Writer's Block: The Final Frontier

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Hmm.

Truth is, I don't currently care about Star Trek in the least. My interest flagged after Star Trek: The Next Generation because Sisko was a bore, the lovely Kira merely brought us into Bajoran religous politics, I couldn't stand the Ferengi, and Chakotay was the disappointment of the century - the rebel who was more meekly conformist than Starfleet itself. Where were the Picards of yesteryear?

But I discovered slash through Star Trek, back when K/S was all there was, and I loved it. Anyone else remember Cheap Thrills? Thrust? But that was years and several fandoms ago, and slash has come a long way, and you can't (quite) go home again.

And... time for a confession... though I thought I couldn't care less about Star Trek, when I saw a picture of the new young Kirk and Spock on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, I felt a bit of a thrill.

My recipe for a good Star Trek:

1. Two, maybe three at most, strong central viewpoint characters.
   
2. Put in sense of real science fiction - a sense of wonder, innovation, discovery, exploration. A sense of newness. Not just a future that feels like the past.
   
3. Be socially progressive rather than conservative.
   
4. Be imaginative, but keep the characters' psychology realistic.
   

Meme of American controversies...

I got this from gillo. It's about things people might argue about, if the subject came up. It strikes me as - not so much surprising, but striking - how these questions may be of burning immediacy to Americans but they've either been settled in Canada (like the death penalty and gay marriage) or they just don't apply.

( 1. Do you have... )

Funny how the things that seem controversial in one country aren't controversial at all in another, even when we're right next door and heavily influenced by their culture. Controversial questions here would be things like "how do you feel about bilingualism?" and "should we pull out of Afghanistan?" and maybe "what's the problem with hockey these days?"

Torchwood: the upcoming villain...

Despite my avoidance of spoilers, I watched this bit of film from Cheltenham in which Russell T Davies and John Barrowman talked about the upcoming villains on Torchwood (ooh, sounds good!) and about Doctor Who - which Doctor is best, and what his name is. Enjoyed it mightily.

Keith and Colin. Yes. Well. Has a ring to it.

Livejournal excess...

The latest LJ newsletter cheerily suggests, "For those of you who feel a little daunted by 50,000 words in 30 days, why not try 30 blog posts in 30 days?"

Only thirty? I'd be rationing myself. Starvation rations.

It would be more of a challenge to cut down and and cut back, like for Lent.

How many posts have I done in the past thirty days? Really, I don't want to count.

Passchendaele...

You don't see a lot of movies about Canadian history. No one sees a lot of movies about Canadian history. And here is one: a war story, a love story, and a bit of Canadian history all in one. Passchendaele, a new movie starring Paul Gross, directed by Paul Gross, and - famously - financed and made because Paul Gross went cap in hand to everyone in the country who has significant money, and begged.

It paid off. It's good.

The basic plot: Michael Dunn (played by Gross) was a Canadian soldier in World War I, and a good one. He went through horrors at Vimy Ridge and, in a horrific bit of fighting that we see at the beginning of the movie, was sent home to Calgary, a wounded hero. In the hospital, he fell in love with his nurse, Sarah Mann - but Sarah has a few dark secrets, and she doesn't want her brother David to go to war. On recovery, Michael was classisfied "neurasthenic" or shell-shocked, and made a recruiter, dedicated to keeping David out of the war. And he fails; and both he and David end up at the Battle of Passchendaele.

When the movie ended, a teen-aged girl in the row behind me said loudly to her friends, "Paul Gross is so beautiful." And he is. Even covered in mud and blood and rain and bad lighting.

( Thoughts. )