There are spoilers in this post, so if you haven't watched the show yet but intend to do so at some time, you might want to stop right here.
I've given up on this show. After nine episodes, I just don't find it worth the time it takes to watch, the hit it puts on my data usage, or the $5.99 a month that I pay for the CBS All Access service. If it's released on DVD at some point, I might give it a second chance.
Here are some of the things I really dislike about the series.
Michael Burnham is supposed to be the very first Starfleet officer to commit mutiny. Not totally unbelievable, but a bit of a stretch, to be sure. I can accept that losing her commission is part of her punishment when she pleads guilty, but being imprisoned for the rest of her life just feels wrong. Also, in the scene where the proceedings are taking place, the officers who are trying her case are seen to be hidden in darkness. It's not stated, but the implication is clear; Burnham has no idea of who she's dealing with.
This simply does not fit in with anything remotely resembling the way things were shown to be in the original series. When Jim Kirk is being court-martialed, he is offered the chance to request that different officers be assigned to the proceedings if he feels that any of those present are biased against him.
As regards the character of Sarek, this version of him feels so wrong. This Sarek is dishonest. This Sarek has none of the gravitas that the late Mark Lenard brought to the character. This Sarek is one I don't care for.
The war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire is something we're told has cost thousands of lives. Yet, we've seen nothing of the war but a few brief battles. We've not seen any of the pain, or the sacrifice, or the just plain horror of war. If you want to see Star Trek do this the right way, watch the episodes of Deep Space Nine that feature the Dominion War story arc.
The captain has a large room in which he has among other things, the skeleton of a Gorn. Yet, if we accept that this is taking place when it's said to be, first encounter with that species is a good ten to twelve years in the future. It's possible that the captain, whose name I can barely remember, doesn't know what species the skeleton is from.
The only way that any of this makes sense at all is if events are set in the mirror universe. If one accepts the events of "In A Mirror, Darkly" to be canon, then the level of technology seen makes sense. The Terran Empire has had a lot of time in which to advance their technology.
Even then, though, it still doesn't all fit. The Empire is most definitely not the Federation. It might, I repeat, might, all work if we see that this is the Mirror universe with an altered time line. But that would, of course, contradict the oft-repeated statements that we are dealing with the Prime time line.
And don't get me started on the spore drive. Setting aside the questionable science involved, it takes all the tension out of things. A means of interstellar travel that can take you anywhere in the universe in just a few seconds? I'd love to have a talk with the person who came up with that idea.
And could they possibly make the Klingons any less interesting? Past depictions haven't always been the greatest, but this really is scraping the bottom of the barrel, as the saying goes. Of course, I've been spoiled when it comes to this, because the novel "The Final Reflection" by John M. Ford is still the gold standard when it comes to depicting the Klingons, thirty-three years after its release.
The sad part is, there are bits and pieces of the show that do work and work well. But the bad far outweighs the good, so far. For the most part, the whole thing is a rather generic action-adventure show with a bit of Star Trek thrown in.
When you compare this to some of the better fan films, it just isn't very good at all. Of course, fan films are now severely restricted in what they can and can't do. I've covered that before and won't go over it again here.
As always, I thank you for taking the time to read this
Friday, December 29, 2017
Sunday, December 24, 2017
Merry Christmas To You
To you, dear reader, I offer my wishes for a very merry Christmas. May you receive at least one good gift, and may the gifts you give be just right for the recipients.
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Things That Have Been On My Mind
Settle in, dear reader. This is going to be a long post. I'm going to cover a lot of ground, as the expression goes.
The tax reform bill is now the law of the land. As is repeal of net neutrality regulations. These won't actually go into effect for a little while, but the deals are done, the votes have been cast. The CHIP program that provides health insurance for 9 million children is out of money, more or less. There are no more funds to be dispersed to the individual states at this time. Each state has its own date at which its current funds will run out. The program has been in existence for twenty years and funding it has never been an issue in the halls of Congress.
But, as I and so many others predicted would happen, the Trump presidency is taking almost everything we've long taken for granted and putting it all back on the table. Even as they happily blow a trillion and a half dollar hole in the budget, the Republicans are already talking about what they call "entitlement reform". Because, they say, we need to be fiscally responsible.
