To boldly sit around....

So I am at the end of a long project. I have been asked, told and even cajoled into this, but after powering through all 7 seasons I can state I have given Deep Space Nine as much of a chance as I possibly could, and still. I don't really care for it.

The top 5 things I dislike about the new Doctor Who

Since an unearthly child first graced televisions during tea time in 1963, Doctor Who has become a touchtone for both British and sci fi geek culture. We all have our favorite doctor, remember some of our favorite moments, and most terrifying foes of the funny man in his magic blue box. The show is not only the longest running sci fi in history, but one of the most loved the world over (trekkies, you can't argue with this kind of logic, and Jedis search your feelings you know it to be true!) and with the big 50  here and the news of a new Doctor, and with 7 years of new episodes since Christopher Eccleston took over as the timelord, I think now is as good a time as any for a retrospective on the past 7 seasons. The start of the next chapter in the doctor's life, and while for the most part I like it ( Hey it's still Doctor Who damn it!) there are some elements that quite frankly annoy me to no end. and without further adeu,  here are my top 5 issues I take with the Davies/Moffat Years.

5 The Weeping Angels- Don't get me wrong, the first episode with the weeping angels was decent enough, but after a while I couldn't help feeling a bit too much "how much fear can we milk from statues? This is way cheaper than making up moving baddies!" vibe. It only got worse as they kept showing up like as if the producers thought 1 clever episode means we have found our new "daleks". The Judoon, and the Slitheen were also hardly replacements for the Daleks or Cybermen, but they feel like they can be interesting in subsiquent episodes more easily than these foes. I am sorry but each time I see the angels I am less scared or enthralled, kind of like with the Borg, the more we knew the less we cared, but on a much grander scale of apathy. at this point "DON'T BLINK!" is more internet meme than reason to fear.

4 Torchwood Could someone explain to me the point of an organization operating in the UK, with above the law clearance, dealing with alien threats when they already have U.N.I.T. for that? I liked Jack Harkness just fine, and have no issue with a spin off (Frankly I loved Sara Jane adventures!) but the whole point of this seems to be putting a more adult spin on the Doctor Who mythos, or at least more sex and swearing. As a show Torchwood didn't feel like Doctor Who to me, and as an organization it is simply redundant.

3 SUPERCOMPANIONS!! Speaking of Sarah Jane she is about the template of a good companion, a nice normal person to as an everyman type rudder for the doctor, who is far more out there in his endeavors. Sure there have been some pretty interesting and more fantastic companions (Romana for example) but they were more rare and far between. So far the new who has given us, Rose the Bad Wolf who had absorbed the whole memory of the Tardis and sruvived, Donna who is the also became part time lord and intertwined with the doctor, Amy Pond the mother of the most Mary Sue of the Lot River F@*#ing Song, and Lets not leave out the immortal Captain Jack or Rory the Auton bodied lovelorn legend of eternal love. Seriously other than Martha Jones most of his companions have either become or were destined for godlike connections to the doctor. Clara for example just quantum leaped herself into the doctor's entirety of reality, effectively deciding which TARDIS William Hartnel should steal, nudging Tom Baker in the right direction and so forth. enough of this what is wrong with a normal person huh?

2 Deus Ex Doctor And in someways this can be said of the doctor, sure he has always been a bit too powerful but now the tardis has a machine that can make any machine ever? He regenerates until he decides not to? whispering his name as legend makes him stronger? This is why so many people hate superman, too powerful is less interesting. and while he still isn't bullet proof of have heat vision the oncoming storm seems to be getting bigger every episode.

1 It's gone mainstream. Now this may just sound like the rantings of a geek who likes things only because they are not popular, but it reminds me of all those music fans who complain when a band has "sold out" a class mate of mine for example rued the release of Metalica's black album as he now saw freshman girls humming to enter sandman. but this in and of itself is more of a problem than I first thought. Why? you may ask, Who fans today are not thought of as as much of a stigma as they were in the 1980s, and now the show is more popular means it's fandom is more accepted. Perhaps, but it also means that the show now looks toward the new fanbase it created and will continue to push to cater to them, The Doctor can no longer afford to be a stodgy old grandfather, or a mass of curly hair and teeth, but now must look as much like a cast member of the WB type teen drama as possible. And the companions had better be popular or hot to get cast. Any chance of someone like Bill Nightly, Nick Frost, Stephen Fry, Rowan Atkinson, or even Helen Mirren becoming the next doctor, are slim and none, instead let's keep it fresh for the kids! And same with the stories, let's make sure they are safer and less controversial no need to rock the boat when at this point We have a product to sell.

That's not to say it's all bad but there are some cracks in the armor that need to be filled.  It's just not the doctor that I used to know, despite having better effects and more attractive actors.

BRING EM' BACK!

