Horses are good company -- The Witcher

I watched a couple of enjoyable documentaries, minimal flashing/strobing, minimal triggers in general:

Never Surrender! A Galaxy Quest documentary. Super fun, and they interviewed many different people involved with the film, plus some fans. On Amazon Prime.

Woman in Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek and the Remaking of NASA. Mostly about how Nichols decided to be a recruiter for NASA to diversify the astronaut pool; she succeeded and changed history. A bit of general history about her and Star Trek also. Delightful. On Paramount Plus.

I am trying hard to stay off the computer, to rest my eyes, so I apologize for not responding to comments!

Strange New Worlds. Paramount Plus.

As I watched season 2 I kept thinking, I wish I liked this show better. It's fine but it doesn't grab me, and I feel a bit like I'm watching it out of duty as a Star Trek fan. It was just boring. The plots feel extremely well-trodden. That's not always a bad thing, but it seems to me if you are on a familiar ship (the Enterprise), with a largely familiar crew (Uhura, Spock, Pike), and then also using predictable plots (our fuel harvesting is damaging an alien (2.06)), then you should do something innovative within that framework, something beyond "racism is bad" (2.02).

There is a lot to like here. It's fun to see this mix of new and old characters, and the actors are good. The sets and costumes are fun. I especially enjoyed getting to know a young Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), and I laughed at the comedic performance of Carol Kane as chief engineer Pelia. I especially liked the 2 time travel episodes, one of which is a delightful crossover with Star Trek Lower Decks.

I actively hated the arc that involves a love triangle around Spock. He is engaged to T'Pring but has feelings for Nurse Chapel. Hetero monogamy problems! Why!! Why are you clogging up Star Trek!

The season was also concerned with Pike and his girlfriend, another Star Ship captain, and then with La'An and her crush on James Kirk. This was way too much heterosexuality, and no queer story lines. And then they also made Kirk monogamous (with Carol), which seems like a big stretch.

(Weirdly, Kirk also knows that Carol is pregnant, so they are either playing very fast and loose with continuity, or we are just in a whole different universe than "Wrath of Khan," in which Kirk meets his adult son whom he didn't know existed. Well On the One hand who cares about continuity, right? But OTOH why bother making a prequel series if you don't care about the timeline and all the Star Trek lore? this is also a question aimed at my nemesis J.J. Abrams. But, moving on.)

My favorite episode was 2.03, (cut for spoilers)( Read more... )

I am confused why they styled La'An to look just like Camina Drummer from the Expanse--tightly bound hair, lots of eye makeup, military bearing, serious expression. Camina Drummer is one of my favorite characters of all time, so it's not like I mind, I just find it confusing. It adds to the feeling that Strange New Worlds is just mash-ups and fanfics of other stories. For example,

1.06 - The ones who walk away from Omelas. (It's largely from the perspective of the Omelas-dwellers instead of the dissidents.)
1.07? maybe? - The Hunt for Red October.
2.08 - MASH.
2.09 - Buffy Musical Episode.

Of course I am devoted to mash-ups and fanfics! I am pro-homage. But I prefer mine to be way gayer and more subversive.

Little Achievements
An original DS9 fanfic about the everyday things we should be proud of.

Starring:
Alexander Siddig as Dr. Julian Bashir
Andrew Robinson as Elim Garak

With:
Irena Komunjer as Dr. Renna Illa
Randy Roy as Col. Randy

And
Prerna Sitomer as The Computer

Written By:
Elmie K-E / @ almaasi

Story Contributors:
Irena Komunjer / @ Syaunei
Randy Roy
Prerna Sitomer
Aoife Murphy / @ ConceptaDecency

Script Consultant:
Giuditta Natale

Edited By:
Talya Sayram

A SidCity.net Production

Fan fiction script read-through performed August 11 and August 14, 2020, during the Sid City Social Club.

Star Trek: Picard was disappointing and bad. Some minor spoilers ahead.

( Read more... )

sophinisba asked: What do you like about the place where you live? Do you ever think or daydream about moving somewhere else?

What I love about the place I live is that I have a lot of great friends here! We have a nice fan contingent going, and some of my friends here I've known for years now, and it took a while to create those relationships. It's a medium-sized city, which means I don't have to drive very far to get to the edge and see fields and woods, and I don't feel overwhelmed or trapped by the city, and traffic isn't too bad. (I'm not really a city person). But I am close to people and things that I like, and I am close to work. There are lots of nice parks and green spaces. In my neighborhood, I am close to a library, a grocery store, and "my" dog park. Also, Madison is known for being accepting of people who are queer; although on the negative side we have problems with racial segregation and school achievement.

When I day dream, I fantasize about living on a space station or space ship. Why not go for broke, eh? In the hospital and clinics where I've worked, this feels easy to imagine since they are big sprawling complexes with skyways, sky lights, internal shops and cafeterias, etc-- like cities unto themselves.

If I lived in a space station, I would probably still do scientific or medical research like I do now. The research questions that interest me are how living in a closed environment affect people's health and well being. Controlling infectious diseases would be pretty important since they would spread easily, much like they can do on a cruise ship. It would also be interesting to work in the green house or botany labs. A space station would be a small town, but it would be a port town, with people constantly coming and going. The challenge for me on a space station would be the separation from nature, but as with anywhere, perhaps there would be ways to incorporate nature into the built environment. Another area for study and work! :D

This comes from watching a whole lot of Deep Space Nine at a formative age. :D

The bus ride was loooooong and I had pain in my face and shoulder the whole time. I listened to podfic and eventually took a Dramamine.

jesse_the_k and I stayed at a private dorm about a block from Roosevelt University. It was fine if a bit spartan. For instance, the beds were single, hard dorm beds (although I slept pretty well anyway), and there were desks but no lamps, just a bright overhead light. We were warned that there would be no linens, so we brought our own, but there were in fact linens on the beds. I would have liked an ice machine. We could hear the El go by, but this didn't bother me; I guess I was tired enough to sleep well. I loved the many conveniently located restaurants.

The first program item I attended was "Colonialism in Star Trek". I didn't take notes here, but it was super fun to geek out about Star Trek as an opener to the con. We tried to define colonialism and if it is even a bad thing if the Federation is doing it. We cited examples of when it's a bad thing in canon, or when there are rebellions or moral dilemmas: The Maquis, forced relocations, etc. The issue of racism or "speceism" in Star Trek, ie the human thinking they are better than Ferengi, not taking the Bajoran's relgion seriously, etc. We talked about the Prime Directive, and one episode of Enterprise where we thought is was egregiously misapplied when Dr Phlox withheld medical treatment from some people, thereby committing genocide. This we discussed at length. The Borg are an example of Star Trek style exploration gone wrong. Exploration is a human trait that we admire, but is it always good? Someone mentioned the book "Collapse" about how human presence has destroyed native ecosystems on Earth. It is ethical to colonize unoccupied planets? How would we even know if they are unoccupied? This was a fun and thought-provoking panel. Yay Star Trek! It is streaming on NetFlix now, which means I may never leave the house again.

Board Games followed; I played Settlers of Catan with Gremlin and Ian.