Star Trek: Into Darkness - Haven't We Been Here Before

When Star Trek went into “re-boot” mode a few years ago, I was immediately skeptical.  After all, this was *my* Star Trek that I’d grown up with; that I’d wait to come on in re-runs every night at 6PM and spend months anxiously counting down to the next movie release.  My fears were mostly allayed as I liked the first film quite a bit.  Sure, it wasn’t *my* Trek, but it was good as re-imagined series go.

With the second film in the works, I was pleased that the series was being brought forward for a new generation of fans.  After viewing Star Trek: Into Darkness in IMAX 3D with my son yesterday, I have more of a feeling that this is a film for his generation of fans rather than mine.  I did enjoy the film, and there was much more that I liked over what made me tweak a bit, but those moments are enough for this long-time hardcore fan to take away a star.

The plot is simple enough.  Off of the victories in the first film, Captain James Kirk (portrayed by Chris Pine) is sure he’s about to be sent on the five year mission that’s dangling out there like a carrot.  What prevents that is the honest report of his first officer, Spock (portrayed by Zachary Quinto) that casts his actions in their most recent escapade in an unfavorable light.  The crew is about to be broken up among various ships of Starfleet when a new threat emerges in John Harrison (portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch).  He’s from sort of the CIA of Starfleet and now engaging in terrorist attacks on his former employer.  The rest of the film involves political intrigue and plenty of action as Kirk and crew try to figure out exactly what’s going on and who their enemy really is, in more ways than one.

The acting here is good. Pine and Quinto do a fine job as Kirk and Spock and really capture enough of the essence of who the characters have been through the years to please long-time fans.  Zoe Saldana as Uhura is a gem, and a much stronger character than she was originally although she was an important and iconic figure for women and minorities in her time.  She gets a few action sequences here and handles them as good as any of the male characters.  I felt Karl Urban as McCoy was a little under-used in this film, although Anton Yelchin (Chekov), John Cho (Sulu) and Simon Pegg (Scotty) do get to have good roles as supporting characters.  I suppose when you’re not catering to the egos that were involved with some of the actors in the original films, it really gives the cast a bit more of an ensemble feel and this is one of the reasons the film works so well.

The special effects are great, and the action sequences are awesome, but here’s where I have a bit less appreciation for the film.  In previous film and series, the action and fight scenes had a realistic feel to them.  Even in the last film he appeared in, Kirk fighting Soran in Star Trek: Generations had a realistic feel to it.  It may have been a stunt double, but the fights were believable.  Here in the name of action, there are many instances where it seemed to lose me.  I think that was part of the problem with the more recent Star Wars films as well.  Sure, it makes for great eye-candy at times, but it also leads to many moments of “no way.”  In IMAX 3D, though, it’s very enjoyable eye-candy.  The 3D aspect isn’t overdone and does add to the experience, even if I could count the pores on Chris Pine’s face at times.

The appeal of Star Trek: Into Darkness for me is that it does do a great job tying together the old universe and this new one.  It’s a film my son enjoyed with me, even though he groaned at first at the prospect of having to see it with me.  When I asked him what his favorite part was, he centered not on the action, but on several moments lifted from the plot of another Star Trek story that will be very familiar to those of us who grew up with it.  Yes, there are a lot of parts of the plot that are familiar, but that’s the way it should be in a universe that’s just a bit removed from another one.  I was skeptical of the explanations they would find for some things, but it worked for the most part.  It still successfully captures what endeared Star Trek to fans for so many years, although at times I still felt something was missing.  I can’t quite put my finger on it, and it’s definitely not enough for me to dislike the film.

If you’ve never thought yourself a fan of Star Trek, I do urge you to give this a try.  My other boy who’s in the Army saw it Saturday night and couldn’t wait to text me about it, and he’s another one I would have had to drag to a film.  It appeals quite well to a new generation while having enough going for it that those of us who did attend the conventions and kept the franchise going all these years will enjoy it as well.

One Door Away from Heaven By Dean Koontz

Lately when I read a new Dean Koontz novel, I have one of two reactions: either I feel like throwing the book against the wall, or I want to abandon it halfway through.

His novels never used to do that to me. I could hardly wait for the next one to come out. 

