Star Wars given Dallas-style opening credits:
Also available in this concept is ST:TNG-as-Dallas, Voyager-as-Dallas, Voyager-as-BSG, Dr Who-as-BSG, BSG-as-BtVS, ST:TOS-as-A-Team, ST:TNG-as-Love Boat, DS9-as-B5, DS9-as-BSG … even New BSG-as-Old BSG (revised).
Wow. This YouTube thing is pretty cool …
Doyce posts about a Publetariat article on the dire writing on the wall viz bricks-and-mortar chain bookstores. An interestng read, and Doyce ends up with asking … When was the…
Doyce posts about a Publetariat article on the dire writing on the wall viz bricks-and-mortar chain bookstores. An interestng read, and Doyce ends up with asking …
When was the last time you were in a Borders or Barnes and Noble? I can’t remember either.
Actually, I can. I was at the downtown Denver B&N just this lunchtime.
I can’t argue that’s a fully and perpetually sustainable model, but I like bookstores, and not just indie hole-in-the-wall places (which have their own charms and disadvantages), but the big, soulless chain bookstores — Borders and B&N. I like browsing through sections I like, much larger than what I can find at Target or Wal*mart, and seeing, much faster than I could browse on Amazon, an array of books that I can peruse. I also like being able to pick up a book, walk to the front of the store, hand them money, and walk out, reading it right then and there. Even though I’m an Amazon Prime customer (free two-day shipping on everything), you can’t beat that kind of instant gratification.
Is the selection as good as Amazon? No, but it’s often good enough. Are the prices better? Definitely not. But the convenience and serendipity factors are mighty counters to that, for me at least.
Now, I suppose if I were a Kindle user, I could get around the convenience factor (since you can download books wirelessly) — but I suspect I will be a very later adapter to the e-book model. I don’t want to rely on a single device (which can break or be misplaced) to read stuff. I don’t want to rely on DRM restriction on what I ostensibly own. I want to be able to loan books to friends. I want to be able to give away books that I’m not reading any more. I want to have different books downstairs, in my briefcase, in the bathroom — or two or three of them — and hop to the at any time. I want to browse through the books on my shelves, rediscovering old friends I haven’t seen for a while. I want to see gift inscriptions inside of covers.
So, while I do buy the majority of what books I have through Amazon (and there are some mighty advantages to that whole model), I don’t see not going to bricks and mortar stores any time soon. They just have too much to offer I can’t get elsewhere.
Yes, I am, in fact, the last person to have posted this Robot Chicken rendition of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, done as an Italian opera. So what?…
Yes, I am, in fact, the last person to have posted this Robot Chicken rendition of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, done as an Italian opera.
So what?
(via about a dozen other websites)
First from Kottke, a list of the trailers that showed during the Super Bowl. Transformers 2 Race to Witch Mountain Up Star Trek Land of the Lost Year One…
First from Kottke, a list of the trailers that showed during the Super Bowl.
Transformers 2
Race to Witch Mountain
Up
Star Trek
Land of the Lost
Year One
Angels and Demons
Monsters vs Aliens
Fast and Furious
GI Joe
Some cool-looking stuff there. Heck, even GI Joe and Land of the Lost look kinda cool.
And /Film has some of the other adverts from the Bowl. My nod goes to CareerBuilder, Coca-Cola, Hulu, and … Coca-Cola.
A more full set here at Hulu. I do like the Bud Light Swedish ad.
It’s sadly true — a lot of TV from my past, tinged in golden hue by memory, is just not that good. The plots are cliche (and were then,…
It’s sadly true — a lot of TV from my past, tinged in golden hue by memory, is just not that good. The plots are cliche (and were then, too), the laugh lines forced, and the focus on “done in one” means any character development and metaplot is next to nil.
Now, some of it remains fun to watch, either from nostalgic reasons (old Star Trek eps) or because it’s just solidly written mini-dramas (Perry Mason comes to mind, as does Mission: Impossible) or other creative efforts. But those are the exceptions — much of TV from the 70s and 80s is nearly unwatchable today, even if it was a personal favorite. As Steven Johnson writes:
For decades, we’ve worked under the assumption that mass culture follows a path declining steadily toward lowest-common-denominator standards, presumably because the ”masses” want dumb, simple pleasures and big media companies try to give the masses what they want. But as that ”24” episode suggests, the exact opposite is happening: the culture is getting more cognitively demanding, not less. To make sense of an episode of ”24,” you have to integrate far more information than you would have a few decades ago watching a comparable show. Beneath the violence and the ethnic stereotypes, another trend appears: to keep up with entertainment like ”24,” you have to pay attention, make inferences, track shifting social relationships.
