What is On Jeffs' Mind

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

After a real long delay, this is the followup to a post I made on my top 10 favorite Star Trek characters part 1, here is Part 2. This is the final 5 characters in my list of my favorite characters. After I have listed them, I will followup with why some did not make the list.

 Captain Benjamin Sisko – Deep Space Nine

Another reason why I liked Captain Benjamin Sisko was that over the series, his character really grew. He started out as a commander like I mentioned, but he was promoted through out the series. He became a very important person in the Dominion Wars, and helped starfleet and the federation in that war. Captain Sisko always seemed like a really down to earth captain, and one that I could see myself serving under easily.

The Doctor – Voyager

The Doctor had a bit of an abrasive attitude at time, but that was probably what I liked a lot about him, was that attitude, as it never got boring to me. I think that Robert Picardo who played the character did a great job, as that sort of attitude could wear thin on people, but he made sure not to over do it in my opinion. In later seasons they really started to show a more human element to the Doctor, as he explored more elements of that character. I think matching him up a lot with the Borg 7 of 9 was a great idea as well, as they explored aspects of humanity together. The mobile emitter that the Doctor got in the series really helped expand the character a lot, as it got him out of Sick Bay, and gave more chances for the show to do more with the Character, and some of the later episodes proved that. I got to meet Robert Picardo a few years ago at a comic convention for a few minutes, and got my picture taken with him. He seemed a lot like the characters he plays on TV so that was cool.

Charles Tucker III (Trip) – Enterprise

Over the course of the series, the Trip character went through a lot, and arguably was the character that may have grown the most. His character was given some pretty good stories, most likely because the actor Connor Trinnear did such a great job with the role. For an engineer, he was a pretty cool guy as well, and came across very beleivable in the role. At the end of the series, I was really saddened with what happened to the character, and really left an empty feeling with me on the series coming to the end. If the series had continued for another season, from what I read, things would not have been so final for the character. They have expanded on his character in the books following the series, but it still leaves me a bit sad, I would love to see the character in his familiar role as Chief Engineer on Enterprise

Geordie Laforge – The Next Generation

A lot of things in Geordie I relate to. Off course there are some obvious difference from me and the character, but some of the challenges he went through, I also had, like meeting ladies. A few times throughout the series they showed Geordie lack of luck with the ladies, and then the episodes with Leah Brahms (Holographic and Real) seemed very well done as well. Another thing I liked about the Geordie character was that he had such a positive attitude, and seemed like a very good motivator to the people he worked under. I could see myself working under a person like him, as he was such a likable person.

Captain Jonathan Archer – Enterprise

I have been watching a lot of Enterprise lately, and I have been very impressed with the Captain Archer character. Each episode I like him more and more. I will admit, when I first heard that Scott Bakula had been cast in the role, I had my doubts, as I was thinking a lot of his previous role in Quantum Leap. I did not see how he could carry off the role of Captain, but pretty much by the start, I really bought into the character. I liked how they Character started off as a pretty easy going guy, but could get Angry when he had to. In the later seasons, they added a bit of an edge to his character that I thought was great. Captain Archer was pushed into to some situations, where he had to really become a different person, ruthless at times. You could see in his character that he did not like doing it, but had to do it for the good of the mission and for Earth. It always bothered me how many people put down the series, and said Star Trek had grown stale, but I have to disagree with them. Enterprise and Captain Archer were a great combination, and a lot of people have gone back and re-watched the series and said how much they enjoyed it. To bad more people did not do that well it was in its first run, as it would have been nice to see the series get a proper finish.

People I left off

There are probably some characters that people are asking why I left off. I guess it was a of 10, so not everyone can be on it. People may ask what about more of the Original crew. TOS is one of my favorite series, and I like so many of the Characters, but for me, at the end of the day, it was all about Kirk, as I mentioned. My favorite Episodes where ones with a lot of Kirk. I liked Spok and McCoy as well, but they always seemed secondary to Kirk for me, they complimented him very well. I guess as well, I was never as fascinated with Spock as others were, maybe I found some of the Vulcan back story to be a bit dry.

People might ask about Captain Picard and Captain Janeway. It took me a long time to really get to like Captain Picard, probably into the 3rd season before I really started to like him. I guess I found some of his hangups at the start of the series to make his seem a bit aloof, and even though he loosened up quite a bit through the series, there was still always an element of that. Captain Janeway was probably my least favorite Captain. I did like that she was as hard as nails when she had to be, but throughout the series, I questioned a few of her decisions, especially around the Borg and an agreement she made. I would think overtime serving with her, I would probably grow to respect her, but there were still elements I did not really care for.

Other people like Commander Riker, I thought he was alright, but at times put off by him, as I felt maybe a bit to much arrogance. I thought Worf was alright, but maybe to laid back for what I felt a Klingon should be. Dax I had a problem at times believing she had some many lifetimes in her, and found her character at times hard to nail down. But for the most part, most of the characters in Star Trek I grew to really like, so it was hard to make this list of 10.

Tags: Captain Archer, Captain Sisko, Charles Tucker III - Trip, DS9, Enterprise, Geordie Laforge, Star Trek, TNG, TOS, Voyager