Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the Dogs of War! (Part III)
“Picard to Data,” the voice came over the communications channel.
Data flipped a Borg drone straight over himself, from back to front, twisting its neck as it landed. For the moment the throne room was Borg free.
“Data here, Captain,” he replied contentedly. “It is good to hear your voice.”
“Data, we’re launching a counter-attack as we speak, what is the situation on the ground?”
“The invasion of the planet has commenced. We are presently holding the main forces back, but reinforcements are continually beaming down. It is unlikely we will be able to contain them for much longer.”
“Do what you can. We’ll try to stop additional troops from beaming down from up here. Picard out.”
The channel closed and Data looked at Twilight in surprise.
“Looks like your gut was right after all, Data,” Present-Day Twilight commented, smiling.
“It would appear so,” Data replied thoughtfully.
Another two drones appeared in the room.
“Then let’s keep this momentum going, shall we?” Twilight said, her horn glowing at the ready.
Data brandished one of the guard’s spears. “Saddle up. Lock ‘n load.”
In the aftermath of the explosions onboard the lead cube, the other two cubes quickly altered their orbits defensively. As the remaining fleet entered the engagement zone, Picard took the lead.
“Picard, to all vessels. We need to concentrate our fire on the lead cube. With its current damage, it is our best shot for taking it out. Captain Dax, when the ponies onboard the lead cube are within beaming range, cloak if you have to, but get them out of there.”
“Aye, Captain,” the Defiant’s captain replied.
“All ships… Engage,” Picard ordered.
The Enterprise, Defiant, and Klingon and Romulan ships entered the fray while the U.E.S. Harmony readied itself for its approach. The Klingon ship immediately cloaked and veered off from the group. The Romulans did the same. Lastly, the Defiant disappeared into empty space. To the three Borg cubes bearing menacingly ahead of them, it appeared as though only one ship was on the approach; one ship, running the gauntlet: the Enterprise.
The Borg were quick to reply. They positioned themselves with the two undamaged cubes out in front and the heavily damaged cube protected behind them. The Enterprise made no attempts at a course correction; no maneuver to evade attack. It continued on course, straight for them.
“Hold her steady,” Picard commanded his helmsman.
As they neared the cubes, the green lights from within started to glow brighter. It was all too obvious what was coming.
“Ready on my mark,” said Picard.
The green lights collected into multiple beams the shot out at the ship.
“Now!” Picard yelled.
The ship lurched as it rapidly entered warp. The beams passed straight through where the Enterprise had been moments before. The Enterprise reappeared less than a moment later on the other side of the cubes, aft torpedoes immediately firing at the damaged cube.
The Klingon ship decloaked right beside the Enterprise firing into the same location. The Romulan ship and Defiant waited. When the two healthy cubes maneuvered to intercept, the two ships decloaked and fired off into the areas Picard had recommended on the healthy cubes. The Borg weaponry momentarily ceased on both cubes. They were vulnerable, if only for a moment.
All ships started attacking at will. A tractor beam would be launched from a cube onto one ship, only to have it readily destroyed by another.
“Any sign of the ponies onboard the lead cube?” asked Picard.
“Nothing yet,” Dax replied. “They need to get closer to the hull if they can.”
“Picard to Chrysalis, report.”
Chrysalis and Luna were wandering aimlessly from corridor to corridor. Every alcove they passed had a drone inside it, apparently asleep.
“Hold up a second, Princess,” Chrysalis told her.
Luna was still angry, but stopped. “Why do we need to stop?”
“Because I have Captain Picard on the line and he’s the only one who can help us now.”
Luna had almost forgotten why Chrysalis was there in the first place. She nodded softly.
“Chrysalis here, Captain,” she said into the comm. “Can you get us out of here yet?”
“You need to get closer to the hull. Can you do that?”
“I don’t even know which way the hull is!” she cried in frustration.
Luna was angry again. “You mean to tell me that I’ve been following somepony who doesn’t even know how to get out of here!?”
“Captain, can you help us?” Chrysalis asked again, ignoring Luna’s comment.
