(1) GAME CHOW. Food & Wine doesn’t want you to miss a single offer: “All of the ‘Game of Thrones’ Food and Beverage Tributes for the Final Season”
Wherever your house allegiance may lie, there’s an Oreo for that—no, seriously. On April 2, the cookie brand announced a special line of Game of Thrones Oreos, which are stamped with the sigils of House Stark, House Targaryen, and House Lannister, symbolizing the main families that are left in the battle for the Iron Throne (and against the White Walkers). There’s even a cookie with the Night King on it, if you’re rooting for the dark side; plus, Oreo also recreated the show’s iconic opening sequence with (you guessed it) Oreos, which you can check out below.
(2) REALITY BOOZE. And Eater has another product roundup: “From Johnnie Walker to Oreos, Brands Are Going Ham on ‘Game of Thrones’ Merch”.
Then there’s sneakers, a $2,700 leather jacket, underwear, and even GoT wine and Johnnie Walker whiskey, which at least have a very tenuous connection, given that alcohol actually exists in Westeros (as compared to Oreos). Of course, none of these products will appear on screen, unless a final twist reveals that the entire Game of Thrones universe was actually the fever dream of a Mountain Dew advertising executive.
Hey, Fevre Dream is another clever GRRM reference, if intentional.
(3) DON’T PANIC. That’s what SFWA says, even though there’s no tickets left. Right now, anyway.
The 2019 Nebula Conference is SOLD OUT, but don’t panic! We’re looking into expanding capacity & expect to release more tickets. If you haven’t bought your membership yet, email [email protected] to be notified when additional tickets are released.
(4) NOT WHISPERING. This morning I stopped at an intersection behind a “Smith Family Exterminating” truck and had the obvious thought. It came back to me now as I was reading Galactic Journey’s review of an old IF theme issue: “[Apr. 6, 1964] The art of word-smithing (May 1964 IF)”.
Science fiction magazines are no strangers to gimmicks. Fantasy and Science Fiction has “All-star issues” with no authors but big names (though they often turn in second-rate stuff). Analog is trying out a run in “slick” 8.5? by 11? size.
And this month, IF has gotten extra cute. Every story in the issue is written by a guy named “Smith.” It’s certainly a novel concept, but does it work?
(5) WRITER’S BLOCH. His advice to Ray Bradbury is #5: “Robert Bloch: The World Explained in 20 Quotes” at CrimeReads.
“I urge you with all sincerity to get to work, write a book, write two—three—four books, just as a matter of course. Don’t worry about ‘wasting’ an idea or ‘spoiling’ a plot by going too fast. If you are capable of turning out a masterpiece, you’ll get other and even better ideas in the future. Right now your job is to write, and to write books so that by so doing you’ll gain the experience to write still better books later on.” (Bloch in an August 27, 1947 letter to Ray Bradbury)
(6) FLYOVER SLEUTHING. The winner of this year’s Paretsky Award for mysteries set in the Midwest was announced March 23:
Scott Turow, the author of such best-selling novels as Presumed Innocent (1987), Reversible Errors (2002) and Testimony (2017), has received the annual Paretsky Award for his work. That commendation was presented to him during the third annual Murder and Mayhem in Chicago convention, held this last Saturday. The Paretsky Award, named after Sara Paretsky, the creator of Windy City private detective V.I. Warshawski, “honors mysteries set in the Midwest.”
(7) RAPHAEL OBIT. Rabbi Lawrence Raphael died March 17 at the age of 74 reports Mystery Fanfare. In addition to being a rabbi, he edited anthologies of Jewish mysteries and crime fiction, and was also an expert in Jewish science fiction.
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.
[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]
- Born April 7, 1915 — Stanley Adams. He’s best known for playing Cyrano Jones in “The Trouble with Tribbles” Trek episode. He reprised in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode “More Tribbles, More Troubles” and archival footage of him was later featured in the Deep Space Nine “Trials and Tribble-ations” episode. He also appeared in two episodes of the Batman series (“Catwoman Goes to College” and “Batman Displays his Knowledge”) as Captain Courageous. (Died 1977.)
- Born April 7, 1915 — Henry Kuttner. While he was working for the d’Orsay agency, he found Leigh Brackett’s early manuscripts in the slush pile; it was under his guidance that she sold her first story to Campbell at Astounding Stories. His own work was done in close collaboration with C. L. Moore, his wife, and much of they published was under pseudonyms. During the Forties, he also contributed numerous scripts to the Green Lantern series. (Died 1958.)
