Credit: Hermit of the Mountain, LLC - Venus Rises promotional wallpaper: “Mars Warship Wallpaper“

[REVIEW] [SPOILERS] — A new surge in independently-produced online content is almost upon us even as existing media giants like NBC Universal begin to dabble in higher production value content intended for the web. Venus Rises, created by writer/director and Executive Producer J. G. Birdsall is especially noteworthy because this is not fan fiction. Based on an original idea, Venus Rises will be an ongoing series available online and on Illusion, a video-on-demand science fiction cable network. In development since the idea was conceived in 2002, a prequel to Venus Rises has finally been released, leading up to the series’ first episode.

Image Credit: Star Trek: Odyssey promotional wallpaper, with Bobby Rice as Lt. Commander Ro Nevin and Michelle Laurent as Romulan Sub Commander T’Lorra.

[Commentary] | [Spoilers]

Before there was Star Trek: New Voyages there was Star Trek: Hidden Frontier, an ambitious online fan series that ran from 2000 through a final episode in the summer of 2007. Notable for its use of green-screen technology to place actors in interesting Star Trek settings, a diverse cast, and gay and lesbian subplots, STHF was successful enough to warrant a spin-off. The new series, Star Trek: Odyssey, like STHF, is set after the canon events of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager.

A new threat from outside the Milky Way has emerged within Romulan space and an uneasy alliance of Alpha Quadrant powers attempt to repel the invaders. The enemy is an alien race from the Andromeda Galaxy with the technological capability to build wormholes. Returning from STHF is Lt. Commander Ro Nevin (again played by actor Bobby Rice), a happily married and gay Bajoran Starfleet officer. After a successful attempt to destroy the wormhole, Ro and the surviving crew of the U.S.S. Odyssey are stuck on the wrong side and running from their enemies in the Andromeda Galaxy. Ro becomes captain of the starship and embarks on a journey back to the Milky Way and his husband reminiscent of the Greek hero Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey.

The gay-friendly storyline is perhaps the most promising aspect of STO, and in the pilot episode “Illiad”. Will Ro stay faithful to his husband or will he be tempted by others during the journey home? How will the sexuality of other crew members play out?

Bobby Rice took over the role of Ro from another actor during the run of STHF and effectively captured the character coming to terms with his sexuality. The series ended with his marriage to a fellow officer. On his own again and in command, the new story arc for Ro is also promising.

The episode begins with a confident new score and opening sequence, as well as a strong first scene that introduces Romulan Sub Commander T’Lorra, played very well by Michelle Laurent. Highlights include the interaction between Ro and his husband, Lieutenant Commander Corey Aster, reprised by guest star (and episode director) JT Tepnapa, including a hilarious but too-short scene of the couple trying to find a few minutes alone for sex before they embark on their mission, as well as brief appearances by other STHF characters. Matthew Montgomery is promising in a brief glimpse as Dr. Owen Vaughan.

However, the pilot episode is a surprising disappointment, especially after the vast improvements in acting and production values gained by the end of STHF. Bobby Rice seems to have lost some of his previous confidence in the character of Ro, with only glimpses of the natural and mischievous spark he previously brought to the role. I suspect this is mostly due to the exposition and speech-making the character is forced to make during the episode.

Most disappointing is the new alien race. Even accepting the human-like similarity between races in the Milky Way, I had hoped, and actually expected, the aliens from an entirely different galaxy to be radically different. Per usual in Star Trek depictions of aliens, however, they are human-like, with face paint and archaic speaking patterns offered as the only differentiation from humans. There are hints that the alien culture will be developed in future episodes (Are they bisexual? Newly ruthless?) and the alien vehicle and hardware designs are quite wonderful. Unfortunately, an opportunity for the fan filmmakers to truly strike out on their own with a unique Star Trek vision appears to have been wasted.

Some of the acting is top-notch, while some is surprisingly bad and ineffective. The plot meanders from long moments of exposition and technobabble to rather good but brief moments of character introductions (well, except for the Andromeda Galaxy aliens) and character development. There is no question that I will continue to tune in to STO, with hope that this series will not devolve immediately into the rehashing and lack of confidence and innovation of STV, which had a similar plot.

Image Caption: Promotional wallpaper for NBC’s upcoming Fall 2007 television series Bionic Woman

[Commentary] | [Spoilers]

Jaime Sommers is now a bartender with an angry kid sister and a professor boyfriend outside her socio-educational demographic. After a horrific car accident, her boyfriend has her rebuilt, because it turns out he is also working for a top secret bionics program. Sommers becomes the new Bionic Woman and at this point the viewer could care less.

