New Voyages: To Serve All of My Days - Review

No BSG this week, and I can't get my Bond review to make sense, so here we are. I watched the newest episode of New Voyages last night. For those of you that haven't followed, New Voyages is a fan production of Star Trek. They say that they are making Trek's "fourth season". This is their third episode. And they are swinging for the back fence with this one. Having D.C. Fontana as a writer doesn't hurt.

The first two eps were not good. The first I couldn't even get through, the second was cobbled together fanboy junk. "So, DUDE! What if the DOOMSDAY MACHINE could TIME TRAVEL, and it goes back and BLOWS UP the ENTERPRISE when PIKE was captain, so they have to back the GUARDIAN OF FOREVER, and they met MATT DECKER in the TWENTIETH CENTURY and then you have Kirk AND Pike and then the MOVIE ENTERPRISE shows up?! Whooooooaaaaah!" I didn't make any of that up.

So this past week they put out their latest. Guest starring Walter "Chekov" Koenig. I gotta say, I enjoyed it tremendously. I may watch it again. I think Exeter (another, and until now, better fan production) probably re-captures the overall look of the original show a little more faithfully, but this really feels like where Phase II (the proposed second TV series they were going to make in 1976 that turned into Star Trek: The Motion Picture) might have gone (given an unlimited FX budget at the time).

There were some details to the models I wasn't crazy about (gridlines), but I thought the choreography was terrific. The flippy-dippy space fights of the past episodes are gone. (It was like Wiley Coyote on crack.) The nacelle caps looked awesome. (This is a big deal to Original Series nerds. There are entire web pages devoted to this effect. This has been a huge sticking point on the new "remastered" Trek that CBS is doing. We're nerds. It's what we do.) They're mostly TOS, but also kind of their own look. Some of it looks a little video-gamey, but it's really nice video-gamey. And that stupid little shuttlepod (curse you, Next Generation!) isn't going to look good anywhere.

I felt the cinematography was a great improvement over past episodes. Some might not like the hand held look, but it's been a TV staple for over ten years now. They certainly didn't go for Firefly / BSG. It didn't feel like big screen, but it didn't feel quite like video either. The widescreen format serves them well.

This Chekov guy was outstanding (the young one). He's not only got his impression down pat, he's actually got charm and wit and warmth. As for Walter Koenig, I gain new respect for him every time I see him get to do something with some teeth. I'm a little sad that they seem to be backpedaling from the ending (must... not... spoil!). The original interviews I read said that NV was the fourth season of Trek and they were writing as if the movies and TNG hadn't necesarily happened. But they've backed off of this a bit.

Cawley (Kirk) is starting to get it. He's almost there. But not quite. (I've since found out that not only is he an Elvis impersonator in his day job, he's one of the leading Elvii in the world! He's one of three guys that they actually let perform at Graceland.) He needs to stop replicating Shatner's tics and start looking at what he actually DID. Shatner was both happier and more serious. He didn't always have his "FIRE!" face on. Cawley is almost to the point of being able to do the quiet stuff. The last scene with Chekov was actually touching. It would be great to see him improve more.

Spock needs to figure out that he's Spock. Not Data. Spock was cranky. He scowled a lot. Nobody ever sems to get the weight that Spock had. I don't know the history of this actor and I hate to throw stones, but you get the idea he's there because he knows someone (or contributed money). Ok, that's pretty heartless, but there it is.

McCoy - Speaking of "who does this guy know"... Wow. This guy is just taking up space. Sorry.

Scotty - Might almost have a character if he can figure out if he wants to do his own thing or be Doohan. Not so good this time out though.

One of the most interesting things about this story is that they suggest that the Federation has an ECONOMY. And it might be harmful to some and benneficial to others! Gene must be spinning in his grave- er, orbit.

I'm still not NV's biggest fan, but this was pretty darn good. The two marks of highest praise I can give this ep: I meant to watch one act last night and watched the whole thing, and it made me excited about watching Star Trek again. That's saying something. I think NV is finally in the same league as Exeter. Now both of them need to get even better. (Boy, I say that like THAT'S easy.)

Oh, speaking of which, the trailer for the fan film I'M working on is up. It rambles, but it actually has some (unfinished) stuff that I did. The Enterprise stuff was filmed on the New Voyages sets and the NV actors that play Kirk and Spock make cameos.

So say we all. (Oh, that's the other one, isn't it?)

Big Engine - Light Weight Hippy Car

Don't know how many of you've seen this one. The makers of Casino Royale obviously did.

Doug Drexler

TrekPlace has a cool interview with Doug Drexler. (No, Trek and Cool are not polar opposites.) He's an old-timer fanboy from the 70's that made it to the big. He worked on most (all?) modern Trek, and now he's on BSG. A couple of highlights:

Tyler: How did you become involved with the Star Trek Giant Poster Book?

Drexler: Ron Barlow and I ran a strange little store, on the corner of 53rd and Third, in Manhattan. It was called "The Federation Trading Post." It was a Star Trek store at a time when there was no Star Trek, and precious little science fiction.

So it's very possible that we met him. The whole fam drove up to New York from Connecticut one day for probably about $2.00 and bucket of peanut butter sandwiches. My aunt wanted to see the U.N. and I (all of seven years old) wanted to see the World Trade Center. I tell her I can still go see the U.N. Anyway, we bought my first Enterprise model kit there.

Drexler: After that I sketched Star Trek, wrote Star Trek and built Star Trek. The most infamous thing my father ever said to me was, "If you spent half the time on your school work, that you spend on that TV show, you'd be ok!" I tease him about that now -- he loves it.

Heh. That sounds familiar. Well, the first part does...

That's a lot of humbug...

Good heavens. I saw a slide at the movies that claimed that A Christmas Carol had been made into something like 80 movies in the twentieth century. (Or was it 200? I forget.) Well, over at Jim Hill Media, he's reviewing forty of them!

BSG Mon- Tuesday: "Hero"

I sense a great disturbance in the Force. BSG is moving to Sunday nights come January. You know, back in 1978, BSG was on Sunday nights...

"Hero". This is where BSG gets into murky waters. I'm sure there were Season 1 eps like this. I KNOW there were S2s like this. This is a treading water episode. I'm sure they have great epic pivitol moments planned. This just ain't one of them. Sometimes the eps are terrific, like "Final Cut". Sometimes they're (say it with me now) "Black Market".

This also falls into the "lets go back an muck with continuity" hole. I don't think this ep contradicts anything per se, but you never got the impression in the miniseries that BSG-75 was not Adama's ship, or that it was any sort of punishment. I'm all for the "let's find out that we didn't really know what we thought we knew" kind of twists. Alan Moore is the Grand Master of it. But it has to fit, otherwise you don't get that wonderful sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when the TV world unravels around you. This didn't fit. This feels like adding the sister that no one ever mentioned before, without the mostly gratifying supernatural explanation. The technical term is "WTF"?

As (mostly) usual, the show managed to get me ready to stand on my chair and scream at the TV (What do you MEAN, WE started the war?!?) and then calm me down by not doing or saying what it clearly looks like they're going to. But they were tricky this time out, so it didn't quite work. I know, I do a terrible job of divorcing the show from the writers that write it and the world that they live in. Adama is supposed to feel bad because his momentary crossing of the Neutral Zone (to see if there even ARE any cylons, after they have ignored meetings at Armistice Station for FORTY YEARS, btw) set of GENOCIDE? Let's talk DISPROPORTIONATE RESPONSE, guys! "I gave the cylons a reason!" Feh.

And there's NonFatLee backing him up. "NO, Dad, it wasn't you! It was the top brass that, oh, yeah, we swore oaths and stuff to follow, even though we just KNOW that they're a bunch of blood-thirsty war-mongers just WAITING to get back into it with the toasters." Way to make a man feel better about his life's decisions, NFL. Oh, how are those dreams about the Olympic Carrier treating you? You were just following orders then, not your fault at all. I'm all for dramatic tension and tortured self-inspection (I'm an Angel fan after all) but make it make sense! (Unless it's Kara. She doesn't have to make sense. It's part of her charm.)

Laura almost always gets to be the hard cold voice of "That only works on television". And she ALMOST did it. Wild Bill didn't start the war. That's nonsense. (Ahhhh. Heavy sigh of relief.) There were HUNDREDS of ways that WE started the war. Huh? What? Say again? So, the cylons had no responsibility in this? And we did? Are you saying that there's something that should have been done differently Madame President, and THAT would have prevented the attack? I mean, aside from hiring a different defense contractor for your mainframe, and continuing computer security protocols on all of your battlestars and fighters, of course.

I mostly liked the episode. I just didn't like where it started or where it ended. I will be curious what the consequences of this ep will be. (Of course, I'm still thinking that this show always has consequences. We lost that about half-way through S2.) If the cylons know where the fleet is, why are they still playing this cat and mouse junk? Five or six basestars and that's all she wrote, innit? I've always figured that the toasters don't really want to wipe out the fleet. But every time we actually see cylons, when no people are around, they're talking "WE MUST DESTROY THEM ALL OR THEY WILL DESTROY US!" AND THEY HAVE A PLAN. Suuuuuure they do. It's a whole civilization of Starbucks. (The viper pilot, not the coffee shops, of course.)

