Convention update! I did indeed get to chat with Marina Sirtis. For convention appearances, the celebrities sit at tables with assistants, and you can pay to get a picture with them, or a signature, or both (often at a discount). I wasn't interested in any of them, I just wanted to briefly thank her for her work on TNG, Gargoyles, Mass Effect, and other movies/shows. She was incredibly warm and engaging, and despite not having a single financial stake present (I couldn't justify spending that kind of money), I didn't at all feel rushed when it was my turn to chat with her. That said, I respected her time being valuable, and kept things brief, but she spotted my Exhibitor's badge, and asked where I was working.
Oh, you know, a booth selling chocolates...
She said she was a fan of dark chocolate, so I said I'd return, and swung back to the booth for supplies. Returned, waited to get back to the front of the line (her's was busy, but not overwhelmingly so), and she gleefully accepted some of our wares. I also asked if she knew what a Challenge Coin was, and she said her husband collected them, so I gave her one that I've had made for a Mass Effect costuming group I'm a part of. Realizing it was actually something associated with a game she worked on, she said she would be keeping this one for herself, and proceeded to give me a signature in trade, something I hadn't even thought of.
So, it was a pretty great day. I've now met 3 of the TNG cast at conventions (Patrick Stewart, Denise Crosby, Marina Sirtis), and they have all be warm and wonderful. Of course, I'm sure they've played the convention scene long enough for that to come naturally, whether it started that way or not, but all the same, it has been wonderful to meet heroes decades after I first grew to love their characters, and to enjoy the scant moments I was able to spend with them.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
Convention update! I did indeed get to chat with Marina Sirtis. For convention appearances, the celebrities sit at tables with assistants, and you can pay to get a picture with them, or a signature, or both (often at a discount). I wasn't interested in any of them, I just wanted to briefly thank her for her work on TNG, Gargoyles, Mass Effect, and other movies/shows. She was incredibly warm and engaging, and despite not having a single financial stake present (I couldn't justify spending that kind of money), I didn't at all feel rushed when it was my turn to chat with her. That said, I respected her time being valuable, and kept things brief, but she spotted my Exhibitor's badge, and asked where I was working.
Oh, you know, a booth selling chocolates...
She said she was a fan of dark chocolate, so I said I'd return, and swung back to the booth for supplies. Returned, waited to get back to the front of the line (her's was busy, but not overwhelmingly so), and she gleefully accepted some of our wares. I also asked if she knew what a Challenge Coin was, and she said her husband collected them, so I gave her one that I've had made for a Mass Effect costuming group I'm a part of. Realizing it was actually something associated with a game she worked on, she said she would be keeping this one for herself, and proceeded to give me a signature in trade, something I hadn't even thought of.
So, it was a pretty great day. I've now met 3 of the TNG cast at conventions (Patrick Stewart, Denise Crosby, Marina Sirtis), and they have all be warm and wonderful. Of course, I'm sure they've played the convention scene long enough for that to come naturally, whether it started that way or not, but all the same, it has been wonderful to meet heroes decades after I first grew to love their characters, and to enjoy the scant moments I was able to spend with them.
Geordi is kinda nice guying outta this scene isn't he
"But I offered you friendship IS THAT A CRIME"
Meanwhile Picard is feeling downright fatherly towards some kinda remora space baby
I love it when the A and B plots are just totally unrelated
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
Yeah Geordi gets shitty this episode and her reaction to that is totally fair.
We had this discussion in the holiday forum, but basically, some people say it was shitty of him to create the holoprogram in the first place. I don't think it was. It's not like he asked the computer to make a lady to bone, and there's no indication that he kept coming back and visiting or whatever. But trying to use what he "knows" to get jiggy is not cool
Jake I am never going to buy that he didn't go back in and bone her
Just once at least
This is tough, but fair.
