Category Archives: Star Trek

Star Trek, Star Wars

Shouldn’t fans decide what’s canon?

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I’ve had an idea in my head for a while, and along with it, a word: fanon.
It seems to me that there is a very real but simple problem in much of science fiction fandom. For our beloved universes, the wrong people get to decide what is canon.

Not the sequel you’re looking for

I’m not deeply into the Star Wars mythology. Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (“the sequel to Star Wars!”) is one of the few Star Wars books that I’ve read, and I was growing beyond comic books around that same time.

I understand that LucasFilm (a.k.a. Disney) has moved a lot of material out of the Star Wars canon, making it ‘legend’. I don’t have a beef with that, because I don’t know the rich history of the multitude of characters and myths that get lost by such a move.

Even as some people have been getting pissed that The Last Jedi is canon while Thrawn isn’t (update, apparently he is now), I’ve been doing a slow burn over the other franchise that J.J. Abrams has wrecked: Star Trek.

Yeah, I’m an old-school Trekkie. I’ve been to those conventions (Met Jimmy Doohan once). I love Star Trek the Motion Picture. It’s Star Trek’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. I grok Spock. And I love Lucy. Basically I’m the type of fan that was being mocked in Galaxy Quest. And if you don’t understand those references, then, well… you’re young, aren’t you?

The Kelvin timeline was an absolute annoyance. Chris Pine will never be my Captain Kirk, I’ll never accept that you can beam the whole way to Qo’noS. Kahn was played by Mr. Roarke, not Sherlock Holmes.

Sorry, Checkov

I’m just old enough to remember seeing the Star Trek cartoons on Saturday mornings. And I loved catching the original series when it came on after school. I bought those giant poster magazines with the pull out posters of the Enterprise, Kirk at the OK Corral, etc.

Every engineer should own one

Hell, I owned the Starfleet Technical Manual (and also, somehow a tech manual on the cockpit of the Huey AH-1 Cobra gunship – don’t mess with me, man, I got game!)

Over the years, Star Trek has made some questionable choices (like the theme to Enterprise. Everybody sing it now: “It’s been a long road getting from there to here…”), but for me the most questionable was creating Star Trek: Discovery. This show isn’t Star Trek and you can’t convince me otherwise. It keeps trying to link to the existing canon, but in ways that are far more damaging than Enterprise ever was.

The bean counters at CBS, who may or may not have even seen Star Trek, are declaring what is and isn’t canon.

And I’ve decided NO. You don’t have the right to decide for me what is and isn’t canon. I’m and adult, I’ll do that for myself. And I’ll call it “Fanon”.

But this got me thinking about how I would define what is or isn’t fanon in Star Trek.

First there are three simple rules that filter out much of the crap.

1) Spock is an only child.

This gets rid of Star Trek Discovery in its entirety, and also Star Trek V, a film so bad I can’t even remember its name (The Final Frontier, I looked it up. You’re welcome. Now forget it. Please. Uhura finally gets a boyfriend, and it’s Scotty? Lass, ye kin do much better.).

2) Data is a singular and unique creation.

This gets rid of all of the stupid Next Generation stories involving Lore and removes B4 (and thus Star Trek Nemesis).

3) The Enterprise was built at Utopia Planitia, a facility based on Mars.

This gets rid of the whole “Kelvin timeline” in which the Enterprise was built on the surface of Earth and could do atmospheric landings. (“But, Roddenberry wanted that in the original series.” Yeah, but he gave the Big E straight struts to mount her engines, not curved shit that would collapse.)

Those three rules clear a lot of the crap out of Star Trek, but of course, there are also singular episodes that may need to be culled from the remaining canon.

For example, the last episode of Enterprise, the one that turns the whole series into a holodeck reenactment designed for fat William Riker and thus undoes the whole series. Yeah that’s gone. Along with it I’d throw out the Borg episode and the Nazi time travel episodes (I’m OK with the temporal cold war and the Xindi. I thought it gave an interesting look at the evolution of Starfleet’s codes of conduct. I miss the MACOs).

I guess we should eliminate the Voyager episode where Janeway and Parris are turned into slugs and have sex.