Oh, and as the Hog of Wart posed the question: Ok, this guy is a tough as nails fighter pilot, and he's just going to go cool his heels at wherever the civvies go these days (since Cloud Nine is cinders)? Because he's emotionally scarred? Good grief, he and Starbuck can be a team! The management of resources in this rag tag fleet, human and otherwise, continues to amaze me.

Any ep that has good EyeTigh work is a bonus as far as I'm concerned, and this one had it. ET seems to be getting back to his old functional disaster self. He's got to be more reliable than "All We Are Saying" Agathon.

Kara got to do stuff, speaking of no consequences. Kara threw that emotional baggage off like an Adama kid throwing off a spare 100 pounds.

We're how many eps in? Eight? We take a week off this week. I figure we'll come back for two, have a heart rending cliff-hanger, and take the Christmas break. The show is still good, but they're not on all cylinders. I attribute this to two reasons: They're not being ruthless with "how would this REALLY go" and they're setting up character threads that they never get back to making work.

On the first point, I imagine they have a problem with a real war time scenario. The first season was a great post-9/11 metaphor. And that was terrific. But unlike the real world where things got back to normal fairly quickly, and if you feel like saying we're at war you can, if you feel like it's all hyped up, you can say that too, these people lost TWELVE PLANETS. They are down to 40,000 human being left anywhere. Attacks are frequent, disasters common place. These folks would harden up pretty quickly. Especially after New Caprica. This would be the remains of a civilization on a 100% war footing. WWII on something-other-than-steroids-cause-I'm-sick-of-the-cliche. But the I don't think the show runners can even imagine a group of people willing and eager to make such sacrifices anymore. Which is too bad, because that would make BSG1 look like a warm-up.

On the second, remember when they juggled The Story of the Week, Laura's cancer AND visions, Boomer and Tyrol, Sharon and Helo, Baltar and Six, and whatever hijinx Lee and Kara were getting up to? With an occasional cut to EyesTigh getting hammered in his bunk? Good times.

Not next ep, but the ep after, is written by Jane "Shindig" Espenson. Wacky fun. No BSG this Friday (and Moore still hasn't posted the podcast!) so see you in two weeks! Boom boom boom.

EDIT: I made sure I wrote this before I read Goldberg's comments. They are here. He nails it better than I do. But he gets paid for it.

Half-Life 2 Ep Delay

From Planet Half-Life:

"According to a recent talk that our friends over at CVG had with Doug Lombardi, Valve will miss their target release of Q1 2007 for the Episode 2 package. The new target release season is the summer of 2007.

No official reason has been given for the delay."

Drat! I mean, can we really WAIT for THIS?



Or THIS?



YES you have to wait for my BSG review. Waiting is good for you. Besides, Ron Moore didn't do his podcast. He's making me WAIT. Grrrr. (Arrgh.)

For the Moment, At Least, There Are Limits

Nice to know our society won't tolerate absolutely everything, yet. (Sadly, Paris Hilton's fifteen minutes continue.)

Then of course, there's this. A few months ago Mel Gibson got into no end of trouble over hateful remarks he made while REALLY REALLY drunk. That was front page news. This is all stuff that was said in public, supposedly while sober. Where's the comparable outrage?

TOO SOON!

I turned on the radio on Friday and heard Christmas music. I LOVE Christmas music. Just not before Thanksgiving. (Mind you, I hadn't quite gotten it into my head that Thanksgiving was only a week away, so that made it even worse.)

One Ring, or Maybe Two

Well this is an interesting development. These sorts of things never end well. Look at Superman II (and ultimately III). Look at Never Say Never Again. (You don't have to, it's an expression.)

I'm not a Jackson fan. Just not. Still haven't seen King Kong, maybe that will change my mind. My problems with LotR can be summed up with the fact that he made Gollum falling into the Cracks of Doom into a laugh moment. On the other hand beneath the mis-steps (in my mind) of the films is the firm conviction that those movies are love letters to the books that they're based on. Even if Jackson and I disagree on how he handled it, and have a (very) different sense of humor, I think he loves the books more than I do.

On the one hand I see a Jacksonless Hobbit as an opportunity. OTOH, I can easily see them going too far to be closer to Jackson's LotR or going too far to distinguish themselves from it. Ah well. Maybe in 50 years I'll get to see new movies of all four books that I love. (I'd be 87. Well, that seems unlikely...)

Honda

Another chance to be amazed at how people can make a living in today's world.

Game Night at the Edwards' House!

Bwahahaha.

Never. Moving. To. California.

" "It's basically a branding program, or a recruiting program for the military," Kelly said before the meeting."

(Pixar? I didn't mean you. You know that, right?)

Wakka wakka wakka!

Lord Voldemort

I don't recall this being my favorite book. I'm sure someone will disagree with me. But hey, the movie looks cool.

The Often Discovered Country

"Death, The undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns" unless you're on Star Trek, then we can't get rid of you!

This has been making the rounds for a few weeks now, but I just watched it. It's not exactly X-Men 3 (where we got to see a much younger Patirck Stewart and Ian McKellen), but then again remember when Forrest Gump was cutting edge? And then two years later Deep Space Nine did them one better on a TV bugdet? I keep saying, we'll see all of these people again in the 21 century. There aren't any movie stars that can replace Harrison Ford (including Harrison Ford). So let's make new movies with Ford '81 (2.0). (What we REALLY need is a Lucas '77. But I may have mentioned this before... Heh - Celebrity Death Match: THX-1139 Lucas vs. Attack of the Clones Lucas. Huzzah!)

The King of the Barbers, the Barber of Kings

Well, this project just gets more and more disturbing. Yes, I'm looking forward to it, that's not the point.

I Suffer, You Suffer

HT: Todd.

A Wooden Leg Named Smith!

Good heavens. Did anyone else know about this?

(Don't you just love obscure in-joke subject titles? I could have said "Yes! Well I don't mind that quite so much. At any rate, it's TRADITIONAL." Well, it made ME laugh. And I love to-- never mind.)

p.s. The editors appologize for the flagrant and obviously intentional non-use of Supercalifraglisticexpialidocious in this post. The writer's nose has been given a tweak and he has been told that he is bad.

Trot still Foxy

Nice to see that Foxtrot is still high-larious after 20 years (ok, 18).

Monday BSG - A Measure of Salvation

(A Measure of Salvation is the title of the episode, and not my feelings towards BSG. If they were all as good as 33 / Kobol's Last Gleaming / Scar / Exodus: Part 2, well then maybe.)

Ok. Here it is, and it came very quickly. This is the Waarthog episode. We have the opportunity to wipe out the Toasters. And almost everyone made the right choice. Nice to have you back, Airlock. Billy A. was a little skwishy, but he knew how to get it done when it came to it. The whole Dark Lee thing is finally starting to pay off a little (even if I had it figured out a long time before he did). Unfortunately the show that managed to convince me that they might actually blow up the title ship and change the name of the show to Battlestar: Pegasus did not for a moment convince me that they might take out the Big Bads. Ah, well.

I will say AGAIN, that I think that wiping out the entire cylon population is a questionable thing and something to be avoided and probably lamented. I think that if the Cols slugged it out over generations, found Earth, built themselves back up to a viable civilization, and found themselves with the power to turn off the bad guys once and for all, then no, I don't think that would be the right choice. If it were then this would be a very boring show and the cylons would be very boring characters. They wouldn't even be on the level of HAL. The fact that the cylons made a CHOICE to wipe out the human race means they have free will and all that implies. They may even have souls. This is science fiction and this is the conceit that we are presented with. Run with it. If they were JUST machines then they wouldn't be hated. Nobody hates the mill that blew up or the mine shaft that collapses. ANYWAY: Back to the We Win the Day and They Must All Die scenario. Well, if we can defend against the cylons then there is no reason to wipe them all out down to every last little mnemonic circuit. "They wiped us out, so we can wipe them out" is a dumb argument. You destroy (methodically and dispassionately) their means to make war against you and you do your level best to make friends. This method worked pretty well after WWII.

BUT that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking just over 40 thousand folks in the human race against an overwhelming force that may or may not insist on our total destruction (what day is it?). There is no margin. If you pass up this opportunity, there may not be another. This was really for all the marbles. Sorry, Carl. You made the right choice at the really really wrong time. Listen to your wife. This isn't a war for territory or even ideology. This is for survival. Act like it. Of course, he even has the line that makes this still a pretty terrific ep: "Let's keep this all about me." They do, and so the ep can be interesting, ask questions, draw some conclusions, and the only real frak up is Helo. Poor guy. Good thing none of those daring young men and women in their flying machines got into trouble (of the burning wreckage and death in the unforgiving blackness of space variety). I'd have liked to have seen the Agathons at THAT funeral. Get EyeTigh back in CiC, thanks.

Remember when Adama overthrew the Colonial government because Laura interfered with a military op? One that was going to take out a SINGLE base star? (Do they still call them basestars, or am I channeling 1978?) Now with Helo he's just going to let it slide. I wonder how the crew talks about Wild Bill Adama? "Ok, you can TOTALLY break regs any way you want, just make sure you're necessary to the crew (not some third level launch deck flunky like Socinus) and whatever you do DON'T do anything that the old man will take personally (unless you've been involved with one or both of his sons)!" Wonder if any of those wacky spunks from Collaborators are still around? I think Helo's little field trip had better stay one of the best kept secrets in the fleet. Come to that, where IS Anders?

