David Brin's STID review

[RAMA]

http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2013/07/recent-sci-fi-films-okay-and-meh.html

Some expected Brin to be critical if STID, but he liked it.

Sure, there was a Starfleet villain. So? That happened often enough in the older films and the varied TV series. The key point is that the conspirators were acting in secret and in violation of the Federation's core principles. Hence, the scenario was not an indictment of civilization as a whole, nor a proclamation of the hopelessness of democracy -- as you see perpetrated relentlessly in the Star Wars prequels -- but rather it's a tale about society's ethical immune system (manifested by Enterprise and crew) discovering and neutralizing a lethal and immoral aberration.

That is what good sci fi does: "Watch out for mistakes! Pay attention to potential failure modes! Then envision that citizens can cure them with courage, openness and belief in us."

(Indeed, with just five minutes of alteration, that's the message James Cameron might have delivered via Avatar. Alas that, instead, he chose to spread a poison.)

 

[Shaka Zulu]

^Boy, does Brin ever love Star Trek, a lot.

 

[BillJ]

^Boy, does Brin ever love Star Trek, a lot.

Sounds like he liked it.

But his opinion ranks right up there with Joe Smith's for me. All that matters is whether I liked it.

 

[The Doctor]

Who the heck is David Brin?

 

[Christopher]

Who the heck is David Brin?

Only one of the most popular and successful science fiction novelists of the past few decades, the creator of the Uplift series and such books as The Postman (yes, the one the Costner movie was loosely based on), Earth (the one the planet was loosely -- uh, no, strike that), The Kiln People, and the recent Existence. As well as being a physicist and a Defense Department consultant, a noted futurist, and a winner of all the major SF writing awards. He also wrote the ST:TNG graphic novel Forgiveness for Wildstorm Comics. Plus he's a friend of former DS9 producer Robert Hewitt Wolfe, and his work influenced some of the ideas in Wolfe's subsequent series Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda.

 

[Set Harth]

Who the heck is David Brin?

A guy who thinks Yoda is the villain.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

 

[Ain Jalut]

Who the heck is David Brin?

A guy who thinks Yoda is the villain.

I would love to know his opinion about the Kotor comics. I bet he would like at least that SW series.

 

[RAMA]

These days Brin is known more as a critic, science writer and "consultant" on wide ranging subjects from technology to transparency in government. He does have enormous cachet in the sci fi community still.

^Boy, does Brin ever love Star Trek, a lot.

IF he disliked it he would have said so. He's a critical thinker not a fan boy.

^Boy, does Brin ever love Star Trek, a lot.

Sounds like he liked it.

But his opinion ranks right up there with Joe Smith's for me. All that matters is whether I liked it.

It matters to me whether I liked it too but my preference doesn't exist in a vacuum, and I like to gauge critical reaction as well, in this case I find Brin's review more relevant than any number if media critics'.

 

[publiusr]

I love the concept of Kiln people.

Hmm, I wonder what it would be like to stare at Medusa. I'm going to turn to stone anyway, so--here goes!

 

[RAMA]

Hey sorry about the triple post, for some reason when I post from my smartphone, the site hates me copying and pasting.

RAMA

 

[M'Sharak]

Hey sorry about the triple post, for some reason when I post from my smartphone, the site hates me copying and pasting.

RAMA

Just click/tap the Multi-Quote button first on each post to which you want to respond, then hit Reply and the copy/pasting is all done automatically. From there, all you need to do is type in your responses.