November 15, 2024 • 38 mins
Join Steve "Megatron" as he dives into this episode of Altered Geek with a more conversational tone, discussing the companies that are out of touch and don't care. From Crunchyroll, Paramount, Lucasfilm, and Hasbro to Media News on streaming platform evolutions, all this and more is on Altered Geek!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi this is David Kaye and you're listening to Altered Geek. Geek. Geek. Geek. Geek.
(00:30):
Hello and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm your host Steve Megatron and yeah two for two this
week. So I know the last episode kind of sucked. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, I'm not gonna say
anything about it. I recorded that really early and really no excuse for it. I've also been tweaking
(01:00):
some stuff on my computer. I've been messing with the Geekcast radio network store which you can
go to and support us either through donations on there. There's also options to donate through
the website if you so choose. There's also you can buy merch which supports us and you get to rock
(01:20):
out some awesome Geekcast radio gear. So yeah I'm presently working on some new stuff for a lot of
the other shows. What are some shows that you guys want first on the store? Like what are some
merch that you guys would prefer? Like right now I have a lot of Geekcast radio network stuff,
a few Altered Geek items and then like the Cyber Dragon Ball and all things Transformers,
(01:45):
just a little bit in that area. But I'm kind of looking at where to go next. Like I could do
Tunecast, I could do the Pull Bag. I am going to be doing some shirts with some of our both colorful
and non-colorful slogans or maybe not just slogans for the shows but also some of our goofy phrases
(02:12):
that have come up over the years. Like for instance the Beast Unleashed podcast like
a could-a-did? What's a could-a-did? Or I love you shut up you know and so on. Yes I will never
say that phrase again. It's still funny to go back and listen to it or like tap that and you
(02:34):
know tip your waitress. So yeah so anyways just let me know what you guys want in the store. Like
honestly I don't want to waste my effort or my time kind of putting a lot of things in there
that nobody really cares about. So what are some things that you want? Like whether it's a hat,
a shirt, a sticker, a decal, just whatever it may be. Just let me know because honestly I'm kind
(03:02):
of fishing for information in that realm. I'm perfectly A-okay with kind of going that route.
So yeah let me know what you guys want because like I think it'd be fun to put some of that
in in the store and yeah. That being said I plan on 2025 expanding this show a little bit and what
(03:31):
I mean by that is not just focusing on geek news, not just kind of doing the status quo of what I've
always done in this show. I want to kind of take it a couple steps further. I want to grow this. I
want to kind of break out of the the mold. I want to do some more kind of deep dive discussions. I
(03:53):
want to do some more basically video content of sorts or or yeah I mean I want to do some of that
and then I of course want to cover more podcasting. So I'm debating whether I should revive the
(04:16):
internet pathfinder or if I should just keep everything here because the internet pathfinder
is kind of my my internet, my memes, that kind of stuff but then it kind of leaves this whole
in altered geek and I love the show altered geek. I love the name. I love the premise that it's just
kind of geeking out or altering your geekdom or getting altered and getting geeky. Yes I'm using
(04:40):
all of the catchphrases tonight. I'm also kind of looking should I involve co-hosts or should I
occasionally sprinkle one in like once a month or so or should I continue going on this route of
doing it solo? Again like these are all things I'm kind of pondering and kind of going back and
(05:03):
forth with with the program and so I'm working on quite a bit of stuff just between life and the
podcast network and actually putting more effort into it than I have in the last five years because
I've had a whirlwind of jobs that have kind of prevented me from doing any of this and so now
(05:24):
I'm at this place where everything's going well and I really enjoy my job. My kids are kind of
getting to the point where they're autonomous and they don't want to hang out or I'm recording one
night a week which is also severely cut down on the amount of podcasting I used to do. So for
(05:45):
instance I've put out, I recorded a geek cast radio with Mike earlier this week. I recorded an
altered geek that was kind of subpar. I was trying to squeeze in a lot of stuff in a 20 minute span
or under 20 minutes that I had available and hurry up and edit it and get it out which in hindsight
I probably could have just not done one. Being that half the news was old and half of it was just
(06:09):
not, not really a discussion. It was more just I was tired and I was like I should really put out
an episode of Altered Geek. So again I apologize for doing that but I didn't want to just kind of
leave this this feed dormant and have nothing available to listen to. So yeah, I again I'm
looking forward to seeing what everybody has interest in as we kind of roll into 2025. I know
(06:35):
there's been a lot of things both in the world and politically and in the geek market and
and just the media landscape changing is as per usual or companies milking the crap out of it and
you know point in case like Disney is at this threshold of we're going to double down on Rey
which okay like Rey's alright but I feel like they had all of this EU you know extended universe
(07:04):
stuff that they could have mined for awesome content but Disney decided to just kind of
oh that's nice and then you know the waste basket just kind of throw it in there you know the metal
can and here it go and then it they just go push and light it on fire. That's basically what I feel
like Disney is done because they're they're kind of running out of ideas they're kind of running back
(07:28):
into a lot of weird stuff or like the Jedi and you know the Sith and the witches and it's like
okay like the Mandalorian was good until they started mixing all of that crap in there and then
Bulbafet utter crap I mean these shows that's why they had to bring in Mando and like Luke Skywalker
(07:50):
and like all these you know staples from this part of the franchise because they couldn't hold
water on its own. Ahsoka is really good though because it plays into the the Rebels animated series
but again like I feel like these companies don't have and yes I'm retreading into the reboot sequels
(08:11):
and all of that again which I did it like an AI scan of the podcast and I promise I'm going to
circle back but I did an AI scan of the podcast and apparently I've covered that topic probably 20
times in this show in its history which it's still relevant because it's like these companies don't
(08:31):
understand you can reboot something and have it halfway decent if you put your own original spin
on it however in a lot of cases the the spin that they want to put on it isn't necessarily the best
option uh pointing case they continue to make sequels or reboot sub-star track. Paramount,
(08:53):
CBS whatever they call themselves this week wants to go back to the pool as it were and
mind you they did Discovery which takes place like 20 years before Kirk or 10 years or whatever
before you know he takes command of the Enterprise so they do that and then they have to throw it
(09:13):
into the future because otherwise none of their loopy crap makes sense because they don't want to
