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The Bottom Line: "Superb"

This episode starts strong, ends strong, and the title alone makes it an instant classic. (-Spoilers follow-)

When the U.S.S. Enterprise encounters a space probe left behind from a federation ship, without hesitation they beam it aboard within feet of the Captain and First Officer. -You rarely see this kind of brazen arrogance as the series progresses, but when the wrecked probe flashes a green light, that really spells trouble. Very much like the first episodes of Star Trek the Next Generation, the the crew is overly dramatic and even Spock gets emotional. We learn some unique facts about the crew, including that Kirk "was a stack of book with legs" and was at one time a teacher! This episode features a ton of locations and more special effects by far than almost every other original episode to follow. You get the impression this is one of the productions that later inspired "budget cuts" and "fewer locations" because they really go off on sets in this one. The planet is possibly the best in series. The space view of the world is hot: a gaseous layered atmosphere that rivals some of the plain CGI planets of STNG.

I wont give away too much of the story, but it's a classic. Space phenomena mutates human into a veritable E.S.P. monster with awesome god-like abilities. Its amusing to watch Spock suggest that "killing him" is the only way -and he even requests a "phaser rifle" to help complete the task! Bottom line: A rich blend of Star Trek devices, plot twists, phenomena, and history. One of the best ever.

The Bottom Line: "Good"

Twilight Zone: Uncle Simon

I dont know, I just like this one. The nasty remarks fired off add to this episodes brooding atmosphere. You know something is going to happen, you just dont know what. (If you havent seen it, stop reading now and come back to finish this review.) The house is just errie if you watch it in proper form, alone, lights out, and very late at night. You swear a haunting is about to happen, or maybe a zombie attack but then... SHLA-BAM! -A freaking robot! The idea that the robot "needs time to reach full capacity" is very unsettling. It just cant be good. When the robot turns his head and says "Hi Barbra" the WEIRD is in full swing!

I love the irony: Barbra making her worst nightmare of life, 10x more horrific. The idea of caring for a cripple robot with a severe attitude problem in a mansion, or getting a regular job is hilarious and perhaps a fate worse than death! In the end, I think most people would pick the verbally abusive robot, just like Barbra did.

Amy Tan

Amy is a Chinese-American author. You've probably read her in college or high school. She is really well known. And she's also one of the authors I can't stand the most.

Let's not get me wrong here. I respect her quite a bit. She's accomplished quite a bit and deserves respect, but as a writer... I don't like her.

OK, let me outline the plot of every single Amy Tan story:

A) Enter Chinese girl having a problem with being Chinese and living in America. She's becoming more and more American.

B) She struggles with her mother, who is really really really Chinese.

C) Through some strange side-story she reconciles the relationship with her mother and finally decides to hold on to her Chinese side, while still deciding to be an American.

Her stories are differentiated by HOW she reaches the same conclusion, but in the end, all of her stories have the same elements and the same conclusions. At least in the ones I've read. Now, many argue that she's a good writer and that her work is necessary because of racism/stereotyping/Chinese culture... etc. Her writing is good but it's not worthy of being in my AP collection twice. 

And on the subject of her "necessity"... That's stupid. While, yes, Amy Tan has probably touched the lives of a lot of people and I imagine that she's highly regarded by quite a few, that doesn't mean that she really deserves her essays and stories in my AP book. Put her in some other collection. Then there's racism and stereotyping... OK, she's just as bad as the people she's supposedly beating. The Chinese mother character is always the same and if anybody else had written it, he would have been considered racist. But somehow, this woman's "necessity" has made her a goddess. 

Look, if you love Amy Tan, then don't let me get in your way. But please stop worshipping her like she's Stephenie Meyer*. Why don't we focus on more important and better authors like, I don't know, T.S Eliot or Maya Angelou? 

I guess I'm kind of venting here because I've read so much Amy Tan in my AP cIass when there's obviously so much else to explore... 

Darth

*Stephenie Meyer wrote the Twilight series and that was a joke.  

ok blog time

TIME FOR A SEMI- ANNUAL BLOG POST-

whether you like it or not--

I actually haven't been playing games a whole lot lately- I just don't seem to have a whole bunch of energy for it- I dunno if I am getting old or depressed or what- I kinda wanna play games- but I just can't get into it very much- Whatcha think ?

on the games front, I really haven't bought anything new much- I got My Aquarium and wild west guns and Pop on wiiware, and I am enjoying all of them pretty well, and I want to get a whole bunch of old games on the VC, but I dont wanna fill up my Wii and hafta take stuff off and reload it later, it's just not ideal, ya know ? so far on VC i have: Super Mario Bros 3, wrecking Crew, Ninja Spirit, Devil;'s Crush, Super Contra, and 1 or 2 I dont recall right now, but so far I would say the Wii is so very very worth it-- I love being able to download the games and play them, and also love the other channels you can play with, the Nintendo channel, internet channel, weather, news, DS download samples, etc.. And I have had exactly 0 problems with the Wii, it works great nd I completely recommend it!!!

on the music front, which I think is important, I have some new cd's from : foo fighters( ok but mostly it's the wife's band) Avenged sevenfold, Seether (an older one), Soundgarden (Love it) Saving Abel (pretty awesome also) and I also got the faNCLUB EDITION OF sHINEDOWN'S NEW ONE, what the heck is going on with the caps button?, Sound of Madness!!!!

Also, we are both pretty stoked about going to see 3 doors down, Hinder, and Finger Eleven later this month- I got what looks to be pretty awesome seats-- and we may even drive all the way down to South Georgia next month to go see 3 days grace !!!!

Listening to Soundgarden right now !!

Oh Yeah-- I also got a copy of the Dragonforce Cd with the dvd, Inhuman rampage, and watching those guys play guitars is something else-- It is hard to imagine a human being even able to play a guitar that fast and well, much less 2 guys doing it at exactly the same time!!! they are pretty awesome !!!!

til next time, play all you can and ROCK IT !!