The Sword and Laser discussion

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "The Chick-Fil-A romance writes itself

Oh chicky nugs, I just can't quit you...."

Replace that with chicken, egg, and cheese bagel and I'm so there. I want to quit them. But they're so tasty.

I can’t support both my LGBTQ friends and Chik-Fil-A, so the fast food joint is out.

Misti wrote: "I've just started season five of my first watch through of Brooklyn Nine-nine, which is becoming my favorite show. Why did I take so long to watch it?

I'm also watching Psych for the first time. ..."

I totally agree. Brooklyn Nine-nine is fantastic, and Psych is good, lighthearted fun.

In similar lightheartedness, I just started watching The Tick, and I cannot stop smiling. Hopefully the series continues to be this delightful.

I started watching Stargirl, which is a solid teen superhero show. I think the segment giving the background about why one of the girls is labeled the school slut should be mandatory viewing for all teens. It’s not subtle, but really well done. It gets across in 4 minutes what hours of lectures never could.

https://youtu.be/vzAYKn8QPqc

Watched The Shannara Chronicles Season Two on Netflix. It’s based on the second Shannara book, The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks.
Watched American Gods Season Two on DVD (based on American Gods by Neil Gaiman), then Babylon 5 Season One on DVD.
Watching The Mandalorian Season Two. The eighth and final episode will air on 12-18-20 on Disney Plus.
Watching Babylon 5 Season One on DVD from the library.
Planning to watch Babylon 5 Season Two on DVD from the library next.
Also planning on watching The Expanse Season 5 on Amazon Prime Video. The first three episodes dropped on 12-16-17. Season 5 is based on the novel Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey (Book #5 of The Expanse).

Looking forward to the new Disney+ Firefly, family friendly and without Joss Whedon. Inara's character will be changed to "Sister Inara", who will be on the ship to hear confessions. There won't be any quips, but each episode will end with an important lesson. I hope the crew doesn't end up in "a special kind of heck".

I'm glad your library has the DVD's Gary. A few years ago I watched the first 3 seasons and part of season 4 on Prime. And since it kept showing up in my list, I assumed it was still part of prime. But nope, it is there, but you have to pay extra for it. Oh, well. I have enough other stuff I enjoy watching on there I probably wasn't going to go back and finish the re-watch anyway.

I’ve been watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which I only saw sporadically during its run. Almost done with season 3. Boy, this sure is a badly-written show. They’d clearly never heard the dictum “show don’t tell.” 90% of it is illustrated radio.

Trike wrote: "I’ve been watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which I only saw sporadically during its run. Almost done with season 3. Boy, this sure is a badly-written show. They’d clearly never heard the dictum..."

I really love the show. I think it gets better as it goes along.

Just finished season one of
A Discovery of Witches
on UK Sky TV.

High production values and watchable characters. Good show in the battle of the people beasts genre

Rob wrote: "Trike wrote: "I’ve been watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which I only saw sporadically during its run. Almost done with season 3. Boy, this sure is a badly-written show. They’d clearly never he..

I really love the show. I think it gets better as it goes along.."

I quite liked the episode that brought back all the famous TOS Klingons for one last hurrah. That was some real fan service and my favorite ep so far. Kor, Kang, and Koloth (aka Trelane) all in one show? Yeah, baby!

The way the actors are “carrying the water” as they say, I assume they were well aware of the budget limitations imposed on them. It is amusing to see the reused shots of Defiant flying across the screen every couple episodes; it’s a throwback to TOS, which did the same thing, simply color-shifting the Planet of the Week. Even with 30 years’ separation between the series, some things never change. (And, of course, the Starfleet space station from ST: The Motion Picture was flipped upside-down and used as the Regula-1 station in Wrath of Khan, while Mork’s spacesuit was from TOS. 😁)

I am continually curious about the behind-the-scenes reusing of sets and props, especially on the Trek shows. I’ve noticed quite a lot of uniforms being shared between the TNG movies, DS9 and Voyager, but I don’t recall the timeframes of all those productions. I know they were all running concurrently.

