#tng time's arrow part 2

[andyoullhearitagain]

Top Ten Least Bad Outfits in TNG

I'm gonna be honest and say that the non-uniform outfits in TNG are not my favorite costume design in the world, but there are some looks that stick with me:

10. That Girl Who Kissed Data That One Time's Outfit:

I can never decide if I like this look or I think it's ugly, but I love the pants and tall boots combo. Her blouse is bad and the bouclé jacket is both too heavy and too fussy for this outfit, but I love the belt and suspenders combo, and the chevron embossing on the suspenders. This costume and all the others except #9 is a Robert Blackman design.

9. This Jumpsuit On That Girl From "The Dauphin":

This is the only William Ware Theiss design on this list. I love his TOS stuff but most of his TNG designs leave me cold 🤷‍♀️. But I love this is extremely 80s jumpsuit. Love the pretty drape, love the ruching on the sleeves, love the harem pants silhouette. Only note is that the whole bodice should be a structured corset bodice instead of the kind of odd structured panel it has now.

8. Picard's Shorty Pyjama Set:

TNG is absolutely full of the strangest pyjama choices you can imagine and Picard is no exception but I love this bold look. Would kill for this pyjama set. He also takes a work zoom wearing this one time which is insane.

7. Data's 1890's Looks But Specifically This One With The Shirtsleeves And The Blue Shirt:

The best part of "Time's Arrow" is that Data isn't a fish out of water in the 1890s, he's absolutely killing it, and I love that the only real Casual Data look we get is this one. I prefer the blue shirt to the pink because Data should really wear more blue, it's a nice contrast with yellow. Please also note his emerald watch fob, which was 0% necessary to blend in, he's just having fun with it.

6. 12 Year Old Keiko's Linen Overalls:

The paperbag waist! The bow! The little bows at the shirt cuffs! I can understand why she replicated a miniature copy of this outfit.

5. Beverly and Guinan's Dixon Hill Holodeck Costumes:

I'm counting these as one because they're essentially the same design in different color pallets but what color paletts! Bev is pulling off the very difficult pink+red+red hair and the mint green on Guinan is 🤌. I particularly love how Guinan's hat is so 1940s yet also echos the silhouette of her usual costume.

4. Deanna's Teal Dress:

Like all of you I prefer Deanna in the uniform, but this dress slays, ok? The space age asymmetrical neckline. The drop waist. The structured bodice. The slit almost all the way to the hip. And of course the matching tights and shoes CANNOT BE BEATEN. Also one time I saw a dude on a Star Trek forum call this a "ballgown" which baffles me to this day, this is clearly a slightly fancy day dress.

3. Picard's 1890s Look:

You'd think Picard would go full posh in the 1890s but instead he gives us this working-class Shakespearean director look and he 👏 looks 👏 incredible 👏. Way to mix textures, Jean-Luc.

2. Lore's Turtleneck and Giant Vest:

You and I know that Lore stole these clothes from the Pakleds because we pay a lot of attention to Star Trek costumes, but to a normal viewer Lore shows up and this is just his outfit!! It's giving, like, space-age goblincore and it's incredible. I want wear this oufit every day. I want to make a little doll Lore wearing this outfit to express my love for it. It's only not #1 because the pants are too orange and a strange weave.

Deanna's Ancient West Holodeck Outfit:

Deanna!!! The pants! The hat! The calico! She looks 10/10 hot in this outfit. For sure the superior version of this is before she gives her neckerchief to Worf (it really benefits from that cool highlight) but either way this is the best anyone's ever looked on that holodeck.

#star trek tng #star trek next gen #deanna troi #jean luc picard #data soong #beverly crusher #guinan #lore soong #keiko o'brien #tng #yelling about costume design

[quasi-normalcy]

#star trek the next generation #jean luc picard #will riker #data #deanna troi #geordi la forge #worf #beverly crusher #tasha yar #wesley crusher

[staringdownabarrel]

I've seen a couple of posts where people are getting caught up on the time travel aspects of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow because they aren't really sure how it's meant to work. This is an aspect of Picard's second season that people got caught up on as well, so I want to go over how time travel works in Star Trek.

I think the part people are getting caught up on is that time travel in Star Trek is largely based on two rules, but neither of them are explicitly stated in canon. They've both largely gone unstated.

Rule 1: Time travel doesn't make a difference unless it causes a difference

What this means is that just the act of going back in time isn't enough to cause huge changes in the timeline. This isn't the kind of franchise where you can go back in time and move a leaf and suddenly cause all of history to drastically change. It's only if you actively go out of your way to change things--e.g., killing one historical figure or saving another--that it makes a difference.

This is the reason why in The Voyage Home, when Kirk and co. go back and save the whales, they're not presented with this drastically changed Federation when they get back to the 23rd century. Bringing two whales and a marine biologist to the future isn't enough to cause drastic changes to the timeline. It's not enough of a difference to make a difference, essentially.

It's also why Sisko was able to take the place of Gabriel Bell in DS9's Past Tense two-parter without it causing issues down the line. While Bell not being there and doing what he did cause a ripple effect, as long as someone was there to fill that role, things would all go according to plan. Sisko playing the part of Gabriel Bell during the Bell riots kept his timeline intact because while it was a difference, it also wasn't enough of a difference to make a difference.

The third example of time travel by itself not causing a difference is something like TNG's Time's Arrow two-parter, where just the TNG crew going back to the nineteenth century isn't enough to cause ripples down the line. It just means they're there.

Rule 2: When it does make a difference, it overwrites everything that happens afterwards

The best example of this rule in practice is Voyager's Year of Hell two-parter. Annorax's temporal weapon ship is built to be able to cause changes in the timeline that ripple out and change everything afterwards. He's also obsessed with restoring the timeline to what he considers its proper course, and that's an ongoing thing during the story.

There's other examples of this rule in practice, too. The other obvious example of this is TOS's The City on the Edge of Forever, where if Edith Keeler survives, the Nazis win World War II and cause the Federation to never exist. In DS9's Past Tense, if the Bell riots don't happen, the Federation never exists. In VOY's Endgame, Admiral Janeway going back in time causes Voyager to be able to get back to the Alpha Quadrant years earlier than it had in her timeline.

This doesn't mean that the timeline splits off and causes a new universe to form. It means that everything that happens after the significant change in the timeline, everything after that change is different.

This is why Guinan didn't remember Picard during the 21st century scenes in Picard's second season. Because the timeline had been changed so that the Federation didn't exist, it'd also been changed so that he probably hadn't been to the nineteenth century in this version of the timeline. There wasn't an evil Federation version of Time's Arrow in this timeline essentially, so there was no reason for Guinan to have met Picard because from her perspective, they hadn't.

This is also one of the reasons why the 2009 movie tends to be such a contentious thing in some circles. Its presentation of time travel causing a change in the timeline so bad that it causes it split off and create a new universe isn't really in line with how time travel has traditionally been presented in the franchise. The flow on effect of this is while the writing team for the Kelvinverse films are pretty adamant that Enterprise as shown is canon to both the Prime universe and the Kelvinverse, there are fans who don't really buy into that idea.

Keep in mind that during First Contact, when the Enterprise-E is chasing the Borg sphere through the temporal vortex, nobody's saying, "Oh, we're in a new universe now." What they do say is that the Borg assimilating the Earth in the past is a major difference and therefore needs to be prevented.

That's in direct contrast to an episode like TNG's Parallels, where when Worf goes to each new universe, they're able to run some tests on him and find he's not meant to be in that universe. Stuff like that wouldn't work if there wasn't a difference between going to a different universe and traveling in time.

So the opening scene of the 2009 movie, where the Narada came in and destroyed the Kelvin, is really better explained by one of two options. One is that this was a different kind of time travel that hasn't been expanded upon since or even replicated in canon that caused the new timeline to split into a new universe, or the Kelvinverse was always a separate universe. Either would be fine, in my opinion.

