Aliens Among Us - A Review of Dayton Ward's "From History's Shadow"

From History’s Shadow by Dayton Ward (2013)

Way back in April, Dayon Ward announced that his new novel, From History’s Shadow was to be released in July, and that it was available for pre-order.  So, it might not surprise you that I did pre-order.  Little did I realize at the time what a ride I was in for when it finally arrived on my Kindle, as promised on July 30^th.  

The action in the book is ever present, so therefore I am not going to go into a lot of plot details this time.  The plot is pretty well covered on the liner notes.

I liked everything about this story.  While it is a TOS era story, the Enterprise and Crew aren’t as dominant in the story as much as one would expect, but when Kirk and company are involved, it is an intricate part of a much larger story.  

Briefly, the Enterprise is depicted in the year 2268, about a week following the events of the TOS episode Assignment Earth.  The bulk of the story is follows events surrounding Captain Jim Wainwright from the DS-9 episode, "Little Green Men," and spans over twenty years of his life and his involvement with UFO and aliens residing on Earth, and with Project Blue Book.

A race of beings called the Certoss are convinced that if the people of the Earth learn to travel in space, they will cause the destruction of the Certoss.  The Certoss make it their mission to assure that this doesn’t happen by making sure that the people of the Earth get themselves into a nuclear war.  The US is launching a test flight of the Saturn V rocket (from "Assignment Earth"), but this test flight is actually a nuclear weapons platform.  The Certoss know that if they sabotage this rocket, it will trigger a global nuclear war.  The agents of the civilization that trained Gary Seven, as well as the crew of the Enterprise know that the Certoss and the people of Earth will have a good relationship and make have to make it their mission to be sure that the Certoss fail in their mission.  This is the main plot of the story, but there is so much more to the story.  Dayton Ward calls on his knowledge of all  the Trek episodes that are involved with alien presences on Earth.

The Roswell Incident in 1947 was actually a result of Quark, Rom, and Nog accidentally coming to earth of the past while transporting Nog to Starfleet Academy in the "Little Green Men" episode of DS-9.  In that episode, Nog tells General Rex Denning that the Ferengi are planning a full scale invasion of the Earth.  Captain Wainwright, witnesses this as an aid to the general.  Wainwright is transferred to another location soon after and becomes vigilant in monitoring alien activity, never forgetting the Ferengi threat.

Mestral, who arrives on Earth as the result of the accidental crash of a Vulcan surveyship, later decides to remain on Earth to observe.  He becomes fascinated the the people and the culture he learns about in "Carbon Creek", A small mining town in Pennsylvania, and decides that in order to get a complete picture of human culture, must travel and learn.  Eventually, he meets Wainwright, and also travels to the future to meet the Enterprise crew to assist in thwarting the Certoss plans.

Roberta Lincoln, who has begun her training as an agent under Supervisor Gary Seven, is thrust into also assisting the Enterprise crew in convincing the Certoss of their folly. Gary Seven and other agents all work to keep the Certoss at bay, and some lose their lives.

So what Dayton has done in his novel is to bring together a tapestry from the threads of several different stories in Trek lore.  I have seen all of the involved episodes, but never would have imagined how they could have been woven together so neatly.  It really speaks to the genius of the author for him to take all of the canon episodes he called on to make a story that is very coherent and logical, almost as though all of the separate stories were actually meant to be connected.

I should also mention that he calls on two other episodes not mentioned earlier in this review, those being the TOS episode Tomorrow is Yesterday in which Captain Christopher of the USAF is accidentally abducted by the Enterprise, and the Voyager two part Future’s End episodes.

I have read a lot of Star Trek novels, novellas, and short stories, and have to say that this is, in my opinion, one of the best and most enjoyable Trek stories I have ever read.

Well, there it is…

QaplaH’!

Elysium - Political Intrigue and a Darn Good Movie

Elysium – 2013

Definition of Elysium: A place or state of perfect happiness.

Touted as the last big Sci-Fi movie of the summer, Elysium turns out to be a good film.

