With projects galore overwhelming my time and leaving this site lacking, I’ve decided to open up a new string of geeky lists. One of the themes of one project has been violence and if we portray violence, do we glorify it? My opinion? Simply, no.

Everyone loves a bit of action and violence. We can all be morally superior, some elitists say wrestling is disgusting for it family friendly contest (more so than boxing, which… is a can of worms in itself) but whether it’s you’re nightly entertainment on the levels of Ian Beale punching Masood or the destruction of Coronation Street to the much loved Die Hard, everyones primal side loves to see the bad guy get a punch in the mouth.

It’s simply the most primal side of justice. So, I’ve decided to look at my favourite action moments and fight scenes. And if you don’t see your favourite, don’t fret. This is only the first of several installments…

It’s a weird collection of scenes, but these… are the most memorable. And hey, I haven’t even made a dent yet! So until part two, tell me what action, fights and general violence you love most.

Life has been surprisingly hectic with not much time for relaxing. Well, that’s a lie. I’ve put aside for relaxing time and consumed a healthy amount of beer in the process. Particularly on Sunday. But in all the rushing around and non-stop plotting and planning, it’s great to see more than a few things come together nicely.

The Day Job project is almost ready to close it’s first chapter. The first major writing stage is so close to being finished that it’s scary. Looking at my side of things when it comes to writing, I feel odd not having anything left to do (well, almost, I’ll get to that) and we’re so close to having the final episodes ready for first draft. In the next few months comes the hard part, putting it together. But while my mind works on production thoughts, going over ideas, possibilities and such in the background, the front of my mind is thinking feedback, rewrites and new ideas…

It’s kind of odd. Initially I got on board to help put it together and I seem to be tangled in the web of creativity. Which is a wonderful thing and has let my mind wake up again. I think I was initially going to write an episode or two and have ended up doing quite a few by accident. Five I think overall. And I’ve got the task of writing a vital scene in the closing episodes which I’ve already pre-planned (though, I won’t commit anything to paper until I’ve seen some of the script as I don’t want it to be unnatural).

Episode 4 was my first go and it was essentially me just laughing in my head and putting things down. The base concept was written down while waiting for a meeting on the Arches wrestling project. All the notes really said were;

- Shoes.
- I don’t know him.
- No X Box?
- Eye teeth.
- Remember the stalker.
- Poop shoot.
- You’re sitting on my dog.
- Summer Glau.
- Ken Adams.
- Exclamation marks.

I have no idea how I transitioned this to a story, and half of it doesn’t make sense to me now I’ve looked back at the notebook. But somehow something came of it that made slightly more sense. But from that nonsensical pile of notes to the relatively easy to write script led me to writing…

6… which was the hardest for me. The first draft was thrown away instantly. It was a part of my life put down on paper and it was quite a hard one to get the right mix of funnies. But I was determined to get a closing moment that was discussed and thought was perfect for that episode; 7… which was a struggle for both of us but a follow up that was a game changer and we had to work hard together to make it right; 9… which was less funny more drama and I’m still working on as the subject matter is one I’ve avoided before and it’s something I want to get right (and cheers to Nanouk for inspiring the latest idea/rewrite!); 12… in which Rob Drummond pointed out that I’d accidentally wrote a play. Which I quite liked.

Everything’s still a work in progress and as we’ve went on, the characters, story and general overall stuff has become deeper, more fleshed out and some things have changed dramatically for the better. It’s a sign as well with Gary’s scripts, which have become deeper and more involved over time. So undoubtedly I’m looking forward to seeing how it ends then tackling re-writes of the whole series. Then by March… we’ll get this rolling.

The funny thing is that everyone (apart from one) in my tester group who’s read stuff has asked if one of the leads is based on me. Which I don’t know whether to take as a compliment or an insult. And Raven asked if the other lead was Gary. As such, we shall be auditioning each other very soon in whats either going to be a complete car crash… or a Kevin Smith move.

While we enter the closing stages of Day Job, I’ve been entering the opening stages of the Arches produced wrestling show. I don’t know if there’s a title yet. It’s a documentary, a play and a training schedule that’s teaching Rob Drummond the art of wrestling so he can devise a play on it, while the crew watches his training closely.

