What is On Jeffs' Mind

I will be doing a series of 3 posts on my favorite ships from different Sci-Fi Movies and TV Shows. This first one will be ships that are not from either Star Trek or Star Wars. Then I will have posts, one for Star Trek and One for Star Wars.

One of the reasons why I like Sci-Fi so much, is for the Ships. There is something about them that really grab me, so I was thinking, why not talk about some of my favorites.

Original Series Cylon Raider

This ship has always been a favorite, since the first time I saw it as a kid. I really like that it has some what of a saucer shape, but looks so menacing. It looks fast, it looks tough, it looks mean. When I think about this ship, I think about all the stock clips from the old Battlestar Galactica series, where the Cylon Raiders would cruise onto the screen in packs. I saw it over and over, but never tire of those clips. They are iconic to me.

When I was a kid, a friend down the road from me, had a toy Cylon Raider, and I would remember going over and always gravitating to that toy. The Cylons in side were pretty small, and it shot little missiles, but I thought it was real cool. I am not really sure why I never asked for one from my parents, it might have been there were other Star Wars toys that I wanted more. But I had a lot of good times playing with my friends Raider.

When the updated Battlestar Galactica came out, I was interested to see what the new Cylon Raider would look like, and to be honest, I really did not like it, and still dont. I get the idea that in the new series that the Cylon and Ship are one, but I guess the design of it really did not grab me. They did come out with some larger Cylon ships that were bombers, that were more reminiscent of the original, but they never got a lot of screen time.

Jupiter 2

A pretty plain looking ship from all accounts, but I find something charming about it. From the 60′s show Lost in Space, each week the Robinson on the Jupiter 2 would travel to some new strange world and have a new and usually cheesy adventure.

I think what I like about this ship, is it simplicity, as it really is just a saucer, almost like what one would imagine of a flying saucer from that era. It spun when it flew, landing and take off. It had a big front wind shield so to say, where they could look out to help navigate. But since it’s mission was to take the Robinson’s to different planets as they found a new place for the people of Earth, it was sort of a futuristic Motorhome.  There was two floors to it as we saw on the show, with the upper level for navigation, and the lower level for living.

It did seem for the size for the Ship, that they were able to pack a lot into it, as they had a Land Chariot, a bunch of equipments, and a crew of 7 plus a robot. The sets looked quite large compared to the scale of the ship when we saw it on the outside. I suspect back in the 60′s, they did not put as much thought into the scale like they would now. Also it was Lost in Space, so a very Cheesy show. But still, I really liked this ship, and some day I hope that I can get some sort of model of it.

Blackbird BSG

I have always liked Vipers from Battlestar Galactica, and I actually like all of them from both series. There is something about them that I really find cool, they look so fast, and can deliver a good punch. Some might say they are a bit derivative of the X-Wing as they have some of the same lines to them with a long nose, rear engines, and red striping, but I think they are cool none the less.

I chose the Blackbird out of all the Vipers as the one to put on my list as I found it different from the rest, but still very familiar to the over all design. They don’t really consider it a Viper, but part of me still does. It is cool as it is black, and made for stealth. Built from carbon fiber they use it to go on secret type missions when they want to do surveillance, since it cannot be detected like the standard Viper.

It was named Laura after president Roslyn on BSG, and it is a pretty simple design. There is not a lot to it, and it is pretty sleek. I think part of the reason why I like this ship so much, was that it was in some of my favorite BSG episodes. I always liked more of the space and ship based episodes compared to all the dramatic and arc based episodes. So anytime they got out in the ships and did battles or missions, I really liked the episodes.

Phoenix

Growing up one of the cartoon series I watched a lot was Battle of the Planets. I remember watching it every day after school, and looking forward to it. The show was based off a Japanese anime show called Gatchaman, and re dubbed and edited for North American audiences. It followed 5 young people who protected Earth from an enemy called Spectra. The crew was led by their commander Mark, his second in command was Jason, Tiny piloted the ship, and Princess and Keyop rounded out the crew. Their base was an underwater facility called Center Neptune.

This was a real cool ship in my opinion, it was a pretty basic design, and was blue and red. But what the Phoenix could do made it so special. 4 of the members had their own vehicles which would be located in different parts of the ship. It was always cool, when they would show clips of the Phoenix picking them up. Jason had a race car that would fit into the nose of the ship, Keyop had a buggy of some sort that was in one of the wings, Princess had a cool looking motorcycle that went in the other wing, and Mark had a jet that would be docked in a hangar in the back of the Phoenix. All their vehicles could transform from standard type vehicles to the special vehicles they used to protect Earth. Another thing that made this ship so cool, was that they could transform it into what was called the fiery Phoenix, which was that the ship turned into a flaming bird.

This ship will always hold a soft spot in my heart as it was one of the first models I ever built. I built it in the early 80′s at summer camp. I wish I still had the model, but I don’t as I played with it quite a bit. I suspect that I did not do a very good job, since it was my first model, and I might have been a pre teen at the time, but it always gives me some nice memories of the time. It is a ship that I am hoping that one day I can find a model of, as I would not mind having something in my collection. I look for it off and on on eBay but never really got to anything serious, but it is on my list of ships I would like.

