Section 31 Movie - More Wars Than Trek

Finally got around to watching Section 31 last night. I guess didn't hate it as much as I thought I was going to, which is faint praise, indeed. The biggest problem is labeling it Star Trek when it had nothing to do with real Trek. It was a movie without a purpose or heart (or compelling characters, plot, etc.) It looked pretty, but other than that... 

Rosalie nailed it when she said it seemed more like Star Wars and I realized that's exactly the problem. Alex Kurtzman wants to make Star Trek into Star Wars instead of allowing Trek to be Trek.

A Very Star Trek Christmas

What did you get for Christmas?

That's always a good conversation starter, especially if you don't know the other person well or you just want to get to know them better. I use it frequently when working for teens and it works for a couple weeks after school is back in session.

You can tell a lot about a person by the gifts they get. (Or, at least you can tell a lot about what the people around them think of that person, I guess.) My Christmas this year was an all Star Trek Christmas. My boys got me some Star Trek beverage containers (a mug, and water bottles), and a cool Starfleet Academy sweatshirt. 

Rosalie surprised me with tickets to the Star Trek convention in Las Vegas this August, including plane tickets and arranging a place to stay at a condo of a good friend. She got some very good tickets to the convention which includes early registration, dealers rooms (Star Trek, not drug), and autographs from the celebrities. In addition to the main event rooms which will feature all of the remaining cast of the original Star Trek series, there are a lot of ancillary events. Last year the Inglorious Treksperts were there from my favorite Star Trek podcast and I'm hoping they will be again.

The only problem with this gift is that I will have to wait until August to enjoy it!!!! Oh, well, the anticipation is part of the enjoyment, I suppose.

So what can you tell about me from my gifts? I'm a big geeky kid at heart. Not that this is a surprise to anybody who knows me at all.  

Rob's Reviews: Strange New Worlds

I've been laid up this week with a cold or a flu or something, so I've been catching up on some tv shows and movies that I've been meaning to watch. But I've also gone back and started rewatching Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. 

I realized that I blogged about this a week before it came out, but I never talked about it on here. It's amazing. 

I love all Star Trek, classic and new. Some series are better than others, of course, but they all have their strong points. I would have to put Strange New Worlds near the very top of my list of all Star Trek. It's got great writing, acting, and a wonderful premise (Captain Pike's adventures on the Enterprise ten years before Kirk became captain.) They do a great job honoring the original and reinventing some parts for a modern audience. I like to think it's what Gene Roddenberry would have done if he were making Star Trek today. 

If you haven't seen it yet, I'd highly recommend you check it out. You may want to watch Star Trek: Discovery season 2 for some background first, but it's not required. 

My grade: A+

Star Trek - Where to Start

I have a good friend who has never seen Star Trek but is interested in watching. The problem is, he doesn't know where to start. 

It is intimidating because Star Trek has been around for 56 years now with 11 series, 13 films, and new content premiering weekly, is rapidly approaching 700 hours of content. To sit down and watch everything would take almost 30 days of non-stop viewing. Assuming you just watch four hours a day, it would still take you half a year to watch everything! (Not that it wouldn't be amazing. I might have found my first activity after retiring!)

For example, here is a list of just all the different TV series in order of release:

• Star Trek (The Original Series)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
• Star Trek: Voyager
• Enterprise
• Star Trek: Discovery 
• Star Trek: Picard
  
• Star Trek: Lower Decks 
• Star Trek: Prodigy
  
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

The truth is, not all Star Trek is created equal in terms of quality. That's just the truth of network television and that fact that it has been around so long with so many different contributors.

So, where to begin? What would you consider essential viewing?

Of course, having grown up on classic Trek, I still consider it to be the gold standard. I tried to come up with a list of essential episodes to introduce a newcomer to Trek. Here's what I finally settled on. This is in the order that I would recommend, although I did list the season and episode numbers in case someone wants to watch them in release order.