Speaking of Anders, Kara's back on flight status??? Guess she didn't tee of Adama THAT bad (see above). Heh, Hot Dog has a Mark VII and Kara has a Mark II. Wonder what Kat's flying? And where is the one-eyed drunken wonder this week? Nice to see ADA in a background shot. So, everyone hears about the discovery of the Lion's Eye (or whatever) AND a deserted toaster ship and THAT'S when they decide to get their hair done? (Airlock, Helo, and Gaeta, in case you missed it.)

The Gauis Baltar show was ok, it got pretty well overshadowed by the Helo story. And they didn't do anything particularly unexpected. When things start to go WELL for GB again, THAT will be surprising. The whole Three / Six / GB triangle is boring before it starts. (The Caprica Six / Chip Six / GB triangle is woefully undershown.) I'm not buying that Three is going to go all mushy over GB just because he said he loves her (under torture). John McCain probably loves her too. (Ouch, sorry.) OTOH, now that I think about it, GBs profession of undying (yet not very reliable) love for Six is always touching in a profoundly damaged kind of way. One really does have to think of how undeniably brilliant Gaius has to be that he was able to function at ALL back in the Colonies before the holocaust. If he ever came up anything like second best he would have been flushed away like the annoying, self-serving, incapable little rat that he is. I'm assuming he was already very successful before Six came along and wrote the Colonial Defense Systems for him and made him into the Colonies' answer to a combination of Stephen Hawking and Mick Jagger.

Still not watching to "next weeks", so I have no idea where we're going, but I'll be here next week with a new review. So say we all.

p.s. I was watching "33" last week and I realized how much longer the Boom Boom Booms were. They really hung on a shot so you could get a really good sense of time and place. Much more spoilery, I can see that. The new ones are much quicker, more punchy. THIS week, SWIMW flatly declared that Athena was going to save them all because she'd seen it in the BBBs. That's why I love them.

p.p.s. On the Blood-Thirsty-War-Monger boards that I read (i.e. conservative, i.e. The Corner) this has been hailed as The Worst Episode Ever. These people must be Clockwork Oranged and made to watch Black Market again.

BSG How Lee Got Fat

SPOILERS! Go get caught up, slackers!



Did this conclude very effectively this season? Not so much. Was a TERRIFIC part of the finale last season. Oh yeah. It was even a really good part of the opening this season. I love seeing muscular and fit Jamie Bamber with Fat Lee's head. It's a hoot.

They Were Drunk!

"The young men "engaged in behavior that they otherwise would not have engaged in," the lawsuit says." Yeah, because that defence worked REAL well for Mel Gibson.

Not Making Me Feel Better

From Over the Hedge today...

With Great Power...

You know the rest. Well, the trailer looks great. Looks like Tobey is still really good a being Peter Parker and that's always a good thing. I'm still a little skitish, I guess because I own Spidey 2 on DVD and I've never watched it all the way through. (I have since watched Spidey 1 a couple of times.) But maybe they'll get it back for this one.

Joe Sweden - Poluting our language since 1997, But Not Much Before

a) Myself, I've been saying Not So Much at least since Mad About You.

2) Most of the screwy way I talk pre-dates Joss Whedon-y goodness like a thing that predates another really pre-dated thing. And that's just shiny.

That's all I'm sayin'.

It Begins

This is what the next two years look like.

Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the expected chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a Democrat-led Senate, said on Wednesday he thought Bolton's nomination was "going nowhere."

I Don't Know, I'm Making This Up As I Go...

I've known about this site for a number of years. And this one (and others like it - the hat is a tricky thing). Never quite managed to drop the hammer and get any of these. Now I find out that Wested is making these too! It's the Rocketeer! Yikes! (Wouldn't mind getting an Indy shirt either...) It's like insanely expensive sports cars. Nice to talk about a lot, but I'll need a new computer some day.

More!

I have discovered the greates ice cream flavor ever!

One Ping Only

Aw, suck. Basil Poledouris is gone. I don't own Conan (not a fan of the movie, but what a score!) so now I'm going to have to play Hunt for Red October a lot today. Maybe I'll go get Conan. Robocop may be some of the best music to play Laser Quest to ever.

Goldsmith, Bernstein, Kamen... It's been a rough couple of years for flim music.

Fun Toy

Here's a neat little thing.

You can do nerdy stuff like this:

I love it when a plan comes together...

BSG has been forever tainted for me. From the illustrious Mr. Riley:

"I was thinking how perfect it would be if one of the remaining five Cylons is Dirk Benedict. Then I realized- the final five must be The A-Team!"

BSG Monday - Torn

Well, it's Monday again. Only 5 more days until another ep of BSG. That might be okay this time around. We need a little recovery time. Believe it or not, BSG has gotten DARKER. Wow. How did SWIMW put it? "I don't feel good about ANYTHING in that episode." Huzzah! At least we're watching something brighter and happier in the meantime: Buffy season 6. I mean... Er... Darn.

The Agathon family: Well, looks like they got hitched after all (Helo calls Sharon Lt. Agathon). Didn't see ADA (Anastasia Dualla-Adama) this week at ALL. Or the former Mr. Starbuck. So Sharon is now "Athena"? Wow, this show reaches out and pulls the strings on the old school Galactica fans when you least expect it. Athena was Adama's daughter and Apollo and Zack's sister on the original BSG. She worked in CiC (although they didn't call it that). So when are they going to introduce Serina? Or Cassiopeia? (Jolly bought it in the mini.) The Sharon hasn't hit the fan yet with the whole "Sorry we lied about your baby" storyline. That will be fun. Racetrack is going to just push the "eject" button the next time they see a Cylon base ship. It never goes well when she's flying with an Eight.

EyeTigh: Still the wacky fun with the Tigh storyline. And now he's in cahoots with Starbuck. THAT'S healthy. Seems to me the Old Man cut him a little more slack than he did Kara.

(which brings us to) Kara "Razor Cut" Thrace: Ahh, she also is in a happy happy place. Although she seems to be trying to pull out by the end of the ep. Always fun when Cat is the rational Viper pilot of the pair. I have to admit, it's interesting to see her and Tigh palling around. Even if they are making their own little hell together and inviting all of their friends.

Bill "YOU'VE DONE A MAN'S JOB, SIR!" Adama: Always a good idea to give Eddie the boiling-just-under-the-surface-run-for-your-lives speech. He'll score the touchdown every time. And he gets to kick Kara's chair. "Leave this room while you still can" indeed. I love how Kara looks like she's thinking of trying something incredibly stupid, but knows that even she's not that crazy or dumb.

Felix G. still needs a haircut. I mean he looks cool as all getout, but it takes me out of our military settings right away. Helo could use a clip too. But it's nice to see Felix becoming the New Baltar (aka Research Guy). Maybe not all the brains, but a lot more credibility. Unless FELIX is a cylon, which seems unlikely.

Lee "How Come My Stories Always Get Cut" Adama: We don't have TIME for anything interesting, so he's skinny again! Bippity boppity boo! And he's a Major. Maybe he'll get more to do than "Black Market" this year. (Eccchhh!) Gosh, wouldn't it be nice to see a story with him and the President again? Wouldn't that be cool? I haven't seen a main character abandoned like this since Xander. But he had more scenes than the wif.

Mr. and Mrs. Tyrol: I heard him yell something AT Cally, but did we actually see her? They're better at keeping all the balls in the air than they were in 2.5, but not as good as 1. I WILL keep harping on this.

The Gaius Baltar show: He's like Capt. Jack Sparrow without the dumb luck. He NEVER makes the right choice and it NEVER goes well for him. His entire character is about making the WRONG choices. He lies not only when he has no reason to, but when it's to his distinct disadvantage to! I can see that they seem to be leading us to the conclusion that GB is a Cylon. Possibly one of the FIVE (who are starting to take on mythic properties). I will be so BORED if that's the case. But I have faith that they'll pull it out. Six looking hurt / annoyed at GB is becoming one of my favorite parts of the show, just because it's so at odds with the Six that lives in his brain. It plays against the "Watch BSG cause it's got GURLS!" vibe that tends to be in all the promo stuff for the show (and why I didn't watch when the show started up). You do have to wonder what the Baltar in her head is saying about all of this. Probably telling her that the real GB being a sniviling, whining, lying bundle of skin (instead of vibrant, charming, and brilliant) is all HER fault. Whee! Cylon guilt!

Karan S'jet has joined the cast of BSG!

Leoben was more interesting when he was being talking about than anything he's done on-screen this season.

Earth has left collectibles! Cool! My best case scenario for this show would be a 4-5 year run (however long it can stay interesting) that actually ENDS. I mean, I know it's not B5 or anything, but still. Hey, didn't the colonials run into a killer virus on the way to Earth (when THEY found Kobol) in the original BSG? So now it's toaster specific. Interesting.

Ahh well, it CAN'T get darker than this, right? (Heh heh heh heh...) 15 eps to go.

p.s. We watched on iTunes, so we didn't even HAVE "Next Week". Bwahahaha!

Cliches Are a Dime a Dozen: Avoid Them Like the Plague

Today is apparently National Cliche day. And this scares me.

STILL haven't tried this...

But this is really a new level, dontcha think?

