Tuesday, December 23, 2008
BG movie
Found this video of someone beating him on HARD mode... I just realized I am missing a crucial beam ammo expansion... if I lose this time perhaps that's my next move.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
On and off for almost 4 years I have been attempting to beat the infamous boost guardian. I even went to the lengths of back-tracking to my ship several levels away to re-ammo and I beat the mine shaft for an extra energy tank. I am obsessed with finishing him off, and when I do, I will save the memory card forever, so that I never ever have to fight him again. It started earlier in the week when I came down with a really bad virus and was stuck at home immobile. I picked up the game again, its data long-erased since I had previously reached this impasse. Yesterday I made it back to Dark Torvus Bog, where IT was waiting for me.
I've read all the FAQs in the English language, and they all have different opinions on how to beat the BG. The reason for that is that the BG is a "smart boss". He adapts to exploit the weaknesses of an individual player. He knows how to counter-maneuver. I've tried everything I can think of to beat him, but he is all up in your biz, thwacking off your energy in vast sums. In my many attempts to beat the BG, I've come up with my own personally tailored strategy, and I am getting VERY close now.
I started gaming late in life, my first real console I received after my 18th birthday, so I admit, I might not be the absolute best with the controls. For me, an effective strategy is the crucial component for victory. So here is my current recipe:
Start charging your light beam as the opening animation plays, as soon as it is charged, without moving, lock on and fire then rapid fire a few more shots before he decides what he's going to do next. He will either go right into puddle form, boost ball form, or try to possess you. You will have a second or two to analyze his next move and react accordingly. When he goes into puddle form the first time, if I am far enough away I shoot a charged light beam into him. Otherwise I ball up and drop bombs in rapid succession as he chases me. This can get tricky, since his amorphous form shifts directions rapidly and without reason, if he makes contact with you he will take off about a tank of your energy. When he is in boost or puddle form the key is just trying to survive until he's solid again, that's when you gotta BRING THE PAIN with missiles or charged light shots. The best way (for me) to avoid him when he is boosting is to remain unmorphed and double jump over him or in place, this isn't a perfect science, its hard to tell where he is coming from or going to. While he is boosting, I use single light beam shots when I am in a hurry, to instantly vaporize his Inglets and absorb their energy spheres. If I need more light beam ammo, I triple shoot the inglets with the dark beam while jumping around wildly trying to avoid the boosts. One problem I have encountered is when i am trying to get the energy spheres I bump into him, and that is deadly. The worst is when he gets you jammed up against the wall and rams you over and over and over again in puddle form. That's Game Over. The fight will really get your adrenaline going which can be disadvantageous since one must be completely centered and focused to counter his moves. I turn off the music from the options menu to keep it from distracting me.
Right now, I have the game paused, I'm on my last tank and he is so so close to defeat. I had to give myself some time to get focused again, because at this stage, one wrong move and its back to the save station for me. But if i get lucky, maybe this time I will be victorious!
I just have to beat this guy, and as soon as I do, I swear I will do something productive with my time.
DAMN YOU GAME MAKERS FOR THIS RIDICULOUS BOSS!!!
I've read all the FAQs in the English language, and they all have different opinions on how to beat the BG. The reason for that is that the BG is a "smart boss". He adapts to exploit the weaknesses of an individual player. He knows how to counter-maneuver. I've tried everything I can think of to beat him, but he is all up in your biz, thwacking off your energy in vast sums. In my many attempts to beat the BG, I've come up with my own personally tailored strategy, and I am getting VERY close now.
