13th November, 2009 by Christina - 5 Comments
Three episodes and four hours into Star Trek viewing. As entertaining and cheesy as the show is, I’m not quite sure why this has such a cult following. Had I been watching at the time it first aired, these past two episodes wouldn’t make me excited to see what was going to happen next week.
I do find the approach to physics and philosophy that is featured to be rather interesting, this episode being quite decidedly on philosophy, ethics, and morals. And I find I can’t much talk about my reaction without getting all philosophical myself (note: I just re-read all I wrote and realized why people compare me to Leonard on The Big Bang Theory. Look, I too could be a Star Trek actor and ramble on and on with pointless drivel.)
In Code of Honor, I get to really learn about The Prime Directive for the first time. As advanced as western civilization has become, it is still something we regularly deal with. Obviously I went to my own version of Data to learn more about what this Prime Directive was. In other-words, I pulled up Wikipedia. What on earth did nerds do in the 1980s to figure this all out?
Apparently there are variations; the main one (and dumbed down here) being that if a planet has not developed advanced technology, StarFleet can’t interfere and teach them or gift them anything. Okay, that kind of sucks, but I get it–if a people aren’t mentally advanced enough for said technology, the end result could be disastrous.
In this case though we’re talking about a different side of the directive–don’t mess with the social order of a people. When European society began colonizing other parts of the world, they certainly didn’t have their own prime directive and as a result we’ve lost a lot of knowledge about various civilizations thanks to a combination of physical force and Christian missionaries telling natives of different lands that their beliefs are wrong and actively changing them in an attempt to “civilize” them. Essentially it was playing god and creating another people in their own image.
So how do you decide whose social behavior should be adopted when two interact? The Prime Directive sort of takes care of that, but then you also get personal ethics involved.
This becomes confusing to me because shouldn’t that lack of involvement mean that Styris IV doesn’t get to have the vaccine? And don’t Tasha’s personal ethics about fighting for the vaccine yet not wanting to kill Yarinna interfere?
Ultimately, the episode was just as hokey for me as The Naked Now. I appreciate the analogy and moral questions raised and the set-up for what happens rolls out very nicely. But where is the Jell-O? If you’re going to have juvenile boy-thoughts about a girl fight, shouldn’t they be in bikinis and Jell-O? Give them such “advanced” weaponry and have them fight on the set of Flashdance, but Tasha gets to remain in her uniform with her communicator on? At least Yarinna got to wear a pink lamé bodysuit and come out like the reigning champion.
For its sexist approach at the beginning, I was rather surprised by the twist of strength in women. Both with Tasha as Chief Security Officer (despite how far gender equality has come, for 1987 this was rather progressive) and the fact that Yarinna is really the one in charge and with all the power–not Lutan and the men.
Memories of the Future: Chapter 4
Really, Wil Wheaton? Pillow fight was as good as you could come up with? Were you afraid of trademark issue in mentioning Jell-O? Because Jell-O fight trumps pillow fight any day. At least you had the Beavis and Butthead running joke. I found that to be infantile and pointless at first, but you pulled it off nicely.
Thank you for pointing out the fact that Captain Picard’s staff isn’t exactly helpful with the whole lack of advance pertinent information. I’m guessing there are unions in space and you can’t fire someone for being piss-poor at their job.
Wil Wheaton also points out that this is the second episode in a row, right at the beginning, to rip off one of the original series episodes (Amok Time), and I have to wonder if the the rest of The Next Generation is going to be equally as unoriginal. At least let Picard get a little action a la Kirk if you’re going to just copy what came before.
In both a creative writing and a film class I had taken in high school, my teachers really stressed the concept of “show, don’t tell.” Some people are really good at this (W. Somerset Maugham), others are terrible (come on, Stephanie Meyer–2,400 pages and a good 40% of that was to tell us, again, that Edward has really cold, marble hard skin?). Apparently, Wil Wheaton had the same teachers because he points out that in future episodes there’s a lot of telling going on, but for all its faults, Code of Honor is able to show the characters recognize and poke fun at themselves when they start to get to heavy on the telling.
The show, so far, has done a pretty decent job of balancing exposition to explain and set up the story of each episode. There’s a a lot of talk and some action. I’m a little nervous that future episodes promise to tip the scales towards more talk. While it can be funny and interesting, those are the moments I start to tune out by checking Twitter or picking up my knitting.*
*If you haven’t seen the Star Trek-a-thon photos, check out the set-up for watching. In a chair in the background is a blanket I’m working on based off the Fibonacci Sequence. It can take a bit of focus to get the rows and stitches just right.
