To Boldly Go Where Everyone Has Gone Before

Best. Weekends. Ever.

Date: August 22, 2021

Music Video of the Day:

Interstellar News: This weekend we traveled to the mountains of North Carolina to watch my sister-in-law get married. I was in the bridal party and the husband person was our MC/DJ. There was lots to set up but it was all worth it to see a wonderful couple begin their life together as married folk. It was also wonderful to see some family, especially since it’s been almost two years for some of them. Right before the father/daughter dance, the groomsmen and bride came out to the song above, wearing fake beards, and completely punked my father-in-law… it was epic. There was a bunch of rain near the end that sort of cut the reception short, but Callie tells me they got a wonderful photo op out of it. I was able to love on the four miniature Schnauzer cousins and we got home to our Zoo, which has been a bit zany while we were gone. We watched The Mummy (1999) and are planning to go to bed “soon”.

Next weekend will be prep for Dragon Con… for which I keep adding on cosplays. New this year will be a punk Jessica Rabbit and Evelyn from The Mummy, but I’ll bring most of my lineup from Galaxy Con. I’m scheduled to be on two panels: one about The Mummy and one about The Labyrinth… and I’m super excited! My planned schedule is already a mess, but I’m so ready to be back at this con. It was my first and it’s my favorite, so far, especially with the wonderful panels put on by all the tracks and guests! While I know nothing is set in stone until it’s happening, and a lot can happen in two weeks, I’m truly hoping all of the safety measures put in place allow for us all to have a safe and fantastic convention.

Labryinth movie poster — All hail the Goblin King!

I can’t wait until Labor Day weekend, but first I have to make it through this full work week. Sigh.

TA Out!

ENT: “Broken Bow: Parts 1 & 2”

Date: August 18, 2021

Season 1, Episodes 1 and 2

Music Video of the Day:

There’s a theme song on my Star Trek… what?!?!

Interstellar News: Today was another insane day at work. We also watched the second episode of Marvel’s What If…? and I definitely cried a bit, it was very good and very touching.

TL;DR: A boy paints a starship. 30 years later a Klingon named Klaang runs through a cornfield after being chased by two aliens (Sulibans). Klaang kills the aliens and then a man shoots him… and then THERE ARE LYRICS… WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? Sam Beckett, I mean, Jonathan Archer is looking at the Enterprise (NX-01) when he’s called to sick bay. The Vulcans and the U.S. military disagree about how to proceed so Archer convinces them to give him 3 days to get his crew ready to return Klaang, alive, to the Klingon home-world. We meet Dr. Phlox, a Denobulan, and T’Pol, a Vulcan. The rest of the crew is human; Tucker is the engineer, Mayweather is the helmsman, Reed is the tactical officer, and Sato is the com officer/translator.

A man shoots a Klingon with a shotgun — “*There’s a chance he’ll be conscious within the next ten minutes. Just not a very good one.*“

The Sulibans sneak onto the Enterprise and make off with Klaang. The crew follows them to Rigel X and find out that some of the Suliban have been attacking Klingons and making it look like other Klingons were doing it. Klaang was carrying a message to the High Council to help avoid a civil war. Archer is hurt and also put through the transporter, but eventually they carry out their mission and deliver Klaang with the thanks of the Klingon High Council. They plan to continue their mission to explore strange, new worlds and Archer asks T’Pol if she’ll stay on as science officer.

Favorite Quote:

Admiral Forrest: We’ve been waiting for nearly a century, Ambassador. This seems as good a time as any to get started.
Soval: Listen to me. You’re making a mistake!
Archer: When your logic doesn’t work, you raise your voice? You’ve been on Earth too long.
Getting a peek at Archer’s personality.

“Dr. Phlox isn’t concerned with the food and water, but he does caution against intimate contact.”: As this is a prequel to The Original Series, there are certain things that are different. There’s no Federation and it’s the early days of Starfleet, so there’s no Prime Directive. There are no star dates, they can only go up to warp 5, transporters haven’t really been used for humans yet, the universal translator is in the super early stages, the replicators only make drinks, real food is prepared buffet style by a chef, and dogs are allowed on board (every time Porthos is on screen, I yell “puppy”).

I’m not sure how I feel about the crew yet. I keep getting Reed and Tucker mixed up, they’re both white guys with an accent. Archer is still figuring his life out, but he also is the first Starfleet captain so there’s that. I absolutely love Phlox and the actor who plays him. T’Pol is, um, not my favorite and Mayweather looks like he may be interesting. Every time I see him on screen, however, I think of the guy from Down Periscope who used to be a basketball player. There’s something about him that reminds me of that character, and it’s not because they’re both black. It’s a not terrible introduction episode, as we get to meet the new crew and they get a mission and stuff happens and we get to see ALL THE WAYS that this is different than the other Trek shows. However, I can’t get over that there is A THEME SONG WITH LYRICS… so this gets 6 baby Porthos puppies.

TA Out!