Original Series Basestar

Seems like my list has a lot of Battlestar Galactica ships in it. I guess for me, I really liked the ships in the shows, and they really grabbed me. The Original series had a lot of episodes based on space battles and missions, and like I said, I really like sci-fi shows that focus a lot on ships. The Basestar from the original series I thought had a real cool and different design from the rest of the ships.

Again, like the Cylon Raiders, I really liked these ships, especially when they traveled in numbers, as they looked like a formidable opponent. Basically they look like two disks which tapered down and connected to each other. They had a much different look to them then the Galactica did, since they did not have a real traditional ship look to them. I guess they are a Basestar, so in a sense probably more of a Spacestation then a ship. I guess another argument could be made that they come off a bit similar to the Deathstar, since both are sort of round, and a ship or station that does not have a lot of detailing to it.

All I know, is if I was a fugitive fleet, on the run, that I would not want a pack of these following me, with their squadrons of Raiders that could be deployed to attack. I think some of the coolest Episodes these ships were in was the Living Legend episodes, where the Galactica and the Pegasus take on the Basestar is some cool battle sequences.

 

So that is my list of top 5 Sci-Fi ships that are not in Star Trek or Star Wars. I was going to add honorable mentions, but to be honest, there are probably quite a few ships I could add, so I think I will leave it at this list. Also, I only included shows that I watched a lot of, as I am sure there are plenty more cool shows with cool ship I have not seen. Maybe this list is a bit of a reminder to me that I need to watch some more Sci-Fi . My Followup posts for Star Trek and Star Wars I will add Honorable Mentions.

Tags: Basestar, Battle of the Planets, Battlestar Galactica, Blackbird, BSG, Cylon Raider, Fiery Phoenix, Gatchaman, Jupiter 2, Lost in Space, Phoenix, Viper

Lately I have been thinking a lot about fandom and the area of negativity. With the release of the Star Wars Blu-Rays in September, it has opened up the debate again about Star Wars and peoples feelings on how George Lucas has cared for the franchise. I am a big Star Wars fan, so I will be honest, the negative criticism bothered me. But a positive from this is that it forced me to rethink how I view fandom in general and how I approach it.  I guess for me, I have decided, that I am going to hold my own negative comments to myself when I come across different things in fandom I might not enjoy. If there is a TV show or a movie I did not like, unless I have something constructive to add to an argument, I am not going to say anything, as there are people out there who might really be fans of them. It is not my right to bring someone down for enjoying something, feel like I felt when I had to go through the negative criticism for Star Wars, or even going back, all the negativity around Star Trek Enterprise years ago. To me, it is so awesome to be able to go somewhere and celebrate with others the excitement over a piece of work, it helps me appreciate it more, and really get excited about it. I understand nothing is ever perfect, and for some, debating the strengths and weaknesses is where they get their enjoyment, but that is just not for me. I guess it is a fine line, as if it is done in a way that there is a like for the material being debated, then that is cool, but if a person is coming from a point of dislike, then to be honest for me, I really do not want to hear it. Vice Versa, I am not going to inflict my own feelings on others if I did not care for something.

With Star Wars, I find there is so much more to the whole series then just the 6 movies. I get that some people only really care for the Original Trilogy, it might be something they grew up with, but for me, there is so much more. They are sort of the stepping stone to this much bigger and larger universe that I have gotten into. The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite movie of all time, hands down, after that the rest of the movies I am not sure I could rank in any particular order, as I think I like them all as a whole. I guess since I view Star Wars as a larger piece of work then just the first 3 movies, the changes to the movies over the year have not bothered me, as it just brings the universe all together. When people say they don’t care for the EU, or even the prequels, that is fine. They don’t really need it to enjoy the original trilogy. I will buy their argument though that the movies they know have been changed for it, even though to be honest they are really only minor changes. I don’t get how a few seconds here or there can ruin a whole experience of a movie, especially when it is not really changing anything with the plot of the movie. In a sense, for me even though I do not have an issue with the changes to the original movies, I wish George Lucas would re-release a Blu-Ray cut of the Original Movies, more so the quiet all the critics. That way they can have their movies, we don’t have to listen to them anymore, and the rest of the people can go on enjoying the larger universe.

The criticism for the prequels as well baffles me. People go on and on about them, and how much they dislike them. I guess my simple answer to that is, don’t watch them, don’t pay any mind to them. Those stories don’t exist to you, and should not hold you back from enjoying the Original Trilogy. Same goes for the Clone Wars or any other story that has been put out since the Original Trilogy. I am sure when the Phantom Menace comes out in 3D in early 2012, the whole prequel debate/hate will flare up again. I hear friends tell me they don’t get all the extra content in the Star Wars universe, they feel it is to much, just leave it at the movies.  Again, my answer is, leave your fandom at the movies, nothing in the rest of the EU is going to change what you see in the movies. Some people just enjoy a movie for what it is, others like to get immersed into something so much larger and more, nothing wrong with either.

