From 2029 to 2039

 Hi Alex,

A while back, I took a stab at writing a re-imagining of Space: 1999. Because 1999 has come and gone, I changed the year to 2029. I managed to get the pilot done. But something was just...off. So when I tried to write episode two, I ended up grinding to a halt. 

A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I needed to start from scratch. I left the one episode of 2029 up on Fanfiction.net and set writing version 2.0. Since we're (slowly) coming up on 2029, I decided to push the date back to 2039. 

And that's all I have for today.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)  

What current Hollywood should watch.

Okay, folks, I won't beat around the bush. In my opinion, 98 percent of modern Hollywood sucks. And it all comes back to bad writing. Characters are unlikable or unrealistic, plots tend to be thin and don't get me started on the messes of CGI and AI. My advice to modern Hollywood, watch these shows/movies from the past and learn what you have forgotten...

1. Twelve Angry Men

An excellent movie. If you want to see how to make a movie with only ONE set, this is the one for you. On top of that, all the twelve men are Caucasian. Yet, they are a wide spectrum of humanity because of their personalities and upbringings. This movie doesn't float on cheap action, or set pieces, it floats on writing, characters and ACTING. As does the next entry...

2. ER: Into That Good Night

...which is one of the best episodes the show ever did. It's so heart-wrenching that I can't even watch it when I do an ER re-watch. This episode proofs that a good story doesn't have be happy one. Nor does it have to have a happy end. Time to move on to...

3. Doctor Who: Listen

I know that people tend to be critical of the later Dr Who episodes. But this 12th Doctor episode is an excellent example of how to build tension using music. Try watching the episode with the sound off, but the subtitles on and you'll find it a lot less tense. 

4. Das Boot

And I don't mean the TV show remake. The original movie is a long watch, but it's worth it. Being about the Germans, this movie had an uphill battle to get its viewers aboard. But get aboard the viewers it did. It's an anti-war movie that shows the horrible costs. And that makes you sympathize with people who are supposed to be 'the bad guys.'

That's all the recommendations I have for today.

 Regards,

 Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)

My guess for Skeleton Crew finale.

Hi Alex,

So I've been watching Star Wars: Skeleton Crew for the past seven weeks. And I want to take a stab at predicting some stuff for the finale. So, without further ado...

First of all, I don't believe that Tak Rennod is dead for a second. I think the message from the supervisor that we heard in Episode 7 was an old recording made by the original overseer of At Attin. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if Rennod used voice distortion on his logs. That way, anyway who listened to his logs wouldn't recognize his voice if they met him in the flesh. I think he killed the supervisor who was running At Attin when he arrived and has been running the show ever since. Which raises the question, why ? Well, that's my Segway to talk about...

...Inflation. The reason At Attin credits are valuable because they are made from a rare metal. Rare being the key word. But if you take all those credits and inject them into the galactic economy, the metal is no longer rare. And the worth of those credits plummets. Truly infinite treasure is worthless treasure. And I think Rennod figured that out. That's why he took over instead of coming back. 

Rennod also knows better then anybody what makes pirates tick. If he went back into the galaxy, his fellow pirates would never believe the truth. They would simply think that's he hoarding the treasure for himself. And the whole thing would end in blood. That's why he took over as supervisor. 

And when he tells Jod this, or Jod figures this out....Jod's plan is going to burst like a popped balloon. Which will force him to team up with the kids and the parents to defend At Attin.

That's all I have.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)

A Note on The Outer Worlds

 I love The Outer Worlds, but there is one simple problem with this game...it's too short. Combine that with the fact it's been ages since the announcement of Outer Worlds 2. Which raises the question....why didn't Obsidian kill two birds with one stone and kick a third DLC out the door ? 

Not only would this have helped keep the buzz going, we still have two planets on the map that we haven't been to....the ice planet Typhon and the gas planet Hephaestus. And yes, I know, the system map says that there is nothing for humanity on Typhon, except...

...Who do you think wrote that, in-game ? The Board....who probably claimed that so that nobody would visit Typhon and notice the gunships and the Hope parked in orbit. And it does have a valuable resource, because once you melt ice, you have this lovely thing called water. 

And water is everything. On top of that, who knows what surprises are waiting under the ice of Typhon. And then there is Hephaestus...

A whole planet full of miners. This would have been an excellent site for some post end-game/Brave New World shenanigans. Plus, all the companies have dirty secrets. Why should Hephaestus Mining be any different ? 

And they did own Scylla... So was it a coincidence that Clyde Harlow set-up his base there ? Or was he making sure that nobody dug up the area underneath his complex...

That's all I have for today.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)

Cough, cough, cough....

...blast this thing is dusty !

Hi Alex,

It's been a while, so I figured it was time to kick another letter out the door.

Are you okay ? It's been ages since I got a letter from you. Are things okay on the island ? Anyway, with N7 day coming up, I think now is a good time to talk about computer games. (Again ? Well, it's been a couple of months since my last post on the subject. So, here we go...)

My wish-list for 2025...     

Mass Effect (Next)

I have zero interested in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. But I am glad that it is about to be kicked out the door. Once it is gone, BioWare can finally start proper work on Mass Effect. So the sooner it is out the door, the better. I know it will be years before we actually get the game, but I'm wishing for more news on the game...

