We saw Arrival (no ?the? in the title) this past week, and while I loved it, there was a point that stuck with me – and it probably wasn?t the point that you?d think.

Things that I loved – that it was a slow film, that it gave you time to think about what you were seeing and experiencing. I loved that you don?t always get answers. I loved some of the ideas, such as language limiting what you’re allowed to think.

The aliens? ultimate fate was unexplained, as was, if you think about it, their arrival. And I have a sense that those two are joined to each other somehow. The ?twist? of the story was strong and made me want to go back and watch it again to see if it was obvious with foreknowledge or if it stood up to repeat viewing.

But? but? but? there was this nagging thing in the back of my mind.

At one point it?s mentioned in passing that the aliens don?t understand algebra but do understand higher maths. Since math doesn?t work, we need language. Bring on the linguists! I thought that was a cheap and cheesy way to get around the idea that math is a universal language.

I know there?s a difference between teaching a language and learning a language, and I know the character is a linguist, not an ESL teacher. However, once the linguist had decided that she needed to teach the aliens English or at least map English words to the equivalent alien ideas, she did it poorly.

The old Polish man in this Christmas advert does a better job teaching himself:

Look at his use of Post-it notes. He does what our linguist should have done, especially when trying to separate ?human? from ?personal name?. First everyone gets a ‘human’ post-it, then each individual gets their own name as a post-it: So much simpler than how she worked.

It?s an incredibly small thing, but it bugged me, the way that watching Interstellar bugged physicists. When you know something and a film gets it wrong, you are bumped out of the film. I got back in, but I wish I hadn?t been thrown out.

 

I guess every point of refuge has its price
– The Eagles, Lyin? Eyes.

 

Song lyrics – go figure.

Like many new writers, I first started my chapters with song lyrics – the embodiment of the idea I wanted to express. Like most writers, I got over it, but still, for longer works, I do usually have a playlist that represents moods or concepts, if not ideas, that I want to express. These aren?t necessarily favourite songs by any means. They just capture, or evoke in me, an aspect of a story that I want to share.

Leonard Cohen is a god, there is no doubt. The line ?We were guided by the beauty of our weapons? in First We Take Manhattan speaks to a creative hubris that could spawn a thousand stories. But do you need to telegraph that idea to your readers by including the lyrics that inspired you?

Sometimes a song just captures a mood – A Toronto-based band called FM put out a concept album called Black Noise. Their song One O?clock Tomorrow somehow captures an essence of the wistful romance of deep space travel. I?d like to capture that too. So the song goes into a play list.

Some songs just embrace character well. Take for example, The Waterboys, Don?t Bang The Drum. The song starts with:

?Well here we are in a special place
What are you going to do here? (…)
What show of soul are we going to get from you? (?)
If I know you, you?ll bang the drum like monkeys do.?

A lot of their songs are harshly critical observations about conformity and self-involvement. It makes for great character conflict.

Compare that to Glass Tiger?s (Watching) Worlds Crumble, where the narrator is apparently more important than those suffering from his actions:*

Look at me, I’m watching worlds crumble
Look at me, I’m making walls tumble
Take my hand, oh, Lord, it’s all I’ve got
Look at me, I’m watching worlds crumble.

Makes you want to scream ?Do something.? But then again, the idea of a helpless protagonist is common in many genres, and the idea that you can?t always stop the consequences of your actions is a bit of a theme in my writing. I don?t know if the song inspired the idea or just gave voice to something inside me.

Once last one for you. The Alarm, a band who tried to make pop-punk, with some success, had a song called Where Were You Hiding? There?s a line in it that I often think about without ever actually feeling inspired by it: ?They say all good things come in threes, well here comes the third degree: Where were you hiding when the storm broke?? oddly enough, whenever I listen to that song, I feel critical – the lyrics are so ?  witty but staged and shallow: ?The truth is the truth or the truth is surely a lie.? Very anthemic, great for stadium rock singalongs, but not nearly as deep as it pretends to be.

The price that song lyrics claim for their refuge? if you haven?t internalized the idea, you haven?t taken ownership of it. Inspiration comes from everywhere. I wrote a short story once after watching a turtle cross the road. Readers don?t need to know that. To borrow the butcher?s analogy, you don?t show how the sausage is made.

*My interpretation. Yours may vary.

Something bothered me after watching Rogue One – where was that scene from the trailer? Then, the more I thought about it, it became where were those scenes from the trailers? So I started digging through the trailers, capturing any image that I didn’t remember being in the film.

