Thoughts on Avengers: Age of Ultron (spoilers)

    Just caught Avengers 2 the other day and on the whole I liked it. Things that I remember most:

 * The love story between Black Widow and Hulk/Bruce Banner; I found it not only a pleasant surprise but quite touching. As a dorky weirdo with anger issues whose been crushed on by beautiful Women, I can totally relate.

 * The battle between Hulk and Iron Man. Amazing. The part where Iron Man is just punching the living shit out of Hulk saying "Go to sleep, just go to sleep." was awesome, there was weight to it; amazing what Foley can do these days.

  * James Spader. It's been quite some time since I've heard an Actor make so much of their voice. I had no idea it was him until the credits, he was amazing. 

The rest of the film was packed with stuff but by the time I got to the final battle I was "action scened" out. I'd just had too much of it so I kinda tuned out a bit. I love to see characters devoted to the saving of lives but was shocked by the treatment of collateral damage in these films, millions dead and the characters are still quipping away. Perhaps I'm dwelling too much over non-existent deaths, but it just hit me that way.

This film made me fall for Scarlett Johansson, I just fell for her.

I'd recommend seeing it if you've not yet done so. 

- Spaced out blogger

Moebius Colonial one

So I just picked up the Colonial one from the updated Battlestar Galactica produced by Moebius models and just from an engineering standpoint the kit is outstanding! I love it, thank you Moebius!

If you've got any interest in this ship at all I would highly suggest getting one, it is a real knock out of the park by Moebius. Sadly I don't have a camera these days or I'd do a build-blog but perhaps someday.

Don't buy from "Big bad toy store"

  So I ordered the NX Excelsior from Star Trek III from Big bad toy store and it's produced by Diamond select toys, now if you know anything about DST you know that their quality control is lackluster at best, especially when it comes to items that have been released previously; look no further than their TOS Phaser for proof of that.

   Naturally, I get my Excelsior and it's shaped like a banana, with the saucer pitched up, gouges in the plastic, paint over spray and an overall poor appearance. So I email Big bad toy store. And they say they need visual 'proof' of the damaged item. Why? Can you not take the paying customers word for it? I've already paid for it! Send me a return slip and give me a refund!

After seeing the quality of this one I'm quite apprehensive about receiving another one that may be in worse condition. I've been down this road before and am not looking to traverse it again.

I would not suggest buying a DST item nor would I suggest purchasing from Big Bad Toy Store.

Relative age of the Oberth class starship

   The Oberth class. One of the more unique designs in Star Trek, very modern looking for its era. This design was used from the 2280's to the 2370's, clearly a very successful ship type. However there are a few factors which draw into question its age. I will use this page to review and analyze these factors.

Registry:

The registry of the U.S.S. Grissom (NCC-638) is the lowest on-screen registry of any ship seen until the NX-01 Enterprise. We know the original Enterprises registry (NCC-1701) is that of a ship of at least the 2260's and it is considerably higher than that of the Grissom. Were we to go by the registry alone, and assume that they are all sequential, then the Grissom herself could be far older than her first on-screen appearance.  The next highest registry of the Oberth class is (NCC-640) (Seen on a ship in Spacedock in Star Trek IV: The voyage home and later in Star Trek: The Next Generation). 

 

The Grissom model being shot for an episode of Star Trek: TNG. Notice the registry on the boat hull.

Design:

   The design, first seen in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), looks very modern and fits in perfectly with the ships designed for that movie including the U.S.S. Excelsior (NX-2000) with many horizontal grilles and vents being a very prominent design feature of the both ship types. The ship looks like it belongs in the Star Trek movie era. Speculation: Take away the decals and pennants, shoot it with the camera and SPFX technology of the 1960's; would the ship still appear as modern? Could it pass for a ship of the TOS era? Also notice the design does not feature a deflector dish, many MSD's (Master systems display) have the deflector behind the lower dome of the boat hull (Secondary hull or Engineering section). I find this location to be perfect and wonder,  from an in-universe perspective, why it would be hidden behind a cover? That to me suggests that it has one less weakness than the Enterprise and those of her Ilk. We also can't use that to determine the ships age, does it have a lit/glowing deflector? Or does it have an Antenna-style deflector?

Interiors: 

The interior of the Grissom is exactly that of the movie-era Refit Enterprise, only with the chairs and some consoles rearranged to suggest a smaller vessel. As we've seen with other Starships, such interiors could be plug-in, plug-out affairs. They could also be beamed in, so no real way of determining age that way. Let's look closely at the Oberth classes first appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation, that of the .S.S. Tsiolkovsky. (The .S.S. registry may point to a reason for the ships internal appearance). 