How this is all relevant to Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is that this episode is another example of how a change in the past was enough of a difference to make a difference. While there is room for debate on where the line is for what constitutes enough of a difference, this episode clearly framed this set of changes as enough. This is a pretty straight example of how time travel is supposed to work in Star Trek.

#star trek #star trek strange new worlds #star trek snw #strange new worlds #snw #spoilers #rant

[thegeminisage]

IT'S. sigh. tng update time. monday we did "the next phase" and "the inner light" and last night we did "time's arrow" parts 1 & 2. for once i actually am writing this the next afternoon lol

the next phase:

i LOOOOVED this one. wow <3 for so long i have been saying THOLIAN WEB and it's NEVER tholian web but THIS TIME IT WAS!!! i kind of wish it had been riker and worf but it HAD to be geordi because of data sorta kinda tracking him down

anyway i do love ro so much so i can't be too unhappy to have gotten her, and it's so nice to see geordi get to do things that arent be creepy with a woman...im really glad they didn't try to do any ro/geordi romance, they were just buds in a situation and they were thrilled to wiggle their way out of it

ro's thots on the afterlife were actually really poignant. it seemed stupid at first, when geordi knew and she knew that they weren't dead, but by the end it really was a nice subtle touch to have her acknowledge that the certainty of her beliefs can't compare to the vastness of the unknown, or the amount of things she doesn't and may never know

absolute BALLER of a time watching the enterprise plan these guys funerals. data doing geordi's was SO sweet because he loves him!!!!! he loves him!!!!!!!!!!!! meanwhile you get to hoot and holler over riker, having fucked ro while they were all amnesia'd, absolutely wracking his brains over something appropriate to say at her funeral.........and then he just plays his trombone instead and she invisibly shoots him in the head. iconique.

the invisible romulan really got me...i THOUGHT that extra was doing a bad job of looking like he wasn't listening to geordi and ro AND THEN HE GOT UP AND WALKED AFTER THEM. extremely cool moment. it was fucking stupid that he tried to shoot them instead of just work with them but it did lead to a cool and terrifying moment where they SPACED HIM??? by virtue of him simply phasing through the wall of the ship. i would have been so terrified of windows after that. like geordi just straight up killed that guy

also, fight scene while the romantic couple blissfully has their date. incredible.

some logistics questions: if they were alive why couldn't deanna feel their emotions? also, if they phase through stuff why do they stick to floors? more questions than answers...

the inner light

you know, this was good actually. i'll admit i was kind of bored at times during this episode, because i don't super care about picard As A Character, so all his tender moments with his wife and family were like eeehh. who cares. and since i like the side characters more the episode that pretty much didn't have them is a bit of a hard sell

THAT SAID. conceptually this popped off. it reminds me of the buffy episode where she's in the nut house or the r*ddit lamp story which hilariously references the star trek episode in the edit. the changes like the tree and the dead plants on their house and the skill involved in picard's flute playing (i wonder if sir patrick stewart can actually play...) were cool to track even if some of the interpersonal moments fell flat, and i REALLY like the actress who played his daughter, i think she did a great job

i normally hate old person makeup but picard's actually looked pretty good until the very end stage lol

one thing i wished for in the end was a little more emotion or even some fallout at all?? which i feel like i say about tng all the time, and i KNOW tos was also guilty of this sometimes, but some tng episodes spend AGES on the scifi technobabble (which is good only if it serves the plot OR adds to the scifi concept presented, and it often does neither) and then feel like emotionally they need another 5 or 10 minutes at the end and it drives me nuts. like, ik they don't cry in this show but he didn't even cry. deanna didn't come in and tell him those memories and that time were still real to him and it was okay to be fucked up about them. no one asked him how long he held onto the memory of his other life before he gave in completely and became kamin. we didn't even get any lines about like "i'll contact starfleet and do everything in my power to help revive their culture" or whatever. just flute scene (which was good!) and then we're done. sigh.

also, i really hate whatever riker has going on with picard. like he's so weirdly overprotective and it doesn't even speak to affection, they way it would with say deanna or worf or one of his other creew mates, it feels infantilizing (making picard seem even LESS competent and compelling than he already does), smothering, and, because it's ONLY with picard and ONLY riker that does this, it doesn't even feel like poignant platonic love-and-duty mixing like in the tos movies where each and every one of kirk's crew is willing to commit crimes and risk their lives to go after spock's body, just because that's how loyalty works. it's so awkward and uncomfortable, i hate it. like i always say tng doesn't have enough displays of affection and then the one time they regularly do have riker displaying concern for another character it's whatever he's doing with picard. like picard is his frail old man grandpa and riker's trying to keep him from wandering off with the car keys. sigh again.

time's arrow:

a massive disappointment. or maybe i can't say disappointment if my hopes weren't high to begin with. i remember reading the summary and thinking "cool, a data episode!" but also "19th century earth? yeesh, sounds holodeck-y," and i was right on both counts.

again it's a problem that we did the s5 finale and then s6 opening in a single night, because it made it feel MUCH longer, and it's also impossible for me to differentiate ebtween the two episodes now. hopefully this is the last time it will work out this way, but generally speaking, aside from the borg episodes, all of tng's two-parters (there may be an exception i'm forgetting) have been uh. not great.

star of this show: DATA'S HEAD. i remember being so disappointed we didn't get to see it in that episode where riker had to carry it around BEING SEEING IT WAS HORRIFIC. i can't believe they put that on television!!!

the emotion stakes of data's impending death were good. i wish they'd mattered! geordi trying to fix him could have had a little more desperation, a little more "i'll cheat fate itself for my friend if i have to." actually the person who showed the most worry WAS picard, and while this was nice, it made no sense that he allowed data to go down to the planet regardless of it, and then...also advocated that they forget data and focus on their mission, even against RIKER'S request to keep looking for him. riker showed concern for someone other than picard and picard was like yeah um whatever. today in picard crimes: advocating for leaving one of his guys behind. sorry to keep comparing him to kirk but EVERY time kirk lost a guy, you felt it. you saw HIM feel it. not even a guy he was close to like spock, even just a little red shirt, you knew he was thinking of the fucking letters he'd have to write to their families, you know? meanwhile picard is just like "um what concern? that was 20 minutes ago, we have scifi stuff to do now."

19th century earth sucked. it DID feel holodeck-y and was only marginally better because at least the stakes here were real, poorly illustrated as they were. like you know data's not gonna die, but instead of focusing on the enemies this episode (and that tall lady genuinely was a bit spooky...too bad she had no lines) we farted around with the most annoying portrayal of mark twain i have EVER seen in my life. we also got cool lines such as beverly saying "cholera wasn't THAT infectious" and the native american guy at the poker table grunting "pale face" at data. super.

guinan was a GREAT change of pace, but we had a golden opportunity to get more backstory on her and got absolutely none of it. that one line about her father intrigued me so much - is this before the borg ate her planet? does she regret not reconciling with him? did he die in that attack? why is she at odds with him? was this why she wasn't at home when they ate her planet? imagine if we had gotten some of it and picard had been tempted to save her whole planet by urging them to evacuate, or at least telling her to spend time with her loved ones while she could...but instead we had to focus on mark twain being ~quirky and randumb XD~

in the end, the consequences of data's head spending 500 years underground were...nothing. except that picard got to leave himself a back to the future 3 message not to shoot the aliens i guess

SPEAKING OF THE ALIENS. did he just WIPE OUT their entire species without a single fucking word breathed about the prime directive? genuinely the aliens who were eating people were cool and spooky. i'd have liked to see more of them and we barely knew what they were and what their purpose was. so much for working it out nonviolently. picard made half an attempt and the lady alien died and he shrugged and was like oh well! genocide it is. add to this to the list of problematic picard stances, including advocation for euthanasia of the disabled, conversation therapy, human trafficking, animal testing, and leaving your guys behind to die. THEY HAVE GOT TO STOP MAKING HIM LIKE THIS. this is killing me. i'm trying my very very best to like him and i hate his ass!!

next time: i, alone, am doing "realm of fear" which i am told is a barclay episode and "man of the people" which seems rapey. i am in total dread. tng is fantastic every once in a great great while, but most of the time i cannot wait for it to be over.

