Cloverfield 1-18-08
When telling a story, there is a fine line between “leaving things up to interpretation” or “just not explaining it.” In one of the special features on the Lost Season 1 DVD, producer JJ Abrams told Damon Lindelof to “just make them find a hatch.” When Damon asked what the hatch would be, JJ aparently said, “don’t worry about it, we’ll figure it out later.” Which is fine. People accuse Lost of making things up as they go along and therefore not being a well written show, but I feel the opposite. Making things up is what makes a story. What matters is if the things you make up make sense in the end. So the fact that there are strange ghosts named Jacob and smoke monsters running around the island is fine with me… as long as they are explained in the end.
So, when “Cloverfield” comes along, I have the same expectations. I have a lot of confidence in JJ Abrams’ ability to leave things up to interpretation (like the Matrix) rather than just not explaining things (like The Lady in the Water). So which one was it?
Spoilers ahead, so watch ya step, kid.
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StarTrek.com is Up For Grabs!
For the past, um… well, I guess… 10 years or so, whenever I’ve gotten bored and found nothing else to do online I’ve often ended up at StarTrek.com. It’s not the best of websites, and definitely is not the most exhaustive Star Trek site on the internet, but since it was the official, network owned site they’d often have breaking news and photos before anybody else.
Well, it turns out those breaking news and photos might have gotten them in trouble.
I thought it was a little odd that a studio-owned site would follow the WGA strike since, you know, it’s pretty much general consensus that the studios are the ones being dicks. Their coverage of “Star Trek Day” at the picket lines was very pro-WGA.
So, it wasn’t really “surprise” as much as “shock” that I felt when I went to StarTrek.com today and read the following message from the web team:
12.14.2007
Goodbye from the STARTREK.COM Team
Sadly, we must report that CBS Interactive organization is being restructured, and the production team that brings you the STARTREK.COM site has been eliminated. Effective immediately.We don’t know the ultimate fate of this site, which has served millions of Star Trek fans for the last thirteen years.
If you have comments, please send them to editor @ startrek.com - we hope someone at CBS will read them.
Thank you for your loyal fandom over the years. It has been a pleasure to serve you.
So there you have it.
First the cancellation of Enterprise and then the shutdown of the entire StarTrek.com website–man, Trek isn’t doing too good these days. But with the JJ Abrams’ movie still in production, I’m guessing the studio is taking this opportunity to make www.startrek.com into the site for just that movie. Since it’s a “reboot,” my guess is that they are trying to lure in “the next generation” of fans by erasing the vast Star Trek mythology that’s been established over the past 40 years.
They’ll never come out and say either of these things, though. Saying they fired the creative team because of their pro-WGA stance would make them look like asses, and saying they want to “reboot” Star Trek would make a lot of established fans angry. Instead, they’ll say something like “to better serve your needs, we’ve restructured the often dense and thoroughly comprehensive Star Trek universe in order to offer a better user entertainment soultion.”
Rage… rage against the machine!
UPDATE: Here is a picture of the people who ran the site and who will no doubt be very concerned about how they’ll make it through Christmas (er, sorry, “the holidays.”)
Adam Goes to the Motor City Comic Con
I have a secret to tell. Today I played hooky from work for a number of reasons…
1.) I am exhausted.
2.) I have shit to do.
3.) The Motor City Comic Con is this weekend so… why not?
So today for a few hours I dorked myself up and drove to Novi to meet with fellow dorks. First, I got all dressed up…
…notice the unibow and the fact that I mysteriously am always carrying around comic books even though I wasn’t holding any when the picture was taken.
I have not been to many conventions before. I went to two in high school but those were strictly Star Trek conventions. I didn’t really understand much of what it was all about, and still don’t. But I remember it was cool to meet the people you watch on TV. Before that, I ran into some Klingons and Romulans at King’s Dominion in Virginia.
Yup, always a dork.
Anyway, I went for a couple of reasons. The first was because I wanted to complete my Supergirl collection (which may sound homosexual but they were written by one of my favorite authors), see what other deals they may have, and meet some of my favorite characters who were going to be there from Star Trek.
Lots of folks were there to sign autographs and take photos with the fans, but they charge $20 to do it! There must have been about 50 guests sitting at booths for meet and greats. Most of them I didn’t know and never heard of… comic book writers, inkers, etc. Even a porn star or two. But, I headed for three in particular.