This is what I call the Sleeper Curve: the most debased forms of mass diversion — video games and violent television dramas and juvenile sitcoms — turn out to be nutritional after all.
Johnson talks about advances in threaded plots (starting with Hill Street Blues, which was criticized at the time for being too complex, but now advanced greatly beyond even that) and the introduction of intentional confusion (not explaining everything that’s going on).
(And, to be perfectly honest, even as my own beloved B5 in the mid-90s was a ground-breaking quantum leap in complexity and demands on the viewer beyond the Star Trek franchise or Buck Rogers or the original Battlestar Galactica, it still comes off as relatively straightforward compared to, say, today’s Battlestar Galactica.)
Johnson also notes that our denegrating of shows today based on what we remember of shows past is misleading. We tend to focus on the ones we really liked and thought were good, ignoring the “90% of everything is crap” factor (a similar parallel can be made in discussing classical music — it’s not that everyone back then was a Mozart or a Beethoven, but the folks who weren’t — the Salieris and the even lesser lights — simply aren’t remembered today or their music played). The result? Even though we still have junk (Joe Millionaire or Survivor), it’s better junk, more demanding of its audience, than the junk we had back then (Battle of the Network Stars).
The result is not only shows that are better, but that are better for you, more engaging and mentally challenging, less of a “glass teat” or “boob tube.”
The quickest way to appreciate the Sleeper Curve’s cognitive training is to sit down and watch a few hours of hit programming from the late 70’s on Nick at Nite or the SOAPnet channel or on DVD. The modern viewer who watches a show like ”Dallas” today will be bored by the content — not just because the show is less salacious than today’s soap operas (which it is by a small margin) but also because the show contains far less information in each scene, despite the fact that its soap-opera structure made it one of the most complicated narratives on television in its prime. With ”Dallas,” the modern viewer doesn’t have to think to make sense of what’s going on, and not having to think is boring. Many recent hit shows — ”24,” ”Survivor,” ”The Sopranos,” ”Alias,” ”Lost,” ”The Simpsons,” ”E.R.” — take the opposite approach, layering each scene with a thick network of affiliations. You have to focus to follow the plot, and in focusing you’re exercising the parts of your brain that map social networks, that fill in missing information, that connect multiple narrative threads.
Of course, the entertainment industry isn’t increasing the cognitive complexity of its products for charitable reasons. The Sleeper Curve exists because there’s money to be made by making culture smarter. The economics of television syndication and DVD sales mean that there’s a tremendous financial pressure to make programs that can be watched multiple times, revealing new nuances and shadings on the third viewing. Meanwhile, the Web has created a forum for annotation and commentary that allows more complicated shows to prosper, thanks to the fan sites where each episode of shows like ”Lost” or ”Alias” is dissected with an intensity usually reserved for Talmud scholars. Finally, interactive games have trained a new generation of media consumers to probe complex environments and to think on their feet, and that gamer audience has now come to expect the same challenges from their television shows. In the end, the Sleeper Curve tells us something about the human mind. It may be drawn toward the sensational where content is concerned — sex does sell, after all. But the mind also likes to be challenged; there’s real pleasure to be found in solving puzzles, detecting patterns or unpacking a complex narrative system.
In many ways, this is the Golden Age of TV.
(via Les and George)
SciFi Wire, in pointing to their sister site, DVICE, asks questions about “who’d beat whom” in SF battles, a long and honored tradition. Their examples, though, aren’t very even or…
SciFi Wire, in pointing to their sister site, DVICE, asks questions about “who’d beat whom” in SF battles, a long and honored tradition.
Their examples, though, aren’t very even or creative.
Ever wonder who would come out on top if sci-fi’s most famous franchises duked it out?
Could a fleet of Shadow vessels from Babylon 5 overpower the Death Star?
Yeah. Yeah, I’m pretty sure they could. The Death Star is a one-trick pony. Yeah, it has swarms of TIE fighters, and various gun turrets, but (so far as the movies go), it’s big gun isn’t exactly what you’d call suited to a quick, dynamic space battle.
