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(685 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

My feelings on the importance of maintaining canon have changed over the years. It's still important, I think, to honor what has come before, but I don't think it serves to be a slave to it. If you have a great story idea, but some minor part of it would violate canon, have at it. That being said, if you can tell your story without directly violating canon, I think you should.

2

(734 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

Did Spock have any romantic entanglements in TOS?  Because he seems to be quite the player in SNW hah.

Another shift in tone this week, but I think DMD is right about TOS.  Even the other series did a bit of that from time to time.  And like I said, no matter what the genre, I think the show does a good job.

I just got back from Trek to Vegas. One of the panels included David Gerrold, the writer for, "The Trouble With Tribbles," among other TOS and TAS episodes (and Sliders' "New Gods for Old"). He discussed how he got submitted the outline for Tribbles, hired by Gene L. Coon to write the episode, and generally his career with Trek. One interesting note was that Gene Roddenberry was away during the development and filming of Tribbles. When Roddenberry returned and saw the finished product, he was livid. He did not want a comedic episode of Trek. Ever. He felt comedy would turn Trek in to a kids show. Coon, obviously, disagreed. It directly led to Coon leaving the series.

So it sounds like Roddenberry wouldn't have been too keen on the shifts in tone, either, even though some shifts were present in TOS.

BTW, Gerrold literally wrote the book on how to write for Star Trek. The Trouble With Tribbles: The Story Behind Star Trek's Most Popular Episode gives the whole story of the episode's development and was cited by several of the writers at the convention as being instrumental in their getting started as writers.

3

(734 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I haven't seen this week's episode yet, but there was a holodeck of sorts in TAS, so they're not really breaking anything by having one a few years earlier.

As for the swings in tone, TOS had them, too, just not as severe, but watch Balance of Terror (submarine war movie), The Trouble With Tribbles (comedy) and Spectre of the Gun (psychedelic western) and tell me what kind of show it is. I think of SNW as a reaction to DISCO, and maybe an overreaction. SNW was supposed to be episodic, rather then heavily serialized, bright and hopeful rather than dark and grim, and, most of all, fun. It doesn't lean into allegory as much as it probably should to really be a successor to TOS, but I'm happy with it.

4

(934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I've seen Fantastic Four First Steps. No spoilers ahead.

One review I read described it as being, "aggressively average." I liked it a little better than that, but it wasn't the homerun I'd hoped it would be. Answers came a little too easily. Reed was a bit too whiny. Galactus seemed a bit nerfed. There was at least one sequence that felt genuinely intense, but most were not. The sense of scale seemed off, too, in that things happened offscreen really fast, then really slow. If you can tell me how large Galactus is from watching the film, I'm impressed.

It doesn't sound like it from the above, but I did enjoy the film. I was entertained. I thought it worlds better than, say, The Marvels or The Eternals. Still, I saw it with my son and afterwards he said he liked it, but it made him want to see Superman again.

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(734 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

I think the only problem is that I'm struggling to really identify with this universe or how it's supposed to work.  It's hard to know what the Federation looks like or what Starfleet is or how the universe works.  Hopefully a new show will sort all that out.

In a way, I think that was the point of the time jump in Discovery. It's still the future of a universe we know, but the writers aren't really required to worry about canon as much because they can now just say, "things changed." Even if characters get their history wrong, how many details do we get wrong today about what happened 1000+ years ago.

Now, do I like such a huge jump? Not really. I think a 100-year jump past TNG (or Picard, I suppose?) would have been sufficient. You have room to maneuver, but there's enough familiar that we're still invested.

FWIW, I like SNW. I like fleshing out Pike and Number One and meeting that crew of the Enterprise. I don't love the dips into retconning the Gorn, the Spock/Chapel relationship, Trelane, etc. There should be enough to explore in this time period without bringing in Kirk, who in TOS said he'd only met Pike once. Still, it's a fun series. It only exists because of the reaction fans had to Pike when he was in Discovery, so I disagree that they could have used this cast for a completely different show. Not because I don't think it would have worked, but because there's no way it would have ever gotten greenlit.

ireactions wrote:

Yeah, I thought STARFLEET ACADEMY should have been a no-brainer since DAWSON'S CREEK and FELICITY became big hits. I'm surprised it took so very, very, very, very long. There was a STARFLEET ACADEMY comic before there was a TV show.

