(no subject)
Jul. 13th, 2005 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakFirstly, yesterday I learned that Patrick Stewart, who turns 65 today, and Ian McKellan are going to play Prospero and Lear respectively in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 2006 season. I don't care how, but I must make it to Stratford next year.
Secondly, I watched more Enterprise, and must say that all of you who told me season 4 was good really haven't exaggarated. It's no DS9, but it's an enjoyable space show, and I would have liked for it to continue. Again, there were several things for an old Trekker to squee about, and thankfully it seems the Augments had been the last instance where a group was depicted as uniformely the same. Be it Romulans, Klingons or the Mirror equivalents of our own gang, there was no more follow the leader unquestioningly nonsense.
Developing the Andorians seems to have been Enterprise's most pointed contribution to the Trek mythos. I really like the blue bunch (and their white cousins), and of course it's always good to see Jeffrey Combs again, in a role very much unlike either Weyoun or Brunt. Bringing up the Orions and Orion slave girls (introduced all the way back in the first unaired Star Trek pilot, when the Captain was Pike, the first officer was female and Spock smiled) again, otoh, I could have done without. I could see the final gag - the women are actually in charge of the attempted ship takeover, and the willing slave thing is just an act - miles away, because please, Joss did that so much better in Our Mrs. Reynolds - and the episode was neither silly nor serious enough to deal with that old Sci-Fi stalwart, female pheromones making males powerless, in a way that doesn't make you groan at the inherent sexism. (Heck, even Voyager did this better in the fun Captain Proton episode where they were all in Paris' Flash Gordon-like holoprogramm, and Janeway was Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People. That episode went for the silly deliberately and acknowledged how stupid the pheromone idea was, and as a result, the viewers had fun along with the crew.) What I did enjoy about Bound was the crew refusing to follow Archer's orders to fire at a vessel which was no real threat to them, and this scene not being made a big deal of, just a part of who these people are. (And it's good to know they're not the type to think "but it was an order" is a good excuse.)
The Affliction and it's sequel finally provided an explanation on why the Klingons in Kirk's era were ridgeless, not that I really needed one. (Worf's "we don't talk about it with outsiders" from Trials and Tribble-ations was an amusing way to wave that aside.) They put some thought behind this one, though, and as mentioned before I loved that the Klingons were characterized as invidiuals - the Doctor Phlox was interacting with mainly wasn't like the general who wasn't like his superior, and they all reacted differently to situation in question. As the episodes put the earlier Augments storyline to good use, I'm mostly mollified in that regard as well. Further continuity goodness was provided by the appearance of Section 31, and wouldn't you know it, they recruited the Brit on board. Mind you, while Dominic Keating got a rare chance to act here, his particular subplot still was too easily resolved. Or too suddenly started, or both. I can see why they didn't want to repeat Bashir's season 5 and 7 storyline in regards to Section 31 here, but they could have avoided that by letting Reed make the opposite choice, i.e. actually choose section 31 over Starfleet. Would have been less predictable.
The ongoing Trip/T'Pol subplot: Lord help me, I like this 'ship. I didn't think I would, because in the first three episodes of season 1 that I've seen, the sexual attraction appeared to be forced, but in season 4, I find the two of them very believable together. I might even look for fanfic.
Captain Hernandez is back! I'm always pleased when Trek shows bring up other Captains who are smart and competent, thus indicating the show's lead isn't the only one in the universe who is. Actually, I like this woman more than I do Archer. Not that I have anything against Archer, but the season hasn't managed to distinguish him beyond "heroic lead" for me. And I know leading men and women whom I became really invested in after a similar short space of episodes because they became individuals for me. Mal from Firefly, Adama from BSG (though I love Roslin more, I still am very, very, very fond of Theoden in space), Gideon from Crusade, to name a few sci-fi examples, and going out from the genre, Buffy of BTVS. But Archer seems just The Heroic Captain (tm) and nothing more. It might be due to the actor as well. I mean, it took the TNG writers a while to come up with something for Picard (read: the writing didn't become good for him until the second season) that went beyond "heroic Captain, not Kirk", but Patrick Stewart was such a presence that Picard was memorable anyway. Ah well.
