Saturday, December 27, 2014

Character Insight No. 126: Dr. Leah Brahms

This is the latest installment in a series of "Character Insight" articles regarding the rich history of characters in the Star Trek universe.  An audio version will appear on the This Week in Trek podcast, available for direct download here.
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Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, by suggestion, we profile Dr. Leah Brahms, a guest character who appeared on TNG.
 
 
Leah Brahms 2367.jpg
 ("Geordi doesn't know what to do with such a beautiful and brilliant scientist") 

Dr. Brahms is a member of The Federations's Theoretical Propulsion Group who made major contributions to the development of the warp drive system used on Galaxy class starships like the Enterprise-D. Her degrees in subspace and theoretical physics from the University of Alpha Centauri and the Daystrom Institute of Technology prepared her well to make critical improvements to the use of dilithium crystals and plasma resonance in a warp engine.

As a result of her major contributions, she is listed as the author of a series of engineering manuals that are seen when Enterprise crew members do engineering research. That also led Geordi La Forge to rely on a holographic version of Dr. Brahms when he needed more information on the engine design to stop the ship from falling to an ancient trap that drains energy out of ships until they are dead. Because it's Geordi, he falls for and kisses the holographic Dr. Brahms when they solve the trap. 

A year later, the real Dr. Brahms comes aboard to inspect field modifications made by Geordi. She is much colder and business-like than the holographic version, making it difficult for Geordi to work with her. She also turns further against Geordi when she discovers the romantic records of his previous dealings with her holographic representation. But these two characters pull together to overcome yet another crisis faced by the Enterprise, and this leads to the two characters becoming good friends.

From the episode Galaxy's Child:
Dr. Leah Brahms: I wouldn't change a thing - except for the way I behaved. I guess I came here with my own set of preconceptions about you.
Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: Well, I guess I'm just glad that I got the opportunity to get to know you. The real you.
Dr. Leah Brahms: Me too. 


Geordi's reconnaissance in the holodeck makes him more smooth with Dr. Brahms than other women, but their friendship and potential romantic coupling was not officially confirmed in canon. However, Geordi and Leah are married in the alternate future seen in the TV finale All Good Things. The two characters were also to be depicted in a scene as a couple during Riker and Troi's wedding in Star Trek Nemesis, but actress Susan Gibney was unavailable, so the scene was rewritten to include Guinan instead. 

Thus, the canon leaves us waiting for more regarding whether this couple comes together in the end. For you romantics out there, this couple does come together in the Genesis Wave series of books and the novel Indistinguishable From Magic.

Dr. Brahms was originally written to be a descendant of Dr. Richard Daystrom, the founder of the Daystrom Institute, but this character was black while the hired actress was white. Thus, the character was renamed and rewritten to be merely a graduate of the Institute instead of a descendant. 

Susan Gibney played Leah Brahms, and she apparently plays a District attorney and a doctor well, having had those types of roles in Lost, Crossing Jordan, Criminal Minds, and Touching Evil. She will appear in a 2015 movie called We Are Still Here. 

Thanks to @KatJerome on Twitter for suggesting this character for this week's profile!

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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy. Until next time, live long and prosper...

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Character Insight No. 125: Christmas in Star Trek

This is the latest installment in a series of "Character Insight" articles regarding the rich history of characters in the Star Trek universe.  An audio version will appear on the This Week in Trek podcast, available for direct download here.
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Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we look into Christmas in the Star Trek universe.
 
 
Picard with Christmas tree
 ("If it seems to good to be true...") 

Unlike nearly every other episodic television show, Star Trek has rarely, if ever, jumped into the trope of a Christmas episode. Considering the 28 full seasons of the different iterations of the show, it's hard to believe this, but like Santa Claus, it must be true.

That's not to say the show has not come close on a couple occasions, but the full on trope of a Christmas episode is just not present. One of the closer episodes was Dagger of the Mind in TOS, in which a Christmas party is mentioned to have happened in the science labs aboard the Enterprise. Captain Kirk even spends a romantic evening with Dr. Helen Noel, an obvious reference to the holiday. But the Christmas party itself makes no appearance.

