Amnesia of the Future: Datalore

2nd December, 2009 by Christina - 3 Comments

I can just see it now, Brent Spiner first getting the job on Star Trek and being told to act like a robot attempting to act human.  Then, thirteen episodes in, act like a robot attempting to act human, act like an almost identical robot attempting more successfully to act human, and act as that second robot attempting to act like the first robot.

Hayley Mills, Lindsey Lohan–your role(s) of twin sisters in The Parent Trap was a cakewalk compared to the acting chops Brent Spiner just displayed in Datalore.  I finished watching the previous episodes over a week ago and hung onto the disk to re-watch as I wrote my reviews and returned it to Netflix so that even with the long holiday weekend I’d be able to watch Datalore on Monday evening.  And I was so excited to see an email state that the disk had been sent and it was going to be waiting for me…right there in the mailbox, just waiting…until I got home from work.

Let’s reiterate that Brent Spiner is brilliant.  I’ve totally started stalking him on Twitter now.  You’re next, LeVar Burton.

What I don’t understand about this episode is how they couldn’t tell Data and Lore apart.  You’re on the frickin’ Enterprise!!  You can make ninjas appear in the holodeck, have a machine that will eventually form matter into Earl Grey tea, can tell that Lore has left his quarters…and you’re all relying on a facial tick and speech choice to tell the difference between the two?  The same person who forgot the firewall to keep the Ferengi out of the computer’s library must have been in charge of the “Data GPS Chip” that would have allowed the ship’s computer to recognize Data.  Let’s also point out the fact that the Lore head, when Data picked it up, had stupider poofy hair!  Did a haircut come with assembly?

Even Harry Potter had a fancy map that told you who was where in Hogwarts, and changing clothes with someone does mess the map up.

Memories of the Future:  Chapter 13

Thanks to watching original Warner Brothers cartoons as a kid, my adult life is really messed up–like the fact that I see about 4+ operas a year, and it’s rather difficult to be watching Figaro deliver his famous song only to see Bugs Bunny there in front of you instead of whichever tenor is on stage.  Or listening to blues and mis-hearing “Blues in The Night” as “My momma done told me when I was in knee pants to bring something home for lu-unch.”

So when Wil Wheaton writes:

Data wants to put it together and activate it, so he can love it and keep it and pet it and call it George.

I squealed.  Cannot tell you how many times I’ve said that and gotten the Christina-has-officially-lost-it looks.

But then he keeps writing and I realized that I had overlooked a lot of bad stuff that was going on in this episode–possibly because of my crush on Data and just how well Brent Spiner played the dual role.  So now, I just want to say “SHUT UP, WIL WHEATON!” cause you totally ruined Datalore for me now that I read the chapter and I’m never going to be able to go back and just be entertained by this episode.

Oh, and when does Volume 2 come out?  I’d like it tomorrow.  Make it so, Wil Wheaton.

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Amnesia of the Future: The Big Goodbye

1st December, 2009 by Christina - 4 Comments

Before I talk about The Big Goodbye, I want to briefly tell you a little story about what a small world it is. 

I got a note from a friend on Facebook this weekend stating that he met a woman from LA named Debbie (who is a friend of a friend of mine) at a dance thing in Melbourne, Australia.  I’m not sure of the order in which this conversation all took place, but apparently she met Wil Wheaton recently at Wootstock, and when Darren mentioned my blog, the first thing she said was, “That’s the one that Wil Wheaton mentioned!”

Hello fifteen minutes.

In other news (promise I’m getting to the review in a minute)…last night, on my way home to watch Datalore, I found out that the twins my sister is carrying will be identical boys.  I think she should name them “Data” and “Lore,” but I’m pretty sure I’m getting vetoed on that one.

So, The Big Goodbye.

This weekend, I styled a photo shoot for a friend and the theme was Speakeasy/Prohibition.  It’s really difficult to do a shoot like this because getting the period look is difficult enough and even more so when you have no money.  The reason I was asked to do this was because of the whole swing dancing thing.  However, my clothes are vintage inspired, which means they don’t really look accurate.  And I go more for a 1960s Mad Men look than I do 1920s flapper.  A friend joined in and we went more for capturing the essence of Prohibition than we did accuracy.

There was an episode (Life in the Past Lane - clips on YouTube) of Dariawhere Jane started dating a vintage obsessed fellow, and in one scene he admonishes her for mixing a 1940s dress with 1950s shoes, and she retorts that he’s being too nit-picky seeing as they’re going to a tiki-lounge and he’s wearing a zoot suit.  In the late ’90s, swing dancers and loungers were really hung up on authenticity.  It’s calmed down a lot since then, but people still get worked up over authentic music and make fun of newb dancers who like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy over Duke Ellington or wear saddle shoes and poodle skirts instead of Keds and sweat-friendly tee-shirts. 

So while it’s unlikely I’ll ever become a hardcore Trekkie, I completely understand that obsessive behavior of getting things right.  Watching The Big Goodbye made me realize how brilliant Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner are as actors and made me appreciate Gates McFadden as an actress–because up until this point, we really haven’t seen what she can do.  And here she nails that fine line of trying to fit in while still being completely awkward in her surroundings.   There’s so much to posture, movement, and speech that has changed in the past 70 years that makes it really difficult to capture that essence now, and McFadden does a lovely job of being naive, enthralled while imitating the period with limited knowledge. It would sort of be like going back to an Elizabethan court and trying to act natural based on a few biographies and too many viewings of Shakespeare in Love.  As a result she’s a lovely ingenue. 