I started gaming late in life, my first real console I received after my 18th birthday, so I admit, I might not be the absolute best with the controls. For me, an effective strategy is the crucial component for victory. So here is my current recipe:
Start charging your light beam as the opening animation plays, as soon as it is charged, without moving, lock on and fire then rapid fire a few more shots before he decides what he's going to do next. He will either go right into puddle form, boost ball form, or try to possess you. You will have a second or two to analyze his next move and react accordingly. When he goes into puddle form the first time, if I am far enough away I shoot a charged light beam into him. Otherwise I ball up and drop bombs in rapid succession as he chases me. This can get tricky, since his amorphous form shifts directions rapidly and without reason, if he makes contact with you he will take off about a tank of your energy. When he is in boost or puddle form the key is just trying to survive until he's solid again, that's when you gotta BRING THE PAIN with missiles or charged light shots. The best way (for me) to avoid him when he is boosting is to remain unmorphed and double jump over him or in place, this isn't a perfect science, its hard to tell where he is coming from or going to. While he is boosting, I use single light beam shots when I am in a hurry, to instantly vaporize his Inglets and absorb their energy spheres. If I need more light beam ammo, I triple shoot the inglets with the dark beam while jumping around wildly trying to avoid the boosts. One problem I have encountered is when i am trying to get the energy spheres I bump into him, and that is deadly. The worst is when he gets you jammed up against the wall and rams you over and over and over again in puddle form. That's Game Over. The fight will really get your adrenaline going which can be disadvantageous since one must be completely centered and focused to counter his moves. I turn off the music from the options menu to keep it from distracting me.
Right now, I have the game paused, I'm on my last tank and he is so so close to defeat. I had to give myself some time to get focused again, because at this stage, one wrong move and its back to the save station for me. But if i get lucky, maybe this time I will be victorious!
I just have to beat this guy, and as soon as I do, I swear I will do something productive with my time.
DAMN YOU GAME MAKERS FOR THIS RIDICULOUS BOSS!!!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Star Trek: NEMESIS
I have just finished watching the first 10 minutes of Nemesis, which I had never seen before. And I like it. Yes, that's right. I like it. Troi and Riker getting married blew my ability to criticize this film. That was a childhood dream realized and I am not ashamed to admit it. I also enjoyed watching the Romulan senate get crystalized. So far, so good. Right on.
Star Trek: First Contact
Picard has Borg ESP! Data gets an evil cyborg girlfriend! Counselor Troi gets shit faced! And many more reasons you should rip out your eyeballs and mail them to Rick Berman/ Brannon Braga BEFORE YOU SEE THIS FILM.
It could have been good, but it was not. The evil queen gave Data a borgasm. Yucks. My fevered brain wont let me go into too much detail.
The writing was on par with something James Cameron would have come up with. Hey, Brannon, "assimilate THIS!"
It could have been good, but it was not. The evil queen gave Data a borgasm. Yucks. My fevered brain wont let me go into too much detail.
Star Trek: Generations
Horrible dialogue, bad music, cheap sets, and generally a fanboy hand-job of the worst order. I didn't pay no 6 bucks to see Captain Kirk ride no goddamm ponies. And they killed the ship. I want to write more but I have a fever of 103873321.2 F and I can't think coherently enough for a more witty or detailed analysis. It just plain sucked donkey.
We wanted to see Data get emotions since the series began, and when he does... he becomes an annoying little skidmark.
The Enterprise is destroyed by OF ALL characters, lhursa and B'tor the Klingon sisters who were minor characters to begin with. Captain Kirk dies from a fall? His last words? "It was fun... Oh boy." That's F(#*ing deep.
Now, onto ST:FC!
- "I think I speak for everyone, Captain, when I say, To hell with our orders"
-Data
"GAG" - Me
More later.
GENERATIONS: Degeneration
After the first 10 minutes my musings are such:
Ffuk this movie. F*#&. THIS. MOVIE.
F*(# the nexus, F&#* the dialogue, and F^#& RICK BERMAN!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Awww
SAVE THE WHALES, MAN!!!
I found a copy of Star Trek IV: The Journey Home. You know... the one with the whales :) !!
I wish we had more whales!
I found a copy of Star Trek IV: The Journey Home. You know... the one with the whales :) !!
I wish we had more whales!
