Blood and Fire

I've been a big Star Trek fan since childhood, and I hold a special place in my heart for The Next Generation in particular.  It was the first Star Trek series I had ever watched, and for its time it was a fairly revolutionary and ambitious series on television.  Over 20 years later the series definitely shows its age, so it doesn't really hold up to the kind of production values and storytelling styles of today's weekly dramas, but I still have fond memories of it.

I was messing around online recently and found a list of unproduced scripts for each Star Trek series to date, some of which had plot descriptions.  One of these was titled Blood and Fire, an episode written for Next Generation's first season.  The episode was written by David Gerrold, who had written for the Original Series in the 1960s, and he wrote a few episodes during the first season of TNG.  However, his script for Blood and Fire was rejected by the show's producers due to its controversial subject matter, and Gerrold quit working on the show shortly thereafter.

The reason the episode was deemed controversial was because it was largely an allegory for the AIDS virus, and prominently featured an openly gay couple.  The script was written in 1987, so AIDS was still very new to the general public, and not many people knew much about what it was or how it was transmitted.  Ultimately the script was left on somebody's proverbial desk until a group of Star Trek fans decided to produce a fan series titled Star Trek: Phase II.

Now here's where things get really convoluted.  Star Trek: Phase II was supposed to be an actual television series in the 1970s until Paramount decided to dump the series in favor of turning the franchise into a series of films.  Star Trek didn't return to television until The Next Generation, and the rest is history.  However, a few years ago a group of Star Trek fans decided to take the concept of Phase II and make it into a series available on YouTube, and produced several episodes of the show, including a few scripts that were originally written in the 1970s.

One of the scripts they used for the new Phase II was Blood and Fire, and David Gerrold was brought back to rewrite the script, as well as direct the episode.  So now we have a series called Star Trek: Phase II featuring all the Original Series' characters, but starring a bunch of amateur actors.

I tell you all that so I can review the actual episode Blood and Fire, which is available to watch on YouTube.

I'm not going to talk about the acting in the episode much since, like I said, it's a bunch of amateurs.  All I will say is, the acting leaves a lot to be desired.  The actor who plays James T. Kirk does his best cheesy William Shatner impersonation, which ups the camp feel of everything, but it's kinda hard to take the show seriously when this guy seems more focused on mocking William Shatner than doing his own performance.

Anyways, let me talk about what I liked about the episode.  First, the production values are GREAT.  The sets and costumes look like dead ringers for the Original Series, and the lighting and photography are very similar as well.  I'm not sure if the look was designed to be nostalgic or a conscious effort to make the episode feel like it was truly produced in the 60s or 70s.  The special effects are also really good too, and they don't look like cheap CGI.  Even the transporter beams look exactly like they've been lifted from the effects used in the Original Series.  It's clear the team behind producing this web series has the money and resources to recreate the look and feel of the Original Series as much as possible.

You'll notice all the positives I've listed are technical aspects of the show.  That's because the actual story behind the episode is pretty average, and the controversial subject matter is very....odd.

I'll talk about the story first before getting to the controversial stuff.  The Enterprise is responding to a distress call from a Federation ship adrift in space near a twin pair of stars.  The crew finds it headed straight for impact with one of the stars, but they have to salvage whatever evidence and logs they can find before the ship is destroyed.  An away team beams over and finds the ship is infested with parasites known as bloodworms, which literally suck the blood out of any victim's body.

(I should add a note here that one of the other things I liked about the show was that there's a crew member's death in the episode, and his fate is in complete keeping with the "red shirt" cliche of the Original Series - very nice touch!)

With the away team stuck on the other ship, the rest of the crew has to figure out a way to eradicate the infestation and escape before the ship impacts the star.

By now you're probably wondering how on earth the gay couple fits in with the rest of the episiode.  That's my problem with the couple; it doesn't fit at all.  It's a completely arbitrary addition to the story, one that if it was excised from the episode, the rest of the show would be exactly the same.  I could certainly understand why the Next Generation's producers rejected the script in 1987 since American audiences hadn't gotten used to gay characters on television yet, but the real irony to the script's rejection is how Star Trek had been viewed as a very progressive series since the 60s (one only has to look at integrating a black woman and a Russian among the rest of the cast in the Original Series to see how socially progressive Star Trek has always been).  In the end, including the gay couple feels like they were added more for shock value than anything else, which is really disappointing.

