New Trek: A love letter (with some spoilers)

I couldn't get this up on this blog right as I saw the film, but Blogger had somehow reset my language to Hindi....

I have only one nit to pick, so I’ll do that first….for 99% of the film none of the older musical scores were referenced or used in their entirety.

Reasons I love this:

The writing got almost everyone nailed (McCoy occasionally skated perilously close to parody, and even that was lovable…. and when he wasn’t doing that he was amazing.)

Favorite McCoy line: "I'm a doctor, not a physicist!"

I completely bought into: Chris Pine’s Kirk, (Kirk in particular was marvelous…stripped away of the parody that he got made into, he resonated with such original series episodes as “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” and “Balance of Terror.”), Bruce Greenwood’s Pike, Sulu and Uhura.

Favorite Kirk setup and line (I'm regretfully paraphrasing)

Security Dweeb confronts Kirk wanting to beat him up: "Look, cupcake, there are four guys here..."

Kirk: "Bring a fifth guy and it'll be a fair fight."

Zachary Quinto’s Spock took a bit longer, because from the trailers he was clearly “outside” the level of emotional control we’d seen from Nimoy’s Spock in the original, except under alien influence or, well once every seven years.

But the movie has a reason for a less controlled Spock, and a compelling one, which I bought wholeheartedly.

Favorite Spock setup and line:

(The Vulcan Science Academy has obviously been studying "How to make a mind blowingly stupid remark in polite company," in the Human Emotions Dictionary)

They praise young Spock for his outstanding work that merited him a place at Vulcan Science Academy, but wonder what possessed him to apply for Starfleet as well...)

Admissions Chairperson: "But you've done so *well* despite your disadvantage!"

Spock: "To what disadvantage are you referring?"

Admissions Chairperson: "Your human mother!"

Spock then politely with perfect diction and a quiet tone of voice, tells them that he has made a decision to enroll in Starfleet. The room erupts. No one has ever turned down a post to the Vulcan Science Academy!!!

"What emotion are you trying to convey?" Accusing Spock of the ultimate Vulcan faux pas.

"The only emotion I wish to convey is gratitude."

That's Vulcan for "Kiss my ***!"

There was plenty of homage to the original, and many Trekker’s might say too much.

(It was fine for me. I’ll take beloved lines and attitudes and riffs whenever they come.)

Unlike “The Motionless Picture,” (the first ever Trek Film) you didn’t waste 15 minutes of film staring up at the FX of the movie sized Enterprise…

But she was a brilliant piece of starship, as I’ve noted prior (and that was the first time I teared up a bit.)

One liners referenced both the original series, and, indirectly the animated series of the seventies, with an elementary school age Spock being tormented by his classmates. as well as the last primetime spinoff “Enterprise.” The villain felt like “Nemesis,” the last film before this, in the design and colors of his ship.

Nimoy as elder Spock…a graceful turn firmly in continuity with the nuanced character he’s given us before… as per usual for him. (Yeah I cried.)

There have been some changes though, that I can’t recount without spoiling things.

Non-fans and fans alike: Tempus Fugit. Quick. Go see this film.

The word is given. Warp speed.

A newer trailer than I'd seen before.

Unable to upload, but here's the link .

Trek Reviewing: Why It's Fraught With Peril

I'm glad I've studied history...because as one looks at primary source material, instructions are given to understand the time and place that the source material comes from.

Also if one is a student of history, de facto, if you want to study it, you have some respect for some of it. (Granted, anyone who 'respects' the Inquisition or the Holocaust needs serious medical help, but that's neither here nor there.)

Trek itself is now something of an historical artifact...going on 45 years old.

And, as such, you have to respect the time, place and budgets (and good writing or lack thereof) connected with TOS, TAS, the spinoffs and the films...

Mark Altman, founder of Geek Monthly reviewed the trailers and twenty minutes of film footage....


He is mainly positive about the new film, that makes me happy.

I agree with his stance on the Romulans, because after all in the Pre-TOS time period Spock states

"No Human, Romulan or ally has ever seen the other."

(Granted, a couple of renegade Vulcans and Aenar have, but it's likely Vulcan and Andoria never made those instances public. And starships getting assembled in Iowa? Give me a break.)

I disagree with his concerns about Zachary Quinto's Spock. If that kid can make Sylar on "Heroes a complex anti-hero to root for (as I did last week...first time I *ever* wanted to see the carving out of brains.)

he'll do fine with Spock.