I heard similar feelings about Star Trek Enterprise. People railed against it when it originally came out. They said it was an affront to the Original Star Trek series, and was messing with continuity. But I never bought that argument. If a person is just a TOS fan, then what ever happened in Enterprise, had no affect on TOS. Not one TOS episode changed because of Enterprise. If you did not like what was happening in that series, then don’t watch. Star Trek fandom for you ends at TOS, and anything past that, does not change anything with how a person views the original episodes. Like wise for TNG, Voyager or DS9, if a person liked or disliked those series, for the most part they did not affect the other series. If a person dropped Voyager, because they did not like it, nothing in that affected what happened in TNG. A person could end their fandom in Trek where ever they wanted, and what came since would not affect what they already saw.

It always bothered me that people were so vocal with Enterprise, in how it was ruining Trek and should be cancelled. Again why? If they had stopped watching, then the stories did not apply to the Trek they know. They could still come to their own conclusion on why things were in the Trek universe if they did not want to accept what was being done in Enterprise. Kirk was still Krik, Spock was still Spock. Klingons looked the way they did, the missions were still the same missions with the same outcomes. In a sense, sadly the negative people got what they wanted at the time. They said they would rather have no Trek then Enterprise, and that is what they got. Since then there has been no new Trek series, and now we are dealing with a rebooted Universe. I liked the new Star Trek, it was a great movie and looking forward to what is next, but I think my heart will always be in the Trek Prime universe. But I wonder if all those negative people pushing for the end of Enterprise ever imagined we would get what we got after it left. The old adage careful for what you wish for, it might come true. Just sadly for all us folks, who liked Trek, we got pulled along with them. But for me, Trek Prime remains alive in books, and again, a person can either accept them, or they don’t as they do not change anything to date that they have seen.

This was a bit of a rant on my part, but something I was thinking about for awhile. It has forced me to relook at things and how I relate to my own fandom.  So for me, if there is something I might not like, but others do, I am just keeping it to myself, they have the right to enjoy what they like to fullest they can. Maybe it goes against the spirit of debate, and even peoples right to express themselves, but at least I know I have not put a cloud over somebody’s fandom.

Tags: DS9, Enterprise, Fandom, Star Trek, Star Wars, The Clone Wars, The Phantom Menace, TNG, Voyager

Yesterday after work, I picked up a copy of Star Wars the Complete Saga on Blu Ray. Originally I was going to wait until my Birthday and ask for it then, but listening to people talk about it over the past week, just got me more and more excited, that I wanted it sooner. It is weird, what got me excited was people complaining about the changes that had been made, and it really sparked my interest to see these. They had been floating around on the internet, but I really just wanted to see these for myself on the discs first. Also the deleted scenes that they were including with the discs also had my interest in seeing.

I got home and put in Episode 4 A New Hope in and started watching. I found myself very excited to watch this movie, and at points felt like I was watching it for the first time, even though I have seen it many times over the past 34 years. To me it looked fantastic. I found some of the colours to be much more vibrant, the details the High Def picked up made me feel like I was right there. What amazed me a bit was the sound, they have added subtle little differences to it. The scene where Luke first meets Obi-Wan for the first time, almost felt magical when Obi-Wan was talking about not hearing the name for a long time. I have seen that scene many times, but just felt a bit different this time. They added in a new Krayt  dragon call from Obi-Wan, which many people are complaining about. To be honest, it doesn’t bother me, as I sort of view the dragon as being an out of this world creature, so it having a stranger sound is fine with me. They also cleaned up the lightsabers in the battle between Obi-Wan and Vader a lot, and they look much more brilliant. I also noticed so many different Astromech droids throughout the movie. Maybe it is because I collect them, that I pay more attnetion, but the HD I think also makes them really pop out in the scene.

I watched the deleted scenes for ANH after and some I had seen before and others not, but really liked them, especially the extended scenes in Anchorhead. I always like deleted scenes, as I find they give me a little more insight into the movie, the characters, and I like to try and rationalize why the film makers took them out. Sometimes I find that these scenes really do give a lot of insight into a movie.

Looking forward to getting into the rest of the movies over the weekend, and more into the extra material. Very excited about this Blu-Ray set and so happy to have it now.

Tags: A New Hope, Star Wars, Star Wars Complete Saga Blu Ray

This past weekend, I was honored to guest host with Rico on the Treks in Sci-Fi podcast. Rico and I covered the first Tron movie that came out back in 1982. We talked a lot about the making of the movie, some behind the scenes facts and trivia, or other aspects of the movie. Rico played some clips from the movie and we commented on them. It was a lot of fun to get the chance to guest host with Rico, and Tron was a lot of fun to talk about.  We also talked a few other topics such as computers from the 80′s, Pong, Star Wars and Star Trek. To find out more, checkout Treks in Sci-Fi, it is podcast number 333.

Tags: Rico, Treks in Sci-Fi, Tron