TV/Movies Megathread

[viper37]

Christ, I'm enjoying this DS9 binge way too much. Lots of 1990s nostalgia for me.

It is a very good series.  The best Trek so far.

[Syt]

This joke in Archer might be better in 2021 than it was in 2013.

[Barrister]

Christ, I'm enjoying this DS9 binge way too much. Lots of 1990s nostalgia for me.

It is a very good series.  The best Trek so far.

SO I mentioned I went back and watched the DS9 baseball episode after Tyr bad-mouthed it.

I enjoyed it.  And on Netflix I saw that Netflix still remembered where I had left off a DS9 viewing from a couple of years ago.  So I watched the next episode.  It turns out I had picked the wrong time to give up on the show because I was right at the end of season 2 where suddenly the Dominion shows up and everything gets serious (and good).

[celedhring]

Yeah, the first two seasons the focus is all on Bajoran politics/religion and it's not the most enthralling of arcs. Even though you still get those episodes later in the show, it picks up immensely once the Dominion shows up.

And for all the time they devote to Bajor, is rather poorly fleshed out. 4 seasons in and I still don't know absolutely nothing about Bajoran religious tenets outside that their prophets are a big deal and they get visions when looking at the orbs.

[crazy canuck]

Yeah, the first two seasons the focus is all on Bajoran politics/religion and it's not the most enthralling of arcs. Even though you still get those episodes later in the show, it picks up immensely once the Dominion shows up.

And for all the time they devote to Bajor, is rather poorly fleshed out. 4 seasons in and I still don't know absolutely nothing about Bajoran religious tenets outside that their prophets are a big deal and they get visions when looking at the orbs.

Yeah, my biggest beef with the first two seasons is there was a lot of time telling us about the internal politics of Bajor and then, well, nothing much came of it.

[grumbler]

Yeah, my biggest beef with the first two seasons is there was a lot of time telling us about the internal politics of Bajor and then, well, nothing much came of it.

You think that that was bad, let me tell you about the Night King...

[crazy canuck]

Yeah, my biggest beef with the first two seasons is there was a lot of time telling us about the internal politics of Bajor and then, well, nothing much came of it.

You think that that was bad, let me tell you about the Night King...

[celedhring]

DS9 Season 4

First holodeck episode 

Sisko's and friends' consciousnesses are uploaded to Bashir's holodeck James Bond simulation after an, of course, freak transporter accident.

[viper37]

DS9 Season 4

First holodeck episode 

Sisko's and friends' consciousnesses are uploaded to Bashir's holodeck James Bond simulation after an, of course, freak transporter accident.

These things are so dangerous.  Had it been in Quebec, that device would have been permanently shut down long ago by the govt

[grumbler]

DS9 Season 4

First holodeck episode 

Sisko's and friends' consciousnesses are uploaded to Bashir's holodeck James Bond simulation after an, of course, freak transporter accident.

These things are so dangerous.  Had it been in Quebec, that device would have been permanently shut down long ago by the govt

Well, you can't just bounce an inverted particle beam off the main deflector dish every week, so transporter malfunctions are necessary.

[Syt]

bounce an inverted particle beam off the main deflector dish

I understood that reference. 

[Syt]

Random weird Archer tidbit. I S05E03, Mitsuko is reading this:



It caught my eye, because it looks at first glance like an old Perry Rhodan issue; the books in their early decades had a very similar cover layout:



However, it turns out it's this, and the artist admitted having been insired by Perry Rhodan covers:



EDIT: Perry Rhodan is on Ep. 3123 (it's published weekly since 1961).

[The Brain]

Does everyone see it in bork or is it just me?

[Savonarola]

The Great Gabbo (1929)

Erich von Stroheim finally succeeded in making himself completely unemployable as a director after Queen Kelly; so he returned to acting.  In this early sound film he's a ventriloquist who can only express emotion through his dummy.  Naturally he drives the one woman who cares about him out of his life and then, like all ventriloquists, slowly goes insane.

This film suffers from most of the problems of early talkies: (other than von Stroheim) the ac-tors speak slow-ly and dis-tinct-ly with over-ly de-lib-er-ate el-o-cu-tion; the dialogs and monologs which the thespians render like the mighty thunderbolts of a Jupiter or other storm deity are over-written and over-florid; the camera is nailed to the floor as the scene plays out, and even so you hear all sorts of background noise.  What sets this film apart, though, is that the Lon Chaneyesque storyline is interspersed with a number of elaborate song and dance numbers.  It's bizarre. 

(The current run time is 68 minutes; the original was over 90 and featured even more song and dance numbers; one that was done in two tone color.)

Von Stroheim does a reasonably good job given the limitations of film at this point.  His dummy was made by the same craftsman who made Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd.  Erich is obviously not doing ventriloquism; but Edgar Bergen had a long career in radio, so maybe that wasn't so important in the era.

[Barrister]

The Great Gabbo (1929)

Erich von Stroheim finally succeeded in making himself completely unemployable as a director after Queen Kelly; so he returned to acting.  In this early sound film he's a ventriloquist who can only express emotion through his dummy.  Naturally he drives the one woman who cares about him out of his life and then, like all ventriloquists, slowly goes insane.

This film suffers from most of the problems of early talkies: (other than von Stroheim) the ac-tors speak slow-ly and dis-tinct-ly with over-ly de-lib-er-ate el-o-cu-tion; the dialogs and monologs which the thespians render like the mighty thunderbolts of a Jupiter or other storm deity are over-written and over-florid; the camera is nailed to the floor as the scene plays out, and even so you hear all sorts of background noise.  What sets this film apart, though, is that the Lon Chaneyesque storyline is interspersed with a number of elaborate song and dance numbers.  It's bizarre. 

(The current run time is 68 minutes; the original was over 90 and featured even more song and dance numbers; one that was done in two tone color.)

Von Stroheim does a reasonably good job given the limitations of film at this point.  His dummy was made by the same craftsman who made Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd.  Erich is obviously not doing ventriloquism; but Edgar Bergen had a long career in radio, so maybe that wasn't so important in the era.

That must be the inspiration for the ventriloquist dummy Gabbo from the Simpsons!