play within the confines of the canon that has already been established for the last 50 years
and so they had to move it further ahead which honestly made the show better in some regards
however it still was the Michael Burnham show and it was trash so then we go into strange new worlds
(09:39):
okay they're filling in the gap between Pike having the Enterprise and Kirk great it makes sense
they're slowly bringing in Kirk's crew they're introducing us to everybody they're kind of
showing everybody raw in there you know you've got Uhura you've got Mbenga you've got Chapel you've
got Kirk you've got Spock you've got Scotty now all they need now is Sulu and Dr. McCoy
(10:05):
and they have the original series crew. Chekhov didn't come until season two so again
I strange new worlds great Picard season three great Picard season one and two
but they still moved the timeline along they they were picking up after like 20 years after
(10:25):
Nemesis which was great because it gave them a time to actually build out some of that history
and finish it out proper with Picard season three now mind you we also have Enterprise which takes
place 100 years before Kirk and what do they want to do now so we had Zefram Cochran in first contact
(10:47):
we had the you know the birth of the the Federation more or less with the Vulcans meeting the humans
and starting Starfleet and then we get to the point where uh and see if you know they
(11:11):
go from that direction anyways sorry I got a text it's I could edit it out but honestly I'm not
going to I'm just gonna keep going like this so they want to go back in time to just after the
Zefram Cochran thing they want to do another origin story another prequel why like nobody wants this
(11:37):
nobody the fans in fact like they they're doing section 31 because really people kind of fizzled
out on it and they're basically doing a suicide squad with Star Trek and it looks like trash
suicide squad was trash and honestly this is going to be trash and so I have no incentive to watch
(11:57):
section 31 they did however create the conundrum where uh like Lower Decks great fills in time span
in the 2280s 2270s 2280s great fits that you know then we've we've got Prodigy again same time
period fills in some of the gaps lets us know where some of the people are great like everything is
(12:19):
cohesive Discovery was the only bump on the road there they're still trying to go back to the well
of pre-Kirk and pre like all of that like between Zefram Cochran and and Captain Jonathan Archer
they're they're wanting to fill in that span now which I guess okay but why there's really
(12:42):
they could tell the Romulan War you know the Earth Romulan War for sure they could tell that
they'd screw it up but they'll tell it now the other part about it is is they could just
avoid that time period altogether because then it creates canon issues because they there's
really nowhere to go in there there's no meat there's no aliens there's no like there's nowhere
(13:05):
to go with it they are going to make a see a 31st century show about Starfleet Academy and
they're bringing the holographic doctor back which it's it begs to differ which holographic doctor
because remember there was a split timeline thing where there were two versions of Voyager there was
(13:28):
one with the doctor and he had his emitter and he was on a shuttlecraft heading back to Starfleet
from the Delta Quadrant and he's the only survivor and had to clear the record of the Voyager crew
with the civilization so there's that one and they said he wouldn't get back until the 30th or 31st
century because of how far it would take to travel so there is that option there's also the actual
(13:52):
emh that is in Voyager and in Prodigy that is survived up to that point so we also have that
option so I'm the only reason I'm going to even remotely check out Starfleet Academy is not that
I want to watch Starfleet Academy it's because they put the hook of throwing the holographic
doctor the other thing is they could also throw in some of the old Star Trek crew
(14:16):
from various series to come back from a hollow and have them either play young versions of themselves
or like Middle-Age or whatever or their current age you know in real life and have that version of
their character so I could see that playing out as well however I don't know if they'll go that route
I think they'll kind of stay away from that stuff they might throw a couple of nods here or there
(14:40):
maybe like a chief O'Brien or something like that but none of them really have the incentive to come
back so there is that and then there's there's a nice time period that's called I don't know Star
Trek Legacy that people have been clamoring for and really wanting and Paramount doesn't seem to care
they're like whatever we're not going to go that direction we're going to we're going to double down
(15:04):
on the other stuff and and I get it they've already pumped money into this other stuff
however I would love for them to do Legacy or if they're not going to do Legacy and focus on
Captain Seven and her crew with the next next generation of like the forges and the Picard
and her crusher and you know Rafi and Seven and the Enterprise G and having some of the existing
(15:25):
characters and canon reprise again or cameo here or there which I think would be great if they could
do that because that would be no different than the original series crew cameoing in the next
generation but you could have the next generation in Deep Space Nine and Voyage or cameo in the
next gen next generation called Legacy so they could go that route they could jump another 50 to 100
(15:48):
years so that's the Enterprise H and kind of go into that time frame and create a whole new crew
and start over because there's still plenty of time to tell between that and the Enterprise J
and the 26th century so we're in the 25th century so we're here so there's two more enterprises
they could pull from there so that's a time span they could do there's also the the time span between
(16:14):
2294 when the Enterprise B launches and Kirk is presumed dead and 2260 like 2260 2265 right around
the time Picard gets the Enterprise D so there's that time span in there they could tell the stories
of the Enterprise C they could tell more of the Enterprise B they could just tell some that have
(16:35):
nothing to do with the Enterprise in between that time period there's there's plenty of lore in there
that they could play in but they've they've kind of not wanted to go that either and I feel like
those are the two directions people want the stuff between that 2294 and 2360 time span and people
want 2402 onward and they don't seem to care and this this is also this is one of those things where
(17:03):
the entire entertainment and toy and in collectible industry is in this same boat Hasbro doesn't even
know what to do with their own stuff they couldn't even market Transformers one properly and I'm not
knocking Hasbro completely like I I like the products they put out I like the properties they own
however I don't feel like they cared and I'm glad they're green lighting another sequel with Cooley
(17:32):
doing a follow-up because that film was epic it was great like it's not it's not g1 no and they
had nods to other series in it and it was great however I mean there were I did have my caveats
my issues with it which Mike and I will cover on all things Transformers at some point in doing a
commentary but I I think that was the most solid Transformers movie we've gotten since the 2007
(18:00):
film and before that the 86 film so I think that it gave Transformers that kick in the butt that
is needed since the two stop 2007 film and since before that Beast Wars so it's it's again revitalized