As a cultural exchange of sorts, he’s also led myself and Damo O’Conor through an acting workshop which was fun and hope to do more. Even if my collection of medical and psychological conditions make it difficult to focus on a big chunk of text (seriously – I have to read pages in a book three or four times before the next one as my mind refuses to focus). And I did read out Hamlet in Shatner style.

I don’t think it’s going to be what people expect. In fact, I know it’s not. But aside from a few moments,it’s been a lot of fun. And thankfully the Arches attended SWA’s recent event in Bridgeton and loved the show. Which I’m happy to hear.

Speaking of which… the Bridgeton show was a success. I feared it wouldn’t be. Ok, the crowd numbers weren’t gong to make any McMahon quake in their boots but considering it was a small venue for a small show it worked wonderfully and we ran out of chairs. The venue were thrilled and spent half an hour talking to me after the show asking when we’ll be back so last week we booked it for February and… I can’t wait.

Creatively wrestling is harder to get right than anything else I’ve done. It’s like making an album.. You have to put everything in the right order and for me the main event is key to make people leave happy. Which is why I merrily put Joe Coffey – who is quite the rising star and a stand out at Area 52 – in the main. And it was great to see him retain his Laird of the Ring title.

On a selfish note – it was also good to see someone I’ve been helping devise an image for make their singles debut after a few multi-man testers. Which I love as it lets me sink my teeth into something creative on a more personal level out with Falcon and Junior.

Anyway… after this rambling blog and some bad news via text, I’m going to go away now and get some work done…

…I say work, I mean googling.

Until next blog…
- Read Gary’s reasons why SGU is shit.
- Listen to Red Lightnings debut podcast.
- Book tickets to the next SWA show on November 6th!
- And send me emails through the contact section to cheer myself up.

Since SyFy announced Caprica was coming to an end I’ve read a lot of angry fans being angry fans and blasting the SyFy network for letting this tremendous piece of science fiction fall at the first hurdle. That it was a travesty that a true original SyFy show was being axed and of course, how dare they show Smackdown!

Here’s the thing that pisses me off. When Caprica was airing people found it tedious, slow, it had no direction it was pointless, it was just there to wank out BSG, it smelled and it had no friends. But as soon as it gets axed… it’s a complete turnaround and the stupidity rolls out.

When Caprica started people were uncertain about it. But they gave it a chance. And as it went on it seemed that a lot of those people stopped caring. Whether it be the storytellng, the pace, the lack of direction, too much time in the V world or just plain pissing over the work put into the Cylons in BSG. It seemed that there was a whole world of crap to complain about.

Aside from Allesadra Torresani who is just plain hot. Everyone loves her. The show? Well… no one liked Caprica. Not really. The majority tolerated it, they found it bearable at best and a lot of those people turned off.

What does this tell me? No one cares about Caprica. Look at the numbers and the reviews from fans. It’s not a good show. It’s not worth investing in. It’s just not working. People accepted this, people agreed with this, people even said they didn’t think it would make a second season and a good few people were happy with that.

But it seems, once the network agreed with them – that network became the enemy.

It’s been a target for a while, particularly when they opted to include non-genre shows and change from Sci-Fi, to SyFy. But why shouldn’t they? It’s a business and their business wasn’t reaching it’s full potential. Why does Smackdown get on SyFy? Because it gets ratings that SGU and Caprica doesn’t. It’s had better ratings that the much loved Battlestar Galactica. It’s bringing a fresh audience to a channel that was struggling. Oh, and more Americans know who Undertaker is than they do Joseph Adama.

People are complaining that SyFy is abandoning it’s genre shows. It’s genre isn’t the problem. It’s quality is.

SyFy shouldn’t be blasted for doing whats right. They shouldn’t be critising a show no one liked (and those who suddenly think its a loss when it’s been axed, pathetic response) getting throw aside. They shouldn’t critisise a show that gets higher ratings because they believe they’re better than it (the previous bracketted comment proves otherwise). If anything, they should support their genre.

That doesn’t mean watch SGU and ask for another season. SGU is shit. It means wait, be patient. SyFy won’t survive by milking Battelstar (yay! look! Blood and Chrome, thats Adama, that’ll sell!!) or the long-dead Stargate franchise (and thats coming from a fan). They need to look at new ideas, fresh concepts, new beginnings… instead of looking for the next big thing instead of hoping to cling on to the fans of a popular show.