- Born April 7, 1928 — James White. His best-known novels were the Sector General hospital series published over a nearly a forty year period. No, I’m not going to remember which ones I read but I do fondly remember reading several of them and encountering the short stories in various magazines. Definitely popcorn literature at its best! (Died 1999.)
- Born April 7, 1934 — Ian Richardson. His first genre performance was in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as Oberon. That’s the film with Diana Rigg, Helen Mirren, Ian Holm and David Warner as well. He’s the Narrator of Gawain and the Green Knight, Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Sign of Four, Mr. Warrenn in Brazil (a film I’ve never understood), Polonius In Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Mr. Book in Dark City, Wasp in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There and Sir Charles Warren in From Hell based off the Alan Moore excellent graphic novel about the Ripper murders. (Died 2007.)
- Born April 7, 1935 — Marty Cantor, 84. He’s the editor with then his wife Robbie of Holier Than Thou. It was nominated for the 1984, 1985 and 1986 Hugo Awards for Best Fanzine, losing in the first two years to File 770 and in the last to Lan’s Lantern. He also published Who Knows What Ether Lurks in the Minds of Fen?, a rather nice play off The Shadow radio intro.
- Born April 7, 1939 — Francis Ford Coppola, 80. Director / Writer / Producer. THX 1138 was produced by him and directed by George Lucas in his feature film directorial debut in 1971. Saw it late at night after some serious drug ingestion with a redhead into Morrison — strange experience that was. Other genre works of note include Bram Stoker’s Dracula, an episode of Faerie Tale Theatre entitled“Rip Van Winkle”, Twixt (a horror film that almost no one has heard of), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Jeepers Creepers and Jeepers Creepers 2,
- Born April 7, 1946 — Stan Winston. He’s best known for his work in Aliens, the Terminator franchise, the first three Jurassic Park films, the first two Predator films, Batman Returns and Iron Man. He was unusual in having expertise in makeup, puppets and practical effects, and was just starting to get in digital effects as well. (Died 2008.)
- Born April 7, 1945 — Susan Petrey. There are days I don’t like the Universe very much and it’s things like her death which cause that. Dead at 35, she’s the author of the Varkela, a series of stories where vampires heal instead of kill. Her collected work is be found in Gifts of Blood. She was very active in Portland, Oregon fandom where her friends established the Susan C. Petrey Clarion Scholarship Fund in her memory which raises funds to send aspiring writers to the Clarion. (Died 1980.)
- Born April 7, 1951 — Janis Ian, 68. Stars: Original Stories Based on the Songs of Janis Ian is an anthology of stories edited by her and Mike Resnick. It looks damn good and I’ve got the ISFDB link here for the contents.
(9) COMICS SECTION.
- Scandinavia and the World reveals a problem that’s unique to Australian commuters.
(10) FINALISTS CONSIDERED. Gary Tognetti reacts to the ballot in “2019 Hugo Nominations Post – Impressions, Surprises, Disappointments” at The 1000 Year Plan.
…The opinions expressed below are not intended to divide the nominees up into things that “deserve” to be there and things that don’t. Every work/person on the ballot deserves to be there because their fans were passionate enough to make it happen. Fans are an opinionated bunch: we think some things are better than other things and we like to argue about it. That’s what I’m doing here.
(11) BRW. We’ve been talking a lot about AO3 – Paste takes a look at another Best Related Work that’s also a product of the times: “YouTuber Lindsay Ellis Has Been Nominated for a Hugo Award for Her Acclaimed ‘Hobbit Duology'”.
The YouTube video essay has become perhaps the defining form of entertainment media of the digital age, and yet it’s still not a medium that garners a lot of respect. Except for the likes of a handful of film YouTubers such as the dearly departed Every Frame a Painting, it’s a field where all of the middling quality entries have an anchor-like effect upon all the superior efforts. In much the same way that feature films on streaming services have slowly clawed their way into award recognition, though, the same is true of the YouTube video essay. And YouTuber Lindsay Ellis just made a major statement to that effect, garnering a Hugo Award nomination for her critically acclaimed “Hobbit Duology,” in the category of Best Related Work.
