This episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation finally gives some character development to crewmembers other than Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton), the teenaged son of the ship's doctor, and Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart). In fact, we don't even see Wesley during this entire episode. Therefore, I am not going to bring up his name again in this review! After detecting a battle inside The Neutral Zone - a zone which serves as a buffer between the Federation and the Romulan and Klingon Empires - The Enterpriserushes in and rescues three Klingons form a badly damaged Talarian freighter. This turn of events provides the writers with a reason to draw Lieutenant Worf (Michael Dorn) more into the forefront. Up until now all we know about him is that he is a Klingon serving on a Starfleet vessel. His part seems to have been standing there in the background looking menacing. The writers apparently figured out that the novelty of "look, we have a Klingon on the bridge of theEnterprise" was going to start wearing thin pretty soon if they didn't do something. This is the first time we hear the background of a raid by the Romulans on Khitomer and his survival and subsequent adoption by a Starfleet officer. We soon see Worf begin to sympathize with the rescued Klingons, especially after finding out they were rebelling against the "traitors of Kling" when they stole the freighter. This part smacks of bad writing. Worf has graduated Starfleet Academy and been around humans for most of his life, yet as soon as some of "his own kind" come on board the Enterprise, his loyalties seem to waver. He sympathizes with these Klingons who are rebelling against the Klingon authorities who have embraced peace, yet he has no sympathy for all of the Klingons who were killed when they destroyed the pursuit vessel in The Neutral Zone. Captain Picard also seems to not entirely trust Worf during this time. However, to me these plot holes are secondary to some of great information and insight we are given into the Klingon culture. The Klingon Death Ritual is first seen here. Worf also shows near the end how the Klingons focus more on honor than on anything else. Another character who gets some development here is Geordi LaForge (LeVar Burton). When he is sent to the Talarian vessel as part of the away team, we get some insight into what his world is like. Geordi is the helmsman of the Enterprise, and he is also blind. To compensate, he wears a VISOR (which is actually a spray-painted girl's banana hair-clip) to let him "see" the world. This functions in such a way that he sees much more than we do as human beings. The android Data (Brent Spiner) has been working with Geordi testing out rigging a Visual Acuity transmitter to his VISOR. This will allow the Enterprise to pick up what he is seeing. It was fascinating to see the interpretation of how Geordi sees the world and very well done. Instead of seeing clean images, he is seeing light energy and its reflection as well as a variety of energy fields. Unfortunately, this is not only dropped in the beginning of the episode, but for the remainder of the series. The idea of using Geordi's VISOR to see things does not come up again until Star Trek: Generations. At that time, the images transmitted back to a scientist named Soran are very different from the images we see here, so there is no consistency. Some of my favorite Star Trek episodes are those which feature the Klingons. Though this is far from some of the best ones, it is a decent beginning. It is good to see Michael Dorn and Levar Burton finally get some decent air time. Despite the problems with the writing, the character development comes along nicely. Both of these actors are very good and deserve more attention from the Star Trek writers.