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daveNYCWhy universe hate Waspinator?Registered Userregular
Turns out that Beyond is on the Netflix. It is not particularly good, but I will say that if they'd started the reboot with these characters as opposed to the hip and edgy versions that infested the 2009 movie, I'd have been a lot happier about things. Pine's Kirk was actually damn good, and with a good Kirk, all the other relationships start to click. Kirk and Spock actually seem like friends, which lets the antagonism between Spock and McCoy work (because previously it was just everyone hating on Spock, which was weird), and with that triangle setup, things like Spock and Uhura seem more natural. I really can't overstate how much an improvement Kirk is in this movie, and how much that helps the whole thing work for me.
The other nice thing was the design of the space station. It's batshit and makes no fucking sense, but it's a totally baller look and made me think of a Culture GSV.
Flip side is that most of the rest of things weren't very good. The villain was meh. Crap motivation and crap plan, they try and dress it up a little, but it's basically 'he's cray-cray and is gonna murder everyone'. The attempt to tie it in to Kirk potentially leaving the Enterprise and becoming a desk jockey was there, but didn't really work for me. If they wanted that to work they needed to spend a lot more time with him as a character and not just a asshole space vampire. Plus they do the shocking reveal about the baddie right up at the end of the movie, which doesn't really do much since there'd been 90 minutes of the guy just killing people for 'reasons!'. If you want an interesting villain, you need to front load that, you need to put the interesting stuff before the body count starts rising because otherwise the murdery bit means I kinda stop caring about the character and he just becomes the bad guy who needs killing. Also the technobable was iffy, the action scenes tended to be dark, the Apple Store design of the Enterprise still isn't that great (the hallways are so bright), etc. Just generally a bit of a mess, but it was a mess that finally managed to get close to the feel of the original crew, so I'll put this one as the best of the new movies, and the only one that I'd be interested in rewatching.
Shut up, Mr. Burton! You were not brought upon this world to get it!
Watching the show just after I rewatched all of TNG is an interesting experience. It's obviously very, very different in lots of ways, and I'm thinking of whether this is mostly down to the fact that TV has changed or that this is a very different take on Trek*. I dunno, but will mull it over. I'm enjoying it, anyway.
*I probably don't care about your hot take on the answer to this question.
minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
The ending to the time loop episode was dumb as hell, but honestly, it was the first episode where they seemed like they really got to have a little fun and do something largely unburdened by the overarching storyline. I liked that one a lot.
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
So I finally got around to watching Star Trek Discovery.
It is good! Surprisingly good, frankly, given all the drama and meddling that went on behind the scenes. But you can tell it was made, in the end, by people who love Trek. It feels like a mix of TNG and DS9: you have DS9's war arc and grimmer version of the Federation, and TNG's optimism and togetherness. And the opening credits theme are a delicious nod to TOS.
The two things that bugged me the most were both related to Emperor Georgiou. The whole thing about Terrans being more sensitive to light and it being the singular biological difference between our empires just felt forced and artificial as a way to advance the plot. It's all the more glaring to me since there was an obvious easier way to do it; just say Georgiou and Lorca were injured in a battle together, and you get the same result in a much more natural way.
The second thing was her exit-stage-left moment, when the Klingon war ends and she just goes "well, catch you all later, bye" and leaves. WTF? She's not even going to ask for a ride home? It felt like such a "we don't know what to do with her anymore" ending.
What struck me the most about the end of the war though:
Is that L'Rell ended the war and became Klingon emperor in the same way that Hoshi Sato ended the civil unrest and became empress of the Terran empire in (the non-canon series because it all took place on the Enterprise-D holodeck) Enterprise. In both cases the woman (Sato, L'Rell) gets a weapon (the Defiant, the bomb setup) from the mirror universe (ours from her point of view, theirs though Georgiou) and uses it to hold their homeworld hostage and be crowned emperor.
And the last minutes and ending credit song were just perfect.
Is that L'Rell ended the war and became Klingon emperor in the same way that Hoshi Sato ended the civil unrest and became empress of the Terran empire in (the non-canon series because it all took place on the Enterprise-D holodeck) Enterprise. In both cases the woman (Sato, L'Rell) gets a weapon (the Defiant, the bomb setup) from the mirror universe (ours from her point of view, theirs though Georgiou) and uses it to hold their homeworld hostage and be crowned emperor.