Galaxy Quest

Date: August 17, 2021

Musical Accompaniment:

“I’ll be back with a capital H / It stands for hero, and the hero is me.“

Interstellar News: Saturday was Indian food and game night with two of my dear friends and Sunday was a “chips and dip” kind of afternoon and more games with our other dear friends. Monday was the start of the semester and I was completely zonked out. Tonight, I didn’t have much energy to dive into Enterprise so I decided to reward myself with one of the most amazing movies… Galaxy Quest.

TL;DR: Actors from a 20 year old sci-fi show (a la Star Trek) are approached by real aliens at a convention. The aliens need the help of the crew, not realizing they were playing roles on a show. The crew actually helps the aliens and gets their show revitalized when they return home.

The crew (L to R: the extra, lazarus, the commander, gwen, fred, and laredo in the back) — “Never give up. Never surrender.”

Favorite quotes: These are all by Fred, because he’s the best and Tony Shaloub is a national treasure in this movie:

“Now that was a hell of a thing.” – after being beamed across the galaxy
“Wow, the floors are REALLY clean.” – while taking a tour of the ship
“Seems okay.” – sniffing the air after landing on an alien planet
“Hmmm. . A little sticky. I’ll get one of my boys up here with a can of WD-40.” – after making a great save by spacing the hostile aliens
“It’s the simple things In life you treasure.” – after sending the rock monster into the ship with the hostile aliens

“The show must go on.”: This movie is completely perfect to watch after finishing Nemesis. While very obviously trolling/paying homage to Star Trek, there are elements of The Next Generation too. It’s wonderful to watch the crew go from barely tolerating each other to working together and using their skills in a completely unusual situation.

All of the actors are completely wonderful, too. Tim Allen plays the Kirk/Shatner character to perfection while Sigourney Weaver braves it as the lone female who was used only for her looks but does her job anyway, even if it’s “stupid”. The late Alan Rickman is absolutely fantastic as the British actor who feels reduced by this role. He never takes off his headpiece and the one time he genuinely utters his catchphrase, it is heartfelt and moving. Tony Shaloub, as I stated above, is my new favorite Fred and he is just perfect every time he’s on the screen. Sam Rockwell, who is in all of the movies or shows I’ve been watching recently it seems, is wonderful comedy relief and he does camp so damn well. Daryl Mitchell does an excellent child actor turned adult but is still treated as a kid. The biggest stars, though, are all of the Thermians. Enrico Colatoni, Patrick Breen, and Missi Pyle just knock it out of the park with their movements, noises, and just their general ability to look so serious when they are being humorous.

The Themarians holding their fist to their chest in salute (the main 4) — “By Grabthar’s hammer…”

There’s a great balance of comedy, drama, action, and science-fiction in this movie and I’m all for it. It does justice to parody films but is really a good film in its own right. There’s a plot that is completely ridiculous, but kind of works, and there are elements that can resonate with a lot of age groups. There are also clear parallels to Trek episodes and it’s called out when they say things like “we’re doing episode xx”. I love when Weaver’s character is yelling about the chompers and whoever wrote the episode should be killed because it’s completely illogical for them to be doing that. I also enjoyed the Omega 13 bit and how well it was used to both include time travel and give a happy ending (the first of several since the bad guy never really dies). It’s a testament to the movie that it even included fans who actually understood the technobabble on a level the writers and actors probably never did. Now that it’s almost 22 years old, and I’ve been going to more conventions, I can say it’s aged pretty well. There are some things I would change… but that’s if the movie was made today. For 1999, it’s a glorious culty movie that I adore so much.

Movie rating: Mark 10. Omega 13. Take your pick.

TA Out!

More Metal Men: A Look at Ultron

Date: August 13, 2021

Music Video of the Day:

Interstellar News: The new semester begins on Monday. Today I spent most of the day putting out academic fires and ended the day quite late. I’m not even teaching this semester! Oh, and just as I was finishing up this post… a student called my work phone (which gets routed to my cell phone) at 10:41 pm!

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Panoramic of the Avengers with Ultron in the background — *“Wait a second. No one else is going to deal with the fact that Cap just said “language”?”*

“You didn’t see that coming?”: Age of Ultron gets a lot of flack from some people, but to me it’s a logical progression from its predecessors. Stark has major PTSD and extreme paranoia when it comes to protecting Earth from the “bad guys”, no matter where they come from. We see a lot more of what Infinity stones are capable of and start to notice each one has a different mastery. When the Avengers are just getting their mojo going and have retrieved Loki’s scepter, the Maximoff twins fuck everything up. Stark and Banner go even further fucking things up by creating Ultron, though that allows for JARVIS to become Vision and become the hero twice over. First when stopping Ultron from gaining access to certain areas and second when he stops Ultron once and forever (but not really because it’s a comic book movie and no one is every really dead dead).

Pietro and Wanda Maximoff stand in some ruins — “What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?”