I also love the looks and reactions of the Starfleet crew in the holodeck.  They’re just so excited to be there, sort of like those Tony and Tina’s Wedding performances where you are both observer and participant; they can be thrilled with the unfolding of events as long as they think they are safe and removed from danger.  That immediate switch to “Oh, shit–Houston, we have a problem” is seamless. 

With this review, I don’t really have anything snarky to add, so I guess I’ll just say that if I didn’t already love Data, seeing him in a vintage pinstripe suit would have done the trick.  Swoon.  That goes for Captain Picard too.  And you know what, Dr. Crusher too.  She’s smokin’ in this episode. 

Also, I want a holodeck of my own.  I’m thinking I can clear out one of my closets and just put it in there.

Memories of the Future:  Chapter 12

I’m really failing here.  So far, I’ve re-read the chapter a few times, and I still don’t know what to say.  In part, I think this is because The Big Goodbye is such a good episode–how do you really make fun of it?  Even Wil Wheaton snark ebbs low–so it’s not just me blathering about what great actors these people are.  Hearing him talk so highly of the skills his fellow co-stars possess is great.  You can really see in his writing how much he admires the talents of Patrick Stewart. 

As in every episode, there are problems and inconsistencies, but just as in previous episodes, sometimes great acting covers up the issues.  While I’ve been enjoying all the jabs of previous episodes, the slight change of tone here is surprisingly refreshing.  If Wil Wheaton has been grading all these on a curve, and this episode won a Peabody, and future seasons are supposedly much better than this first one…well then I’m excited to continue watching because it’s already enjoyable.

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Amnesia of the Future: Haven

30th November, 2009 by Christina - 2 Comments

My dad and I have this joke that my mother MUST get her way–all the time.

Actually, it’s not so much a joke as it is the truth.*

Watching Haven, Lwaxana Troi totally reminded me of my mother.  I’m not sure if I should be happy mom doesn’t watch/never watched Star Trek and so can’t be insulted or to maybe rent the disk next time I visit my parents so that she can watch it and maybe get the hint that I don’t need her to call and remind me to brush my teeth every night.

Okay, that’s an exaggeration–my mom isn’t thatbad or anywhere near as annoying as Lwaxana. 

But if you’re a Big Bang Theory fan, you might recall this season’s episode where Penny and Leonard set Howard up with Bernadette and the two bond over the fact that their mothers are a bit…smothering.  After the episode premiered, my mother sent me an email stating that SHE was Howard’s mother–while visiting the previous weekend she had made me healthy lunches and chosen outfits for me for the week.

By the way, if this is my last post ever, please know that my mother has just killed me for sharing all that. **

That’s basically the long-form way of saying that for one episode, and one episode only, I did not hate Troi.

And rather than ruin the funny that I’ve already written, I will sum-up by stating that I enjoyed Haven and am not going to bore you with other random thoughts and facts.

Memories of the Future:  Chapter 11

Let’s reiterate things I’ve said in past posts while reviewing Memories of the Future–Wil Wheaton is funny.  First-off, if I didn’t love my liver so much, I might be inclined to take part in the drinking game he talks about in the Haven chapter.  My favorite line in the entire book is included in the synopsis of the episode:

If you’ve been playing [the drinking game], and you’re not passed out by now, I’d like to say how cool I think it is that Keith Richards is reading my book.

I’ve also previously stated that my favorite parts of each chapter are the Behind the Scenes moments, and I’m disapointed they aren’t longer.  With Haven, we learn a little more ab0ut the process of writing/directing a television show, which the average person (i.e., ME) is completely unaware of but can make or break a show.  As shows now make their way to DVD, we get all sorts of bonus features–anyone watching all the extras is paying a lot of attention to the man behind the curtain.  On one of the Brothers & Sisters DVDs, instead of having the director or cast do a voice-over commentary, the writers of a particular episode talk about the choices they made in writing and seeing their words come to life. 

It was interesting to learn that so many different writers and directors were involved in Star Trek and even more surprising at how few writers would even bother to talk to the actors about the personalities of specific characters.  To do that just seems so risky; you end up with a very flat show that no one wants to watch because the audience cannot connect with any of the characters.  Lucky for the Haven episode there was a talented writer who made me not hate Troi for once and some rather lovely acting and character development.

Additionally, back in 1987 a large budget was still too small for the special effects that were needed.  I don’t think many of us give much thought to the fact that in twenty-two years technology has progressed to a point where it’s now so cheap to make chameleon roses actually change colors more than once, or to create a snake-like vine plant that doesn’t look like a clearance item from the K-mart silk plants department and only moves for five seconds.  Despite the large budget, had things been cheaper back then, both things could have been a lot of fun in this episode.

Also, the little girl in the Partridge Family had her own clothing line (not that she saw a penny of it) while her show was on the air.  How come Sears didn’t have a line of Wesley Crusher sweaters? 

*Seriously.  Some people who used to work for her at this charity event she ran called her DAISY.  Which is a NASA acronym for “Do As I Say, You!”