The last new Koontz novel I read, From the Corner of His Eye was one where I felt that the characters were falling into too much of a formula writing; it was as if the characters from other Koontz novels had all been picked up and plopped down in a different novel. Of course, no matter what problems they face, the police and government can never be of any help at all or are actually involved in the conspiracy. 

When I began One Door Away from Heaven, my initial reaction was "Oh no, here we go again." We have the Koontz trademark of a super-smart dog; we have the genius child prodigy; we have a former detective with a heart of gold who grows up to be on the straight-and narrow despite a background of misery. 

What redeemed the novel was the character of the boy who comes to call himself Curtis Hammond. The character was intriguing all the way through. In the beginning, I had one theory as to what was wrong with him, only to be completely sideswiped when the truth about him came out. Following him throughout the story was a complete and utter joy. 

The child prodigy is named Leilani Klonk. Her psychopathic step-father briefly sets them down in a trailer park where she meets Micky Bellsong and her Aunt Geneva (have I mentioned that odd names also seem to be a fascination of Koontz?). Despite being homeschooled by a psychopathic mass-murderer and a drug addict, the child seems to be growing up to be the perfect image of goodness and with a brain that would put John Nash of A Beautiful Mind to shame. She is also handicapped and needs to wear a leg brace. Koontz' description at times made me feel as if this is supposed to be a sort of amusement during the novel - a feeling I am not entirely comfortable with. 

The novel itself takes off in all kinds of crazy directions once the characters are in place. Koontz does a bang-up job with Curtis' storyline, but takes Leilani's in a somewhat predictable direction. At times I felt as if the book was written by two entirely different people who had to some how agree on how to wrap it all up at the end. 

And that's the biggest problem I had with the book: the ending. While the rest of the book carries the reader along at a breakneck pace with all sorts of twists and turns, the ending falls into a typical they-lived-happily-ever-after fairy-tale that I've unfortunately come to expect from recent Koontz novels. This is when I feel like throwing the book against the wall since I've invested so much into the characters only to be let down by the ending. Koontz novels such as Dark Rivers of the Heart with its ambiguous but hopeful endings are so much better. 

What I also liked was the fact that he brought up a subject here to that educated me. I had never heard of bioethics or the movement Koontz speaks about both throughout the novel and in an Author's Note at the end. It is unnerving to realize that there are people out there who still think along Nazi-like lines of a human super-race where anyone who is not physically, emotionally, or mentally perfect does not have a place. 

I can't say this is the worst of the novels I've read - not even the worst of the novels I've read by Koontz. The parts that are good are really good. Unfortunately, the bad parts really seem to bring down the rest. Had he done the ending differently and parts of Leilani's storyline, this could've been a fantastic book. 

Name Your Link

The Empire Strikes Back - Star Wars At Its Best, Nearly

I had always planned on writing about The Empire Strikes Back for my 250th review. I just had the luck (good or bad - I may not get as many hits simply because people are sick of reading Star Wars reviews) to have this fall so soon after seeing Attack of the Clones. 

My impression I came away with after seeing these two films is something I wrote in a comment to someone else: Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should do it. 

What am I talking about? 

In the original release of The Empire Strikes Back, George Lucas was held back a bit on showing some things because of the technology of the times. The video I was watched was of the Special Edition where he went back and "fixed" things that he felt were problems with the original release. 

One of the first additions we see is a better glimpse of the Wampa - the creature which attacks Luke Skywalker while out on patrol and drags him back to the cave. In the original release, we were only given a few glances at it while now it is clearly shown. To me, the creature looks like The Abominable Snowman from the Rudolph the Red-Nose-Reindeer Christmas special. This was something that I felt was much better left to the imagination. 

This is one of the problems which carries through to the current movies, I believe. There is no room anymore for using our imagination to fill in the blanks - everything needs to be "shown". While I have no problems with many of the enhancements which Lucas talks about in the introduction to the Special Edition, this is something I felt could've been left out, but was a sign of things to come. 

Other enhancements are removing the matte lines from around the cockpit windows during the battle scenes. This was something not crucial, but the lines were a peeve of mine in the release of the original Battlestar Galactica DVD since it was very obvious and could have been taken out. There also were enhancements made to Cloud City which make it seem more like a real, operating mining city. These also are good and don't really detract from the imagination. 