and done that for the franchise so I'm hoping that Hasbro will actually start pumping out some
(18:25):
awesome stuff for Beast Wars 30th anniversary in the next year but again I digress like these
companies don't seem to want they don't seem to want to do the things like and I'm not saying like
buckle and coward of the fans like oh you have to listen to us but I mean look at Sonic the Hedgehog
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the live action films look how wonderful that turned out the first three films and they have
plans for a fourth one that they're going to introduce a character in this movie that's going
to take it onward to the next film and honestly I could see Jim Carrey continuing with this because
it just looks like fun and James Marsden's in it and and it's just it's a fun it's just a fun film
(19:18):
series I mean I think it should stop at a trilogy to be honest however I'm glad that that they took
the recommendation of the fans and went back and they were like hold on a minute let's uh let's
let's circle back and let's dump this uh let's dump this uh this file here you know it with that
(19:43):
version of Sonic with that ugly looking face like let's get rid of that let's go use his actual face
and then go from there because honestly that other one uh that other one is
it was just dog snot like it was horrible like I I'm glad that the Sonic series is turning out
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really well though and that's a testament to what they did to fix it before the film came out and
that that was the right kind of fan input was the appearance fix the appearance the story
the story was good but I feel like it would have taken people out of it because the appearance was
crap and so again so then then we get to some actual news uh I've had my rant I've had my
(20:37):
tirade and now we're gonna get to this we're gonna get to the meat guys we're gonna we're gonna
we're gonna make this happen uh so yeah I have an article about amazon
freebie which I don't know if anybody here has even heard of freebie I'm I've kind of uh
(21:08):
I'm kind of like in the past here like I didn't I didn't realize it was a thing I guess is what
you could say and I'm I'm I'm like the guy that watched like I I knew about Pluto I knew about
like 2b I knew about some other platforms but freebie I think it kind of reminds me of the the
(21:29):
name anyway of like the family channel or like abc family fox family whatever that that kind of
vibe going but anyways amazon had a free ad supported video streaming service and they shut
it down which is funny because I was I was pitched this too for like advertising purposes with like
a radio company that partnered with them and then like immediately after they were like oh yeah by
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the way we're shutting down freebie uh so they're going to phase it out over the next couple of weeks
and move everything over to prime video which again a lot of their original shows will still be
available on the platform under a watch for free label but amazon has been on cost cutting and uh
(22:13):
uh yeah they're they're moving over as many as they can from freebie to prime but yeah freebie
existed from 2022 on to now and they're officially killing it uh it was IMDb tv at one time too or
free dive IMDb IMDb tv freebie and now it's prime video it's kind of like that google situation that
(22:36):
I discussed with you know google play music google podcast and then youtube podcast like they they
don't know what they want to call it even in the consolidation part so yeah that's I think they're
trying to get ad revenue and I think they're also trying to get the subscriptions to get people to
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sign up for prime to get access to this and have it just as a part of their regular prime membership
or something um I don't really know I don't really watch amazon prime video because there's too many
there's too many things on it where they're like oh we partner with this other streaming service but
you have to subscribe to that and connect it to us in order to get it to use it and I don't necessarily
(23:19):
have those other platforms so having them advertise these other shows on it or films does absolutely
nothing for me um so yeah I it's it's not exactly shutting down but it is shutting down they're just
moving all their crap over to the other service and so yeah I'm kind of waiting to see what they do
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here in all honesty so yeah there's that in the netflix of course has an ad-back tier which they
launched like two years ago but it's like really taken off now because I think people are just
penny pinching and they can't afford these streaming services at this point so it has 70 million global
(24:04):
monthly active users and uh more than half of the new subscriptions are for the ad supported options
when it's available which is telling that people cannot afford or do not want to pay for higher
than what netflix's original pricing was so I if I full full disclosure I don't pay for netflix I don't
(24:30):
I get it because of access to GeekCast radio for review content for things like that however
uh I it's I like netflix I like everything that's on it for the most part I like the the way that
it functions compared to any other streaming platform it is in my opinion still the best streaming
(24:54):
platform uh no hulu hate please um but yeah I mean I do like a lot of the stuff on hulu as well
and some of the stuff from Disney so like if I actually had all three of them mixed into one
that would be ideal uh but yeah I mean but then netflix also is going to be adding a new deal with
(25:16):
the nfl which are going to have live games they're going to have live tv on netflix which
is kind of jarring like I feel like they need to stay out of that game I feel like that's kind of a
an arena that we don't need to be in with some of these streaming platforms but I kind of get it to
because cable tv is kind of dead and we're we're beyond that point now like there's no
(25:39):
there there's nothing there I guess is what you could what I what I'm trying to get at is there
there's nothing to go off of for for cable purposes or live tv and then of course diving
back into paramount paramount plus is uh trying to squeeze some profits from a streamer but uh
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they uh they're still having a film and tv unit with with a lot of drag and uh the direct to
consumer business uh reported a 10 revenue increase which I guess is good gives them something to
keep going and an additional 3.5 million subscribers and they their film business however has kind of
(26:28):
struggled with a 71 plunge in theatrical revenue and a 6 dip in linear tv so they're they're still
trying to get the growth of paramount plus but uh they're they're trying to remain a standalone
so yeah apparently though they were trying to merge with warner brothers at one point and that
(26:53):
kind of fell through but it was kind of funny that it was in all the legal documents about trying to
trying to kind of continue that direction
and then uh we get to something that is rather interesting clown fish tv was talking about
(27:15):
this and I saw it come across my feed and I I've been following all things dragon ball and dragon
balls the dragon ball kai uh dragon ball super dragon ball daima which I've been watching the
the subs until it comes in the dub but anyways crunchyroll which used to be a pirating website
(27:40):
for anime of all things uh are
bees basically being copyright trolls I guess they've racked up 45 million takedown requests
