Can CanWest Avoid A Fall?

Deborah Jones over at J-Source.ca pretty much sums up my feelings about the troubles at CanWest.

I’ve never expected journalistic excellence from the company’s newspapers or TV news casts. I mainly watch Global Television to catch a few U.S. shows.

I feel bad for those who are going to lose their jobs, but this fall has been a long time coming.

Trekking Out: More TNG 6

“The Chains of Command” is a fantastic, dramatic two-parter. Ronny Cox delivers a great performance as the abrasive Captain Jellico while David Warner returns to the Trek universe as the Cardassian who tortures Picard. Written in consultation with Amnesty International, the ordeal for Picard is far worse than when he experienced with the Borg.

“Ship in the Bottle” is an excellent contrast to the previous dark story, and is example of a Holodeck story done well. Daniel Davis returns as Prof. Moriarty and we get some Barclay to boot in this sequel to season two’s “Elementary, Dear Data.”

“Acquiel” is a mystery-style episode that never quite works for me. It’s meant to be a Geordi-centric episode, but only in that he falls for one of the guest characters, a young woman who may be a murderer.

“Face of the Enemy” has a few holes in the plot if you examine it too deeply but it’s a lot of fun to watch Deanna Troi forced to go undercover as a Romulan helping Spock with his underground movement.

“Tapestry” is yet again proof that the Q character doesn’t have to become stale. This time around he helps Picard revisit his past and change the course of his personal history.

“Birthright” is a two-parter I couldn’t be bothered to watch again. The scenes is part one where Data’s dream program is activated with the help of Deep Space Nine’s Dr. Bashir, but the second half with Worf is rather dry.Technorati Tags: star trek, ST:TNG, tv, dvd

Trekking Out: The Quality of Life

I only watched one episode last night. “The Quality of Life” is a pretty standard episode the explores a frequently-used science fiction theme: A what point can a machine be considered alive? In a sense, this is a sequel to season two’s “Measure of Man” where Picard must defend Data’s rights as an individual. This time around, Data is advocating for the rights of small worker computers that are evolving. A solid effort overall. And Geordi has a beard.

Trekking Out: TNG Season 6

Last night I watched five episodes of TNG Season Six starting with “Relics”.

First off, I’ve never been happy with picture quality of season six – the colours are muddy and dull for some reason; I’m not sure if it’s a lighting issue or the style of the director of photography or what. This phenomenon started the year before and improves a little in season seven.

“Relics” is all about the appearance of James Doohan as Scotty. A ratings stunt to be sure, but his resurrection is clever and appropriate for his engineering talents. What I like about this episode is that there is real conflict between him and Geordi, something TNG usually shied away from within the circle of regular characters. However, while the Dyson Sphere is a neat way to create peril, it’s also a letdown that the Enterprise crew doesn’t actually explore the sphere. Finally, they let Scotty have his own shuttlecraft to fly off in. Where does he go to the loo?

“Schisms” is a clever bottle show with a hint of X-Files. Brannon Braga is good at writing these mystery shows that involve weird phenomenon affecting the ship and crew. His main fault is his reliance on technobabble to tell the story, but the humorous touches such as Data’s poetry balance that out.

“True Q” is an excellent example of how the writers kept the Q character fresh. John de Lancie and Patrick Stewart get to verbally spar while Crusher gets to use her parental skills for the first time since Wesley departed. The only disappointment is we never do see the young Q Amanda ever again.

“Rascals” is something the series can be allowed to get away with after six years. A transporter accident that turns four characters into children is a real hoot, particularly when Picard tries to command the ship although nothing has changed. The young actress playing Ro was great too. I find it hard to believe that Ferengi mercenaries could take over the Enterprise so easily, even with the element of surprise, but I can suspend disbelief for the most part, especialy once Riker starts explaining how the main computer works to the clueless Morta.

“Fistful of Datas” is a second light-hearted romp in a row, this time thanks to a holodeck malfunction, which you can expect at least once a season. The execution is fantastic, Worf’s son isn’t too annoying and Brent Spiner channels his southern accent from his Night Court appearances years ago.

Overall, a good batch of episodes, although none of the feature any real high drama.

Today’s Trekking Out: Star Trek The Motion Picture

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is still the highest grossing Star Trek film of all time, but depending who you talk, it’s the weakest next to Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

I don’t think TMP is a bad film; its main fault is that it’s too cerebral and preoccupied with showing off state-of-the-art special effects. It also lacks the action and the humour of the original series.

Despite these flaws, the special edition on DVD is decent film. Footage that was added in the VHS edition is cut out again, and overall the pacing is much better. There are also some updated special effects shots that improve the presentation of story, especially once V-Ger reaches Earth.

Other pros: A magnificent score by Jerry Goldsmith, remixed for the DVD; although the story is reminiscent of the original series “The Changeling”, it embodies the strange new worlds and seek out new life themes; and, it feels like a big screen event.

Other cons: The lack of the colour overall – too much drab grey and blue with the occasional browns; the uniforms look like pyjamas; the secondary cast get little to do.

Ultimately I was surprised at how much I enjoyed watching it after all these years.

Tonight I’ll likely watch a few TNG episodes starting with “Relics” which features James Doohan as Scotty.

