Top 10 Reasons the New Star Trek Rules

The new Star Trek movie opened a couple of weeks ago in theaters, hanging on to the number one spot until Angels and Demons premiered. Having already recouped it's budget in two weeks, the movie is still going strong, owing its success to an appeal that reaches traditional Trekkie's like myself as well as the average movie-goer.

I thought it might be fun to try to conjure up 10 reasons this new Trek is worth the $742 it costs to go to the movies these days. I'll try to keep it spoiler-free for those that want to see it, but then again, nobody really reads this blog anyway, so here goes:

10: The inclusion of Leonard Nimoy. Sure William Shatner was denied, but the original Spock's presence makes this movie "official" for a lot of people, and upped the ante on the cast and crew to honor the original series, known affectionately as 'TOS'.

9: Nobody really tried to imitate the original actors. Mostly, the new cast gave us a new, fresh interpretation. The only real exception is Karl Urban, who seems to really be trying to channel Dr. McCoy.

8: Aliens that really look like aliens. The original show had some cool alien characters. Anyone remember the Thalosians? Freaky. Also, the Andorians, the Mugatu, and many more. The 60's show seemed to really stretch the imaginations of the creators by bringing us otherworldly characters. Then came Star Trek: The Next Generation. Suddenly, aliens were unanimously created by simply having a 'bumpy-headed' human. Seriously? Is that the best they could do with their expanded budget and technology? Rubber foreheads?
Well, this newest release has real-looking aliens populating Federation space once again. Yaay!

7: Enterprise isn't too updated. Sure, they don't have the red banister, the anonymous blinking Christmas lights and such. But the sets and exteriors are similar enough that you feel like you're back watching the original. Granted, the background isn't painted with the groovy bright 60's color scheme, but some liberation had to be made. I always hated Enterprise-D from Next Generation with its muted, beige colors, ergonomic design, and touchscreen displays. It reminds me of a Galactic Holiday Inn.

6: Speaking of Enterprise, going to 'warp' actually looks like a ship is jumping to light-speed. In recent iterations of Trek, when a ship went to warp, you had the bizarre squash-and-stretch that warping ships went into. That never made sense to me. I always thought, what is this, a cartoon? Ships don't stretch out when they suddenly move fast. In Star Trek '09, when a ship jumps to warp, it really jumps to warp, in other words it almost just disappears. It seems more realistic.

5: In space, nobody hears you scream. There are a couple of moments when the action takes you outside the ship, and the sound goes quiet. This allows for the score to do its wonderful work, while honoring the scientific fact that sound doesn't actually work in space. I haven't seen that since 2001: A Space Odyssey, and it is used to great effect here. I can't remember if this rule applied through the whole movie or not, but it seems that at least a couple of times it worked well.

4: Wrath of Continuity. It seemed that with the time travel storyline, die hard fans have boo-hoo'd for months now about the disruption in continuity. Without giving too much away, there is a plot device that both honors continuity from previous shows, while allowing for some new possibilities.

3: Goodbye, political correctness. In recent years, Star Trek has evolved into a pseudo-intellectual, politically correct, sometimes boring affair. Nothing against Captain Picard, but he's just too dog-gone perfect. He never made judgement errors, never was out of line, never broke prime directive, blah blah blah. Now, we're back to a captain we believe can make tough calls, make mistakes, and perform with the kind of bravado that made Captain Kirk legendary. Additionally, you have to remember that we're going back to the early careers of the crew, meaning the captain is even younger and more brash than he was during the television show that ran from '66 to '69.

2: Action and peril. Nobody is safe in the new timeline, so it's possible to sit on the edge of your seat and wonder what's going to happen next. The new version has plenty of action, hearkening back to when the show was essentially a western in space. Naysayers whine about how Roddenberry's vision was a civilized, peaceful future, yada yada but I say WRONG. Even Gene Roddenberry knew that there had to be at least some excitement. Sure the shows were thought-provoking, but then you had Kirk doing awesome Kirky things like building a rifle from scratch to fight the Gorn.

1: Character development. It is possible to take beloved characters, acknowledge their previous traits, and develop interesting story arcs without violating what we know. Additionally, some characters were expanded on significantly, and given more to do than sit at the console and say "Aye, sir". Action and big explosions are certainly nice, but the story at its core really is about the interesting people, and their interactions. Nearly everyone gets plenty of face-time, with the possible exception of Chekhov, who is little more than comic relief with his accent. That's only a minor complaint though, especially when he was not even on the show during the initial run of their 5-year mission.

If you are capable of overlooking a few minor quibbles, such as details like Captain Pike now being an older mentor instead of Kirk's contemporary, Enterprise being built on the ground instead of in space, and characters that originally didn't appear until later, you'll have a good time.

Highly recommended, four stars.

Getting in touch with my Inner Nerd

Greetings-

I have nothing intrinsically profound to share today. I just wanted to share some images I found recently with other people who might want to get in touch with their inner nerd. As you know, the title of my blog is Nerdvana, and in the spirit of that, I occassionally like to talk about and provide links to sci-fi stuff.

Like many nerds, I have an interest in model rocketry that includes building them from Estes kits and taking great joy in shooting them up 300, 500, or more feet up in the air. There's just something satisfying about it, and if you have kids (I have two boys) it's a great way to spend time with them. Nothing says parental love quite like blowin' some stuff up!

With that in mind, I found something combining two things I enjoy: Star Wars and rockets.

These images come courtesy of photographer Brad Pennock. Published with his permission. His Flickr site can be found at http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=x-wing&w=64855637%40N00

Thanks, Brad, for your cool images! Man, I'm still geeking out over how awesome that is. It is a pretty solid example of what I would be doing if I had the resources. So until I do get that Columbian Cartel side thing going, I'll just live vicariously through other people I guess.