for uh for their content which is funny because they're they're super aggressive with their
enforcement of copyright uh because one it's a lot of overreach and it's kind of just negative
(28:06):
impact on the fan community but it seems like these big juggernauts don't give a rip about the fans
pointy case star wars did it with fan films star trek did it with fan films hasbro does it with
stuff it's it's not unique I guess is what I'm trying to say here and they've they've issued a
(28:28):
rather targeted thing hitting online content including fan art in screenshots claiming rights
over any anime featured on their platform country roll and former funimation representatives
uh have issued those 45 million copyright takedown requests contributing to google staggering
(28:49):
10 billion url removal requests from just 5.4 million domains so they're not only doing the
aggressive copyright strikes uh through third party organizations but they're a lot of these
companies might not be legitimate because of that because it's it's very questioning and in very
(29:14):
interesting to see why a company does this I find it like I get it if they're like point blank
like dumping pirated copies
of the content out there on the internet like of the video I understand that that is a copyright
(29:34):
issue however they're not the creators of it they're the dubbing company or the one that has
the rights over here it's still like toey and bird animation over there in japan that owns it and so
I find it funny that they're the ones that are doing all this and it it goes to show you too that
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they're very protective over their anime however they're also like a bastardization of what
Funimation used to be which Funimation was great it had a lot of great stuff I love their dubs I
love the curtsy network stuff uh I I'm glad that they you know that we're still getting like dragon
(30:15):
ball content over here however I'm not a huge fan of the fact that one they used to be a pirating
company and now they're they're the ones that are attacking everyone else and they they got a taste
of legitimacy and they then they've they've kind of been fighting it from there uh but they're
basically intimidating websites and stifling enthusiasm over baseless claims because people
(30:42):
are giving it publicity like can you imagine the audacity like Hasbro did or not Hasbro Paramount
did this to me CBS Paramount a few years ago when Star Trek Beyond came out the last crisp pine film
from the uh the Abramsverse I literally had the pressed photos from the film like the legitimate
(31:12):
like I didn't have bootleg copies I didn't have like bootleg images I legitimately had their
publicity stills that they published with their watermark on it that is available and I put it
in a YouTube video to describe it and how much I was excited for the film Paramount gave me a
(31:33):
copyright strike and flagged it and I had a tank down request on it and I'm like dude and I sent
him a rebuttal I was like look do you want me to talk about your content and pump it up and praise it
and discuss it or do you want me to just delete it and never support anything Star Trek again
(31:54):
because that was the road I was going down because I I was not going to put up with that
that bullying because I chose to talk about their content in a review in an excitement manner as
entertainment like it wasn't even like I was going all right here's the play-by-play of the whole film
and this is what happens in the plot and the enterprise blows up and you know I didn't I
(32:20):
had nothing like that it was strictly speculatism or speculative and I was talking about some stuff
with the possibility of the Star Trek 4 that was supposed to come out with like Hemsworth after
and they they ended up backing down but I was like you've got to be kidding me like we're to this
point and the you know the apex of like geek culture where it's okay to bully people because they
(32:43):
talked about your content good or bad it doesn't matter we're gonna we're gonna you know we're
gonna flag you with copyright I mean it's almost as bad as like people that are in the radio industry
and then they steal images that you design for an interview and you have this specific art and it
literally had my logo in it for this interview of Larry Kenny that was out there floating around a
(33:11):
while ago and it was a legitimate like radio guy who was trying to podcast and publish it on his
YouTube channel and he was just stealing images from other people's websites of interviews with
Larry Kenny and I had two different versions of the art one from an older version of the site one
from a newer one and he scrubbed them both and used them and I'm like no no no no no no no I flag
(33:35):
that one for copyright but that was more so because he just outright stole my image and I've had people
do that crap to me with like me and Mike with the Chadwick Boseman Black Panther first film like
publicity still we had something and I guess like whatever the site was we didn't have permission to
use and so they came after us for like a copyright strike or copyright troll thing
(34:00):
and then try to extortion tactics like I feel like the whole copyright industry there's like no
such thing as actual for use like basically it's just CYOA cover your own fill in the blank
the geek industry is so screwed it's so screwed I'm hoping we can get to a point where things are
(34:23):
good again but I think it kind of boils down to the state of the industry and where things are going
so what are some things that you guys are excited about going into 2025 what are some what are some
shows some some movies some of that stuff that's kind of exciting what are some old ones too
(34:44):
because I'm going back and I'm watching some older programs now at this point I I've been
fishing around on Netflix because I just I've already watched all of my various series I've
started watching like Ranma one one and a half because I've heard about it before and I'm like
oh okay and and so I've been watching that I've been watching going back and watching Prison Break
(35:10):
again I've been watching Suits which I've never seen before I'm started watching Tacoma FD which
has two of the guys from Super Troopers and I've been watching How I Met Your Mother like so
I've been kind of watching a couple of these different series in between watching like Dragon
Ball Dima and Dragon Ball Z Kai and Dragon Ball Super and various Star Trek and yeah so I've been
(35:38):
I've been watching all of those to kind of keep busy with my time like when I'm not recording and
while I'm playing Dragon Ball Sparking Zero which by the way their online part is totally tanked
their their traffic on Steam I wish I could have that game like a physical disc because I can see
at some point Steam dumping it and then me losing access to it I'm gonna be a very sad sad panda so
(36:02):
I don't know I feel like this has been a better episode let me know guys let me know what you
think I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did and get into converse and talk about this stuff
so I'm sure there'll be things that come out before I release this episode on Friday which it
will be Friday when you see this this is Wednesday so thank you as always for listening to Altered
(36:24):
Geek I've been your host Steve Megatron be sure to check out this episode post on GeekcastRadio.com
and on our Facebook page send us your voice clips send us your comments feedback at GeekcastRadio.com
you can get ahold of me on X at SCP-21 so until next time get altered get geeky with the Altered Geeks
Hi this is David Kaye and you're listening to Altered Geek. Geek. Geek. Geek. Geek.
