CBS All Access the streaming network in the states for all things Trek, announced on Friday a new Star Trek Show “Strange New Worlds”. It will be starring Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock. These three characters were in Season 2 of Discovery.
For me personally this is good news as Captain Pike was the best thing about Discovery full stop, it also appears they are moving back towards a more optimistic approach to this show. Discovery is almost unwatchable for me and the only thing keeping me watching Picard is Patrick Stewart.
Obviously with the current lockdown this want start filming until things have settled down a bit so we could be looking at late 2021 or early 2022.
For me Star Trek has always been about a better future and having an hopeful message, so I am really looking forward to this show.
Over the years, games have reached (and in some cases surpassed) the quality of stories and characters in modern movies, leaving some players wanting more interaction with a certain character, and for those into it, cosplaying as that character.
I am NOT the latter – sorry. 🙂
Take for example the three primary characters in Grand Theft Auto V. There has been no other game I have played where Ive gone “wow, I wish they would make a TV series out of this”. The script, acting, action is all perfect (for me at least), and I actually felt some sadness for one of the characters, when I made a certain decision that resulted in their death in the storyline. Obviously I’m not going to say who and spoil it for those that have not taken that path yet….
There has been another character in an older game, that has impressed me.
Vaas from Far Cry 3.
The character is so perfectly sarcastic and evil, and his little rants are spot on for the occasion.
Some of his rants are based on other speeches/quotes made at stage in the world, but the actor giving voice to these words, nails it.
I’d love to see a game featuring more of Vaas, but sadly I doubt that will happen.
I’ll leave you with this great speech from Vaas….
Did I ever tell you what the definition of insanity is? Insanity is doing the exact… same fucking thing… over and over again expecting… shit to change… That. Is. Crazy. The first time somebody told me that, I dunno, I thought they were bullshitting me, so, I shot him. The thing is… He was right. And then I started seeing, everywhere I looked, everywhere I looked all these fucking pricks, everywhere I looked, doing the exact same fucking thing… over and over and over and over again thinking ‘this time is gonna be different’ no, no, no please… This time is gonna be different, I’m sorry, I don’t like… The way… … you are looking at me… Okay, Do you have a fucking problem in your head, do you think I am bullshitting you, do you think I am lying? Fuck you! Okay? Fuck you!… It’s okay, man. I’m gonna chill, hermano. I’m gonna chill… The thing is… Alright, the thing is I killed you once already… and it’s not like I am fucking crazy. It’s okay… It’s like water under the bridge. Did I ever tell you the definition… of insanity?
I use torrents to obtains some files I require (come on, who can say they don’t, regardless if its legit or not) and generally do not have any problems.
Except for one site I visit.
They employ a ratio system to ensure files are kept alive long as possible – you seed for 72 hours or 1:1.
It works, except when a new file is uploaded.
So Bob uploads file ABC to the site. He seeds for a few hours then logs off his PC. However no one in the time Bob was seeding, was able to complete the file, so no one else can offer it.
Bob comes back days later and continues seeding. Everyone finally gets the file completed.
Now, Bob has broken the seeding/ratio rule – and nothing happens to him.
Now I come along, obtain a popular file with dozens of seeders, download it, and seed it for 71.5 hours and accidentally remove the torrent.
I get punished immediately.
Its frustrating as hell – I know there’s probably a bit of give and take with uploaders, but come on, if those uploaders are not seeding it long enough for at least one other user to complete it, punish them.
I have been inspired after XPD watched the Cats movie on the weekend (he watched a full 2 minutes of it before giving up).
The best horror movie of 2019:
I have decided to list the 5 worst movies I have seen and will indicate if the were “so bad they were good” or just plain bad.
Flash Gordon (1980)
This has a Queen soundtrack, over acting by Brian Blessed, super cheesy acting by the lead Sam J. Jones. But saying that me and my wife love this movie, its so campy but fun.
Verdict: So bad it is good
Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Directed by the Wachowski sibling, yep the same duo that made the Matrix movies. Starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis who are both passable and a over acting Eddie Redmayne (he should have had is oscar taken away for this performance.
This is a bad movie but has nice visuals and at least is trying to be different
Verdict: So bad it is good
Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997)
A supposed comedy starring Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino. This is the only movie that me and my friends considered walking out of the theatre. Just not that great.
Verdict: Just Bad
Into the Woods (2014)
A stage show turned into a movie, it shows. I saw this with my wife and it dragged out and was really dull. Sad as this has a decent cast as well.
Verdict: Just Bad
Batman & Robin (1997)
I wanted to include a super hero movie in this list but had so many to choose from, every thirds X-men movie, half of the Spider Mans. Even some of the Marvel movies are pretty average.
This killed the Batman franchise for about 20 years.
But I could not include this “Classic” Batman movie, George Clooney tries his best but nothing could save this one. At least Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to enjoying himself as Mr Freeze, saying all of that I kind of enjoyed this movie in train wreck sort of way.
