Tyler F.M. Edwards's Blog, page 35

Review: Star Trek: Discovery, “Choose Your Pain”

Man, the quality of this show is so all over the map. I still don’t know what to make of it. I guess the good news is that this time the pendulum has swung back toward “pretty damn good, actually.”

[image error]There are really two plots to “Choose Your Pain,” though they are connected. The first sees Captain Lorca captured by Klingons after returning from a meeting with Starfleet. While being interrogated, he encounters Discovery’s final main cast member, Shazad Latif’s Lieutenant Tyler (which sounds like it could be an alternate version of my old Ensign Edwards moniker), as well as a character familiar to fans of the original series.

The second and far more interesting plot deals with Discovery’s attempts to rescue the captain, which run into trouble as the stress of jumping begins to take its toll on the Ripper.

It is this plot that really makes “Choose Your Pain” memorable for me. It does a great job of expanding on last episode’s questions around the Ripper. Is the spore drive hurting it? Is it sentient? If yes to either of those, how can they justify using it the way they have?

This entire arc is vintage Star Trek, and it gives me great hope that Discovery will not simply be paying lip service to Trek’s idealism. This is some good sci-fi right here.

I also very much appreciated that this was not another case of the focus being put solely on Burnham to the expense of all else. Indeed, almost every cast member has a chance to shine: Saru, Burnham, Tilly, Dr. Culber, and of course Stamets.

As of “Choose Your Pain,” I am now ready to officially declare Stamets my favourite Discovery character. This guy is just pure awesomeness. The snarky exterior concealing a noble soul is just an excellent angle for a character, and the actor plays him well.

[image error]

Twenty Years

I’m celebrating an important anniversary.

I have spoken before about the series of novels and stories that I am currently calling The Soulcleaver Saga. I consider it my life’s work, having spent much of my time on this earth refining and reinventing it over and again. And this month, I’m marking the twentieth anniversary of this universe’s creation.

[image error]

All of the pics in this post are Soulcleaver characters I’ve recreated in Black Desert Online or Aion.

I do not remember the exact date I first created this world, but I’m pretty sure it was mid-autumn of 1997, and I think it was October. I was seven years old at that time.

It didn’t start as anything special. When I was young, I spent much of my free time playing make believe games — role-playing, really, but without the dice and the stat sheets. I always managed the stories and world-building for such things, though they were always very simple.

Wanting a new game to play, I came up with a very simple premise: We’d play as the leaders of various fantasy races and have totally generic fantasy adventures. I fully expected to get bored with this game in a week or two at most.

But I didn’t. I enjoyed it, and so I kept playing it. I played at school with my friends, and I played at home with my parents. This went on for months, and then years. There were breaks here and there were I didn’t play the game, but I always came back to it.

And over time this very simple game became not so simple at all. Plots grew, evolved, reached their climaxes, and made way for new and different adventures. The world kept deepening, with more races, more villains, more lands, and more depth to the concepts and cultures.

[image error]Somewhere along the line it stopped being a game, and I saw the potential in it for something more. I started fantasizing about writing novels set in the universe when I grew up, though I didn’t see it as a main career path at the time — I was at that point still hung up on my original dream of being an engineer or astrophysicist (neeeeerd).

Eventually, I outgrew the game, but the world never left my mind. By then it had reached truly epic scale. It was a fundamental part of my identity.

When I was sixteen, I decided that if I really wanted this story to be told, I would have to sit down and actually write it.

That’s how I became a writer.

Of course, I quickly learned that writing a novel is a lot harder than it sounds. I had to improve my grammar and learn the ropes of good story-telling. I bought books on writing and studied the craft, for years. I started writing fiction, but I didn’t want to screw up a story that was so important to me, so I focused instead on writing other things. First fan fiction, then original fiction.

This went on for many years as I continually laboured to improve my skills. This is how the World Spectrum series came to be. I don’t want to diminish it, because I have a lot of passion for that story, too, but ultimately it was just the practice round for Soulcleaver (as was another series of science fantasy novels I wrote that will probably never see the light of day).

[image error]All the while, the story that would become Soulcleaver was still lurking in the back of my mind. I had the time to break down the series and rebuild it from the ground up. What sounded cool when I was ten and what actually makes for a good novel people will want to read are quite different, after all.

