Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

Tag: science-fiction

  • Star Trek Cats & Patrick Stewart

    We had a slowdown at work for a few weeks and we had time for team building. We got on a puzzle kick and put together quite a few of them so I brought in a puzzle that I’d bought a few years ago and never had time to do at home.

    It didn’t take more than 3 days of people popping in for a few minutes here and there to get the puzzle done and now I have it hanging on the wall in my office. The puzzle is based on characters from the original series, but looking at it on my office wall keeps reminding me of Patrick Stewart’s recent passing.

    I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. The new episodes came out on Saturday nights at 6 PM, so we would rush to make sure we got home from the mall in time to catch the show.

    I remember being really impressed with the stories because they weren’t just action or comedy, they also had substance and addressed complicated social issues. Through every crisis, Captain Jean Luc Picard kept his cool (or at least held himself together in a respectable way) and completed the mission.

    I can’t say he was my favorite character. Data was far more interesting to me. I also was fascinated by Guinan and Wesley. He was, however, a solid role model and he was the reason I drink Earl Grey tea fairly regularly.

    Patrick Stewart was getting older and I figured he’d pass sooner rather than later, but he and his family kept everything pretty well under wraps. I didn’t even know he had any health issues. That’s fine though. He had a right to his privacy. I would have liked to have met him, but I never went to any Star Trek conventions. A missed opportunity.

    Anyway, it’s weird seeing the actors from shows I loved as a kid slowly disappearing. It’s a reminder that I’m getting older myself.

    Fediverse Reactions

  • A few thoughts on the new season of Andor

    It was intresting to me that Disney released three episodes up front, but I think it might have been symbolic of the three storylines that were being told, and it seemed like Cassian’s storyline was unnecessarly drawn out to fit into the 3×3 structure they created. His whole ‘adventure’ on the planet was sort of amusing, but mostly annoying, and doesn’t seem to have added anything to the overall storyline. Maybe I’m wrong and those guys will show up again later on and do something meaningful, but from the way they were portrayed, I really doubt it.

    What was more interesting was the three layers of the rebellion they portrayed. First, you have Cassian and Bix, representing the foot soldiers and common people. Second, you have Mon and Luthen, representing the wealthy patrons of the rebellion. Third, you get Dedra and Syril, though that story seems to be mostly about Dedra at this point, representing the complexities of working for the government. There also seems to be an emphasis on class/economic differences, contrasting the struggle on the ground with the ‘struggle’ represented by Tay’s threat at the rave/wedding celebration.

    The first three episodes jumped back and forth between Cassian’s, Mon’s, and Dedra’s storylines so you walk away not having seen as much as you think you might have. There were a few things that jumped out at me though. Bix’s encounter with the Imperial inspector was intense. I wonder if this storyline was inserted as a way of alluding to current politics in the US. I don’t recall any previous references to people being on other planets in the Federation/Empire ‘illegally’, or any mention of work visas. It’s been a while since I saw the movies, so maybe I’m wrong, but there seemed to be an effort to equate Bix’s situation with that of illegals in the United States, but it seems like a reach to suggest that illegals are being sexually assaulted prior to deportation. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, though. Another thing I wondered was, is Syril’s mother supposed to be the Jewish mother caricature? And finally, that floating party ball was really banging.

    Overall, the show seems to be off to a really good start. I’m enjoying it more than The Last of Us season 2 so far, though I was glad to see the final scene of season 2 episode 2. That dude is getting annoying.