And those of you who are complaining about SyFy axing Caprica, and praying they don’t axe SGU, Captain Kirk has a message for you.

“There’s this phenomenon of fans who become very proprietary, not just about the objects of their fannish-ness, but also their status in the fandom,” she says. “They always want to be the one who had the inside story, the inside contact, the latest cutting edge stuff about the show or the actors. There’s almost a need to be an object of famousness themselves.”

For those who have read my previous Finnish-inspired Fandom posts, which generated some hate from the types of people the quote above refers to, I thought I’d share an interesting article from AfterElton.com by Brent Hartinger. Click here to read the full piece

Heading back to the world of science fiction before returning with the comedy run (mainly because I made a shitload of notes and haven’t went through them yet) my Enterprise mini-rant inspired me to look towards the leaders in sci fi. The men who are often the central focus of the show, the decision makers and the men who sit in the big chair (if they get a chair) making all the tough choices.

Oh yes, the captains. Thinking of Enterprise and how Captain Archer seemed weak, uninspiring and so downplayed that he bored my super-sexy Batman pants of me, I began to think of all those characters which were truly captivating through the writing, the performance and transitioned from being mere characters on a screen, to men of legend.

It’s a tough choice. But much like Marty Michael’s Top Ten Sci Fi Heroes these choices are based on my view (as always really, my site and all that) and oddly, we have two of the same men in the list. Enough babble. Kicking off with number five…

Kicking off at number five, we have…

Most importantly, the reason he’s on a non SW fans list is that he’s portrayed by Indiana Jones himself; Harrison Ford. Unlike Mark Hamil, Ford was cool. so cool that he outshines Luke Skywalker in every way and became the icon for all the young men who wanted to be just like him.

He’s also got a big hairy man slave.

Mal Reynolds is captain of the Serenity, an old cargo ship with a crew desperate enough to work for him as they live out a life of crime, struggling to survive as they live outside the controlling government. Mal once tried to fight that government in civil war and found himself on the losing side in a battle which he’s not overly bitter about, his side lost and he’s keeping out of their way. There’s no great plan, or mission of morals with Mal. Nor is there any malice in any crime he commits. He’s just a man trying to get by.

He’s not all about robbing and shooting people either. He’s somewhat of a nice guy which showed when he defended a brothel against an angry sheriff type for little reward, helped an Alliance captain against Reavers and helped an old war buddy when he found himself in peril. When it comes to the Serenity spin off movie he shows some more kindness when he realises he can’t turn his back on troubled young River, the sister of his ships doctor which again finds him up against the Alliance once again as an Agent tracks River down for knowing too much.

It helps that he’s portrayed by Nathan Fillion, who not only has wonderful comedic timing that works incredibly well with a Joss Whedon project, but he has a wonderful presence that makes him watchable in any role.

Out of all the Next Gen era of Trek captains, Sisko had a lot more going on. From his initial struggles to calm the people of Bajor when he takes command of their only outpost after they were occupied by Cardassia, to his reluctance to accept the role as their Emmisary to the Prophets due to obvious conflicts it causes with his government, to raising Jake in an unsafe enviroment and eventually heading to war with the Dominion, Sisko seemed to have a lot on his plate in comparison to other captains who pretty much had no social life. Yet Sisko carries on, makes friends and enemies and at times, controversial decisions.

Far away from the comfortable bridge of Captain Picards Enterprise and the bizarre calm office of Captain Janeways lost Voyager, Sisko seems to grow and change through the seasons, gaining a more commending presence over his crew through the war, breaking the rules and creating situations to bring in allies and even putting his own girlfriend in prison when she aids a terrorist group.

Lets look at Picards evolution through seven years of the Next Generation; Cup o’ tea, cup o’ tea, almost got shagged, cup o’ tea.

Exactly.

When the colonies were attacked and the fleet collapsed, Adama found himself on the last known Battlestar left and with the forced advice of the new president, did a runner with the remaining civilians before leading them on a quest to find the mythical 13th tribe, colonists who left centuries past for a planet called Earth.

