Based on the meme posted by the group Marvel Universe Rocks My World on Facebook, "State an unpopular nerdy opinion you have." More or less on the spot I came up with a dozen and, rather than spam the page, decided to make a blog post instead. In no particular order, here are twelve opinions that might be cause to launch a formal investigation into my status as a geek:
1) Marvel has better heroes, DC has better villains.
2) "Star Trek" over "Star Wars", every time. Not that I don't like both.
3) "The Lord of the Rings" movies were beautiful visually and musically, but I've yet to make it through the books. I cannot summon much enthusiasm for "The Hobbit" in either book or film form.
4) I like Cersei Lannister. Jaime and Brienne have a wonderful dynamic but if Jaime drops Cersei now it will kill his characterisation.
5) I still genuinely enjoy watching new seasons of "Supernatural" and "The Big Bang Theory". And I have enjoyed every single season of "American Horror Story".
6) I like "Firefly" a lot but its deification among geekdom is down to its early cancellation. If it had run for even a couple of full seasons, it would be remembered and missed as a really great show, probably one of the best, but not held up as the hands-down greatest thing ever.
7) Captain America is just as shady as Iron Man in his own way.
8) I have tried and tried but fear I will never be convinced that Harry and Hermione wouldn't have made a better couple.
9) Danaerys would not make a good queen of Westeros, nor would she and Jon make a good couple.
10) Supporting characters are, with very few exceptions, much more interesting than the main protagonists, and in most fandoms my favourite character is from the "second tier".
11) The trailer for the new Wonder Woman film only looks OK.
12) I have a genuine and uncomplicated liking for Howard the Duck comics.
Whew! It's cathartic, like nerd therapy!
Friday, 12 August 2016
Thursday, 7 April 2016
Adventures in Reading: "Captain's Glory" by William Shatner & friends
Even if, like me, you are only a casual consumer of Star Trek novels (after all, there are so many offshoots of the franchise now that I doubt any of us mere mortals can follow all the tie-in materials any more), you're probably aware that William Shatner, a.k.a. Captain James T. Kirk, has penned a few himself. Known affectionately by the fandom as the "Shatnerverse" novels, they're not generally considered canon themselves, but they have informed some aspects of later canon and some quite highly respected fanon, including last year's professional-grade fan film Star Trek: Renegades.
Now, I'm not out to bash Shatner. I know enough about his more controversial words and deeds to know that I don't particularly want to know any more, but without digging too deeply, and in an attempt at fairness, I've always seen him as a well-intentioned sort of person who just isn't great at representing that side of himself. Partly because he's fantastically bombastic, which I think is brilliant, and partly because there's no denying he's got a good strong ego on him. Or maybe that's Kirk? Because in every interview I've seen where Shatner got egotistical, it seemed more like he was slowing gearing up for an in-character defence of his most famous alter ego. Anyway, I promise this is relevant, because I have a confession to make.
I thought this novel was going to be fodder for a nice, light-hearted look at why we are so fascinated with cast member-penned TV tie-in novels, even when we all know that these novels tend to be even worse than your average media tie-in, which is a mixed bag to start with. I'm currently saving up my pennies for copies of the Blake's 7: Lucifer trilogy by Paul Darrow, but my local library had Captain's Glory in stock and I instantly knew I had to take it out. I had no intention of buying a Shatnerverse novel, but when one almost literally fell off the library shelf into my hands I wasn't about to turn it down. After all, with Shatner at the creative helm, it was guaranteed to be such an over-the-top love-fest for Kirk that it couldn't help but be unintentionally hilarious. Even though Captain's Glory is the third book in Shatner's "Totality" trilogy, I had such low hopes for it that I didn't even try particularly hard to get hold of books one and two. After all, I'm just reading it for the laughs, right?