Picard was trying to think. It would be too difficult to directly guide them in the midst of a battle.
Finally it was Discord who spoke up. “I’ll take care of it, Captain,” he said plainly.
His face was resolute and confident. There was no pompous arrogance or deviousness in his expression.
It completely threw Picard for a loop. “Chrysalis, stand by,” said Picard, closing the channel and staring at Discord. “You? You’re going to help them?”
“Don’t be so shocked, Jean-Luc. As I said before, I have as much at stake as you do.”
“And what if something happened to you? If you’re captured or killed this all ends!”
“It’s just a hop, skip, and a jump Captain,” Discord reassured him. “I’ll just flash over there, grab them, and flash right back.”
“Q, I told you before. I forbid you to use the powers of the Q. It is too dangerous!”
“Relax, Captain. Relax. I’m only going to use the powers of the Draconequus. No universe-shrinking powers. I promise. Just get me as close as you can to the cube.”
“How close?”
“I’ll let you know.”
Picard frowned as he weighed his options. It really only boiled down to the one option.
“Fine,” he said, reopening the channel. “Chrysalis, keep trying to get as close as you can to the hull. We’re sending help to get you.”
“Thank you, Captain,” said Chrysalis. She looked at Luna who was eager to hear what the captain had said.
“Someone’s coming to get us, but we need to keep trying to find the hull.”
“Let’s get going then,” Luna said, looking straight ahead.
With Celestia on their backs, they continued down another corridor, looking for the way out.
Down on the ground, the city of Canterlot was in chaos. With the drones ignoring boundaries, guards, and groups, they appeared right in the middle of crowds of civilian ponies. The panic and scattering made it nearly impossible to navigate the city. But that’s just was five ponies were attempting to do.
With the kick-start from Rainbow’s Sonic Rainboom, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy sprang into action.
Fluttershy without being told and without hesitating became the beacon of salvation for the young fillies and colts. Every little pony she found orphaned in the fight she swooped down upon them like an eagle capturing its prey.
But with no intentions of eating her catch, Fluttershy brought the distraught little filly out of harms way into the nearby forest, away from the fighting. Many of them were quite shocked to see a great bear with sharp teeth and long claws waiting to greet them.
Fluttershy set the little filly down in front of the bear, who amazingly smiled at her. It was too much for the child who quickly broke-down into tears again.
“It’s okay, dear,” Fluttershy cood. “Mr. Bear is here to protect you from any baddies. He won’t hurt you. And look; there are others here too.”
She pointed to growing group of young ponies hiding behind their bear protector. They waved cautiously, still nervous themselves from all that had happened. Slowly, they young filly walked over to them. When she turned back, Fluttershy was already gone, flying back to rescue more of them.
While Fluttershy took the children from harm’s way, Rarity and Applejack were making their rounds to keep Borg away from the crowds.
Applejack was running full speed with Rarity a short distance away.
“You ready, Rarity?” she called out.
“Oh I hope this works,” she replied.
“Let’s round ‘em up!”
Applejack grabbed a rope from her back and quickly spun it around to build up speed. She launched it over the heads of a dozen Borg drones that had been bearing on a nearby group of civilians.
Rarity just caught the rope and galloped around clockwise while Apple run full steam in the opposite direction. In a dizzying circle, the drones were quickly tied together in a bundle.
Before they could even take a breath, the drones already had their cutting tools working through the ropes so they quickly became untied.
“Now! Quickly!” Applejack shouted upward.
From the sky a team of Pegasi released their payloads. A gift from Princess Twilight, hundreds of magically modified parasprites descended onto the drones. Rather than consuming normal foods, the bugs devoured the components of Borg technology, stripping the drones of most of their machinery.
After that, the palace guards moved in and dispatched the defenseless drones, now attired in their Borg birthday suits.
“Yeeeeee-haaaa!” shouted applejack. “Now that’s what I’m talking about!”
The parasprites swarmed over to a second group of drones and devoured their implants, but upon reaching the third group, their mouths were stopped by adapted Borg shielding.
