Let's party again!

[wiseheart]

Well, folks, it's *that* time of the year again: I'll be 53 next Friday. So, it's time for the annual game of "let's the threads collapse". Come in, make yourselves comfortable, have a good time and bring your friends. Last years we had some 400+ comments, now we're in for the new record. ;)

This entry will be bounced up each day until October 9, so that all those who want can participate.

Update: On October 4, we had 195 comments on 2 pages. Well done. We still have got 5 more days, so let's see what we can do in that time. I have to say, the conversations in the individual threads were absolutely delightful. *is happy*

Update #2: On October 6, we had 270 comments - sadly, still on only 2 pages. Only 3 more day left to reach the ultimate goal, which would be 444 comments on 4 pages. But the discussions are great, so at the very least, we have the quality, if not the quantity yet. And that's more important, I'd say.

Update #3: On October 8, we had 388 comments, on 3 pages! Yay! I'm not very optimistic about Page 4, but I think the 444 comments might come together by the end of the day itself.

Pre-birthday gifts:
Got a wonderful bakery book from Mum, titled "Muffins and..." well, I seriously doubt that the English language has a word for the rest. Germans might know what Pogatschen are. They are small, salty or cheesy cookies, made usually of yeast dough... a Hungarian speciality. We already have quite a few recepies, but there are some in that book I never heard of. It will be a delight to try them out.

Also, I got the box-set of 2nd Season Torchwood from the most generous the_wild_iris! Thanks, my friend, you really, really made my day after two rather stressful weeks. I can finally watch the only episode I missed while we were in Belgium - the one in which Owen becomes a zombie. Heh!

Pre-birthday preparations:
I baked some strawberry flavoured muffins tonigh - not from the new book, from the carton box, I'm afraid, but for the colleagues they will do tomorrow.

Mum's bravely going down to the hairdresser's tomorrow, because, as she told me, "I can't look like this on your birthday!" Well, after not seeing a hairdresser for months, there's some truth in it.

The day after tomorrow, we're going to the "Blind Crow" for lunch. Unlike in English-speaking countries, lunch is actually the main meal of the day over here, so it will be great. The "Blind Crow" is a very nice little restaurant, and we can reach it on foot, which is the main issue, as Mum can't climb into any busses yet.


Final update:
Well, folks, the party will still be going on until midnight, CET, but I'm already declaring it a great success. We've made it onto Page 4, we've broken through the 500 (!!!)-comment-barrier, and I'm very happy.

Thanks everyone for participating, especially altariel, rcfinch, solanpolarn, the_wild_iris, theromangeneral and lhun_dweller, who've been working diligently and tirelessly to help me break the record. Should I've forgotten anyone, I humbly apologize.

Comments

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I fell in love with Dr Zelenka in the episodes with the letters home when he described how the city rose from the water. It was so beautifully done and he showed such geekish pleasure in describing it. The way he lies about what he has said at the end is a nice touch as well and I like the poke at English speaking people for not knowing any other language! The fact that I don't understand a word he says in that scene doesn't really matter -- I love that he felt this was the message he wanted to send home.

I do rather like Major Kira, as a character though she annoys me at times, especially in her treatment of (my beloved) Dr. Bashir. There is a fair bit of recognition of trouble with tempers for me, though, and I enjoyed seeing someone struggle with that and get better at it. I would love to be as competent and self-assured as Jadzia Dax, but I know I am far more like Major Kira or even Dr. Bashir, though not so brilliant or athletic...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Zelenka is the best of Atlantis, really! Not only because he's the first ever Middle European character in a sci-fi show (all not-western characters we had before him were Russians), but because of his wonderfully quirky personality.

SGA spoilers below, so you might want to stop reading here!