I have to wonder just how many people actually think of the movie first when they hear the word M*A*S*H spoken. How many people even know that it was originally a movie? The television series was a hit for eleven years, but it all started with a wonderful film directed by Robert Altman. If you have never seen the movie, only the television show, do yourself a favor and rent the movie. I had seen the movie a few times on television, but there were scenes which were cut. The new DVD release is completely restored and uncut; a real treat to watch. How do you sum up a story when there really is none? M*A*S*H is a series of vignettes based on a five to six month period in the life of a Mobile Army SurgicalHospital during the Korean War. It begins with the arrival of two new surgeons, Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and Duke Forrest (Tom Skerritt). It ends with their tour of duty over. In contrast to most war movies, there is no mission; no objective that needs to be completed for the movie to be over. The audience is just shown what life is like during this time period. Unlike the television show which had a fairly stable cast, the players go in and out of this setting at various times. We are introduced to Frank Burns (Robert Duvall) in the beginning, but he is soon carted off in a straight-jacket after being provoked by Hawkeye. Trapper John McIntyre (Elliot Gould) does not come into play till around one-third of the way through the film. Around this same time, Major Margaret O'Houlihan enters the picture as well. Lieutenant Dish (Jo Ann Pflug), one of the nurses, also ships out part of the way through the film, and in one of the later segments we are introduced to neurosurgeon and former football star Spearchucker Jones (Fred Williamson). I believe this makes the movie more realistic than the television show. We don't have a guest du jour popping in to make the point of the episode. These people are stuck in a situation that none of them want to be in and they are just making the best of it. To deflect from having to sew up bodies blown apart by bombs, they drink, play cards, and let loose in many different ways. Altman manages to convey that very well, transitioning at various interludes from the bloody gore of the operating rooms to the various diversions that go on both inside the camp and outside. If you go into this movie expecting to see the Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John we know from Alan Alda and Wayne Rodgers, you'll probably be disappointed. Sutherland and Gould portray these characters very differently than the television actors. It doesn't mean that one is necessarily better than the other, only different. This is also a much wider canvas than I was used to from the television series. Spearchucker Jones disappeared after the first few episodes. We never got to meet Duke Forrest, Lieutenant Dish, "Painless Pole" Waldowski, or "Me Lay" Marston. These actors all participate in the various stories which take place: Major O'Houlihan and Frank Burns try to put a stop to Pierce and McIntyre's behavior and end up having sex with it broadcast over the camp loudspeakers (this is where the Hot Lips nickname comes in), Waldowski (the camp dentist) at one point decides he must be gay since he couldn't perform and wants to commit suicide, the 4077th M*A*S*H competes against another outfit in football and we get to watch both team try to unscrupulously rig the game, Pierce and McIntyre travel to Tokyo to perform an operation on a Congressman's son, the camp tries to find out if Major O'Houlihan is really a blonde. The DVD has a whole bunch of extras. There is a Still Gallery, the option to watch the film with a commentary by Robert Altman, the original theatrical trailer, and a whole bunch of documentaries. It wasn't until I began watching these documentaries that I realized just how different M*A*S*H was for its time. To begin with, most of the war movies being put out during this time were decidedly rah-rah, go-get-‘em type films with our country's involvement in Vietnam. Altman was trying to make an anti-war film and yet have it not appear so. To do this, he set it in Korea and had the subversiveness on the part of the doctors be very subtle. The movie presents its case that war is hell. It does not glamorize it or glorify it. We see all the blood and bodies; the result of so many of those other war films. Fox tried to get many of the operating room scenes deleted, but the feedback it received told them to leave it in. M*A*S*H only won one Academy Award for Original Screenplay. This is ironic since Ring Lardner Jr. wanted to distance himself from this film after he felt the actors and Altman took way too many liberties with his script. In fact, most of the dialogue is ad-libbed, a credit to the entire cast, their chemistry, and Altman for being able to reap this wonderful talent. Sutherland and Gould also at one point tried to get Altman fired as they were convinced this movie would be the end of their careers. This ended up being good for the movie, however, as Altman was able to use that friction to his benefit.Many of the techniques Altman use in this film were groundbreaking, such as the zoom lens. The actors would be in scenes and they would not know if he was focusing on them or not. He fitted the actors with microphones so their conversations would be going on over each other, creating a general tone for the movie. He then used the camp loudspeakers, and announcements almost word-for-word out of a Korean War manual to wrap the film together. The three documentaries AMC Backstory Behind-the-Scenes Documentary,Enlisted: The Story of M*A*S*H, and M*A*S*H: History Through the Lens all seem very similar. I would watch these at different times since I think they would be better appreciated instead of watched one on top of the other. However, the30th Anniversary M*A*S*H Cast Reunion was an excellent piece I will watch again and again. The Film Restoration Featurette was also good. M*A*S*H is a don't miss. It's a true classic that deserves to be on any best film list. Do yourself a favor and get this DVD in your collection.
