Jellyn’s Collection of Curiosities

Episode 69, dude

Yea, so, it’s been awhile. Like 8 months. We’ll see if I remember the characters.

(I kinda feel like I should finish this before I start watching Buffy. But I did finally put a Buffy disc in the player, so….)

Awww, opening credits shot of the Enterprise space shuttle. Might have to take a trip to NYC to see that.

Half an hour now and I haven’t said anything. Mostly it’s just all predictable and boring.

Aha, discussion of the Eugenics Wars. That’s handy, because I was thinking about the Khan news when I started this post. Well, not that that included anything of note, really, except they were fighting a battle in North Africa.

Not sure why there was a standoff on the bridge. The MACOs were outnumbered. The phasers were on stun. They might take out one or two of you before you got them, but so what? You’d have the bridge, which was the whole point.

Was that supposed to be a big revelation in sickbay? Cuz it totally wasn’t.

–

Episode 70

Crazy time dude is back.

It occurs to me that taking on the suicide mission yourself is the ultimate cowardice. Just isn’t brave enough to order one of his crew to do it. Heck, he doesn’t even have to order them, since he had a qualified volunteer.

The noble decision, noble sacrifice, is not so noble.

Cliffhanger. That’s annoying. I wasn’t wanting to watch another 2 eps, but now I’ll have to do it soon.

I knew (or thought I knew) I’d read a lot of the Tiptree award books/stories since I last updated it. But I was resisting updating it because I don’t have Dreamweaver installed on my new laptop. And with Dreamweaver, I only had to highlight the ones I’d read and change the style.

Well, turns out editing it by hand was pretty darned easy too. It was just adding: class=”read” to the tds. Though my first pass through, I failed to also put it in for the authors. So the titles were the right color, but the authors weren’t.

The most annoying part was adding two year’s worth of lists. Lots of tedious typing.

But, I’m done! You can look at my list of which books/stories I’ve read of the Tiptree winners right over here somewhere. Still plenty I have not read. A few of the ones there that I haven’t marked, I have tried to read, and failed. Maybe they should get their own color.

Ah, yes, the Delaney sisters…

Ship shaking. Kes wakes up and holds her head. No doubt she senses something, something sad.

Neelix isn’t familiar with the people in the system. You’d think his knowledge of the area would be greater where they picked him up.

Ms. Torres indeed. Just because you don’t want to be called ‘sir’, maybe your crew would still like to be Misters.

‘Four to beam up’, well, you know _that’s_ not going to work.

I guess the translators in the combadges work just as well as the TARDIS now. These guys don’t even realize they’re being talked to in Federation Standard.

Hey, widen a subspace fracture. Why not use that dekyon beam again? Worked well the first time.

The doctor doesn’t know about the Maquis on board? That makes no sense. He’s treated any number of people in the last two episodes. Even if Torres wasn’t technically part of the crew when he mysteriously off-camera cured her and Kim’s incurable disease thingee.

Just like Starfleet, get yourselves involved a riot.

I’m not sure why they would’ve thought the combadges were destroyed in the explosion. I thought the polaric thingee only destroyed organic material.

When did Paris tell the kid that he ate children?

‘Do you honestly expect us to believe all this?’ — I’m betting that gets used again in later eps.

Paris in this ep and the one before tried to explain how something couldn’t possibly happen, it being a paradox and all, and Janeway’s like.. well, that’s understandable you don’t understand. But paradoxes are so passe’. Paris needs to read up on his temporal physics apparently.

The clothes of this planet’s people are starting to grow on me. Paris in a little skirt thingee, carrying a purse. And they’ve got some sort of corset thing built into them too.

And, boom. The episode might never have happened. As in the end, it only affected Kes.

We start the episode with character development and ‘getting on with the business of merging these crews’, which is really cool. A contrast to ‘what big giant troublesome thing has just appeared off the port bow?’ type of opening.

So convenient that the holodeck runs on a different power system.

Paris stands up so Kes can have a seat? Gah.

An our cable went out at this point. Grr. Because nobody wants to watch television this late at night.

So we go from a meeting to the bridge and the whole ship being rocked by something.

Neelix helpfully infodumps under the guise of telling Kes what a singularity is.

Combined with the fact that this is a singularity, the name of the episode is Parallax, and probably a vague memory of when I watched this the first time, I believe the unknown, mysterious ship on the other side is also the Voyager.

And now the cable goes out while Kes is in sickbay chatting with the doctor.

The incredibly shrinking doctor can only appear on the viewscreens, not in person. Too much strain on the special effects.

Oh, look, it’s the Voyager!

Janeway getting her geek on with Torres. Carey, you never stood a chance.

I just Googled ‘dekyon beam’. Doesn’t look like it ever showed up before or since.