Unless you're referring to your own head canon, you completely misread Enterprise.
It wasn't that the entire series played out on the Enterprise-D holodeck, just the series finale. Mirror Sato happened, as did everything else. Even the events that Riker was watching in the holodeck while mulling over his own crisis re: the Pegasus happened in canon.
Archer, in all his whiny, perpetually constipated glory, is canon.
Is that L'Rell ended the war and became Klingon emperor in the same way that Hoshi Sato ended the civil unrest and became empress of the Terran empire in (the non-canon series because it all took place on the Enterprise-D holodeck) Enterprise. In both cases the woman (Sato, L'Rell) gets a weapon (the Defiant, the bomb setup) from the mirror universe (ours from her point of view, theirs though Georgiou) and uses it to hold their homeworld hostage and be crowned emperor.
Unless you're referring to your own head canon, you completely misread Enterprise.
It wasn't that the entire series played out on the Enterprise-D holodeck, just the series finale. Mirror Sato happened, as did everything else. Even the events that Riker was watching in the holodeck while mulling over his own crisis re: the Pegasus happened in canon.
Archer, in all his whiny, perpetually constipated glory, is canon.
Join me, Nightslyr. It's much nicer on this side of reality. We don't have to care about Enterprise!
My only regret is that Riker and Troi didn't mention the Star Wars prequels while they were in that holodeck.
I just noticed while watching All Good Things that future Geordi refers to his wife as Leah.
He finally married that hologram... Good for him.
Alternatively he projected his feelings onto the first other women he met named Leah.
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AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
Good. Lord. Just watched the episode of DS9 where O'Brian gets sent to prison for 20 years in his mind. This whole series is just an existential nightmare for that man.
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HardtargetThere Are Four LightsVancouverRegistered Userregular
Good. Lord. Just watched the episode of DS9 where O'Brian gets sent to prison for 20 years in his mind. This whole series is just an existential nightmare for that man.
That's one of the ones that really highlights just how little the Federation prepares for contact with other species.
Just running into people you don't know about is one thing, but TNG, DS9 and VOY all have at least one occasion where they make contact with a species, agree to some kind of meeting, but never ask about the criminal justice system.
Of the top of my head:
Wesley gets sentenced to death for playing on the grass.
O'Brian gets sent to brain prison for 'espionage'.
And B'elanna nearly gets lobotomised for being angry in her own head.
(also, Paris gets 'his' murder victims memories stuck in his head. Okay, he didn't actually do it, but they still had no idea that was a punishment that they used)
'What is illegal and how are criminals punished on your planet' is the sort of thing I'd expect to cover pretty early on, particularly before you agree to cultural exchanges or whatever.
The almost total ignorance of characters about the alien civilisations they encounter, or even ones they've been in contact with for decades, is ridiculous if you think about it for very long.
It's funny to me because if you go on holiday, some travel operators will give you a quick list of Things To Not Do:
"Don't make a joke about their ruler. No, not even a sarcastic one. They take that shit seriously. Like, serious jail time seriously."
Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
That's one of the ones that really highlights just how little the Federation prepares for contact with other species.
Just running into people you don't know about is one thing, but TNG, DS9 and VOY all have at least one occasion where they make contact with a species, agree to some kind of meeting, but never ask about the criminal justice system.
Of the top of my head:
Wesley gets sentenced to death for playing on the grass.
O'Brian gets sent to brain prison for 'espionage'.
And B'elanna nearly gets lobotomised for being angry in her own head.
(also, Paris gets 'his' murder victims memories stuck in his head. Okay, he didn't actually do it, but they still had no idea that was a punishment that they used)
'What is illegal and how are criminals punished on your planet' is the sort of thing I'd expect to cover pretty early on, particularly before you agree to cultural exchanges or whatever.
"Justice", the TNG ep, is especially weird because at the start of the episode Yar specifically make a point of mentioning that she checked out the planet's laws and customs beforehand. We're left to assume she just didn't do a very good job, or was distracted by the naked, oiled Aryans.