This is the first novel in Turtledove's American Empire series, which picks up where his last series, The Great War leaves off. Turtledove writes a genre known as alternate history. These series of novels were crafted on the presumption that the Confederacy won the Civil War and achieved independence from the United States. They fought again twenty years later in the Second Mexican War (How Few Remain) and again in the World War I period. The U.S. aligned itself with Germany while the Confederacy aligned itself with England and France. The U.S. was finally able to defeat the Confederacy this go-round. Blood & Iron picks up following the end of the war. In the Confederate States, they are plagued by having to pay reparations to the U.S. causing tremendous inflation. Enter Jake Featherston, who we know from the previous series of novels. Convinced that the aristocracy present in the Confederate War Department is largely to blame for losing the war as well as his own inability to advance in the military despite a great record, he forms the Freedom Party. The tactics of the Freedom Party, as well as Featherston's own speeches are eerily reminiscent of the Nazi Party. At one point he even talks about "giving the gas" to blacks on whom he also lays a great deal of the blame for the lost war. Their Socialist uprising in the middle of the fighting hurt the Confederacy a great deal. Meanwhile, in the U.S., winning the war is not enough to secure a third term as President for Teddy Roosevelt. He is unseated by the Socialist Upton Sinclair as former soldiers react to coming home and finding themselves at the mercy of capitalist factory owners. The main characters are people known from the previous series. If you haven't read it, chances are you will be lost if you pick up this book and try to read it. As always, he has a great deal of them. However, he does not promise that all of them will survive and I believe that he has started out with so many because of this. It can be confusing at times because he jumps around so much. Each chapter contains some vignettes about certain characters and it can be hard to follow. I also found it hard figuring out how much time had passed in certain instances. Some of the characters we've known seem to have nothing to do here. They are just living their lives and not doing anything spectacular. People who seemed interesting during the war seem somewhat dull now. However, my general feeling is that Turtledove is building up towards the Second World War. Most of his characters talk about the Confederacy and the U.S. fighting once again. The novel didn't really grab me until about the last one hundred pages. Before that, I found it hard to plow through. In this last bit, Turtledove seems to get his groove and many characters become interesting again. In particular, I liked how he contrasted two Canadian farmers. Lucien Galtier is in the new Republic of Quebec. The war benefitted him and he is living a good life now. Arthur McGregor lives out in Manitoba and is embittered at the U.S. for the execution of his son who may or may not have been involved in a bombing back during the war. His bitterness is focused on punishing the U.S. and the soldiers who are occupying Canada. His bitterness allows him to justify the killing of innocents to "punish" the U.S. for its wrongdoings. Lucien reading about McGregor and lamenting about how his life could have been so different is a really profound part of this story. If you are already reading the series, this novel is good because of what it is building up to. However, if you haven't read the series, you will be confused. I thinkThe Great War novels were much better, but I am excited as to what this novel is leading up to.
