dartmonkey

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Posts posted by dartmonkey

  2. Posted

    Yep, it’s tough to lose great moments in episodes that are a bit wayward. Sarek’s a great shout, although there’s a lot of latent knowledge of Vulcans sort of expected. Devil’s Due is fun, but doesn’t really show anything new about him. I love Conundrum because it shows all the crew’s true colours even though they’ve lost their memories. It’s really an ensemble piece though.

     

    The Pegasus would be great even though it’s Riker’s, and I’ve been thinking about The First Duty in the same vein. But if she’s only seen Wesley in Q-Who, she might not give a shit. Perhaps Datalore IS the answer! 😉

     

    One really fun episode I thought of that might work is Disaster - the whole crew’s involved, not too much tech beyond the MacGuffin filament thing, also puts Picard outside his comfort zone with kids.

     

    On a different topic, I’ve been thinking about The Pegasus and how it actually provides a reasonable justification for Riker not getting another Captaincy offer until Nemesis.

  4. Posted

    Okay, I've been thinking about the Picard show and how I would love to watch it with my wife. She's not a Star Trek fan, although she's got nothing specifically against it. I've been thinking about a very, very lean playlist (like, ten episodes) of Picard-based TNG that I could prime her with and, hopefully, hook her on the character.

     

    I'm looking to avoid technobabble or in-jokes - the goal is to showcase the character and what people love about him in the shortest possible timeframe. I came up with the following which captures some great Picard stuff, sets up recurring themes and will hopefully hold the attention of a non-fan, but I'd like some second opinions:

     

     

    Q Who?
    - Sets up Q and the Borg, exciting with some hubris that Picard acknowledges. Plus Whoopi Goldberg!
     
    Measure of a Man
    - Great episode in general, everyone loves Data, sets up Riker/Picard relationship and has some weighty SirPatStew speeches.
     
    Who Watches the Watchers?
    - Prime 'Prime Directive' episode. Picard as a deity: great stuff. Plus she'll recognise Ray Wise from Twin Peaks.
     
    Best of Both Worlds
    - Return of the Borg. Obviously Picard is central, but also calls back to Riker 'rivalry' from Measure. Also required for the following episode...
     
    Family
    - Top, top work. Great episode, no technobabble, mostly Picard.
     
    The Drumhead
    - Great acting, relevant themes, that speech.
     
    Q-Pid?
    - Fun episode, Picard as Robin Hood, his relationship with women. Plus Q returning.
     
    The Perfect Mate
    - Interesting moral Picard-centric episode with a few fun bits. Plus Famke Janssen guesting.
     
    The Inner Light
    - This is coincidently the only episode she's seen before. All Picard and almost no reversing of polarities to create inverse tachion pulses. Perfect.
     
    Tapestry
    - Captain Picard Day ftw. Many of the stuffy elements of the character get exorcised and explored here. Plus Q.
     
    Attached
    - Relationship with Beverly. Plus it's a cool concept. I especially like the croissant bit.
     
    First Contact (the film)
    - Resolution of the Borg plot. Interesting, easy-going, fun film. Moby Dick references. A1 SirPatStew speeches about drawing lines.
     
     
    There are tons of great moments missing, but I want crowd pleasers with lots of Picard. Chain of Command is a sizeable omission but it's a bit heavy - I'm honestly hesitant over Best of Both Worlds. I'm wavering on Attached, too, but I think its important to feature his and Beverly's relationship. If anyone has any comments or suggestions or alterations to that list, I'd be very grateful for them :)

  7. Posted

    He gives the impression that Jean-Luc is going to go Last Jedi, which seems to be an (obvious) idea floating around the net. Picard has always been my favourite because he’s Mr Principles but he has never ever EVER had to compromise them. Which is fantastic, in every sense of the word. His best moments are pretty black and white - he’s 100% in the moral right and he ain’t shifting. Awesome, but it would be interesting to see his rationale in a shitty situation which only has shitty solutions.

     

    Regardless, it’s more Picard, which makes me so happy 👍 His speech from The Drumhead made me cry a few months back. If it’s rubbish, or average, nobody’s hurt. But it could be interesting.

     

    I understand, but I can never quite agree when people want to preserve a character or a series by not having a new version ‘taint’ the old, as if the original won’t always be there. Like with people not wanting another Twin Peaks following The Return - why the hell wouldn’t you want to see new stuff from Lynch?!? There’s always a risk it might be a turkey but that’s no reason to stop. You don’t get The Undiscovered Country without The Final Frontier. Nemesis didn’t destroy the memory of TNG, and it even had, like, two or three good bits.

     

    And maybe Riker finally gets a shot at that chair!! 🤩

  12. Posted

    Game looks fun, might pick this up.

     

    Basingstoke (the town) is in Southern England and is remarkable for being unremarkable. It’s pleasant, by all accounts, but the kind of place you’d never go unless you live or work there, or you’re driving through on your way to somewhere else. Some companies have head offices there. The name has comedy value, kind of like Norwich, when it's listed alongside more prestigious places. 

