Validus

Not the Klingons or any of the old villains we've seen dozens of times over the years. I don't care about two dimensional "heroes" and "villains". Here's an idea...how about actual well written three dimensional characters that help drive a compelling plot!!!

That's something you just don't see anymore now, is it?

I'm probably alone in this but I've always enjoyed Star Trek: The Motion Picture the best. I was especially pleased with the DVD director's cut. Robert Wise (who also directed "The Day the Earth Stood Still") made a mark not just on Star Trek but on Sci-Fi as a whole with this stunningly transcendental film.

Well....

They have taken Bond after he got stale and revamped him half a dozen times. If they can keep Bond fresh (and Superman and Batman) one hopes they can do the same for the Enterprise.

It's a little late to give it to the Babylon 5 Guys. Since J.J. Abrams and his crew already are writing it.

I disagree. I think Trek XI will be terrific. Wanna know why?

Because it's STAR TREK, that's why.

I admire your optimism but your optimism is unfortunately unfounded. Out of the last four Star Trek films only one was good (First Contact) and the other three were all nothing more then varying shades of bad to worse. Out of all ten Star Trek films you really only have two that are great*, two that are merely good** and the rest are damn near awful. Nemesis? Gag! Insurrection? Insurmountable is more like it! Generations? Kirk's death was lame and the dialog was painful.

*Star Trek: TMP (Director's cut) and STII:TWOK (Director's cut).

**Star Trek IV:TVH and ST VI:TUC

What a compliment.

I wish I was....but alas no....

I know that Starbuck being a Cylon isn't as yet proven, but c'mon...she blew up and then came back. The only way that she could be back is if she died/downloaded/and returned. Therefore-a Cylon.

I can only see one way that they could make a Star Trek film worth watching. You need to have a war that destroys two thirds of the Federation and half the Klingon/Romulan Empires. Then fast forward about a century after things have been rebuilt and make that your starting point. Franchise rebooted...no muss, no fuss.

-and have a writer who knows what he's doing come up with a script that's actually worth shooting. I say give Star Trek to J. Michael Straczynski...the man who created and wrote Babylon-5. Any other idea is probably a distant second. Your thoughts?

Speculation:

From the beginning we were told that there are 12 models of Cylon. Until yesterday we had seen 7 of those models. Starbuck plus the 4 that were revealed makes 12.

I'm wondering if perhaps in the distant past the cylons took a vote as to what should be done with the human race. I'm guessing that they voted by model 7-5 to wipe us out. I'm also guessing that the Cylon fleet that is currently on top of the Galactica consists of the other 5 "models" and are, for lack of a better term, the "good" Cylons.

Galactica could well find itself in the middle of a Cylon civil war with the winners determining the fate of humanity (kinda like the Shias vs. the Sunnis).

Anyway we'll see.

Don't miss tonight...the Season 3 Finale!!!!

Will Baltar be executed?

Will Lee ever rebuild his relationship with his near facist Father?

Is Starbuck dead or alive?

-Hmmm...

I don't think that Starbuck is really dead...if she was then her death would have been utterly dumb. I'm currently more interested in the fate of Balter and Lee defending him in the trial. If they execute Baltar, I'm wondering if it'll get botched like when they hung Saddam. Lee's relationship with his Father and his wife is now in the can- perhaps for good...and the cylons are still closing in inch-by-inch.

Well, I'm really not surprised that you'd like a film with a bare-chested Mark Singer running around. :P

What are you talking about?

Captain America is currently the star of Cival War as well as being featured in The Avengers and The Ultimates pretty much every month. He was even the main character in the recent film "Ultimate Avengers: The Movie" and it's sequal.

What rock are you living under, Kor? :P

Alright-

I just saw 300, and here is what I thought...

First of all it is a very enjoyable film, and there is much here to praise. Visually it is indeed a feast for the eyes. However, there are a few points I must touch upon that would've enabled me to enjoy the film more had they been addressed in the pre-production process.

I found the use of narration in the film rather annoying. Narration is fine if it is used to make the audience privy to information that it might otherwise not have...but in 300 this is never the case. Too often the narrator tells us things either we've just see...are just seeing...or will have seen in 3-6 seconds. If all the narration were stripped from this film we would then be left with the narrative which would have been more then enough.