There have thus been many different versions of this story. I have cut out an enormous amount of plots, characters, locations, and concepts from the original because they were quite frankly terrible. What remains is a sort of “greatest hits” collection that forms all the best ideas I’ve ever had in relation to this series, ranging from my childhood until the present day, into a cohesive narrative.

The end result is something that is very different from the game I played as a child. The concept of Soulcleaver itself didn’t even exist until about ten years ago, and now it’s so important I named the series after it.

That said, some things haven’t changed much at all. One of the main villains has not changed in any substantive way since I first created him back when I was around eleven. One of the protagonists has been around even longer and has changed almost as little. And the Elves still put kalni ferns on all their food.

And now, at last, I am actually writing the books. I hope this will be the final version of the story, or that only minor changes await it, but I can’t say anything with certainty right now.

[image error]I don’t even know what I’m going to do once the books are finished. Maybe I’ll try to get them published conventionally. Maybe I’ll self-publish again. Maybe I won’t do anything. I just know I need to get this story down.

What awaits me after that I don’t know. I don’t know who I am without this story. It’s a fundamental part of who I am and perhaps the only permanent fixture of my life. What will I be once it’s finished?

I know I tend to be very cryptic and cagey about the actual details of the story when discussing Soulcleaver, and if you read this blog a lot, it’s probably getting annoying. I’m sorry about that. But as the story still has the potential to change, I’m hesitant to make too many firm statements, and as intensely passionate about the world and story as I am, the very fact that it’s so important to me can make talking about it publicly difficult. It’s an oddly personal thing to share.

That said, I should probably at least give a hint at this point.

The Soulcleaver Saga takes place on an ocean-covered world called Arthai, an ancient Karani word that approximately translates to “All-Kingdom.” Most of the action takes place on a small northern continent called the Homelands, so named because it is home to all of Arthai’s terrestrial races.

At its heart, it is a story of the long conflict between two bitterly opposed factions.

[image error]The first is the Great Fellowship, an alliance of long-lived magical races who dwell mainly in the north. They are a very advanced and egalitarian — though not necessarily flawless — society where several different cultures live in harmony. They are partially inspired by Star Trek’s United Federation of Planets.

Their rivals are the Bonru, a race of ruthless alien raiders who occupy the south. Imagine a high fantasy version of Mad Max, and you have a pretty good idea of what the Bonru are like.

The war between the Fellowship and the Bonru has lasted generations, but now, at last, it reaches its climax, as a new and more cunning leader rises among the Bonru with the intention of snuffing out the Fellowship once and for all.

Yet there is more to this conflict than meets the eye. There are dark forces at work in Arthai seeking to shape events to their own malevolent ends.

As the days darken, the fate of all may lie in the hands of Seesha Avallen, a young Elven woman who must come to grips with the dark past she never knew she had. A past inextricably tied to the terrible blade known as Soulcleaver…

[image error]That’s just the barest snapshot of it. It is a story of endemic hatred, and how it can poison societies. It is also a story of the redemptive power of love, and the struggle to endure in the face of unimaginable loss.

It’s also got ridiculously extravagant fight scenes, a telepathic ghost, the most swank Dwarves you’ll ever see, badass unicorns, lots of pretty Elves, and one very snarky Mermaid.

The Soulcleaver Saga: Coming eventually to a bookstore near you, maybe.

Filed under: My writing Tagged: fantasy, Soulcleaver, writing

The Mustering of Azeroth: I’ve Suffered Well

I have a strange relationship with the death knight class in World of Warcraft. I’ve always said I love everything about death knights except actually playing them. The playstyle has just never quite clicked for me, and as a result my death knight has long been one of my most neglected alts.

[image error]And yet the fact remains I really love the idea of the class. For sheer style points, they’ve always been one of the best classes in WoW, with cool spell effects and consistently amazing tier sets. And most importantly, they have an incredible story.

Death knights were WoW’s first (and for a long time its only) hero class, and thus the first class with its own unique starting experience.