Star Trek II, III, VI & Insurrection
I never got "into" TOS growing up, I've always been a hard-core TNG fan I think because I wasn't really appreciative of movies that had a lot of explosions. But I finally saw some of the original movies last night and I have to say, I sorta get it now. I mean, I always kinda liked Spock. I had seen The Search For Spock on TV a time or two. I also remember being dragged to an awful party some co-workers of my Dad and Stemother threw when I was little, and in the basement all the kids were playing and the Star Trek movie with the whales was on TV and it really sucked me in. So anyway, I have been converted! I now have a deeper fondness for the original cast and crew. The films caught my attention more than the original series did. Here are a couple of points I'd like to touch on, regarding the films.
One thing the Original has over TNG is that they show the casualties from battle maimed, in agony and dying. They show young men burned almost beyond recognition, moaning in terrible pain. The reason I feel this is important is because our country was not far removed from the vietnam conflict during which images of soldiers wounded, in pain and dying were saturating our collective conscience. The realities of war were a whole lot more present for people in that era, and I can't help but assume that Roddenberry's experiences as a pilot in WWII contributed to such a portrayal of armed conflict. I am thinking of a very evocative scene in which Kirk is in sick bay comforting a dying crewman in a room full of wounded soldiers. It really felt like a mournful rendering of war-time events. The kind of experience that really stays with people who found themselves in situations like that.
TNG on the other hand rarely shows crew members getting blown up or experiencing any prolonged suffering as a result of their injuries. Sometimes whole planets worth of people are killed, but they don't show us any mass or individual suffering, its just a report read off of a screen. Often when someone dies aboard the 1701-D they haven't got a mark on them. Never have I seen more deaths due to a good hard bump on the head. I think the pie chart showing 24th century fatality would look something like:
The Triforce in Trek?
So far i have spotted two examples of the triforce in Star Trek.
In The Search For Spock it appears on the front of the Vulcan priests' robes after they re-fuse Spock's brain. In TNG, it appears on the warp core of the 1701-D.
A merging of my two favorite things?
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Pandora's Box
Phew! Finding that box of Star Trek stuff has opened the doors that closed for me all those years ago. As I type this, I am waiting on receiving the Star Trek Next Gen movies I ordered from Netflix. I decided that after watching Star Trek beginning to end, the situation required further examination. Today I watched Trekkies and Trekkies 2, both produced by and starring Denise Crosby. Tasha Yar was one of my favorite characters. At eleven years old, my most valued possession was the "Skin Of Evil" Episode 23 collector's card, featuring a photo of Tasha Yar giving herself a eulogy on the holodeck. I had bought it at my second convention. It cost me $33.00 because it had Denise Crosby's signature on it. It came in a hard-shell clear plastic protective case, and when ever I needed to feel especially good, I would take it out of the binder where I kept it and just hold it, carefully turning it over in my hands like it was a sacred artifact that had materialized from the world of my imagination...
*Ahem* Well, I know that sounds pretty creepy. But it was cute when I did it. I thought maybe watching Trekkies and Trekkies 2 might help me reconnect with my roots. But instead of feeling like a part of a major cultural phenomenon, I felt very much on the outside of it. Not because I am so far removed from my convention-going days, but because it was filmed that way. Crosby's lens was that of an outsider, a tourist, amusedly gawking at these bizarre creatures. It promoted a stereotype, on the whole, an unattractive one, of hard-core fans.
There was a Brent Spiner stalker who kept every single photo she took of him on stage and then took photos of the photos and stored them all in archival binding in a safe. (I've seen Brent Spiner talk at a convention and as I recall I was not impressed, though he had my mom in stitches the whole time.) The rest were mostly over-weight, greasy complexioned, speech-impeded maniacs. I'm sure there are plenty of Trek fans that are gorgeous, brilliant, articulate and successful, too. They just didn't happen to be in the movie. For the most part, it simply wasn't a very flattering mirror she held up for me. On the other hand she did let several cast members share tearful stories about Trekkies who had touched them deeply. I was moved almost to tears by their stories as well. Especially the older cast. Anyway, my point is, some of us geeks are cool, and we deserve respect. Its like that lady in Arkansas who showed up for Jury duty on a high-profile case in full Star Fleet regalia would say. She was sort of a comical civil rights leader for Trekkies...