Peace out!

Proverbs 23:4-6 (New International Version)
4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.
5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

Patience

I really had my patience tested yesterday. I live out in the sticks, where we don't have the luxury of DSL or cable tv as of yet. The company I work for offered a wireless Internet card at a discounted monthly rate, so we jumped on it. Unfortunately, we don't live in a zone that has 3G, wi-fi, the Edge network, or anything else that our cellular provider offers. Our cell phone doesn't even work there. As such, the new laptop Internet card didn't work, so I called to cancel it.

I spoke with a tech support guy first, who asked if I'd rather cancel right away, or try to troubleshoot it first, as it could have been a technical issue. I replied that I'd like to try troubleshooting first, because my experience in the telecom industry has taught me that it could always be something very simple I'm just overlooking. After following all his instructions, about 45 minutes later we agreed it was in fact not going to work. He advised me he would transfer me to the department that would handle the service cancellation. That is where the real fun began.

Next I spoke to someone in billing, who asked me for my name, number, and personal info. I gave it again, then explained what happened. The guy told me he'd be happy to help, if I understood that I'd be paying for 4 days of service. I explained that I had only had the product less than a day, having just gotten it. I ordered it online, which is why the service date showed up as May 1. I told him that I would not pay for 4 days of service, especially when it has not even worked for one day! So he transfers me to another department. Oh boy, this is fun.

The next person I talked to waned to know my name, phone number, personal info, and the capital of Texas. I went through the whole story again, and told this person that I was not paying pro-rated fees or an early disconnect fee since my product was under the 30-day warranty. It hasn't worked one day, and all I want is to cancel service and send the junk, I mean product, back. He advised me that was not his department, and that he'd be transferring me to another department to handle the cancellation. Oh, joy, you mean I get to wait in que for another customer service rep?

So I wait, and about 35 minutes later I'm on the line with a technician whose name is every consonant with no vowels. He wants to know my name, number, personal info, the number of pores in my skin, and the fastest land animal. I told him the whole story, and I just want to cancel service, and send the product back that I ordered on the Premium web site. "Premium web site", he asks, "Oh, that's another department", and he promptly transferred me.

Now I wait nearly an hour, enjoying the Best of Elevator Music. Finally, I got a guy who asks me my name, number, problem, personal info, and who wrote the National Anthem. I go through all that, then he says (you might want to sit down)..."I'm going to transfer you now to the appropriate party and.."

At that moment, Bruce Banner would have cowered from me. Customer service people, you listening? Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

I snapped. I raised my voice and said, "No, no. You are not going to TRANSFER ME TO ANOTHER DEPARTMENT. You are like, the 10th person who I was told could help me cancel my service, only to pass me on to some other person! This stops now, you are gonna cancel my service, I am not going to pay an early termination, and I'm going to send you this product back, free of charge! How freaking hard is that to understand? I just...want... to CANCEL. I have been on the line an hour and a half waiting to talk to the right person, and getting passed around is very frustrating!"

Then, like magic, I heard a keyboard clicking, and the tech said, "OK, sir, I cancelled your service, and you will not be charged an early termination fee. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

No, I told him. Then that was that. I don't understand why there was so much difficulty in solving my issue. It wasn't a broken product, it was simply not going to work because of where I live. That should have been easy to solve with a quick cancellation. I suppose anyone in customer service who handles a cancellation has to report why, and maybe it counts against their record? Dunno.

So it wasn't my shining moment, to be sure. I later at work went to the Bible during my break, to see what it says about patience. Turns out, a lot of information is in there about it. I'll share one scripture. It's from Ecclesiastes 7: 8, 9. It goes:

8: The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
and patience is better than pride.
9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit,
for anger resides in the lap of fools.

Wow. There's more, but that one stands out the most for me. I don't think I was quickly provoked, I was on the phone all evening before really losing it. But still, I felt a guilty pang and had to share my experience here. I hope my little story teaches you that the Good Book is full of information that is relevant today as it was when it was inspired, and also if you work in customer service, do me a favor. Just listen to the customer.

This week in Nerdvana

Not much going on here, I'll do a basic recap.

-My wife is amped to say the least about being a Grandma in September '09. Our daughter is preggers, and we don't know what we're having yet. We're happy either way, so long as the baby is healthy. My wife is sure having fun buying stuff for the new addition! It's going to be great, spoiling someone else's baby, then giving it back Haha

-My oldest son is preparing to take his ACT test, hoping he'll do well enough to help his chances of some scholarship dollars for college. He's been selected to go to Boys State, which is a weeklong program for teens who are way into politics. They do mock-debates, get to see the State Capital, and sometimes meet a senater or someone at the state level. They boy is eat up with politics, and thinks he wants to be a politician after he finishes secondary school. I advised him to have a VERY thick skin if that's the route he's going, and do get a degree in something he can use first. Hopefully the advice will sink in, and hopefully I'll graduate before he does lol

-My youngest son is in a play at our church in a few weeks called Kingdom Quest. The kids have lots of lines to learn and refine, but practise went well today methinks. My awesome wife is directing the musical, wearing many hats these days, and pulling it off beautifully. She amazes me with her uncanny ability to balance her many duties, while still putting up with me. She deserves an award or something.

-I got approval for my tuition aid, and got my textbook in the mail. The mail man was nice enough to leave it in the street, so the package was ripped and nice and muddy by the time my wife discovered it. The book looks like it survived though. That's a good thing.

That's about it. My only other thought is, I'm tired and would like some sleep. Other than that, life in NC is beautiful and exciting, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Peace out!