We continue our chat with Patrick Johnson, and finally give our mixed opinions on the latest Disney opus, Solo: A Star Wars Story. We go over the promise and the pitfalls of the prequel concept and ask ourselves what we really wanted from this movie.
We talk about a recent internet rabbit hole: a legendary and notorious New Jersey water park that many have called the most dangerous amusement park ever: Action Park. It had a cascade of bloody noses, a lax policy of selling alcohol to minors and a confirmed body count. So why do many of the people who grew up going there as kids, both openly admit its dangers while remembering it with such warm affection?
And what stupid thrills will a human being subject themselves to in the cause of ending boredom?
Plus, we can’t recommend the horror movie, A Quiet Place, more highly. Seriously, it’s really good.
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Haven’t (yet?) seen Solo, so I can’t comment on it, although I did enjoy listening to your discussion regardless.
I have a quibble with one point, though: while I agree with the overall point you were making in that part of the show, I disagree with your example of that scene in DS9, when Worf says about the TOS appearance of Klingons that it’s “a long story” and “we do not discuss it with outsiders” as the way to go in such situations. Personally, I think the better solution to that case would have been for no one to comment on it at all, implying that a) everyone is aware of the former, more human-like appearance of Klingons and nobody cares, or b) that the characters in the show see no difference between those Klingons and the Klingons of their own time, because to them they look the same (my preferred solution). The fact that they remarked on it actually opened to the doors to those (god-awful) episodes of Enterprise that had to needlessly and ridiculously over-explain it, and even make an ancestor of Data’s creator responsible for it all.
It would have been easier to ignore if they’d either picked an episode without Klingons in it. Or… not had Worf go back in time with them. Once you have a post-Motion Picture Klingon in the same scene as a group of TOS Klingons, it would be weird to say nothing.
And it isn’t just make-up, the TOS Klingons are completely different culturally than the TNG-era Klingons. Rather than being Bushido-Vikings, the old school Klingons have a lot more in common with the Cardassians. Militant, conniving and nasty, totally loyal to their oppressive state, and looking to expand and occupy the planets of other species.
The problem is that the DS9 episode was part of Trek’s 25th Anniversary and the writers intentionally used the most iconic classic episode as the basis for their tribute, and the Trouble with Tribbles is definitely that.
Plus, it’s fun. Notice that Worf disguises his Klingon forehead with a headscarf. Reminds me a bit of Spock in Star Trek IV.
Well, that’s why my “a)” option, i.e., everybody knows about it and it requires no comment is more practical, but my “b)” option also takes into consideration the fact that the three Klingons from TOS, Koloth, Kang and Kor, all showed up in DS9 (before that Tribbles episode, if memory serves) with the elaborate forehead architecture, and nobody commented on the fact that their physical appearance changed. Also, the whole idea that Bashir and O’Brien are completely astounded by the appearance of the past Klingons is kind of ridiculous – as though there’s no such things as photographs and video footage of the recent past in the 23rd century.