The only other mentions of Christmas are vague and small, such as in the holodeck and in log entries. In the TNG episode Devil's Due, Data is seen performing the Ebenezer Scrooge role in the play A Christmas Carol during one of the irrelevant fluffy uses of that series' favorite technology. In the DS9 episode Our Man Bashir, Dr. Bashir gives someone a set of exploding earrings for Christmas in another holodeck fantasy.

In Voyager, Shannon O'Donnell makes a personal log entry during the episode 11:59 about being happy that Christmas is over, and then Tom Paris later cracks a joke in the epsidoe Non Sequitur that three ghosts came to him in the middle of the night and explained the true meaning of Christmas. 

The final and perhaps most notable appearance of Christmas in this universe turns out to be another fantasy, as Picard experiences an alternative reality of being with his family on Christmas when trapped int he Nexus. Granted, Whoopi Goldberg on a small carousel doesn't show up in my Christmas celebrations, but the holiday experience could not be more clear than in this scene of Generations. 

It's been posited that the lack of Christmas in Star Trek is a reflection of humanity becoming largely secular and non-religious in this future universe. However, it seems likely that Christmas would go on as a secular celebration of family and goodwill, so it seems a bit strange that the subject matter is largely avoided over the many seasons of this show. Of course, the underlying tenets of the Federation and human society appear to put more emphasis on these things throughout the year in this future, so perhaps a big celebration of the same items is not as important. On the bright side, we don't have to put up with a cheeseball holiday episode as they most often become for other shows, but it is an interesting gap in the Star Trek universe.

If the lack of a holiday episode makes you sad, you can always check out Spirit in the Sky, which is an issue of the DC Comics TNG miniseries that makes Christmas a central story element. I'll leave it to Mike and Sunshine to review that!

The bottom line is, you don't need a holiday episode to get your family to snuggle around the couch and watch Star Trek this Christmas. It's a good time no matter what variety of Star Trek you watch. 

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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy. Until next time, live long and prosper...

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Character Insight No. 128: Best of Miles Obrien

This is the latest installment in a series of "Character Insight" articles regarding the rich history of characters in the Star Trek universe.  An audio version will appear on the This Week in Trek podcast, available for direct download here.
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Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we go back to the "Best Of" series with a look at the most notable episodes featuring Miles O'Brien of TNG and DS9.
 

Milesobrien.jpg
 ("The only Irishman who makes it to major character status in all of Star Trek") 

Miles shows up as more of a background character for the first couple seasons of TNG, and indeed, part of that was because actor Colm Meaney liked being hired on an episode-by-episode basis rather than a long run. However, shortly after he becomes a more important player as Transporter Chief, we learn he is subject to the risks of the honey-do list just like all other engaged and married men, in the episode Clues:

[O'Brien has hurt his arm]
Doctor Beverly Crusher: What on earth were you doing when you fell?
Chief Miles O'Brien: Hanging a plant for Keiko. It's part of her running project to give me a green thumb.
Doctor Beverly Crusher: How's it working?
Chief Miles O'Brien: Everything I touch seems to turn brown and wither away. 


Miles does have a sense of humor in this role, such as when he punks with yet another cranky old doctor who doesn't like the transporter in Shades of Gray:


[Dr. Pulaski reluctantly mounts the transporter platform]
Chief Miles O'Brien: I hope these are the right coordinates...
[she gives him an alarmed look]
Chief Miles O'Brien: Just kidding, Doctor. I know how much you love the transporter.
Dr. Kate Pulaski: About as much as I love comical transporter chiefs.


He raises his children with much the same wit and sense of humor, as shown in the DS9 episode Children of Time:

 Molly: Aren't you gonna help?
Chief O'Brien: I'm busy.
Molly: You don't look busy.
Captain Sisko: [laughs] She's an O'Brien all right.


It's not all fun and games though, as one of O'Brien's best character building pieces is Hard Time, an episode where Miles has trouble adjusting back to real life and nearly commits suicide in the process of PTSD.