The opening sequence with the Wampa was added after actor Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) was nearly killed in an accident with his corvette which caused facial damage. Apparently, George Lucas though the difference in his facial features between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back were significant enough to need explanation. How the movie would have begun otherwise, I do not know. Another hidden gem in this film is John Ratzenberger (Cliff Claven of Cheers fame) appearing briefly as one of the Rebel commanders. 

The relationship between the characters is really what makes this film work so well, and credit must be given to the actors for that. Harrison Ford's Han Solo is believable both in his almost brotherly protection of Luke as well as his increasing interest in Leia romantically. Luke's brooding and impatience are played perfectly to really show how far he still has to go. I see a lot of the same characteristics between Luke here and Anakin in Attack of the Clones, I just feel that Mark Hamill was better able to pull it off. Leia is also strong and vulnerable at the same time. Again, I see similarities between Leia here and Amidala in the most recent film. 

Yoda is first introduced in this film, and is somehow believable as a old Jedi Master, despite his side and stature. The puppetry used here is wonderful and the expressions on his face are perfect, making him as believable as the rest of the cast. 

Thankfully, this movie was released way before the advent of the Internet the way we know it today. Why do I say that? There was no greater impact than when we heard Darth Vader utter the words: I am your father... for the first time. I can remember hearing hints about it from friends before I saw the movie, but I was sure it wasn't true. It was a joke; they were lying to me. After I actually heard it, I spent at least one lunch hour a week debating whether it was true or a trick by Vader. Only now I can look back and realize what a cop-out and disappointment it would have been on Lucas' part to not have Vader really be Luke's father. 

The effects are good, but not overpowering. I like the use of miniatures and stop-action animation much better than CGI effects. The battle scene on Hoth is well done, and though it occupies a great deal of time, it doesn't seem to drag on. The lightsaber duel between Vader and Luke is also effected and choreographed well. 

There is not a thing wrong with this film. While most fans consider this to be the best of the Star Wars movies, I liked Return of the Jedi just a bit better. 

Battlestar Galactica: Warhawk by Richard Hatch: I Wanted This Book To Be So Good!

After reading and not liking the first Battlestar Galactica novel Richard Hatch (not the Survivor, the actor) penned with co-author Chris Golden, I saw him at a science-fiction convention where he promised to fix all of the little inconsistencies that had surfaced in that first novel. 

I really wanted this book to be good. You see, at the time, Richard Hatch was the best hope for a Battlestar Galactica revival. The trailer I had seen had dazzled me and I was hoping that he's learned from his mistakes with the first novel to improve with the second. 

He hadn't. 

The main problem that both novels reflected was the fact that neither Hatch nor Golden bothered to ever go back and rewatch the original series before sitting down to write. Instead, they seem to rely on Hatch's sketchy memory of events from 20 years ago. 

As general science-fiction novels, these would not be as bad. In fact, if Hatch and Golden had just written a series of science fiction book, they probably would've held up just fine. The problems come when they use characters that fans of the series got to know and love, then have them behave in ways that come across as totally out-of-character. 

The original series was about the destruction of thirteen planets and the survivors' decision to leave their planetary system in a fleet of starships to search for the mythical planet Earth. 

There were so many characters that fans grew to know and love. In the last novel, Starbuck disappeared for most of the novel. The cynic in me said that this is because Hatch always felt that his character of Apollo was overshadowed by Starbuck in the series and wanted to eliminate any chance for that in the novels. 

In the new novel, Warhawk, it is the supposed love of Apollo's life, Sheba who disappears for much of the novel. This is a woman he has supposedly loved for twenty years, and yet he hardly thinks about her disappearance throughout the novel. At one point, we are told that Apollo is sure she is all right... 

First of all, the Sheba we knew in the series was very strong and independent (some say a bit whiny as well). I don't see her being the type of person to wait twenty years while someone hedged on whether he wanted to be married. I also don't see how after having a relationship with someone for that length of time, you can go on about your life as business-as-usual once that person has disappeared. Even if Apollo didn't believe her to be dead, then he should have been doing a whole lot more to find out what happened to her. 

The title Warhawk refers to the discovery of Sheba's father, the legendary Commander Cain. He was long believed to be dead, but in the novel he is found being the leader of a prolific society that is preparing to do battle with the Cylons - the enemy of all humanity. The depiction of the character of Cain is probably the best one and the one that most closely resembles what we knew from the series. I guess Lloyd Bridges' portrayal made a lasting impression. 