Trekking Out

In effort to kickstart my blog and force me in the habit of writing something that isn’t work related, I’m starting what I expect to be a near daily feature called Trekking Out.

Last spring I purchased the box set of all 10 Star Trek films and finally got around to watching first six last weekend. Now I’m watching Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Six with Seven to follow.

I was a big fan of Trek through high school and followed the spin-off series as far as Voyager. With all of the talk of JJ Abrams’ upcoming film and my lack of access to cable, I’m overdue to revisit my love of Trek and see if it holds up.

Set phasers on geek.

Canadian are morons? Please say it ain’t so

I find it appalling how little Canadians truly understand their own political system. While media outlets such as CBC, CityTV and the Globe and Mail beam with pride because they are getting so many comments on the current debacle in Ottawa via e-mail, online comments and posts, the fact is most of said input is nonsense.

Even if it’s not partisan, it is generally ignorant of how our government works and almost always full of typos.

Even CBC Norman Spector doesn’t seem to get it, and thank God at least one or two people who took time to comment seem to know it.

We did not elect a minority government; we elected members of parliament and the result was Conservative minority government.

Under Canadian constitutional law, Mr. Harper can only govern under a minority government with the confidence of parliament, which he had, even after a very vague throne speech.

His inadequate economic update combined with a partisan poison pill aimed at opposition parties destroyed that confidence. Under Canadian constitutional law, other parties have the legal and ‘democratic’ right to demonstrate that they can govern with the confidence of parliament.

Kudos to Susan Ormiston explaining how things work on The National last night.

Bring Back The Rhino Party

I normally don’t get political, but as a former journalist and someone who’s incited to yell at the TV whenever he watches the evening news, I must post something in response to the shenanigans in Ottawa.

First off, Stephen Harper started it. As a standalone issue, I would like to phase out government support for political parties, but now was not the time to do it.

Second, I applaud the Harper government for trying to reign in spending in certain areas. That makes sense, even in the good times. I do not want tax dollars wasted.

However, the second half of the economic statement should have outlined new spending on infrastructure and innovative ideas to stimulate the economy with a modest deficit as a result.

Stephen Harper seems completely out of touch with the fears of Canadians about the state of the economy. The fears are valid. Two cousins of mine just lost their jobs. One has a baby on the way and her husband just lost his job too. The economic slowdown, recession or whatever you want to call it, is real.

Harper also seems to be unaware that he is leading a minority government and despite pledging to work with others in parliament to address the challenges of this country, he has gone back to being the close-minded bully he’s always been.

In the meantime, that Dion and the Liberals are so willing to topple the government now after not challenging the last minority government is irritating. In addition, since all of the soundbites post-economic statement were with regard to the cut in funding of political parties, all opposition MPs come off sounding like children who found out their parents were reducing their allowance during tough times.

Their objection to the economic statement as a whole is valid. There should have been a stimulus plan of some sort. Harper, who denied Canada was in recession and later admitted this is the worst period since the depression, can not put yhis off until the spring or even January. Even president-elect Obama is getting his ducks in a row before taking office and every Western country is making moves to stimulate their economies through some sort of infrastructure spending. Does Harper know something they don’t? I doubt it.

Now, for the people who say this coalition initiative is undemocratic, you’re wrong. It’s a valid response to this minority government’s recent economic statement. It’s opportunistic, not treason.

Hopefully our Governor General will knock some sense into everyone. But while I think Harper shot himself in the foot and would love to see him gone because of who he is, not because he’s a Tory, the Coalition-Made-Up-Of-Those-Who-Didn’t-Win-The-Last Election doesn’t inspire me with confidence either.

Lazy journalism on CityNews and CBC

Earlier this week both outlets covered local concerns over plans to examine the feasibility of a wind farm near Scarborough Bluffs; each outlet interviewed one resident who thought it was a bad idea.

In both cases, the interviewee was concerned about the environmental impact of said wind farm, but at no point was I told why these people were qualified to comment on an environmental issue.

I do not know if this is a good idea or not, but I know that I am not qualified to discuss the environmental impact of wind farms on nearby ecology. Neither were these people as near as can tell, but they were presented as if they did.

Yes, they are concerned citizens who will be affected and should be consulted, but if we want to have serious conversation about the environment, reporters should make an effort find those sources.

The legitimacy of one of the sources was also greatly diminished by the major typo in the name of the presentation he was preparing.

Plaxo Would Be Great…. If It Actually Worked

The idea behind the Plaxo 3.0 (Beta) is one that has value – a hub that syncs all of your online address books, calendars etc.

However, it only works sometimes. By downloading the provided software for your client, you can sync with Outlook and Thunderbird (contacts only), but with Web properties, it’s really hit or miss.

My Windows Live Hotmail sync point seems to work fine almost all of the time, but the Google sync point, which only syncs calendar and contacts (one way), does work half the time, and my Yahoo sync point has been in the process of synchronizing for 15 hours now. The only sync points that are 100% reliable are the desktop mail clients.

I realize the nature of Web 2.0 services are that they are perpetually in beta, but in this case, one the core features simply isn’t anywhere near reliable in a production environment. That’s more like alpha to me.