The Shadow Ships, on the other hand, not only have their own swarms of fighters, but are regularly shown carving apart opposing vessels and large space installations — not unlike the Death Star.
No contest, as far as I can see. Especially if we’re talking a fleet.
What if the Cybermen battled the Borg?
I’m pretty sure the Borg would wipe them out without much fanfare. The Cybermen are pretty impressive against hapless humans with slugthrowers and no body armor, but the ever-adaptive Borg — even if we’re just talking about foot soldiers here, not a Cube — would handle Cybermen pretty easily. Esp. once they figured out how to hack into their system and assimilate them that way.
(Now, a Borg Cube vs a Shadow Ship … that might be interesting …)
Check out our sister site DVICE as it leaps into the fray to referee a Star Trek/BSG face-off, which we hope will be the first of many such bouts. Find out which starship will be triumphant and which will end up as nothing more than space debris!
Without looking at the site, I give the nod to the Enterprise. Not only is her in-battle warp drive technology more than capable of evading any nukes Galactica might toss her way, her shields would render her immune to any fighters from Galactica and her energy weaponry would quickly end the battle.
(Of course, then we we would have to see a lust-off between Riker and Starbuck …)
For the record, DVICE disagrees, though they call it close. But only, it seems, because Vipers can outgun Shuttlecraft (because that’s what the Enterprise always uses in battle, right?) and because BSG’s DRADIS is somehow superior in battle to ST’s sensors (what?!).
FWIW, I see the battle between the two as pretty close to the TOS episode “Balance of Terror,” with Galactica in the Romulan Bird of Prey role (slower, more primitive technology, but with a few tricks up its sleeves). That one ended up as a pretty decisive victory for Enterprise, barring Adama coming up with an extraordinarily clever idea (not beyond the realm of possibility). I stand by my assessment (and most of the commenters at the site seem to agree with me).
Patrick McGoohan, most famous in my circles for the 1960s series The Prisoner (which he created and starred in, as “Number Six”), has died. The 17 episodes of the series…
Patrick McGoohan, most famous in my circles for the 1960s series The Prisoner (which he created and starred in, as “Number Six”), has died.
The 17 episodes of the series are available for free at the AMC Web site. There a new version of the series in the works
Me? I also remember him for a number of other TV roles in the 60s and 70s — especially multiple appearances (in different characters) on Columbo; he and Peter Falk were close friends.
“Be seeing you!”
Also passing away today is Ricardo Montalban, most famous in the geek crowd as eugenics superman Khan Noonien Singh in both the original Star Trek and in the second Star Trek movie.
He started his career playing Hispanics, Indians and (seriously) Asians in the movies, but went on to a variety of fine, geeky roles, including the voice of Señor Senior, Sr. on Kim Possible — but he was probably most famous for the rest of the world as flogging the “fine Corintian leather” on the Chrysler Cordoba, and as the mysterious host, Mr. Roarke, on Fantasy Island.
“Smiles, everyone! Smiles!”
I was sorry to hear that Majel Barrett-Roddenberry had passed away. One of the things that struck me when seeing the trailer for J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie was…
I was sorry to hear that Majel Barrett-Roddenberry had passed away.
One of the things that struck me when seeing the trailer for J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie was that, for as much as he changed in his effort to revitalize the Trek universe, there were just enough things that he left unaltered—perhaps in an effort to tacitly state, “While this isn’t your father’s Star Trek, it still is Star Trek.” Like that classic “red alert” sound. And it was also reassuring to know that Majel Barrett-Roddenberry—who passed away earlier today from complications from pneumonia at the age of 76—was once again the “voice” of Starfleet computers, reprising the role she had played in every iteration of Star Trek since the very first episode back in 1966.
While I never much cared for her simpering Nurse Chapel character, her pilot role as Number One had fine promise, and she made up for a lot with the marvelous character of Lwaxana Troi — not to mention, as noted, her universality as the Enterprise‘s computer voice.
She also had a (not at all mentioned, sadly, in any of the IMDB tributes I waded through) regular role voicing Lt. M’Ress on the animated Star Trek. (And I’ll also mentioned she had a famous, gracious, and nicely turned star appearance on Babylon 5 as well.)
