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Monday, August 22, 2011

Star Trek Blogfest & Campaigning For Platform

This is kind of an ambitious week for me as a blogger.  I'm taking on two blogfests.  The first one is the Star Trek one going on over at Ellie Garratt's blog.  The second one is the platform-building campaign taking place over at Rach Writes... with Rachael Harrie.  I figured since both are different and one is getting started slightly before the other, that I think I could do both.  Hmmm.  My brain may explode.

Okay, first up are the rules for the Star Trek blogfest.  Post your top five episodes, characters, or films and tell us why you love them.

I'm a big fan of Star Trek: Voyager so my top two favorite episodes come from the Voyager season four finale called Scorpion 1 & 2.  Up above you'll find my favorite scene from Scorpion 1.  It's a short clip and really sums up the awesomeness of the series finale.  Upon seeing this, I had to wait all summer to get the conclusion.  Talk about cliff-hangers.

Scorpion introduced us to Species 8472 who was at war with the Borg.  Now previously, the Borg had been established in the Next Generation via the episodes Q Who, and the Best of Both Worlds to be essentially a type 6 lifeform which is really darn powerful.  Type 6 lifeforms were far above humans and the Borg were so hostile that nothing seemed to be able to threaten them.  Well lo and behold, a species from an organic universe went to war with them and Species 8472 had planet destroyers!  If you watch the clip (pardon the dumb subtitles in another language) you will see them destroy a Borg planet in basically ten seconds (killing like 9 billion borg in one swoop).  It really got me excited to watch this show. Oh and we got a new cast member out of this...the Borg 7-of-9 which I thoughy became a great addition to the show.  Cheers to Jerri Ryan.

In Next Generation, I liked the episodes The Best of Both Worlds, part one and two.  These were incredibly well done and followed up on an enemy that we only had a glimpse of in a prior season (but knew were badass).  Plus we saw some interesting things happen with Jean Luc Picard.

The borg as villains had many good things going for them. One, their technology was impressive. Two, they had a hive mind which goes against all human individuality. Three, they had this mantra that they uttered constantly in one voice, "RESISTANCE IS FUTILE! YOU SHALL BE ASSIMILATED!" It just doesn't sound like a pleasant experience at all.

And then from the original Star Trek series (first-season in fact) I liked the episode "Space Seed" because it gave us Khan Noonien Singh who returned in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.  This is one of the best Star Trek movies ever not only because it gave us a frickin' awesome villain in Ricardo Montalban, but it also gave us the Genesis device which was quite frankly, incredible.

The Genesis Device quite frankly, was an incredible weapon. It was better than the Death Star in Star Wars. Imagine being able to totally destroy a planet filled with your enemies and have it terraformed for your habitation within a week...completely cleansed of all the life that you hated.  I was in awe of the device and the implications of it were so grandiose, that Genesis carried the theme of the third movie and even to some extent, the fourth movie as well.

This concludes my highlights of why I love Star Trek and I'm off to check out other blogs in the blogfest.

Also don't forget to check in on Rach Writes... if you too are as ambitious as I in getting to know more bloggers out there.  You get to add this pretty badge to your blog...how cool is that?

See you Tuesday :)

58 comments:

  1. Yep, Seven got my attention too. Honestly, the plot line was way above the other television shows of the day. Really, it had nothing to do with Ms. Ryan - really! No, really!

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  2. Wonderful reasons why ST is just fabulous! Can't argue with Seven of Nine - a great character - much needed in Voyager!

    Thank goodness for Genesis - else Mr Spock would have been truly lost!

    Take care
    x

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  3. Wrath of Khan was fantastic! Good luck this week completing 2 blogfests. That's ambition.

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  4. I'm doing that platform thing too! :)

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  5. I really didn't like most of Voyager. Most of the episodes fell into what my brother and I called "Alien of the Week" where some new alien would show up and screw with Voyager and then the Doctor and 7 of 9 would save the day.

    And no love for DS9 or Enterprise?

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  6. What makes Star Trek so great is there's something for everything. Voyager wasn't one of my favorites (thought still good), yet I love DS9. And there a Trek fans that didn't care for that one. But that's okay: it's all Trek.

    Dan

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  7. 7of9 definitely made me an avid viewer of Voyager!

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  8. Star Trek is AWESOME!!!!

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  9. So glad to see you are a voyager fan. I loved the series too. Great post :O)

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  10. Ha ha ha! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you, but I'm sure you'll be capable of preventing any brain explosions!

    Nice to meet you, fellow Campaigner!

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  11. I love your choices. Nice to meet another Utahn.

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  12. It was funny but I didn't see Wrath of Khan until later... for some crazy reason I missed the films I am ashamed to say. I did however see The Menagerie on big screen a couple of years ago when they rereleased (and redid special effects) the original series. It was awesome on the big screen! Great post (of course how can you go wrong with a Star Trek post- blogfest or not? guaranteed hits!) Cheers!

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  13. BTW: nice picture. Very classy!

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  14. Well, hello there, familiar face! So happy to see you in the campaign. Should be so fun. :)
    Edge of Your Seat Romance

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  15. It is hard to pick just five favorites isn't it?