** In the weird coincidence that something “does” happen to me, please note that my mother would have had nothing to do with it.  She’s actually the most awesomest mom ever and just happens to be a really easy to pick on.  If she was your mom you’d pick on her too because she just sets herself up for it and rarely ever gets annoyed about it.

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Amnesia of the Future: Hide and Q

25th November, 2009 by Christina - 9 Comments

My two first impressions of Hide and Q were as follows:

1) Yay!  No Troi!  Please don’t let this be a trick!
2) Q?  Ah man.  What a crappy trade-off.

And then I began to like Q.  Well, not like him.  He’s an obnoxious patronizing egoist who when he doesn’t get his way belittles before acting like a petulant child.  I dated a guy like him once.  Never again.

Unlike my ex, Q is fun.  And despite his deranged assumptions and approaches to dealing with mankind, he’s also millions of times smarter. Q is also much more interesting than Troi. 

Back in January, I set myself a little goal of reading 100 books over the course of the year.  After finishing watching The Battle, I got nervous that maybe Amnesia of the Future had maybe gotten in the way of achieving this.  It sort of has.  I’ve so far read 87 books (88 once I’ve finished watching Datalore), and were it not for the regular Star Trek watching, I’d probably be ahead of the required two books a week.  While I’m not behind, I can’t screw up at all lest I set myself back and am unable to recover. 

However, I read because I like expanding my mind.  It’s surprising to me how much that has happened with 10 episodes of Star Trek.  I wasn’t expecting this.  Watching Hide and Q–particularly that fantastic scene between Q and Picard where they quote Shakespeare–I realized that quite a number of famous works of writing have been mentioned–the aforementioned Shakespeare, Data’s obsession with Sherlock Holmes, a nod to pulp-fiction mysteries, Sun Tzu.  How appropriate that the book blogger pick up on these references.  Also it was appropriately subtle to have Picard say, “I know Hamlet,” and proceed to quote from the play.  Nice touch there, writers, way to get back on your game. 

Anyway, it’s interesting watching Q’s interaction with the crew–sort of like a fraternity brother during the hazing period right before initiation making some poor pledge (Riker) give up his old friends.  I’d like to point out that I said to the screen, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” about twenty seconds before Riker said it. 

Oh, and does anyone else find it sort of creepy that Geordi LaForge is all “Looking good Wesley,” to the adult body/boy-genius mind of Wesley Crusher?  It’s all ikky like Wooderson in Dazed & Confused when he says, “That’s what I love about these high school girls, man.  I get older, they stay the same age.”

Memories of the Future:  Chapter 10

Apparently it’s the episode of book references.  Lord of the Rings?  Animal Farm?  I love a good book reference though, and the Helms Deep comparison was entertaining.  As I attempt to combine episode and chapter reviews, I find it difficult not to give too much away so that people will actually purchase Memories of the Future.  What I find most interesting about them is the brief and often surprising post-recap writing, which makes it difficult to avoid spoilers.*

This episode makes me want to reiterate the “Show.  Don’t Tell” concept as there is a lot of talking.  To quote Wil Wheaton:

There are moments of engaging character interaction between Riker and Q, Riker and Picard, and Picard and Q, but there’s a lot of expository, preachy, I-am-going-to-make-my-point-and-you-can’t-stop-me dialogue in those scenes that’s emotionally disconnected and tiresome.  If a writer or producer wants to get points across to his audience, I think it’s better to do it less obviously, with more allegory and fewer Powerpoint presentations.

I pretty much just gave you the entire “bottom line” there.  Sums it up pretty well, although I’m glad to see it was creatively done rather than having (choose one) Data/ Wesley/Troi/Dr. Crusher lecture Captain Picard on something that any human–especially a Starfleet officer–should already know. 

This chapter also gave me greater insight into Wil Wheaton’s own reactions to what was becoming the Wesley Crusher Hate Brigade.  Up until The Battle, I couldn’t see what all the hub-bub was about or why Wil Wheaton kept harping on it.  Understanding how shitty it must have been to be a teenager, at a convention, and to have someone ask for your autograph…on a photo of you being stabbed to death…I’d be asking for a permanent security detail (maybe Worf has some relatives?) and someone to taste-test my food if I were in that position. 

 
TANGENT & POLL:

I posed a question on Twitter last night and feel that it makes a statement about me and the fact that I’ve admitted to people that the fictional characters I want to play tonsil-hockey with lately are:  Data, Sheldon Cooper,and Fawkes.  (Yup, the adult “I’m a dick” Wil Wheaton role on The Guild–if you missed the note at the beginning of this post about my ex, this one makes soooo much sense.)  I’ve started to wonder about the types I’m  attracted to:  an android, a genius with social issues, and an asshole.  Awesome. 

Through Twitter, I engaged in a conversation with Jackie, to which she said:

Worf would be total passion without needless emotion.  Geez, now you’ve sucked me into thinking about this!

Well, if she were up on her Star Trek, she would have heard Worf admitting in Hide and Qthat he has no place in his life for sex (followed by Q’s lovely, “WTF, everyone needs and loves sex!” reaction), so apparently Worf isn’t a very practical option as a lover right now.

Anyway…

Yes, I have a crush on Data, an obsession with Spock, and I’m now curious as to which characters other fans of Star Trek lust after.  Please do tell in the comments and don’t make me feel really embarrassed for sharing that last paragraph.  Doesn’t matter which series/movie the character is from–who would you do and why?

