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.

Fifty Years of "Star Trek"

"Space... the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. It's five year mission; to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life, and new civilizations... to boldly go where no man has gone before."

Fifty years ago today, NBC broadcast the first episode of a sci-fi show, Star Trek. Entitled "The Man Trap", it centered around an alien trying to extract the salt from the bodies of the residents of a medical outpost - just one of the adventures of the USS Enterprise in the year 2266.

Who'd have thought, fifty years later, that this little episode would be just the start of a cultural phenomenon that consists of six (soon to be seven) TV shows, thirty seasons of those television shows, and thirteen movies? And that's not even getting into the books, the fan content, the comics, the filk songs ("And we're Banned from Argo, everyone!")?

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.

Another Brief Note About My Reviews

Just letting you know that I don't think I'm going to be reviewing Steven Universe's "Nightmare Hospital", which airs tomorrow night. At least, not yet. I am trying to review the episodes in order, and I really think that reviewing the newest episode outright would just be a bit awkward.

I will watch it, however, and might make a note about the episode in an appropriate review, whether it be another SU review, a Gravity Falls review, etc.

Meanwhile, just a couple of notes about my other reviews:

• Barring any last-minute changes, I think that the "Last Mabelcorn" review will go out tomorrow.
• My review of Star Trek IV should be out by the end of the weekend.
• I intend to review "Together Breakfast" sometime within the next week or two.
• I might also get to "Bart the Mother", thus allowing me more time to review "Treehouse of Horror IX" in October.

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.

Trekkin Through the Rest of 2015

As you might have noticed, I may have hit something of a dry spell lately.

In hindsight, I saw this coming - the end of my review of "Not What He Seems" noted a relative lack of content to review. However, I thought I would be able to do a little bit more than what I have done recently.

Overall, I think I just hit something of a reviewing/blogging fatigue/"malaise"/dry spell. I wouldn't go so far as to call it an outright burnout, but I do think I was running on fumes.

However, I can say that I will enter July on a somewhat fresher note for two reasons.

One, Gravity Falls is coming back! On July 13th, at 8:30 PM, "A Tale of Two Stans" will delve into the past of Stan Pines and his brother, and how their relationship grew and imploded, bringing the madness of Gravity Falls into their lives. It will be on DisneyXD. Please, try and watch it live. If you can't, watch it on demand, or on the WatchDisneyXD app. If there's a downside, no other new episodes are scheduled for July.

Secondly, I figured out one thing I could do to try and keep some level of activity - I think it's time to take a little Trek.

Taken from Memory Alpha

I have decided to review the other five original Star Trek movies - one per month through November. December's "Christmas Spectacular Thing" will focus on the four TNG movies - Generations, First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis. 2009 and Into Darkness will probably be covered sometime next year.

So... here's hoping this relieves a bit of the malaise I've been having.

Leonard Nimoy 1931-2015

"My work is done here." "What do you mean, 'your work is done'? You didn't do anything!" "Didn't I?"

-Leonard Nimoy and Barney, Simpsons "Marge vs the Monorail".

Leonard Nimoy, known to pretty much every sci-fi fan as Spock from Star Trek, has died at age 83.

I'm not one for sappy, dramatic tributes, but I feel a quick little one is necessary. If I might tie this into the two shows that launched this cheesy blog, Spock, aided by Mr Nimoy's portrayal of the character, set the tone for other logical science-minded characters within the realm of sci-fi and fantasy. It's hard to see how Data, T'Pol, Dana Scully, Kerr Avon, Dipper Pines, Kryten, etc. would exist the way they do without the influences of Mr. Spock. Leonard Nimoy's acting, in a show often snarked at for it's acting quality, really sold the character as a centerpiece of American TV, sci-fi, and 60s/70s pop culture.

And besides, to quote Dr. McCoy himself... "He's really not dead... as long as we remember him."

Thank you, Mr. Spock.

Gravity Falls Review: Season 1, Episode 10: "Fight Fighters"

Airdate: September 14th, 2012

Synopsis (Spoilers Ahead): Robbie realises that Dipper has the hots for Wendy, and is furious. (This is, despite Robbie not seeming to care about her feelings). After Dipper breaks Robbie's phone to prevent the latter from divulging Dipper's secret, Robbie challenges Dipper to a fight in town. Hiding out at the arcade as to not get beaten up, Dipper enters a code on a game which happens to be his and Wendy's favourite, Fight Fighters. Once the code is entered, Dipper is able to select a character to appear in the main world. He chooses ultra-Macho Rumble McSkrmish, and goes to town to fight Robbie.

