Although Star Trek Generations saw the return of the original series star William Shatner, the iconic actor wasn't joined by colleagues Leonard Nimoy and DeForrest Kelley. Instead, Shatner appeared alongside Walter Koenig and James Doohan, who reprised their roles as Chekov and Scott respectively. Paramount Studio's original plan was for the entire cast of Star Trek: The Original Series to appear in Generations in order to pass the torch to the TNG crew. However, it soon became clear that several original members were unhappy at the prospect.
Released in 1994, Star Trek Generations marked Star Trek: The Next Generation's leap to the big screen. Not only was it the first and only meeting between Shatner's Captain James T. Kirk and Patrick Stewart's Captain Jean-Luc Picard, but Star Trek Generations also climaxed with the death of Captain Kirk. As the screenplay took shape, it became clear that other TOS legends would appear in the film's prologue set in the 23rd century, with Kirk moving into the 24th century to meet Picard and heroically die fighting the film's villain, Dr. Tolian Soran (Malcolm McDowell).
As a result of this change, the challenge of finding adequate roles in the story for every member of the TOS cast proved incredibly difficult. Many of the classic Star Trek actors were disappointed that their appearances basically amounted to cameos instead of sharing equal screen time with The Next Generation's cast. However, the studio was adamant that Star Trek Generations primarily focused on TNG's actors since they would carry the Star Trek movie franchise forward. As a result, and despite the integral William Shatner signing on, both Leonard Nimoy and DeForrest Kelley decided not to appear in the film.
In The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years oral history of Star Trek by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, DeForrest Kelley explained that he was disappointed that Dr. Leonard McCoy and his crewmates only appeared in one scene, commenting: "When I read the script and saw we were only in the first ten minutes, I thought it was best to pass and go out with [Star Trek] VI." At that time, Kelley didn't know that Nimoy also said no and he admits, "I certainly wouldn't have done the film without him in it." Both Kelley and Nimoy agreed that the well-received Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was a rousing and satisfying farewell for the original cast.
Leonard Nimoy's issues with Star Trek Generations ran deeper than simply disliking Spock's minor role in the story. Not only was he not happy that the Vulcan had what amounts to an inconsequential cameo, but he had also been Paramount's original choice to direct the movie. However, Nimoy, who both developed the story and directed the incredibly successful Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek VI, hated the screenplay for Star Trek Generations. When producer Rick Berman refused to change the script, Nimoy walked away from Star Trek Generations entirely. In fact, Nimoy went on to candidly voice his disdain for Star Trek Generations in The Fifty-Year Mission, revealing: "My feeling about Generations is very negative... Generations bothered me. My God, what are they doing? Why that scene? What's this scene about? Where are they going with this? That was the reason I wasn't involved in making it."
For his part, William Shatner tried to get Leonard Nimoy and DeForrest Kelley to sign onto the film anyway, but to no avail. Instead, the only actors featured in the Star Trek Generations scene aboard the USS Enterprise-B with Captain John Harriman (Alan Ruck) were James Doohan as Scotty and Walter Koenig as Chekov. It was especially bizarre for Trekkers to see Kirk joined by Scotty and Chekov instead of Spock and Bones since Doohan and Koenig had long-standing personal issues with Shatner. Star Trek Generations ultimately delivered on its gimmicky conceit, but unfortunately, audiences never got a true Star Trek crossover movie where The Next Generation meets The Original Series casts that they, as well as Leonard Nimoy and DeForrest Kelley, hoped for.
Along with finding collectibles, there are other reasons to explore in Kena: Bridge of Spirits, including to find and make use of Meditation Spots to raise Kena's maximum HP. There are various quests to complete throughout Kena: Bridge of Spirits, and at least 16 challenging bosses to fight.