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11th November, 2009 by Christina - 3 Comments
Hmm, I’m not sure where to begin with the second episode other than to say that this episode is rather perplexing and that 1987 was a lot more progressive than I had realized–the second episode jumps pretty quickly to a ship of dead people in their birthday suits. I’ve heard a bit about how Captain Kirk was a bit of a space-whore getting it on with every alien chick in a few gazillion light-years radius and quite possibly Captain Picard is going to be just as randy based on the fact that he’s talking to a phone sex operator.
As the away crew beams over to check out the party boat and finds evidence of a frat party, I think that we’re getting involved in some sort of Circe’s Island memory wipe. That might have been a more interesting plot line by the way. Anyhoo. No raver thunkthunkthunk music is going on despite the earlier background noise as the two ships communicated and as more naked and nakeder bodies are revealed, there’s no bow-chica-bow-bow porn music either. Reagan is contemplating whether or not she was an obtuse child for not picking up on the orgy that had clearly been going on or if she had just never seen this particular episode.
Technical question tangent: when Riker and Data discover that a hatch has been blown open, a) why are they not sucked out themselves…you know, all that jazz about space loathing itself for being an Electrolux?, b) wouldn’t an open door to space mean no air? Shouldn’t they have hallucinated and then suffocated in a span of two minutes?,* and c) if all the people who are now dead are frozen from the open door, why is no one on the away team even shivering?
The drunken behavior that infects the crew of the Enterprise is just weird. Like creepy weird. Most of the background characters are just hanging on one another as if they’re on some bad E trip, the assistant engineer is acting like a five-year-old attempting to master Jenga and Wesley Crusher is speaking way too coherently for a drunken fourteen-year-old. In fact, he doesn’t seem much different from the his previous episode overly-exuberant puppynerd self. Shouldn’t a normal drunk teenager be slurring and trying to get laid?
Dear Wesley, I hope you enjoy being a virgin for the rest of your life. You might want to start stocking up on pocket protectors now.
Other things that bother me: Why does everyone else start feeling the effects of the infection so quickly except Riker? Does he have some sort of crazy advanced immune system? Captain Picard is ready for a quickie on the bridge almost instantly while Riker manages to get through a goodly amount of time playing electrician.
I guess what’s really confusing is that I know very little about these characters. Riker is obviously a decent fellow for not taking advantage of Troi when she throws herself at him, but what about the Tasha storyline? I thought she was a lesbian and now she’s throwing herself at the first android that comes along? Why is she so desperate–self-esteem issues? How come Geordi–who should be the drunkest seeing as he was the first to be infected–manages such self control to be able to calmly return and then stay in the sickbay while everyone else is partying like it’s 1999?
Again, I have two favorite moments for this episode, although neither as profound as my favorite moments in Encounter at Farpoint.
Moment 1: Picard’s little skip as he enters sickbay. Beautiful and subtle bit of acting.
Moment 2: The Data/Tasha seduction scene is pretty memorable, but it’s when he returns to the bridge that really gets me. Between this and the aforementioned Picard moment, it would seem strong physical acting really stands out in this episode for me. Based on this scene alone, Data is well on his way to becoming my favorite character. I have such an android crush.
Memories of the Future: Chapter 3
I’m so smart! Wil Wheaton also feels that this episode came too soon. I definitely think that moving it back to a later spot in the season would have been a wise move and an opportunity to play with the repressed desires of the characters that would be bound to come out when intoxicated.
Wil Wheaton continues to take the obnoxiousness of Wesley in stride and with good humor. I think I get why so many fans of the series were not fans of young Crusher. But the use of a brainiac computer whiz-kid isn’t exactly a new plot device, even Jurassic Park had one. When I was watching SeaQuest DSV, you had Lucas Wolenczak as the smart kid, but you see the differences in that the time-frame of the show was three decades after computers had moved from being clunky machines in the workplace to less clunky home units affording people of all ages to become self-taught experts. By the time Star Trek takes place, 400 years into the future, everyone should have been growing up in a culture with regular access to far superior technology from birth. Lucas was building a piece of equipment to give a dolphin a larger English vocabulary–not saving the ship. You assume that on Star Trek the adults SHOULD be smarter than the teenager in this area based solely on the amount of experience that comes with age and the fact that someone put them in charge of an enormous space ship/city. Then again, government nepotism and bribery will probably still be an issue far into the future.
To give Wesley some credit, as cars, planes, and later, rockets, computers, etc. were built, there have always been kids so obsessed and inquisitive that they set out to learn everything there is about them and become experts in their own right. But to run a ship like the Enterprise, you expect your Chief Engineer to be able to circumvent even the smart kid’s science project to take back control of the engine room a lot faster than happened in The Naked Now.