OOhhh! I just discovered i already have a bunch of VHS copies of Star Trek movies. I have Insurrection and a bunch of original series episodes and movies. I had forgotten that my aunt handed them over to me last summer. I got her kids into Trek back when I was a "carrier" myself. I think I took them begrudgingly. Now I'm glad I did.
Well, my coffee seems to be getting a "skin of evil" on top and the VHS is ready to rock, so off I go on another investigation. I will report later.
Rick Berman Sucks: The Series
"There is something you don't know about me..."
Its something I don't bring up on first dates. Before you ask, no, I wasn't born a man. I am coming out of the closet after holding in my secret for almost fifteen years. I am a Star Trek: The Next Generation fanatic. I'm the type of fanatic who, addicted since age 10, has been to MORE than one Convention, owns a replica Phaser AND Tricorder, has signed cast photos, collector's cards, unofficial 'Nit-picker's guide', the official companion book to the series (with every episode I had seen neatly checked off in pencil marks), blueprint schematics for the bridge, knows more about the NCC-1701-D than she does about her own car, has a replica communicator pin made of titanium, collected the comic books, several books and books on tape, including a Conversational Klingon language tape, has literally all the episodes on DVD, and also is the proud owner of a porcelain commemorative gold-trimmed collector's plate featuring a painting of the ship and the cast, still in box, with certificate. Along the edges, etched in real gold are the words "To Boldy Go Where No One Has Gone Before..."
I think I made my point. However, until recently, all of these memories, memorabilia, and the life-shaping obsession with TNG were packed away in a big box in a closet of the spare bedroom. When my boyfriend came to visit me last month TNG came up in conversation so I got it out to share with him what had been a major part of my life at one time. It was like opening a treasure chest, but it also brought with it some horrible memories of disappointment, sorrow and rage. Almost 14 years have passed since the series came to an end, I forgot how to speak Klingon, and stopped fantasizing about marrying Wesley Crusher years ago, and I figured my wounds had healed sufficiently to re-open this cold case...
I just spent the last week or so going through and watching all seven seasons episode by episode. I can now say I have seen every episode ever made, pretty much all in succession, very few breaks to eat, sleep, work, have a life. Re-experiencing the series from start to finish brought me hours and hours of joy, but as I started getting into the later seasons, the same sense of having my fantasy world anally raped got dredged up. I thought maybe now that I was older and a bit more emotionally removed from the show, I might see what happened in a different light. But that just wasn't true.
Anyone who knows their Trek Trivia knows the ST universe emanated from the imagination of ex Vegas cop/ decorated WWII veteran Gene Roddenberry. Although I was never into the Original Star Trek, I always had respect for it as an ancestor to TNG, (which won 18 Emmy Awards including "Best Dramatic Series"). Roddenberry created a universe that I can only describe as a progressive's wet dream. Hunger, war, violence, poverty, and strife were a thing of the past, Earth had worked out its many problems, unified, and joined a galactic federation of other peaceful planets. Science, exploration, justice, equality and social progress were fundamental values in human civilization and the cultures that comprised the Federation. The original Star Trek and TNG focused on the voyages of the Federation flagship, the Enterprise. It is an epic story set on a scale so vast as to be comparable only to the limitlessness of the human imagination. It opened the psychic forum for debate on questions like how far can we go and how fast? What are we doing now in the present that could prevent us from reaching such an idealistic vision of the future? It addressed social issues like how we discriminate against one another based on race, gender, religion, sexual preference, usually embedded in plots about alien cultures who had yet to overcome these historical evils, meanwhile a set of evolving and revolving characters took the stage. Roddenberry wrote us a beautiful history of the next 300 + years. We should strive to write an equally triumphant one for ourselves. However, Roddenberry ultimately fell prey to his own dark side. Although he was responsible for the genesis of a world that took on a life of its own, he was reportedly guilty at times of self-aggrandizement, greed in the context of other people's intellectual and financial contributions in regard to the Trek Franchise, and allegedly pursued several extra-marital affairs. I would argue that his most damning personal flaw was his choice to appoint of Paramount's Rick Berman to the helm of the Star Trek universe rather than passing it on to his wife Majel Barret-Roddenberry, who responsibly and masterfully produced some of his other ideas such as the TV series Andromeda after her husband's demise. (MBR was also a guest star several times on TNG and the voice of the ship's computer.)
