75 - Repetition

I do apologise if sometimes there is an element of repetition in this blog; pretty much every post is written on the hoof every day, and there may be some points I make one day that I need to elaborate on the next day, or maybe even days later.

Just bear with me about this. 

Much of what's on here is me spitballing about things. Sharing my opinions, which can shift. After all, if a person's opinion could never shift, we could never learn, and we could never grow... and if we didn't do those things, what's the point?

74 - Debate

I think one of the most important things in any civilised society is the freedom to express your opinions. This will certainly mean there are people out there who have opinions that are diametrically opposite to your own. Some of these opinions may even cause you offence. 

Tough. 

If a person has such an opinion, debate with them, engage with them, expose the fallacies in their arguments. prove your own point. 

The one thing that should not be done is to censor their opinions.

Once you have to resort to such censorship, you have lost the argument. It shows that you have no coherent points to prove them wrong. Censorship is the last resort of someone who cannot win an argument. 

And we do seem to be becoming more censorious as time passes. A person can post a message on Twitter, and if it's not what is deemed to be the "correct" opinion of the day, there is a massive scope for abuse, threats, and demands that their account is banned. People have been arrested, and taken to court, for saying something deemed incorrect. 

This cannot happen.

It is a slide towards a state where we are afraid to even open our mouth lest what comes out be not the right opinion. Yes, if someone says something you deem to be wrong, challenge it. Debate it. Etc. 

But the right to express that opinion? That must be held as a cornerstone of a civilised society...

73 - Ethel

No matter what else she does, the thing I will always remember Sandi Toksvig for most will be as Ethel, from TV's Number 73; which was one of those Saturday morning kids' shows they used to do. 

My memories of it are that it was quite brilliant, a little anarchic, and something about sandwiches. 

I sometimes wonder if the show would hold up if I were to watch an episode today (I'm sure there must be some on YouTube), but then I come to think that if it doesn't it would taint the memory. Sometimes the memory cheats. 

Hmm...

72 - State

I don't intend this blog to end up just being a Star Trek blog, despite what a notable number of recent posts may be suggesting, but I feel like writing about elements of ST at the moment, and as it's my blog that's what I'll do...

In any case, if I weren't yakking about ST today I'd probably end up writing a mopey post about Valentines' Day, and really... no-one wants that. 

It's just one thing today, a question; the Prime and Kelvin timelines are talked about as if they are separate things. But surely, it is impossible for one to occur without the other. So, from a certain point of view, are they not both the same time line? 

71 - Borg

I still don't buy the notion that the unseen enemy in The Neutral Zone episode of TNG was The Borg - at least, the Borg as we they emerged in the Season 2 episode Q-Who.

There was a notion that a species of aliens, with a hive mind, but insectoid in nature were to be those behind it; they were due to be introduced in the first couple of episodes of season 2. But a combination of the writers' strike (why there a fewer episodes in that season), and an inability to come up with a design for the creatures that they could make on budget meant these aliens were scrapped. 

But the notion of aliens with a hive mind stayed in the producers' minds and this is what eventually became The Borg.

So... why could these Neutral Zone aliens not be The Borg?

Well... cast your mind back to exactly how the Enterprise first encounter the Borg... Q flings the Enterprise across the galaxy, to an area no humans have ever gone. Q makes it quite clear that this encounter with the Borg has drawn humanity to their attention and they are on their way - perhaps a year/year and a half away from the Federation, and humanity. 

This is the key point. 

The Neutral Zone is not a place where humanity has  not gone before. It is the border between Federation and Romulan space. On the edges on each side are outposts - Romulan and Human - that are destroyed by the unknown attackers. 

So... if the Borg were a year/year and a half away from humanity mid-season 2, they could not be encountering humanity at the end of season 1.

Simple as that...

(Though all of the first contact with humanity was later contradicted by ST: First Contact, Voyager, and Enterprise... ho-hum...)

70 - Joker

I've just seen Joker.

I think it's a film that's going to take a while to fully sink in.

It's quite, quite, brilliant. 

Give me a few days and I'll write more. If I don't, prod me...

69 - 69

Oh, there's all sorts of things I could say with this blog post's number, but I think all those reading this - yes, both of you - could write the punch lines yourselves.

So... go ahead...