It’s not the first time a YouTuber has been nominated for a Hugo Award—it’s happened at least once before, when Rachel Bloom was nominated in 2010—but it’s still a major honor and an important precedent, all the same. And it’s a fitting recognition of Ellis’ instantly gripping series of three videos on Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, which offer a postmortem on how one of the most beloved film trilogies of all time (The Lord of the Rings) ended up being followed by a disappointing, overstuffed miscalculation.
(Note: Rachel Bloom was a 2011 nominee.)
(12) AWARD NEWS. The judges for the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards are Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer reports Locus Online. The $5,000 awards will be presented in May at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
(13) THE METAPHORICAL RED PLANET. Kelly Lagor digs into a classic Bradbury collection at Tor.com: “On the Origins of Modern Biology and the Fantastic: Part 10—Ray Bradbury and Mechanisms of Regulation”.
The Martian Chronicles, published in 1950, represented something unique and different in science fiction. At the optimistic opening of the space age, if offered a perspective on the lie that the promise of a new frontier offers, as though by traveling to Mars we assumed we would leave behind our weakness and bigotry. It’s Bradbury up and down, sacrificing scientific rigor in favor of poetic metaphor; one part awe, one part sadness, three parts nostalgia. It brought a literary perspective to science fiction, tackling themes of loneliness, regret, and the inevitable loss of innocence. Bradbury sought the deeper meanings in the established mechanics of science fiction and his stories encompassed an added layer of complexity that would have a profound impact on an up-and-coming generation of writers.
(14) BOOK REVIEW BONANZA. Sweet Freedom’s “Friday’s Forgotten Books” feature links to the week’s collection of genre reviews.
This week’s books and more, unfairly (or sometimes fairly) neglected, or simply those the reviewers below think you might find of some interest (or, infrequently, you should be warned away from); certainly, most weeks we have a few not at all forgotten titles…a big week for Christie books…pushing the limit of “forgotten” but as with some of the other hugely popular, hugely prolific writers, each title aside from the most popular tends to be lost in the shuffle…how many John Creasey novels can most non-Creasey fans name?
The hotlinks to the items listed below are here:
- Patricia Abbott: Go With Me by Castle Freeman
- Les Blatt: The Judas Window by “Carter Dickson” (John Dickson Carr)
- Joachim Boaz: The Road to Corlay by “Richard Cowper” (John Middleton Murry, Jr.)
- John Boston: Amazing: Fact and Science Fiction Stories, August 1963, edited by Cele Goldsmith Lalli
- Ben Boulden: “The Double Whammy” by Robert Bloch, Fantastic, February 1970, edited by Ted White
- Brian Busby: Jimmie Dale Alias The Gray Seal by Michael Howard
- Brandon Crilly: On Spec co-edited by Diane Walton
- Martin Edwards: Dominoes by John Wainwright
- Peter Enfantino: Atlas (proto-Marvel) Horror Comics: March 1952
- Will Errickson: Off Season by “Jack Ketchum” (Dallas Mayr)
- José Ignacio Escribano: The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christie
- Curtis Evans: A Spot of Folly by Ruth Rendell
- Olman Feelyus: The Prone Gunman by Jean-Patrick Manchette (translation by James Brook)
- Paul Fraser: New Worlds SF, February 1965, edited by Michael Moorcock
- Barry Gardner: A Cool Breeze on the Underground by Don Winslow
- Charles Gramlisch: The Best of the West edited by Joe R. Lansdale
- John Grant: Gangway! by Donald Westlake and Brian Garfield; The Pursuit of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman
- Aubrey Hamilton: Suddenly While Gardening by Elizabeth Lemarchand
- Rich Horton: Captives of the Flame by Samuel Delany; The Psionic Menace by “Keith Woodcott” (John Brunner); Ian McDonald stories; Ilium by Dan Simmons; Again, Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison
- Jerry House: Negro Romance, #2 Fawcett August 1950/#4 Charlton May 1955, written and edited by Roy Ald and illustrated by Alvin Hollingsworth
- Kate Jackson: Dead Man’s Folly by Agatha Christie; Mothers in Crime Fiction