This role couldn’t be played by anyone but the acting powerhouse that is Edward James Olmos. Through the four years of BSG we saw Adama’s highs and lows. Not just the public figure who was a strong leader, but the man who would break down and cry when things got tough, who struggled to maintain a relationship with his only surviving son, protect his dead sons ex fiancee and struggle to do the right thing. Often making bad choices and finding himself on the verge of giving up.

Adama’s faith was tested more than most in sci fi and two of his greatest moments showed a truly loving connection to his command. One is where he free’d the doomed colonists of New Caprica which left his ship in ruins before he accepted the fate that he and his ship were ready to die. Until Lee Adama jumped in for the save…

The other came when his ship finally did pack in. All the abuse from the Cylon attacks in both wars had left the ship in tatters. When it was time to move his flag elsewhere, he snapped. Everything he’d been through piled up hit him hard and we saw the brave, commanding Admiral curled up in a ball crying his eyes out over everything he’d lost.

How many of our heroes had such emotion? And how many of them seemed stronger for it? More importantly, how many of them could pull of that ‘stache?

Through the run of Star Trek, Kirk was bold, dashing, courageous, clever and while his right hand man, Spock, gained more fan mail, Kirk got all the girls on the show. When the movies hit the big screen, we saw this character evolve. At first into a man who had given up his life of adventure for a desk job and hated it. But it wasn’t until the far superior sequel, The Warth of Khan, that we saw this older Kirk become something new when the aging Admiral found himself in a battle against an old adversary and the character was reborn.

Shatner’s legendary Kirk survived another five Star Trek films, getting killed off in Generations, and has remained an icon. Although Shatner’s become a self aware self parody, he’s still awesome.

When Star Trek was brought back to the big screen with a new cast and new direction, it was no surprise that they opted to go back to day one. While Picard, Sisko and Janeway (not so much Archer) had their fanbase, not one of them matched up to Jimmy T.

Honorable mentions go to Commander Sheridon of Babylon 5, Colonel Jack O’Neil and despite hims not really being a captain… The Doctor (hey, he has a ship!)

Disagree? Have someone better in mind? Say something.

Before I say anything, if you read the last workshop blog you’ll know about a little project. The inventor of that project (I don’t think inventor is the correct term, but fuck it – this is my site. Deal with it) has started up a blog right here on TPM. Click here for Gary; Creator of creations. That’s not the blog name – I’ve been drinking.

Anyway, Enterprise… I recently picked on this show once again on GBBS. Why? Because it’s a huge gaping hole of disappointment. It’s as disappointed as lusting over Paris Hilton, thinking she’d make a great woman to stick your pee pee into then seeing her sex tape and realising even with a penis in her, she’s still dull as shit. That was Enterprise to me.

What I proposed on GBBS was simple; re-casting. I’ve seen Scott Bakula act. He’s not going to win an Oscar or anything, but he’s good. In Quantum Leap he did something quite important; he made it fun. The show wasn’t great, but it was fun and that was down to it’s two leads. I’ve seen Bakula in other things, mainly on Sci Fi where he just didn’t seem to have ‘it’ as much as he did in QL (though his QL co-star Dean Stockwell showed he was still awesome with his portrayal of Cavil in Battlestar Galactica) and even though I cringed hearing he was going to be captain of the Enterprise, I still hoped he’d be fun.

He was anything but.

The entire character was pathetic. He was bland, uninteresting, he was George W in Space (cheers for that OT!) and until the last season the only change in character would be to shout. BECAUSE SHOUTING SHOWS YOU SHOULD TAKE ME FUCKING SERIOUSLY! More importantly to me, it was as if Bakula either a) knew the character was shit and just read the words on the page hoping he’d be paid at the end of the week or b) was wrong for the role.

But was he wrong for the role, or was the character – along with the rest of the show – just dreadful?

I think it’s both. And when it comes to the show itself, I’m going to steal from the discussion…

1978 – Battlestar Galactica – great show, strong characters. New show on the tail of the Star Wars / SciFi craze
2003 – Battlestar Galactica – 25 years after TOS BSG with just G1980 and a few books inbetween, massive cult want for BSG. VERY MUCH thought out to twist on the classic show with a modern spin. Shot in a documentary style that give it more of a visual edge as well as the edgy sub plots the show had.

