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Andy K (10821 KP) rated What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Deep Space Nine (2018) in Movies
Jul 23, 2019
Where would we be without DS9?
Maybe the best Trek of all time?
Sisko, Odo, Kira, O'Brien, Dax, Quark, Bashir and the rest of the massive cast brought Star Trek to life as never before in this vastly different "station"ary style of Trek.
At the time, syndication was where it was at for reruns and additional revenue for a TV program. DS9 bucked the trend of wrapping up everything within one episode and began a TV serial which pretty much ran almost the entire run, much to the dismay of studio executives. Nowadays, shows like The Walking Dead, Lost, or Game of Thrones do this every week, but in the mid 90s this was not common.
Sandwiched in between The Next Generation and Voyager, DS9 did not get a lot of respect during its initial run at all. Also at that time, Trek TNG movies were in full swing so the show had to compete with that as well. Television stations would often preempt the show, skip a week or run the show in the early morning hours which made it even harder for its audience to keep track of the action.
DS9 certainly got a 2nd life with the current popularity of "binge watching" on your favorite streaming service. Having the ability to watch multi-part episodes or entire seasons within a few weeks brought back to life the en genius writing, acting and production quality of the series.
For this documentary, former showrunner Ira Steven Behr took several years worth of cast, crew and fan interviews, clips, behind the scenes footage and compiled a wonderful interesting film for any Trek fan. Many cast members major and minor as well as producers, writers and tech workers told tales of working on the show and how they very much enjoyed their time.
Throughout the many iterations of Trek, original creator Gene Roddenberry felt the show should entertain as well as provide social commentary on the issues of the time and DS9 was no exception. Throughout the show's 7 year run they dealt with issues such as racism, homelessness, same sex relationships and even genetic engineering.
One of the most fun subplots of the film was gathering the show's original writers in a room to formulate the first episode for the fictitious "Season 8" which will never actually happen (although I wish it would). The ideas, plot points and arcs they went through and came up with were extremely interesting, keep with the high level of writing the show originally produced, but also through us a few curveballs with some fun surprises.
Through the cast interviews we got to hear how the crew got along, some of their favorite and least favorite episodes and even the friendships they have maintained with one another.
The DVD set I received also had included a vast assortment of additional footage featuring even more nuggets and stories of what made the show great.
Overall, this film was one of the best documentaries I have ever seen about one of my favorite television programs in my lifetime. I might have to start binge watching the show again very soon.
Did I mention my name appears in the end credits?!? š
Sisko, Odo, Kira, O'Brien, Dax, Quark, Bashir and the rest of the massive cast brought Star Trek to life as never before in this vastly different "station"ary style of Trek.
At the time, syndication was where it was at for reruns and additional revenue for a TV program. DS9 bucked the trend of wrapping up everything within one episode and began a TV serial which pretty much ran almost the entire run, much to the dismay of studio executives. Nowadays, shows like The Walking Dead, Lost, or Game of Thrones do this every week, but in the mid 90s this was not common.
Sandwiched in between The Next Generation and Voyager, DS9 did not get a lot of respect during its initial run at all. Also at that time, Trek TNG movies were in full swing so the show had to compete with that as well. Television stations would often preempt the show, skip a week or run the show in the early morning hours which made it even harder for its audience to keep track of the action.
DS9 certainly got a 2nd life with the current popularity of "binge watching" on your favorite streaming service. Having the ability to watch multi-part episodes or entire seasons within a few weeks brought back to life the en genius writing, acting and production quality of the series.
For this documentary, former showrunner Ira Steven Behr took several years worth of cast, crew and fan interviews, clips, behind the scenes footage and compiled a wonderful interesting film for any Trek fan. Many cast members major and minor as well as producers, writers and tech workers told tales of working on the show and how they very much enjoyed their time.
Throughout the many iterations of Trek, original creator Gene Roddenberry felt the show should entertain as well as provide social commentary on the issues of the time and DS9 was no exception. Throughout the show's 7 year run they dealt with issues such as racism, homelessness, same sex relationships and even genetic engineering.
One of the most fun subplots of the film was gathering the show's original writers in a room to formulate the first episode for the fictitious "Season 8" which will never actually happen (although I wish it would). The ideas, plot points and arcs they went through and came up with were extremely interesting, keep with the high level of writing the show originally produced, but also through us a few curveballs with some fun surprises.
Through the cast interviews we got to hear how the crew got along, some of their favorite and least favorite episodes and even the friendships they have maintained with one another.
The DVD set I received also had included a vast assortment of additional footage featuring even more nuggets and stories of what made the show great.
Overall, this film was one of the best documentaries I have ever seen about one of my favorite television programs in my lifetime. I might have to start binge watching the show again very soon.
