Category Archives: Stream of Thought

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I need to stop watching this documentary I’m feeling super old. Seriously I have become my mother. We talk about movies sometimes and I have been known to go “but it’s really old! It came out before I was born/just a baby” and mum will look startled and retort that it seems recent to her.

Well I’m looking at X-Men and I remember when it came out. It seems like a perfectly recent movie to me. But for my classmates at uni yup you guessed it – “that came out the year I was born”

*cries*

Seriously it just doesn’t seem possible.

But the actors all look super young as well because of course this was 20 years ago. Shawn Ashmore (identical twin of Aaron Ashmore who played characters I love in Warehouse 13 and Killjoys) looks so young, but then he would have been 18. I think I’m finally understanding why older people look at doctors and policemen and think they should still be in school. When I was 18 I thought people my age looked like adults. Now I’m older … yeah they really don’t.

Anyway I’d forgotten this had Rebecca Romijin in as Mystique. She just said in this documentary she thought she was hired because Mystique was a poser and due to the shapeshifting all the acting was done by others, and of course she started her career as a model. Now 20 years later she has brought to life Eve Baird from The Librarians and Number One from Star Trek. The lady is talented and thank you whatever casting director gave her a chance I love those characters.

I did laugh a bit when Patrick Stewart said he hesitated because he thought one iconic character in an actors resume was enough and of course he was Picard. It was Ian McKellen though that was the most poignant talking about the message behind the X-Men story as a metaphor for prejudice. Now that MCU owns the X-Men they’ll probably appear in some fashion within the next decade. This first movie though will be tough to beat in terms of that message.

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I’ve been thinking, dangerous I know, and I tried to count once the number of TV shows that I’ve watched over the years – I think it topped out at over 60 and that was a few years back. I’ve watched a lot of different things. Which brings me to my current thought about obsessions.

Not all shows are created equal. There’s a spectrum going from “I like it enough to watch but don’t think about before or after” right up to “I think about it morning, noon and night”.

Interestingly the amount I think about something doesn’t necessarily correlate to producing material for it. I think production of fan material isn’t dependant on how much I love it, I think it’s more about where I am in my life at the time, whether I have the time and the spoons to dedicate to producing stuff or not. I guess it’s a mindset thing.

Which brought me to the thought that I really should inventory my current obsessions, which made me consider the word ‘current’ and think about the nature of me being a fan of stuff. Some obsessions burn hot and fast and are gone relatively quick. Some last a while and then burn out. Some stay with me always and some come and go. I know I sound like I’m repeating myself now because I talked about how everything has a cycle and obsessions can’t be sustained without fuel. This isn’t that. Actually maybe it is, maybe I’m just coming at it from a different angle.

I’m talking I guess about identity. I don’t know about other people but I embrace what I love and I’m not quiet about it. That makes it hard to let go, hard to accept that an obsession has had it’s time. I think I’ve probably talked about this re: story ideas. I mean I have a huge idea list but what I’ve realised over time is that an idea that was perfect for me five years ago, no longer suits my interests or the story that I want to tell. Sometimes I am super invested in that idea but really it’s just nostalgia, I’m more remembering that I loved it rather than actually feeling the love. It’s hard to tell sometimes, it’s hard to know for sure because it is hard to let go.

This kind of introspection is what happens when I contemplate plans. I want to work out what I’m doing over the summer, what projects I want to tackle etc. As I contemplate priorities, I contemplate well this ^^ sorry for the ramble.

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You know:

a) I haven’t really written in forever, I think I’ve forgotten how

b) it’s funny back in the day I cut my teeth on casefiles, it’s what I consider my first real proper fanfic but now I’m all “fic without shipping? lol whats that”

c) new obsessions are weird, I was just minding my own business and then whoomph right in the face “hello! ding ding, I own you now”

I still have 3/6 of my Endgame posts to finish up and I’m not sure whether I should continue to tag for spoilers or not as I’m taking so long (thank you new obsession for distracting me so thoroughly).

Anyway on tonights agenda is researching the Kelvin timeline and pondering the differences from the TOS timeline for #reasons aka thank you new obsession, you do indeed own me.

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Before Kirk and Spock there was Pike and Spock and a whole other five year mission. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.

I will fly this ship myself if I have to, I need this spinoff so bad! Anyway I did honestly think about this quite hard the classic yellow to evoke TOS but the federation emblem like the discovery title, also the E in the emblem for Enterprise. This is what we could have and I’m going to keep my fingers crossed.

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My dash is getting all excited about the new Agents of Shield tonight…

… and there is a complete lack of appropriate gifs for this!

