- The Sherlock Holmes class I wish UConn offered when I was a student
- Rolling Stone's Top 100 TV shows list is not terrible. Deadwood too low. Doctor Who too low.
- Dangerous Minds resurfaces Theory.org Trading Cards
- Maybe police chiefs could focus more on not killing people, less on their stupid religious biases
- Maybe sheriffs could worry more about other police murdering people than where trans kids go to the bathroom
- Super abusive but cute greeting cards. I can think of a Wake County sheriff deserving a card ...
- Round up of free, classic audiobooks
- Know your cognitive biases
- Know your deplorables
- One of this blog's chief laments, as expressed by Samantha Bee
- Giving Justin Trudeau the side eye -- we're on to you, Canada.
- As an atheist, I guess I should see Sausage Party then? Hmm.
- The Pixies!
- Been working on the swimming and running. Once I get a new bike, will start the last training leg before attempting a sprint triathlon. Speeding safely downhill seems like a good thing to bone up on.
- Know your Derrida.
- My go-to means of viewing movies by ... emm ... occult means appears to have been put down by The Man so I've fallen way behind seeing hard-to-find movies that I really want to see, like High Rise.
Showing posts with label StarTrek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label StarTrek. Show all posts
Friday, September 30, 2016
Blogger's Digest
Need to clean out the to-be-blogged-about items I've got building up in feedly. Prefer the one-post-per-link-or-subject approach, but the backlog is too daunting. So, it's a digest post. Possibly the first of several?
Friday, September 9, 2016
@tomtomorrow Reminds Us On Star Trek's 50th That We're A Long Way From That Future
Happy 50th Star Trek http://pic.twitter.com/lKUUpzR0ks
— Tom Tomorrow (@tomtomorrow) September 8, 2016
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Saturday, August 20, 2016
Starcher Trek!
Starcher Trek: Archer/Star Trek The Animated Series mashups https://t.co/suz6jjjrVM @StarcherTrek Sat night just went into the danger zone— Neilalien (@neilalien) August 21, 2016
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Friday, July 15, 2016
#TeamValor Representin'
tfw all your friends are on different #PokemonGo teams #TeamInstinct #TeamMystic #TeamValor http://pic.twitter.com/wSI8oQ6dOI— Joe Sondow (@JoeSondow) July 15, 2016
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Yeah, I've been playing. It's just Ingress with retro-pop culture gloss instead of a hard sci-fi one, but it gives me an excuse to sing "Ji--i-i-i-gglypu-u-uu-uu-ff" randomly.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
GOP Think They're Klingon, But Are Ferengi
Klingons are how Republicans think we see them. Ferengis are what they are actually like.
— Mr. Damien Walter (@damiengwalter) May 17, 2016
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Monday, February 15, 2016
While waiting for Bryan Fuller's Trek, there's this ...
Watch the first 5 episodes of the fan-made sequel to the original Star Trek series / Boing Boing:
"[Star Trek Continues] comes frighteningly close to replicating the original series, in the sets, make-up and hairstyles, costumes and music… The art direction precisely captures the Day-Glo visuals of early color TV. Most remarkable is Mr. Mignogna; no actor playing, for instance, James Bond has imitated Sean Connery outright, but Mr. Mignogna comes so scarily close to the dynamic, staccato energy of William Shatner that we keep forgetting we’re looking at another actor."Five episodes are available on YouTube, with a sixth coming in May, 2016.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Is Bryan Fuller Enough to Get the Star Trek TV Revival a Streaming Audience?
