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Minor spoilers for Star Trek and Doctor Who in this post. This is your only warning.

§ May 20th, 2013 § Filed under doctor who, star trek § 6 Comments


I’ve had a long Sunday, and normally I’d just skip a day of posting, since I’m not doing the “update the site every day because I’m a crazy person” thing anymore, but I do like to have a little something up every Monday.

I did manage to see both the new Star Trek movie and the Doctor Who season ender this past weekend, and…well, I hope the Trek folks got their “callbacks to the original series” thing out of their system, because in the two or three films that are likely left in this particular iteration of the reboot, I’d like to see a story that’s, you know, its own animal. I mean, okay, I’ll give them one film where we see what happens in the new timeline when they encounter a familiar-to-us face (well, kinda sorta, work with me here) from the past, with The Ol’ Twisteroos on familiar-to-us situations, and all-too-familiar-to-us bits of dialogue. I did enjoy the film, but I hope I don’t wait three to four years for the next film, and it turns out to be Star Trekkin’ Around Looking for Whales in the Past, But with The New Guys.

Also, a dumb Trek joke I made on Twitter, inspired by the Trek rebootings, got retweeted by Rob Liefeld, so it was all worth it.

The Doctor Who season-ender, on the other hand, benefited by a backwards glance or two, with cameos by previous Doctors via repurposed footage and stand-ins rushing by cameras in the various Doctors’ outfits. I always like seeing references to the previous Doctors in the current series, and since we’re leading up to the 50th anniversary, it’s certainly fitting that they’re popping up about now. And it’s all tied into an explanation for a season-long mystery, in the middle of what I thought was a fun and relatively clever story, which has me anticipating November’s actual anniversary special even more.

Plus, I know this is a bad thing to say, I know they’re overdoing it with these characters, I know getting what I want in this case will ruin the very thing I’m wanting…but I do so enjoy Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Strax when they appear, and hope for more appearances. Particularly Strax.


Just look at that adorable little guy.

“It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it.”

§ May 18th, 2013 § Filed under star trek § 6 Comments

Just a brief note to point you in the direction of some Star Trekkian goodness…

§ September 18th, 2012 § Filed under star trek § 4 Comments

…courtesy of the Great Stuffed Bull of the Galaxy, Bully: 100 Things That Make Star Trek Great, a real tour-DeForest of amusing pics and appropriate fontage. (Bully asks that you add your own Things That Make Star Trek Great in the comments, which, um, I may have done.)

Presumably, if you were of Vulcan heritage, you wouldn’t need the hat…

§ February 1st, 2011 § Filed under advertising, star trek § 6 Comments

…barring some kind of ear damage or loss in a koon-ut-kal-if-fee ritual, of course:

ad from Enterprise Incidents #23 (November 1984)

Frankly, #106 has me wondering.

§ January 30th, 2011 § Filed under star trek § 9 Comments

From a sci-fi collectibles catalog, circa 1987:


1. I wonder if there’s any overlap between the Starfleet Cook Book and this item?

2. Here’s a common Starfleet code: “The captain is in the ready room, preparing his mission report” = “Kirk’s makin’ time with another alien gal…better hold his calls.”

3. I suspect the Klingon Joke Book goes a little bit like this:

“Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?

A: TO DIE HONORABLY IN GLORIOUS BATTLE!”

“Knock Knock.” “Who’s there?” “A MIGHTY KLINGON WARRIOR WHO HAS COME TO EVISCERATE YOU WITH HIS BAT’LETH”

…So you can see why it was banned.

“It is a real dirt-farmer’s soup; full-bodied and satisfying.”

§ January 12th, 2011 § Filed under star trek, the shat § 9 Comments

So anyway, we got one of these in the shop the other day…a really nice copy of the Official Star Trek Cooking Manual paperback from 1978:


Written by Mary Ann Piccard (yes, that’s sorta like “Jean-Luc Picard” I know) in the voice of Dr. McCoy’s nurse, Christine Chapel, who is logging and describing all of the favorite dishes of the Enterprise crew, the Klingons, the Federation, the Vulcans, and the Romulans (along with an appendix listing the favorites of the actual actors and creators of the show).

The recipes all include brief introductions from “Chapel,” like so:

“GEORGIA CHICKEN PIE
Dr. McCoy is a most hardheaded, skeptical and scientific space medicine specialist. He is also a gentleman from Georgia where many families have loyally maintained traditions from the 19th century and earlier. It should not surprise us that his favorite dish is is a chicken pie made just as they were in the days when the kitchen was in a separate building behind the main house. This [recipe] serves 4 generously.”