And, if Altman could have just stopped the column after reviewing the new film, it would be a great review....

But he somehow had the need to rag on the older films.

"all the original Trek movies looked cheap and, well, cheap.'

Oh please. Compare those movies to the original pilot with it's worse-than-the rest of TOS chauvinism, and *paper* output of the ships computer, non digital analog timers...and they look magical. There was a fifteen year gap in SFX technology then. (not to mention some [slight] evolution in attitudes towards women.)

He felt that

"...by trying to get Scotty, Uhura and Sulu into the action as well as Chekov, they’re doing the big three a disservice. Chekov’s played for comic relief, much as he was in Star Trek IV, and, at the end of the day, who really needs him."

They're part of the fabric, they need to be there. Period. This is what I mean about respect for history.



And, being a Spock fan, I just cannot abide what he said about Mr. Nimoy's cameo.

"...the new kids on the block wouldn’t have to listen to long, ponderous scenes like Leonard Nimoy as Spock explaining technobabble to Scotty that he’s from the future and Captain Kirk needs to get Spock emotional to take command. That’s Next Generation, guys, and as much as I loved seeing Nimoy on screen as Spock again, I couldn’t but help feeling it was like dropping Jar-Jar into a scene in The Empire Strikes Back."

Mr. Altman, the clock is ticking for the remaining TOS actors. Abrams has said that he didn't want to do the film unless he had Nimoy on board.

There will be a time when we can't have the TOS Spock in a film, just as we cannot have TOS McCoy or TOS Scotty now.

I'm glad he's there, long-winded and technical or not.

"Star Trek" --- TOS love letters

First, for the uninitiated TOS= an abbreviation for "The Original Series"

Moving on:

To everyone who has ever loved Farscape, Babylon 5, Firefly, Stargate, (Original and Atlantean varieties,) the newer, grittier Battlestar Galactica

To the writers and directors of same.

And of course to the direct descendants of "Star Trek" the fans, writers, actors, directors of the several spinoffs....

I ask that you remember, from time to time that you wouldn't have any of the above if it weren't for Star Trek.

That's right: The outdated velour clad crew of the NCC 1701 ("No bloody "A" "B" "C" or "D").

The odd mixture of fantasy, space race militarism and hippy feel good requests to pull together and do someting right. (that often lead to horrid tv as much as it did to great stuff)
Freedom at the point of a phaser...but at least a nod and a wink towards self determination.

Without that beginning, the rest of what's been decent about genre film and TV over the last 40 years wouldn't be here.

When I hear fans of other speculative fiction written work or film or television deride it...I used to get mad, but now I just get sad.

Because all of these folks who've decided it's just too passe for them--and worse yet their children...won't decide to look at the great stuff.

How many real scientists started out as Trek fans anyway?

So, in the run up to the movie (and in part because I cannot abide that it is now "news" that Tom Cruise loves Trek... naturally because JJ Abrams is involved...)

A series of thank-you's for the work of some of the actors and writers:


The first: Leonard Nimoy.

There's been a lot written about Nimoy the actor and Spock the character. Whatever I don't rehash here, go read Nimoy's book "I Am Spock," the best part of which is it's gentle tone. He *refuses* to go nuclear on his co-workers. He came to a point where he had accepted the typecasting that hindered him as an actor.

I'm really going to focus in on his effect on this specific fan, and the effect of his signature role on this specific fan.

I was seven when I saw my first episode, one of the third season clunkers on it's original airdate.

But when I first *really paid attention* I was thirteen.

A thirteen year old girl with cerebral palsy in a chaotic household where the center of the chaos was a parent.

Here was a character who was always fighting against giving in to emotion, particularly negative emotions, even physical discomfort.

Here was a character whose entire motivation said, "Being smart is Cool." Being smart was my one E ticket ride, and Spock was the brass ring of the Best Career that could happen to a smart person, in my adolescent brain at the time.

Later as an adult, when I had to self-teach myself to "Yes, *have the meltdown* but for God's sake, do it later....," part of my template was some of the fictional character's attitude.

I cannot tell you the number of times I said to myself, in my head during a particularly painful task or surgery or movement "There is no pain," and that gave me just a bit of extra juice...to get through it.

Analysing a situation was ok. Thinking ahead was ok. The character of Spock even managed to indicate that for some race, sometime in the future...the flashes of deja-vu or intuition that I often experienced, might become a validated, cultural educatonal and nearly scientific norm: In other words, people would have the ablity of full blown telephathy....and could be taught to refine it and direct it. That was an exciting idea for a kid.