He Was For the Joke Before He Was Against It

This makes me laugh more than anything I've seen today.




This was Senator John Kerry on Monday (for those of you that missed it):

"You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Now he's saying that he wasn't talking about the troops, he was making fun of the president. Not sure that makes is MUCH better, but lets take him at his word.

If George Bush gets good grades he can do well, but if George Bush doesn't George Bush ends up in Iraq.

Well, George Bush is not in Iraq, so George Bush must be smart. People IN Iraq on the other hand must be dumber than George Bush. And we KNOW that George Bush is really dumb (right? Sarcasm, guys, sarcasm). Not really helping here Senator. I must be missing the nuance.

John Kerry IS the October surprise.

Of course, never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Duck's Quack

For those of you that read Non-Sequitur I offer this. So it's about as accurate as Wiley's political commentary. (Too bad, he's a really funny guy otherwise.)

70's Kidvid

Ok, this site is just alarming. I'd say I remember about 75% of these shows. Even Run, Joe, Run. I think this was one of Scott's favorites. Shazam! is a treasured part of my childhood I hope never to revisit (although I'm still a huge Captain Marvel fan - they need to make a movie pronto while Adam Balwin gets too old). Ark II was the ultimate in Saturday Morning "We're destroying the environment" (back then it was just "the world") indoctrination. Land of the Lost, of course, is a classic. (For those of you that are afraid of the Sleestak, I direct you here.)

I Can't Believe

It's only Tuesday. I need to sob quietly now.

Take My Love, Take My Land...

but don't take my logos or t-shirts! "Don't annoy someone who has more spare time than you do." That's high-larious.

Boy, now that I think about it, it might be a good thing I wasn't blogging back in the Firefly / Serenity days. I wrote a defect in our test database at the time "They're Cancelling My Show!" Sadly, it was Unresolved. Or maybe Expected Behavior.

When Hinges Creek In Doorless Chambers...

It's Halloween! So how about a few Haunted Mansion Links?

DoomBuggies.com is the be all, end all of Haunted Mansion sites. Everything you wanted to know and then some. Lots of pictures, lots of audio. Here's a nice page on the LP, which when I was growing up WAS the Haunted Mansion.

The Wikipedia page. Yikes, there's a buncha stuff here!

Paul "Ghost Host" Frees (again).

Thurl "Grim Grinning Ghosts" Ravenscroft (he's grrrrrrrrrrrreat!).

And here's a nice article from Jim Hill. The precision grave digger drill team is my favorite.

As much as I love Pirates of the Caribbean, if it were my choice Haunted Mansion would have gotten the really cool movie and Pirates would have gotten Eddie Murphy.

Don't forget, tomorrow is All Saints' Day!

The Definition of Classic

Since the World Series just ended...



Find me a better sketch. (The Dead Parrot Sketch comes close...)

Holdit

Lileks still has it going on. Pretty much the whole Bleat is good today. I identify with the winter sun part, even in Phoenix, with no DST. But the X-3 part: Oh yeah.

Movies: I watched X-Men 3. Might as well have called it X-Men: Let’s Just Kill Off Everyone, Then. I liked the second one, but never really loved the franchise, to use that horrid word. The entire mutant-as-a-metaphor was insulting, anyway –if you know anything about kids you know that a teen with the ability to shoot fire out of his ears would not be shunned as a weirdo freak but elected class president on general principle: dude! Awesome! I can understand parents getting upset if their kid was blue and covered with hairy nodules, but the idea that parents would consider their kid “sick” if she had the telekinetic ability to raise every car in the neighborhood nine feet in the air – please. We have parents who will go across the ocean to adopt a Down’s Syndrome baby; are we to believe that the majority of American parents reject their kids because they can levitate or cough up gold by the quart or exude perfectly formed Neapolitan Ice Cream bricks from their hindquarters? Far from persecuting them, they’d get their own reality shows. Storm would be a TV meteorologist in New York. As for your morning commute, I’ll see what I can do. Stay classy, Manhattan.

And then there’s Wolverine - he’s Troubled and Frowny and Haunted, even though he appears to be a 35 year old man living in a high school with no job, surrounded by good-looking women, and able to kill whoever he wants without any sort of legal repercussions. You almost want some mutant to confront him in the kitchen some night: what you so mad about, anyway? You can heal from a gunshot to the head in six seconds and you got spikes coming out of your hands. Yeah, well, it hurts when the spikes come out. Oh really? I shoot liquid nitrogen everytime I pee. That’s my mutation. I go by the name of Holdit. Wanna switch?

I'll never look at Wolvie the same way again.

One Score to Rule Them All

I'm listening to the Complete Fellowship of the Ring score. As with many Jackson Lord of the Rings things, I wish I liked the movies better, because the treatment is gorgeous. It's the kind of treatment that Star Wars fans wish we got. (THEY. Star Wars fans wish THEY got. Grrrrr. Sput!)

This is an interesting listening experience for me, because I saw Fellowship once. I listen to the original CD a lot. (Wow. Pre-iPod. Has it been so long?) So my biggest connection to this music comes from the novel and the previously released recording. It's not like listening to Star Wars where I can picture what's happening on screen note for note. (Even the music that was tracked to a scene and later dropped.) Lord of the Rings, even more than Star Wars, is very very VERY theme driven. This set has EXHAUSTIVE notes written by Film Score Monthly's Doug Adams. It comes with a nice little book that details EVERY SINGLE THEME from the score (did you know there is a Theme for Elvish Longing?), how it's used, why it's used, what different setting are meant to convey. It's a scholarly work. It's extensive enough that the actual track descriptions have to be included on-line as a PDF. I gather Adams will be including all of these notes in a book. Lucky Tolkien fans!

So it's like listening to a symphonic story. You are introduced to all of the cast, shown all the sets, and then listen to them wander around for three CDs. It's Peter and the Wolf on steroids.

What I just wanted to say when I started this was "Wow, dude, this is a really awesome score!" and that it's really nice to read the novel with. I don't like the movies much, but yowza what a score!

The Complete Two Towers will be out next month.

BSG Monday - Collaborators

Well, that was fun. And nothing blew up this week. There have been great eps of BSG where nothing blew up. This is a really good one where nothing blew up. They would have had a great one, but they just couldn't help leaning on the "The President is rounding up common folk from main street USA and throwing them in Gitmo!" button. Which really hit a sour note. Not that Zarek was doing it. That was note perfect. Or even that Roslin condemned it. Just the more than slightly pretentious speeches that she and Zarek give to each other. Cylons don't get trials. They get airlocks. Laura has never wavered on that policy. Well, not much. I hope that they didn't write Zarek out of the main Colonial political scene for this lame point.

Again, will someone please point out that we don't have enough people to be performing random executions? Please? Get to the moral ramifications eventually, sure, but we're running out of bodies! Someone mention that!

The drama was terrific. The joy of a show where important, recurring characters buy the farm (no, not THE Farm) on an alarmingly regular basis is that when Felix Gaeta is put in a launch tube and is resigned to die, you bleeding well think it's going to happen! Especially since this IS the show that would lay down in Tyrol finding out just MOMENTS AFTERWARDS that Gaeta was the Inside Man, and roll around in it, and not shake it off before it comes in the house!

Speaking of pain, EyeTigh is still doing great work. Putting Ellen's things back in the closet was delicious. I loved that Michael Hogan didn't play him drunk in the CiC. He's not drunk, but he IS pissed. Yes, sober EyeTigh can still get kicked out of the CiC. Still no eye-patch.

I loved how they played Gaeta. New Caprica is still going on for him. He knows it's not ending anytime soon, so a nice cozy airlock doesn't sound so bad. I've always liked Felix. Now he's one of my favorites. Now he needs a haircut.

They're pretty honest about the fact that Kara will NOT be nice about this sort of thing. She will NOT be the good guy. Nice break up scene with Anders. So Kara is free again. Duala-Adama's (ADA) days may be numbered. She may be a Cylon. Kara may be a Cylon. Both of them might be Cylons. Or Lee could be Cylon. (Later this season Fat Lee will be confronted with a dozen naked copies of himself that have his old ripped body - HT: JimS.) Poor Lee.

We still have to wait for Kara to mock Fat Lee. *sigh* Date with a jump rope / Keep jumping was one of my favorite exchanges of the show.

The Gaius Baltar show is getting fun again. Nice Cylon interiors. Not surprisingly, the show makers have watched 2001 and Close Encounters a whole lot. And don't we all love Doug Trumbull?

Six is still interesting when she's with Baltar. Is it my imagination or is Three coming on to him? I mean, eeeeggghhhhh! Men all over the world have long ago resigned themselves to the fact that the worst men get all the women. But Gaius Baltar?!?

No Sharon OR Boomer this week. Nary an Eight to be seen. So Adama may sleep easy still.

Galactica's new Beat to New Caprica look is nice. It's a nice consistency. Colonial One does not look good. The weathering makes it look like a foot long model. We deserve better from the BSG effects crew. Of course these shots are now part of the stock library, so we're probably stuck with them. They must have been thrilled to hear "Sorry guys, our two hero ships have changed. All of our stock footage is no good anymore. Get to work." They probably won't put the Enterprise back in the fleet now. I'm sad.

And of course: They countdown is back! Yay!

SPOILER!