*There were another two paragraphs that after reading I realized were basically my own reflections on everything Wil Wheaton said after.  It’s never easy to cut one’s own writing when one has something they want to say, but as I mentioned, it’s a good book and spilling all the details defeats the purpose.  In true nerd fashion, I am more than willing to chat more privately on my other thoughts, including the fact that I’m glad to see LeVar Burton had more lines this time around (although he is sadly underutilized).

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Amnesia of the Future: The Battle

24th November, 2009 by Christina - 2 Comments

I just spent two hours thinking I had no point, no cohesive summary for The Battle.  And then, looking at my list of nine bullets pointing out the good and the bad of the episode, I realized something.  All along, Wil Wheaton has been pointing out that the actors on a show are sort of at the mercy of the writers.  And if your writers sort of suck…

There was some good stuff to it all; the Ferengi in this episode would have made a much better intro to the diabolical, shifty, and crafty enemy race.  I’d trust these guys about as far as Wesley Crusher could throw them.  Which isn’t particularly far. 

Patrick Stewart really saves the day in this episode.  His acting is outstanding and you feel such tenderness for very simple moments–whether he is describing his action on the Stargazer that would later be dubbed as The Picard Maneuver (such a boy moment!) or the emotional tugs of being on the bridge of his old command–he just really nails it. 

But the rest of the cast has to deal with crap.  Troi is still pointless in an episode where she should be of some use with Picard’s double thoughts. The Battle is sort of a repeat of Lonely Among Us:  Picard’s mental faculties are taken over by an outside force that convinces him to beam himself out of the safety of the Enterprise and into a dangerous situation where he’s probably going to die.  The crew is pretty up on esoteric ancient texts; they should take a page from The Odyssey and handcuff their captain to his chair in the bridge as he hears way too many Sirens calling out to him. 

Meanwhile, Dr. Crusher has to deal with a script that forces her to pointlessly explain to Picard, for the benefit of the audience, how humans have overcome headaches (which doesn’t make a ton of sense to me; unless you’re perpetually drugging your people a la Brave New World or evolution booted headaches, wouldn’t the human body and mind function the same and therefore still produce them?) and act like a bit of a moron unable to figure out what’s wrong with Picard despite the fact that she’s clearly not.

I also feel bad for Geordi La Farge.  As a character he’s simply an echo of Wesley Crusher.  Speaking of whom, I finally get it.  Clearly, Wheaton’s Law is forgotten over the course of the next 400 years, because Wesley Crusher, you sir, are a dick.  You haven’t gotten laid, you are a nerd with no friends, and here you are being all snarkyand teenage rebellious behind your mom’s back.  Before this, Wesley was the pitiful nerd boy and I’m not sure why the writers gave him an attitude.  Other than becoming acting ensign a few episodes, it’s not like he’s really done anything (like that Edo chick)  in the past episodes to warrant such a drastic personality change.

Some things I don’t understand and will chalk up to the writers realizing they’d dug themselves into a hole:

1) Why doesn’t Riker just destroy the “thought maker” that’s on the Enterprise rather than hoping he can get through the altered thoughts of Picard to blow up the one on the Stargazer?
2) Wouldn’t there have been more DRAMA! and TENSION! if the audience didn’t realize there was a control device until Worf went to search through Picard’s belongings?
3) I realize there had to be some way of discovering that the signal pattern from the “thought maker” and the pattern of Picard’s thoughts matched–but it was just stupid using Wesley to figure it out for two reasons:

a. Who lets an acting ensign tinker around with the ship?  Isn’t that what school is for?  So you learn in a controlled environment and don’t accidentally break the real thing?

b. Mom is a doctor, not Wesley.  I understand he’d be the only one whose presence in both engineering and sickbay is understandable, but wow, contrived.  He’s an engineering boy-genius, not a doctor!*

Memories of the Future:  Chapter 9

I’m really grateful to have Wil Wheaton’s Memories of the Future on hand.  As I’m watching these episodes for the first time, I miss a lot while trying to absorb all that’s going on.  There are definitely cringe-worthy moments and others worth some sort of award for the acting involved.  Truth be told, my reviews come from a mix of watching an episode, watching it again while taking notes, and watching it a third time after having read the corresponding chapter.  

It’s not a completely honest first-time reaction as a result; however, I do try to write it all before reading and watching for the third time.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t go back and retweak for clarity when working out a final draft. 

What I like about the book is that I get to notice things that make sense and are so obvious, but that I miss because I’m checking Twitter/getting a glass of water/sleep deprived and imaging cockroaches in my apartment.**

Here, in the Behind the Scenes, is finally the explanation for why alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die existed.  Or does it still exist?  I might want to join.  The scene in sickbay stood out immediately whereas the first time around I didn’t notice how Wesley bypasses all chain of command in the bridge.  He’s a little sullen and petulant to all the adults (including Captain Picard) and on top of a complete personality change has dialogue that makes him sound like a douche while incomprehensibly saving the day.

