New podcast is up covering an animated Trek episode, "Warehouse 13", a collectible review, and more. Enjoy the show folks!
http://www.treksinscifi.com/podcasts/TreksInSciFi_235_Slaver_Weapon.mp3 (http://www.treksinscifi.com/podcasts/TreksInSciFi_235_Slaver_Weapon.mp3)
Awesome show Rico thanks for letting me join in.
No problem. Thanks very much for your comments on the animated series.
Loved the podcast Rico! Warehouse 13 was all over the tv this week! It had it's syfy premere and then one on USA then back to syfy for syfy friday.
Great show! One of these days, I'm gonna have to pick up the animated series. Seems like it might be pretty cool.
I just saw it at Walmart for 14 bucks!
Great show. I reallly need to pick these up as well.
Great show Rico, loved it!
Thanks Rico for another great podcast! The Slaver Weapon is my favorite TAS episode. I remember watching it during it's initial run. It's the only episode where someone dies in it. Rumor has it that the art director of the show was color blind and that's why The Kzinti have pink spacesuits. Thanks again Rico!
I really enjoyed this podcast (ok I enjoy all of them). Never having seen the animated series before this was a real treat. Thanks Rico, you do a fantastic job.
I thought i'd made my comment here, blimey i'm slow. I listened to this last week and really enjoyed it, I like the way james Doohan does such a great job doing the other voices, a great voice actor. Great show as usual Rico, looking forward to hearing the Quantum leap show. :)
Ouch! I missed commenting too. Listened to this on Monday walking into town from the office for lunch with my wife.
I've never seen the animated series so I always enjoy these. I sometimes wonder if they take a few too many liberties with the tech as it's easy to animate though.
This is one of my favorite ST Animated stories, because I am a huge Niven fan.
My friends and I all got sooo excited when the show premiered, it was based on his short story 'The Soft Weapon' which was in his Neutron Star anthology book. We felt the addition of Niven to the universe would give Star Trek the true Science Fiction Cred that Start Trek had always been missing. Sadly because of leagal and licencing problems Niven did very little else for Star Trek. Fontana felt most of his story pitches were too 'Science Heavy' phoooey!
True Science Fiction fans love Science and the opportunity to learn about the universe and how science works. Anyways Niven went on to write some Star Trek comic strips for a newscomic publisher. But because of licencing issues the series was scrapped.
Anyways for those who are interested the 'Slavers' were a very powerful Telepathic race known as the Thrintun. And the enslaved race which rose up to combat them were the Tenuctipun. The Tenuctipun were the Engineers and Scientists for the Thrintun Empire, which is why their weapons were so ingenious and devastating.
Niven's writing dates back to 1966 and his Known Space series was a favorite of all my Geek friends back in the 70's. His most famous work is probably 'Ringworld'. If you like the Kzinti there are a total of 13 books out now which are based on Niven's 'Man-Kzin Wars'. They are a popular series, which multiple authors write for. I own a few myself, they are great if you like Military SF. By the way the Kzinti briefly appeared in ST4, so I surmise they are still considered canon, and they are listed in the Start Trek Encyclopedia.
A shame they never really utilized Niven, he would have been a great asset.
"Fool! Human females are intelligent!"
Me: *cringe*
So I decided to watch the TAS episode. It was far smarter than I expected and better then the He-Man cartoons a decade later I watched as a kid. The information they gave us was a bit redundant, but I liked the chamber-play style with only a few of the main cast and few settings and action scenes.
Yet I have the impression the characters are a bit interchangeable, this could be any shuttle with any away team.
They even made a good effort to make Uhura special, she studied history and was a fast runner - unfortunately she is hit by a phaser not once but twice, not only hindering her escape but also making her a "damsel in distress", in need of saving. And wearing a miniskirt on planet Hoth - seems 23rd century technology is far more reliable than 21st.
What annoyed me most but is rather typical for cartoons are the "dumb enemies", I think main characters only shine with a smart enemy. But I've only seen smart enemies (or the avoidance of a black/white scheme) in cartoons decades later, so I won't blame them.