There was a Next Generation episode where Riker gets stung by a flower and hallucinates his past. It was a clip episode, Nothing happened in it that we hadn’t already seen – apparently he had no life before the show started and it’d only been on for two years.

Let’s get rid of the “Tasha Yar fights a woman to the death” episode too. It was, well, racist.

Maybe because it was all I had for the longest time, but I have a hard time finding any original series episodes to cut from canon. I know many people dislike Spock’s Brain or The Way to Eden, but I’ll take them.

Additions:

I’d include Star Trek Continues as canon. It was a respectful and well-done extension of the original series, even if creator Vic Mignogna has become a troubling figure.

I’ve read a few Star Trek books, all original series crew, and I’d include them as canon, except maybe Spock Must Die. Even then, I could be talked into it.

What about you? What’s your canon? What isn’t? Who should get to decide what’s truly canon, the fans or the money-grubbing weasels (“There is no bias detected in the wording of this question.”)?

Hit me up with Star Trek, Star Wars or MCU.

Star Trek

Star Trek Discovery is not the Star Trek We Need

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STD(Assume that this post contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery and the first three episodes of The Orville)

1966 was a time of rebellion in America: The Civil Rights movement, the anti-Vietnam war movement, the Free Love movement, were all on the rise. People were pissed — at the government, at the establishment, at each other, and at the ‘other.’ Continue reading Star Trek Discovery is not the Star Trek We Need →

Star Trek

Star Trek: Red Shirts Had It Better Than Blondes

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Forget being a Red Shirt, being blonde on Star Trek could be fatal (to your acting career). After recently viewing Shatner’s Chaos on The Bridge documentary and watching an old episode of Voyager, it hit me: blonde women didn’t usually last long on Star Trek. Grace Lee Whitney, Denise Crosby, and Jennifer Lien all didn’t make it through their respective series, all were blonde, and none had prominent acting careers afterwards. (Every rule has its exception, for this one, it’s Jeri Ryan. More on her later).

Grace Lee Whitney played Yeoman Janice Rand on eight of the first thirteen Star Trek episodes before being unceremoniously dropped. Why exactly she was dropped, doesn’t seem clear. One view is that she was morphing from Kirk’s secretary to his girlfriend and the producers didn’t want that (then don’t write it!). Another view is that the actress herself may have had personal problems – she did comment on taking medication to keep her weight down. Grace struggled with addiction and unemployment afterwards. Her promising singing career never took off. Whitney had been a rising star before Star Trek, appearing in Some Like It Hot, including the train “upper berth” scene with Jack Lemon and Marylin Monroe.

Denise Crosby left Star Trek: The Next Generation part way through the first season. She didn’t feel that her character, Natasha Yar, was being properly utilized. The actress claims that she was spending days on set standing behind Captain Picard’s chair, only her legs visible to the camera. Why exactly a stand-in couldn’t do that isn’t clear. (Crosby talks about this in the recently released documentary ‘Chaos on the Bridge’). Denise never became the star that she (and we) expected, but continued acting successfully, recently appearing in a story arc on The Walking Dead, for example.

Jennifer Lien played Kes on Star Trek: Voyager. She lasted the longest, three seasons, before being let go. The cast was set and budgeted for nine actors, and when the decision was made to add Jeri Ryan as borg Seven of Nine, one of the original cast members had to go. Apparently it came down to Garret Wang or Jennifer Lien, but Wang got mentioned in a high profile People Magazine story, and Lien was let go. Jennifer gave up acting and went to medical school.

But there’s two follow-on points.

First, each of the actresses did revive their characters later – Grace Lee Whitney having to wait the longest, until Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and then again in other movies and one episode of Voyager. Denise Crosby came back to The Next Generation first as her original character in the excellent episode Yesterday’s Enterprise, then as Yar’s daughter in a later story arc. Lien played Kes for one episode in season 6 of Voyager.

Second, Star Trek seems to have an ongoing problem with actresses. The Next Generation fired Gates McFadden after the first season, only to bring her back after her replacement, Star Trek (original series) recurring guest star Diana Muldar only lasted one season. Whoopi Goldberg joined The Next Generation around season three, but had a falling out with producers and left, only to make cameos in the various follow-on movies. Jeri Ryan talks about her four years on Voyager as something she survived, although that seems less to do with the producers (one of whom she was dating) than conflict with one specific actor.