Wolfenstein 3

...which is the same situation for another two games...Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (which is the game I don't care about) and Wolfenstein 3 (the game I actually want). Fortunately, Indy's game will launch on 9 December. Which means that 2025 will see Wolfenstein 3 going forward at last.

Outer Worlds 2

This game was announced back in 2021. The last update was in August 2024. Hopefully, it wouldn't be another three years before we get more information on this game. Come on, folks, give us some juicy details !

And that's all I have for now,

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)

About Paramount TV shutting down

Hi Alex,

How are things on the island ? They certainly can't be worse they are in Hollywood. This place is burning down at warp speed. But this was not on my mind three days ago. I was just clicking through YouTube and ran into OverlordDVD's/Doomcock's channel. And what was the latest rumor buzzing around now ? (Which I took with a grain of salt, as these things are supposed to be.) That the Paramount/Skydance brass wanted to have an emergency meeting with Alex Kurtzman before Sunday (18 August). Yeah, right. File that under 'I'll believe it when I see it.'

But then, the day after, I saw a video by Call Me Chato about Paramount TV shutting down. And he told us denizens of the internet about the huge lights they use in TV studios and the huge power bill that comes with them. And then I had a light-bulb moment, which was fitting. Just don't ask if it was a bit fitting or a small one. (Okay, I'll stop making light-bulb puns now.) This is just me thinking out loud, but...

Ponder Me This

The mainstream media made it clear that Paramount/CBS is salvage Paramount TV's most popular shows by moving them over to CBS. But those shows are not enough to fill all of TV's sound stages. And with Paramount needing to cut costs, are they are going to pay the utility bills (power, gas, internet, etc) and staffing costs for a studio that is 90 percent just props gathering dust ?

Or do you move the surviving shows to a CBS lot ? If that's the plan, shutting down this week makes total sense, because it allows Paramount to give the utility companies notice to cut everything off on 1 September. And it gives you two weeks to do the move. And so we end up back at Doomcock's rumor.... (Just remember your salt, folks.)

My Theory

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is supposed to start filming on 2 September. Wee problem, in order to make a TV, you need sets. I wouldn't be surprised if construction of said sets was scheduled to start on Monday 19 August. But because of Operation Big Move, the sound stages that where those sets were supposed to be build are now essentially, well....reassigned-slash-gone. And they are going to have to break that news to Kurtzman. 

Now, I could be right, I could be wrong. This whole thing could be a giant nothing burger. But at least I got a blog entry out of it. 

That's all I have.

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)

Wish list for Prodigy Season 3

In my last blog, I pondered how Prodigy could be used to clean-up the messy Trek time line. But there are plenty of other plots that I would love to see in Season 3. So, without further ado, my wish-list is....

Dal's History

Yeah, we know that Dal is an Augment. And that he was created by proteges of Dr. Arik Soong. But how does that work ? Remember, Arik was seen in the 2150's and Prodigy starts in 2383. There's a piece missing here....Plus, how did he end up with DaiMon Nandi ? And speaking of Nandi, I want our crew to go another round with her and give Nandi her comeuppance.

Another Borg Day

The Neurolytic Pathogen is spreading through the Borg Collective. We've seen shades of this in Let Sleeping Borgs Lie, but what about the folks from Unimatrix Zero ? Did Starfleet just abandon the Borg Resistance created by Captain Janeway and company to be cannibalized by the Queen ? I think the crew of the USS Prodigy would have something to say about that.

Vidiians and Ocampans

Since the Borg plot would see our crew going (back) to the Delta Quadrant, I'd love to know if the Think Tank (VOY "Think Tank.") actually did cure the Phage ? I hope they did, because that would allow to see how such a cure would affect the Quadrant as a whole. And to see what the Vidiians are like now / were like before the phage. And who hired the Tank to cure the Phage ? If it wasn't the Vidiians, that could spell major trouble.

And speaking of major trouble. The Caretaker gave the Ocampans five years worth of energy before he died. By the time of Prodigy, that energy has long since run out. Add to that, there's a whole lot of Kazon on the surface...

Love's Labor Found

Moving on....Starfleet has the bad habits of visiting worlds once and then forgetting about them. Let's not make the same mistake with the Enderprizians. Especially since they are a pre-warp race, which means that Garrovick's crash there opened up a whole can of worms. The Protostar crew did their best clean up said mess. But if they want to get it right, they need to keep an eye on the place.

Rev-12

What happened to the Unwanted ? Did they find a place to settle ? Or are they still travelling the Delta Quadrant ? Maybe helping people like an interstellar version of the A-Team ?

And Finally...

There is Ascenia. What happened to her after she got arrested ? Will the 98 liberate her to come back and cause more trouble for our crew ? And speaking of crew....

There are currently seven people aboard the USS Prodigy, but Zero says in the pilot that it takes at least 20 folks to operate a Protostar-class. While our heroes have been doing fine so far, if they are going up against the 98, they might want to do something about the massive hole in crew roster. And with Starfleet being short on people, our crew might have to get creative...

That's all I have,

Regards,

Ruben A. Hilbers (aka Commander Nash)