Lothic

I would still argue that "Elizabeth Shaw" is a relatively common name, common enough that I could see where this could have been a complete coincidence. I've been watching Dr. Who semi-randomly for 30+ years and even I didn't make the connection between these characters' names until this thread. I like the concept behind Dr. Who and I do respect its appeal, but like 99% of the rest of humanity I never quite became a super-serious fan/historian of it. *shrugs*

At least I would agree that even if this name thing was a complete coincidence that knowing how quickly sci-fi fandom typically operates on the Internet I'm sure the Prometheus people were made aware almost-instantly of the connection.

Yeah I'm not really talking about whether you have good DVD transfers or not. I'm talking about the fundamental CGI itself.

At this point the show could really use the TOS "remaster" treatment on the space CGI scenes. I'm not suggesting they change the overall design of any of the ships but they could use plenty of detail/texturing work to make it all look much more "realistic" than it does now. Right now it -looks- like CGI. It would be cool if those scenes were re-rendered to look photographically real the way CGI in 2012 can look.

Again until somebody comes out and specifically admits "Yes, I loved Dr. Who so I copied the name as a homage" I'm not going to get too excited about this. After all it's pretty easy to independently (and coincidentally) create a "Dr" John Smith too.

Unless Ridley ever admits to a direct shout-out I could easily see this going either way. Like you say he might have been subconsciously aware of the name from watching Dr. Who or he might have really liked that Dr. Who character and specifically reused the name. After all the name "Elizabeth Shaw" is not the most unique or unusual name out there - I could easily see someone independently coming up with it just like I could come up with "John Smith". Sometimes coincidences are just that... coincidental.

These are great points.

Regardless of the physics involved or Capt. A's level of toughness I think his use of a parachute was just a matter of convincence and common sense more than anything else. I mean can walk a mile down the road to get to a store if I need to but it's usually easier to ride a bike or drive a car there. Same thing here: Even if he -could- survive that drop why make it hard for himself?

I don't see Abrams as illegitimate. I see him as naive and unseasoned in the role of Star Trek's standard-bearer. I'm still willing to let him prove himself. That's just how it is, period. No one has to make a case for an obvious fact.

If Abrams actually sticks to it and doesn't get into the rut of simply "recycling" older Trek (which sadly he might already be doing given that this second movie is apparently going to be some kind of rehash of the first ST2 movie) then maybe I'll be willing to cut him the slack that others seem to think he already deserves.

P.S. And before you nitpick the idea that ST2 was just a "recycle" of Space Seed I'll point out that if JJTrek2 just turns out to be a "rehash" of ST2 then our great Abrams will just be making a "ripoff of a ripoff" for his second Trek film ever. Not a very hopeful way to progress in his Star Trek career after going through so much effort to create a new Star Trek sandbox for him to play in is it?

Again it's easy to pick apart differences in the various Star Trek show/movies that predated Abrams' involvement. Despite all that it is terribly easy for me to see unique differences in Abrams' vision to all that which has come before. Sorry, it just is. Just because you can make a case that Star Trek has never been a monolithic entity does NOT automatically justify or legitimatize what Abrams has done.

Star Trek may have become a "collection of visions" over the years. Doesn't mean I have to blindly like Abrams' version of it or accept that his is better than others just because he's the latest to the party. For what it's worth it took me a few years to finally accept TNG as Star Trek back in the 80s. *shrugs*

If Abrams manages to create several more Star Trek movies that establishes a broader picture of what he's trying to do with the franchise I'll probably be more willing to accept him into "the family" so to speak. All he is now is someone who threw out a single movie against the decades of canon that have existed before him. I'll give him a chance once he -earns- it.

I'll accept the idea that as a group the pre-Abrams Star Trek movies did differ from each other in significant ways. As a simple example ST1 and ST2 were quite different from each other. I'll simply disagree with your view that Abrams' Trek wasn't uniquely divergent from that original grouping. Perhaps you're simply far more forgiving of these kinds of details than I am.

