The Writer's Block

Secondary characters create an interesting dilemma for writers. On one hand you want all your characters to be fully realized individuals, propelled forward by their own beliefs and ambitions, but at the same time you don’t want to spend so much time characterizing them that you end up marginalizing the main characters. In TV this… Read more

If Voyager was the weakest in the Star Trek canon, then Enterprise is the pimply, red-haired orphan whose family disowned him and removed him from the family tree. Enterprise was a sad, sad mistake that effectively killed Star Trek on television. Admittedly Voyager didn’t help Star Trek’s survival on television, but Enterprise was the final… Read more

Back in my Brave review, I told you all that I had to temper my expectations of the film because otherwise I’d just leave disappointed, there was no way it was going to live up to Up or Toy Story 3. The same is true of The Dark Knight Rises, and I think we all… Read more

Deep Space 9 was basically an attempt to explore the darker side of human nature while still trying to keep true to the positive and hopeful future as envisioned by Gene Roddenberry. It succeeded in some ways, with some really great episodes exploring the brutality of warfare in The Siege of AR-558, the careful balance… Read more

You what bugs me about Star Wars? No, I mean aside from the fact that George Lucas managed to screw it up. No, what really irritates me are the Jedi. For all their posturing and self-righteous talk, the Jedi are little more than cowards: too afraid to confront their darker emotions, choosing instead to withdraw… Read more

So about a month ago I saw some ads for a new video game coming out called Spec Ops: The Line. It looked like any other standard shooter: gritty bearded men carrying big guns and causing explosions, like the umpteen bazillion other shooters on the planet. I quickly dismissed it out of hand. And that’s… Read more