Month: November 2004

Wow – tonight’s episode of “Star Trek: Enterprise” was good. Jam-packed with action and suspense, and “They’re not going in that direction, are they?… well, after last week’s craziness…” They tacked on a strange next-to-last scene that surprised me, but thinking on it, I should have seen it coming, I guess (“I’ll see you soon, Father,” says the genetically-engineered human to Dr. Soong…).

However, all this plot-focus pushes character development to the side… Well, Capt. Archer’s character development continues to be a good watch – by beefing up the writing, they’ve finally given Scott Bakula more stuff to sink his acting teeth into; Brent Spiner’s Dr. Arik Soong was amazing; the characters of Trip and T’Pol… well… I’ll leave their storyline(s) unsaid for now – much remains to be seen there (hmm, maybe we should get back to the Big Three idea of Original Trek – the Three Amigos of Kirk-Spock-McCoy being echoed in Archer-T’Pol-Trip; Trek likes promoting the idea of friendship being a good thing).

But, really, will the supporting characters ever get a chance to blossom already? Sure, Dr. Phlox is great and Lt. Reed… well, he’s British and he’s the tactical officer, so he gets away with the appearance of character moments (recall Star Trek: Next Generation’s Yar and Worf and ST: DS9’s Odo – they just scowl, fire a weapon with a cool grimacing look, and they’re acting within character (well, Odo was more than that, but that’s because the Trek writers kept torturing his character and mangled with Worf); oh, and of course, let Reed exploit the accent and there you have a character). But, I often feel that Ensigns Mayweather and Sato often get shafted – and they’re the human persons of color. Hmm… what does it mean that they get so little lines – well, besides the fact that their capacities as bridge officers doesn’t leave room for much dialogue other than “Aye, sir.”

In fact, Mayweather and Sato are awfully reminiscent of their Original Trek predecessors (or successors, if you go by the series’ timeline), who had little lines. But, Original Trek supporting characters did get to be memorable and end up with appearances in the movies (seriously – watch Original Trek, and notice how Sulu had minimal lines and yet is remembered as the favorite navigator and Uhura, just by being the galactic telephone operator, as the inspiration of African-Americans in science fiction…) well, let’s just say I wish we can see more of Mayweather and Sato; even in Star Trek:Voyager limited Paris to just flying the ship (but then tossed in a few character moments). I need more character stuff to go with the cool plots.

If you miss the episode, it airs again this Sunday at 7pm on Channel 9 in the NYC metro area. And, ok, I better stop before it’s obvious that I am an unrepetant Trekkie (I go for the “Trekkie” for the camp factor; “Trekkers” are seriously hard core fans – and I hardly reach that level)….

Watched most of “Saving Private Ryan” on ABC tonight – never seen the movie, but had heard about its harrowing first 20 minutes – very graphic depiction of D-Day invasion. If there’s anything that makes you wish for an end to war, that was it. Goodness. And, I’ll give ABC credit for showing the movie largely unedited – including the harsh language. But, I am disturbed that some ABC affiliates were worried that the FCC would get them for showing the movie and therefore decided not to show it. Hmm.

On a sad note, I’ve read about the death of Iris Chang, a Chinese-American author whose book, “The Rape of Nanking” brought to light of the World War II atrocities of the Chinese city by the Japanese. She was an incredible Chinese-American writer.

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918 – World War I ended – and the 20th century world was born. We have yet to see the true war to end all wars, but I guess we can still hope for true peace. Salute the veterans.

God, I really have to stop reading the political stuff. U.S. Senator Arlen Specter has some baggage to deal with before he can be named the new judiciary committee chair – liberals recall his digging at Prof. Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas confirmation process; the conservatives haven’t forgiven him for not backing Robert Bork. And, reading the articles about him, I had no idea that he had even more baggage – a Democrat in his youth, and a bright lawyer (and we all know how popular lawyers are these days …). Sigh.

And, Ashcroft as Attorney General is moving on (applause) – but that leaves us with what – well, we’ll see, I guess.

Oh, and of course, NYS politics is insane – if, nationally, the Democratic party is feeling lost in the wilderness – the NYS Republicans really feel lost. (it doesn’t help that the state legislature is dysfunctional – I’d have linked to an article about this topic, but they’re all sad and depressing).

Well, it’ll be back to work tomorrow – so looking forward to seeing how “Star Trek: Enterprise” will end the 3-episode arc – I don’t say that very often of this series in awhile too…