tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2685723882144479396.post1819633416682131643..comments2024-02-26T21:15:28.308+00:00Comments on Ray Hardgrit's Sci-Fi Adventures: Star Trek: Discovery: Season 1 ReviewRay Hardgrithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18436491500347661133noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2685723882144479396.post-76516762047124972682018-11-15T07:02:14.857+00:002018-11-15T07:02:14.857+00:00That never occurred to me, but it makes sense thou...That never occurred to me, but it makes sense though.Ray Hardgrithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18436491500347661133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2685723882144479396.post-32909365267308000722018-11-15T04:48:04.614+00:002018-11-15T04:48:04.614+00:00So... was rewatching "Discovery" and tod...So... was rewatching "Discovery" and today noticed Burnham holding her communicator sideways, and I thought to myself, "That's a clear indicator to me that this show was filmed in the 21st Century, and not the 1960s."<br /><br />See, in the 60s, to most actors, a communicator was more a "walkie-talkie," and those are normally held upright in front of the face. But now in 2018, to most actors, a communicator is more like a cell phone on speaker, which almost everyone I know holds horizontally, with the base near the mouth.<br /><br />It doesn't mean anything, I just thought it was neat.Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17400946993122305909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2685723882144479396.post-65903058047956569062018-07-11T09:48:44.506+01:002018-07-11T09:48:44.506+01:00Please don't worry about me, I'm fine. I&#...Please don't worry about me, I'm fine. I've just been really busy lately with important sensible things like painting walls, putting down a carpet, constructing furniture, and watching a two-month marathon of classic Doctor Who on Twitch.Ray Hardgrithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18436491500347661133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2685723882144479396.post-33436466549418683232018-07-07T22:35:07.994+01:002018-07-07T22:35:07.994+01:00Anyone know what happened to Ray? I'm assuming...Anyone know what happened to Ray? I'm assuming he's just off doing something else, but I hope he's ok.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2685723882144479396.post-17525530035667873352018-03-05T13:59:59.082+00:002018-03-05T13:59:59.082+00:00Discovery often failed to be as interesting as I w...<i>Discovery</i> often failed to be as interesting as I wanted it to be, but I found myself loving it anyway, aside from the alien-bacteria-in-huts episode, which was terrible and pointless, aside from that great shot of Saru running at about 100mph, a skill he never showed again, alas.<br /><br />For me, it's a series that's defined by almost being brilliant and different, but never quite managing it:<br /><br />I liked that we had a protagonist who got things wrong and cocked things up, rather than being the usual hyper-competent <i>Trek</i> character, except Burnham sort of ended up being that hyper-competent <i>Trek</i> character by the end.<br /><br />I liked that the protagonist wasn't the captain, except she was always on the bridge or interacting with the captain, so it was more or less the same from a functional perspective.<br /><br />I liked the twists and turns, except you could see them all coming a mile off. To be fair, the creators still managed to make the twists dramatic, even if they were obvious; Lorca's reveal still worked, because of the pacing and editing, even though everyone knew it was going to happen.<br /><br />Despite all that, I watched every week and found myself grinning and laughing and loving it. It is different, but it still feels like <i>Star Trek</i>, in a way that the new films don't, and I'm happy that <i>Discovery</i> exists.<br /><br />I still don't like the new Klingons though.thekelvingreenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01928260185408072124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2685723882144479396.post-19828548621087117132018-03-04T17:44:02.984+00:002018-03-04T17:44:02.984+00:00Yeah, it's like painting the ship with chlorop...Yeah, it's like painting the ship with chlorophyll and powering the warp engines with photosynthesis. That's a science term right there so you know they've done the research. Mere solar panels wouldn't be able to generate the phenomenal energy needed to travel between stars in mere hours, but tapping into NATURE will get the job done! As long as they regulate the process by splicing their engineer with hamster DNA and having him run around inside an excess energy cavitation wheel.