     

    Manchester!... London!... Basingstoke...

     

    It’s got lots of roundabouts.

  13. Posted

    You know, if Tokyo Mirage Sessions came to Switch, I'd probably pick it up, although the proper Fire Emblem must be coming soonish too...

     

    I just completed Doom 2016. Haven't played an FPS in a while, but goddamn that was a belter! Just chunky and meaty and metal. I really liked the movie with the credits too - how they tied in the visuals depending on whose credit was onscreen. I'm definitely going to go back and mop up the secrets and change the gun view to centre.

     

    I'm looking forward to Wolfenstein II, although it seems the actual shooting part of it isn't half as satisfying.

  18. Posted

    RE4 is really very good. I thought Dead Space did a good impression of it, too, in a post-Bioshock kinda way. I wonder how it would hold up now.

     

    And I did enjoy the first Gears. Not enough to play any of the sequels, but the first one was a big chunky Snickers of a game in co-op.

  19. Posted

    Fe is on the list, but my Switch list is sizeable so I'll wait for a deal.

     

    8 hours ago, Henke said:

    Eeeeeehhhhhhh, I say! Just a bunch of ports of games I've already played, plus a few new games that I don't wanna play. 

    It wasn't until you said they were nearly all ports that I realised! You're not wrong, but it's still a strong line-up.

     

    4 hours ago, marginalgloss said:

    Iwas very excited to see the first Luigi's Manse coming out on 3DS. Dark Moon was fantastic; a rare example of a 3D-ish game that my girlfriend and I could get enthused about. AFAIK the first game isn't quite so well-regarded by comparison but I'm sure they'll have tidied it up a bit.

    I remember them being received similarly. I'd say the original is a smaller, tighter game but I haven't played it for years. It suffered at the time from not being the proper Mario game everybody wanted but it's great in its own right. Now they've announced Smash, I guess they're saving Fire Emblem until E3 or later.

     

    16 hours ago, jennegatron said:

    TOKYO MIRAGE SESSIONS, NEVER FORGET

    Noted :D

     

    ALSO!! I can tick another game off my Switch wishlist with Undertale. Boom!

     

    Also also: does anybody else think the Mario Tennis Aces logo looks awful? Specifically the Aces font. It looks like the Wii Sports type italicised. I suppose they want to convey that this is a quasi-sequel for people wanting to get their waggle on (as seen in the trailer.) The game looks fine as Mario Tennis games go, but man, that logo.

     

    Edit. Eurgh:

    Mario_Tennis_Aces_Logo.png

  20. Posted

    OOOO Direct time!!

     

    That was solid! Main announcements/takeaways include:

     

    - Undertale coming to Switch :tup:

    - Praise the Sun Dark Souls amiibo will melt the internet and everything :tup:

    - Warioware Gold for 3DS = Rhythm Heaven Megamix for the Warioware games :tup:

    - Okami HD on Switch can't be a bad thing

    - 3DS getting a Luigi's Mansion GC port!

    - Crash Trilogy coming to Switch

    - Fucking Dark Souls amiibo

    - Captain Toad coming to Switch, dropping Wii U's significant exclusives to just Mario World 3D, Pikmin 3, Mario Maker, NSMBU and... NintendoLand? Also coming to 3DS

    - New paid single-player DLC for Splatoon 2

    - Smash coming this year with new characters (Inklings)

    - I mean, look at it:

    Praise.jpg

  21. Posted

    Just completed the trial version of David Lynch Teaches Typing. Very helpful - I recommend it. I'd also recommend Chris Remo making a mod by subbing out the audio files. The process for getting the full version seems unnecessarily convoluted, but I'm getting there. :tup:

  24. Posted

    Yeah, I hear patches of description like that excerpt and individually they're effective. And, similarly, the whole thing is more or less washing over me (pretty easy in audiobook form) but I find my thoughts drifting and then I'll have to rewind to something I missed or forgot. So far it's the perfect example of a book that could sit on my bedside table until the day I die, every night reading a bit, then rereading it the next night and making no actual progress. I feel like I'm missing the point, or that the point is to feel disenfranchised and numb. To which my reaction is 'damn - I get enough of that already.' Also, it doesn't seem interesting enough to dig around for. There's so much literature and media exploring the experience of the post-war counterculture generation (much of which, granted, must have taken inspiration from Kerouac), this feels worn out.

     

    I think I might power through, despite my instinct to abandon ship, simply to exorcise it.

  25. Posted

    Hi everyone. I'm halfway through listening to On The Road and I'm on the cusp of throwing the towel in. I started reading it years and years ago but couldn't get very far with it, so I thought the audiobook would be a good way to tick it off the list. But i've spent 5 hours feeling nothing but creeping boredom. The period is relatively interesting, and I get that, in context, it must've been quite something. But I just can't seem to find a way into it. I'm guessing that there's nothing in the second half that'll grab me if the first half hasn't. Has anybody here read it and, if so, what did you take from it?