Meanwhile Pinkie-Pie was flinging pies as fast as she could throw them. Jams, jellies, creams, cakes, anything and everything she fired off at the baddies. Some struck the drones dead in the face, temporarily blinding them long enough for the guards to do their thing, but more and more, the Borg anticipated them and adapted. Pinkie was running out of desserts to throw.
Onboard the U.E.S. Harmony, Future Rainbow was flying the ship at a dizzying pace. Within minutes she found herself performing maneuvers most Starfleet cadets have never dreamt of trying.
Beam and Beam shot out at their ship, but Dash merely dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, and dodged through the engagement zone. Meanwhile the rest of the crew was starting to turn green. Even the inertial dampeners couldn’t keep up.
“Rainbow, please!” yelled Captain Twilight. “Try to keep the ship a little more steady.”
“But this is so cool!” Rainbow protested. “The enemy can’t even touch us!”
“That’s an order, Helm!”
Rainbow muttered quietly to herself. “Aye, Captain,” she finally replied.
The ship steadied itself, it only a little. Rainbow still needed to evade being shot at.
When the Twilight’s last meal finally moved back down to her stomach, she turned to Applejack.
“Are we good on weapons?”
Applejack shook her head until her eyes stopped spinning.
“I think so, Cap’n. What should I shoot?”
“Only shoot when other ships are in trouble. Remember, we need to stay quiet for as long as possible until we launch our gift.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Twilight to Engineering. Are we ready to launch?”
Reg was seated in the middle of the room, covered up to his waist in wires. One area of wires was covered in Reg’s previous stomach contents.
“It would g-go a lot f-f-faster if you could hold the ship steady for t-t-t-two minutes!”
“Sorry, Reg. I think we’ve got it under control now.”
Twilight glared at Rainbow Dash who turned beet red.
“How much longer do you need?”
Reg looked around the room. As messy as it was, the engine was working smoothly, the warp core had already been disconnected, and the system had been rigged trigger an overload and jettison the core within seconds.
“I think I almost got it. Just n-need one of you t-t-to come and enhance the core.”
“Great, I’m on my way,” said Twilight, closing the channel. “Mr. Pinkie, you have the con.”
Pinkie looked at Twilight confused. “I’m not a crook. I swear! Those colts wanted to give me their cupcakes!”
“Pinkie, I mean you are in charge while I go help Reg.”
“OOOhhhh! That makes much more sense. Okie-dokie-lokie!”
Twilight shook her head and started to leave the bridge. She quickly looked back at everypony.
“Keep everything together until I get back, okay?”
“You can count on me!” Pinkie sung.
“You betcha!” said Applejack.
“Yes, of course we will,” said Rarity. “Good luck, darling.”
“You too,” said Twilight. She left the bridge and headed for engineering.
“Take us in,” Picard ordered.
The Enterprise thrust forward into the heart of the battle. Explosions sounded as their impact shook through the hull.
“Shields are down to forty-eight percent,” Geordi announced.
“Hold course. Hold much closer, Q?”
“As close as you can, Picard. I’ll flash over as soon as it’s close enough.”
Another explosion burst out directly in front of them. It was friendly fire from the Klingon ship.
“Picard to the fleet, we’re going to attempt to drop off Q onboard the lead cube. Target the other cubes while the Enterprise gets into range.”
Chrysalis and Luna were nearing their wits end. Every corridor looked the same. Every alcove filled with sleeping drones. Nothing to clue them as to their whereabouts.
“I need to rest a bit,” Chrysalis said, her throat dry and her body shaking.
“No!” Luna replied tersely. “You will help me rescue my sister and you will not stop!”
Chrysalis answered in the form of collapsing to the ground.
“Get up!” Luna decried.
Chrysalis just shook her head exhaustedly.
“Get up, I said!”
“I’m sorry.”
Chrysalis could feel the hatred burning in Luna’s heart. It’s black aura worked to drain her even faster than just a lacking of affection had on its own. She could feel herself weakening by the second.