#personal #star trek blogging #tng lb

[tailsrevane]

[tv review] 5x26 & 6x01 tng "time's arrow" (1992)

5x26 "time’s arrow, part 1"

this is pretty easily the most underwhelming season finale since the first season’s, but it’s still a perfectly serviceable episode. time travel stuff is always fun, and i really like this two-parter’s take on mark twain even though i have no earthly idea how accurate it is. data as a fish out of water in 19th century san francisco is delightful, and guinan having a large role is pretty much always going to be welcome.

this isn’t “the best of both worlds,” or even “redemption,” but it’s still not half-bad. and it rounds out what’s probably tng’s best season.

6x01 "time’s arrow, part 2"

kinda just more of the same from the previous episode, assuming you’ve read my review of season 5.

this could’ve used a bit more fish out of water-type stuff for the rest of the crew that joined data in 19th century san francisco. i almost wonder if they had that in mind when they sent so many characters back in time at the end of the season finale but just didn’t end up capitalizing on it when they wrote part 2. it just seems silly that most of the show’s major characters went back to the past and didn’t really end up having much to do there? but oh well.

like i said in my review of part 1, this isn’t a bad episode by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a bit underwhelming as a season finale/season premiere wraparound two-parter. b-rank

#star trek #star trek: the next generation #star trek tng #tng #tv review #tv #reviews

[bevsdee]

Hello! How about #1, 2, 6, & 14 for the Star Trek ask game?

Also, I saw you just started watching The X-Files. I absolutely LOVE TXF, so if you ever want to gush with someone about it, feel free to DM or send me an ask! And of course, the same applies to Star Trek gushing, as well 😊

tysm! sorry it took a while, I couldn't find the words for what I was trying to say :(

‎‎

01. You find a time portal that can bring you to a timeline of your choice and you get to be part of your favorite Star Fleet crew. Which one would it be? What rank and/or station would you have? Why?

definitely biased but I'd have to say Picard's enterprise (tng is the first trek I watched). I'd love to be some kind of science and/or medical officer, it seems pretty cool and that sort of stuff is really interesting (also working with beverly would be fun)

I'd definitely be an ensign because I'm really not qualified lmao

‎‎

02. Your timing seems perfect! After successfully entering the time portal and thus a new dimension, you immediately recognize the specific star date. You get to play a part in one of your favorite episodes (from any show). Tell us which one it would be! (Bonus stack of Latinum if you explain what you would’ve done during that episode—how would you have tried to save the crew or maybe made things even worse?)

I feel like Qpid would be a fun one, I love the chaos and general vibe of it

or maybe times arrow? sounds awesome, I love the costumes and honestly the entire plot is pretty cool. I would totally say something wrong though and get us caught 😬

I would love to be part of a holodeck episode, but with how tng holodeck episodes go I would totally press the wrong button and cause a bit more of a crisis

‎‎

06. Uh oh! You woke up in a strange place where a man tells you he’s from something called Section 31. Now he’s threatening to make you disappear if you don’t immediately state your favorite Star Trek one-liner! You can only choose one! Easy right? Right…?

hmm, probably "sir, I protest. I am not a merry man!"

other contenders: the universe is a spheroid region, 705 meters in diameter/this is no time to be arguing about time! we don't! have! the time!/vamoose, ya lil varmint

#for number 14 i think tng's rascals is pretty good #but i already answered that so i didnt put it in the post #sorry #oh! thank you for the dm offer :) #i might just have to take you up on that haha #asks game #star trek #adarkroomandawallflower #vell says things

[filmjunky-99]

s t a r t r e k t h e n e x t g e n e r a t i o n created by gene roddenberry Time’s Arrow, Part II [s6ep1]

#star trek #star trek the next generation #the next generation #gene roddenberry #tng season 6 #the next generation season 6 #tng time's arrow #time's arrow #tng time's arrow part 2 #time's arrow part 2 #lot: st tng season 6 ep 1/26 (ep 127/178) #patrick stewart #brent spiner #marina sirtis #gates mcfadden #whoopi goldberg #Jerry Hardin #jean luc picard #data #deanna troi #beverly crusher #guinan #Samuel Clemens

[annieblackburns]

#star trek #trekedit #deanna troi #geordi la forge #tng #edits #tngedit

[thecraggus]

Wakey! Wakey! It’s Craggus’ Trek Trek Phase II Omnibus – Vol.18 Here's your weekly Omnibus Edition of Craggus' Trek Trek Phase II covering Season 5 episode 21 to Season 6 episode 1:

#CraggusTrekTrekPhaseII #I Borg Review #Imaginary Friend Review #Instagram #Star Trek #Star Trek The Next Generation Episode Reviews #Star Trek: The Next Generation #The Inner Light Review #The Next Phase Review #The Perfect Mate Review #Time&039;s Arrow Part 1 Review #Time&039;s Arrow Part 2 Review #TNG #TV Reviews

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 14 first part

(RR The Untamed Masterpost) (Canary’s Pinboard - more Masterposts) 

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Murder Turtle, Continued

Lan Wangji wakes up after a good night's sleep leaning against a rock wall, to find that his leg is no longer splinted, and his perfectly clean and unbloody headband has been put back on his head while he was sleeping.

Leaving aside the "not waking up" part of things, how, exactly, did Wei Wuxian get his headband on without mussing his hair? Did he bring a crochet hook?

Wei Wuxian gives him a sitrep and then they cozy up and have an extended conversation about the nature and history of the Tortoise of Slaughter. Wei Wuxian is interested in everything Lan Wangji has to say, and Lan Wangji talks a lot more than usual; they are completely on the same wavelength here and are enjoying swapping obscure knowledge.

Lan Wangji: My lacerated leg and I are actually super aware that it has big teeth, but thanks for the reminder.

In the course of the conversation, Wei Wuxian mentions his plan to 1. sneak into the tortoise's shell and 2. drive it out of its shell so they can attack it. 

OP did a little tortoise research and learned that the only species of turtle that can leave its shell is the Koopa Troopa.

Good news for Wei Wuxian: If you jump on its shell in the right spot, you can rack up a pile of extra lives.

Does that make the Tortoise of Slaughter a giant Koopa Troopa? Perhaps...the king of the Koopa Troopas?

I'm gonna say yes.

(More after the cut)

Let’s Go Killing

Wei Wuxian is exhilarated by the idea of fighting a giant dangerous monster with Lan Wangji. Some day Wei Wuxian will found the Nike clan, because his motto is definitely "Just do it." 

It's sweet how, in his romantic notions about chivalry and Lan Wangji, he's completely elided the original reason they were (sort of) told to venture together. 

Wei Wuxian: I'm still on the "find the Yin Iron" quest; I'm just skipping the "suppress it" part.  

Wei Wuxian weighs up their chances against Bowser and tells Lan Wangji that even if they die, it will be badass to be killed by a famous monster, so they won't have to feel embarrassed.

This is the exact moment that Lan Wangji's feelings for Wei Wuxian go from "smitten" to "gagging for it."

Lan Wangji: as soon as we get out of here I'm going to borrow a whole lot of books from Nie Huaisang

The boys come up with a plan that involves a rather long montage of collecting archery equipment and deconstructing it. This potentially-dull montage is fun to watch because they are both very, very good looking.

Artists who want to draw Wang Yibo as an elven archer, this is your episode.