Well... no, actually. It starts off pretty promisingly, with a dedication from Shatner that covers half a page of fairly dense and undeniably flowery prose, and it still boils down to officially sanctioned fan-fiction; but it's one of the better examples, and had the same effect on me as James Gross's above-par Torchwood novels. Here is a writer who really understands, and more importantly cares about, the world and the characters of the TV show, and wants to make their mark on the expanded universe while keeping it fun, in character, and broadly consistent with the source material. Captain's Glory draws in not only several characters from TOS, but also Next Generation and Voyager, and demonstrates a knowledge of both of the latter that I have to assume is pretty extensive. (I'm a relative newbie to the Star Trek fandom, having seen everything up to Generations, and watched the recent reboots, but not much in-between; furthermore, I haven't seen most of Next Gen since it first aired in the UK twenty years ago, putting my age at the time of viewing at around five.)
But the really nice thing about this novel is the genuine affection for characters other than Kirk, and the little improvements to their lives that get made in the Shatnerverse as a whole. That influence on Star Trek: Renegades I mentioned earlier? It's in a Shatner novel other than Captain's Glory, but I have it on reasonably good authority that the Shatnerverse was the first Stark Trek offshoot to make Kirk's former ensign Pavel Chekov an admiral in something other than a head-trauma-induced fantasy, something that's now semi-canonical thanks to Renegades. Captain's Glory sees Picard and Beverly Crusher unambiguously hooked up (finally!), Janeway promoted to full admiral, and newly-minted Captain Riker living happily ever after with Deanna Troi. Though mostly off-screen, Geordi La Forge has become a living legend who causes every engineer in the novel except Scotty to geek out until they (sometimes literally) implode. This is blatant fan-service, yes, but you get the strong impression that the fans in question might just be the actors themselves.
You also get Kirk and his three surviving buddies - Spock, McCoy, and Scotty - living out their golden years together on a four-person ship named the Belle Rêve, which I've just realised is a pretty good summary of what this novel does for its characters. Kirk himself really isn't fawned over too much at all - though I dare you not to giggle just a bit every time he avows he never wanted personal or professional glory (it's in the title!), or the fact that at a hundred-and-fifty plus he is apparently still pulling nubile young alien girls like there's no tomorrow (though, in the interests of balance, so is Spock). But overall, Shatner-writing-Kirk acquits himself admirably well, placing his character at the centre of only about half the scenes in the novel (at a surprisingly generous estimate), and letting Kirk get stuff wrong, or at least admit to making bad decisions for good reasons, giving Picard the chance to jump in and save him several times. If I was hoping for some blatant celebrity ego-stroking, I evidently picked the wrong book.
I'm not going to talk much about the plot here, because this ramble is too long already without turning it into a book report. I will say that it's a good sci-fi set piece, making strong use of some established Star Trek canon to create a plausible threat to all life in the universe. This is, presumably, an escalation for the end of the trilogy, which works a lot better than some of the far-fetched perils striving to out-do each other that you see three times a series in Doctor Who of late, even if you can guarantee that Kirk and co. will ultimately be no more liable to fail than the Doctor. I can level a few criticisms: mainly, that Kirk and Picard spend about a hundred pages on opposite sides of a "dramatic conflict" that's actually more of an administrative quibble IN SPACE - which Riker eventually breaks up by saying what every reader was (presumably) thinking, by pointing out that they're being stupid and can we please get back to shooting phasers at baddies? Thanks. Troi is as hilariously useless as ever, but it's going to take more than Shatner's good will to his fellow cast members to make a Betazoid's "powers" of reading basic conversational subtext seem useful. But other than that and a few other minor nitpicks, it is overall a well-paced, entertaining, and surprisingly heartwarming story that fits well into a slightly-alternate Stark Trek universe.