Chrysalis started to close her eyes, entering a sleep she was not sure she would ever wake up from, when a strange figure appeared before her. Through her blurry eyes she could just make out some of its more distinguishing features, such as two entirely different horns on the top of its head.
“Discord,” she whispered.
“Looks like I needed to get here a little sooner.”
“Discord!” Luna shouted in surprise. “How did you get here?”
“I still have some powers, you know,” Discord replied, soundly slightly insulted. “Now let’s see what we have here.”
He looked over at the changeling, who looked extremely slickly.
“Just leave her. Let’s get my sister out of this place,” Luna replied coldly.
“Now, now. Let’s not be rude. You do know why she came here in the first place right?”
“She only seeks her freedom. If she had her way, she would have taken that freedom and used to attack Canterlot again!”
“Quite wrong, your majesty. Quite quite wrong. She came here to fulfill a debt to your elder sister. A debt for saving her people.”
“I’d say that debt will be left unfulfilled,” said Luna. “She tried to kill my own sister.”
“She did what she was told to do in order to save you! When you truly understand that, you will realize that you are as much in her debt as she is in Celestia’s. Now, let me have a look.”
He leaned in over the changeling, until there faces were inches apart. He opened his mouth and breathed on her.
For Chrysalis, it was the most revolting thing that had every happened. His breath was putrid, and she was too weak to turn away. But he stayed, transfixed on her. Breathing an aura through him into her.
The aura wasn’t love. Q could never amount to something as primitive as love. It was something else entirely. Almost like respect, with an air of amused affection. It wasn’t love, but it was enough to rejuvenate the changeling.
Chrysalis coughed, still trying to avoid the creature’s bad breath and sat up straight. Discord stopped his breathing into her and helped her to her hooves.
“All better?” he asked tenderly.
Chrysalis sighed. “I’m okay now.”
“Good. Then let’s adjourn from this dreary place.”
“How do we get out of here?” Luna asked.
“Oh that’s easy it’s just a sn–”
A great explosion wrang out. Debris flew through the air in every direction. The entire ship lurched from the impact and tilted into a spiral. Sparks shot out of various consoles. A dust cloud fogged the room. Chrysalis and Luna slowly got back onto the hooves and tried to see what had just happened.
When their eyes adjusted, they discovered Discord, attached to the wall, with a pipe sticking out of his chest.
Oh, Data. I'd say "never change," but that directly contradicts his personal goals, so I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the show.
The parasprites were a delightful twist, even if they didn't last long. Besides, even if they can't actually get at the exposed tech, they're still swarming the drones. And given a well-fed parasprite's rate of reproduction, the Borg will have to spend time clearing their sightlines of flying fuzzballs. Also, continual shielding from hundreds of hungry mouths has to be a not-inconsiderable energy drain.
Also, I have to wonder how anything can adapt to Pinkie Pie. Adapting to thrown pastry, yes, but not Pinkie Pie as a whole.
I'm honestly not worried about DisQord. Maybe I should be, but I find it hard to believe that the pipe's going to be much more than an inconvenience.
Looking forward to more. Especially when the Harmony demonstrates why generosity isn't always a good thing.
3667659
I suppose I could always make the next chapter:
Discord's body fell limp.
And the universe ended.
- The End
So the question I have is, would a draconequus be immortal if it wasn't a Q?
At his full power Q wouldn't even be slightly inconvenienced by that, but if all he has available to him is the power inherent in the body he's using, or else the universe shrinks again... I suspect we're in for some shrinkage.
3667784
Sounds like a personal problem
Dear Q/Discord: Talking is not a free action. Next time to avoid a brand new, unwanted body piercing. Teleport first, and then answer the question of "How?" with "Like that."
While a fun line, I still think that Insurrection sucks. (Conversely, I do like it more than... The New Ones WHICH MUST NOT BE NAMED.)
For some small amount of comedy, In my list of Star Trek films, before the Abrams ones... the crowning pinnacle of "NO!" was ST:V. Now it's has been supplanted by the Abrams movies...