I was so interested in the character, that I began to follow the work of the actor that played Spock outside of Trek. I saw a wonderful humorous performance of Sherlock Holmes in 1975 in my hometown.

Well I grew up. And because of one of my impairments, my emotional control is *working well* because I'm following doctor's care, and for no other reason.

Things happened to me as an adult that "blew out" all my self talk to get through tough emotional states or extreme pain. It no longer worked.

But I still love the character, as well the actor's public face, the relentlessly positive, wry or humorous things I've heard Mr. Nimoy say in interviews over and over again.

Mr. Nimoy, I don't know you, and unlike those who confuse fiction and reality, I realize I only know your work.

But I thank you for that work now , because it was encouraging, fun, smart, and a real help during tough times.

When I see the movie, when the new one comes out, I'm going to act like an idiot in the theater, and stand up and give you some applause that you won't see.

Thanks. Just thanks.

On Mentoring

I have several unfortunate hobbies, two of them involving truly bad television shows, and one involving a good and interesting one that is nonetheless derided by many serious people. (The other two, I’m mainly in the closet about, because any genuine *good* in them is *completely eclipsed* by hack writing and/or rotten special effects)

They are unfortunate because many “serious minded people” think that other “serious minded people” ought to move on to something more serious, and in addition, that if one begins something serious, like say, working for a living, or a marriage, or a professional ‘career’… it’s time to put unfortunate hobbies aside.

“When I was a child I spoke as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things…”

People who wouldn’t be caught dead paraphrasing St Paul’s advice on wives and marriage..well, they’ll line right up behind his admonition to grow the heck up already.

I also had the unfortunate tendency to introduce the younger members of my family to the least offensive of my unfortunate hobbies, and *they* also have taken it and ran with it well into their thirties…

When my mother discovered that I had indoctrinated one of my cousins in my (least) unfortunate hobby, she said: “It’s so “nice” that **** has someone to share her insanity with.”

Well, some good has already come of that unfortunate hobby, and more still may arrive soon…

And since I’m no longer a screaming adolecsent I generally wait to share these things via email, like the adult I have been forced into becoming….

But last night was too important to wait for the email…Damn the time difference…I called back east and got the cousin on the phone.

There were important developments about the unfortunate hobby…. and some other new film gossip and casting that simply had to be shared via the phone.

I got his wife (a lovely person, resigned to the unfortunate hobby), and then I got my cousin on the phone.

Talking to these cousins…It is quite simply the unalloyed perfect, uncluttered with ambivalence, joy of my life to listen to their successes and trials and share mine with them.

“Are you sitting down? No, wait, you need to be sitting down and drinking a beer at the same time.”

“What? Why? What happened?” Is it about the movie?” Because they’ve cast–”

“No. No wait… it’s about *me* and writing, and [the unfortunate hobby] *at the same time!*”

“Omigawd *what?* *What?* That’s *amazing!* ” and laughing and virtual backpounding are heard across the phone lines… and the real reason I hate being poor is that I cannot simply get on a plane any time I want and go where they are and listen to them and hug them… and then we get down to the business of discussing his latest play, and is that Indiana Jones movie *ever* going to see the light of day …

I’m at the “It’s a joy, just to be nominated” phase, and may not actually be the one that gets to write the piece. But possibly.

Off to work.

(Crossposted to my serious blog)

In the spirit of

This post, here comes another guess at what some of the crew are thinking...

All Characters are owned by Paramount and "Star Trek"
No Copyright infringement intended or implied.


"I don't know why we had to pick Ten-Forward for the celebration...The holodeck could have taken us anywhere..." said the man with the artificial eyes, in between libations.

"It was neccesary to include everyone...who has sailed an Enterprise..." said the machine serenely, now having well come to terms with his own odd method of rebirth.

The Vulcan and his Captain, at another table, spoke quietly...

"Was it worth it? All the dangers we faced to reopen this connection? to have an impact on their past and future again...? for at least a small bit of time...? Look who we *lost* to get here!" The captain was uncharacteristically morose for a moment, thinking of Scotty lost in the first trial when an entire station working on restoring the connection had blown up, due to the incompetence of one of his underlings that he just had to go in and rework...

"And", softly by the Vulcan, "The good Doctor..."