The episode would've been much better had Gerrold added homosexuality in a more organic fashion.  Had he done something like that, the episode would've likely had more weight to itself, and the entire allegory to our day and age would've been better.  Instead, the gay couple is much more of a B-storyline involving two people we've never met before and didn't care about previously.

Science fiction is one of the best venues to tell a story that can be used to drive a social theme, and Star Trek has done that many times over the years.  Blood and Fire could've been one of the more memorable episodes that Trek has done as an allegory, but the episode was very average and the controversial aspect was unnecessary.  That's a real shame too because I understand what the producers were trying to accomplish, but they missed the mark with this one.

For Those of You Who Are Keeping Count

One of my tasks that I really wanted to complete more than most others was get a passport.  I've never had one, and obviously I've never needed one.

Until now, that is.

One of my best friends is getting married Memorial Day Weekend, and she invited me to come.  That was just the kind of motivation I needed to get a passport to travel.

There's so much about this that I'm super excited about.  First, I haven't taken a real vacation in nearly six and a half years.  I've taken weekend trips to the beach here and there, but I haven't really let loose for a real fun trip since I went out to Phoenix several years ago.  Second, I actually get to travel internationally!  I don't really know what to expect in terms of getting through customs in the airport and then landing in the Caymans, but there's only one way to find out.

The best part is that one of my other friends told me she's getting married next year in the Dominican Republic, so I'll get some good mileage in my passport pretty early on.  Two real vacations in a year after hardly ever traveling for most of my adult life definitely makes up for my lack of trips in the past.

So hey - I can cross another task off my list!

Bittersweet Memories

Today marks the fourth anniversary of the passing of one of my best friends from grade school.  Tim and I hadn't spoken in years; in fact I think the last time I had actually seen him was my first year of college.  On top of all that, we had only been classmates for two years in 7th and 8th grade, but during that brief period of time we had built a great friendship. 

Before I get too in depth, I should confess something: I didn't remember today was the anniversary of his passing until I happened to see one of my friends mention it on Facebook.  I didn't even know she and Tim had known each other at all, but when I saw her post I immediately thought back to the day when I had found out about him being gone.  I felt like I was a bit of a bad friend for not remembering today was the date I found out he was gone, but I was relieved that some of my friends have better memories than I do.

Four years ago, I got an email from my sister one day who was messaged on Facebook from another of my childhood buddies who was part of my circle of friends with Tim (I wasn't on Facebook at the time).  There were four of us all together: Rob, Dan, Tim, and me.  One of our mothers - I'm not sure which - had dubbed us The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse since we were all so close and had a knack for causing as much mayhem as your average adolescent kid could.  Still, we were a good bunch of kids, and we had a blast during our brief time as classmates.

Getting back to the email from my sister, she forwarded a copy of a message from my buddy Rob.  He said he was trying to get in contact with me and found Marie on Facebook.  He wrote her hoping she was my younger sister (obviously, he was right) and asked if she could put the two of us in touch.  I wrote him as soon as I got the message to see how he was doing, and that was when he broke the news to me: Our fellow Horseman Tim was gone.  He didn't have any details as to the circumstances, but he wanted to make sure I knew.  It was a very bittersweet reunion of sorts, since I was both thrilled to hear from Rob, but also shocked to hear about Tim. 

I did more digging on Tim over the next few days, and I eventually found a website where friends and family posted messages to his family after his funeral.  From what I could gather, he was married and his wife was pregnant at the time of his passing.  A bunch of familiar names showed up on the message board, and I had hoped in this time of great sorrow and mourning, his family was able to find a little solace in knowing how many lives were affected by Tim's passing.

I know this is one of the more saddening posts I've written in a long time, so I'll close with a good memory of Tim.  I'm not sure if anyone reading this will really appreciate it, but here goes.  When we were in 8th grade, all Four Horsemen had to work together on a science project on weather.  We decided on doing a video project called The All-Disaster Channel and videotaped it at one of our houses in the basement.  We took G.I. Joe action figures to represent "on-site" reporters who had experienced disasters such as mudslides, city fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, and hail storms.  I was chosen to be the Peter Jennings of the bunch and ran everything from my "studio," but I couldn't keep a straight face to save my life.  We even included blooper clips of me bursting out into laughter from reading the script we had put together.

