David Thompson rips the space-time continuum a new one and pushes Jeff Greenwald in:
I saw. I notice the reviewer equates “progressive politics†with “brainsâ€. Thing is, the “progressive†moralising was one of the worst things about Trek, especially in its later iterations. Those “complicated ethical conundrums†were usually heavy-handed, slightly ludicrous and, more importantly, undramatic. Like the mysterious absence of money – which in 40-odd years was somehow never explained – the Conspicuous Moral Agonising was much harder to swallow than warp drive or the Spatial Anomaly Of The Week. And much of what was presented as “progressive†was just cloying, implausible or, quite often, reprehensible.
For instance, there’s that damn Voyager pilot. In order to patronise a species she knows almost nothing about, Janeway deliberately strands her own crew on the far side of the galaxy, where they will presumably die alone, never seeing Earth and their families again. This is presented as something noble and heroic, rather than fatuous and immoral. Or the TNG episode “I, Borg,†in which Picard has a precious opportunity to destroy the most relentless threat to humanity; yet he spares the mortal enemy of countless civilisations in order to feel virtuous and superior. The narcissism is grandiose, yet once again it’s portrayed as virtuous and “progressiveâ€.
It’s perhaps significant that one of Star Trek’s most popular and acclaimed episodes – DS9’s “In the Pale Moonlight†– punctures the usual glib moralising with a rare dose of harsh ethical realism. The final exchange between Sisko and Garak is excellent and pokes a sizeable hole in the moral pretensions of the franchise.
Treacher had some fun on Twitter last night:
# Nice try, dummy! Kirk’s shirt was red. It was always red. What are you, blind? #annoyatrekkieabout 4 hours ago from web
# James P. Kirk was pretty cool, but everybody knows that the late William Shatnor’s finest role was host of Rescue 911. #annoyatrekkieabout 4 hours ago from web
# I can’t wait to see the new Star Track movie! I like the new guy playing Luke Skywalker. “Beam me out, Scooter!” #annoyatrekkieabout 5 hours ago from web
Warner Todd Huston has more Newsweek idiocy from Stardate Stupid.
Yes, but does the new movie have an actress who can top Seven of Nine?
Absolutely correct. The acknowledged best movie of them all, to date, was The Wrath of Khan which had very little moralizing and lots of let’s just kill the bad guy.
The most disgusting, sickeningly immoral Star Trek episode was “Dear Doctor”, on Enterprise. Years later, I’m still at a loss for words. It was vile.
Wait – what? I thought she was called Six of Nine.
serr8d is correct. Of course, my husband referred to her as “10 of 10.”
i’m just pleased this trek movie looks like i’m gonna enjoy it a lot. that’s (despite our little country generally sucking at the moment) two nice things to be happy for today. the other being that i don’t have a raging hang-over. now, let the gaming gods grace me with some nice phat lewts on my morning dungeon dive and this day will be made of awesome and man thighs. =D
I’d just like to know how you get one of them agonizer booths.(Nancy Pelosi knew about those, too.)
So far as tough ethical questions in Star Trek go, my favorite was The City On The Edge Of Forever. In order for civilization to survive, the obstructionist peacenik has to die. Written by Harlan Ellison, hissownself.
Man thighs? Louchette, you’re not a fan of Kickette, by any chance? My wife’s appreciation of metric football has increased exponentially since she discovered that site.
# Transtwitter malfunction! LOL! Jokes so old they predate TOS = ROFLMTACHYONSO! !!! ! !! BJ HOOKOR
nope squid. not much of a sports fan, actually. i like baseball a lot. (let’s go mets!) and i used to like basketball a lot more before the coming of the ghetto long shorts, which make me cry. but my man thighs thing is mostly to do with japanese rock star dudes in tight snakeskin pants and tiny leather shorts. >_>
Another Star Trek movie? Bleh.
I just found out that they’re re-making Red Dawn, this time with the Chinese invading! Hopefully they won’t be infiltrating from container ships.
WOLVERINES!!!
