I forgot all about my Vox account until an e-mail reminded me....
And I kinda miss this. So i'll probably update this as well as my LiveJournal. Ooh, i just love all the little things you can do with pictures... :)
I've got some catching up to do, so here goes.... :)
Where No Man Has Gone Before
The 2nd pilot again emphasises the fact that early Trek is more theatre-based than is sometimes realised, with the focus largely on big and captivating ideas being acted out against simple backdrops. Gary Mitchell, Kirk's friend on the Enterprise and its first officer, is zapped by an energy barrier, and his latent ESP powers are advanced gradually until he becomes God-like. Naturally, he soon starts to view the crew around him as insects. naturally, Kirk has to stop him. But what's really striking is that Kirk, even though he goes to confront him with a gun, does not use violence, but rather a combination of morality and lateral thinking - he maneuvres gary into position and then fires on the boulders above him, which fall and send him to an early grave.
Also worth mentioning - the background crewman who actaully gets to develop something of a personality (so that when he is killed off, we actually FEEL something about his passing); the passion of the actors, who never give anythign less than their best, even despite such things as painful silver contact lenses; and the costumes... much more colourful than the ones in first pilot The Cage, but still not quite 'there'. Although in kirk and Spock we have a great new partnership that feels warm and genuine from the word go.
The Naked Time
A fun episode, despite the gravity of the situation. Seeign Spock break down in tears makes you realise just how good a job Leonard Nimoy is doing the rest of the time, and George Takei must have LOVED all the swashbuckling stuff (although Spock seems to have an inordinate amount of knowledge about early 16th Century Earth history). O'Reiley's Irish singing shenanigans are comedy gold. And then ... the ending. When we least expect it, time travel.... is there nothing this developing series cannot do?
The Enemy Within
A cracking episode that gives the opportunity for William Shatner to go over the top. And his scene with Janice Rand, which is to all intents a rape scene, is gripping but disturbing to watch. This episode, for all its silliness (evil twins, poodles with horns) has a very edgy adult feel to it.
... but I'm back now! (and I feel a little guilty about not having updated my Vox. Which is silly, I know. Never mind.)
There was a break at work which was really frustrating - I just didn't have much to do, so did some more volunteering at the mental health day centre. Luckily work started up again, which is v busy, but v good nonetheless. Also I am going to bite the bullet and go to a bank Holiday Sunday Dr.Who fan meet in Blackpool. If all goes to plan we'll meet, break the ice over afew beers and then go to the official Dr.Who Museum which is located on the Golden Mile.
It'll be nerve-wracking, as I have not been 'out and about' (with friends or strangers) for quite some time... but I'm going to have to make these leaps of faith if I'm ever gonna get my life back!
Avanti!
To the right (if vox's photo album feature actually starts working again..), the fake money used by the Doctor Who production team when filming. I think they should make it legal tender!
It's been a good couple of days. Yesterday I was on Centre Group duty, which meant being in charge of the First Aid kit among other things. It was quiet, but quiet in a good way.
I haven't got much else to say, and it's so hot and sunny that it's exhausting even thinking about anything other than sitting around fanning myself, so I'll log off now... (i've been doing a bit of writing during the evenings but weven that's been affected by my intolerance of the heat)
I'll be honest, I'm a bit adrift this week. I usually work, on a voluntary basis, at the office of a local charity, but they said there's nothing for me to actually do this week (I tend to do a LOT when i'm there - wishing i'd paced myself a bit better now. Oh well.) So in order to keep busy I'm offering myself to the staff at the mental health day centre I frequently attend (no, not offering myself in THAT way :lol). Working the till, making people refreshments, washing up etc. It's good plain honest work, it keeps me busy, and it's even kind of fun (although I wouldn't want to do it all the time).