They both fell silent again for a moment, remembering their good friend, so upset and volatile at the loss of the connection two years back, that he had again dissapeared and not communicated with them for many months. There had been a justifiably prideful communique some small while ago regarding the cures he had been able to create for nearly a third of the population of an entire planet decimated by an immuno-deficiency virus. Then, the grim one that followed a week later confirming his death, executed by a local warlord for treating "the enemy."

The Vulcan continued..."Both of them would have appreciated another attempt to communicate, connect with the past and future. Both would see this as a worthy thing. If they were at this table now, they would be pleased," he said with the certainty that is peculiarly Vulcan.

"You're right, of course, as always," the Captain admitted. "Risk has always been out there."

Suddenly, the Captain's mood shifted, to an irritated stuffy persona he did quite well, that hid a geniuine bit of curiousity..."Don't see why we're going to have to rehash all that business that went on when we were..."

"...Beginning our careers, and exceedingly inexperienced..." the Vulcan said, in that diplomatic mode he had learned at his father's knee...

"Young and and stupid is more likely..."

"Can the two of you please be still? The Frenchman asked in a jovial manner, passing by the table..."There's a bit of time to wait before it begins...and everyone wants to come at this fresh....don't spoil it."

Just under his breath, the Captain groaned...
And the Vulcan raised an eyebrow...

Resurrection Day

"That green-blooded son-of-a-bitch! It's his revenge for all those arguments he lost..."

---The late DeForrest Kelley, as Dr. Leonard McCoy in "Star Trek III The Search for Spock"


Well, since this place was originally set up to be a "Star Trek" wake...since Trek has been turning endings into beginnings for more than forty years....it follows that a "Star Trek" wake has a bit of a different ending/beginning than your typical wake. I hereby eat my words.

...I knew about the JJ Abrams film due in 2008....but the details of this resurrection are falling into place .

Nimoy is set to reprise Elder Spock for us (wonderful, wonderful yay, yay, happydance yay...I'm actually a bit misty about it, now that I've recovered from fainting dead away at the news, laugh)....and EEEEEE! One of my 'Heroes' favorites will be there too.

And perhaps Denny Crane will make an appearance as well...

A Flashback of sorts.

Once, I was the wife of a comic fan. I knew nothing about comics except that I scorned them mightily, they not being (my words at the time) 'real books.' We would go to the famed Twilight Book and Game store, a five hour drive away....and he'd head for the comic racks I'd go for the speculative fiction, and our meeting in the middle meant that there *might* be a high end Green Arrow graphic novel that I'd consent to read, and that he would grudgingly purchase for me...

The late husband started out working for Tony Isabella in the late seventies in his comic store...and writing his own mimeographed stuff...blessedly, the late spouse decided remaining on the 'fan' side of the equation was best, and so would haunt local dealers and conventions mostly buying, but sometimes selling, a collection that once filled an entire room of his family home.

In the comic world at the time, my perception was that there were the two camps DC and Marvel (rather like Mac and PC, back in the day) and that 'niver the twain shall meet..'

I confessed shortly after marrying him that I 'had' in fact loved the Spiderman comics (and the rarer Sub-Mariner) when I was a little girl (The 1967 Superman and Spiderman TV cartoons had fostered a hunt for the comics...) This was slightly troubling to him as he was a DC guy all the way....but it wasn't a marriage ender...

Like almost every other comic fan I ever encountered 'brash' and 'opinionated' leading to 'brusque and alienating,' were definitely parts of his emotional soup. But real life changes and growing up had turned these things in another difficult direction....

But before his focus left the world of comics, he did say the single funniest thing I ever heard him say about comics... and it is only funny to comic fans and only pleasing to the ear for that part of comic fandom that agreed with him.

I know I'm going to attract some trolls here. Bear in mind please as you chomp up my comment list....that I'm merely the reporter of what was said...It's in the next paragraph or so that I get nasty.

He said, after reading John Byrnes revamp of Superman in the eighties---which he liked!---

"That John Byrne...Ego, the Living Planet!"

I'm (sacrilige!) a Peter David fan mesel'

Mostly because Peter is on my list of The Only Trek Fiction Writers Worth Ponying up Some of My Paycheck For.

Peter David

Diane Duane

Diane Carey

Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Marshak and Culbreath, a real oldie


After my husband's death, I did, in my last attempt *ever* in this lifetime to date anyone... date another comic book fan....a person who was as fiercely in the Marvel Camp as the husband had been in the DC Camp. I was impressed and pleased that one of the minor perks of this connection allowed me to admit to my love of Spidey.

