Sharkey's Interweb Journal Thingy

Star Trek. (A slightly gushing review.)

Went to see the new Star Trek movie.

Verdict: Wow.

[some possible light spoilerage - consider yourself warned.]

The cast is spot on (particularly Chris Pine, who somehow manages to de-Shatnercheeserise Kirk without de-Kirking him), the look of the film is fantastic (Apple-store-meets-industrial, daaahling) and the story is basically a very cunning way of jettisoning everything that went before (while still remaining "canon") so they can do a prequel and place the characters in real jeopardy. You know, rather than the "well Obi and Anakin can't die cos they're both in A New Hope" scenario. They boldly choose to leave it borked too, resulting in a universe that contains the same characters but with utterly different motivations. This may upset some of the hardcore fans, but frankly... who cares? I loved that they deliberately flirt with or subvert a lot of Star Trek cliches in small ways. ("Hi Christopher!") And it's actually funny too, and not in the unintentional way the old ones were. There's lots of nods to old Star Trek for Trekkies, and references to other JJ Abrams shows (even Slusho!) but it never gets clogged up with them. Hell, even the plot holes are bigger and better and shinier than before, but it's so damned watchable that you really just don't care.

Bad stuff? Aforementioned plot-holes. Well, not holes as such, just everything is just a bit too damned... convenient. Other stuff, the score is a bit Elfman-era Batman (although the actual sound design is pure classic Trek in places). There's some utterly horrific product placement in the early parts (offset by good use of the Beastie Boys). And they use a distressingly Fringe-level of lens flare in every third shot which gets a bit tiresome/blinding/ohmygodmyeyestheybleedtheydiepleasemakeitstop.

Doesn't matter though. I still came out grinning from ear-to-ear. It's better than The Wrath Of Kahn. Which makes it the best Star Trek movie. Go and see. Go and see now.

Speaking of Fringe, very happy that this week's episode (another JJ show) has a guy who's convinced he's the son of Sarek (i.e. Spock) who wants to save the universe from time-travelling Romulans and/or Khan. And Walter's drinking a Slusho. And Leonard Nimoy (old Spock, for the uninitiated) is playing a recurring character.

Now that's what I call cross-platform marketing, pop kids.

Bebot.

This is officially my second favourite iPhone application EVAR (after Fieldrunners). If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, enjoy synthesisers / beepy noises and are partial to singing robots this could very well be the best 119 pence you've ever spent.

Bebot [iTunes link]

Da money.

As a penniless musician myself (a lifestyle I support by being a rich and famous rock'n'roll computer programmer) this is IMHO the best quote ever regarding the music sales model in the New Interweb Order:

"This is the thing about the new landscape that drives everyone crazy: you can’t see inside the cow; you can only build one, feed it music, and wait for it to poop."

Thank you, Jonathan Coulton. (Clickety on the link for the full post - definitely worth a read.)

Days without incident: 31

A post-finale BSG analysis.

Okay, so I didn't call it quite right about the final Battlestar Galactica episode but it was still really bloody good. Messrs Moore and Eick, we salute you on your fine televisual production. Now don't frak it up with The Plan movie and make the complete BSG blu-ray set available as soon as possible, would you? Thanks.

[If you haven't seen it stop reading now. Seriously. There are spoilers ahead.]

...

[I mean it.]

...

[Sure?]

...

[Okay then. On your head be it.]

They certainly made some interesting choices (and risky ones given it's ostensibly a sci-fi show). Most geek audiences wouldn't like the fact that certain things were left unexplained - the more I think about it the more I love that Starbuck just vanished without explanation having finally helped her nearest and dearest (just like Sam Beckett does in the final episode of Quantum Leap) and there was a strong acknowledgement of a literal higher power - a force of nature God/Plan/whatever with the Six/Baltar apparitions as actual "angels" (much like the bartender at the end of Quantum Leap... oh hang on).