To motivate Rumble, Dipper claims that Robbie killed his father. This sends Rumble into one goal: kill Robbie. After Rumble ALMOST kills Robbie at the water tower, Dipper reveals the truth, and Rumble turns his hatred to Dipper. Apparently, lying is a such a great offence to Rumble, it drove him onto the path of evil. Dipper decides to fight Rumble and take it like a man... and gets beaten up quite severely. Afraid of losing Wendy, Dipper and Robbie decide to continue their animosity in secret.

Meanwhile, despite his initial statements to the contrary, Stan has a phobia of heights. Mabel tries to get Stan to conquer them. They happen to get on the water tower at the same time that Rumble almost kills Robbie at the water tower (by beating on the stilts). Stan manages to overcome his fear, but now Mabel has a phobia.

Review: This episode leaves me conflicted in so many ways.

On one hand, the humour in the episode is pretty funny. There is some subtle visual comedy, the callbacks to retro video games (Street Fighter, Donkey Kong, Mario) and videogame-esque media (The Wizard and Scott Pilgrim) are brilliant. The art done for Rumble McSkirmish is pretty good (thanks to the art of Paul Robertson, who also did Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game.) This episode does have a bit of character development. Isn't it weird that I can talk about the bad more than I can talk about the good?

On a more mixed note, there is Robbie.

This image was actually taken from "The Inconveniencing".

• On one hand, the character seems to come off as pretty one note at this point in the show. At first glance, he's just there to give Dipper an arch-enemy, a jerkass who has the hots for the same girl as our protagonist. He gets worse later in the show: wait until we take a look at "Boyz Crazy" to see how much of a jerk he can be.
• On a more positive note (in terms of writing, of course), Robbie manages to bring the absolute worst out of Dipper. Granted, he always tries to do the right thing at the end, but thanks to Robbie, Dipper has cloned himself, made SEVERAL alterations to the timeline, AND unleashed a macho video-game character to try and beat up said rival. Remember in the beginning of my Gravity Falls reviews, when I compared Dipper to Arnold Rimmer from Red Dwarf? Well, those things I just mentioned are among the things that I could see Rimmer do (although Rimmer was much more callous after he messed everything over in his show). This is not a really bad thing at all, as it shows that Dipper can be as immature as his age suggests.

There are two negative points that I would like to address, and both have to do with our leading females.

1. Oh, smeg, Wendy, what have the writers done to ya? As much as I hate to admit it, by this point in the show, they do not seem to have a whole lot of ideas for her. Therefore, they have reduced her to something of an object for Dipper. That's a shame, as she has the potential to be a wonderful character and a pretty damn good foil for Dipper. The best way to fix this? Simply put, the writers should take note of what happened at the beginning of the episode (with them hanging out), and make them very close friends with some tension. A second option would be to make them a brilliant Id/Superego pair in the supernatural aspects of the town. Alternatively, include Mabel, and Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy can try and work some of the old Id/Ego/Superego magic that Kirk, Spock, and McCoy brought to Star Trek: The Original Series. Also, get rid of Robbie. Dipper's own selfish and neurotic tendencies brought on by his lust and organised personality can help create some friction between the two.
2. Mabel, again, gets reduced to a bit plot here. Granted, here, she gets some funny lines, but the plot she gets here is still dull. Thankfully, the writers seemed to recognise this, and made the character act closer to her potential with each successive episode from here until the season finale.

The main plot, however, is so hysterical that it manages to give the episode a good score. It's not the best of Gravity Falls, but it's still pretty funny.

Favourite Scene: Rumble demands transport to the Soviet Union. Given the age of the game, that is PERFECTLY in character for him. It's also a brilliant reference to a flaw in Street Fighter II.

Least Favourite Scene: The entire Mabel Subplot. It's just dull.

Score: 7.4.

Gravity Falls Review, Season 1, Episode 9: The Time Traveller's Pig.

Airdate: August 24th, 2012.

AAAAHHHHH!!!! PETE'S BACK!!!

Synopsis (Spoilers): During a funfair, Dipper tries to win a stuffed animal-thing for Wendy. Dipper, however, can't throw, causing Wendy to have a black eye. A series of events manages to have Wendy go out with Robbie. Meanwhile, Mabel wins a pet pig. Also, a time traveller called Blendin Bladin leaves his time machine (tape measure) laying down. Dipper and Mabel use it to try and get the stuffed animal for Wendy. After many failures, Dipper manages to get the stuffed animal... at the expense of Waddles.

Mabel and Dipper get into a fight, and begin to mess around with time. They wind up in the present, where Mabel is in a severe funk over losing a pig. Dipper resets things back to the way they were before, Wendy goes out with Robbie, Mabel gets a pet pig, and Blendin goes to jail.

Review: Be warned. This is going to be long, and may cause all 2 of my readers to chuck tomatoes at me. Because...