That starting experience was a quantum leap forward for WoW’s story-telling. I can still remember when I made my first death knight and was completely blown away. After months of my WoW experience being collecting bear asses, the epic experience I knew and loved from the Warcraft franchise was back. I was rubbing shoulders with legendary lore figures, getting to love a new cast of characters, and wading into massive battles with the fate of Azeroth on the line.

I’ve gone back and made other death knights on other servers several different times just because I loved that starting experience so much.

And so maybe it’s not surprising the death knight class campaign in Legion has been one of my favourites. In fact, with eight classes down now, there’s pretty good odds it will go down as my single favourite campaign.

[image error]As with all the best class campaigns, the death knight story draws heavily on what has come before. The original starting experience did a very good job of forging a sense of camaraderie between the player and the NPCs, and the Legion campaign very wisely brings pretty much all of them back and puts them at the centre of the story. It felt great to once again be fighting alongside Thassarian, Koltira, and Darion. It was as if no time had passed.

I was especially reminded of how much I love Darion Mograine as a character. Part of it is just his awesome voice, but I love his unique combination of breathtaking bitterness and cynicism tempered with lingering traces of optimism and nobility.

“All is not lost… not yet.”

The Ebon Blade has also always done a very good job of selling the anti-hero angle, and that’s one area where I can’t help but compare with the demon hunter campaign. As much as I hate to use the buzzword, the Illidari mostly come across as a bunch of angry edgelords.

The death knights have a more nuanced approach. They’re monsters, and they know they’re monsters, and they’ve decided to turn their hideous nature against even worse monsters so as to preserve that which is still good in the world. They do heinous things, and they know that no one will ever forgive them for what they’ve done, least of all themselves.

[image error]The camaraderie that exists between the Knights of the Ebon Blade, as well as their tremendous self-awareness, adds a very sympathetic angle to what would otherwise be a tremendously unlikable bunch of people.

There’s even more to praise about the death knight campaign, but the rest starts to veer into spoiler territory. Suffice it to say we got to revisit some long-neglected locations, storylines, and characters, and it’s definitely enriched Warcraft lore as a whole.

Really my only big complaint about this story is that it left me wanting more. A lot more. I know the odds of this happening are exactly zero, but I would love to see a single-player game that’s all about the Ebon Blade and their story. They’re such a fascinating bunch.

Gameplay-wise, I also had more fun with my DK than I have in the past. Legion’s changes to the rune system seem to have sped up and smoothed out the rotation a bit. Blood still feels off to me in a way I can’t quite define, but I’ve had a pretty good time playing frost and unholy.

Legion unholy is pretty much the only pet spec in WoW I’ve truly enjoyed (well, I was a big demonology fan for a long time, but I liked it despite the pets). As unholy, your pets don’t feel like they’re detracting from your character — they’re a bonus rather than a crutch — and the sheer number of them you can summon is a real power-trip.

Apocalypse is also one of the very few artifact abilities that is genuinely impressive. One of my few complaints about artifacts is that the abilities granted by these supposedly awesome weapons tend to feel surprisingly weak, but Apocalypse is an exception, looking and feeling awesome to use.

[image error]Also, if you’re not shouting “APOCALYYYYPSE!!” in your best Lich King voice whenever you use it, you’re playing the class wrong.

Meanwhile, frost spec does a very good job of capturing the “unrelenting killing machine” fantasy of the death knight class. It is a bit on the simple side, but you can add complexity through talents, and it’s fun and relaxing to play.

If you haven’t played a death knight in Legion, you might want to consider it.

Filed under: Games Tagged: fantasy, The Mustering of Azeroth, Warcraft, World of Warcraft

Review: Star Trek: Discovery, “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry”

I have this scene in my mind. It’s the Discovery writers room, and they’re pitching episode titles. Someone quips, “Well, we’ll never come up with any titles as over the top as the original series had.”

[image error]And for some reason Neil Patrick Harris is there, and he leaps to his feet and declares, “Challenge accepted!”

It’s the best explanation I can think of for “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry.”

Anyway, four episodes in, I’m still not quite sure what to make of Discovery.

On the one hand, the main plot of this episode does have a nice Star Trek-y feel. Captain Lorca brings Burnham to his Bond villain lab and sets her to studying the creature they recovered from their ill-fated sister ship, dubbed a “Ripper.” It’s the sort of scientific mystery that Star Trek thrives on, with a nice undercurrent of moral quandary. So I like that.

