Star Trek Beyond

I watched the first episode of a show on Netflix called Stranger Things. It's a science-fiction show set in the early 1980s about the disappearance of a boy that is seemingly linked to sinister Government experiments, and a strange telepathic girl. I really enjoyed it, it had the feel of vintage Steven Spielberg and Stephen King. 

I went out to the movies today and saw Star Trek Beyond in which the Enterprise crew are pitted against a horde of hostile aliens who want control of an ancient alien artifact. It's a really fun film, that is true to the spirit of the original series, and has a few neat callbacks to the old series and a nice tribute to Leonard Nimoy, however it is it's own thing. It's definitely one of the better Star Trek films.

Work and Podcasts

Last night I watched another episode of Game of Thrones on Blu-ray. 

It was another busy day at work, but it wasn't as bad as it was yesterday. Friday's tend to be a little more relaxed because everyone is looking forward to the weekend and most people leave early. Also it had been someone's birthday yesterday so there were a lot of cookies around. I listened to Answer Me This which is an often very funny podcast where the hosts answer often very bizarre questions from listeners, but it often has some interesting facts there as well. I also heard The Magnus Archives which is a horror series that purports to be recordings of people telling stories of supernatural experiences, and Drama of the Week which was a detective story set in Communist era Hungary. On my way home I was listening to The Empire Podcast which was doing a special episode to celebrate fifty years of Star Trek.

On my way home I stopped off and got my groceries for next week.

Awfully Good TV

Last night I was watching a show called Awfully Good TV, it was kind of a comedy show about TV shows which are "so bad that they become good". Some of the clips were really funny, but some of them were kind of unfair such as the ones laughing at the special effects in old episodes of Doctor Who and Star Trek. Of course special effects are far better now than they were in the 1960s and 70s, so it's a pretty unfair criticism.

I was back at work today and it was a pretty dull day, as it usually is. I guess it's back to reality now. At least it's a short week though.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Last night I was watching Russell Brand: Scandalous on TV. Basically it was a recording of a stand-up comedy show which he had performed in London last year and he was discussing the various scandals that he had been involved in during the previous year or so. Russell Brand's comedy is not to everyone's tastes but I think a lot of it is pretty clever and often very funny.

After that I watched the 1984 movie Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, directed by Leonard Nimoy. The film, as the title suggests, is the third one to be spun-off from the popular science-fiction TV series Star Trek (1966-1969). In this film Mr. Spock (played by director Nimoy) has died and his body has been shot into space and landed on a planet which was just used as a test subject for the experimental Genesis Device, which creates life on dead planets. Meanwhile the badly damaged Starship Enterprise is heading back to Earth for repairs. On arrival Kirk (William Shatner) discovers that before Spock died he performed a "mind-meld" on Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) merging his mind with McCoys and that if McCoy and Spock's body are brought back to Spock's home planet, Vulcan, then there may be a way to save him. However, the Genesis Planet is completely forbidden and the Enterprise is being decomissioned, and to make matters worse, a group of Klingons are heading towards the Genesis Planet in order to steal it's secrets. The movie was pretty good, although non-Star Trek fans might find it overly confusing, also if you've not seen any of the movies before its not the best one to start of with. In fact the second, third and fourth Star Trek films are best seen in sequence because they all follow directly on from each other. Fans will probably like it though, and the special effects are really good.

I went along to my parent's house as usual for a Sunday today, and saw that the latest issue of Sight and Sound had arrived. The main feature this week was the films of "Old, Weird Britain" about some of the old rituals and rhythms of life in Britain which occasionally cropped up in movies in the 1960s and 70s, and also one of the last in-depth interviews with legendary actor and director Dennis Hopper. My parents both wanted to watch the Wimbledon tennis matches but I just tried to tune it out and read my book.

Star Trek

Last night was pretty quiet. I spent most of the evening reading, and ended up falling asleep on my sofa. I woke up at around half past two in the morning and went on the computer and did some writing until about half past four.

This morning my electricity bill arrived in the post and so did a money off voucher for pizza which should be useful. Later on I went out to get some groceries for the week.

In the afternoon I went out to the Cineworld cinema to see Star Trek, directed by J. J. Abrams. The film is set before the events of the original TV series and deals with James Kirk (played by Chris Pine) and Spock (played by Zachary Quinto) as they join the crew of the Enterprise and face off against an insane Romulan who is threatening the Federation with a powerful new weapon. It's strongly hinted that the film takes place in an alternate universe to that of the TV series, hence the numerous changes to Star Trek lore. However it's fun to see the new versions of the familiar Enterprise crew (especially Simon Pegg as Scotty) and also the many nods and references to the original series. Overall the film works as a really fun science-fiction action adventure movie. The past ten years or so have not really been kind to the Star Trek franchise and this movie should provide it with a much-needed shot in the arm.

Synecdoche, New York

Yesterday evening I was listening to the final episode of the radio series of The Twilight Zone. This week's story was called "Five Characters in Search of an Exit", and was about five unconnected people who find themselves trapped together in a metal room with no way out and no memory of how they got there. It was a pretty good story, with a surprising twist at the end, although it was slightly marred by one of the worst attempts at a Scottish accent I have ever heard.

Later on I was watching a show called Bring Back... Star Trek, in which Justin Lee-Collins, a British comedian and TV presenter, was trying to reunite the cast of the original Star Trek TV series to talk to them about their time on the show and try and get them to return for a one-off reunion. He had a good response from most of them, with the only one who he couldn't at least get to talk to being William Shatner. I used to love Star Trek and I thought it was a really funny and enetertaining show.

This morning I went along with my Mum to the Cameo Cinema to see a preview of the film Synecdoche, New York, written and directed by Charlie Kaufman. The film is about an aging theatre director (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman), whose wife (Catherine Keener) leaves him to go to Berlin to work on her painitng, taking their young daughter with her. Deeply troubled by his failing health and complex relationships with the women in his life, the director decides to create an epic experimental theatre piece, which he plans to be a "brutally and painfully honest" recreation of his own life on a giant life-size New York set built in a massive hanger. However before long life and art become increasingly confused. The film is well-made and well-acted, with some memorably quirky elements, but in many respects it is just too weird.

After the movie we went along to my parent's house for lunch. Which today was beef stew with mashed potato and peas. The afternoon was pretty quiet and I spent most of the time reading the various supplements from the Sunday papers.

Star Trek: Nemesis

Last night I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest on DVD. Although I had heard very mixed comments about it I really enjoyed the film. There was plenty of action, adventure and humour. I thought it was great fun! I'm looking forward to seeing the new film.

Work was the same as usual, more or less. Because it was a bank holiday today, the place was very quiet. Also a lot of people left early, and I left slightly early myself. So that was nice, although I felt quite tired today for some reason, at least until I got home, anyway. I watched Star Trek: Nemesis, the tenth and, so far, last in the Star Trek film series, and the fourth to use the cast from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It wasn't bad, but it was basically like a two hour episode of the TV series. I used to be a really big Star Trek fan, but I eventually lost interest in it.