After the idiots killed off Carson Beckett, for a while I was genuinely worried about Zelenka's survival. Some PTB seem to think that good drama=killing off the character people actually like. *looks pointedly in the direction of Torchwood* Fortunately, the SGA powers seemed to realize that happy fans=bigger bucks and not only did they leave Zelenka alive, they also brought back Carson... well, sort of.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

It is nice to see non-American characters on sci-fi shows at all, but I do take your point about Middle Europeans being especially under-represented. I would like to see a Scandinavian sci-fi character, but I suppose we will just have to make do with our actual astronaut Christer Fugelsang for the time being. At least he is a proper geek! :-)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

If you consider it, no other show has even come close to the original Star Trek's multinational command staff: an American captain, an alien first officer, a Scottish chief engineer, a Japanese chief pilot, an African communications officer, a Russian chief navigator - the only other American senior officer was good old Bones!

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

The Star Trek shows do tend to do fairly well with their (supposed) multinationality. TNG had a French captain, an American first-officer, an android for a science officer, an alien for a security chief (both Tasha Yar and Worf) and I think LaForge is supposed to be from the African continent and Crusher didn't grow up on Earth. In DS9 only Sisko is supposedly American; on Voyager both Janeway and Paris are Americans I think, which isn't too bad I suppose. Of course in reality the vast majority of the actors are very much American in all of these series...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, considering that the shows were *made* in the States, it's not really surprising, eh?

At least they shoot some of them in Canada, so they simply *have* to hire a certain percentage of Canadian actors. Otherwise we wouldn't have the most amazing Dr. McKay and the Awesome Dr. Zelenka (TM). That David Nykl was born in Prague was the fact that made Zelenka a Czech character to begin with - originally, TPTB wanted a Russian one.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

No, it isn't surprising that most of the actors are Americans but it is nice when they get some in that aren't as well. Canadians are good! in most cases at least. I have a feeling William Shatner is actually Canadian as well, even if my Canadian friends vehemently deny this.

I suppose it makes sense to have a lot of Russians in sci-fi shows; they were the first humans in space after all and are still heavily involved. There is also the fact that Russia is a much more populous country than most of the rest of Europe so just from a statistics perspective it is reasonable to have more of them. It gets annoying when Russians are the only non-English speaking people represented though. I also think it is high time for more Indian and Chinese people in sci-fi! And women. We need more diversity in general, is my point I suppose.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Agreed. But not "women" written like Janeway, pretty please?

When I first heard that Voyager would have a female captain, I was so happy! I was determined to love her, no matter what. Sadly, the inconsistent way she was written - plus Kate Mulgrew's wooden acting - made it impossible for me.

The same problem did I have with Dr. Elizabeth Weir from SGA. I loved the character to pieces in 7th Season SG-1, where she was strong-willed, competent and yet charming, played by the wonderful Jessica Steen. Then, at the beginning of Season 8, they gave the role to another actress - the one wo played her in SGA, too - and she promptly got hit by the Stupid Generator. Arrrrrgh!!!

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I suppose I should be more specific: while we need more diversity this should not take the form of stupidity! Voyager having a female captain was something that excited me as well, but the execution of it was not good. I hated the ending of that series, with Janeway sneaking around trying to change the past but I suppose that was just another inconsistency in a long row of inconsistencies they forced her through. There was such great promise in her character as well: it warmed my heart so very much when Janeway commented that as a child she could not understand why anyone would want to poke around in the dirt (gardening with her parents) when they could be inside studying quantum mechanics. I suppose it resonated especially well with me because I was studying quantum mechanics myself around that time, but it was great to see a female character be a dedicated scientist from an early age and grow up to be successful.

I haven't seen a lot of SG-1, Swedish television was/is not very good at broadcasting sci-fi, so I can't comment on the different actresses playing Weir. I liked the idea of having a civilian in charge of the Atlantis expedition, but I couldn't say if I like Weir or not. She hasn't actually made much of an impression on me at all in what I have seen of Atlantis (season one). That doesn't sound like a good thing, does it?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Season 1 was my favourite of Atlantis. That was the season before they could contact Earth and were entirely on their own, which gave the show its unique character. Also, they had an excellent supporting cast, some of them with a bit ambivalent traits (Sergeant Bates comes to mind), some eminently lovable (Dr. Grodin), but they managed to get rid of them, one way or another, by the end of the seasons, and the whole thing became just a side story of SG-1. I was very angry about that. I still love SGA, but it's another show full of missed opportunities.

