that she must be the superior moral force, and quickly joins her forces.

Ray Thompson (Justice League "Legends")

"Holy hijacking, Catman!"

Fannish Traits: Ray is so nostalgic for the superheroes of his childhood, that after they perished in a nuclear holocaust, he psychically resurrects them so they can continue their adventures.
What Drove Him to Evil: The sole survivor of the nuclear holocaust, Ray just wants to recreate the world of his idealized childhood. But when his illusion is shattered, he goes on a rampage that threatens to destroy reality.

The Mad Hatter (Batman)

As the great Lewis Carroll said: "One, two, one, two, and through and through the vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head, he went galumphing back!"

Fannish Traits: Jarvis Tetch is so obsessed with Lewis Carroll's Alice books that he dresses as the Mad Hatter, only eats hat-themed food, and constantly quotes Carroll.
What Drove Him to Evil: Psychosis. The Hatter has trouble distinguishing between Wonderland and reality, and has developed a frightening obsession with girls named Alice.

Mock Turtle (Astro City)

There was Narnia, with Caer Paravel. And Alice's Wonderland. And more. And children could find them, children like me. If I could find the right wardrobe, go through the right looking glass —

Fannish Traits: Like the Batman villain above, Martin Chefwick was obsessed with fantasy realms, including Wonderland, Narnia, and Oz. And, while he didn't mistake the real world for Wonderland, as a child he often went off in search of a gateway to a fantastical realm all his own.
What Drove Him to Evil: He wanted to impress a girl.

Stewie Griffin (Family Guy "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven")

No way, I'm getting Patrick Stewart to sign it. Picard has it all over Kirk. He's poised and measured and doesn't wear a cheap rug. Rather, he accepts even baldness with a quiet cool that says, "I am in command. You are safe with me. I will cradle you in my arms through any crisis in any galaxy."

Fannish Traits: From our list of convention disasters, Stewie built a working transporter for the sole purpose of kidnapping the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
What Drove Him to Evil: Stewie has always been evil, but in this case, he was simply annoyed he didn't get to ask his question at the convention.

Melllvar (Futurama "Where No Fan Has Gone Before")

Fry: Melllvar's got a spaceship.
Melllvar: Yes, in mint condition... and you made me take it out of the package!

Fannish Traits: Another from our convention disasters list, Melllvar creates a paradise for the cast of the original Star Trek so he can hold his own private convention. Then he makes them battle the Planet Express crew to the death for his fanboy affection.
What Drove Him to Evil: Non-corporeal beings only seem evil until you learn that they're harmless 34 year-olds still living in their parents' basements.

Ben Meyers (Smallville "Action")

I'm sorry, Lana. But there's a hero living among us, and there's only one way he'll accept his calling. You need to die.

Fannish Traits: A fan of the Warrior Angel comic books, Meyers is upset when he learns that the hero's love interest won't die in the film adaptation like she does in the book. To maintain the purity of the movie, Meyers decides to simply kill off the actress playing the love interest himself. And, when he discovers Clark's unusual abilities, he believes Lana must endure the same fate.
What Drove Him to Evil: Hollywood's obsession with happy endings.

Mysterious Fan Boy (X-Statix)

If we're really being honest here, and I hope we are, I'd started to love the new X-Force, even though their high mortality rate did unsettle my bowels. And now they go and change the whole thing. If that was all they'd done I might be able to forgive them. But they have done the unforgivable. They've killed the best of them. I mean, how do those people expect us fans to react?

Fannish Traits: Arnie Lundberg wears his fandom proudly. He is such a huge fan of X-Force in general and U-Go Girl in particular that when his favorite team member gets killed off, he takes an entire town hostage, controlling and disfiguring its citizens, a la the Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life."
What Drove Him to Evil: A combination of childhood taunting, relative omnipotence, and U-Go Girl's death. But it all works out for him since he joins the newly renamed X-Statix team so they can keep an eye on him.

Comic Book Guy (The Simpsons)

Lucite...hardening. Must end life...in classic...Lorne Greene pose...from...Battlestar Galactica. Best...death...ever!

Fannish Traits: There's very little in the Comic Book Guy's life that doesn't center around fandom. And, in the Treehouse of Horror episode "Desperately Xeeking Xena," he becomes a villain known as "The Collector," who steals his favorite celebrities and places them in PET bags for safe keeping.
What Drove Him to Evil: The desire to preserve his favorite actors in mint condition.

The Catgirl Menace (Something Positive)

I'm tired of you comic creators thinking just because you make something you own it! You don't! It's ours the minute we read it! And the fans know better than you do what's right, otherwise we'd be making comics, not reading them!

Fannish Traits: Not precisely scifi, but too powerful to be ignored, the Catgirls walk around in adorable cat ears and will read anything with the word "Neko" in the title.
What Drove Them to Evil: Someone dissed their obsession du jour, Neko Neko Holy-Chan. Fortunately, they lost interest when they realized the comic creators were changing the comic in a way that disagreed with their fan fiction and shattered their little yaoi fantasies. Some creators just like their straw fans to smack you in the face.