So maybe being a red shirt on Star Trek wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to an actor. Maybe being blonde was worse.

Fans, Star Trek, Star Wars

Fan Participation: Star Wars vs Star Trek

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I hope that I don’t have to tell you that I’m a Star Wars fan. I’ve been less demonstrative of my love of Trek, partially because that’s how Trekkies/Trekkers roll (all logical and all that crap) and partially because JJ Abrams seems to have used the last two Star Trek outings to audition to direct Star Wars Episode VII. But I’ve lived inside the fan bases of both of these franchises and they are very different. I think one key difference comes down to how they are nurtured by their respective franchise owners, Paramount and Lucasfilm: the originality that Paramount nurtures versus the inclusion that Lucasfilms promotes.

Initially, there wasn’t much to tell them apart. Both had conventions, comic books, paperback new adventures, and not much more.

Then something strange happened. Star Wars fans, many of whom were inspired to join the moviemaking industry, started making fan films. We had simple efforts like Toaster Wars, absurd full-budget parodies like Spaceballs, and eventually the classic fan films Troops and George Lucas in Love (Which uses Shakespeare in Love as its template). Lucasfilm has a convoluted relationship with fan films, some times embracing them, sometimes rejecting their existence. For the average, non-Hollywood fan, Star Wars fandom tended to be limited to cosplay (dress up like their favourite characters). The 501 Imperial Legion (Vader’s Fist) grew from this, as did its opposition, the Rebel Legion (a.k.a. Rebel Scum).

Paramount has allowed fans to expand the Star Trek legacy in a way that Lucasfilms hasn’t allowed with Star Wars. Star Trek actors have participated in the creation of fan-based Trek, notably, William Shatner participated in Free Enterprise, about an obsessed fan.

Lately, the Star Trek fanbase, and many of the original actors (from main character players like Walter Koenig, Tim Russ, and Michael Dorn to recurring character actors like Gary Graham) have started making high quality Star Trek stories. Star Trek Continues and Star Trek New Voyages both continue the original series with new episodes, obviously recasting the roles. The highly anticipated Star Trek Axanar tells the backstory of legendary military strategist Garth (Whom Kirk had to defeat in the original series episode “Whom Gods Destroy”). This fan-funded project hasn’t been completed yet, but the mockumentary Prelude to Axanar is on Youtube and well worth the watch. There are a whole series of episodes related to the Enterprise’s sister ships: Starship Exeter, Starship Excelsior, Starship Farragut. There are probably others.

There’s also Star Trek Renegades, which features at least one character from Star Trek Voyager, and less well-known productions like Star Trek Odyssey, Star Trek Horizon, Star Trek: Digital Ghost, Star Trek: Redemption, and there are probably others. These are large team efforts with either full movie plots or multi-episode plots and some attempt at authenticity although a few of them aren’t ageing well.

There have been recent Star Wars fan films, but the difference in quality and narrative between the pre-prequels batch and the new ones is obvious (the new ones lack accuracy of setting, they lack story – mostly light sabre battles, and they lack budget). To my knowledge Star Wars actors have never participated in fan films. Part of the disparity here is that Star Wars is mostly a movie franchise with a few seasons of cartoons added later. Star Trek is first and foremost a sequence of TV series. The actors play the roles for much longer, and invest more in the fanbase. Also, the actors go to many fan conventions a year, earning speaking fees and meeting fans regularly. Movie actors do ComiCon and move on to the next role.

But, we have to remember that Star Wars inspired many people to get into movie making, and some of those have the tools to do interesting work. Although there hasn’t been a lot of strong fan films recently, there is a strong underground community of fan edits to official films. The Phantom Edit, which improves Star Wars episode 1: The Phantom Menace by, among other things, mostly removing Jar Jar Binks, and even then giving him a foreign, sub-titled language. Filmmaker Kevin Smith, a longtime Star Wars nerd, was reported to be the Phantom Editor, but has denied such, although he was one of the first to publicly talk about the film. Topher Grace, best known as Eric Foreman on That ’70s Show, has created his own edit of Episodes I-III, apparently making them into one seamless movie, and according to reports, much more enjoyable (This film is not available online). Another fan, inspired by notes from Grace’s edit, made a version that is available on YouTube.