Now we suddenly have, with zero explanation, telepathy. Ok, sure. It seems to work kind of like a phone conversation, in which they say specific things to each other, rather than like Cherry Magic telepathy where you can hear everything the other person is thinking. Or at least, neither of them is embarrassed, so I assume they are maintaining some mental privacy.

Club Ruohan

Same, Wen Chao, same

At some point there is a boring sequence at Club Ruohan.  Wen Ruohan doesn't know where Xue Yang is, but really wants his hunk of Yin Iron. Wen Chao thinks that WRH's 3 pieces of Yin Iron should be able to beat Xue Yang's 1 piece, but apparently he is dumb and that is not how math works. O...kay? OP does not understand this either but whatever, Wen Ruohan is boring, moving on. This scene is really just here to make us think about Yin Iron before Wei Wuxian jumps into Bowser's shell.

Bigger On The Inside

So then Wei Wuxian climbs into Bowser's shell, which is, to quote The 12th Doctor, bigger on the inside.

Bowser’s shell is the approximate size of my entire house. It is also bathed in a hellish pure red photo filter, which OP has done her best to remove for these gifs, because it gives me eye strain and it obscures Xiao Zhan's hotness.

Camera Operator: What did I do? 

Wei Wuxian wanders around inside, finding random corpses encased in slime cocoons. Tortoise, spider, xenomorph, whatever. There are also random curtain things hanging all over, and then at one point Wei Wuxian stares into the face of a corpse, and then does a jump scare response at the camera operator even though nothing particular happened. 

I imagine the corpse was supposed to open its eyes and say "killl meeee" but it got censored. He also makes about 8 other faces at the camera operator, so we get that the inside of this TARDIS-like tortoise shell (must...resist...temptation...to...say...TORDIS) is yucky.

Lan Wangji waits outside listening to Wei Wuxian telepathically complain about the smell.  He is anxiously clenching a bundle of string and an arrow, and wishing he could clench Wei Wuxian Bichen instead.

Serendipitous Yin Iron

Wei Wuxian backs his way through the TORDIS until his butt bumps into a sword that is steaming with resentful energy. That's right: Wei Wuxian is about to pull a piece of Yin Iron almost literally out of his ass.

He grabs it and is overwhelmed by its screaming resentful energy and has to let it go again.

So this is what a vibrator with 4 batteries feels like

When Bowser comes looking for him, however, he quickly decides to go for it, grabbing the sword and singing "I've Got the Power (Gonna Make You Sweat)"

Wei Wuxian plunges the sword into Bowser's lower jaw, and Bowser pulls his entire head out of his shell with Wei Wuxian attached, while leaving the rest of his body and all rational laws of physics inside the shell.

Gamera Versus the Cultivators

What follows is one of the more ridiculous action sequences in the history of the world, and I say that as someone who likes Mothra movies. 

Wei Wuxian hovers in a perfect horizontal plank while “hanging from” the sword, which is held well below the level of his torso. While Bowser spins him around. For much of the time, Bowser keeps his head still and just waves his neck around.

Lan Wangji and the camera operator do everything they possibly can to make "guy pulls on string" look interesting. 

Everybody tries really, really hard and the actors are great at pretending something is there when it isn't, but this whole sequence is just horribly conceived.

What works well, though, is the Yin energy and Wei Wuxian's wrangling of it. He starts off being frightened and overwhelmed, and looking like it's too much for him; I dont' know if they made his face puffy on purpose or if that's just what happens when you spend days hanging from the ceiling fighting an imaginary monster. But he looks slack and unwell as he grapples with the iron sword.

Which makes this moment, when he gets control of it, deliciously creepy. He uses the power of the Yin Iron to stick a bunch of pokey things into Bowser's neck.

Lan Wangji has seen him struggling and now sees him...not struggling. Which scares the piss out of him, and he moves to finish the fight as quickly as possible, slicing up his hand and breaking the string. Combined with the pokey things, this does the trick and Bowser dies while Wei Wuxian faints and falls into the water.

Do the Whumpty Whump

Lan Wangji rescues him and wakes him up, and Wei Wuxian clutches the Yin Iron sword and tells Lan Wangji that he was knocked out by the screaming of disembodied voices.

This certainly sounds like a strange and dangerous phenomenon, so Lan Wangji carefully asks him to explain everything.

Ha ha ha j/k. Lan Wangji asks him exactly nothing about the strange sword or the black smoke or his weird evil smile or his new power over pointy objects. Lan Wangji appears to have a Star Trek: TNG level of unconcern about strange phenomena happening directly under his nose. But in fact he has noticed what's up, which is why he will be instantly distressed when he sees Wei Wuxian's flute moves at the Wen Corporate Headquarters.

Wei Wuxian has a fever (stay positive test negative) and comments on Lan Wangji's being so nice to him.

Wei Wuxian: I could never have imagined Lan Er Gongzi acting this concerned about me. Lan Wangji: what else have you never imagined me doing, while we're on the subject? 

Lan Wangji transfers a stream of spiritual energy to him. Lan Wangji has so much spiritual power he can be a battery for Wei Wuxian without breaking a sweat or, like, noticing whether Wei Wuxian has a golden core or not, for that matter.

Wei Wuxian basks in the nice feeling of gigajoules for a while but then decides he's bored. So then he pouts, whines, and cajoles Lan Wangji in exactly, EXACTLY the way he whines at Jiang Yanli.  I think this, while annoying of him, is a leap forward in his relationship with Lan Wangji.

He's letting his guard down and not just allowing Lan Wangji to take care of him; he's demanding to be cared for on multiple vectors, when he asks the guy who's already busy healing him to sing to him as well.

Lan Wangji obliges, singing him the song he composed about their love cultivation journey, while Wei Wuxian (or possibly Lan Wangji) (or possibly both) has a flashback to assorted sexy interactions that they've had so far.

Wei Wuxian memorizes the song perfectly on one hearing, before passing out.

Writing Prompt: Baldur’s Gate III / Untamed Crossover AU featuring elf archer Lan Wangji

I DARE YOU

Soundtrack: 1. Everybody Dance Now by C+C Music Factory 2. Paradise by the Dashboard Light by Meatloaf 

Wei Wuxian fainting tally (cumulative): 3

#fytheuntamed #the untamed #wangxian #the untamed gifs #the untamed meta #the untamed spoilers #restless rewatch the untamed #my gifs #canary3d-original #asian whump

[exlibrisfangirl]

Tagged by @angel-in-a-big-blue-box 😘

I'm going to assume we're talking exclusively about romantic ships here, so...

1. First ship:

Han/Leia (Star Wars)... a looong time ago, in a galax- well, you get the idea. It was a long time ago, way before I knew what "shipping" was (and before the internet existed).

2. First OTP:

Sorry but all of my ships are OTPs. It’s OTP as in they are the ONE TRUE PAIRING FOR EACH OTHER….obviously. <- I am not even going to change a single word of this, because Anna is 100% CORRECT (but the answer is the same as above: Han/Leia).

3. Your ship since the first minute:

Fitzsimmons (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

Henry Tilney/Catherine Morland (Northanger Abbey)

Ross/Demelza (Poldark)

Jamie/Claire (Outlander)

Anne/Gilbert (Anne of Green Gables)

Aramis/Anne (BBC The Musketeers)

Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)

Rory/Jess (Gilmore Girls)

Olicity (Arrow)

Will/Djaq (BBC Robin Hood)

Captain Swan (Once Upon a Time)

Malec (Shadowhunters)

Danielle/Henry (Ever After)

there are probably more, I'm tired

4. Current favourite ship:

Derek/Chris (Teen Wolf)

Hardison/Parker/Eliot (Leverage)

Supercorp (Supergirl)

Lois/Clark (Superman & Lois)

Penelope/Colin (Bridgerton)

Nina/Matthias (Shadow and Bone/Six of Crows)

Wayhaught (Wynonna Earp)

Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)

5. Ship that most of the fandom hates but you love:

I honestly can't think of any.