It's funny to me because if you go on holiday, some travel operators will give you a quick list of Things To Not Do:
"Don't make a joke about their ruler. No, not even a sarcastic one. They take that shit seriously. Like, serious jail time seriously."
In the future, humanity has evolved part the need for travel guides. :-)
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. ~ Terry Pratchett
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ChanusHarbinger of the Spicy Rooster ApocalypseThe Flames of a Thousand Collapsed StarsRegistered Userregular
That's one of the ones that really highlights just how little the Federation prepares for contact with other species.
Just running into people you don't know about is one thing, but TNG, DS9 and VOY all have at least one occasion where they make contact with a species, agree to some kind of meeting, but never ask about the criminal justice system.
Of the top of my head:
Wesley gets sentenced to death for playing on the grass.
O'Brian gets sent to brain prison for 'espionage'.
And B'elanna nearly gets lobotomised for being angry in her own head.
(also, Paris gets 'his' murder victims memories stuck in his head. Okay, he didn't actually do it, but they still had no idea that was a punishment that they used)
'What is illegal and how are criminals punished on your planet' is the sort of thing I'd expect to cover pretty early on, particularly before you agree to cultural exchanges or whatever.
"Justice", the TNG ep, is especially weird because at the start of the episode Yar specifically make a point of mentioning that she checked out the planet's laws and customs beforehand. We're left to assume she just didn't do a very good job, or was distracted by the naked, oiled Aryans.
Posts
“Am I dancing, Doctor?” is maybe my favorite line in the whole series.
The entire scene is just classic Data.
"Look up, Data."
*Data looks up at the ceiling*
RIP cute asymmetrical bob
Oh, you know, a booth selling chocolates...
She said she was a fan of dark chocolate, so I said I'd return, and swung back to the booth for supplies. Returned, waited to get back to the front of the line (her's was busy, but not overwhelmingly so), and she gleefully accepted some of our wares. I also asked if she knew what a Challenge Coin was, and she said her husband collected them, so I gave her one that I've had made for a Mass Effect costuming group I'm a part of. Realizing it was actually something associated with a game she worked on, she said she would be keeping this one for herself, and proceeded to give me a signature in trade, something I hadn't even thought of.
So, it was a pretty great day. I've now met 3 of the TNG cast at conventions (Patrick Stewart, Denise Crosby, Marina Sirtis), and they have all be warm and wonderful. Of course, I'm sure they've played the convention scene long enough for that to come naturally, whether it started that way or not, but all the same, it has been wonderful to meet heroes decades after I first grew to love their characters, and to enjoy the scant moments I was able to spend with them.
Its good to find out these things earlier rather than later. ;-)
@Forar
1) This is an awesome story.
2) I will fuckin' buy a Mass Effect challege coin. Does it look good? Would you commission another one?
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
He just suggested a professional meeting, but...in his quarters...and he'll make dinner.... coincidentally her favorite dish....
Pull back Geordi you're going too hard!
Get it together bro
Geordi: your hair...it's different
Brahms: different than like ten minutes ago? /Creep factor intensifies
"But I offered you friendship IS THAT A CRIME"
Meanwhile Picard is feeling downright fatherly towards some kinda remora space baby
I love it when the A and B plots are just totally unrelated
We had this discussion in the holiday forum, but basically, some people say it was shitty of him to create the holoprogram in the first place. I don't think it was. It's not like he asked the computer to make a lady to bone, and there's no indication that he kept coming back and visiting or whatever. But trying to use what he "knows" to get jiggy is not cool
Just once at least
every time you touch the engine, you're touching me...
Heh
Edit: I'd also buy that the Computer is straight trolling Geordi, purposefully not letting him know she's married
Unless he was 'doing his business' and then telling the holodeck to reset to that previous state, it does seem like it was shut off and left alone.
But it has been a while since I watched either of these episodes, so maybe I'm forgetting something.
That way lies madness
"Computer, activate Leah Brahms hologram.