Torres apologizes for losing her temper in Janeway’s ready room, which I totally don’t remember. And I don’t think it was one of the cable outages.

I’m unclear why the doctor’s still short even though they’ve left the vicinity of the singularity. But, hey, they did show him in person once!

I just went back to see if she blew up in the ready room. I guess she did get a little backtalky. Just, compared to hitting Carey, a few cross words to the Captain didn’t seem like much to me. So I didn’t even notice.

Anyway, ep over. Should I be rating these things?

I’m so out of things, I never would’ve known Wil Wheaton had another book out if K hadn’t told me. In this book, he collects summaries he wrote for TV Squad of first season Star Trek: TNG eps. It’s summary, it’s snark, it’s reminiscences, it’s geek.

At first I thought this would be a quick read, but when I started reading, I changed my mind about that. It has to be read slowly, to appreciate all the jokes. And to take the humor in small doses.

But then I changed my mind again. The episodes after the first couple didn’t seem as funny. I don’t think it’s really because they were less funny, but more that he’d lost my sense of newness and surprise by that point. Which is a key component of humor. But of course I plowed ahead anyway. It ended up being a very quick read for me.

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Did you know you can go to a science fiction convention and tell someone you’re going to read one of Wil Wheaton’s books and get asked ‘Who’s that?’

For those who don’t know, yet somehow manage to be cool anyway, Wil Wheaton was the kid version of the narrator in the movie “Stand By Me”, he was Wesley Crusher in what most people consider the second best Star Trek series, he’s a geek, he’s a blogger, he’s a poker player, he’s an author. He’s like one of the top people being followed on twitter. How do you not know who he is?!

****

He wrote a book. Several, in fact. Collections of blog entries, loosely themed. If you haven’t visited his blog, it’s over here. Called Wil Wheaton Dot Net, though it’s not longer at dot net, or WWdN if you’re in the know. And now you’ve read this, you’re in the know.

The Happiest Days of Our Lives is one of the books he wrote. Or, if you prefer, collected. It’s a collection of some of his favorite blog entries, about being a big old geek, and about growing up in the 70′s and 80′s, and a bit about Star Trek. I gather more of the Star Trek and lots of other geeky stuff is in the other two books, which I had fully intended to buy, and to read. I cite lack of money at the time they came out and plethora of too many other interesting books coming to my attention since as to why I haven’t bought or read them.

****

Summer, York Beach, Maine, near that cheesy animal park. In a camp right next to the cheesy animal park, so you could hear the lions and things at night. Which, okay, maybe made the camping experience a little more surreal and I shouldn’t call the park cheesy. It wouldn’t be, really, if it’s wasn’t the biggest amusement park in all of Maine. And that’s just pathetic. (I grew up near Great Escape; I am, perhaps, jaded.)

I had recently gotten into watching TOS and reading science fiction. I had and/or bought a copy of the novel Enterprise I was reading on that trip. But also, a Starlog. (Okay, I’m not entirely certain it was Starlog, but odds are pretty good it was Starlog and I just heard Starlog published its last issue this month, which totally bums me out, so.. if it wasn’t Starlog, it is now.) This Starlog had a whole big article on a NEW STAR TREK. Totally awesome. Totally confusing. Because I’m reading along, and it’s saying how the doctor has a son. And I’m like.. chyea, dudes, McCoy has a daughter okay. Get it right.

Somehow I totally didn’t spot the cast pictures going along with the article until I’d read more of it. So eventually it dawns on me that this is a whole new Trek. Android. Awesome. Kid. Awesome.

(Totally unrelated, but the other thing I remember when I think about this campsite is War and Peace. So I must have read that along about this time. Or, started to, all the names eventually bogged me down and bored me to tears, so I stopped.)

I’m not sure if I realized it then, but TNG was about to become my Star Trek.

****

Back at school. Junior high cafeteria. Sitting at a table with some girls (with the girls may be pushing it) and they’re looking at Teen Beat. And there’s a picture. A full page picture of Wil “Stand By Me” Wheaton. My friend must’ve noticed me wanting it. I demurred. Much giggling. I didn’t want them to think I had a crush on him or anything, because I really didn’t. Not even on Wesley. But regardless of what they thought, I did want that picture. (Even though it shocked me that she’d even offer to tear a page out of bound, written material for any purpose!) It hung on my wall, with an accumulation of Star Trek posters, for a good long time.

I totally did not have a crush on him.

****

Wesley was treated badly by the adults. Especially Picard. How can you hate kids?! How can you treat him like a kid? He’s my age! Probably even a bit older. He’s totally not in the same category as the little kids you made him run around with in a couple episodes. You suck, Picard.

But at least Wesley didn’t die and make me cry in the first season.