The SS Tsiolkovsky's interiors were fairly normal by TNG standards, corridors and the miniature bridge set all fall within the norms of early-TNG. There is however one glaring design detail which may suggest an Oberth class far older than one might think...

Look at the picture above, notice to the left of Geordie - the TOS style Burke chair. Were the set designers trying to tie this ship to the original series era? This, to my knowledge was the one and only use of TOS style set dressings in TNG.  It's tenuous, but this plus the relatively low registries of the early Oberth class starships we saw; I think, make these points fodder for the argument of these ships having been, if not built and produced in that era, at least present during that time. And that subsequent appearances of these ships were possibly of ships that were either refitted with new technology or newer builds.

1960's style "tulip" chair seen to the right of Geordie

 My own opinion is that these ships were likely new as of the 2280's, possibly brand new as of the first appearance of one with the U.S.S. Grissom. However, I do fancy the idea of these ships having been designed and built in the 2260's and why not? Being science ships they wouldn't need the power and technology of those ships on the 'front line' or those meant to explore the outer reaches of space. Even if they're new as of the 2280's they clearly had longevity having lasted at least a century.

The ship looks kind of 60's-ish and lacks a great deal of detail, like ships of the original series era (2260's). I'd love to build a model of one with TOS style registry and pennants.

- Spaced out blogger

A quick analysis of the background ships from Star Trek: The Next Generation

 

   If you're like me than you're fascinated by background models and props. That is, models and props used in Film and Television. You might also ask, "What is a background model or prop?" Well, it is an item that was not given a close-up or if it was it was seen only briefly and from a distance. For example, the Navy ships used at the end of the film "The Abyss". Or the kitbashed Starships as seen in several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  

U.S.S. Stargazer

   Let us start with the Constellation class U.S.S. Stargazer. The model having been featured in several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and featured originally as Captain Picard's first command. The registry (NCC-2893) and interior sets suggest that it is a ship of the late-23rd early 24th centuries. It seems to have been a tradition of that time to use ships for 100 or more years as we see ships of the Oberth, Miranda and Excelsior classes bolstering the Starfleet. Real world reason being that it was far cheaper to re-use models than to create new ones, still even after they had more modern ship models they continued to use the old Star Trek movie-era models. Funny enough the model built for the Stargazer was brand new and was created in place of using the Enterprise refit model for the episode "The Battle", hence the class name of Constellation.

One of the things I've noticed about the models built and modified for TNG, more often than not, featured strange dishes, antennae and protrusions. These features seem quite anachronistic for the era as we hadn't seen such things since the original Enterprise and her "Sensor"/ Deflector dish. Features which are more akin to things seen on Star Wars ships, they seem somewhat out of place on Star Trek ships. As a child I used to call the movie era and pre-TNG ships the "Junk" era of Star Trek as the ships seemed encrusted with greeblies, bits and bobs. Picards Stargazer and those of her class being the most obvious examples of such. What purpose did these things serve? Were they sensors as some on the production have speculated? Or were they instead Phaser cannons? That would seem to be an unpopular and indeed a very un- Trek like feature. One of the commonalities of the more 'greeblified' (Constellation, Miranda, Soyuz) ships is the distinct lack of a Deflector dish, did these things make up for a lack of that? .

Soyuz class U.S.S. Bozeman

My first impression of the Soyuz class is: It evokes the feeling of a WWII Destroyer or Battleship with it's many "sensor" cannons and blisters. It's registry also fits well with that theme (NCC-1941) It's clear quite a lot of work went into the conversion of the Miranda (Reliant) into the Soyuz (Bozeman). Shame we didn't see more of it, but the episode suggests that even by TNG standards the ship was old.  I wonder, were these ships a dubious flirtation with alternate technologies, technologies which clearly never really caught on since the only other ship we see with dishes and protrusions is the U.S.S. Saratoga seen in the pilot for Deep Space Nine, which by the way was never seen again, nor were any other ships like it.

Sensor protrusions on the U.S.S. Saratoga

On a special note, notice the details on this 'breakaway' model of the Saratoga for DS9's "The Emissary", it has decals or stickers representing the detail parts. Also notice the Enterprise refit warp nacelles mounted on a Reliant type ship! Pretty cool...

Clearly these ships and their strange features were one-offs created for production reasons and likely weren't meant to be analyzed. They were simply meant to 'flesh out' these background ships and to differentiate them even further from their on-screen counterpart.

