Tag: Star Trek TNG

DVD Statistics 2015

DVD / Blu-ray, Purchase Diary 2015

2015 End Statistics:

New Purchase Items: 110 (131 in 2014)
New Movies: 83 (thereof Blu-ray: 61)
New TV Seasons: 84 (thereof Blu-ray: 19)
New TV Specials: 1
New Special Interest: 3

Money Spent: €1,604.02 (€1,552.75 in 2014)
Money Spent on Movies: €679.44
Money Spent on TV Seasons: €874.97
Money Spent on TV Specials: €11.99
Money Spent on Special Interest: €37.62

Avg Spent: €14.58 (€11.85 in 2014)
Avg Spent on Movies: €8.19
Avg Spent on TV Seasons: €10.42
Avg Spent on TV Specials: €11.99
Avg Spent on Special Interest: €12.54

Running Time: 66,424m (46d 3h 4m)
Running Time Movies: 9,550m (6d 15h 10m)
Running Time TV Seasons: 55,441m (38d 12h 10m)
Running Time TV Specials: 84m (1h 24m)
Running Time Special Interest: 1,349m (22h 29m)

Cheapest Item: In the Line of Duty: Smoke Jumpers (€3.02)

Most Expensive Item: Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Complete Series (€133.80)

First Item: Longmire: Season 2 (€0.00 – paid with gift certificate)

Last Item: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (€20.00)

Purchase by Locality:
United States: 28
United Kingdom: 13
Germany: 69

Read more

Purchase Diary 2015 – September to December

DVD / Blu-ray, Purchase Diary 2015

Butter (2011)

Sep 19th – €3.99 @ Media Markt

Collection no. 1218

Auf Achse: The Complete Series (1980 – 1996)
(Auf Achse: Die komplette Serie)


Sep 19th – €29.99 @ Media Markt

Collection no. 13014 – 13025

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Sep 19th – €12.90 @ Media Markt

Collection no. 1219

Two Night Stand (2014)

Sep 19th – €9.99 @ Media Markt

Collection no. 1220

Dumb and Dumber To (2014)

Sep 24th – €9.99 @ Drogerie Müller

Collection no. 1221

Read more

TV Junkie: A History

Thought Storm, TV Season Diary

I watched a lot of TV shows over the years. And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT. And I watched accross the board.

Keep in mind that I’m only 35 years old.

I watched The Guiding Light for two years straight (it’s a soap opera whose German title was the Springfield Story). I watched medical shows like Trapper John M.D. and lawyer shows like L.A. Law. I watched the 80s action shows from MacGuyver to Riptide. I even watched Love Boat every weekday on one of the first private channels in Germany: Sat.1. I got up at 6am on every Saturday morning to watch Rawhide (Tausend Meilen Staub, lit. “A Thousand Miles of Dust”) with a very young and pre-Fistful Clint Eastwood. I knew who Daniel Boone was around the same time I met the Cartwrights as well as the men from the Shiloh Ranch.

And last weekend I binge-watched the first Netflix show House of Cards (Big recommendation! Kevin Spacey is a brilliant Magnificent Bastard!) and I got curious as to how many shows I watched intently over the past two and a half decades.

With the help of the list on the German site Wunschliste.de I created a list of “my” shows.

I only counted live-action fiction shows, no animated shows may they be Saturday morning cartoons like Yogi Bear or Scooby-Doo or evening shows like The Simpsons or South Park. No scripted reality (which I’m avoiding to 99% anyway with the exception of Comic Book Men). In this list are only shows which I followed for more than a year unless the show itself didn’t last that long.

And the answer was: 244 246 247. Two hundred and fourty four six seven different shows I watched with active interest since I’ve started watching television. And the worst thing is: Of most of these shows I watched 90% or more episodes at least once.

Read more

Buffy: Season 2

Buffy Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon

Deutsche Version | Season 1 | Season 3: Disc 1

Disc 1

When She Was Bad

Synopsis: Summer break is nearly over and Buffy has returned from L.A.. But she seems to to have changed. She is closed up and snubs virtually everyone. And it gets worse: The Anointed One wants to get the Master back from the really dead. And for this he needs the people who were close to him when he died.

