Friday, December 21, 2018

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR



FROM THE RANDOM NERDNESS BLOG I WOULD LIKE TO WISH EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND ALL THE BEST FOR 2019!!

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR! :)

- CHRIS LOCKHART


**Side Notes**

- This year marks the first time in 7 years I have not done a podcast episode of 'The Chris Lockhart Christmas Special'. Kinda makes me sad as it became an annual tradition I loved to do. But when you retire from podcasting you can only do what others will allow you to do on their shows. I've done one guest appearance on episode 6 of 'The Cave of Cool' podcast since 'retiring'. Be sure to give that a listen as it was a fun discussion on Stan Lee.

- 2019 I will be staying retired from podcasting except for the occasional guest appearance that might come my way. I plan on focusing on my writing and I am currently working on a book of short stories and essays so stay tuned!

- And I do intend to keep doing this blog, with posts at least twice or more a month.

Here's hoping 2019 will be a better year than 2018!

My thoughts on the Alberta Oil Economic Crisis

 
 

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Not my cup of tea


As a Star Trek fan I have been asked a lot lately if I like the new TV series: Star Trek Discovery. And being an honest person I answer honestly: Not really. Now there are definitely some things I do like about it such as the characters of Commander Saru and Cadet Tilley, but other than that I just am not a fan of this series. It seems some are under the mistaken impression that as a ‘Star Trek Fan’ you must like all things Star Trek. This is simply not true. You can like a franchise but doesn’t mean you must like everything in that franchise. For example you can like Coca Cola and not like New Coke (80’s kids will get that reference) or you can like Pepsi but not like Crystal Pepsi (90’s reference). When people ask me to go into detail why I don’t like the new series I have some main points I share:

-          When the producers pitched this series they said it would tie into established continuity and not change things. This simply did not happen. For example the Klingon look, language and culture seemed to be completely different than in previous continuity. If they had just said “This is a reboot of the franchise” I’d have been alright with that. Reboot it and do what you like, but when you go out of your way to say nothing will be changed then it is…I have a problem with that.

 

-          The previous Trek series were about the crew and being a team/family. Granted in the original 60’s series it originally was all about Kirk, and then as the popularity of Spock and McCoy grew it became more about the three of them. But the supporting cast all contributed in some way to give the viewer a sense of comradery, but this new series is about Michael Burnham, Saru, Tilley, Engineer guy…there’s no real sense of team/family here.  Most of the bridge crew has so far remained nameless

 

 

-          Lens flares, Admirals hiding in shadows as they speak, focus on ship redesigns and special effects…this new show has the look and feel of the JJ Abrams ‘Star Trek’ films (2009-2016) and not the previous Star Trek TV series.

 

I could go on but I’ve said my peace. I’m not saying YOU will not like this show, YOU just might. This could be the Trek series you have been waiting for. But for me it’s just not my cup of tea. I’ll watch season 2 (coming in January 2019) and I am holding out hope that the new Captain Picard series will be good (coming out in late 2019)

This & That

I really am a bit of a 'grumpy old man' as I get older. You say or do something stupid I'll tell you.