Nov 23 | Chuckreturns to NBC with a special two-hour show on Sunday, Jan 10, 2010, before returning to its regular time slot, Mondays at 8pm on the following night. It's return to prime time television can be attributed to a successful fan renewnal campaign last year. CHUCK is a one-hour, action-comedy series that follows Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi, "Less Than Perfect") -- a computer geek who is catapulted into a new career as the government's most vital secret agent. This upcoming season will include some special guest stars, including Brandon Routh of "Superman Returns" who will play CIA agent Daniel Shaw in an episode, and the addition of SUBWAY restaurant as a major advertiser to the show. Chuck averaged a 4.0/6 rating last season, about eight percent better than the recently cancelled "Trauma". Ratings-challenged Heroes moves back an hour when Chuck returns on Monday nights. STAR TREK VOYAGER's Robert Duncan McNeill serves Chuckas a supervising producer and director.
Nov 17 | Originally hired as co-executive producer to help with the second half of the show's first season, Kevin Murphy has now taken the reins of Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel on Syfy, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He now serves as an executive producer along with Ronald D. Moore, David Eick and Jane Espenson and oversees the day-to-day functions of the show.
Nov 12 | Star Trek star Zachary Quinto is loosely attached to star in the romantic dramedy Whirligig, reports Risky Business.Quinto would play the lead role in the independent Canadian film, which is aiming to shoot early next year. The movie centers on a man who, in a misguided attempt to woo an older woman, befriends the woman's adopted son.Chaz Thorne is directing the pic, based on a screenplay by Michael Amo, creator of the Canadian supernatural series "The Listener."
Nov 11 | The CNS Foundation, is hosting an on-line charity auction at www.charitybuzz.com. One of the items they are auctioning is a signed movie poster of the new Star Trek movie which has all the cast members and writers. The president of our organization is Carol Abrams, JJ's mother, and she arranged for the donation from Bad Robot Production Company. J.J. Abrams is also a major donor to their organization. The funds raised will go to help find a cure to neurological disorders in children. The auction link is here.
Nov 10 | Candice Bergen, Charles Lisanby, Don Pardo, Gene Roddenberry, Tom and Dick Smothers and Bob Stewart have been selected as the next inductees into the Television Academy's Hall of Fame. They will be honored at a Jan. 20 ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel. "This year's inductees have challenged and shaped popular culture, changed television for the better and entertained us royally while doing so," TV Academy Chairman-CEO John Shaffner said. More info at the Hollywood Reporter
Well, not quite. STAR TREK: GENERATIONS seems born of several destinies, beginning with two competing scripts, including two popular casts, and layering together a broad range of thematic elements. The seventh STAR TREK feature has long been at the center of the disdain many have for the hit and miss ST:TNG films, but of the four, GENERATIONS is surprisingly the most watchable.
The new Collector's Edition DVD, hitting U.S. shelves on the eve of STAR TREK's 38th Anniversary, provides plenty of opportunity to examine why. It's a film rife with problems, from incoherent plot devices to bad lines and recycled pryotechnics. There are more gimmicks thrown into the film's near-two hours than even a Ferengi can keep up with. Klingons and sailors and Christmas trees, oh my, the script is a mishmash of creative energies. There are also blatant plot problems, like the concept of the Nexus, which invites more plot holes than you can imagine, contrived as a way to avoid using time travel to bring Kirk and Picard together. How exactly does one "think" their way out of the Nexus, anyway? You're better off not to ask such questions, but despite this caveat, GENERATIONS is still a lot of fun to watch.
One reason is the late John Alonzo's spectacular photography. It may be strange that the vacuum of space bathes the interior of the Enterprise-D in golden light, but it's sure pretty to look at. It also helps hide the lack of detail in the surfaces of the television sets, all except engineering looking better than they ever have. The warp core's flat, featureless face definitely needed a facelift for the big screen, but overall the Enterprise we came to know and love for seven years received a beautiful treatment in this film. The look of the film is also helped by a lot of color, perhaps lacking in the rest of the TNG films, in part due to the black and gray uniforms that FIRST CONTACT ushered in. At first it strikes of laziness for the crew to be interchanging between the TNG and DS9 costumes rather than having unique and consistent new threads, but the bold colors really make the frames of this picture a feast for the eye, and the familiarity of the style contributes to the happy feeling you get while watching, even if the script starts to drown about midway through.