I have to admit, that I was a little apprehensive seeing this film after I learned that it was directed by Neill Blomkamp, who also directed District 9, a film that I started watching, but had no desire to finish after I had gotten about 45 minutes in.  I not only managed to stay with this film, but really found myself enjoying it for the story.

The story is set in two locations; a ruined earth where all the population has been left to survive as best they can, and a space station called Elysium where the rich and powerful have moved to enjoy a very high quality of life.  One theme that was prevalent throughout the film is the lack of medical care for those on the planet while everyone on Elysium has a unit in their home that will diagnose and instantly cure any malady that a citizen might suffer from.

Matt Damon stars as Max Da Costa, a former criminal type who has been paroled after serving time for car theft and armed robbery.  As a parolee, he is in Los Angeles just trying to make a living as best he can working in a robot factory.  The robots the helps to assemble are put into a chamber where they are irradiated.  The door to the chamber gets jammed by a pallet. Da Costa is sent into the chamber to clear the jam and is trapped inside as the door closes and the irradiation cycle begins.  He takes a full dose of radiation and learns that he will die in five days.

In the meantime, people from the planet try to get to Elysium for a chance at a better life and/or to cure diseases that cannot be cured on earth.  Three shuttles that are dispatched by a futuristic coyote named Spider, loaded with “illegals” are fired upon at the orders of Jessica Delacourt, the person in charge of security on Elysium.  Elysium has no weapons of its own and so Delacourt has her hired henchman, Kruger fire missiles from earth, destroying two of the three shuttles.  The people of the shuttle that makes it through lands and the people on board are either killed or captured by robotic police, but one person does manage to get her daughter treated on one of the scanning machines.  President Patel (played by Faran Tahir – Capt. Robau from Star Trek 2009) is displeased with the way that Delacourt handled the situation and threatens to fire her and insists that she no longer use Kruger’s services.

As a result of the sanctions imposed by the president, Delacourt decides to stage a coup and asks the programmer of the Elysium station to write a subroutine to re-boot the system on Elysium so she can take over as president and preserve the idyllic conditions the way she sees fit.  The programmer, John Carlyle sets to work on his reboot program.

Back on earth, Da Costa seeks Spider’s help to get to Elysium to be cured of his radiation poisoning.  Spider agrees, but it comes with a price.  Spider tells Da Costa that he is to take get the programs that include passwords from Carlyle by uploading them into his own head.  Da Costa Agrees.

Carlyle writes the subroutine that will reboot Elysium, and uploads it into his own brain and leaves for Elysium.  Da Costa shoots down Carlyle’s shuttle and steals the information and learns that he has gotten more than he has bargained for.

Knowing what has been taken from Carlyle, Delacourt reinstates and directs Kruger to kill Da costa, but to make sure that nothing happens to his brain, because in effect, Da Costa now carries the key to complete control over Elysium.

Kruger searches and finds a childhood friend of Da Costa’s, Frey, and her daughter who is dying from leukemia.   Da Costa gives himself up to Kruger and all head for Elysium.   Delacourt is killed by Kruger, and decides that he is going to be in charge of the station, but Da Costa dispatches him.  The program is uploaded to the Elysium computers, and the reboot happens.  Da Costa dies as a result of the upload, but Frey’s daughter is cured because Spider inputs that everyone, including those on earth are to be considered citizens of Elysium.

I heard many say that this film is way too predictable to be good.  While I agree that the ultimate outcome of the film is predictable (everyone knows that Da Costa is going to be successful) it is the way in which he achieves success not for himself, but for all of the people.   I also thought that there was enough mis-direction in the story to make sure that this wasn’t predictable as to how Da Costa would become the hero of the film.

Matt Damon turned his usual fine performance as the action/adventure hero.  Jodie Foster played her part as the cold-calculating power hungry executive quite well also.  The rest of the main cast fulfilled their parts adequately.  I particularly enjoyed Tahir’s performance as the president, however short, he did come across as being quite, well, presidential.  I would really like to see him in more roles with better developed characters as he seems to have some good acting chops.  I was also impressed with Sharlto Copley’s performance as the tough as nails, merciless, and cruel Kruger.  He was very convincing in his role and was the one character that I loved to hate in the film.