What makes this chapter of Memories of the Future stand out for me is the inclusion of REAL SCIENCE! to explain what was going on/being said on the show. The brief paragraphs on the physical properties of a star and what would happen during the collapse of one is written in an entirely understandable fashion for the lay person. (By the way, if you’re into the star thing and haven’t done so yet, you might want to check out this article on the possibility of a third type of super nova that’s recently been discovered and could affect our knowledge of cosmic distance.)
*Look, I have fancy science facts too:
Various minor problems (sunburn, possibly “the bends,” certainly some [mild, reversible, painless] swelling of skin and underlying tissue) start after ten seconds or so. At some point you lose consciousness from lack of oxygen. Injuries accumulate. After perhaps one or two minutes, you’re dying. The limits are not really known.
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10th November, 2009 by Christina - 2 Comments
NOTE: Here be spoilers. About the show and book. I’m not interested in trying to talk circles around what I really want to say. Plus, I’m assuming if you want to read this you’re already a Star Trek fan.
Let’s skip all the talk about plot and acting and incredible use of available technology and skip straight to the bone and marrow of what’s important here…or lack of bone and marrow I guess…
HOLY GIANT JELLYFISH!
If someone were to tell me that in a few hundred years humans will regularly be traveling vast swaths of space and encountering other intelligent life forms, I would not at all be surprised to find Giant. Space. Jellyfish. included amongst the aliens. Actually, I think it’s kind of cool and in my next life would like to come back as one.
There were two moments of my introduction to Star Trek that transcend all of that stuff normal Trekkies would be talking about like how awesome the Enterprise is, the fact that some guy walked by in a really really mini skirt, and well, all that Trekkie stuff like the foreshadowing of the Kindle (approximately 25 minutes in during the court room scene.)
I prefer to skip all that because on my first viewing all that was great and all that was awful didn’t matter. Rather, the way the show was presented smacked me in the solar plexus and made me really excited to keep watching.
Moment 1: There’s this passage in the graphic novel T-Minus that shows the Apollo 8 mission. Bill Anders, Frank Borman, and Jim Lovell are floating around taking photos out of their tiny windows when a sight to behold makes them ignore the NASA-provided checklist of photos to take one of inspiration. When you turn the page (and that was a stroke of genius in teasing the reader), you see one of the most recognizable photos from space – the earth rising over the horizon of the moon.
Watching the opening sequence was like reliving that page turn. As Captain Jean-Luc Picard* provides the voice-over, the camera pans through our galaxy and beyond into these twinkling stars…I wanted to transcend everything to be a part of everything and nothing and meld with that vast vastness of space that is so vast. This, oxymoronically, is sort of the opposite and the same as the message being put forward here–that for all its faults, humanity is pretty darn good and an important part of the universe.
Moment 2: For the closing quote of the two-part episode, Captain Picard says, “Let’s see what’s out there. Engage.” It just builds so stunningly on the desire to go forth and explore that was set up for us in the opening. Returning back to my T-Minus comparison, there’s a sequence when Ed White becomes the first American to walk in space during the Gemini 4 mission. I cried as, after repeated requests from Houston to return to the vessel, White states that, “This is the saddest moment of my life.” I identified so strongly with that feeling of wanting to be a part of something so much bigger than life as we know it, to just be…in space.
My personal experience was delightfully marred by the crowd of hecklers in the audience with me. My Trekkies got very excited for the separating of the saucer from the main portion of the ship. Sure it was impressive, but on my own I wouldn’t have understood just how big a moment this had been for Trekkies across the country twenty-two years ago when the episode first aired.
Memories of the Future: Chapters 1 & 2
Wil Wheaton is funny. Like seriously funny. New York mailboxes are tiny, so I had Memories of the Future shipped to my office and proceeded to read a wee bit on the subway ride home. And I’ll own up to the fact that I was actually trying to passively hit on geek guys with my impressive reading material. It didn’t work.
Instead, I laughed at the first page of the tangent-filled synopsis, told myself to close the book lest I meet a spoiler, and proceeded to read on. The writing is so engaging that even if I were to stop watching the DVDs now, I think I would honestly enjoy reading his book simply for the entertainment value.
There’s plenty to make fun of in this first episode. Like the Wesley-Cam in part 2. And have I mentioned Troi’s hair yet? No? Or what about the fact that watching her sense emotions is more painful than the pain she senses? Anyway, glad to see Wil Wheaton all jovial about making fun of the same thing. Except he forgot to mention her hair, which is really bad.