1966 – TOS Star Trek – great show, strong characters, ground breaking stories parallel current events. Became underground cult GOD!
2001 – Enterprise – 35 years after its original inspiration on the tail of a constant – and sometimes overlapping – exposure of other incarnations of Star Trek. VERY LITTLE thought on making this a modern twist of the classic that can lead into the classic (keep time lines happy). It was the Studio trying to milk more out of its near 40 year franchise with just typical plots, and nostalgic tie ins to the future’s past. That is why Star Trek (2009) was a blockbuster film and Enterprise was called off.
- Cylon Knight

And…

I think BSG was much more of an ensemble show than Enterprise (both lasted 4 years; so it’s a level playing field for comparison that way). After 4 years on BSG, I really felt that I got to KNOW those people (a tribute to the writers and the actors both). On Enterprise? What little I know of Travis is that he grew up on a cargo ship, flies the ship, and smiles a lot (and he once had a thing with a redheaded reporter who looked like a cleaned-up Lindsay Lohan).

For a similar comparison, let’s consider Gaeta on BSG; he sings, he’s bi-sexual, he lost a leg, he went from being a loyal officer to a occupation collaborator/rebel to leading a mutiny against the admiral, and he was executed by a firing squad!

BSG was driven by characters and their growth; not cardboard archetypes.
-Obsolete Toaster

And I can hold Voyager up to the same thing – BSG owned that show in terms of concept. Galactica had MORE than Voyager and yet ended up in the shitter. Voyager? Limited resources, hostile crew, bad situation yet… status quo.

Enterprise and Voyager failed to capitalise on something very important; Difference and change. They tried to milk the same elements of the same franchise and, while Enterprise was more of a failure and did improve in it’s last season, they failed. They killed it.

I won’t say anymore, because I could pick this apart and rant on this for hours. But… let’s hope the next Trek TV series moved forward from the event that sent Spock back and time and kicked off the alternate reality. JJ-Trek was a great way to reinvent a movie franchise. For a TV franchise…?

…well, I do have an incredible multi-year outline…

Paramount, give a call. Or I’ll send Adam Shame round to get you.

I’ve been mentioning one of the latest projects for a little while now so I figured it’s time to reveal a little more. Because if I don’t say something, everyone that’s heard bits and pieces and asked why I’m writing so much lately… well, you’ll get irritated with me brushing you off and likely stab me in the face.

Somewhere in this site I’ve mentioned Gary before. Well, Gary Alexander came up with a concept and we’ve been working on it with a determination to get it filmed for internet broadcast. There are other options, but… this is the kind of project that has far more potential on the internet and with no rules to follow but our own, there’s a lot of freedom in writing something that could be quite funny…

The concept revolves primarily around two young men living together in geeky harmony. Two very different men, with the same problem; women. Whats been written so far see’s them navigating life outside their X Box with their own personal set backs, a common enemy forming and their relationships not completely going to plan. And of course, there are tremendously geeky moments involved.

The plan right now is a thirteen episode format. So far he’s written the first three episodes, as well as the fifth and is currently working hard on the seventh and I’ve done four and six. When we’re at the half way point and seven is finished Gary’s taking a look at the creative direction and I’ll be putting together a rough Block A production schedule and working out some of the production type details with him. Including where to film, what to use, finances and everything in between.

Writing it has been a joy. Not so much for Raven who hears snippets of what we’ve wrote thus far (but she giggled a lot) and even though six was difficult as I drew on a lot of personal experience and background, the process of working with Gary has been great and it’s wonderful to be getting closer to having his vision come to pass.

But… even with some road blocks, writing will be the easy part. In a sense, locations should be quite easy too but financing and cast… that’s the hard part. I’m more worried about cast though, which is a little backwards. To get some of these characters right, the casting needs to be spot on perfect.

I know a lot of creative people, with a lot of ambition and vision and there are hundreds more who’d love to be a part of it all and join the crew. So hopefully you’ll all come out of the woodwork when I ask you and we begin assembling this product which you’ll all hopefully find funny.

Overall – I’m excited. And I’m looking forward, as I’m sure Gary is, to seeing it all come together over the next few months.