(00:30):
Hello and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm your host Steve Megatron and yeah two for two this
week. So I know the last episode kind of sucked. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, I'm not gonna say
anything about it. I recorded that really early and really no excuse for it. I've also been tweaking
(01:00):
some stuff on my computer. I've been messing with the Geekcast radio network store which you can
go to and support us either through donations on there. There's also options to donate through
the website if you so choose. There's also you can buy merch which supports us and you get to rock
(01:20):
out some awesome Geekcast radio gear. So yeah I'm presently working on some new stuff for a lot of
the other shows. What are some shows that you guys want first on the store? Like what are some
merch that you guys would prefer? Like right now I have a lot of Geekcast radio network stuff,
a few Altered Geek items and then like the Cyber Dragon Ball and all things Transformers,
(01:45):
just a little bit in that area. But I'm kind of looking at where to go next. Like I could do
Tunecast, I could do the Pull Bag. I am going to be doing some shirts with some of our both colorful
and non-colorful slogans or maybe not just slogans for the shows but also some of our goofy phrases
(02:12):
that have come up over the years. Like for instance the Beast Unleashed podcast like
a could-a-did? What's a could-a-did? Or I love you shut up you know and so on. Yes I will never
say that phrase again. It's still funny to go back and listen to it or like tap that and you
(02:34):
know tip your waitress. So yeah so anyways just let me know what you guys want in the store. Like
honestly I don't want to waste my effort or my time kind of putting a lot of things in there
that nobody really cares about. So what are some things that you want? Like whether it's a hat,
a shirt, a sticker, a decal, just whatever it may be. Just let me know because honestly I'm kind
(03:02):
of fishing for information in that realm. I'm perfectly A-okay with kind of going that route.
So yeah let me know what you guys want because like I think it'd be fun to put some of that
in in the store and yeah. That being said I plan on 2025 expanding this show a little bit and what
(03:31):
I mean by that is not just focusing on geek news, not just kind of doing the status quo of what I've
always done in this show. I want to kind of take it a couple steps further. I want to grow this. I
want to kind of break out of the the mold. I want to do some more kind of deep dive discussions. I
(03:53):
want to do some more basically video content of sorts or or yeah I mean I want to do some of that
and then I of course want to cover more podcasting. So I'm debating whether I should revive the
(04:16):
internet pathfinder or if I should just keep everything here because the internet pathfinder
is kind of my my internet, my memes, that kind of stuff but then it kind of leaves this whole
in altered geek and I love the show altered geek. I love the name. I love the premise that it's just
kind of geeking out or altering your geekdom or getting altered and getting geeky. Yes I'm using
(04:40):
all of the catchphrases tonight. I'm also kind of looking should I involve co-hosts or should I
occasionally sprinkle one in like once a month or so or should I continue going on this route of
doing it solo? Again like these are all things I'm kind of pondering and kind of going back and
(05:03):
forth with with the program and so I'm working on quite a bit of stuff just between life and the
podcast network and actually putting more effort into it than I have in the last five years because
I've had a whirlwind of jobs that have kind of prevented me from doing any of this and so now
(05:24):
I'm at this place where everything's going well and I really enjoy my job. My kids are kind of
getting to the point where they're autonomous and they don't want to hang out or I'm recording one
night a week which is also severely cut down on the amount of podcasting I used to do. So for
(05:45):
instance I've put out, I recorded a geek cast radio with Mike earlier this week. I recorded an
altered geek that was kind of subpar. I was trying to squeeze in a lot of stuff in a 20 minute span
or under 20 minutes that I had available and hurry up and edit it and get it out which in hindsight
I probably could have just not done one. Being that half the news was old and half of it was just
(06:09):
not, not really a discussion. It was more just I was tired and I was like I should really put out
an episode of Altered Geek. So again I apologize for doing that but I didn't want to just kind of
leave this this feed dormant and have nothing available to listen to. So yeah, I again I'm
looking forward to seeing what everybody has interest in as we kind of roll into 2025. I know
(06:35):
there's been a lot of things both in the world and politically and in the geek market and
and just the media landscape changing is as per usual or companies milking the crap out of it and
you know point in case like Disney is at this threshold of we're going to double down on Rey
which okay like Rey's alright but I feel like they had all of this EU you know extended universe
(07:04):
stuff that they could have mined for awesome content but Disney decided to just kind of
oh that's nice and then you know the waste basket just kind of throw it in there you know the metal
can and here it go and then it they just go push and light it on fire. That's basically what I feel
like Disney is done because they're they're kind of running out of ideas they're kind of running back
(07:28):
into a lot of weird stuff or like the Jedi and you know the Sith and the witches and it's like
okay like the Mandalorian was good until they started mixing all of that crap in there and then
Bulbafet utter crap I mean these shows that's why they had to bring in Mando and like Luke Skywalker
(07:50):
and like all these you know staples from this part of the franchise because they couldn't hold
water on its own. Ahsoka is really good though because it plays into the the Rebels animated series
but again like I feel like these companies don't have and yes I'm retreading into the reboot sequels
(08:11):
and all of that again which I did it like an AI scan of the podcast and I promise I'm going to
circle back but I did an AI scan of the podcast and apparently I've covered that topic probably 20
times in this show in its history which it's still relevant because it's like these companies don't
(08:31):
understand you can reboot something and have it halfway decent if you put your own original spin
on it however in a lot of cases the the spin that they want to put on it isn't necessarily the best
option uh pointing case they continue to make sequels or reboot sub-star track. Paramount,
(08:53):
CBS whatever they call themselves this week wants to go back to the pool as it were and
mind you they did Discovery which takes place like 20 years before Kirk or 10 years or whatever
before you know he takes command of the Enterprise so they do that and then they have to throw it
(09:13):
into the future because otherwise none of their loopy crap makes sense because they don't want to
play within the confines of the canon that has already been established for the last 50 years
and so they had to move it further ahead which honestly made the show better in some regards
however it still was the Michael Burnham show and it was trash so then we go into strange new worlds
(09:39):