I'm not particularly jazzed about Starfleet Academy, but I was never interested in Dawson's Creek or Felicity, either. And the Academy idea has been around since Star Trek V flopped. VI was going to be an academy film showing Kirk, Spock, etc. all meeting at Starfleet Academy. One idea was for that to be bookended with appearances from Shatner, Nimoy, etc. reprising their roles one last time. None of the original actors wanted to participate in such a project, and the fans revolted, and we go The Undiscovered County instead. They chose wisely.

Not to be spoilery, but there's an echo of that in Superman.

I saw Superman at a preview showing last night. No spoilers ahead. I really enjoyed it. I've seen early impressions claim that it's silly at points or leans toward the Silver Age tone. I can't say they're 100% wrong, but I think James Gunn gets the character and his relationship to the rest of the human race. Yes, it's a little over-packed with characters, but the non-cameo characters get their moments while the film remains firmly a Superman film.

Watching MAGA heads explode because the film acknowledges that Superman is an immigrant (refugee, really) is a bonus.

I don't know if the DCU as a whole will mesh well once we start getting closer to a Justice League-type film, but I like this better than I liked Creature Commandos.

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(734 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

A news blurb on TVLine.com claims that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 2 will start filming soon despite Season 1 not airing until 2026.

https://tvline.com/lists/criminal-minds … y-filming/

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(734 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Also, if you haven't watched Strange New Worlds, according to TrekMovie.com, S1 will be free from June 30 to July 31.

If you’re in the United States and haven’t subscribed to Paramount+, you can still watch Strange New Worlds‘ first season for free on Pluto TV, Apple & Roku, as well as the free content hub on P+, and also on their YouTube channel. The season will be available starting Monday, June 30th and will remain up until July 31.

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(734 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

There have been two films mentioned that I can recall. One is another prequel, "an origin story for the main timeline of the Star Trek franchise." Supposed to be set mainly on Earth. Written by Seth Grahame-Smith and directed by Andor's Toby Haynes.

There's also still occasion word that a fourth and final film with the JJVerse cast is being developed.

Until and unless the Paramount/Skydance merger goes through, I don't expect any kind of release dates or casting on these films.

Oh, and Patrick Stewart has mentioned a script for a final TNG-era film set after Picard S3. I seriously doubt this will happen.

11

(734 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

So Strange New Worlds gets renewed for a 5th and final season before the premiere of S3. Season 4 is currently in production. Only 6 episodes for S5. Apparently, 5 years is the new 7 years. This will leave Starfleet Academy as the only Star Trek in production, though supposedly there are still films in the works.

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/star-t … 236429020/

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(24 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

Do TV shows have handfuls of episodes in the can before they air?

I think it depends on the show. Network shows that air in the fall tend to start filming in July or August for a late September or even October start. They tend to catch up to the filming, which is one reason there are breaks between new episodes during the season. If there's a particular set that's needed for an arc, I'd guess all filming on that set is done at once. Common practice now may not match common practice in the 60's (there were 30+ episodes in TOS season 3, and many scripts were written without the writer ever having been able to see an episode) or 90's (22-26 episodes were common). Remember, Sliders S1 and S2 were both supposed to be a single, 22-episode season, but the network stopped production after S1E9 to force changes on the show. No, you couldn't have aired the Flash's season finale before its season premiere, but that also wasn't a goal.

Streaming is a different story. Mid-season replacements also might finish filming before airing. Strange New Worlds S3 finished filming in May, 2024, and still hasn't started airing.

I don't know how far in advance Sliders was filming, but remember, "Summer of Love" was filmed second (if you count both hours of the pilot as single episode), but aired fifth. Not at all uncommon before season-long or even series-long arcs were a thing.

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(24 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

I don't understand the need/want to air episodes out of order.

It gives the network the ability to chose which episodes to air during sweeps or other important parts of the year. Star Trek's first aired episode was "The Man Trap," the 5th episode to be filmed (6th if you count "The Cage"). The horrid "Charlie X" was filmed two episodes after "The Man Trap," but aired second. Network execs have long felt they were better at choosing which episodes would be most popular than the people who made the shows. They were wrong about that then and wrong about it now.

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(24 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I can't imagine a Tormé-led season of Sliders being Kromag-centered. There's an infinite number of Earths (Also an infinite number of Kromag-invaded worlds, eventually, but still fewer that aren't). Maybe they run into them once a season. Maybe even twice. Just as a matter of not wanting to get too repetitious, though, there are too many more interesting ways to go.

It wouldn't fit into the show, but I'd love to see what happens when the Kromags invade an Earth whose timeline forked off from their own. It's not unthinkable that the Kromag Earths would eventually all wipe each other out.