So first off sorry I have been so late on this post, but I have had some family issues and other stuff going on, but now I have a quick moment to blog, so here we go. I suggested this one and I find it hard to come up with a straight answer,but here we go. In difference to Cal, I would love to bring back Firefly. While I will not deny what the show was able to do in 14 scant episodes, just watching how Joss Wheadon's Buffy the vampire slayer went from interestingly watchable to can't turn off the damn DVD player in just a couple of seasons. To me the ultimate testimony to how this show evolved came from my brother who was also a Firefly fan after I showed it to him. I begged him to try Buffy, and my older less geeky guy who works in a quarry brother, only was willing to give the show a chance because he wanted to also borrow my season 1 of Smallville. He almost immediately returned Smallville, because it "sucked" and asked for season 2 of Buffy. then some of his friends ended up borrowing them and next thing I know my disks are all over town. FIrefly had very similar potential to be a great science fiction, even one that could have dwarfed Star Wars and Star Trek, it had all the elements a well defined world, great hooks and most importantly characters that you could get emotionally involved in. I always said how firefly begged to be an RPG just by the characters, in fact my brother's friend Dave, would have made a character just like Jayne, and any GM worth his salt would have treated him to just as much hell. I have even thought that a decent compromise would be to get Joss Wheadon to write a pilot and a few episodes of a new Star Trek series casting Fillion as Commadore Matt Decker, and Giving him a first officer with the last name of Slone (the name of Zephram Cochrane's assistant) granted I was inspired by this pick but damn it it could work!!

As for Brian's wish for more Buck Rogers, I hope this helps, I have heard James Crawley the guy behind the incredible (if not slow to production) Star Trek Phase two has been working on bringing Rogers back to the small screen, (unless your pc is hooked to a projector then, big screen!)

As for Big IV, I hear ya brotha' on the Captain Power, and fond this link to MTV's Geek Page  marked on 3-5-2013 so mayhbe Phoenix Rising is still in the works. Let's hope

As for me, Beyond Firefly for TV I would have to want to bring back DYNAMAN!

I know if you just look at the clip above and don't hit play it looks like a week power rangers rip off, but that's quite the opposite, back in the days before the internet, viral videos were only found on show like nickelodeon's Turkey TV, and USA's Night Flight. and this was the cream of the crop. taking it's concept form the same Sentai shows that would later morph into power rangers (pun intended) the basic differences are two, one they did NOT dare replace the secret identity scenes with localized american actors (they just dubbed the hell out of the original Japanese footage) and 2, it was most definitely not designed to sell action figures to small children. involving a few Kids in the Hall Alums (most notably Mark Mackinney) the show a ritous romp through downtown Tokyo with all the wit and style of MST3000, without the need for shilloettes. plus they added American pop music for the soundtrack, nothing like hearing James Brown's living in America, blasting as a giant robot mothership goes soaring over Tokyo. This show was killed when Saban got the rights for Bandai's sentai series and put that abortion Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers on the air. Sure Kimberly was kinda hot, but so was Dynapink!! I would love to see this crew get back together and either finish the dynaman episodes they didn't lampoon or start fresh with another Sentai series (lord knows there aren't enough of them to redub!)

and now for those in the league I didn't get a chance to work into my opening monalogue-
3b's toy hive 
Infinite Hollywood (hey Exosquad, COOL!)
pop rewind
POP POP, It's trash culture!
Random Nerdness

And the cycle renews...

So recent TV news states that Matt Smith, is hanging up his sonic screwdriver and Tardis key, at the end of the current series. This is one of the most ambivalent regeneration a in my mind, because while I like Matt Smith as an actor, much of his run has been pretty crappy. Besides the worst companion to date in River Song (Seriously! worse than like 10 Adrics!), the show just seemed to put too much schmaltz in the doctor /companion relationship. As well as the almot godlike way they seemed to try to turn the doctor into a bit more of a Mary Sue in his own right. Even the set up in Tennant's last episode of the Doctor turned into an exercise in teary eyed nostalgia, and of course ditching the whole of Galifrey annoyed me almost as much as the trying to make the master a much more sympathetic character. but enough about that Matt Smith will be the Doctor no more after the Doctor Who christmas special.

So now comes the big part who will play the new doctor? Of course theories are flying even this early. John Hurt is probably one of the biggest names, and of course the ever popular speculation of the doctor swapping genders. Stephan Moffat had actually done this in the Comic Relief parody of Doctor Who, Doctor Who, and the Curse of the Fatal Death, and he caught quite a bit of hell for it. So we shall see.

So now what? Who do we place in command of the Tardis? Who will end up as the new Doctor? My opinion is we need a break from the more romantic types. David Tennant was a guy that turned many a gal to becoming whovians and as for Smith, people started his run comparing his looks to those of Twilight actor Robert Pattinson, I always thought he looked like a cross between Edward Cullen and Herman Munster.  That aside, The Doctor has changed both in looks and persona many times some more action oriented, some more cerebral, some more hunky, some more parental. So for me let's break from the romantics and go with someone like David Mitchell.

As a comedian with 2  hit comedy shows under his belt, (Peep Show, and that Mitchell Webb look), Mitchell can play the Doctor adding wit and charm to the role, along with his comic irritability harkens back to the earlier Doctors, Hartnell, Troughton, and Pertwee. He is young enough to not make shocking change like say John Hurt, but is not by any stretch teen heart throb material. Here is a bit from his web series David Mitchell's soap box that may help you see what I mean.