So thank you, Rico, for reviewing the episode, as always I enjoyed the podcast, and thanks for the opportunity to watch the show, I might be nitpicky but I still enjoyed it. :)
@ Omra
Thanks for the info, I'm writing down "Ringworld" on my list of have-to-read, this really is a gap in my scifi reading I only shamefully admit. :)
Keep in mind this show is from 1973 - about 36 years old now.
Quote from: Rico on July 24, 2009, 02:15:09 PM
Keep in mind this show is from 1973 - about 36 years old now.
I know! :)
I see it from todays point of view, but I'm aware of the historical context. That's the reason I talked about the decades, TAS is 70s, He-Man is 80s, Avatar, the last Airbender, as an example of what I like, is recent.
As I said, as an overall experience I think it is enjoyable today, which is outstanding .
So I think taking it serious and measuring it on todays standards is more of a compliment than anything else, especially because it is science fiction with a claim to show a possible future.
And yes, I'm aware you don't appreciate nitpicking, I thought I had the right balance, I'm sorry. I like a good discussion, but I don't want to be trolling or ruining the day for anyone. Sometimes I'm a bit clumsy with all the social stuff, the translation might not carry the meaning I intend to and the US have another culture than EU or Ger.
I'm not trying to antagonist you, Rico, and I might need a hint when I'm stepping over the line or on someones toes. Sorry. :(
Katrin just use smileys, you cant go wrong with a smiley. :)
Oh - feel free to say anything you want. I don't have a problem with it. I was only mentioning the timeline and era to give reasons for some of the things you pointed out. TV is always a product of the times. Also, being a Saturday morning cartoon tends to keep things fairly simple much of the time.
Ah Saturday morning cartoons, i love them. Oh its saturday tomorrow, yay for cartoons.
@ Rico
I just thought I should spell it out, to make sure, because it's important to me. It's a bit clumsy, I know.
I was irritated because it was the second answer like this, telling me in the "New Upcoming Podcasts Schedule" thread that you would post your schedule ahead of time seemed a bit... I don't know.
I guess I'm over-analyzing (geek!) and have no idea what kind of stupid questions a creative has to face on a regular basis.
Though your answer to my following post, like this one, was just perfect, I felt so understood. :)
I'll now got to bed before I give in the urge to discuss "tolerance and its limits".
Quote from: HawkeyeMeds on July 24, 2009, 03:16:00 PM
Ah Saturday morning cartoons, i love them. Oh its saturday tomorrow, yay for cartoons.
They stopped to broadcast them on saturday morning a while ago, my 25-year-old self was quite sad! ;)
Also one day they encoded cartoon network - how was I supposed to learn English without "Cow and Chicken"? Even helpled my little brother, he is so good at English today, they usually think he's the boss when he's working in other countries! :)
Katrin do you remember "The Legend of Tim Tyler: The Boy Who Lost His Laugh" , it was a german programme, think it was actually called Timm Thaler. The Baron was a scary chap.
Quote from: HawkeyeMeds on July 24, 2009, 04:12:50 PM
Katrin do you remember "The Legend of Tim Tyler: The Boy Who Lost His Laugh" , it was a german programme, think it was actually called Timm Thaler. The Baron was a scary chap.
No, I don't know it. :(
It's from 1979, I am too young for that. I just remembered how the TV guides used to frown upon the broadcast station when an older movie/series that had been aired before was aired again. :)
I looked it up and it's mentioned that it's the first of the ZDF Christmas series. Those were usually very good, and the highlight of the year, I have vivid memories of some of them besides seeing them only once.
Great episode Rico. I love the attempt at a southern accent! :D Yeah, I have a softer drawl, though I've lived here all my life. You know, some Southerners (those east of Texas) don't consider Texas to be part of the south. I got into a weird conversation with a lady from Alabama and one from Mississippi when I was in college about that fact. They were very adamant that we were not true southerners. Whatever...we just call ourselves "Texans" and that's enough for us. :D And anyone north of the Red River is considered a "Yankee", here. :D