Actually, the whole not needing money was easy to explain; I just never figured out why they needed exploration. You have a device that can duplicate perfectly anything it has scanned once as long as it has power. These people would only need explorers until they had run out of the desire for something new. Otherwise, push the button: waygu beef, Saurian brandy, green Orion slave girls appear before your jaded eyes… and can be whisked away just as easily when you get tired of them. What’s left for motivation?
SDN, that argument breaks down, because DS9 clearly had money, economics, and gambling. Gold-pressed latinum, anyone?
I always figured that the reason that TOS didn’t mention money was because they were on a mission and really didn’t hit port or places they knew very often. There was really no good excuse in TNG, because they were wandering around places they already knew and had agreements and treaties with, by and large. The no-money situation is really ridiculous then. I mean, it makes sense not to have money as a daily consideration when you’re out at sea (TOS), but not when you’re in Singapore (TNG).
That is why DS9 is vastly superior to TNG.
Or the TNG episode “I, Borg,†in which Picard has a precious opportunity to destroy the most relentless threat to humanity; yet he spares the mortal enemy of countless civilisations in order to feel virtuous and superior. The narcissism is grandiose, yet once again it’s portrayed as virtuous and “progressiveâ€.
Fortunately, that decision comes back and bites them all hard in the anatomy, as the now rogue Borg individuals turn murderous and even craftier, now that they can hunt as wolves. Picard got a good dressing-down from an admiral, who ripped him a new one for not destroying a mortal enemy when he had the clear chance.
I hate “I, Borg.” I know it was all about dehumanization of the enemy, which is a valid point, but they should have ended it with the awful decision to go ahead with the virus, because the Borg are just that dangerous, even though Hugh was as cute as a button.
What’s retarded about “dehumanizing” the Borg is that they are already and intentionally de-humanized. It’s like have an attack of nerves about reformatting your harddrive.
Actually, in Season 2 of TNG, in that episode where they revive three cryogenically frozen people from the 21st century, the doctor (not Crusher) proudly informs the financier that his immense fortune is NOT awaiting him on earth, as they’ve evolved past the need for money.
It would also appear on DS9 that latinum was not of interest to the Federation types, but the various denizens of the station, especially the Ferengi, were all over it.
It’s like have an attack of nerves about reformatting your harddrive.
ROTFL! You win the thread!
I don’t think she merited much more than an 8, but Trekkies doubtless have lower standards.
[…] Dan Collins and David Thompson have more about that eye-rolling bad review of Star Trek that I… well, rolled my eyes over. David went on to mention “In the Pale Moonlight” of Star Trek: DS9; the clip that he’s thinking of is good enough that I’m reproducing it below. It’s no accident that this is one of the most memorable events from the series. Or that it’s also one of the most contrary-to-stereotypical ones, either. […]
Ok, Seven-of-Nine, Deanna Troi and Dr. Crusher, please report to the Captain’s private holodeck…
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Money
Ella, I understand they had a plot device called money; my argument is that it’s roughly as necessary as scuba gear for fish given the tech level shown.
Oh, and where’s Dr. Crusher?
“On top of old Baldy….”
[…] THAT’S GOTTA HURT: “David Thompson rips the space-time continuum a new one and pushes Jeff Greenwald in” […]
How about in DS9 when the Irish guy Miles’s asian wife becomes like 12 years old or so, due to some time travel or something. Then it’s bed time and he’s trying to decide what to do. Seems like it was playing to the wrong crowd, that one.
CONFIRMED: Oroya PERÜ in the most polluted city of the world
Dr. Godofredo Arauzo
Blacksmith Institute visited the Oroya city in May 2008. The observations about the achievements in the pollution by this metallurgic complex, according to statements of The Inter American Association for the Defense of the Environment (AIDA) by its name in Spanish.are DECEIVING, because such statements have no basis; is a summary presented by Doe Run. AIDA sustain that the environmental quality and the fulfillment or the degree of protection for human health of the Oroya city can not be evaluated based on the quantity of investment made by the company but it should be done based on the current data about the quality of air, lead level in the blood and another environmental and health indicators, that the report does not take into account (1).