Janeway, yeah - they could have done so much with her, but she was so badly written. I'd understand if all producers would have been male and thus had no clue how to write a strong female character, but Jeri Taylor doesn't have that excuse, and she's responsible for a lot of shit concerning Voyager.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I don't think I would have accepted what they did with Janeway even if all the producers had been male. They didn't just write her badly, they were so blatantly inconsistent as well. And not being of the same gender as your character should not be an excuse for not writing them well. I think we are people first and they should be able to get that right at the very least or get a different job!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

True enough. I used to have a gay pen pal, who loved my slash stories. He said that for a woman who's twice his age and straight as a board, I wrote gay men surprisingly well.

I'm sure he laughed himself silly about certain things, but he kept reading, so I couldn't have been so bad at it, despite the lack of personal experience. *g*

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

I think one of the problems with Janeway may indeed have been that they were trying too hard to make her a woman and loosing sight of the fact that she needed to be a person and a sensible Star Fleet officer. It is a problem in general with characters who you feel are put in simply to tick some 'minority' box (not that women are actually a minority!). The character becomes one dimensional and inconsistent, because they haven't bother to think what this person is like past female/black/gay/whatever. I find it very annoying and condescending!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Inconsistency is the key word, I think. And considering that Jeri Taylor has supposedly all worked out the character's background, it's the more annoying.

Of course, Jeri Taylor was one of the producers who didn't like continuing storylines within the series because she thought the viewers too stupid to follow. Well, if you consider that their admitted target group was 19-49 year old males, perhaps she was right.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

How can you not have continuing storylines within the series when the premise of said series is that the star ship has been flung into a distant part of the galaxy and the crew are valiantly trying to get themselves back home while dealing with the issue of combining the crews of two (former) enemy vessels? That is just stupid! While there are plenty of 19-49 year old males who couldn't follow continuing storylines, and probably over represented in the group that are drawn in by Jeri Ryan's outfits, I know quite a few who can and really enjoy it. But I suppose it is simpler to make programs for those who don't, because then you don't need to keep track of what you have done before... I hate it when people treat me like I am stupid.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me, too.

to Jeri Ryan's defence, she's actually a very good actress, if they allow her to show more than her boobs. Remember the episode in which she had all these different personalities in her, dozens of them, and she played every single one perfectly? That woman is a victim of her own looks.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

They did seem to decide they needed a woman in tight fitting clothes on Star Trek to draw viewers in, starting with Jeri Ryan and then continuing with Jolene Blalock in Enterprise. I think it was another case of assuming your audience was stupid and it annoyed me rather a lot with Jolene Blalock's character because it really didn't make sense for a Vulcan to dress like that! We already had it established that they wear long flowing robes, so why couldn't they dress her in that?

Yes, I do remember that episode and I don't think she does a bad job of Seven-of-Nine either; I am just annoyed at the producers deciding people wouldn't want to watch their show without a woman in tight-fitting clothes on it. If you think you need that to draw viewers in shouldn't you think of improving the program instead?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but that would require *thinking* in the first place!

And I absolutely agree with you about Jolene Blalock and the complete insanity of having a Vulcan in a catsuit. Not to mention that Jolene Blalock is so completely talent-free that not even her boobs could make one forget the horror that was her so-called acting.

She was complete crap in SG-1, too. As Teal'c's love interest, my ass!

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Yes, I suppose expecting them to think was rather silly of me! To my knowledge I haven't seen Jolene Blalock in anything but Enterprise and give the quality of that series I don't think it is fair to judge her acting on that!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I've seen her in various tv-shows as a guest star, and trust me: she's equally wooden and zombie-like in just about everything. Plus, half of her body parts seem to be artificial, from blown-up lips to silicone boobs and that hair that just doesn't look natural, no matter what they make with it...

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do remember objecting to her playing a Vulcan because of how artificial her body looks. While 22nd century humans might still be vain enough to get breast implants and lip enhancements, Vulcans would not! I had sort of decided against her before I even saw her act because of these issues, so I think my opinion of her acting was biased from the start.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Oh, I completely agre with you!