15

(8 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Chuck wrote:

And currently trying to get through the season 4 episode, "The Chasm" and it hasn't been easy.

The struggle is real.

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(24 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Welcome! I'll agree that the Kromags never worked as a full-time big bad. Sliders never needed a season-long, much less multi-season-long big bad.

I don't know that they really killed the possibility of a reboot, though. Reboots take many forms. Look at Ron Moore's BSG reboot. It was definitely BSG, but jettisoned several aspects/characters from the original show. I don't see any reason why they'd have to be a part of a reboot, or even a continuation, if one was ever considered.

17

(685 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I saw someone suggest (don't recall where) that Netflix is updating their UI. Maybe the new system doesn't support interactivity?

I saw Thunderbolts* last night. More on that in the Marvel thread, but I thought it was better than much of what has been put out since Endgame.

Just finished Presumed Innocent. It was fair. Can't say I saw the real murderer coming.

I still need to finish Daredevil Born Again.

Considering The Studio and Murderbot.

I see The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is being released on (HBO)Max on June 27. If you're a looney tunes fan, it's worth catching. I wasn't at all sure Porky and Daffy could carry a full-length film, but they did. I think it's horrible the way Zaslav has treated this property, so show it some love if it's at all your thing.

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(934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Just saw Thunderbolts* last night.

S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S

I like the idea of taking secondary characters and making a team out of them, particularly when it's a group that needs redemption like they do. I'm guessing the immediate downgrading of the "New Avengers" is setting up a situation where Earth has no cohesive set of protectors at the start of Avengers Doomsday. Also, given their background, it shouldn't be a surprise that they wouldn't immediately be embraced as worth successors to Iron Man, Captain America, etc. Sam was asked to assemble a new team of Avengers by President Red Hulk, so I'm also not surprised to see him be a bit put off by having a criminal like de Fontaine pull that out from under him.

I'm looking forward to seeing how they handle Bob/Sentry in the future. My guess is they're going to need him. Also interesting to see how the F4 end up in our universe. That's probably going to be revealed in the F4 Frist Steps, but it doesn't bode well for the fate of their universe if they've left it for ours.

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(685 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

https://deadline.com/2025/05/black-mirr … 236391435/
Netflix Pulling Its Last Two Interactive Specials – ‘Black Mirror: Bandersnatch’ & ‘Kimmy Schmidt’

Gone as of yesterday.

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(685 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Thanks. I'll give it a watch. Well, not Bandersnatch, as Netflix has removed it.

21

(685 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I don't think I've seen Black Mirror since before "Bandersnatch."

I started Presumed Innocent. I've read the book and seen the Harrison Ford film. A twist at the end of episode 1 tells me they won't be resolving things the same way. It's ok so far.

The Studio has been recommended to me. I'm not really a Seth Rogen fan (though I prefer him infinitely to Joe Rogan) and haven't really been up for comedies lately, so I haven't started.

22

(734 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

Hey DMD!

<waves>

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(685 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

No in depth analysis here. No spoilers. Just a 'what has DMD watched lately.' Not an exhaustive list. I've had a lot of time to watch TV lately.

The Good
Severance - love this series, but no idea where they can go with it next season
The Pitt - A+ no ER clone, not that ER wasn't a great series in its own right
Paradise - I'd heard there was a twist at the end of episode 1 and still had no idea what it would be
Slow Horses - I'd read the first book. Enjoyed the season based on that book to binge the series

The Fine
Black Doves
Cross
Will Trent
Reacher

The Meh
Tracker
Watson
Captain America: Brave New World

The Not Good
The Gorge
Kraven the Hunter (I was on a plane, honest)

Looking Forward To
Thunderbolts*
Superman
Fantastic 4 First Steps


Yes, I said no analysis, but Watson and Tracker reminded me of a problem I see developing in some current series. Strong lead characters with mind-numbingly insipid supporting characters. I've seen it in the just-mentioned series, but also in the new Matlock and the Irrational, neither of which qualify as things I've watched recently. Decent to good premises with decent actors, but man, the lesser recurring characters are hard to watch.

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(734 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Grizzlor wrote:

You're not on a starship, which has been the premise of Star Trek.  You're not leading some grand mission.

Months later... FWIW, they have a ship. Definitely Earth based, they keep on bragging about the size of the set, but they aren't stuck on Earth. I don't have high hopes considering my least favorite Discovery character is involved, but I'll at least watch the first episode.