(via Amanda)
Who would win in this battle of the Star Trek vs Star Wars titans? Just watch … (via Les)…
… the new Star Trek trailer is out. It looks … … okay, it looks pretty darned cool. I’m not yet hooked to all the plotty bits we can infer,…
… the new Star Trek trailer is out. It looks …
… okay, it looks pretty darned cool. I’m not yet hooked to all the plotty bits we can infer, and the look is still “nicer” than TOS (though there are some good chunks of classic design, too), but …
Okay, I think I’m very, very likely to see this. Not queueing-in-line-overnight likely, but maybe-opening-weekend-honey? likely.
I would comment about some people having way too much time on their hands in creating their compilations of places where the various canonical Star Trek TV shows and movies…
I would comment about some people having way too much time on their hands in creating their compilations of places where the various canonical Star Trek TV shows and movies have contradicted themselves … but once upon a time, I was just that sort of person, only without the Internet and YouTube to help me along.
Some number of errors are nearly inevitable with a franchise this sprawling across time, space, writing staff and production (especially if you pull in The Original Series). But many of them are just about sloppy writing, trying to come up with a cheap laugh or a lazy shortcut without thinking of the implications (let alone worrying whether it contradicted what came before). Can Data-style androids really be detected across planetary distances? For that matter, is Data really bullet-proof (but not arrow-proof) and phaser stun-proof (except when it’s convenient for him to be held at bay by someone with a phaser). Can a ship actually go over Warp 10 (new or old style measuring)? Has Deanna ever kissed Will when he had a beard?
It’s an amusing way to spend around 30 minutes of your life — and something to remember when the new Star Trek movie comes out and people start bitching about canon.
Oh, my. The jokes are bad, but the tunes are out of this world. The Hi-Fidelity Quartet in Denver, 2007. I loves me some barbershop. (via GeekDad) …
Oh, my. The jokes are bad, but the tunes are out of this world.
The Hi-Fidelity Quartet in Denver, 2007. I loves me some barbershop.
(via GeekDad)
STUFF THAT MIGHT MAKE YOU FROWN Pentagon researcher unveils World of Warcraft terror… – Of course, terrorists could be plotting on Club Penguin, too … but that’s not scary enough. Scanners -…
STUFF THAT MIGHT MAKE YOU FROWN
STUFF THAT WILL MAKE YOU SMILE!
Via BD, this charming list of the 12 Weakest Deaths in Science Fiction History. My comments: 12. Shepherd Book (Serenity): Aside from being one of my favorite Firefly characters, his…
Via BD, this charming list of the 12 Weakest Deaths in Science Fiction History. My comments:
12. Shepherd Book (Serenity): Aside from being one of my favorite Firefly characters, his death not not only robs Wash’s of impact, but it just comes off as “we didn’t know what to do with him, we only had one day to shoot with him, let’s make him motivate Mal then shift off this mortal coil.” Yes, I know there’s more to it than that, but I would rather have simply not seen him in the movie at all.
11. Marcus Cole (Babylon 5): Actually, it was a freaking fantastic death, spot on in character, driven by all sorts of foreshadowed motivations (and plot devices (literally a device) that had been pooh-poohed back in season 1). It just turned out to be an utter waste when Claudia Christian decided to leave the series the next season for a fabulously better-paying motion picture career.
10. Pantha (Teen Titans / Infinite Crisis): Yeah, yet another in a series of “hey s/he’s a cool comic book character we haven’t seen for a while, so let’s kill him/her off to how how Evil the new Evil Baddy is.” Feh.
9. Carson Beckett (Stargate): Never watched it.
8. The Lone Gunmen (The Lone Gunmen/X-Files): Never watched ’em. Wait, I think I did watch one episode of their show, but never followed up on it.
7. Trinity (Matrix: Revolutions): Never watched any of them after the first one. Nothing I’ve heard has encouraged me to rectify that situation. A pity, I did like Trinity.
6. Hicks (Aliens 3): Yeah, right along with Newt. Because nothing makes one of the best SF Action Flicks Evah (Aliens) better than having made it all meaningless by killing off the people Ripley had saved.
5. Louanne “Kat” Katraine (Battlestar Galactica): Never that fond of her.
4. Judge Giant (Judge Dredd): Never read anything with him.
3. Cyclops (X-Men 3): Yeah … what’s with that? An off-screen death for one of the seminal characters? Of course, the movie has tons of other problems, too, but … My related runner-up: Phoenix, in X-Men #137, which was a great death that was steadily robbed of all meaning and reality by resurrecting Jean Gray and, over the course of two decades, trampling the X-continuity into a muddy mire.