The game has 12 Meditation Spots scattered across various areas. Some of them can be difficult to locate, but finding all of them is worthwhile. At each spot, Kena will stop to meditate which permanently increases her health. With bosses like the Corrupt Rot God to fight later in the game, increasing Kena's health is can have a significant effect on how challenging each boss is. Players can track down the Meditation Spots in seven different areas of the game.
Finding every Meditation Spot in Kena: Bridge of Spirits will take some time. They are located in the Village, Taro's Tree, Rusu Mountain, the Forgotten Forest, the Fields, the Village Heart, and the Mountain Shrine. Each area has one to three Meditation Spots for Kena to visit and utilize. The spots can be identified by the glowing blue circle found at each location.
The Village
Defeat the Mask Maker boss and head to the right to find the Meditation Spot at the edge of a cliff.
There's a Meditation Spot straight ahead after beating the Hunter boss.
After receiving the Village Crest relic, there will be a Meditation Spot right in front of Kena.
Taro's Tree
This spot will appear ahead of Kena after defeating the Corrupted Taro.
Rusu Mountain
Leap to the broken bridge to the right of the Rusu's Backyard warp stone. Shoot the arrow on the tree to warp over to the Meditation Spot.
The Forgotten Forest
Go to the Sacred Tree warp stone and follow the path until reaching a small bridge. Go left to follow the river upstream to find a blue stone across the water. Shoot it to raise two platforms, then continue to the Meditation Spot.
There's a Forest Tear on the path to the Lantern Cave that can be used to clear the corruption on the left. Doing so will reveal another Meditation Spot.
The Fields
There's a Meditation Sot overlooking the sea on the plateau of the tall tower beside some ruins.
Go to the Forge warp stone and into the back room. There's a spot that Kena can climb up and shimmy across to reach a ledge and jump across to the next building over. The Meditation Spot will be inside.
This Meditation Spot will appear in front of Kena after defeating the Corrupt Woodsmith.
The Village Heart
Go into the cave near the Village Heart entrance. Head through the cave and outside to the left, then clear the corruption below. Use a bomb to bring up the platforms and get across the gap to find the Meditation Spot.
The Mountain Shrine
The last Meditation Spot appears after defeating the Corrupt Rot God and completing the game. Players may need to leave the area and go back to meditate if it doesn't work the first time.
Players should focus on finding Meditation Spots if they are having trouble surviving in combat. Increasing Kena's health will help with boss battles, especially later in the game. Finding all 12 spots in Kena: Bridge of Spirits will take a bit of time and exploration, but they grant a decent reward, and any completionist player will want to track them down.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdomwill introduce the deadly apex predator Karshon (The Shark) to the DC Extended Universe. For many fans, this will be their first time experiencing the lesser-known Silver and Bronze Age villain. However, Karshon isn't the only interesting character set to appear in the film.
The titular hero Aquaman (Jason Momoa) will be back in addition to the returning Mera (Amber Heard), Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), King Orm (Patrick Wilson), and King Nereus (Dolph Lundgren). Vincent Regan has also been confirmed for the movie as Atlan, the ancient ruler of Atlantis, while actress Jani Zhao makes her English-language film debut as Stingray.
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Karshon, also known as The Shark, is a fascinating character to include in Aquaman 2 as the name actually points towards a very specific arc in comic book history. While the super-powered shark hasn't been at the forefront of a major DC Comics story for nearly 35 years, Karshon has taken major Justice League mainstays like Green Lantern and Aquaman to their absolute limit on multiple occasions.
There has been some confusion surrounding the character, as Karshon and The Shark are not necessarily interchangeable names for the same thing. The Shark was first introduced in the 1963 comic book Green Lantern #24 as a literal tiger shark that developed superpowers after being exposed to the full force of an atomic blast. The incident accelerated the animal's evolution by millions of years in the span of seconds, taking on a more humanoid look in the process. The Shark retained the baser instinct to hunt, but his super-powered intellect and abilities made preying upon regular people a dull affair, leading to him actively seeking out superheroes to hunt and devour.
