Day: January 16, 2005

Finally watched it, so I thought I’d mention it. This week’s episode “Daedalus” – curiously interesting. It felt like the way good standalone episodes were done with “Star Trek: the Next Generation” and “Deep Space Nine” – subtle, gripping, and thoughtful. References to previous character development (T’Pol’s dealing with the loss of her mother and becoming a better Vulcan; Trip’s loss of his sister; Capt. Archer’s loss of his father and hero worship of Zephraim Cochrane, the inventor of warp drive spaceships) weren’t beating you on the head. And, the Big Three carried off good acting in demonstrating their characters’ reactions – Trip’s pissed off that Archer would endanger the crew to help Dr. Emory Erickson, the inventor of the transporter; Archer pissed off with Emory for deceiving him; everybody but Emory feeling bad about the dead ensign of the week. Etc.

See, Emory’s the “Daedalus” – an ingenius engineer/inventor who lost his son to his invention’s accident. Emory believes that he could rescue his son/research assistant from subspace limbo, even if it means deceiving Archer, the son of Emory’s dear friend and a semi-godson.

Archer, who has his own issues with loss of family and making dubious decisions (even if for the right reasons), decides to be loyal to his close family friends, even if it means ignoring his close shipmates (Trip and T’Pol couldn’t get it through to him that putting the ship in harm’s way isn’t a good idea to save the life of one person, particularly when Ensign of the Week died really badly;then again, Archer is a stubborn twit, whose anger scenes which persuasive this week. I also liked his scenes of being the Good Friend to Emory’s daughter, Danica, who – like her brother – was a childhood playmate. Archer felt she belonged in a starship, not as her father’s caretaker; and she had strong moral objections to her father’s actions, even if his emotional pain was really sad stuff – Daedelus indeed). Oh, and Dr. Phlox did a nice job too with his little scenes (Star Trek chief medical officers are nice people to have as doctors, I’d think). Nice episode all around; thumbs up.

So, I saw “In Good Company” the other day. Pretty funny, and interesting characters, good angst (yeah, I’m a sucker for angst); good soundtrack; and yet, I felt sad. Good acting, and yet the ending made me feel unsettled and “huh?” I felt sad for Topher Grace’s character, Carter. He’s about my age, and he’s already feeling like it’s all going downhill and it’s time to find a life. Uh. Ok. I liked the review of the movie on Slate.com – pretty much on point. Maybe I ought to stop seeing sad movies.

NY Jets – big suckers. Losers. Etc.

Michelle Kwan is still the American woman ice skating champion. We’ll see if she can win the World Championship. I mean, I’ll tip my hat off to her for being the most accomplished American woman ice skater, but winning the big prize – that’s the question. Whether for the Jets (i.e., a Super Bowl or even just a big win) or for Kwan (a gold medal), the question hovers.

Really cool item – NY1 profiles Jadin Wong, Asian-American entertainer/dancer/agent. She notes:

“I’m unusual for an Asian girl. They’re very subservient. I’m very nice to people, but I’m not your average Chinese girl,” she says. “I kick tush.” [….]

Wong was married twice. She says she was too busy traveling around the world to have children. In a sense, the people she’s helped were all her children.

“I want them to learn what no one taught me,” she says. “When I came to New York City as a young Chinese girl, no one wanted to help me because there were very few calls for Asian.”

But has Wong seen any improvement for the Asian-American performer in her 30 years as an agent?

“It’s getting better for the Asian, but this is still America,” she says. “It’s like a Caucasian actor in Hong Kong saying, ‘Why don’t they make more pictures for Caucasians?’ Because you’re in Hong Kong, that’s why.” [….]

“I say that life is like a tapestry. You meet people, you don’t see them again,” she says. “Somehow you cross paths. I firmly believe in that, because it’s happened to me so many times. [….]

Fascinating stuff.

Oh, and take a moment to think about Martin Luther King and the dream that continues to be a dream.