Live Long, and Prosper (and eat cookies)

First of all, I went to see the new Star Trek film last night. I know, after all my moaning about it and ‘wah, they’re gonna ruin it, it won’t be the same’ and sulking that I wouldn’t see it and I go almost opening night. And, I am very happy to say, I was wrong. So wrong. Because it’s brilliant! I am so happy that it’s good and I enjoyed it from start to finish.

I guess the main thing I loved was that I don’t have to pretend the other films never existed to enjoy this one. Everything in that time happened, this is just a different universe. And I was relieved that it was done so well. It had all these nods to the previous films, but none of it was mocking or campy, like so many remakes/reboots can be. It was all done lovingly. And it is funny! And quite moving at times. All very unexpected. The cast are all very good. OK, so I’m still not a Zachary Quinto fan and feel like he’s still doing his Sylar crap in most scenes and old Spock wipes the floor with him, but everyone else is pretty spot on. Simon Pegg’s accent is a wee bit wobbly, but he was funny enough for me to ignore it; Bones is excellent; I dug Sulu, and Chekov. I loved little Chekov!

And Kirk? I kinda laughed at Chris Pine when I saw he was cast. ‘Oh they went the safe pretty boy route’. Then I realised he was the dude in Smokin Aces and thought maybe he’d be ok, and he was. He’s all arrogant swagger and flirty and impetuous, and he totally pulls it off, because you still really like him. And he gets his ass kicked in this film and he’s brilliant at it. Yes I possibly fancy Chris Pine now, what of it?

Go see it, you’ll have a blast.

Secondly, I went for a run this afternoon. First run in almost a year. I survived it. Just. I had to bribe myself with cookies to do it, but it’s done, and it wasn’t that bad. I did almost faint when I got back though, no lie. I had to lie down. I went for half and hour, I only ran for three minutes at a time, tops, but it’s a start. And now I’ve done it once I HAVE to continue. I spent most of the time faffing about with my headphones. It’s one of those where the bud goes in and there’s a bit around the ear to secure it. My right one is perfect. The left one falls out no matter which size bud I use, it’s bloody annoying. The curse of the Stewart ear strikes again.

Nerd Alert

I have been neglecting my geek duties by not keeping up with the news on the latest Star Trek film. I’ve avoided a lot of it because it worries me, on about the same level as Terminator 4 worries me, but that didn’t stop me posting that trailer and trying to ignore goosebumps when I heard the music. Still, the Trek universe is held dear to my heart, and I’m not totally sure there’s any need to ‘reimagine’ the original series, but it’s J.J. Abrams and that’s in the plus column.

Anyway, I know little about the plot, other than old Spock meets himself as a youngster, and there’s a Romulan villain (Eric Bana, possibly another plus), but they’ve released pics and so here they are:

Simon Pegg as Scotty- another plus? Karl Urban also looks pretty good as Bones. I have issues with Kirk. He’s way too pretty, and Chekhov seems to be about 12.

This is the main thing that has worried me since they announced his presence in the cast. Zachary Quinto. I hate him on Heroes. I don’t think he can act. He has no range of emotion other than EVIL EVIL! all the time. This may help him in being Spock, since Vulcans don’t do emotion, but this picture here isn’t selling it to me. He’s doing his ‘angry’ face (which is basically his only face). Stop it Quinto, stop it at once!

Eric Bana being Romulan.

Pretty boy Kirk climbs out of the ice.

The crew on the bridge of the Enterprise. Kirk does not look like he belongs in that chair, sorry to say. You can see I’m really keeping an open mind here.

There’s more info here

A Fangirl Obsesses

There seems to be a thing about making top lists for things, especially when it comes to TV shows and films. Said lists define you and your tastes and make it easy for other people to pin you down, figure you out. I am hopeless when it comes to these lists. There are far too many fantastic shows and films over the last…oh, I don’t know, how long have they been in existence?, for me to begin to pick favourites. That’s why it’s nice when someone does it for me, and then I can simply go, ‘Yeah, that’s spot on,’ or, more usually ‘Are these people nuts, do they not have any taste whatsoever?’ and walk away before I say something mean and remind myself that differences make the world go round and everyone is entitled to their opinion.