We, the audience, are asked to sympathize with the Spartans who we are told are fighting for a noble cause...to preserve their culture and lands. The problem is that the culture of the Spartans is so brutally inhuman that one cannot really mourn for its eventual loss many centuries later. The Spartans treated children worse then the average Jerry Springer guest, and their fanaticism is no different from the fanaticism of the Persians. King Leonidas is certainly an able soldier, which is just a subtle way of saying that he is better at killing his enemies then his enemies are at killing him...but he is no Henry the 5th. He does not value freedom as the film suggests...he's a King and no one voted for him. The ancients did not value personnal freedom the way we do now since the rise of the Enlightenment. They valued loyalty and bravery, and this the Spartans certainly had in spades...but it is difficult for us moderns to look at them as being any different then the Japanese who crashed their fighters into our ships and are even to this day ridiculed for their mindlessness.

"300" isn't really about ideals, but about how men can fight bravely in the face of impossible odds. It is a strange obsession in warlike cultures that we often seem more impressed with great failures then great successes. Americans love to romanticise Pearl Harbor and the British never tire of writing about the Charge of the light brigade and both were miserable failures that resulted in much pointless loss of life. Watching 300 made me wonder if to a certain extent the Iraqis see us as we the audience see the Persians...a vast unthinking throng with endless numbers and endless hubris.

It is noble to die for a good cause, but I feel in my heart that it is above all better to live for a good cause.

I keep thinking that Baltar's trial has certain parallels with the recent trial of Saddam Hussein. True, Baltar isn't the same as Saddam but still...there will be controversy about how Baltar's trial is conducted both within the show and with the fans-

-it should be interesting. I was also facinated recently by the revelations regarding Kara's (Starbuck's) relationship with her mother and how that shaped her character. I can relate- my mother treated me pretty badly too.

I'm thinking that 300 will probably be the best historical epic since Ridley Scott's masterpiece, Kingdom of Heaven. I'd recommend to anyone who saw "Kingdom" and didn't like it to check out the special extended version which adds about an hour and makes for a much fuller viewing experience.

300 versus 1,000,000? Kirk would've liked those odds. :P

I just wish I could be a Vorlon.

I'm wondering if any of the newer people would care to cast a vote here.......hmmm?

The E. The SSD didn't even have the shields to deflect a fighter plane from flying straight into it and eventually taking the whole flippin' thing down!

That was my thought. I mean, the Enterprise E was literally able to fly circles around a Borg cube and blast great chunks out of it with little effort...and I know that a Borg cube is a hell of a lot toughter then the SSD even given its size.

I never miss the Daily Show or The Colbert Report. I also watch CNN, Battlestar Galactica, and just recently I watched the films Babel and Little Miss Sunshine.

It was recently announced that the creator of B-5 is going to be releasing some direct to video B-5 adventures this year. I can't wait!

That doesn't surprise me. This was, remember, the 70's. That was when books like Chariots of the Gods were actually taken seriously (along with "Big Foot" who even made an appearance in The Six Million Dollar Man). :blink:

The whole "mankind from space" premise might have worked in a time when evolution wasn't a well-known fact, now it just smacks of bad writing. I would be so pissed if the new BSG ended with the Galactica actually finding the Earth. Remember Galactica 1980??? <_<

This is a total geek question I know but we are all, after all, total geeks.

This topic came up recently with a friend of mine who just recently watched Return of the Jedi and First Contact with his son for the first time. The Enterprise E (Sovereign Class) is the most powerful ship in starfleet and the Super Star Destroyer is the most powerful ship in the Imperial fleet from Star Wars.

Frankly I think the Enterprise E would pulverize the white elephant from the Lucasverse. The weapons on the SSD are certainly numerous, but individually they pack very little punch. They weren't even enough to prevent a rebel A-wing fighter from crashing into the bridge. By contrast the Enterprise E was able to hit and run with little trouble on a slower moving Borg Cube...and a Borg Cube is doubtless far more maneuverable then the manhatten-sized SSD. I think after about a dozen quantum torpedoes the mighty SSD would start to look like a whale riddled with harpoons.

True, but betazoids also look Human, there wasn't much imagination put into their species at all.

I totally agree. Even the term "betazoid" sounds more like the name of a Transformer then an alien race from Star Trek. When TNG first aired I wondered if there would later be introduced "alphazoids" and "Gammazoids". I guess the Governor of California is a "deltoid"? :blink:

Well- I'm a switch-hitter but I still don't think Brent Spiner is "hot" ...he's so not my type. :blink:

As an actor though I do like him. He was the best part of Independence Day which was otherwise a terrible film.

Only with you. :blink:

The reason that Janeway and Chakotay never hooked up is that it would have been totally inappropriate. You don't have relationships with your subordinates. Even Kirk never did that.

Yes...but if Kirk had been stuck out in the Delta Quadrent for years and years he could have jumped the Yeoman and you know it. Inappropriateness isn't the issue...human nature and what is realistic is.