StillPaisleyCat
@StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website
- Comment on Petition update | Petitions to continue *Starfleet Academy* break 30,000 signatures 3 hours ago:
I wished they’d used an official image. It’s really odd.
But it was the first petition up so it’s the one with traction.
- Submitted 7 hours ago to startrek@startrek.website | 7 comments
- Comment on Star Trek Mystery and Escape Room Games: DS9 & Lower Decks by Beadle & Grimm's Pandemonium Warehouse - Kickstarter 14 hours ago:
Cool. I think I’ll be supporting this one.
I’ve been having fun getting new and interesting games through kickstarter campaigns.
My partner is finding this eye rolling, as I’m roping them and one of our teens into play testing. But, I look forward to taking some of these to our regional gaming convention. It’s nice to be able to offer some fresh games with licensed media.
- Comment on 'Star Trek': Andy Weir Apologizes To Alex Kurtzman Over Podcast Remarks 1 day ago:
Meh
- Comment on "It's gone baby... it's all gone"| Sigh .....‘Project Hail Mary’ Author Andy Weir Says Paramount Rejected His ‘Star Trek’ Pitch: Their “Shows Are Sh**” 1 day ago:
Cerebral is definitely not the way I would characterize Weir’s writing.
Middle school or YA science fiction is more like it. I first encountered his work when it was recommended for one of our kids.
- Comment on "It's gone baby... it's all gone"| Sigh .....‘Project Hail Mary’ Author Andy Weir Says Paramount Rejected His ‘Star Trek’ Pitch: Their “Shows Are Sh**” 2 days ago:
Regarding Rick Berman or other showrunners of a large collaboration, my reaction is more complex, because there were so many others involved in the creation.
While a cinematic feature is a huge collaborative undertaking, Weir sells himself as a kind of lone-wolf type author and so invites reactions on that basis.
There’s also the fact that Berman’s abusive behaviour was kept largely secret while the shows were running. So, my love of the specific shows and episodes was already set before I had the full context.
I’d known from friends in the fandom, with close connections to production, that the early TNG years were generally miserable for all involved but hadn’t heard as much by season four. Berman made the other showrunners be the media frontman, spokespersons for production during most of the 1990s. He wasn’t an eminence gris in reality, but might have well have been for the amount of information available for viewers to know what was actually going on.
Watching now, knowing how the actors and crew were treated, hearing their sides to the story, definitely does impact my experience on rewatching, and I am not as likely to rewatch as frequently as I was.
As another comparison, to someone who made himself out as more of an auteur creator, I find that I really can’t rewatch Josh Whedon productions at this point, especially Buffy.
- Comment on "It's gone baby... it's all gone"| Sigh .....‘Project Hail Mary’ Author Andy Weir Says Paramount Rejected His ‘Star Trek’ Pitch: Their “Shows Are Sh**” 2 days ago:
I would argue that very little good science fiction tries to have nothing to say about humanity or the human condition.
There is some very intellectual and intelligent science fiction that takes on and speculates about advanced science and mathematics concepts but these are rarely mainstream and not at all the kind of thing Weir writes.
Some science fiction can be just fun science, engineering or math speculation stories told in prose, but if doesn’t have something to say about ourselves, it’s value isn’t much more than diversion — although diversion and entertainment are valuable in themselves.
Setting aside for now Weir’s rather sour grapes criticism of Star Trek, and stipulating the fact that Star Trek has, from its earliest episodes, had a recurrent pattern of including very transparent and heavy handed allegories to current social and political situations and controversies, let’s consider the general question of what is science fiction for.
Science fiction can be and has been a means of allegorical storytelling, and of pondering the human condition at the individual and the societal level. It tells us about ourselves as much as it tells us about a broader universe.
Huxley and Orwell did this with their dystopias. However, so did hard science fiction greats like Arthur C. Clark. Childhood’s End, Rendezvous with Rama, and 2001: a Space Odyssey were as much about who we are now as what might be out there.
More literary science fiction authors explored themes in psychology and human consciousness from the mid twentieth century on, and high quality science fiction took up those questions in films like The Forbidden Planet.