Instead, Gene Roddenberry tapped Berman to come in on the TNG project when it first began in 1987. When Gene died in 1991, suffering from mental and physical instability, he handed over the reigns of the entire empire to Berman, who, as the George W. Bush of Star Trek, bungled the whole thing up and ran it into the ground, infuriating fans worldwide. The first symptom of Bermanitis was when he turned the USS Enterprise into a warp-capable soap opera in space. The show's previous quality of thought-provoking scripts, dotted by moments that showcased the endearing personality facets of the crew aboard, were now recycled stories that weren't so great the first time. Often even these flimsy stories were eclipsed by the interpersonal dramas of characters that began to resemble less and less the people we had come to know and love. The final nail in the Star Trek TNG coffin for me, and many fans came in the form of the film Star Trek: Generations, which premiered 2 years after the (grossly disappointing) final episode of TNG aired.
That film was the final betrayal that caused me to pack up all my TNG 'stuff' in disgust and bury it in a closet for more than half my life to date along with all my memories and dreams of adventures in the stars. It hurt me, it hurt me bad. Trekking wasn't just a hobby for me. It was my salvation. When my stepmother's cruelty and abuse hit its height, Star Trek TNG came into my life. The Enterprise became my home where I was able to be myself, to grow, learn and imagine, where I was safe and loved, the characters became my family, and the premise presented me with hope for the future of humanity in a dark and cruel world where I felt helpless. Right around the time it went off the air, visitation was finally ended on the grounds of abuse, it had gotten me through some rough years, but I still had a long road of healing ahead of me. I had taken a "direct hit to my starboard hull" when the series was cancelled, and I had waited with great anticipation to see my beloved crew and the ship on the big screen. But when I did, I was horrified.
It was like the characters I had grown so close to had been possessed by evil alien entities, the plot was absurd, too. But worst of all, horror of horrors... they DESTROYED THE ENTERPRISE. Not only did they destroy it in the film, but they actually torched and blew up the set. It was symbolic of Berman's contempt for The Next Generation, his disregard of what the fans thought, and where he was ultimately taking the franchise. That set belonged in a museum! I would make a pilgrimage ANYWHERE to be able to go and stand on it today. That bridge was SACRED. When they showed footage of the set being put to its death in a special about the film... I cried. It was like they were burning down the holy temple of my imagination. He also cut out Wil Wheaton's scenes from the film, so Wesley Crusher did not reappear after his lame exit from the series in an episode titled "Journey's End" in which Crusher abruptly drops out of Star Fleet Academy to "explore other planes of existence". An analogous summary: The over-achieving-boy-wonder and anointed ambassador of the Geek community whose only dream was to join Star Fleet (just like the rest of us), after being disgraced at the Academy in a scandal that cost a classmate's life, starts shrooming, has an out-of body experience, drops out of school and becomes a big useless hippie. WhaAaaAaAa? Wesley Crusher was my role model and my idea of the perfect man. I so wanted to see him reach his dream of graduating from the academy. I wanted to see the boy who was raised by the finest crew in the fleet grow up and take command of his own ship. (Now THAT would have been a KICK ASS spin-off.)