Apollo must make decisions about what the fleet must do with regard to the Cylons, Cain, and the truce they are trying to forge with other alien species. The politicking in the background as this is going on makes many of those involved come off as complete idiots while Apollo appears to be the only one who can possibly save the fleet. 

The telepathy and psychokinesis angles are good and would've worked, had it not been for two factors. In the original series episode War of the Gods when Apollo's father, Adama (now deceased), demonstrates some of this ability, he makes it clear that they were not well understood in the original Thirteen Colonies and had only been explored superficially. Here, Apollo and Athena manage to use them as if they are old pros. 

The other factor boils down to something that was brought up in the first novel, that somehow those of Pure Kobollian descent were better than others in the fleet. Many fans of Battlestar Galactica rejected this idea sine it seems way too reminiscent of the super-race Nazis once talked about. 

There are other nit-picks as well. The time units are off from what has become the accepted norm. While at the beginning of the series there were some conflicts in the use of these, by the end you had a pretty good idea of how the Galactican time unites compared to our own. Rarely are they used correctly or even consistently in this novel. 

Omega, in the original series, is almost the same age as Apollo, maybe five years older. Here, Hatch refers to him as the tall, elderly officer. 

All that needed to be done was one viewing of the Battlestar Galactica episodes. Either Hatch or Golden should have done this, and I put more responsibility on Golden since he is the experienced author (his works include an X-Men trilogy). 

Hatch is developing his own series at this time titled The Great War of Magellan. I will be interested to see this series as I think he will do fine with something that has no history to it. 

False Memory by Dean Koontz Just Didn't Ring True

Dean Koontz and Stephen King have always been in competition to be my favorite author. I think after reading this book, King definitely took the lead. 

False Memory is a book that left me feeling like I had bought a book that I'd read before. While someone who isn't an avid reader of Koontz' books may find this story keeps them on the edge of their seat, if you read a great deal of his book you may feel a bit cheated. 

The characters seem like we know them from somewhere. I began noticing this in the last Koontz book I read, From the Corner of His Eye. The characters from book to book are being to seem very similar to each other. There are always people in the story who, for one reason or another, are very very good. They usually have a perfect life, are rich, and do a tremendous amount of good for their fellow man. 

These characters then seem to be thwarted in doing all their goodness by someone so deeply evil, yet charming, that they have managed to get away with their evildoings until meeting our heroes. Somehow, the heroes and heroines (with the help of a very smart dog - usually a Golden Retriever) manage to conquer whatever obstacles the villain throws in front of them. By the end of the book, everything is wrapped up nice and neat and they are more perfect, rich, and happy than they were in the beginning of the story. 

False Memory is the story of Martie and Dusty Rhodes (could that name be any more of a cliche?). One day Martie begins having terrible panic attacks that lead her to believe by the end of the day that she will kill her husband. 

Dusty, meanwhile, is dealing with his own demons int he form of his half-brother, Skeet. Skeet has substance-abuse problems and became suicidal that day while helping Dusty on a painting job. After managing to stop Skeet from jumping off the roof, Dusty brings him to a clinic for treatment, then returns home to find Martie in the midst of her own breakdown. 

After ruling out a physical or medical problem, Martie seeks treatment from Dr. Mark Ahriman, the same psychiatrist who has been treating her friend Susan Jagger. Up until a few months prior, Susan had been a very successful real-estate agent and happily married. A severe case of agoraphobia ended both her career and her marriage. 

Dr. Ahriman is not all that he seems, and Martie and Dusty soon begin to gather bits of information that lead them to suspect this. Despite everything Ahriman has done to manipulate people, Martie and Dusty are somehow able to catch on to his machinations and try to gather facts to prove what is going on. 

The book actually only takes place over a few days as Martie and Dusty go through the beginning of her attacks into her treatment. She only has a couple of appointments before they begin to suspect Ahriman. The one thing Koontz always does well is give incredible detail. The book does not plod at all despite the fact that it takes place over such a short time. Instead, I felt like I was in a whirlwind and couldn't see how anyone's life could go through so many of the abrupt changes that Martie and Dusty go through without doing some major damage to the psyche. 