So I'm late hear this news. I actually found out about it today with the latest podcast from the Inglorious Treksperts. They did an episode dedicated to Tracy Tormé. It's mostly about his time on TNG, but there are Sliders mentions (unfortunately, the podcast hosts couldn't remember Cleavant Derricks' name). Included are several recordings from Mark A. Altman's interview with Tracy for Altman's oral history of Trek book. Worth a listen to hear the man in his own words.

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show … SS-e2erk60

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(10 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

And of course in the film itself.

Here you go...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfVYgWYaHmE

https://twitter.com/broadwaycom/status/ … 0896574467

"Tune into this weekend's @thebwayshowtv  to hear from
@jessetyler Ferguson of TAKE ME OUT, Cleavant Derricks of
@WICKED_Musical, Adi Roy and Senzel Ahmady of the
@aladdin  national tour and much more!

Check your local listings: https://broadway.com/the-show/"

https://www.broadway.com/the-show/episodes/

Mini interview with CD on Broadway...
https://www.playbill.com/article/checki … t-derricks

I can't tell you how long it's been since the name Tembi Locke has entered my brain, but apparently since her stint in Sliders S5 she's written a "bestselling" memoir. It's going to be made into a Netflix series starring Zoe Saldana as the Tembi-based character, Amy.

https://deadline.com/2021/04/from-scrat … 234728799/

For anyone interested, the memoir is From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home

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(6 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

https://twitter.com/MrJerryOC/status/13 … 3160019968

JOC: "Lunch today with Tony Winner and Sliders Star THE CLEAVANT DERRICKS.  Trying to get the band back together..."

Not that I believe anything's really happening with a revival, but you never know.

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(1 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I'm assuming they've gone the extra step and devised a way to read this data back...

https://gizmodo.com/the-case-for-storin … 1839615098

It sounds a bit ridiculous at first. Dozens of gigabytes of data can now be encoded on a virtually indestructible glass hard drive that’s the size and shape of a drink coaster. Microsoft just revealed a proof of concept. It’s a thin square of glass that’s been laser-etched with microscopic geometric shapes called “voxels” that contain a combined 75.6 gigabytes of data, which contains the 1978 film Superman in its entirety.

32

(51 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

A member of another board which I admin posted the following:

I spent the weekend at Pensacon in Pensacola, Florida.  One of the guests was John Rhys-Davies and he was a part of a Raiders of the Lost Ark Reunion Q&A panel in which I attended.  An audience member asked the guests if anyone was involved in any new projects, in which Rhys-Davies said: "If you're a Sliders fan there may be something in the near future..." 

He was pretty subtle with it, and who knows what it could be.  If there is something, I bet it's a Sliders reboot.

Glancing down the board, I didn't see any mention of it, so there you go. I won't be holding my breath.

33

(1,098 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I'm not one to defend DC's handling of its films, but it may just be a case where Affleck decided that it was too big a job to star and direct in a film like this. He's done a fine job wearing two hats in other situations, but a Batman film, particularly one that's going to be made in this universe... it's going to be all any director can handle. Or maybe he hates the script and doesn't want to have anything more to do with it than he's contractually obligated to do. Hopefully, that's not the case.

34

(3,515 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Right on script.

35

(4 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I caught this while waiting in an airport a few days ago. Well worth your time if you're a fan of the original series or Nimoy in general.

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(734 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Informant wrote:

It is likely that Sasha will at least have a somewhat reduced role, if she survives.

And it's not like she has a huge role as is. I occasionally forget she's still on the show.

37

(3,515 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

When Trump talks about Bill, I would tend to believe him.

I have yet to see any reason to believe Trump when he talks about anything. Ever. It's just as likely he's gotten his information from Alex Jones or an Internet meme as anything else. And he'll deny having said something ten minutes after having said it, even if you play him a recording of it. I have no love for Bill Clinton, but there really is no comparison between him and our fascist in chief.

38

(1,683 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

FWIW, Frequency isn't getting a full season order. Neither is No Tomorrow. I guess it's still possible to get canceled on the CW after all.

http://deadline.com/2016/11/frequency-n … 201855687/

OK, so neither has technically been canceled yet, but realistically they're dead shows walking.

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(1,683 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Yeah, they haven't exactly been clear about any of that. I don't think they have an answer, to be honest. In the original timeline, Thawne lost his speed and couldn't time travel on his own. I'd forgotten about Thawne mocking Barry in the present, doing it in the past would have made more sense. Still, it's pretty clear that somehow Thawne ended up needing to kill Wells and turn Barry into the Flash the same way it originally occurred, or at least close enough to it.

