What if Star Trek went steampunk? #startrek #steampunk

I always admire the aesthetic of steampunk, but I can never really get into. I remember a steampunk comic serialized in Heavy Metal a while back that I enjoyed. I can’t remember the name of it now and I’m too lazy to sift through old magazines to find out. Anyway, while I’m not the biggest steampunk fan I really do enjoy seeing other people’s renditions of familiar pop culture icons envisioned in such style. Broadly speaking, I’m always into people taking works of art or entertainment and changing it in one key stylistic way, such as productions of Shakespeare plays set in modern times or Pat Boone’s renditions of hard rock and heavy metal songs (I still much prefer his version of Panama to the original).

I was rather hoping that the steampunk version of Star Trek that’s been floating around in my head was an original idea. A quick search on the Internet proved other whiles. It’s not matter, as I don’t intend on producing fan art or making my own costumes for conventions. It’s really only to amuse myself. I figured I’d share—I’m having a lazy Sunday and I couldn’t muster up the energy to write anything relevant or intellectual. Maybe somebody would read this and get inspired to make something their own. Or I could just be fulfilling my word count requirements for a blog post. Either way, let’s have some fun with this.

My version of Steam Trek would start in the Next Generation era. I know, it wouldn’t make sense to start with that title. But I really want to throw in a “Data, the Mechanical Man” idea in there. I’ve always been a fan of “Next Gen” more so than the others, anyway. So we’d start with the Airship Enterprise-D. I wouldn’t make too many changes to most of the cast aside from Troi and Worf. Because I’m keeping the outer-space elements out of this, Troi would just really be intuitive about what people are really thinking. As far as Worf is concerned—I had the idea that Klingons this time around would be humans from a culture that values everything that the originals do (honor, war, etc.). The ones that we interact with the most would be big brutish types that wear helmets with ridges going down the middle—not much unlike the ones they wear in the most recent movie.

Alright, I mean exactly like the ones they wore in the most recent movie. But I thought of the idea before seeing it, damn it.

We would get stories in which the Airship Enterprise-D crew encounters the infamous magician and trickster Q;, the enemies from another land named the Romulans, who have the power to hide their own airships with mirrors; and the Borg. Yeah, I’m not quite sure how to make the Borg steampunk but that sounds like a fun experiment to try.

From there we move on to Deep Sea Nine, a mining station on the ocean floor that the Federation of Nations re-purposed to suit their needs as a research facility. When it is revealed that the cave next to Deep Sea Nine quickly leads to a faraway section of the ocean in which a whole civilization of undersea dwellers live, which is ruled mostly by the Changelings, masters of disguise and camouflage. I know it doesn’t sound steampunk necessarily but it can work.

Airship Voyager wouldn’t be hard to do. It could just crash in a faraway land and the crew converts it to a large land vehicle that they try to use to get back home with. At some point I suppose it would make sense to include the original series in this. And then we would have to include Enterprise in all of this…. Actually, on second thought, we don’t. I for one wouldn’t miss it.

Can I still watch Cosby on television?

With Bill Cosby once again in the news because of the allegations against him, I want to revisit a theme that I’ve discussed before on this blog. Is it possible to separate the art from the artist? Before we get carried away here I want to stress that I make no assumptions about his possible guilt. Yes, I am aware that several women have come forward to speak out against him. It’s still a matter of “he said/she said.” Besides, whether or not anything happened is irrelevant to the main point of this blog post. The amount of damning testimony against him is enough to make one think twice about his character if it turns out that he’s not guilty after all. Even if it wasn’t for the sexual allegations over the course of the last few years I’ve found myself detesting his conservative viewpoints on a lot of issues. That doesn’t mean I hate the man but I feel like I have to justify to myself supporting him.

So, can I enjoy anything that he does without feeling weird about it? Before I go into any of Cosby’s works specifically I should reiterate the point that I made on an earlier blog post* that if I couldn’t separate the art from the artist I wouldn’t be able to listen to the metal bands that I do. My CD collection includes works by arsonists and murderers. I watch Woody Allen movies and I’ll listen to Wagner. I can’t sacrifice my own personal enrichment based on the views or activities of somebody else.