The visuals in this film were well done as the space station actually looked real whenever it was pictured.  There was never offered any explanation on how the atmosphere was maintained on the inside surface of the wheel, but that wouldn’t have been necessary to the story, it is just one of the questions that came to mind as I watched this.

Elysium definitely has an undercurrent of social and political commentary, but we are not beaten over the head with it as the story unfolds.  Blomkamp is said to have claimed that his purpose in telling this story was to convey a message of the future speaking to the present.  While showing how class structure in the future might determine the dispensation of medical care was very present in the film, it doesn’t play as a political statement, but just as a part of the story.  I also found it interesting that the Los Angeles of the future was almost entirely made up of people of Hispanic descent, while all of those on Elysium were causations.  I am wondering is perhaps if other parts of Blomkamp’s vision of the future don’t have concentrations of other races in other regions; I didn’t notice any large Asian or African-American representation in this film, with the exception of Faran Tahir in his role as president.

Elysium most definitely earns its ‘R’ rating for the use of hard language and a few quite bloody violent scenes.  Despite this, it is a well-acted, well directed story that unfolds logically and with very little stopping of action to prevent the story moving forward.

Well, there it is…

QaplaH’!

SyFy's Invasion Roswell - So Bad, It's Good.

Invasion Roswell – SyFy Channel – 2013

Every now and then, one must bow to the utterly ridiculous.  Invasion Roswell premiered on Syfy last night and I decided that I wanted to see it.  I didn’t know what to expect, but from what I’ve seen in the past for SyFy’s original films, I didn’t expect much, and didn’t get much.  But then, from what I saw, this film wasn’t meant to deliver very much.  It is most definitely the most ‘B’ movie I have seen in a very long time, as I believe it was meant to be.  It was so bad, that it was good.

The film opens with a desperate battle being fought between an army of aliens and five humans.  The aliens, small greys, are marching toward the team, known as the Exterminators, without weapons while the Exterminators mow them down.  Suddenly, the battle comes to an end and we find that the team is fighting an army of holographic aliens.  We learn that the Exterminators are, and have been for many years, training for an expected alien invasion that hasn’t happened, and as far as the government is concerned, will not happen in the future, after all it has been 59 years since the Roswell incident.  The exterminators are informed that they are to be pensioned off, and scatter to the four winds.

Seven years later, a giant alien craft is detected heading for the earth, and it becomes apparent that the invasion is actually on.  Ala Independence Day, Several smaller craft break from the giant mother ship and take up positions over many of Earth’s major cities, and Roswell.

After his home is destroyed due to aliens trying to retrieve some device, the former leader of the Exterminators, Patrick Conte, leaves to put the team back together.  I feel it necessary to mention here that when the house was destroyed, Conte’s wife was inside, but Conte didn’t bother with any period of mourning for his deceased love one.

One by one, Conte puts the team back together.  David is a tough outdoorsman type, James has become a gamer, but he argues that it has kept him sharp, and George is a pilot that can fly anything.  Further, George claims to have been abducted and “probed” by aliens, as well as receiving an implant.  The final member of the team, played by Denise Crosby (I never did catch her character’s name) and seems to have a past with Conte.

After several attempts of the team trying to fight the invasion, it is accepted that conventional weapons will be no match for the alien forces.  So the Exterminators are reinstated.

The team learns that there is an alien craft hidden at the Roswell Air Force Base, and it is the one that crashed in 1947, but it didn’t simply crash, we learn that it was actually shot down by American aircraft, and the aliens have returned for some payback.

Again, ala Independence Day, it is determined that the only way the alien invasion is going to be stopped is to deliver a nuclear weapon to the mother ship.  It is also learned that George’s implant is in communication with the aliens’ devices and he is chosen to fly the mission, along with David and Patrick.  The nuke is delivered, the mother ship is destroyed, and all of the smaller ships that are parked over the major cities begin crashing, and crashing into the cities, while everyone at the Roswell AFB celebrates wildly.