While it’s wonderful the twins eventually see Ultron for what he is, the Avengers are super trusting right away and I don’t know how much of that is because they’re enhanced and the Avengers don’t want them as enemies, or because they needed all the help they could get. It’s devastating to see Pietro killed, especially when he was doing it to save a fellow Avenger and get his redemption arc. It’s also interesting to see where Wanda and Vision both started. After watching all of the other movies and then the WandaVision series, they have really both just begun to explore their powers and themselves. As much as I know about them now, this movie is the teeny, tiny tip of the very large iceberg. No not that one (CATFA), and not that one either (Titanic).

“What if next time aliens roll up to the club, and they will, they couldn’t get past the bouncer?”

I do absolutely love James Spader as the voice of Ultron and the fact that his character spent all of 5 seconds on the internet and realized that people have been the problem all along. One of my favorite exchanges is when JARVIS tells Ultron he’s in distress and Ultron goes “No. Yes.”, because it’s such a total mood. Ultron also tells JARVIS to “shhh, I’m here to help” right before he attacks JARVIS and that’s such a predatory move. It’s so much fun to watch Ultron try to figure out who he’s going to be, like with Klaue when he’s intimidating and benevolent but then freaks the hell out when Stark’s name is mentioned and relieves Klaue of his arm. Then Ultron is all “whoops, later dude” and peaces out. WHO DOES THAT?

In the end, the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. come save the day alongside the Avengers. Hulk peaces out and we won’t see him for some time. Thor helps bring Vision to life and Stark leaves the team, and the newbies, in Cap’s hands. We get Thanos in the credits but it will also be a bit more time before he’s really the big bad, because we first have to get through the in-fighting that is Civil War… a direct sequel to this, and introduce a few more players. Next time I’ll write up Ant-Man either by itself or along with Civil War, since he’s in both. As for this movie, it’s absolutely worth a watch if you’re trying to see the whole story. Honestly, it’s worth it for Cap saying “language” in the first five minutes.

TA Out!

Star Trek: Nemesis

Date: August 12, 2021

Musical Accompaniment:

“I fell in love once and almost completely…”

Interstellar News: Today all the Freds came out of the woodwork, we watched an excellent panel on Alan Rickman, and I realized how many things are scheduled for a certain upcoming date. I wonder if it’s too late to clone myself… oh wait.

So I actually watched this on August 7, but I was a bit behind on my Voyager write ups.

TL;DR: A bunch of Romulans get Medusa’d, Riker and Troi get married, the crew finds a precursor to Data (B4) scattered about a distant planet, and Picard meets his clone (Shinzon) who has pulled a coup on the existing Romulan government. Shenanigans ensue, Picard kills Shinzon, and Data makes the ultimate sacrifice. Riker becomes captain of the Titan and heads to the Neutral Zone in order to make peace with the Romulans while B4 begins singing the song Data sang at the Riker-Troi wedding.

Favorite quotes:

Worf – “Romulan ale should be illegal.”
Troi – “No, no speeches and …no clothes.” (talking about their ceremony on Betazed)
Picard – “Now, if you’ll excuse me, …I’ll be in the gym.” (after telling Worf that everyone’s going to participate in the naked wedding tradition)
Shinzon – ” You are not a woman. You are a Romulan!” (apparently he didn’t get the memo that you can be both, sigh)

My Thoughts and Impressions: So this was an absolute shit show of a movie. Most of the bits I enjoyed of the movie were the shots from the wedding and the special feature included on the DVD with Mirina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes discussing “Reunion with the Rikers” and I would totally watch that!

The crew in their dress uniforms at the wedding — I love that Guinan and Wesley make an appearance. I love that Guinan says 23 marriages were enough for her and am puzzled by Wes being in dress uniform when he wasn’t in Starfleet anymore.

There are some things that were of note. Tom Hardy and Ron Pearlman were absolutely unrecognizable to me. Troi getting her revenge and guiding Worf to blow up the alien ship. The pure joy on Picard’s face when he takes out the Argo. B4 being absolutely naive and the bait-and-switch with Data. Crusher figuring out how Shinzon was related to Picard, why he was sick, and what he was after played such a pivotal role in the plot and she doesn’t get near enough screen time for that. I did enjoy Data and Picard basically pulling a Juggernaut through the ship to escape the first time and the fact that Picard sends a fucking text message… it’s super epic. Data pulling a Superman/General Organa is wonderful and of course his demise makes me sad. I did love that Spot made an appearance and I wonder if Worf took him in after Data left.

Tom Hardy as Shinzon — “I’d always imagined you taller. Isn’t that odd? “

I absolutely hated how Picard basically dismissed Troi being violated and also how damn useless Riker was almost the whole time. He yells at Worf to put the shields up after Picard is taken, he can’t help Troi when her mind is violated, and he gets beat up a lot. At least he didn’t completely ruin the ship like every other time he’s been at the helm. The plot left much to be desired, but at least it wasn’t as bad as “What does god want with a starship?” bad. I’m mad about missing the Betazed ceremony, but am happy that Picard ribbed Riker by calling him “Mr. Troi”.

Movie rating: Check out my Rankings page for an up to date listing.

Tomorrow, we dive into Enterprise!

TA Out!