Berman was also responsible for creating the spin-off Deep Space Nine, which I HATED even before I knew he was behind that stinker. If you loved TNG, you probably didn't go for DS9, because of a few factors:
1) DS9 was much darker. The political situation of the Federation and its citizens changed dramatically, presenting a universe of oppressors and victims, forever pursuing one another across time and space. Main characters were deeply flawed rather than being people you could truly love and respect. It also broke the rule set by Gene Roddenberry that Interpersonal conflicts between regular characters were forbidden. "This was at the suggestion of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s writers (many of whom also wrote for DS9) because they felt that the prohibition limited their ability to develop interesting stories." But that did not provide fans like me a safe place to get away from the real-life interpersonal and political conflicts that brought us turmoil, not to mention, I think the stories of TNG were interesting enough without it becoming an inter-galactic soap opera. And the bottom line is, Berman should not have allowed it. Which brings me to my next point:
2) It was a serial. I'm not ANTI-serial. I'm just anti Trek serials. If you want to watch a bunch of BS like that, TiVo The Young And The Restless or something.
3) Many of the characters were gimmicky pap. They were more like Disney cartoons. Highly stylized, relying more on elaborate character make-up than decent dialogue to create loyal fans who followed their trials and tribulations. The first one that comes to mind is the shady ferengi bar-tender Quark, BUT I have to give major props to Armin Shimmerman who in spite of the flimsy character premise added depth of dimension to Quark with his tremendous talent and acting chops. Still, Quark was the kind of Character you could imagine coming up to you at Paramount Studios trying to give the little kids a hug, like a man in a Donald Duck suit would at Disney world.
Okay, are you ready to see where I am going with this?
I propose a new Star Trek series. Rick Berman Sucks: The Continuing Saga
In the pilot ep. Q puts him on trial for crimes against humanity. After the cancellation of TNG, and the subsequent awful movies, a generation of Trekkies had nowhere to turn except to alcohol, drugs and promiscuous sex. A post-trek social apocalypse produces many babies who are really smart but suffer abysmal childhoods because their drunk, whoring, drug addicted parents are so scarred by what happened with Star Trek. These kids grow up and build a time machine. One faction sends an assassin back in time to stalk Berman and prevent him from taking over the franchise. Another faction of people whose parents were a little older when TNG was cancelled, retain a bit more of a moral compass, and send back someone to protect Berman from being murdered, while trying to convince Roddenberry not to leave Star Trek in Berman's hands, and hopefully affecting the time-space continuum as little as possible. This is a rip off of Terminator, obviously.
Ultimately Q sentences Berman to leap from episode to episode, putting right what once went wrong and hoping that the next leap will be the leap home... (Do I really have to clarify that last reference?)
I am accepting contributing writers. Pick up a pen and let justice be served!!!
Its something I don't bring up on first dates. Before you ask, no, I wasn't born a man. I am coming out of the closet after holding in my secret for almost fifteen years. I am a Star Trek: The Next Generation fanatic. I'm the type of fanatic who, addicted since age 10, has been to MORE than one Convention, owns a replica Phaser AND Tricorder, has signed cast photos, collector's cards, unofficial 'Nit-picker's guide', the official companion book to the series (with every episode I had seen neatly checked off in pencil marks), blueprint schematics for the bridge, knows more about the NCC-1701-D than she does about her own car, has a replica communicator pin made of titanium, collected the comic books, several books and books on tape, including a Conversational Klingon language tape, has literally all the episodes on DVD, and also is the proud owner of a porcelain commemorative gold-trimmed collector's plate featuring a painting of the ship and the cast, still in box, with certificate. Along the edges, etched in real gold are the words "To Boldy Go Where No One Has Gone Before..."
I think I made my point. However, until recently, all of these memories, memorabilia, and the life-shaping obsession with TNG were packed away in a big box in a closet of the spare bedroom. When my boyfriend came to visit me last month TNG came up in conversation so I got it out to share with him what had been a major part of my life at one time. It was like opening a treasure chest, but it also brought with it some horrible memories of disappointment, sorrow and rage. Almost 14 years have passed since the series came to an end, I forgot how to speak Klingon, and stopped fantasizing about marrying Wesley Crusher years ago, and I figured my wounds had healed sufficiently to re-open this cold case...
I just spent the last week or so going through and watching all seven seasons episode by episode. I can now say I have seen every episode ever made, pretty much all in succession, very few breaks to eat, sleep, work, have a life. Re-experiencing the series from start to finish brought me hours and hours of joy, but as I started getting into the later seasons, the same sense of having my fantasy world anally raped got dredged up. I thought maybe now that I was older and a bit more emotionally removed from the show, I might see what happened in a different light. But that just wasn't true.