Please don't get me wrong - like I said before I don't outright hate what Abrams did to Star Trek. Someone, somewhere needs to carry the torch of the franchise. I'm just not yet blindly willing to say JJTrek = Star Trek. Give me a few more decades and I might be able to let the obvious distinctions blur a bit more.

For what it's worth I never once claimed that the pre-Abrams' Star Trek movies were the best movies ever made. They had plenty of problems of their own. Perhaps it's just a matter of being used the old-style established stupidity. Abrams introduced a different flavor of Star Trek stupidity which simply made it very easy to conclude that what he did was ultimately a "pale imitation" given the context.

Maybe in 20 or 30 years when someone else "relauches" Star Trek again we'll collectively look back at JJTrek as the "better" Trek and laugh at the upstart in the same way.

As I said I'm prepared for a future where any "new" Star Trek is going to look more like Abrams' mass appeal vision than it does Roddenberry's. Doesn't necessarily mean it's ever going to motivate people like me forget the difference no matter how inevitable the evolution of the franchise becomes. Fortunately people like Abrams can't "revise" the DVDs I already own. *shrugs*

No one's arguing that Abrams made a Star Trek based sci-fi movie in 2009 that wasn't financially successful. I'm simply arguing that what he made was almost not technically a Star Trek movie in the traditional sense either.

I'm sadly willing to accept the possibility that we have evolved past the days of being able to create a "pure" Star Trek movie/show that the "nitpickers" would accept that would ALSO be financially successful at the same time. It has been 40+ years after all - I guess something has to change.

Yep it's pretty much the granddaddy of all the superhero based PnP systems.

I'm actually aware of Cryptic's historical involvement in CoH, CO and the HERO system. That's precisely why I think that using the HERO system to implement a PnP version of CoH is not only NOT a "weird twist" but is actually the most appropriate gaming system possible. The roots of CoH can be directly traced back to the Champions/HERO system PnP games. Champions Online was in effect Cryptic's SECOND attempt to adapt the PnP game to the MMO setting (CoH was its first attempt).

Frankly anyone trying to use a non-HERO based PnP system seems like a "weird twist" to me.

I didn't necessarily say that either. To be honest I don't really have anyone specific in mind right now who would be the perfect "caretaker" for the franchise. As we all know the fans will probably never accept any one single person's vision 100% anyway.

For what it's worth I do think Abrams is an accomplished and competent film maker - I simply think he lacks the detailed knowledge and understanding a person who's been devoted to this specific franchise for years would have. Perhaps if he were willing to work with other people who could provide him that detail he lacks his next Star Trek movies won't look so "outsiderish". It's not that I hated the last movie - it's just that it came off a bit like a movie about motorcycles produced by a person who's great at making movies in general but who has never ridden a motorcycle himself, if that makes any sense.

Why would using the HERO system be a "weird twist" as a choice for a PnP version of this MMO? You do realize that the original premise of this game (like 10+ years ago when they were first designing it) was to effectively come up with a MMO version of Champions. In fact the beta versions of City of Heroes offered a much more free-form power system (along the lines of what HERO/Champions will give you) but after trying to make it work the game evolved to the AT/Powerset form it uses today.

Yes it is somewhat ironic that Champions Online didn't launch until years after City of Heroes did. But at the core of both of these games was the desire to make the HERO/Champions PnP game system work as functional MMOs.

This might all look cool while you're fighting, but traveling around from mission to mission tied to a chair would be just a tad silly.

You realize that by extension you are pretty much saying you will never watch another new Star Trek movie again, ever, regardless of who makes it. Unless you know of a way to bring Roddenberry back from the dead any new Star Trek that's -ever- going to be made in the future is going to have to be made by someone else. Imagine where we'd be if people had decided to stop producing Shakespeare plays after his death just because he wasn't around to supervise them.

Now I'll be the first to tell you that I think Abrams has made some serious blunders with the franchise and it's very clear he doesn't have a completely firm grasp on what he's doing with it. He's a skilled movie maker but he's almost completely clueless about the historical details of Star Trek. It's a weird scenario, but for all Abrams' faults there are some good things buried in his mess and for the sake of getting to enjoy newly created Star Trek material I'm going to continue to give him a chance.