One thing Koontz has always done well is write villains. I think he enjoys them more than heroes since he seems to give them more depth. Ahriman is no exception. He is not simply a one-dimensional villain, but someone who's very core of being seems to be evil, going right back into childhood. Despite having so many advantages, something is not right in his life - his "wiring" is off - and at various times we see just how he came to be as twisted as he is now. Ahriman is the best part of this book. 

However, Ahriman's connection to Martie and Dusty is not just her accidentally stumbling into his office, and that bothered me to no end. It was too coincidental; too contrived. The ending was a tremendous disappointment and letdown after I'd invested the time in these characters. Has Koontz begun to rest on his laurels? This book really has me asking that question. 

I wish I could put in a "maybe" where it asks if I would recommend False Memoryto a friend. It would depend on just how many Koontz books that person had already read. That option not there, I'll put in a NO since I think there are much better Koontz books out there to read. 

Star Wars: A New Hope - Dazzled Me in 1977, Still Dazzling Me Now

When I was a young lass of 11, Star Wars was released to the world. Those of you who know me and have read my reviews probably are figuring that I am a sci-fi geek-ette anyway so of course I headed out to see it. 

You are wrong. 

For months my parents bribed, begged, cajoled and practically stood on their heads to get me to see this movie. I wouldn't budge. You see, a friend at school had told me it was a scary movie and I refused to see it. At 11 I already believed my friends more than my parents. 

Finally round about the end of August it ended up at the $1.50 movie theater about a mile from my home. A friend and I finally walked down to see it. 

And I went back the next six nights. 

The Star Wars: Special Edition was released to theaters several years ago. George Lucas took the opportunity of the movie's 20th anniversary of release to jazz it up a bit. 

On VHS, the movie includes a documentary of Lucas talking about the original film versus this version. It is interesting to hear him talk about all that he wanted to do back then, but was impossible from a technical aspect. The crew was already inventing technology to do things in this movie that had never been done before. 

One part of the documentary showed how Lucas and crew created the scenes of the X-Wing and TIE Fighter battle around the Death Star. Using various pieces from the model kits of the time, Lucas created a huge set-up in a parking lot. He then put the camera on the back of a pick-up truck and drove by it to capture the illusion of space flight. 

The documentary also includes interviews with other members of the crew, as well as Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford. 

The movie itself in the Special Edition form has been tweaked as well as having scenes added to it. Lucas cleaned up the original print of the film which had deteriorated very badly at the point they went back to look at it. The scene as Luke Skywalker and Ben Kenobi look over Mos Eisley Spaceport has been jazzed up - ads well as their entrance into Mos Eisley. What looked like a hole-in-the-wall in the original film now looks like a fairly bustling place. 

Lucas mentions his affinity for "whimsy" in the documentary, and I believe this is largely his motivation in the additions. There are more scenes that bring a smile or smirk to the face as we watch computer-generated creatures carry on in the background. This is why this movie is ripe for watching several times; there is always some nuance that you didn't catch the first time that will give you a chuckle.

Another scene that was greatly improved was the scene of the X-Wing fighters going into battle. We can now actually see the heads of the pilots in the cockpits as they make their way to attack the Death Star. 

A scene of Han Solo with Jabba the Hut was filmed back in the seventies, but was deleted from the movie since Lucas couldn't figure out how to do what he wanted with the character of Jabba. It has now been added in, and gives some support to Jabba's relentless pursuit of Han Solo. It is also funny to watch Han walk around Jabba and step on his tail. 

One scene that was revamped that I don't think needed it was the scene of Han Solo with Greedo in the Cantina. The point is made in the new film that Greedo shoots at Han first and misses, while in the original Han takes him out before he has a chance to get off a shot. Supposedly people objected to this, but I think the scene speaks to Han's instincts as a smuggler and as a not-so-nice guy at this point. He is a character we are supposed to see transform between the first film and the third film. The scene as it is in the Special Edition really weakens the character for me. 

But Star Wars was, is, and always will be one of the greatest film I ever had the privilege to see. It is a classic story of good versus evil; of people rising up against an oppressive government; of how a farm boy on a desert planet can save the universe. The story is wonderfully simple and makes it easy for children of just about any age to comprehend. 

This is one reason why this movie is one the whole family can enjoy. Because it is set in space with battles that are more fantasy than any reality we will know for many lifetimes, it is not a violent movie the way Die Hard or Terminator is. It is pure fantasy, and at the end of this one, the good guys win. 