Anyone who knows their Trek Trivia knows the ST universe emanated from the imagination of ex Vegas cop/ decorated WWII veteran Gene Roddenberry. Although I was never into the Original Star Trek, I always had respect for it as an ancestor to TNG, (which won 18 Emmy Awards including "Best Dramatic Series"). Roddenberry created a universe that I can only describe as a progressive's wet dream. Hunger, war, violence, poverty, and strife were a thing of the past, Earth had worked out its many problems, unified, and joined a galactic federation of other peaceful planets. Science, exploration, justice, equality and social progress were fundamental values in human civilization and the cultures that comprised the Federation. The original Star Trek and TNG focused on the voyages of the Federation flagship, the Enterprise. It is an epic story set on a scale so vast as to be comparable only to the limitlessness of the human imagination. It opened the psychic forum for debate on questions like how far can we go and how fast? What are we doing now in the present that could prevent us from reaching such an idealistic vision of the future? It addressed social issues like how we discriminate against one another based on race, gender, religion, sexual preference, usually embedded in plots about alien cultures who had yet to overcome these historical evils, meanwhile a set of evolving and revolving characters took the stage. Roddenberry wrote us a beautiful history of the next 300 + years. We should strive to write an equally triumphant one for ourselves. However, Roddenberry ultimately fell prey to his own dark side. Although he was responsible for the genesis of a world that took on a life of its own, he was reportedly guilty at times of self-aggrandizement, greed in the context of other people's intellectual and financial contributions in regard to the Trek Franchise, and allegedly pursued several extra-marital affairs. I would argue that his most damning personal flaw was his choice to appoint of Paramount's Rick Berman to the helm of the Star Trek universe rather than passing it on to his wife Majel Barret-Roddenberry, who responsibly and masterfully produced some of his other ideas such as the TV series Andromeda after her husband's demise. (MBR was also a guest star several times on TNG and the voice of the ship's computer.)
Instead, Gene Roddenberry tapped Berman to come in on the TNG project when it first began in 1987. When Gene died in 1991, suffering from mental and physical instability, he handed over the reigns of the entire empire to Berman, who, as the George W. Bush of Star Trek, bungled the whole thing up and ran it into the ground, infuriating fans worldwide. The first symptom of Bermanitis was when he turned the USS Enterprise into a warp-capable soap opera in space. The show's previous quality of thought-provoking scripts, dotted by moments that showcased the endearing personality facets of the crew aboard, were now recycled stories that weren't so great the first time. Often even these flimsy stories were eclipsed by the interpersonal dramas of characters that began to resemble less and less the people we had come to know and love. The final nail in the Star Trek TNG coffin for me, and many fans came in the form of the film Star Trek: Generations, which premiered 2 years after the (grossly disappointing) final episode of TNG aired.
That film was the final betrayal that caused me to pack up all my TNG 'stuff' in disgust and bury it in a closet for more than half my life to date along with all my memories and dreams of adventures in the stars. It hurt me, it hurt me bad. Trekking wasn't just a hobby for me. It was my salvation. When my stepmother's cruelty and abuse hit its height, Star Trek TNG came into my life. The Enterprise became my home where I was able to be myself, to grow, learn and imagine, where I was safe and loved, the characters became my family, and the premise presented me with hope for the future of humanity in a dark and cruel world where I felt helpless. Right around the time it went off the air, visitation was finally ended on the grounds of abuse, it had gotten me through some rough years, but I still had a long road of healing ahead of me. I had taken a "direct hit to my starboard hull" when the series was cancelled, and I had waited with great anticipation to see my beloved crew and the ship on the big screen. But when I did, I was horrified.
