StillPaisleyCat

joined 2 years ago

I think OP is looking for the kind of drills that Duolingo excels at.

Canadians generally can find language schools but daily self-study makes enormous difference.

I’d say definitely more than adjacent as it sounds like he’s been the CBS Studios side suit opposite Kurtzman who’s been running the production company responsible for the Star Trek franchise.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My point is that I haven’t ever had any patience with the generational gatekeeping in the Star Trek.

I’ve been offended by it since the TOS fans campaigned to keep TAS from ever being aired. And I am more than done with TNG fans trying to brigade and kill every new offering.

I really don’t think you are assessing anything new on its merits at all.

What I am trying to say is that we - my spouse and I — am enjoying S31 on its merits, for what it is, in this period of television and movie making.

It IS fun stuff. We will be rewatching again!

My partner loved all the little inside references, including the hairstyle on the singer in the lounge.

S31 is a piece of this time. And we aren’t living in 1990.

It has more richness than Ryan Gosling or Ryan Reynolds action movies that become boring with endless action sequences.

I personally loved TNG in its run. It was the right Star Trek for its time.

If you asked me in the early 1990s, I would have agreed that TNG was the best Trek ever.

At that time, I much preferred it to TOS At that point, TOS was far enough out of time that it grated but not so far that it can be appreciated for itself, as something from another era.

I’m actually finding TNG not so great now. Your appreciation can evolve over time if you let it.

When our kids (now late teens) went through an intense fandom for Voyager in middle school, I understood why they thought it was the better show of the two. It was a better fit for them and I came to really love that show after originally finding it weaker than TNG.

Where I am coming from is that the TNG generation of fans needs to seriously lighten up and stop trying to insist that it’s the only model for good Trek or television.

You don’t own Trek any more than the boomers and older GenX did when TNG came on. At least we were the key demographic then - you are NOT now. TNG fans in their 40s are not the generation that this movie primarily targets.

Just as the TOS fans who were so derisive of TNG were damaging to the franchise, so is from the Berman era younger GenX and older Millennial fans.

You want tension and drama in a Star Trek show or movie.

That could be good. But it’s NOT the ONLY definition of good. It’s just a different kind of storytelling.

Trek on TV and movies has always had a mix of drama, horror, comedy, camp and action adventure. Even TNG covered all of these every single season.

We’re in an era where generally shows keep to one tone.

I have argued that the TNG and Kelvin movies that tried to hard to mix tones within a single movie, felt cringey (Nemesis, Beyond).

S31 went for a single tone for the most part and delivered.

SNW is able to mix tones because it’s episodic but there are fans who refuse to watch any episodes because the campy or lighthearted ones exist.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 2 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Well, I just rewatched it and enjoyed it all the more the second time.

My partner saw it for the first time, really enjoyed it, laughing the way through - with an overall rating of 7.5.

Like my partner, I’m an old thing.

I have watched absolutely everything Trek in first run since 1966 so I don’t have a lot of patience with those who became fans in the Berman era and feel entitled to gatekeep or define what isn’t Trek or isn’t ‘good’ for the next generation

I actively kept TOS fans from booing down young TNG fans trying to speak up at the cons in the late 1980s and early 1990s. These YouTubers are cut from the same mould but unfortunately have a much bigger public than the toxic TOS fans did on Usenet or subscription mimeod fanzines.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 3 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I actually enjoyed S31 for what it is and am about to rewatch it today with my partner.

It’s campy, and full of action sequences and fights, but that was to be expected with MU Georgiou.

It’s relatively rich in plot and characterization when I compare it to the run of current action movies like ‘The Grey Man’ on Netflix.

And it’s soooo much better than Star Trek V ‘The Final Frontier’.

How anyone can talk about the movies failing now clearly had rose coloured glasses on while watching:

  • Kirk’s death in ‘Generations’

  • the completely boring, Patrick Stewart indulgent dune buggy sequence in ‘Nemesis’ followed by the offensive rape content with stoic and sarcastic Troi turned into a tearful, dependant mess

  • ‘Into Darkness’

  • the destruction of the Enterprise, ridiculous motorcycle stored on bridge and motorcycle action sequence in ‘Beyond’

Not sure ‘cutting them’ is totally accurate.

The writing team and original creator/showrunner EPs Kim & Lippoldt were joined by a guy who had some showrunner experience. At the time, it sounded more like the Paramount suits weighed in on that as the show stayed in development hell even after an original greenlight.

But the fact is that when S31 got put on the back burner during the pandemic lockdown, Kim & Lippoldt took an offer from Netflix to take over as showrunners of ‘Sweet Tooth’.

They have been very successful with that. Paramount would be very fortunate to get them back to run anything.

My thoughts exactly.

It would be great if they could bring Kim & Lippoldt back as showrunners/EPs and get someone else to direct it.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sooooo unbearably sugary and sweet. Yikes.

I bought one many decades in childhood and couldn’t finish it despite loving cherry-centred chocolates.

I found out when we visited the Hershey plant in Smiths Falls before the closure that it was originally a local brand targeted for the super-sweet preferences of Eastern Ontario and Quebec - which are apparently shared with Louisiana and Georgia.

Nice to see Loops getting traction.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Shockingly, they were bred to be easier to handle and fit a can shape.

Imagine what the original varieties looked like.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

He didn’t necessarily know that Pike would be an option. He likely didn’t know that Lorca would be an MU character.

Isn’t that what the sitcom Tawny Newsome is developing will be?

 

In honour of Star Trek day, this month Simon & Schuster is offering 23 ebooks at discount prices.

Books from every era are represented. (A special shout out from me for the Diane Duane one.)

As usual, look for the discounts in the US, Canada and UK through the major ebook platforms.

Enjoy!