Now if you were to ask me about ships fandom loves that I... well, lol. You know what? I'm going to add that question, because goshdangit... I want to answer it!

5b. Ship that most of the fandom loves but you... don't:

Sterek (Teen Wolf)

Darklina (Shadow and Bone)

Merthur (BBC Merlin)

Arthur/Gwen (BBC Merlin)

Guy/Marian (BBC Robin Hood)

Bagginshield (The Hobbit)

Reylo (Star Wars)

Wolfstar (Harry Potter)

Bellarke (The 100)

6. You don’t even watch the show, but you ship it:

Destiel (Supernatural)

Flint/Silver (Black Sails)

Uh... no idea.

7. Ship you wish had a different storyline:

Literally every single one where one half dies and the other is forced to keep going <- BRO, SAME. There are so many of them, too. 😩

Every, single ship I ship from Babylon 5: Delenn/Sheridan, Susan/Talia, Susan/Marcus

Wash/Zoe (Firefly)

Mary/Matthew (Downton Abbey) <- that messed me up so badly I stopped watching, lol

Queliot (The Magicians)

Hotspur/Kate (Henry IV Part I, The Hollow Crown)

Olicity (Arrow)

Jon/Ygritte (Game of Thrones)

I know there are more, but my brain is just laughing at me now...

Then there are the ships where BOTH DIE:

Remus/Tonks (Harry Potter)

[Redacted because I realized it would be a major spoiler for one of my mutuals who is currently watching this series for the first time. *waves* You're welcome!]

Aaand then there's the ship where one of them permanently turns into a TREE:

Eretria/Amberle (The Shannara Chronicles)

Oh, and the one where Half Number 1 spends the rest of her life living in an alternate dimension with a CLONE of Half Number Two:

Ten/Rose (Doctor Who)

8. Ship you wish was canon:

Eretria/Amberle (The Shannara Chronicles)

Kahlan/Cara (Legend of the Seeker)

Supercorp (Supergirl)

Morgan/Garcia (Criminal Minds)

Derek/Chris (Teen Wolf)

9. Ship you wish had become endgame:

Rory/Jess (Gilmore Girls)

Choni (Riverdale)

Ten/Rose (Doctor Who) <- nO, TenToo does not count

Han/Leia (Star Wars) <- I was so upset that the sequels broke them up, I refused to watch after TFA, lol

10. Favourite ship that is endgame:

John/Aeryn (Farscape)

Sheridan/Delenn (Babylon 5)

Stydia (Teen Wolf)

Olicity (Arrow)

Captain Swan (Once Upon a Time)

Will/Djaq (BBC Robin Hood)

Aramis/Anne (BBC The Musketeers)

Fitzsimmons (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

Monrosalee (Grimm)

Malec (Shadowhunters)

Riker/Troi (Star Trek: TNG)

Jamie/Claire (Outlander)

Danielle/Henry (Ever After)

Faramir/Eowyn (LOTR) <- but honestly more the book version than the films

Xena/Gabrielle (Xena: Warrior Princess)

Anne/Gilbert (Anne of Green Gables)

John Thornton/Margaret Hale (North and South)

Elinor/Edward (Sense and Sensibility)

Fanny/Edmund (Mansfield Park)

Benedick/Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing)

and probably lots more I am forgetting!

Tagging: @seven-oomen @takadasaiko @dreamersscape @mostly-vo1d @voidstilesplease @oddwriter @magic-multicolored-miracle @rebakitt3n @jchthys @faithfire @woozapooza @ardricael @shieldmaidenofsherwood and/or anyone else who wants to do it!

#angel in a big blue box #answered ask #tumblr friends #brotp: pass the rump roast please #the derek to my chris #etc. etc. #shipping #fangirl problems #this is my design #and the meme goes on #wayyyy too many ships to tag here

[theboywhocriedworf]

Let's overanalyze!

The many faces of Brent Spiner in 'Masks'

Ever since watching TNG: S7E19, 'Masks', I wanted to make a masterpost with gifsets of all personas played by Brent Spiner.

I will gradually add links to the separate parts of this post, so it's easier to find.

Part 1: Ihat. Part 2: Victim. Part 3: Boy. Part 4: Elder. Part 5: Masaka.

For further info >

I wanted to maybe spark a little discussion: I think that 'Masks' is an underappreciated episode with much potential, that couldn't fully develop due to production constraints. It was written by Joe Menosky, the creative brain behind 'Darmok' (Shaka, when walls fell), 'Hero Worship' (the episode where a boy tries to process trauma through copying Data), the two-parter 'Time's Arrow' and others. Menosky worked on DS9, as well: he wrote the story in among others 'Dramatis Personae' (where the crew loses it, getting 'possesed') and 'Distant voices' (where Bashir is trapped inside his mind). If you think of it, Menosky has several very distinct themes which pop up in his episodes, and I feel as if he is asking a question: what is it like to connect to the Other, and to the other within us, and how can we connect, if we have many facets, many personalities within us that feel like madness at times?

Another reason why I wanted to dissect this episode is Brent Spiner's acting. He found this episode one of the most difficult acting assignments in the series. "I had some good stuff seventh season. I just wish they had been scheduled differently. I got the script for 'Masks' on the night before we shot it and I was finishing "Thine Own Self" the midnight before, so I didn't have the time to even absorb the script and digest it and figure out who these people were that I was playing…I think I said to Jeri at the time, 'Give me six months and I think I could give all the characters their due,' but as it was, I didn't know who these people were and so I was doing instant acting and just coming up with whatever I was coming up with because we had to put it to film." /Memory Alpha.

Just imagine what we could have got if he really had six months? A girl can dream.

And of course, anything is reason enough to post more gifs of Brent Spiner for the enjoyment of all my fellow Spiner lovers.

#star trek #star trek tng #lt. commander data #brent spiner #star trek ds9 #star trek: the next generation #masks #the script #star trek trivia #star trek meta #scene breakdown #let's overanalyze!

[discotreque]

LwD 1.10, “No Small Parts”

Well, that was the most fun I've had watching Star Trek in literally a quarter of a century.

I had high hopes for this series. I love TAS, largely because of its wacky outsized concepts that could only have worked in animation—not that they all did work, but the potential was so apparent to me, even as a kid reading the Alan Dean Foster novelizations—and as an adult, there's something about the imagination of Lower Decks's FX setpieces that transcends even the glorious CGI bonanzas of Discovery.

Pause for a confession. I've long pushed back against criticism of serialization in new Trek. That's just how TV is now, okay? Might as well complain about it being in widescreen. But I'm backing down a little, because I've realized there is something about Star Trek that's inextricable from at least a partially-episodic format. And while Picard was telling a different kind of story, I can't deny that my favourite episodes of Disco have been the ones with a mostly self-contained A-plot. After 10 delightfully episodic instalments of LwD, its focus on long-term development of characters instead of a season-spanning puzzle-plot (okay, mostly just Mariner, but we only have 10 × 22 minutes and she is the star) has been downright refreshing.

So here we are, at the end of the most consistent and well-executed Season 1 of a Star Trek series since, arguably, Those Old Scientists. And sure, if they'd had to produce another... yikes, 42 episodes? Then sure, they probably would have dropped a clunker or two—but they didn't, and winning on a technicality is still winning. I'm practically vibrating with excitement for Disco to come back next week, but damn, I'm going to miss this little show while it's on hiatus.

Spoilers below:

Something I've been keeping track of finally paid off this week! (Which never happens to me, lol.) The destruction of the USS Solvang marked the first present-day death(s) of any Starfleet officer on Lower Decks, the only other on-screen killing at all being a flashback in "Cupid's Errant Arrow". Which makes sense, being (a) a comedy, and (b) about typically "expendable" characters: it hasn't been afraid to flirt with a little darkness here and there, but killing people off at Star Trek's usual pace wouldn't just be wrong for the tone, it would be downright bizarre.