Colonial fleet rescues detainees at Walt Disney World!




And for those of you that missed it the first time 'round:



It's BSG night! Whoot!

Set Sail - No, Not That One

Some mornings I just really wish I had Bill Gates' money. Sure, Hillary will be there, but nothing is perfect. Hmmm, which would I wish more, that the Intrepid were under power or that Sen. C. wasn't there?

The Apology Headline

Why do headlines like this get run?

"Muslim cleric apologizes for rape remark"

And then the first line is "Australia's most prominent Islamic cleric vowed Thursday to stand strong against widespread outrage" - HOW is that an apology?

The media are toasters. Never forget.

A few months ago they ran the same headlines for Pope Benedict. He didn't apologize either. The pattern seems to be 1) Startling comment 2) commentator says "I'm sorry if that bugged you 3) Headline "SO AND SO APOLOGIZES!" 4) Public consciousness now thinks so and so apologized. Grrrrr!

Speaking of Benedict, in comparison, how will this guys comments be responded to? Will anyone blow him up or threaten to behead him to show how non-violent we are? Will anyone threaten his daughters to prove that cats don't care WHERE the meat is kept?

Waleed Aly, a member of the Islamic Council of Victoria state, said al-Hilali's comments would result in more antagonism toward Muslims.

"I am expecting a deluge of hate mail," he said. "I am expecting people to get abused in the street and get abused at work."

First off, when has this happened? Ever? Second, can they blame us when we are shown uncovered meat like this? Oh, wait, we actually take some responsibility for our actions, so I guess that won't happen either.

Step Away From the Computer

Ok, I'm not a Civ fan, or any other of those life sucking games. Sim City, all that stuff. See? I don't even know the names. (Roller Coaster Tycoon. I love that game. That's it.) But I know enough to know the name Sid Meier is a warning. It's dangerous. If he ever hit a genre that interested me, I'm in trouble. I understand this.

So this has me a little worried.

"Airlock" Moves Into the White House

B.J. over at the TrekBBS did this one. Now he just has to do a wider view with a Battlestar.

Go Hang a Salami...

Since Bob can't read the BSG posts, this one's for you. (Yep, it's there. It's about 2 minutes and 5 seconds in.)



(Here's the original.)

You know, this almost makes me look back fondly on TPM. (Mind you, eps II and III do the same thing.)

Face it, Al's a genuius.

Math Humor

This is my wife's fault, otherwise I wouldn't bother you with this. (Hee. Yeah, right.) She has asked me to bring to her attention all stupid math jokes. I, of course, think it's HIGH-LARIOUS.

Comic is, of course, from Rockwood.

Amanda Grayson - RIP

For those of you that missed it, Jane Wyatt passed away this weekend. She was 96.

It's Monday - Must be BSG

Bob: Quit reading and go start watching these. If you catch up quickly, you can get this season on iTunes for three or four bucks.

Well. Wasn't that just a heck of a ride? As in: Battlestar jumps to about 5 or 6 thousand feet above ground and FALLS while spitting out Vipers kind of ride? Whoooo! Never saw that coming even a little bit. They even showed the burning Galactica in the Boom Boom Booms. See? The BBBs are good for you.

We all knew Pegasus was going to ride in to the rescue, but they waited to show it to us until the very MOMENT that we all changed our minds and figured we were wrong. (C'mon - this show WILL kill off Bill or Lee Adama some day, I have almost no doubt of that.) THEN we see the Beast's missiles. And there was much rejoicing. (Wasn't it Blake's Seven that ran the last few seasons without Blake? No reason why Battlestar Galactica has to have the Battlestar Galactica in it.)

I'm told that the "Next Week" actually showed the Pegasus getting blown up. That's it, I have foresworn the "Next Weeks". You poor suckers. That was one of the best moments of the show.

As the Warthog asked (and I'll be very disappointed if the show doesn't): Why does Laura get to be president again? I can see it now: "The campaign of the illegitimate Roslin presidency is politicizing the occupation of and escape from New Caprica to further its own ends." Of course, it was nice to see Tom Zarek call her "the President". I want the body count on the white board back.

The Tighs - He's the new Galen Tyrol - i.e. the character who's life sucks the most. He holds the whole resistance together at horrendous personal and physical cost. And when they get back on the deck of the Galactica everyone ignores him. Ahhhhh. SWIMW still hates him. I'll miss Ellen. She's the sort of character who makes this show terrific (I've become a big Gaius Baltar fan too). Nobody is black or white in this show (Bill A. comes close). During the occupation she was the character who did the most good and the most evil, often simultaneously. I think it says everything about their relationship that he waited until she was unconscious to say "I love you".

Thank heavens that Bill Adama got rid of the lip rat. Although, by all rights he should have had a beard. And Lee is still fat for a while. Poor Jamie Bamber. A few more hours a day in makeup for you. (So, what, is Lee taking ALL the food in the Adama quarters? Does Anastasia Adama get up and run laps while Lee sleeps in? 'Cause she's still a stick.) We all dream of the first time that Kara and Lee meet up again so she can torture him over his weight. Poor Lee. Heh.

Nice to see Hot Dog back and saving the day along with the Bucket crew. Heck, Captain Kelly (CiC guy, he was in the mini and few eps after that) even showed up.

Kara - Well, I guess Casey isn't short for Kara's Cylon after all. How was THAT for a kick in the head? Love these guys. But otherwise it was another plot thread that went nowhere, alas. Moore wants you to wonder if Kara didn't go a little Stockholm, and that was clearly the intent, and it would have been fun. But he never gave it to us. It never played out. Kara falling for Casey felt mostly real. She's kind of wired for that. (Wired? Kara's a Cylon!!) Her having anything other than loathing for Leoben didn't. There was no ambivalence, no "maybe it's real". She played along with him to save Casey and then stuck (another) knife in him. Which is too bad. Of all the plot threads left from last season, Leoben showing up at the end looking for Kara was the most exciting. And they did almost nothing with it. Just like they didn't do much with "Sad Lee" last year. The first time around, Leoben thought Kara was special (had a destiny). This time around he just thought HE was special. None of the head games really went anywhere. He wasn't trying to tell Kara anything, he was just trying to break her (and that old chestnut has been done much much better on other shows). *sigh* Ah well, Flesh and Bone is still one of my favorite eps.

Interestingly none of the significant others got axed. There are still three shiny new MARRIAGES in the fleet. (Maybe four? What's the Agathon / Valerii situation?) How often do you see that? I'm sure we'll see triangles of Whedonesque proportions.

Speaking of Triangles Built for Two: I'm wondering where Baltar and Six end up. Or Three for that matter. (And who IS number one? Or the new number two?) Of course Three has Hera now (those pesky prophesies). Baltar with the Cylons could be interesting but for some reason I would be more looking forward to seeing Baltar and Six on their own. We'll see. In all of the occupation (and Baltar now being the Hated Collaborator) it never did come to light that it was Baltar that gave Six all of the defence codes to begin with. Baltar got a few nice scenes. But nothing as interesting as what they should have been able to come up with. At least he and Felix had their last throw down. Felix Gaeta is still the coolest.

You know, Eight still gets called Sharon or Boomer by all that knew her, most times against their better judgment. Why does Six never get called by her name? She had to have had one. She was with Baltar for two years. I know he's shallow, but he's not THAT shallow. (Nice to know that he still has a Six in his head, even though he's living with the real one again. Boy, is he crazy.)

Sharon - not in this episode really. But that will be an interesting fan to see get hit. Not only does she now know that Hera is alive, but now the baby is in the hands (literaly) of the Cylons. Oh, wait, she DOESN'T know. She's still in "Bill Adama would NEVER lie to us about Earth" land. Her and Kara can swap stories. Oh, and where is Sharon mk. 1? I know, this was a single ep that grew into two, so a lot of the characters got "moments" in one ep or the other, not both. Like the Tyrol family. Or Bro. Cavil.

I like how Cavil keeps going on about how the Cylons are now atheists because God is such a human thing to do. But the only Cylon we've seen that thinks this is... Cavil. Heh. Three certainly doens't think that (although she may be a bigger fan of Zeus after this week). Six sure doesn't. It would have been interesting to have seen Baltar and Cavil hang out together.

I have foresworn the "Next Weeks" (page back up) but I watched them this week. So I know that they're rounding up and disappearing the collaborators. I think an issue that doesn't get brought up enough (Adama knows it) is that there are not enough people left to be trying this nonsense. There will be enough dead people without doing the toaster's own work. (We're two years from the annihilation of the colonies. We should start seeing LOTS of little babies when we see the civ population. Especially on the Gemenon ships. That would be an interesting story if the Gemenons start out-breeding the other colonies.)

All in all a very very satisfying conclusion to the New Caprica epic. I'm a little surprised they wrapped it up so quickly. I figured this would be the new face of the show for at least a season. I gather that the intent was to wrap it up even faster. Heh. Silly Ron. (Both the seaon 1-2 and the 2.0-2.5 breaks were meant to wrap up in an episode. Kobol stretched to what? Five? And Pegasus went three.)

Well, on to Earth. Or maybe New Picon.

Boom boom boom

See, in the miniseries of BSG Adama has the following exchange with Starbuck (who is jogging around Glactica, the soon to be plunged-into-a-life-or-death-struggle-on-which-the-fate-of-the-enti- er, retired battlestar):

Adama: What do you hear?
Starbuck: Nothing but the rain.
Adama: Grab your gun and bring in the cat.
Starbuck: Boom boom boom.