God. I. Hate. This. Stupid. Episode.

Never expected somebody who likes science-fiction to say that he hates an episode that revolves around science-fiction and time travel, huh? Well, not in this case.

This episode is like the antithesis of "The City on the Edge of Forever" from Star Trek The Original Series. The thing is, in "City on the Edge", time travel was used to try and save the common good, yet there was also a selfish motive for Kirk, his love for well meaning peace activist Janice Keller. Yet, the other option is quite clearly positive, making it possible to see why he would give up the love of Keller. In this episode, Mabel is JUST as, if not more, selfish then Dipper. Is she really flipping out... over a smegging pig? WHY WOULD YOU FLIP OUT OVER A SMEGGING PIG?

The worst part? She does not learn! She does not learn about the meaning of sacrifice the way Dipper had to learn. This episode makes her out to be an annoying, immature brat!

Oh, and Dipper's not a whole lot better. Changing time and altering the past just to get a girlfriend? Holly from Red Dwarf put the idea of changing time best:

"What about causality, then? What about determinism? You just can't go messing about with history!" -"Timeslides"

Congratulations, Dipper. A computer with an IQ that's only the same as 12000 Car Park attendants knows more about causality then you. That's incredible.

Granted, this does help kick-start a series of episodes where Dipper's self serving behaviour manages to slowly overtake him and control his actions. Still, how come a boy that book-smart did not question the idea of causality once in this episode?

Strangely enough, Dipper's selfish behaviour in this episode is more justified. Not 100%, as he does come off as a bit of a smeghead, just more justified. To explain why, we have to compare to Star Trek again. Kirk's selfishness from "City on the Edge" worked because he went into time travel with a purpose: to try and save the future and rescue Doctor McCoy. However, he falls in love, and has to decide on what seems ot be his true love, or the needs of the many in the future. Unlike with Dipper (who had to choose between impressing Wendy and Mabel getting a pig), Kirk's stakes were much higher, and ultimately, when he sacrifices his selfish behaviour, he does a good for the world (even though it initially provides a lot of bad for self). Dipper's stakes were much, much lower. Therefore, his selfishness could be justified. Mabel could have learnt that you can't always get what you want. But she does not. She almost is the villain in the episode, and if that is so, then the villain wins, hands down. The solution would be to have Mabel get Waddles before Dipper tried to impress Wendy. It's a rather simplistic solution, but considering that the other option is for Mabel to have a pet smegging PIG while Dipper has to sacrifice a chance at love, it makes some sense.

The worst aspect of the entire series is the triangle that is forming between Mabel, Dipper, and Wendy. We see this more in "Summerween", although that episode executes it better. When Mabel and Dipper's friendship is pitted against Dipper's desire for Wendy, it makes the episode that much worse. Oh, and the twins manage to ruin Blendin's life. No comeuppance for that. Their actions screwed up a poor guy's life.

And I will be blunt as can be here... I detest Robbie. Partially it's because of the shipper deep in me, but Robbie is just a prick, put in to try and give Dipper some motivation to try and go out with Wendy. That is his raison d'etre. Oh, I also hate Waddles. The pig contributes nothing to the plot. He is just there to screw Dipper over. Nice character, Alex! (Prepares for Waddles fans attacking me).

This episode does not get a score lower than what it gets mainly because it contains some funny moments. The Oregon Trail reference was creative, and there are some call backs to prior episodes, as well as some funny foreshadowing. Also, the method of Science-fiction is pretty damn creative, and quirky. And I personally love Blendin as a character. He is just so sympathetic and still a bit funny.

Still, outside of the humour, the episode barely passes. Barely.

Favourite Scene: The Oregon Trail scene was pretty funny.

Score: 5

Note: If I got anything wrong in this review about causality, or if you disagree with me, please comment. I would just like to wonder if I got anything wrong, or if you have a different opinion as to who was in the wrong.

Edit as of 16/2/14: You might notice that I have changed the score of this episode. When I first reviewed it, I gave it a 4, which indicates a failure. Upon rewatching, I appreciate what the writers were going for in the Dipper-Mabel conflict, and now feel that I was too hard on the episode. I have decided to bump it up a point, and give it a pass. Therefore, the first failure in the history of  this blog is that Simpsons episode where Ted Nugent becomes buddies with Homer for three minutes.

Welcome, Everybody!

Hello, all. For my BPCA Class, I was asked to launch a blog to try and analyze, well, pretty much whatever. I will be placing my classroom assigments on here.

Alongside that, I will also do a critical analysis of various Sci-Fi Television episodes. I will take a look at various episodes of shows like Star Trek, Gravity Falls, Red Dwarf, and others.

Or, I will just talk about how my week is going.

Take a look around. Comment and criticize, but do so respectively!