Our video culminated with a massive hail storm where an unfortunate G.I. Joe stood in as a reporter on the front lines as we pelted it with crumpled pieces of paper to represent hail stones.  We had the guy sitting in a Jeep, and one of us played his voice, narrating everything he had experienced in the storm.  He yelled out, "Oh no, here comes a BIG ONE!" and we dropped a bowling ball on the Jeep, shattering it into pieces.  I think somehow we still ended up with an A on the project, even though it was one of the most absurd videos ever put together.

Tim, wherever you are now, I hope you are at peace.  We may not have spoken in years, but I pray your family is well and that God is watching down on them for you. 

The New Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Will Not Be Teenage, Mutant, Ninja, or Turtles. Aside From That, They'll Be Exactly Like the Original.

I don't think I'm alone when I say that I have a fondness for the cartoons that I had enjoyed when I was a kid.  In fact, I have DVDs of the original Transformers and G.I. Joe series that I occasionally still watch when I'm in the mood.  I hope that I can share some of these cartoons with children of my own one day so they can enjoy some of the classics of the 80s.

One of the other cartoons I loved as a kid was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I loved the theme song, the characters, the storylines, and the humor in the show.  I even once wrote a spoof play when I was a kid for a family party based on the Ninja Turtles; I wrote in myself as the villainous Shredder.

I say all that to add context to the news that came down the pipeline last week about - sigh - filmmaker Michael Bay's plans to produce a new version of the Ninja Turtles for kids and families to enjoy now.  I use the word "enjoy" in the loosest sense possible, especially for those like myself who are familiar with the original cartoon.  Bay has decided he wants to reinvent the Turtles, so to speak, and has made some changes to their origins.

I don't like what he has in mind.  At all.

First, he's decided to make them aliens.  For the life of me, I have no idea why, but now they're Teenage Alien Ninja Turtles.  The problem is, that one little change completely undermines their origins.  They were baby turtles lurking in a sewer when they came upon this radioactive ooze, which made them into humanoid lifeforms (don't ask - it's a freaking CARTOON, okay?).  Their master also came into contact with this same ooze and turned him into a half-man, half-rat hybrid (again, don't ask - cartoon, remember?).  Their master was named Splinter, who was skilled in the ways of ninjitsu, hence the ninja part of the title.  As they grew up, he taught them those same skills and gave them ninja weapons to fight with.

Things don't stop there, though.  When he was a man, Splinter had a taste for classical artwork, so he named the turtles after four of his favorite artists from the Middle Ages: Donatello, Michaelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo.  And in a funny way of making the turtles a little more identifiable to kids, they had one absolute insatiable appetite for one food above all others: pizza. 

Now taking all that into account, I have one question to ask: How in the name of ZEUS' BUTTHOLE will ANY of that make sense if they're aliens?  They won't have Splinter as their master, they won't be able to have the same names as in the original storyliine (assuming they don't just pick those same names randomly, which would be insipidly stupid), and most of all their actual NINJA training won't fit with them being aliens at all.

It'd be bad enough if the changes stopped there.  But after making his initial statement about changing the very origins of these turtles, he's also dropping the teenage aspect of them, so now they'll simply be known as "Ninja Turtles." 

I know I sound like I'm throwing a massive fit over this, like Michael Bay is somehow ruining what memories I have of my childhood.  But his reimagining/remaking/rebooting of this property brings up something that I see many people talk about when discussing any remake: the new version will change too much from the original.  I don't normally mind changes when a property is remade in order to update it to a modern setting; it's more about getting the tone and characters right.  The problem here is that this new version will be so radically different from the original version that there's no real reason to call it "Ninja Turtles" at all.  Just give it a whole new name and no one will care.  In fact, creating an entirely new property as a family franchise is a pretty awesome idea.  The likes of Harry Potter, Shrek, and Toy Story are over, so kids nowadays could use something new to look forward to.  Instead of ripping up a fairly beloved property, why not create something entirely new?  I know there's less of a risk in marketing and merchandising a known property versus something new, but that doesn't take into account the massive changes from the original version. 