Talking about the centre (Open Mind Centre - herein 'OMC'), I'm a bit nervous that I've fallen out with the manager. I haven't seen her that much recently (she's busy arranging things for a changeover) but I think I may have offended her. See, another member of staff has been in talks with the manager in an attempt to set up an LGB group within the OMC, for service users who in some way, large or small, feel excluded or anxious because of their sexuality. Apparently there are quite a few of us. (i'm not surprised - there are some indivuduals who set my gaydar pinging, ho ho) Anyway, I was asked if I could put forward my own opinion on the subject into a letter, handed over to the manager - and, well, me being me, I'm worried that it might have come across as ... I dunno... I'm just worried that the voice of the letter might have sounded accusatory or too PC or something. I stressed in the letter that I in no way considered the OMC to be a discriminatory body but that it was an issue that needed to be addressed and considered in a genuine (not tokenistic) way.
The member of staff who asked me to pen the letter thanked me for doing so, said it was brilliant, and said that she would bring it to the next time she and the manager met to discuss the issue. And since then, when i HAVE bumped into the manager, i've detected... a certain frostiness of manner.... which MIGHT just be my paranoia... but I dunno.
So I'll just have to wait and see what happens I guess. In the meantime, I'm playing my part and continuing to be a (small) part of my community. What I'm hoping to do in the near future, which an LGB group would help me to do, is (re)join the gay community, from which I've been away far, far too long.
What a pleasant weekend. At the risk of sounding like a bit of a couch potatoe, I watched some good TV (Smallville is back on T4 and was fab; NCIS is one of those gritty modern US cop shows, albeit set inside the navy; Afterlife was a genuinely disturbing ITV drama about a psychic and a psychology lecturer - will def. be tuning in next week; and National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 was the kind of silly comedy movie I needed on a chilled out Sunday night).
I decided to do something a little different for my evening meal, so while the chicken was in the oven and the rice was bubbling away, I decided to cut up apple slices and mix it in with the curry sauce. It wasn't as fantastic as I'd hoped, but it was alright. Tangy :) Gordon Ramsey needn't be worried though.
The Dr.Who Quick Reads title I Am A Dalek (by tv writer and NA novelist Gareth Roberts) proved to be a neat little adventure. It fair sped along, and put a new twist on Dalek mythology, stealing a plotline about 'the Dalek Factor' and giving it a new application - i.e. we get to see what happens to a human mind when it's infected by the Dalek Factor, and it isn't pretty - the p.o.v. of the 'infected' human, a bored and deprssed girl called Kate, was quite chilling. On the basis of this wee novella, I'm v intrigued to see how Roberts writes for the Tenth Doctor on TV.
I even squeezed in a little bit of writing and I had some pleasant (and stimulating) conversation at the Open Mind Centre (the mantal health day centre I attend frequently). And I even played some pool! :)
'Charlie X'
As with 'The Cage', this episode plays up to early Trek's strength - its willingness to downplay visual spectacle and instead emphasise strong ideas and killer concepts. 'Charlie X' on the face of it is the Trekkie version of Rebel Without A Cause; but with Jimmy Dean replaced here by a being endowed with godlike powers, the story automatically assumes the 'teenager' is an object of fear and mistrust - which, given this story's fudging over of identity crises, lends this story a slightly uncomfortable air (although notably at least one crewman, McCoy, sympathises initially with the boy's plight). Also uncomfortable is Kirk's half-hearted attempt at being a father figure, which basically amounts to him mumbling something about not hitting women and then taking Charlie to the gym. (but then, gender role politics was never exactly Kirk's strong point!)
Nonetheless, Charlie does commit definite wrongs (i.e. things he knows to be wrong rather than embarrassed adolescent slip-ups). These stunning moments - often achieved with a simple musical sting, an angry eyeball stare and some 'mute' acting- send chills down the spine. Last week we had a vampire on board, now this! The USS Enterprise really is as dangerous an environment as it is strange (and look at the different lighting effects being thrown on the walls - as if the ship has 'moods' of its own that mirror its crew).
On a personal level this episode has the single most iconic Trek scene from my childhood. Charlie breaks up a group of laughing crewmen (whom we initially see only as expressionbistic shadows) and then he takes away their faces. Watching the scene as an adult, and noticing the clumsy 'faceless mask' the actress wears (it isn't even the same colour as her hands), can do nothing to change the memory of the impact this scene had for me. This is Trek as cerebral, uncanny theatre - true to 'The Cage's vision.