2. The Sixth Doctor (Doctor Who): Never heard this anecdote. Funny. And, yeah, kind of lame.
1. Captain Kirk (Star Trek: Generations): Never saw it.
HONORABLE MENTION: Boba Fett (Return of the Jedi): Yeah. Galaxy’s most kicking-ass bounty hunter (whom we’ve never seen actually do much of anything), and he gets accidentally kicked into a monster’s maw. Terribly, terribly weak.
Any others I would add? Can’t think of any offhand, though commenters included all the Jedi in Revenge of the Sith, and Tasha Yar (yeah, that’s pretty good, save that she was a lame character to begin with).
OBSESSIVE SARAH PALIN STUFF For all that she’s the darling of the conservative set, Palin is being kept under wraps and away from interviews, despite earlier plans (FLASHBACK: In July,…
OBSESSIVE SARAH PALIN STUFF
SEMI-OBSESSIVE NON-PALIN POLITICAL BITS
JUST PLAIN WEIRD APOLITICAL STUFF
Taking a minute or three off to pull together a few Shared items. Hopefully this makes up a bit for the paucity of actual posts of late. Calories In -…
Taking a minute or three off to pull together a few Shared items. Hopefully this makes up a bit for the paucity of actual posts of late.
Two more restaurants we had dinner at in Portland. East India Co. Overall Food Service Ambience Prices I’m not as big an Indian fan as the others who dined,…
Two more restaurants we had dinner at in Portland.
East India Co.
| Overall |  | ||
| Food | | Service | |
| Ambience | | Prices | |
I’m not as big an Indian fan as the others who dined, but this place had good food, very good service, a decent wine/beer list, and made for an all-around nice time. The Indian gent with us complemented it highly, even while noting the variations from traditional (and his home town) cuisine.
Recommended.
East India Co. Grill & Bar – 821 SW 11th Ave., Portland, OR 97205 – 503-227-8815
Marina Fish House
| Overall |  | ||
| Food | | Service | |
| Ambiance | | Prices | |
This was recommended to us by the concierge as someplace (a) on the waterfront that (b) we didn’t have to get dressed up for (though we hadn’t dressed up for any of the other places). The setting was nice enough — actually in the water, off of a pier, where folks could walk down a ramp to it or hitch their boats alongside.
But overall it was a disappointing end to the food fest. The drinks were okay (my mojito had too much sour in it), the wine list was actually a pricier markup than some of the other locations, and the food was palatable, even tasty, but nothing remarkable. I had a scallops and shrimp risotto from the large specials menu that was … well, just kind of there. Nobody else had any particular complaints, or complements.
The service was friendly and helpful, and the executive chef (Greg Gates) did come out early on and banter with us briefly, which raised my hopes a bit.
They did have a very tasty peach streusel-crisp thing with ice cream that was nummy, but not especially noteworthy.
Not recommended to go out of your way for, but nothing to flee from, either, if you happen to show up there.
Marina Fish House at Riverplace – 0425 S. Mongomery, Portland, OR 97201 – 503-227-3474
I.e., the best that I save for last. Death of the New Gods #8 (of 8) (DC) Starlin / Thibert The conclusion of an utterly unnecessary story, as the remainder…
I.e., the best that I save for last.
Death of the New Gods #8 (of 8) (DC) Starlin / Thibert
The conclusion of an utterly unnecessary story, as the remainder of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World is disassembled with only Superman as the (outclassed) witness (and without the final payoff, which comes in Countdown #02). Starlin’s art has improved over the series, and, if you were going to do this story, it was a reasonable path to take it — but I just don’t see the point aside from doing some housecleaning, possibly trying to forestall some IP contention with the Kirby estate, or just wanting to do Something Cosmic ‘n’ Tragic.
Countdown to Final Crisis #01 (DC) Dini / Giffen / Derenick / Faucher
Concluding the second of DC’s Weekly Event Comics, more has gelled than I’d originally thought would, but this aftermath feels more like a “hey, what do we do about all these loose ends we’ve set up?” than the finale of a grand epic. Most of the heroes who’ve been bouncing around like ping-pong balls across the new 52 universes finally seem to have a purpose — and we’ll see if it’s only to transition to the new Final Crisis series or if (as they’re all “loose ends” characters to begin with) they’ll simply fade into the background until someone else chooses to reinvent them.