I believe that no later than late January or early February, they'll be attacking Social Security, Medicare, SNAP (the program formerly known as food stamps), H.E.A.P., and anything else they can set their sights on. They might, just might, leave regular Social Security untouched, but they will, I believe, brutally attack Social Security Disability.
Which, though it's par for the course, is still morally sickening. I have a lot to lose if this goes badly because S.S.D. is my only source of income. My monthly check of $834 (don't spend it all at once!) puts me at 80% of the poverty level. My SNAP benefits bring me all the way to a dead even 100%.
Think that over, for a minute. That monthly payment, which I can spend on food and nothing else, lifts me out of poverty.
Changing the subject, have you read, or at least, heard about the report issued by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights? He recently completed a two week tour of the United States and finds our conditions to be "appalling". He details conditions in parts of Alabama, where raw sewage backs up in people's yards because the systems to handle it are in such bad shape. He talks about children who are suffering from hookworm and ringworm, diseases not seen in this country since the mid-to-late 1960s. Those diseases result from lack of clean drinking water, the right to which should be formally codified as a fundamental right. He talks about seeing police officers in San Francisco harassing the homeless, telling them to move along.
Think all that over, if you can force yourself to do it.
Back to politics, for a bit. If you need a quick break, take it, please. Get up and stretch for a few minutes. Get yourself something to drink.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The extreme right wingers in this country are morally disgusting people. They're sick, twisted individuals whose beliefs, words and actions have long bordered on and now fully qualify as pathological. They really do believe every word they say, which is kind of scary.
Their rise to power began in the late 1960s, with the election of Richard Nixon. They've spent close to half a century piecing together their agenda. Every time that the rest of us could have and should have risen up to stop them, to say "No" to them, we failed for one reason or another.
When Ronald Reagan illegally fired thousands of air traffic controllers who were striking, did we stop it? We did not. Yes, the strike itself was not legal, but Reagan's actions was the first shot across the bow against organized labor. That was, many believe, the defining moment, the moment when the right wing said to itself, "What else can we get away with?".
They can get away with a whole hell of a lot, as we've seen. They can ship millions of jobs to third world nations. They can eliminate millions more by making us check ourselves out at the supermarket, and by turning ATM machines into automated bank tellers, and by using robotics to manufacture automobiles and by...well, you get the idea, I'm sure.
They can close hundreds of post offices. They can reduce the number of hours that Social Security offices are open. They can impose draconian restrictions on voting. They can turn our society into a hellish nightmare where privacy is no longer protected as it should be. Indeed, they can even make privacy damn near obsolete. You are being watched, in just about every public place you can think of.
All in the name of security. Safety. Order. You may know these words as the words that the Nazis used in Germany in the 1930s.
Because we don't want another 9-11 on our hands. Of course, we're losing people, our people, to an opioid crisis that's killing as many people as we lost on 9-11, every three weeks.
Every three weeks! And what price has been demanded of those who deal in death?
Okay. I'm almost done, honest. This post hasn't come out quite the way I first intended it to. It's quite a bit shorter. It's a bit more restrained. Yeah, I held back, a little. But I'm satisfied with it.
Of course, I just might be back at it again in an hour or two. Or not. I have other things to discuss, but I want, as always, to treat each and every subject with the care and respect it deserves.
Thank you for reading this.
The tax reform bill is now the law of the land. As is repeal of net neutrality regulations. These won't actually go into effect for a little while, but the deals are done, the votes have been cast. The CHIP program that provides health insurance for 9 million children is out of money, more or less. There are no more funds to be dispersed to the individual states at this time. Each state has its own date at which its current funds will run out. The program has been in existence for twenty years and funding it has never been an issue in the halls of Congress.
But, as I and so many others predicted would happen, the Trump presidency is taking almost everything we've long taken for granted and putting it all back on the table. Even as they happily blow a trillion and a half dollar hole in the budget, the Republicans are already talking about what they call "entitlement reform". Because, they say, we need to be fiscally responsible.