Working for a non-profit means everything revolves around cost. When the time came to purchase a new printer for one of our workstations, that was the main factor in my purchasing decision. I am a big fan of laser printers and have owned one since they first became popular about ten years ago. We don't print or copy in color at the office due to the cost. Our output consists mostly of letters as well as educational matter and reports. As I browsed through various catalogs, the printer which seemed to be the best value for the money is the Brother HL-1440 Laser Printer. At $299 it came in on the low end of laser printers. I factored in the cost of the toner ($55 for a 3,000 sheet yield cartridge; $80 for a 6,000 sheet yield cartridge) as well as the drum ($170 and should last through 20,000 sheets) and came out with a figure of about 2¢ per copy. This is on par with the cost of copies in our copy machine as well, making this printer a good value. Setting up the printer was easy. Our systems are still currently running Windows 98, and there were no problems installing the software. Recently, I upgraded my home computer to Windows XP and had problems with the Brother software for my home workcenter. Knowing that, I'd advise that installing the Brother HL-1440 Laser Printer on a machine with Windows XP may require downloading the software from the Brother website. The software also installs a HL-1440 Interactive Help right on the desktop. For anyone without a good knowledge of computers - specifically printers - this can be a blessing as it takes you through the steps to clear any problems which may occur. Features of the Brother HL-1440 Laser Printer: Up to 15 ppm print speed 1200 x 600 dpi resolution 2MB standard memory, upgradeable to 34MB Optimized drivers for Windows® 95/98/98SE/Me/2000 Professional, NT® 4.0, XP and iMac™/iBook™/G3/G4 Parallel and USB ports standard PCL4 emulation Universal 250-sheet adjustable paper cassette Single sheet manual bypass with straight paper path for envelopes and thick media Shockwave-based animated help system Brother Solutions Center (requires Internet access) Manual duplex, watermark, poster and N-up print modes Energy Star Compliant Optional external Ethernet interface The Brother HL-1440 Laser Printer comes with a 1 year warranty. We don't generally do anything with heavy graphics, so the amount of memory that the printer was shipped with is adequate for our use. The print comes out very crisp and clean. We haven't had any problems with mysterious in spots on the printouts where they shouldn't be. There also have not been any paper jams - even with envelopes which were my nemesis on my old printer for many years. The tray holds an impressive 250 sheets of paper which means long periods of time without having to fumble around to fill the tray. We have been using the Brother HL-1440 Laser Printer for 8 months and haven't had to replace either the drum or the toner cartridge as of yet. I am very happy with the performance and quality of this low-cost printer and would recommend it to anyone. If you will be doing printing which consists of a lot of graphics, I would recommend upgrading the memory.
I don't know of anyone who has a true love of baseball that doesn't love this movie. In my opinion, it's the best movie ever made about the sport. Ron Shelton is the writer and director of this romantic comedy centering around the Durham Bulls minor league baseball team. He does not romanticize the sport as was done inThe Natural or Pride of the Yankees, two other baseball films I love, but has shown us all sides of the game. It can be fun, brutal, glorious, unfair, challenging, and tormenting. The film opens with a collection of classic baseball pictures. A wave of nostalgia came over me as I watched it. In 1988, when this movie was filmed, Fernando Valenzuela was still in his glory. There is an incredible shot of him looking to the heavens as he pitches. I wonder how many kids growing up with the superstars today even know about him? The shot of Pete Rose also tore at me, as all he is doing his famous head-first slide. How many kids know about his great accomplishments in baseball, not just the controversy surrounding his (lack of) induction into the Hall of Fame? There are also pictures from before my time, including that of the Women's Baseball League and Babe Ruth looking out towards right field. If these pictures don't move you, then the baseball side of this film might not be for you. The good news on that front is that Ron Shelton managed to weave a wonderful romantic comedy around the subject of baseball. Susan Sarandon portrays Annie Savoy, a baseball "groupie" who each year chooses a player off of the Bulls team to hook-up with and impart her wisdom on. A triangle forms as Ebby Calvin LaLoosh - also known as "Nuke" - and "Crash" Davis square off for her affection. Nuke - portrayed by Tim Robbins - is a bonus-baby; an up-and-coming hot-shot with a million-dollar arm and a five-cent brain. He throws a fastball 95 miles an hour but has control trouble. In his first appearance, he hits the announcers, the mascot, and a whole bunch of players. However, he also strikes out eighteen players. He is so full of himself at the beginning of this film, I don't know how his head fit into that cap. Robbins nails the part with a perfect balance of goofiness and seriousness that Nuke is believable and not a caricature. Enter Crash - portrayed by Kevin Costner. Crash was in the majors for "21 of the best days of my life". He is a veteran who has been around the minors for a long time. So long, in fact, that he is about to break the record for the most home runs in the minors. That record is a double-edged sword. While it speaks to his abilities as a player, it also tells just how long he has been rattling around the minors. In a great piece near the end of the film, Crash tells how what separates a .250 (minor-league) hitter from a .300 (major-league) hitter is just one hit a week - a blooper, or a fantastic play by the outfielder. It all boils down to luck and Crash seems to have been on the wrong side of that. Costner also has the perfect balance in this character. I found myself rooting for him, but not pitying him. Crash was brought in specifically to cultivate the new potential superstar. Hit catching abilities are needed to help the kid settle down and teach him control of not just the baseball, but himself as well. Both of these men also begin vying for Annie's affection, although she hooks up with Nuke after Crash makes one of the best speeches ever in a film. The famous I believe ... speech has been parodied many times, but Costner delivers it with such feeling that watching it again now has the same impact it did all those years ago. And I happen to agree with him about the Constitutional amendment banning Astroturf and the designated hitter. It's easy to believe the chemistry in this film. Robbins and Sarandon first met here and it was a movie romance that is still continuing this day. It's Annie's and Crash's chemistry throughout the film that have us rooting for them to be together, though. They seem perfect for each other as each year she is finding the rookies getting younger and younger and he knows the time is coming when the game will no longer be his to play. Their banter is slick, friendly and filled with affection. Both of them are facing "retirement" and fighting to get in their last bit of playing time. There are lovely bits of comedy in the background of this movie as well. Robert Wuhl is terrific as the assistant manager, Larry Hockett, and brings in a lot of comic relief. I will never look at conferences on the mound the same way again after watching all of the players gather in discussion, and seeing Larry's lack of surprise at the conversation taking place and his response to it. The superstitions that baseball players have is also played here for some comedy, and any fan knows how seriously superstitious most players are! The DVD of this movie contains extras such as Between the Lines, a documentary about the making of the movie, a profile of Kevin Costner, andSports Wrap, another short documentary. There are also the usual theatrical trailers. A big surprise, however, was the ability to run this movie with two different commentaries. One was by the director and writer, Ron Shelton, and the other was with Tim Robbins and Kevin Costner. After discovering the Robbins/Costner commentary, I watched the DVD a second time - it was that good! It felt like I was listening to two old buddies sitting in my living room commenting and laughing. At one point they make the comment that they are having such fun watching, they have to remember to comment. They are having fun and it shows! By the way, Tim Robbins is a Mets fan!
At this point as I go through the first season episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I am thinking I have seen just about enough of Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) and it's about time they give this character a break. Unfortunately, the Star Trek writers do not agree with me. The sad thing is, if I hadn't already been hit with Wesley-Crusher-overkill, this would have been a pretty good episode. As the Enterprise orbits Relva III, two different stories are taking place. On one hand, teenager Wesley Crusher beams down to the planet to take Starfleet Academy entrance exams. He is pitted against three other youths from different species. At the same time, the crew of the Enterprise is being thoroughly interrogated by Commander Remmick (Robert Schenkkan), the adjunct to Admiral Quinn (Ward Costello). The object of their suspicion seems to be Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart). This is a well-balanced episode with very few holes in the plot. We get to see the crew talk about the episodes of the last season as they are interrogated about each event. Each crewmember conveys their frustration as Remmick seems to twist every answer of theirs to his own purpose. At times it seems as if he is almost trying to set Picard up to take a fall for some imagined indiscretion. During the investigation, one of the youths aboard the Enterprise, Jake, hijacks a shuttlecraft after a fight with his father. His intention is to sign-on with a freighter after having failed to qualify for the exam that Wesley is taking. Picard has to deal with what is essentially heckling and harassment on the part of Remmick as he attempts to talk Jake through a major malfunction. Why they did not just beam him out of the shuttlecraft when it is first launched seems to be the only plothole in this episode. Beaming him out of the shuttlecraft is not brought up until he is - of course - out of range. Watching Wesley deal with the demons of his past as well as trying to focus on what he has to do to pass the test is also very interesting. He must stay true to his own self and at the same time is being put through draining mental and physical exercises. The tests do not just measure his intelligence, but other factors as well. What is nice here is the way the Picard/Quinn storyline is actually the first part of a two-parter. This is one of the first storyline arcs we see in Star Trek, as the conclusion comes at the end of season one. All of the actors involved in the interrogation give strong performances, from Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Worf (Michael Dorn) to Remmick on the other side. As Quinn begins talking about a vast conspiracy in Starfleet, we have to wonder if he managed to find a collection of old X-Files episodes (note: Star Trek's first season was well before X-Files.) This is a fairly good episode, especially as the first part of the two-parter. The acting is strong, the plot does not feel contrived, and the characters seem to be acting with reason.