Now, I really don’t know anything about writing for television, but it seems that there should have been someone in the room as this script was worked out who could point out all its shortcomings.  It’s not the worst episode I’ve seen so far, but clearly not the best either.  Why wasn’t there a producer culling the wheat from the chaff with each successful or unsuccessful episode?  The quality of an entire episode should be a combination of great writing and great acting, a fusion of parts to create a whole.  That success shouldn’t rest squarely on the shoulders of one actor, no matter how talented he may be.  Just to be clear, I’m referring to Patrick Stewart. 

It must have been incredible to be Wil Wheaton back then getting to watch Stewart do his thing.  He may not have appreciated The Blue Boy, but being around a master of the trade has got to be such an amazing experience.  I get chills watching Picard on my little 14” computer monitor.  As an actor, to be in the same room must have been so inspiring. 

*I was trying to figure out where that “I’m a doctor, not a…came from on Google and was completely unaware that it was a common Star Trek: The Original Series phrase.  I feel cleverer than that accidental choice in comment really was.

**Once you have a large cockroach crawl up the inside of your pants, forcing you to drop said pants on a subway platform at 1 am, you too will see them EVERYWHERE!  Especially when sleep deprived.

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Amnesia of the Future: Justice

23rd November, 2009 by Christina - 2 Comments

If there were any justice in space, Wesley Crusher would have gotten laid. 

As an episode, Justice was a welcome surprise.  We seem to be back on track with good episodes and the about-face in direction during the episode was unexpected and well done.  Planet Marvin Gaye suddenly becomes Planet “We Don’t Talk About These Subjects At Cocktail Parties.” 

The episode starts with a few famous last words by Picard as his away team prepares to beam down to the reincarnated Garden of Eden, “Let’s just hope it’s not too good to be true.”  At first, I was expecting Riker to get caught with his pants around his ankles, resulting in some sort of intergalactic crisis because he was boffing the planetary leader’s number one gal or for bringing back space clap to the ship.  Switching to  a message of theology, capital punishment, and defining the moving lines of justice was crafty and intelligent.

My dislike of Troi continues.  Her acting seems more confident and therefore more believable, but she still can’t do her job as ship’s councilor.  All she feels on the planet is a lot of innuendo rather than Wesley’s extreme discomfort at being hugged.  In fact, it takes one of the natives to pick up on the fact that Wesley is extremely innocent.  The young girl hints at the fact that they should play a game of their own and what she wants to say is “show me how to play with your balls.”  But when Wesley starts stammering and turns beet red, she changes tactics and asks him to teach her to play ball.  Out of the three boys she’s hanging out with, Wesley should clearly not be her first choice in sports education.

I hope that for the ordeal that he’s forced to go through, Riker takes pity on the boy.  Not only did the kid not get laid in the land where everyone does the mattress mambo, he also gets a death sentence.  Set up the holodeck so that Wesley can have a “first encounter” because after his verbal stumbling in front of a sure thing he’s seriously never going to get a little sumthin’ sumthin’ that doesn’t involve a sock and some hand cream. 

Oddly enough, despite all the hanky panky going on among the Edo, none of the crew is partaking.  Instead they’re sitting around, still fully clothed…discussing capital punishment?  Wait, did I miss something here?  Or has Worf been given the job of setting Wesley up with a virtual hooker in the holodeck with the idea that ”capital punishment” involves whips, wax, and Wesley in the submissive role?  Nope, we’re really talking about the fact that forbidden fruit is now a forbidden plot of land and instead of being kicked off the island you get to die when you partake. 

I rather enjoyed the episode.  The subject matter is pretty surface-based, but similar to the fact that Picard really has to look at his own beliefs to discover the proper course of action, I think Justice, and Star Trek as a whole, encourages viewers to analyze the ethics and morality of various cultural values.  In day to day existence, it’s very easy to have faith like the Edo do in their god; it’s much more difficult to make choices based on free will. 

At one point, I even found myself understanding the point of view of people who believe that the Sphinx and Great Pyramids were built by aliens who have long since abandoned earth.  The idea is quite old with contemporary analysis of Mayan carvings on  the sarcophogus lid of King Pacal suggesting rulers flying in space ships and as Tom Stone learned while studying the mythology of Zeus, some Greek communities have and still believe that the Greek gods were actually aliens messing with and looking after human affairs.  I’m not about to go don my own tinfoil hat, but it does raise some interesting questions as the Edo worship an alien race that orbits their planet and looks after them.

Memories of the Future: Chapter 8

In the “Behind the Scenes” portion of the chapter, Wil Wheaton goes on a little tangent about a teacher encouraging him to check out the painting The Blue Boy which was housed at one of the locations used for this episode.  So here’s my own little tangent. 

In 1987, my family moved into a new house that we’d had built and proceeded to decorate room by room.  While my parents’ decorating choices involve comfortable furniture, the house has a “high-end bed and breakfast feel” to it.  My bedroom was one of the first ones complete with a typical 7-year-old girl theme that was classic enough to be appropriate years later after I’d moved out (had I not destroyed half the furniture and carpet over the years)–white frilled canopy bed, pink and blue floral wallpaper…and a print of The Blue Boy and his companion painting Pinkie.  Like Wil Wheaton, by the time I was 15, I was unimpressed with the paintings, felt the entire room made me a dweeb, and proceeded to cover the surrounding walls in Absolut ads.  Clearly I WAS a dweeb because rather than going collage style or adding clippings of cute actors and favorite bands, I arranged my ads all parallel to each other and would rearrange them as I added new ones so that there was never a lone ad–everything had to be squared off.