Bryan Fuller to Helm New Star Trek TV Revival -- Vulture:
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| image via Nerdist |
Hannibal and Pushing Daisies producer Bryan Fuller is coming onboard the new Star Trek TV revival as a co-creator, executive producer, and — most important — showrunner.Probably not. But it makes me more likely to pre-order the blu-ray of what will probably be the one season it gets when nobody signs up for CBS All Access to watch it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
New ☆ Tweet from @Museum_SciFi
Ever dream of exploring the Enterprise? Check out this EnterpriseD 3D Project! http://t.co/VtVCmoiU6o http://pic.twitter.com/1KbtrpgrJB
— Museum of Sci-Fi (@Museum_SciFi) October 1, 2015
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Saturday, August 22, 2015
Blogpost of the Week: "'...to antiquity its due reverence': Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" | Vaka Rangi
I haven't exactly kept up on my intended schedule (weekly) of posting these so, in case you don't recall, my stated aim is to highlight the best post I've read on a proper blog in a given week. (Give or take.) What you won't find honored with the shiny new canva graphic are: essays in the New Yorker, or posts on a site like Vox or Medium. This honor is for the internet's red-headed stepchild only: posts written by a blogger on that humble relic, the oft-eulogized but not-dead-yet labor of love, the independent blog. (Whenever possible, it will be one on such a tight budget that it's still got the '.blogspot.com' in the URL.)
Last time, Shabogan Graffiti got the nod. (Told you, I'm behind schedule!) This time around, I wanted to draw attention to another fantastic Vaka Rangi post, this time on one of the Star Trek film franchise's lesser-loved entries. If you're a fan of any Star Trek and aren't already reading Vaka Rangi, do yourself a favor and go catch up. If you're only a fan of thoughtfulness, insight, and lovely writing, you'll still be well-rewarded for taking the time to check Josh's blog.
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Wizard World Comic Con Raleigh 2015
Raleigh ǁ North Carolina ǁ Raleigh Convention Center ǁ Wizard World Comic Con Raleigh
I'll be there Sunday, so will miss William Shatner, and staying on a budget so didn't get the David Tennant VIP tickets either, but should still be a fun time with Number One Son.
Haven't been able to assemble a War Doctor cosplay kit yet, so will just be in my civvies. But, I'll be all old and grizzled per usual, so that's part way, I suppose.
I'll be there Sunday, so will miss William Shatner, and staying on a budget so didn't get the David Tennant VIP tickets either, but should still be a fun time with Number One Son.
Haven't been able to assemble a War Doctor cosplay kit yet, so will just be in my civvies. But, I'll be all old and grizzled per usual, so that's part way, I suppose.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
RIP Harve Bennett, Producer of Star Trek Movies
R.I.P. Harve Bennett, the man who helped bring Star Trek movies to the world | Newswire | The A.V. Club
No sooner have the Leonard Nimoy memorials been erected in Star Trek Online than news of another blow to the extended Star Trek family breaks.
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| Harve Bennett, as he appeared in Star Trek V |
We’re Sorry, the Final Frontier is Closed | fifteeneightyfour
We’re Sorry, the Final Frontier is Closed | fifteeneightyfour:
What I find most interesting about these new imaginative forays into outer space is how the fantasy can’t quite return to the unvarnished optimism of the old “consensus future”; it can’t quite get the bad taste of the 1970s out of its mouth. Firefly has the human race entering outer space, but only after the Earth-That-Was was all-used-up; its take on Star Trek’s benign Federation is the Alliance, a hygienic fascism that experiments on children and mass poisons its population, opposed by bandits and criminals whose political ideology (such as it is) most closely matches the American Confederacy. And the new J.J. Abrams Star Trek is hardly much better: the supposedly peace-loving Federation is (even more) militarized and paranoid in the new timeline than it was in the old one, losing Vulcan to a brutal terrorist attack and nearly losing Earth itself to a botched coup by its black-ops division. After two movies, the Enterprise has barely left spacedock, much less boldly gone where no one has gone before. The trailer for Episode 7 starts off looking more like a slasher movie than a rip-roaring space adventure; though the frenetic appearance of the Millennium Falcon near the end suggests some excitement is on the menu, all indications are that the happy ending of Return of the Jedi is going look a lot less happy to us in retrospect, its fairy-tale promise of restoration and liberation never quite materializing for our heroes.