But... people die on Star Trek. That's one of the core themes of the show, really: space is full of knowledge and beauty, but also danger and terror, and believing that the former is worth the risk of the latter is (according to Trek) one of humanity's most noble traits. I'm the least bloodthirsty TV watcher I know, but the longer we went with a body count of nil—ships completely evacuated before they were destroyed, main characters hilariously maimed without permanent consequences, etc.—well, I didn't mind per se, but the absence of truly deadly stakes was definitely getting conspicuous.

Turns out they were saving it up for maximum impact. And holy fuck, I've never felt such a pit in my stomach watching a ship get destroyed that wasn't named Enterprise. It felt grim and brutal and somehow both much too quick and dreadfully inevitable—and yeah, it looked extremely fucking cool—and I'd like every other Star Trek property for the rest of time to take notes under a large bold heading labeled RESTRAINT.

Comedy doesn't need to do this, but my favourite comedy does, and in a way that few other art forms can even approach: lower my emotional defences by making me laugh, endear character(s) to me with goofy-but-relatable antics—then BAM, sucker-punch me in the motherfucking feels. M*A*S*H is probably the classic example on TV, Futurama was notorious for it, and even Archer has pulled it off a few times; it's also a staple of some of my favourite standup. I wasn't sure if Lower Decks was going to go there in Season 1—and wasn't sure if they'd earn it—but I knew if they did, that they'd nail it, and damn. Feels good to be right.

Last batch of notes for the season!!! I rambled enough already, so let's do it liveblog-style:

I fucking KNEW they were going to use "archive" visuals from TAS at some point, I KNEW IT :D

"THOSE OLD SCIENTISTS" ahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I like chill and confident Boimler a lot? You can really see—

oh bRADWARD NOOOOO

That opening shot of the Solvang tracking down to the red giant was extremely Discovery-esque... minus the motion sickness, that is

A lady captain AND a lady first officer? That's—oh hey, it's Captain Dayton's brand-new ship. Hahaha, that means they're totally fucked, right?.

Yep! They sure a—umm, wh—shit, okay, but—oh no—no, you can't—wait DON'T

...fuck

FUCK.

Narrator: "And then Amy needed a five-hour break."

[live-action Star Trek showrunner voice] "Gee, Mike! Why does CBS let you have two cold opens?"

Okay, yes, the bit with Rutherford cycling through all the different attitudes in his implant was transparently an excuse for Eugene Cardero to vamp while waiting for something to do in the story, but as far as I'm concerned they can contrive a reason for him to do a bunch of different silly Rutherfords in a row any time they damn well want, because that was classic!!!

EXOCOMP EXOCOMP EXOCOMP EXOCOMP

AND THE EXOCOMP IS PAINTED LIKE THE EXOCOMP IS WEARING A LITTLE EXOCOMP-SIZED STARFLEET UNIFORM

EXOCOMP!!!!!

The slow burn and now the payoff of the Mariner-is-Freeman's-secret-daughter plot has been executed so well. I'm beyond impressed with this writer's room, y'all—they are threading a hell of a needle here

"Wolf 359 was an inside job" would have been a spit-take if I'd had anything in my mouth

...how many memos do you think Starfleet Command has had to issue asking people to stop calling the USS Sacramento "the Sac"?

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW THEY'VE DECORATED THE SHUTTLECRAFT SEQUOIA THOUGH

Is, uh, is it weird if I'm starting to ship Tendi and Peanut Hamper a little? It is weird, isn't it. I knew it was weird...

Coital barbs??? I take back everything I said about wanting to know more about Shaxs/T'Ana.

The "good officer" version of Mariner is... kind of hot, tbh! But Tawny Newsome has done such a great job of building this character all season that her voice getting uncharacteristically clipped and martial and "sir! yes, sir!" is also deeply, deeply weird

Ah, so this is literally exactly like when TNG (and DS9) would bring in, and then blow up, a never-before-seen Galaxy-class ship, just to underscore that we're facing a real threat this week, baby. And hey, it fucking worked—my heart was in my throat, omg, for the reveal of the—

PAKLEDS?????????

The fucking PAKLEDS have been gluing weapons to their ships for the last 15 years. GREAT.

(We interrupt the SHIP BEING SLICED INTO SCRAP for an interesting bit of world-building: on Earth, the traditional First Contact Day meal is salmon!)

"I need a dangerous, half-baked solution that breaks Starfleet codes and totally pisses me off! That's an order." I'm starting to think Captain Freeman might actually be overqualified for the Cerritos, y'all—she's REALLY awesome

OH SHIT IT'S BADGEY, this is a TERRIBLE IDEA

"How much contraband have you hidden on my ship?" "I don't know! A lot!"

Awwww, Boims!!!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA, FUCK THIS, PEANUT HAMPER OUT

BADGEY NOOOOO

AUGHHHHH WHAT THE CHRIST DID HE JUST—BUT—RUTHERFORD'S IMPLANT????

RUTHERFORD!!!!!!!!!!

SHAXS!!!!!!

F U C K ! ! ! ! !

ahaIOPugdfhagntpgjrq90e5mgu90qe5;oigoqgw4ouegrw5SP;IAEHURVa IT’S THE TITAN???????????

IT'S CAPTAIN WILLIAM T. RIKER ON THE MOTHERFUCKING TITAN??????????

i'm screaming I'M SCREAMINGGGGGG​TGGGTGQER;​LBHAOIBVNV;​OAPBIJNVagr;h;​oagruipuwtnaetbaetgq35ghqet

I'M SO GLAD THIS WASN'T SPOILED FOR ME WTF

I AM WEEPING LIKE A CHILD

...

(Just a brief 20-minute pause this time)

And oh wow, seeing Will and Deanna hits different after Picard too, in a few different ways, which I may even get into later now that my heartrate is back to normal, lmao

Oh, I am always here for some jokes at the expense of the Sovereign class. The Enterprise-E sucked. They should have built a new bigger model of the D and new Galaxy-class interiors for the TNG movies, and I will die on that hill

OKAY, FINE, YOU GOT ME, RUTHERFORD × TENDI WOULD BE ADORABLE AND THIS IS ACTUALLY A PRETTY GOOD SETUP FOR IT

Awwww, Shaxs though :( Congrats on the single most badass death in Star Trek history, dude. The Prophets would—well, the actual Prophets would probably be slightly confused about most of it, but Kira Nerys would be proud of you and I feel like that probably counts for more. RIP, Papa Bear

I am here all damn DAY for the Mariner–Riker parallels, ahahahahaha

Pausing it to record my prediction that Boimler's commitment to not caring about rank anymore is going to last 3... 2...

Yep.

Bradward, how DARE YOU.

"Those guys had a long road, getting from there to here." OH FOR THE LOVE OF—

What a brilliant way to resolve and renew the various character arcs and relationships moving into Season 2! The writers could easily have brought everything back to status quo—chaotic Mariner fighting with her mom and being a bad influence on Boimler, etc.—and done another 10 just like these, but I suspect that wouldn't have been ambitious enough for these writers. What a blast. I cannot wait for more.

Thanks for following along, friends! Stay tuned for my (similarly patchy and amateur) coverage of Discovery, starting next week!

#star trek #star trek lower decks #lwd spoilers #lower decks spoilers #lower decks #amy's episode notes

[aion-rsa]

Kung Fu: Inside The History of a Martial Arts Classic

https://ift.tt/2Q3B4LS

It’s been a long journey for The CW to snatch that Kung Fu pebble from the master’s (Warner Bros.) hand, but the new reboot of Kung Fu could not have come at a better time.