It’s worth noting that I saw this film in Malaysia. There may have been edits (for duration or content) made for a Malaysian audience that mean that some scenes below were in the version you saw. If so, please note them in the comments below. Also, I’ve only seen the film once, I may have just missed seeing a scene.

Alternate takes or trimmed scenes:

These shouldn’t be spoilers.

I don’t remember seeing the captured rebel pilots on Jedha.

 

Flying over the fallen statue. It’s still seen, but it’s fallen the other way, and you see it from ground level.

 

K2 promising not to kill Jyn because the captain told him not to.

 

Krennic has “The Power” conversation with Vader. The scene is still there, but that line, which always felt poorly delivered anyway, isn’t.

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STOP HERE IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO SEE SPOILERS!

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Much more spoiler-y edits:

Krennic walking through the destruction on Scarif. Given where he was when the attack started, and where he later confronted Jyn (in the same buiilding) how did he end up outside?

 

Jyn in a pilot’s seat. Not in the movie. Add this to one below about K2, and you get the possibility that there was a very different ending to this film.

 

Vader on the Death Star. Not in the movie:

 

K2 still alive after Jyn has the Death Star plans. Not in the movie.

 

The biggest, in my mind. Jyn versus the TIE fighter. I was anticipating this scene, and when it became obvious they were building to it, I started to get excited. Then boom, no TIE fighter in this scene. This was the scene that triggered this whole post.

Am I wrong? Where any of those scenes there? My partner isn’t the biggest Star Wars fan, so there were a few times when I had to look away from the screen to explain something to her (like why I laughed at the “Hey, watch where you’re going…” scene).

The passing this week of Greg Lake, singer and songwriter of one of my favourite Christmas songs, made me realize that there are still a lot of new Christmas songs being written, ones with staying power.

The passing this week of Greg Lake, singer and songwriter of one of my favourite Christmas songs, made me realize that there are still a lot of new Christmas songs being written, ones with staying power.

For most of us, the Christmas songs that we hear year in and year out, even those done by modern artists, are songs from the 1950s and 60s. Whether it?s The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire), Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas, White Christmas, It?s beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas or Santa Baby and Christmas, Baby Please Come Home, a lot of what gets radio airplay is old.

Yes, Springsteen?s Santa Claus is Coming to Town is a vibrant, different take on a classic that gets copied often, and U2?s Christmas, Baby Please Come Home is great (as are Madonna?s Santa Baby and John Mellencamp?s I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus) but I want to look at newer creations.

So this is Xmas, And what have you done?
Another year over, And a new one just begun
~ John Lennon

It was in the 1970s that new Christmas songs started to appear, songs that weren?t written for kids or as disposable ditties. Of course John Lennon?s Happy Xmas (War Is Over) is probably the seminal song of this type. It wasn?t just the message that changed. Gone was the Phil Spector Wall of Sound, replaced by an acoustic guitar and a chorus of voices not quite in sync with each other. Leave it to Lennon to redefine another category of music.

The aforementioned Lake, once part of ELP and King Crimson, released I Believe in Father Christmas two years later. This the first Christmas song that I remember hearing that had a more adult, less sugary take on Christmas as child-like innocence and adult cynicism battle in his mind. Somehow it finds an upbeat resolution. It was released just two years after Lennon?s So This is Christmas.

That questioning of Christmas probably peaked in 1984?s Do They Know It?s Christmas but I think the gold standard for dark Christmas dirges has to be the Pogues Fairytale of New York, released four years later. There are more ythat have stuck with me for decades: The Payola$ Christmas is Coming (1983!) which may not be known outside of Canada, sounds somewhat upbeat until you realize that the singer is unemployed and lonely. Faith Hill?s Where Are You Christmas epitomized and to some extent mainstreamed this adult angst Christmas song trend. Now everyone does it – from ColdPlay to th Barenaked Ladies.

A very Merry Xmas, And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one. Without any fear
~ John Lennon

Of course not everything written in the last few decades has been angst-ridden. Chrissy Hind anf the Pretenders’ 2000 Miles, sung as if it were a sad tome, elevates to a happy song of hope. Even George Michael?s song of betrayal and broken hearts, Last Christmas, is upbeat. Technically not a Christmas Song, but I tend to only listen to Jon Anderson?s stunning Chagall Duet this time of year. And we can?t forget Mariah Carey?s All I Want for Christmas Is You, the epitome of pure sugar.

I?m sure there are more, both traditionally sappy and modernly cynical. What?s your go-to recent Christmas song?

Interesting astronomy news breaking today (October 14, 2015):

A star 1,451 light years away from us, catalogued as KIC 8462852, is showing an odd behaviour. Up to 22% of its light disappears for between 5 and 80 days at a time, suggesting that something big is orbiting it.