- Tracy K: What Never Happens by Anne Holt; Remembered Death by Agatha Christie
- Colman Keane: Atlanta Deathwatch by Ralph Dennis
- George Kelley: The Great SF Stories 8 (1946) edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg
- Joe Kenney: Rock & Roll Retreat Blues by Douglas Kent Hall
- B. V. Lawson: Picture Miss Seeton by “Heron Carvic” (Geoffrey Richard William Harris)
- Evan Lewis: Comic Book Nation by Bradford W. Wright
- Steve Lewis: Lord Mullion’s Secret by Michael Innes; Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie; 30 for a Harry by Richard Hoyt; “First Life” by Roger Dee, Super-Science Fiction, July 1950, edited by Ejler Jakobsson; “The Flies of Memory” by Ian Watson (novella version); Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, September 1988, edited by Gardner Dozois
- Todd Mason: Fantastic, September 1974, edited by Ted White; The Paris Review, Autumn 1974, edited by George Plimpton; The Ontario Review, Autumn 1974, edited by Raymond J. Smith; The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1974, edited by Edward Ferman
- Francis M. Nevins: the works of John Roeburt
- John F. Norris: The Crowing Hen by Reginald Davis; The Hand of the Chimpanzee by Robert Hare
- Scott Parker: Faraday: The Iron Horse by James Reasoner
- Matt Paust: That Old Scoundrel Death by Bill Crider
- James Reasoner: Hearts of the West edited by Jean Marie Stine
- Richard Robinson: Bodies from the Library edited by Tony Medawar
- Gerard Saylor: The End of Vandalism by Tom Drury
- Jack Seabrook and Peter Enfantino: DC War Comics, September 1974
- Doreen Sheridan: The King of the Rainy Country by “Nicholas Freeling” (Nicolas Davidson)
- Steven H. Silver: the works of Anne McCaffrey
- Victoria Silverwolf: Fantastic: Stories of Imagination, November 1963, edited by Cele Goldsmith Lalli
- Kevin Tipple: A Reader’s Book of Days: True Tales from the Lives and Works of Women for Every Day of the Year assembled by Tom Nissley
- “TomCat”: “Mystery at the Dog Pound” by Robert W. Cochran, Street & Smith’s Detective Story Magazine, May 1942, edited by Daisy Bacon
[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, Chip Hitchcock, JJ, Kim Huett, Martin Morse Wooster, Cora Buhlert, John King Tarpinian, Mike Kennedy, Todd Mason, Carl Slaughter, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Anna Nimmhaus.]
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“Glyer file the scroll ashore,
Pixellujah!
You always leave us wanting more,
Pixellujah!”
Please, Mr. Scrollman!
@9: I found the Janis Ian-based anthology variable, especially considering that IIRC it was mostly Names (rather than the mix of knowns and wannabes found in a lot of themed anthologies). Possibly it would have meant more if I’d followed her work after the first album. (And I remember somebody at Torcon III coming up to me in great excitement saying “Did you hear? Janis Ian just got married!” and thinking “But I thought she — oh, right, we’re in a civilized country at the moment.” Sometimes we move forward.)
(10) FINALISTS CONSIDERED.
Usually my taste either aligns fairly closely with someone else’s, or aligns almost not at all. The intersection of his tastes and mine is quite a patchwork.
8) Yay, James White! I still think of his stories very fondly.
OK. I saw SHAZAM! this weekend, and thought it was a fun Saturday afternoon kids’ movie. I also saw there were a lot of Easter eggs for fans of DC Comics history. Since none of these Easter eggs involve spoilers, could the many people who know more than I do about comics tell me what I missed?
Here are the four I spotted:
Billy Batson goes to “Fawcett Central School”
Batson’s father is “C.C. Batson”
There’s a minor character named “Charlie Beck”
There’s a TV clip credited to the “Galaxy Broadcasting System”
8) Also: Jackie Chan, born 04/07/1954. At least some of his films are genre, including Forbidden Kingdom (which was, alas, not very good), but if you want to see him at his best, check out his work in the two Project A films and the first two or three Police Story films.
Clickity
7) We also have problems with orcs on the tracks.
A couple that are a bit spoilery (rot13):
Gur gbl gvtre Ovyyl jnagf vf n ersrerapr gb uvf nyyl va gur pbzvpf, gur naguebcbzbecuvp gvtre Ze. Gnyxl Gnjal.
Gur fpvragvfg jbexvat jvgu Fvinan rneyl ba frrzf gb or fglyrq yvxr gur pbzvp irefvba’f ybbxnyvxr qnhtugre Trbetvn.
