Tribute to Anton Yelchin

Star Trek and Sci-Fi fans were shocked on Sunday to hear of the death of actor Anton Yelchin, known for his role as Ensign Pavel Chekov in the JJ Abrams Star Trek movies. 

For a moment, fans of both “Old Trek” and “New Trek” was united in grieving the loss of a very young and talented actor.  Anton Yelchin will be missed, and a Star Trek movie without him will indeed leave a gap that could not be filled.

It is also certain that had he lived, he would have become a great actor and even movie director.

My condolences to the friends, family and fans of Anton Yelchin, who will mostly be remembered for his Star Trek role above others. 

 

Falling Skies

On the whim of the moment, I recently bought the fifth season of Falling Skies on DVD.  I was looking for entertainment and this series was on my list.  It was only last year that I came upon Falling Skies and in a few weeks watched the four seasons that was available in a very short time.  Yes, I am a binge watcher.

Science Fiction TV series is in short supply, mainly due to the popularity of the much cheaper to produce reality shows.  Something that I was exposed to disturbing dangerous levels of during a week long hospital stay a few months ago.  The hospital did not have a wide variety of channels to watch, only sport channels, one movie channel, a kids tv channel, and a bombardment of reality shows.  This was torture. 

Falling Skies is a Steven Spielberg-produced show, although I do not think he had much more input than opening his bank account.  But somehow I feel that Mr. Spielberg’s influence was felt in the series with recycled ideas, such as an alien-human hybrid female child (from Taken) and the alien Espheni (Super 8), and the Skitters (War of the Worlds). 

Except for the recycled ideas, I did enjoy the series, and will not bury it somewhere in a box, or later give it to my brother.  I will watch it again at some time, maybe before the end of the year.

Noah Wyle was a good choice to play Tom Mason, and the characters background made him an ideal character.  The character’s knowledge of military history made him a good military commander, but too much emphasis was placed on the character as the saviour of mankind.  That should have been toned down.  Maybe it would have been better if someone like Roland Emmerich (Stargate, Independence Day, 10 000 BC) produced the series.  But then we would have been overflooded with Ancient Aliens ideas.

The Ancient Aliens idea was not lost in Falling Skies, as there was a link between the Espheni and the Nazca lines of Peru.

The hive-mind mentality is a bit overplayed in Science Fiction today.  A lot of movies has played with the idea.  This includes the Alien series, Star Trek First: Contact, War of the Worlds, Ender’s Game, Starship Troopers and many others more.  Maybe some new type of alien invader is needed.

One character that I liked, but was portrayed in a shallow fashion is Dingaan Botha (Treva Etienne), a South African with electronic expertise.  It seems this character was somewhat of a replacement for Dr. Roger Kadar (Robert Sean Leonard) from seasons three and four.  A South African native would have better portrayed Botha.  This was mostly evident when Botha said: “Kan iemand my hoor” (Afrikaans for: Can anyone hear me), when testing a ham radio.  The accent was clearly American and not South African.

A character that could have had more screentime was Cochise, the Volm warrior who aided the 2 Mas in their fight against the Espheni invaders.  Not much of Volm culture is revealed, and for most part, they seemed to be pre-occupied with their own issues.  Making us wonder why they are there in the first place.

Overall, the series was good.  I am currently trying to convince my brother to watch it.

Zod vs Zod. Who will win?

Michael Shannon and Terence Stamp

Twice now was the supervillain, General Zod being portrayed in Superman movies.  The first was by Terence Stamp in Superman the Movie and in Superman II.  The second was by Michael Shannon in Man of Steel.

The character portrayed by Terence Stamp was calm and calculating while Michael Shannon’s Zod was very destructive, violent and seemed to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Stamp’s Zod saw an opportunity to subjugate and rule planet Earth while Shannon wanted to destroy Earth, and build a new Krypton on its ashes.

An interesting question arrises.  What General Zod would win in a fair fight (although I do not think anyone of them beliefs in a fair fight).

