The Official Site for the Lackluster Goings-On of Michael Kaiser
Posts tagged star trek
I See Your Starship is as Big as Mine
Feb 24th
I haven’t talked about Star Trek lately. I probably don’t talk about it enough in general. Paramount should offer of a network of Star Trek blogs like StarWars.com does, then I could talk about it every day. Oh well. I could probably make my own network (I’m sure I could, actually) but the upkeep cost would be too insane for me to handle, probably. Anyone want to give me money? *chirp* *chirp* Alrighty!
I was watching the latest movie again recently aka the best movie ever produced based on the worst plot ever written, and I decided I like the design of the Enterprise more than I did initially. I dig that it’s essentially the NCC-1701-A with more interesting nacelles. I like all the doohickies and gizmos that move around when they are about to go to warp. Check it (sorta):
So curiosity got to me, and I went to the killer site Ex Astris Scientia to see if it had any information on the size of this sucker and how it compares to other Enterprises that have come before. Of course there was, but apparently there is some debate amongst geekdom as to exactly how big the new design actually is. The producers and digital designers seem to think it is 700 meters, while nerds ways cooler than me who can analyze these kinds of things seem to think it’s about the same size as the original.
So now I want to see them all lined up! So below is every Enterprise variation I could think of (not counting “possible future” stuff), and I’m sticking the new Enterprise in twice, one for each theorized size.
SCALE: 1 pixel = 0.5 meters
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NX-01 NX-Class 225 Meters |
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NCC-1701 (pilot) Constitution Class 289 Meters |
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NCC-1701 Constitution Class 289 Meters |
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NCC-1701-A Constitution Class (refit) 305 Meters |
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NCC-1701 (Abrams) Constitution Class (?) 366 Meters (?) |
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NCC-1701-B Excelsior Class 469 Meters |
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NCC-1701-C Ambassador Class 526 Meters |
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NCC-1701-D Galaxy Class 642 Meters |
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NCC-1701-E Sovereign Class 685 Meters |
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NCC-1701 (Abrams) Constitution Class (?) 718 Meters (?) |
Yeah, I’m going to say I like it in the 300 meter range myself, if only so that it doesn’t dwarf all the supposed “more advanced” ships that came later…er…or will come later. However the movie works. Anyway, like the refit the best, I think. Still dislike the Sovereign the most. It’s just too flat. Looks like a hot rod, not a flag ship.
Read and That’s It 2009
Jan 4th
| Title | Author | Series | Series Part | Reading Date | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace | Terry Brooks | 3/8/2009 | 6 | ||
| Treason | Peter Davis | Star Trek: New Frontier | 17 | 4/30/2009 | 8 |
| The Road | Cormac McCarthy | 6/14/2009 | 10 | ||
| Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? | Philip K. Dick | 9/9/2009 | 8 | ||
| The Gunslinger | Stephen King | Dark Tower | 1 | 10/31/2009 | 8 |
Sad sad sad. But hey, it was my first year of marriage, and I have a new step-daughter at home, and another kid on the way, and more stuff to do at work and… okay okay, I think I was just lazy. Nothing was really grabbing me last year, or calling to me either. Hopefully I’ll do better this year, but so far it doesn’t feel any different.
Up To Date
Dec 21st
Once again, logged into Wordpress and there is another update. Just like last month. Six plugin updates too. Guess I should log into Wordpress more often, eh? Damn that Facebook. Seriously, it’s so much easier to write, “Man this month went by fast!” as a Facebook status update over writing five paragraphs about it on this journal. But then it’s a lot easier to look up my past adventures here than on Facebook, which doesn’t have an archive feature other than “Click Here for Older Posts.” But do I look at my past adventures? Not really. So maybe I’ll turn this journal into something else, but until I figure out what “else” is…
Here is the 2009 Year End Catchup, brought to you by iGoogle – helping me remember what I’ve done lately since 2006:
We celebrated Halloween much like we did last year, only with a few more kids and adults. I still find it funny that the adults outnumber the kids on this holiday. I don’t remember it being like that when I was a kid. Maybe my family needs to produce more children. (Working on it!) Anyway, here are the kids:
And here are the bored adults:
Good times. Next up, we had a faux-Thanksgiving at my parents house because my long-lost aunts were in town. That was the original plan anyway, but instead we just got some deli trays because visiting is more interesting than cooking. Here’s a picture of the original Kaiser clan where almost everyone is looking in the same direction:
Then my mother-in-law celebrated her 20th anniversary of her 21st birthday. I have pictures but I will not post them because she doesn’t like when I do that without her signing off on the picture first, and she’s not here right now.
