Monday 20 September 2010

We Interrupt Your Normal Posting Again...

No ranting this time. I've got that out of my system. I just felt that as quick break from the usual Star Trek reviews, because... yeah, I'm so good at keeping up with them in the first place... I would give a quick nod to the new albums released by some of my favourite bands recently. A series of good releases have really helped keep me entertained over this long and dull summer.

First, and most distantly, Faith & The Muse's Ankoku Butoh. Yes, the weird new-age/goth pair have done a wonderful album yet again, this time with a decidedly Japanese influence. Not the best from them, but still proud amonst the sadly small catalogue from this great band.


Next, Never Cry Another Tear by Bad Lieutenant. Or, y'know, "the latest New Order album" as surely everyone calls it. Not bad, quite chilled out, but with some strong songs throughout the album.


The Final Frontier, by Iron bloody Maiden. Well, it's another Iron Maiden album, and that's not a knock against it. If you don't like 'em, this won't convert you, if you do like 'em, you'll enjoy both the familiar sound and a few variations on tradition. Some nice songs, and a long hour+ of classic British heavy metal. The Talisman is definitely worth half the album price alone!


Continuing sheer brilliance and defying catagorization, Arcade Fire's Suburbs is a current favourite for me. Just the whole thing, no specific song or anything, just the whole damn album.


And finally... Killing Joke's Absolute Dissent! It is probably time to admit that this is my favourite band now. Absolute Dissent is just excellent. It runs the range from the grinding aggression of recent years through to some more catchy and commercial songs, all without losing the overall feel. The Raven King, more or less dedicated to a recently lost band member is incredible, but there isn't much on this album that isn't.

We Now Interrupt Your Normal Posting For... A Rant!

I never really intended to use this weblog as a soapbox, but hey, I need to vent because the last week has just got under my skin way too much. The Pope's visit to the United Kingdom has been damned annoying. So I now enter rant-mode, for which I make no apology...

Oddly enough I don't appreciate some demented cultist coming to my country and calling me a sub-human nazi! Strange that isn't it? I am an athiest, I don't believe in fairies or magic or a bloody beardy guy on a cloud!

Guess what you cunt? I have that damned right! Just like any on the faithful in the world can believe in whatever they please as far as I'm concerned, I have the right to not bother and don't expect shit from a deluded hatemonger like you!

Why is he even here? Huh? We've got our own damn church, it's called the bloody Church of England! But everyone from the Queen, to the archbishop to our all-new sleazy prime minister has welcomed Pope Rat to the United Kingdom like he's anything other than a corrupt scab.

His head of state benefits ought to be nulled, and then we could arrest the fucker the moment he set his tainted foot on English soil for perverting the course of justice a few hundred times! Since when did being in charge of a cult make you a state leader anyway?

But no, I guess we're all about allowing abuse and cover-up to continue. Right along with letting him plunge the third world into a dark age of ignorance, bigotry and even worse violence just so it can prop up the monolithic death-cult he reigns over.

So, Pope Rat, get the fuck out of my country and never come back! Take your revisionist history, your gay-bashing, your brain-washing and indoctrination into corpse worship somewhere else.


Yeah, a picture really does say a thousand words doesn't it?

Sunday 12 September 2010

Next Episode...

After watching one episode that was okay if not amazing, and another that was downright poor, I'm going to go back to season one and review A Taste of Armageddon! Okay, no mystery here, since I freely admit to enjoying this episode a lot. But I think I will enjoy seeing it again and doing a review of it.

In other news, the General Order-7 Star Trek role-playing game is in something like a beta phase now, and I have written an episode to use as a trial run for it.

Friday 10 September 2010

Episode 3.14 "THAT WHICH SURVIVES" Review


This review is very late due to a couple of issues that meant I had little free time to write it, and because I just plain dislike this episode and had a very hard time coming up with a review that didn't sound like slamming it endlessly.

An away team made up of Kirk, McCoy, Sulu and a dead man walking investigate a mysterious moon. Mysterious due to various Earth-like traits despite being only a few thousand years old. Just before transporting down an odd woman in skimpy clothing warns them against it, then kills the transport officer before vanishing. Thus begins an overlong and uninteresting mystery episode.

Amusing Quote: "What is it, Jim?" "A planet that even Spock can't explain." (McCoy and Kirk easily cataloguing the universe by what the pointy-eared one doesn't know about it.)

On the moon, considerable tremors toss the cast around a bit, and hurl the Enterprise away int deep space. Seemingly abandoned, the landing party try to prepare shelter and food, a quickly thwarted plan when it revealed that everything is poisonous. Trying to understand the odd nature of the planet, they scan and detect numerous odd readings, including a powerful life form which swiftly dispatches the spare cast member by "exploding the cells of his body" no less!

Amusing Quote: "I am for D'Amato." "Lucky D'Amato." (Losira and D'Amato a moment before he realises how unlucky he is.)

The moon is revealed to be entirely artificial. Meanwhile the Enterprise, under Spock, begins the long journey back.


The second act consists of the odd woman appearing on the Enterprise to kill an engineer and sabotage the starship, and soon after reappearing on the planet to kill Sulu! Kirk heroically stands in her way and is unharmed by her touch, which leads to some roundabout dialogue where the woman Losira says she doesn't want to kill, but has to. She insists she is protecting a station, but that no-one lives there now. She vanishes, but Kirk and co. follow tricorder readings to the underground door.

Act three sees the Enterprise in peril by Losira's antics, basically it will explode by technobabble if not fixed by technobabble.

Scotty fixes it. Moving on.

Amusing Quote: "I don't need a bloomin' cuckoo clock!" (Scott, discussing useful engineering crisis tools.)

The final act has the landing party breach the station, and play schoolyard games to avoid duplicates of Losira from touching them for a while.

Spock turns up and shoots the computer.

And that's it. We get a dialogue by the original Losira in a message meant for her long-dead species, and everyone goes home having learned an important moral lesson!

Positives: Very bloody little.

Negatives: Almost everything. This episode is slow, tedious and filled with the cliches for which Star Trek is accused. Techno-babble is prominent for once, and the lost civilisation card is played yet again. But this episode just feels like padding, creatively speaking. Losira is undeveloped, and the laughable hopping around the crew do to avoid her touch is just sad. Frankly, this episode is just sad.

Overall: I find it unavoidable to do anything but mock this episode. Season three is oft' considered the weakest of Star Trek and episodes like this are the reason why. The plot just isn't substantial enough or interesting enough.

Tuesday 7 September 2010

Back!

Illness and stuff, but back. Will have a review up tomorrow or the day after.

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Busy!

So I've just been busy since last Thursday, with one thing or another preventing me from writing a worthwhile review. I have watched the Star Trek episode, season three's "That Which Survives", and I will post about it at some point soon.