3668179
Insurrection was definitely the worst of the TNG films, but it still counts as canon so I get to pull references when I feel like it.
Though I respectfully disagree with you on Voyager. I don't like how they weakened the Borg from the original badasses they were, but DS9 was definitely the worst of the next gen series. with the only exception of the Ferengi eps for comic relief.
3668179 Star Trek II was so awesome my brother and I watched it 156 times one summer until we could recite the entire movie (with sound effects!).
Of course, this was about 1990, we were poor and only had about 6 movies for our VCR.
3668179 Oh, and the ripping off of Star Trek II for the second Abrams film... so... much... hate...
THEY TOOK THE PIVOTAL SCENE FROM STII AND RAPED IT!!!
And Cumberbatch is no Montalban. Data showed more emotional depth, for Christ's sake!
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warning: spoilers for Abrams ST2
yeah. Cumberbatch makes a much better Sherlock than a Khan. Also my biggest gripe for the second Abrams movie (as well as in many parts of the first) they "changed the timeline" so the story could be different and unique, but then went out of their way to make constant links and references to the classic ST:TOS/movies that realistically violate the pain fact they're in a different timeline. To keep the original fans all they would have needed was they occasional silent head bob. That and WTF is with those Klingons? just NO!
finally. the all time screw-up for the new movies: they found the only man in the business who has never seen Star Trek to direct. dafuq?
3675708 I think it is very clear what must be done.
We need to blow up the Earth to prevent more bad Star Trek movies.
It's the only logical solution!
3668352
My opinions on Voyager and DS9 tend to fluctuate depending on whether or not I have played Elite Force recently. If I have played that game -- the only Star Trek FPS that doesn't suck -- Voyager is now excellent and DS9 is boring. If I've not played it, and have managed to slog through the parts of DS9 that are tediously boring, DS9 becomes awesome again, and I realize why I didn't like Voyager all that much...
As to the TNG films... well Insurrection sucks, but at least it's not as bad as Generations and Nemesis. (Seriously Kirk gets killed by falling off a bridge? This is Jim Kirk here. The man who has boldly boinked where no man has boinked before; about the only good thing about the otherwise execrable novel "The Return" by Shatner himself was bring back Kirk. As to Nemesis see the above with Kirk and apply it to Data.) First Contact is still the best TNG film.
TOS films... II, VI, IV, III, I/TMP, V. That is the correct order of awesomeness. :P When lists are combined II, VI, IV, FC, III, I/TMP, Gen., Insurrection, Nem., V.
What do you mean 'what about the other Star Trek films?" There are no other Star Trek films!
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The Wrath of Khan is the second movie that I play on a new TV or PC monitor. Always. The first is that lovely Kubrick masterwork of "2001: A Space Odyssey". I have watched it and the other five original series movies multiple times. (Usually in order.)
As to what the second Abrams movie did... I would like to remove the Abrams movie from my mind, so the less I remember of it the better.
3675708
As to Cumberbatch I really hope the script he got for the upcoming movie on Alan Turning and his efforts (along with those of the other codebreakers at Bletchley Park) to crack the German Enigma cipher is better then the "Into Darkness" script. Then again since this is a Hollywood movie, they'll probably have Cumberbatch portraying Turing as the most flamboyant man ever who ended the war all by himself (completely ignoring the contribution of the Poles, and the other codebreakers).
As to the Klingon designs from the second Abrams movie... can we please have a little bit of FUCKING CONSISTENCY PEOPLE!? Since the Abramsverse does happen after Enterprise (brr, still a crap series), which did justify why TOS Klingons didn't have the forehead ridges... why the hell didn't Abrams have the smooth forehead Klingons? Oh wait, WE MUST BE DIFFERENT!
As to why they picked the only director that never saw any Star Trek to direct the new Star Trek film. It's becuase they want to completely and utterly dump all the old canon which was limiting their plots.
3676210
No, we just need to start funding those lovely indie projects that are making excellent Star Trek fan productions which look better than the studio work. (And in some cases even have the blessing of the original actors... and include the original actors reprising their roles!)