Then at some point last month The Girl got The Dude’s side of the room complete. Isn’t she talented?
Wait, didn’t I already post that? Maybe it was on Facebook. Oh well, next! Still in November. My brother and his long time gal decided to get married. Shocker, I know. I thought they were going to do the whole “engaged forever” thing too. Most of us didn’t see the ceremony because they don’t like public displays of affection, I guess? But the dinner afterward was nice and everyone had a good time. Here’s a picture where they both look about as happy as they get.
Congrats little brother! Now we’re in December and The Girl gets the tree up ASAP because that’s how she rolls.
That’s right fellas, I did that too her! (High Five!) The Kid helped with the tree too, and I took pictures per usual. Then my Best Good Friend and I went to Star Trek: The Exhibit. It was fun, if not a bit small, and renewed my love of Trek for about three days. And of course, I bought a bunch of overly priced photos. Here’s one of them:
Season 3 Captain Kirk gut totally on purpose. (cough) Then The Kid had part one of her December spoilifercation process by celebrating turning six with a blow out at Chuck’s:
And that about covers October through December, not counting Christmas of course, which hasn’t happened yet. We’re having Christmas at our house this year, assuming The Girl doesn’t go into labor first. Should be fun. It feels like the last arc of this year has really flown by, and I guess I can see why now that I’ve lay it all out for myself. I’m a lot busier than I used to be, but it’s fun. The Girl and I have been ready for Christmas, gift-wise and decoration-wise, since November 30th. Not sure I’m feeling it yet though. Maybe because I’m more interested in this:
He’s not due until next year, and let’s hope that’s how it plays out but…stand by!
Junk Drawer: Micro-Heroes – Old Template
Oct 16th
I got a folder on my server called “zzzfiles” which I use to store a bunch of junk I don’t know what to do with but don’t necessarily want to delete either. It occurred to me today I can just as easily store most of its content on my blog, thereby streamlining my file keeping and allowing the files themselves to (however briefly) see the light of day.
So let’s start with the Micro-Heroes directory. Back when sometime, I used to actively post at ComicBoards.com, and even moderated one or three of their boards. During that time, the Micro-Hero craze kicked in and I joined in along with everyone else. I won’t get into the whole history, but you can read about it here. I will mention that the part about storTroopers threatening a lawsuit was my fault, because I created a Webring for Micro-Heroes. I think all they were really asking for us to do was drop the Webring, but everyone freaked out and dropped the original template all together. Oh well.
The following are Micro-Heroes I created, that I managed to keep, in the old template style. I like the old template much better, way more cookie-cutter than the new stuff. I think there were a lot more of the old template that I lost, especially in the Green Lantern department. At one point I was trying to make a Micro-Hero for every known Green Lantern, but now I don’t have any! I wonder if someone out there saved them?
Captain America
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| Captain America | Nomad w/ Cape | Nomad | The Captain w/ Stark Shield | The Captain w/ T’Challa Shield | The Captain |
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| Superia Stratagem | Ex-Patriot | Captain America w/ Plasma Shield | Super Patriot | Captain America Jr. | The Patriot |
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| Wing Flappin’ Avatar | |||||
Star Trek
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| James T. Kirk | Spock | Leonard McCoy | Montgomery Scott | Hikaru Sulu | Uhura | Pavel Chekov |
Command Uniforms
Engineering Uniforms
Medical Uniforms
Doctor Who - I meant to do all 10, but alas…
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| William Hartnell | Patrick Troughton |
Miscellaneous
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| Iron Man | Nexus |
Ultimate Star Trek
May 11th
Went to see Star Trek opening day last week (or course) with my buddy. I found, going in, that my enthusiasm wasn’t that high. I think I mostly went because I didn’t want everyone asking me if I went, and also it just seemed obligatory. But I was honestly feeling kind of burnt out on it already, what with all the news, trailers, footage leaks, etc.
But after watching it…WOW! My Trek enthusiasm was revitatalized! The movie was one awesome moment after another, and me and my buddy were all nerd-giddy as we went over the movie scene by scene in the parking lot. Seemed like all the other theater goers loved it too, as all the right laughs and shouts of excitment were heard in all the right places. (Unfortunately, I didn’t see any Klingons or Andorians walking around, but lots of Trek shirts and guys who looked like they don’t get laid much, so the experience still had that nice feeling of home.)