I somehow suspect that Bay got involved in this project in a similar fashion to how he got involved in Transformers.  When Paramount had approached him in 2006 to make Transformers as a live action movie, he came right out and said he wasn't a fan of the original cartoon.  He didn't know anything about the property or what made it popular.  What he did want was to make a family-oriented film, one about a teenage boy who got his first car.  He didn't become familiar with the Transformers or its mythology until well after the first film was completed, and it showed in the film.  Now I should say that I hadid enjoy the first Transformers, but the film was still deeply flawed in very fundamental ways (namely focusing on the humans in the film and merely using the robots for the action sequences).  I have a feeling Ninja Turtles will turn out in a similar fashion, and Bay doesn't know much about their origins or why they were popular 20 years ago either. 

Then again, I'd be shocked if Bay cared at all about what I or most other fans have to say, considering his three Transformers films made over $1 billion worldwide.

2012 MLB Predictions Sure to Go Wrong

Believe it or not, we're just over a week away from the start of the 2012 baseball season.  It's actually starting on a technicality of sorts since the Mariners and A's play in Japan for three games before the rest of the league kicks off the following week.  I don't really like the idea of a single series in Japan to "start" the season, but I'm not Bud Selig.  (There's plenty other stuff I'd change that Selig has incorporated to baseball, namely making the All-Star Game determine home field advantage in the World Series, but that's for another time.)

Anyway, here are my division title winners and major awards that, if my March Madness and previous MLB season predictions are any indication, will be horribly wrong by season's end.

National League:

NL East Champ: Philadelphia Philliles
NL Central Champ: Cincinatti Reds
NL West Champ: Arizona Diamondbacks
NL Wild Cards: Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers

American League:

AL East Champ: Tampa Bay Rays
AL Central Champ: Detroit Tigers
AL West Champ: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
AL Wild Card: Texas Rangers, New York Yankees

World Series Matchup: Detroit Tigers vs Philadelphia Phillies

World Series Champ: Detroit Tigers

NL MVP: Giancarlo Stanton
AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera

NL Cy Young: Cliff Lee
AL Cy Young: James Shields

I Won't Be Heartbroken If You Read Single Dad Laughing More Than My Blog

Every now and then - and by that, I mean "almost every day" - I come across something online that's written far more cleverly, eloquently, and intelligently than I could ever fathom writing.  Typically it's something on Twitter, which despite my fairly recent understanding of how to use it properly, I still read plenty more tweets that are funnier and more insightful than anything I've ever posted on there.  Last night, I was introduced to a blog site called Single Dad Laughing.

You need to look up this blog.  Like, now.  I won't be offended if you close out reading this post to find that site.

From what I gather after having read several of his posts, it's a guy about my age (early 30s) writing about anything under the sun: his son, life, insights, etc.  He writes much more frequently than I do, and implied a few times that it's his full time job.  It's clearly paid off because he thousands of followers on his blog who comment on his posts all the time (I'll talk more about that later).  He's become something of an online celebrity, where his readers know so much about him and his life despite being spread out all over the country.

One of the great things about his blog is that it's ridiculously funny.  I've tried being self-depricating and sarcastic occasionally here, but this guy is way funnier than me.  One of his posts I read last night was about a date he went on with a woman to get sushi.  By the end of the night, she had accidently cut open his cheek, leading to him falling to the ground and her standing over him and laughing hysterically. 

However, the best part of his blog are the comments from his readers.  Another post I read was about confessing fears and secrets he's dealt with most of his life.  He then asked his readers to talk about stuff they've kept hidden for all their lives, and some of their stories were truly moving.  There were thousands of comments on that single post, far more than I could possibly read, but they were both fascinating and heartbreaking.  When one person wrote about something truly upsetting like dreaming of suicide or depression, another complete stranger would reply and offer words of encouragement. 

Think about that for a moment.  Two (or more) people, who live probably hundreds or thousands of miles apart, each confess their darkest secrets to each other, and they all tell one another things will be okay.  These people would never have come into contact with one another had they not been reading Single Dad Laughing, and now they have common ground already built in.  Plus, many of us feel a bit more comfortable telling strangers what we hold inside versus telling close friends or family members, including myself. 