Did I mention my name appears in the end credits?!? š
Sarah (7798 KP) rated Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Generation) in Tech
Nov 4, 2019
Wonderfully useful and functional
Iām one of those people who often takes a while to get into and accept new technology. Not because Iām a technophobe, in fact Iām a massive techie and often the go to person for tech related issues within my family and friends. My issue is that I find a lot of technology is encouraging people to become lazier or become out of touch with basic home skills (like smart ovens or washers, I just donāt get it!). Iāve often lumped smart speakers like the Echo Dot in the same category in that I just didnāt see the point in them when most people still have functioning old school speaker systems. However I can honestly say my mind has definitely been changed for the better on the Echo.
Firstly it looks and feels great. I was expecting a rather flimsy feeling speaker but in fact it feels quite weighty and substantial, and the Sandstone version that Iāve bought looks rather sleek. It stands out and looks good but at the same time isnāt at any time the focal point in a room. The speaker aspect is rather good too and has a decent sound quality. Iāve placed this in my kitchen, as I have a fairly open downstairs and the sound easily reaches the entire floor - I can even speak to Alexa from my living room which is a good 7+ metres away with only a standard sized doorway for sound to reach through. Admittedly I had to mute the TV, but Iām still impressed she can hear me from there! The Echo Dot links up seamlessly with my Spotify account and Iām surprised it plays so well and doesnāt encourage you to try and sign up to Amazon Music instead.
The thing about the Echo Dot is that it isnāt just a glorified speaker and itās only from owning one that Iāve truly appreciated this. As well as music, Alexa also helps out with so much more like reminders, timers and the weather as well as a whole host of fun features. There are so many fun things you can ask Alexa (google it if you havenāt already), too many to name although one of my favourites is āAlexa, find Chuck Norrisā. Thereās also the rather sad fact that as I live on my own, Alexa provides a rather welcome conversational partner and definitely less one sided than talking to the cat! Iām also a rather forgetful person, so having the ability to ask Alexa to set reminders when I canāt do something at the time (i.e. remembering to take the bins out when Iām in the middle of making dinner) is a god send. Iām surprised at how well the voice recognition works too. Iāve often experienced issues with voice recognition on mobile phones, because it doesnāt appear to like the northern accent, but Alexa so far has not had any issues. Maybe I need to speak āproperā Northern and see how she reacts...
I love this that much that Iām looking at buying a second Echo Dot for my upstairs so I have full coverage in my house, and can then take advantage of using Alexa as my morning wake up call amongst as well as being able to link both together to act as a multi room speaker system. Fingers crossed Iāll be able to get a bargain during Black Friday in a couple of weeks!
Firstly it looks and feels great. I was expecting a rather flimsy feeling speaker but in fact it feels quite weighty and substantial, and the Sandstone version that Iāve bought looks rather sleek. It stands out and looks good but at the same time isnāt at any time the focal point in a room. The speaker aspect is rather good too and has a decent sound quality. Iāve placed this in my kitchen, as I have a fairly open downstairs and the sound easily reaches the entire floor - I can even speak to Alexa from my living room which is a good 7+ metres away with only a standard sized doorway for sound to reach through. Admittedly I had to mute the TV, but Iām still impressed she can hear me from there! The Echo Dot links up seamlessly with my Spotify account and Iām surprised it plays so well and doesnāt encourage you to try and sign up to Amazon Music instead.
The thing about the Echo Dot is that it isnāt just a glorified speaker and itās only from owning one that Iāve truly appreciated this. As well as music, Alexa also helps out with so much more like reminders, timers and the weather as well as a whole host of fun features. There are so many fun things you can ask Alexa (google it if you havenāt already), too many to name although one of my favourites is āAlexa, find Chuck Norrisā. Thereās also the rather sad fact that as I live on my own, Alexa provides a rather welcome conversational partner and definitely less one sided than talking to the cat! Iām also a rather forgetful person, so having the ability to ask Alexa to set reminders when I canāt do something at the time (i.e. remembering to take the bins out when Iām in the middle of making dinner) is a god send. Iām surprised at how well the voice recognition works too. Iāve often experienced issues with voice recognition on mobile phones, because it doesnāt appear to like the northern accent, but Alexa so far has not had any issues. Maybe I need to speak āproperā Northern and see how she reacts...
I love this that much that Iām looking at buying a second Echo Dot for my upstairs so I have full coverage in my house, and can then take advantage of using Alexa as my morning wake up call amongst as well as being able to link both together to act as a multi room speaker system. Fingers crossed Iāll be able to get a bargain during Black Friday in a couple of weeks!