Gur qbbe gung bcraf bagb n ebbz bs Pebpbqvyr Zra, jub jrer Ze. Zvaq’f freinagf va gur bevtvany 40f Zbafgre Fbpvrgl bs Rivy.
8) Stanley Adams also played a megalomaniac talking carrot in Lost in Space, though I doubt it’s what he’d want to be remembered for.
(7) I hadn’t known of the Kuttner/Brackett connection. Cool.
Those bottles of Johnny Walker are clearly Scotch not Irish or rye, so they’re whisky rather than whiskey.
Two of my fellow NOAF writers (including one of the editors, Joe) get together to talk about the Hugo nominees today:
http://www.nerds-feather.com/2019/04/adri-and-joe-talk-about-books-2019-hugo.html
Steve Wright says Stanley Adams also played a megalomaniac talking carrot in Lost in Space, though I doubt it’s what he’d want to be remembered for.
It was arguably the worst episode of Lost in Space that was written. And the customing is so bad that they silly looking, just pathetic in appearance.
Several of the adult leads showed their contempt by openly laughing during the filming as they stood offstage and got written out of the next few episodes as punishment.
Wow — “worst episode of Lost in Space” is a pretty high bar to clear …
I remember running home after school in … first? second? grade so that I could see the Lost in Space reruns that started at 3:00 p.m., and being absolutely transfixed.
Then, when I was in college, one night at about 2:00 a.m. I caught a rerun on the USA cable network and was dismayed to discover it was terrible. I think that was my first real encounter with the Suck Fairy.
I do still think the opening credits are pretty neat, though.
(8) Francis Ford Coppola was hired as a dialogue director on Roger Corman’s horror movie Tower of London (1962) and upgraded to associate producer of Corman’s The Terror (1963). Ever on the look-out for new talent willing to work on the cheap, Corman switched unused budget from The Young Racers (1963) to part-fund a short horror film (another investor made up the shortfall), Dementia 13 (1963); Coppola wrote the screenplay and directed it over a period of nine days (during which he met his future wife, the documentary-maker Eleanor Coppola).
A further genre credit is the 17-minute fantasy Captain Eo (1986), featuring Michael Jackson and commissioned for Disney’s amusement parks with an approximate US$30m budget. It aired from 1986 until 1996, and was brought back in 2010, but has not been screened since 2015.
Joe H. saysWow — “worst episode of Lost in Space” is a pretty high bar to clear …
It was really bad. Now I admit I admit we could easily have a discussion of the worst episode on each genre show. For Trek, I nominate ‘The Way to Eden’ as just going above and beyond in its level of being awful.
Steve Green notes A further genre credit is the 17-minute fantasy Captain Eo (1986), featuring Michael Jackson and commissioned for Disney’s amusement parks with an approximate US$30m budget. It aired from 1986 until 1996, and was brought back in 2010, but has not been screened since 2015.
Good catch. Thanks, not being a Disney centered fan, I don’t think of these productions but they’re certainly genre. They stop doing it when they child abuse claims against Jackson became a firestorm?
Re GoT Oreos:
1, I hope that Scott Edelman will feature them in an Eating The Fantastic episode
2, I’m glad they’ll be available before Passover (they go on sale today, it looks like).
@Hampus: cute story — and a demo of how far Google translate may have to go: a group of orcs is a “squirrel”? I was also surprised by “snakes” being one of the orcs’ weapons but wasn’t sure that was incorrect given the strangeness of the story. Your more-precise translations would be interesting.
Yeah, a “squirrel of orc” was a new one. The original text says something more like “swarming with orcs”. And “snake” was a surprising translation of a slingshot.
They’ve been showing reruns of Lost in Space on MeTV on Saturday nights. I think I’ve commented before about how many of the costumes and props are reused. I was watching a few weeks back and there was some plot where there was an army of smaller versions of the Class M-3 Model B-9 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot and it was pretty obvious they had just gone out and bought a bunch (probably less than 10) of the Remco Lost in Space Robot toys. I don’t think they even bothered to paint them because they looked red like the Remco toy.
Some of the early black and white episodes aren’t bad. (When Dr. Smith is still evil and they’re on the original planet.) Once they started broadcasting in color you can be pretty sure it’s going to be awful.
