Star Trek Memories

Jul 11, 2008 19:02



Star Trek Memories

I bought the DVD sets of ST: TOS last year and finished watching all of them a few months ago. Paramount has since re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-released at least some of the TOS episodes on home video, this time on HD-DVD (just in time for HD to lose the format wars to Blu-Ray). Because I have only an ordinary DVD player ( Read more... )

st, sf, trek, startrek

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Re: A Mind Forever Yoyageraging science_officer September 15 2008, 04:09:06 UTC
First of all, I appreciate the apology. I didn't think you were trolling, but instead I concluded that you just got a little excited. For many Trekkies, everything seems to remind them of a Star Trek episode, and Star Trek episodes remind them of numerous things. This isn't exactly unexpected, since Star Trek refers to almost every conceivable subject in one way or another.

No harm done... at least as far as I'm aware. (And if anyone is looking in on this blog, allow me to reiterate: he said it!)

Thanks for being honest about your condition (Bipolar II). A good ground rule for interactions--regardless of whether or not someone has Bipolar II--is basically this: please avoid saying anything that could be construed as threatening, or that could get someone else in trouble. Sure, sometimes these things are visible only in hindsight, as you acknowledge above.

In either related or unrelated news, one of my favorite authors just died. Apparently it was suicide. David Foster Wallace wrote about both depression and suicide (including in Infinite Jest), so this isn't necessarily a surprise. For me personally, even though I obviously admire the guy and don't want to trivialize his death, this event turned out to be pretty much just an emotional speed bump. Today, I filled the recycle bin with cardboard, put a bunch of items in storage, and did other chores. This got my mind off things, and now I feel quite well. No longer despondent, anyway. (I hope any David Foster Wallace fans who might read this understand that I don't want to downplay his significance by saying these things.)

In closing, 'A Mind Forever Yoyageraging' is one of the most impressive triple-references I've seen in quite some time, connecting at least these elements, and possibly a few more: 1) Infocom; 2) Trek; 3) Creation Conventions' misspelled headline. So, it's a n >= 3 pun. (I'm not a mathematician; hopefully I got the notation right. And hopefully I didn't just accidentally draw an emoticon for something completely unacceptable.)

Good triple-wordplay! :-)

Science_Officer

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Re: A Mind Forever Yoyageraging bear_helms September 15 2008, 06:00:01 UTC
You do win the cupie doll, it was a reach for me to believe you might have also heard of the Mind Forever Voyaging InfoCom game. (Which is an interesting SF kind of story - you have to interact with your environment through the sensory facilities of various robots; some can only tell textures, and so on.)

I have suffered worse attention-span difficulties of late and therefore read perhaps 2-4 books a year now. I can't recall reading anything by David Foster Wallace, I'm afraid.

I believe I seldom will take a threatening stance even when in a paranoid manic state. Fear and phobia are things I've yet to find any competant psychiatric counseling for in this pitiful corner of Texas.

In case you missed my startrek post on the subject, my public LJ gallery contains well over 100 photos taken during the last days of Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton, and I have granted permission for copying.

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Re: A Mind Forever Voyaging + Trek Experience science_officer September 17 2008, 05:26:12 UTC
1. [A Mind Forever Voyaging]: The Infocom promotional posters that they sent along with game diskettes listed "A Mind Forever Voyaging," but I never bought it. I found the description intriguing, but was scared off by the "advanced" difficulty level, or whatever term they used. Somewhere around here, I still (hopefully) have the packaging and inserts from several Infocom games; one of the most interesting was either "Witness" or "Deadline" which included a fake book of matches, among other things. (At least I hope they were fake.)

2. [Trek Experience]: Good photos! As an Apple Computer enthusiast, I especially liked the Macintosh from Star Trek IV. (That's one of the best scenes in the whole film: Scotty speaks into the mouse!) I never went to the Experience, and, if I understand correctly, it's now closed forever. A few people I know IRL--some of them non-Trekkies, amusingly enough!--have gone there, and they've all been unanimous in their praise. (Probably they were in Vegas to begin with, and just decided to go to the Experience.) I'm sure it's obvious from my postings that I enjoy Star Trek (well, except for some of the episodes I derided earlier), but even so I thought it wasn't really worth the expense to go to the Experience. Glad that others have gone and that they've enjoyed it, but it sounded a little pricey. Just my opinion, naturally.

Didn't view your videos since that would require broadband, which I still don't have. Okay, 'require' is not literally accurate... but I mean, like, it'd take a long time without broadband. :-)

Science_Officer

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Re: A Mind Forever Voyaging + Trek Experience bear_helms September 17 2008, 19:35:21 UTC
Deadline had fake matches, a case file, etc. Many InfoCom games at the end had a lot of "props" in them to encourage people to want the original packaging as opposed to a "locksmith copy."

I remember visiting the Smithsonians in Washington, D.C. There's so very much to see in these museums that you could go there every day of every weekend and holiday for a whole year and still not really take in everything - assuming you actually stopped to read the placards.

Such can be said of Star Trek: The Experience, if you took time to read all the placards and attempted to take photographs of every original prop and wardrobe piece displayed to the public, along with the uniquely constructed ship models and decorations (set and otherwise). Then toss in the actors who are made up using authentic Westmore makeup (Borg drone prosthetics have to be molded and hand-painted to each individual, so they managed to get the original makeup artist to do them). Add in the opportunity to interact with these aliens wandering the replica DS9 promenade, where not only may you photograph but videotape them, and you get an opportunity perhaps superior to any fan's backstage pass - the only things missing are the actual stars, really.

The actors, waiters, service personnel, cashiers, et al. in the Experience all are there out of a labor of love - they can get better pay and hours elsewhere, but not find a better job anywhere in the Universe. That vibe makes being there like a natural high better than most any Trek con I've ever attended - and that I miss most of all. You can be totally geeked out trekkie wise, and people smile - they Grok it.

Admission tends to be around $50 for an all-day pass - you can walk through the museum all you want, and enter the 2 rides all you can manage that day. (9a til 9p approx.) Until lastday, there were discounts for tacking on souvenir pictures of you in the Captain's Chair, in the Borg Regeneration Chamber, an alien morph photo, a souvenir glass, a behind-the-scenes tour, and a meal complete with appetizer, beverage and lunch. (They had a package including some ships models, but those ran out the previous month I went.)

It really was quite a full day when I took the maximum package available - especially with tours, photos and videos, getting my souvenir pictures taken, and having the meal in Quark's Bar & Restaurant. I ended up having most all meals there.

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