Critic that Blacksmith is based on limited datum in order to evaluate, for example, the sulphur bioxide (SO2) level in the zone. Blacksmith Institute affirms that the SO2 concentration in the Oroya city has a day time average of 5.000 ug/m3 (maximum allowed is 13 ug/m3) (CDC); but during the day that Blacksmith was in the Oroya, the SO2 concentration was 0.(1)
Finally AIDA concludes that the Blacksmith report undermines the efforts to really reach the remediation and cleaning of Oroya city (1)
AIDA express too that the quality of air in the Oroya has deteriorated seriously after the metallurgic complex came into Doe Run’s hands. Doe Run itself said that the lead concentration raised to 1.163%, the arsenic to 606% and the cadmium to 1990% (2). The concentrations of lead, cadmium, arsenic, sulphur dioxide and others have substantially increased since 1997, mainly due to the increasing of production; for example, the lead production raised 25% (3). The inhabitants of Oroya city are contaminated by a toxic cocktail (4); it is a living laboratory.
The cadmium concentration (Cd) raised dramatically since the acquisition of the complex by Doe Run. In 1999 the Cd concentration was 0.22 ug/m3 in the Syndicate (the level allowed was 0.0055 ug/m3); it surpassed by more than 40 times the frontier and did not inform anymore to the Ministry for Mines and Energy (MEM) since year 2000; in the same way, the arsenic concentration soared meaningly since 1997. There is not monitoring of particulate material smaller than 2.5 micra (PM 2.5), that are the most dangerous to human health and move easily. Ceverstav says that the parameters of air quality have been deteriorated dramatically after Doe Run have in charge of the complex (5)
The Environment Protection Agency of USA (EPA), has 1467 chemical compounds registered as the most harmful and the sulphur dioxide (SO2) is ranking number 16 in dangerousness (6). Cevestav showed based on the same figures that Doe Run sends to MEM every 3 months, that SO2 emission had incremented in more than 200% since Doe Run has in charge the complex (5).
Blacksmith affirms that the SO2 concentration in the Oroya is in average 5,000 ug/m3 (1); another author reports that this average is 934 ug/m3 (2); the level allowed is 13 ug/m3 (7). The day time concentration is higher between 8 am and 5 pm and it reaches a peak of 2,100 ppb (the allowed value is 280 ppb) (5). In August 13. 2008 the SO2 concentration arrived to an historic and horrifying limit: 27,000 ug/m3 (8-9-10) (the allowed figure is 13 ug/m3 (7).
Another heavy metals and highly toxic compounds are not analysed in the Oroya: vanadium, uranium, mercury, antimony, barium, selenium, chromium, cobalt, molybdenum, nickel, and aluminum (2). The inhabitants of the Oroya are contaminated, not only with lead but too with cadmium, arsenic, sulphur dioxide, and antimony, as well; the antimony concentration is 30 times higher than in USA (11): .
There has not been any decrease in the air concentration of lead in the last 5 years in the Oroya; in Huanchan such concentration is above 15 times the level permitted; in the months of January and February 2007 it was an excess of 245% above the allowed level in Huanchan station; in 2006 the cadmium concentration exceeded 48 times the levels allowed by the WHO (12): lead production increased by 25% (2).
Doe Run monitors only specific sources; it does not monitor the toxic agents that are emitted through the 95 small chimneys neither it monitors to the deposits of concentrateds and deposits to arsenic of Vados and Malpaso, as it does not monitor either the elimination coming from the industrial incinerator and the cock plant that was emitting 23,800 meters cubits per day of toxic gases (PAMA).
Doe Run explained that the pollution of the Oroya had diminished; one attendant person spitted that the pollution has increased; the lecturer answered: show me a document about your statement and the person replied: the best document who I count of is my contaminated body’ (4).
The SO2 emissions from the cooper Peruvian smelting are among the production sources of the highest sulphur dioxide concentration in the world and they are also among the most contaminated production sources in the world (13).