68 - Romulans

Just as an aside to yesterday's post; I also watched the last episode of the first season of TNG, The Neutral Zone, which is the episode that reintroduces the Romulans in to ST.

In this episode it's stated that the Romulans have been away for the last 50 years, and have had no contact with the Federation in that time; there is a reference made that they had other business that meant they concentrated on internal matters. 

The question is... did we ever actually find out what it was that kept the Romulans so insular in that time? What occupied them to mean they cut off contact of all kind?

I don't recall ever seeing an answer.

Or have I just forgotten?

67 - Contrast

I've recently gone back and watched a handful of Star Trek; TNG episodes, largely as a result of ST: Picard. There's a certain contrast with something that happens in a pair of episodes.

So. I started with Measure of a Man; I'd not seen this episode for a very long time, and i'm not really sure why. In this episode, Bruce Maddox (yes, that Bruce Maddox) tried to get Data transferred from the Enterprise to him in order that he can be disassembled and studied, so that Dr Soong's work can be reproduced (which is something that has yet to happen). 

Maddox reckons he'll be able to put him back together, but there are doubts. He begins proceedings to take control of Data, and carry out his work.  

Jean-Luc objects to this, and there's a courtroom trial in order to determine what to do with Data, whether he is sentient, and whether he has the right to choose what happens to him.

Needless to say, Picard wins and it is determined that Data has the choice as to whether or not he is disassembled for Maddox's experiments. Data, of course, declines to be disassembled; although he says he finds Maddox's work intriguing, and he perhaps be interested in working with him in the future. 

Absolute, clear message. 

After this, I watched I, Borg, followed by Descent parts 1 and 2. Largely because of Hugh. 

Descent, of course, also features another appearance by Lore, Data's "evil twin", and the other android successfully built by Dr Soong. They are, to all intents and purposes, and from a design point of view, the same. If Data is sentient, and has choice over his life; so must Lore.

Yet, at the end of the episode, once Lore's plan to rule the Borg has failed, Data shoots him with a phaser, and deactivates him. After this... well, there's a line of dialogue that says he has been disassembled. 

Now, you see... this sits badly with me. Yes, Lore was a wrong 'un, but surely as the case in Measure of a Man proved, he was a sentient being with the right to choose his life. To disassemble Lore is as wrong as it would have been to disassemble Data. Yet, this is what happens. 

Surely there could have been an other way?

[And, as a sideline; what happened to to the disassembled Lore? Did he find his way to Bruce Maddox? As I recall, Descent part 2 is the last time we see Lore, so I'm presuming it's possible... unless someone can tell me otherwise.]

66 - Picard

Three episodes in, and I think I'm safe to say that Star Trek Picard is the best Trek we've had since 1994... (That's the year The Next Generation finished in case you need to Google.)

[Warning before you go further; I'm not planning on dropping massive spoilers here, but if you've not seen it yet and want to go in completely clean, possibly best not to read...]

It works both as a series in its own right and as a continuation to Next Generation, despite not really being anything like that show. It's got the right level of references to the past, and of building its own new additions to Trek lore.

It's a single story that's being told over ten episodes, with a number of strands weaving together. The show is pointing in a direction at the moment, but I'm sure there will be plenty of twists along the way, and where the story ends up will be in an unexpected place. 

The nods to the past have generally been subtle; it would have been very easy to have brought the whole of the Next Gen crew together for one last mission, but that would have been the easy way. And it really would have stretched all credibility. 20 years on, everyone from the Enterprise crew would have moved on with their lives. Been doing other things. 

Heck... is there even an Enterprise still in service? Would NCC-1701E still be flying, or would be be on NCC-1701F by now?

Oh... will we get to see it? I hope so. 

But, of all the nostalgic elements of TNG I most want... the one more that ever is Q. At some point - whether this season, the next, or the third, or whenever - Jean-Luc has to come in to contact with Q. To see Patrick Stewart and John de Lancie sparring one more time would be joyful. The biggest mistake they made with the TNG movies was not doing one with Q. 

Still, at least we know that season 2 sees Whoopi Goldberg returning as Guinan...

65 - Endless

There is the phrase "Everything will be alright in the end; and if it's not alright, it's not the end". 

What if something is endless?

Does that mean it will never be right?