This is later repeated when Adama is getting ready to flee a massive Cylon attack and Adama is telling Starbuck to get her and Apollo's broken viper back home or they're going to be left.

So now the rapid fire "This is what you're going to see this week" clips that run after the main titles (accompanied by Bear McCreary's trademark percussion) are called the Boom Boom Booms (see? cause of the drums and cause it's a Starbuck line). Some people hate them. My brother Jeff is one of them. They discontinued them for the first few eps of season two. Then cooler heads (that don't hang on the Glactica message boards as much, I'd wager) prevailed and they brought them back. Mission: Impossible used to do this, so did Space: 1999.

They really don't spoil anything nearly as much as the "previously on Buffy the Vamp- er Battlestar Galactica" (gee, why is Dorrel in the POBSG? Maybe he'll be back this week?) or the blasted PREVIEWS (that I don't watch anymore). They usually edit the BBBs to mislead you as to what's happening anyway.

Well, that was pretty long winded. But Aaron Williams says it better. Jeff, this one's for you.

So say we all.

Run away! It's TAG!

A co-worker and I were just arguing whether it's more embarassing to be from Texas (him) or Massachusetts. Today I think I take the upper (lower) hand.

But neither of us is from California.

Not Addis Ababa?

C'mon, tell me you weren't thinking kryptonite.

The Monday Morning Galactica Report - The All You Need Is Love Edition

As usual, SPOILERS!

So, if they keep to their theme (as I see it so far) with a Whedonesque rigidity, this will be a harrowing season. Or at least a handful of eps.
BTW, IMHO (um, WT- er, nevermind...) my show is back. No, that's not true, MY show is still canceled, but the movie was pretty spiffy. And I can't believe he killed WASH!

*cough* BSG is back. This weeks ep had a much lighter touch and didn't hurt itself trying for the real-world parallels. Rather that go for the one to one correspondence they just told the story. And if you feel like assigning further (inappropriate, to my mind) symbolism, that's yer own lookout.

As usual, my favorite characters are the most conflicted. I'm just having a heck of a time watching the Tighs. Both of them want so much and have NO idea how to get it and manage to screw things up without trying. Dana "Three" Biers (the press are toasters! Never forget!) suddenly jumped up a bunch of notches. And we're both (SWIMW and I) holding our breath waiting to see what terrible terrible consequences come of the whole Boomer / Hera thing.

Are Boomer / Sharon ever going to meet? I mean, check it out. Boomer shoots the old man, gets killed by Cally, and along with Caprica Six "reforms" the Cylons. Meanwhile, Sharon hooks up with Helo as part of a Cylon plot, makes her way back to Galactica, has a baby, and manages to get back into the fleet! She's a Raptor pilot again! So the one Sharon has essentially taken over the other Sharon's life! The "original" Galactica Sharon (the one who shot Adama) may get to compete with Tyrol for the "Boy Does My Life Suck Beyond the Telling" award. I mean, Tyrol's looking almost content in the middle of war and occupation. And he got to show up out of NOWHERE and save his wife from a whithering hail of gunfire. He gets Husband of the Year award and then some!

(Hey, has anyone seen Hot Dog? You know, Adama's REAL son? Is he on New Cap? Still in the fleet? Did I miss that he got killed last season?)

Anyway-- The Theme. It's not Occupation. It's Love. As I see it there are at least Three characters that have done / are about to do terrible, irrevocable actions for Love and don't have a moment's regret over it. We started the season with Three asking Six if it was worth it (bringing the Cylons to New Cap) over the love of a man. And Six said if Three had ever known Love that she wouldn't have to ask that. Ellen Tigh is still a conniving backstabbing witch. But now she's conniving and backstabbing because she can't stand to lose Saul. And short of putting a round in her eye, I don't think she's going to stop anytime soon. And now Dana (Three) has got a serious Jones on. She's going to turn the worlds upside down to find that baby. Not because of any import to one side of the other, but because the Oracle prommised her Love. (Gotta love the characters that have their very own agenda completely separate from ANYBODY else. Used to be Gaius.) I'm sure Starbuck will find her way into this theme soon enough. As will Sharon. It's gonna be a scary year.

Oh, and it's nice to see that Amanda (The Oracle) Plumber is still playing crazy just fine. "Any of you ------ even MOVE and I'll execute every last one of you!"

My only disappointment so far is the lack of Baltar and Six. (Boy, I never thought I'd write THOSE words!) I mean, after the setup in Downloaded and the payoff with Lay Down Your Burdens, with the "real" Six, the one that actually had a relationship with Baltar (and has a GB living in HER head!) they haven't givin us a lot of screen time. Always leave them wanting more, I know. But give us SOME. Even Whedon gives us a few scenes of Happiness Finally Attained before he plunges both characters into a figurative or literal hell, never to be the same.

Tune in next week. Boom boom boom.

p.s. I'm not watching the previews. So there.

Crazy On Tap!

Wow. I mean: Wow.

My biggest question to these kind of folks? Why are you showing up on TV? Why are you writing books? This is revolution time, isn't it? Break out the guns, Boston Tea Party and all that? I mean, THE GOVERNMENT has just killed THOUSANDS of people. Some of which were just spirited away and executed, if they are to be believed. And you're going to fight them with public opinion? If I was the spooks that did this, I'd be sleeping soundly in my bed, because these guys can't touch me. I can rig elections, I control the media, and I can engineer wars and death within months of coming to power. And my worst foe is going to WRITE A BOOK ABOUT ME.

Orrrrrr, maybe these guys are just cranky little children who have watched too much X-Files.

HT: Koly

Anchors Aweigh!

Today is the birthday of the U.S. Navy! (Well, sorta. Seems complicated...)

What a Swell Guy

This is Alec Baldwin trying to get through the police barricades where a PLANE HAS CRASHED INTO A BUILDING. Oh, yeah, IN NEW YORK CITY.

He wouldn't have to put up with this if he'd left the country like he promised.

Happy Birthday, Bub

Good heavens. I'm only 3 months younger than Wolverine! THAT can't be right...

(And I'm still a year younger than James Bond. So I guess that's still ok.)

Babs vs. the CIA

In case you missed it (lucky you) music legend and political saint Barbra Streisand included a reportedly not-so-funny skit of her and President Bush in her latest concert tour. When she was heckled for it she responded "Shut the f--- up!" (No, not frak.)

Ok, so can we see this? Is it recorded? Can we at least hear it? (Nope, didn't search, maybe it's up on YouTube already.) The reason I'm asking is I'm curious: Which will get you in more trouble? Posting film / audio of Babs bashing on the President? Or putting classified intelligence documents in the paper? Just wondering.

Expensive Star Trek Stuff

For those of you that don't know, this past weekend Christie's Auction House auctioned off almost every scrap of Star Trek that Paramount still had in it's vaults.

Picard's Enterprise went for $500K. (Proving that we are in a world gone mad, or at least with no taste, the Enterprise from Star Trek: The Motion Picture went for half of this.)

Now, you can be told the rest of the story.

BSG from NRO with a little Ff

(Still in spoiler land, gang. Avert your eyes if you're not up to date.)

Covers a lot of what I said yesterday. But he got paid for it.

"Final Cut" is the biggest reason I'm still holding my breath and thinking it will be ok. That was where the Press complained about their patriotism being questioned and I rolled my eyes and said "Oh. Well, I should have seen THIS ep coming. It was nice while it lasted." Then the Press turned out to be a fraking toaster! Whooooooo! One of my favorite moments of the whole show! Well, after finding out that Six has a Baltar in her head. How can you beat that?

As long as they never do another "Black Market" we're good.

EDIT: BTW, neither My Dad or She Who Is My Wife thought it was such a direct Iraq parallel. MD thought it was more of a WWII thing. Which might be what bugs me the most: They use Iraq words coupled with Nazi imagery. And why don't they make it a Darfur parralel?

EDIT EDIT: Ok, make sure you follow the link in the article. This one.

The BSG Premier Report

Ok, here we go. BSG 3. The gloves are off, the DVDs are ALL out, you've all had MONTHS to watch 1 and 2.0 and a few weeks to watch 2.5. Spoiler zone is in effect from here on out. You have been warned.

Yes, I liked it. There are goodly sized bits that are what I love BSG for. I'm about half-way through the podcast of Ron Moore's episode commentary. I think he wants to have his cutting social commentary and his ratings too. On the one hand he talks about how this is not Iraq specifically, but alegory on occupied societies in general, be it Poland, or Israel (Romans), or the American Colonies leading up to the Revolutionary war. All well and good and he almost got me (and kinda still does). Only then he goes on about how brave The Sci-Fi Channel is being by running this. Ummmm, how brave do you have to be to comment on the Nazi occupation of France? Unless that's not what you're commenting on.