And then I got to the Mirrorverse episodes, which caused another Woohoo on my part. Ah, the good old Mirrorverse. 'Twas scary campy fun in the original "Mirror, Mirror" episode from TOS, and the same in its first two appearances on DS9. Then, alas, it stopped being scary and only was campy, and in the end, the normal DS9 universe was far, far darker. Enterprise went for a novel approach and didn't let some of our regular characters end up in the Mirrorverse but told a two-parter entirely from the pov of the Mirrorverse characters who never meet our regulars. The opening scene with its clever, clever use of First Contact footage (only in this case, Zefram Cochrane kills the Vulcan and the humans take over the ship) and the changed title credits were downright brilliant. Especially since the credits, like the normal ones, use real historical footage (except for the last images). Trek regularly gets accused of being too smug about humanity and its virtues, and sometimes it can be, but definitely not here, where instead of showcasing the "explorer" part of our development, the credits showcase science-as-weapons, war footage and all.
One of the great and dark twists when the Mirrorverse was first reused on DS9 was the discovery that Kirk's inspiring little speech to Mirror!Spock on how the Terran Empire could be changed if enough people rallied to the cause resulted in the fall of the Empire, alright, but also in the rise and formation of a new Empire constituted of the people the Terrans had earlier surpressed, who behaved just as ruthlessly. In a Mirror, Darkly echoed some of that, showing the Terran Empire at an earlier endangered point... with the rebellion getting crushed. As in the DS9 Mirrorverse episodes, the doppelgangers weren't always simple opposites but sometimes more alternate versions, grown up in a different environment, having made different choices. Which made, say, Mirror!T'Pol much more interesting than Mirror!Archer, who simply was EVIL (and delusional). Mirror!Sato worked for me in a way the Orion women had not, i.e. as an attempt to turn a sexist concept from the 60s (in her case, the "Captain's Woman", which Marlena Moreau had been for Kirk) on its head by making her the true power. (I wish, though, the actress had more fire. Alas for Nana Visitor and her glee when playing the Intendant.) The gag with Porthos as a fearsome Baskerville dog made me grin, though the pet of the season award has to go to the Klingon targ in the earlier episodes. (The animal of the season is of course the Sehlat!)
Only a few more episodes let, and now I'm sorry for it. I've grown fond of the gang.
****
Today is also a good day for a multifandom girl like me.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hobsonphile posted our list of Signs You Are A Centauriphile; all Babylon 5 watchers, please take note. honorh, proving that badgering your friends is a perfectly legitimate tactic, posted the Star Wars Fashion Critique from her evil alter ego I had been begging for persistently. And kangeiko wrote another superb story, an Alias one, set post-season 4: "Tale of the Dead Princess".
****
Lastly, returning to Patrick Stewart: just a few reasons why he's so worth gushing over. He can play villains (Sejanus in I, Claudius, for example) as easily as men of conscience (Picard and Charles Xavier, obviously), hardened obsessives (Ahab in Moby Dick) as easily as men falling apart (The Masterbuilder, an Ibsen play I andkathyh) saw him in. He is one of the few actors who can make the act of listening as interesting as a close-up of them when they're talking; you always get the impression there is something going on behind the eyes. He can do stoic, he can emote like no-one's business. (Not coincidentally, the episode which made me fall for Picard was Sarek in which our Captain gets to channel Sarek's and his own long surpressed emotions for a scene; what makes this so powerful, more so than if it had been, say, Kirk or Sisko who are both openly emotional types is that you know how tight a reign Picard usually keeps on himself.) And last but certainly not least, he has a divine voice. May the public benefit from it for many years more!
Secondly, I watched more Enterprise, and must say that all of you who told me season 4 was good really haven't exaggarated. It's no DS9, but it's an enjoyable space show, and I would have liked for it to continue. Again, there were several things for an old Trekker to squee about, and thankfully it seems the Augments had been the last instance where a group was depicted as uniformely the same. Be it Romulans, Klingons or the Mirror equivalents of our own gang, there was no more follow the leader unquestioningly nonsense.
Developing the Andorians seems to have been Enterprise's most pointed contribution to the Trek mythos. I really like the blue bunch (and their white cousins), and of course it's always good to see Jeffrey Combs again, in a role very much unlike either Weyoun or Brunt. Bringing up the Orions and Orion slave girls (introduced all the way back in the first unaired Star Trek pilot, when the Captain was Pike, the first officer was female and Spock smiled) again, otoh, I could have done without. I could see the final gag - the women are actually in charge of the attempted ship takeover, and the willing slave thing is just an act - miles away, because please, Joss did that so much better in Our Mrs. Reynolds - and the episode was neither silly nor serious enough to deal with that old Sci-Fi stalwart, female pheromones making males powerless, in a way that doesn't make you groan at the inherent sexism. (Heck, even Voyager did this better in the fun Captain Proton episode where they were all in Paris' Flash Gordon-like holoprogramm, and Janeway was Arachnia, Queen of the Spider People. That episode went for the silly deliberately and acknowledged how stupid the pheromone idea was, and as a result, the viewers had fun along with the crew.) What I did enjoy about Bound was the crew refusing to follow Archer's orders to fire at a vessel which was no real threat to them, and this scene not being made a big deal of, just a part of who these people are. (And it's good to know they're not the type to think "but it was an order" is a good excuse.)