- Spaced out blogger

Star Wars: The Force Awakens props, costumes and models

New "Flame Trooper" as seen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens or Episode 7

    

     Most who read this blog might think me only a fan of Star Trek. Not true, I am also a fan of Star Wars (Though the prequels obliterated any interest I had in Star Wars) and iO9 recently released pictures of some of the props, models and costumes on display at the Star Wars celebration. I wanted to take a moment to comment on some of what is on display.

http://io9.com/star-wars-costumes-and-props-reveal-new-characters-for-1698341539

Millennium Falcon:

Model of Millennium Falcon as seen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Probably my favorite ship from Star Wars as a child, these days I'm not as excited about it as I once was. That said, I am glad to see it again on screen and with a new (Square) Radar dish! Which is apparently a stock Correllian unit whereas the original was a custom military grade if we're to believe "Incredible cross-sections of Star Wars: The ultimate guide to Star Wars vehicles and spacecraft". Beyond the nostalgia associated with it and it's inclusion in the new Star Wars films and it's minor alterations, there's really nothing new to write home about with this one.

New X-wing fighter or T-70 fighter:

New X-wing fighter or T-70 as seen in Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Ah yes, now we get to the new meat-on-the-bone. A new ship for a new era, hearkening back to the classic X-wing fighter, the T-70 puts a new-old spin on the craft by taking a cue from artist Ralph McQuarrie's original concept art for the X-wing. Note the larger engine intakes which split at the center line.  Also note the shorter, sleeker fuselage. The only thing I don't care for is how the wings split. I would have also thought that technology would have advanced considerably following the disbanding of the Empire. I guess in the Star Wars universe the tech only advances as much as plot requires. In other words, not very much.

Flame Trooper:

Flame Trooper helmet

 My second new favorite thing from Episode 7, the Flame Trooper Helmet. I'm one of the few people who never "got" the love of the vac-u-formed Storm Trooper armor. I just found it looking cheesy. Now however, this new Flame Trooper armor and it's Storm Trooper equivalent have me desiring my own helmet for the first time. If anyone out there has or have access to the original molds, I'd love a copy of either. You know, just for wearing around the house! Thing is, it looks rather difficult to see out of without the aid of some kind of computer imaging.

Finn's shoes:

I want a pair! They look like 80's Earth standard. Tennis shoes... in Star Wars. Too cool.

I love the implication that these models make, specifically that the new movie is using physical modeling for it's effects! Unless these were made for J.J. Abrams personal use. ;) Or publicity purposes, which is certainly possible; they did the same thing for Star Trek 2009. I must say I hope they were used to make the film. Physical model making is a dying art, assuming these weren't "grown" (Though even that requires art and skill).

Random thoughts...

-Spaced out blogger

The Ed Miarecki Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan Phaser or how I learned to love "Yesterday's Enterprise"

Ed Miarecki Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Phaser

    Ah, the Phaser from the TNG episode "Yesterday's Enterprise". Originally a fan-convention special produced by fan and prop maker Ed Miarecki, it was meant to be a replica of the Phaser from Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, it was yanked for use in the TNG episode as a quick and dirty solution to the need for an anachronistic out-of-date Phaser for the crew of the Enterprise-C.

The example above is a rather poor casting of the EM (Ed Miarecki, heretofore known as EM) Phaser.  Sporting a kind of mottled paint job, a number of seam lines and a glued-on sticker-type control pad; this Phaser is quite the mess. Thankfully, it only cost me $40 dollars from a seller on ebay, who also claimed it had fan-made electronics (unfortunately for me he never claimed them functional). Despite that, this Phaser exudes sleek streamlined futurism straight out of Flash Gordon; in fact, put a "rocket style" fin on the top and it could easily pass for one of Flash's sidearms.

Unlike it's Original Series predecessor, it features long un-broken lines and a comfortable grip. It fits the hand like it was meant for it. However, it differs in some ways from it's intended on-screen counterpart (The Phaser from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan). 

One of the actual screen-used background or "dummy" Phasers. Picture taken from recent auction.

  Comparing the two images above, you will note the EM Phaser is longer and thinner, with a much simpler grip.  Not evident in the images is that the EM Phaser is also wider. This has the affect of 'streamlining' the weapon.

An artists rendering of the EM Phaser (Phasers.net)

A re-purposed vac-u-formed Ed Miarecki Phaser originally made for "Yesterday's Enterprise"

   The Phaser replicas EM sold at conventions were solid-cast resin and were quite heavy. The necessities of Television production prohibited such heavy props, so EM vac-u-formed over one of his Phasers, creating hollow replicas for use in the episode. The prop Phasers were never seen doing anything more than hanging from the actors uniforms so lighting effects were unnecessary. When antique Starfleet Phasers were needed for the episode "Final Mission", EM took one of the Phaser props he created for "Yesterday's Enterprise", re-painted it, added lights to it, a grip and sent it to the producers for approval. They instead decided to use the Phasers from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

   The Phaser seen above is from a private collection.

-The Spaced-out Blogger