In my mind a perfect person to play the doctor after the way the show has went to bring it back from where it is. That being said I doubt they will cast him. Unless Moffat goes too, we will probably see more of the same from whatever actor turned timelord we should get.

So apparently, Jerry Doyle is a colossal douche nozzle..

So, here is the deal I have always loved Babylon-5. In my mind it was far superior to Star Trek Deep Space Nine. J. Michael Stryzinski crafted a 5 year story arc that took risks that Star Trek never could.  In tng, and ds9 there were multiple promises of the heroes going rogue from the federation. the first season ender of TNG was called conspiracy parts 1&2. In which the enterprise had to "go rogue" to save the federation from an evil outside influence. 2 hours later all is well the federation has nothing but praise for Picard's actions, and no harm, no foul. In Insurrection the whole plot was about the crew rebelling against star fleets wishes. And again in under 2 hours, it is well known that the admiral who set this up was flawed, even saw the error of his ways and Picard for all his bucking of the systems, was in the right, no harm, no foul. But in Babylon 5 they had an actuall coup that did not resolve in under 2 hours, the crew didn't just get proven to be in the right and all is forgiven, it had a civil freaking war, and fallout. the show also had one of the most incredible time travel episodes of all time. Planned in first season,we wouldn't see the fruits of the set up for a couple of seasons. But it was totally worth it. part of this was due to the first season ender in which commander Jeffery Sinclair (played by the late Michael O'Hare) was mysteriously replaced by John Sherridan (Played by Tron alum Bruce Boxlietner). While rumors would fly as to why mostly about wanting a bigger name for the lead, Stryzinski had stated it was all part of the story. And as O'Hare did come back for a large 2 parter that did seem to cleaver ate this story. Truth or not, it was clear O'Hare left on good terms. Had this been a poor parting, we probably would have seen what happened with Star Trek 2 and 3, Kirsty Alley had over estimated her value to the movie franchise demanded more money, and by Star Trek 3, Saavik was being played by Robin Curtis. But in con appearances, and all other public forums there had been absolutely no bad blood, or any reason to believe that this was anything but the way the show was meant to go.

Fast forward to today, Recently J. Michael Stryzinski came forward with another version of events. Apparently now that O'Hare has passed Stryzinski came forth with the fact that O'Hare was suffering from some pretty severe mental disorders. A secret he had kept for some time apparently, O'Hare realized the show was just getting its legs, and decided to leave of his own accord. Having never heard this it was sad to know that O'Hare was so troubled, and noble that he did what he did. Stryzinski also showed some class by waiting until some time after his death. After all this really is a personal matter for O'Hare, and his loved ones. Not a spectacle for fans to pick his life apart. I for one was completely satisfied with the original he left because it was part of the character's story, and never felt the need to delve deeper. stryzinskiss big reveal dis surprise some people but people who listen to O'hare's former co-star Jerry Doyle on his syndicated conservative talk radio show, came out saying Doyle had already said as much on multiple occasions. Complaining that O'Hare was hard to work with and a "whack job." Damn. Way to stay classy Jerry Doyle. I have only listened to your show once or twice, mostly because he is on the other end of the political spectrum, from me. But I can dislike someone's politics and still respect them. But for someone to bitch and moan and air his dirty laundry about a fellow cast member's demons is total crap. This wasn't some this guy was a jerk to everyone on set scenario, the man had some personal demons, and was clearly trying to handle them considering you don't hear the rest of the cast pissing and moaning about it. this is especially funny considering that Doyle brings up his work on Babylon 5 even in the intro of the show, his damn website for the show uses the same freaking font. Listen Jerry, Sean Hannity, was in the siege with Denzel Washington, he doesn't feel the need to put that in his shows intro. It's kind of sad that you have to cling to your acting credentials when your radio show has nothing to do with science, sci fi, or even acting. So in short, while I loved Babylon 5, and even love the character of Michael Garabaldi, I have little respect for the actor who played him. Stay classy Jerry, or ,auberge get some class huh?

So what is the opposite of Nerd Rage?

I guess it's nerd praise, that being said I am about to lavish some on one specific source. Game designer Mike Pondsmith, and R.Talsorian games. I had been an avid gamer geek throughout most of the 1980s but in 1987, my gamer obsession went into overdrive looking for new systems, and new games. From DC heroes, to Palladium's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to Top Secret S.I., I was getting more and more into the hobby, when an article in Dragon Magazine was reviewing comedy RPGS, like Ghostbusters, Toon, Paranoia, and Teenagers from Outer Space. I was both intrigued and hesitant. I could not imagine playing a game like Toon, having to figure out THACO for a boston cream pie seemed a bit excessive, as I said I was kind of new to the hobby, but the Dragon review did make TFOS seem like it could handle a comedic rpg with style and class, and do so without over complicating the rules. SO I took some summer job money and ordered it.