Star Trek – New Frontier #2 (IDW) David / Thompson
I can’t wait for this to be adapted as a book, because it’s really not well-suited to a comic. You’ll be totally lost if you haven’t read Peter David’s New Frontier subfrachise, the artwork is muddied and difficult to differentiate characters with (not helped by some dubious renderings of some of the non-human cast members), and the delicate wordplay and inner monologueing that David does so well to build characters is utterly absent in this much-more-visual medium. Some great bits, but overall only for the completist,
Fables #72 (DC Vertigo) Willingham / Buckingham / Leialoha
The conclusion of the “Cinderella, Super-Spy” arc, delightful and witty as ever, with Willingham reimagining various fable characters as living in our world, at war wit the tyrannical adversary. There’s fun dialog, lots of action, and even some character and plot development and weaving together of previously-established continuity. This remains an ongoing tour de force series, highly recommended.
X-Factor #30 (Marvel) David / De Landro / Hennessy / Cox
The X-Factor crew up against old X-Men fave, Arcade. I dunno — between his own machinations and what Marvel has run its X-world through, I’m surprised anyone in the series is still (relatively) sane. Or maybe they’re not, as everyone acts out various stresses and traumas in different, often violent ways. This one gives me something of a headache just to contemplate it, but it;’s a fascinating cultural car-wreck, and I can’t wait to see what David does next with it.
Fantastic Four #556 (Marvel) Millar / Hitch / Currie
I should like this more than I do. Millar can put together a story, and Hitch’s art is, as always, gorgeous. But the whole thing feels like a set piece, a very intentional and artificial recrafting of the FF with a new vision imposed rather than developed. It’s not bad, and there are some fine character bits, and the artwork is expectedly nice, but it feels more like an intrusive reboot than an evolution.
Mighty Avengers #12 (Marvel) — Bendis / Maleev / Hollingsworth
Bendis is beginning to draw together the wide skein he’s been weaving for the Avengers since his “Secret War” series a few years back, coupled with the new “Secret Invasion” Skrull storyline running through the Marvel books. This issue is devoted mainly to what’s been going on with Nick Fury since then, appropriately grittily illustrated by Bendis’ Daredevil compatriot, Maleev. Nicely put together, and demonstrative that Bendis is better at more than just dialog — he’s capable of running a hell of set of plot threads.
Punisher #56 (Marvel) Ennis / Parlov
Ennis is drawing near the end of his seminal Punisher run, as the US military finally takes seriously the task of apprehending Frank Castle — aware that they are the one opponenent he won’t gun down without a second thought. Less going on here about the Punisher than about how others react to him. Good, solid stuff, with appropriately sketchy artwork.
Echo #1-2 (Abstract) Terry Moore
His new series post-Strangers in Paradise, Moore is bringing his interesting, quirky, compassionate characterizations (and drawing style) into a wholly new setting, as an innocent bystander manages to get… infected? … with a blown-up liquid metal flight suit, and finds herself dealing with it in the context of her own personal trainwreck of a life as well as with Sinister Forces out to get the suit back and get rid of any witnesses. It makes more sense in the book, and while it’s not SIP, it also marks a fresh start that Moore can build on. And I can’t wait for the next issue.
The Dresden Files #1 (of 4) (Dabel Bros.) Butcher / Syaf
An excellent transition from printed book to comic book, everything rings true to Butcher’s detective noir wizard series — not surprising, as he’s writing it, but the accompanying artwork complements the story and his style perfectly (aside from making Harry just a scosh too handsome). It’s not War & Peace … but it’s solidly entertaining. Recommended for fans.
Serenty #2 (of 3) (Dark Horse) Whedon / Matthews / Conrad / Madsen
Continuing the tale of “what if the crew unexpectedly struck it rich,” as we see both the (delightful) fantasies and realities that come with the unexpected (and uncharacteristic) success of the Serenity gang. The Alliance subplot is somewhat less (so far) convincing, and the art is only moderately successful at capturing the character likenesses — but it’s all worth the price of submission to see Jayne consulting with Simon about Companions …
Thor #8 (Marvel) Straczynski / Djurdjevic / Miki / Martin
A relatively quiet interlude as the (deceased) Odin and Thor discuss fathers and sons and the succession thereof, while Don Blake tracks down Jane Foster to see if she knows the whereabouts of Sif — in which we learn far more of both than was expected. Joe is building this rebirthing -of-the-gods very nicely, and Djordjevic’s art is lovely. The book is the best it’s been since the Simonson days, and that’s saying something.