Maybe, I thought, this is some kind of Cosmic Do-Over and this guy won't die soon, and I can perhaps have all of the pieces of a long term relationship that I was denied due to a nasty connection between a childhood ilness and the business practices of BighPharma....It'll work. It'll be okay...I'll just....

But No.

It ended badly. (Very Very Badly)

And thus, my connection to the divisive, talented, bitterly feuding, charming in it's own earnest twisted sort of way, self important world of comics ended...

But, when I need a laugh and need to remember the late husband in a good way, I just rewind the tape in my head and remember..."Ego, the living Planet!'

Bwahahahahahahaahhaahahhaahha.....

Tangled Webs, Straight Lines

Disclaimer: I am *not* an official Marvel comic book nerd. I know very little of any Marvel character history outside of the films and cartoons. I have no investment in some argument about what is, or should be canon in the Spidey flicks.

*Spoilers Below* so if you haven't seen Spiderman 3 yet, *don't keep reading* if you want to be kept ignorant of plot twists etc.

It is my considered opinion that multiple villain stories are *great* for comics....the day that a reader woolgathered and said to themselves, "How great would it be if Character A and Character B interacted from different universes, different moral sides, even different comicbook makers...Also the multi-hero Justice League thing has some of the same juice...

But.... I've noticed...

For *films* featuring comic book villains and heroes...Meh, not so much.

I wanted this Spiderman flick to be all about the tensions between Harry, Peter, and Mary Jane. The two guys wrestling with their dark sides, or dark parents, and Mary Jane realizing that if she married Peter, it wasn't going to be all goofy love all the time.

I *wanted* Harry to get his licks in with his fights with Peter, because from his perspective he was avenging his father's death, just as Peter went after
Sandman...

But both Sandman, and the wanna-be photographer, distract the viewer and pull attention and time away from the main story.

And the Sandman and the photographer also get shorted because there's not enough movie for them...Sandman in particular isn't a one-note dry cleaned version of Ben Grimm from the Fantastic Four...He's complicated and driven, from the first moments you see him with his daughter, and I wanted to learn the backstory....

Loved the black hero costume, and the total asshat behavior of "Darth Spidey." (right down to the symbiont "acting like" some meteor that fell in "The Seventies," and Peter Parker's patently ridiculous Travolta strut with the 70's funky backround music in the black tailored suit.)

Did anyone else catch the joke of the photographers red hair....reminscent of Toby Maquires red hair in Seabuscuit? They *had* to differentiate them, in part, because IMO the actor who played the photographer looks a lot *like* Toby McGuire in real life from his stint on "That 70's Show..."

Two hours of great cgi, regular stunts and special effects...*should have been spent* on Spiderman,Goblin redux (and satisfyingly 'redeemed...) and the girl having trouble choosing between them.

One last cavil.

Parker bounced back from killing two people just a bit too quickly...one used to be his best friend...

My opinion, of course.

"In The Beginning...."

A guest post from my cousin The Journalist:

"OK, by now we've all heard about Matt Damon, Adrian Brody and Gary Sinise possiby being

cast as the big 3 in "Star Trek XI." It sounds like it might be pretty cool, but I'll believe it when I

see Matt Damon on Jay Leno talking about how he's playing Jim Kirk. Frankly this sounds like

something a bunch of Trek geeks - like us, let's face it - would come up with while we're sitting

around thinking, hmmm...who would WE cast as Kirk, Spock & McCoy?That being said, if it

actually happens....This talk among fans about possible damage to continuity and canon has got

to stop. We've got to let it go. Yes, like many fans, I would love to see the movie include

characters like Gary Mitchell, Carol Marcus, Finnegan & Ruth, Sam & Aurelyn Kirk, etc. But

these are pipe dreams on our part. There's no way these people who are new to the franchise

like J.J. Abrams are going to care about continuity and canon. Even longtime Trek heads who

ran "Star Trek Enterprise" made blatant cointiuity errors. For crying out loud, "Voyager" would
flat out contradict things that were going on in "Deep Space Nine" WHEN THE TWO SHOWS

WERE ON THE AIR AT THE SAME TIME! We just need to accept that this new movie will be a
new take on the franchise, and hope it's a good story, and not worry about whether it "fits in"

with what we know from past incarnations of Trek. It will make it much more enjoyable, and

that's the point, right?

Just my two cents..."