The other big factor for me has always been Dennis McCarthy's original score. Second to my personal favorite, STAR TREK VI, McCarthy's score makes GENERATIONS the only TNG movie that I'll regularly watch through to the very last credit. Completely original and lacking the rehash that plagues FIRST CONTACT through NEMESIS, McCarthy's sweeping cues elevate the picture in many instances and never make the mistake of becoming mere wallpaper to the striking visuals. Highlights include the eerie Soran/intro pieces, the space battle, and the grandiose main theme that'll ring in your head for days. The only real let down is the Nexus music, disappointing mostly because the sequence as a whole just drags the film to a halt.
Despite warp-speed traveling rockets, confusing plot developments (such as Picard's volunteering to become a prisoner but then being immediately beamed down to the planet's surface), and a heavily contrived method of uniting Picard and Kirk, GENERATIONS still succeeds with some key elements. Namely, the scenes with William Shatner and the other representatives of the original crew, and Shatner's interactions with Patrick Stewart. The fact is that GENERATIONS goes into the hearts of both our captains and while the sentimental approach may not have been the best strategy for huge success at the box office, it's a really enjoyable ride for STAR TREK fans. We see a whole new side of Kirk and the look at his life that could've been is entirely appropriate for what would become the character's ultimate swan song, and a movie that tries desperately to deal with the issue of mortality. Having the swashbuckling heroes reexamine their choices as mortality creeps in is a poignant subtext to the "passing of the baton" credo permeating of the pic.
Data's comic subplot delights with groans and all. From the bad jokes to the "oh, shit," Spiner imbues all his scenes with successful humor and his journey across the gamut of human emotions provides an interesting subplot. Data and Geordi's relationship from the television series gets the most screen time in this movie (nearly forgotten in the others) and his emotional scene with Picard in stellar cartography - another example of rich, bright, pleasing color - is in the finest tradition of what STAR TREK was always about: the continuing exploration of the human condition. Add to that a marquee action sequence in the saucer crash landing (aka the scene so nice they used it twice), and you've got plenty of set pieces to keep the piece afloat.
The Commentaries
Co-writers Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore provide the play-by-play this time around, in a satisfyingly candid audio commentary track. Their discussion ranges from the early stages of development to little things like costuming, to outright criticism of their own work. Moore states that their inexperience as writers at the time contributed, and they both agree that meeting the demands the studio had for the script and pleasing everyone else along the way just made for a difficult writing process.
Braga and Moore explain the difficulties in working each character into the picture, such as finding a good way to utilize Troi and the mistake of having Picard become too emotional in his big screen debut. As the film progresses, both writers point out several blatant errors in the script and things they wished they could've worked out better. Braga points out something I've never managed to notice, which is the fact that Picard tells Worf "that's a pretty big margin of error" after Worf explains the odds of shooting down Soran's probe; obviously this should be "a pretty small" margin, not a large one.
Once the film gets into the Nexus, the commentary becomes pretty candid, from admitting that the idea of the Nexus itself wasn't very well-defined and invited numerous plot holes, to displeasure with the having introduced Captain Kirk doing, of all things, chopping wood and scrambling eggs. They admit that the inclusion of horseback riding was intentionally to attract Shatner and offer funny anecdotes like the fact that Shatner let the production use his horses for the sequence, but charged the studio for it! We also learn that much of Shatner's dialogue while walking his horse around Stewart was rewritten and replaced after the shoot.
Mike and Denise Okuda's text commentary comes in big STAR TREK-styled pop-ups, bringing you a mix of mundane, obvious, and mildly informative for the non-initiated observations or trivia facts about the picture. The main difference from previous Collector's Edition products is that they pop up on top of the film image, making it less attractive to run the commentary at all because you can't see the picture half the time and what's in the pop-up box isn't particularly compelling. Paramount would be wise to put these pop-ups in the black space below the letterbox from now on.
