Captain, My Captain

Time to bring out a little geek. It's been a while and. There's no "and". This is my blog and I'll blog what I want! Today kids, is a sequel of sorts. You may recall I wrote an entry a while back about the Star Wars vs Star Trek feud, when I declared Babylon 5 the winner.

Today however, B5 doesn't win. So let's get to it. Who's the best Captain? So my Browncoats will hate this, but Mal is the first I'll knock down. He's a bad dude, but only a Captain in the technical sense as he's the employer and owns Serenity. That's it. Done deal. He's gone.

Next up. Star Wars. Sure there's some captain's. But none we truly know as a captain or really care about. We know them as jedi, princess, scoundrel, droids, sith, and wookies. So my Death Star just blew that universe away. Moving on.

Sadly B5 is next on the chopping block. This might be enough to drive Garibaldi back to the booze. We see some great captain's here. And we see a lot of them die. But the ones that live are career and fate driven to move up and out. They become ambassadors, presidents, etc. They just keep moving to other pastures. While it's great, we just couldn't hold on to our captain's out there. Even commanders were subject to the same fate.

Next up Trek. We have a ton of captain's here, and that's just on the Federation's side alone. Picard, Janeway, Sisko, eventually even Sulu made the seat. Admit it, you still giggle at the memory of Christian Slater getting yelled at. But the first captain, not the pilot Kirk, but Shatner is my Captain. He gave life to the breed of Captain we expect today. I say Shatner, not just Kirk, because no other Captain has given so much of himself to the seat.  Picard could give a run for his money, but Patrick Stewart himself has noted that one TNG was surprising in that it didn't fail, when he expected it to. And two, it was merely a great part in his career. Which makes sense after his various successes.

But Shatner, Kirk, has a life in the chair. So many great series, and worlds but he comes back. TJ Hooker, TekWar, Boston Legal, and so many memorable moments. But he was always in the chair. His addition in the world of books shows his love and devotion to the chair. Even when Kirk was promoted, he found his way back to the Captain's chair. His advise to Picard, "don't let them take that chair away". And to this day there is still interest in being part of one last journey on the big screen as Kirk.

Just as Kirk man handled the Kobayahi Maru, Shatner has defied the only being the Captain for a while. Instead he's turned the odds around and given us more than could be expected of a character, a writer, an actor, and himself. Shatner is the Captain.

So hopefully Ivanova doesn't whoop me too bad when she and the Captain are in town for the Albuquerque Comic Con next week.

Best Sci-Fi franchise

In the geek world, and outside among the average Joe, there's a question that runs rampant. Star Wars or Star Trek? Some people say they don't care for either, but we all know it's just a facade. Probably because they don't want to choose wrong, or they don't want to get caught up in the argument over which is better. My answer? Well, you'll have to keep reading to find out.

Let's start with Star Wars. Here we have a military force, a guerrilla force on the run, and a few people that for lack of better terminology are using wizardry (ie the force). While there's somewhat of a rank structure, it's all shot down by "ambassadors"  known as the jedi. Not only that, but these "ambassadors" command and lead military assaults, and essentially dictate politics under the guise of negotiation. While the Empire shows a little bit more consistency throughout the whole of the series, it's not until the new trilogy that we know for sure that there are non-officer ranks which of course go to the little guys we see killed by the handful, the storm troopers and imperial scouts. Now, I'll take a moment here to address the "princess" because some will take note of her military service here too. A princess by adoption, not blood. And not only that, it's not unheard of for royalty to actually serve in the military. I'll refer you to Prince Harry as one of many. It's got war, a love story, family quarrels (that the Hatfields and McCoys can relate too), teddy bears, and all an all powerful Toxic Avenger looking Oompa-Loompa (aka Yoda). Plus, a lot of inconsistency. The Jedi can levitate, mess with minds, reflect shots with their swords, but a couple of storm troopers can take them prisoner and lock them up with little trouble. But hey, it's a lot of fun to watch. The cartoons on the other hand.... well my kiddo likes them, that's good enough.

Now you have Star Trek. Here you have military forces in conflict, trying to act as good will ambassadors and negotiate politics. With exception of Miles O'Brian (who went back and forth in rank a lot in TNG) you never see the enlisted man. It's always the head officers of the ship taking care of business. That's probably my biggest peeve of the whole series. While there's occasionally a first officer or someone saying the Captain shouldn't go, it's still the Command Staff putting boots to butts. Even the dreaded red shirt was usually an Ensign, or Lieutenant of some sort, and that's if they even mentioned their rank. But Star Trek does try to stay a bit more grounded in science. While there is some mystical elements here and there, they don't normally go too far. And Trek tries to go more in depth with the human elements such as emotions, taboos, beliefs, stresses, etc. It's not so much a struggle of good and evil like Star Wars, but rather overcoming adversity and growing.

So which is better? I'll direct you towards the grossly over looked Babylon 5. Yes, I said it. B5. (Insert evil laugh, and music here) While I like both of the above mentioned, Babylon 5 is a superior product. You have enlisted ranks, and established command structure, common ailments and addictions, failed political moves, coupes, wars, multiple religions and belief structures, grounded roots in science with a little bit of mysticism to allow you to fully escape your current reality and move into it's reality. You never know what's going to happen, or if things will work out. Unlike Star Wars, and Star Trek, you don't always end up with an ultimately happy ending. You say goodbye to major characters, and hello to others. It's a roller coaster that has as many ups as it does downs. And command staff get punished from time to time. They don't always get to lead missions. The enlisted man is an essential element in many cases. They do the work, while the command staff is along for the ride, and making decisions to guide them from the ground just like they do in real life. Sure it never made it to the big screen, but it had 5 great years, a number of TV movies, and who knows what the future will bring. The same can be said for other greats such as the modern incarnation of Battlestar Galactica. The next big thing may just be waiting a few decades to come back, much like the original Star Trek.