Movie Review - Star Trek: Generations

"This is the end! Armageddon! No future!" This quote from Vyvyan of Young Ones fame can only mean one thing - this is almost certainly the last review that will be posted here on Blogspot. Future reviews for this blog will be posted exclusively on the Wordpress platform. This review came out yesterday on Wordpress, by the way. So... yeah. Repeat - please go to Wordpress for future reviews on The Review Nebula. Otherwise, you will be sorely disappointed.

"Two captains. One destiny." (Image stolen from the Memory Alpha)

"Who am I... to argue with the captain of the Enterprise?" - James Kirk. Well... the former Captain of the Enterprise, missing for 78 years?

Premiere: November 18th, 1994

Written By: Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore

Directed By: David Carson

Plot: In the year 2293, the first voyage of the Enterprise-B goes south when the ship has to perform a rescue mission. An energy wave comes into contact with the ship, taking with it a scientist that was rescued, as well as Captain Emeritus James T. Kirk.

In the year 2371, the Enterprise-D comes into contact with that same scientist - Tolian Soran. He wants to continue his observation, but Picard prevents him from doing so. Going mad, he kidnaps Geordi, trades him to some Klingons, and holes up on a planet where he can shoot a rocket into the sun, bringing the energy wave - the Nexus - over to him. Only one man can stop him... but he himself is emotionally shaken up, having lost his brother and nephew. So... what about two men?

Review:

Three hundred posts, give or take. Hot tamale, that's... three hundred more (give or take) than I thought I would post back in February of 2013. Guess I got into this reviewing thing a bit, eh?

Two years ago, in an attempt to combat a lull in my reviews (because of a relative lack of content from Gravity Falls and Red Dwarf), I decided to take up reviews of Star Trek movies. It actually helped - a jog of my brain helped me start reviewing Steven Universe, and I managed to bang out five of the six movies over the second half of the year - only skipping Wrath of Khan because I reviewed it a year prior. My intent was to review the four TNG movies in December, but personal commitments led that astray, and my review of The Undiscovered Country wound up coming out on Christmas.

Now, I'm back reviewing the TNG films - and I'm about to formally move this blog over to Wordpress. And what better way to start (and end) than reviewing the bridge between TOS and TNG - Generations?

Well, it's a bridge weaker than the one in this film.

Movie Review: Good Burger

"Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger. Can I take your order?" - Ed, asking people a great philosophical question.

Premiere: July 25th, 1997
Written By: Dan Schneider
Plot: Summer vacation starts off rather poorly for Dexter (Kenan Thompson) when, upon leaving math class and campus, he crashes his mom's car into Mr. Smiley's his teacher's new sedan. Without insurance. Or a drivers license. Mr. Wheat cuts a deal - Dexter can either pay for the damages or face the cops. To pay the $1900 estimate, he has to take a summer job - briefly at the newly-opened and dictatorially-run Mondo Burger, before working at the established and eccentric Good Burger. There, he works alongside Salvatore Tessio Otis, an elderly fry jockey, and strikes up a strange relationship with dimwitted Ed (Kel Mitchell). Puns ensue, especially when Dexter and Ed get caught up in the competition rat race.

Review:

We are talking jape of the decade. We are talking April, May, June, July, and August Fool. Yeah, that's right. I'm reviewing Good Burger.

Yup, I'm taking on a 1997 film about burger joints, starring Kenan and Kel, with side appearances from Sinbad and Abe Vigoda. And let's be real here, it ain't gonna win any awards for quality writing anytime soon. Still, how does this silly little movie hold up?

Movie Review: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

"The battle for galactic peace has begun..." (Screencap from Wikipedia, poster by John Alvin.)

Premiere: December 6th, 1991

Synopsis: The moon that provides the Klingon Empire's energy suffers a major disaster, releasing ozone onto the planet. This potentially condemns the empire to a maximum of fifty years, should the planet not reign in it's military expenditures. The Federation is ready to broker a treaty between them and the empire, and sends Captain James T Kirk and the Enterprise out to make a truce. Thing is, Kirk doesn't trust the Klingons - something about them stabbing his son and wrecking his old ship doesn't endear them to him.

