XXXV. Oh Beeb, What Have You Done?

Today is the first day that Doctor Who is absent from NetFlix and Hulu, and fans are just insanely mad. I can understand. The BBC said that they have plans for a 'NetFlix' like service in the near future and I am sure that Doctor Who is one of their big hopes to get subscribers, much like CBS is hoping for the new Star Trek.

NOW in doing this I do not understand one thing, they have BBC America, which shows the New Who almost every day, but we find less and less BBC programs on that channel, a waste to even call it BBC. Star Trek: the Next Generation is a fine show, but it ain't the Beeb. They do not need a pay service to show their library of programs, they have a source to do that now on cable and satellite.

So if they do a 'NetFlix' service will they make their vast library of programs available to a hungry US market that loves British TV? Will we have programs that we hear of but have never seen, or seen very little of? Programs like Blake's 7, Moonbase 3, Steptoe and Son, Z-Cars and Man About the House are just the start of a list that could be available to us Yanks so that we can understand what the fuss about these shows are about. Will it make available surviving episodes of series that disappeared because of the 'Great BBC Purge', shows like A for Andromeda and Sherlock Holmes?

Yes, yes, I do understand that the Beeb is under attack and is in fear of having most of its funding cut from the government, so a pay service is a nice way to garner income. I would think that in some ways BBC America would help in that area, but cable is a nasty market. So if they do go forward with this plan (and yes, this does excite me) they must make available content that would make it worthwhile and accessible to most streaming devices like AppleTV, Ruku and game consoles plus have it at an affordable price. 

So lets see what you have Beeb, it will be very interesting to see what the future has in store for us. Please do not disappoint.

Eirik Farwanderer

1 February, 2016 Anno Domini

XXXIV. The Wrath of Trek!

I have opened a Pandora's Box upon my household. I believe in showing new things to my daughters to expand their interests and do so whenever I can. Both girls wish to call themselves 'geek's' like me, so it was time to work on that.

Audrey (my step-daughter) was introduced and force fed Star Wars (no pun intended) by her father. He demanded that she would LOVE Star Wars no matter what, and she does. She is a Star Wars geek to the Nth degree. But whenever she tries to get too big for her britches and impose that she is the number one geekess in the household she gets slammed down by me, first generation Star Wars geek that has many more years of immersion under his Orson Welles sized belt. 

Kaitlyn tries to be a geek. She should be better at it with myself and her mother guiding her geekiness. But she lags quite a bit. She tries to embrace Star Wars but is still struggling. Her main love is the 'Warrior' series of cat books and I say good for her.

Both of these little darling have been lukewarm on Star Trek. I can understand why, they really did not have the proper Star Trek to build a love on. The several series of Trek started to really lack as time went on. Star Trek: The Next Generation was milk-toast, metrosexual, techno-babble, can't we just get along poo do. Roddenberry abandoned so much of what the original was about to pass an unreal message that all we have to do is talk and everyone will love us. That only works if the other people holding a phaser to you wants to talk. 

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine started out rather good, then in some sort of unimaginative, unneeded desperation went out and started to copy Babylon 5. I guess there was Space Station Envy going on, and for me as BOTH a Star Trek and Babylon 5 fan it kinda turned me off.

I won't even go into what drove me crazy about Star Trek: Voyager, a show that had the best pilot of the whole franchise and then just went into the wormhole right away.

Star Trek: Enterprise was that last gasp to bring back fans to the fold, and it fail. It was done by a team (like the other before mentioned) that really seemed to have a level of contempt for the original series .

And that is the problem: The team that drove Star Trek those many years just did not seem to understand what the original was about and did not even feel they had to. Hungry fans did not care, they were getting NEW Trek. I know, I was there and one of them. But Trek drifted away and now our kids just do not understand what this is all about, that is until you give them the best example of what Star Trek is about.

If there was one thing, ONE thing, that made me a die hard Star Trek fan it was 'The Wrath of Khan'. I was a lukewarm fan that really did not fully get it. Star Trek was not really on TV in my area at the time and 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' just made my mind numb. But when I saw 'The Wrath of Khan' it blew my mind. I understood what it was about and fell in love with these people. It was personal and deep. I hungered for Star Trek like I hungered for Star Wars, and it opened the window for me to enjoy other science-fiction that was out there. It is in my humble opinion the best Star Trek film hands down. 

So remembering the impact this movie had on me I decided to do to my daughters what was done to me. I sat them down and showed them 'Space Seed', the episode that introduces Khan to us, then I showed them 'The Wrath of Khan'. As was done to me, it was done to them. Their minds were blown away and now they starve for more of this drug 'Star Trek'. It was one of those small, proud moments of being a father, sharing something I loved with my kids and having them grab on and enjoy also. With that I hope more doors are opened up in their imagination and development that they grow with desire to experience this wonderful getaway called 'science-fiction'.

Eirik Farwanderer

14 May, 2012 Anno Domini