• The Corbomite Maneuver s01e10
  
• Balance of Terror s01e15
  
• Space Seed s01e22
  
• Devil in the Dark s01e25
• Errand of Mercy s01e26
  
• City on the Edge of Forever s01e29
  
• The Menagerie (2 parts) s01e11, 12
  
• Amok Time s02e01
  
• Mirror, Mirror s02e04
  
• The Trouble With Tribbles s02e15
  

It's still a significant investment of time, but 10 episodes is a lot more manageable than even all 79 of the original series episodes. If you watch these 10 and still aren't hooked on Trek, it's probably not for you. The next ones I would recommend are as follows:

• Where No Man Has Gone Before s01 e03 (the second pilot)
  
• A Piece of the Action s02e17
  
• The Enemy Within s01e05
  
• The Doomsday Machine s02e06
  
• A Taste of Armageddon s01e23 
• Journey to Babel s02e10 
• The Enterprise Incident s03e02 
• All Our Yesterdays s03e23 
• Assignment: Earth s02e26 
• The Naked Time s01e04 
• Arena s01e19 

Finally are some that I would consider non-essential, but still a lot of fun:

• Shore Leave s01e15 
• The Squire of Gothos s01e17 
• I, Mudd s02e08 
• By Any Other Name s02e22 
• Bread and Circuses s02e25 
• The Omega Glory s02e23

Rosalie and I did a rewatch of the entire series a couple of years ago, but if anyone's interested, I never get tired of watching Trek, especially these classic ones!

If you're a new Star Trek fan and try this list, let me know what you think. If you're already a fan, what would you add or change? 

Happy 35 Years to the Next Generation

September 28, 2022, marks 35 years since Encounter at Farpoint, the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered. Hard to believe it's been that long! I remember vividly going to Anne Foley's house, the mother of a good friend from King College, as we were without access to a good TV on campus. There was so much anticipation of this new Star Trek series. It had been decades since there had been any new Star Trek on TV and we were really hoping for a home run of a new series.

I remember being... is "whelmed" a word? I certainly wasn't overwhelmed, and I wasn't underwhelmed, exactly. It was good and showed potential. But it wasn't great. I high high hopes and the next few weeks - really much of the season - was a little underwhelming. There were some bright spots, to be sure, and a lot of potential, but most of it wouldn't be realized until the third season when The Next Generation really began to hit its stride.

Nevertheless, I am happy to remember that premiere and the excitement of a new Star Trek series. And I'm especially happy to enjoy the new series out now. All are different, but all are fun and it's great to see Star Trek in active production again.

Rob's Recommendations: Galaxy Quest

On my dad's final night visiting we pulled out Galaxy Quest, currently streaming on Amazon Prime. This gem came out in 1999 and is considered by some to be the best Star Trek movie that's not about Star Trek. Except it is, sort of. 

If you're not familiar, here's the Wikipedia summary: "Galaxy Quest is a 1999 American science fiction comedy film directed by Dean Parisot and written by David Howard and Robert Gordon. A parody of and homage to science-fiction films and series, especially Star Trek and its fandom, the film depicts the cast of a fictional cult television series, Galaxy Quest, who are drawn into a real interstellar conflict by actual aliens who think the series was an accurate documentary. It stars Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, and Daryl Mitchell."

It's an affectionate parody of Star Trek fandom and it's very funny in parts. If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend it! I hadn't seen it in many years but I found it holds up very, very well. And it's pretty family friendly with its PG rating.

My grade: A

Rob's Recommendations: Star Trek Lower Decks

One of my special purchases on Amazon Prime Day last week was the BluRay version of Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 (for only $12.99 - which is about half of the regular price for this 2 disc set). I've seen these episodes on Paramount+ and am excited about adding them to my collection.

I was skeptical when Star Trek first announced an animated series that would be humorous. Yes, some of the best Trek episodes incorporated humor, but comedy is a funny thing (no pun intended) and very subjective. I was worried that the series might mock or make fun of Star Trek.

I am happy to say that my fears were completely unfounded. Instead, this has become one of my favorite series as each episode is a love letter to Star Trek. It's set in the time of The Next Generation and each episode features tons of references to TNG, Deep Space 9, Voyager and the Original Series. Even Enterprise gets the occasional shoutout. 

Lower Decks follows the various missions and adventures of the "lower deckers" (low-ranking officers with menial jobs) on the USS Cerritos, one of Starfleet's least important starships. It's hard to describe unless you've seen it, but if you are a Trek fan at all, you'll be delighted by these half-hour episodes. They not only have a lot of humor, they have a lot of heart. 