Also, Stamets continues to be awesome.

However, there are also a number of things that are bothering me — about this episode, and about Discovery in general.

For one thing, the show is still favouring spectacle over good storytelling to an unhealthy degree, as evidenced by Landry channeling the spirit of Leeroy Jenkins, as well as a lavish CGI sequence of… a shirt being replicated.

Seriously.

[image error]I also remain very unhappy with Discovery’s portrayal of the Klingons. This episode once again takes every opportunity to make them as over-the-top craven and villainous as you can imagine, often in ways that run totally contrary to how Klingons have traditionally been portrayed.

Still having a hard time wrapping my head around their new look, too. Their make-up is so thick you can’t really see the actor’s facial expressions, so they can’t emote properly. Kind of sucks the personality out of them — what little personality is possible with such shallow writing, anyway.

Finally, one other thing that worries me is that after four episodes, this seems to just be the Michael Burnham Show. Every episode focuses on her, to the point where all the other characters are left by the wayside.

Now, I’m not just saying this because I’m not her biggest fan. She is slowly growing on me, actually — I like all her little Vulcan mannerisms.

But even if Burnham was the greatest character ever, it would still be problematic if the show focused only on her. There are lots of other really interesting characters on Discovery — Saru, Tilly, Stamets — but they’re just not getting enough screentime to be properly developed. There’s too much of a laser focus on Burnham.

Star Trek is at its best when it makes full use of ensemble cast. That’s a lesson Discovery would do well to learn.

Overall rating: 6.9/10

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: review, sci-fi, Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery, TV

BlizzCon 2017 Wishlist/Predictions

BlizzCon, the Christmas in November for Blizzard fans, is now just a few weeks away, and as always I’m here to make my predictions and list my hopes for what we’ll see there.

[image error]This year, I think we all know what the big story will be.

Something something Kul Tiras:

It is at this point about 99.9% certain that the next WoW expansion will be announced at BlizzCon 2017. We know Antorus is Legion’s last raid tier, so the time is right. The question then is not whether an expansion will be announced, but what it will be.

I’ve talked before about the datamined armour set pointing to Kul Tiras. Since then, we’ve also learned that the key art for Warcraft at BlizzCon is a lavish portrait of Jaina Proudmoore, the most famous Tirasian in the Warcraft universe, which I think all but confirms Kul Tiras as the setting of 8.0.

But what will we be doing in Kul Tiras?  As I said in the linked post, Azshara and the Naga are the first thing that comes to mind, but there have been so many false alarms on that front over the years that I’m trying not to get my hopes up.

Kul Tiras has historically been very anti-Horde, and Jaina has pretty much turned into her father at this point, so this could also be another expansion focusing on the faction conflict. I hope not, because that angle is beyond played out at this point, but it’s definitely something I could see Blizzard doing. Maybe this will be Mists of Pandaria 2 with Jaina playing the role of Garrosh.

[image error]Sadly, I don’t think that’s as far-fetched as it sounds.

One thing I did find interesting is that one of the panels on the BlizzCon schedule is devoted to the voice actresses who play Warcraft’s female characters. Maybe it’s nothing, but to me that seems a bit of a random thing to do, considering how male-dominated WoW has tended to be.

However, if this is the first expansion with a female villain — Azshara — then it would make a lot more sense.

Then again, it could also make sense for a faction war expansion focused on Jaina and Sylvanas. Hmm…

There’s also a solid chance a Kul Tiras expansion could be something totally unexpected that none of us could have seen coming. Warlords of Draenor proved anything is possible, for better or for worse. Mostly for worse, if I’m being honest.

Features:

So now that we’ve read the tea leaves regarding the story and setting, what about the features?

As always, I want to see a new class and/or new specs. New ways to play are always exciting.

[image error]There’s a fair bit of speculation going around that Alleria’s story on Argus is setting up a new void-themed archer class. I would love to see that proven true, because that’s pretty much my dream class.

But realistically I don’t think we’re going to see any new classes or specs so soon after the addition of demon hunters and Legion’s big class shake-ups. I think Blizzard will prefer to play it safe on that front for now — though I do think it’s very likely we’ll see new race/class combos opened up.