They show that desperate people resort to desperate measures - Suicide Bombing for example. They're trying to show that everyone thinks they're the good guys. The Iraqi resistance thinks that they're the heroes freeing a repressed people. Fine. That would be interesting casting the Colonials (the Heroes) as the insurgents and the Cylons (the Bad guys) as the powerful occupying U.S. It would be REALLY interesting if they played it honest. The elements that are missing is that there is no war of public opinion in the Cylon press (and they don't make TV shows where the evil robots are now an alegory for the evils of US power). The suicide bombers are only targeting enemy leaders and military targets. They TALK about bombing The Market, but it's never done and thoroughly denounced before it ever happens. I want to see them bomb Laura's kindergarten class. Keep it real. The Colonials had a free and thriving society before the Cylons showed up. Twice. And if the Cylons leave the Colonials to their own devices they really would be alone. There would not be surrounding powers waiting for the Cylons to leave. I want to hear a Cylon (with a Boston accent) shouting "Quagmire!" Oh, and waterboarding isn't really the same as pulling out someone's EYE, is it? (Although erasing Tight's calendar seems pretty legitimate to me.)

If they could manage paralels of these elements, it could be interesting. But they can't. So we end up with Nazis (or, say, Saddam Hussein's regime). Which Moore's commentary seems to bear out. But he knows that night vision footage of people being absconded with in the middle of the night evokes Iraq in the minds of the Fever Swamp Left. And he's ok with running with that.

Remember when good guys used to say grace before dinner? Now it's shorthand for Lunatic Evil Person. Heck, in the ORIGINAL Galactica they said grace. (Ok, Shepard Book said Grace. JAYNE even said grace.)

You notice they discontinued the body count? Maybe it's because Laura's board is gone (President Baltar has a picture of himself there, remember?) but it might also be because most of the casualties so far this season are self inflicted.

The good: Starbuck getting The Village treatment from the Cylons. ("You are number Six" would send a mixed message here, wouldn't it?)

Cally seems to be in for an interesting story line.

Fat Lee.

Lots of people wound up MARRIED. Not boyfriends or girlfriends, MARRIED. (I hope this hasn't doomed Anders and Dualla as sacrafices on the altar of the Lee / Kara 'shippers.)

The Sixes and Eights are getting to do really cool things and play lots of neat character bits.

Baltar is as unpredictable and starcrossed as ever. He just can't manage to be right.

Tigh. (Sorry sweetheart, he's just fun to watch.)

The idea that Pegasus may run off in search of Earth while Galactica stays behind could be really fun.

If they can stay on mission and say "what would they REALLY do in this situation" then it'll still be a good show. If they run off the rails making a POINT, then we have a problem and we'll remember when the show was terrific.

So say we all.

The Random Thoughts Blog

It's Friday!

I haven't read any news this week. Last thing I heard was the Foley stuff and the Amish. Now I'm Current Event free. I'm more relaxed than I have been in months! I guess ignorance IS bliss!

Big Thunderstorm right now. In Phoenix that's a big deal. She Who Is My Wife is in a room full of thunder-phobic kindergartners, so good luck, honey!

Saw the latest Bond trailer. Casino Royale. I actually recognized scenes from the book! Is that allowed? (Not to worry: Lots of scenes that Ian Fleming never even dreamed of.)

Of course, the big news is GALACTICA STARTS BACK UP TONIGHT! I haven't watched the first act that Sci-Fi put up on line. I haven't even watched all the webisodes yet. Maybe we'll do that tonight. Then the two hour premier can be a THREE hour premier.

Coffeemate creamers now has rasberry-chocolate. This may be better that Galactica AND Star Trek. No, really. (Ok, just looked on the web site - both the Pumkin Spice AND Gingerbread flavors are available now. I may be drinking WAY too much coffee.)

I got Danny Elfman's first concert piece this week. Serenada Schizophrenia. Quite good. Very Elfman, sure, so you might have a couple of Beetlejuice flashbacks, but a little bigger than his latest film work. I'll put it up there with Nightmare Before Christmas. Bernard Hermann should get co-writing credit as always, but that's ok too.

Still no Scarecrow and Mrs. King on DVD. Just so's y'all know.

Keep flying!

Happiest Place on Earth

I just found out that this week's release of The Little Mermaid on DVD includes the unreleased short of The Little Match Girl.

Both are Hans Christian Andersen stories. And neither one has a happy ending. Disney's Little Mermaid? Happy ending. The Steadfast Tin Soldier? Happy ending (although that was more a dictate of the music they chose). Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame (not HCA)? BIIIG happy ending! The Little Match Girl? Heh heh heh. No such luck. It's nice to see they managed it at least once.

I look forward to seeing it.

3D Thursday

More work on the Surak. On the one hand, I'm getting pretty good at this, on the other hand, this post-1975 stuff (I suppose I should dial back to 2001 and Silent Running - HEY! This is all Douglas Trumbull's fault!) is kind of a pain. Those guys could just run to the hobby shop and glue a bunch of tank and battleship parts to their model. Of course, if they made a mistake they couldn't just go back to a saved file. All balances out I suppose.

The Outer Pla- er, Thingies

Boy, these guys must be bummed. I mean, they launch a zillion dollar probe that's going to take YEARS to get there. And they launch it at a PLANET. By the time it gets there it could be a stellar anomoly or something.

The Story So Far

Back to the daily updates.

For those of you that don't know AND care, the Sci-Fi Chanell has posted "Battestar Galactica: The Story So Far". It's a 44 minute re-cap of the first two seasons narrated by Laura Roslin. If you haven't seen the show and don't care about spoilers (since that's what this is FOR) it's a good intro. It's not quite how I would have done it, but now I don't have to. I think that they skip over some important bits. They boil the show down to the really plotty episodes but I think they miss some big points even out of those. BIIIIIG plot points. Laura's cancer is one of the smaller ones. They also play with the chronology a bit, which works (The Lighter is shown during the initial Cylon attack).

Anyway, if'n you want, go look at it. Available (free) on iTunes and elsewhere. Friday week the pain and suffering, er, the show starts up again.

Heads Will Roll

I think canceling this opera is the right and proper thing to do. After all, Madonna cancelled her concert in Rome where she hung on a crucifix. Er, no, wait... But we never see federally funded art that shows, say, the Virgin Mary sculpted out of dung, or a picture of Pope John Paul II in a jar of urine. No, no, got that wrong too.

Hrmmm, maybe this might POSSIBLY be a different standard than other religions are held to. Wow. What are the odds? In Europe no less. It's a head-scratcher all right.

Still no Christian suicide bombers, Ms. O'Donnell. But we'll let you know.

Vulcan Shuttle

Sorry about the lack of updates. Blah blah blah Star Trek. Blah blah blah funny little videos. Blah blah blah Bill Clinton is the greatest show on Earth.

But I did start a new ship. From Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the long range shuttle Surak. My first post-TOS Trek ship. I tell you, once they started doing more than sticking a saucer on a stick these things get complicated.

Lego Star Wars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZYfSh4_FiY&mode=related&search=

Amazing Grace: The Motion Picture

Aye, we be writin' 'bout a slaver ship today, you scaberous dogs!

So Sunday night we sang an arrangement of Amazing Grace by Chris Tomlin and it was mentioned that this arrangement (with an additional chorus) is actually going to be in a film from Walden Media. This should have cought my attention more than it did. For many of you, it did just now. For those that it didn't, I will continue the story. The rest of you will have to be patient. Patience is good. A virtue some might say. Those same some might imply that I'm pushing my luck. Sure, last week I didn't write enough, now I'm writing too much. Anyway. The film details the story of William Wilberforce who was instumental in the abolition of the slave trade in England and was a member of the congregation where John Newton composed Amazing Grace. The film was shown at the the Toronto Film Festival last week and it will premier February 23, 2007 to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the date the British Parliament voted to abolish slavery throughout the Empire. Hey, sometimes we get there first, sometimes they get there first.

So I heard about this and not making the Walden connection thought this was some nice little indy flick. Then Hugh Hewitt mentioned that he had been to Walden over the weekend and talked about who they were. Well, Walden Media was who made The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. You'd think I'dve known that. Check out this cast. William Wilberforce is being played by Horatio Hornblower himself! (He's not Reed Richards until he's in a GOOD Fantastic Four movie.) It's got Albert Finney as John Newton. And Michael Gambon as somebody or other (who is not Dumbledore). It's directed by Michael "The World is Not Enough" Apted with music by David "Tomorrow Never Dies / Independence Day" Arnold. That should be interesting.

-- Arrrgh. (Grrr.)

Hang 'em From the Highest Yardarm!

So, how offended do I have to be before this becomes innapropriate, or insensitive? I don't plan on beheading anyone. I'm not going to blow anything up. I don't want to go to a march (where I would threaten to blow something up while beheading someone - heck why just threaten?). I think she should alter the act to include Moses, Buddah, and the show-stopper himself, Mohammed. RATINGS! Like you've never seen! Especially when your studio gets burned to the ground!

But I guess we wacky Christ-folk will do what we do. We'll write angry letters, we'll pray, we'll forgive (workin' on it), and in the more extreme cases around the world (NOT related to has-been singers on TV shows) we'll die. Yeah, like that's gonna get anybody's attention. But it's worked for the last two thousand years. I know, Ms. O'Donnell, we're a scourge.

-- Arrrgh.

Arrrgh

Just so ye not be fergettin', today is National Talk Like a Pirate Day, matey. O' course they posted it as the headline of Yahoo, those scaliwags, but maybe ye missed it there and ye had ta' see it here. Arrrrrgh! (Why is the rum gone?!?)