[Chief O'Brien is holding a phaser under his chin, preparing to commit suicide]
Dr. Julian Bashir: Chief?
Chief Miles Edward O'Brien: Get outta here, Julian.
Dr. Julian Bashir: You don't want to do this, Chief.
Chief Miles Edward O'Brien: The hell I don't.
Dr. Julian Bashir: Look, I don't claim to know what you're going through, but whatever it is, it's not worth dying for.
Chief Miles Edward O'Brien: You don't understand at all. I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing it to protect Keiko and Molly and everyone else on this station.
Dr. Julian Bashir: Protect us from what?
Chief Miles Edward O'Brien: From me. I'm not the man I used to be. I'm dangerous. I nearly hit Molly today. All she wanted was a little attention, and I nearly hit her.
[He begins to sob]
Dr. Julian Bashir: But you didn't. You're a good man, Miles Edward O'Brien, and whatever it is you think you've done wrong, you don't deserve to die.


However, when it comes down to it, Miles is a great operations and transporter chief who is incredibly loyal to his crewmates and to his family. We learn about how he mentors best friend Julian Bashir to enjoy such family relationships near the end of DS9, in the episode Extreme Measures:

Chief O'Brien: Well, I'd better get home. Keiko is holding dinner for me.
Doctor Bashir: This late?
Chief O'Brien: Yeah, well, she's a helluva woman.
Doctor Bashir: That's why you love her.
Chief O'Brien: M-hm, that's right - that's why I love her.
[he is about to leave but comes back once more]
Chief O'Brien: You wanna come?
Doctor Bashir: Sure. 



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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy. Until next time, live long and prosper...

Monday, December 15, 2014

Character Insight No. 124: Private Woods

This is the latest installment in a series of "Character Insight" articles regarding the rich history of characters in the Star Trek universe.  An audio version will appear on the This Week in Trek podcast, available for direct download here.
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Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile Private W. Woods, a recurring character in Enterprise.
 
 
Woods.jpg
 ("Just a regular grunt in the crowd, so to speak") 

Private Woods is assigned as one of the MACO, or military assault command operations officers aboard the Enterprise during the Delphic Expanse mission. As a military attache, he is often seen guarding various personnel and ship assets, as well as leading security on various away missions.

It is these trips off the ship where Woods makes some of his biggest impact. He is one of three MACO's chosen by Lieutenant Reed to join him on the assault of the Xindi weapon. Woods was one of the lucky few who survived this type of encounter. He also plays an important role during a firefight with a Skagaran colony of humans who mistake their own kind trying to make "first contact" with covert Skagaran operatives. Despite having few speaking lines in 21 appearances, he is clearly one of the most important military or security members on board the ship, as evidenced by his numerous appearances on the most dangerous missions. 

Despite being referred to as Private Woods on various occasions, one of the jumpsuits this character wore had a name tag N. Meyers, which is clearly incorrect. Of course, that's what happens when background characters are not critical to the stories being told, other than to stand in when the security is needed. 

Unlike the general tendency to have redshirts or security detail officers killed off frequently in The Original Series, Enterprise does a better job of having some key background players in the MACO's show up time and time again in these roles. Although space exploration is clearly dangerous, this appears to be more realistic than the constant redshirt deaths depicted in the later timeline of TOS. Private Woods, despite an unfortunate name, is one of the better developed truly background characters in Star Trek history, which is a type of background character which will hopefully be used again when Trek comes back to the television. 

Woods was played by Ricky Lomax, who was hired just as a background actor. However, he brings real-life military experience and credibility to the role having served for three years as a Bradley tank operator in the U.S. Army. He also has appeared in the movies Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Clueless along with a number of commercials for IBM, Miller Brewing Company, and Pepsi.

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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy. Until next time, live long and prosper...

Monday, December 8, 2014

Character Insight No. 123: Ashmore

This is the latest installment in a series of "Character Insight" articles regarding the rich history of characters in the Star Trek universe.  An audio version will appear on the This Week in Trek podcast, available for direct download here.
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Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we profile Ensign Ashmore, a recurring background character from Voyager.
 