However, it has now been more than five years since a new playable race was added to World of Warcraft, and I think odds are very good that drought is about to break.

I’ve wanted Vrykul to be playable for years, and after Legion, I feel like that possibility is closer than ever. Legion did a lot to expand their culture and flesh them out as a people, and given that we’ve now seen equivalents of most playable classes among them (the Valkyra are basically paladins, for instance), part of me suspects Blizzard is prepping them for playable status.

If Vrykul are added, I think they would probably be another neutral race. Their culture fits in well with the Horde, but their connection to humanity gives them an in with the Alliance. It’s too hard to judge which faction suits them more, so why bother? Giant Vikings for all, I say.

[image error]If we don’t get Vrykul, there are still a few other possibilities for new races. I’m surprised Ogres aren’t already a playable race for Horde, and on the Alliance front, Furbolgs could be an option. They’ve long been allies of the Night Elves, so it would make sense.

There’s a lot of speculation around Nightborne being made playable, too. I think they’d be too close to our existing Elven races to really justify the development — they look very close to Night Elves and act very close to Blood Elves — but I can’t rule it out.

If any races do get added, look for them to be the first hero race(s). That is, expect them to start at a high level, similar to demon hunters or death knights. I think Blizzard has just given up on leveling at this point, and even I have to admit 110 levels (presumably soon to be 120) is a daunting prospect for anyone.

There’s also been talk of new character customization options being added for all existing races, and I think there’s a decent chance of that. The new Eredar looks on Argus could be a test of this. Personally, I’d love to be able to give my rogue blue hair.

Of course, we’re bound to get the usual new zones, dungeons, and raids. Beyond that and a possible new race, I don’t expect a lot of big news. I think Blizzard is done with adding permanent new systems or features at this point.

I don’t think class halls will continue to be relevant past Legion, but expect a mission table of some sort — with new followers to restart the grind.

[image error]Similarly, I don’t think class campaigns will continue. Even Blizzard doesn’t have the resources to maintain twelve distinct stories indefinitely. Well, they probably do, but it would cut into their ability to add more exclusive gear, mounts, and boss phases for the 0.1% of people who do mythic raids, and obviously we can’t have that.

However, class campaigns have been popular enough that we might see something similar. One possibility that I see is that instead of each class having its own story, there are a couple of different campaigns shared between several classes. For example, shamans, druids, and hunters could share a campaign, since they’re all nature-themed classes.

We already know artifacts are going the way of the dodo — though I still can’t imagine why — but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some max level progression system that’s nearly identical to the artifact power grind, just without the artifact.

I expect 8.0 zones will use Legion’s level-scaling system, but I don’t think the Broken Isles will scale past 110, and I don’t see the tech being applied to legacy content. It’s just too big a change, and Blizzard tends to be relatively conservative. Which is a shame because I’d love to see a “One Azeroth” update with global level-scaling. So much potential that could open up.

The rest of the catalogue:

[image error]Beyond the WoW expansion, I don’t see a lot of big news coming out of BlizzCon 2017. We already know Diablo won’t have any news, and I imagine it will be steady as she goes for the other games.

Hearthstone will get a new expansion. Overwatch will get a new map and/or character. Heroes of the Storm will announce some new heroes.

I’d love to see some more story content for StarCraft II, but there’s no reason to believe that will happen. Most likely we’ll just see a new War Chest and co-op commander. We already know that the next commander is Terran, and it will probably be Matt Horner. He was one of three unreleased commanders with achievement headings in Legacy of the Void’s beta, and the other two — Stukov and Karax — are now in-game. I’m hoping he’s focused on air units, especially Battlecruisers.

We know Blizzard is working on at least one new game, which is believed to be an MMORTS for mobile platforms. Reeeaally not sure how to feel about that, but I don’t have to decide now, as I very much doubt it or any other new title will be ready for reveal at this BlizzCon.

Similarly, I suspect Blizzard is probably working on more remasters of old games, but they probably won’t announce anything so soon after the release of the StarCraft remaster.