The Shark took on the name Karshon specifically for his most famous battle against Aquaman. During a 1976 arc in Adventure Comics, the disguised villain hatched a plot to completely strip the Protector of the Deep of his title, his people, and even his family—basically everything important to him. Working in tandem with Black Manta, the Ocean Master and the Fisherman, he was able to seize power over Atlantis and convince the public that Aquaman had stollen something called Serum X, which the Justice League member was accused of selling to corporations on the surface who would mine the oceans for profit. None of this was true, but Karshon was able to turn the people against Aquaman, take his throne and kidnap his family before finally revealing he was The Shark all along.
The character was reintroduced in Tom Taylor's 2019 Suicide Squad series as The Shark, but like many of the group's seemingly disposable members, he doesn't last very long. On his first mission with Task Force X, the team encounters a band of freedom fighters called The Revolutionaries, and after a battle that results in casualties to both sides, The Revolutionaries are implanted with bombs and forced to become members of the Suicide Squad. During the fight, The Shark kills and devours an Atlantean named Scale right in front of his telepathic twin brother Fin. The two were expected to work together or risk being detonated by their superiors, but Fin was pushed too far and gets his revenge by stabbing The Shark with his own tooth and summoning more sharks to eat him.
The original Green Lantern depiction of The Shark comes with a set of powers that even the mightiest of Earth's heroes would have a difficult time combatting. The atomic blast that accelerates his evolutionary process essentially gives him the ability to manipulate matter just by thinking about it. In his first few pages as a sentient being, The Shark uproots a tree by creating a tornado, melts a rock formation, and kills an unspecified "heavyweight champion" by simply looking at him. He can also infiltrate the minds of others over a vast distance, so the longer he is around people, the more information the supervillain picks up. The Shark uses that link to instill fear into his victims, which feeds his bloodlust as an apex predator and makes him even stronger.
It is unclear which abilities the modern Suicide Squad version of The Shark possessed, as the character was killed off before writers could explore his backstory. When he brutally murders Scale he actually rips him in half between his teeth with all the effort of snapping a toothpick. He then uses telepathy to constantly antagonize Fin, forcing the Atlantean to feel what his twin brother felt whilst being turned into chum. The rest of The Shark's more deadly psionic abilities are not mentioned, but he was unable to stop a shiver of normal sharks from killing him after spilling blood in the ocean, potentially indicating this version of the character was more limited.
It's true that Karshon will actually be the second character based on a shark in the DCEU, but the relatively obscure comic book villain has very little in common with The Suicide Squad's beloved demigod King Shark. The biggest difference between the two characters, by far, is their intelligence. King Shark isn't exactly the most scholarly member of the Suicide Squad and can be somewhat difficult to contain once the overwhelming bloodlust sets in. He's a simple kind of shark who just wants to eat people.
Karshon, on the other hand, is a super-genius with seemingly unlimited potential to continue growing smarter the more minds he has to explore. He actively hunts down superheroes because eating regular people is far too mundane. That's not to say King Shark could never win in a fight, as the comics have shown Karshon (as The Shark) being bested by sheer brute force, despite an ability to manipulate matter on a whim that one would think makes him nearly invincible. In their first encounter, Green Lantern was pushed to his limit but ended up beating The Shark by hitting him with a block of ice so densely frozen it simply knocked him unconscious. That said, in a battle of pure intellect, the fight goes to the DCEU newcomer every time.
Indya Moore is stepping into the character of Karshon in what will be the actor's first venture into the world of comic books movies. They are coming off three very successful seasons on the Emmy award-winning FX series Pose and have appeared in feature films like Escape Room: Tournament of Champions and Damon Cardasis' 2017 drama Saturday Church. No details about how Karshon will enter the DCEU have been revealed at this time, but it will certainly be interesting to see what Moore can bring to the role when Aquaman 2 hits theaters in 2022.