Season 2 BluRays are on my Christmas list and I'm looking forward to season 3 premiering August 25 and Season 4 next year.

My Grade: A+

Saucony's Shoes for Cherons

Saucony just came our with a new colorway for some of their shoes. My first thought was that they were perfect gift for that special Cheron in your life.

 

The Power of a Critic

I was listening to an interview with writer/director Nicolas Meyer the other day on Page One - The Writer's Podcast (Episode 109). He was the writer and director of one of the greatest movies ever: Star Trek II - The Wrath of Kahn, and he has an incredibly interesting autobiography, The View from the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood. I'd recommend it for any Star Trek fan or anyone interested in the movie business. (I actually blogged about this book back in 2009 when I first read it in The Magic of Movies post.)

In this interview, he talked about the difference between a critic and a reviewer:

"A reviewer is somebody who is telling people who has not seen the movie whether they should spend their time and their money going to see the movie. But as Anatole France defined the function of the critic... (and he paraphrases Anatole France) 'the critic's function is to narrate the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.'... Critics assume that you have seen the movie and you are comparing your soul to theirs in response."

I thought that was a beautiful description of the two roles. Of course, it applies to all media (television, books, podcasts, blogs, etc.) 

That distinction speaks to me as a pastor, as well. I see these two roles at work among preachers. I know many mediocre preachers who simply try to explain and apply the text. But that's a lot different than "narrating the adventures of your soul."

I think that explains why so many people struggle with reading the Bible. We've taught them to approach it in a very clinical and sterile way, mostly because of the importance or correctly handling the Word of God - which is an understandable and noble motivation. But in the process we have turned people into reviewers of the Bible. People often lose the aspect of a personal encounter with the living God through the reading of His Word and miss having their souls transformed by it.

Why You Gotta Be Hatin?

There's been a lot of discussion online recently about Star Wars in general and the new series Obi Wan Kenobi in particular. A lot of that discussion is critical of the new Star Wars shows like Obi Wan and The Book of Boba Fett. Some of it has gone beyond simple dislike and gone into hate, and much of it has gotten personal and ugly. (I won't go into the details here because it's not relevant to my point.)

I understand why people may dislike something new, especially when it doesn't line up their perception or seems to contradict something done in the past. There are all kinds of examples dealing with canon and what is considered canonical and so forth. There are books that could be written about such debates.

Of course, Star Wars is not the only intellectual property to deal with this kind of animus. Newer iterations of Star Trek have likewise been panned by elements of fandom for not living up to certain expectations or seeming to violate what has been shown before. 

I personally have enjoyed the new Star Wars and the new Star Trek shows. Are they perfect? No. What is? Are they entertaining? Absolutely. Are they for everyone? Probably not.

It's the time and energy that certain elements of "fandom" have dedicated to criticizing current iterations of these properties that is so puzzling. If you don't like it, just say, "Well, that's not for me," and move on. There is an unhealthy level of "ownership" by some who feel entitled to their own versions. 

But we tend to do that in a lot of areas, don't we? We spend inappropriate amounts of time and energy criticizing and critiquing things (political opponents, companies, opinions, etc.) Instead, what if we just said, "That's not for me," and moved on? Then we could spend our time building something we value instead of trying to tear something else down.

The Human Adventure Is Just Beginning

I'm headed down to the Cities tonight with Rosalie to watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Director's Edition. I'm so excited to be seeing this movie again in theaters! It first came out in 1979 and I loved watching it on the big screen - really the best way to enjoy this movie. It's now been remastered since then with the visual effects updated. Plus, it's the definitive Director's Edition which was completed by Robert Wise in 2001. This is the first time this version has been shown on the big screen as far as I am aware, certainly the first time the remastered version has been.

It's a different experience for today's generation who can watch the movie whenever. I remember when it first came out watching it in the theater multiple times. Then a year or so later I saw that they were screening it at what was then Manatee Junior College. I talked my dad into going with me and was excited to see it again, and it was free! When we got there it was showing in a mini-auditorium/classroom and it was on a TV hooked up to a laser disk! Not exactly the big screen experience we were expecting.

Back when I was in seminary in 1991 they screened all of the movies together in a one-day movie marathon for the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek. The marathon was titled "Sit Long and Prosper". There were only five movies at the time and I went with a good friend and spent the day watching Star Trek. That's probably the last time I've seen The Motion Picture on the big screen, and that was the original theatrical release.