[image error]Given that Blizzard’s idea of a remaster seems to be only a minor tweak to graphics and nothing else, the idea of revamps of their older titles doesn’t excite me much anymore. The one I would like to see is Warcraft III, as it’s the only one whose gameplay can still hold up in 2017. It doesn’t need more than a graphical spit-shine.

In summary, I predict Kul Tiras will be the headline, probably with a new race(s), which I hope will be Vrykul, as well as new race/class combos. There will be only minor updates to the other games, of which Matt Horner will be the only one that really matters to me.

What do you expect or hope to see at BlizzCon 2017?

Filed under: Games Tagged: Diablo, fantasy, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, sci-fi, Starcraft, video games, Warcraft, World of Warcraft

Review: Star Trek: Discovery, “Context Is for Kings”

To watch Discovery streaming in Canada, you have to wait until Monday for CraveTV to put the episode online. That meant that I was already hearing some buzz about “Context Is for Kings” before watching it. The main thing I heard was that this should have been the actual beginning of the series, and that the first two episodes felt unnecessary by comparison.

[image error]Having now seen it, I very much agree with that perspective.

“Context Is for Kings” is where the story of Discovery really gets started. Now a prisoner, Commander Burnham finds herself suddenly transferred to the newly launched starship Discovery, where she is pressed into helping them with their research.

It’s quickly clear that Discovery is no ordinary Starfleet vessel, and when disaster strikes its sister ship, Burnham begins to understand just how far the Federation is willing to go to win the war.

As I said, this is where the show’s story really begins. We’re introduced not only to the series’ titular ship, but also most of the main cast members, Burnham and Saru being the only significant carry-overs from the first two episodes.

Those new cast members have done a lot to improve my view of the show. They add a lot of depth to what has so far been a pretty shallow story.

It’s too early to be picking favourites, but one who especially impressed me out of the gate is a scientist called Paul Stamets. He’s a bit prickly, but it’s clear he’s a true believer in Starfleet’s ideals of peaceful exploration, and his resentment at having been asked to fight a war is a great angle. He does a lot to bring the feeling of true Star Trek that Discovery has previously lacked.

Burnham’s roommate, the over-eager Cadet Tilly, is also an interesting case. Her awkward goofiness could potentially get old with time, but right now she provides a welcome dose of warmth and humour to counterbalance the show’s otherwise grim tone.

[image error]I was also pleased to see a familiar face: Rekha Sharma of Battlestar Galactica fame, who plays Discovery‘s chief of security. Always liked her.

I still don’t like Burnham, but her portrayal is softening. At least we can see that she regrets her mistakes, and that there is a limit to how low she’s willing to sink. Although she’s still reckless to the point of foolishness.

I’m also intrigued by the arc that is beginning to form around Discovery‘s mission. Again, it’s starting to feel a bit more like Star Trek, with some very inventive (if implausible) sci-fi concepts.

That’s not to say I’ve been fully converted as a fan. The show still seems to favour spectacle over logic more often than it should — that brawl in the mess hall was totally unnecessary — and as I’ve said, I’m still not very keen on Burnham.

But this is a big improvement over the first two episodes. If you haven’t tried Disovery yet, start with “Context Is for Kings.” This is a much better introduction to the series than the actual pilot.

Overall rating: 7.6/10 I’m actually looking forward to the next episode now.

Some random speculation before I go:

I don’t think Lorca is going to be Discovery‘s captain forever. I see him eventually being replaced. Probably with Burnham.

Also, who else thinks we got a Section 31 series without realizing it? Because at this point I’ll be very surprised if it doesn’t turn out that Discovery is a Section 31 project.

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: review, sci-fi, Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery, TV

Of Bartle Types and MMO Difficulty

Got a few more articles over at MMO Bro for you to peruse.

[image error]First, I attempt to answer the question, “Are MMOs Too Easy?” Which turns out to be a far more daunting task than you might imagine.

Next, I ponder if it may be time for players and commentators to give Bartle’s player types a rest. Truthfully I’ve always found it strange that people put so much weight on such a basic system.

Filed under: Games, My writing Tagged: video games, writing

Song of the Month: Sc Mira, Free

Debuting a new segment on Superior Realities today. I’m stepping away from my usual sci-fi/fantasy/gaming purview to post a song once a month.