Then…as the days progressed, the flash and pop of the movie started to fade, and the actual plot became more prominant within my brain, and now I realize the movie sucked. It’s one of those horribly lazy screenplays where nobody earns anything. I hate those! But what’s weird, I still kind of like it even though it really did suck. Maybe that’s the secret of Abrams power. He’s tricking me into liking it somehow. Or at least trickED. I don’t know if I would enjoy it again now that I’m onto him.
But yeah, it’s a really bad story directed really well. I’ve recommended it to people, even after realizing I’ve been conned. Not sure why. Damn that Abrams. I feel so Lost!
(Get it? Ouch.)
Who’s Watching the Watchmen?
Mar 9th
I am. Or was. Or did. However it works. It was okay. I’d like to see it again, now that I know what it is and isn’t, to see if any of my objections are simply from divergences they took from the original material or if they actually have merit. All my comic loving brethren seem to love it, but then I didn’t love Dark Knight, and I thought Spider-Man I was better than II, so maybe my homes and I don’t see eye-to-eye on these things. I was going to go into my objections further, but eh, I don’t feel like it. If you love it you love it. No one needs me explaining why they shouldn’t. And like I said, I’m not sure what I think of it, so itemizing its “faults” might be premature.
One of the reasons I went was to catch the new Trek trailer on the big screen. (I would have seen it anyway, but yes that was a motivating factor – I am lame!) Of course, my theater was one of the many that did not show it, so thanks for that. I have and had seen it online of course, but I wanted to see it biiiig. Oh well. Again, like the last trailer, I’m torn between “oh god that looks awesome!” and “hmm…that plot point might be dumb…”
Lots of people are saying, “Finally Trek with a budget!” and I guess I agree, although I have to admit, not counting New Frontier, I never noticed Trek needing a budget before. I guess I’m old school. But comparing what has gone before to the shots in these new trailers, the differences in effects is staggering. IMAX here I come. But…is it just effects?
I’m intrigued by the Kirk story the trailer hints at, but will it be all that? I’ve read the movie adaptation is a whopping 197 pages. Hopefully the font is small! The line, “We have no Captain or first officer to take his place” appears dumb to me without context as ranking takes care of situations like that. It’s called a Second Officer, Bones… If they bump Kirk up from nothing to Captain I will probably hiss and boo a bit. But no no, let’s not judge until we see it. Stay the course. As you were.
Read and That’s It 2008
Jan 12th
This used to be called “Read and Watched 2008″ but I stopped keeping track of movies I’ve watched. It got too tedious and I was never sure if I should count movies I was only half paying attention to (aka watching movies on t.v.). Maybe I should start again and only log in movies I’ve seen in a theater, or something like that. That sounds good actually. But in any case, 2008 is a bust for movies. And not great for books either. Here we go:
| Title | Author | Series | Series Part | Reading Date | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban | J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter Series | 003 | 4/21/2008 | 10 |
| Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire | J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter Series | 004 | 7/13/2008 | 10 |
| Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix | J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter Series | 005 | 8/16/2008 | 10 |
| Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince | J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter Series | 006 | 9/5/2008 | 10 |
| Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows | J.K. Rowling | Harry Potter Series | 007 | 10/12/2008 | 8 |
| Twilight | Stephanie Meyer | Twilight Series | 001 | 10/17/2008 | 6 |
| Stardust | Neil Gaimen | 10/22/2008 | 6 | ||
| Fool Moon | Jim Butcher | Dresden Files | 002 | 11/7/2008 | 8 |
So yeah, pretty much just read Harry Potter this year. It was good, but I got sick of it towards the end. Stardust turned out to be one of the few instances where a movie is better than a book, and Fool Moon’s main character cried once too many times, so I gave up on that series early.
As for this year, I don’t know what I feel like reading. I’m not in the mood for anything. I’m humming and hawing about reading the DS9 Relaunch books, but I’m often disappointed in “franchise books” and I don’t know if I want to start down another series road, or read some stand alone stuff for a while. Maybe I should read a book on how to read faster!