While nothing has been confirmed by the studio thus far, the movie's specific use of Karshon instead of the character's more widely used name The Shark is indication filmmakers are at least aware of the original Adventure Comics arc and could have drawn upon aspects of the story for inspiration while writing Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. More information will likely be revealed when Warner Bros. releases the first trailer for the highly-anticipated sequel.
For Boyka's return to the ring in Undisputed 5, Michael Jai White should also be brought back as George "Iceman" Chambers. The Undisputed martial arts movie franchise first got rolling in 2002, but didn't really get underway in its current form until the straight-to-video follow-up Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing, in which Michael Jai White took over the role of Chambers from Ving Rhames in the first film. Scott Adkins also debuted as the Yuri Boyka, the self-proclaimed "Most Complete Fighter in the World" who would go onto to become the star of the series with the subsequent entries, Undisputed 3: Redemption and Boyka: Undisputed.
While Adkins' Boyka has effectively become the main character of the Undisputed series, White's Chambers is no less of a crucial pillar to the franchise. Beginning as the villain of Undisputed with Rhames' portrayal, Chambers returned in Undisputed 2 with much the same attitude of bullying aggression and insufferable behavior. With Adkins' Boyka as a driven and determined (if overzealous) fighter viewers got behind — despite him originally being a villain in the Undisputed series — as Chambers, White pulled off the rare feat of making viewers actively root for the protagonist's downfall.
Both Chambers and Boyka had let their victories in the ring go to their heads, and Chambers' experience of wrongful imprisonment in order to set up his fight with Boyka brought him down to Earth in realizing how much he had to adapt to a much more versatile opponent. Boyka, in turn, learned the most painful way possible that despite his undeniable formidability, he was not the invincible ruler of the ring he thought he was. In a skewed way, even as they were at each other's throats, Boyka and Chambers learned a lot from each other, but with only Boyka's subsequent story having been shown (with Scott Adkins' character essentially saving the Undisputed franchise), viewers are left wondering Chambers' fate. The best way to rectify this would be for Chambers and Boyka to cross paths again in Undisputed 5.
Admittedly, the logistics of their pairing would be a bit challenging, since Boyka is now back in prison at the end of Boyka: Undisputed. Whether by an unexpected early release or a second chance at escape, Boyka could emerge a very different man from the one Chambers knew. Chambers would also be a changed man himself, and probably after continuing his MMA training after Undisputed 2, could even be a radically different fighter than in his two matches with Boyka. Undisputed 5 would have the potential to show Chambers as an MMA fighter who could match Boyka's every technique, along with an even more unexpected prospect — specifically, that through the new challenge they'd be confronted with, the two former enemies could actually be forced to join forces and fight side-by-side.
Outside of simply continuing through Undisputed 5, there's also been talk of the franchise transitioning to a Boyka-led Undisputed TV series. Chambers' return in that format could even take the form of episodes alternating between where Boyka and Chambers currently are before building back up to their unexpected meeting years later. Whether the Undisputed franchise is to continue in an episodic approach or by just jumping into Undisputed 5, George "Iceman" Chambers is due for a return, and after his last match with Boyka, the possibilities are endless for the kind of fighter, enemy, or ally he could return as now.
With Microsoft’s very own PC Health Check tool back, you can ascertain if your machine is viable to run Windows 11 to be released shortly. This is accompanied with no shortage of third-party options available to those who’d like a report on a PCs’ compliance with minimum system requirements for Windows 11.
According to Microsoft’s Windows 11 overview page, the following items delineate the basic requirements a PC must meet for Windows 11 to install properly on that machine. At present, Microsoft has relaxed those restrictions, so that out-of-compliance PCs can run Windows 11 within the Insider Program. But when the official release goes out later this year, those machines will no longer be able to upgrade to newer Windows 11 versions.