Still, Quantum Leap similarities aside I love that they really played their final endgame to the "life here... began out there" spiel from the original series, with the population of the fleet mingling with our own prehistoric civilisation. (Hey, just like the Golgafrinchans in The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy!) There was some beautiful imagery too - Adama sitting on the hillside next to Roslin's grave. And the shot of them crashing Galactica and the fleet into the sun, just like the Disaster Area stunt ship in the Hitchhikers Guide...

...woah, all this really has happened before, hasn't it?

Days without incident: 28

A pre-finale BSG prediction.

So. Here's what I reckon is gonna happen...

[Note: Spoilers if you're not already up to Daybreak Pt. 1]

Galactica and the fleet have travelled thousands of light years at velocities faster than light, right? Now, according to Einstein, from their point of view the Caprica they can now objectively "see" through their telescopes would actually be the one from thousands of years in their past (because time does not travel faster than light). The algae planet with the 3,000 year old temple (where Xena, Warrior Princess sees the Final Five) is objectively nearer, and Earth from which the final Cylons came from 2,000 years ago is nearer in time still.

Inevitably, Galactica's final mission beats the baddie Cyclons, probably taking the ship, Adama and Roslin at the very least with it, and some Boomer-based redemption is likely. It turns that Hera/Bob Dylan are the key to some sort of Insta-travel McGuffin plot device (maybe she turns out to be the one true God?) that allows them to travel instantly between places without experiencing relativistic effect. This enables the surviving fleet and Cylons to go back home and become their own great-to-the-power-whatever grandparents; some of them settle the 12 colonies (guessing the humans split off and do this), others build the temple on the algae planet (Baltar's acolytes?) and the colony on Earth (probly the good Cylons.) These divisions of the group aren't perfect, so there's some mixing and thus some humans in these new colonies pick up Cylon DNA etc allowing certain future humans to experience the Cylon "projections" (e.g. Baltar/Roslin).

Still haven't quite figured out Starbuck's angle yet - thinking that she may have to crash and burn on Earth at some point in her own future so she can discover her own body in her own subjective past later on and set the fleet on the path to Earth.

Regardless - foreknowledge of these events forms the moral and spiritual basis of all three civilisations as prophecy, genetic memory, the Book of Pithia, the Cylon's "plan", whatever, and is all geared towards starting the process again so that they continue to exist...each society has started in a different period of "real" time depending on how far they are from the 12 colonies, and each is looping in time forever. Thus:

"All this has happened before, and will happen again."

UPDATE: Grant thinks the black hole the Cylon colony is orbiting might have something to do with it. Naked singularity and a plot based on shafting space-time? Sounds promising.

(Of course, knowing my luck what'll actually happen is that Boxy will reappear with a robot dog and Face from the A-Team will save the day.)

Days without incident: 25.

PS: If I called this right you all owe me a beer.

Sprung.

Three bright, sunny days in a row? Best stop now, universe, else we'll get used to it. Wiv zees ultraviolet rays you are reeellee spoiling us. Etc. It's almost like spring out there, but that's not due to start for a few days yet. Desperately trying not to get my hopes up. Must. Avoid. Crushing. Disappointment. Of. English. Summer.

Meanwhile, indoors.... my verdict on the new iPhone OS 3.0 features: Meh. No death ray.

Days without incident: 23 (Practically hallucinating pizza now.)

#GFail

Gone are the days when you could bork your widely used (but still technically in beta) web mail service and keep it quiet. Thanks to the power of Twitter you can watch the fallout live: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23gfail.

Question is, where do we go when Twitter is borked? Is there a Plan B?

UPDATE: All back to normal. Beeb story on the matter is here. No excuses yet... but then why bother to explain when you already rule the world?

UPDATE UPDATE: Never change the code.

Fut.

The JJ Abrams version of the Enterprise. Little chubby round the nacelles perhaps? Bit squished?

Still, they've previewed some footage to the press and reviews have been largely positive.... maybe there's life in the old girl yet?

Oh, the humanity.

Sometimes you see something that makes you feel good to be alive.

http://www.drgblz.com/

Happiness is.