okay they're filling in the gap between Pike having the Enterprise and Kirk great it makes sense
they're slowly bringing in Kirk's crew they're introducing us to everybody they're kind of
showing everybody raw in there you know you've got Uhura you've got Mbenga you've got Chapel you've
got Kirk you've got Spock you've got Scotty now all they need now is Sulu and Dr. McCoy
(10:05):
and they have the original series crew. Chekhov didn't come until season two so again
I strange new worlds great Picard season three great Picard season one and two
but they still moved the timeline along they they were picking up after like 20 years after
(10:25):
Nemesis which was great because it gave them a time to actually build out some of that history
and finish it out proper with Picard season three now mind you we also have Enterprise which takes
place 100 years before Kirk and what do they want to do now so we had Zefram Cochran in first contact
(10:47):
we had the you know the birth of the the Federation more or less with the Vulcans meeting the humans
and starting Starfleet and then we get to the point where uh and see if you know they
(11:11):
go from that direction anyways sorry I got a text it's I could edit it out but honestly I'm not
going to I'm just gonna keep going like this so they want to go back in time to just after the
Zefram Cochran thing they want to do another origin story another prequel why like nobody wants this
(11:37):
nobody the fans in fact like they they're doing section 31 because really people kind of fizzled
out on it and they're basically doing a suicide squad with Star Trek and it looks like trash
suicide squad was trash and honestly this is going to be trash and so I have no incentive to watch
(11:57):
section 31 they did however create the conundrum where uh like Lower Decks great fills in time span
in the 2280s 2270s 2280s great fits that you know then we've we've got Prodigy again same time
period fills in some of the gaps lets us know where some of the people are great like everything is
(12:19):
cohesive Discovery was the only bump on the road there they're still trying to go back to the well
of pre-Kirk and pre like all of that like between Zefram Cochran and and Captain Jonathan Archer
they're they're wanting to fill in that span now which I guess okay but why there's really
(12:42):
they could tell the Romulan War you know the Earth Romulan War for sure they could tell that
they'd screw it up but they'll tell it now the other part about it is is they could just
avoid that time period altogether because then it creates canon issues because they there's
really nowhere to go in there there's no meat there's no aliens there's no like there's nowhere
(13:05):
to go with it they are going to make a see a 31st century show about Starfleet Academy and
they're bringing the holographic doctor back which it's it begs to differ which holographic doctor
because remember there was a split timeline thing where there were two versions of Voyager there was
(13:28):
one with the doctor and he had his emitter and he was on a shuttlecraft heading back to Starfleet
from the Delta Quadrant and he's the only survivor and had to clear the record of the Voyager crew
with the civilization so there's that one and they said he wouldn't get back until the 30th or 31st
century because of how far it would take to travel so there is that option there's also the actual
(13:52):
emh that is in Voyager and in Prodigy that is survived up to that point so we also have that
option so I'm the only reason I'm going to even remotely check out Starfleet Academy is not that
I want to watch Starfleet Academy it's because they put the hook of throwing the holographic
doctor the other thing is they could also throw in some of the old Star Trek crew
(14:16):
from various series to come back from a hollow and have them either play young versions of themselves
or like Middle-Age or whatever or their current age you know in real life and have that version of
their character so I could see that playing out as well however I don't know if they'll go that route
I think they'll kind of stay away from that stuff they might throw a couple of nods here or there
(14:40):
maybe like a chief O'Brien or something like that but none of them really have the incentive to come
back so there is that and then there's there's a nice time period that's called I don't know Star
Trek Legacy that people have been clamoring for and really wanting and Paramount doesn't seem to care
they're like whatever we're not going to go that direction we're going to we're going to double down
(15:04):
on the other stuff and and I get it they've already pumped money into this other stuff
however I would love for them to do Legacy or if they're not going to do Legacy and focus on
Captain Seven and her crew with the next next generation of like the forges and the Picard
and her crusher and you know Rafi and Seven and the Enterprise G and having some of the existing
(15:25):
characters and canon reprise again or cameo here or there which I think would be great if they could
do that because that would be no different than the original series crew cameoing in the next
generation but you could have the next generation in Deep Space Nine and Voyage or cameo in the
next gen next generation called Legacy so they could go that route they could jump another 50 to 100
(15:48):
years so that's the Enterprise H and kind of go into that time frame and create a whole new crew
and start over because there's still plenty of time to tell between that and the Enterprise J
and the 26th century so we're in the 25th century so we're here so there's two more enterprises
they could pull from there so that's a time span they could do there's also the the time span between
(16:14):
2294 when the Enterprise B launches and Kirk is presumed dead and 2260 like 2260 2265 right around
the time Picard gets the Enterprise D so there's that time span in there they could tell the stories
of the Enterprise C they could tell more of the Enterprise B they could just tell some that have
(16:35):
nothing to do with the Enterprise in between that time period there's there's plenty of lore in there
that they could play in but they've they've kind of not wanted to go that either and I feel like
those are the two directions people want the stuff between that 2294 and 2360 time span and people
want 2402 onward and they don't seem to care and this this is also this is one of those things where
(17:03):
the entire entertainment and toy and in collectible industry is in this same boat Hasbro doesn't even
know what to do with their own stuff they couldn't even market Transformers one properly and I'm not
knocking Hasbro completely like I I like the products they put out I like the properties they own
however I don't feel like they cared and I'm glad they're green lighting another sequel with Cooley
(17:32):
doing a follow-up because that film was epic it was great like it's not it's not g1 no and they
had nods to other series in it and it was great however I mean there were I did have my caveats
my issues with it which Mike and I will cover on all things Transformers at some point in doing a
commentary but I I think that was the most solid Transformers movie we've gotten since the 2007
(18:00):
film and before that the 86 film so I think that it gave Transformers that kick in the butt that
is needed since the two stop 2007 film and since before that Beast Wars so it's it's again revitalized
and done that for the franchise so I'm hoping that Hasbro will actually start pumping out some