We’re not talking planet-sized big, we’re talking big-big. For example, Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system, could have that same effect on an observer if the observer was standing on one of our outer planets, like Pluto. Pluto is about 5.5 light *hours* away from our sun. This star is 1,451 light *years* away.

Two possibilities:

1. There is something, perhaps an interstellar dust cloud or a “rogue” planet – one that has been ejected by its star system – between us and that star, that is interfering with our view of the star;
2. There is something huge – bigger in at least two dimensions than the star itself – orbiting that star. Astronomers have already ruled out a dust cloud caused by planetary formation as :

• a) the star is old and planetary formation occurs early in a star’s life, and
• b) such a cloud would show up as excessive infrared light, which this doesn’t.

The article in The Atlantic contains a link to the research paper if you really want to delve into it, or you could join the rest of the internet in speculating that it might be a ringworld, or the ongoing construction of a ringworld, or an incomplete Dyson Sphere, or a complete Dyson Sphere with holes punched in it (apparently called a mobious sphere), or…

Start by reading the article in the Altantic or watch this video from the editor of Universe Today magazine.

Then, if you have an interest, read the astronomical paper it’s based on. While you’re at it, read this second article at the Atlantic about how a “we’ve discovered aliens!” false alarm happened in the 1990s, and how it shouldn’t happen again.

UPDATE: For a more scientific perspective from a real astronomer, try Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy article, complete with charts. For a bit less scientific and more guarded interpretation, read this article a Space.com.

UPDATE 2 (Jan 19/2016): It gets weirder. The star has been fading, pretty consistently, for over acentury. An astronomer went through archived photos and compared luminosity, and it is distinct (and by galactic standards, rapid). Again, Phil Plait has a good discussion of the topic here.
 

Many people argue that Galaxy Quest is one of the best Star Trek movies. If you know the movie, you know it isn’t a Star Trek movie at all, but it has the heart, soul and humour of a great Star Trek movie.

I’d argue that we had a great Star Wars Episode 1, but it was released a year later than the Phantom Menace. It was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Imagine, a story about a seasoned warrior and his apprentice being sent on a mission to find a misguided child and to protect that child from a corrupting, powerful force. The seasoned warrior ends up dying, and the apprentice completes the mission. That’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Now imagine a story where a seasoned warrior and his apprentice are sent to stop a trade embargo and accidentally find a child who in the context of that film alone, shows little redeeming qualities, but also no penchant for evil. The seasoned warrior ends up dying, and the apprentice completes the mission. That’s The Phantom Menace.

I’m not foolishly saying that simply slapping ILM-quality effects onto Crouching Tiger would have made it a Star Wars story. I just remember sitting in the Imax movie theatre watching Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, and thinking, “Wow, This is what Episode I could have been.” Just the fact that the young woman had already started down the dark path and needed to be drawn back, first by being shown superior skills, then given education and respect made a huge impact on the weight of the story. The Phantom Menace had Jake Lloyd’s too impish and impulsive performance (I’m NOT blaming him. It’s all George’s fault.)

I’d actually mostly forgotten all this. But yesterday someone told me that there’s a sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I hadn’t heard about it. I don’t know if it’s a worthy companion piece, or if like The Phantom Menace, it will dilute the value of a great story.

So it?s not news by now that Star Trek: Axanar, a fan film that Kickstarter loves, is getting sued by Paramount and CBS. The sides appear to be solidifying, digging in, becoming entrenched.

It may be too late to offer this, but can?t we find a simple solution to this problem?

Axanar is a much anticipated fan-made movie. To get the ball rolling, the production team created a mock documentary, Prelude to Axanar, that set the stage and introduced the main characters. On the success of this mini-movie, they opened a Kickstarter campaign that was phenomenally successful.

CBS and Paramount are suing Axanar Productions

The Axanar production team claims that they were in repeated contact with CBS and Paramount to ensure that everything was ok. suddenly, everything wasn?t OK, and lawyers got involved. Now CBS and Paramount are suing Axanar Productions to stop the film from being completed.

How did it come to this?

Well, 2016 is the fiftieth anniversary of Star Trek, and one hopes that there will be many pleasant surprises planned for this year. We know that Gene Roddenberry?s estate is releasing 366 behind the scenes artifacts, one per day for the whole leap year. We know that Paramount will be releasing Star Trek Beyond as part of its 50th anniversary celebration. CBS has commissioned a new TV series, but it won?t air until 2017. There should be plenty of room for Axanar. But there isn’t. Why?

Part of the problem, as I see it, is us, the fans.

Part of the problem is us, the fans.

