http://web.me.com/mike.sussman/mikesussman/Unimatrix.html I read that article about Sussman starting out in Voyager by pitching Unimatrix Zero, and yet somehow he is credited for "Meld" and "Swarm" years earlier. It doesn't make any sense.
I believe the statute of limitation regarding spoilers on this board is one year, so don't think I've broken any rules. But since I'm such a nice guy (ha!) I've edited in a spoiler tag. Apologies to anybody that is watching BSG for the first time and had just reached Revelations. This is like the time that Joe Menosky invited Jammer to pitch some episode ideas for Voyager... except I haven't been invited to pitch anything... and I feel great shame as opposed to great enjoyment. It's very much like my sole sexual experience. For anybody that's interested, here's the Babylon 5 thread. Be there or be triangle. (That's one less than a square, losers! )
Thanks for the ride, TheGodBen. I didn't always agree on your ratings but that is to be expected. Not everyone has the same opinions and it is interesting to get another take. I guess the biggest difference is I put the Mirror and Vulcan arcs near the top and I never cared much for Shuttlepod 1 or Cogenitor. The real strange part about that, I have a Shuttlepod 1 script that Connor and Dominic signed for me at VegasCon. Looking forward to the B5 review. It's been years since I have seen that show.
He also got a character named after him on Andromeda. I think that character died a painful death. ...I'd watch Legend of the Seeker if I were you.
I've already had a character named after me, a real badass type that's considered as a major religious figure. And that character is... Jesus Christ, a character from some Mel Gibson movie back in 04. His name is based off a nickname my mother had for me as a child, whenever I was making too much noise she'd call me "Jesus Christ Ben!" I have a good idea for an episode. It's about this young guy, he's 17 or 18, and he wants to be rich and famous, so he broadcasts himself into everyone's living room to get their attention and support. But to get to that point he has to go through a rigorous judging process, and then he's put up against 15 or 16 other people and he has to sing for the public's vote. I think it might work as a season long arc.
Another one of my belated comments about the episode I've just watched (does this make sense when I put it like this? anyway) re: Observer Effect I was bothered by the whole "humans are so cool and better than anyone else" aspect of the episode, but - and I am surprised nobody here has mentioned it - what I really like about it is that it implicitly criticizes and parodies the Prime Directive. It was good to see the "non-interference" policy plot turned on its head, with aliens as a more advanced 'observer' race and Humans on the other side for once. Even if that makes Phlox's outburst look rather hypocritical, in the light of Dear Doctor...
This just ran today on syfy. I never realized that Trip out and out lied to Kelby. How prescient of ENT to foresee the Great Late Night Wars of 2010. And pity the poor engineer who was in line for the Columbia job before Trip got transferred. He gets Conan-ed twice, since KelKel got the job as a consolation prize-or probably to prevent his lawsuit againt Archer and Starfleet from proceeding... Go team KelKel!
I beg to differ. They're also less annoying than Jack and Kate because, well, just because they're inherently less annoying than Jack and Kate, and, if I may say so, even likable each on their own, even if their love story is so-so. I can take it or leave it, it's not great but it's not a horrible plot that ruins a show, like Lost's Love Triangle (Quandrangle, etc.) from Hell. It helps that Trip is not a self-righteous condescending jackass and T'Pol is not a stupid selfish bimbo criminal and her actions usually make at least some sense. Oh Ben, have you really forgotten so soon what it's really like to be a teenager? That's exactly what teenagers do. But while T'Pol/Trip is so-so, you know which Trek pairing I'd like to have seen more? Mirror T'Pol and Mirror Trip. An angry, oppressed second-class citizen Vulcan secretly planning a rebellion, and a physically deformed Human who only got into her pants through her Pon Farr desperation, in a love/hate relationship (more hate than love) filled with cruelty, betrayal, and forced mind melds. Now that sounds interesting and deliciously twisted. Tell that to Gene Roddenberry and everyone else involved in TOS. It's a bit late to retcon Spock out of existence, don't you think so?
