Star Trek Randomness

In surfing for other videos it gives me a lot of suggestions for Star Trek related videos and I found a few I liked

This first one is a tribute to DeForest Kelly.  He's my favorite TOS actor and I loved Bones.  I'd never seen this until the other day.  Very sweet.

I've known about this one for a while... Brent Spiner recorded an album of oldies.  This is my very favorite.  And he's got a great voice.  Incidentally, that's probably him impersonating Patrick Stewart in the bridge.  He can do that.

This is 14 facts about Star Trek. Of course, I knew most of them, but this guy goes into the details of some of them, and they never stop being cool.

Finally, an interview with Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis... this is fun and funny.  It just popped up out of nowhere on the side and I decided to watch it.  It's really neat how close the cast of TNG was.

Geoffrey Rush

Showing the Geoffrey Rush love today!  It'll look like a bunch of Geoffrey Rush clips threw up all over this post... I love him to pieces.  He's a great actor and even though he's won many awards, I still am apt to call him underrated.  I don't think a lot of people who just know him as Barbossa from the Pirates movies really understand how versatile he is.  Good guys and bad guys and those who fit into both categories at the same time; caricatured  and straight up; serious and comic; he's really a well rounded performer. So let the love begin!  The first video is a compilation of several things... some of which I haven't seen.

But, of course, there's more Barbossa...

Here's one I bet everyone forgot about...

This movie didn't follow the book very well, but they picked a couple of great leads for Jean Val Jean and Javert..

I didn't realize that Peter Sellers was a total weirdo until I saw this movie.  I'm sure some of it is dramatized, but my goodness did Rush ever nail the impersonations of Sellers' characters.  Unbelievable acting!

And one of the best characters ever... Lionel

Here's him winning an award for Shine.  I've never seen it.. it doesn't seem like my type of movie... but it's just sweet to watch.  I'm sure he earned it. Especially when I see who he beat out that year.

Star Trek TNG A Matter of Honor

This episode tests my patience a little bit.  It's like a conflict of good and bad writing.  You could see that effort was being made but it was still being restrained as well.

I didn't care for the target range.  It was a little better later on when they had Guinan and Worf practicing.  Probably because the effects were a little better. This was too colorful like the place where Wesley was supposed to be taking his entrance exam for the Academy in Coming of Age. And it seemed empty.  And although I know the captain needs to practice as much as anyone, it just seemed weird for him to be there.  Perhaps it's because it seemed weird for him to be dropping hints to Riker to sign up to be an exchange officer on a Klingon ship. Almost like a father putting pressure on a child.  I just wasn't buying the motivation.  This part of the plot was kind of thin.

I'm not sure when having foreign exchange students in America has been most popular, but I know it was doing very well in the 80's.  People from my small hometown area hosted a couple of different students that came to my high school.  Anyway, I can only think that since these first two seasons were trying really hard to pander to young teenagers, that that must have been some of the motivation behind writing this episode.  The enterprise also gets a temporary new crewman.  You think it's the Benzite named Mordock from Coming of Age.  Wesley thinks so too.  But it's actually a Benzite named Mendon. It turns out that this particular race of people... really do... all look alike.  You can infer a facepalm with that.  I just don't know what was going through their "liberals aren't racists" heads sometimes.

Anyway Benzite means of operation are very different from the Federation's.  Mendon gets on everyone's nerves by over-zealously suggesting improvements to the systems. Benzites also expect to have solutions to their problems before they're even reported.  This ends up making everyone aggravated with the poor perfectionist, especially after he finally reports a bacteria that had been eating away at the hulls of both ships well after they'd parted ways, putting an interesting twist in the plot.

And the plot wasn't really a bad one. I just don't understand the time frames I guess. Worf gives Riker a transponder in case he needs to get out of there explaining that promotions happen by assassination of the captain often and it's perfectly fine.  Okay, got it.  It makes sense because Klingons are more aggressive.  And when he gets over there, it starts out pretty good with Riker being challenged by the second officer and winning his place as an officer aboard a Klingon ship.  It was great and fun to watch.  He had to be as brash on the Klingon ship as Worf had had to be docile on the Enterprise.

