Dreamer Easy

In the past week we've seen the new Trek and the Wolverine flick and I've enjoyed them both: well-made, well-acted movies with plenty of pace and laughs. And yet I find myself oddly unmoved by either of them. ( SPOILERS for both films )

So I was watching the trailer for the new Trek, and ( SPOILERS )

"There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn't because the book is not there and worth being written -- it is only because the right form of the story does not present itself. There is only one right form for a story and if you fail to find that form the story will not tell itself."
- Mark Twain, quoted in quotes

Will Riker Destroys the Enterprise

Brent Spiner and the Hilarious Theater Story

ryuuri_chan has made more Torchwood chibis. I may die of squee. (There's a GDL chibi. "You may be hot but you still need to tuck your underwear in honey.....")

dinosaurcostume's awesome Doctor Who dream (SPOILERS for Journey's End)

Large dog terrorised by small kitten

Top Gear - Zany to the Max, a genius piece of editing

Remarkably violent vintage Muppet ads

Best ever dog toy

An excellent kiwi.

For savantesque, some AU ST:TNG with an OFC. :-)

( She's on a shuttle when the news comes through. )

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Next cab off the rank: lferion's request for Highlander / Doctor Who: two great tastes that taste great together. ;-)

Kids do the Human Nature trailer. In their backyard, etc. Sheer, sheer brilliance. I was involved in something like this once. No you can't has. [ETA: sadly no longer available on YouTube.]

You've probably all seen Eddie Izzard being Star Trek, but I hadn't.

The Red and the Blue. The Red is, of course, one of my role models.

Check out Fairwear for info on sweatshops in Australia, and which clothing sellers have signed up for fair wages and conditions.

John Barrowman on Australia's failure to allow civil partnerships for same-sex couples: "It is ridiculous because we pay our taxes and contribute to society like everybody else. And I'm sure a lot of those people who are married and heterosexual and are living together do a lot of things in their bedroom that your Prime Minister might not agree with but he's not refusing them to have their partners." [ETA: link to Who magazine no longer works.]

Gorgeous Torchwood filming pictures [ETA: And these are gone too! *sob*]

I'm catching up on a lot of original Star Trek episodes I've never actually seen, as well as some old favourites. In more than one story, it's quite clear that Kirk and the Enterprise represent the US, while the Klingons are basically the Commies. It's interesting to see the extent to which "modern" Klingons from Next Gen et al are grounded in the originals, who are intelligent, articulate, and honest as well as ruthless - you respect them. And importantly, our heroes are not squeaky clean in comparison. In Errand of Mercy, when both superpowers have been chastised like schoolchildren, Kirk is "embarrassed" at having argued for the right to fight a war he doesn't actually want.

Poor old season 3 is full of terrible rubbish, but a number of better stories stand out. Day of the Dove was written by Jerome Bixby, who traumatised so many of us with "It's a Good Life". The Klingons have absolutely smashing dialogue. The moment that really got me is when the hostage Klingon/Commie is surprised that the threat to kill her was only a bluff. 'We don't mistreat prisoners,' Kirk/USA tells her. 'You've been listening to propaganda, rumours.' For a moment, I could have wept.

The final line is Kang's, presumably a Klingon proverb: 'Only a fool fights in a burning house.' Both sides are in danger, and cannot survive if they fight each other instead of facing their common enemy. It's such a powerful description of ideological squabbles in the face of the Greenhouse that I think I'll put it in my Interests.

ETA: The Klingons kind of mutated into the Japanese in the 80s/90s Treks, but were the original series made now, I think they'd represent the Islamic World: swarthy and mustachioed, proud and cultured, the Federation/West's enemies as much through mutual misunderstanding as actual aggression.

That's Archie?! omfg, it is too!

Is it just me, or does Madam President look a little like Monica Lewinsky?

Meant to grumble at the Trek cliche of alienated son and father. Dad (typically dead, missing, or alienated) is always the most crucial thing in everyone's lives in TNG. (Unless you're Geordi.)

Even the highly decorative Mr Bakula couldn't keep me watching Enterprise, alas, a show abandoned for many reasons, only one of which is the pole up T'Poing's butt.* Oh the hilarity as the [posting interrupted by PEBSAK**] Vulcan ice queen with her bee-stung lips and clingfilm-wrapped tits and arse turns up her plugged nostrils at the rough and manly human crew. Wah wah wah. They are barbarians. They are smelly. They eat with their fingers...

... in fact (as I've just twigged while watching a documentary) her reaction parallels that of the Japanese on first encountering European traders and missionaries, who bathed only occasionally instead of daily and ate with a knife and their hands instead of dainty and hygienic CHOP-STICKS. Gosh, what an original touch for Trek - the humans are Americans and the aliens are Japanese, snobbish and bound by honour, duty, obedience, ritual, blah blah blah.

New story please. Preferably a visit to the Planet of Sensibly Clothed Women.

* Or whatever her name is. I clicked through about five sites trying to find it when I realised I couldn't remember, and got bored with looking at flash animations and waiting for ads to load.

** Pudew Exists Between Screen And Keyboard.