This current (and probably final) version can be streamed in high definition 4K on Paramount+ (if your internet has the bandwidth to support it) and it will be released on 4K Blu-Ray later this year (it's already on my Christmas list!)

I Agree with Elon

I'm a big fan of William Shatner, for obvious reasons. He had an interaction recently on Twitter with Elon Musk. 

“BTW, since it seems to be the latest ‘thing’ on here. I’m stating that I’m staying on Twitter,” Shatner tweeted. “Besides I think @elonmusk is adorbs. Also, full disclosure: I’m trying to pitch Elon to hire me as face of Twitter. #Dumpthebird.”

Musk’s six-word reply to the Captain Kirk actor was simple and touching:

“You will always be my Captain.” — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 30, 2022

Nothing against Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Archer, Burnham, or Pike. I love you all, but I'm with Elon on this one.

Star Trek and Vegetables

Well, we're one week out from the premiere of the new Star Trek series, Strange New Worlds, and I couldn't be more excited. 

I grew up a first generation Trek fan (Tekkie? Trekker? Trekist? We'll go with Trek enthusiast.) I thrilled to the adventures of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the rest. I watched each episode dozens of times through the years. When the first movies came out, I was beyond excited.

And then news came of a new series: Star Trek: The Next Generation. I was in college at the time and went to the house of a friend to watch the first episode. It was... good, I guess. McCoy had a brief cameo, which was cool, but the rest of the episode was only... okay. I had high hopes for the series,... until I watched the second and third episodes. I wanted to badly to love this new incarnation, but I mostly just liked it because it was Star Trek.

But then, it began to improve. By the third season, it was firing on all cylinders, and it concluded with the spectacular Best of Both Worlds borg episode cliffhanger. TNG was finally realizing it's potential. I loved Deep Space Nine, liked Voyager and Enterprise for the most part. 

And then there was the drought. No more Trek for most of a decade, until J.J. Abrams rebooted the movie franchise in 2009 and CBS All Access (now Paramount+) brought Trek back to TV with Discovery. Then Lower Decks and Picard. The third generation of Trek on TV had arrived.

I know not everyone is a fan of the latest Trek incarnations. That's okay. They're not perfect, but I still enjoy them. I especially have enjoyed Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike in the second season of Discovery, and I can't wait to see him lead the Enterprise crew in Strange New Worlds.

What can get tiresome is the vitriol in some corners of fandom over some of the new Trek series. If you don't care for them, don't watch them. You still have hundreds of hours of Trek to enjoy. Just say, "I guess it's not for me." and move on. 

Or... and it's just a suggestion...try watching some more. Enjoy it for what it is, not for what it is not. And you might even grow to like it. (That's the way I learned to eat vegetables.)

Contacting the Enterprise

I've been a Star Trek fan since I was a young kid. Star Trek premiered a couple of weeks after I was born, so I obviously don't remember watching it during it's original run on NBC, but I caught up in the 70s as it ran regularly in syndication. 

I remember watching all kinds of TV shows, and one day the realization struck me that Star Trek was the one show I watched and enjoyed that didn't feature a kid my age (maybe 6 or 7 at the time). Even then I was aware of the quality of the show which sparked my imagination. As I grew older I began to read many of the novelizations and adaptations and my appreciation for the show continued to grow (as did my collection of books and other memorabilia).

I think my enjoyment of Trek was cemented some time around Christmas when I was around 8 or 9-years-old. I received a walkie-talkie which I immediately began to play with that morning. My dad stood across the room with the other walkie and I keyed mine on saying, "Kirk to Enterprise. Come in, Enterprise."

My walkie screetched to life and a voice came out, "Enterprise, Spock here." And it wasn't my dad!

I dropped the handset onto the couch, afraid perhaps that I had accidentally contacted the real Enterprise and was going to be in trouble for impersonating Kirk (or maybe beamed up!) I knew the Enterprise had traveled into the past before, so maybe... 

For just a moment - a split second - it was all very real to me.

My dad talked to the other person and we came to find out that the next door neighbors had their grandkids visiting for Christmas. One of them also received a Walkie-talkie for Christmas and it happened to be on the same channel as mine and he happened to know the appropriate response to my hail. Coincidence? Or destiny?