Another Facebook Fight
Dec 22nd
Last time I looked at the fan count of Batman vs Superman, with Batman the winner. Now let’s look at the two franchises that are closer to my heart, Star Wars vs Star Trek, and guess who’s going to win? (Der!)
| General Search | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Fans | Title | Fans |
| Star Wars | 535,428 | Star Trek | 22,176 |
| Specific Search | |||
| Title | Fans | Title | Fans |
| Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope | 971 + 20 | Star Trek: The Original Series | 1,281 |
| Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back | 2,032 + 72 | Star Trek: The Next Generation | 28,095 |
| Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi | 1,458 + 55 | Star Trek: Deep Space Nine | 7,885 |
| Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace | 211 + 16 | Star Trek: Voyager | 15,546 |
| Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones | 772 + 20 | Star Trek: Enterprise | 3,801 + 1,561 |
| Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith | 216 + 63 + 24 | Star Trek (film) | 102,776 |
| Star Wars: Clone Wars | 1,509 + 693 + 224 + 65 + 44 + 21 | ||
| Ship Search | |||
| Title | Fans | Title | Fans |
| Millenium Falcon | 351 | U.S.S. Enterprise 1701 | 289 |
| Character Search | |||
| Title | Fans | Title | Fans |
| Luke Skywalker | 0 | James T. Kirk | 1,361 |
| Han Solo | 8,493 + 96 + 84 | Spock | 0 |
| TOTAL | 552,938 | TOTAL | 184,771 |
| WINNER: STAR WARS | |||
Did you see that coming? I did! Trek did pretty good on the individual entries but it was the generic search at the beginning that done ‘em in.
Stuffed and Other Stuff
Dec 1st
So what have I been up to?
Had to attend the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation convention to hock wares for work. Sounds pretty cool, huh? But no, not really. Fairly boring, especially when the show was slow, which it was often. Didn’t see much of San Diego either, but it seemed like an interesting town. My hotel room had an ocean side view, but also came with a train that had to blow it’s horn every time it came by my window, which was every hour or so all night long, so it was a sleepless weekend. But at least food and drink were comped, and my co-worker and I went to town the day before we had to leave, so that was fun.
Turkey Day came and went, and was great. The Girl and I hosted it this year, which is to say that she cooked and I answered the door. I think I got the better end of the deal. I did clean the place the night before, so I didn’t get out of everything, but oh well. I was worried that our place would be too small to support everyone, but it worked out. Helps when half the cast is kids, I guess. It was crowded, but in a good way. I’m glad it’s over, but it was fun. Probably a good idea that it’s only celebrated once a year. Now on to Christmas and then a wedding. Gah. I hope 2009 is super boring. I need some boring.
As if Thanksgiving wasn’t enough, my car decided to go crazy the same week. First the ignition switch got stuck in the on position, so I had to kill the engine by pulling out fuses. Took it to a shop and of course the estimate to replace the ignition switch key escalated once they found all these other very serious problems that I should definitely fix. I drive an old car, of course there are serious problems. I should have just fixed the switch, but I let them sucker me and fix everything and…it drives worse now! Dumb. And of course it’s not their fault because the problem it has now has nothing to do with what they worked on but geez the coincidence of it all. I think they wired something wrong, or jacked with it on purpose to eek more money out of me. But forget it, I’ve put in more money on the Princess Beast than she’s worth, so I think it’s time to find a steep cliff and get to pushing. I would like a Lexus LS Hybrid. Help a brother out? I should find a donate button to put on this site.
Speaking of buttons, I took the W3C compliant buttons off this site. YouTube embeds are apparently not compliant, which means this site isn’t compliant because I like embedding YouTube videos. Oh well! (Actually there’s a way to make YouTube embeds compliant, but I’m not going to deal with that hassle every time I want to post a video. No one cares if I’m compliant, do they?)
On the geek front, despite being excited about the Trek trailer, the followup commentaries and articles I’ve been reading about the context of said trailer are still leaving me ho hum. The excitement has passed and I’m back to thinking the movie will blow. Maybe I should stop reading about it and go in cold turkey, but too late for that anyway. Plus, what else am I going to browse?
Saw the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace last week, as well. I brushed off Good Buddy so I could see it with my dad, and then my dad saw it with my mom while I was in San Diego, so then I was going to see it with The Girl but she felt the need to prep for Thanksgiving and brushed me off, so I ended up seeing it by myself. I wanted to see it, and I’ve never really cared about going to to movies by myself. It’s not like you talk to whomever you’re with when you go see a flick anyway. (Or if you are talking with the person you’re with…I hate you.) The movie was okay, but somewhat disappointing. It didn’t really follow up on the last installment, and the pacing was weird and a lot of the plot made no sense, or didn’t seem to matter. Not a great follow up for the perfection that was Casino Royale, but then I still left the theater wanting to be a secret agent for a living, so I suppose the movie did have a Bond-ness to it. I Except You To Die! wrote a great review that pretty much sums up why the film didn’t work for me without me having to write it all out myself, which I appreciate because I am lazy. So just read that if you’re interested in what I think, but beware of spoilers.