I always thought it was odd that Picard and Riker wore mirror-image uniforms in the movie where Kirk dies (Generations?), but I suspect Riker was wearing Sisko’s costume or vice versa. Sort of like an old school Hollywood wardrobe department where you’d see the same costume in different productions. Twilight Zone famously used the uniforms from Forbidden Planet, for instance, which makes sense as they’re both MGM productions.

Related note: An acquaintance of mine rents period clothing to various productions and he is always quite pleased when a $10 garage sale item gets reused over and over. There’s one pink plaid dress that is a generic 1960s style he has that’s been used in Mad Men, The Help, and both versions of Hairspray, plus who knows what else. Talk about amortizing your twenty bucks!

Fred wrote: "Good show in the battle of the people beasts genre"

What are other examples of that? Like Dr. Moreau or Planet of the Apes?

I liked DS9 fine, but the original was better.

I did a rewatch of DS9 that I just finished up this year (I think?, long year) There were some things I really liked, and a few I wasn't as fond of. One thing to note is this was the first Trek series that had no input from Gene Roddenberry in getting set up. So some things that he was adamant should not be included in Trek. This article is an interesting take on that. https://screenrant.com/star-trek-crea... It does talk about the series in full to a degree, so if you don't want any spoilers Trike, you may want to avoid. I think the show does have some really great episodes, but it also has a lot of filler. Personally I was more fond of the one off stories told then the overarching ones near the end, but each there own.

Watching a lot of Christmas shows. Enjoyed the 2 short seasons of Home for Christmas from Norway. (Netflix) - Check it out, it is nice mix up.

John (Nevets) wrote: "I did a rewatch of DS9 that I just finished up this year (I think?, long year) There were some things I really liked, and a few I wasn't as fond of. One thing to note is this was the first Trek ser..."

Just finished out S3 and started on S4 last night.

The last episode of S3 was a real leap forward, channeling The Thing and Alien while setting up a 3-way war between the Dominion, Federation, and Klingons. I hope that pays off, because the Space Opera potential is huge. I kinda wonder if Marvel’s Secret Invasion riffed off of the idea, because it’s so similar.

Worf joining the cast was a surprise. From what I’d seen previously, I’d assumed Michael Dorn had just dropped in for a guest role, but it looks like he’s there to stay. References to the Enterprise being destroyed means that it takes place right after Generations, so a couple years in real time but only months or weeks in-universe.

Edit: wow, Dorn is truly Mr. Star Trek. According to his IMDB trivia page, he’s appeared in more Trek episodes (277) than any other actor. Looks like Colm Meaney is the only other actor who comes close (225).

Yeah, the show gets a lot better when Worf joins and the Dominion stuff heats up.

But another things they did well was turn the Ferangi from a bad stereotype/joke into a very interesting race. I love all the stuff with Quark and his family.

Quark is definitely one of my faves.

Calvey wrote: "Watching a lot of Christmas shows. Enjoyed the 2 short seasons of Home for Christmas from Norway. (Netflix) - Check it out, it is nice mix up."

If you enjoy Xmas shows at all, especially those in the mold of "A Very Osmand Xmas" variety show kind of thing, you owe it to yourself to check out "A Very Murray Christmas", it's on Netflix, and it stars, to no surprise, Bill Murray

Rob wrote: "Yeah, the show gets a lot better when Worf joins and the Dominion stuff heats up.

But another things they did well was turn the Ferangi from a bad stereotype/joke into a very interesting race. I l..."

DS9 is my favorite Trek, especially seasons 4-6

DS9 is my favorite Trek opening theme (though I haven't watched Discovery). Voyager was good, too, opening theme-wise.