Pixel! Pixel! Scroll Robinson
8) re: Ian Richardson in Midsummer Night’s Dream: Don’t forget Judi Dench’s Titania. Even for a Peter Hall/RSC production, that version has a killer cast. Richardson was also the antihero of the original House of Cards series and its sequels, where he was deliciously and smoothly evil.
We are in agreement on the “Space Hippies” episode. I even borrowed my sister’s TV once so I could have a special showing of it at the Comic Center when it came up on the daily reruns. Sometimes someone will dispute the point, and I’m shocked that it’s even up for debate.
Weren’t there “Space Hippies” on Lost in Space, too? Or am I think of the “Space Bikers” episode? Maybe both. Wikipedia helpfully suggests “Collision of Planets” from 1967.
I always thought “Omega Glory” was the widely held touchstone for bad Trek episodes. Not my personal pick, but you used to be able to generate groans just by mentioning the name.
Scrolling out to Eden, Yeah Pixel
Kip Williams says We are in agreement on the “Space Hippies” episode. I even borrowed my sister’s TV once so I could have a special showing of it at the Comic Center when it came up on the daily reruns. Sometimes someone will dispute the point, and I’m shocked that it’s even up for debate.
I had a difficult time finding its actual title as I actually thought of it as the Spsce Hippies episode to the extent that I that was the title. There’s nothing about it that works, just nothing.
Lunch today off the special menu here at the hospital is Thai shrimp stir fry. It’s not bad all things considered.
I’m currently rewatching Babylon 5 season 5 and I’m convinced that there has never been a good “space hippies” episode in any show ever.
“The Way to Eden” is incredibly badly done, but there are a couple of novel things in it that could, for some (I’m really not sure if I’m one of them), make it a little more interesting than a more by-the-numbers crappy episode like “The Omega Glory”:
1. It’s one of very few times when anyone suggests that life in the Federation might not seem so great, even to someone from the Federation. Just the idea that there is a counterculture, even if it’s ridiculous, sort of suggests that they might have a point – that is, if attitudes from the late ’60s have survived hundreds of years into the future, then they weren’t strictly of their time.
2. Spock’s sympathy for them seems counterintuitive, but Nimoy makes it convincing, inasmuch as anything in the episode is convincing.
3. “Herbert” is pretty funny, and a rare case of the show actually trying to make up a future cultural practice that didn’t depend on technological change.
That’s all I’ve got.
When I think about space hippies, I think of the ST:TOS episode This Side Of Paradise. Dunno if I’ve ever seen all of Way To Eden–I tuned in to TOS once and saw a bunch of people chanting “Herbert” then immediately changed the channel. But I think This Side Of Paradise comes close to being a great hippie episode.
Hampus Eckerman on April 8, 2019 at 7:56 am said:
Funny that ‘snake” shows up, because I was just thinking that Orcs on the Track needs to be a Samuel L. Jackson movie.
Rob Thornton says When I think about space hippies, I think of the ST:TOS episode This Side Of Paradise. Dunno if I’ve ever seen all of Way To Eden–I tuned in to TOS once and saw a bunch of people chanting “Herbert” then immediately changed the channel. But I think This Side Of Paradise comes close to being a great hippie episode.
Shudder. That one’s just as bad but in a different way. I just don’t grok space hippies and trying to make Spock be one is damn stupid.
The third season had so many very bad episodes. Platos stepchildren may be known for the Kirk-Uhura-kiss, but there is nothing realky in terms of plot. Children of Eden suffered the same problem. A lot of them were very formslic, like Those that survive. Savage curtain also was ridiculous bad. And of course: Spocks brain…
The German dubbing made Amok time consideratly worse, because its basically redconned in the end, that the whole episode (apart from the very end) was just a fever dream by Spock, who had a „Space Fever“ ( no, I dont make that up, that was the term used)
Whats the worst TNG? Code if honour? Angel One? (i have to admit I forgot most if the first two aeasons of TNG, since I never rewatched those, except few selected episodes)
My worst TNG is The Game, where an insidious videogame turns the Enterprise into mindslaves of the Ktarians. And of course Wil and Ashley Judd save the day.
Peer says Whats the worst TNG? Code if honour? Angel One? (i have to admit I forgot most if the first two aeasons of TNG, since I never rewatched those, except few selected episodes)
I still find Next Gen mostly unwatchable. Of the post-ST: TOS shows, I find the weakest of the bunch. DS9 was the show that I avidly looked forward to each week as it had everything I wanted — a great premise, superb characters and fantastic stories.
