sporangia: (Kirk TOS)
sporangia ([personal profile] sporangia) wrote2009-05-27 02:08 am

Maru Guy


On Memorial Day Vala3, Owl (aka Momcat09) and I went to see Star Trek  again. It was the third time for me and I finally had a chance to focus on some of the other performances besides the main people.

 

 

Maru Guy

 

I was particularity taken with (minor lust here) the black guy sitting at the weapons station during Kirk’s third Kobayashi Maru test. If I have the actor right and I’m not sure, it was Jonathan Dixon. He is listed on IMDB as the Simulator Tactical Officer. I enjoyed his absolute glee as he was participating in a Maru meltdown. I hope he’s one of Kirk’s friends I’d like to see him again in the future movies.   Most likely he’s one of the guys that run the simulation. I can imagine him doing this simulation over and over with thousands of cadets and watching them lose and then watching the inevitable emotional fallout. He was definitely into the ‘win’ this time, I’m sure he knew the second the program veered off, and he didn’t look all that surprised. Wouldn’t it be cool if he was the guy who helped Kirk get access to the program code?  I wonder if the character was ever given a name. I might try to write a story about him. Hummmmmm.

 

 

[identity profile] ann-tara.livejournal.com 2009-05-27 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Three times! I'm jealous. I was lucky to get out the two times I did. The rest of my summer (if not the rest of '09) is likely to afford me little time for movies or anything fun, I'm afraid. *sigh* But I'm guessing the reboot will be out on dvd in time for Christmas. At that point, I'll watch for all the background essentials. :)

[identity profile] sporangia.livejournal.com 2009-05-27 06:10 pm (UTC)(link)
I hope the dvd has out-takes and additional scenes.

I have the two easiest months of the year in front of me, so I'm going to write and finish some art that has been on hold since last summer. After mid August my free time evaporates. I was looking at the summer movie list on one of the big media sites and I didn't see many films I want to see. So I will depend upon your knowledge of TV to give me a heads-up on what to watch. Vala3 and I depend upon you for that. I'm so book centric that I honestly forget to watch TV.

[identity profile] ann-tara.livejournal.com 2009-05-27 08:14 pm (UTC)(link)
I will depend upon your knowledge of TV to give me a heads-up on what to watch. Vala3 and I depend upon you for that. I'm so book centric that I honestly forget to watch TV.

Actually, I'm very book-centric too - I just rarely talk about what I'm reading or have read at the time. By the time I finish one book, I'm on to the next. I always mean to try and mention what I've just read, but rarely do. I feel like it takes a lot more time to review a book than something I just watched. I always have a large basket of books by my bedside waiting to be read. It's why I read very little fan fiction comparatively because I'm too busy reading novels, etc., whenever I have time to read.

Because The Spousal Unit and I rarely get away (you and Vala3 - especially V3 - do way more traveling than we ever get to do), we're stuck around the house and in the area, so what free-time we do get gives us time to check out what's on the tube in between our monthly/weekly/daily family melodrama(s). Sometimes I'm afraid that circumstances are forcing me to become an eventual agoraphobic. *urp*

The current familial melodrama we're mired in right now is very time-intensive and will be so for months. Right now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, which makes me cranky and depressed.

But at least I got to see Trek. ;)

Reading

[identity profile] sporangia.livejournal.com 2009-05-28 07:56 am (UTC)(link)
I actually have another LJ for posting book reviews, but I've been ignoring it for the last few months--That will change. This whole waking up to fandom again blind-sided me. I am enjoying it with a fierceness that I haven't felt for a long time.

I though about doing a book list here as a main post, but I've decided not too. Mainly because my reading tastes are so eclectic that there are no commonalities to be found here for readers simply looking for a 'good read'. My book lists would make me come off as a pompous twit, or worse, A show-off pompous twit, and I don't want to go there.

I read about 400 books a year. It's my job to be reasonably well read. So one passion feeds another and I keep reading to the bursting point. There will come a time when fan-fiction temporarily ceases to satisfy, it has happened (to me)twice so it will probably happen again. But this time around I'm trying to keep a better balance. I really do understand your need for a fan-fiction dearth. Between us we have been reading fan-fiction for over sixty years. That is why I am so thankful for your editing help especially if you are in a resting period.

As for travel, V3 does quite a lot, but not me. I hope to be in the mountains for leaf change again this fall. I can't make DragonCon it conflicts with work so my year is going to be fairly staid one.

I hope your melodrama eventually calms down. Tell the Spousal Unit hello for me.

Re: Reading

[identity profile] ann-tara.livejournal.com 2009-05-28 12:01 pm (UTC)(link)
I actually have another LJ for posting book reviews, but I've been ignoring it for the last few months--That will change.

Make an announcement when you start using it because I'd like to friend it. I like seeing what other people are reading - sometimes I get good ideas. ;)

My reading tastes are very eclectic too. I have no particular genre favorite or anything like that. I just like a good read, and have been picking up books lately purely based on what sounds good to me at the time when I read the synopsis or a review somewhere. Which accounts for why I see a book in my pile and forget why I picked it up in the first place later on. ;)

As for fan fiction, it goes in cycles with me. A few years ago, though, I was reading so much of it that I think I almost completely burned myself out, and now I only read the very occasional piece by someone I know and whose taste I trust, or a rec by, again, someone whose taste is very similar to mine.

Reply

[identity profile] vala3.livejournal.com 2009-05-28 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay, this seems a bit silly to me since I just talked with you on the phone. But as to other characters from ST, the new Chris Pike, was potrayed with both dignity, intelligence and with a tolerant amusement ('Sulu's forgetting to release the parking brake') that resonated with me. And as I already mentioned love the Kirk-McCoy dynamic in this one. I could just see the two of them getting into a bit of mischief during their academy years. Going back to fan fiction now. Like you I read a lot of books, fan fiction and have been doing DVD's more than live tv anymore. Have checked out some of the last academy nominated movies recently. Tonight it will be Mickey Roarke's Wrestler. See you soon.

I Like Pike

[identity profile] sporangia.livejournal.com 2009-05-29 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
I like the take on this character. I was surprised the movie didn't use Mallory as the mentor figure for Kirk. We also didn't see Finney or John Gill (history professor) or Gary Mitchell or Finnigan that doesn't mean they weren't there, I guess the writer's though it would be too confusing to mention them.

I liked Pike, like you said his ability to communicate with a conflicted young Kirk and make the points stick was important for the believability of the passing of command at the end of the film. Pike had to have a bit of the wild-man in him to reach Kirk, yet also the gravitas to inspire James T. to get his act together--to reach within, and become the man he was born to be--the captain of the Enterprise. It's a subtle shift, Pike had no way of knowing that his captaincy was to be lost as part of his young protege's assent. In the Prime Universe Spock was Pike's man, in this one Kirk seems to have that role. It will be curious to see how Captain Pikes ultimate future plays out

Spell check drives me nuts

[identity profile] sporangia.livejournal.com 2009-05-29 04:42 am (UTC)(link)
The spell checker changes ascent to assent, Sulu to Zulu, and Nero to Nemo. And being the dysletic that I am I can't see the difference. Sorry about all the spellos. The sentence above should read ascent.