Star Trek | At Home with Tech

August 7, 2016

This Trekie Not Impressed with First Look at New Star Trek Series

There’s a new teaser trailer online for the upcoming “Star Trek: Discovery” series. Over a million fans have already checked it out. Is the show ready for prime time? Uhhhh….

I’m a Star Trek fan, and I have been since I was seven years old. So it really pains me to say this…

But as a ‘Trekie,’ I think the first trailer for the new Star Trek series, “Star Trek: Discovery” is simply…well…

It’s terrible.
(You hadn’t heard there’s a new series in the works?)

Granted, this first teaser trailer doesn’t reveal much except the new starship itself. So what could be so bad?

Here… take a look…

Where’s Scotty When You Need Him?
Yes… my problem is with the U.S.S. Discovery.
The new starship.

It looks like an ambitious fifth grader designed it on a Mac. All of the right parts are there, but the design is… well, kind of odd.
(I know… geek alert!!)

Sure the ship has the familiar saucer and two nacell warp-engine design. But it looks… rather boxy. Not sleek or elegant the way all of the ships in the Federation’s Starfleet have always looked.
(Both in the original ‘Prime’ universe as well as in J.J. Abram’s alternate timeline)

If this is a pre-Kirk era starship, (note the NCC-1031 on the saucer) that doesn’t mean the ship has to look like an old Volvo. The NX-01 starship of the doomed “Enterprise” UPN series (2001-2005) still looked pretty cool…

A Teaser is Supposed to Generate Excitement
Also, the footage looks like something out of a Star Trek fan film you can find on YouTube. It approximates the quality of a Hollywood-created starship, but the ship doesn’t feel ‘real’ at all. It’s clearly stuck in an animated universe.

Which isn’t so good considering the best-in-class special effects we’ve just been exposed to in Justin Lin’s “Star Trek Beyond.”

Granted, “Beyond” is a big budget movie, and we’re comparing it to something out of a TV series.

But for one minute, the special effects department can’t do a little better?!
(You only get one chance to make a first impression.)

Look… I get that the producers can’t give too much away, with “Beyond” being front and center right now.

But if you’re going to give up anything, please make it great!

Live Long and Prosper
I really don’t mean to bash “Star Trek: Discovery.” I want Star Trek in all its forms to succeed, and the truth is I’ve stuck with all of the incarnations my entire life.

Perhaps I’m smarting a little bit, because “Star Trek Beyond” isn’t doing that well at the box office. And I have to admit that (Spoiler Alert) there’s so much frenetic and confusing action, the film sometimes forgets it’s a Star Trek movie. Even with all the great special effects and Simon Pegg’s witty lines, you leave the theater feeling hungry for more.

So now that “Beyond” is behind us, the attention turns to “Discovery,” which premieres in January.

The Band’s Back Together
I’m thinking, “Guys, you’d better get this right!”
(The failure of “Enterprise” over ten years ago is still fresh in my mind.)

That said, I’m excited to see so many Star Trek A-List production alumni attached to the project….
Alex Kurtzman (co-writer of 2009’s “Star Trek” and “Into Darkness”), Bryan Fuller (“Deep Space Nine” and “Voyager” writer), and Nicholas Meyer
(“The Wrath of Khan” writer and director)

That’s pretty exciting, right?

So why am I so cranky?
Because of a silly teaser trailer?

Exactly.

Discovery Will Not Be Free
Plus, I’m going to have to pay for the pleasure of watching this new series, as it will only be available on CBS All Access streaming at $5.99/month.
(Except for the series premiere, which will be distributed old school.)

So now if I’ve got to pay to watch your Star Trek series… then you’ve also got to show me the money!

This is Just a Test?!
All we really know about “Star Trek: Discovery” so far is that a poorly-designed starship likes to hang out in the middle of an asteroid space station. I’m hoping that it was just a concept piece to get the fans excited at Comic-Con.

There is one other little detail to pay attention to…
The title of the trailer
It’s “First Look – Test Flight of Star Trek’s U.S.S. Discovery.”

Test flight?

Huh.

Does that mean these are just test shots. Not the real deal?

Huh.

Does that mean I set my phaser to ‘severely angry’ for nothing?

I hope so.

Okay.
Red alert cancelled.

Deep down, I’m a believer.
Always have been.

I’ll try to be more patient as I wait again to “boldly go….”

1 Comment

July 31, 2016

10 New Tech Terms to Learn

Prepare to be mystified… I don’t think you’ve heard of these words before. That’s because I’ve made them up. But before you immediately lunge to evaporate this web window, you might find something here you can use…

While writing this blog over the past few years, I’ve taken certain liberties with the English language. Along the way, I’ve manipulated, repurposed or fused together words, acronyms and phrases to boil down the essence of what I’m talking about as a user of technology.
(Or if these words already exist, I’ve warped their meaning for my own Frankensteinian delight.)

I’ve picked ten to offer up for your own use.