Quote: The attempt to re-make the Star Trek universe into something that was NOT "Roddenberry's". The death of TOS (Kirk) and the beginning of the systematic destruction of TNG (the 1701-D). Among other things.
in response to my question:
Quote: How is any of this the fault of Generations?
about your comment:
Quote: On the contrary, one can trace the introduction of the Borg (or knowledge about them) to Humanity, earlier and earlier and earlier as one progresses beyond GEN to FC, and then through VOY...
So the reason that Generations is at fault for the Borg first contact issue is because it shows a general disrespect for Gene Roddenberry by killing Kirk? That's quite a leap of logic you have going there...
Quote: What, because the El-Aurians were in contact with humans in the 23rd century? According to "Time's Arrow" [TNG], we've been in contact since the 19th century!
But guess what? Except for dear Sam Clemmens, NO ONE in that era knew that Guinan was anything BUT "Human".
If you're going to take my comments out of context in order to create an argument, you should be less obvious about it...
Quote: (Admittedly, they weren't making their presence known quite that far back,
...by not quoting the context in your next paragraph.
Quote: Exactly.
I thought you might agree!
Quote: My problem is NOT with Humans being in contact with El-Aurians.
Really? Then why did you say...
Quote: It is the fact that the El-Aurians were there in GEN, why? Because they were refugees. And WHO made them "refugees"? Right, the Borg.
Check your timelines. They had been refugees of the Borg for three decades at that point (according to the semi-canonical Star Trek Chronology, which explains some otherwise difficult travel-time issues). It's not implausible that most of the 'listeners' weren't busy chatting in detail on the record about the cybernetic organisms that killed their people a couple of decades ago...
In any case, refugees or not, the timeline is exactly the same, leaving the last two quotes I referenced at odds with each other.
Quote: But the fact that Soran's WHOLE existence and obsession was due to the Borg and thus even if the Nexus never existed, his state of mind regarding the loss of his family, was ALL "Borg" related.
Wow, and you're simultaneously arguing to Steve that Generations doesn't deal with mortality issues?
Quote: Exactly.
If you insist...
Quote: Thus by the time of the 24th century, there should have been some info on the "Borg" and Picard, et al wouldn't have had to stare blindly at a Cube not knowing what it was and then going through the 20 questions with Guinan regarding who the Borg were in TNG "Q Who?".
Considering his relationship with Guinan, this is true with or without Generations.
Quote: Quote:
In any case, if we're already accepting that Guinan never bothered to mention the Borg to Picard before "Q Who?",
NOT just Guinan. What about the REST of them?
Good! You agree!
Quote: Exactly.
Quote: Why SHOULD they? The fact is that they were such a VISCIOUS group of beings who Guinan describes thusly in TNG "Q Who?":
"I was not personally involved... But from what I have been told they came through our system like a storm of Jaradan Aser beatles. And by the time they left, there wasn't much left of our society."
So you agree, then? The issue existed long before Generations, and a ship that may have been full of 'non-involved' refugees like Guinan doesn't make much of a difference one way or the other?
Quote: Exactly.
Then we have no quarrel!
Quote: That's bull.
Geez... Even when you agree, you disagree! ;-)
Quote: And let me tell you... Personally, when GEN released, I didn't care.
Then why is it GEN's fault now? You're contradicting yourself.
Quote: However, when you take that, and then look at the Borg suddenly going back in time in FC, and then you find that 7 of 9's parents - the Hansens had actually been "studying" the Borg... And now you have an ENT "Regeneration" with Borg reanimating out of nowhere on 22nd century Earth.... I mean come on.
So is this really because Generations actually did something wrong, or are you just ticked off in retrospect? If the latter's the case, I don't really see why Generations deserves the blame much more than, say, "Q Who?", where it was established that "old friend" Guinan had known about the Borg for a hundred years in the first place...
Quote: Soran's WHOLE EXISTENCE was based on the MISERY he had because of the Borg, and the Nexus would supposedly soothe this... So of ALL people... He should have been the blabbiest of them all regarding that which destroyed what he supposedly loved, thus leading to his obsession to get back with them in the Nexus.