Happily, I discovered that I’m not the only one who wanted bitch slap Q. Not so happily, he’ll probably return later in the series thanks to that obvious, “I don’t promise not to return” ending. He’s insanely annoying and Wil Wheaton nailed it by calling him an internet troll.
I know many people eventually hate Wil Wheaton’s character of Wesley Crusher, but based on this episode alone Crusher is simply an over-excited, annoying puppydogteenager; and who wouldn’t be in his place? It was right after watching this episode that the whole Die Wil Wheaton Die thing was explained to me and I was quite happy to read some subtle (and one blatant) self-deprecation towards the news group. Plus it adds a little something to the episode of The Big Bang Theory which we watched immediately after the Star Trek-a-thon.
Post entertaining recap of the episodes, is the “Behind the Scenes Memory” which brings a rather cool dimension to the show. Despite the faults Wil Wheaton points out about the two-part episode, they were obviously doing something right. I didn’t notice the repetition of background actors during the mall scene and, even after having it pointed out, re-watched the episode and still missed them despite telling myself “Hey, self, look out for the repeat actors!”
The chapters end with a C-grade average. I give it a “super cheesy for 2009 but probably incredibly cool in 1987, and I’ll be back for more.”
*French name, British accent. Someone please explain.
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9th November, 2009 by Christina - 6 Comments
Wow–I suck big time. Last night I wrote up my reactions to the first four hours of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the matching chapters in Wil Wheaton’s book Memories of the Future. And then proceeded to forget to transfer the posts to a disk drive so that I could upload them first thing this morning at work. I was very excited to share my thoughts on Encounter at Farpoint. What a letdown.
Sooooooo…
Instead, you get a mini-summary of Saturday’s Star Trek-a-thon and we’ll start with the reviews tomorrow. Sorry! There will be also be two posts a day over the next few weeks as I don’t want this to become the “All Star Trek, All the Time” blog. Neglecting actual book reviews will result in a glut of backlogging to take care of.
I should start by mentioning for those of you new here that I don’t own a television. No interest in purchasing one. However, an offer was made to bring over a 17″ screen laptop because, to quote Rik’s Twitter:
@rikomatic Friends don’t let friends watch Star Trek TNG season 1 on a 14″ laptop
Imagine my surprise when, while pulling cupcakes out of the oven, Rik shows up not with his laptop, but with a 26″ computer monitor. My friends are awesome and continued to prove so when Heather and Ryan showed up with a pair of speakers.
The cupcakes were a big hit and CAT makes a lovely feline Vulcan (view photos here). If you’ve ever been to my house for a party, you’re aware of the fact that I take themes way too far. Like that road trip to Hell, Michigan where I wanted to name the car “Handbasket” and create a Hell/Devil soundtrack. Or the Mermaid Parade crafting party with Esther Williams movies and Swedish Fish. So yes, Star Trek-a-thon had glitter badges (only Rik didn’t ”need no stinkin’ badges” because he already had his own…what a nerd) and themed cupcakes.
Four hours were spent watching Star Trek. It was pretty cool listening to my friends talk about why certain things that I thought were kind of cool were considered “like totally, incredibly, awesome” back in 1987 when the series first came out. Like how the ceiling of the transporter in TNG is the floor from the original series, or that to transport people the effect was created by superimposing images of the people with glitter in water (yes, we tried it out, the glitter in swirly water part at least, and you can watch the long, boring, sparkly video here–and yes, my kitchen and living room look like a glitter bomb exploded; it’s going to take months to clean), and of course, the big cheer-raising moment when the saucer separated from the rest of ship. There was also much heckling about banana clips, bad ’80s hair, and Wil Wheaton’s Cosby-esque sweaters.
I did have a great time watching the episodes, and while unlikely to become a full on Trekkie based on what I’ve seen so far, I was rather disappointed when the disk was finished. Posts about the episodes and their counterpart chapters in Memories of the Future will be split in two–my reaction to the episode (NOT a summary, Wil Wheaton has that part covered in the book), followed by a mini-review of the corresponding chapter.
In the meantime–enjoy the photos and video. I’ll be back tomorrow with my first recap….if I don’t forget again.
Oh, and to everyone that has been or is considering telling me that I should Internet-stalk Wil Wheaton and let him know what I’m doing…already ahead of you. He is aware of my blogging about what it’s like to watch Star Trek: TNG for the first time EVER. My knowledge of his knowledge led to a minor freakout reaction similar to a cat on catnip during my watercolor class last week. It was not a very productive class. Whether or not he’ll be reading along, I have no clue. But regardless, Wil Wheaton responded to me and that makes me cooler than you. Sort of. Except that I’m rather intimidated knowing he’s out there. Maybe reading.
