Day 162: Took a few minutes in the afternoon to head up to say hello and support one of today’s events for Highline’s LGBTQIA+ week. Looked like a good time was being had by all!
Michael Hanscom
Prodigy Saved, But Netflix Makes Me Grumpy
First, the good news: Star Trek Prodigy, including its second season, will end up on Netflix. From Executive Producer Aaron J. Waltke on Mastodon:
At last we can share the news… Star Trek: Prodigy has landed!
Our show is beyond thrilled to be joining NETFLIX for the ongoing adventures of the Protostar crew.
[…]
The possibilities are endless now that the world can see all 40 episodes of Prodigy’s first and second seasons in one place…with the potential for more….
If you wish to see more…viewing the show on Netflix as soon as it drops…is unequivocally the way.
I must admit, I have mixed feelings about this.
The good side, obviously, is that Prodigy’s second season will actually be seen. And Aaron implies that there’s even a chance that, with enough viewership, they might get the option to continue on.
I just hate that this is going to end up (heck, it’s already there in Aaron’s post) being a “PLEASE WATCH IT ALL IMMEDIATELY YOU CAN’T WAIT YOU MUST BINGE IT ALL NOW BECAUSE THAT’S THE ONLY WAY NETFLIX THINKS PEOPLE WATCH ANYTHING AND THE ONLY CHANCE OF EVER GETTING ANY MORE” campaign.
I don’t like binging. I like watching an episode at a time, enjoying the story, letting it play out over time. Especially in shows I really enjoy (like the Star Trek universe), being able to think about an episode, enjoy the fanservice and callbacks, nitpick apart the retconning or mistakes, and generally geek out about it. But with full-season drops and the pressure to watch it all immediately (or, if they do decide to do weekly single-episode drops, to watch the newest episode within 24 hours of its appearance, preferably two or three times)…ugh.
And as someone who has a partner who isn’t as much of a Trek geek as I am, sometimes I don’t get a chance to watch a new episode for a few days — which by today’s standards, apparently means I’m not a real fan, and doesn’t count towards Netflix’s labyrinthine accounting of whether a show actually sticks around and gets more seasons, or suddenly disappears with the next budget cycle.
If it’s something I watch on my own, I watch when and as I can; if it’s something I want to watch with my partner, we watch it on our own schedule, and either way I resign myself to our numbers possibly not counting. Which is unfortunate, but I want to enjoy the things I enjoy, not feel like I have to rush through them faster than I like out of some weird sense of duty or obligation.
I also wonder how physical media factors into this. For instance, I’ve re-watched all of Lower Decks a couple times — but only the first watch was streamed, all re-watches were from the Blu-ray I purchased. Are home media purchases weighted higher because we’re likely to be re-watching things more, even if it’s not tallied in a database somewhere? Or, since there’s no way to tie an individual streaming account to a physical media purchase (well, in a perfect world; these days, who knows?), do they just look at my account as only having watched it once, so I must not be that interested?
Sigh. Streaming sure is convenient, but the backend business model is such trash.
So, yes, I’m happy that Prodigy will continue. I just wish Paramount had actually treated it like a full-fledged member of the Star Trek family and given it the support it should have had from the get-go.
Fingers crossed that this option goes well, though. And all grumbling aside, I really do wish Aaron and everyone else the best with this!
Year 50 Day 161
Day 161: Since I was doing a presentation for a group of students that had already greatly appreciated my shirt with multicolored dinosaurs, this time I went with dragons, and it was also a hit. I’m going to have to keep track of which shirts I wear for presentations this year to keep them all interested.
📚 Guises of the Mind by Rebecca Neason
56/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A somewhat surprisingly Catholic approach to Star Trek. Not badly done, though as other reviewers have noted, does give it a very monotheistic viewpoint; though it does note that there are other options, those definitely aren’t its focus. Given that, outside of DS9, religion isn’t often focused on in Star Trek, I found it an interesting approach, particularly the choice to focus on Tori rather than Data, the perennial outsider (though his interest is a present side thread).
Year 50 Day 160
Day 160: I’m not much of a food-oriented person, and so have little in the way of cooking skills (though I can manage a pretty darn good take-out pizza or Kraft Mac-N-Cheese). So I make up for my limited usefulness in dinner prep by being responsible for the cleanup. It’s better than not bothering with the kitchen at all!
Year 50 Day 159
Day 159: Quite happily, I’m feeling much better today. Not quite back up to 100%, but improvements have most definitely been made. So I’m not nearly as blue as it may appear (though it was fun to play with the lights in my home office window).
Year 50 Day 158
Day 158: All is fine now, but the day started with a late-night/early morning trip to the ER due to localized pain on my left side. The doctor thought perhaps kidney stones, but after bloodwork, peeing in a cup, and a CAT scan (my first…now there’s a milestone for you), I came back medically “unremarkable”. Apparently it was just severe gas. The photo was taken about 4:30 am, after four hours there, and an hour before we finally got to leave with a prescription for some medication. Today is completely blown for anything other than lying around in a sleepy, cranky daze.
Year 50 Day 157
Day 157: Had our morning interrupted by a fire alarm! Turns out it was an unannounced drill, so no real danger or anything, but it was definitely an unexpected minor adventure.
📚 Queen Wallis by C.J. Carey
55/2023 – ⭐⭐⭐
A sequel to Widowland, one of this year’s Philip K. Dick Award-nominated books, set in an alternate-history UK where Germany won WWII, and the UK is now an allied protectorate of Germany, under the nominal reign of Queen Wallace Simpson, entirely reduced to a figurehead. Following the events of Widowland, and in anticipation of the first diplomatic visit from the United States in years, England is under even tighter control. The importance of literature and poetry are important threads again, and the book does a good job of continuing the story after the climax of Widowland, picking up threads and quite believably ratcheting up the tension. I’ll definitely be interested to see if the series continues on.
Year 50 Day 156
Day 156: Some afternoons it’s really nice to be able to take a few minutes to step out on the balcony and watch students practicing softball down below.