I believe that no later than late January or early February, they'll be attacking Social Security, Medicare, SNAP (the program formerly known as food stamps), H.E.A.P., and anything else they can set their sights on. They might, just might, leave regular Social Security untouched, but they will, I believe, brutally attack Social Security Disability.
Which, though it's par for the course, is still morally sickening. I have a lot to lose if this goes badly because S.S.D. is my only source of income. My monthly check of $834 (don't spend it all at once!) puts me at 80% of the poverty level. My SNAP benefits bring me all the way to a dead even 100%.
Think that over, for a minute. That monthly payment, which I can spend on food and nothing else, lifts me out of poverty.
Changing the subject, have you read, or at least, heard about the report issued by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights? He recently completed a two week tour of the United States and finds our conditions to be "appalling". He details conditions in parts of Alabama, where raw sewage backs up in people's yards because the systems to handle it are in such bad shape. He talks about children who are suffering from hookworm and ringworm, diseases not seen in this country since the mid-to-late 1960s. Those diseases result from lack of clean drinking water, the right to which should be formally codified as a fundamental right. He talks about seeing police officers in San Francisco harassing the homeless, telling them to move along.
Think all that over, if you can force yourself to do it.
Back to politics, for a bit. If you need a quick break, take it, please. Get up and stretch for a few minutes. Get yourself something to drink.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The extreme right wingers in this country are morally disgusting people. They're sick, twisted individuals whose beliefs, words and actions have long bordered on and now fully qualify as pathological. They really do believe every word they say, which is kind of scary.
Their rise to power began in the late 1960s, with the election of Richard Nixon. They've spent close to half a century piecing together their agenda. Every time that the rest of us could have and should have risen up to stop them, to say "No" to them, we failed for one reason or another.
When Ronald Reagan illegally fired thousands of air traffic controllers who were striking, did we stop it? We did not. Yes, the strike itself was not legal, but Reagan's actions was the first shot across the bow against organized labor. That was, many believe, the defining moment, the moment when the right wing said to itself, "What else can we get away with?".
They can get away with a whole hell of a lot, as we've seen. They can ship millions of jobs to third world nations. They can eliminate millions more by making us check ourselves out at the supermarket, and by turning ATM machines into automated bank tellers, and by using robotics to manufacture automobiles and by...well, you get the idea, I'm sure.
They can close hundreds of post offices. They can reduce the number of hours that Social Security offices are open. They can impose draconian restrictions on voting. They can turn our society into a hellish nightmare where privacy is no longer protected as it should be. Indeed, they can even make privacy damn near obsolete. You are being watched, in just about every public place you can think of.
All in the name of security. Safety. Order. You may know these words as the words that the Nazis used in Germany in the 1930s.
Because we don't want another 9-11 on our hands. Of course, we're losing people, our people, to an opioid crisis that's killing as many people as we lost on 9-11, every three weeks.
Every three weeks! And what price has been demanded of those who deal in death?
Okay. I'm almost done, honest. This post hasn't come out quite the way I first intended it to. It's quite a bit shorter. It's a bit more restrained. Yeah, I held back, a little. But I'm satisfied with it.
Of course, I just might be back at it again in an hour or two. Or not. I have other things to discuss, but I want, as always, to treat each and every subject with the care and respect it deserves.
Thank you for reading this.
Friday, December 15, 2017
Just Checking In
I'm sorry I haven't posted anything recently. I've been busy with a few things. I was ill for a few days, and the weather has been very unpleasant recently. I hate being stuck indoors for long periods of time, but one must, as they say, bow to the realities of the situation.
I have, at least, been able to do some more reading and to catch up a bit on the films in my Netflix queue.
Wishing you well, dear reader.
I have, at least, been able to do some more reading and to catch up a bit on the films in my Netflix queue.
Wishing you well, dear reader.
Saturday, December 2, 2017
The Progressive Kevin Speaks
I'll warn you right now, dear reader, this is going to be very political in nature. If you want to continue reading, please do. If not, that's fine but I would ask you to reconsider your decision.