The Affliction and it's sequel finally provided an explanation on why the Klingons in Kirk's era were ridgeless, not that I really needed one. (Worf's "we don't talk about it with outsiders" from Trials and Tribble-ations was an amusing way to wave that aside.) They put some thought behind this one, though, and as mentioned before I loved that the Klingons were characterized as invidiuals - the Doctor Phlox was interacting with mainly wasn't like the general who wasn't like his superior, and they all reacted differently to situation in question. As the episodes put the earlier Augments storyline to good use, I'm mostly mollified in that regard as well. Further continuity goodness was provided by the appearance of Section 31, and wouldn't you know it, they recruited the Brit on board. Mind you, while Dominic Keating got a rare chance to act here, his particular subplot still was too easily resolved. Or too suddenly started, or both. I can see why they didn't want to repeat Bashir's season 5 and 7 storyline in regards to Section 31 here, but they could have avoided that by letting Reed make the opposite choice, i.e. actually choose section 31 over Starfleet. Would have been less predictable.
The ongoing Trip/T'Pol subplot: Lord help me, I like this 'ship. I didn't think I would, because in the first three episodes of season 1 that I've seen, the sexual attraction appeared to be forced, but in season 4, I find the two of them very believable together. I might even look for fanfic.
Captain Hernandez is back! I'm always pleased when Trek shows bring up other Captains who are smart and competent, thus indicating the show's lead isn't the only one in the universe who is. Actually, I like this woman more than I do Archer. Not that I have anything against Archer, but the season hasn't managed to distinguish him beyond "heroic lead" for me. And I know leading men and women whom I became really invested in after a similar short space of episodes because they became individuals for me. Mal from Firefly, Adama from BSG (though I love Roslin more, I still am very, very, very fond of Theoden in space), Gideon from Crusade, to name a few sci-fi examples, and going out from the genre, Buffy of BTVS. But Archer seems just The Heroic Captain (tm) and nothing more. It might be due to the actor as well. I mean, it took the TNG writers a while to come up with something for Picard (read: the writing didn't become good for him until the second season) that went beyond "heroic Captain, not Kirk", but Patrick Stewart was such a presence that Picard was memorable anyway. Ah well.
And then I got to the Mirrorverse episodes, which caused another Woohoo on my part. Ah, the good old Mirrorverse. 'Twas scary campy fun in the original "Mirror, Mirror" episode from TOS, and the same in its first two appearances on DS9. Then, alas, it stopped being scary and only was campy, and in the end, the normal DS9 universe was far, far darker. Enterprise went for a novel approach and didn't let some of our regular characters end up in the Mirrorverse but told a two-parter entirely from the pov of the Mirrorverse characters who never meet our regulars. The opening scene with its clever, clever use of First Contact footage (only in this case, Zefram Cochrane kills the Vulcan and the humans take over the ship) and the changed title credits were downright brilliant. Especially since the credits, like the normal ones, use real historical footage (except for the last images). Trek regularly gets accused of being too smug about humanity and its virtues, and sometimes it can be, but definitely not here, where instead of showcasing the "explorer" part of our development, the credits showcase science-as-weapons, war footage and all.
One of the great and dark twists when the Mirrorverse was first reused on DS9 was the discovery that Kirk's inspiring little speech to Mirror!Spock on how the Terran Empire could be changed if enough people rallied to the cause resulted in the fall of the Empire, alright, but also in the rise and formation of a new Empire constituted of the people the Terrans had earlier surpressed, who behaved just as ruthlessly. In a Mirror, Darkly echoed some of that, showing the Terran Empire at an earlier endangered point... with the rebellion getting crushed. As in the DS9 Mirrorverse episodes, the doppelgangers weren't always simple opposites but sometimes more alternate versions, grown up in a different environment, having made different choices. Which made, say, Mirror!T'Pol much more interesting than Mirror!Archer, who simply was EVIL (and delusional). Mirror!Sato worked for me in a way the Orion women had not, i.e. as an attempt to turn a sexist concept from the 60s (in her case, the "Captain's Woman", which Marlena Moreau had been for Kirk) on its head by making her the true power. (I wish, though, the actress had more fire. Alas for Nana Visitor and her glee when playing the Intendant.) The gag with Porthos as a fearsome Baskerville dog made me grin, though the pet of the season award has to go to the Klingon targ in the earlier episodes. (The animal of the season is of course the Sehlat!)