Basically ‘pouty face’, some real ‘bottom lip’ action going on as I’m kinda bummed as I have zero idea when I’ll get to see it. If it’s anything like previous years then it probably won’t be for a few months. In fact the channel which has the rights just posted this:

“Hey unfortunately we can’t confirm a broadcast date until two weeks before it is due to do so!”

which confirms its at least two weeks out, and like I said it’ll probably be months. I know, I know, I’ve whined about this before and I sound like a broken record. I’m just sad ‘pouty face’.

Anyway I don’t like being all negative so good news everyone! Cobie Smulders PI series has been ordered to series *happy dance* it sounds like a good character and I’m eager to see it, let’s cross fingers that netflix’s gets the UK distribution rights :p

Also the upcoming Blood and Treasure looks interesting. I love treasure hunting, I love heist stuff, I really hope it won’t be too typical CBS if you know what I mean. Anyway whenever it makes its way over the pond I’ll give it a try.

I think that’s actually everything. I’m really not watching that much current TV. Agents of Shield was renewed for season 7 way back with the season 6 renewal, Black Lighting is renewed and Killjoys is on it’s final season. Oh yeah just got my regularly scheduled google about Star Trek spinoffs *whistles* 🙂

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Have I said this before? I forget. Sometimes I plan to say things and then I don’t know if I have or not.

Anyway I’ve been watching The Clone Wars. It’s animated which isn’t usually my thing but it’s really really good. The characterisation is spot-on, the voice acting is amazing – I had to look it up to see whether the movie actors had reprised their roles as it sounded so good. Would thoroughly recommend.

BUT it humanises the clone troopers. This I think is wonderful as surprisingly (especially because this was apparently made for kids) it adds a lot of nuance and shades of grey. However it does make me wonder why the clone troopers accepted Order 66. They are superior to droids because they have the capacity for independent thought – that is why in one episode a clone trooper had turned traitor and become a separatist spy! So why would they just turn on the Jedi like that? The Jedi who had led them through years of war? The Jedi who had stood between them and danger countless times?

Watching the show the Jedi don’t treat the clone troopers as expendable. They could use them as meat shields (they are clones, we are not, so we are more important and should be protected kind of mentality) but they don’t. They protect the troopers at great risk to themselves. I watched Mace Windu Force-push two clones to safety off a falling bridge before he saved himself and he nearly didn’t make it. The Jedi openly mourn the clone losses. In the very first episode of this show Yoda had them take off their helmets, one clone said “what’s the point we look the same?” And Yoda said in the force they looked different.

I know the clone troopers were trained to follow orders but I don’t know, I’m finding it hard to reconcile the loyalty and respect in the show, to just blindly following Order 66.

It’s about the only seeming ‘inconsistency’ in the show. Otherwise it’s incredible. They have the seeds of the empire with the Admiral and his uniform and the walkers – all recognisable stuff! And it makes so much sense that it began under the republic because the empire evolved from the republic and it took a long time. I think it was around the Death Star time that the last vestiges of illusions of democracy were eradicated. The immense machine of the empire didn’t just appear overnight.

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Rewatched all of Number One/Enterprises scenes. Googled a lot too. It’s really annoying that we don’t have a full name for Number One. It’s Commander Una ??? and I need to know for reasons.

Read a fanfic yesterday and it had this paragraph which I thought was a perfect summary. Pike does something stupid and noble and then she calls in favours to clean up whatever mess he made before the Star Fleet brass find out.

It was a ship fic and I don’t know if I ship them. I maybe could? But thus far I have just seen a deep warm friendship with a lot of respect. I know the 60’s pilot had Number One supposedly crushing on Pike but they have changed stuff since then (like the entire makeup of the bridge crew) and so I don’t think they are necessarily sticking rigidly to it. I mean there is a line between canon and simply not contradicting it because maybe the bridge crew simply changed due to transfers since Talos IV. So maybe with all the mindgames it wasn’t true, or maybe it was but not in a “I want to marry you” way, more of “you are the person I see the most so it’s situational” (I think there’s a word for that?).

Anyway I wish she had a full name despite me absolutely loving how snarky she was in the debriefing. “Name and rank?” “Number One” hehe and with such a “are we done yet?” about it. Google did suggest her name was Robbins but it also gave several alternate first names so /shrug until they tell us for sure it’s ???

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I’ve been trying to think of what they might call a Star Trek series with Pike as Captain of the Enterprise (aka the spin-off from Discovery that I want more than air) and it’s tough. They can’t call it Enterprise because that’s been done. My thought then went to their five year mission but there has already been a series called Voyager.