Those moments in life of surprise and delight serve to help embed something in your memory and to bond you to those times in your life and those products or services that are able to provide these experiences. The application for business, churches, products, etc. is apparent.

Rob's Recommendations: Redshirts

One of the books Rosalie and I listened to on our recent road trip was Redshirts: A Novel With Three Codas by John Scalzi. I had read the book about a decade ago when it first came out and loved it. It had been long enough that listening to it this time was like experiencing it again for the first time and I was delighted by how much I enjoyed it again. Plus it was read by Wil Wheaton (best known for his portrayal of Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation) who has read many audiobooks and is one of my favorite readers (next to James Marsden).

Here's a quick tease for the novel:

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It's a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship's Xenobiology laboratory.

Life couldn't be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship's captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues' understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.

Redshirts is the winner of the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

If you're familiar with Star Trek at all (especially the original series) you'll love the book. It's a humorous take on the science fiction genre where not all is as it appears. The book gets very meta, and then even more so as it reaches its wonderful conclusion. 

I was unfamiliar with John Scalzi's work, but am reading through (chronologically) his earlier work and am currently devouring his book Old Man's War. He has a wonderfully casual style with a lot of humor mixed in.

If you're looking for a good book to read or listen to, and you are at least familiar with Star Trek, I'd give Redshirts my highest recommendation. A+

Rob's Recommendations: Inglorious Treksperts

For all my Star Trek friends. If you're looking for a great podcast, I'd highly suggest checking out the Inglorious Treksperts podcast with Mark A. Altman and Darren Dochterman.

Most Trek podcasts I've come across are pretty lame, but this one is great, especially if you like classic Trek. The hosts aren't the biggest fans of more recent incarnations, so the podcasts focus on the original, Next Generation, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. They have some amazing guests on, as well. If you are an old-school Trek fan, you won't find a better way to pass an hour (or more!)

It's A Good Time To Be A Star Trek Fan

I'm excited for the return of Star Trek Discovery today on the Paramount+ streaming service. This marks the beginning of the last five episodes of the fourth season and precedes the debut of the second season of Picard in March, followed by Strange New Worlds, which chronicles the voyages of the original Enterprise under Captain Pike before Kirk took over. (This may be my most anticipated show of the year!) Additionally, the first half of the first season of Star Trek Prodigy just finished and later this year is season three of Star Trek Lower Decks.

It's a good time to be a Star Trek fan with tons of new, quality content! If you haven't checked these new series out yet, I'd highly recommend each of them.

The Magic of Movies

The other day I finished reading Nicolas Meyer's wonderful memoir,The View From the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood. Highly recommended for anyone who is either a Star Trek fan or who wants to know more about how movies are (and aren't) made. (More details and a wonderful review here.)

One of the passages I found most interesting is at the very end of the book (p 236). This sums up my feelings, as well.

Watching movies at home, on a screen however large and a sound system however noisy, is simply not the same thing as seeing them in a theater. My dad used to say that watching movies on TV was like getting kissed over the telephone. What's missing in seeing a film on television is a central component of what it means to be human - the assembly. Whether it's at a church, at a play, or at the movies, the idea of losing your identity at a gathering of others - known or unknown to you - while sharing a common experience, a journey, an event, is uniquely human, and in my opinion we abandon such practices at our peril. Gatherings are important, and certainly better than going through life with ear buds. Never mind the theology or medium in question, concentrate on the part where you rub shoulders with strangers. Cities are places you walk or ride the subway, places where you look at people, they look at you; you don't pass them on the freeway at seventy miles an hour. At the end of a performance of Beethoven's Third, you and the audience have shared an adventure, at one individual and collective. The experience make you a better person. Don't ask me how or why, but it does. There isn't any movie shown on television that wouldn't be better in a movie theater. Art is fragile - it can be interrupted by crying kids, the telephone, the neighbors, what have you. Gatherings, whether for music, church, plays, films, or ballets, are experiences to which you must make a commitment and in making that commitment, in leaving your home to devote yourself to that communal experience, you reaffirm your humanity.

How awesome is that?! Interesting implications for internet churches, but explains why video venues for churches, conferences, and simulcasts are just as effective as those where the speaker is present physically. Food for thought, for sure.