And while I’m on the subject of projects – I recently glanced at something in SFX. For those of you who’ve suffered through Year One (which has been re-added to the site, well… part one, anyway, right here) you’ll know that it all boils down to the Iconians working in the background and being evil. Oddly, Star Trek Online has done the same thing. Now, while Year One was for my own amusement, this has annoyed me a little.

Also, the play in the Arches is getting close to production and things should kick off in October. Another exciting project that Rob Drummond the Arches is spearheading and I’m looking forward to it all taking shape.

I’ll be posting more on both as the production goes ahead, and the web-series will gain it’s own little TPM sub-site with even more info coming through as things come together and we head towards the start of production.

But more on that later. For now…

It’s been over a month since I started the funnies thread of the geeky list thing, and it’s time I move forward with some of the classic movie funny men. For me, I looked back at those characters which have stayed with me all these years and made a lasting impression in my mind.

Some of them may not give the hardest laughs, some of them might not come from the best actors in the world, but they’ve all stuck with me for more than a few seconds of giggling. So to start of, I have to go back to 1955…

Doc Brown wouldn’t have worked if anyone else was playing the part. Sometimes it’s odd to think of Lloyd as a shy man when performances like there are wonderfully over the top. He could make one single facial expression funny, and he did many times in the movies. Despite Michael J Fox getting a lot of comedy moments, for some reason Christopher Lloyd always steals the show for me.

Anchorman is like a bad wank. You start off well, it’s really good, but when that moment comes it’s so good that you want to keep going, so you slow down, push on… and when it’s finished you realised you went on ten minutes too long and feel ashamed.

But! The comedy moments were worth it. In the movie, I don’t tell jokes while I masturbate, not after that incident in the park. Brick’s one liners are worth the movie alone, but the arrogance and stupidity brought to life by Will Ferrel’s usual tone makes you love the over the top character.

He’s an idiot, but he’s a competent one who gets the job done despite only worrying about the major problems too late in the game. Hes also a wonderful sadist who doesn’t think twice about his actions and just seems to run on instinct. The performance is so… weird as well as wonderful that Otto is the sole reason I watch this movie.

And so should you.

A graduate of Evil Medical School and hailing from the mean streets of Bruges, Dr. Evil traveled from the 60′s to the nineties as part of an evil plan to overtake the world. And then hilarity ensues. He’s the guy that doesn’t quite get things right, has to struggle with his rebellious son and is just not connected to the world at all. He’s the worst villian ever created. And it’s fun.

Murray wasn’t the initial choice for the movie, but in all honesty I don’t think it would have worked well without him. Venkman is a bit of an oddball sleaze and had the potential to fall into the goofy or cringe worthy categories, but Murray seemed to bring a charm that made Venkman a character to connect with in the land of geeks. even though Winston was the teams every man, Murray was far easier to relate to and took the lead in a way that made the movies classics.

His quirky personality covers the hints of arrogance and greed. In the first movie he’s got a few great moments, but in the second his character grows more than the others when the sleaze is put to rest somewhat with his re-taking of Ellen Ripleys heart.

Unfortunately Bill Murray seems to be taking himself too seriously to reprise the role and quite frankly, he’s too old to do the same gimmick in the never-to-happen-but-rumored-lots Ghostbusters 3. But this was Murray in his prime and without him… I doubt this would have ever got to the level of success and cult love it has.

There are hundreds of great comedy characters in movies, not all from the comedy genre either. But out of all the movies I’ve seen – which sadly, is a ridiculous high number – it’s the above characters which have the full package. Whether that be something to relate to or something that’ll make you laugh out loud. These actors and characters are irreplaceable.

But then, everyone’s got a different opinion and a different taste. So, who’s in your list?

After a recent conversation with Barry Miller at the recent Battlezone event, and seeing a post by the always wonderfully minded Obsolete Toaster on GBBS, I’ve decided to re-evaluate something I evaluated here before. The Treks. Arguably it’s one of the most successful franchise and one that’s survived several incarnations.

But, while I’m a trek fan – the new name of this site should be a clue – I can still see the bad as well as the good and with the discussion coming up more than once lately, I decided I was bored enough to take another bash at looking back on the franchise.