Oh, and we need to send the Paramount executives, and the writers for the Abramsverse movies on a one way ticket to the sun.
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3676210
I haven't had a good ST debate like this in weeks!
CreideikiBeluga - I applaud your quite thorough review - though I put VI first in my list (but only because I arrived late in the game as a kid and IV/VI were my first entries into the ST-verse). V doesn't even make the list - I think Abrams/Shatner must have colluded somewhere!
Order of Movies:
TOS: VI, II, IV, III, I
TNG: II, IV, I, III
(I just like how Kirk's death had: instead of him on the bridge, the bridge was on him! )
Order of Series:
TNG, TOS, Enterprise, Voyager, DS9
(TNG before TOS only because my brain couldn't handle cardboard sets until I was much older)
3676359 Notice in the Star Trek II movie, the tension created with the combination of just background music and the slow-moving ships. And the models are fantastic.
And then there's the emotion and tension between all the characters, their development and interpersonal relationships which are introduced, described, grow, and change meaningfully in just the short space of a single film. It's a magnificent script.
Sci-fi has become too much either running around mindlessly or pseudointellectual environmentalism utterly dependent on special effects while the stories are plot-hole ridden cliches cast with one-dimensional characters (Avatar... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...).
There none of the mystery and awe the old greats once elicited. We've gone back to the 50's B-movies, just with bigger budgets.
There was a charm even to the 80's campy films: a lovable goofiness to the likes of "Battle Beyond the Stars" and the classic "The Last Starfighter".
The movies today are much like the computer programs that generate most of their scenery: cold, calculated, inhuman, and lifeless.
3677305 There was a joke with that when he was on scene: "Captain under the bridge!" someone shouted.
3678472
The Last Starfighter was a damned good movie.
3677305
VI is an excellent movie, I don't have it first because it always makes me sad when I realize it was the last of film with TOS actors that was actually good. Ignoring sentimentality, II and VI are definitely the first and second best TOS films, in fact first and second best Star Trek films, period. Which is which is a question that probably doesn't have an adequate answer.
Also, comparing the Shatner film to the Abrams films is a disservice to Shatner's direction. He at least hired a cinematographer whose entire repetoire didn't entire consist of SMASH ZOOM, VIBRATOCAM, LENS FLARE! I have vision problems, my friends don't, even they agreed the first Abrams movie was utterly horrendous.
Also: "In United Federation, captain is on bridge; on Viridian III, bridge is on captain!"
As to order of series, in my rankings:
TOS, TNG, DS9~VOY; DS9 and VOY swapping places depending on the previously mentioned reasons.
Wait, fifth series, what fifth series? Oh The Animated Series! Yeah, I don't know where to put TAS. I mean, yay continuation of TOS, but... it was forgettable.
Wait, there's a sixth series? Oh you mean Remastered TOS! Silly pony, that's still TOS. Newer VFX, which do fix some of the bloopers, but still pretty much the same old TOS. Though, I prefer the original TOS, since that's what I grew up with. (Plywood sets, styrofoam rocks, and rubber forehead aliens and all.)
Wait, a seventh? You must be shitting me. There really is a seventh, well then I mus-- wait, wait... NO NOT ENTERPRISE. IT BURNS MY MIND.
Though, in all seriousness, ENT was pretty poor in my opinion. It didn't really click with me. Although, "In a Mirror, Darkly", oh sweet Jesus, Celestia, Buddha, Vishnu, Allah, other-deity-of-your-choosing... that episode, for two hours made me adore Enterprise. Those two episodes made me go: "THESE PEOPLE! I WANT THESE PEOPLE DOING THE NEW MOVIE!"
3678472
Welcome to good cinematography, good direction, and a great screenplay. You may find other such examples of these in "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back" (the original, pre-remastering fuckery), "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "The Longest Day", "The Seventh Seal"...