Just after a series of awkward talks between the Klingon Ambassadors and the Enterprise (appointed ambassadors), the latter ship fires on the former's ship, killing the Klingon Chancellor. With no knowledge on who did it, Kirk and Dr McCoy stand trial and face life in prison, and the two forces appear on the brink of war.

Review: Well, it took far longer than I expected (again, my apologies), but here we are. The last movie solely based off of Star Trek: The Original Series, and the last film produced during Gene Roddenberry's lifetime (he died a month and a half before the premiere, but got an advance screening two days before he died).

After the utter disaster that was Star Trek V, nobody was sure what to do with Star Trek VI. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that it was the franchise's 25th anniversary, and that TNG had done alright in the ratings so far, Paramount probably would've sunk Star Trek into history. After waffling around as to what the plot would be, the end result is actually a genuinely moving film - an arguably overlooked classic in the Trek canon.

(Warning: spoilers. Proceed at your own peril. Or disappointment. Hey, it's a movie.)

Movie Review: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

This movie's name was almost prophetic.

Premiere: June 9th, 1989

Synopsis: A Vulcan by the name of Sybok promises the desperate eternal knowledge, with just one requirement - they need a spaceship to get to the source. Thus, they decide to storm the capital city of "The Planet for Galactic Peace" and hijack the ship that responds. Hilariously enough, the ship is the still broken-down Enterprise A. Sybok lures the crew of the Enterprise in, and through the power of reading "hidden pain", directs it to Sha Ka Ree.

Review (SPOILERS): 

Wow. Two hundred posts. Not a major milestone, but still a bit cool. If I celebrated my 100th with the best Star Trek movie, I may as well "celebrate" by looking at what many fans consider to... not be the best movie.

But first, being that this is something of a minor landmark for this blog, I figured I'd start with a mention of the show that really started it all.

I've mentioned time and again that Red Dwarf is, if not my all-time favorite show, one of my top five favorites. If I might give a brief elaboration on my favorite episodes, some of them, in hindsight, are quite theological. "The Last Day" questions whether people should constrain themselves strictly to their religion's set of values, if they subscribe to said values. "Lemons" gave something of an analysis of Jesus - to many the great prophet, to many others the greatest teacher ever. Most importantly, "The Inquisitor" wonders whether or not we should actively strive to live life to the fullest, and whether we get another shot.

What made these all stand out is that they all did so while being downright hysterical. Whether the comedy connected to the theology, or divulged from it, I was rolling.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier also tried to mix theology with comedy. The results? Let's just say, it almost killed the franchise stone dead.

Movie Review: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Will driving down Lombardi Street help? (Image from fanpop.com, via Google Images, made by Bob Peak.)

Premiere: November 26th, 1986

Synopsis: Coming off their refreshing, life-renewing trip to Vulcan, the Enterprise crew - uh, the Bounty crew - begin their long trip back to Earth, where they will face a court-marital, and risk a long jail sentence. Unfortunately, Earth is intercepted by a probe (yet again) that threatens the planet with disasters of biblical proportions. Interpreting the signals as whale sounds, the crew realize that the probe's calling out for other whales... which, since the whales are dead, is kinda hard to do.

Therefore, using scientific mumbo-jumbo, they go around the sun and wind up in 1986 San Francisco. There, Spock and Kirk talk to Dr. Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks), a marine biologist at the Cetacean Institute in Marin County, to try the hell to gain access to two damn whales; Uhura and Chekov look for the nuclear wessels in Alameda, causing a bit of a mess-up with security; and Scotty, Bones, and Sulu try to create a tank, all the while messing with modern minds with their medicine and lack of keyboards.

Review: In short, this movie is TMP, as written by the creators of Captain Planet. If it was actually pretty good.

In long, this is often cited as a fan favorite, up there with Wrath of Khan, First Contact, and Trek 09 as the fan favorite. The Voyage Home was the most commercially successful Trek film, and many have argued that it was due to it's more casual tone - that nobody really needed a deep knowledge of Trek history to get into it.

Does it still hold up, however?

Actually, it still does.

Movie Review: Star Trek III: The Search For Spock

(Note: yes, you read that correctly. It's Trek III, not Trek II. For more on why, I refer you to here.)