No, don't turn her on, just project her.
I like it when they don't move."
What if... that was taken literally?
Dude spent an awful lot of time crawling in them jefferies tubes...
The other nice thing was the design of the space station. It's batshit and makes no fucking sense, but it's a totally baller look and made me think of a Culture GSV.
Flip side is that most of the rest of things weren't very good. The villain was meh. Crap motivation and crap plan, they try and dress it up a little, but it's basically 'he's cray-cray and is gonna murder everyone'. The attempt to tie it in to Kirk potentially leaving the Enterprise and becoming a desk jockey was there, but didn't really work for me. If they wanted that to work they needed to spend a lot more time with him as a character and not just a asshole space vampire. Plus they do the shocking reveal about the baddie right up at the end of the movie, which doesn't really do much since there'd been 90 minutes of the guy just killing people for 'reasons!'. If you want an interesting villain, you need to front load that, you need to put the interesting stuff before the body count starts rising because otherwise the murdery bit means I kinda stop caring about the character and he just becomes the bad guy who needs killing. Also the technobable was iffy, the action scenes tended to be dark, the Apple Store design of the Enterprise still isn't that great (the hallways are so bright), etc. Just generally a bit of a mess, but it was a mess that finally managed to get close to the feel of the original crew, so I'll put this one as the best of the new movies, and the only one that I'd be interested in rewatching.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Watching the show just after I rewatched all of TNG is an interesting experience. It's obviously very, very different in lots of ways, and I'm thinking of whether this is mostly down to the fact that TV has changed or that this is a very different take on Trek*. I dunno, but will mull it over. I'm enjoying it, anyway.
*I probably don't care about your hot take on the answer to this question.
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It is good! Surprisingly good, frankly, given all the drama and meddling that went on behind the scenes. But you can tell it was made, in the end, by people who love Trek. It feels like a mix of TNG and DS9: you have DS9's war arc and grimmer version of the Federation, and TNG's optimism and togetherness. And the opening credits theme are a delicious nod to TOS.
The second thing was her exit-stage-left moment, when the Klingon war ends and she just goes "well, catch you all later, bye" and leaves. WTF? She's not even going to ask for a ride home? It felt like such a "we don't know what to do with her anymore" ending.
What struck me the most about the end of the war though:
And the last minutes and ending credit song were just perfect.
Unless you're referring to your own head canon, you completely misread Enterprise.
Archer, in all his whiny, perpetually constipated glory, is canon.
there's precedent
https://sweartrek.tumblr.com/post/147619904408/kirk-has-some-urgent-business-to-attend-to
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
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Join me, Nightslyr. It's much nicer on this side of reality. We don't have to care about Enterprise!
My only regret is that Riker and Troi didn't mention the Star Wars prequels while they were in that holodeck.
He finally married that hologram... Good for him.
Remember by this time The Doctor has probably been pushing holographic rights since getting back to Earth
Alternatively he projected his feelings onto the first other women he met named Leah.
colm meaney is a national treasure
Just running into people you don't know about is one thing, but TNG, DS9 and VOY all have at least one occasion where they make contact with a species, agree to some kind of meeting, but never ask about the criminal justice system.
Of the top of my head:
O'Brian gets sent to brain prison for 'espionage'.
And B'elanna nearly gets lobotomised for being angry in her own head.
(also, Paris gets 'his' murder victims memories stuck in his head. Okay, he didn't actually do it, but they still had no idea that was a punishment that they used)
'What is illegal and how are criminals punished on your planet' is the sort of thing I'd expect to cover pretty early on, particularly before you agree to cultural exchanges or whatever.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
"Don't make a joke about their ruler. No, not even a sarcastic one. They take that shit seriously. Like, serious jail time seriously."
"Justice", the TNG ep, is especially weird because at the start of the episode Yar specifically make a point of mentioning that she checked out the planet's laws and customs beforehand. We're left to assume she just didn't do a very good job, or was distracted by the naked, oiled Aryans.
In the future, humanity has evolved part the need for travel guides. :-)
which i mean
tbf