Ashmore, The killing game I.jpg
 ("This poor guy, always going through some hell even in a bad screenshot!") 

Ashmore is one of the faces in the crowd of Voyager, not receiving many speaking lines but appearing down corridors and serving in engineering on numerous occasions. He is often seen during crises in engineering being one of B'Elanna Torres's best assets in the department.

However, like many bit characters in Voyager, he also takes a fair share of abuse. His favorite food is macaroni and cheese, but when he asks Neelix to make it, the bacteria cultivated to make the cheese infects the ships Bio-neural gel packs. For those who don't speak technobabble, this is a fancy way of saying the mac and cheese almost ruined much of the food supply on board the rationing ship!

In other episodes, Ashmore is traumatized by an alien beacon causing horrific flashbacks of a slaughter of Nakan colonists, he attacks Neelix with a carving knife when under Bothan influence, and he gets into an altercation when Seven of Nine after she unexpectedly attacks a guest of the ship. It's not easy serving on the final frontier, even as a low level engineer. 

Ashmore is one of many crewmembers who receives letters from home when the Hirogen communications network is developed, so it is clear he has a big goal to get back home to that family. One of his regular expanded roles to help Voyager get back home is as a specilaist serving on the Delta Flyer, such as when Captain Janeway finally goes on a temporary shore leave with the Flyer. By the time Voyager returns home, he is serving as a background bridge officer, a fitting promotion for a good recurring character. 

He is mentioned multiple times in the first three seasons of the show, but he has all of his on-screen appearances from Seasons 4 through 7. Once again, this is the type of character that had to be developed for this show because new crew members could not come on every week. That said, we unfortunately don't learn much more about this family man due to limited speaking roles. This was a nice payoff role for a background actor who really paid his Star Trek dues over many years as a regular stand-in.

From the Killing Game
"We need an isolinear emitter form Engineering"

Ashmore was played by David Anderson, who is a regular background actor and body double in Star Trek. He appeared in bit roles in Star Trek VI and several TNG and Enterprise episodes, but his most notable work outside the Ashmore character was as a stand in for Levar Burton, Tim Russ, and Anthony Montgomery. He was mainly a professional dancer and he continues to teach dance performance in Hollywood today.

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Feedback can be sent to me with future segment suggestions on Twitter @BuckeyeFitzy. Until next time, live long and prosper...

Notes for Common Room Appearance

I guest hosted on Common Room (Hadas/Sophrosune's podcast) on November 24, 2014. The topic was Interstellar and the renaissance of science fiction films in the last five years.

My focus points for good science fiction are good world building (including visuals), interesting and well-written stories, high quality character depth and development, solid science background and interesting technologies, and (if appropriate) bigger themes or underlying questions making a message

Here's the list of films and some notes I had from my reviews.

WALL-E

Her

Moon

Avatar

Elysium

Inception

Guardians of the Galaxy

Looper

Sunshine

Interstellar


My Other References
Gravity -
Lucy -
Snowpiercer -
Edge of Tomorrow -
Star Trek -
Star Wars -
Hunger Games - just for note about dystopian future, what makes Interstellar so compelling.
The Walking Dead - again, just for a note about lazy storytelling and breaking the rules of the world set up

Show Notes

Common Room Special Episode
MONDAY November 24th, 2014
Invite: 9:15 PM  Start: 9:30 PM Eastern


Contributors:
Fitz (Dave), Hadas, Vanessa, Cindy


  • Introductions
  • Going to try something new and say “who is in our Common Room today?” or something like that.
    • H-
    • C -
    • V-
  • Entertainment Segment
    • Topical Dish: (Hadas) explain what it is
    • Please prepare a question to ask the other two hosts in order to make your topical dish a conversation starter.
      • D- Are you a Black Friday shopper, and if so, do you have any great war stories?
      • C-
      • V-
      • H-