He gets to learn that they prepare their food a little differently than the dishes he practiced on in Ten Forward for some nice, humorous moments.  And it was somewhat of a time killer since the story was a little too simple as always.  And they hadn't committed yet to the idea of Klingon dishonor as Riker bonds with one of them telling him to contact his dishonored father.  But, still, there was a real effort being put forth here to develop Klingon culture.  These parts were all part of the fabric that was woven for the Klingon culture as the show advanced, even if they were never brought up again.  It was important and meaningful in the long run even though it was treated comically at this time.

Where this episode loses me is the attitude of the Klingon Captain.  The Enterprise tries to come back to warn them about the hull eating bacteria and Kargan goes off the deep end.  It's like, they were trying to develop the Klingon culture because they're not a nemesis anymore... but they still wanted to write them off as the Neanderthal war mongers of TOS at the same time.  It was breaking Roddenberry's own rules (no wars with Klingons) because they still couldn't think of anything else to write about.  And it's very confusing when you consider sixth Star Trek movie when it came out a couple of years later... the seeds of the alliance of the Federation and Klingons were sowed in that movie which took place while Kirk was still alive and running the Enterprise.  So all of this time has passed and also there's a Klingon serving aboard a Federation ship, not as an exchange experiment but an enlisted, accepted, and trusted officer... however, Kargan's behavior would make it seem like the treaty was signed only a week or a month ago.  The Enterprise is coming back?  It must mean sabotage!  Cloak the ship and prepare to destroy them!  War! War!  Grr!  Klingons smash!  So quick and eager to abandon any treaty that may have been in place for what I assumed must be years now.  They just had such a hard time letting go of the old style that it kind of tore this episode into two different and disagreeable directions.

The end is wonderful.  Riker butts heads with the captain on refusing to betray the Enterprise, but still tricks him into moving in close enough so that the transponder Worf gave him would work.  He gives it to the captain and he is able to assume command without killing the captain - an intelligent way to work around that tradition.  He continues in Klingon fashion by demanding a surrender of the Enterprise which Picard complies with to legitimize Riker's position on the Pagh. (But what about the alliance?  I don't know... better not think about it too much...) They arrange for repairs to be made to the ships.  It's clever and fun.  And when Kargan returns, Riker gets himself dismissed from the ship in Klingon fashion which earns the captain's respect.  More really good culture development that just clashes with Kargan's behavior up to that point and ends up not making a lot of sense.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one that notices these things.

I'm really torn about how to rate this one.  The creative writing parts make me want to give it three and a half but the way they were still keeping the Klingons in the 23rd century makes me want to drop that to just three.  I think I'll have to go with just three on this one.  They did okay with this episode, but they can, have, and will do so much better.

Star Trek TNG Unnatural Selection

This episode isn't as so-so as the last one.  There's actually some decent science fiction going on here.  It's a likeable enough episode.  Just a little on the slow side perhaps.

One of the factors that made the first and second season episodes so slow was the way they tried to telegraph what would be happening in each show at the beginning.  We have the captain asking Troi if the new doctor is basically obsessive.  It's appropriate to use the ship's counselor in this advisory capacity, but it's also a little too obvious now what will happen in the episode. Not like the last one where Data growing a beard was also a teaser, but a very vague one that could easily be dismissed as character development.  It slows things down because now that I know that Pulaski is going to be obsessive about whatever is going on, I just want to skip to that instead of going through the motions in between.

I'm not complaining entirely though.  I liked what they were going for with the dynamic between Picard and Pulaski.  Instead of pursuing that Spock-Bones relationship between her and Data, they decide to take her abrasive personality and set it against Picard who is better equipped to handle it.  Had she stayed on, I think it would've made a fine pairing.  Not a romantic pairing like with Beverly Crusher, but a partnership of sorts.  The further development in the early parts of the show indicate that Pulaski and Picard are a little too much alike which is why they have an underlying friction.  It's good psychology and later on when the writing improved it could've added an interesting flavor to Picard to have had a main character that he would continually be butting heads with, but in a productive way.

 Anyway, to the story.  The Enterprise has to take a vessel called the Lantree into tow because all of their crew died from old age and the only clue they have to go on is that they stopped at Darwin Research Station (Darwin!  [un]Natural Selection!  Hardy har har!  These word-plays with they way they named everyone and everything were becoming tiresome too... because they weren't clever... it's like teenagers who just discovered the connections were writing some of this stuff.  I try not to point it out to much because I figured they were trying to teach kids with the writing, but sometimes it's just too silly.  Although this isn't as bad as the Medusans... that takes the cake.)  At the Darwin station they're all aging uncontrollably too.  So they beg the Enterprise to take their children who are living in a sealed off room for fear that they would become infected too.