Issues of diversity and representation have been at the forefront of our cultural conversations for years now. The rise in Asian hate crimes – nearly a 150% increase in 2020 – has made #StopAsianHate a frequent trending topic on social media. For The CW to launch a show with a Chinese leading actress and a largely Asian cast right now makes a bold statement for inclusivity that lives up to the network’s longstanding slogan “Dare to Defy.”

What’s more, Kung Fu is promoting itself as an Asian family drama which could fill a newly opened gap. Two wildly successful Asian family sitcoms just went off the air – ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat ended its six-season run in 2020 and Kim’s Convenience announced that their final episode after a five-season run will be April 13, 2021 (In the wake of Kim’s Convenience, CBC is launching a spinoff series, Strays, following the character of Shannon Ross, the only white actor credited in show’s opening). This leaves the door wide open for Kung Fu to capture fans of Asian family dramas. Plus it’s The CW, a network that thrives on soap opera-esque dramas. 

CW’s reboot is a complete reimagining of Kung Fu, but what of the legacy of the original franchise? Will this new version bring honor to the Kwai Chang Caine a.k.a. Grasshopper? The original Kung Fu series was groundbreaking in its own way. The show garnered critical acclaim including three Primetime Emmys and two Golden Globe nominations. Even though David Carradine’s Kwai Chang Caine would be called out for whitewashing today, with its heavy reliance on Daoist philosophy, Kung Fu provided many Americans with their first taste of many aspects of Chinese culture, especially Shaolin martial arts. It also had the largest Asian supporting cast of any show for decades to come. 

The Shaolin Temple Days

When the original Kung Fu premiered in 1972, it was the right time too. The pilot was such a big hit that the network decided to show it again (remember this was long before the invention of VHS – back then your only chance to see a show was to watch it when it was broadcast). However, the second showing was preempted by President Richard Nixon shaking hands with Chairman Mao Zedong. China was opening its bamboo curtain to America at the same time Kung Fu was telecast. 

Kung Fu ran for only three seasons on ABC and yet it holds a special place in the hearts of its long standing fans. Kwai Chang Caine was a barefoot half-Asian mendicant monk from the Shaolin Temple who travelled the old west in search of his long-lost half-brother, Danny Caine (Tim McIntire). Caine was a wanted man because he took revenge. He killed the Emperor’s nephew who killed his beloved blind master, Master Po (Keye Luke). Beyond casting almost every Asian actor in the business back then, Kung Fu had an astonishing list of guest stars like Gary Busey, Jodie Foster, Harrison Ford, William Shatner, and many others. 

The Chinese Connection: Bruce Lee Vs. Kwai Chang Caine

For decades, it was rumored that Kung Fu was ripped off from martial arts legend Bruce Lee. Lee had written a treatment that was remarkably similar – a story of Chinese immigrant martial arts master who landed in America during the Wild West era. However, in the definitive biography Bruce Lee: A Life, biographer Matthew Polly uncovered substantial evidence that Warner Brothers already had Kung Fu in development prior to Lee’s pitch. Nevertheless, Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, claims that her father auditioned for the part of Caine and was rejected because, ironically, he was Chinese. She went on to develop her father’s treatment into Cinemax’s Warrior (another recent show with a predominantly Asian cast that was cancelled last year).

After the original show ended, Carradine returned to the iconic role of Caine several times. In 1986, Kung Fu: The Movie aired on ABC, reuniting Carradine with Keye Luke and introducing Caine’s estranged son Chung Wang. Even more ironic, Chung Wang was played by none other than Bruce Lee’s son, Brandon Lee. 

Read more

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Kung Fu: The Movie was a steppingstone towards a spinoff series attempt, Kung Fu: The Next Generation, with Brandon Lee playing Johnny Caine. Carradine was not involved in this series. Set in modern times instead of the Old West, Johnny Caine was the great grandson of Kwai Chang Caine, but not the Kwai Chang Caine of the original series. The TNG Kwai Chang Caine was named for his great-grandfather – Carradine’s original character – and played by David Darlow. Brandon Lee was cast as both Kwai Chang Caine’s son and his great great great great grandson. Kung Fu: The Next Generation was not picked up. It was only telecast on an unusual short-lived TV showcase called CBS Summer Playhouse, which ran failed pilots every week. Six years later, Brandon Lee died in a tragic on set accident while filming The Crow.

Twenty years after the original series, David Carradine reprised the role of Kwai Chang Caine, or rather the grandson of Kwai Chang Caine, also named Kwai Chang Caine (not the father of the TNG Kwai Chang Caine because the failure of the pilot removed it from canon). That was the first real reboot of the series – Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. Set in modern times again, Caine was paired with a new son, Detective Peter Caine (Chris Potter). The series ran for four seasons, logging twenty-four more episodes than the original. 

After that, Carradine never returned to Caine. He went on to promote martial arts with his book, Spirit of Shaolin, which he wrote in 1991, and some instructional Kung Fu videos that he made in the mid-90s. Carradine was never able to completely shake being typecast by the iconic role of Caine. Over the course of over 200 roles, a few more Carradine parts echoed Grasshopper. Fans were delighted to see him play the flute as Bill in Tarantino’s Kill Bill films (the flute was Caine’s signature accoutrement). Tarantino also referenced Kung Fu in Pulp Fiction when Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) tells Vincent (John Travolta) that he plans to walk the earth like “Caine in Kung Fu.”

In 2008, Carradine played “Crane”, a martial art monk just like Caine, in Kung Fu Killer, a two-part mini-series for Spike TV. Carradine claimed that the role was based on an actual historical figure, which he alleges is how the production worked around Warner Bros.’ copyright on Caine. But Carradine was never able to provide the name of that historical figure. He believed that Crane and Caine were ‘diametrically opposed’ but aside from being more violent (in one fight, Crane knocks an opponent so hard that his spine graphically bursts out of his back) viewers are hard pressed to separate them. The series was slated to have three more installments, but those never happened.

The Barefoot Journey to The CW

Kwai Chang Caine had to walk a lot of rice paper before the character could become this new incarnation of Nicky Shen (Olivia Liang) for CW’s reimagining of the franchise. The first major talk of reboot was back in 2011 (on Halloween no less). Bill Paxton (Aliens, Predator 2) was in talks to direct a screen adaptation. John McLaughlin (Black Swan, The Patriot) was tapped to write the script. The production was from Legendary Entertainment and plans were being made to shoot in China. Paxton said they had intended to follow the original story more or less – Caine ventures across the American West of the 1870s in search of his birth father instead of his half-brother. Paxton claimed that his new production would enrich the scale and grandeur to the level that the show always deserved. This was to be feature films under Warner Brother’s Chinese cooperative venture, Legendary East. As the project developed, other writers who became associated with the reboot film included Cory Goodman (Priest) and Rich Wilkes (xXx)

In 2014, Baz Luhrmann (Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!) was in talks to direct Kung Fu for Legendary. If the deal had been signed, Luhrmann planned to rewrite McLaughlin’s script. Paxton died in 2017 but his name had faded from talk of the reboot prior to his passing. 

In an unexpected twist, Universal announced that it was opting Kung Fu for a feature length film in early 2020. At the helm is none other than stuntman-turned director David Leitch (John Wick, Deadpool). Leitch has also been attached to a remake of Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon (another property with a long history of attempted remakes). However, since the initial announcements, there’s been no information on the further development on either project from Leitch. 

On the TV side of things, Fox grabbed Kung Fu in 2017 for a new series. Greg Berlanti (Arrow, The Flash) came on board to produce with Wendy Mericle (Arrow, Desperate Housewives) penning the script. This incarnation was the first mention of changing the gender of the main protagonist. The new lead was to be Lucy Chang, a Shaolin nun. Instead of being set in the Old West, she was to be living in the 1950s. And instead of searching for her half-brother, it was her kidnapped child. 