Wil Wheaton points out that, “It’s never easy to tackle things like capital punishment and religion, because you’re bound to offend someone, but we did it pretty fearlessly in this one.”  Star Trek handled the subject matter with class and elegance.  By acknowledging the tender footing that is required when dealing with a different set of beliefs and still remaining confident in presentation allows the episode to be successful. 

It is further proof to me that things are looking up.  Overall the episodes are much stronger than the earlier ones.  Occasionally there is a blip where things start to go downhill but I now look forward to forthcoming episodes for the general enjoyment and delight of them and the provocative philosophy they present.

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Amnesia of the Future: Lonely Among Us

20th November, 2009 by Christina - 4 Comments

Oh conflicted reaction to this episode!  Part of me is thrilled–we’re still doing much better than The Naked Now or The Last Outpost, but watching Lonely Among Us was sort of like having a hangover that isn’t quiet bad enough to call in sick to work.

The Selay and Antican (or as I like to call them SNAKE PEOPLE! and the Riki Tiki Tavi) seem a contrived plot device.  Actually the whole episode seems really forced as a way to introduce the Sherlock Holmes obsession of Data.  The rules of horror movies should be enforced here:  don’t run upstairs when being chased by the bad guy, don’t have sex (hey, Wesley Crusher will survive horror movies!), and don’t fly through odd combinations of gas in space.  I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to work this way, but the supporting story of the SNAKE PEOPLE! and the Riki Tiki Tavi/Sherlock Holmes is much more entertaining than the main plot of “Picard turns into Emperor Palpatine.”

I am, of course, loving Data.  Brent Spineris just an amazing actor and his Sherlock Holmes obsessed android is just perfect.  There’s this magnificent irony-less subtlety to his performance.  He’s just priceless in the subtlety of silent moments–inspecting the blurp of the fish tank, chomping down on the pipe before remembering that Riker is his superior officer.  Overusing the word “indubitably.”

Speaking of which, last night I stopped off for some Indian food before making my way to an In The Flesh reading (erotic lit), and when I asked the cashier if I could get a bottle of water as well he replied, “Indubitably.”

I’m torn on the idea of whether or not I’d like living in the future.  Sure they are technically vegetarian, that’s a point in their favor.  But the fake food thing.  Thanks Eli for explaining the replicator.  I eat very little packaged goods now and rely heavily on my local farmer’s market for food–thinking about eating reconfigured matter gave me the same reaction as head Riki Tiki Tavi when Tasha and Riker explained the eating habits of the inhabitants of the Enterprise.  I also threw up a little in my mouth at the description of how the Riki Tiki Tavi eats. 

Picard’s “spacewalk” by transporting just his energy out into the gassy cloud brings us to the science questions I have.  Slightly less science-y first–do any of the crew ever get to spacewalk for real?  Because that’s the big draw of leaving Earth’s orbit for me.  If this is the closest we come, then disappointing. There will plenty of Trekkies willing to explain the more science-y second half of this:  Picard transports just his energy out into space–so shouldn’t his body, the matter portion of him, just collapse in place on the transporter since it’s not actually going anywhere?  And when Data realizes that Picard’s matter pattern should be stored in the computer’s system, does this mean that when Picard is reconfigured, it’s not really him physically?  Actually, this is true of any of them, right?  I feel like I’ve heard debates about all this before and it raises all sorts of questions about what makes a person an individual and whether or not the energy of one person is the equivalent of their soul. 

Memories of the Future:  Chapter 7

Much as the episode itself did nothing for me (other than give me a weird crush on a fictional android), so I felt about this chapter.  Interestingly, Wil Wheaton states that he doesn’t remember too much about filming Lonely Among Us, so I wonder if that is what’s coming across in his writing here. 

Sure, the synopsis of the episode is entertaining, but I didn’t get that same “I was there” reaction as I’ve gotten in other chapters, even ones where Wil Wheaton wouldn’t have been on set because Wesley Crusher wasn’t even in a particular episode. 

We are all agreed that the alternative name for Lonely Among Us is The Obvious is Really Obvious Except For When People Randomly Show Up In Sick Bay.  Because I was trying so hard to connect with the episode, I didn’t notice that bit until Wil Wheaton points out how Troi walks into sick bay with no purpose other than to give lazy writers the opportunity to show the transfer of energy from Worf to Dr. Crusher.  And, as he points out, Troi is still doing absolutely nothing with her empathy skills.  I keep being told that her character eventually gets better, but so far I think everyone who has told me this is a liar.  DO NOT LIKE TROI!

Wil Wheaton does manage to find the words to explain the way I feel about this episode in “The Bottom Line:”

Much of the dialogue, pacing, and blocking in this episode feels arbitrary to me.  Characters enter and exit scenes without any good reason, and instead of action, we have meeting after meeting after meeting, and it makes the whole thing feel confused and directionless.

Just when I was getting excited about Star Trek–thinking maybe I was going to turn into a Trekkie somewhere down the line because WOW! Where No One Has Gone was so good…we get this.  It’s such a letdown and makes the previous episode feel like a fluke.  Sherlock Holmes would indubitably think this show was destined for failure.