If you are looking for great cinematic art, this ain’t it.  And it wasn’t intended to be.  It is simply a romp that was so bad, and so poorly made, that it was actually fun to watch.  For me, it was reminiscent of the really bad sci-fi and horror films that were played on the late night Creature Feature shows on years gone past.  This would be something that MST3K would have a field day with.

The script is bad, but it is propped up with several one-liners that made me chuckle from time to time.  The “high tech” weapons used by the team look a lot like the rifles that are used by color guards in marching band field shows.  The special effects aren’t special at all; the miniatures used for the AFB are obviously small, cheap models (perhaps toys picked up at the local Toys ‘R’ Us), and the flight scenes are absolutely bottom notch.

This movie doesn’t take itself very seriously, and it doesn’t ask the audience to do so either.  It’s just a bit of silly fun, if you have two hours to kill, and there’s nothing else but “Reality TV” on the tube.

Oh, I am still trying to figure out why Denise Crosby was in this, aside from lending her name to get all of us Sci-Fi Fans to tune in.

Well, there it is…

QaplaH’?

Philosophy 1701 - What Is Or Isn't Trek?

The Philosophy of Star Trek

The last panel I attended at the OSFest 6 convention was the Philosophy of Trek panel.  It was one I was determined not to miss.  I enjoy both.

I think that the panelists had planned to cover several subjects, but it was the first subject that seemed to dominate the discussion, as well as stir up some passion both on the panel, as well as with the audience.  The opening subject for discussion was the JJ Abrams’ incarnation of Star Trek with the films released in 2009 and earlier this year.  It seemed to me that the members of the panel were not happy with the Abrams handling of the film as they tossed a few lighthearted remarks back and forth between themselves and the audience.  One member of the audience sitting directly behind me got quite upset and in essence, whispering to her neighbor that if the panel was going to be a JJ Abrams bashing session, she wasn’t going to stay.  I am paraphrasing here, so you may add any appropriate expletives you wish to what she said.  Well it is too bad that she left the room because JJ bashing is not what happened at all, but rather the panel was leading a discussion on how JJ’s universe compared with Gene Roddenberry’s vision and whether JJ had any obligations that he might not be fulfilling to Roddenberry’s ideal.  This took up a full 2/3’s of the time allotted for the panel and could have gone on for much longer.  I only wish I had brought my recorder to help me with my Swiss-cheesed memory of the discussion.

As always, I do not pretend to have all of the answers, nor do I have all of the facts in this matter, but I do have some thoughts which I will share with you.  First, as I understand philosophy, it is a quest for the truth of something.  The truth is found through an examination of all the available facts.  A philosophy is developed and can evolve as more facts and experience is gained.  This is at the most basic level as there have been many books written by many far more qualified people on this subject.  So what I write here will be my own individual philosophy of Star Trek.  Feel free to agree or disagree with my conclusions, and as always, I welcome any comments one cares to make.

Much has been written and discussed over the past four-plus decades of Gene Roddenberry’s “vision” of the future.  In his vision, Roddenberry saw the future as a place where all prejudice and bigotry had been eliminated in human society.  The people of the Earth had learned to finally get along by getting past their superficial and materialistic needs and began to work together to move out of our own solar system and spread the word to other “strange new worlds” and civilizations in a spirit of learning and exploration, boldly going “where no man has gone before.”  This is indeed a noble vision, but it was an element in a much bigger picture.

Roddenberry was, before Star Trek, a marginally successful television writer.  He had made many attempts at getting a hit television series on the air, and keeping it there.  It wasn’t until the advent of Star Trek that he had found backing from Desilu studios and Herb Solow who saw value in what Roddenberry was producing, that got the show on the air.  One problem that Star Trek faced in those days was another television show called Mission: Impossible.  Desilu was wholly invested in this hit show and a great deal of the studio’s resources were put into that show, while Star Trek was forced to make due with a shoe string budget and leftovers.  One big advantage Star Trek had to fight the budget battle was Matt Jefferies who could take junk, dress it up, and make it work as props and set decorations that were convincing.  When one watches an episode of the original series (TOS), one finds a very Spartan environment, especially when compared to later series, such as Next Generation (TNG) with their million-dollar per episode budget.