The 1960′s show was, obviously, the show that started it all, a colourful science fiction drama with a bold captain, a cold alien scientist and a grumpy old country doctor. I do view this through rose tinted glasses and I do forgive some flaws as it was a style of the time thing. You can’t bitch at Citizen Kane for not being in HD. But this show was built around that trio, had some good supporting characters and was very exciting and imaginative for it’s time.

As I said, it was imaginative. Sure, there wer ebudget restraints and looking back it’s cheap and cheesy. But even with those labels it’s still appealing, it’s still good. The science and the look might be dated but the shows speak volumes. A lot of people like to remember it for having strong messages, sometimes it did, but for me the key was giving a bright and hopeful idea of the future wrapped up as an adventure story with all the drama and silliness thrown in.

Sometimes the siliness worked, Tribbles are still good fun and worked a charm in DS9′s re-visiting the episode in an anniversary special. But sometimes there was Spocks Brain. And that wasn’t so good.

The discussion with Barry was interesting. He’s no big Star Trek fan, but he liked Voyager as he said ‘it had a purpose’. We both talked about that problem with TNG – there is no point. Exploring strange new worlds? No they don’t, they go around, have a chat with world’s they’ve known for years and drink tea. Deep Space Nine (my favourite of the lot) to him was a bunch of people sitting around. I get that too, partly.

Voyager had a twist, it had purpose. But as has been mentioned, they didn’t follow through with that purpose. They mentioned their dilemma for several years, tossed in the word ‘rations’ and we even saw them do deals to buy supplies and weapons we never saw again. Supposedly they had little supplies, yet rebuilding the two or three shuttles they had was fine and when they needed to, they built the Delta Flyer. Where did those resources come from?

The Borg… they seemed boring and I got fed up of them. The obvious casting of Jeri ‘doesn’t she look hot in this tight lycra’ Ryan and her taking on the role of not evolving and being very cliche was just dull. It felt as if it became all about her at times and with each Borg appearance, they seemed to become less of a threat.

Add to that Janeway… one week she’d be a by the book captain enforcing the law, the next she’d be changing her mind and being a rebel. Why not just stick with the Starfleet/Maquis command split and have Chakotay push the rebellious, out of the box actions and have Janeway try to stick by the book. That conflict alone adds more story conflict, shows both sides being strong and weak depending on the story, it shows vulnrability and all sorts of new doors could have been opened that, throughout the show, were closed leaving Chakotay being left as a calm, boring and unseen character who could have been so much more, and Janeway comes off as somewhat of a mental.

Then there was Enterprise… there were many factors against it.

Timing. Star Trek had been running solidly on TV in one shape or another since 1987, for seven years there were two on at the same time. The TNG movies, bar one, weren’t doing that well. The product was becoming stale and uninteresting and instead of giving it time, putting it on the shelf for a while and letting it rest – Star trek came back! Again. There just wasn’t enough time to let the audience rest and build interest in the name again.

Casting. I’m sure many people love the memories of Quantum Leap and Scott Bakula has been moderately good in a few TV movies I’ve seen. His interpenetration of Archer ws so bland and so dull, I felt like he may as well have skipped learning the lines and just read from the script on camera. It felt as if there was nothing in that performance, no interest, no passion – just say the words and go to the bank at the end of the week.

Characters. The blatant attempt to revive the TOS trio was awful. Other characters which could have had interesting personas were put aside and there were attempts to spice them up that didn’t make sense.

Writing. It was awful. Sure, there are some episodes I enjoy just like there are some with Voyager. Some are better in retrospect, others are better with lowered expectations. Re-watching the Xindi arc, that was better than remembered (still not great) and just like Voyager it felt like all the challenges made in the plot were swept aside.

When Barry said to me DS9 was just people sitting around, although I could see that (they rarely do any actual work) it was a character driven show, with involvement, that had a story line that wasn’t interesting – so they changed it and brought on the war which was interesting. But it stemmed from that initial plot.

Like anything, there were flaws – but seeing interesting characters, a good cast, good stories and arcs that seem gripping despite knowing the Federation would never lose the war… it just seemed to have the flow, story logic, development and characters that Enterprise and Voyager were scared to do.