DAMN! it was a book rpg with it's own (albeit very tiny) dice! the game was a blast I ran a campaign for most of my freshman year of high school, and soon was introduced to a whole world of real near humans, not very near humans and real wierdies! It's one of the few RPGs that has never left my gaming collection at all, even for a short time. and While I have since upgraded to second and 3rd editions (a new edition a new power chart) It has always been one of the RPGS I grab out when I want to introduce the hobby. It's not anywhere near as complex as D&D, pathfinder, or Champions, and it focuses on roleplaying not rules. Later in the year I got introduced to a local game club that met at my local community college, the Burlington Area Game and Game Information Nexus Society, or B.A.G.G.I.N.S. and it was there I would meet my friend and later best man at my wedding Dave Fageol, he introduced me to Mekton II

While I had played other mecha games by this point. Battletech feels decidedly un-anime, it's more like game of thrones with high tech walking tanks. and while Palladium's Robotech features mechs from my all time favorite anime series it too falls flat on the feeling like an anime mecha show. The less said about hero games's robot warriors the better. But Mekton, Mekton was simply the best. It covered every convention of mecha combat in ways that seethed Gundam, Robotech,Voltron, Gunbuster and more! It was my mecha nerdvana. Admittedly we almost never used the game world of Algol, and mostly did mecha combat for the sake of mecha combat it was the bomb! It was not too long after when I went to my first gaming convention, Quadcon. and there on the shelf were two huge new sci fi RPGs set in the dystopian future. Fasa's Shadowrun which had a full city display and demo team showing it off with it's elven decker, and mix of magic and tech and another one.

I went with cyberpunk, for 2 reasons, first to paraphrase Douglas Adams, it was slightly cheaper, and secondly it was compatible with Mekton. The idea of merging mecha and cyberpunk, at my own whim seemed far more enticing than forceably mixing D&D with
cyberpunk. and thus the choice was clear. The only problem, is I had moved to a new town my sophmore year and while I could find players for D&D Cyberpunk for some reason was like pulling teeth. Seriously everytime I set up a game my group would find an excuse, any excuse not to play, they did the same thing with Call of Cthulhu but that was because they found the 1920s boring, but this one I just could not understand, it sat and it languished. until at another quadcon I saw it's replacement.

Sure 2020 was an improvement, but what's the point if my gaming group wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole? well I decided to put my old 2013 into the auction and recoup my losses and pick up 2020 hoping I would get some use out of it. The result? I spent the next 3 years running Cyberpunk 2020 almost exclusively.  The same high school friend who wouldn't touch it before now were asking me to run it all the time. at it's height I had about 12 players in one game. Mostly because one player had been double crossed by another, and had vowed revenge leading to a massive inter party battle. but it was brilliant. I have way too many fond memories of this game. even when after the high school play, I was asked to go to the big after play party that the "cool kids" were hosting, at the Pzazz and requested to bring my Cyberpunk books with. so here we are keg in the room high school nonsense and in the corner table here I am running 2020 with the remnants of my wizard's make up on (the play was once upon a matress, and I got cast as the wizard.) From our parties attempts to take over the narcotics rackets of night city to running from Arasaka hit squads. 2020 was my high school gaming mainstay.

Now granted I had done other games Runequest, Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, Lace and Steel, Champions, Gurps, Twilight 2000, but punk was what I always seemed to come back to. after my dalainces with the World of Darkness I did another huge cyberpunk stint and got rather burned out on the game. I did have fun with it's sister game Cybergeneration for a campaign but then the next big leap in gaming hit me.

 It was in many ways the polar opposite of Cyberpunk. Honor, and civility were far more prized traits than attitude. Trying to build up a full-on combat spec before reaching cyberpsychosis was not even a possibility. no dice, no character sheets. and a high drama victorian story was the focus of Castle Falkenstein. even the book's layout showed how different a game this was. The book was divided in half. The first half was a short novella about Tom Ollam's disappearance into this steampunk Austria where the Fey existed, magic and anachrotech were real, and the Mad Kin Ludwig was still in power. and the second half was the actual game. And as dice were for the games of the "lower born" Falkenstein used cards. focusing on hands and numbers gave the game more of a feel of controlling the story even from the player's perspective. While many other games have since used cards, it is what I really loved about Falkenstein. I recall this game teaching me one of the most valuable lessons of GMing, which is if the players are having fun, let them go. I had run a module with this huge plan to turn it into a massive globespanning object hunt againts the world crime league. My players were playing the Austrian answer to Sherlock Holmes and company, as they were invited to Paris to help secure the emperor's crown, they would take a train from Vienna to Paris. the 5 minute intro of which (I.E. boarding the train) became the whole basis for the night's session, no combat, almost no use of the rules just pure roleplay for about 4 hours and my players ate it up and asked for more. Not every game that can do that.

Furthermore Pondsmith and R.Talsorian are responsible for the 2 best gaming supplements in Come il Fout, we got a ton of background and story for Falkenstein that made the game even better, and a wealth of information on the victorian era enough to turn a newb into a jolly fine chap to fascillitate this fine game. and Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads, the most indispensable GM guide for cyberpunk and beyond. chock full of dirty tricks and evil schemes it is a GM's dream!