Friday, March 6, 2015
How to save Star Trek
How to save Star Trek: Make it the True Detective of science fiction - Vox:
The wickedly sly and funny Jane Espenson, who's written for everything from Buffy to Once Upon a Time, also worked on Trek. Give her a dream cast and the budget to make a series of adventures featuring that cast, and I'd bet you'd see something amazing, and possibly more comedic than Trek usually gets.Espenson is my choice to succeed Moffat on Doctor Who, but wouldn't mind seeing this approach to a new series.
Friday, February 27, 2015
RIP Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy, Spock of ‘Star Trek,’ Dies at 83 - NYTimes.com
For many of us, this will feel like a piece of our childhood, our fandom, and our shared embrace of a particular vision of the future (the seeds of which we want to cultivate in ourselves) has been gutted. But we'll react with stoicism, knowing that Mr. Nimoy has been, and always shall be, our friend.
For many of us, this will feel like a piece of our childhood, our fandom, and our shared embrace of a particular vision of the future (the seeds of which we want to cultivate in ourselves) has been gutted. But we'll react with stoicism, knowing that Mr. Nimoy has been, and always shall be, our friend.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Robot of Sherwood - "Is it so hard to credit? That a man born into wealth and privilege should find the plight of the oppressed and weak too much to bear?"
Robot of Sherwood - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Series 8, Story #3 (Overall Series Story #248) | Previous - Next | Index
As always: spoilers. You've been warned.
Has Doctor Who ever censored/edited itself in light of current events before? Nobody was shot in the head in any of the episodes of "An Unearthly Child", which debuted in the shadow of the Kennedy assassination, although the Doctor nearly brained Za, the caveman ...
It's worth asking the question: was the edit (removing the scene where the Sheriff is beheaded*) warranted considering the recent beheadings of the journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (AKA IS, ISIL, ISIS)? It's the age-old "too soon?" question -- because, obviously, we're not going to see an end to beheadings on TV and film forever, so we're clearly in some sensitivity period -- that I think we only need to look at one of this week's other headlines for which to find an answer. Joan Rivers is no longer with us to remind the world that it's never too soon. We can safely assume the scene will be restored when the series makes it to video release, so we probably oughtn't get our noses bent for the slight damage cutting the scene does to the plot.
Another question it might be worth asking is: should shows still do the Robin Hood episode? Are we past peak Robin Hood in 2014? If your first thought of a sci-fi show doing Robin Hood was this:
... then you might've groaned a little when you first saw "Robot of Sherwood" listed as an upcoming episode. In a period of increasing wealth inequality, the legend of Robin Hood is as timely as ever. That said, could this episode have stood a stronger dash of righteous socialist anger at the exploitation of laborers -- that is to say more than Marxism 101 crib notes dotted throughout?
This is a fun, pacy episode; a perfectly acceptable mode for Doctor Who, the light entertainment. It can't be the only mode, or the series risks becoming forgettable. But small-stakes peril, a plot that leaves the rails, and giving history a proper thrashing in the course of mining public domain literary figure/pop culture mainstays is fair play in my book. Think too hard about how the peasants got hold of all those gold plates, why they worked as perfect reflectors, how unlikely it is Clara would get another chance to get interrogated by a cyborg, how that gold arrow was fired from a regular bow, went that high, and made a lick of difference, and you'll just end up realizing you should have been rolling your eyes all the way through the back half of this one, if you weren't already. So, yeah, I think this is one that's going to provoke love/strong dislike responses. (Or, split the difference. Let's cover all the bases.)
Having just watched "The Mind Robber," this bit felt like deliberate reference to that old classic:
Stray Thoughts (enumerated because there are lots this week):
1. No Missy. Instead we get another group of robots looking for the Promised Land, so it appears the droids in "Deep Breath" may have got their destination from these robots, or been looking for the same place themselves, not from Christian mysticism after all.