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(1,683 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

Is Earth One Wells still alive?  Since Thawne never killed Barry's mom and didn't escape, shouldn't Wells still be alive?  I know the show is supposedly saying that Seasons 1 and 2 still happened the way we saw (for the most part), but I don't see how that's possible.

Thawne did kill Barry's mom. At the end of the season premiere, Barry took Thawne back to let him Kill his mom. It was the only way to undo the Flashpoint timeline. The timeline we're in unfolded slightly differently than the original, which is why we have Killer Frost and Cisco's brother is dead, but Nora Allen is dead. Presumably, Thawne went on to kill Wells, take his place, and create the accelerator accident.

41

(1,683 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

It's still a thing. Still when advertising rates are influenced. This "November" the dates run from October 27 – November 23. Maybe with all the election coverage, there's been less room for big event programming.

42

(1,683 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I noticed that the big crossover event begins November 28th. I find it odd that they wouldn't have staged it during November sweeps.

43

(3,515 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

We've elected a con man. Lord help us.

44

(1,683 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

Arrow - The new DA is clearly Prometheus, right?

Probably. And I'd have put money on Malfoy turning out to be Alchemy or Savitar on Flash before the latest episode. I suppose that could still be the case, and we're being given a bit of misdirection.

45

(1,683 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

It's their thing. I can't say they really do anything for me or greatly bother me. Occasionally it's interesting to see them change to fit something that's happened on the show because they aren't always static throughout the season, but since they don't really have theme songs, I just go with it.

46

(31 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I'm enjoying it. Therefore, it will end up being cancelled, much like Limitless.

47

(1,683 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Informant wrote:

I hope season 3 is as good as season 1... when season 3 premieres... October 5th.


Season 5, maybe?

48

(1,683 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Grant Gustin tweeted out the Flash season 3 opener's title, Flashpoint. No mention of whether it will affect the other series. Also, he mentioned they'd be doing it their own way, not that the Arrow-verse lends itself to a direct adaptation.

49

(1,683 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

My guess is that they'll have Flash in its own timeline to start the season, with the other Arrowverse (and Supergirl) shows unaffected. Maybe that's what the crossover event will handle, reintegrating Flash with the other timeline, and maybe even brining Supergirl into the Arrowverse as well.

50

(934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Without trying to weigh in on the Informant/SQ21 thing, I saw Civil War and I loved it. It hit all the right notes, it balanced story with set pieces, had motivations for each 'side' of the argument that made sense and didn't try to heal all the wounds in the final act.

51

(1,098 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

BvS was a box office success but didn't perform up to WB's expectations. The initial weekend was extremely strong, but the fall-off in ticket sales was huge.

Right now, between Flash losing its director, Aqua Man's director not sure if he wants to continue, the entirety of Batman's rogues gallery being in the stand-alone film the DC 'franchise' looks like a dumpster fire. WB let the wrong guy create their universe, and now they're desperately flailing about trying to save it. No, you don't have to copy Marvel to be successful (and I'm a long-time DC guy), but you do need to have someone somewhere who loves the source material. Someone has to be able to say, "let's get things going before we 'deconstruct' the universe."

52

(1,683 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

I do wonder if it's going to have any impact on the Arrowverse.  Will Barry try and look for alien life?  Will Kara ever reference the Flash again?

I know that one of the producers has said that Barry's trip to Kara's Earth will be referenced in an upcoming episode of The Flash. The production team wasn't able to nail down exactly when the Supergirl episode would air (different networks) in order to make it tie in directly. I expect it won't be more than a throw away remark.

53

(7 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

This spoiler-filled "Batman v Superman FAQ" nearly perfectly sums up my feeling on the film. Warning: it is a long, snarky, typo-laden read.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/batman-v-superma … 1767720335

An excerpt:

Hey, Zack Snyder is no Michael Bay.

You’re right. Zack Snyder is much worse. Michael Bay thinks explosions are awesome and stories are dumb. Zack Snyder actually hates you.

What do you mean?

This is a movie made out of disdain. Disdain for the nerds. Disdain for the audiences. Disdain for the kids whose parents might accidentally take them to see a movie starring their favorite superheroes. Disdain for the source material. He thinks he knows better than all of us what Batman and Superman should be, even if fans, critics, and mass audiences tell him otherwise...

54

(7 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I thought it was an excellent example of how not to make a superhero film. Not the only example, mind you. Green Lantern was awful in its own way. Attempts to turn serious superheroes into zany comedy are another way.