This guy’s name is Domic Keating. He played Malcom Read on Star Trek: Enterprise. That look on his face pretty much sums up what he was like to meet in person. When I walked up to him and introduced myself and asked “do you mind if I get a picture with you?” his response was “Here’s the thing, mate, (he’s English) … I’ll do a photo with you if you buy a photo.” It sounds ruder here than it was. Anyway I got caught up in the moment and did it.
The autographed photo has less sentimental value than the photo I took (which was blurry because some old guy couldn’t hold the camera steady.) Like I said, I bought it for the other photo.
Next, and here’s honestly my main motivation for going… was Connor Trineer. I swear to god if I had a vagina, I would probably have not been able to do this, because my heart was already pounding so hard even though I have a penis. I am not homosexual but I was giggling like a school girl.
*swoons*
There you go ladies… how’d ya like to be the action in the middle of THAT?
Honestly what made me so nervous was because he seriously was the best character on Enterprise. And they killed his character off in the last episode in what was supposed to be some heroic act of self-sacrifice, but really ended up being some poorly written piece of crap. So… they resurrected his character in the Star Trek novels. Turns out what we saw on screen wasn’t him actually dying, but faking his own death to go undercover for a secret organization on a mission to save the universe. (What else?) I just finished reading the book and it did his character more justice than the show ever did. So, if I walked away with nothing else, I was determined to walk away with this…
He was the nicest guy I met there and actually asked me about the book. He looked at it when I gave it to him and said, “Wait… is this the one where they bring me back?” And I said, “Yup, they resurrected your character.” And he said, “I heard about this back home! Apparently I went on some undercover mission and had to fake my death. Is it any good?” And I said, “Uh-huh,” and he’s all like, “I’ll have to read it,” and I’m all like, “Yeah, it’s really good.” That’s it.
Throughout the whole thing I kept waiting for Johnathan Frakes to show up (he played “Number One” in Star Trek: The Next Generation.) It would have been cool to meet him but apparently he was all big-bad-celebrity and didn’t show up by the time I decided to leave. So instead I went up and gave my money to this guy…
…Robert Picardo, who played “The Doctor,” on Star Trek: Voyager. Of course no photo op is free so I had to purchase this photo for him to sign:
…which I didn’t mind at all because it’s such a great photo. It’s the cast of Star Trek: Voyager which was, like, a staple of my high school years. He’s the guy on the far left. When he was autographing the photo he said, “You know why I’m smiling in this photo, right, Adam? I made a dirty joke.” And me, not getting what was happening, said, “Huh?”, and he said something about “Roxanne” (the girl leaning against him) being real close to his cock and balls. He said the guy in the right of the picture (Ethan Phillips) was giving him a jealous look. Cooincidentally, Ethan Phillips was seated RIGHT FRIGGIN NEXT TO HIM, but by that point I had ran out of money and didn’t feel like approaching him because he was being wierd and shouting out random things.
Surprisingly there was not a line to meet any of these people and most of the time they appeared to just be sitting there.
I also got to shake hands and meet Fat Momma, Major Victory, and Feedback from the show Who Wants to Be a Superhero? that aired last summer. I met Seka the porn star (who I had not heard of), Peter Mayhew (Chewbocca from Star Wars), and got to shake hands with Grace Lee Whitney again. She was on the original series of Star Trek and I got a photo with her years and years ago (when I went to a convention in 8th grade), but the photo didn’t turn out. I would have gotten another photo but of course she was charging for them.
Back in 8th grade I don’t remember having to pay her for an autograph. Times must have changed.
I took advantage of a half-off sale and bought some other comics including Watchmen, The Walking Dead, and Origin (where Wolverine’s past is finally revealed.) I also talked one of the vendors into giving me the following with a little discount:
I’m sure I probably shouldn’t have taken them out of their packaging but oh well. They have more value to me prominently displayed than they do in a box. Of course, these are the main characters from Lost.
Anyway, it was a fun experience, if not expensive, and one that I’ll definately go to again next year, assuming they have some more awesome guests and give me more time to save my money.
What’s that you say? You thought I didn’t have any money and was broke to begin with? Well, you’d be right. So I’d like to put up one more photo…
…big thanks to DISCOVER, who made it all possible. I have $1.54 in my bank account now, but a credit card with a 0% APR that’s getting hungrier by the minute.
***Fin.