Processor: 64-bit architecture at 1 GHz or faster; Intel: eight-generation or newer; AMD Ryzen 3 or better; Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c or higher
RAM: 4 GB or higher
Storage: 64 GB or larger storage device
System firmware: UEFI, Secure Boot capable
TPM: Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0
Graphics card: Direct X12 or later capable; WDDM 2.0 driver or newer
Display: High-def (720p) display, larger than 9” diagonal in size, 8 bits per color channel (or better)
Internet connection/MSA: Windows 11 Home edition requires internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account (MSA) to complete device setup on first use. Switching out of Windows 11 Home in S mode likewise requires internet connectivity. For all Windows 11 editions, internet access is needed for updates, and to download and use certain features. An MSA is required for some features as well.
Just recently the company also relaxed its CPU restrictions to include certain high-end seventh-generation Intel processors found in some of its Microsoft Surface Studio 2 PCs, as well as certain Xeon processors.
Using Microsoft’s PC Health Check
To download PC Health Check, you must be a registered Windows Insider and logged into the associated Microsoft account.
The download is easily accessible as a Microsoft Installer file named WindowsPCHealthCheckSetup.msi. Run this file and the program installs itself.
To run the program, type PC Healinto the search box, then run the app from the Start menu. To run its built-in Windows 11 compatibility check, click the Check now button inside the “Introducing Windows 11” pane at the top of the app window, as shown in Figure 1:
Click Check now in the PC Health Check app to run its compatibility checker.
The program returns one of three possible windows after the compatibility check runs. Those that pass the check get a “meets requirements” message (Figure 2, left); those that fail get a “doesn’t currently meet” message (center); and those from PCs running Windows Education or Enterprise or another Windows version managed by an IT department get a message that reads “Your organization manages updates on this PC” (right) but no compatibility check. I’m running Enterprise on my production PC and have flagged this as an error or problem with Microsoft via its Feedback Hub.
From left to right, passing grade, failing grade, and no grade, respectively.
Click the See all results button to see more details for both passing and failing PCs. The failing PC is a 2014 vintage Surface Pro 3 that fails because its fourth-generation Intel CPU is not supported. The passing grade goes to a 2018 Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga, which has an eighth-generation Intel CPU and other necessary components. Some of the details for both machines appear in Figure 3.
2018 Lenovo X380 Yoga (left) passes, but the 2014 Surface Pro 3 (right) fails.
Microsoft’s PC Health Check will work for most Windows PCs. Those running Windows 10 Education or Enterprise may be out of luck. Ditto for Windows PCs centrally managed via Group Policy in an organization’s IT environment. YMMV, as they say. And, of course, you might not wish to join the Windows Insider program. That’s why I also recommend the two third-party compatibility check tools in the next section.
Two good alternative Windows 11 compatibility checkers
Though more options are available, I have found two third-party tools to be eminently useful to check a PC for Windows 11 compatibility in enough detail to make them worthwhile:
WhyNotWin11: a GitHub-based project that runs as a standalone Windows application and reports on a series of checks it performs when run.
Windows 11 Compatibility Check: a Windows batch file that runs inside an administrative PowerShell session or Command Prompt window to report its findings on PC attributes and capabilities.
Either of these tools can provide you ample intelligence to determine if your PC is ready for Windows 11, with one caveat. Older PCs whose CPUs qualify under the processor requirement may include hardware-based TPM chips of version 1.3 or older (lower in number). These CPUs can emulate TPM 2.0, so what looks like a failure to meet Windows 11 requirements at the hardware level can be offset in software. I will explain further in the section on the Windows 11 Compatibility Check script below.
WhyNotWin11
WhyNotWin11 is a GitHub project whose source code is publicly available. The latest release as I write this story is version 2.4.0 (but you can always click the “Latest” button on the home page to jump to the most current vesion). Click the link labeled Download the latest stable release and you’ll end up with a file named WhyNotWin11.exe. By default it resides in the Downloads folder (C:\Users\<username>\Downloads), where you can execute the program directly.
It takes a little while to download the WMIC (Windows Management Instrumentation command-line utility) on which it’s based. When it completes its various checks, it displays their results as shown in Figures 4 (from an incompatible system) and 5 (from a compatible one).