 

An interesting, deliberately thought provoking 🤔 question for a lazy long weekend Sunday morning…

Setting aside whether specific fans like specific ‘gimmicks’ (crossovers, musicals, bringing back Kirk or Khan) or tropes (transporter malfunctions), Space.com is posing the hypothesis that the proportion was too high in Strange New Worlds second season.

There’s no arguing that the season was successful in drawing in large audiences week after week. Taking a look back though, was there too much trippy-Trek(TM) dessert and not enough of a meaty main course? YMMV surely.

For my part, I can both agree that trippy Trek is something I’ve been wanting more of, and that I would have welcomed 2 or 3 more episodes were more grounded or gave the opportunity to see more of Una as a leader and dug into Ortegas backstory.

The 90s shows seemed to be bit embarrassed by trippyness, although Voyager found its pretext allowed even stern Janeway to pronounce ‘Weird is our business.’ One can argue that the high proportion in SNW is a feature, not a bug.

I’d still prefer a 12-15 episode season though.

 

Interesting extract from a longer /Film interview with in-demand director Roxann Dawson.

I appreciate how she speaks with respect for the shows of the new era.

 

Season-long prerelease reviews are an exception to this community’s rules about posting reviews. (The mods prefer our members to prefer to post their own episode reviews here.)

It seems that today’s the day that Paramount’s embargo on ‘spoiler free’ (in theory) season reviews for Lower Decks season 4 comes off, and the first pro reviews are now posted by some who have seen the screeners.

From Inverse:

  • each one of these 30-minute episodes is nearly perfect. Just as the USS Cerritos presents the workhorse of Starfleet, with Season 4, Lower Decks again proves it is the workhorse of the entire Star Trek franchise.

From SlashFilm - view with caution, a bit more spoilery

  • /Film Rating: 9 out of

Any to add to the list?

 

@Nmyownworld@startrek.website spotted Murf in the poster in the promotional announcement for Star Trek Day.

Nmyownworld’s mention on the Star Trek Day thread was great, but I thought it would be great to amplify it. So here is the image with the colour intensity dialed up a bit and Murf circled to be easier to spot.

StarTrek Prodigy Lives!!!

 

This is good news for assuring that SNW’s 3rd season production will move ahead after the strike.

Greenlighting a couple of extra episodes and a 4th season would make strategic sense, but I’m just not willing to give Paramount the benefit of the doubt on that.

 

For those not already aware, Michele Stokes a fan in the UK raised over $US 1200 through a GoFundMe to pay for a skywriter with a #SAVESTARTREKPRODIGY banner.

It flew midday today in LA. The ScreenRant article captures much of the social media including a few videos, and the reactions of the Hageman Brothers and @GoodAaron@startrek.website.

Michele Stokes is also the fan who started the change.org petition to Save Star Trek Prodigy. It’s been progressing slowly since it surpassed 30k signatures during SDCC, and is very close to 33k now. If you haven’t signed and are willing to deal with the platform (which is now monetized), Prodigy could still benefit from your support.

 

Working from the oral history in The Five Year Mission: The next 25 years, this is a fascinating deep dive that answers the question “How did a recycled cover of a 1998 song written for Rod Stewart, ‘Where My Heart Will Take Me’ aka ‘Faith of the Heart’ become the title music for Enterprise?”

Also, after resisting melodic scoring in all the 90s shows, it turns out this was the music Rick Berman liked?!!

“…I, for one, can tell you that I thought it was a great opening and I'm not alone in that. I don't think I'm in the majority, but I'm not alone."

And it seems the song does have its own subniche of supporters who share Berman’s view. (But not I.)

 

@GoodAaron@startrek.website has shared the news on Mastodon.

The GoFundMe has exceeded its goal. The organizer described it as follows:

The plan is to hire either a skywriter or sky banner to make passes over the offices of potential new homes for Star Trek Prodigy, namely Amazon, Netflix, etc. The more we're able to raise, the more streamers we'll be able to lobby and the louder we'll be able to shout about what an amazing show Star Trek Prodigy is - for fans of all ages.

 

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/1026553

Here’s something to fill some gaps in your viewing schedule. While not science fiction, this show could appeal to SNW fans and deserves a bigger audience.

SurrealEstate is a Canadian live-action supernatural drama with a light leavening of horror, produced for CTV Sci-Fi Channel, and picked up Syfy. The first season also ran on Hulu in the US after its linear run. It was canceled by Syfy US, then uncanceled when it got picked up by the Syfy channels in Europe.

It’s quirky, full of gentle ironic humour, in the way Canadian shows can be. Tim Rozon of Wynonna Earp stars along with Sarah Levy of Schitt’s Creek. Melanie Srofano (Captain Betel in SNW) directed two episodes in the first season and was reportedly back to do more.

Similar to SNW, SurrealEstate mainly episodic with light serialization coming from character arcs. It has a generally positive vibe, with a team of intriguing and diverse characters solving mysteries and clearing houses of supernatural detractions so that they can ‘achieve their true market value.’

From the season one promotional listing:

Real estate agent Luke Roman is the owner of The Roman Agency, a boutique residential real estate brokerage specializing in "metaphysically engaged" properties, also known as haunted houses. Luke has a special connection to the spiritual realm; he can not only sense the presence that might inhabit a client's house, he can often communicate and negotiate with it. Along with his team, Luke takes on the houses nobody else can or will.

If you haven’t seen season one, I firmly recommend catching it on demand on CTV (which is offering it currently offering it free to non-subscribers), on the Syfy app or on Hulu.

 

What can I say, all that pink and purple just seems to be meant to be together.

Credit again to Trek Core for their excellent TAS BlueRay screencap library.

Editing to add: love Barbie, pleased to see the movie out earning most of the comic heroes, always glad that TAS and Prodigy make themselves appealing across genders.

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