Stupid mumblegrumblegrr writers.

****

I started going to Star Trek conventions with Dad. Mostly Creation run. This is probably about the time I started hearing rumors that people didn’t like Wesley. (Pre-Internet, at least pre-WWW) That kinda hurt. Because he was one of my favorite characters. And everyone seemed to hate him just because he was a kid. And/or smart.

You’d think Star Trek geeks would have more sympathy for the smart kid. But what do I know?

****

Wil Wheaton, at a con. TNG is over by this point, I think. Wheaton’s only about a year older than me, but at this con, he seemed so far beyond my comprehension. He was dressed in what then I would’ve called a dangerous kind of punk style. I was afraid he’d turned into, or always was, one of those kids into drinking, smoking, music. I’m not sure if I thought him unChristian or unCool at this point, possibly both.

But he was involved with Video Toaster, which was used in seaQuest. And seaQuest, of course, is totally cool. And he was funny on stage. So I left that con not quite sure what to make of him.

I realize now that he was just being a teenage geek. I just couldn’t recognize it at the time.

****

College – alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die and strek-l, and well, it’s college. I had moved on to DS9 and Pern MUSHing and occasional attendance of classes.

****

At some point I started hearing about this blogging thing, which was somehow different from a website, but not. And I’m sure someone, possibly K, must have pointed me to Wil Wheaton’s blog. And I discovered all over again that he’s a geek. I started reading his blog pretty regularly.

But then he got into playing poker. And blogging about poker. Incessantly. I have little to no interest in poker. Though I did watch him in a game on TV. I stopped reading the blog. I haven’t actually gone back. Relying on other people to tell me he’s going to be in an upcoming episode of something. Or that his book is going to a new publisher, so it’s the last chance to get this version.

****

There are two entries in this book that I read on his blog. And they’re very, very good ones, that I remember reading. How many blog entries do you remember years later?

The one is about being a stepfather to teenage and near-teenage boys, music, and the generation gap, and being a geek.

The other is about a beloved cat.

Yea, those freaking cats are everywhere around writers and bloggers. But it had me tearing up when I reread it in this book anyway.

****

Reading these, you feel like Wheaton is a fellow geek. A fellow child of the 70′s and 80′s. And I get a glimpse of what it’s like to be a father, and an actor, and even a boring old poker player.

I don’t know if it’s from growing up being an actor, how he was raised, his genes, or what, but he’s really, really good at telling an honest, emotional story.

All of the entries in this book are worth reading. All in one gulp, or one by one when you have a spare five minutes.

My least favorite is probably the last one, because it’s about poker. But it’s also about being a minor celebrity in the land of television. It’s a good wrapup to the book. And well, he did need to end it with something more light-hearted than the cat entry before it.

****

Buy his book. Read his blog. Enjoy being a geek with him.

This book came to my attention because Stan Lee is reported to be making it into a tv series or a movie (I forget which) and the quote said it was the first gay superhero, which I know was so not true. But anyway, it is a book about a gay superhero. A kid who’s just coming into his powers and facing a whole lot of angst wrapped up in being gay, but mostly wrapped up in his parents’ history as superheroes.

The writing right off the bat did not impress me. It started in the middle of a basketball game, but was riddled with backstory and flashbacks and it just was not handled well at all. Fortunately the game, and the majority of the flashbacks, ended and the writing improved from there.

The amount of typoes in the beginning really bugged me too, but fortunately they mostly disappeared at some point as well, though I still saw some here and there.

But then the writing bugged in another way. The main character is on a bus when it gets attacked by some supervillains. He (who is also narrating) says he didn’t know who those supervillains were at the time, yet he keeps calling them by their names in the narration. No, no no. Yea, okay, you can do that, but you have to handle it better. Like.. ‘I later learned their names were… Blah, Blah, and MegaBlah’. But I still think it’s preferably to refer to people by characteristics until you learn their name in the course of the story. Such as the author did do when it came to Dark Hero, who’s first known as The Man in Black. (As you wish.)

I liked the main character, and I liked the group of superheroes he got paired with. One guy’s superpower is making people sick! And one superhero is an old lady. Moore’s definitely broken out of some of the tropes in coming up with characters. But then at the same time, he annoys me by having some of the heroes be far too closely aligned with actual superheroes from comic books. By which I mostly mean the one character who is clearly a takeoff on Superman. Not only is he an alien, but his adopted parents live in freaking Kansas. It couldn’t be Ohio or something? I wish he’d changed more details there.

There were also a couple of moments where I couldn’t understand the character’s motivations.. not necessarily behind their actions, but behind their emotions. Miss Scarlett flips out a couple of times and I don’t quite know what prompted it. Yea, you can have all this pent-up rage or whatnot, but it’d be nice to have a trigger before it’s unleashed.