WhyNotWin11 results for a PC running on a sixth-gen (i7-6700) Intel chip with no TPM support. This PC will not support Windows 11.WhyNotWin11 results for a PC running on an eleventh-gen (i7-1180G7) Intel chip with TPM 2.0 support. This PC is running Windows 11 and meets all requirements.
Understanding WhyNot11’s output is simple: green meets it meets a requirement, red means it doesn’t, and amber means it may or may not meet the final requirements but doesn’t meet current requirements. There’s been a lot of flap about where Microsoft should draw the line on CPU generations, so amber is a sop to those with high hopes for inclusion of older generations. As of the end of August, a few select seventh-generation Intel Core and Xeon processors were allowed into the “meets requirements” group, but no further additions are on the table, according to Microsoft.
Windows 11 Compatibility Check script
This tool, named Windows 11 Compatibility Check, comes from the community website Windows ElevenForum. Its author, JB Carreon, offers his work as freeware. It comes in the form of a batch file named W11CompChk.bat. Downloads for this tool reside on its History page. As I write this story, the most current version is numbered 1.4.1, for which dates and download links are readily visible.
Once it’s loaded onto your PC, you can simply right-click its entry in File Explorer while holding down the left-hand Shift key on the keyboard. From the resulting pop-up menu, select Copy as path. This copies the full file path into your paste buffer. Next, open an administrative Command Prompt window, paste in the string, and remove the leading and trailing quotation marks (“”).
The batch file will then execute. It will show progress, and then a report when it finishes its various checks. Figure 6 shows results from an incompatible PC (the same one as in Figure 4 preceding); Figure 7 shows results from a compatible PC (the same one as in Figure 5).
Script output for a sixth-generation Intel i7-6700 CPU PC with no TPM. Again, this PC does not meet Windows 11 requirements.Script output for an eleventh-generation Intel system with TPM 2.0 emulation, which Windows 11 Compatibility Check incorrectly identifies as version 1.3. Despite the script’s assessment, this PC is compatible with Windows 11.
Note in Figure 7 how the Windows 11 Compatibility Check script has been tripped up. While the tool does show that TPM is enabled, it erroneously reports an outdated 1.3 version based on the physical TPM chip present. That chip is emulating TPM 2.0 and therefore does meet the Windows 11 requirements.
Any of these tools will do, but…
Microsoft’s PC Health Check gets the job done, except for those running Enterprise or Education versions, those whose PCs are under central IT management, or those who are not Windows Insiders. Both it and WhyNotWin11 are smart enough to check which version of TPM is active in the Windows runtime environment. Thus, they correctly identify the TPM as meeting the “version 2.0 or higher” requirement.
If you run the TPM.msc snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console on that PC (you must be logged in with administrative privileges), in fact, it shows you that its “Specification version” is indeed 2.0 (see Figure 8, lower right). That meets the stated requirement and means that the Lenovo X12 ThinkPad in question (built in 2021) will happily and successfully run Windows 11.
The important field is “Specification Version,” which reads 2.0 and meets requirements.
COVID-19 may bring high risks of severe disease and death in many patients by disrupting key metabolic signals and thereby triggering hyperglycemia, according to a new study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian.
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Osimertinib was the first drug to be approved for adjuvant treatment after complete tumour resection in adults with stage IB to IIIA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
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Researchers from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research's (A*STAR) Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), and Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine identified a previously unknown condition affecting children, which they discovered could be prevented by administering a drug during pregnancy.
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Despite the prevalence of the painful condition, women are fearful and frustrated with limited management options, according to Cedars-Sinai research published in the Journal of Urology.
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The cancer survivorship journey can have many components, but one of the most important is regular exercise. Physical activity for individuals who have completed cancer treatment can build stamina, reduce anxiety, improve quality of life and physical fitness, and even improve survival outcomes.
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