Code of Honour
Although I'm not really following BBC2's concurrent repeats of ST:TNG, this episode really stood out and was highly watchable. Its major set piece, in amidst a typical TNG tangle of diplomacy, was a 'death match' starring Tasha Yar (one of Trek's best ever characters). Using budgetary restraints rather than being constrained by them, the designers here worked out a brilliant cubic space for the combatants - an arena thats very deadliness is due to its compact finite size. Tasha's fight was nail-biting stuff, and the spiked gloves - ouch!- a brutal touch. Season one of TNG is really picking up now...
Okay, Vox has definitely been playing up the past couple days. If there's a photo attached to this post, then Vox is working properly again and I'm gonna stick with it. If no photo appears here, or the post isn't readable publically, or anything else screwy happens, then I'm gonna abandon ship. IN OTHER NEWS: the hot weather is back with a vengeance. Bah! Oh well, at least Star Trek is on today and I have my Dr.Who QuickReads to, um, read!:)
P>S the photo is froma wall freize welcoming visitors to Chorley. Bizarrely!
"What do you hope to accomplish before the end of the year?"
My goal for 2006 is to finish a complete, readable (and GOOD) first chapter of my children's novel. I've been 'writing' it (cough) for aaaages, but if I have at least ONE finished chapter by the end of the year, no matter how long or short or whatever, then i KNOW that I WILL actually be able to eventually finish the entire thing. (and if I don't, then I won't and I can give the whole game up)
Yes, this is going to be one of those blogs that periodically reviews tv shows. Blame BBC2.
The Cage
Few things are as fascinating as the first draft of a familiar text. They offer glimpses into an author's creative process, demonstrate embryonic versions of iconic creations, and show tantalising glimpses into what might have been, if...
Star Trek's first pilot episode 'The cage' is close to the series that everybody knows (or think they know) and yet is... different. This is true in more ways than the merely superficial. Yes, the muted set designs look a bit odd; Leonard Nimoy clearly has no idea yet how to play Spock (in one scene he KEEPS SHOUTING and the next he's smirking in an amused fashion); and there is a strange-looking (to our eyes) sequence where the Enterprise's 'journey' through space is portrayed by overlaying footage of stars over footage of the crewmen going about their business on the bridge.
But the heart of 'The Cage' more closely resembles science-fiction literature than anything cinematic or televisual. The characters are mostly older individuals - Captain Pike is certainly more prone to philosophy and self-doubt than Kirk will be. And this lends itself well to a story that has 'classic short story' written all over it. The concept of 'primitive' humans being used to vicariously pleasure an advanced (but dying) race means that there are precious few opportunities for punch-ups, but plenty of time to debate morality, ethics and perception.
'The Cage' is rough around the ages, and more peculiar than US tv networks at the time were comfortable with - but it survives as a bona fide classic.
The Man Trap
Our first glimpse of an alien planet in broadcast Trek is spartan but pleasingly surreal, with oddly-angled remnants of architecture dotted about a red-tinted, rock-strewn surface. Into this environment beam Kirk, McCoy and a hapless crewman (the first of many doomed lambs to the slaughter, although here he's wearing a blue shirt not a red one!). The script wastes no time in getting to the crux of the story - there's a shape-shifter with a vampiric need for (body) salt on the loose. What it does equally well is convey the emotional consequences of this - McCoy is tormented by the creature's taking on the form of an ex-lover. And then he has to kill 'her'...
Production-wise the story is flawless. The oddly intense close-up shots on the vampire when in 'disguise' lend a threatening aura to many scenes, especially when it preys on unsuspecting crewmembers. There's also a nice touch when an alien plant 'alerts' Sulu and Yeoman Rand to the vampire's presence by shrieking wildly - an eerie and effective idea (even if the plant is quite blatantly a gloved hand covered in exotic foliage shoved up through a hole in the table).