I didn’t find this kind of reaching about the human condition in either of Weir’s books. I did find them fun rides, the kind of pop fiction that used to be described as “airport” novels — the kind of book people pick up in airport kiosks before a long flight, that are often make into “popcorn movies.”
The science elements in his books are ok, but not astonishing. The level is really middle school, which is why The Martian was reissued in a ‘school edition’ cleaned of the swear words. My own first contact with Weir was our youngest’s ‘school edition’. It wasn’t an overly challenging book for a bright grade 6 student.
What I found in Weir’s writing was a repeating pattern of a lone-wolf individual male hero making some incredibly daft decisions after a catastrophic event that set up his opportunity to MacGyver himself out of the situation. It’s a trope.
It’s not definitive of the genre and it’s not conducive to the ensemble problem solving needed for more complex STEM work in science fiction. And unfortunately Weir’s short fiction has shown that he hasn’t yet mastered the skill of telling stories on a broader canvas.
Fun ride episodes, shows and movies belong in Star Trek and other science fiction too. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t be there. One of the franchise’s strengths has been that it can incorporate the full range of styles. But it’s never been only fun rides and individual heroism or individual MacGyvering. I think we’d see as much scathing criticism if shows tried to be just that.
But back to Weir’s attitude and tone, speaking in his moment of success.
He could have let his work speak for itself, and focused on promoting his film.
Instead he chose to prop up himself by putting down others. I don’t respect that. I don’t see that as having integrity. I see that as being a jerk, and it validates the sense that I got from his books that he doesn’t know himself how to work well with others so he doesn’t write what he doesn’t know.
He didn’t have to shoot his mouth off when baited. Instead, he chose to weigh disingenuously into the ‘culture wars’ by claiming to be above having a message.
He could have chosen at some future moment to drop a mention that he, like many writers had pitched spec scripts to the Star Trek franchise that weren’t taken up for movies or television, that weren’t seen as a fit in the strategic plan of the franchise at the time. That would have likely garnered a lot of positive interest from across the Trek fandom.
Instead, he chose to use his moment to trash the creations of others and, implicitly, the part of the fandom that those shows were written for.
He won’t be getting my money.
- Comment on "It's gone baby... it's all gone"| Sigh .....‘Project Hail Mary’ Author Andy Weir Says Paramount Rejected His ‘Star Trek’ Pitch: Their “Shows Are Sh**” 3 days ago:
This is the second quote of its kind in a day. The earlier one was about ‘woke’ messaging and how he writes to have no symbolism or underlying meaning in his work.
Going on a media tour is something that people are trained for.
They have their messages. They are ready for the provocations and the traps. And this isn’t Weir’s first Hollywood movie that’s done well.
This specific call out against Star Trek is something that he could have easily stepped about. He didn’t need to go out of his way to alienate a significant potential portion of his audience.
- "It's gone baby... it's all gone"| Sigh .....‘Project Hail Mary’ Author Andy Weir Says Paramount Rejected His ‘Star Trek’ Pitch: Their “Shows Are Sh**”www.hollywoodreporter.com ↗Submitted 3 days ago to startrek@startrek.website | 24 comments
- Comment on William Shatner And ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Actors React To News Of Series Ending 6 days ago:
The franchise wouldn’t exist if my 90 something year old mother-in-law and women like her didn’t watch it all and buy the books and magazines since 1966z
Or, if I and my partner and others hadn’t been watching since TOS was in first run.
Having defended TNG against TOS fans who wanted it killed, and having seen TAS killed by fan campaigns in the mid 1970s, I have no time for people in their 40s and 50s who would rather kill a show than have new Trek that might be meaningful to my GenZ kids.
- Comment on William Shatner And ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Actors React To News Of Series Ending 6 days ago:
No one was “shoving anything down your throat.”
You don’t need to watch.
You may have been the key 15-34 year old demographic that advertisers and marketers target back in the 1990s. If so, you are not the key demographic now. Why do you think others should be paying for your preferences?
- Comment on William Shatner And ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Actors React To News Of Series Ending 6 days ago:
Good thing people stuck with TNG season one despite rehashes like ‘The Naked Now’, offensive episodes like ‘Code of Honor’ and most of a season of sub par offerings.
- Comment on It's sad that people completely misunderstand what Star Trek is about. 6 days ago:
It’s possible on a regular basis.