So, some good stuff in here, but I do wish he’d been a little better edited. If he writes another novel after this one, I’d hope to see some improvement.

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Where do you get off calling the Incredible Hulk movie a ‘blockbuster’ before it’s even hit theatres?

I have no intentions of seeing it. Hellboy II looked somewhat interesting, but still isn’t something I’d go out of my way to see. The Batman movie looked dark and creepy — yea yea, purists will love it for that, but it doesn’t incline me to go see it. I would still like to see Hancock, but it may wait for DVD. Ditto Iron Man. Except.. wait… Hancock isn’t out yet? I totally had the impression it had been out at least as long as Iron Man…. In that case, maybe I will still go see it. I shouldn’t known a Will Smith movie was a July 4th movie.

Hrm.. I thought there was one more superhero movie coming out. But it wasn’t the Punisher movie in December.

I don’t think it was Wanted either that I was thinking of.

At any rate, give me another Spiderman, I’ll be happy. Give me another Xmen, I’ll be optimistic. Give me Wonder Woman and I’ll be.. interested. Give me one of those gay superheroes and I’ll watch it no matter how horrible it’s reported to be.

In other news: “Charlie Jade” is a total snorer. Though kudos to Sci-Fi Channel for bringing us a Canadian/South African show I hadn’t heard of. It’s just that I hate hard-boiled detective narrators. :P

I wrote to Lifetime asking after “Blood Ties”. Here’s part of their response.

Thank you very much for your email regarding “Blood Ties,” which will not be
returning to Lifetime.

Lifetime has heard your complaints in regards to the cancellation of “Blood Ties”
and we have never canceled a show without a great deal of consideration for you, the
viewers. However, “Blood Ties” did not meet the viewership requirements to stay on
air.

Okay, one, you only ran it once a week! Who does that anymore?

Two, you didn’t even play the entire first season as far as I’m aware. Consistency and followthrough help.

Three, you totally would’ve had more viewers to start with if you’d kept Henry bi.

The letter then went on to say that they don’t have the rights to make DVDs, but hey, you can purchase the episodes from Itunes! Or, you can watch the reruns on Lifetime Real Women (LRW), because doesn’t everyone get all the random spinoff channels nowadays? And, whoopee, you can log onto their website to play games and stuphs!

And “There you can access the most up-to-date
information and read more about the show as well as participate in discussions with
other fans.”

What up-to-date information? Why do I want to read more about the show? You cancelled it! There’s nothing left to discuss except for the fact that you cancelled it!

I’m considering writing to the SciFi Channel. If they want to be more girl-friendly, then what better way than to revive a Lifetime show? :P

I was thinking about making some quip about jumped sharks, but I’ll just get right to it.

Spoilers behind the cut.

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Since this is a geeky show, here’s a geeky comment. It’s spoily, but.. it’s a sitcom and it aired yesterday, so..

Sheldon’s sister makes a joke about how she once spent 9 months with her legs wrapped around his head. Because they’re twins.

Even if fetuses have legs and heads for 9 months and would remain in the same position for so long, there’s the fact that fraternal twins never share the same amniotic sac. So how did she accomplish this exactly?

Clearly one of them has had a sex change and cosmetic surgery. You heard it here first, folks.

“Blood Ties” is a Lifetime show based on a series of books by Tanya Huff. I’m sure I’ve blogged about it before. The book series is good, the spinoff Smoke series is even better. The Lifetime series is passable, though I’m still annoyed with them for apparently making Henry (the vampire) straight. Clearly we can’t be expecting Lifetime to be showing Torchwood anytime soon.

Anyway, was browsing around Oberon Games and found someone had done one of those seek and find games with a Blood Ties theme. I like that genre of game and while theme games are usually sucky, it can’t be too bad, right? So I’m going to check it out.

Blood Ties: The Hidden Object-type Game

Usually I don’t have much good to say about the SciFi Channel. But today, I’d like to say kudos on fixing the closed captioning issue on Doctor Who. From the excellent spelling of the unusual and even episode-specific names, I can only assume this closed captioned script is directly tied to the shooting script. Yet I haven’t yet spotted any revisions, so it’s even better than that.

So, thank you, SciFi, for not trying to reinvent the wheel by getting new closed captions from an American company who has no clue.

My only quibble is that I’ve noticed at least one dropped line. That could be a transmission thing.

And SciFi, don’t think I’m letting you off the hook for chopping it up to insert commercials!

Eh, minor spoiler, so I’m not going to hide it behind a cut. Just close your eyes.

I might buy that the Daily Planet building has a cafeteria with kitchen. But why does it have a ginormous walk-in freezer?