Lee (2222 KP) rated The Invisible Man (2020) in Movies
Mar 2, 2020
Right off the bat, this latest remake of the classic H.G. Wells story shows us just how suspenseful it can be. Itās the middle of the night and a wide-awake Cecilia (Elizabeth Moss) quietly climbs out of bed so as not to disturb her sleeping partner Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). It quickly becomes apparent that she has been waiting and planning for this moment to leave him for some time now, and she is absolutely terrified of waking him up. She creeps through their spacious modern glass home, gathering some of her belongings and occasionally checking a mobile feed of the CCTV camera that she has re-positioned in order to see Adrian asleep in bed. Already the tension is unbearable, and weāre only a few minutes into the movie!
A few weeks after her dramatic escape from Adrian and Cecilia is now in the safety of a friends house, police detective James (Aldis Hodge) and his teenage daughter Sydney (Storm Reid). Itās clear that the years of living with an abusive and controlling partner have taken their toll on Cecilia and she can barely even bring herself to leave the house, fearful of every stranger that passes her by. We donāt get to see any of what went on in her relationship with Adrian, and we barely know anything of him either, other than he is a tech billionaire and an expert in the field of āopticsā. So, when word reaches Cecilia that Adrian has committed suicide, weāre even more in the dark about him. He becomes more of an unknown to us, making him all the more mysterious, and the events that consequently unfold throughout the movie all the more terrifying.
As Cecilia begins to settle back into some kind of normality, she slowly lets her guard down, which as we all know is a big mistake! While Cecilia is alone, we start to get different points of view of her, as if someone is watching her. We focus on areas of the house where nobody is in shot, before panning around to revealā¦. nothing. Cecilia is not aware of anything, and we havenāt seen anything either, but youāre left on the edge of your seat, straining your eyes to desperately try and pick out some kind of evidence that someone or something is there with her. And then we begin to get confirmation that an invisible something is actually there ā a falling knife, a kitchen fire and things being tampered with all start to put Cecilia back on edge, leading her to suspect that Adrian has found some way to continue making her life a misery. These events start off very subtle, but soon become more horrific and intense, clearly intended to gaslight Cecilia and portray her as crazy to everyone around her.
The traditional route for a movie like this would be to focus on our title character ā in this case the invisible man. We might see a brilliant or tortured scientist, succeeding or failing with whatever theyāre experimenting with, before following them and the consequences of their actions. By giving us very little backstory to our title character, writer and director Leigh Whannell has chosen instead to focus primarily on Cecilia and the psychological horror she endures. Elizabeth Moss gives us the full range of emotions as she endures her terrible ordeal, and you really do share in her isolation and terror throughout. She completely and brilliantly carries the movie ā progressing from the lowest of lows to finally, and brilliantly, deciding itās time to fight back!
A few weeks after her dramatic escape from Adrian and Cecilia is now in the safety of a friends house, police detective James (Aldis Hodge) and his teenage daughter Sydney (Storm Reid). Itās clear that the years of living with an abusive and controlling partner have taken their toll on Cecilia and she can barely even bring herself to leave the house, fearful of every stranger that passes her by. We donāt get to see any of what went on in her relationship with Adrian, and we barely know anything of him either, other than he is a tech billionaire and an expert in the field of āopticsā. So, when word reaches Cecilia that Adrian has committed suicide, weāre even more in the dark about him. He becomes more of an unknown to us, making him all the more mysterious, and the events that consequently unfold throughout the movie all the more terrifying.
As Cecilia begins to settle back into some kind of normality, she slowly lets her guard down, which as we all know is a big mistake! While Cecilia is alone, we start to get different points of view of her, as if someone is watching her. We focus on areas of the house where nobody is in shot, before panning around to revealā¦. nothing. Cecilia is not aware of anything, and we havenāt seen anything either, but youāre left on the edge of your seat, straining your eyes to desperately try and pick out some kind of evidence that someone or something is there with her. And then we begin to get confirmation that an invisible something is actually there ā a falling knife, a kitchen fire and things being tampered with all start to put Cecilia back on edge, leading her to suspect that Adrian has found some way to continue making her life a misery. These events start off very subtle, but soon become more horrific and intense, clearly intended to gaslight Cecilia and portray her as crazy to everyone around her.
The traditional route for a movie like this would be to focus on our title character ā in this case the invisible man. We might see a brilliant or tortured scientist, succeeding or failing with whatever theyāre experimenting with, before following them and the consequences of their actions. By giving us very little backstory to our title character, writer and director Leigh Whannell has chosen instead to focus primarily on Cecilia and the psychological horror she endures. Elizabeth Moss gives us the full range of emotions as she endures her terrible ordeal, and you really do share in her isolation and terror throughout. She completely and brilliantly carries the movie ā progressing from the lowest of lows to finally, and brilliantly, deciding itās time to fight back!
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The Economist newspaper
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The Economist: News & Business
News and Magazines & Newspapers
App
A smart guide to the forces that shape the future, readers can access their essential global...
Chad Miller (121 KP) Jul 23, 2019
Eleanor (1463 KP) Jul 24, 2019