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Amnesia of the Future: Where No One Has Gone Before

18th November, 2009 by Christina - 10 Comments

Oh my god.  The previous three episodes were insanely cheesy and I was beginning to doubt my ability to follow through on this project after starting out well with Encounter at Farpoint.  But now.  Now I get it.  I really like this show.  A lot.  It’s fantastic!  This is what I want my sci-fi space travel to be!

So, how shall I explain it?…it spoke to me.  Everything finally came together; an interesting plot, beautiful acting. 

Our universe has a definite beginning, but once you reach the Big Bang, you can’t measure anything that may have occurred before with our current understanding of how the universe works.  The idea that thought is yet another dimension connected to the four dimensions of space and time, it’s just, well, not something I ever thought about, but it makes sense.  Without consciousness to be aware of space or time, do they really exist? 

Einstein once said of time that the concept of a minute was, well, relative:

Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it feels like an hour.  Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.  THAT’s relativity.

Relegated to an hour, it’s interesting how the show approaches these broader intertwined concepts of philosophy and physics.  Maybe there is something to be said for the power of thought.  On certain days in the office or over the course of a weekend, the perceptive change in how quickly or slowly time passes makes me wonder how much thought really does effect time and space. 

I’m going to broach the Wesley thing.  For all the hate he gets, I just don’t see it (yet).  Sure he’s nerdy and kind of obnoxious in his desire to be on the bridge.  And he’s definitely gotten them out of a jam or two where the adults should have stepped it up and figured things out, but it’s not enough to make me hate him the way so many fans of the show apparently do.  Rather, this episode makes me feel really bad for the kid that a stranger alien is suddenly his best friend.

Obviously, he’s one of those really smart kids whose desire to learn makes them a bit of an outcast.  You never see Wesley hanging out with kids his own age.  He’s always working on homework, building a science experiment, or getting underfoot of crew members who don’t have time for him. 

When we get to the end, after Riker admits that Wesley did attempt to tell them what he saw going on with the Traveler, and after the Traveler tells Picard that Wesley has a natural gift…it’s like maybe there’s some hope for the kid after all!  The moment when Picard makes Wesley an acting ensign; the giddiness and thrill of finally being encouraged and recognized is adorable; you can’t help but cheer him on as the scene unfolds.

Well done Star Trek.  Well done.  Keep it up and I’ll be quite the fan.
Memories of the Future:  Chapter 6

Admittedly, I read the chapter before watching The Last Outpost.  I’m quite happy that with Where No One Has Gone BeforeI managed to put the book down before watching the episode because my reaction to the show and to the book are so different.  I was so excited after watching that episode that switching to Wil Wheaton humor was a bit of a shock.

So, we’re trucking along on the funny and then, Wil Wheaton, you missed a perfect Spinal Tap joke: 

Kosinski:  You’re on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you’re on ten on warp speed.  Where can you go from there?  Where?
Riker:  I don’t know.
Kosinski:  Nowhere.  Exactly.  What we do is we need that extra push over the edge of the galaxy, you know what we do?
Riker:  Put it up to eleven?
Kosinski:  Eleven.  Exactly.  One faster.

Sigh.  I’m so disappointed in you.  If I were a gamer I’d make some sort of reference about +2 to awesomeness for me joke.  Jell-O and Spinal Tap.  I am on a roll.

Oh hey, +3:  there’s also a Wizard of Ozjoke here–”There’s no place like home.  There’s no place like home.”  Maybe Picard wasn’t wearing his Starfleet-issued ruby red slippers. 

Besides being my favorite episode so far, the corresponding chapter is so far my favorite as well–it flows well and I laughed a number of times on the subway.  Again, no cute nerds to see what I was reading and this time the little old lady across the way glared at me.  As entertaining as the synopses of the episodes are, I can’t decide if my favorite part of each chapter is the “Behind the Scenes” look or the “Bottom Line.”  With Where No One Has Gone Before, I think it’s the “Bottom Line” and getting a glimpse from one in the know about future characterization and a deeper understanding of  just what the actors were doing that helped to make the show such a hit.

Maybe it’s because I’m coming into Star Trekwith tons of pop-culture references that I expected to hate Wesley.  EVERYONE hated Wesley. Within his own writing, I sometimes I feel Wil Wheaton is a little hard on the boy.*  Sure Wesley can be a dweeby know-it-all, but I don’t hate him like many fans of the show did.  I feel bad for him.  Looking back, I was never mean to “that kid” in high school, but I certainly didn’t go out of my way to be nice to “that kid” either.  Feeling bad for friendless Wesley is like redemption. 

Reading the chapter made me question my own reaction to this particular episode.  Finally there was something good and then snarky Wil Wheaton comes along and CRUSHES that reaction!  Was it really as good as I thought?  As I have been doing, I went back and re-watched Where No One Has Gone Before.  I still really liked the episode–snark be damned–and am hoping that’s not just a reaction to how bad the previous episodes were.  Yes, there are some inconsistencies that don’t fit quite right, but overall, it’s just that the rest of what’s good makes up for the problems.

Overall, some stellar performances and well laid-out story; it jumps leaps and bounds (can one say…it goes to Warp 11?) past the previous three episodes, and Wil Wheaton seems to have hit a nice stride with Memories of the Future (The Last Outpostbeing the weakest chapter for me so far).  Just be nicer to Wesley!  If anything, Troi is the one who I could really do without.  Anymore obvious empathy for the inconsequential and inability to pick up on the important stuff and I’m going to start my own alt.troi.die.die.die fan club.