“BORZOI BORSCHT
(Beet Soup)
Chekov jokingly calls his borscht recipe Borzoi Borscht, after the swift wolfhounds, because it takes him so little time to prepare. This recipe serves from 4 to 6 people.”

“BARKAYA MARAK
(Cream of Spinach Soup)
Though this is sometimes confused with Plomeek Soup, it is actually a much more plebeian dish. It is a real dirt-farmer’s soup; full-bodied and satisfying. The spoonful of sour cream with which the Vulcan country women of long ago graced their plain fare was liken to a morning star shining through the first pale green streamers of the Vulcan dawn.”

Now, as one might expect, Captain Kirk is a special case. He, like everyone else in the book, has his wide variety of interestingly-named foodstuffs (“Deviled Potatoes,” “The Tribble’s Banquet,” “Oskaloosa Log,” “Schwarzwalder Torte”). But there, in the middle of the list, is a recipe simply named “Steak.”

“STEAK.”

Kirk has no need of fancypants names for his slabs of meat:

“Captain Kirk is a great steak fan. First choice with him is a steak grilled over a charcoal fire or an open wood fire. But a close second is a steak with a brush-on sauce that takes equally well to frying. With steak he likes baked potatoes, corn pudding, and coleslaw. This [recipe] will provide 8 servings.”

Unless of course Kirk himself is at the meal…his manly appetite requires all the servings.

Many space-leopards died to provide those tunics.

§ April 8th, 2010 § Filed under star trek § 10 Comments

So reader Chuck was nice enough to send me a copy of this here book, Star Trek: The Truth Machine (Random House, 1977), which shows that no matter in what medium he’s presented, Captain Kirk is one handsome S.O.B.:


The ’50s monster movie-style “giant lizards menacing the city” scene on the viewscreen is pretty awesome, too.

Anyway, the story’s about some alien thugs who lure our heroes down to their primitive planet and try to coerce them into giving up the tech details on the Enterprise’s warp drive. However, the aliens are just advanced enough to be able to force the answers via their Truth Machine, hence the title. Also, these guys are totally into The Phantom:


The story wraps up pretty much as you’d expect, with our heroes getting the better of these geniuses, and with Spock layin’ down a little Vulcan whup-ass:


My favorite parts of the book are the brief snippets of exposition and explanation for the various elements of the Trek universe, written plainly and simply for the intended younger audience:

“The crew hurried to the transporter room. When they stood on the transporter disks, their molecules in their bodies would be taken apart, sent through space, and put back together on the planet’s surface.”

Urgh. Put like that, no wonder McCoy didn’t like beaming up or down anywhere.

“Although Spock’s mother was born on Earth, Spock had been born on his father’s planet, Vulcan. And like a true Vulcan, Spock never showed any feelings.”

Is that so, Mr. Narrator? Then what do you have to say about…THIS:


Well, um, come to think of it…what could you say?

Actually, that’s just Spock expressing Vulcan’s most common emotion, Total Smugness, during his explanation of how he outsmarted the bad guys’ Truth Machine not by lying about the warp drive, but by simply not offering up important details the aliens didn’t specifically ask about. Okay, sure, good move, Spock, but you don’t have to be a self-satisfied jerk about it. Sheesh.

Thanks again to reader Chuck for the swell book!

A quick movie comic aside.

§ April 3rd, 2006 § Filed under star trek § 1 Comment

So please feel free to keep letting me know what your favorite movie-inspired comics are…you’re reminding me of a couple I’d forgotten about, and I’ll probably follow up on that post soon.

Anyway, it does remind me of one of my favorite movie-to-comic translation glitches, from DC Comics’ Star Trek: Generations.

In the film, there’s a scene where the Enterprise is on the verge of crash-landing on a nearby planet. The camera focuses on Data, newly in possession of an “emotion chip,” who exclaims “oh, shit!” Here’s how that exact moment appears in the movie:


It’s funny because 1) it’s an entirely unexpected use of a vulgarity, in a franchise not known for them; 2) it’s from the last character you’d expect; and 3) it’s an entirely understandable reaction, a reaction that normal people like you or I would have should we be in the exact same situation (saucer section of the ship about to crash due to an attack by the Klingons, captain on the planet surface fighting Malcolm McDowell, recently installed emotion ship not working properly…you know, situations like that).

Here’s how that same scene plays out in the comic book adaptation:


“Oh, shit” is still there, but entirely stripped of the context that makes it amusing. Who said “oh, shit?” Who knows? You can’t tell from this panel.

Oh, and by the way…


…it’s Comics Code approved.
 
 
(Updated 9/2017)

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