They assure the Enterprise that they can't be infected because they've been genetically engineered to be physically and mentally superior.  Kind of a benign redo of whatever was supposed to be going on in the late 20th century with Khan and his group of super humans.   It's like the way people try to rationalize socialism - it hasn't worked because the right people haven't tried it yet.  And it would seem to be the same with eugenics in this episode.  The wrong people tried it before so they made super monsters, but these good people at Darwin have made super kids that are perfect as well as telekinetic and telepathic. But it fails again, just like socialism. Sorry for the digression.  It has nothing to do with the episode, that's just where my mind goes when I watch this episode.

The Enterprise is rightfully cautious and doesn't want to take on people from a quarantined area without examining them.  A thorough examination can't be done while the boy is in stasis, so the obsessive, stubborn doctor takes him onto a shuttle craft with Data since he can't be affected.  And here's where the science fiction gets good.  It's the children that are causing the strange aging disease because their immune systems starts actively and outwardly attacking any inferior being in order to protect their bodies from the usual ravages of age and disease.  I liked it.  Again, not a big surprise, but not undigestable. Of course it's not without the usual first and second season melodrama... big, stupid Worf insisting that it's a trick because the 12-year-old boy looks more like 20 due to the genetic enhancements... (Grrr! Worf smash! ugh..,)... Pulaski assuming that Picard won't approve what turns out to be the most logical thing to do...the progression of the disease on Pulaski moves a little too fast compared with the Darwin people.  But it's a mostly satisfying plot.

Pulaski quarantines herself to Darwin station where the scientists are shocked that the kids are the cause of the problems.  And that's when they make use of Pulaski's transporter fear which was a direct copy of McCoy's transporter fear that I still don't approve of.

Of course, transporter science fiction is about as solid as Holodeck-coming-to-life science fiction, but it's acceptable in the same way too.  I thought it was a great idea to find an old trace from when she didn't have the disease to filter her back to normal.  It's a concept they'd use again.  And everything works out great although without resolving the problem of the kids being genetic monsters.  O'Brian is the hero and I think this really solidified his presence as a reoccurring character.

So, another good but still so-so episode.  I can do three stars on this.  I do like Diane Maulder.  She makes a good character and I always thought they should've brought her back from time to time after she leaves at the end of this season.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm going to take a slightly serious detour on Thanksgiving for a minute.  After all, this blog is my playground and it doesn't get a lot of hits anyway.  But for anyone looking on, this is an important story and relevant now more than ever.

The Real Story of the First Thanksgiving

The story of the Pilgrims begins in the early part of the seventeenth century (that's the 1600s for those of you in Rio Linda, California). The Church of England under King James I was persecuting anyone and everyone who did not recognize its absolute civil and spiritual authority. Those who challenged ecclesiastical authority and those who believed strongly in freedom of worship were hunted down, imprisoned, and sometimes executed for their beliefs. A group of separatists first fled to Holland and established a community. After eleven years, about forty of them agreed to make a perilous journey to the New World, where they would certainly face hardships, but could live and worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established just and equal laws for all members of the new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs. Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from? From the Bible. The Pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments. They looked to the ancient Israelites for their example. And, because of the biblical precedents set forth in Scripture, they never doubted that their experiment would work. But this was no pleasure cruise, friends. The journey to the New World was a long and arduous one. And when the Pilgrims landed in New England in November, they found, according to Bradford's detailed journal, a cold, barren, desolate wilderness. There were no friends to greet them, he wrote. There were no houses to shelter them. There were no inns where they could refresh themselves.

And the sacrifice they had made for freedom was just beginning. During the first winter, half the Pilgrims – including Bradford's own wife – died of either starvation, sickness or exposure. When spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats. Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not yet prosper! This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end. Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than as a devout expression of gratitude grounded in the tradition of both the Old and New Testaments. Here is the part that has been omitted: The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well. They were going to distribute it equally. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well. Nobody owned anything. They just had a share in it. It was a commune, folks. It was the forerunner to the communes we saw in the '60s and '70s out in California – and it was complete with organic vegetables, by the way. Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter, which had taken so many lives. He decided to take bold action. Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace. That's right. Long before Karl Marx was even born, the Pilgrims had discovered and experimented with what could only be described as socialism. And what happened? It didn't work! Surprise, surprise, huh? What Bradford and his community found was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else, unless they could utilize the power of personal motivation!