A dying planet. A fight for life. The Search for Spock. (Poster by Bob Peak, taken from Wikipedia)

Released: June 1, 1984

Synopsis: The Enterprise comes back from it's most recent excursion beaten down, and with chunks of it's crew - including it's science officer - dead. As the NCC-1701 dry-docks, Dr McCoy begins acting bizarrely. Meanwhile, Lt. Savvik and David - Kirk's son - have been left behind to orbit the Genesis Planet, and discover that Spock has been revived as a child. Due to some proto-matter in the Genesis device, the body of Spock has mere hours to live. Unfortunately for them, they wind up intercepted by Kruge (Christopher Lloyd), the commander of a Klingon vessel, and are kidnapped.

Kirk and Spock's father, Sarek, deduce that Spock transferred his katra - living spirit - to McCoy, and that McCoy must give Spock's body the katra soon, or else the doctor will die. One problem, though. Not only is Spock's body on the Genesis planet - where discussing the planet is forbidden due to the political controversy involved in it's creation - but the Enterprise is not being refit, and is due to be scrapped.

Determined to save the lives of his best friends, he and a skeleton crew commit Grand Theft Starship, taking the Enterprise out of dock for what is certainly her last tour.

No prizes for guessing what crew meets what commander.

Review (QUITE A BIT SPOILER-Y): Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is my all-time favorite movie. It's themes are a loving tribute to the works of Shakespeare, while still forming it's own identity. It's characterization is beautiful. It's special effects are great, considering the $10M budget. It's dialogue is fantastic. And the ending... so poetic, so tragic, so beautiful.

It's almost impossible to top Wrath of Khan... even with a direct sequel. So, how did they do?

Movie Review: Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Released: December 7th, 1979

Eh... I can think of at least a few comparisons. (Taken from Wikipedia.)

Synopsis: The year is 2273. Monitoring station Epsilon Nine detects an energy being heading to Earth, destroying three ships of the Klingon Empire and said monitoring station en route. Starfleet dispatches the newly refitted Enterprise to investigate. Headed by Admiral (temporary Captain) James T Kirk, the departure is sullied somewhat by a dispute with Captain (temporary Commander) Willard Decker (Stephen Collins). Commander Spock also boards, noting that while on Vulcan removing his emotions, he sensed the energy being. Also aboard is Navigation Officer Ilia (Persis Khambatta), who once had a romantic relationship with Decker.

Being that this ship is newly refitted, and that most of the controls need to be tested, you can probably guess that this will end well.

Review (SPOILERS, MAYBE): Y'know, for a movie which almost screams "disco" in it's costumes and sets, Star Trek TMP is actually a rather slow, cerebral movie. It's common knowledge that the movie has something of a reputation for it's slow pacing and lack of "action" sequences, in favor of special effects and a 2001: A Space Odyssey experience. The question is - does this detract from the movie, or give it a charm?

Well, it depends on your viewpoint. In my view, the movie has a good idea, but it wasn't meant to launch the movie franchise. Even if it had to launch the movie franchise, just a few edits could've really improved this movie... mainly in the special effects department.

Red Dwarf Review: "Back to Earth"

Airdate: 10-12 April, 2009

Synopsis: It's been nine years since Rimmer kneed Death in the pelvis on board a burning Red Dwarf. Since then, Red Dwarf seems to be back in order... albeit empty again. Holly is out of commission, flooded out thanks to Lister. Kochanski is dead, and Lister is still in mourning. After noticing low water supplies, the crew discover that a giant squid is in their water tank. Said squid is rapidly replaced by a former crewmember, Katerina Bartikovsky, who declares that Rimmer's run time is to be terminated due to his incompetence, and that Lister (with the help of some squid DNA) is to go back in time and repopulate humanity. Learning that they inhabit an "invalid" dimension, the crew (and Bartikovsky) are sent to a "real" dimension- Earth 2009, where they learn they are part of a mere TV show.

Review: Ten years is a mighty long time in between episodes- essentially, a generation change. The internet became a true necessity, the economy rose and fell, terrorists committed high-profile attacks in London and the Northeastern US (amongst other locations), London had begun to prepare for the Olympic games, there were two American presidents, the office of the UK PM changed hands, and the popularity of the Labour Party slowly cratered... amongst other events.

Once BtE premiered, it polarized fandom beyond any fears. Those that didn't love it hated it.

So, the question is, can Red Dwarf still hold it's own after a 10-year hiatus (and 15 years since the last truly great Red Dwarf episode)?