Clever, corny or worse?
You decide…

#1
Transitionals
Analog folks who grew up without the Web, but have successfully made the digital transition to social media.
(Source: Laptop Time Machine)

#2
Preapplenary Era
Our lives before Apple and the iPhone.
(Source: I Am a Road Warrior)

#3
Quadrotriticale Paradox*
The more vacation pictures you bring home that clog up your computer, the smaller the chance is you’ll actually share your best photos.
(Source: Five Tips to Rescue your Best Summer Family Photos)

#4
Tronalicious**
That dopamine high that comes from owning cutting-edge tech.
(Source: I Don’t Know Why I Want Ultra HD)

#5
C.D.I. = Core Digital Integrity
Your moral code that limits how much you’ll touch up pictures with your photo-editing software. My bottom line: “Don’t mess with the core integrity of someone’s ongoing image.”
(Source: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility)

#6
E.R.S. = Extreme-Reconnect Syndrome
Baby boomers’ unique experience of reconnecting with long lost childhood friends through Facebook.
(Source: Open Letter to My Generation – Social Media is Good)

#7
B.T.B. = Beware the Blips
Consumers who feel frustrated and ignored when they want convenience and simplicity when watching purchased media on their home tech. My message to the media moguls: “There are a lot more of us ‘blips’ than you think…”
(Source: Blinded by the UltraViolet Promise in Your New Blu-ray Movie)

#8
Tech Group Think
The search for informational conformity*** when researching new tech to purchase.
(Source: Please Rate This Product…or Else)

#9
Techdentity
Your tech identity index… or how you self identify via different forms of technology.
(Source: My New Area Code Twists my Techdentity)

#10
Techtastrophe
(Isn’t this self evident?****)
(Source: I Don’t Know How to Install my Wireless IP Camera, Part 1)

*If you’re not a “Star Trek” geek, it’s a reference to “The Trouble with Tribbles” episode.
**Yes, I’m referring to “Tron” or “Tron Legacy.”
***You’ll never find unanimous opinion on anything online.
****Perhaps ‘Techtastrophe’ is what I should have titled this blog post!

November 15, 2015

My Child Brought Home One of his School Teachers

I’ve just realized that student book bags don’t need to carry so much anymore thanks to learning websites out there that are assigned as homework.

There’s an early scene in 2009’s “Star Trek” movie that shows the boy Spock in school. While sitting in one of several dozen sub-floor pods, he’s rabidly bombarded with math and philosophy questions enveloped by a 360-degree virtual reality screen and cool computerized voice.
(A nifty homage to a similar scene from 1986’s “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”)

It’s a complete teaching and testing system without a teacher in sight.
A fantastic, sci-fi view on the future of our educational process…

Or is it?

Hello, Cyber School Teacher
My son has been experiencing kindergarten for the last few months. One day a few weeks back, I came home and found my son and wife at the dining room table looking intently at my wife’s MacBook Pro.
(It was like he had suddenly learned to read, found my blog and realized he’s a topic of this ongoing conversation!)

I walked closer and heard a new voice coming from the laptop. It was talking to my boy:

“What significant contribution to bioengineering was made on the Loonkerian outpost of Klendth?“

“The Universal Atmospheric Element Compensator.”

“Correct!”

…Okay, those are lines from the “Star Trek IV” scene between the adult Spock and the Vulcan computer.

What was actually happening was a word recognition quiz for my human boy from a website called Reading Eggs. It’s a subscription-based tool that teaches kids to read for $59/year.

I thought it was simply a new resource my wife had found and was trying out. But it wasn’t. In fact, our boy had brought the entire idea of it home, because he uses the website at school.

Huh.

Computer-Based Learning
In fact, his teacher had recommended that the students spend time with Reading Eggs at home.
(Part of their early homework regiment)

I know there are plenty of learning apps out there for kids, and we’ve used a number of them on our iPad over the past couple of years with our five year old. So computer-based teaching is certainly not new to us.

And of course I’m generally aware that computers have been completely integrated into all grade levels for many years.

But this was the first moment where I witnessed it up close and personal.
And in my home.

Of course, why wouldn’t the school suggest we use a good learning website, along with books, flashcards and sound charts that still involve letters and words on paper?

But I still stood there, trying to integrate this experience as a baby-boomer parent whose tech contact in grade school was limited to first-generation calculators and analog mimeo copy machines that created exam sheets reeking of alcohol-like ink no kid could resist from sniffing.

How Do You Feel?
I wasn’t upset. And I certainly shouldn’t have been surprised.
Maybe I just needed to have my little ‘Aha’ moment.

And acknowledge how ‘fascinating’ it all was… the similarity this scene had to the Vulcan learning process expressed in both “Star Trek” flicks.

I just had to recognize the presence of computers already so close to the center of my son’s formal education process.

And how do I really feel about all of this?
(pause)

To quote another line from “Star Trek IV”…

I feel fine.

Tag: Star Trek

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