I found Avatar visually stunning, although the 3D was utterly useless to me (blind in one eye, so 3D films are "LOLNOPE"). Plot and characters were every film about Native Americans that people remember, put in SPACE!, with blue skinned cat people; while the characters were bland, blander, and blandest. One redeeming factor: Sigourney Weaver is still awesome.
Except 50s B-movies still had that campy quality of "This is movie is so... so... yergh. But still I MUST WATCH IT!" (that is, they're "So Bad It's Good"). Now they're recycled plot A, recycled plot B, or in Michael Bay land: EXPLOSIONS, MORE EXPLOSIONS, BOOM FOR THE BOOM GODS! Though there are the occasional good film. ("Pacific Rim" was a fun movie. "Battleship" while otherwise crap did give even non-Americans (I'm from .ca, eh) a feeling of "GODDAMN Iowa-class battleships are awesome.")
Do you know the author David Brin? He penned the novel from which the (execrable) movie "The Postman" was adapted. Part of my nick is a reference to one of the characters from his excellent "Uplift" novel series. Specifically from "Startide Rising." WHY I'm mentioning this is because a few years back some studios were considering adapting "Startide Rising" to the big screen (fuckin' yes, I want to see uplifted dolphins flying spaceships), the scriptwriter actually conversed with Mr. Brin and a mailing list of Brin fans on properly adapting the novel to a screenplay.
The results weren't pretty.
While saddened I wouldn't get to see awesome space dolphins (and the only starship captain that would give Kirk and Picard a run for their money; Captain Creideiki, one of the aforementioned uplifted dolphins); I kind of had a moment of "There is a God!" when I heard the movie was tabled and no director is touching it. Originally, I didn't want to see it made because of the total butchering of the novel (if you want, I'll give the most blatant, although spoilerific examples); now I don't want to see it made because "WOO, VIBROCAM. ZING, LENS FLARE. PING, CRAP CGI. WHOOSH CRASH ZOOM WITH TILTED CAMERA." I'd rather see it as an animated miniseries actually; not only could the novel be adapted properly, it won't have such fugly CGI! (Can we get Rankin/Bass and/or Ralph Bakshi to do it? They both did some fantastic work; Rankin/Bass with the animated versions of "The Hobbit" and "The Return of the King"; while Bakshi did the animated version of the first two Lord of the RIngs novels, and "Wizards.")
I'ma shut up now; since I'm so far off topic I'm orbiting Proxima Centauri, and my internet connection is crap.
3678472
Also forgot to say:
I saw "The Last Starfighter" ages ago, can't remember it other than being good and fun.
Never saw "Battle Beyond the Stars" though.
3678598 There is a quote I can't remember verbatum, but it's akin to this: All the best stories are human stories.
The meaning is, that the stories are best which focus on characters who FEEL human, whom we can properly relate to and whose situations and/or tribulations are comprehensible. We learn something from them or get to watch them grow in some way.
The simplest form of this is the classic protagonist arc found in the prototypical 'hero tale'.
Redlettermedia did an excellent job explaining these sorts of things in movies with the diabolical shredding of the Star Wars prequels they did. I'd recommend their scathings and quite twisted reviews of the films to anyone. (Mr. Plinkett is best 104 year-old serial killer)
3679288 Battle Beyond the Stars was just this very goofy, campy 'sci-fi western'-style B-movie.
It's a cult classic and one of the best things about it is that it knows not to take itself seriously at all. The makers just had fun with it and made it as lovably goofy as possible. You've got the underdog heroes and a rag-tag bunch of anti-heroes and warriors for hire up against the typical dictator-power hungry super-evil nutcase who's just evil because he likes being an intergalactic asshole.
And there's the cynical AI in the stolen ship who's a smart-ass beeyatch who yet shines in the end, saving them all.
There's not a damned thing deep or meaningful in it, and it doesn't try to give the meaning of life or preach anything. It's plain and simple popcorn entertainment.
3667699
Why has no one mentioned the reference to "Dodgeball?"
Looks like no matter what Rainbow Dash is still a skilled flyer. Poor Discord, that has to hurt.
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theTwilight’s last meal finally moved backIt’s black aura worked to drain her even
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