I see DS9 as having a new beginning in it’s fourth season with the third building to it. The Bajoran stuff was good, but it wasn’t interesting enough to carry a show and there are only so many times you can write about aliens coming through the wormhole – part of Voyagers problem was ‘how many variations of bumpy forehead can we do?’ – so they rebooted and focused on one mighty civilization, the threat they posed and how that changed everything. With Voyager far away, DS9 had control of the Federation and how it would evolve.

Maybe it will be the show with people sitting around or not doing their actual jobs, I watched one the other day where Dax seemed to be pissed at having to do some actual work, and maybe Voyager and Enterprise had a plot closer to the original one that got everyone interested.

But both for me were a whole heap of undiscovered potential. Voyager in particular was trumped by the BSG re-imagining where, despite having more resources than Voyager, did run into problems. Hell, the entire fleet ate recycled goop because there was nothing else to eat and everyone felt the effects of losing their home and being trapped in their jobs.

With such let downs, is it any surprise the new movie went back to Star Treks roots?

Or have I just put undue pressure on a concept and hoped for more?

There was a comment somewhere about old movies and how Godfather didn’t count as old as it was made in 1974. I didn’t realise it was that old, and when I opened my Google Reader today, I realised time had passed by more quickly than I thought.

While I was busy dealing with some stuff at Battlezone and having an intellectual debate with Eric Canyon, one of my favourite artists in the world of sci fi, John Eaves, was posting this. For those too lazy to click, Back to the Future… it turned twenty five on Saturday.

I remember watching this film when I was a kid and loved every moment of it. It’s weird to think it’s almost as old as I am. For those who are ridiculous enough to have missed out, Back to the Future is the story of Marty McFly traveling back in time by accident after hijacking his mentor’s new invention after some Libyans get all shooty. He ends up in the 50′s, causes some havoc in the space time continuum by bumping into his parents, stopping the event that makes them fall in love.

With help from the 1950′s version of his mentor, Doc Brown, Marty struggles to repair the time line, the time machine and history as he knows it to avoid his family getting deleted from time.

The film had it’s struggles with Zemeckis having two big flops under his belt, the miscasting of Eric Stoltz being rectified by recasting him with their first choice, Michael J Fox and studios not wanting to touch it due to the fact that Marty finds himself in a situation where his teenager mother in the 50′s find him pumpable. But still, it became one of the most iconic and most loved movies of all time and was the biggest money maker in it’s release in 1985.

Casting Fox while he was still in Family Ties was a tough move for the young actor. He’d film for the TV show during the day then work on the movie at night and weekends, probably feeling like a Zombie with the lack of sleep but still pulling off an amazing performance. He wasn’t the only one working around the clock as the film was edited and rushed with crew working 24/7 to make it’s deadline.

Initially the film was going to be based around Marty being a video pirate, the time machine being a fridge and the climax of the movie being set in Nevada but budget concerns and some bizarre safety concerns helped put together some of the best elements of the film. Mainly placing it in a small town and making it revolve around the personal experiences of the cast of characters, which led to a set piece of the town square being built in 1950′s style before being trashed for the run down 80′s scenes.

…but the most iconic change was to switch the refrigerator into something a little more mobile.

Partly due to a joke in the revised script about a farmer mistaking the mode of transport for a flying saucer and partly with the logic that if you had a time machine, you’d want to be able to move around in it, the fridge was ditched in place of a Delorean. The bizarre gull winged extinct car which is somewhat of a collectors item these days, and the work on creating one of these lovely machines was so exact to the actual car that the builders were offered jobs working on future Delorean models.

Anyway, enough of factoids. The movie was considered too light by most studios, not good enough, too risque with the Marty-Lorraine angle and one of the producers was a head case who wanted the movie named Spaceman from Pluto. But now it’s still considered a most-own classic and has been one of the best and most loved movie of the past few decades.

The film was unleashed into cinemas on July 3rd 1985 and it’s success brought on two sequels with Part 2 featuring Marty and the Doc fixing the future, fixing the past and finding themselves in an alternate dimension while Part 3 saw Marty hunting down the Doc after he gets lost in time. Did I mention it had a cartoon too?

It’s astonishing that this twenty-five year old film still hold sup to this day and even the 80′s style doesn’t overshadow as it does in other movies of the time. I seriously don’t doubt this movie will be around for another twenty five years.