Or that it won't be alright for a bit, then be alright for a while, not alright for a bit, then alright for a bit...

...repeating in a continuing cylcle. 

Or like a whirlpool; it never ends. 

Now I'm dizzy...

64 - Happening

I was rather chuffed to see the imminent release - well, in June of this year - of the Pet Shop Boys' movie, It Couldn't Happen Here. 

It is one of those movies that really does deft description; I've seen it a couple of times, and whilst I very much enjoyed it I can't really say what it's about. It's almost like it's a bunch of sequences joined together, that don't really all relate to each other.

There's a bit with a postcard seller who's averse to politicians; Chris at what looks like a B&B with his mum, played by Barbara Windsor; stuff about Chris and Neil's relationship with a priest, both as adults, and as children; a second hand car salesman; and someone who looks rather like Biggles. 

Oh, and a sequence with dancers on Clacton Beach.  

Yet, somehow, despite the incoherence as a complete whole, as an experience - whilst you're watching it - somehow it just works perfectly. 

It's all early Pet Shop Boys music - only from the first two albums - and as with all such films you're waiting for the bigger hits. It's a Sin is a particular treat. But then it always is...

I've only ever seen the movie in VHS quality; so seeing it in HD on Blu-Ray will be quite a treat. In fact I'd hope it'll receive some exposure on the big screen. The BFI is releasing it, so hopefully they'll put on a few screenings at the NFT. Hey... maybe they could even get Neil and Chris down for a Q&A after a screening. That would be awesome. 

63 - Shoes

I've just read an article about some Nike running shoes that supposedly give an unfair advantage to athletes because of how they are designed. They fall, just, within the specifications permitted by the World Athletics authorities. 

Other companies are whinging about these shoes, but I just say; tough. Do better. Design your own shoes that have advantages. Don't just sit there whinging. 

If they can design better shoes, so can you.

62 - Millionare

What I like about channels like Challenge & Sony are the repeats of Tarrant era Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? Makes me wish I'd been able to go on it. I keep meaning to try to get on the Clarkson version, but haven't got around to it. 

Which really, isn't good enough. 

All the while while I'm thinking of doing it, I'm not actually doing it, when I really should be. 

Which applies to all sorts, really. 

Oh, well...

62 - Framing

Meh.

I switched to BBC4 and they're showing reruns of This Life and the picture's got black bars on all four sides of the screen. This is never acceptable. Picture squeezed to a little box in the middle of the screen. 

If there's black bars on two sides of the screen, that's fine. If it's a movie shot in 2.35:1 being shown on a 16:9 screen you'd expect bars at the top and bottom so you can see the whole picture as it's meant to be seen, without it being cut or stretched. 

Or if you're watching an old TV show shot in 4:3 on your 16:9 telly, you'd expect bars to the left and right, so you can see the whole picture as it's meant to be seen without being cut or stretched. 

But bars on all four sides? No. Never acceptable.

If the original ratio of the picture is not 16:9, in order to fit the telly one aspect, either the horizontal or vertical should fill the screen; thus giving black bars on just two of the sides. As it should be. 

Bars on all four sides. Sheer laziness. 

It takes me out of things and is a distraction. 

I mean; rather than giving it my full attention, I'm writing this... when I should be commenting on just how young that Rick Grimes looks... 

61 - Days

There's a line in the final episode of the the US version of The Office that I think of every now and then. It goes like this;

"I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you left them."

And it was one of those simple quotes, that with hindsight seems so blindingly obvious that it seems impossible that it's not something everyone has always thought forever.

When were your "good old days"? A year ago? Five years ago? Ten years ago? That quote challenges you to think... what if the good old days are actually happening right now? We all reminisce about the times we had that were great, but we just don't always recognise them when they are happening. There's various parts of my life I look back on and think "yeah, those were good times"; but at the time they just seemed like normal life.

Life has a habit of doing that to you, its extremes can somehow become the norm. Heck, even when there are bad things happening to you it becomes the norm. Although when you do have moments that can be deemed the bad times, you do really know them; and then you end up thinking it'll never end. But it will. It always does.

I'm sure there was a point to all this, but for the moment it's escaped me...

60 - Ureasonable

The only thing I want to post today is this quote I very recently came across from George Bernard Shaw;

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Makes perfect sense. Maybe I should start being more... unreasonable...