I guess my final thought is that if you are either a Trekkie/Trekker or a Star Wars fanatic, there is more to do than simply buy things or dress in costumes. BUT… the Star Trek community is much more active in film and TV creation. Star Wars fans have to console themselves with the fact that at least they’re not browncoats. Those people have nothing but their coats and silly rumours..!

Just kidding Whedonites, just kidding 😉

But I am sure that I’ve missed stuff. You can comment below, using your Facebok, Twitter, Gmail or Disqus account. I’d love to hear your thoughts, disagreements, or about any substantial errors or omissions.

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While researching this article, I started reviewing for Saturday Night Live spoofs of both Star Wars and Star Trek. Here’s what I found:

Saturday Night Live does Star Trek:
Two favourites:
Chevy Chase as Spock, John Belushi as Captain Kirk on their last mission
William Shatner makes fun of Trekkers
A couple I?d never seen before:
Star Trek Restaurant with Shatner
Jim Carrey as Kirk – Wrath of Farrakhan

Saturday Night live does Star Wars:
Kevin Spacey as Jack Lemon auditioning for Chewbacca
Kevin Spacey as Christopher Walken auditioning for Han Solo
Star Wars fans at the wrong movie
Richard Prior visits the Star Wars cantina
Mocking The Force Awakens trailer

Book Review, Movie Review, Star Trek

Artificial Intelligence: Malicious in Movies, Benevolent in Books

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Why is it that the portrayal of artificial intelligence in movies and books are contradictory? Almost universally, movies portray AI as adversarial to humans.

Recent movies such as this year?s Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ex Machina each offer their own interpretation of the idea that AIs can’t be trusted. In both, humans become the victims of AI free will, although the scale is vastly different. There have been hints of this malevolent interpretation in movies for some time, and can invariably be traced back to Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey. And between then and now, we’ve had The Matrix and the granddaddy of all malevolent AIs, Terminator.

One of the few examples that breaks that mould, showing AIs as victims of humanity’s baser impulses, is AI: Artificial Intelligence. Here we have an AI that wants nothing more than to be loved by a human and is rejected repeatedly. Another exception that I can think of is War Games, where the AI realizes that total nuclear war is unwinnable and refuses to play.

But what’s most interesting is I, Robot, based on Isaac Asimov’s ‘robots’ series of books. The books explicitly and repeatedly state that in that future, all AIs will adhere to three laws that are destined to keep them from harming humans. The movie subverts this, and its robots can certainly hurt people.

Yet many successful utopian book series have benevolent AIs as an underpinning of that very utopian-ness. Think of the Culture series by Iain M Banks, or the Commonwealth Series by Peter F. Hamilton. True, Dune talks about the banning of thinking machines because they once rebelled against humans, but I wouldn’t call Dune’s post-AI existance utopian anyway.

I think the argument is more muddled for TV, probably because there is invariably many more hours of it.

Classic Star Trek had many episodes about bad AI, from Dr Daystrom’s M5 to the Serpent that kept people innocent and free of sin, to Landru and Nurse Chapel’s lover/android, Roger Korby. AI was rarely if ever seen as benevolent. Now, there’s a TV show called Person of Interest in which not one but two AIs are trying to control humanity. In between, there’s been a lot of hours of a bit of both:

  • Battlestar Galactica, both versions, were clearly about AIs wanting to exterminate pesky humans, although the reimagined series complicated the question by having them interbreed.
  • Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation represents a more benevolent AI, one that although superior in almost every way still choses to participate in life’s social and moral uncertainties.

I’ve noticed this disconnect between how books and movies portray artificial intelligence but I don’t have a clear explanation for it. Perhaps I have an observer’s bias and this is completely wrong. If you could use the comment space below to help me flesh out either this obvious disconnect or my obvious bias, I’d appreciate it.