In Cosby’s case, would the allegations against him affect my viewing of The Cosby Show or my listening of his comedy albums? In this case it can feel a bit weird, considering the sexual nature of the allegations and the family friendly atmosphere of his works. But I always took The Cosby Show on its own merits, knowing full well that I don’t even agree with the points made within the show. I still have nostalgic feelings for it. Most of all, even though The Cosby Show was initially based on Cosby’s stand-up and was more or less “his” show, it was the product of many people. I can only assume that they didn’t all agree on everything.

Furthermore—and I don’t think this is a point that I raised before—just because somebody did one thing that’s undesirable it doesn’t make them an undesirable person overall. We’re only discussing one aspect of their personality or past. I know that’s a hard argument to take when it comes to a murderer or rapist. I doubt that I would associate myself with those people on a personal level. But at the same time they could also have a great creative side. They might have political views that I agree with. They could just have a pleasant personality. Punishment is another topic altogether but we have to recognize that nobody is just one “type” of person. Everybody has different aspects to their personality.

So maybe the question isn’t a matter of separating the art from the artist, but separating the artist from the overall person. In the meantime I’m going to still enjoy The Cosby Show as lazy afternoon viewing.

*Sorry, I would normally link to said post but this time I’m embarrassed to say that I can’t find it.

Bringing back the metal.

I finally got around to writing a new blog post that could fall under the “Ragged Good Metal” category. I’m embarrassed that it took so long but the truth is that I haven’t been going to enough shows or listening to enough new releases to review. On top of that I haven’t been getting around to checking metal news if I ever decide to comment on it. Usually it’s only interviews anyway and if they spur any blog posts they would probably fall under other categories. My lifestyle has changed over the past year and these things haven’t been as easy to do. Less disposable income limits the amount of shows and CDs I can buy. It also forced me to cancel my Internet connection at home so I haven’t been able to listen to new releases on Spotify or check metal news sites as easily. Obviously I can get online but I usually don’t spend more than half an hour when I am these days. I sometimes think back to when I had a home connection and then wonder if I did the right thing by cancelling it. Then I remember how overpriced my service was when I didn’t even use half of what I was supposedly getting and I conclude that I did.

Lack of money isn’t the only reason I haven’t been exposing myself enough to metal. I have been going through a phase in recent months in which I haven’t been getting into metal as much as I used to. My love for the style of music hasn’t waned. I’ve just been listening to everything else. I pride myself on my eclectic tastes but it always feels weird when I analyze it. There comes a point after the absence of something I love after a while when I suddenly go “Oh, yeah, I forgot all about that.” Every time I put my iPod on shuffle I would skip the metal tracks because they wouldn’t fit in with the other stuff. Then I feel like I should be isolating the metal tracks and listening to those exclusively.

As a musician I haven’t quite reached the level of playing that I would consider worthy of applying to metal. Shadows of Immurement is getting heavier (in my head, at least) but overall I still wouldn’t consider it metal. Instead it’s becoming its own thing. I’m fine with that. A long time ago I came to the conclusion that whatever music I love to listen to might not necessarily be the best for me to express myself with. I need to let whatever comes out of me flow naturally. One of these days, however, I need to look into maybe getting lessons with somebody in order to play the music I most enjoy to listen to so I can at least have some fun with it. I would relegate that practice to the realm of hobbies, however, so it’s on the back-burner for now.

I’m not using this post to announce a wave of regular metal blog posts. I wish I could but that stupid lack of money problem is still there. There’s also a matter of time. Metal reviews for the blog are not my primary use of writing. On top of that it takes time to listen to all of that material. I have driving time and jogging time but neither of those work if I want to take notes. But I can work out all of that time-management stuff later. Right now I have to get around financial concerns first. In the meantime, I have several hundred metal CDs and tapes (and one Saxon record… yes, I know, my vinyl collection sucks). They will satisfy me well enough. I can’t remember if I mentioned this before but if I did it was a long time ago. I actually feel a hunger when I haven’t been listening to metal. It really feels like a physical need. I’ve been starving myself for a long time. Maybe as I gorge myself with my own collection I’ll get around to reviewing older material.