6 Comments
3rd November, 2009 by Christina - 12 Comments
Back in June, I mentioned how my friend Ryan was introducing me to the world of comics and let me tag along to MoCCA. While there we had to stop by Richard Steven’s table to buy socks for Ryan’s girlfriend, Heather…who then showed up and bought more socks. Yay socks!
Anyway, Ryan mentioned to me how Stevens had worked Wil Wheaton* wearing the clown sweater (picture) into his comic, Diesel Sweeties.
And I was all, “…………………………..who’s Will Weton?”
So, fast forward to now. I follow the RSS feed of Wil Wheaton’s blog and on Twitter (@wilw). I agreed to water a friend’s plants so that I could use her TV to watch The Big Bang Theory when Wil Wheaton guest starred. There was also that incident of learning he was guest staring on The Guild, which I’d also never seen and ended up staying very late at the office one night in order to watch the first two seasons.
But my Wil Wheaton experience is pretty recent and I don’t have the full scope of why this guy is a geek hero. As a latch-key kid, one of my first things to do upon getting home from school was to turn on the TV where I watched a lot of Mathnet, 3-2-1 Contact, and The Muppet Show (the second thing I’d do would be pretend no one would notice an entire row of Oreos was now missing from the bag…) and on very rare occasions Star Trek would be the only thing on. The thing was, I was busy trying to make swords out of my Legos or cutting my Barbie’s hair and didn’t pay much attention; the television was just noise to keep me company. Plus, we were a Star Wars family and had no room for other space travel cultish behavior. Oh, and when I got older there was SeaQuest DSV. Which had a talking dolphin.
TALKING DOLPHIN!
Anyway, I sort of feel like I’ve missed out. I mean, I did see The Secret of NIMH, but that was a cartoon and voice-over. None of his movies. No Star Trek. Zip. So I’ve done the only logical thing possible–I purchased Wil Wheaton’s Memories of the Future and lined up Star Trek: The Next Generation in my Netflix queue. That’s right, I’m going to do a marathon of sorts and I’m going to record my brand new experience for your entertainment. It will sort of be like watching your kid get really excited for the first time about something that’s fairly common to us as adults.
What makes me look forward to this project (besides the fact that I’m totally making a little Star Trek communicator badgey-thing to wear. With glitter.) is that I get to present a completely different take on the book and the television series than the average geek. Because they’ve seen it all. They’ve been there and done that. They have memories and things they loved or hated about the show. I have no nostalgia, no bias, no gilded memories of my own that will shape my point of view. My lack of experience with Star Trek means that I can’t just review the book and say what I think because I have no frame of reference to go off of, and even if I watch the shows, it’s going to be a completely different sort of review from anyone who is already a fan. I’m going to go where plenty of geeks have gone before but with a fresh and unjaded pair of eyes.
The plan is to watch an episode and then read the corresponding entry in Memories of the Future. The book is a reflection of Wil Wheaton’s experience on set through the episodes of the first season. Thinking more about it, it seems sort of meta, no? Reflecting on someone else’s reflections? But like I said, I don’t have the background of remembrance. This is my own discovery of new lands. Sure, someone beat me there, but it is unique to me. I finally get to understand all the inside jokes. And I’ve been practicing my Spock “live long and prosper” hand thing-a-ma-bob.** Did anyone else know about all those muscles between the middle and ring finger? I think I sprained something.
How this will all unfold is up to you, my readers. We’re doing this in a few parts, 5-6 episodes at a time.
1) Do you want a marathon of posts for each set? A Saturday of updates as I go along for each disk?
- or-
2) Would you prefer a post per episode over the course of thirteen days with no breaks short of the weekends?
I leave the decision in your hands as I’m feeling a bit indecisive at the moment. But you only have until Thursday because if you want one-day updates, I’m going to have to crash someone’s apartment so I can use their Internet. Drop a note into the comments, send me a note on Twitter, let me know what you think about what approach to take. Not about the show. I will cover my ears and go LALALALALA if you try to tell me anything about the show.
*Ever notice how you can’t just refer to him as “Wil” or “Wheaton” – it’s always “WilWheaton?”–Really fast, like his entire name is one word. Also, spell check doesn’t like his name.
**Yes, I get that the hand thing-a-ma-bob was a previous incarnation of the show. Whatever. IT’S ALL I KNOW! That and wearing a red shirt is never a good idea if you want to live.
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