lover of books, media and cephalopods
Janeway and Chakotay face the first challenge in uniting their crews — choosing a new chief engineer. The candidates are Starfleet’s Lieutenant Carey, who is competent but not brilliant, and the Maquis B’Elanna, whose brilliance is undermined by her habit of punching people in the face. Like Carey, for example.
Luckily, a weird space thing turns up to move the plot along.
Having given myself permission to skip DS9, I started watching select episodes of Voyager for my “Trek to catch if you’re new and liked Disco” series. But then I thought, well, I don’t have much to blog about on a week-to-week basis right now, and this is one hundred and seventy-odd hours of television…
So I guess we’re doing this! Mostly weekly, real life and other distractions permitting, and with the understanding that it’s fine to take breaks, and getting bored and giving up doesn’t mean I’m a big failure. (Keep your expectations reasonable and your self-talk kind, that’s my motto.)
If you’re new to Star Trek, you’ll get a lot of people telling you that DS9 is the best of the ’90s spin-offs, if not the best Trek, full stop.
And those people aren’t wrong.
Nevertheless, I’ve decided to skip it for now in my round up of “Star Trek episodes you might enjoy if you are new and liked Discovery“. Because the truth is, I just don’t like it all that much.
It is done! I got home on Monday afternoon, dozed and read for a couple of hours, then went to bed properly at 7:50 pm and slept for ten hours.
I was on a bunch of panels, and attended a few more, but didn’t take notes because I was working on a quilt. So this is all from memory.
Continuum is a fan-run Australian convention taking place in Melbourne over the long weekend from June 8 to 11. I’ve co-programmed it for the second year in a row, and I’m extremely excited about the line-up of stuff we have happening.
Here’s where you’ll find me:
Friday | 7pm – Very Disco
Star Trek: Discovery brings the venerable franchise into the 21st century, with more ambiguity, serialised storytelling and fungus than previous iterations. Let’s talk tropes, tribbles and Klingon subtitles.
There is an approximately 100% chance I will be talking about Katrina Cornwell. But also gatekeeping, angry man-boys, and what “real” Star Trek looks like.
Sunday | 11am – Fannish Legal Shenanigans
OH&S on the Enterprise; suing Hogwarts for child endangerment; is that unicorn endangered?
I’m on this panel because (a) it was my idea; (b) I wrangle barristers for a living, so my whole life is legal shenanigans.
Sunday | 4pm – Out in the Open
Fan fiction used to be hidden away, subject to takedown notices, and sometimes kept secret from friends and family. Now there are successful mainstream novels about fic writers and readers, and some creators allow writers to earn money from their work. Is this legitimisation or exploitation? What has been gained and what’s been lost in the process?
This is a really interesting issue, and I’m looking forward to talking about it.
Monday | 11am – One Star
How to handle negative reviews — as an author and as a reviewer. Some forums, especially GoodReads, can foster an “Us versus Them” mentality. What’s the professional and respectful way to approach critical reviews?
So one thing I’ve found really interesting is the evolution of the idea that you’re either a reader or an author, and the two categories are mutually exclusive.
Outside of these times and places, I can probably be found lurking around the reg desk, or sitting in other people’s panels, or napping under the table in the committee room.
(If you find me in that last place, and you’re not on committee, well, that will raise some questions.)
Australian film heresy: I’ve never seen Peter Weir’s 1975 adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock. I’ve read the novel, by Joan Lindsay, several times, but mostly because I like boarding school fiction. The movie has always been on my “one day I’ll watch that” list.
But I was intrigued enough by Foxtel’s new six-episode adaptation that, to my flatmate’s dismay, I signed up for a Foxtel Play trial to stream it.
(Sidebar: Foxtel Play’s streaming quality is quite good, but every time I opened the app on our TV, The Bolt Report would come blaring out. No one needs Andrew Bolt and Peta Credlin in their living room. In future, I think I’ll just get my Foxtel-made series on DVD from the library.)
Unfortunately, the new adaptation is a bit terrible. The good news is, it’s terrible in some interesting ways.
Despite the title stolen from Conan Doyle, there are no brilliant detectives or glamorous, worldly courtesans in this account of the 1930 murder of a young Melbourne woman. The murder remains unsolved; A Scandal in Bohemia is more interested in the life of the victim, Mollie Dean, and her afterlife as an Australian literary muse.
Continue reading “Liz Reads: A Scandal in Bohemia by Gideon Haigh”