However, as with other high profile accounts, one expects that messages that are high profile would be cleared with the person under whose name the official account is made.
- Comment on William Shatner And ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Actors React To News Of Series Ending 1 week ago:
This makes sense if they want to break down the sets.
- Comment on William Shatner And ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Actors React To News Of Series Ending 1 week ago:
There was a report posted elsewhere claiming that the viewership has been greater than expected but they still canceled it.
- Comment on It's sad that people completely misunderstand what Star Trek is about. 1 week ago:
It’s a silver lining to see Shatner using his platform for the greater good.
- Comment on Pluto TV Celebrates William Shatner’s Birthday With Star Trek Takeover Including All The Movies Streaming Free 1 week ago:
This doesn’t seem to be offered in Canada.
The ‘Pluto Spotlight’ still seems to be on Academy Award Winners.
I see the regular TOS all day channel offered, but the movies aren’t featured in the movie channels.
In the ‘On Demand’ offerings, there’s a ‘60 years of Star Trek’ that offers TOS, TNG & Voyager as well as some documentaries as usual.
In fact, it seems that none of the movies aren’t available on PlutoTV in Canada.
- Comment on What's your favorite ship or class of ship? 1 week ago:
I really just want the Aventine Vesta-class.
- Comment on London Science Museum: Star Trek Lates 1 week ago:
Very cool.
I wonder if there will be any kind of installation in Canada this time. I don’t see anything listed in the upcoming events.
For the 50th anniversary, the Canadia Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa had a special exhibition that ran the whole summer. We were able to take our kids. There were a lot of costumes and props but also some interactive activities including a Kobayashi Maru test.
- Comment on Star Trek: Legacy Series Fans Want Most Is “Never Gonna Happen,” Says TNG’s Marina Sirtis 1 week ago:
I believe that there was mention of some Legacy locations and species to visit too.
Sigh…
- Comment on Star Trek: Legacy Series Fans Want Most Is “Never Gonna Happen,” Says TNG’s Marina Sirtis 1 week ago:
I’m perhaps at the extreme of negativity about the Legacy premise, but what Matalas seemed to be pitching was almost an anthology of legacy characters being visited by the Titanprise with the bridge full of offspring.
So, yes, Sirtis would not be wrong to think the focus of the pitch was the older cast with the younger characters and the visiting Titanprise as more or less the framing.
I have a theory that someone in senior management of the streamer under the old ownership had a strong belief that ‘children of legacy characters’ were a necessary bridge between old and new audiences. There seems to have been no awareness at all of his antithetical nepotism would be to the meritocratic principles of Starfleet.
We have La’an Noonien-Singh for no particular reason in SNW - she’s not even the bridge officer with augmented abilities.
Also, the more I hear about the pitch for Unity the more it sounds like a family saga with all the great things Archer’s offspring are up to as young adults (since the creators were told that they could have them at the Academy as they’d originally pitched).
- Comment on March Star Trek Merch Roundup: Klingon Weapons, Starfleet Academy Pins, New EXO-6 Figures, and More! 2 weeks ago:
Glad the Fansets SFA combadges are coming out right away with both pins and magnets.
I still have vivid memories of trawling through the vendors at a 2019 local Comic Con, with our youngest and 45 k other attendees, looking for a Disco S2 combadge with magnet that didn’t actually exist.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x10 "Rubincon" 2 weeks ago:
This era of Star Trek has quite a few A-listers actually.
Starfleet Academy is helmed by Oscar winner for best actress Holly Hunter (in The Piano), has two time nominee Paul Giamatti (one each nominations for best and best supporting actor) as well as Tig Notaro who is nominated this year for her documentary and has also been nominated twice for Emmys.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x10 "Rubincon" 2 weeks ago:
We will never see 26 episode seasons again.
It currently takes more than one week to shoot a 42 minute episode.
Also, actors are not willing to lock into shows that leave them unavailable for movies or other television shows.
Star Trek and other streaming series are able to cast A-listers not just because they are willing to pay high pay rates and list them as executive producers but also because the A-listers are able to lock in multi season contracts with Star Trek while still being available to do other things.