I hesitate at this point to lay all the credit for what worked in this novel at Shatner's door: the novel, like all those in the Shatnerverse, is co-written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, who have also written a number of licensed Star Trek tie-ins without Shatner, which leads the cynic to wonder exactly how extensive Shatner's input might have been. The temptation to put such an influential name on the cover must be pretty hard to resist, and since the authors aren't telling who did what, Shatner's contribution could be anything from a plain endorsement to constructing the bare bones of a plot to actually writing the first draft before handing it over to the seasoned professionals. But whoever was putting pen to paper the most, I like to think that Shatner's involvement granted them the prestige to have fun with it all: knowing that it would simultaneously be revered in the fandom and yet never taken seriously as canon must have been very freeing.
And you know what? I take it back. I would buy a Shatnerverse novel now. Maybe not until after I get my hands on the Lucifer trilogy and see whether Paul Darrow can do for Blake's 7 what Shatner does for Star Trek here. Maybe only in audio-book version, so I could listen to it while I'm doing the washing up and save my "serious reading time" for something newer and weightier. But then, audio-books cost more, so what am I really saying by suggesting I'd prefer that financial commitment? Anyway, I had a lot of fun reading this novel. It's fan-service, but it gives me the warm fuzzies in all the right places while still being a proper, honest-to-goodness Star Trek novel, and that's not easy to do. Sorry I judged, Mr Shatner.
Now, I'm not out to bash Shatner. I know enough about his more controversial words and deeds to know that I don't particularly want to know any more, but without digging too deeply, and in an attempt at fairness, I've always seen him as a well-intentioned sort of person who just isn't great at representing that side of himself. Partly because he's fantastically bombastic, which I think is brilliant, and partly because there's no denying he's got a good strong ego on him. Or maybe that's Kirk? Because in every interview I've seen where Shatner got egotistical, it seemed more like he was slowing gearing up for an in-character defence of his most famous alter ego. Anyway, I promise this is relevant, because I have a confession to make.
I thought this novel was going to be fodder for a nice, light-hearted look at why we are so fascinated with cast member-penned TV tie-in novels, even when we all know that these novels tend to be even worse than your average media tie-in, which is a mixed bag to start with. I'm currently saving up my pennies for copies of the Blake's 7: Lucifer trilogy by Paul Darrow, but my local library had Captain's Glory in stock and I instantly knew I had to take it out. I had no intention of buying a Shatnerverse novel, but when one almost literally fell off the library shelf into my hands I wasn't about to turn it down. After all, with Shatner at the creative helm, it was guaranteed to be such an over-the-top love-fest for Kirk that it couldn't help but be unintentionally hilarious. Even though Captain's Glory is the third book in Shatner's "Totality" trilogy, I had such low hopes for it that I didn't even try particularly hard to get hold of books one and two. After all, I'm just reading it for the laughs, right?
Well... no, actually. It starts off pretty promisingly, with a dedication from Shatner that covers half a page of fairly dense and undeniably flowery prose, and it still boils down to officially sanctioned fan-fiction; but it's one of the better examples, and had the same effect on me as James Gross's above-par Torchwood novels. Here is a writer who really understands, and more importantly cares about, the world and the characters of the TV show, and wants to make their mark on the expanded universe while keeping it fun, in character, and broadly consistent with the source material. Captain's Glory draws in not only several characters from TOS, but also Next Generation and Voyager, and demonstrates a knowledge of both of the latter that I have to assume is pretty extensive. (I'm a relative newbie to the Star Trek fandom, having seen everything up to Generations, and watched the recent reboots, but not much in-between; furthermore, I haven't seen most of Next Gen since it first aired in the UK twenty years ago, putting my age at the time of viewing at around five.)
