Author: tederick
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Hide and Q”
“Oh, I know Hamlet. And what he might say with irony, I say with conviction: what a piece of work is man.” It seems I’m not the only one who’s become interested in Riker – Q returns to the Enterprise for his sophomore bout of pestering, and dangles the omnipotent abilities of the Q Continuum…
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Blogging The Next Generation: “The Battle”
“It may be true that headaches were once quite common. That was in the days before the brain was charted. Before we understood the nature of pain.”
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Justice”
“State. The. Purpose.” “Justice” isn’t particularly successful as a piece of drama but it’s a bracingly open shot across the bow on three of Roddenberry’s core beliefs – sexual libertarianism, atheism, and the evils of capital punishment. On the first point, at least, “Justice” is probably as far as Star Trek: The Next Generation (and…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Lonely Among Us”
“Yes. Normal.” “Lonely Among Us” is batshit crazy and generally godawful, a long, meandering joke without a punchline – so I’m gonna talk about the action figures instead. The B-plot of “Lonely Among Us” involves the Enterprise stewarding two groups of delegates, the Anticans and the Selay, to peace talks on a planet called Parliament.…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “Where No One Has Gone Before”
“Why is this child here?” The first great episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation represents such a substantial elevation over its brethren that it takes a minute or two to become accustomed to its quality; everything about “Where No One Has Gone Before” is sharply done. The script is partially from Diane Duane, who…
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Electronic Oblivion: A Hymn to the Fallen
My JVC handicam was on its last legs; it was no longer able to play back tapes reliably, and I figured its ability to record would be out the window in short order. This was the small camera I bought in 2003 to supplement my larger, heavier Canon GL-1. I wanted a cheaper, run-and-jump camera…
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Blogging the Next Generation: “The Naked Now”
“It never happened.” The Data/Tasha Yar sex scene remains a standout of not just Star Trek: The Next Generation but the entire Star Trek franchise, and possibly the whole history of shipping and slash fiction and cosplay and ooey-gooey SF sexual what-would-happen-ifs. That Data/Tasha comes in the middle of an episode that most folks consider…
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Review: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
“But the Joker cannot win,” a broken and defeated Batman pronounced at the end of The Dark Knight, conjuring a lie which drives the engine of The Dark Knight Rises. Terrorists always do win, is the problem; their part of the job is easy. All they have to do is shatter the certainty at the…