2a. Watching the previews, when the Doctor pulls out a spoon to duel Robin Hood, I immediately flashed to Basil Fawlty confronting the man he assumed was a hotel inspector about the man's actual profession. SSSSSsssssspppppppooooooooooooons. So, of course I went looking for it and, lo and behold:
2b. Related:
3. "Feck ya, Robin Hud" *snortlaugh*
5. The first literary reference to Robin Hood is in Piers Plowman, and I'll pull the quote here because it also makes reference to the Latin name of the Lord's Prayer, which'll be better known to irreligious Whovians as the name of our favorite gang:
6. redditor Planet_PGS asked: "Did anyone else hear the Jon Pertwee 'Hai!' When he karate chopped Robin's arm?" Hell yes, I did! I jumped on the internet to do a quick search and was, as usual, slightly disappointed I never get to point anything out first. [reddit thread for this ep] Love the reference to the miniscope as well ... Pertwee's Doctor is all over this one. Even the setting and the basic outline of aliens with superior technology crashing on Earth and going to work for a local strongman calls back to Linx and Irongron in "The Time Warrior".
7. All the crosses in this one, whether cross-shaped robot face blasters, or cross shaped openings in dungeon walls that shine upon the Doctor ... all that was missing was choir music to complete the effect. That Clara had all of time to choose from and decided to go see one legendary hero of oppressed, one man who put used preternatural skills to lessen the suffering of the poor ... and she chose Robin Hood was good on her, but this episode leaned hard on the idea that we somehow need heroic figures to carry on, while debunking the idea that figure would be little more than the opiate of the masses. That didn't sit right with me.
8. 1190-ish, puts Clara and Twelve in Sherwood at about the same time Vicki, Ian, and Barbara are in Palestine with their Doctor meeting up with Richard around Palestine in "The Crusade".
* Why do we say "behead" instead of "dehead", I wondered? Found google does this nifty thing now where searching using 'etymology' as the first operator returns a card at the top of the search results, wherein I learned it's because the prefix "be-" here is derived from Old English, not Latin, as I should have surmised on my own. So we have the latinate "decapitate" but it's "be-" that goes with "head" when were talking about taking one off. Here endeth the lesson.
Series 8, Story #3 (Overall Series Story #248) | Previous - Next | Index
 |
| Image via show me the stars |
Has Doctor Who ever censored/edited itself in light of current events before? Nobody was shot in the head in any of the episodes of "An Unearthly Child", which debuted in the shadow of the Kennedy assassination, although the Doctor nearly brained Za, the caveman ...
It's worth asking the question: was the edit (removing the scene where the Sheriff is beheaded*) warranted considering the recent beheadings of the journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (AKA IS, ISIL, ISIS)? It's the age-old "too soon?" question -- because, obviously, we're not going to see an end to beheadings on TV and film forever, so we're clearly in some sensitivity period -- that I think we only need to look at one of this week's other headlines for which to find an answer. Joan Rivers is no longer with us to remind the world that it's never too soon. We can safely assume the scene will be restored when the series makes it to video release, so we probably oughtn't get our noses bent for the slight damage cutting the scene does to the plot.
Another question it might be worth asking is: should shows still do the Robin Hood episode? Are we past peak Robin Hood in 2014? If your first thought of a sci-fi show doing Robin Hood was this:
 |
| The Enterprise D crew in "Qpid" via fanpop |
This is a fun, pacy episode; a perfectly acceptable mode for Doctor Who, the light entertainment. It can't be the only mode, or the series risks becoming forgettable. But small-stakes peril, a plot that leaves the rails, and giving history a proper thrashing in the course of mining public domain literary figure/pop culture mainstays is fair play in my book. Think too hard about how the peasants got hold of all those gold plates, why they worked as perfect reflectors, how unlikely it is Clara would get another chance to get interrogated by a cyborg, how that gold arrow was fired from a regular bow, went that high, and made a lick of difference, and you'll just end up realizing you should have been rolling your eyes all the way through the back half of this one, if you weren't already. So, yeah, I think this is one that's going to provoke love/strong dislike responses. (Or, split the difference. Let's cover all the bases.)
Having just watched "The Mind Robber," this bit felt like deliberate reference to that old classic:
"Perhaps we will both be stories. And may those stories never end. Goodbye, Doctor. Time Lord of Gallifrey."Gatiss certainly couldn't have written that without the Land of Fiction in mind, could he have? On re-watch, that "And remember ..." sounded so Clara, and Robin telling the Doctor Clara told him the story of the Doctor, and once she got started she couldn't stop ... If there's a storyteller in the Land of Fiction, it sure sounds like it could be Clara.