Only a few more episodes let, and now I'm sorry for it. I've grown fond of the gang.
****
Today is also a good day for a multifandom girl like me.
hobsonphile posted our list of Signs You Are A Centauriphile; all Babylon 5 watchers, please take note. honorh, proving that badgering your friends is a perfectly legitimate tactic, posted the Star Wars Fashion Critique from her evil alter ego I had been begging for persistently. And kangeiko wrote another superb story, an Alias one, set post-season 4: "Tale of the Dead Princess".****
Lastly, returning to Patrick Stewart: just a few reasons why he's so worth gushing over. He can play villains (Sejanus in I, Claudius, for example) as easily as men of conscience (Picard and Charles Xavier, obviously), hardened obsessives (Ahab in Moby Dick) as easily as men falling apart (The Masterbuilder, an Ibsen play I and
kathyh) saw him in. He is one of the few actors who can make the act of listening as interesting as a close-up of them when they're talking; you always get the impression there is something going on behind the eyes. He can do stoic, he can emote like no-one's business. (Not coincidentally, the episode which made me fall for Picard was Sarek in which our Captain gets to channel Sarek's and his own long surpressed emotions for a scene; what makes this so powerful, more so than if it had been, say, Kirk or Sisko who are both openly emotional types is that you know how tight a reign Picard usually keeps on himself.) And last but certainly not least, he has a divine voice. May the public benefit from it for many years more!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 02:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 03:26 pm (UTC)Fantastic because of the thought, detail and care that obviously went into making them. I rewatched The Tholian Web after these aired and it's as if that episode was written to perfectly fit these eps, not the other way around.
Frustrating because it felt as if after four years, the writers had finally gotten it and the show had been cancelled.
Bah.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 04:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 03:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 03:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 04:36 pm (UTC)Come to Stratford then!
no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 05:02 pm (UTC)*drools*
Date: 2005-07-13 03:41 pm (UTC)Re: *drools*
Date: 2005-07-13 04:37 pm (UTC)Re: *drools*
Date: 2005-07-13 05:28 pm (UTC)*goes hunting for Warwickshire-type people*
no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 03:50 pm (UTC)I definitely, definitely will be seeing Patrick's Prospero though. Duuuude.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 04:39 pm (UTC)And I see we'll have a mini convention in Stratford.*g*
no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 04:58 pm (UTC)That sounds incredible. . .I hope you get to go!
no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 07:37 pm (UTC)Oh, man. Just when me and nearly all my friends are moving away. (I graduate from a Warwickshire uni with close links to Stratford this Friday>) Hopefully with this information I can prevail upon people to keep up the tradition of the annual Warwickshire picnic. Although we will be less likely to run into lecturers who just happened to advise on the productions we just saw and so get invited to drinks with the cast after the show.
Besides the likelihood of Patrick Stewart or Sir Ian nipping down to the Dog and Duck afterwards is probably fairly low anyway. ;)
no subject
Date: 2005-07-13 08:16 pm (UTC)If I could only figure out a way to see Ian McKellan as Lear...
no subject
Date: 2005-07-14 08:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-14 08:48 am (UTC)Mind company? Take
(Can't even decide what I would prefer; Tempest or Lear ...)
And glad you like the Enterprise episodes :-).
Frank
no subject
Date: 2005-07-14 10:00 am (UTC)I've finished Enterprise now and will post anon.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-14 08:03 pm (UTC)I've been talking this over with bimo, and she also would be interested very much.
With me, coming along would be restricted to the NRW holidays, obviously. If this does not work out, you would have to go with bimo alone. (Which won't be a problem as well, I guess ;-) )
Frank
no subject
Date: 2005-07-14 08:05 pm (UTC)I've been talking this over with bimo, and she also would be interested very much.
With me, coming along would be restricted to the NRW holidays, obviously. If this does not work out, you would have to go with bimo alone. (Which won't be a problem as well, I guess ;-) )
Frank
no subject
Date: 2005-07-14 10:36 am (UTC)