There is not concrete information about the quality control systems to the sampling and to the analysis of the monitoring procedure used by the company; we are not certain about the accuracy, confidentiality and suitable of the information reported to MEM; the figures reported to MEM could be considered as an approximation and are under valuated and they are not in electronic neither in graphic form (5).
The contamination generated in La Oroya is not only limited to this city, but it also pollutes distant areas like Concepcion, 100 km far away of Oroya: University of Missouri found lead in the blood of children with ages 0 to 6 years: 20 to 44 ug/dl in the 72.22% ; 10 to 19 ug/dl in the 16.67%; 45 to 69 ug/dl in the 8.33% and less than 10 ug/dl in the 2.78%; it means that the 97.22% of the children of the city of Conception are contaminated with more than 10 ug/dl of lead in their blood; the amount permitted was 10 ug/dl; but, at present the Academy of Paediatrics of USA says that the maximum allowed is 0 ug/dl of lead in the blood (14). In the rural zone near the Oroya, Cuchimachay there is an amount of 59.26 ppm (the allowed level being 3 ppm) of cadmium in the soil; there is no vegetal cap in this place (15).
The metallurgic complex of Oroya has 37 liquid flows that go to the Mantaro river; Doe Run monitors only 12. The rules of the Peruvian state about monitoring of the quality of water in the mining works state that all the liquid discharges that go to surface waters must be constantly monitored (5-16).
The 2006, 26 July Doe Run obtained the ISO 14001:2004 certificate (17) and the 2008, 11 March was removed because the company did not fulfull the Peruvian environmental laws, and did not have appropriate measures for preventing the pollution (18).
Doe Run the 2007 commited 4 heavy and 1 simple violence environment that the Peruvian state had to put to Doe Run a fine to $ 724,500 (The Comercio 08. 20-12)
In Huancayo, 120 km far away from La Oroya there is jurisprudence. In 1942 the Judiciary Power orders to the Cerro de Pasco Copper Corporation, owner of Oroya at that time, to pay a compensation of $ 200,000 to Bazo Velarde, because of the harms caused to the Jatunhuasi Livestock, by the smokes of the Oroya (19).
The Judiciary Power (20), the Constitutional Court (21) and the Inter American Commission for Human Rights (CIDH, for its name in Spanish) (22), demanded that the Peruvian state to be aware about the health of the inhabitants of Oroya..
Oroya pollutes the surface and deep waters, the soil, the air, and generates acid rain (23), factors that cause damages to human and animal health, the ecosystems and biodiversity, in a way greatly irreversible. The smokes of the Oroya have affected 700,000 hectares around the Oroya (2-24).
Doe Run will reduce its contamination in two circumstances: when it uses up to date technology as put in practice in Herculeanum, or when it reduces the refining tons. The Trial plant, in Canada, decreased in 25% the lead concentration in the children blood, and reduced the concentration of heavy metals in the air in more than 75%, by the use of clean technology; in the Paso when the foundry was closed, the lead concentration in the air decreased immediately and the lead concentration in the children’s blood plummeted by more than 75%; in Torreón Mexico, the government ordered to refine only a 50%, and similar effects were obtained (5). The damages must be paid by Doe Run according to the world consensus THE THAT POLLUTE PAY, set in practice in Europe since 1972 (25); the way as it does in Herculaneum can reply these actions in Oroya city (2-27).
.The 2008 August 13 Oroya city has been confirmed as the most polluted city to the world. This day the SO2 concentration in air in the Oroya reached an historical and horrifying level: as journal The Comercio said (8); it arrive 27,000 ug/m3; while the allowed level was 13 ug/m3 (7) and the device that measured the concentration got to its maximum limit probably if the device had had more space in its scale that figure would have been higher (8-9-10), but when Blacksmith was visiting the Oroya the SO2 concentration in air was 0 (zero) (1). Some other figures confirm that Oroya is the most polluted city on the earth: according the report Mantaro Revive 2007: in the Ancienty Oroya has a soil concentration of 4713 ppm of arsenic (As) while the allowed amount is 12 ppm, and the cadmium (Cd) has 193.87 ppm while the permitted amount is 14 ppm, according to the Canadian Environmental Quality Guidelines (28).