But while most of the rest of the world has been experimenting with socialism for well over a hundred years – trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it – the Pilgrims decided early on to scrap it permanently. What Bradford wrote about this social experiment should be in every schoolchild's history lesson If it were, we might prevent much needless suffering in the future. "The experience that we had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years...that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God," Bradford wrote. "For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense...that was thought injustice." Why should you work for other people when you can't work for yourself? What's the point? Do you hear what he was saying, ladies and gentlemen? The Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive. So what did Bradford's community try next? They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the undergirding capitalistic principle of private property. Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products. And what was the result?

"This had very good success," wrote Bradford, "for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been." Bradford doesn't sound like much of a Clintonite, does he? Is it possible that supply-side economics could have existed before the 1980s? Yes. Read the story of Joseph and Pharaoh in Genesis 41. Following Joseph's suggestion (Gen 41:34), Pharaoh reduced the tax on Egyptians to 20% during the "seven years of plenty"

Source R.L.

Holiday music

Just some of Adam Sandler's music.  I found his Thanksgiving song so I decided to post his 4 Hanukah songs too.  I didn't realize he was up to 4 already.  Enjoy.

Book reviews: books that didn't impress me

Going with a couple of books that I wasn't that enamored with since the only book reviews I've posted have been favorable.  The first one was just a let down and the second one I hated.  Enjoy!  Or rather... don't.. Lol.  Skip these two.

The Lost World, Michael Crichton
This is the sequel to Jurassic Park and I didn't like it as well. I've read enough Crichton to see that his pattern was to write a book with the purpose of making points for the most part. Usually scientific points of some kind or another. I don't think he ever intended to write another one like this, but if I have my years straight, this book was written two years after Jurassic Park was made into a movie, so since it was a monster success, there was probably pressure for more.
It's evidenced in the fact that he resurrected the Ian Malcolm to make him a co-main character in this book. His death in the first book was relatively vague making this possible, but I think it was a mistake brought about by the popularity of the Malcolm character in the movie. Ian Malcolm was a secondary character that Crichton used as his own voice when he wanted to pontificate and speculate on various subjects. He still uses him like that partly in The Lost World, but Malcolm isn't as charming in the books as Goldblum portrayed him in the movie. He's socially awkward with a gloomy outlook most of the time. And the other main character that he shares the lecturing role with in this book is a total jackass. Crichton was good at making despicable characters like Levine. Thank goodness for the character of Thorne.
It's also evidenced by the fact that he repeated many of is points in this one. It's not uncommon for recapping in sequels. The first four books of the Harry Potter series were overburdened with recapping. But, the recapping in this seemed to be more like space filler until the characters get a chance to work out the mystery of this new island. Most of the motivations of the characters to stay or even to set out aren't as believable in this book apart from the most obsessive ones. And although the climax of the last quarter of the book is very exciting and fun, the wonder and cohesion of the first book isn't there anymore. The first book was a perfect storm, whereas this book seems a little forced. And there was a really cool dinosaur in this one that I would've loved to have seen more of and I think could've been more terrifying than even the raptors, but it was just used as a minor plot device to move things along. So, over all, I think I'm a little disappointed. Of course, I haven't seen this sequel movie, so they may have improved on some of this with Crichton since he helped adapt his own books for film.

Artemis Fowl

On the day I went book hunting, this is the one book I got that I didn't want.  It wasn't on my list of things that I wanted, which I would've known if I'd actually had the list that day.  I remembered right after I got it was something I had browsed and decided that I wasn't interested in it.  My instincts were actually right for a change.  Thumbs down on this.

Artemis Fowl is a boy genius.  Okay, fine.  He is a criminal mastermind.  Cool; I like criminal masterminds.  It would seem to copy Harry Potter, in that there is a magic world that coexists secretly with a human world, only not as creative and more cartoonish.  But, there are sufficient basic differences to give it points for originality.  In fact, the concept wasn't bad... it was just badly done.  It was uneven and predictable.  Only a child would be surprised by the twists, and yet it didn't seem to me like a story that could hold a child's interest for long.  The only reason you know that the protagonist is a 12-year-old boy is because the author assures you that he is.  But, the dialogue, attitudes, and descriptions lean more towards an adult mindset and are more like what you'd see in an evening crime drama.  What really ruined it for me though was the incessant environmentalist/PETA based whining and rants.  From the moment the race of fairies are introduced it just goes on and on, every other page, seemingly with every breath the author takes.  It gets really old, really fast.  If I want to hear a bunch of liberal self-loathing, I'll turn it on Sirius Left for a few minutes.  It really spoiled what could've been a somewhat fun little story.  I will not be reading any of the sequels.