- Comment on ‘Strange New Worlds’ EP Talks S4 Release Date, S5 Characters, And A Return To “Classic” Star Trek 2 weeks ago:
Sound like a decision was made on high that the 60th anniversary would not take place without a Star Trek show under weekly release.
- Comment on Alex Kurtzman On Starting Discussions With Paramount Skydance Over The Future Of Star Trek TV 2 weeks ago:
I’m going to say that I saw some of the problems to come in BSG season three, but I still bought the physical media up to that point.
I don’t think you can blame it all on the writers strike, any more than you can blame Picard season two or Discovery season four’s weaknesses on the pandemic.
Other shows managed better. It’s the test of a good senior production executive to manage through those situations.
I was deeply disappointed in where For All Mankind took its women characters. I was hoping that having Naren Shankar join after he finished with The Expanse would redeem it, but it just kept getting worse in its treatment of women.
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! a driven engineer who becomes the head in Houston only to fall into a honey-trap and feed the Soviets information!<
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! an astronaut who played up her physical beauty and whose top-gun husband became a despondent alcoholic when she leaves him responsible for the kids!<
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! an astronaut who hides her sexual preference through a fake marriage !<
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! the neglected wife of an astronaut who is stalked and manipulated into a one time sexual encounter with a young man she once looked after as a child, then carries the burden of responsibility for the impact of his obsession.!<
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- Comment on Alex Kurtzman On Starting Discussions With Paramount Skydance Over The Future Of Star Trek TV 2 weeks ago:
We’re going to need to differ on Ronald D. Moore.
I wish Trek fans would stop calling for him to helm the franchise when we have not seen adequate evidence that he can carry through to make the kind of Trek that represents IDIC for future.
What I am seeing from him is a pattern of starting great new shows but not having as great ideas about following through long multi season arcs.
The Battlestar Galactica reboot was riveting for the first two seasons and then spiralled to a disappointing conclusion.
For All Mankind spun out in seasons two and three with an Oedipal storyline about a kid who becomes obsessed with his foster mother and wreaks havoc. Not to mention that all the heroic women characters in from season one had to be shown to deeply flawed by season three in a very male-perspective way.
For All Mankind isn’t as bad in terms of having a cisgender-male viewpoint writing women leads as say the Sheridan show Lioness, but it’s not succeeding as a show women see themselves in.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x10 "Rubincon" 2 weeks ago:
I’m not sure I can agree. This show has come a long way from the JJ Abrams directorial tricks embraced by Discovery and other shows of this production era.
I actually thought that Producing Director Osunsamni was restraining himself noticeably in his use of whipping cameras as compared to his directing style in previous shows.
Kurtzman set a directorial mandate for the show in the opening episodes with longer pans and more close ups on the characters. He even commissioned special amorphic lenses that enable close ups within the large sets. Jonathan Frakes mentioned that the directional norms for SFA are quite different and that he enjoyed the opportunity on his episode to rely more on shots where he closed in on the characters.
For this episode, the choice of using a shifting drone view for a remote news audience made sense in the context of an otherwise static scene of Nus’ theatrical show trial.
- Comment on Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Starfleet Academy | 1x10 "Rubincon" 2 weeks ago:
I always thought that the insistence on every Paramount+ show having 10 episode seasons — which was mandated by the executives in charge of streaming when the ViacomCBS merger happened — was weird.
Other streamers are not that rigid and vary season structures depending on what the show is. While 12 episode seasons are rare, I can’t see the streamer that merges HBO Max and Paramount+ being quite so rigid.
The newly merged conglomerate has a myriad of practical decisions to make in merging Paramount and WBDiscovery. It will take time for all of the parameters of their streaming model to be fully established and implemented but we can expect some significant rethinking.
- Comment on Interview: ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Showrunners Talk Season Finale Messages; Tease Season 2 Villain 2 weeks ago:
One of the things that stands out - pun intended - about Starfleet Academy, is that the directors and production crew aren’t trying to hide the differences in height.
Holly Hunter isn’t afraid to let it be seen that she doesn’t even come up to Sandro’s shoulder.
Unlike Patrick Stewart who seemed to want more orange boxes deployed to minimize his height difference in Picard than has even been necessary in the constraints of old standard definition in TNG, the actors are comfortable being different in height and the directing style is working with it.