Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Cleaning the Kitchen With Commander Tuvok

I have been updating my Movies page (link) and so far I'm up to 13 movies total, with 3 seen in the theater.  (I've also decided to stop spelling it "theatre" as I am not British, though I am overly fond of their spelling in this case.  I suppose if I am going to be a novelist I should stop spelling and punctuating according to my own pretentious whims.)

Really, 13 is not very many, I'm a little behind.  There are about 35 weeks left in the year, I still need to watch 39 movies to reach my goal of 52, so I need to get going.  I'm ahead on my goal to see at least 6 in the theater, especially since we are planning to go see The Avengers next month, that'll give me 4 out of 6.

Enough math!  The reason I've been watching fewer movies is because I've been watching more great shows on tv. Greg and I have discovered our DVR is big enough to hold many many hours of HD programming, so sometimes we hoard tv shows until the season is over and then watch the whole season all at once.  This is way better than having to wait a week, or longer, between each episode. We are currently hoarding Game of Thrones and The Killing, watching previously hoarded episodes of Shameless, and watching Savage U, Nurse Jackie and Girls "live". 

So far we've only seen the first two episodes of Girls, but it is tremendously original and impressive. Despite the dislike I have for the colloquial use of the word "girls" to describe women, it might be appropriate here, they really aren't behaving like women quite yet. Seeing these characters having pitiful sex with men who are idiots, saying amazingly stupid things in job interviews, doing drugs they know nothing about, yet being intensely focused on their friendship with each other makes me simultaneously glad and sorry I'm not 24 anymore.  There's a scene in the first episode where two characters are having a conversation, and they just happen to be in the bath: One is standing up shaving her legs, and the other is sitting in the tub eating a cupcake.  That just killed me, it's the exact kind of sweet comfortable thing 20 year old girls do, and I can't imagine doing it now.  But my goodness, I don't miss making bad romantic decisions with men, no, boys who are idiots.  

And I have been spending an awful lot of time lately comforting myself by watching Star Trek: Voyager.  I loved this show when it was originally aired in the 90s, back when I didn't have cable and only got 4 channels. I've always been a mid-grade Star Trek fan, the kind of fan who knows what a batleth is and what Captain Picard's borg name was and which episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation Ashley Judd stars in, but who doesn't go to cons or buy action figures.  I really liked ST: TNG and enjoyed ST: Voyager tremendously, but somehow have never watched a single episode of Star Trek: Deep Space 9. 

FYI:
Bat'leth:  Klingon weapon
Ashley Judd was an ensign in Darmok and The Game
Locutus of Borg


Voyager is awesome.  I love the strong female characters (the captain and the head engineer are both women) and the sexy, sensitive bad-boy first officer.

Captain Kathryn Janeway

Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres
Commander Chakotay

I find the whole Starfleet society very relaxing.  There is never any talk of money, money has been abolished by the 24th century.  So has religion:  In no episode of any Star Trek series (or any of the movies) is there any mention of the Starfleet characters being religious or even being aware of the concept of God.  No one even ever exclaims, "Oh my God" or "For God's sake".  Gene Roddenberry, who created Star Trek, was a pretty vocal atheist.  Commander Chakotay is Native American and occasionally mentions vision quests and medicine wheels and other aspects of his spirituality, which just adds poetry to his tattooed outlaw character.

Netflix is streaming all seven seasons, so I carry the laptop around with me and tell Greg that Captain Janeway and I are going to empty the dishwasher, or Chakotay and I are folding laundry in the bedroom.  I am just starting the fifth season, and I'm already dreading the day I run out of Voyager episodes to keep me company. 

Unfortunately there was never a Voyager movie, but there was a great Next Generation movie: First Contact.  Maybe I should re-watch that and add one to my movie total.

Commander Tuvok sez:  Live long and prosper!

Commander Tuvok