JJ Abrams? reboot of Star Trek hasn?t sat well with many diehard trekkies (including me). And the third installment looks even worse (in the sense of abandoning Trek’s uiqueness) than the first two. Check out the trailer here to see just how unbelievably Fast & Furious it is.

Simultaneously, these same films have been financially successful, finding new fans, even as they alienated the original fan base. Along comes Axanar, offering to give the fans what they want – real trek. The disgruntled fans immediately latched onto it, making it an ?either or? exchange: Like Star Trek Beyond, and you will be an outcast in the fandom, or you can like Axanar and be cool. You can’t like both. That’s not an option. The sentiment seems best to be expressed as: Screw the man for taking our beloved universe and turning it into Fast and Furious Spaceships.

That?s not the way to placate Paramount or CBS. They now face a potentially embarassing rebellion during a very high profile 50th anniversary. They face a fan backlash that is seeing their tentpole property bad-mouthed months before it gets released.

The lawsuit simply solidified the two sides, making intractable enemies of both sides (the fans and Paramount/CBS – to some extent I feel that Axanar is a pawn of this,

The lawsuit makes intractable enemies of the fans and Paramount/CBS.

although perhaps of its own making).

How can we undo this gordian knot? I?m glad you asked. Fan films have a long history, especially with Star Trek. There are at least three youtube-based fan TV shows currently being produced. Paramount and CBS have been very forgiving of this. So, there is a history of benign acceptance. Can’t we turn that to benign oversight?

If I were asked by Paramount or CBS, I?d suggest the following:

• CBS invest a set amount into the production of Axanar, in return for TV air rights to the movie. This could mean including Axanar as the capstone to some overall CBS Star Trek 50th Anniversary show.
• Paramount invest a similar set amount into the production of Axanar in return for the right to include the movie in a DVD.

I know that this is an over-simplification of what would need to be negotiated. There would have to creative guarantees, production deadline guarantees, and some way of ensuring that Axanar production?s vision was not spoiled by corporate marketing interference.

Yet, it should be possible.

The alternative is fans actively boycotting outside of Star Trek Beyond theatres, demanding an end to JJ Trek films. Paramount losing its core Star Trek fan base on the 50th anniversary might not be too impactful if the film draws in the guns and explosions crowd. It could be worse for CBS, who need the original fanbase to support the new show coming in 2017. Some appeasement, some cooperation, some room for all to co-exist peacefully, will help all.

IDIC as a philosophy of how to co-exist. Strength together instead of weakness apart. The pie will get bigger if they share instead of squabbling over it.

NOTE: This is speculation, some might say wishful thinking. I?m not siting sources, just offering an opinion.

(UPDATED BELOW) Star Wars movies have shrouds of secrecy around them, it?s a given. It isn?t just JJ Abrams who keeps things close to his chest. One of the few tidbits that has leaked about the next Star Wars movie, Rogue One, is that there will be a few appearances by characters that we are familiar with. So far (March 14, 2016), the cast is named, but the characters aren?t.

Names like Darth Vader and Boba Fett have been tossed around. Vader makes sense, Fett less so. Wouldn?t a more logical character to include be Biggs Darklighter?

Much of his story was axed from Star Wars, fairly late in the film?s development (his scenes had music scored for them already – that?s a late stage process).

What do we know about Biggs? He was from Tatooine. He was Luke?s best friend. He went to the Academy, the same one to which Luke kept deferring his application.

From deleted scenes we learn that the Academy isn?t exactly Imperial service, but you can be drafted from the Academy to serve in the Imperial military. Biggs is apparently serving on a ship, although it is implied that he is still not a graduate of the academy, so perhaps on some kind of work term/internship. He intends to ?jump ship? and join the rebellion.

Later we learned that he is a trusted pilot in the rebellion. He, unfortunately, is one of the casualties in rebel?s defense of Yavin.

Could Biggs be directly involved in stealing the Death Star plans? No, probably not. The timing wouldn’t work out ? unless he was back on Tatooine as part of a ‘chase’ team that was shadowing the plans’ voyage to ensure that they arrived safely… but probably not.

Could he be peripherally involved in some Academy plotting that leads the rogue one team to the plans? Absolutely. That could be why he?s confident that he can join the rebellion. It might also be why he is considered a trusted pilot within the rebellion in such a short span of time.

Just my thoughts. Call me crazy.

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UPDATE: It turns out i’m not the only one to have had that thought. SlashFilm considered the same idea when the first cast photo was released last year. Diego Luna looks a lot likeGarrick Hagan did when he played Biggs. Apparently Twitter was all over it too: