Mindy Newell’s Mind Rumblings
Various and sundry thoughts from the mind of Mindy this week:
The USS Enterprise (CVN-65), the eighth U.S. Navy vessel to bear that name, was decommissioned this week after 50 years of service. The world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier made her maiden voyage on January 12, 1962 and her first mission was tracking and monitoring the first orbital flight of Project Mercury, with Lt. Col. John Glenn aboard the Friendship 7 capsule. In popular culture, the Enterprise was the home base of Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) in Top Gun, with the late director Tony Scott filming and incorporating flight deck operations into the film, and it was the flagship of the U.S. Navy fleet participating in The Hunt For Red October.
Then, of course, there is Star Trek – and did you know that Gene Roddenberry’s original starship name was the USS Yorktown? But the fame and status of the sea-going Enterprise led to starship being rechristened the USS Enterprise NC-1701. (Art Director Matt Jeffries – yes, for whom the Jeffries Tubes are named – used the USS Enterprise CVN-65 for scale when designing the original starship.) Star Trek and her fans – through a massive letter writing campaign and, I’m sure, encouraged by not a few NASA employees – returned the favor when NASA’s first Space Shuttle was named Enterprise. And in Star Trek: First Contact, we see that models of all the ships named Enterprise hanging in a showcase in Jean-Luc’s office. (“You broke your little ships,” says Lily Sloane, played by Alfre Woodward, after Picard goes “Ahab” in his desire vengeance against Borg throwing his phaser rifle through the glass walls of the showcase.)
Staying with Star Trek…I just rewatched J.J. Abram’s remake last night, and the more I see it, the more I love it. I continue to be especially impressed by Karl Urban’s Dr. Leonard McCoy – if I closed my eyes, I’d be hard-pressed not to say it was DeForest Kelley speaking.
Again, speaking of “all things Trek” – although I am generally not a fan of comic adaption of live-action TV shows and movies, I gotta say I’m loving IDW’s Star Trek, written by Mike Johnson with art by Claudia Balboni and Stephen Molnar. Johnson is following the original series story lines, with just the right twists of plot to adhere to the “new” Trek and doing an excellent job of capturing the personalities of Kirk/Pine, Spock/Quinto, Scotty/Pegg, Uhura/Saldana and the rest of the crew with his dialogue. Kudos to the entire team!
On the other hand…Dark Horse’s Spike mini-series sucks. I mean, Spike on the moon? Gimme a fucking break! In fact, generally speaking, their whole Buffy line sucks. Really disappointed. Oh, well, dropping it will save me money.
After almost 30 years, my local comics shop, Vector Books, has closed. Joe and Tina and Frank have been a part of my life for all those 30 years, and I wish them love and health and all the best in the future. But a new comics emporium has opened to take over from Vector (and with Vector’s blessing). It’s Manifest Comics And Cards, and I’ll be interviewing its young owner, Michael, in the future to find out how nuts (and brave) he is to open a shop at a time when so many are closing.
What fucking world do the Republicans live in? Who the fuck cares what Grover Norquist thinks? Attention John Boehmer!!!! Your job is to lead, not to follow the bug-fucked extremists and Tea Party wingnuts or to worry about losing your position as Speaker of the House! Get the deal done, for Christ’s sake! You can’t blame Obama this time! Like we said in the 60s, the whole world is watching!
How many of you had to Google labia majora and labia minora from my column last week? (Thanks to Mike Gold for this.)
Over at The League Of Woman Bloggers on Facebook, there is mucho discussion going on about the attack on girl geeks by boy geeks. Much geekiness is ensuing.
Okay, who here is a Homeland fan? Is Brody now a triple agent, again loyal to Nazir? What didn’t he tell Carrie, Saul, and Quinn in the debriefing? What did he make up? (I’m betting the being tied to a car battery part.) How long did it take before you realized that Virgil and Max were in Quinn’s apartment? (I thought they were in Roya’s.) Who is Dar Adal, the guy that Quinn met on the bus? (Yeah, yeah, I know he’s F. Murray Abraham…) Who is Quinn – FBI? Black-ops CIA? Mole? (I don’t think he is – too obvious.) Was the whole “terrorist attack on returning veterans” a MacGuffin, and the real attack is still coming? Is Estes as incompetent as he seems? Why did he send Quinn out to kill Brody? Why did Saul go to Philadelphia, knowing that Quinn would find out? And why does Jessica keep calling her husband by his last name?
Later.
TUESDAY MORNING: Emily S. Whitten
TUESDAY AFTERNOON: Michael Davis
I have no idea what a Grover Norquist is. I thought the Republicans were trying to close Sesame Street, not occupy it.
It is with a little trepidation that I innocently ask your opinion (if any) about IDW’s Star Trek / Doctor Who crossover. I’m enjoying it and my local comic shop can’t keep it on the shelves.
Jarrod, I haven’t read the ST/DR. WHO crossover. Based on the ST/LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES crossover, I’m not that into it–although the idea has major possibilities with the right writer.
“You can’t blame Obama this time!”
Good grief, what did I miss? he isn’t president any more???
When did the speaker of the House become the defacto leader of the free world? Well, that being the case, let’s let Boehmer make his proposal and everyone else can sign off on it.
He’s still kowtowing to the Tea Party, more worried about his position than the country, Bill. (Of course, getting Eric Cantor or Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House would be 10 x’s worse.
I would like him take a real position of leadership and tell those still objecting to Obama that he (Obama) clearly won the election and that the public wants the wealthy to pay their share–and btw, I think the $250K threshold is WAY too low, should be @ the least $725 K, and at the best, $1M K–and not have corporations like GE (which is the largest and richest corporation in the world, even more than the oil companies) get away without paying one penny in tax. Or remember that this is a GLOBAL economy, and if America’s credit rating is downgraded again, it will have major negative consequences not only here at home, but around the world.
Well i’ll be…is that a typo in your comment? Surely not. His name is actually John Boehner. But since you’re actually repeating Mindys misspelling in the article, I kinda doubt you even know who the man is.
Oh, I make LOTS of typos. I just try not to mispell “dumb” when i am calling someone else “dumb” because it makes me look, well, dumb.
“I kinda doubt you even know who the man is.”
Wrong again, trolleo. Now, say something foolish in reply.
I think Estes sent Quinn to kill Brody to wrap up all the loose ends after he assumed they killed Nazir. When he was told Nazir wasn’t there, he knew he still needed Brody so he called off the hit.
Dar Adal apparently is an agent of a super-secret, off-the-books faction of the CIA and Quinn is his operative. Estes of course asked for Adal and Quinn to be brought in on this case probably because of reduced confidence in Carrie.
I have no idea why Jessica calls him Brody instead of Nick that makes logical sense. However it is probably significant that his wife calls him by his last name while Nazir calls him by his first name.
Yes, George, and it’s significant that Jessica calls Mike “Mike,” too! Great points!
“What fucking world do the Republicans live in? Who the fuck cares what Grover Norquist thinks? Attention John Boehmer!!!! Your job is to lead, not to follow the bug-fucked extremists and Tea Party wingnuts or to worry about losing your position as Speaker of the House! Get the deal done, for Christ’s sake! You can’t blame Obama this time! Like we said in the 60s, the whole world is watching!”
Oh yes…much more civil and respectful than what I said in the comments of the other article. Wouldn’t you agree Bill and Glenn?
“I continue to be especially impressed by Karl Urban’s Dr. Leonard McCoy…”
I’m actually most impressed with Quinto’s portrayal of Spock. Rather than channel Nimoy he made the role his own. At the risk of getting my ass kicked by TOS fans I have to say I like Quinto’s spin on the role better than Nimoy’s. Quinto did a better job of selling the inner conflict of a man trying to live one heritage but torn inside by a conflict with a diametrically opposed heritage.
I also love how Kirk is no longer the rock-jawed stud he was in TOS. He makes a pass at Uhura and gets nowhere, gets beat up, and in general is an irreverent smart-ass. It wouldn’t have worked had they not changed one crucial element of his past to set him on a new path.
Also… that can’t be Michael Poole back here again. He vowed seven ways from Sunday never to come back. To come back after that, he’d have to be some kind of rampaging jackass or something.
Bill (Myers), did you see the preview to the next STAR TREK?
It ROCCCCKKKKKSSS!!!!
But we have to wait ’til May! :-(
Oh yeah, I’ve seen the preview. If the whole movie lives up to that promise it’s gonna be a good ride.
I have a friend who is concerned it won’t be Trek-like enough. I don’t think spectacle and Trek are incompatible. I don’t think it’s like Roddenberry rejected incredible optics in favor of three guys in cheap-ass costumes staring at funny-looking lit buttons as a stylistic choice. The money and technology weren’t available then to do what can be done now.
I don’t know if you watched Enterprise but when the Xindi storyline kicked into high gear there was that ep where Enterprise was getting the crap kicked out of it. Our heroes were outnumbered and outgunned, and Archer was captured by the enemy to boot. I loved that moment. It created a real sense of jeopardy that made the crew’s eventual victory that much more fun. I get the sense this new Trek movie will provide similar moments.
It better. If they give us another “Nemesis” I’ll leave the theater before it’s over.
I should add — or at least I think I should add — the reason why that sequence from Enterprise worked so well is that the SFX were quite good. We could see the enemy ships blasting the hell out of Enterprise. We could see the weapons impacting on its hull, and see pieces flying off. It looked real. They sold it. That’s part of what made it so exciting.
If the new Star Trek movie is all optics, if it doesn’t offer any of the intellectual and philosophical underpinnings that make Trek what it is, then I’ll be disappointed. At its best Trek is about far more than “outer space shit where good guys fight bad guys and good guys win.” Nevertheless, there’s no reason why they can’t wrap that stuff up in a rip-roaring space adventure. It looks like the writer(s) (who should come first but in Hollywood are instead ignored because this is an effed-up planet), director, and producers dreamed BIG. Good. Cool. Awesome. That’s what I want out of a Trek movie. Make me think and take me on a thrill ride at the same time. Go big or stay home, y’know?
Well, based on the “first” TREK, I’m not worried about the writing, i.e., the “intellectual and philosophical underpinnings,” Bill (Myers). J. J. Abrams and his team get it. And, if the “villain” is Gary Mitchell, as the boards are guessing, there will be plenty of intellectual and philosophical underpinnings. After all, underlying Gary’s story is “Power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
I’m deeply impressed that they have done such a great job at keeping the story under wraps–no easy task these days. I just hope the reveal is better than some of the speculation has been.