The Sword #7 (Image) The Luna Bros.
We continue a kick-ass, yet poignant story about an ordinary young woman, her friends, her massacred family, the demigods who did the massacring, and the sword they were trying to recover during the massacre — a sword they know can end them, which has gives its bearer extraordinary powers, and which has made the young woman a hunted fugitive. Simple but effective “realistic” art, and powerfully straightforward, moving storytelling. Seriously can’t wait for the collection so that I can loan it to people.
Peter David has written a lot of very entertaining and well-crafted Star Trek novels. This, alas, is not one of them. Star Trek: The Next Generation – Before Dishonor by…
Peter David has written a lot of very entertaining and well-crafted Star Trek novels. This, alas, is not one of them.
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Before Dishonor by Peter David (2007)
| Overall | | Story | |
| Re-Readability | | Characters | |
Story: This book, part of the new Next Generation novels, is a sequel to Resistance. Unfortunately, that book was written by J.M. Dillard, and David tries, but can’t quite manage, to pick up the threads from the prequel and carry them along.
The Borg are back — but, of course, that’s old hat, so they have to be New, Improved Borg. Q is back — or a different Q, rather, which is a shame because David has proven himself quite adept at writing that character.
Things Happen. Lots of Assimilation takes place, and more. A Planet Dies. Lots of Big, Futile Space Battles Wherein Many Starships Get Trashed. Earth is Threatened. Picard Disobeys Orders. There is Self-Sacrifice, Hard Decisions, etc.
David, unfortunately, seems to be doing the book by the numbers. His sense of humor seems muted. His grasp of character is blunted. If told he was working from an Official Outline of where the book franchise owners wanted things to go, I could well believe it — it seems to grate on him, and ends up producing a far less interesting story, with far fewer twists (and those more clumsily handled) than usual.
Way too much “And then something unexpected happened …” ending chapters — and way too much deus ex machina (sometimes literally).
Characters: The book touches heavily on both Voyager and Next Generation (with a smattering of David’s own New Voyages book series), but evolutions in the STU have left the characters largely adrift and out of familiar context, and it shows here. Katherine Janeway and Seven of Nine play lead roles, but largely in a vacuum. Picard is the third protagonist, but he’s surrounded by plenty of new officers and crew — and the new ones feel like cardboard cutouts (this one’s the Angry Shouting One, this one’s the Thoughtful Dedicated One, this one’s the Annoyingly Arrogant One), while the old ones are simply following old patterns without much insight or growth. I don’t expect much out of Geordi LaForge, but making both Worf and Spock dull is actually difficult to do.
I know, from earlier TNG novels, that David can do an excellent job with characters — there’s a reason he’s the only Star Trek novelist I’ll buy — but the drive toward Big Action and the new setting seem to have either impacted his interest or his feel for interpersonal chemistry, because nobody feels all that real or believable here.
It doesn’t help that the Borg have been done to death (indeed, they’re the subject of the prequel). While their threat level here is ramped up a serious notch, it’s still, ultimately, the same ol’ same ol’ “Resistance is Futile.”
Oh — a Significant Name dies by the end of the book. That’s probably the most exciting aspect of the whole thing, which is kind of sad.
Re-Readability: There’s so little substance here, so little solid characterization or interesting story, that it’s only David’s name that makes me want to put it on the shelf and read it again some other time. Disappointing.
Overall: I don’t know if David was contractually obliged to do another book and resented it, got stuck writing a sequel he didn’t want to, or what, but this is as close to “phoned in” a novel from him as I’ve ever run across. Even though he tries to do work all the usual interesting bits — humorous exchanges, homage lines, coincidental character interactions, bits of old Star Trek trivia suddenly brought into the present and made significant — the overall effort falls quite flat.
Overall, only suggested for dedicated Star Trek fans. Peter David fans should probably skip it.
All the Original Series episodes (s1-3) are online. Officially. (As are MacGyver (s1), Twilight Zone (s1-2), Hawaii Five-0 (s1), and Melrose Place (s1). Huh. (via GeekPress)…
All the Original Series episodes (s1-3) are online. Officially.
(As are MacGyver (s1), Twilight Zone (s1-2), Hawaii Five-0 (s1), and Melrose Place (s1).
Huh.
(via GeekPress)