#226: Galaxy Quest, SG-1 Mobius, FSL 2.0 Round 2

Podcasts Galactic Watercooler
#21

I just wanted to chime in with the others as a previous owner of the Solarquest game. Looking over that wikipedia entry made me nostalgic. We actually did finish a few games. If you could get most of the properties in Jupiter, you could murder your opponents.

(For those who never played, imagine owning the three green properties, Pacific-Pennsylvania, as well as Park Place and Boardwalk, all with hotels … and if your opponent didn’t roll well enough, instead of passing Go, they went back to Pacific and had to go through them again. It was rough.)

I might have to track down a copy on eBay or somewhere.

#22

Galaxy Quest. God, I love this movie. It has way too many great moments for something that seems on the surface to just be a Star Trek parody.

I have to agree with Audra. That scene with Mathesar lying on the table. The entire movie, he and the other Thermians have been using that overly-dramatic voice, “You are our last hope” to such humorous effect. Then, in that scene, he uses the same exact voice, that same exaggerated expression and at the same time manages to convey such sadness and bewilderment. It’s just damn incredible. That actor is amazing.

Another similar moment in the same movie is the “By Grabthar’s hammer …” moment. You see it in the shots of the old show, cheesily done. Then, you see Alan Rickman at the signings and the store opening and understand just how banal that line has become for him. When he’s holding the dying Thermian and says that line to him, Rickman does it with such conviction and it gives me chills. You know at that moment, some mother-sorrybarb is gonna pay.

#23

I forgot to mention in my earlier post my thoughts on O’Neill’s accent - I totally thought he was just from the Upper Midwest. The “about” was a little more Canadian than Midwest, but the rest of it? Sounded like where my parents live.

#24

Yeah, he’s almost broadcast standard, but that ‘out’ is a tell.

Maybe he’s from upstate New York? (brief glance at Audra)

#25

What the heck do ya mean? RDA is from Minnesota. :smiley:

Fargo accent!

#26

Re: The Board Game discussion. I’m not a big fan of Family Circus, but there was this one, years ago, that I will often quote to my students:

"It’s not whether you win or lose.

It’s how you lay the blame."

#27

A have a few thots about “are video games art” question.

I’m certainly not up on modern video games—don’t really have to the time to devote to the hobby, though I would if I could. So I can’t really offer a direct opinion on that.

But to me its a question of whether art that involves a component that happens on the fly can be art.

My kids do yoga, and there’s a yoga “recital” at the end of the year, the kids do their things, but the adult yoga class does their performance too.
Now, if you’ve every see a yoga performance by people advanced in the art, it really is amazingly beautiful. (Mind you I’m not an expert in yoga and maybe this is just the type they do at the studio my kids go to). In contrast to dance, yoga involves a lot creativity on the fly—in other words—even though there are “official” yoga positions, a yoga performance involves performance integrating what they feel the want to do within a semi structure performance. And to my mind its art just like an dance art form.

Other example is jazz music. Personally I’m not a huge fan of jazz music—don’t dislike it, but not my fav. But jazz is another art form where a lot of creativity happens in the moment and “on the fly”.

Anyway, that’s my two cents. If yoga and jazz music are art, then certainly todays advanced video games must also be called art.

#28

Thot, I think his concern was with audience interaction – that anything where the audience can decide how the story plays out can’t be art. And I might even agree, if we’re judging it entirely in terms of movies.

I guess I think the argument falls apart when he applies it to art forms other than movies. Games by definition include an audience interactivity, but in my book they can still tell effective stories.

#29

Yeah, I guess it’s not too difficult to see it from Ebert’s point of view. He’s a guy that has lived and breathed movies and is maybe the most recognized movie critic in the country. I can see how he’d be defensive about the idea that video games are on par with movies.

No one, not even he, could argue however that a lot of art goes IN to make today’s ultra graphical, story-based video games. Speaking as an outsider to the hobby, even I can see it’s pretty amazing stuff.

#30

If performance art is art (and a lot of what I’ve seen depends upon interaction with the audience), then video games can definitely be seen as art, though I’d argue that perhaps one needs a different vocabulary to talk about it than one would with, say, film or literature or sculpture. Perhaps a better comparison would be the way film has come to be seen as art (well, certain films, ahem, by certain people) and a general resistance (maybe this is more academic but it does seem to be a popular critic position as well) towards accepting television as an art form. However, you can’t just take one set of tools (to talk about film, for example) and plop it down thinking it will work in another medium. They can be useful, yes, but different mediums require different ways of thinking, in my mind (of course there are commonalities as well).

#31

I agreed with Audra a lot on this point; I love “Galaxy Quest,” I loved it since I saw it in the theater, but one thing that has always bugged me is a minor point, but it’s one the doesn’t go away.

Brandon has a girl in his posse of geeks, but she has no lines, no name, and she’s doesn’t even get to play a role inthe big geek rescue during the climactic showdown, while his male friends get to shine and conquer the aliens because of their geeky knowledge.

Audra’s said this before on other casts, but that girl really is there to stop the boy geek club from being a sausage fest, and it irks everytime, and serves to back up her argument even more.

Good film anyway though; and great discussion as always.

#32

As always an excellent way to spend a couple of hours.
Galaxy Quest is one of my favourite movies not just in the scifi genre but as a whole, I’ve owned it on DVD and double dipped with the recent Blu-ray release. I should be grateful digital video tapes never really took off, I would probably have bought GQ on that format as well;)

Mobius (1 & 2) made up a cracking season even series finale, a time travel episode which took deep pleasure in the convoluted nature of causality even allowing variants of Sam and Jack to get together which lets be honest we all wanted to see. There were times I wondered if Jack was part of a conspiracy to make sure Sam’s few and far between relationships never quite worked out, it was risky fancying Sam:D

#33

Don’t stop with the gender arguments, Audra! As usual, I find myself agreeing with you. I really appreciate the more in-depth analysis you bring to the table of gender oppression and looking at other outcasts from society.

I got into Trek watching re-runs of TOS in the exile years, when we had nothing else. And besides it being SciFi, the other thing that drew me to it- and including in TNG- was the idea of social justice and including those usually not included in society. If this is to be a parody of Trek, then it needs to address those issues as well- and it does. Trek was great in a lot of ways, but TOS was still big on the objectifying of women, and as much as Capt. Douch Bag was an a-hole, he at least stopped after that the objectifying of Counselor Troy, and we started to treat her as a real officer and not merely eye candy.

I had no idea Al Franken was that intelligent and well-read. He really knows where it’s at.

But I think, if looking for female role-models, he really missed out by not including Xena. The show was great for the folk religious elements (which is why I watched it), but she also had two great acting qualities.

(I think I just completely negated my first point.)

#34

I liked Galaxy Quest, but like Audra, I noticed how the women were portrayed in the movie. I think that sometimes our assumptions run so deep that we don’t recognize them as assumptions. So when women are relegated to supporting roles it might not be a conscious choice, but it shows up again and again, even in parody.

And woo hoo for Baconface! Queen of the fantasy league! Woo!

#35

Just wanted to say, is there some sort of Existential Simone de Beauvior action going on? Perhaps… but seriously… seriously. We"re talkin bout Galaxy Quest… as Allen Iverson sed, we talkin bout Practice… Practice! This film is silly… and excels in being silly. They can step thru the 4th wall without needing to present a perfectly egalitarian view of society… I havent heard any discussion about “the black guy”, and the ways that his character is employed…
Anyways, I enjoy the flick, aside from their narrow minded expression of the lil greys… but i can forgive that.

“we pretend to entertain…”

#36

Welcome aboard, NIghtcrawler, and good points.