"After 3:00 AM at Quark's", solo piano version of the DS9 theme by the composer Dennis McCarthy is awesome!

https://youtu.be/R9bwnY05GoU

Fresno Bob wrote: "DS9 is my favorite Trek, especially seasons 4-6"

Agreed.

terpkristin wrote: "DS9 is my favorite Trek opening theme (though I haven't watched Discovery). Voyager was good, too, opening theme-wise."

Even if you don't want to watch the show now, see if you can find the opening theme online. I really like it, totally different from DS9, but very interesting.

Mark wrote: ""After 3:00 AM at Quark's", solo piano version of the DS9 theme by the composer Dennis McCarthy is awesome!

https://youtu.be/R9bwnY05GoU"

This is pretty great, but I really miss the horns.

I liked that episode S4 E3 "The Visitor" where Cisco is frozen in time and his son tries to rescue him.

Tamahome wrote: "I liked that episode S4 E3 "The Visitor" where Cisco is frozen in time and his son tries to rescue him."

Dude. I just started that ep with Old Jake recounting the story.

The girl in that episode is the real-life daughter of Andrew Robinson, who plays Garak.

This popped up in my YouTube subscriptions: Is Sisko a War Criminal? https://youtu.be/q3AS8g75A-Q I haven’t watched it so as to avoid spoilers, but the rules on DS9 do seem to be unevenly applied. Like that late-S3 ep where Kira spontaneously takes three weeks off from her job to fight in a rebellion against Bajor, without informing anyone. The resolution to that story was cool, but it’s really odd that she suffered no consequences for that action.

Trike wrote: "Quark is definitely one of my faves."

I’m also becoming quite a fan of Garak the “tailor”. He’s the chill smartass we all want to be.

It was only after looking at the cast list I realized the actor’s feature film debut was as the bad guy in Dirty Harry. Talk about hitting the ground running! I guess that punk *did* feel lucky.

If I were lucky enough to have a noticeable role in an SF show? I'd be at cons signing pictures all the time.

Trike wrote:

"It was only after looking at the cast list I realized the actor’s feature film debut was as the bad guy in Dirty Harry. Talk about hitting the ground running! I guess that punk *did* feel lucky..."

Oh I didn't realize that. Wasn't he in the first Hellraiser too?

Tamahome wrote: "I liked that episode S4 E3 "The Visitor" where Cisco is frozen in time and his son tries to rescue him."

Does Cisco's Kid have to save Pancho as well? 😉

Jadzia Dax’s ex Lenora Khan just showed up (S4E5) and the intricate backstory of their relationship(s) because of the symbiotes is exactly why I love science fiction.

Quark working it out is great: https://youtu.be/JQeUj9A4ltE

I don’t know if you would call their potential relationship a lesbian one just because both their current hosts are women, or if it’s transsexual in the sense that it transcends gender. You don’t get this stuff from regular old fiction.

Side note: I couldn’t place the actress who plays Lenora but she seemed awfully familiar. Turns out she played Oliver Queen’s mom on Arrow.

I started season 5 of The Expanse. I just love this show.

Trike wrote: "I don’t know if you would call their potential relationship a lesbian one just because both their current hosts are women, or if it’s transsexual in the sense that it transcends gender. You don’t get this stuff from regular old fiction."

In the documentary film they talk about that a bit. Basically they regret not pushing it further if I remember correctly.

Assuming your opinion of the show picks up as you go along, I'd recommend checking out the documentary. In the before times I went and saw in theaters as a Fathom event.

It looks there are a few streaming options that may or may not be free: https://reelgood.com/movie/what-we-le...

Finished rewatching The Lord of the Rings over the past three evenings. Now, do I rewatch The Hobbit, or find something else?

The Hobbit is a travesty. Find something else.

Mark wrote: "Finished rewatching The Lord of the Rings over the past three evenings. Now, do I rewatch The Hobbit, or find something else?"

John (Taloni) wrote: "The Hobbit is a travesty. Find something else."