I look at it this way: Even if Abrams is not the perfect caretaker for the franchise he's at least carrying the torch right now for future storytellers. Perhaps someday someone better will be able to take over who'll benefit from Abrams' current efforts of keeping the franchise alive.

Yeah you'd think at the very least they'd make it so that you'd have to personally plink him for some damage or be on a team/league that collectively damages him. It'd be weird to just be standing -anywhere- in a zone and randomly get a badge because other people are doing something you're not involved in.

Maybe it's a distance thing - perhaps you just have to be "close" to the GM at some point for it to count. *shrugs*

Yeah I suppose they could do some kind of revamped Squire of Gathos based movie. The idea could be expanded so that it was more like a pseudo-Matrix environment where the Q villain tricked them into believing all sorts of things either good or bad.

Maybe this could be blended with the TOS episodes "Shore Leave", "Arena" and/or "The Gamesters of Triskelion" where the Q behind the illusions use them to entertain themselves at the expense of Kirk and company. With that it could be sort of a commentary on the evils of reality TV and/or what happens when you lose your self control.

The problem with adapting The Menagerie to the JJTrek universe is that they've already significantly changed the history/fate of Captain Pike. Yes they got him into a wheelchair by the end of the last movie. But I honestly don't see Nu-Spock caring much about breaking the law to get Pike to Talos IV (especially after Vulcan just went boom) or even that the Enterprise would have gone to Talos IV in the new timeline years earlier to begin with.

Basically they'd have to rewrite the whole premise into some generic version like the Enterprise is sent on patrol and runs across this weird planet where the kooky aliens kidnap Kirk and crew and mind-trick them into kinky snu-snu for breeding purposes.

Sure I totally get the idea about creating an excuse to get Uhura to strip down to her underwear again. I'm just not sure the rest of the movie would be worth seeing if that was the main goal.

No one's saying that this costume set will not or should not be ready by the time I23 launches. Obviously it's probably safe to say that everyone wants it good to go on launch day.

All I'm saying is that a few graphics problems with a few new costume items are not, by themselves, going to be critical enough to delay an entire Issue for. The Chainmail & Leather Armor set is hardly the defining feature of this new Issue. We've already seen in the past several instances where "broken" costume items have been pushed out the door only to be quickly fixed by subsequent patches.

Sure it would be unfortunate if I23 launches with broken costume items. But it would hardly be the end of the world if it does.

I would say more than likely yes. A few brand new costumes items (that no one has ever "needed" to play the game for 8 years now) that are only "broken" for a subset of the players should never by themselves be enough to hold any Issue back from being launched. This is far from being a "critical game bug" that would prevent anyone from otherwise playing the game.

Well a unique case like yours is exactly what I was trying to describe when I mentioned that the Devs really have had some flakey problems with the Vet badges all along. There have been at least several people I'm aware of over the years who for whatever reason got their Vet badges many -months- off from when they should have gotten them.

This again is why I'll mention my suggestion to have the current annual Vet badges trigger off of the account creation dates. It should be far easier for the Devs to figure out how to do that consistently than to keep beating their collective heads against the wall of worrying about subscribed versus non-subscribed time and handling individual accounts on a "manual" basis.

Yes the chainmail textures do need to be fixed and they are important to those who want them fixed ASAP. But those problems only exist for people who aren't running with Ultra-level graphics settings. For what it's worth the chainmail already looks great on my main gaming computer.

If they plan to push Issue 23 out the door by say May 15th this current chainmail problem will NOT hold it up. They'll simply fix it as soon as possible -after- I23 goes live.

One would assume it has to some degree. On the other hand Marvel may look at it as an evolution in their business model towards being more "electronic/movie" based than "comic" based in the coming future. Same thing happened when telegraphs used to be the primary form of long distance communication and eventually things like telephones took over. Once everyone accepted telephones the telegraph was eventually phased out.

I'm not saying that folks like Marvel are going to instantly stop making comic books tomorrow. I'm just saying that they'll probably be making their primary money from movies (and by extension electronic forms of media) instead of paper-based comic books in the years ahead.