NBC’s Bionic Woman is both a disaster and an insult in a long history of anti-technology storytelling. English actress Michelle Ryan as Jaime Sommers is wasted in a plot that attempts to convey angst, history, and mythology via relentless exposition and hurt looks. The characters speak exposition-ese without the audience getting any opportunity to truly know them or care for them. The accident comes after rapid-fire angst and tears, unexpected, yes, horrific, true, but without any emotional investment.

Superhero origin stories are difficult to tell on film. Audiences who eagerly anticipate heroic actions and special effects must wait while the protagonist is introduced, experiences an accident, evolves into a transhuman entity, and begin to learn about his or her new powers. Origin stories told well allow the audience to feel for the protagonist almost immediately, with nuanced scenes that whisper “See? I’m just like you!” until the character is no longer like you at all.

The worst, like Bionic Woman, paint angst with broad strokes, just annoying filler leading up to the inevitable accident and transhuman capabilities. Even worse, in this telling Jamie Sommers, rapidly cured and enhanced, hates her apparent health and new capabilities. She is so angry and hurt that her boyfriend would successfully attempt to save her life that she throws him across the room, screams, cries, and walks sullen in the pouring rain. When she is reunited with her sister, she immediately lies about her whereabouts as both characters attempt to out angst each other in the limited time they are given.

More pain is ahead. The original bionic woman 1.0 - Katee Sackhoff, so good as Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica and badly acting here - is a violent wreck, presumably because someone also successfully attempted to save her life. Throw in mysterious figures, other actors from Battlestar Galactica, and hints at a larger - and dark! - mythology, and the result is a great depression for the characters AND the viewers.

Show creators apparently hate technology, especially when used to successfully save lives. At what price, they want to explore, do we do so? A character who suffers terrible trauma must continue to suffer long after they have transcended their human weaknesses and been relieved of their pain. The price, we learn, is generally too high, and it would have been better if the character had just died. Because they did not die, they now must spend the seasons performing altruistic acts, to give back to simple unenhanced humans who are owed some unexplained debt. The moment the transhuman start enjoying her powers, she will be taught a terrible lesson.

This bionic woman is a creation of nanotechnology and cybernetics, packaged in a beautiful and indistinguishable-from-human body. A simple bartender enriched by her involvement with a man of education and science must now pay the ultimate price for becoming transhuman. We do not learn in one episode, of course, exactly what price she will pay during her upcoming ordeals, but we can be sure it will be gratuitously gory and tearful.

Modern medicine is marvelous and technologies in labs and on the horizon suggest great things ahead. We know from experience that most people in pain, experiencing great suffering, or nearing death, will, no matter what their prior belief system, embrace relief. Relief is so obviously joyful that relief as horror as depicted in fiction simply rings false, yet writers go back to that same dark well over and over again.

Could there be conflict in a depiction of a transhuman that was joyful and thankful for her transcendence? Absolutely. We have already seen one such character on television, albeit with her own moments of angst and depression and confusion. Her name was Buffy, The Vampire Slayer and she was always at her best when she gave into the morally valid pleasures of her power.

And Buffy Summers, of course, was partly inspired by another woman of incredible power who could, sometimes at least, enjoy her powers. She was the original Jaime Sommers in the original 1970’s Bionic Woman. If her joy was not always apparent, she was a superior role model compared to the current ungrateful incarnation. Until writers embrace the potential joys of transhuman existence, they will continue to “re-image” old material while popular storytelling continues to stagnate.

Image Credit: Promotional poster for Star Trek: New Voyages “World Enough and Time” episode

[Commentary] | [Spoilers]

There is in fact not world enough or time for me to express just how much I love the latest episode of Star Trek: New Voyages, the continuing adventures of the classic USS Enterprise crew in a fan-tastic fourth season. “World Enough and Time” now stands proudly with the very best episodes of Star Trek.

The first few episodes of Star Trek: New Voyages were great fan efforts: a little rough around the edges but enjoyable enough. It is obvious that the cast and crew have a deep love for Star Trek and Gene Roddenberry’s original concept, but when watching these fan films there is always that sense of “I wish the original was still around” and “I wish this were maybe a little bit more professional.”

Until now. “World and Time Enough” brings back George Takei, the actor who played helmsman Hikaru Sulu in the original series, for a time-bending adventure and emotional journey. With his return and new guest stars, the overall production values and acting have all improved. James Cawley finally becomes Captain James T. Kirk, especially in scenes with a lovely new visitor to the USS Enterprise.