The fan-made 4.5-hour version is superb. I highly recommend it:

https://tolkieneditor.wordpress.com/2...

I disagree. My family watched The Hobbit films the past few days and are now watching LOTR (today is Two Towers). The only downside is losing a decade of special effects, but I always prefer a linear story. Give The Hobbit a view, at least the massive Battle of Five Armies.

I watched #Alive (Netflix). It was a good zombie movie.

Trike wrote: "The fan-made 4.5-hour version is superb. I highly recommend it:..."

I checked it out. Obviously it suffers a bit from not being able to work with the original material. Some of the cuts are a bit too quick, and the action scenes suffer from lack of dialogue or any type of respite to give the brain a chance to catch up. But it shows how much good stuff there was in the Hobbit movies and how enjoyable they could be if they were edited down and a lot of the superfluous stuff was removed. I liked the theatrical release of the first film but the director's cut was just too much, and the second and third films were way too bloated.

There is always the 1977 Rankin/Bass version of The Hobbit. I have fond memories of this one from my childhood.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hob...
It looks like archive.org has the VHS version in their collection.

Just watched the Rankin/Bass Hobbit which is on HBO MAX along with the Peter Jackson films. I remember watching it on broadcast tv when it first came out. Lightweight but fun.

Rankin/Bass Hobbit leaves out much detail. My first non-book experience of The Hobbit was the audio version on LP vinyl narrated by Nicol Williamson. It's up on Youtube these days

https://youtu.be/FcaF8wAq0C0

I've often wondered if Rankin/Bass seeded their company water cooler with LSD.

We always rewatch either the whole Star Wars series or the Hobbit/LOTR series each year for this timing.

But plenty of other good stuff to watch.
Disney/Pixar just released Soul..... pretty cosmic, dudes!
and well done.

https://youtu.be/txdUE10OopA
or, if you need the link to buy it because you haven't a Disney subscription:
https://www.techradar.com/news/how-to...

I am really antsy for the next installment of The Witcher.
We are in Discovery and The Expanse...
and enjoyed The Mandolorian.
Oh yes, and only just got around to Mythic Quest tv series.

I was enjoying the Witcher, but when he was walking through the forest, I got antsy.

Trike wrote: "Mark wrote: "Finished rewatching The Lord of the Rings over the past three evenings. Now, do I rewatch The Hobbit, or find something else?"

John (Taloni) wrote: "The Hobbit is a travesty. Find som..."

As a long time (50 years now) fan of Tolkien's work, I enjoyed the Hobbit cinematic trilogy. I appreciated The Silmarillion histories being added into the story. At my second or third reading of the books waaaay back, I began researching the back histories as I reread his work. So, the movies felt a lot like those days.

The actors were brilliant at their job, and the directing creatively conceived. My spouse and kids, who did not read The Silmarillion were thoroughly captured by the films. (I did read the main books to the kids from the time they were ridiculously young lol).

So, as devil's advocate, a role I must always take when anyone poses no explanation for their objection, I suggest you try them out for yourself. There is a reason they are still popular.

Have fun! which is always up to your viewpoint whatever you do.

Tamahome wrote: "I was enjoying the Witcher, but when he was walking through the forest, I got antsy."

Hahah!
Did you read the books? I knew what was going on in all those scenes.
I used to get anxious with monster films but gaming cured me of that ...
if it is a good story, I'm on it! :0)

The antsy thing is a running joke I'm trying to revive.

I actually read the short stories in the first Witcher book The Last Wish that were adapted to the show. They make much more sense in the book than the tv show.

Yes xD I have seen your antsy thing xD

The first season touched on all the books, time traveling back and forth. Pretty cool because it drew all the stories together historically or by how they are connected (like by the people).

There is a good mini series of the director explaining what she did and how she drew all the books' tales in through the first season.
I enjoyed it. Some of it I did not entirely agree with but her vision is as enthusiastic as mine. So, she pulled me in anyway.