The footage they screened promised a mix of targeted Star Wars riffs and references to science fiction in general, with both Elroy Jetson and Leonard Nimoy's mailbox putting in appearances. The clips also showed the Rebels taking doomed gunner Dak Ralter's pre-battle boast surprisingly literally, as well as just who is allowed to use the term "nerf herder." Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane also mentioned that James Woods will have a cameo in the episode. The episode had once been planned to premiere towards the end of Family Guy's current season, but MacFarlane is optimistic they can get it out by the end of 2009.

Looking even further ahead, showrunner David Goodman, who also wrote the Star Trek mega-homage "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" on Futurama, is currently working on the final part of the parody trilogy. Their Return of the Jedi spoof was originally entitled Episode VI: The Great Muppet Caper in reference to its infamously cuddly Ewoks, but fears of copyright infringement made them go with the current title Episode VI: We Have A Bad Feeling About This. Whatever the title, I think it's fair to say we can expect no shortage of Ewok jokes.

Is it wrong to wish that this was what the cast of Star Trek The Next Generation always acts like? Turning them into whiny babies, with child-like jokes, and weird neuroses, was perhaps the funniest thing I've seen in weeks. Especially Patrick Stewart, the man did a great job of annoying the crap out of Stewie, creating a delightful role reversal where Stewie is the adult, yelling at the cast to quit trying to order beer and McDLTs at McDonald's, fantastic.

The rest of the Griffins followed Meg, as she finds God through Kirk Cameron, and then tries to save atheist Brian. He eventually folds, since being an atheist prevents him from leaving the house without getting mobbed, now that Meg has told the world his terrible secret. In other words: a typical Family Guy storyline, poking fun at American conformism, and our Franklyn-esque instistence that not believing in something is worse than being a criminal. Still, Brian's logic changes Meg's mind, after she realizes her Christian book-burning party was a bit-over-the-top (on both ends, really, because there are plenty of believers who don't burn books), but whatever - it's Family Guy, so I'll bite.

Brian reassures the now-saddened Meg that looking for the answers is all part of the human experience, and that the truth is probably more amazing than anything we could possibly imagine. Which leads to a giant pan out into the heavens past the galaxies, Men In Black-style, to reveal....

That we're all a speck on Rob Lowe and Adam West's bedside lamp. Yes, the great reveal is a Bert-and-Ernie Rob/Adam scene that only Seth MacFarlane could pull off. I was left speechless - it was even better than the Dallas ending from a few seasons back. Plus you can never have enough Lowe or West, ever.

My only qualm with this episode was that there simply was not enough TNG, not enough at all. We've done the religion episode on Family Guy before, this wasn't surprising or new (apart from the amazing Lowe and West cameo). Watching TNG act like a gaggle of tweens was hilarious. Especially since the reunion was so highly publicized, I was hoping there would be a lot more Trek tomfoolery. I can only keep my fingers crossed and hope that the heaps of press this episode got will inspire them to bring the cast back.

Here's the entire episode, for the viewing pleasure of people in the U.S.:

Family Guy's TNG episode airs Sunday March 29th on FOX.

What's your favorite scene from the episode?

My favorite scene is the one that I'm in. I'm a huge Star Trek fan. An artist drew a version of me and I voiced the character dressed as a Star Trek... some might say fan, some might say geek. And I have a little bit of a run in later with Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes, so that's probably my favorite scene.

Is that the best line of dialogue?

The best line of dialogue is what Stewie says to the cast at the end of the episode. I'm not going to give it away. [In the episode, Stewie] doesn't get to ask his question at the Star Trek convention, so he kidnaps all of them and he has a little bit of a journey with them and his final words to them are very funny, but I'm not going to give it away.

Why do an episode with The Next Generation cast now?

You could have asked, last week, why we did Back To The Future reference in the show. Seth and I are huge fans of Star Trek, and we realized that while there have been plenty of episodic television that brought back the cast of the original series, in fact, I wrote one of them for Futurama. Seth and I realized that nobody had really reunited The Next Generation, and many of them had appeared on our show. Next Generation was a hugely popular show. We're not going to reference the most popular and current shows. Our stock in trade are our own memories of those shows we watched when we were younger.

Would you do a Terminator spoof?

We've done a few little Terminator gags, we've got one (I think) coming up. But our big movie things coming up, we did the Empire Strikes Back. And we're doing all three of the Star Wars films, and we occasionally do little references in the series.... We have an episode with Tootsie coming up next year. No plans at the moment to do the Terminator.

The episode is called "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven," how much is Brian in this episode?

There are two stories going on in the episode. One story follows Meg and Brian. Meg finds god, she finds religion and is giving Brian a hard time for his atheism. And when we developed that story we realized that Stewie doesn't have a big role to play. So we developed that and two stories tie together in the beginning, when the family goes to the Star Trek convention, and Stewie doesn't get to ask his question, so he makes a transporter in his room for the cast. Meg and Brian focus on religion, which is a subject we've approached before, but this has a new twist on it. We were struck by the fact that in America atheism is considered worse (by some people) than Muslim extremism. That was an interesting subject for us.

Any chance of a Battlestar Galactica episode in the future?

I don't know if we'll do a whole episode, but there may be a gag.