I actually like Jack, he has a hero complex and always tries to do the right thing, but he's a bit of an idiot so he just ends up screwing things up the majority of the time. He's not a nice person, but he's a good character. The problem with Jack is that he spends too much time around Kate, and Kate is such a horrible person and character that she poisons any character she shares a scene with. So I'd put Jack and Trip on a similar level, while T'Pol is much more likeable than Kate. Then again, Genghis Khan was much more likeable than Kate, he could be in the middle of the act of impaling me through the eye with a spear and I'd think "What a prick, but at least this is more tolerable than watching Kate." (Is anyone else really annoyed that there's no apostrophe in that "thats"?) But this was the first human/alien hybrid and Phlox said that it was probably okay based on a hair sample. And the following episode I was proven right. By the time of Spock they had no-doubt perfect the method of combining Human and Vulcan DNA.
Well, Trip might not be such a great character that people make him out to be, he's a bit one-dimensional, but Connor Trineer is a good actor and he makes him likable. I'm not saying that Matthew Fox is not a good actor, he's perfect for Jack, if the idea was to make Jack a flawed and sometimes rather annoying anti-hero rather than your classic hero. If that is the case, then Jack is actually a very good character. I started liking him a lot more since the show started more opnely showing how screwed-up he is. Drunk Bearded Jack is still my favorite version of Jack. Kate could fit well on Star Trek, as Trek's first truly alien character. This could be a real breakthrough: unlike all the other Trek aliens, who tend to act too human, Kate really seems like she is not a human being at all. It's hard to make sense of her actions from the human perspective. Can you think of a human who would actually go to the trouble of seducing some lowlife and planning and conducting an armed robbery with him, only to get a toy plane for its sentimental value? Well, yeah. But I was pointing out that it is difficult to really hate characters who act like confused teenagers... when you remember the time when you actually behaved in the same stupid way. Sure, they're adults, but I've never really quite believed in the myth that wisdom and maturity comes with age. Oh all right, I thought you were going to argue, like Myasishchev, that Humans and Vulcans shouldn't be able to reproduce due to their differences - copper-based blood etc... I have no problem suspending disbelief as far as that is concerned - if anything, it's easier than suspending disbelief enough to accept that an alien species with such a different physiology would look exactly like a human, just with pointy ears! I have no idea how good an insight into the issue Phlox could get from a DNA sample of the baby, but it's not like there haven't been many unlikelier and more far-fetched scientific premises in Trek! And what's with your avatar, are you making up to Scott Bakula for not including his nipples in your ENT score?
Actually, it was for this: If you haven't been reading the B5 thread then it's very hard to explain. Actually, even those reading the B5 thread don't understand it. Basically, when Walter Keonig showed up in his first episode I made a joke that it was Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap fame. Then I started claiming that every actor from Trek that I see on B5 is Scott Bakula, that goes for Trek writers too. That led to me creating a Scott Bakula counter for all the times that he shows up on B5, and that led to me creating a Scott Bakula?! counter for every time that somebody asked me what the Scott Bakula stuff is about. Then I revealed it was all part of a plot to lure Scott Bakula to post in the thread, just like what happened with Mike Sussman, that way he could explain to me what the ending of Quantum Leap was all about. Then people started joking that Scott Bakula would write a review one day, so on my birthday I took the day off and let him do it. At no point does that story make any sense, but that it is reason why a topless Scott Bakula was my avatar for 22 hours. I feel the same way, I was never all that interested in Jack until season 4 when it became apparent that he was actually screwing things and operating on a hero-complex. I'm not a big season 5 fan, but one of the things I did like was that Jack's obsession with being the hero that fixes everything led him to attempting to blow everyone up. Good fun! Oh, I'm certainly guilty of it myself, but I don't excuse myself from acting like an idiot because I was young and in love, I think back and see myself as an eejit. I hope I've learned from those mistakes, if I find myself repeating them in my 80s then I'll be a thorough disappointment to myself. Moreso than I am now.
Careful, Mr. Goodman, or TheGodBen might break out his photoshop program and whip up a prize for you... something even scarier than that Bakula/horse thing. Seriously, though, I think "The Forgotten" is one of the top ten episodes of Enterprise, and "North Star" is a personal favorite of mine. "Judgment" is pretty cool, too -- Kolos is a great character.