Then After trying a particularly unsuccessful Mekton Zeta Campaign (my fault I bit off far more than I could chew) we got a view of RTG's new system Fusion. We played a bit of Bubblegum Crisis, with a so-so gm. and at this point I was less interested in the new direction I skipped Votoms, and DBZ (never being a fan of the anime) I bought into Cyberpunk 2032, but it did very little for me. the whole altcult thing just did not appeal like the old days. and as Pondsmith headed off for greener pastures (working for Microsoft on games like Crimson Skies (Which I loved)) I began playing a lot more Legends of the 5 rings, Deadlands, Savage worlds, Traveller, Pathfinder,Heavy Gear, and of course minis gaming.

However recently there has been rumblings from RTG, a hint about an english translation of their mekton gundam game, and this.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1888572386/mekton-zero

HOLY CRAP!! Mekton Zero?! a new Mekton? a new Interlock system Mekton? SWEET! Promising a more streamlined mecha design system, a faster combat mechanic and all sorts of bells and whistles, of course I had to kick start it! I have kinda been thinking about a mecha themed hunger games kind of story line, and rather than hunting down an old copy of Zeta, I will wait until Zero finally drops. So to all you out there in cyberspace who love RPGs and love Anime, this is gonna be big. I highly recommend checking this out and kickstarting now, if nothing else, who knows can a new TFOS, Cyberpunk or Castle Falkenstein be far behind? only if we are lucky!

Ready Player One- A review

This is the first review I have done for a novel, on my blog, kinda reminds me of doing book reports as a kid, but that works considering the wellspring of nostalgia about to be unleashed. 

Within minutes of reading this book, I had a pretty good synopsis for the book in mind, and after finishing I still think it sticks. This book is in short, a Cyberpunk retelling of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Now before you think straight rip off and imagine Oompa Loompa's Cybered up on chipware and carrying neural-linked smartguns. There is more to it but it my short explanation is meant to give you a basic gist. The story starts with a poor kid named Wade Owen Watts, (His initials are W.O.W. just like World Of Warcraft, Coincidence? I THINK NOT!) There are a lot of references to sci-fi comics, videogames and music, mostly from the 1980s. an era that is clearly revered by the author of this book, Ernest Cline. Anyway Wade like almost everyone in his dystopic future is involved with OASIS, a combination MMO, Facebook and Internet in the future. Wade is schooled in a virtual classroom, was raised by educational softwares, and when he is not in the massive online universe of OASIS, his life sucks.

But there is hope, The creator of the OASIS is dead. And in his will, he placed a contest to which he offers his fortune to he who can find 3 special keys (copper, jade, and crystal) and challenge the 3 gates. Halliwell the game's creator was obessed with his own past and those things he loved in his teen years making the 1980s a source of fascinations in hopes of finding clues to the prize's (an egg) mysterious whereabouts. Hunters of the egg have formed clans looking over the next 5 years However Wade finds the first one. which after 5 years of fruitless searching his actions ignite a firestorm on the network. An enemy, in the form of a rival company IOI, (the 3 letters almost look like an emoticon for a tie fighter don't they!) who wants the prize to take over Haliwells' fortune and company further monetizing it for their own selfish purposes. They want it bad enough to kill, and thus Wade's life is immediately in danger, both in cyberspace and in real life. 

Overall, this book was a very satisfying read, it's about as tough to read as Jim Butcher's Dresden books. In short You start reading and find it very hard to put down until it's done (hence the reason my British Infantry aren't going to be done by the con this weekend! Thanks Steve!) The only real complaint is as a hardcore geek I felt some of the surprise lost in exposition that I already knew stuff about. such as when they compare the contest to both Atari's adventure easter egg, and the Swordquest series. I wasn't think oh wow I never knew that, I felt more of a yep and then they will link swordquest to the prizes offered for discovering the secrets of the games and that the contest never saw fruition due to Atari's financial woes dropping the games from production. Don't get me wrong this was minor, and still did not ruin the book for me. There are still some damn good twists and turns which I will not spoil here. In the end a good read for any hardcore comic/video game/rpg/1980s geek. I have also heard Warner Bros has picked up the rights for the film. This kind of scares me as the ton of references can make the film a logistical nightmare from Serenity, to Star Wars,to Macross  and Even mentioning Champions, and Shogun Warrior toys. if they make fake proxies it will ruin the point of seeing Max Headroom as the AI for a firefly class ship (Please let the get Matt Frewer back!) but the realities is Fox, Disney, Toei, Marvel hell even hero games will probably want a bit of the action to use their IPs. I hope it works don't get me wrong but this could be the source of some massive (and well placed) Nerd Rage should they mess up this nerdvana of a book.

Set Phasers to, Rage!

