I Only Used It for Medicinal Purposes

I had an obituary for the recently-deceased Leonard Nimoy in the works, but time and a lack of writing skill have rendered it unworthy of posting. Meanwhile, our own CRH introduced his own tribute at a recent social gathering, the profound wisdom of which (the tribute, not necessarily the social gathering) we will not debate at these proceedings.

Behold the limited edition Romulan Ale:

There were six phrases/sayings at the bottom of each label in the six-pack (though to be fair, CRH, knowing his audience, brought two of them):

• Wanting a beer is not so pleasing a thing as having a beer
• Drinking this beer is your first, best destiny. Anything else is a waste of material
• Sauce for the goose
• I have been and always shall be your ale
• The needs of the thirsty outweigh the needs of the few, or the one
• Live long and prosper

Although they are all wonderful, the first two on the list are in a dead heat in my mind, regardless of what the second one implies about the drinker in question.

We are eagerly looking forward to the next shipment across the Neutral Zone.

Time is a luxury I did not have for writing this movie review

Marooned on the far rim of Fairfax Circle last Saturday by a trailer hitch installation, I made my way on foot to the (relatively speaking) nearest movie theater* to watch Star Trek: Into Darkness. I have some things to say, but since they involve spoilers we'll hold off until after the jump.

Executive Summary: An excellent cast are made to say and do things with which I disagree in a film I would really like to love but can only really like.

Click here to proceed. Did I mention there are spoilers galore?

The (hitherto unnoticed) Riker Maneuver

I watched a fair amount of Star Trek: The Next Generation and I have to admit I am firmly in the "never-noticed" camp regarding the way in which Riker sits down. Yet there it is, sitting in front of us the whole time:



The comment thread in the linked article is both entertaining and informative; apparently the original uniforms were, shall we say, not man-friendly, resulting in the act of taking a seat becoming a roll of the dice. Shall we say.

H/t Christian Ready's FB page.

A Moment Of Silence, Please

This has been a sad week.

Today, Neil Armstrong passed away.

SFGate Article

A pioneer that will be truly missed

But also, William Windom passed on Monday. His best remembered performance, at least among fandom



Also on Monday we lost Phyllis Diller, a pioneer in comedy, and Tony Scott, a brilliant filmmaker.

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Dilithium Crystals for Tribbles!!!

Recently, Wil Weaton tweeted various pictures from GenCon showing all that is wild, wonderful and weird at conventions.  In one of the many shots of him signing fan swag, a box on the table caught my eye.

Could it be true? Or was this a very clever fan made item?

An internet search commenced and lo and behold, its true!!!!

Introducing a new bit of great, gaming geekery!

 

Star Trek Catan

I can't wait to hear all the drinking games that emerge around this one. Romulan ale anyone?

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Surely, the Best of Times

I was remiss/overtaken by real life in not noting Monday's 30th anniversary of the release of Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan. Fortunately I follow Leonard Nimoy on Twitter or I would have forgotten altogether.

The first time I saw it was in my hometown of Lyons, NY, at the Ohmann Theater. We knew most of the people who worked there - hell, we were in the same classes at school - so we got to stay in our seats and watch the second screening for free.

As the years passed and the odd-even quality of the sequels ground inexorably onward, it became apparent that we had not paid for the second viewing of something special. The combination of Olympian scenery-chewing and a genuinely exciting pace (damn the logical inconsistencies, full speed ahead!) makes it highly re-watchable. For a while in the 90s I would sometimes watch it directly after watching my VHS copy of Space Seed, never failing to observe that desert-planet living had really taken its toll on Joachim.

As always, we must give the last word to Admiral James T. Kirk, bracketed by what passed for subtle acting by Sr. Montalban:

Kirk Guides Us through the Kobiyashi Maru of Social Media

Happy... Birthdaydear... BILL!!!

Today marks the completion of William Shatner's 80th trip around the sun. In tribute, here's some gifted amateur thespians, particularly Jason Alexander:



Now step aside for the Master Thespian:



And possibly the greatest (non-Esperanto) onscreen moment of a long and varied career:

Fire up the Spare Time Generator, This is Important

If you are unfamiliar with Red Letter Media, take some vacation time to check out the long-form scathing reviews of Next Generation-era Trek movies and, above all, the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Even though he's only done Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, by the time you finish watching he'll be done with Revenge of the Sith.

Live Long and... Hey!

For those of you who missed it, here's Conan O'Brien's recent interview with William Shatner in which they exchange familiar, if differently intended, hand gestures:

Captain's Blog

Sorry for the delay in posting my thoughts on Star Trek, which 60% of the masthead saw the weekend before last. My initial observations got trapped by a plot device or something.

At any rate, the "reboot," as the kids say, exceeded my expectations and represents a series of throwdowns to the original canon, staking out lots of uncharted narrative territory in the process. If the sequels can be as good as this then they can make as many as they want.

I particularly enjoyed the pre-characterizations of the main characters (i.e. you see flashes of the chronologically later versions of the characters here) as well as the overt references to Wrath of Khan. As this is a spoiler-free post I will say no more.

My only objection is that there was nothing like this, but I expect the DVD/director's cut to remedy the minor oversight:

To the Final Frontier

In a fitting sendoff, the remains of Gene and Majel Barrett Roddenberry will be shot into space. Who will play "Amazing Grace" at their sendoff in lieu of the late James Doohan?

Boldly Going Where No Spouse/SO Would Ever Think of Going

The precious reserves of spare time carefully hoarded by some of us are about to be swallowed by the release of MMO Star Trek. I actually do not count myself as vulnerable to this particular threat but certain of us may be about to significantly lower our risk of skin cancer.

Also I imagine all quadrants will be overrun by K1RKs and 5P0[Ks and such, all vying for fleeting tactical advantage while strategic goals remain unfulfilled. This, at least, was my experience playing an early version of Netrek, in which we largely eschewed the strategic goals of star system colonization in favor of parking ships alongside each other at pistol range and having at it until one ship's shields failed or, in one spectacular case, a third ship would enter the battle area at extremely high speed and destroy everything in the vicinity (including itself) via collision. Good virtual times.

Science!

The ageing Hubble Space Telescope* has helped discover some of the unverse's missing missing dark matter, although it will have to share the reward money with the other robot spacecraft.

Frankly this sounds very similar to a Tholian Web so I can see how the scientists would want to soft-pedal this one.

*My high school European History teacher loved the constant references to "the ageing Franz Joseph of Austria" throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century sections of European History textbooks. Given that it feels like the HST was launched in 1848 I will refer to the venerable satellite as the Hapsburg Space Telescope from now on.