On Crisp and Dark November Morn

By David Roth

©27^th November, 2009

On crisp and dark November morn

a haunting wind prevails;

a mindless fury blindly sighs

in cold, unfeeling wails.

With moaning trees that gasp in pain

from each arthritic twinge

and frightened leaves remain to shiver,

cower, shake, and cringe.

And dancing on ill fated winds

the crystal demon shakes

a powdered sugar fantasy

of death in tiny flakes.

O, darkened sky; o frozen wind,

such nightmares soon are borne,

of haunted night that ends on crisp

and dark November morn.

WOW!  To make a long story short, JJ Abrams resuscitation of the Star Trek franchise is a hit!  Take that, Rick Berman!

I just got my DVD, and couldn’t wait to plug it in.  I ended up watching it on the computer because our Home Theater System chose this moment and this movie for the DVD player to stop working!  But, that’s another story for another day.

OK – now for the long story.  I’ve been a fan of Star Trek since it first appeared in the 60’s.  So much so, in fact, that in the 90’s I jumped at the chance to work for Paramount Digital Entertainment (PDE) as a paid host for their Star Trek chat rooms.  If you ever came to the Lounge or the Academy back in the day, and were greeted at the door by a grumpy Klingon named BaT’aL, hey – we’re old friends!

When Gene (Roddenberry) died, I sat back and watched his second in command, Rick Berman, take the helm and try to reshape Trek in his own image.  STNG was great, DS9 even better, but Voyager, not so much, and Berman’s fully entitled baby, Enterprise (note that the words Star Trek are conspicuous by their absence) absolutely sucked.  I could make this even longer with specifics, but best to just let dead Romulans lie.

Gene and Majel (Barrett) were out of the picture, and the weasels in suits (Viacom) who now owned and controlled Paramount under Berman’s inept hand pretty much killed the franchise.

But if there’s any one thing you must learn in the Star Trek Universe, it is that no one (and nothing) is ever really dead.  I give you James Tiberius Kirk, Spock, and Curzon/Jadzia/Ezry Dax to support my case.

Enter JJ Abrams, and the long waited prequel to the storied franchise.  (By the way, a prequel is something Trek fans asked Berman for, for years, but little Ricky was like Ford – he had a better idea – NOT!)

Star Trek is definitely firing on all thrusters!  Abrams got everything right in this story that has it all.  The cast is sublime.  Chris Pine has James Tiberius Kirk nailed.  The well travelled Ben Cross makes an appearance as Sarek – Spock’s father, and Wynona Rider does well as Amanda, Spock’s Mother.  Spock, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov, played respectively by Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, and Anton Yeltin) are spectacular in their first run as the heroic Crew of the Enterprise.  And even before you knew it was him, it was obvious that Karl Urban was born to be the inimitable ‘Bones’ McCoy.  Even this younger iteration of the venerable Doc is a crotchety old duff!

Additionally, Bruce Greenwood gives life to the Christopher Pike (second captain of the Enterprise.  Robert April was the first.  Apart from Berman’s diseased fantasy, there is no Jason Archer in the Center Chair on board Big-E.) and Leonard Nimoy makes an appearance as a character called ‘Spock Prime’.  Tyler Perry is even here as the Academy admiral who pins Kirk’s medal of meritorious commendation on him for having beaten the enigmatic Kobyashi Maru 'no win scenario".

This story has it all.  Time Travel.  Alternate Universe.  Romance between the younger Spock and Uhura.  Humor (Pike asks Sulu if he forgot to release the parking brake when the ship fails to go into warp the first time), and of course, lots and lots of action and great special effects.  And before you die hard's get too upset with deviations from known Trek lore and start arming quantum torpedoes, the movie itself admits that they have wandered into an alternate time line.

This is the movie we wanted when we got Nemesis.  This is a movie that will welcome you to the world of Trek if you’re new to it, and welcome you back if you’re an old-timer like me.

This one was worth the wait.  I give it Five Bars Gold-pressed Latinum out of Five.

At a time when our president and other politicians tend to apologize for our country's prior actions, here's a refresher on how some of our former patriots handled negative comments about our country.

   
    
   

 
 
Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60's when
DeGaule decided to pull out of NATO.  DeGaul said he wanted all US
military out of France as soon as possible.

 
 
Rusk responded "does that include those who are buried here?"

 
 
DeGual
did not respond.
 
 

You
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

When in England , at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the
Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of
empire building by George Bush.

 
 
He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has sent many of
its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom
beyond our borders..  The only amount of land we have ever asked for
in return is enough to bury those that did not return.'

 
 

You
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers
were taking part, including French and American.  During a break,
one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you
heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft
carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims.  What does he intended to do, bomb them?'

 
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three
hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are
nuclear powered and can supply emergency  electrical power to
shore facilities; they have three  cafeterias with the capacity to
feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand
gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a
dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and
from their flight deck.  We have eleven such ships; how many does
France have?' 
 

You
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included
Admirals from the U.S. , English, Canadian, Australian and French
Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large
group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a
French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many
languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, 'Why is it that
we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than
speaking French?'

 
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, 'Maybe it's because the
Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't
have to speak German.'
 
 

You
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
Robert Whiting , an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At
French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his
carry on.

 
"You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked  sarcastically.

 
Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.

 
"Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."

 
The American said, 'The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."

 
"Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France !"

 
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard  look.  Then he
quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in
1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen
to show a passport to."

 

You
could have heard a pin drop.