Photos originally uploaded by Bathtime with Cthulhu
Going to the Zoo
Some of the animals seen on our recent trip to Wellington Zoo.
Photos originally uploaded by Bathtime with Cthulhu
Photos originally uploaded by Bathtime with Cthulhu
Stargate Universe: Thoughts Thus Far
The series begins with the arrival of roughly 80 military personnel and civilians aboard the ship Destiny after their evacuation from the somewhat ironically-named Icarus base, where they have been attempting to dial a nine-chevron address with the Stargate. This evacuation is forced upon them by an attack upon the base’s planet by what is thought to be the Lucian Alliance, and leads the humans to successfully dial the address, which brings them to Destiny. Here, they soon discover that they are billions of light-years from Earth and the ship is in poor condition. Their goal quickly becomes finding a way to survive, then finding a way to get home.
There are seven core characters, as well as recurring characters and guest appearances. Within the core cast are four military characters (including the military command structure), the machiavellian Dr. Rush, a slacker genius civilian, and the civilian daughter of a US Senator. To date, most of the characters haven’t been explored that well, so they still appear quite two-dimensional. The only characters who have provided much promise are the genius (who provides the comic relief) and Dr. Rush (excellently portrayed by Robert Carlyle). I’m sure all the characters will be developed upon over time, but I would have hoped for a bit more after eight episodes.
Destiny is a massive vessel, which is travelling on autopilot at faster-than-light (FTL) speed away from the Milky Way galaxy. It is millions of years old and, accordingly, has a great deal of wear and tear. Destiny, although unable to be controlled, has intelligent sensors that can determine if something is urgently needed by its passengers. It then determines the nearest resources, drops out of FTL, and dials the Stargate address for the best planet to supply said resource. In the pilot episodes, Destiny dropped out of FTL in a solar system so the humans could get lime for the life support system before they all died from carbon dioxide poisoning. Every time this occurs, Destiny counts down a set time before jumping back into FTL.
This raises an interesting point for the series. The humans have no control over the ship, they can only take advantage of when it drops out of FTL to get any supplies they think they may need e.g. food. Technically, Destiny should be able to determine when they’re nearly out of supplies and stop (as happened in the “Water” episode”); however, the humans may not always know why the ship has stopped. In the episode “Time”, they thought the ship had stopped so they could get food from a planet; it turned out the planet had the cure for a disease that they were unaware they all had. This method and timeliness of resupplying means that the crew will go from crisis to crisis until they can find a way to gain more control over the ship.
Within the crew’s possessions that they brought with them, is the Ancient communication device referred to as the communication stones. These stones enable the crew to communicate with Homeworld Command instantaneously by swapping the consciousness with a person using Earth’s equivalent device. This method enables the Destiny crew to brief their superiors, discuss matters with peers, and visit their loved ones. While I think the communication stones are a weak point in the premise, it has created some interesting scenarios. For example, during a switch in the “Earth” episode, those transferred aboard Destiny attempted to carry out a very dangerous experiment, while the crew members on Earth were prevented from returning. The body-swapping aspect of the communication also raises some questions of ethics; what would you do in someone else’s body, and what are the implications for that body once you’ve switched back i.e. what if a “returnee” was having sex with someone the body owner didn’t like?
To date, the episode storylines in the series have revolved around the crew acquiring critical resources, or using the communication stones with Earth. Going forward, the former will obviously be a fairly regular story premise, and the latter will hopefully be a fallback story. It will be a challenge for the writers to find a way to introduce new elements and obstacles for the crew, otherwise the series will become quite stagnant. As it is, the show has relied heavily on the acting and suspenseful build-up to pad out some pretty thin plotlines. Saying that, I do like the series and I will keep watching it. Whether someone who’s not a Stargate fan will like it (as the creators hope), I’m really not sure it’ll have enough to keep their attention.
(also posted on Murmur under Stargate Universe: Thoughts Thus Far)
10 Life Tips for My Children
I thought I'd pen some pithy words of wisdom for my children to take note of as they embark on their journey through life (in no particular order).
- Be good to the environment. Global warming leads to Waterworld and that was bad enough the first time.
- Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. You never know when the next revolution will be.
- Never wear Crocs or Ugg Boots. They're fashion disabilities, not accessories.
- Drive carefully and respectfully. There's only room for one Michael Schumaker in the family.
- Practice safe sex until you're ready. If it helps, look at the before- and after-children photos of your mother and I.
- Respect your elders. One of them may just have a big fat inheritance for you.
- Be yourself. No-one else will do it for you.
- Be happy in all your endeavours. Antidepressants and therapy are expensive.
- Do research before joining a religion. At least know the extent of your hypocrisy before spouting it to others.
- Love and respect your family. You'll need someone to hide you when you're on the run from the police.
Points of Language
There are some examples of language used nowadays that really irk the shit out of me.
- Naming a scandal by putting "-gate" at the end of a word. Let's face it... Watergate was the name of the hotel, Whitewatergate was a clever play on words, anything afterwards is just being an unimaginative dick. E.g. Corngate? Give me a break!
- Calling a cycle race "Tour de [insert name]" when it's in a non-French speaking country. "Tour de Vines" is dickish, "Martinborough Cycle Race" is not.
- Hyphenating the word "email". Come on people, it's the 2000s now, drop the hyphen.
- Pretentiously telling people they can't use the Oxford Comma. It is a perfectly legitimate grammatical device, and we can't help it if our sentences look better than yours.
- Using "like" more than a couple of times in a sentence. Die, valley girl, die.
- People who don't know how to swear properly. Good for you for having a go, but you come across about as cool as a dad hanging around a teenagers' party.
What points of language set you off?
