Random updates, the night before class starts

[rivkat]

 1. I'm trying the federated thing but not super sure how it works/how I will use it in a way that is not like Dreamwidth. Me: https://fandom.stopthatimp.net/channel/rivkat

2. Along with Black Lightning, I am enjoying S1 of The Orville far more than I probably should. It's not exactly good, but it is trying one thing with total commitment (being Star Trek with sitcom-office-interactions among the crew who are after all doing a job that in their universe is just a job).  I'm oddly charmed.

3. I just saw an announcement for a con called FanWorks and felt good about being a norm entrepreneur.  I do think there was a point in calling the varied kinds of fan creativity we wanted to preserve "fanworks"--"works" has a politics around labor and desert, and while it takes the focus off of the process of creation, which is valuable in and of itself, I think we needed that at the time because it was the material and immaterial artifacts that we needed to publicly protect and defend.

Comments

[cesperanza]

Re: federation, two things: 1) it works like DW but also has features from other networks: reblogs, notifications, chat, DM, wiki, art gallery, and interoperability with video sites like Peertube, so vids, etc.

Re: the Orville--I felt that way too! A network friend of mine sent me a bunch of eps to me before it aired, because I think the network was skeptical about it, and he wanted to know if it was the sort of thing my sort of fandom would like, and the husband and me, we DID like it. I think my friend was a bit O-o but we've been proven right, I think--it got renewed!

[rivkat]

I mean, I'm not loving the male/female gender politics--my big contrast here is B99, which really seems to have internalized that it's not just about having "strong female characters." I like the basic project a lot, but I wonder if it could be done with a little less stiffness. Have you watched Lost in Space (the reboot from last year)? I thought it was fantastic at "good people doing important jobs with legitimate conflicts."

[cesperanza]

Well considering it's Seth McFarland--!!! Though that said, the skinny I got was that the network wanted him to make it crasser, because that's McFarland's brand, while McFarland, who's apparently a Trekkie, wanted to do old Star Trek for serious. I don't know where the gender politics land in that conflict, though yes, there's absolutely a kind of "oy my mother in law" vibe about the whole thing. It's not anywhere near to B99 I think in this regard, but B99 seems pretty special to me.

I have not seen Lost in Space! I will check it out.

[samjohnsson]

The Orville in a lot of ways feels like Star Trek in the same way Galaxy Quest does. It is very self-aware and aware of all of the tropes. It occasionally leans way too far into the comedy, but they also trick you into real "Trek" plots and morals, too.

[rivkat]

I'll definitely buy that it's a ST series in the same way that GQ is a ST movie (and a better ST movie than some official ST movies). As I said above, I have quibbles with the execution, but I respect the commitment and I like real Trek plots.

[destina]

Re The Orville, I stopped after ep 3 because of the tonal issues I experienced (which clearly no one else is experiencing). It's not funny, and it's not serious enough not to be a parody, and it's got some really skeevy things about it that are off-putting, and...I feel like a Trek pastiche is not what I thought I'd be getting when I watched the first ep. So basically not Trek enough, and also too much like Trek, and not funny enough, and also not serious enough.

...I'm going back to watching Hannibal. *g*

[rivkat]

Oh, I agree that the tone is weird--too stiff in the acting for either the full Trek goodness or the office sitcom to really work for me. And I'm not thrilled with the treatment of consent/skeevy sexual harassment treated as just another one of those things you have to put up with in a multispecies starship. I do not disagree with anyone who finds those sufficient to stop watching. I'm still intrigued by the attempt to melt classic Trek and office sitcom and so I'm still watching (though only partway through S1).