*That totally sounds much creepier than anything the Traveler said about Wesley.  NOT intentional!

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Amnesia of the Future: The Last Outpost

16th November, 2009 by Christina - 9 Comments

…

…

…

What the hell? 

I just…I mean…Seriously?

Good thing I combined watching The Last Outpost with dinner so that the hour wasn’t a total wash.  Eggplant jambalaya.  It was pretty darn good.  The jambalaya.  Not the episode. 

First off, it didn’t catch my attention watching the show, but reading the corresponding chapter made me wonder why we have firewalls for company and government servers and yet 400 years into the future an alien race with different technology can scan the library of the Enterprise.  How come there is no firewall on the Enterprise’s library?  That’s the problem of setting a story so far into the future without any idea of what new technology is going to appear in the next decade or so.  The writers already predicted the Kindle in Encounter at Farpoint, but they seem to have missed the memo on DRM.  Which would totally come in handy in situations like this.   

Then, we finally meet the the Frengie? Furengy? (Google, please help me!)  Ferengi kind of remind me of a cross between a rotten potato and the little airplane-destroying gremlins in old Bugs Bunny cartoons. 

Have you ever heard the hypothetical question about how many violent killer five-year-olds you could take on and still survive? Watching the Ferengi fight Warf and Data is sort of like that.  Three tiny and effete Ferengi can take on three humans and a Klingon so long as the humans don’t have a woman with them.

For all I know this is an interesting episode, but I’m too distracted by the horrid set that is the planet.  I’ve been on a backstage tour of the Metropolitan Opera and they have such incredible realistic sets that it takes you a minute to realize the rocks are made out of foam and even then only because the tour guide tells you so.  The last outpost looks like it got decorating tips from some horrible pulp B-movie and I half expect a killer tomato to appear instead of the portal.  I hear the sets for the original series looked like they were made out of cardboard, but come on!  Make an investment here.  You can use rocks for EVERY planet, get some nice ones. 

Does anyone else get the impression that the portal is having a grand ol’ time messing with everyone?  There’s this moment where he goes from condemning the crew to being BFFs with Riker.  It’s like a switch goes off and his entire personality changes.  While before he was tight with the Ferengi, he’s now too darn cool to hang out with such dweebs.  Ha.  Silly Ferengi.  He’s just so patronizing to overcompensate for sort of being duped by their lies.

Memories of the Future:  Chapter 5

Oh, hey…those Ferengi, they’re supposed to be the big evil enemy we’re afraid of?  Who knew?!  So glad that detail is in the book because I definitely would not have gotten that impression from having just watched the episode.  I’m still just floored that I spent an hour watching that oh my god it was bad.

Apparently Wil Wheaton and I have verydifferent idea of what a great looking planet looks like.  Maybe it’s because I can’t compare this to the original series and their cardboard cut-out sets.  After writing up my initial reaction, I did re-watch the episode and decided the planted wasn’t as bad as my initial reaction.  Mostly just those plastic looking crystal things that made it look all fake and combined with the Ferengi I was predisposed to loathe things more than they maybe deserved.

The chapter definitely came in handy with figuring out just what the hell was going on.  The Ferengi are terrifying in the same way “interpretive” dance is scary, resulting in distraction from what was actually going on. Reading between the lines of snarkiness, suddenly things started to make more sense and many questions were raised, mainly one tangentical to the plot:

Where does the Enterprise get its power that it never needs to refuel a la The Jetsons at some space gas station, and yet within a matter of hours (assumedly) can have all it’s power drained?  Also, food.  Is there some sort of biodome floor that provides food for all these people floating for years in space?

Thankfully, Wil Wheatongoes where I debated, but hedged for a moment–those “whips” totally look like a vibrator/light-saber half-breed.  I worked at Toys “R” Us through high school and we used to play this game called “make fun of all the unintentionally dirty toys” because that’s what horny teenagers do.  Anyway, my favorite was Mr. Bucket with his tag line “The balls pop out of my mouth.”  My second favorite was the light-up, vibrating…light saber.  Way to ruin Star Wars, you stupid toy manufacturers.  Those “whips” looked exactly like that light-up, vibrating…light saber.

I do intend to continue watching, but as Wil Wheaton describes the episode in the first sentence of the “Bottom Line” section of the chapter:

 TNG’s epic struggle to find its way continues!

Sure the characters are taking shape and the acting of the main cast is strong, but the storytelling just seems so frivolous and silly.  Not in any good definition of the words, either.  There were way too many moments of thinking, “What the fuck is going on and who hired the jumping beans to play an evil alien race?  I know of a small rabbit scarier than the Ferengi.”  In the early days of a television series, each episode has to be strong enough to encourage viewers to return the next week.  Instead, The Last Outpost required reading a twelve page recap and re-watching in order to get past all the horrible and just understand what the hell was going on.  Not a good sign. 

Wil Wheaton pointing out in a book twenty-two years after the fact that there are some rather strong elements to the episode and some great changes to come doesn’t change the fact that I will not get that hour (two and a half if you count the reading and re-watching) back.  How the series made it to this wonderful third season I keep hearing about, I will only know because the whole thing is now on DVD and not demanding I remember week after week to tune in.

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