I remember me and my friends watching a midnight session when this first came out, there were about 20 of us all guys and everyone was shouting Alicia Silverstone name before the start. I believe that XPD might have also won a Batman hat hrere.
A long time New Zealand based gaming site, Gameplanet has fallen victim to the hard times for media during COVID-19.
Gameplanet has been on life-support for a while now, as some readers may have observed. We’ve held out and sustained the financial losses for as long as we could, but there is, sadly, no realistic prospect of the business recovering, and so the decision has now been made to turn off the machine and put it to rest. The website will be shut down in the next few days.
I have been a member of the Gameplanet community (although not very active I admit) pretty much since they started out.
Compared to other forums, it was bit of a free for all to a degree, but once you got use to the sarcasm and attitudes, it was full of some truly funny, and knowledgeable users in all sorts of different areas.
The forums are being moved to Tapatalk, however if it continues to keep the same feel about it, remains to be seen.
“Don’t be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.”
As we have been in lock down in New Zealand for close to 4 weeks now, me and the wifey have started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation from Season 1 again.
This has inspired me to rank each of the Star Trek Tv Shows and provide a few quick thoughts about each.
*Not really Star Trek shows, just have the word Star Trek at the beginning of them.
The Original Series –
The grand daddy of them all, has that 1960s cheesiness. But is built around the characters of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. The best episodes made you think and had a message. Plus no one can beat William Shatner as Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock.
The Next Generation –
Equally as good in relaying a message. Got better from Season 3 onwards. Tried to be a bit more of a ensemble but by the end was the Picard, Data and Riker show. Plus introduced a awesome new bad guy in the Borg.
Deep Space Nine –
A different take on Star Trek being set in a base and not a space ship, was a bit too serious at times and struggled in the first few seasons. Picked up once the Dominion war storyline kicked into place. Screened the same time was another very good show Babylon 5 (that is for another article)
Voyager –
Oh what a frustrating show, sometimes had very good one off episodes but had zero continuity. This woudnt annoy me so much if they werent like 70 years away from home. One week the ship is completely trashed and the next week it is back to pristine condition. New crew members would just dissapear.
Enterprise –
Prequel show set 150 years before the Original Series, the first two seasons were quite boring. It did pick up in seasons 3 and 4. Probably deserved a season 5, also had the absolute worst series finale I have probably seen.
Picard –
Sigh now we start with new “Star Trek” shows currently on TV. This has the advantage of having the great Patrick Stewart returning as Picard. But this is a dystopian version of Star Trek, where every second word is Fu*k yeah and you must have blood splatter. Plus it has the modern trend of everything being darkly lit. Still it had a couple of reasonable episodes in first season.
Discovery –
Another supposed prequel show set 10 years before the Original Series. The problem here is the writers apparently either have never watched any of the other Star Trek show or simply don’t care. It was quite brave of the show to have no likable characters at all in the first season, the second season got better due to one character Captain Pike played by Anson Mount. This actor looked like that they actually knew what Star Trek was about. Don’t get me started on Spocks secret half sister….sigh.
The Intros:
Honorable mention for the best Star Trek show on TV right now:
Gaming started for me around the mid 80’s, when friends had Atari 2600’s, Commodore 64’s and so on.
But I did not obtain my Amiga until late 1991 (and was one of the first Amiga 500+ units) but this was a great time, as the Amiga’s were extremely popular and the number of titles being released for it was amazing.
Due to the number of titles being released, it was hard to pick the absolute favorite games, so here’s a few I remember and enjoyed.
I was not expecting to be in lockdown for a month or else I would have held onto the PC.
I purchased an Arrma Granite RC truck to keep me entertained after I sold the PC, however right before lockdown, a part on it failed – so thats out of action.
Its not meant to be that low.
Also work advised that we would be working from home as we are an essential service (IT provider).
But I did not have a PC to work from apart from my Lenovo X230 – grat machine but going from a 28″ 4k screen to 12″ was going to be a bit hard. So I was sent a 28″ 1080P screen and a thin client.
Thin client has remained in its box as its not running Windows, which I required.
So I looked around and found that I still had my Pentium G3258 setup (in parts) – so threw that into a cardboard box (literally) and thankfully found 8GB of RAM and a decent PSU.
Stole the SSD from the X230 and I was away.
Cardboard PC
It’s been working perfectly except for when I want to play some Overwatch with mates – I’ll just say its playable but not pretty.
But due to the lockdown, I’ve been unable to source a 2nd hand video card.
Until NME mentioned he still had an old 6970HD floating around. Score!
That’s on its way courtesy of work’s courier company – hey, its an essential item and I’m an essential employee.
So in the mean time, my gaming has been limited to classics such as Sid Mier’s Pirates!, UFO Enemy Unknown, Team Fortress 2, and real classic such as Police Quest, Leisure Suit Larry and Kings Quest.
Love those last three games. Lot of memories from my Amiga days.
So I sit here now waiting for the courier to deliver the video card.
Some day, I’ll be able to order my RC parts, and maybe even get a case for this PC.
And hopefully stop wearing stupid things on my head.