My next thought was a follow-on because it’s not just exploring the stars but also reflecting on themselves – Pike knows his future now after all, but Star Trek: Exploration, or Star Trek: Reflection didn’t sound right. Thesaurus kicked back Reverie when I put reflection in but the definition is all about day-dreaming rather than learning about one’s limits and learning to value oneself, so while it sounded better, it wasn’t appropriate.

Right now I’m toying with Star Trek: The Lost Years, or something of that ilk, because in the UK there was a TV show called Dad’s Army, and the BBC lost/recorded over a few episodes, and they became known as The Lost Episodes. Well Trek was supposed to be Pike initially but the pilot was rejected and anyway it became Kirk and a legend was born. So a series following Pike pre-the Kirk years, it’s like we’ve heard whispers of this story but never got to see it – these are the Lost Years.

Then of course thematically, Pike knows he’s a marked man, he’s living on borrowed time. These are ‘found’ years but knowing what he does, how can he make promises to people, or fall in love, or make any kind of future plans, when he knows that at some point the time crystal vision will come true. So in some respect those are Lost Years, as he can’t live them as he would have before he knew his fate – he has lost himself. It circles back to my thought about reflection and learning about ourselves and not just the stars.

That could pick up from Star Trek: Beyond, with the quote:

It isn’t uncommon, you know, even for a captain, to want to leave. There is no relative direction in the vastness of space. There is only yourself, your ship, your crew. It’s easier than you think, to get lost. 

Enterprise is on a five year mission, lost in the vastness of space, pushing back the final frontier. I don’t know, I think it works on a few levels, but I’m sure if they do make it (and I really, really hope they do but I also want to be realistic and acknowledge they might not, even though they did build a proper set for the Enterprise bridge gah). Anyway, I’m sure that if they do make it, then they will come up with a better name. For now though I think I’m going to refer to it like this in my head 🙂

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Just rewatched Curse of the Black Pearl and I feel like giving a shoutout to Elizabeth’s Dad. She’s in the captain’s quarters and he sits outside and says something like “I’m proud, you made a good decision today BUT sometimes even a good decision if made for the wrong reasons isn’t right” – he totally knew that Elizabeth only accepted Norrington’s proposal to save Will (everyone knew that, Norrington, the crew, it was pretty obvious) BUT he not only knew it, he was circling round to saying “don’t go through with it, I know it’s not what you want” despite the fact that Norrington would be his choice for Elizabeth.

So it seemed to me that he was putting his daughters feelings ahead of what he thought was right for her. Then later when Elizabeth pretends to faint, he realizes what she did and rolls his eyes in a fond exasperated manner. Then he talked about piracy for good reasons and basically forced acceptance that Will was Elizabeth’s choice, that he would go free despite freeing Jack and attacking soldiers etc.

I don’t know it just struck me that especially for the time period, that was quite unusual in fiction. Much more normal (unfortunately) to write a dad that thinks he knows best, and doesn’t respect his daughters opinions. With Elizabeth’s dad it was quite the opposite really.

I also need to give a shoutout to Norrington, who like I said must have realized that Elizabeth was just using him to save Will, that he was her second choice even if she did marry him. He then was embarrassed in front of all his men but dealt with it with dignity and honor “the man that forged this blade would bring such care to every aspect of his life” that was probably the nicest “you better treat her right” threat I’ve heard. He could have gone all macho but he didn’t.

aaaaand I’m going to have the music stuck in my head for ages. I always do. Incredible soundtrack.

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Just watched Star Trek: Discovery’s season 2 finale so all caught up!

Two main comments:

1) I need a Captain Pike led Star Trek: Enterprise spin-off more than I need air. I don’t know what they would call it but the Enterprise looked incredible and it would be criminal to only see the bridge just this once.

2) *cough* a good percentage of my enthusiasm for a spin-off is probably due to my utter love for Rebecca Romijin’s Number One. It is true that my fondness is from the fact that she is Eve Baird (Librarians) But the brief glimpse we got showed that she was a kickass fascinating character in her own right that I would love love love to see explored more. She had one scene earlier on this season and then a handful in this two-part finale. I need more!

Which is where the comedy part of my comment comes in because the Rumbelle fandom has spoiled me. I found anyelle fic so bizarre a concept years back when I learned of it, then I found it fun to play with and now I find it so sad that there is no Librarians in the 23rd century, immortal guardian Eve Baird in Star Fleet talk. Why don’t all fandoms have super fun fandom-smushing?