So here’s a list of something very close to my heart. EW.Com’s top 25 of the last 25 years I’m all about the Sci-Fi. I’m such a fangirl. How can you not love it? When done well, Sci-Fi rocks my world. It takes everything that’s great about human nature and magnifies it, putting us in situations we can only dream of and seeing what we do while we’re there. It shows the best and the worst of us, the good guys are better in SF (and often a little morally grey themselves), the bad guys more evil. I’ll admit, there’s some shoddy stuff around, but the good, man, the good is just awesome.

So I’m loving that this list has some of my favourites on there and isn’t just a homage to Star Wars. (Hey, I love Star Wars as much as the rest, but let’s have some other stuff in there once a while, shall we?) It has films I adore – Aliens (seriously, if I have to make a list of top films, that film is on it. Bizarrely it’s a film that reminds me of my childhood and I can watch it over and over and it never gets old), Total Recall (the effects might look a little worse for wear these days but watching Arnie pull a huge beaming device out of his nose is always worth it), Galaxy Quest (if ever I need a chuckle, that’s one of the top films I go for, ‘Don’t open that, is there air, you don’t know!).

And TV shows – Quantum Leap, a show I can still repeat the opening words to ‘Doctor Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator, and vanished.’ Brilliant! Lost, Battlestar Galactica (at number two no less, and I think it’s deserved. Season 2 of that show was truly kick ass), and of course, the one that is so very close to my heart, Star Trek: The Next Generation. Now, apparently there is a little less love for TNG than there used to be, which I just don’t get. It gave us the Borg! It gave us Picard, and an android who showed more humanity than many humans. Show it some love people.

I could go on and on about these films and these shows, and I probably will at some time (especially when/if (sob!) BSG finally comes back on air, but I’ll stop before this becomes pages and pages of ramble, and say go read the list. Does it do the genre justice?

A Conversation Between Two Geeks

I stopped by Max’s on my way home to pick up some more of my TV shows. Somehow, and I can’t remember why, but we got to talking about Star Trek. Now, back in the day, I was a huge Star Trek fan. Well, I still am I guess, but I don’t watch it like I used to, mainly because nothing good has come out of the franchise for a while. So, after a short conversation and quoting Picard saying ‘Engage’ etc, and me searching my ever addled brain for the name of Worf’s weapon of choice (a Bat’leth, in case you wondered), and Max asking if I know any Klingon (I don’t), Max decided to tell me a joke. Oh, and note, Max has never watched Star Trek.

M: Ok, so, Picard has got a sewing machine and it’s broken…
C: Why doesn’t he use the Replicator?
M: What’s a Replicator?
C: It can make anything you need.
M: He’s sewing
C: But if Picard needed a garment he would just go to the Replicator and say ‘Hey, Replicator, I would like a jumper’, and he would have it.
M: The Replicators are broken. So he takes the sewing machine to this guy…
C: Why wouldn’t he take it to Data?
M: Who’s Data?
C: A character on the show!
M: Data can’t fix it.
C: Data can fix anything! He’s an Android, he has a computer for a brain!
M: Big Sigh.
C: Now, if Picard was on another planet say, without Replicators or Data, then I could understand the need for a sewing machine. If you’d just put a little back story in, this joke would work much better.
M: Fine. He’s on Earth…
C: Not Earth. Earth in Star Trek is very advanced.
M: Fine! He’s in Wombwell*, they’re still very backwards there.
C: Silence.
M: He takes the sewing machine to a man to get it fixed. The man says ‘What do you want me to do with it?’ And Picard says, ‘Make it sew’.**
C: You know, that’s not a very good joke.

*My hometown
**Picard’s well known catchphrase is ‘Make it so’, in case you don’t know, often followed by ‘Number 1′, cos he was talking to Riker.