So this week's assignment from the league is Star Trek, A show near and dear to my heart (and other organs!)- I have always liked Star Trek, but sometime around 1986, I became obsessed with it. Taping episodes on the family VCR, and replaying them constantly taking in every nuance of Gene Roddenbury's epic "wagon train to the stars" Also finding out that I live about an hour from James T Kirk's birthplace of Riverside Iowa, made me have to take the pilgrimage every year. Heck I even got George Takei to sign my copy of the Decipher Star Trek RPG Player's guide. Trek is in my blood, if we are going to argue Star Wars or Trek, this is a no contest for me Trek every time. I would rather deal with the innane space hippies or Wesley Crusher at his worst, than deal with Jar Jar Binks, and midichlorians!

 Not sure I am really this much of a Trekkie (Trekker's take note, I use the term Trekkie, because it is what Roddenbury himself used, hey he created it, he gets fanbase naming rights!) Here is a picture of Me and my wife and dog, Ein, at Trekfest in 2011,

Ein, is Dressed as "Bones" obviously, but yeah I look like goof, in this pic, but the wife and dog look fine. Speaking of Riverside, and knowing that this is Nerd RAGE against the machine, Brings me to a bit of a sore subject. 

One thing that really pisses me off about Star Wars (yeah I know this is about Trek, but just let me give a bit of backstory first!)  fans is their incessant need to try to prove superiority, I recall being in a Firefly discussion on line and listening to such winning arguments as "If it's the future why do they still use bullets, and drills?" Oh I don't know SITHDUDE2013, probably because they are proven to work, how long have nails been around? or the wheel Barrow? even with more modern ways of putting 2 boards together the nail works dumbass! And this from a fan of a show where we have energy beam based melee weapons and yet no one understands the basic concept of railing. the queens palace, endless chasms, no railing, the Deathstar, you need to go out on a 4" ledge over a endless chasm to turn off the tractor beam and of course, no railings. Osha would have a field day in a galaxy far far away how F&*^ing hard is it to come up with a metal bar about chest high, oh sure we can put forcefields all over the damn place the idea of a safety rail alludes us! Well With the new Trek movie, the complaint from all Star Wars fans was the same. "It's like a total rip off of a new hope!" "Old man mentor tells young idealistic kid to lead a bigger life and he fights a planet killing device. I mean Captain Kirk is like a total Luke Skywalker rip off!" So as someone who lives within spitting distance of Kirk's home town let me point this out! 

Riverside Iowa is about 30 miles from Iowa City. the former capital, it is also home to my alma matter, the University of Iowa, which is still rated as one of the top 10 party schools in the USA. The shot above is a normal tailgating during a home game. lets' compare this to the largest city we know that was near Luke Skywalker. 

Mos Eisley, never will you find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. In short a back water world with a heavy crime rate run by a space slug. What is my point? simple Kirk as a teen had access to both a big ten University which has a top flight medical school, and a huge party scene every weekend. While luke (in the script and cutscenes) mostly does chores and hangs out with a few local acquaintances.  Kirk was most likely taking AP classes due to his higher intelligence, and sneaking over to the left side of Burge Hall (the women's side) on the weekend, if not trying to get in to One Eyed Jakes, the Field House or thier 22nd century Equivalents. This is why kirk turned out like this-

While Luke turned out like this. 

The bar scenes in both films tells the story pretty well. Luke meekly listened to Obi Wan, and was victimized in the bar leading to Obi Wan having to save his farmboy ass. Kirk, strode into the place, hit on the hottest girl he could find, and when someone tried to "defend her honor" Kirk was spoiling for a rumble. In this case no meekly hiding behind a Jedi, no Kirk jumped in full bore! this is the difference between Luke and Kirk, Luke is an innocent who was thrust into a much larger world, but Kirk was already too big for where he was.  I won't deny that there are similarities. Just like there are similarities between Star Wars and other established fantasies I mean a small town boy thrust into a war against an evil empire who has been given a power to destroy it, while it's the plot to star wars, it's also the plot to lord of the rings! In fact let's be fair all you Jedi out there, Lucas borrowed heavily from tons of sources, R2D2 And C3PO were inspired by two yojimbo from Kurusawa's hidden fortress. Vader's armor? Samurai.  Han and Chewy? Gunslinger and sidekick from about any western, and Obi Wan Reeks of Gandalf the Grey, complete with best friend who stabbed him in the back, but he comes back more powerful than you can possibly imagine. 

So what are the other blogs up to you may ask? 

Well,

 Fortune and Glory (days) talks Kreo.

AEIOU and sometimes why discusses power records.

the 30ish year old boy discusses heresy,( By going all pro Star Wars)

and infinite hollywood goes for the retro hat trick with mego! 

and for your listening pleasure,

A few more hardcore geek songs.

MC Mr. Napkins

More MC Mr. Napkins

M.C. Chris

More M.C. Chris

and this is just plain fun...

The Sleepover

So this is the new assignment from the League of Extrordinary Bloggers :

You have the opportunity to spend the night at any residence in pop culture. Where do you go?