(18:25):
awesome stuff for Beast Wars 30th anniversary in the next year but again I digress like these
companies don't seem to want they don't seem to want to do the things like and I'm not saying like
buckle and coward of the fans like oh you have to listen to us but I mean look at Sonic the Hedgehog
(18:50):
the live action films look how wonderful that turned out the first three films and they have
plans for a fourth one that they're going to introduce a character in this movie that's going
to take it onward to the next film and honestly I could see Jim Carrey continuing with this because
it just looks like fun and James Marsden's in it and and it's just it's a fun it's just a fun film
(19:18):
series I mean I think it should stop at a trilogy to be honest however I'm glad that that they took
the recommendation of the fans and went back and they were like hold on a minute let's uh let's
let's circle back and let's dump this uh let's dump this uh this file here you know it with that
(19:43):
version of Sonic with that ugly looking face like let's get rid of that let's go use his actual face
and then go from there because honestly that other one uh that other one is
it was just dog snot like it was horrible like I I'm glad that the Sonic series is turning out
(20:09):
really well though and that's a testament to what they did to fix it before the film came out and
that that was the right kind of fan input was the appearance fix the appearance the story
the story was good but I feel like it would have taken people out of it because the appearance was
crap and so again so then then we get to some actual news uh I've had my rant I've had my
(20:37):
tirade and now we're gonna get to this we're gonna get to the meat guys we're gonna we're gonna
we're gonna make this happen uh so yeah I have an article about amazon
freebie which I don't know if anybody here has even heard of freebie I'm I've kind of uh
(21:08):
I'm kind of like in the past here like I didn't I didn't realize it was a thing I guess is what
you could say and I'm I'm I'm like the guy that watched like I I knew about Pluto I knew about
like 2b I knew about some other platforms but freebie I think it kind of reminds me of the the
(21:29):
name anyway of like the family channel or like abc family fox family whatever that that kind of
vibe going but anyways amazon had a free ad supported video streaming service and they shut
it down which is funny because I was I was pitched this too for like advertising purposes with like
a radio company that partnered with them and then like immediately after they were like oh yeah by
(21:53):
the way we're shutting down freebie uh so they're going to phase it out over the next couple of weeks
and move everything over to prime video which again a lot of their original shows will still be
available on the platform under a watch for free label but amazon has been on cost cutting and uh
(22:13):
uh yeah they're they're moving over as many as they can from freebie to prime but yeah freebie
existed from 2022 on to now and they're officially killing it uh it was IMDb tv at one time too or
free dive IMDb IMDb tv freebie and now it's prime video it's kind of like that google situation that
(22:36):
I discussed with you know google play music google podcast and then youtube podcast like they they
don't know what they want to call it even in the consolidation part so yeah that's I think they're
trying to get ad revenue and I think they're also trying to get the subscriptions to get people to
(22:56):
sign up for prime to get access to this and have it just as a part of their regular prime membership
or something um I don't really know I don't really watch amazon prime video because there's too many
there's too many things on it where they're like oh we partner with this other streaming service but
you have to subscribe to that and connect it to us in order to get it to use it and I don't necessarily
(23:19):
have those other platforms so having them advertise these other shows on it or films does absolutely
nothing for me um so yeah I it's it's not exactly shutting down but it is shutting down they're just
moving all their crap over to the other service and so yeah I'm kind of waiting to see what they do
(23:42):
here in all honesty so yeah there's that in the netflix of course has an ad-back tier which they
launched like two years ago but it's like really taken off now because I think people are just
penny pinching and they can't afford these streaming services at this point so it has 70 million global
(24:04):
monthly active users and uh more than half of the new subscriptions are for the ad supported options
when it's available which is telling that people cannot afford or do not want to pay for higher
than what netflix's original pricing was so I if I full full disclosure I don't pay for netflix I don't
(24:30):
I get it because of access to GeekCast radio for review content for things like that however
uh I it's I like netflix I like everything that's on it for the most part I like the the way that
it functions compared to any other streaming platform it is in my opinion still the best streaming
(24:54):
platform uh no hulu hate please um but yeah I mean I do like a lot of the stuff on hulu as well
and some of the stuff from Disney so like if I actually had all three of them mixed into one
that would be ideal uh but yeah I mean but then netflix also is going to be adding a new deal with
(25:16):
the nfl which are going to have live games they're going to have live tv on netflix which
is kind of jarring like I feel like they need to stay out of that game I feel like that's kind of a
an arena that we don't need to be in with some of these streaming platforms but I kind of get it to
because cable tv is kind of dead and we're we're beyond that point now like there's no
(25:39):
there there's nothing there I guess is what you could what I what I'm trying to get at is there
there's nothing to go off of for for cable purposes or live tv and then of course diving
back into paramount paramount plus is uh trying to squeeze some profits from a streamer but uh
(26:05):
they uh they're still having a film and tv unit with with a lot of drag and uh the direct to
consumer business uh reported a 10 revenue increase which I guess is good gives them something to
keep going and an additional 3.5 million subscribers and they their film business however has kind of
(26:28):
struggled with a 71 plunge in theatrical revenue and a 6 dip in linear tv so they're they're still
trying to get the growth of paramount plus but uh they're they're trying to remain a standalone
so yeah apparently though they were trying to merge with warner brothers at one point and that
(26:53):
kind of fell through but it was kind of funny that it was in all the legal documents about trying to
trying to kind of continue that direction
and then uh we get to something that is rather interesting clown fish tv was talking about
(27:15):
this and I saw it come across my feed and I I've been following all things dragon ball and dragon
balls the dragon ball kai uh dragon ball super dragon ball daima which I've been watching the
the subs until it comes in the dub but anyways crunchyroll which used to be a pirating website
(27:40):
for anime of all things uh are
bees basically being copyright trolls I guess they've racked up 45 million takedown requests
for uh for their content which is funny because they're they're super aggressive with their