To be brutally honest, I’m mainly doing this because I want another option for low-effort posts. Working on my novels has been taking a lot of my energy, and while I don’t want to neglect my blog, I also don’t always have it in me to produce my traditional deep dive posts.

I also recognize that my musical taste makes most people’s ears bleed, hence limiting myself to one song per month. I’m also going to keep an eye on how these posts are received, and if it seems like people are indifferent or actively opposed to them, I may discontinue the series. Feedback is welcomed, positive or negative.

It will not necessarily be a recent song every time. It will just be something I enjoy and/or that suits my mood at that moment. I also don’t commit to doing it on any particular schedule beyond it being once per calendar month.

For the inaugural edition, I’ve chosen the song Free by the Winnipeg-based band Sc Mira (despite its unusual lack of punctuation, “Sc” is still pronounced as an abbreviation). I just discovered this band a few days ago, and I’m already totally obsessed. I love almost everything I’ve heard from them. They’re strange, but in a very good way.

Fair warning that there is a small amount of NSFW language in this song.

Maybe it’s just blind patriotism talking, but I really do think Canada has more musical talent per capita than any other country.

Filed under: Misc. Tagged: music, Song of the Month

Review: Star Trek: Discovery, “The Vulcan Hello” and “Battle at the Binary Stars”

Well, it’s here. The first new Star Trek TV series in more than ten years. I’ve had pretty significant reservations about Discovery from the outset, due to my complicated relationship with the Star Trek franchise, but as I’ve said many times, I have far too much franchise loyalty for my own good, so of course I’m giving it a shot.

[image error]I actually did something a bit different for the premiere. Instead of watching at home on my own, I went to a meet-up at a local sci-fi gaming establishment. Before the show, we played a sort of video game/simulation where we played as bridge officers on a starship. I was at tactical, and my team won, so I feel pretty good about myself.

But I digress. Enough about my lackluster attempts at a social life. Let’s discuss Discovery, shall we?

Since the first two episodes — “The Vulcan Hello” and “Battle at the Binary Stars” — were shown back to back and form a continuous story, I’ll just review them together.

There are two ways one can judge Discovery. One is as the heir to the grand ideals and great potential of Star Trek as thought-provoking science fiction. The other is as just an entertaining TV show.

It’s succeeded at one of those.

Discovery takes the odd route of not introducing us to the titular ship out of the gate. Instead, the story focuses on the Federation starship Shenzhou (which is gorgeous, by the way), and especially its first officer, Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green).

[image error]The Shenzhou is on a routine mission to investigate a communications relay that’s gone offline, but a run-in with a faction of fanatical Klingons soon sees them at the flashpoint of a potential interstellar war.

It’s very fast-paced, maybe a little too much so. It feels rather rushed at times, and there isn’t a lot of opportunity to explore the characters. There’s also a few things that didn’t seem to make a lot of sense, but it all went by so fast I can’t recall a lot of specific examples.

There are two issues that are really bothering me about Discovery right now.

Number one is, well, Number One. I have rapidly developed a strong dislike for Commander Burnham. She’s exactly the sort of undisciplined hothead that I never liked to begin with and have only become more resentful of due to the archetype’s over-use. How do loose cannons like this keep getting put in positions of power in Starfleet, anyway?

The other is the portrayal of the Klingons.

I had my reservations going in based on the radical redesign of their appearance. I know it may seem a petty thing, but given that Klingons already had a well-known and iconic appearance, and given that their look has already been retconned once, and given that a lot of effort was put towards explaining the previous retcon, it’s just change for the sake of change. I have a high tolerance for retcons, but even I can’t defend something so unnecessary.

[image error]And no, there’s no explanation given for why they look so different. A wizard did it, I guess.

Their culture has also changed quite a lot — again, no explanation as to why. In Discovery, the Klingons are religious fanatics obsessed with racial purity. They come across as some weird hybrid of Al Qaeda and the KKK.

The end result is that they have once again been reduced to one-dimensional villains. There is no sympathetic angle to Discovery’s Klingons, no nuance. They’re just evil.

The Klingons deserve better. Star Trek deserves better.