In a successive treatment, Lucy was set in modern times. She was to inherit her father’s Chinatown Kung Fu school, only to discover that it secretly operated as a center to help those in desperate need. Lucy was partnered with a Korean War veteran named J.T. Cullen. The reboot moved to the CW in 2019 with Christina M. Kim (Blindspot, Hawaii Five-0) taking over as writer and producer and Berlanti still attached as a producer. The story is reimagined with Nicky Shen as a young Chinese American woman in contemporary times, who leaves to find herself at a monastery in China, and then returns to her family in America.

In the pilot, there’s no explicit connection given between Nicky and Kwai Chang Caine so far (save for the quick appearance of a grasshopper). Kung Fu is a complete re-imagining, so all bets are off. But as the season progresses, who knows what references and homages are possible? Reboots thrive on their Easter eggs nowadays, and even if Nicky isn’t within the Caine bloodline, Kung Fu will be well served by tucking some call-backs to the original show. 

Will Nicky have to walk rice paper and snatch pebbles from her master’s hand? Will she get those classic Shaolin Dragon and Tiger forearm brands? If she does then perhaps Kung Fu will be the right show for its time while still honoring what came before it.

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Kung Fu premieres on the CW on April 7, 2021.

The post Kung Fu: Inside The History of a Martial Arts Classic appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[tailsrevane]

[tv review] tng "chain of command" (1992)

6x10 “chain of command, part 1”

the way they handled the transfer of command to jellico is easily one of the best jobs they’ve ever done of implementing a temporary status quo change. like, it’s not “best of both worlds, part 1” levels of believability that picard’s status on the show might be in jeopardy, if only because at this point we’re nearly halfway through the show’s penultimate season. but we get a lot of time with the enterprise’s temporary captain and see quite a bit of the crew having a bit of trouble adjusting to his presence. he also makes significant changes to the way the ship runs, and even demands “and get that fish out of the ready room” about captain picard’s iconic lionfish.

although part 2 is where a lot more of this happens, this is also kind of a turning point for the cardassians as major antagonists on the show. they were already positioned as such in their few previous appearances, but this really is the moment where they gain a ton of credibility as a big bad which will carry over to ds9, which probably not coincidentally began airing after this two-parter. s-rank

6x11 “chain of command, part 2”

i don’t want to be nitpicky, but it’s kind of weird that picard’s borg trauma is (rightly) something we keep going back to over & over, but his cardassian trauma basically never comes up again once the credits roll on this one?

the reason i don’t want to be nitpicky is that this episode is fantastic. the entire episode is designed to put patrick stewart’s performance front & center, and yeah obviously that works out fantastically in the show’s favor? and david warner is just a fantastic opponent for him here. their contest of wills just absolutely sizzles.

AND YEAH OKAY i guess i should acknowledge really quick that even though i don’t find either of these characters attractive, i did find a lot of the stuff that happened in this episode uncomfortably hot. i’m sorry i’m like this. (no i’m not.)

back on the enterprise side of things, things really break down between riker & jellico to the point that jellico relieves riker of duty and installs data as first officer. data is even jarringly required to don a red command division uniform, something he didn’t do as acting captain during the blockade of the klingon/romulan border in “redemption, part 2.”

this serves to make it extra satisfying when jellico is forced to go to riker hat in hand to ask him to go on a critical mission that basically everyone falls over themselves to say he’s uniquely qualified for.

it’s funny that this would’ve been a drastically better wrap-around season finale/premiere two-parter than “time’s arrow,” but they wanted a big cardassian episode to give them extra credibility leading into the premiere of deep space nine, which totally makes sense.

i wouldn’t want every episode to be like this, and there are some tiny nitpicks i could make if i were interested in going in that direction, but there’s a reason this is considered one of the best episodes of the series. i do think i would be more inclined to agree if this had more lasting consequences for picard’s character, but again that’s not really the episode’s fault.

i think this episode falls just outside my personal top 10 tng episodes (whereas part 1 is actually comfortably within my top 10), but i get why it’s a lot higher on a lot of other people’s lists. s-rank

#star trek #star trek: the next generation #star trek tng #tng #reviews #tv review #tv

[v4nderlyle]

My Personal Star Trek Selection Box

Whoop OK so this is going to be extremely indulgent and no one but me will care but I’ve spent a lot of time over the last year or so watching Star Trek and I wanted to compile a selection of episodes that I especially like. I haven’t seen Voyager yet so there’s none of that on here. I’ve only seen a few episodes of Lower Decks  so can’t comment yet and I watched Enterprise years ago so there’s only one ep of that that I sort of remember on here. Other than that, I’ve categorised everything into the following: 

1. Good Solid Episode - what it says on the tin

2. Absolute Banter - Star Trek comedy is my favourite thing 

3. Makes Me Warm Inside - these are very special episodes that have a very particular effect on me 

4. Critic’s Choice - the actual good episodes. The ones you’ll find on a Vulture article titled ‘50 best Star Trek episodes’ or something 

5. Guilty Pleasure - absolute trash and I love it 

I’ve put an asterisk by episodes that are my favourite favourites. So, without further ado, here is my Star Trek selection box:

Good Solid Episode

TOS: Space Seed

TOS: Amok Time (should have created the category ‘this is gay and therefore a favourite’)

TOS: The Changeling

TOS: Is There in Truth No Beauty?*

TNG: The Ensigns of Command

TNG: The Most Toys

TNG: The Mind’s Eye 

TNG: Disaster

TNG: Time’s Arrow, Parts I&II (just skip any scene where Clemens talks for more than 2 lines) 

TNG: Starship Mine

TNG: Phantasms*

DS9: The Wire (another gay one...) 

DS9: Equilibrium 

DS9: Civil Defense 

DS9: Distant Voices 

DS9: Starship Down 

DS9: Hard Time

DS9: ...Nor the Battle to the Strong

DS9: Doctor Bashir, I Presume?*

DS9: Inquisition 

ENT: Impulse 

DIS: Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad 

PIC: Remembrance 

Star Trek Beyond 

Absolute Banter

TOS: The Trouble With Tribbles 

TOS: A Piece of the Action 

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home*

TNG: Manhunt 

TNG: Qpid

TNG: In Theory (could also go in category 1)

TNG: A Fistful of Datas 

DS9: Trials and Tribble-ations

DS9: You Are Cordially Invited 

DS9: The Magnificent Ferengi

DS9: Take Me Out to the Holosuite* 

Makes Me Warm Inside

TOS: The Devil in the Dark*

TOS: The Empath

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

TNG: Data’s Day

TNG: Birthright, Part I* 

DS9: Explorers*

DS9: Rejoined

DS9: Our Man Bashir* 

DS9: Bar Association* (this could have gone in 1 or 2 as well) 

DS9: Extreme Measures 

DIS: An Obol for Charon 

PIC: Nepenthe 

PIC: Et in Arcadia Ego, Part II (just for that bit with Data) 

Short Treks: Q&A*

Critic’s Choice

TOS: The City on the Edge of Forever

TOS: The Doomsday Machine 

TOS: All Our Yesterdays 

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan 

TNG: Q Who

TNG: The Best of Both Worlds, Parts I&II

TNG: All Good Things... 

Star Trek: First Contact 

DS9: The Visitor

DS9: Far Beyond the Stars

DS9: The Siege of AR-558

Guilty Pleasure

TOS: The Apple

TOS: Plato’s Stepchildren

TNG: Force of Nature (specifically the first half. I stop watching when the ‘plot’ starts)

TNG: Sub Rosa 

TNG: Masks

Star Trek: Generations

DS9: Fascination

Phew, so there it is! I’m excited to add to this once I’ve watched Voyager, the rest of Lower Decks and S3 of Discovery, and maybe rewatched Enterprise. Anyway I love Star Trek. 

#i'll be so impressed if anyone but me reads this whole thing #star trek #TOS #TNG #DS9 #Discovery #Picard #ENT #all my favs in one place #unfortunately i'm english and spell favourite with a u #someone else do a selection box? i'd love to know