Everything about this episode is wonderful. The plotting and pacing will have you at the edge of your seat, with moments to breathe and learn something new about favorite characters. The banter between Kirk, Spock, and Bones is as good as it gets. The special effects are breathtaking and often quite beautiful. The displays, the references to Star Trek canon, small moments and big moments, a new look at the USS Excelsior and her crew under the command of a certain captain, and so much more…

Christina Moses deserves special note. She captures perfectly the excitement, joy for life, and heartbreak of her character. Make sure you have something available to wipe away your tears…

The latest episode debuted August 23, 2007 to technical difficulties that have not yet been completely resolved. Right now the STNV website offers only a small streaming version of the video at the following link:

http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/weat_streams.html

I was very disappointed by this technical turn of events, though I commend the STNV team for being upfront about the issues. Still, I only grudgingly started the stream. Then, after just a few moments, I had forgotten all about these technical details and found myself completely entranced. If you do not get the stream right away, definitely try again later. Seriously. This episode is that fantastic.

There is also a preview of the next episode (STNV’s first two-parter!) which promises to take Star Trek in a direction Gene Roddenberry wanted to take but was allegedly not allowed to do so, except superficially, by the studio. Featuring one of my favorite actors you might not have heard of - Bobby Rice - and special guest star and fan favorite Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar from Star Trek: The Next Generation), “Blood and Fire” is at the top of my must-see-now list.

Fan films have come a long way in the past few years, and Frontier Channel has covered just a small portion of this activity. Fan series like STNV and Star Trek: Hidden Frontier, short films like Still Life, and original series like The Scene show how technological progress, and the rapid flow of once expensive technologies into the hands of everyday yet creative people, is expanding our entertainment options and threatening stagnant Big Media. Much of this work has in fact been wonderful, and with “World and Time Enough” I think such content has finally become a legitimate contender for my time.

Shame on CBS Paramount Television for not recognizing the potential in Star Trek fan fiction. Sure, they currently have a hand’s off approach as long as the fan creators do not make any money off of their efforts, but CBS Paramount Television could be doing so much more while helping to build their franchise in lucrative ways. Why not offer a license to Star Trek material for a 10% cut of all proceeds? Doing so would create a cottage industry of fan fiction filmmaking, with a wealth of new ideas as well as improved production values. The STNV team donate their own time and money because they love Star Trek, but there is the potential for so much more if CBS Paramount Television offered something, anything, to these creative people.

That aside, some fan fiction has already surpassed the worst of television, and even become worthwhile in their own right. Today I saw fan fiction that equals the very best of television, and Star Trek: New Voyages has me completely hooked.

[Commentary] | [Spoilers]

Science fictions movies do not need to be about a realistic future. If the creators have something to say, they might use the trappings of science fiction.

Able Edwards, the first movie shot completely against a green screen and released the same year as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, has something to say. Set in a future just after the decimation of humans by a biological agent and the survivors relocation to a space station, Able Edwards wants to tell us about individuality, reality, and childhood innocence. It might also have something to say about cloning and virtual reality. Like the obvious clash between the real actors and the digital backgrounds, the movie fails miserably.

Able Edwards is a mogul based on Walt Disney, a maverick who brings joy to the public through animation and theme parks. The Edwards Corporation survives his untimely death and the near extinction of the human race to become a monopolistic robotic firm. In an effort to shake up the establishment and put the company in growth mode once again, the board decides to clone Able Edwards and raise the child to take over the corporation when he turns 25 years old. A hint of climatic events in his first 25 years make him the man he becomes, something like the original Able Edwards but haunted and driven by doubts about his own individuality. After a gruesome accident that claims the life of his girlfriend, Able begins to rage against societies focus on virtual reality. When he finally takes over the company, Able has a plan: develop a physical theme park on the space station, complete with real, albeit cloned, animals, rides, and exhibits.

As his personal life unravels and clone discrimination rears its ugly head, the theme park becomes a huge success, leading to more theme parks and a senate race. In the midst of all this change, one thing becomes obvious: this cannot be the future!

While science fiction can be used only as a setting, the success of the film depends on whether or not the future is reasonable, given the plot. The future depicted in Able Edwards is not reasonable, and this becomes more and more obvious as the story’s timeline moves through the years. In one scene, Able sits at a kitchen table next to his wife who is stirring and sipping coffee in a mug. They are on a space station with homes right out of “Ozzie and Harriet”! Occasional badly designed CGI robot and space station exterior shots, bullet train, and holographic video displays are the extent of futurism in this tale. Oh, and the androids that are different from humans only because they have ugly contact lenses and their hair is slicked back.