Based on the trailers, I had the impression that Discovery might be bringing back the cerebral, thought-provoking style of story-telling that put Star Trek on the map. Based on the first two episodes, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I actually have a theory to explain all these inconsistencies, but it’s a little spoilery and gets far into the weeds of nerdery, so I’ll save it for the end of the post.

It also doesn’t help that Michelle Yeoh was merely a guest star. I was really enjoying her character. I would have preferred to see her as the show’s focus.

[image error]That’s a lot of criticism, but I don’t want to send the impression that I hate Discovery so far. I don’t.

I think a lot of the problem is the weight of expectation from the Star Trek name. If not for that, I’d probably enjoy Discovery more. It may not be all I want Trek to be, but it’s not without its charms.

For one thing, it’s a very nice looking show. The special effects are cinema-quality, and the art design is brilliant. I love how the technology and uniforms feel like a very natural evolution from Enterprise.

It’s also very exciting. The space battles are great, and it does a good job of keeping you on the edge of your seat.

My gripes about Burnham aside, the cast shows some promise, too. I already quite like Doug Jones’ Saru, an alien with a heightened sense of self-preservation. His species seems like an interesting new addition, and I look forward to learning more about their culture.

[image error]So Discovery doesn’t entirely work as a Star Trek show, but as just another sci-fi action-adventure, it’s not bad. It’s not great, but it’s not bad.

I’ll keep watching. It’s good enough. And lots of sci-fi shows — and Trek shows — have rocky starts, so maybe it will improve. Maybe the Klingons will get some depth, and maybe Burnham will grow on me.

Maybe.

Overall rating: 6.9/10

Okay, so here’s my headcanon for the retcons right now:

I know it’s been said this is the prime timeline, but I don’t think it is. I think this is an alternate timeline spawned by the Temporal Cold War.

In Enterprise’s premiere, the Cabal are trying to start a civil war between the Klingon houses. In Discovery, the Klingon houses have been at war for a hundred years — roughly the length of time that’s elapsed since the events of Enterprise.

If this is a timeline where for some reason Captain Archer and his crew never thwarted the Cabal’s plans, that explains why the houses have been warring. And if the Klingons’ attention was turned inward, they would not have had the subsequent interactions with the NX-01. Phlox would never have helped cure the Augment virus, and flat foreheads would not have spread throughout the Klingon race.

[image error]The other changes to Klingon appearance in Discovery could be explained by an alternate cure for the virus, or by some other biological modification resulting from the decades of war.

This almost certainly wasn’t what the writers intended, but it does a very good job of filling Discovery’s plot holes, doesn’t it?

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: review, sci-fi, Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery, TV

Pulp with Purpose

Now that I’m back to writing fiction regularly, I’ve had the opportunity to think over what I’m actually trying to achieve with it, and I’ve come up with a nice succinct little phrase that I think sums it up perfectly:

Pulp with purpose.

[image error]Now let me ruin the brevity of that by verbosely explaining what precisely that means.

It means that I must never lose sight of the fact that I am an entertainer first and foremost. My books and stories are meant to be fun, and if the reader isn’t enjoying themselves, I haven’t done my job.

It means that I embrace colourful settings, full of magic and power, wonder and terror; larger than life, inspiring heroes; and intense, unabashedly unrealistic action.

Because reality is boring, and the world doesn’t need anymore stories where everything is brown and everyone is a jerk.

But it also means that I understand the best stories are those that not only entertain, but also uplift, educate, and enlighten. It means that what I write must be a reflection of my values, and that I must always re-examine those values to ensure that they’re right ones. It means my stories have to say something.

It means, also, that I understand that representation matters, and that as many as people as possible should feel welcome and see themselves reflected in the worlds I have created.

Above all, it means that I seek the balance between those two forces. The stories that I tell have to be both escapism and carry some deeper value. If I neglect either angle, I will fail. If my stories have no message, then I’ve betrayed my values. If they’re not fun to read, no one will bother with them.

That’s the ideal, anyway, but of course I can’t claim that I have always or will always perfectly live up to it. I definitely haven’t done a great job walking the walk when it comes to representation, for example, though I am working to improve that.

If nothing else, it gives me a clear vision of what the goal is.

And a good slogan.

I like slogans.

Filed under: My writing Tagged: writing