GoT: The Great War

Calgary Comic Con 2019

Here are a few pics from my trip to the Calgary Comic Con:

Star Trek: Disaster, Part Duh

So once again I got myself in a debate with a ‘Disco’ apologist whom loved with season 2 finale, while at the same time telling me the ‘Game of Thrones’ series finale will be disappointing. So he pointed out to me what Spock said: 

Where I replied that that is a total cop out by the writers and producers. They definitely were reading our comments and tried to do a course correction and completely ignore what their original intention was. And that intention was: Discovery IS a continuation of the original series timeline (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY,ENT). Original Disco Show runner Bryan Fuller and later Show Runner Alex Kurtzman said as much until now...

If you like STD all the more power to you, but please don’t for one minute put it in the same league as ‘Game of Thrones’, in terms of writing quality and production. There is simply no comparison. Disco cannot even compare to its own predecessors let alone compare to the best show on tv right now, and that in my humble opinion is GoT. 

Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo

I (with a bunch of my friends) will be attending the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo next weekend April 25-28 2019! Looking forward to meeting Anson Mount (Hell on Wheels) and Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future's Doc Brown, Commander Kruge from 'Star Trek III: The Search for Spock) 

New episode of ‘The Pop Culture Pub Podcast’ available!

 

 

 

 

Available now for your listening pleasure:

on iTunes or at podbean at https://thepopculturepub.podbean.com/

 

 

 

 

 



Rubbing salt in the wound...

Being an Edmonton Oilers fan all my life it has been a hard few years as of late. The team is blessed to have one of the best current NHL players on their roster with Conner McDavid. But if the rest of your team, coaching staff and management has been sucking it doesn’t matter if you have the prettiest flower in a big pile of crap. The last time the Oilers hoisted Lord Stanley’s Cup in victory was 29 years ago!!! I was 10 years old! 

But as an Oilers fan I do get enjoyment out of watching their rivals, the Calgary Flames, crash and burn. 

Maybe I’m a bad person... nope the Flames suck. 

Star Trek Disaster (oops I meant ‘Discovery’…)

Cadet Tilley. One of the characters from 'Disco' I think is great (if at times a little annoying)

 

Before I begin let me say I want Star Trek, whether it is a TV series or movie to be good.  I am a lifelong fan and I want the franchise I love to do good things. Unfortunately early on in season one of ‘Discovery’ I realized things were not going the way I felt it should have. We were told this would be a prequel series and would be in established Star Trek continuity and would be respectful to what came before. That clearly did not happen as evident with the use of the Klingons, the retcon of Spock having a human foster sister, the spore drive system (Voyager sure could have used that “old” technology in the 24^th century), the mirror universe angle, Section 31 is a “secret” organization that EVERYONE seems to know about… and the flaws go on and on. Sonequa Martin-Greene (aka SMG, previously from her NON-ground-breaking role on ‘The Walking Dead’) plays Michael Burnham who is a mutinous Starfleet officer whom helped start the war between the Klingon Empire and the Federation, don’t worry all gets forgiven for some reason. The rest of the “crew” are essentially background characters to her with the exception of Captain Lorca (later Pike), Commander Saru and Cadet Tilley, the chief engineer and doctor are there too. Add inconsistent pacing, tons of lens flares, special effects orgies, endless Deus Ex Machina to solve problems for the characters and situations, continuity errors galore, bad acting by SMG and this show is just a terrible mess of a series. People have pointed out that TNG had a terrible first 2 seasons but at least series lead Patrick Stewart (Picard) could act the hell out of what he was given to work with, can’t say the same for SMG. And speaking of TNG needing 2 seasons before it got good: I would argue TNG had more to contend with behind the scenes that caused them to suffer creatively such as a rotating writing staff, a Hollywood writers’ strike, limited budget and technology to utilize for the show (this was the 80’s after all, not much CGI in those days…) and so on. Star Trek Discovery has the benefit of hindsight and technologies that can help tell their stories and not limit them, etc.

L to R: Stamots, Saru, Ash Klingon, Beardy "Spock, unknown guy, unknown gal, unknown guy, unknown weird eyed gal hidden behind Tilley, Tilley

 

I am a Star Trek fan and I do want it to be good and do well. In the past TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT all had bad episodes and did suffer from time to time creatively. But not like this, not the way DISCO is suffering. It is consistently bad with too many cooks in the kitchen (Disco: 21 Producers with 8 of them being Executive Producers as compared to TNG season 2 : 8 Producers with 3 of them as Executive Producers).

Disco’s 2^nd season was a slight improvement over the first but not by much. Anson Mount was great as Captain Christopher Pike but sadly he will be gone in season 3, and judging by interviews given he doesn’t seem anxious to return to Trek any time soon. That’s just my opinion after seeing some interviews and the words/body language he used.

Admiral Forgettable and Anson Mount as 'Captain Pike'

 

Maybe the Captain Picard series will be good…there is always hope and hope is all we have.

 

 

Shazam: a quick SPOILER FREE review

Shazam: a quick SPOILER FREE review 

Just got out of the movie and I must say this is now my favourite DC film (not counting 1989 Batman). I have been a fan of the original Captain Marvel (Shazam) for years and I am beyond happy that they did that character justice in this film. 

This movie was fun which is a nice change of pace for DC films: I find a lot of DC films are dark and a bit dreary. This film was fun and never really takes itself too seriously. Can’t wait for a sequel. 

I am planning on doing a more in depth review in a future episode of ‘The Pop Culture Pub Podcast’, where i will be discussing the film and character in depth. Stay tuned! 

4**** stars out of 5

Still Here!

It's been a quiet month or so on the old blog scene, but I assure you I am still here and I'm still kicking. The podcast continues to go strong, and we have an all new episode coming soon.