I greatly enjoyed the New Jedi Order set of Star Wars books. They deal with the original characters but have a bit more order about them and a relatively decent set of bad guy's that are not the Empire. It also throws quite a bit of upheaval into the Star Wars Universe. In the New Jedi Order series you can't depend on your most precious characters being untouchable.
I also greatly enjoy the books by Michael A. Stackpole, Kevin J. Anderson, and Tim Zahn. Everything else can pretty much be ignored.
Wow, it's a good thing I read the first page of posts again...didnt remember posting that. I also find it amusing because I was going to say how lame the New Jedi Order was. Funny how time can taint some things. I'd still agree with that last sentence and add Karen Traviss's books.
It's also interesting how at the time I wrote that I was pretty anti-star trek and then in Nov. '07 I started NetFlixing TNG and I'm about 4 DVDs away from finishing the series. Next up on Netflix is Bond.
I watched Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan this weekend. It was the first time I had seen it in many years. As opposed to a lot of science fiction geeks, I don't watch science fiction movies over and over again (except for Blade Runner). I've generally been very, very disappointed with these movies and I can usually only bear to watch them once, but I remembered WOK as being not so bad.
It was pretty bad. One of the things that was really bad were the clothes and the sets. The scene in Kirk's apartment was especially telling. Kirk, McCoy, and the apartment looked like pages torn from the 1981 Sears Wish Book. I've often complained to anyone who would listen that the clothes in Star Wars don't make that much sense to me. Why would people with access to hyperspace travel constantly wear those stupid half-assed medieval robes? The answer, (and I'm sure some of you will say, "Well, Duh!", but please remember that I haven't grown up surrounded by other geeks, so I haven't been able to work these sorts of things out for myself) is that those clothes (and the sets) look pretty timeless, and don't instantly brand the movie as having been made in _______ year.
Also, there was a scene where Kirk talked to Spock in Spock's quarters on the Enterprise. Spock was sitting under an infinity mirror. I knew that was silly even when I saw it in 1982. I mean, does Spock shop at Spencer Gifts? What grown-up is actually going to have an infinity mirror on his wall?
I agree, Joe. WoK is not as good as the hard-core people love to think. For my money, First Contact was and remains the best Trek movie.
I love science fiction movies, even the cheesy ones that are quickly dated. That's why I love listening to Paul Chapman's Greatest Movie Ever Podcast. But I am continually annoyed that sci-fi suffers from being a niche market; either the titles are under-budgeted so badly that they are poorly made, or they are blockbustered into being terrible Will Smith- and Tom Cruise-laden fare.
Very few films fall into the valley to disprove that either-or fallacy.
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It's also interesting how at the time I wrote that I was pretty anti-star trek and then in Nov. '07 I started NetFlixing TNG and I'm about 4 DVDs away from finishing the series. Next up on Netflix is Bond.
It was pretty bad. One of the things that was really bad were the clothes and the sets. The scene in Kirk's apartment was especially telling. Kirk, McCoy, and the apartment looked like pages torn from the 1981 Sears Wish Book. I've often complained to anyone who would listen that the clothes in Star Wars don't make that much sense to me. Why would people with access to hyperspace travel constantly wear those stupid half-assed medieval robes? The answer, (and I'm sure some of you will say, "Well, Duh!", but please remember that I haven't grown up surrounded by other geeks, so I haven't been able to work these sorts of things out for myself) is that those clothes (and the sets) look pretty timeless, and don't instantly brand the movie as having been made in _______ year.
I love science fiction movies, even the cheesy ones that are quickly dated. That's why I love listening to Paul Chapman's Greatest Movie Ever Podcast. But I am continually annoyed that sci-fi suffers from being a niche market; either the titles are under-budgeted so badly that they are poorly made, or they are blockbustered into being terrible Will Smith- and Tom Cruise-laden fare.
Very few films fall into the valley to disprove that either-or fallacy.