My Opinion: This behaviour will develop into a habit. Everytime Buffy goes through a shocking or traumatizing event she will try to shut everyone out and keep the world at bay. She will do it again at the beginning of the third season and during the sixth season. It may not be a good character trait but it’s definitively a defining one for the character. Just as the one that she will do what’s right when it matters.
The episode was also a portent for the season. When she claims that Angel has thought about fighting her and that he should try it. When Snyder states that he would love to expel her. When she was lured away from the library and that’s the place she was needed most.
I think it was a good start of the season.

Some Assembly Required

Synopsis: During her patrol in one of Sunnydale’s graveyards she discovers that a grave is empty that shouldn’t be empty. But it’s not another Vampire who has risen. The body is simply gone. So it’s either the work of flesh-eating demons or a group that wants to build an army of Zombies. But when Cordelia finds a lot of body parts in the dumpster they can safely dismiss both theories. But who needs only some parts from several young women?

My Opinion: I never liked these frankenstein-y stories, neither here nor in the fourth season. But once again I liked it that good and bad weren’t clear cut, that our Dr. Frankenstein in the form of Chris didn’t go as far as killing someone just to build a bride for his brother. But I haven’t understood what the other guy was hoping for. Why was he helping in the first place and why would he have killed Cordelia? I simply couldn’t see his motive to act the way he did.

School Hard

Synopsis: Buffy and another “rebel” is ordered to organize and host the annual parent-teacher-night. And Buffy has to keep her mother far away from principle Snyder. And some special Vampire holiday is coming up. And the Vampire Spike has come to town to have some fun around here. And he will kill Buffy on Saint Whatshisname’s day. Fortunately those two events don’t fall on the same day…

My Opinion: …Unfortunately Spike isn’t the most patient guy. 😉 I loved it how he single-handedly decluttered all the Vampire rituals and my prejudice about them. James Marsters once stated that he played Spike “with a bit more soul than he was supposed to”. I knew him from Smallville and he was one of the reasons to give Buffy a chance and I couldn’t wait to finally see him here. He will develop into one of the most interesting characters on the show even though he just lost his first battle against the Slayer.
But they also made two statements about him that they will “correct” later: Giles states that he’s barely two hundred. I would assume “barely 200” means something like 190 or 180. Later they will make him just 150 years old (born around 1850). Spike also says that Angel was “his Sire, his Yoda”. But as it will turn out, Spike was sired by Drusilla who was sired by Angel. But maybe Spike meant it in some figurative way. After all, Angel is his Grand-Sire and Yoda was Luke’s second Jedi teacher after Obi-Wan.

Inca Mummy Girl

Synopsis: During a visit of the local museum one of the student tries to steal a mummy seal and accidentally breaks it. The young, female Inka mummy re-awakes, kills the student and disappears from the museum. Shortly after she takes the place of an exchange student (whom she also killed) and moves in with Buffy for the next two weeks. And naturally Xander falls for her the minute he sees her. But then there’s a mysterious knife guy who seems to be connected to the mummy and the body count is increasing. The gang has to find out what’s going on.

My Opinion: I have to say, I liked this episode. As most creatures do this young woman tried to ensure her own survival. But in the end she couldn’t kill the person she fell in love with. I also liked the comparison between her and Buffy’s fate: The be the Chosen One and not being able to have a say in it. And in opposition to Teacher’s Pet Xander could be Xander without being influenced from the outside.
In this episode we’ve also seen Oz and Jonathan for the first time but I think one notices Jonathan only if one knows him already – ironically that is exactly what this character will be about.
Read more

MacGyver

DVD / Blu-ray

I was getting in the mood and have started watching MacGyver again, starting with the first season from 1985/86. And I love to see so…

Deep Space Nine: Season 4

DS9 Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon

Deutsche Version | Season 3 | Season 5

Disc 1

The Way of the Warrior

Synopsis: A rather large fleet of klingon ships under the command of General Martok arrives at the station and their true intentions remain unclear. But then they start to search ships that try to leave the bajoran sector to look for changelings. Sisko needs a Klingon to shed some light into this: Lt. Cmdr. Worf, son of Mogh. But when the fleet departs for an attack on Cardassia (that is infiltrated by Founders – or so do the Klingons believe), Worf has to make a choice: To stay with Starfleet or to rejoin his people.