<br /><br />They didn't try to explain things like the Genesis Device, or red matter, and it's much harder to say something can't work if we don't know what it's doing. Even things that have been well explained, like the holodeck, rely on the mysterious forcefield and replicator technology.Ray Hardgrithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18436491500347661133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2685723882144479396.post-64211057366064938802018-03-04T17:20:36.929+00:002018-03-04T17:20:36.929+00:00I'm actually dreading the time they finally ge...I'm actually dreading the time they finally get tired of prequels and make another jump to the next next generation, as it means another roll of the 'exciting new concept' dice, and that thing's going to land on 'Fall of the Federation' eventually. Some people just can't wait to tear things down for the sake of a more dramatic story; it apparently even crossed Gene Roddenberry's mind seeing as he came up with Andromeda. Ray Hardgrithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18436491500347661133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2685723882144479396.post-45762444186195836982018-03-03T20:57:46.052+00:002018-03-03T20:57:46.052+00:00My problem with the mycelium network is that they ...My problem with the mycelium network is that they decided to explain how it worked, and so came up with crap that the writers probably think sounds scientific (It has "mycelium" right in the name!) when in fact it sounds like mystical woo-woo like <a href="http://consciousnessproject.blogspot.com/2014/03/infusion-4.0-energy-cards.html" rel="nofollow">healing-energy cards</a>. <i>Discovery</i> has put more effort into explaining the spore drive's mechanics than all <i>Star Trek</i> ever did into explaining how warp drive works. Leave that stuff to us nerds, showrunners!<br /><br />The annoying thing is, there are plenty of sci-fi concepts that let Discovery teleport around without having to involve quantum fungi. Something like <i>Andromeda</i>'s slipstream drive, for example; we don't know how it works, but we know it requires people in the loop to make it work very well, and it can send you through time and (probably) alternate dimensions. My personal headcanon is that the spore is actually a fragment of a Q someone found, and they've been using the Q continuum to pop around without understanding how it works. It has the advantage of explaining why it's important for the ongoing existence of the universe, of eventually drawing the attention of the Q to humanity, and of then explaining why it apparently stops working before too long.<br /><br /><br /><br />Naked Bunny with a Whiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17674140134395884069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2685723882144479396.post-298535300057553292018-03-03T20:05:55.357+00:002018-03-03T20:05:55.357+00:00I have noticed that Star Trek is all make-believe ...<i>I have noticed that Star Trek is all make-believe and I'm aware that the producers can do whatever they want with it</i><br /><br />That argument has always irritates me. Yes, they have the legal right to change things, and yes, it's not real to begin with. But it's drama. The whole point of a drama is to make me care about what's happening to the fictional characters in the fictional world around them. Telling me it's fictional and I shouldn't get so invested in the setting is just excusing the producers for not doing their jobs. If the creators don't care, why should I?<br /><br /><i>but the continuity and consistency of the franchise is a huge draw for me.</i><br /><br />Same here. That's one reason why I'm glad they at least acknowledged the change of Klingon makeup in "Trials and Tribble-ations" instead of demanding that we just pretend Worf and Kolax basically look alike. Plus, it was a funny scene.<br /><br />I dunno. Like you said, we've seen Constitution class ships featured prominently in <i>Deep Space 9</i> and <i>Enterprise</i>, and I don't think they looked awful. I'm biased, of course, but I can imagine different eras having different design aesthetics. Fix the lighting a bit, add some mild greebles to the hull, make the corridor walls look more solid, replace the blinky-light displays with real monitors, and I think it'd be fine for modern audiences while still keeping it true to the original look. It's subjective, but there's a line between acceptable "it always looked like this" and "screw you, that thing you like sucked", and <i>Discovery</i> spends way too much time over that line for my taste.<br /><br />I honestly wonder why they didn't just set this show in the mid-25th century. The post-<i>Nemesis</i> novels they're publishing now have been free to throw everything to hell <i>because</i> there's no future-canon for them to contradict.Naked Bunny with a Whiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17674140134395884069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2685723882144479396.post-12697117665042860612018-03-03T19:32:10.716+00:002018-03-03T19:32:10.716+00:00Man, that didn't even occur to me. I had a GIF...Man, that didn't even occur to me. I had a GIF of the Discovery spinning around there as well, but I edited it out because it was distracting. Now I'm tempted to put it back in.<br /><br />Also thanks!Ray Hardgrithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18436491500347661133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2685723882144479396.post-82697562074759323682018-03-03T19:22:42.883+00:002018-03-03T19:22:42.883+00:00it was actually doing something with its premise i...<i>it was actually doing something with its premise instead of spinning its wheels.</i><br /><br />Well, aside from Discovery literally spinning its wheels during spore jumps.<br /><br />That was some lovely rainbow CSS.Naked Bunny with a Whiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17674140134395884069noreply@blogger.com