enforcement of copyright uh because one it's a lot of overreach and it's kind of just negative
(28:06):
impact on the fan community but it seems like these big juggernauts don't give a rip about the fans
pointy case star wars did it with fan films star trek did it with fan films hasbro does it with
stuff it's it's not unique I guess is what I'm trying to say here and they've they've issued a
(28:28):
rather targeted thing hitting online content including fan art in screenshots claiming rights
over any anime featured on their platform country roll and former funimation representatives
uh have issued those 45 million copyright takedown requests contributing to google staggering
(28:49):
10 billion url removal requests from just 5.4 million domains so they're not only doing the
aggressive copyright strikes uh through third party organizations but they're a lot of these
companies might not be legitimate because of that because it's it's very questioning and in very
(29:14):
interesting to see why a company does this I find it like I get it if they're like point blank
like dumping pirated copies
of the content out there on the internet like of the video I understand that that is a copyright
(29:34):
issue however they're not the creators of it they're the dubbing company or the one that has
the rights over here it's still like toey and bird animation over there in japan that owns it and so
I find it funny that they're the ones that are doing all this and it it goes to show you too that
(29:54):
they're very protective over their anime however they're also like a bastardization of what
Funimation used to be which Funimation was great it had a lot of great stuff I love their dubs I
love the curtsy network stuff uh I I'm glad that they you know that we're still getting like dragon
(30:15):
ball content over here however I'm not a huge fan of the fact that one they used to be a pirating
company and now they're they're the ones that are attacking everyone else and they they got a taste
of legitimacy and they then they've they've kind of been fighting it from there uh but they're
basically intimidating websites and stifling enthusiasm over baseless claims because people
(30:42):
are giving it publicity like can you imagine the audacity like Hasbro did or not Hasbro Paramount
did this to me CBS Paramount a few years ago when Star Trek Beyond came out the last crisp pine film
from the uh the Abramsverse I literally had the pressed photos from the film like the legitimate
(31:12):
like I didn't have bootleg copies I didn't have like bootleg images I legitimately had their
publicity stills that they published with their watermark on it that is available and I put it
in a YouTube video to describe it and how much I was excited for the film Paramount gave me a
(31:33):
copyright strike and flagged it and I had a tank down request on it and I'm like dude and I sent
him a rebuttal I was like look do you want me to talk about your content and pump it up and praise it
and discuss it or do you want me to just delete it and never support anything Star Trek again
(31:54):
because that was the road I was going down because I I was not going to put up with that
that bullying because I chose to talk about their content in a review in an excitement manner as
entertainment like it wasn't even like I was going all right here's the play-by-play of the whole film
and this is what happens in the plot and the enterprise blows up and you know I didn't I
(32:20):
had nothing like that it was strictly speculatism or speculative and I was talking about some stuff
with the possibility of the Star Trek 4 that was supposed to come out with like Hemsworth after
and they they ended up backing down but I was like you've got to be kidding me like we're to this
point and the you know the apex of like geek culture where it's okay to bully people because they
(32:43):
talked about your content good or bad it doesn't matter we're gonna we're gonna you know we're
gonna flag you with copyright I mean it's almost as bad as like people that are in the radio industry
and then they steal images that you design for an interview and you have this specific art and it
literally had my logo in it for this interview of Larry Kenny that was out there floating around a
(33:11):
while ago and it was a legitimate like radio guy who was trying to podcast and publish it on his
YouTube channel and he was just stealing images from other people's websites of interviews with
Larry Kenny and I had two different versions of the art one from an older version of the site one
from a newer one and he scrubbed them both and used them and I'm like no no no no no no no I flag
(33:35):
that one for copyright but that was more so because he just outright stole my image and I've had people
do that crap to me with like me and Mike with the Chadwick Boseman Black Panther first film like
publicity still we had something and I guess like whatever the site was we didn't have permission to
use and so they came after us for like a copyright strike or copyright troll thing
(34:00):
and then try to extortion tactics like I feel like the whole copyright industry there's like no
such thing as actual for use like basically it's just CYOA cover your own fill in the blank
the geek industry is so screwed it's so screwed I'm hoping we can get to a point where things are
(34:23):
good again but I think it kind of boils down to the state of the industry and where things are going
so what are some things that you guys are excited about going into 2025 what are some what are some
shows some some movies some of that stuff that's kind of exciting what are some old ones too
(34:44):
because I'm going back and I'm watching some older programs now at this point I I've been
fishing around on Netflix because I just I've already watched all of my various series I've
started watching like Ranma one one and a half because I've heard about it before and I'm like
oh okay and and so I've been watching that I've been watching going back and watching Prison Break
(35:10):
again I've been watching Suits which I've never seen before I'm started watching Tacoma FD which
has two of the guys from Super Troopers and I've been watching How I Met Your Mother like so
I've been kind of watching a couple of these different series in between watching like Dragon
Ball Dima and Dragon Ball Z Kai and Dragon Ball Super and various Star Trek and yeah so I've been
(35:38):
I've been watching all of those to kind of keep busy with my time like when I'm not recording and
while I'm playing Dragon Ball Sparking Zero which by the way their online part is totally tanked
their their traffic on Steam I wish I could have that game like a physical disc because I can see
at some point Steam dumping it and then me losing access to it I'm gonna be a very sad sad panda so
(36:02):
I don't know I feel like this has been a better episode let me know guys let me know what you
think I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did and get into converse and talk about this stuff
so I'm sure there'll be things that come out before I release this episode on Friday which it
will be Friday when you see this this is Wednesday so thank you as always for listening to Altered
(36:24):
Geek I've been your host Steve Megatron be sure to check out this episode post on GeekcastRadio.com
and on our Facebook page send us your voice clips send us your comments feedback at GeekcastRadio.com
you can get ahold of me on X at SCP-21 so until next time get altered get geeky with the Altered Geeks
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