I had to think about this one, I mean there are plenty of choices- Victoria chose the mansion of Darla Dimples from the film "Cat's don't Dance" which I have never seen, a bit of a pink nightmare in my opinion. Jason  chose to spend a night in the burbs, with Bruce Dern, Tom Hanks and Carrie Fisher before she got all crazy and stuff. And Ian? had a few options including area 51, and the Big Bang theory apartment.  As for me there are all sorts of choices, the Tardis, a Stateroom on the USS Enterprise, or Babylon-5 even the Batcave. but My luck there would be a Dalek attack,Borg assault or I would got caught up in a deadly political game of cat and mouse with a Centauri, or just gassed by the Joker, so nah, I want a place with geek cred, cool adventures but where I can view in relative safety and luxury. So here is my vote- TRACY ISLAND! 

swinging pad on a tropical island with all the luxuries and tech abound. most of the action in the show took place far away from their fabled abode. just sun, sand and high tech rockets that pop out of the swimming pool. Crystal blue waters, and some ingenious bat cave like environments with far less threat of sociopathic supervillians ruining my vacations. As an added bonus, lady Penelope.

Need I Say more?

 It seems like a win to me. and nicer than club med, or some overpriced Caribbean resort!

DAMN IT!!!

SO I have been looking at the new Star Trek game for the PSIII with almost as much enthusiasm as the movie. Trek has, unfortunately had a tumultuous history with video games a few good (starfleet academy ect) some bad (see the NES version) but this looks pretty good as a over the shoulder action game, and if done right I would be quite pleased mores because I had heard that the PS Move would get it's own phaser.

As all three of the big consoles decided to embrace the movement tracking schtick this time around after  so many non gamers flocked to the Wii for it's unique controls and easy to pick up play. I was impressed how Sony had at least tried to make the move not just a rip off Wii. Using the standard playstation eye meant you could but move in pieces rather than the whole console or expensive upgrade  options the other companies used. The other thing is they have tried to make motion gaming part of hard core gamer titles such as Resistance III, and Kill Zone III as a  supplemental but not required way to play. It's actually much more fun than i expected to pull out the rifle attachment and play full screen. that being said I thought phaser? Hell Yeah! but it was not to be. I mean just look at the thing! it's awesome add the epic fail of Star Wars Kinect, and it puts some serious prominence on move and Star Trek.
Oh and this is what I mean by Epic Fail of Star Wars Kinect-

So yeah Star Trek move could not dare be this kind of embarrassment to the franchise!

first impression

So this week, the League of Extrordinary Blogger's assignment this week is, you guessed it, first impressions. Las Vegas Yankee http://jathniel.com/journal/4/15/2013/1st-impression-that-gets-me-everytime talked about the man of steel's first flight from the Alexander Salkind film. Very cool moment but for me I'm going with Doctor Who.

Here is a man who makes more first impressions than most, and sometimes to the same people. But for me his entrance from the first episode of the BBC reboot, the episode "Rose".

The set up was classic, of course it helps that the audience mostly knew what the doctor is, but it's fascinating that his introduction to Rosé is not some exposition about his time machine etc. instead he is busy bombing a building to deal with a bunch of autons. best damn quote, "I'm the doctor by the way, and you are?" "uhm Rose" "pleased to meet you,now RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!"

It's an impression that has brought us 7 more seasons of the galifreyan with the England obsession's adventures, so I guess it had to be pretty effective on us too.

DYNAMAN!

While looking over some of the seething nerd rage caused by the League of Extraordinary blogger's assignment this week I saw this little gem http://fortuneandglorydays.blogspot.com/2013/04/league-of-extraordinary-bloggers-i-hate.html?m=0 and it reminded me how disappointed I was when I first saw this show. I worked for the TV Station KJMH at the time (your local Fox Station) and I saw that we were getting a redubbed sentai show and it immediately reminded me of Dynaman!

During USA's Night Flight, Dynaman took a Japanese sentai, or "battle team" action show and dubbed it with pop culture references and Mystery Science Theatre style comedy. They also used a rocking 1980s soundtrack. It was comic gold and somewhat more adult than it's original audience would have been. Led by Doctor Ho, The five good looking Japanese friends from all walks of life faced the evil antics of Bernie Tanaka and Mel Fujitsu. So When fox announced this show I was figuring this may be a slightly tamer version, but no instead we got this crap!

Sad as crap, Let's watch more DYNAMAN!

Is there such a thing as channel rehab?

So the Syfy network has been optioning some pretty big stuff this upcoming year. RIngworld Blake's 7 and more Syfy sounds like it may indeed be on the right course. Now let's talk about that stupid stupid name!