Gene Roddenberry was a brilliant television writer, but it wasn’t only the scripts that made Star Trek work.  For me, Star Trek is about the people and their interactions with each other.  It was magical in how this show was cast, and how well they worked together.   Kirk, the commander, relied on Spock and McCoy to make good decisions.  Actually, Spock and McCoy were extensions of Kirk’s personality; Spock the logical side that looks at situations in black and white, and McCoy who was the compassionate one that added those little grey areas.  What chemistry.  This is what resonated with me, and what is missing from the Abrams version of Star Trek.

Before the 2009 Star Trek film was even in production, JJ Abrams admitted that he knew nothing about Star Trek.  It also seemed that, beyond making a pile of money, he didn’t really care about Star Trek.  I can agree with the first statement, but I cannot totally agree with the second.  On one podcast I listen to regularly, one of the cohosts said “this is new Star Trek” for a new audience, if you cannot handle it, get over it.  Another podcaster said that Star Trek is not about explosions and glitzy special effects, it is not supposed to wow the audience, but tell a good story.  I can see merit to both points of view.  The former is a young person who sees lots of movies, and the latter is more of a television watcher (but definitely not a couch potato).  As far as I am concerned, Abrams doesn’t know Star Trek, and by what I saw in Into Darkness, he doesn’t seem to be interested in knowing the subject of what he has taken on.

One panelist on the Philosophy of Trek stated that all of the movies are bad.  This person didn’t have a chance to elaborate on that statement, unfortunately, due to time constraints.  I would have loved to hear this argument fleshed out.  But I would tend to agree with this statement to a certain point; Star Trek does not belong in the movie theater.  Star Trek is a television show.  A weekly installment in which the crew of whatever ship or space station is presented with a problem, and then thinking their way out of the problem and comes up with a solution that is amenable to all parties involved.  The best of the Star Trek movies are the ones that play like an extended television episode; The Wrath of Kahn, The Search for Spock, The Undiscovered Country, and First Contact all come to mind falling into the category of extended television episodes.  Two of those films were directed by a Nick Meyer, someone who was known for his work in television before breaking into film.

The big question brought up during the panel was does JJ Abrams have a responsibility to Star Trek to be true to the legacy of Gene Roddenberry?  If I recall correctly, the panel’s opinion was yes.  As a fan, I would have to agree, but if I take a step back and look, I would have to say no.  What if one took away the title Star Trek, changed the names of the characters, and the ships?  Change the design of the sets and models.  Are JJ’s movies good space opera?  I would say yes, they are good films, but not good Star Trek.  But what about the responsibility aspect of the question?  As a film maker, JJ’s responsibility is to make a film that will fill seats and make as money as can possibly be made for the studio.  Nothing more.  It is just too bad that CBS and Paramount put the Star Trek name on JJ’s films knowing that this would automatically up the ante.

Star Trek 2009 opened new possibilities for the Star Trek universe, and did a pretty good job.  The new cast worked well and gave me hope that there was a whole new universe full of stories that could be explored.  Into Darkness was a cheat.  Kahn?  Why did we go backward?  Why didn’t we get a new villain and a new story.  Star Trek isn’t about explosions, lens flair, CGI special effects, red matter, magic blood, Borg enhanced Romulan ships, genocide on a planetary scale, and especially not about attractive young women in front of the camera in their underwear.  JJ isn’t going to get the message by us arguing amongst ourselves, the dollars in his pocket speak much louder than fandom.  The only way to let him know that he has gone wrong is to not go to his films.  But in this less than ideal world, we all know that isn’t going to happen.  If it says Star Trek, we are going to go and see it like watching a train wreck that we know is going to happen, but just cannot look away.  And JJ will be laughing all the way to the bank.

My philosophy of Star Trek is this:  It is about well written stories acted out by good characters in the backdrop of space that gives me hope for the future that we, as the human race, will really be okay.  It is something that is plausible and possible.  It is something I can invest myself in.  When I watch Star Trek, I want it to be like a visit from a friend I haven’t seen for a while.

Well, there it is…

QaplaH’!