I've never heard of a blabby listener. He seemed more interested in getting info about the Nexus than in discussing his personal life.
Quote: It started that trend and it was continued because it was like the pioneer out there saying:
"Canon is irrevelent. Consistency is irrelevent. We will use contrived time travel to incorporate nonsense elements to make this universe our own."
An interesting point, but as you said earlier:
Quote: That's bull.
A dubious continuity error started this off? Then maybe it was started earlier by DS9 rewriting the Trills, or TNG giving the Klingons an honor-based warrior culture, or by making the Romulans treacherous instead of honor-bound, or by Spock not smiling any more after "The Cage"... How can you claim that Generations, of all things, was the critical point of all of this? It respected continuity so much that it had Lursa and B'Etor's bird-of-prey blow up EXACTLY like Chang's ship! ;-)
(That means I'm kidding about the last part.)
Quote: (I would've swalloed "Dark Victory" a little easier if the father had mentioned "Rumours from the El-Aurians...")
That quote was me of course... The fatal flaw in my argument has appeared... I misspelled swallowed!
Quote: And it's funny how people want to skip over the transgressions related to TNG and point fingers at VOY. ;-) Those transgressions started at TNG and VOY picked them up and ran with them.
If I'm blaming First Contact as the first offender, how is this relevant? In any case, the Voyager flaw was far more blatant than any of the previous ones, even if it is potentially explainable. At worst, Generations might qualify as an 'oversight', a nit to be picked.
Quote: Did you notice the idiotic dialog crafted for him that sounds like a literal recitation OF the species archetype where he says to Geordi:
"As you may or may not be aware, I am an El-Aurian. Some people call us a race of "listeners". We listen."
I mean THIS IS LAME.
But the point you are arguing is...
Quote: The character isn't even consistent within the El-Aurian archetype.
Is it inconsistent, or is it just lame? There's a big difference.
Quote: He does the complete opposite. Aggressive, in your face. Until such time when the scene is ratcheted back in to at least suggest that he WAS supposed to be an "El-Aurian".
So when he's aggressive, it's inconsistent, but when he listens, it's lame? What exactly were you hoping for?
Look at Martus Mazur: He's the perfect listener when he chooses to be, but is boisterous just as often. Soran perfectly fits the El-Aurian archetype that was set out by Martus.
Are you mad because he doesn't act like an El-Aurian, or are you mad because he doesn't act like Guinan?
Quote: And all the existence of Soran does is completely deflates everything that had been built up about Guinan and makes it all meaningless.
Well, that answers that...
Quote: Ie., the character is made to totally discredit himself and the species.
Really? Boy, that was a really bad idea on the writers' part... They should have planned on doing something else, like not discrediting Soran and the El-Aurians.
Do you think this may be a backlash to the fact that you like the movie so much and feel guilty about it?
Quote: My problem is... I... loved GEN... And it's... LAME.
Please take that in the humorous spirit in which it was intended. :-)
But to sum up your actual argument about Soran...
So, the character doesn't act like an El-Aurian except when he does because the writers were out to defile the grave of Gene Roddenberry and everything he stands for by killing Kirk, destroying the Enterprise, messing up the El-Aurians, and placing the cornerstone for the eventual destruction of the entire continuity of Star Trek by having Kirk tell Guinan she doesn't have to live like a refugee?
Quote: Exactly.
Oh.
Okay, then.
So, how 'bout them Klingons?
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"You know what six movies average out to be really good? The first six Star Trek movies!" -- Fry, Futurama
RE: Hmmm....
by Jadzia-Dax @ 11:32:58 on Aug 28
RE: Hmmm....
by Cap'n Calhoun @ 17:07:27 on Aug 28
RE: Hmmm....
by Jadzia-Dax @ 22:38:12 on Aug 28
RE: Hmmm....
by Cap'n Calhoun @ 02:31:18 on Aug 29
RE: Hmmm....
by Jadzia-Dax @ 08:50:23 on Aug 29
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