Rob Thornton says My worst TNG is The Game, where an insidious videogame turns the Enterprise into mindslaves of the Ktarians. And of course Wil and Ashley Judd save the day.
I actually watched that whole show knowing precisely how it was going to end. And hating myself for watching. I’m realising now that I’ve never rewatched a single episode of either Next Gen or Voyager but have done multiple viewings of ST: TOS, DS9 and Enterprise.
I’m not even sure now that I’ve seen close to all of either Next Gen or Voyager but I know I’ve seen all of DS9 and Enterprise. Am I a bad Trekkie?
@Rob: I’m somewhat fond of The Game, because in this one Wesley saves the day, not because he’s smarter than all the adults but because he’s a low priority target who stays out of the latest fad for long enough that its malign nature becomes obvious. Far better than those episodes in which Wesley just knows more about brain scans than a doctor, etc.
@Eli: I agree; “Herbert” is pretty funny. It would have been interesting to see the earlier version of the episode, which apparently focused on McCoy’d daughter, who would have been one of the hippies.
Meredith moment: The Quantum Magician is on sale at Amazon US for 99¢.
FWIW, it’s a pretty good SF heist novel. Sorry if a darker Leverage with new types of humanity and some pretty distressing interstellar governments. But it was a good read.
Another Meredith Moment: Looks like Amazon is selling the ebook version of Alastair Reynolds’ latest novel (Permafrost) for $3.99. Could be available elsewhere/in other formats, I dunno.
Oh yes, The game was quite bad. What was the episode were everyone got acold from the holodeck?
@Cat: Trek really only found its footing around season 4 or so. I cant fault anyone to have given up by that Point (season 2 had decent episodes, season 3 was better than 2, but not yet konsistent).
I gave up on Voyager by season 3 (worst episode probably threshold for its ridiculousness or the one with the lift). Only watched episodes recommended by my brother (mainly double episodes).
I stopped caring for Enterprisemid-season 2 (mainly because they were so samey, cant remember a truly awful episode though).
Ds9 I watched every episode. Cant think of an awful one, although i hate the one were Molly falls through a Star Gate, mainly because of the bad educational psychology displayed in that episode (shouldn’t have that field progressed as long as the other sciences?)
Whats the worst Discovery episode? The first one? The klingon supercut probably.
(I hate typing on my ipad, sorry for the bad spelling etc.)
@Rob Thornton
Permafrost is a novella so that may be the standard price. Worth getting though, I’ve recommended it here.
My worst TNG is the first season one where Bev Crusher on the basis of casual observation only, deduces that a drug with a clear euphoric effect is nothing but a nasty smelly narcotic. Because there are no valuable drugs with side effects. And what’s more, it’s a narcotic with an easy withdrawal path.
Bev really was a terrible doctor.
@NickPheas: Yeah, that one was pretty bad. The season-ending clipshow was pretty atrocious too.
@Hampus Eckerman
Yeah, not necessarily my favorite Dylan album.
Yes, “Collision of Planets” is the Lost in Space “hippies” episode, and it makes “The Way to Eden” look like a masterpiece. Daniel J. Travanti, of all the actors they could have cast, leading a group of flower children with a thirst for destruction.
Orcs on the Tracks isn’t nearly as good as John Wesley Crusher.
BravoLimaPoppa3 says Meredith moment: The Quantum Magician is on sale at Amazon US for 99¢. FWIW, it’s a pretty good SF heist novel. Sorry if a darker Leverage with new types of humanity and some pretty distressing interstellar governments. But it was a good read.
Thanks, I just grabbed it. A quick read of the first chapter shows that it indeed looks interesting so I’ll give it a go.
@Peer Angel One is also the episode with the virus from the holodeck. Wesley and friend pick it up during a skiing lesson. There was also a snowball that managed to leave the holodeck and hit Captain Picard. Or someone.
There was another 60s related Lost in Space episode where they reach what they think is Alpha Centauri only to find a human colony there which seems to be run by teenagers. Not quite “Space Hippies” but more sort of a “Space My Generation.” Wikipedia says it’s “The Promised Planet” from 1968.
Talkin’ ’bout my P-P-Pixelation
So if Ursula Vernon wins a Hugo this year, I have her acceptance speech right here.