Dispatch Ajax! Podcast
A Geek Culture Podcast - Two life-long Geeks explain, critique and poke fun at the major pillars of Geek Culture for your listening pleasure.
Dispatch Ajax! Podcast
Teaser: Musings on Fandom
Nostalgia colors our perception of beloved franchises, sometimes more powerfully than any objective quality measurement could. We dive deep into how childhood memories shape our connection to stories like Star Wars and Star Trek, and why it's perfectly valid for people to hold differing opinions about which iterations of these franchises succeed or fail.
Yeah, I mean our lens that we're viewing it from is wholly different, the same way that someone who saw episode one as their first Star Wars you know.
Speaker 1:I know people who, yeah, part of it. I mean, you'd like to think that once you see a better version of that story, that you then gravitate towards that, because we all have this idea that cream will rise to the top, but that's not always the case. A lot of it it's what you bring to it, it's what you hold to your heart. You know, in childhood memories. It's a much more complicated thing than like the best wills out. That's not always the case, and I think part of my personal journey is understanding that. I guess that's okay.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, that I don't agree, but that's fine. You know, I think there are some hills I still will choose to die on and that, just because your opinion is vastly different than mine, you know, doesn't mean it's not valid or worthy. I think if we try and have a debate about that, I can bring that up. And if you want to have a discussion about which one is better, for what reason, I think you then open yourself up to evisceration with your what I would consider bad take. But you are completely valid and allowed to have your take, however good or bad, I deem it and that's. That's fine, I think, especially when the star wars land, when you start to reclaim what was good and then alter it to make it worse, in the vein of lucas redoing his original films. I think that's where I have a big problem, but that's that's again a whole nother.
Speaker 2:That's where I have a big problem, but that's again a whole other. That's funny, too, because I was thinking. I was literally thinking about that right before we started this. Have you seen any of the Eugene Roddenberry stuff that they've put out? They put out a bunch of like high production value, no Sort of like fan film stuff. Yes, but like by the Roddenberries Like, yes, but like by the roddenberries, like like in canon by the rod, like it's officially star trek is. Is anything they put out officially star trek? Well, I mean technically, yes, because they still have all the copyright.
Speaker 1:I just don't know, I mean who. Who then makes that, you know?
Speaker 2:I mean contract mean contractually, yes, it is Okay. So they put out a bunch of stuff that like is technically in canon and bridges certain things in the movies and TV shows that was never addressed, and so, like they put out one well, they put out several, but like they have a bunch of of like really high production value but very short videos, sort of little vignettes that talk about what happened in between certain things. They did one that it's the only time that Shatner ever came back to Star Trek. He wouldn't come back under any other conditions other than this that he did. It's called reunification. And he comes back but they do a whole, like he does his whole, whole shtick. Like he does his whole, like he acts in the scene and what have you. But then they have another actor come in and then they digitally, sort of like superimpose shatner on the dude which is crashed down by the way from battlestar random. So they do a whole thing where they explain 15 different unanswered Star Trek plots in one small vignette and Shatner himself comes back and does it, and it's this big thing and it's actually I hate to say it really good. It made me cry every time I saw it, but it's one of those things where, like it's like, okay, another example of where Star Trek gets how to do these things. Like how to, if you're going to do this, if you're going to, like, revisit your old properties and then redo them, star Trek figured it out somehow.
Speaker 2:Star Wars can't. They just don't seem to, you know, like the special editions are terrible. The Star Trek special editions somehow work because they don't overthink it. They don't overdo it. There's no ego there. When the Star Trek Special Editions came out, they had Arena, where now the Gordon can blink. Okay, great, awesome. The fucking Star Wars Special Edition comes out and they introduce some gremlin that does a fucking thing in Jabba's palace. What the fuck is that?