What's the update on Star Wars?

I think, but I'm not 100% positive, that Empire Strikes Back - that episode will air at the end of next season, and may be released before then. That movie was a very different movie from the original Star Wars, so our sequel will be a lot different and have of new characters, and a lot of great jokes that we threw in. We're very happy with how the first one turned out, so we had to set the bar was very high for the sequel... We're a little bit early to start on the third one, but the bar is set that much higher.

But you'll have Ewoks for the third.

There are Ewoks to mock. And when we get to the third one and there may be characters from other shows that show up since we were sort of running out of the original show. So characters from American Dad and maybe the Cleveland Show will show up in the first one.

Will there be any other casts reuniting on Family Guy, from other Star Trek series?

You never know. Seth is a huge Star Trek fan, he's watched all the series. He was on Enterprise when I was there. I wouldn't necessarily count on it, but you never know.

Were there any jokes or issues that you had to address (as a trekkie and as a writer) to any of the characters on the show, such as Geordi La Forge or Tasha Yar?

Yes there is a Tasha Yar joke in the episode, it's pretty obvious from the minute she opens her mouth. Denise was very game about it, and anyone who is familiar with the series will get it right away. Anybody who is not, it's just funny as a joke on its own. For me, the second scene that my character is I am pontificating about a piece of Star Trek cannon. I'm having an argument with another Star Trek fan, which is actually a real argument that Star Trek fans have, so I was very pleased to put that in.

What was the argument?

I'm going to sound like a real Star Trek fan. In the episode "Relics," the character of Scotty is pulled out of suspended animation, and he says, "Oh I'm just waiting for Captain Kirk to pick me up" and then we find out after The Next Generation ended that Captain Kirk died and Scotty was there. So why, in that episode, did he think Captain Kirk was going to pick him up if he saw him die? And of course, the answer is that they hadn't made the movie yet or made that decision. But there is also a possible explanation which I offer as a cartoon character and I was very pleased to do it.

Did the actors get all of the jokes?

They all did. I don't think we were particularly cruel to anybody. It was a lighthearted jest at them. As a group, they could not have had a better sense of humor. Which you don't always find with actors. A lot of actors don't like to play themselves, they don't like to spoof themselves. But this group was just the opposite - they were all just terrific.

Family Guy's TNG episode airs Sunday March 29th on FOX.

In March 29th's episode, Peter and family head to a Trek convention, where they each get to meet a castmember from Star Trek: TNG — and I cannot wait to see what Peter will say about the disgusting relationship that was Troi and Riker. The episode is called "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven," and according to Fox:

Stewie blows a fuse when he doesn't get a chance to ask his favorite ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation' cast members any questions," reads the logline. "He devises a plan, builds a transporter and beams the entire cast to his bedroom so they can spend a fun-filled day together in Quahog.

Sounds perfect.

To see a much larger image of the crew click below.

[Via Trek Movie]

The crew of the Enterprise-D will get back together for, of all things, a Star Trek convention in next month's "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven" episode, which will see Patrick Stewart, Levar Burton, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, Wil Wheaton, Denise Crosby, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes appear as themselves as they get kidnapped by Stewie after he doesn't get to ask all of the questions he wanted at Quahog's Trek convention.

The episode is due to air March 29th.

'Trek' cast to reunite on 'Family Guy' [THR Live Feed]

According to Publick, working on both seasons at once has certain deadline drawbacks:

I turned in my first script (Ep. 40, "Handsome Ransom," if you're keeping track) a little over a week late, keeping the artists busy in the interim with judiciously doled out spoonfuls of design assignments for characters and locations I was pretty sure would make it into the final draft. And Doc is just now turning in the second episode of the season...which we're supposed to finish designing in like three days. Neither of these scripts, by the way, are for next season's premiere episode. As usual, we probably won't get to that one for a little while...

We have never tried this business of overlapping seasons before, and I must say it is hell on all of us. Nevertheless, I'm quite pleased with what we've all turned out so far on both the art and writing fronts. Episode 40 is already being storyboarded and we're set to record the voice tracks next week, keeping our fingers crossed in hopes of getting a special guest voice to play a major role, which I will not spoil.

Now I have less than a week to get the next script in. Guess who will be late again?

Special guest voice? If they've somehow managed to get David Bowie to voice the animated version of himself, then television may have to just give up, because it could never get any better.

Publick also shares some good/bad news about the current season:

The network tells me our ratings are excellent this season, with each episode scoring higher than the highest-rated episode of any previous season. The Family Guy continues to kick our ass, of course, because it would seem many many many more people would prefer to watch a Family Guy rerun for the tenth time than a brand new episode of our show. That, or a lot of people go to bed at 11:29 (EST) on Sunday nights.

Okay, two things. Firstly, what's with people watching Family Guy in the first place? I never understood that; it's like The Simpsons for people who don't like comedy or something. But much more importantly, if you're not watching The Venture Bros., you quite clearly hate humanity and should see both The Light and the damn Venture Bros. as soon as possible. What other show lets you wear Order of The Triad t-shirts?

What Goes Down, Must Come Up... [Publick Nuisance]