    • Main Discussion: Sci Fi Film Renaissance, films from the last five years or so that brought something new to the table. We will focus mostly on original screenplays and mention outstanding adaptations.
          • Discussion Rundown:
          • Please add topics or questions to this section using your colors and we will do the rundown immediately before the episode.
            • World Building Analysis
              • Visuals
                • Oscar Worthy?
                  • Here we can talk about Gravity
              • Technology
              • Earth or Other?
              • Dystopia or Utopia?
              • Character Development
                • Tropes?
                • Role of Women
                • Realistic (Gravity/Sunshine/scene in The Core/Deep Impact)
              • Influence from past films/books




            • Final List of Films we will FOCUS on:
  1. WALL-E
  2. Her
  3. Moon
  4. Avatar
  5. Elysium
  6. Inception
  7. GotG
  8. Looper
  9. Sunshine
  10. Interstellar
            • Complete Film List
              • Recent New
                • Gravity
                • Lucy
                • Interstellar
                • Her
                • Avatar (2009)
                • Transcendence
                • Source Code (2011)
                • Moon (2009)
                • Elysium (2013)
                • Looper (2012)
                • Inception (2010)
              • Recent Adaptations
                • Edge of Tomorrow
                • Guardians of the Galaxy
                • Snowpiercer
                • Oblivion
                • Ender’s Game (Estee)
                • Limitless (2011)
              • Returning Adaptations
                • Star Trek
                • Star Wars
                • Godzilla
                • Pacific Rim
                • Planet of the Apes
                • Hunger Games (need to confirm why this is placed here)
                • Terminator (Terminator franchise - 1984, 1991, 2003, 2009)
                • Total Recall (1990, 2012)
              • Relatively Recent
                • District 9 (2009)
                • WALL-E (2008)
                • I, Robot (2004 - Adaption)
                • Sunshine (2007)  
                • Riddick (2000, 2004, 2013 franchise)
                • Prometheus (2012) (part of Alien franchise/prequel)
              • Older Sci-Fi
                • Alien (Alien franchise - Alien 1979, Aliens 1986, Aliens 3 1992, Aliens Resurrection 1997)
                • Dune (1984, 2000 mini series on SyFy)
                • Contact (1997)
                • Matrix (Matrix Trilogy 1999, 2003, 2003)
                • Metropolis (1927)

Common Room Questions

  • Obsessions (V)  We've reached the final segment: Obsessions, where we discuss what we've been obsessed with recently. Share your obsessions with us in the comments!

DO NOT FORGET TO UPDATE THE SITE POST
Please prepare a question to ask the other two hosts in order to make your Obsession a conversation starter.
    • V- Gossip Girl - I can’t believe I just said that. Out loud. The Sci-Fi Princess of Common Room is binge watching Gossip Girl.  This is all Netflix’s fault. But here I am on Season 5.  I love Dan & Blair. So ladies, did you watch the show?
    • D- Hearthstone, once again I’ve been totally hooked by a Blizzard game! At least this one is free to play and on iPad, definitely scratches the competitive itch and appears to be growing. (If TV is more appropriate, then Survivor Blood vs. Water and Utopia have been our recent guilty pleasures).
    • C-
    • H-

  • (H) Thank Dave/Fitz for being on the show. Plug his blog, podcasts, other projects
    • healertrek.blogspot.com (written versions of audio segments on This Week in Trek and Current Geek podcasts)
    • Talking10.com
    • @Buckeyefitzy on Twitter
    • Thanks! I amended the Sci Fi Month intro post too!

  • Contact (C) And that wraps up our show. If you'd like to contact us don't forget to follow @commonroompc on
  • H: FB,
  • V: Twitter,
  • C: Instagram
  • H: Pinterest,
  • V: and Tumblr
  • C: We have playlists on spotify and youtube
  • H: Please leave a comment on commonroompc.com
  • V: and don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe on iTunes

  • Outros
    • I’m Vanessa
    • I’m Cindy
    • And I'm Hadas
      • Thanks for listening to Common Room!