In short, you'll definitely be doing yourself a favor by taking some time to read Single Dad Laughing.  You'll feel a whole lot better after you have.

The Wrong Thing for the Right Reason

When I was in high school, I listened to Rush Limbaugh's radio program frequently, and also watched his daily television show.  I make no secret regarding my conservative political views, and I got a thrill watching him dissect people like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and other prominent Democrats in the mid 90s.

Over the last decade or so, I haven't listened to his show or kept up with his comments very much.  I still occasionally read what I can of what he has to say regarding political topics of the day, but not nearly to the extent to which I did in high school and early in college.  Of course, I did see his infamous comments about Donovan McNabb on ESPN, and I was shocked at the reaction given by the general public.  His comments about McNabb were taken completely out of context, and he was accused of being a racist for making such statements.  The great irony to that entire incident was that Limbaugh was ultimately proven right about McNabb's talents as a quarterback, and he certainly didn't step out of line in his comments.

That brings me to last week.  By now, you've probably read about Rush Limbaugh calling Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a slut after she went before Congress and testified that universities and colleges nationwide need to provide health insurance coverage in order for her and other women on college campuses across the country to obtain the contraceptives they need.  A national controversy has sprung thanks to both the original testimony and Limbaugh's reactions. 

Limbaugh has always enjoyed bringing attention upon himself and his agenda.  He makes no secret of that, and I don't think I'm offering any new insight into his methods or intent.  I actually agreed with his original idea, that the American public shouldn't have to pay for Fluke and other in taxes in order for them to obtain birth control.  If college women want to have sex, that's their business, but I'm not in favor of having my taxes raised so their insurance will cover their contraceptive costs.

It was about there where I drew the line with Limbaugh's comments.  He then went on to call Fluke a slut and a prostitute asking for the American public to, by extension, pay for her to obtain birth control.  He also said that if the rest of America did ultimately contribute to health insurance premiums via taxes, we should be entitled to watch these college girls use their birth control in action.

Limbaugh claimed his comments were meant to be funny, but I don't see where the humor in such a statement is.  He failed to raise the hypocrisy of Fluke's statement; most college students are still provided with health insurance coverage via their parents' insurance, but Fluke wants her own coverage so Mommy and Daddy don't get the bill.  If an 18-year-old woman wants to have sex, that's her decision to make.  But if she wants to get a birth control pill prescription, it will likely show up on her parents' insurance.  How many 18-year-old girls are going to be okay with that?  Answer: Not many.

The other major issue with Fluke's original statement was her claim that a woman's birth control totals over $3000 every year.  I can't pretend to know much about how much birth control pills or the Nuva ring cost, but I know what the price of condoms is.  The amount of money Fluke mentioned would buy several years' worth of condoms, depending on how often she needs to use them.  Where did she get such a number from?  And once again, why should she expect the general American public to foot the bill for her own personal needs?  (I know she's speaking on behalf of women in colleges all across the country, but you get my point)

There's something to be said about Fluke wanting to be a responsible adult woman and not run the risk of an unexpected pregnancy.  She also had to expect some negative backlash for openly talking about needing access to birth control, which is hypocritical of the other side to do so.  I see no reason why a young adult woman can't openly discuss her needs for birth control.  Other people who criticize her and expect her and other college-aged women to be completely chaste and celibate are simply naive.  She may have a legitimate issue with having to find a way to pay for her birth control, but that's her problem.  It shouldn't be mine. 

And so I come back full circle to Limbaugh's comments.  He had the right idea, but he went about it in the completely wrong direction.  His cynical sense of humor got in the way of a much larger point, and he ended up insulting Fluke and other women in the process.  He then issued an "apology" a day later on his show, but after I had read the text of his statements, he clearly didn't have any remorse or regret over much of what he said.  I'm sure he doesn't really care about his public image given that people's opinions of him, both positive and negative, won't change much after this incident.  In fact, he only issued the apology on air because advertisers were pulling from his show, and so he stood to lose revenue as a result of his words.  He'll still continue his methods of being a polarizing figure, which is probably just how he likes it.