My Opinion: Hawk is back! 😉 This was a great start to the season. Worf and Martok are great additions to the show and I like how fluent the concept of good and bad guys is. Except for Babylon 5 in other shows of that time the good guys remain good and the bad guys remain the bad guys. There’s rarely a grey area. Yes, the Klingons have been the bad guys once, but since the start of TNG they basically belonged to the good guys and that didn’t change – until now. It also often happened that a race was portrayed in a certain way and there were only a few exceptions to that general portrayal. Only Humans had been shown in all variations of grey. That is also due to the fact that TNG has shown a certain race rarely twice (except for the Klingons). DS9 with it’s “port of call” concept has broken with that and has shown all kinds of Bajorans, Klingons, Cardassians and will continue to do so.

The Visitor

Synopsis: An accident happens aboard the Defiant and Sisko gets vaporized and his son is shocked. But a few months later Ben Sisko reappears in Jake’s quarters and disappears again. Then a year later it happens again. Ben is caught in some kind of subspace bubble and Jake (who was involved in the original accident) is his anchor to this world. While his life goes on, he spends his time either with writing or studying subspace mechanics and after fifty years, Jake has figured out how to save his father.

My Opinion: In general, I liked this episode and (again) the relationship between Jake and his father. The story is very emotional and very well told. What bugs me is the fact that the Dominion war didn’t seem to have happened in that timeline. Firstly this contradicts the things we have learned so far about the Dominion infiltration of the AQ (e.g. in The Adversary) and secondly because that would mean that Sisko’s survival would lead to the greatest war in the history of the AQ with its millions of deaths.

Hippocratic Oath

Synopsis: O’Brien and Bashir detect a crash-landed ship along a trading route in the GQ. But when they approach the planet they get shot down and have to face a group of Jem’Hadar. But these are not regular Jem’Hadar, these one want to be free and for this they need to free themselves from the Ketracel-white drug. Bashir doesn’t believe this is possible due to his experiences with the Jem’Hadar infant in the previous year.

My Opinion: For the first time since the start of their friendship a rift has been created between Miles and Julian. Although it was sad to see, their behaviour was very fitting to each character. Miles has fought in the cardassian border wars and seen what an ruthless enemy is capable of and Julian is still a very enthusiastic doctor who values life above all else. But I am glad that their friendship will survive things like that.
And now we’ve seen Jem’Hadar who can think and act outside their genetically programmed pattern. Again a race has been shown more than one-dimensional and it will happen again.
Read more

Deep Space Nine: Season 3

DS9 Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon

Deutsche Version | Season 2 | Season 4

Disc 1

The Search, Part I

Synopsis: During his stay at the Utopia Planitia ship yards (prior to his assignment to DS9), Sisko has helped designing and building a ship whose sole purpose was to fight the Borg: The Defiant. It’s over-powered and over-gunned for a ship this size but now DS9 needs it. And the feature list has been updated. In the hope to find the Founders of the Dominion without having to engage in battle the Defiant has got a cloaking system – sponsored by the Romulan Empire. Sisko hopes to contact the Founders and show them that the Federation is no enemy of them.

My Opinion: From a diplomatic and tactical POV this was a stupid idea. If you’d want to negotiate with the leaders of an enemy force, would you take your biggest gunship and try to sneak into enemy territory? It would be like taking a B-2 Spirit, landing it on the Red Square and trying to talk to Khrushchev. But I liked the general idea of the Defiant from the beginning. The Star Trekian universe has never been a very peaceful one and the Federation is surrounded mostly by hostile forces. I wonder how many Starfleet ships have been destroyed in the cardassian border wars because they weren’t really equipped to fight in a war.

The Search, Part II

Synopsis: Unfortunately the cloaking system didn’t help in the end and when the crew returns to DS9, the Vorta are already there and they negotiate with Starfleet. But Sisko and the others become more and more uneasy because of where these negotiations are going. Meanwhile Kira and Odo are still in the GQ because Odo has finally found his people.

