My wife and I are currently going through season 2 of Star Trek: TNG and I must say that I had completely forgotten how wonderful the series was. Oh sure, I remembered my enjoyment of it as a feeling of pleasure at mention of the series but the memories of the episodes themselves had faded long ago.

To be fair season one was highly didactic in its scripting and dredged up the worst memories of the original series without nearly half the action. Still one has to admire the daring vision of the Federation. The idea of a future where mankind is free to pursue enlightenment and fullfillment without fear of daily privation is both wonderous and incredible to the modern observer. It is a paradise emphemeral, a dream that we as a species can only dare to aspire to. Power and responsibility in tandem as the norm. A truly awe inspiring vista.

Yet as I am on the subject, viewing it with an adult eye I can see the flaws more clearly. One of the greatest of these is Patrick Stewart. Now before someone crusifies me for that statement let me also add that Stewart is the series' greatest strength. The problem with having him on the show is that he is such a damn good actor that just about everyone else manages to look foolish when he's not there. This isn't to say he overbears the others, by no means is this the case. However when the man really gets going the spell he weaves is so enthralling that the next person to speak will inevitably let us down.

More reimpressions will follow, but for now I've a starship to catch.

Who Holds the Troof

He is strong who holds the Troof. His name is great and wide. For soof tis de Troof.

Thunderain Insomnata

Thunderain Insomnata

Lordy loo
Two-o'clock
Comes a knock
Lock the door
Speak no more
Let it roar
Toward the sea
Vocif'rously
Let it be
The dragons' lee
See arrayed
The thunder-lei
Bright as day
Says the rain
Speaking plain
Please insert a poetic device to continue...

Never Always Perfect

Perfection
A Neverist's Sojourn

Never always perfect,
Strumming to conceit,
Lead to play
In my own way
The cantus of defeat.

Always never perfect,
A sad and affair of state,
To suffer through
A point of view
Where lacking is my fate.

So my stepson Jonathan is reading the first book in the Dark Tower series by the redoubtable Steven King entitled "Gunslinger." He has the mass market paperback edition in his hands and he leans over to me and points out that the foreward and introduction to the book occupies a full 19 pages of text. Crazy.