Included in the Dharma Initiative Orientation Kit special edition Season 5 DVD/Blu-ray is a photo copy of the Truce between the Dharma Initiative and the Others. This fabled document, dated August 15, 1973, reveals much about the conflict between the two civilizations on the island, so let’s take a look at it.
Read More – Full text of The Dharma/Others Truce

Desmond travels to Oxford to find a woman who may be able to help the survivors trapped on the island stop jumping through time. Meanwhile, the survivors encounter the 1954 versions of some very familiar faces.

Read More – Rewatching LOST: 5.03 “Jughead”

This 30-second commercial focuses Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and the dearly-departed Juliet. Sade’s “Soldier of Love” is the soundtrack.

New York Magazine provides a few new details on what’s to come from JJ Abrams‘ next television series, the NBC spy show Undercovers. According to the NYMag article, the show is “about husband and wife Samantha and Steven, who met as fellow spies, left spookdom to run a catering company, and have now been called back into service.”

The second nugget of info they provide tells a bit about the premiere episode and also increases the show’s madcap comedy quotient: “The pilot mission of our spies/chefs, who previously made a pact not to discuss their pasts, is to hunt down a possible former flame of Samantha’s whom the CIA thinks has gone rogue — but we all know to prepare for a plot twist. And that’s not the only complication: Samantha has a screw-up sister who works for the catering company. As the couple spends more and more time away from home, she has to take on a bigger role in the family business…”

Undercovers is expected to debut on NBC fall of 2010.

Damon Lindelof tweeted about his love for this fan-made trailer for Season 6, saying that it’s “rocking.” Check it out.

Is it just me, or are the fan-made trailers way better than the official ones so far?

You can tell the hype machine is ramping up when the show’s crew comes out of hiding and starts giving interviews all over the place. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse in particular have been showing up everywhere lately. One of the best interviews I’ve seen is a new one with TV Guide, where they talk about how they got started on the show, what their inspirations are, and what’s still to come. An excerpt about the coming end:

We developed a mythology, as I said earlier, in the first season and between the first and the second season, and we’re actually moving toward that exact end point. I mean, that has not changed. Certain details of how the show ends have evolved over time but that’s mainly on a character level as we’ve gotten to know the characters and seen how the actors interact. So there are parts of the ending that are still living and breathing, but the actual mythological endpoint has been constant since we developed the show.

TV Guide also has a great interview with JJ Abrams, though he talks more about his other projects than Lost.

Lastly, there’s one other interview worth your time, this one from TVOverMind with Lost script coordinator Gregg Nations. The interview is all about Lost University, how it got started, how it works, and where it’s going. A bit of news: Nations hints that if LostU proves popular, it could continue on past the two semesters currently planned. He even drops the words “graduate degree” into the conversation. Hmm…

I understand that the retail landscape is getting increasingly competitive, but I hate that different retailers are offering different versions of popular DVDs and Blu-rays. Case in point: Best Buy’s exclusive version of the Season 5, which features radically different box art, and an additional disc full of bonus features you can’t get anywhere else. And we’re not talking about one or two extra featurettes. This looks like a huge set of goodies that all serious fans will want to see.

Lostpedia has a complete breakdown of the feature list from the Best Buy exclusive DVD. Personally, I’m peeved that I didn’t get any of this awesome-sounding stuff in my set. I’m guessing that it sucks even more for those that plopped down mega-bucks for the Dharma Initiative Orientation Kit extra-special version; if anybody deserved to get the full set of extras, it’s the ones willing to spend more than $100 for the tricked-out package.

The added features on the Best Buy extra DVD include five more deleted scenes, two more “Lost on Location” featurettes for “This Place is Death” and “316,” and four featurettes that show stuff like Michael Emerson and Henry Ian Cusick preparing for their fight scene, a look at Rose and Bernard’s “retirement” house, and a tour of the smoke monster’s lair beneath the Temple. The Best Buy set also comes with a nifty Dharma Initiative luggage tag.

One can only hope that somebody will post these features online at some point, otherwise many of us will never get to see them. Doesn’t Walt Disney Home Entertainment know that Lost fans are completionist types who want everything we can possibly get our hands on?

Image: Best Buy.

Hurley struggles with keeping the Oceanic 6’s secret, while Ben’s attempts to get the Oceanic 6 back to the island hit a snag. On the island, the time-jumping survivors come under attack.

Read More – Rewatching LOST: 5.02 “The Lie”

Here’s ABC’s third promo spot for Season 6. This one features Willie Nelson’s version of “Amazing Grace” to cast a dark, contemplative tone over the footage.

I’ve already told you all about Lost University, and how it’s an extra-special feature on the Season 5 Blu-ray collection that connects to the Internet and allows you to take part in learning about the science, literature, art, philosophy, and more that’s regularly seen on Lost. Last night promptly at midnight, the feature finally went live for Blu-ray owners with BD-Live capabilities, and here’s what it’s like (includes screengrabs!).
Read More – Inside Lost University (with screens!)