My Opinion: I remember that – when I watched it for the first time – I didn’t see it coming that the changelings are the Founders. But this episode also made clear that the Dominion isn’t interested in being left alone. Now that they know of the wormhole they want to impose their idea of ‘order’ in the AQ and there isn’t much Sisko or Starfleet could do about it, short of actually blowing up the wormhole. Or as Aragorn said to Théoden: “Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not.” 🙁

The House of Quark

Synopsis: A drunken Klingon attacks Quark in his bar but accidentally kills himself. But Quark tells a story how he heroically killed the warrior in a battle of life and death. And ironically, some Klingons actually want that he sticks to that story, although for different reasons. And suddenly Quark finds himself as the head of a klingon house.

My Opinion: I loved this episode. Quark and Grillka were great together and the clashing of ferengi and klingon culture was also fun to watch. But divorce seems to be painful. 😉 And it was nice to see chancellor Gowron again although I have to admit the more klingon episodes I watch the less I can wait for Martok to make his appearance.

Equilibrium

Synopsis: Dax begins to behave irrationally and aggressively. Additionally she has hallucinations. Bashir fears that the symbiosis is breaking apart and that they may lose Jadzia. Sisko and Bashir return with her to Trill but the mystery is getting bigger instead of being solved. Something isn’t right with one of Dax’s previous hosts.

My Opinion: This was an average episode. The ‘revelation’ wasn’t that interesting and the episode hadn’t much plot at all.
Read more

Deep Space Nine: Season 2

DS9 Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon

Deutsche Version | Season 1 | Season 3

Disc 1

The Homecoming

Synopsis: A new movement is growing on Bajor. They call themselves “The Circle” and they want “Bajor to the Bajorans”, i.e. all out-worlders should leave the bajoran system. Meanwhile Kira learns that Li Nalas – a hero of the resistance – is still alive and he’s being held prisoner on a cardassian planet. She and O’Brien disguise themselves as traders and try to rescue him.

My Opinion: I remembered this three-part season opener to be somewhat uninteresting but I really enjoyed it this time. It’s “funny” to see how something that happened almost only by accident can develop into a legend and how the protagonist becomes a hero. Although they are nothing alike the story of Li Nalas becoming a hero reminded me of the Firefly episode Jaynestown.

The Circle

Synopsis: Li Nalas has become the new liasion officer aboard DS9 and Kira has been recalled to Bajor. But there fights have broken out. The Circle has acquired a lot of weapons and is now openly moving against the provisional government. What they don’t know: The weapons were delivered by the Cardassians (although not directly) who are hoping that The Circle drives the Federation away and thus opening the system for another cardassian invasion.

My Opinion: That was an interesting turn of events with Frank Langella (Skeletor in Masters of the Universe) once again in the role of the bad guy. But I like him in these roles. 🙂 Interesting thing – especially in comparison to later seasons and later shows – is that you only had to hear the distant rumbling of war to believe that there is one, without seeing it. I don’t condemn special effects scenes, I really like them, but if a movie or series relies to heavy on them the actual storytelling moves into the background or is forgotten at all. That’s the reason the Star Wars Episodes I – III didn’t work for me.

The Siege

Synopsis: All non-bajoran civilians have been evacuated with the help of the runabouts Ganges, Orinoco and Rio Grande. But Sisko and his Starfleet crew remains in the hope that he can delay the surrender of the station until Kira presents the evidence of the cardassian involvement in the Chamber of Ministers.

My Opinion: A good conclusion but I hated to see Vedek Winn squirm herself out again. As I said I like good bad characters. I’Ve always liked Gul Dukat or (later) Weyoun, but I never liked Winn (Louise Fletcher; Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). But at least life is going back to normal on the station – for now.

Invasive Procedures

Synopsis: During a plasma storm the station is running only with a skeleton crew when a nearby ship declares an emergency and has to be pulled in. But the mayday was a fake, the ship’s crew takes control over DS9. Why? To get the Dax symbiont and transplant it into the group’s leader who feels that he deserves to be blended with a Trill symbiont. But that will kill Jadzia and Sisko won’t let that happen.

My Opinion:I didn’t pay attention to the credits but when I saw Verad (Dax) I instantly knew I knew him. But it took me a while to figure it out. I assumed that – since he had not much of a mask – he usually wears one. But then it came to me. The beard and the long hair was missing: John Glover a.k.a. Lionel Luthor from Smallville. Slap my head
I liked this episode because here we saw how a person can change when he/she is blending with a symbiont. This is one of the rare before/after moments since we’ve never known Jadzia without Dax.
Read more