"Goodbye, Robin Hood. Earl of Loxley."
"And remember, Doctor, I'm just as real as you are."
Stray Thoughts (enumerated because there are lots this week):
1. No Missy. Instead we get another group of robots looking for the Promised Land, so it appears the droids in "Deep Breath" may have got their destination from these robots, or been looking for the same place themselves, not from Christian mysticism after all.
2a. Watching the previews, when the Doctor pulls out a spoon to duel Robin Hood, I immediately flashed to Basil Fawlty confronting the man he assumed was a hotel inspector about the man's actual profession. SSSSSsssssspppppppooooooooooooons. So, of course I went looking for it and, lo and behold:
Head smack moment: Bernard "Wilf" Cribbins was also the spoon salesman Basil Fawlty mistook for a hotel inspector! http://t.co/QljTUFmP2k
— cdogzilla (@cdogzilla) September 6, 2014
2b. Related:
3. "Feck ya, Robin Hud" *snortlaugh*
 |
| Image via RocketJohn |
 |
| Image via GoldenAppleGuy |
5. The first literary reference to Robin Hood is in Piers Plowman, and I'll pull the quote here because it also makes reference to the Latin name of the Lord's Prayer, which'll be better known to irreligious Whovians as the name of our favorite gang:
6. redditor Planet_PGS asked: "Did anyone else hear the Jon Pertwee 'Hai!' When he karate chopped Robin's arm?" Hell yes, I did! I jumped on the internet to do a quick search and was, as usual, slightly disappointed I never get to point anything out first. [reddit thread for this ep] Love the reference to the miniscope as well ... Pertwee's Doctor is all over this one. Even the setting and the basic outline of aliens with superior technology crashing on Earth and going to work for a local strongman calls back to Linx and Irongron in "The Time Warrior".
7. All the crosses in this one, whether cross-shaped robot face blasters, or cross shaped openings in dungeon walls that shine upon the Doctor ... all that was missing was choir music to complete the effect. That Clara had all of time to choose from and decided to go see one legendary hero of oppressed, one man who put used preternatural skills to lessen the suffering of the poor ... and she chose Robin Hood was good on her, but this episode leaned hard on the idea that we somehow need heroic figures to carry on, while debunking the idea that figure would be little more than the opiate of the masses. That didn't sit right with me.
8. 1190-ish, puts Clara and Twelve in Sherwood at about the same time Vicki, Ian, and Barbara are in Palestine with their Doctor meeting up with Richard around Palestine in "The Crusade".
* Why do we say "behead" instead of "dehead", I wondered? Found google does this nifty thing now where searching using 'etymology' as the first operator returns a card at the top of the search results, wherein I learned it's because the prefix "be-" here is derived from Old English, not Latin, as I should have surmised on my own. So we have the latinate "decapitate" but it's "be-" that goes with "head" when were talking about taking one off. Here endeth the lesson.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
The 10 Best Star Trek Episodes (Across all series)
The 10 Best Star Trek Episodes - io9
"Yesterday's Enterprise," the ST:TNG episode that brought Denise Crosby back (for the first time) would've made my list, but this is a pretty good list anyways.
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| "The Inner Light" ST:TNG |
"Yesterday's Enterprise," the ST:TNG episode that brought Denise Crosby back (for the first time) would've made my list, but this is a pretty good list anyways.
 |
| "Yesterday's Enterprise" ST:TNG |
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Star Trek coming to Netflix streaming in April
CBS And Netflix Ink Deal For Library Content – Deadline.com:
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| Image via flickr |
CBS Corp. and Netflix just announced a two-year, non-exclusive licensing agreement that will allow library CBS series to be streamed via Nexflix. Included in the deal are dramas Medium, Flashpoint, the original Hawaii Five-0, the different incarnations of Star Trek as well as Twin Peaks and The Twilight Zone.
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