But the really nice thing about this novel is the genuine affection for characters other than Kirk, and the little improvements to their lives that get made in the Shatnerverse as a whole. That influence on Star Trek: Renegades I mentioned earlier? It's in a Shatner novel other than Captain's Glory, but I have it on reasonably good authority that the Shatnerverse was the first Stark Trek offshoot to make Kirk's former ensign Pavel Chekov an admiral in something other than a head-trauma-induced fantasy, something that's now semi-canonical thanks to Renegades. Captain's Glory sees Picard and Beverly Crusher unambiguously hooked up (finally!), Janeway promoted to full admiral, and newly-minted Captain Riker living happily ever after with Deanna Troi. Though mostly off-screen, Geordi La Forge has become a living legend who causes every engineer in the novel except Scotty to geek out until they (sometimes literally) implode. This is blatant fan-service, yes, but you get the strong impression that the fans in question might just be the actors themselves.
You also get Kirk and his three surviving buddies - Spock, McCoy, and Scotty - living out their golden years together on a four-person ship named the Belle Rêve, which I've just realised is a pretty good summary of what this novel does for its characters. Kirk himself really isn't fawned over too much at all - though I dare you not to giggle just a bit every time he avows he never wanted personal or professional glory (it's in the title!), or the fact that at a hundred-and-fifty plus he is apparently still pulling nubile young alien girls like there's no tomorrow (though, in the interests of balance, so is Spock). But overall, Shatner-writing-Kirk acquits himself admirably well, placing his character at the centre of only about half the scenes in the novel (at a surprisingly generous estimate), and letting Kirk get stuff wrong, or at least admit to making bad decisions for good reasons, giving Picard the chance to jump in and save him several times. If I was hoping for some blatant celebrity ego-stroking, I evidently picked the wrong book.
I'm not going to talk much about the plot here, because this ramble is too long already without turning it into a book report. I will say that it's a good sci-fi set piece, making strong use of some established Star Trek canon to create a plausible threat to all life in the universe. This is, presumably, an escalation for the end of the trilogy, which works a lot better than some of the far-fetched perils striving to out-do each other that you see three times a series in Doctor Who of late, even if you can guarantee that Kirk and co. will ultimately be no more liable to fail than the Doctor. I can level a few criticisms: mainly, that Kirk and Picard spend about a hundred pages on opposite sides of a "dramatic conflict" that's actually more of an administrative quibble IN SPACE - which Riker eventually breaks up by saying what every reader was (presumably) thinking, by pointing out that they're being stupid and can we please get back to shooting phasers at baddies? Thanks. Troi is as hilariously useless as ever, but it's going to take more than Shatner's good will to his fellow cast members to make a Betazoid's "powers" of reading basic conversational subtext seem useful. But other than that and a few other minor nitpicks, it is overall a well-paced, entertaining, and surprisingly heartwarming story that fits well into a slightly-alternate Stark Trek universe.
I hesitate at this point to lay all the credit for what worked in this novel at Shatner's door: the novel, like all those in the Shatnerverse, is co-written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, who have also written a number of licensed Star Trek tie-ins without Shatner, which leads the cynic to wonder exactly how extensive Shatner's input might have been. The temptation to put such an influential name on the cover must be pretty hard to resist, and since the authors aren't telling who did what, Shatner's contribution could be anything from a plain endorsement to constructing the bare bones of a plot to actually writing the first draft before handing it over to the seasoned professionals. But whoever was putting pen to paper the most, I like to think that Shatner's involvement granted them the prestige to have fun with it all: knowing that it would simultaneously be revered in the fandom and yet never taken seriously as canon must have been very freeing.
And you know what? I take it back. I would buy a Shatnerverse novel now. Maybe not until after I get my hands on the Lucifer trilogy and see whether Paul Darrow can do for Blake's 7 what Shatner does for Star Trek here. Maybe only in audio-book version, so I could listen to it while I'm doing the washing up and save my "serious reading time" for something newer and weightier. But then, audio-books cost more, so what am I really saying by suggesting I'd prefer that financial commitment? Anyway, I had a lot of fun reading this novel. It's fan-service, but it gives me the warm fuzzies in all the right places while still being a proper, honest-to-goodness Star Trek novel, and that's not easy to do. Sorry I judged, Mr Shatner.
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