Back in the day Syfy was simply the Sci-Fi Channel. The name worked and it stood for what they were going to be broadcasting much like other narrowcasting cable channels did like MTV, BBC America, BET, and Lifetime- Television for Women. At least that's what it used to be. the change to the name Syfy was done to de-emphasize science fiction in their line up. This means they can get a wider audience with professional wrestling, direct to video action films, and other shows that have at most a peripheral connection to science fiction. And they are not alone. BBC America the purveyor of fine British television has been showing x-files and Star Trek TNG (which ironically would make more sense to be on say a sci-fi channel) Now I get that since Patrick Stewart is British and the principle lead, but there are plenty of shows with British actors on TV shows here in the states. Are you going to start showing Mr. Belvidere or House? and how the hell is X-files british other than Gillian Anderson going british after the show ended. This is a common strategy of narrowcasting to "broaden their base" but it's more like exchanging their base. I mean when was the last time you saw music on MTV is a common complaint for a reason. Less music videos and more Jersey Shore, is this a good thing? I mean how many sci fi fans were turned off by pro wrestling, or fans of british commedy would quickly turn off TNG? Maybe that's why we see Syfy going back the other way, trying to gain back some of the credibility it lost with reality shows like Mad Mad House and Who Wants to be a Superhero? Now let's change the damn name back. It would go a long way to letting people know what you stand for.

Then ditch the damn wrestling.

HELLS YEAH!!!

I have high hopes that if done right, this could be a hit as big as Battlestar Galactica was for Sci Fi channel. If you haven't seen the original, you owe it to yourself. it is the best sci-fi drama to come out of the UK (that isn't Doctor Who!) 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22079232

Seriously all this show needs is a fresh coat of paint and the right actors. even recycling most of the scripts verbatim it will be an incredible show!

Chung bao Hotz Tze Hwoon Dhan!

So Fox is now trying to send cease and desist orders to any group of fans who sell Jayne Cobb style knitted hats on the internet. WHAT!?! You treat a show with so much promise and potential like total shit, and then Ripple Junction entered into an agreement to sell officially licensed  hats and now Fox has begun threatening lawsuits  to anyone making and selling them. I don't blame Ripple Junction, nor do I blame Think Geek who sells the official hats on their sites. Nope the blame is all on the shoulders of Fox. Rupert Murdoch's suits couldn't find a decent show with their heads being wedged up their collective asses as far as they are, and yet now some ten years after the show was murdered by these ass wads, they want to shut down fans and sell them wares they make money on. In short fuck them. You had a golden opportunity to have a show that if it had been given a chance to flourish could have made you as much money as Star Trek makes Paramount or Star Wars make Lucas/Disney. You blew it. Fans loved it you killed it, and no the fact that you have held your claws into the rights to the show may mean you have a legal right, but you have no morals here and pissing off your fanbase more is simply adding insult to injury. I am sorry to say you won't be making tons of money from series after series of Firefly action figures and vehicles (I know I would have bought them in an instant) and yeah that talent is now mostly working for Disney (which also owns the rights to your biggest sci fi success story Star Wars which you didn't keep the rights for. In summary Fox proves that after all these years they can still suck more than a dyson vacuum set on high!

too funny

I am not normally a fan of college humor.com but this series cracks me up.

best commercials ever!

Well at least in my opinion...

Star Trek: the Game!

MCI- Friends & Family-

a German glasses commercial.

a French commercial for condoms.

And of coursre Tom Baker as Doctor Who hocking Prime Computers!

What is the Best Fictional city to live in.

So I am kinda curious on this one and would love some feedback, also why does no one comment on these blogs? Seriously, just a couple of words would be nice, tell you what the first person to comment gets a dollar. anyhoo here is my topic, and I would love to hear  your responses which fictional town city would in your mind be the best to live in and why, here are a few examples and my own thoughts.

RAPTURE- Like an Ayn Rand novel gone horribly logical, Rapture is a massive city beneath the waves where the true makers can create a better life, of course now it's a sinking ship full of tweaked out plasmid junkies and ghostly little sisters but you can see whales from your apartment window.
THE PLUS- It's a nice undersea city with a classic 1940s art deco look
THE MINUS- about everything else!

THE CITY OF TOWNSVILLE- It's a sugary sweet answer to living in Gotham City, with a cute cartoony mayor and it's got superheroes (Except after bedtime). It's low on crime high on cuteness.
THE PLUS- It's a great place to raise your kids
THE MINUS- being laughed at because the biggest threat to your city is a monkey with an odd speach pattern.

DOG RIVER, SESCACHEWAN- It's 40 Km from nowhere, meaning that if you are looking for peaceful, this is it, however you only have once place to go to in town and it's the corner gas station and coffee shop.
THE- PLUS- Low crime rate, and sarcastic neighbors.
THE MINUS- As a town in a sitcom, chances are you will be drawn in to no end of cartoony fiascos.

GOTHAM CITY- A hopping nightlife, cool art deco buildings and plenty of high tech facilities, of course there is also an insane crime rate, and a high chance of getting poisoned by Joker gas, Poison Ivy's Toxins or any one of a thousand other supervillian plots.
THE PLUS- Never a dull moment.
THE MINUS- Really, you need this spelled out for you?

SPRINGFIELD- For Small town living with everything from a comic book store, to a gorge, a dam, a tire fire and more, hell springfield has more stuff in it than most large cities. and its full of character to boot.
THE PLUS- It's got it all, seriously is there anything this town doesn't have?
THE MINUS- It's been domed, blown up, and moved trust me this place is anything but peaceful!

any thoughts, any ones you can think of you would rather live in? Let me know.