The last and final installment in the Kent Family Chronicles was released in 1980 - four years beyond the original target date of ending the family's adventures. It is also far short of the original goal of following the descendants of Philip Kent all the way through to the Bicentennial. I have to believe, after having read all of the books in such a short span of time, that Jakes himself had grown tired of the characters. Too often, the same storylines were carried through from book to book; from character to character. It almost seemed at times as if he were just transplanting the same scenarios to different times in history. The Americans, unfortunately, is no different. Although I found the book to be a great read, I was frustrated at way too many times feeling like I'd read it all before. A trademark of Jakes' books seems to be a person who holds a grudge against the protagonist for little or no reason and spends a good deal of time and trouble trying to avenge himself. In this novel we see that not once, but twice - with two different characters. The novel takes place in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Gideon Kent is leading the rich man's life in Boston along with his wife Julia (his cousin's ex-wife). Throughout the story, Gideon is continually troubled by what he sees as the indifference of his and Julia's children to the legacy left to the family by Philip Kent.Gideon's daughter Eleanor is an actress at a time when that was synonymous with being a prostitute. She is married to Leo Goldman and suffers a great deal of turmoil, culminating in a fantastic tale of survival during the infamous Johnstown Flood. Some of the demons are in her own mind, put there by the atrocities she suffered in the previous novel and has never confessed to anyone. Others are there as a result of the anti-semitism that she and her husband experience. Will Kent's journey was probably the most in-depth in this novel. I don't know if the fact that it is given the most attention is what makes it the most interesting, but the historical background of how people lived in tenements while the rich partied on the backs of people who were sick and dying really gripped me. Will has decided to become a doctor, which was not a revered profession at the time. Society doctors spent most of their time treating women's fainting spells and making a fortune doing it. However, they practiced little real medicine. The time he spends in the tenements begins to open his eyes, and he is torn between working with people who will benefit the most from his knowledge, and becoming successful the way his step-brother defines success: lots and lots of money. Carter Kent leaves behind a Harvard education to try to find his own way out west. For a long time, he simply wanders aimlessly until his charming personality managed to get him ingratiated with the Democratic Party Boss in San Francisco. I found the historical background here interesting - especially in light of the 2000 Presidential election. It seems like a hundred years ago, these bosses consistently manipulated election to the desired - and paid for - outcome. The novel hints at Carter's own rise in the party to Washington politics. In fact, most of the history presented in The Americans made me think that many of the problems we face now in this country have plagued us for almost as long as the country has existed. In some ways, that made me sad. When I thought of it a bit more, I felt reassured that if we'd survived these conditions for the last hundred years, we'd survive it a while longer. Where the novel ends is at Gideon's death. We have no idea of what becomes of the Kent family in the 20th Century. We don't know what happens with Carter's political career; who will run the family newspaper and publishing business, or a whole host of other loose ends. One thing I disliked in the last novel was how certain things we had read were changed to suit the story Jakes developed, and he did the same here. Once again, the abuse Will was subjected to at the hands of his mentally ill mother seemed to become worse when written about now, over what was written during the time this was happening. Still, reading about Will's adventures out in Montana with Theodore Roosevelt, and the historical background of the New York City tenements made up for the shortcomings I felt were in the characters. This is a good ending to the series, and if the novels are not read so close together, there is a deeper appreciation for the story.