The Special Edition comes in widescreen format - and that's how I like my movies. I know Lucas is reluctant to release these three original movies on DVD, and I think it is because the DVD format is a much less forgiving one. The technology used to create the original movie was not computer generated imaging, but mostly models and bluescreen. This means in any scene not set in space, you will see a black outline around the ships. I have noticed this on quite a few of the DVDs of movies made before the age of CGI. 

What Lucas has managed to clean up with the special edition probably isn't to his satisfaction to release the movies on DVD, but I hope one day he will. The music and THX sound from this deserves to be heard in theater-like quality. I would hope that people can understand just how ground-breaking this movie was, and look at it with a less critical eye and a more appreciative one. 

Battlestar Galactica: Armageddon by Richard Hatch (No, Not the Survivor Guy)

I have loved this series since the beginning, and I was one of the outraged viewers who wrote ABC way back when, protesting the cancellation of a top-20 series. 

So when Richard Hatch (who portrayed Apollo in the original series run) announced he was coming out with a series of books and attempting to revive the franchise, I was excited and happy. 

I desperately wanted to like this book. 

Armageddon starts out promising. It is eighteen years after the series has ended. (Galactica 1980 is ignored - THANK GOD!) Commander Adama is on his deathbed. All of the characters who are so familiar to us from the series are there - Starbuck, Apollo, Athena, Cassiopeia, Boomer, Tigh and Sheba. 

The only problem is, they're not acting the way we would expect the characters from the series to act. 

I don't want to speculate on motivations here. I met Richard Hatch (who co-authored the book with Christopher Golden) at a convention and he seemed truly enthused about the project and genuinely interested in reviving the franchise. 

The major shortcoming, is that I don't think either of them sat down and rewatched the episodes before writing this book, and instead relied on memories of the storyline from almost twenty years before. 

In the very beginning of the book, Starbuck is presumed dead after a recon patrol goes bad. So there's no Starbuck for most of the book. Starbuck was the most popular character on the show. 

However, we get to hear him talked about often enough, usually in the conversations of Athena (Apollo's sister and a former girlfriend of Starbuck) and Cassiopeia (Starbuck's girlfriend on the series, and mother to his daughter Dalton here). I found their conversations to be flat and without any real insight. It was more as if the conversations were there just for our benefit of knowing what had happened over the last eighteen years. 

The character of Starbuck and Cassiopeia's daughter Dalton was also a hard character for me. I desperately wanted to like her, but Hatch and Golden often painted her with such recklessness and carelessness that I couldn't help but feel angry at her. She is said to have graduated faster than any cadet ever from their Academy, and yet her immaturity is so blatant that I can't imagine anyone allowing someone like her to be a part of a defensive patrol. 

Hatch delves into an area I don't like as well with his Pure Kobollian lineage. Only they are allowed to command and such. This smacks of the beginnings of nazi-ism and is another frustrating point in this book. There are other problems with the general descriptions in this book that go against what we know from the series (such as describing all of the black characters as being from the planet Leonid, while Boomer had indicated in the series that he was from Caprica). 

Sheba, who we were getting hints at being Apollo's love interest as the series wound down its one and only season, is almost completely neglected in this book. 

Rigel a definite female in the series is described as being male here in the book. 

Apollo's adopted son Boxey is in the book as well, and goes by the name of Troy now (the only homage to Galactica 1980). Again, it was a character of the next generation who I really wanted to like and had mixed feelings about. 

Apollo seems to be written almost as larger-than-life. He is vying with his sister Athena for the command of the Galactica throughout the book. There is no real battle - no sneakiness or underhanded politics going on between them, it is just a debate who is more qualified to lead. 

One of the few really interesting highlights of the book is an alien species Hatch calls The Sky. I really liked them and look forward to knowing more about them later on. There is a good general storyline about the Cylons developing a new weapon and Apollo and Starbuck ending up getting help from a very unlikely source in their quest to destroy it. 

This book had a lot of potential - it being the first novel in a long time based on this television show. There were a lot of fans very hungry and hoping it would be better than it was. Unfortunately, the co-writers did not do a good job of getting their facts straight before giving us this effort. They might have been better off just starting from scratch with a science fiction book not based on anything ever written or televised before. 

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