This film was just dull and joyless, and it didn't have to be. You can do serious without being grim and lifeless (see CA:The Winter Soldier or the Nolan Bat-verse). With this film, they've turned being a superhero into an incredible burden, rather than a gift. They turned one of fiction's greatest detectives into an imbecile. The references to the rest of the Justice League felt even more shoehorned in than the expanded (and since aborted) Spidey-verse was in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. They didn't even get the DCU geography right.

You could easily shave 45-minutes off of this film and lose nothing. A Batman origin story? AGAIN? Oh, right, if they hadn't filmed it then that other thing would have made even less sense. This is a non-spoiler post, but if you've seen the film, you should know to which other ridiculous thing I'm referring.

55

(2 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I believe they're using her to replace Chris Pine. It ties in with the rumors that they're going the "Turnabout Intruder" route with the new film. Or not. Probably not.

ireactions wrote:

The first thing to do is run a non-linear stretch on the image, stretching the sides and zooming in slightly to change 4:3 to 16:9.

Please, no. Unless it was filmed in 16:9, it shouldn't be released in 16:9. The directors framed the shots for 4:3 and they should be viewed at 4:3. It's no better than when widescreen films used to get cropped to fit a 4:3 frame.

omnimercurial wrote:

I always thought Crystal Computing was well known among Fans in Sci Fi-dom after Babylon 5 in the 90's and Stargate in the Noughties regardless of greater Scientific Principles and Applications.

Yes, but there was nothing in the episode to suggest that anyone in that dimension had that technology. The monks used silicate discs. Diana created a way to store their data in a quartz crystal, but the crystal was taken without also taking any technology to read it. Oh, and it was "encrypted," too, so good luck decrypting it even if you can find a way to access it.

Grizzlor wrote:

As you may or may not know, Austin Nichols (The Great Work) is currently on The Walking Dead.  I met him last year while getting TWD actors at their NY hotel.  Very nice guy!

Cool. I watch TWD, but didn't recognize him.

At last, that crystal containing the Great Work might make sense.

360TB on a quartz crystal... permanently:

http://gizmodo.com/optical-data-storage … 1759359652

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(4 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Welcome home!

60

(330 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I'd argue that none of the original trilogy was completely self-contained. They all worked as films, but even in the original Star Wars (before it picked up the subtitle) we see things are are given snippets of information that only come into play in later films, or even the prequels. We don't know how the Empire supplanted the Old Republic. We don't know what went down between Vader, Obi Wan and Anakin. We don't know about the Clone Wars, or the Sith or Luke having a sister ("no, there is another!" - Empire Strikes Back). The list of unexplained references and circumstances goes on and on. That's actually one of the things that the original trilogy did better than the prequels. We didn't need backstory about trade federations or midiclorians or the workings of the senate, we just needed to jump into the story and figure out what was going on.

The real question is, do the loose ends and/or plot holes matter? Rey has spent her life rummaging around in old space ships and she knows how to fly. Is it really out of the question that she might know how these things work? She learns how to use the force quickly. Luke got pretty good with the force even before his training with Yoda. Also, she seemed to get better with it after each encounter with Kylo Ren, so in a way he was her teacher. You know who also was good at fixing things and learned how to use the force quickly? Luke and Anakin Skywalker. Does it ruin the movie if she's not related, but just a quick study that's unusually strong in the Force?

If I'm looking for a real plot hole, how in the world does anyone have a map to where Luke is? Particularly, how is most of the map contained in records from before the fall of the Empire? This is the MacGuffin, of course. We need a thing like the plans of the Death Star to find and/or keep from the enemy. Still, its existence makes absolutely no sense.

Might I be forgiving some things here that I would pick on in the prequels? Perhaps, that's difficult to judge. But here's the thing, the prequels were awful movies, regardless of these things. Forgiving them wouldn't have made them good.

Does this film serve as the first act of a trilogy? Absolutely, but I also think it works on its own. Even Episode IV had Darth Vader speeding off into space. I can recall my father, immediately after exiting the movie theater from seeing Star Wars the first time. "We'll see him (Vader) again." Likewise, we'll see Kylo Ren again, though I found him one of the less interesting aspects of the film.

BTW, if you're looking for a fairly comprehensive list of questions raised but not answered by The Force Awakens, have a look here:
http://io9.gizmodo.com/33-questions-we- … 1748953034
I don't expect all of those questions to be answered, but I'm betting some of them will. Some of them are, I think, already answered in the film in one way or another. If they aren't, though, does it really matter?