Well, let me put it this way: I liked it quite a bit more than I was expecting to. Or maybe I was so let down by shlock like "Krytie TV" and "Pete" that anything would be an improvement! More after the break!

Red Dwarf: "Back to Earth" Preview

"Remember: only the good die young."
"That's... never happened before."

With those two sentences (and "The End"/"The Smeg It Is" slides), on 5 April, 1999, Red Dwarf VIII faded away into Britcom history. Initially hailed as a return to form by many a fan, it's reputation slipped quite a bit over ten years. By 2009, those that hated Series VIII loathed it. I consider "Krytie TV" and "Pete Part II" to be the worst episodes in British sci-fi history, and British comedy history. Yes. Worse than "The Twin Dilemma". Worse than The Wright Way. The only worthwhile episode in that entire piece of schlock is "Cassandra", and even that's held back by off pacing and awkward character moments.

Yet, at the time, it was popular enough to bring up a question: will there be a movie?

Wait, There Was a Red Dwarf Movie Planned?

Movie spin-offs of TV shows are relatively commonplace. Yet, it would be a testament to the power of Red Dwarf if there was an actual theatrical spin-off. Theatrical movies directly spun off from sitcoms are something of an unusual breed (correct me if I'm wrong), and almost unheard of when it pertains to Britcoms.

Ultimately, the film never really went through.

Actually, if Doug Naylor is to be believed, a script was written, and they had plans for production. However, setback after setback, false funding after contract failure, damned the project. The BBC didn't feel the script was up to par for a theatre. Maybe they learned their lesson from Series VIII. Or, maybe they were too busy concentrating on what appeared to be their new cash cow in the making, some little show called Doctor Who.

So, the project was going nowhere. However, between February and August of 2008, BBC Worldwide appeared to strike a deal with Naylor: produce a mini-series consisting of three episodes, at least two of which could easily be strung into something resembling movie.

Thus, Back to Earth was born.

So, How the Hell Was This Thing Produced?

Intended to be two episodes and Red Dwarf Unplugged, the movie was expanded to three episodes.

A big problem facing production? The thing barely had a budget. With the script's plans, the writers decided to (yet again) kibosh the studio audience to save money they barely even had. By kibosh, I mean it was decided not to even bring an audience in to record their reaction as the episodes aired. Thus, for the first time in history, Red Dwarf was literally laughless.

Sets were done on the cheap: half of the sets were built out of things they found in the closet. Camerawork was done to try and make it seem the thing had a bigger budget than it actually did. The crew was brought in to be extras. Yes, they didn't have money for extras.

Speaking of which, the casting was, well, troublesome. Norman Lovett was told to clear his schedule for filming dates. Ultimately, it was decided that he wasn't needed. Thing was, he was never informed that he wasn't needed until it was too late. Infuriated, Naylor went on record to declare that, as far as his acting career went, the franchise was dead. (He appears to have since reconciled with Naylor.)

Chloe Annett was also asked to join up. It would appear that her experience with the movie went far more smoothly. Why? Well... they used a picture of her at the beginning, for one. The producers and her agent must've gotten along well.

This episode also seemed to eschew the "traditional" camera yet again, going back to a filmised-style seen in Series VII. This time, the red-camera system was used. Effects seemed to reach a happier medium, with a cross between CGI and models used. Red Dwarf, for example, had it's model rebuilt (thank god).

So, what was the end result? Guess it's time to watch.

It's back to Red Dwarf.

It's Back to Earth.

Movie Review: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Image stolen from Google Images, as well as being a screencap from Futurama. Don't sue me, FOX!

Wow. My 100th official post. A pointless milestone that will be forgotten in a few years time. Better enjoy it while it lasts.

I started this blog (when it was called "Geek Zone") as a class project in High School. I was to post some of my assignments to this blog. In the meantime, the class was also given free reign to post whatever else they wanted to this blog. I went with episodic reviews. After the class ended, I... kept reviewing TV shows. First Red Dwarf, then Gravity Falls, then certain episodes of The Simpsons. Then the blog got renamed, because, well, I wanted a new name.

So, what could I possibly do for my 100th post? What thing could I review for my 100th official post? What piece of literature could be critiqued for the 100th Geek Centre Review?

Ladies and Gentlemen... after the jump....