Stamps’ Zod would have become the cultured dictator of earth, enjoying its arts and culture, maybe pillaging art collections, sponsoring artists, and even have a large collection of earth wine, while Shannon’s Zod would just sit brooding all day.

What do you think?

Speculation: The Next James Bond

Recently, the current incumbent in the role of James Bond, Daniel Craig stated that he is finished with the role and would like to pursue other interests.  My thought on this is that Daniel Craig most probably using this threat to quit as a way to get the producers to pay him more.  This is likely to work and he might return for one more Bond movie.  It is also rumoured that Mrs. Craig is worried that her beloved husband could get seriously injured, and has placed pressure on the actor to quit.

But only one more time , I think Mr. Craig must be allowed to play the role.  Otherwise, we might have the same type of problem as with Roger Moore when he still played the role past his sell-by date.  It was since Octopussy certain that Roger Moore could not keep up with the action anymore.  I think his age was already a problem when he played Bond in Live and Let Die.

The producers did not learn their lesson with Moore and also used aged actors like Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan to play the part.  The should never have used Moore, and from On Her Majesty's Secret Services have used Dalton as they first planned to do.  Brosnan should have started playing the role of Bond in For Your Eyes Only.

My personal favorites to be the next Bond, would be:

Tom Hardy (Mad Max: Fury Road), 

Dominic Cooper (Flemming, Captain America: The First Avenger, Marvel's Agent Carter) and 

Henry Cavill (Man from Uncle, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice).  

For those that think Edris Elba would be a good Bond, just look at the Kojak reboot to see why it would not be a good idea.  

Tom Hardy

Dominic Cooper

Henry Cavill

Another fan favourite is Benedict Cumberbatch who is currently playing a modern-day Sherlock Holmes in the BBC series Sherlock.  Cumberbatch has also portrayed Jullian  Assange in the Fifth Estate and Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, both Autistic characters.  Mr. Cumberbatch will soon be seen as the title character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Dr. Strange, a role that he would fit in.  Although I do like Benedict Cumberbatch and think he is a very excellent actor, he would not in my view be a good James Bond.  It would be better to portray him as a villain in a Bond Movie.

Benedict Cumberbatch

New Star Trek Series. What we know so far.

There is a veil of secrecy surrounding the newly announced CBS Star Trek series.  This of course, would lead to massive rumours and speculation and it is certain that a lot of it is floating around at the moment.  CBS has not really released any information concerning the new series.

We do know the following:

Title: Untitled Star Trek Series (Not known yet to the public)

Created by: Bryan Fuller, based on Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry.

Executive Producers: Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadi, Bryan Fuller, Rod Roddenberry and Trevor Roth

Production Companies: CBS Television Studios, Secret Hideout, Roddenberry Entertainment,

Distributor: CBS

Writer and Consulting Producer: Nicholas Meyer

The series will take place in the Star Trek Prime Timeline (original timeline), the same setting as Star Trek, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager.  It will be somewhere between the movie Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country and the first Next Generations Episode, Encounter at Farpoint.  The name of the Starship on which the series take place is not the Enterprise.  It will be something else.  Klingons is rumoured to be featured as the bad guys.  It will follow an anthology format.  The Premiere is scheduled for January 2017.  Character cameos from previous series’ is not expected, unless some time travel accident occurs. 

It is my belief that a lot of unused scripts will be recycled for this series.  Some of the old series writers might be involved, which would be nice

Of course just like other rumours on the Internet, the above might be wrong or change in future.  It is just sorry that some of us will most probably have to wait for the DVD or Blu-Ray release of the series to see it. 

Tong Symbol in Popular Culture.

Something I came across when recently watching the James Bond movie Thunderball, and some episodes of the Stargate SG1 series.

The minor Bond henchman Count Lippe is a member of the international criminal organisation known as SPECTRE.  Bond sees a tattoo of a Chinese Tong gang on Count Lippe's wrist.


The same sign appears also in the Stargate SG1 series as being that of the System Lord Yu.