It was like the characters I had grown so close to had been possessed by evil alien entities, the plot was absurd, too. But worst of all, horror of horrors... they DESTROYED THE ENTERPRISE. Not only did they destroy it in the film, but they actually torched and blew up the set. It was symbolic of Berman's contempt for The Next Generation, his disregard of what the fans thought, and where he was ultimately taking the franchise. That set belonged in a museum! I would make a pilgrimage ANYWHERE to be able to go and stand on it today. That bridge was SACRED. When they showed footage of the set being put to its death in a special about the film... I cried. It was like they were burning down the holy temple of my imagination. He also cut out Wil Wheaton's scenes from the film, so Wesley Crusher did not reappear after his lame exit from the series in an episode titled "Journey's End" in which Crusher abruptly drops out of Star Fleet Academy to "explore other planes of existence". An analogous summary: The over-achieving-boy-wonder and anointed ambassador of the Geek community whose only dream was to join Star Fleet (just like the rest of us), after being disgraced at the Academy in a scandal that cost a classmate's life, starts shrooming, has an out-of body experience, drops out of school and becomes a big useless hippie. WhaAaaAaAa? Wesley Crusher was my role model and my idea of the perfect man. I so wanted to see him reach his dream of graduating from the academy. I wanted to see the boy who was raised by the finest crew in the fleet grow up and take command of his own ship. (Now THAT would have been a KICK ASS spin-off.)
Berman was also responsible for creating the spin-off Deep Space Nine, which I HATED even before I knew he was behind that stinker. If you loved TNG, you probably didn't go for DS9, because of a few factors:
1) DS9 was much darker. The political situation of the Federation and its citizens changed dramatically, presenting a universe of oppressors and victims, forever pursuing one another across time and space. Main characters were deeply flawed rather than being people you could truly love and respect. It also broke the rule set by Gene Roddenberry that Interpersonal conflicts between regular characters were forbidden. "This was at the suggestion of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s writers (many of whom also wrote for DS9) because they felt that the prohibition limited their ability to develop interesting stories." But that did not provide fans like me a safe place to get away from the real-life interpersonal and political conflicts that brought us turmoil, not to mention, I think the stories of TNG were interesting enough without it becoming an inter-galactic soap opera. And the bottom line is, Berman should not have allowed it. Which brings me to my next point:
2) It was a serial. I'm not ANTI-serial. I'm just anti Trek serials. If you want to watch a bunch of BS like that, TiVo The Young And The Restless or something.
3) Many of the characters were gimmicky pap. They were more like Disney cartoons. Highly stylized, relying more on elaborate character make-up than decent dialogue to create loyal fans who followed their trials and tribulations. The first one that comes to mind is the shady ferengi bar-tender Quark, BUT I have to give major props to Armin Shimmerman who in spite of the flimsy character premise added depth of dimension to Quark with his tremendous talent and acting chops. Still, Quark was the kind of Character you could imagine coming up to you at Paramount Studios trying to give the little kids a hug, like a man in a Donald Duck suit would at Disney world.
Okay, are you ready to see where I am going with this?
I propose a new Star Trek series. Rick Berman Sucks: The Continuing Saga
In the pilot ep. Q puts him on trial for crimes against humanity. After the cancellation of TNG, and the subsequent awful movies, a generation of Trekkies had nowhere to turn except to alcohol, drugs and promiscuous sex. A post-trek social apocalypse produces many babies who are really smart but suffer abysmal childhoods because their drunk, whoring, drug addicted parents are so scarred by what happened with Star Trek. These kids grow up and build a time machine. One faction sends an assassin back in time to stalk Berman and prevent him from taking over the franchise. Another faction of people whose parents were a little older when TNG was cancelled, retain a bit more of a moral compass, and send back someone to protect Berman from being murdered, while trying to convince Roddenberry not to leave Star Trek in Berman's hands, and hopefully affecting the time-space continuum as little as possible. This is a rip off of Terminator, obviously.
Ultimately Q sentences Berman to leap from episode to episode, putting right what once went wrong and hoping that the next leap will be the leap home... (Do I really have to clarify that last reference?)
I am accepting contributing writers. Pick up a pen and let justice be served!!!
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