An UPDATE!

Sorry it's been sparse. Busy at work. I don't have the gumption for political ranting. (We're all gonna die. Is that short enough?) I haven't really got any new CG (but I will soon).

Star Trek: Remastered. I saw Miri. I haven't seen Balance of Terror yet. I'll give Miri a C+. I think their biggest problem is lighting. Maybe lighting an materials. It looks like game art from about five years ago. They really have lived up to their intention of just trying to recreate the original effects in a resolution to which the audience has become accustomed. They just didn't do a particularly inspiring job of it. Since there's no newly added WHOOSH factor (again: only Miri so far - so pretty much just planet shots) they invite a more direct comparison between the new version and the original. And they pretty much only got a base hit. (Arrgh! A sports metaphor in my Star Trek!) I think I could have done these effects as well, which is a little sad. That said, they managed a curiously retro-looking Earth. It was a weird mishmash of modern space shot and 1960s effect. I found it charming.

These new versions aren't drastic enough to woo the Star Wars prequel crowd, but they aren't done well enough to grab the attention of the old guard. OTOH, these are still being made. Like a series in production (because it is) they will (hopefully) learn from their mistakes. Whether this means we will see better CG or merely fancier composition remains to be seen. So far we haven't wandered into Star Wars territory. Paramount has been studiously noisy that the originals will remain available. We'll re-enter this debate in however many years time if and when the original eps become unavailable and are replaced with these "remasters".

Speaking of Star Wars (and when do we not?) I got the new DVDs. I got the collector's tin at Best Buy. The tin has painted artwork on it instead of photoshop. (If you went to Wal-Mart they came with comic books. It was a tough call.) In their meager defense, the DVD covers have photoshop on the front and the artwork that the photoship is based on is on the backs. The DVD menus are all original poster art, as well as all of the art on the discs themselves. It's not a bad looking package. They didn't put their best foot forward, but the rest of it was really cool.

It's almost disconcerting to see the titles go right from "STAR WARS" to "It is a period of civil war..." with no Episode IV: A New Hope. This will, of course, only reinforce my 1977 snobbiness. On my (kinda) little TV, the transfers look great. Well, great as ever. I HATE the uber-crisp, over-saturated transfer that the SEs got. The lightsabers and blaster fire looks much better on these "washed out" transfers, in my opinion.

On the one hand I think they could have done SOME clean up work (there's a lot of wiggle in the opening shots) but otoh this looks like Star Wars to me. This looks like it's pre-digital. And everything looks like it was made at the same time, not twenty to twenty-five years apart. That's the biggest thing I hate about the SE changes: They don't look like they're the same movie. They're fun. Some of them are really cool. The Falcon taking off out of Mos Eisley rocks. Just not in Star Wars.

There were about 19 different audio mixes of Star Wars, even in 1977 (70mm Dolby mix, stereo mix, mono mix, Ben Burtt had a boring day and wanted something to do mix). This one STILL doesn't have "Close the blast doors!" on it. I think that mix is lost, since when they "restored" it on the SE its obviously not the same voice. But I can hear Williams' music loud and clear when the X-wings start their attack run.

As I've said before these will not look great on your nice big 16:9 TV set (which I don't have yet) which is what all of the pitchforks and torches are for (this time). But don't worry, by all accounts, Lucas will be making a grab for our wallets again next year for the 30th anniversary. If they don't include nicer copies of the original movies than these, I'm staying home again. Wow, I feel like I have free will again!

I now have Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi on my video iPod. That's cool.

BTW, I am now officially a sub-40 fuddy-duddy. The menus load with a very brief animation and then just sit there. I LOVE it. I think there should be some basic rules of DVD menus. They should be clear, basic, let you do everything easily. They should be created with the notion that people will BUY this disc and might watch it more than once. When I boot up my Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVD I don't WANT to watch your stupid little animation. I want to watch my show! Star Trek is worse. The Harry Potter DVDs are of the devil. So is Batman Begins. If I want to watch all the extras, I don't want to play a (*expletive*) GAME to get to my CONTENT. Grrrr. Arrrgh. That Star Wars menus are juuuuuust perfect. Oh, one other thing. If there's a BIG SURPRISE at the end of a movie? DON'T PUT IT ON THE MENUS! Stupid gits. I know people to this day are cheesed that the BIG SURPRISING SPACE SHIP from the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind is on the COVER of the DVDs. I'm inclined to agree. Someday I'll have to rate good DVD menus and bad ones. I know someone who accidentally left the menu screen running on The Thomas Crown Affair and wound up killing his whole family. Very sad.

Don't forget: Tomorrow is National Talk Like a Pirate Day. Arrrrgh.

Happy Birthday Jonathan!

Six years old today. Believe it or not. Ahhh, nothing like the young to make you feel old, right?

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....

Today after work I will be driving to Best Buy. I will be buying Star Wars for the first time since 1993. I may hate the transfer when I get a widescreen TV, but for today I will be content.

It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet. Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy....

Ahhhhhh...

Here's a review.

Tallguy History

My first ever Star Trek toy! Colorforms! (How can you NOT love the internet?)



We got these on a trip to Grandma and Grandpa's in Phoenix when I was 6. I'd play with colorforms and watch Star Trek in the afternoons. I remember it threw me when The Menagerie was a TWO-PARTER. I don't remember if I watched Balance of Terror then or if I just remember the Romulan ship from the end credits. Maybe both.

Anyway, just to point out, this is obviously all my parents' fault.

Happy Star Trek Day!

Hi gang. Not too much done to celebrate this great day of the 40th Anniversary, alas. I think there's a Trek special on TVLand tonight.

But I did continue tinkering with this. Changed the window sizes, altered the shapes of the control towers a bit. Did a lot of mesh cleanup that you can't see. I think I have two details to add before it's "done" but that would just mean that I've got another untextured mesh.

Roddenberry Spins in His Grave

Here's the latest in the long progression of Franz Joseph Star Trek ships. The Federation Class Dreadnought. Back when the Feds shot first because they didn't want to wonder if they'd be able to shoot second. Kind of a Han Solo thing.

So long, farewell, Qapla', goodnight!

Ok, this is the weirdest thing I've heard today!

Ex-Klingons J.G. Hertzler (Martok) and Robert O'Reilly (Gowron) are joining several of the surviving members of the von Trapp family, made famous by the Oscar-winning film The Sound of Music, in a low-budget Christmas film.

The two Deep Space Nine actors will appear in The von Trapp Children Christmas Movie, according to ncFilm, which reports on movies shooting in the North Carolina area. The film will shoot at Durham's Studio in the Woods as well as on location in Greensboro, NC and Montana, with a start date of December 2006.

Four children descended from the original von Trapp family singers - Sofia, 18, Melanie, 16, Amanda, 15, and Justin, 11 - have been touring as a singing act but are taking time off for the film, according to Reuters. The four are grandchildren of Werner von Trapp, the younger of the two boys portrayed in The Sound of Music (there renamed Kurt).

Other cast members include Jerry Mathers, Kathy Lamkin and Megan Blake. The film, budgeted at less than $4 million, is being directed and shot by a team of former Star Trek visual effects specialists, including a cinematographer, production designer and composer. The Trek team members were acquaintances of the CEO of Studio in the Woods, a former state government liaison for public events including Star Trek conventions.

The von Trapp children will sing in the film, though it is not a musical but a road trip movie. Mathers' character narrates the story, written by Paul Shapiro. Werner, Agathe (Liesl) and Maria (Louisa) are the surviving members of the original von Trapp Family Singers, who fled Nazi-occupied Austria in the 1930s. The film is slated for a 2007 release.

I... I just don't know what to say. Klingons, Leave it to Beaver, and Sound of Music. Oh my!

If you saw this in a movie...

...you'd call BS. But in real life? Some people can do some pretty amazing things with really ugly aircraft.

New BSG - Early

Hi gang. Looks like the webisodes of Battlestar Galactica are up. I'll watch when I get home. One month 'till the new shows! Huzzah! (And the new DVDs will be out in a twinkling, so we can all be caught up and the street will overflow with SPOILERS! Oooooooh!)

A FOOTBALL Post on TGP!

Ahhhh, but don't worry. It's still a really GEEKY football post.

Here's the new theme for NBC's Sunday Night Football. Composed by some Williams guy.

From the sounds of it, does this mean the NFL is being replaced by droid armies controlled from space? Coooooool.

Trek Update Update

Here's more. Some interesting details floating about today (yesterday, whendever).

Seems the way the project has been kept airtight under wraps is that it hasn't been going on that long. A couple of months. They don't have 79 episodes in the can waiting to be unleashed on an unsuspecting public. More info here at Ain't it Cool.

With the news that they don't have all of the eps actually finished, this just occurred to me. In a way, Star Trek is back in production! There are people scrambling like crazy to put Star Trek on the air every week! How cool is that?

How'd you like to be the poor sod who has to make Alternative Factor interesting? But I bet in a sick way they're actually competing for who gets to do "Spock's Brain".

Some people have asked, is this being done by the Trek Enhanced guy? The answer is no, and Mr. Dochterman has his thoughts here on his blog.

Well, Star Trek is about to turn 40. No, I won't have an animation up, but it looks like someone will. And then some.

The Blorg!

It's Friday. So I leave you with this week's Brewster Rockit.