These science fiction trappings fail to invoke anything of the future, and the story of the clone fails to invoke any emotion other than sentimentality: Able sings softly to his baby sleeping in a not-at-all futuristic crib; someone snarls that he is doing a good job “for a clone”; his wife grows distant, because a big jump in time has occurred between scenes and she is inexplicably angry all the time now; etc.

What ultimately does the movie have to say? The future will be little different from the present. Humans will not change, and we will take our modern foibles, with a nice dash of the 1950’s, with us to space. Clones will question their existence off screen while androids passively stand doing nothing in their freaky contact lenses.

In other words, nothing is said about anything. I give this movie 2 out of 5 stars, only because out of all the bad acting, Scott Kelly Galbreath is surprisingly engaging as Able Edwards and his progenitor, despite most of his angst occurring offscreen.

[Commentary] | [Spoilers]

The first episode of the new season of Doctor Who was the last place I expected to see a rant against cloning, life extension, and transhumanism. In the new episode, written by Russell T. Davies, [spoiler alert] a race of feline nurses in the distant future has secretly grown and experimented on human clones to learn how to cure all diseases. By the end of the episode the Doctor has expressed his outrage, freed all of the imprisoned clones, and convinced a grotesque transhuman enemy that she must give up her pursuit of beauty and life extension and instead die like she is suppose to [end spoiler].

Clearly, popular fiction is the last place I should expect a thoughtful exploration of issues. Why popular fiction continues to depict scientists and transhumanists as villains and progress as “yucky” is unclear, but it is unfortunate that these fallacies also continue to play such a huge role in the ongoing debates over stem cell research, nanotechnology, life extension, cryonics, etc. Like Davies, critics create from their incorrect notions frightening futures of science gone awry to scare people into resisting new technologies.

It can easily be shown that these futures are simply not possible. For example, progress in stem cell research, organ tissue engineering, and artificial organ replacements have already rendered obsolete the human clone slaughterhouses envisioned by Davies and other critics. Why feed, store, clean, and otherwise maintain human clones when you can just grow or replace the required organs more cheaply and in much less time? Human clone farms, clone armies, clone basketball teams and all the other nonsense proposed as reasons for banning human cloning are neither economically feasible nor worthwhile to even the most despicable villain.

Science fiction has always been important for exploring the events and issues of the times. What we need are new archetypes that live within future worlds extrapolated from our own reality. Prose continues to offer just such fiction. I wonder if and television and movies will catch up.

[Commentary] | [Spoilers]

I have always been a fan of Star Trek. The first three series are wonderful. Then came Voyager. The series premiere was promising and then the series quickly tanked. I skipped most of it but decided to check out the finale. Horrible.

Then there was Enterprise. Started out promising and then quickly tanked…until this season, when they brought in new writers and remembered that the series was related to Star Trek. The last four or five episodes were quite entertaining, including the second-to-last episode with its alien/human pathos and emotional ending.

Enterprise should have ended there. Instead, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga created something horrible to spit on everyone around them, including the fans.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

Problem 1 - The finale was not an Enterprise episode. It was a Next Generation episode.

Problem 2 - Same as number one, but instead of being a new Next Generation episode, it is filler for a season seven episode. Should Riker tell Picard about the cloaking experiment? Lets ask the Enterprise crew for advice!

Problem 3 - Riker and Troi do not look the same age at all! Nothing fit in!

Problem 4 - Data? Wow. That’s right, he use to be alive, before he was killed off (more horrible writing in Nemesis.) And as thanks we get a few lame jokes?

Problem 5 - Tucker dies. The brilliant engineer cannot come up with a different plan? And then, no one seems to be all that broken up about it. Oh, and for some reason it is important to know that after the death of their baby, T’Pol and Tucker dated for awhile, broke up, and now he is dead. WTF?

Anyway, I could go on and on but it just makes me more angry. Sure, the show was already horrible (until those last few episodes.) Sure writers can write whatever they please. But to piss on the fans in this way…I’m sure it comes out of anger that Berman and Braga had been demoted by Paramount, anger that the fans had turned away from their tripe long ago, anger that they were not getting the praise they use to get on Next Generation.

What a way to end such an incredible part of my life. It is funny…this is the year that both Star Trek and Star Wars come to an end. Maybe there will be future spin offs, but the core of both have come to an end. Both mean a lot to a lot of people, but I think it means something very special for those of us in our 30s, who were little kids when they were first exposed to both Star Trek and Star Wars, and now as adults get to watch them both end.

I really hope George Lucas treated Revenge of the Sith with more respect than Berman and Braga treated Star Trek.