Star Trek TNG The Schizoid Man

Not a bad episode, but not an overly good one either. This is actually the first of the three so-so episodes in a row.  So-so for me.  Others may like them more.

The introduction of Lore was successful, so they decide to bring more of Data's "relatives" out of the woodwork.  In this case a Dr. Ira Graves who was supposed to have taught Dr. Soong everything he knew about cybernetics, making him Data's grandfather for all intents and purposes.

They start out with a distress call from Graves' assistant, Kareen.  He's old and near death and had a bad episode.

Left alone with Data and knowing the end is near, Graves puts his mind and soul into Data so he can live forever.  It kind of watered down the idea of Data's uniqueness to me.  They legitimize it by writing in that Graves doesn't want to be told where Data's off switch is.  So, when he guesses it, you know that he really did work closely with Soong. But it also felt like there was this one unique android that seemingly anyone could tweak and tinker on... just too much too soon after Lore.  It also felt like a little too ready-made of a plot to me.  It's kind of like Return to Tomorrow from TOS only it allowed them to skip the middle man as it were.  The evil twin thing worked because it was relatively creative.  This one suffers from more fear of trying to do something new and just finding different ways of reworking the old stories.  It's not without it's good moments though.

Anytime Data got to have emotions it was usually good for humorous situations.  Graves' eulogy over his own body through Data is a scream.  It also displayed Spiner's vocal range a little better.  When he did Lore, the voice tended to be nasally and a little annoying.  It tended towards that every time he would act with anger actually.  But in this episode we get to here him with a steady voice like Data, only full of emotions - boredom, admiration, irritation.  I thought it was a better way of proving that he could act than Lore because there wasn't as much of the nasally quality to his voice.

This is the first time you see Susie Plakson who would later play Worf's mate, K'Ehleyr.  I just think she's pretty and was a good choice for any kind of Star Trek alien.  Her character's name, Lt. Selar, is often referred to again although they never bring her back.  She's almost a novelty.  There was very little Vulcan representation on TNG because of Roddenberry's hypocritical rules and it's a shame.

And, of course, this is the episode where Data is trying a beard in the opening throw away scene.  It was hilarious and, I suppose, there to indicate the direction the show would be going in with Data becoming a different person.

I just want to point out that Schizophrenia is not having two or more personalities.  Soap operas have been using that term for years whenever there was a split personality on a show, and it's wrong.  A schizophrenic loses touch with reality.  A person with a schizotypal personality disorder tends toward paranoia, coldness, and apathy.  I read a trivia comment that the episode was titled due to the nature of Dr. Graves who exhibited these personality traits, but since they also do a split personality, I just thought it should be clear. It's a personal subject of interest to me.

Troi correctly diagnosis Data with multiple personality disorder though.  You get to see her doing some actual medical work instead of just using her empathic abilities, which is a nice change.  But, that part also adds to what bothered me the most about this episode.  It took everyone way too long to figure out what was going on.  Troi couldn't sense the same man she'd just met on the planet in Data?  Picard had to tie it all together in that "star of the show" fashion that I'm uncomfortable with.  This entire episode would've made a better subplot with characters too busy with something more pressing to notice Data being strange at first.  Instead they spend the whole episode puzzling over him.  I try to rationalize it by thinking that the characters just didn't know each other very well yet, but it's still hard to swallow.  There's some back and forth about Data's rights as an individual, but it just wasn't the right setting for such a debate.  This episode was just plain "off."

In the end Graves feels guilty about accidentally hurting Kareen who rejects his love and idea of an android body for her so they could live together forever.  He also feels guilty for attacking crew members and Picard when he loses his temper about that rejection and he ends up transferring himself into the ship's computer, freeing Data.  Which raises more questions... like what happened to him then?  Did they just keep him on a flash drive?  Did his assistant take him home with her?  I guess because Data was back to normal we shouldn't worry about it, but that's kind of lazy writing.

All in all it's a watchable episode.  Data episodes are always good to watch anyway.  Definitely not one of my favorites, but it didn't totally suck, so I'll give it three stars.