At 2 a.m. today, the Senate passed its tax bill by a vote of 51-49. The only Republican to vote against it was Senator Bob Corker. The final draft of the bill was finished just a few hours before the vote was taken; no one had time to read all 479 pages of it.
The bill literally has dozens of hand-written notes on it, some of which are almost impossible to make sense of. The Democrats proposed a delay on the vote, asking for it to take place on Monday, so they could have time to read it. All fifty-two Republicans voted "Nay" on that proposal.
This bill is a dream come true for conservatives. It allows churches to engage in political activism while maintaining their tax-exempt status. It eliminates the deduction for state and local taxes. It's loaded up with so many gifts to the right wing I can't even begin to list them all.
Of course, the tax bill is just one piece of the right wing agenda, an agenda which is being carried out at a sickening pace.
This year of 2017 has seen, I believe, an unprecedented attack on the very core of our democracy. It's an attack that is being carried out quickly and efficiently in fear of the day that the tide turns and we, the people, take our country back.
The question is, will the tide ever turn? Will we one day finally see a day in which the progressive agenda starts to be put in place, and we start to repair the damage? Or have we reached a point where so much of what makes our democracy work has been abandoned, perverted or just plain ignored, that we can't ever make things right again?
I hope for the former but deeply fear the latter may be true.
We need to make it so damn uncomfortable for those who abuse power that they find themselves
with a very simple choice. Start a very painful process of undoing the worst of the damage they've so willingly inflicted, or resign their positions and give someone else a chance at making things better.
The passage of the tax bill is yet another reminder that on-line activism has very real limits as to what it can accomplish. It also reminds us, yet again, that we can send as many letters as we like and make so many phone calls that it ties up the entire system, only to find that our will, the will of the people, has been blatantly ignored.
We need to go old-school, people. We need to stage general strikes anywhere and anytime we can. We need to shut the system down and force those in power to do as we demand. We need to march in the streets, on a scale never seen before in America.
Until those who rule over us as dictators are thrown out of office, imprisoned where justified and shamed whenever possible, things will only get worse.
At 2 a.m. today, the Senate passed its tax bill by a vote of 51-49. The only Republican to vote against it was Senator Bob Corker. The final draft of the bill was finished just a few hours before the vote was taken; no one had time to read all 479 pages of it.
The bill literally has dozens of hand-written notes on it, some of which are almost impossible to make sense of. The Democrats proposed a delay on the vote, asking for it to take place on Monday, so they could have time to read it. All fifty-two Republicans voted "Nay" on that proposal.
This bill is a dream come true for conservatives. It allows churches to engage in political activism while maintaining their tax-exempt status. It eliminates the deduction for state and local taxes. It's loaded up with so many gifts to the right wing I can't even begin to list them all.
Of course, the tax bill is just one piece of the right wing agenda, an agenda which is being carried out at a sickening pace.
This year of 2017 has seen, I believe, an unprecedented attack on the very core of our democracy. It's an attack that is being carried out quickly and efficiently in fear of the day that the tide turns and we, the people, take our country back.
The question is, will the tide ever turn? Will we one day finally see a day in which the progressive agenda starts to be put in place, and we start to repair the damage? Or have we reached a point where so much of what makes our democracy work has been abandoned, perverted or just plain ignored, that we can't ever make things right again?
I hope for the former but deeply fear the latter may be true.
We need to make it so damn uncomfortable for those who abuse power that they find themselves
with a very simple choice. Start a very painful process of undoing the worst of the damage they've so willingly inflicted, or resign their positions and give someone else a chance at making things better.
The passage of the tax bill is yet another reminder that on-line activism has very real limits as to what it can accomplish. It also reminds us, yet again, that we can send as many letters as we like and make so many phone calls that it ties up the entire system, only to find that our will, the will of the people, has been blatantly ignored.
We need to go old-school, people. We need to stage general strikes anywhere and anytime we can. We need to shut the system down and force those in power to do as we demand. We need to march in the streets, on a scale never seen before in America.
Until those who rule over us as dictators are thrown out of office, imprisoned where justified and shamed whenever possible, things will only get worse.
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