Day: March 8, 2018

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The 50s

March 8, 1968: premiere date of Star Trek episode ‘The Ultimate Computer’

A new computer system causes havoc while being tested aboard the Enterprise.

This episode is one of the few that greatly benefited from the HD remaster process from a few years back.

I love that they utilized a similar starbase design from the Star Trek: Vanguard novel series.

Original:

Remastered:

The camera rotated around the war games task force as the got into formation for the attack.

“Hit on the Excalibur.”

In FASA’s Star Trek The Role Playing Game, my ‘ego’ character (Commodore Christopher Saguisag) was aboard Excalibur (as a lieutenant or ensign) when the M-5 attacked and destroyed her.  Salvage parties found my character in auxiliary control, wearing an experimental ‘life support belt’ which saved his life.  Years later that character would serve aboard the rebuilt/refitted U.S.S. Excalibur (NCC-1788) as her commanding officer until the Battle of Wolf 359.

This one is certainly in my top 5 all-time favorite episodes list.

Say goodnight, Dr. Daystrom…

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Flashback: 1978

7 (ABC) STAR WARS – Drama
R2 is re-captured by the Jawas.  Luke and the gang plot to rescue him.

When I was 11 years old, I imagined that instead of another Star Wars movie, we would get a Star Wars television series.  This was around the time that we had had both a Logan’s Run TV series, and a Planet of the Apes TV series, so it made perfect sense, to me.  I even came up with possible TV Guide listings, like the one above.

I was more than excited when we got a second movie, a couple of years later.

More time passed, and we got more movies, and finally some animated TV series.

But I had always hoped that a live-action series would happen one day.

And now it looks like it’s happening.

I know a lot of folks, including some friends, and of course the toxic fanbois, are decrying this, claiming that Disney is milking the franchise.

Fair enough.

But when George Lucas stated that he was leaving Lucasfilm in the best hands when he sold his company to Disney, what the hell did you think was going to happen?  More periods of no movies?  More books and comics that not everyone reads?

Movies and television are the most accessible form of entertainment.  Lucas himself was too busy running the rest of his company to focus on Star Wars or even Indiana Jones, for that matter.  So why not hand the reins over to a company that could commit the time and resources to create new Star Wars?

And for those who claim that Star Wars isn’t special anymore because of this ‘over exposure’: it was never special to you in the first place.  Not in the way you think it should be.

All those years of nothing but the Expanded Universe, which was consumed by the most diehard fans, but not to the average MOVIEGOER, made for great discussion at conventions or the comic shop or online, but not over casual parties or dinner gatherings.  And if you did find folks talking about Star Wars outside of ‘typical’ venues, they were sometimes in hushed tones, and possibly mocked by others present.

Disney has made Star Wars accessible to everyone.  The jocks who would tease me back in the day are now sporting First Order t-shirts.  The girls who would point and giggle at me and my friends when we were younger are sporting BB-8 purses and Rebel infinity scarves.

This is progress.  Progress that I never thought I would see.

This is my own ‘It Gets Better’ moment.

So when the announcement came this morning that Jon Freaking Favreau was signed on to produce and write a live-action Star Wars TV series, I cried.

Cried because another dream from childhood was coming alive.  And this one is a doozy.

I can’t make anyone change how they feel about anything, particularly Star Wars in this case, but I can sure as hell bask in the joy of this.

STAR WARS TV IS HAPPENING

I had to double check to see if I typed that right.  Damn these tears in my eyes.