The Kid has a 5th birthday party this weekend. Her mum and dad are worried few will show up, but here’s hoping IMO because the less kids who show, the more likely I’ll get some bounce house action!
What Do I Think?
Nov 17th
Because I know you care, here’s what I think. Actually, watch it here first, or if you’re too lazy to go somewhere else, or are anti-Quicktime, watch a lower resolution below:
Okay what do I think. I think…
- Of course Kirk is a rebellious youth. It makes sense. No way a guy like that can function in a utopia, he’d be too bored. Good thing he ultimately finds a job pioneering through the unknown.
- Interesting to see Earth vehicles that aren’t starships or shuttles or something made to be in space. In all the series, you don’t really see Earth too much, and when you do, it’s usually at a Starfleet location, so you get shuttles flying around and people walking and that’s about it. What’s a taxi look like in the Trek universe? We don’t know. But now we know what police motorcycles look like, so that’s cool. I wonder how much “Earth” will be in the movie, and I look forward to seeing it.
- Is that cop a robot or a fan of Stormtroopers? If a person, the uniform seems a bit much, considering the world he patrols (no poverty, crime, etc.). If a robot, uh…what? Maybe it’s a special uniform for cops who ride fast in the desert, y’know…’cause of all the dust?
- Lots of people bitching about the “My name is James Tiberius Kirk!” line but if I had that handle, I’d declare it like that too.
- The Enterprise looks pretty good sitting there being built as Pine pines over it. Maybe the original image released a few days back was just a bad photo. The scope of that shot is fantastic, makes the thing seem HUUUUGE, which of course it is!
- Vulcan looks cool. Spock looks cool. I like the upgrades to the pajama uniforms, the black undershirt really makes the colors pop.
- The Enterprise on the move is a great shot! Don’t know if it’s going to warp or if that’s what it looks like at impulse, but I really dig how it looks like it’s punching through space, the light streaks flying all around it and junk. Much better than rainbow streaks, as seen in the first few films.
- Lots of space fighting. I guess for a trailer it’s important to focus on the action, but I hope it’s not all about “wars” because that’s a different Star franchise. Please let there be a little exploration, people? A little unknown? A little “fascinating?”
- “I will not allow you to lecture me…” Yeep! Do not piss off Spock! Well…unless you’re Kirk, then go ahead because you can probably hold your own. Hot headed full of himself Kirk vs young can’t control his emotions Spock = awesome.
- The bridge and ship insides may look different, but they still have the WHOOP WHOOP red alert noises. Whew!
- Hey, Kirk with his shirt off, way to uphold tradition.
- Hey, Uhura with her shirt off! Thank you for the new tradition! First Star Trek bra? Maybe.
- Scotty seems like Scotty, at least based on the one line. Definitely a more youthful vibe to him, but that’s the point of the movie, I suppose.
- Sulu sword fighting = win.
- McCoy, the last of the Big 3, doesn’t get much representation on this thing, oddly. I don’t feel him in the one line he delivered, at any rate. He seems all bugeyed and paranoid, but it’s also out of context. “Space is evil and we’re all going to die!” Actually, that does sound like McCoy…hmmm…
- Big alien monster. One of the many pluses to having a big movie budget. We get big alien monsters.
- More space battling.
- Nero looks pretty cool. That Bana guy is in shape. Wonder if that’s the new look for Romulans or just for his sect.
- Love the retro theme at the end, nice touch!
All-in-all, this trailer makes me foam at the mouth with a desire to see this thing, so mission accomplished, I guess. Trailers of course, mean very little, when it comes to reflecting the merets of a film, and are often better than the film. But I like what I’m seeing so far. Interesting that there is no Nimoy in the trailer, I would have thought they’d have played up his appearance to get the old-school on board. I’m somewhat glad he’s not included though, let the new kids have a go without him. Much like Generations, I almost wish he wasn’t involved at all, and they let the new (old) cast stand on its own. But oh well. Cool trailer though! (So I don’t end this on a down beat.)
Off to watch it again!