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  16. This was a great list. Thanks for sharing.

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  17. Hi Michael, I'm visiting from the Campaign. Sounds like you've taken on quite a bit of blogwork!

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  18. If I had a longer list, Seven of Nine definitely would have been on it. And The Wrath of Khan? What more can I say besides, it rocked!

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  19. Wrath of Khan was the best film by far. Loved your choices!

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  20. Sounds like you have a whirlwind type week up ahead. I'll refrain from commenting about Star Trek, except to say I enjoyed it as a child. Enjoy the hop! Nice to put a face to the name too.

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  21. Ah, another Khan fan. I have to rewatch Voyager. It's been forever and I was always so addicted to the original and TNG. Also, 7 of 9's outfit rocked...and that face thing...I want one. :)

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  22. Little known fact: Khan's seat on the bridge was made of Corinthian leather.

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  23. There's so much to love about Star Trek. Khan was awesome.

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  24. I loved Seven and the whole Borg story. Great look back at all the wonderful shows.

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  25. Great selections! Those Borg episodes in Voyager and NG were chillingly good. I can't remember, did the Borg ever show up in DS9?

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  26. I'm so glad they had a borg reformed. I thought 7 of 9 rocked, too! :)

    ♥.•*¨Elizabeth¨*•.♥
    Can Alex save Winter from the darkness that hunts her?
    YA Paranormal Romance, Darkspell coming fall of 2011!

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  27. You know, during it's run, Voyager got a real bad rap from the larger trek community. But it put out some truly great episodes.

    Good times those were. I wish I could relive the 90's.

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  28. Hunh. Guess I jumped ship on Voyager too soon since I missed that episode. A villain worse than the Borg? Why have I never heard of this? Most informative blogfest post.

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  29. I've been seeing a lot of the same episodes and characters popping up on blogs doing this blogfest, but so far no love for Wesley crusher. I wonder why...

    mood

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  30. Great choices! Voyager is one of my all time favorites too! :)

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  31. Best of luck with the blogfests, Michael! And the Borg were pretty cool. I want to walk around and yell the mantra at people now.

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  32. Great combination of Star Trek and the Platform-Building Campaign as the first will inspire the second! I just joined the campaign and thought I'd stop by to introduce myself!

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  33. Hi Michael! Nice to connect with you today.

    I am a HUGE ST: Next Generation fan too. The Borg? I think all the Borg episodes are genius.

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  34. I think Jerri Ryan was a fantastic addition to Voyager. Love her! :)

    Great choices - Khan rocks!!

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  35. Hi Mike, nice to meet you as a fellow crusader on Rach's campaign... Ohh I'm a huge Star Trek fan - the blogfest by Ellie sounds good.

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  36. So glad you're campaigning! Have a great week!

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  37. Fellow campaigner stopping in! Lovely meeting you & can't wait to read more of your blog posts!

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  38. Loved your choices. 7-of-9 is why I went back to watching Voyager. Star Trek 2 was fantastic.

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  39. Hello fellow campaigner! Just dropping by to say hello. I'll see you around. :)

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  40. Welcome to the campaign, and thanks for warping around the galaxy with us.

    I was never that big a fan of 8472, but I loved the awesome potential of the Genesis device for good or evil, and the Borg were great villains. (And there's no denying that Jeri Ryan is hot.)

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  41. Hi, thanks for stopping by my blog, it looks like a great writecampaign :) so many different people to read and talk to! Exciting :)
    - andrea

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  42. Hi Mike. I'm a big Trek fan myself. Any flavor. Any time period. Books, TV shows, movies, I love them all!

    I'm taking part of the platform campaign too and look forward to campaigning with you.

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  43. Perfect list, couldn't agree with you more.

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  44. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts about Rach's platform-building campaign. I've heard a lot of great things about it!

    BTW, I've left a response to your comment on Marlena Cassidy's blog, http://marlena-cassidy.blogspot.com/2011/08/guest-post-author-interview-with.html.

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  45. Great list. Star Trek had so many great characters. People may make fun of it, but it's been copied over and over again...b/c it's a great franchise.

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  46. I'm a fellow campaigner in the SF group -- looking forward to learning more about you as the months go on.

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  47. Hello, Michael. As you can see, I'm still working my way through the list... *grins*
    Yes! The Wrath of Khan. Love the mentions. The new film was quite good, I must admit. I thought Wrath of Khan had everything. It was a home run which still stands up even today.

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  48. I watched very few Voyager episodes - it just didn't jive with me for some reason - but I did love the characters. 7 of 9 was very interesting.

    These were good choices.

    .......dhole

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  49. You know I've never heard of Species 8472 till this blogfest. Maybe that's why I never liked "Voyager" I didn't stick around long enough to get to the good stuff.

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  50. I think yours has to be the most interesting intro post that I've read in a while!!


    I'm another campaigner and we're in the post-apocalyptic/ dystopian group together :D

    I'm slowly making my way around everyone!

    I'm a new follower :D

    http://thegreatthegoodandthebad.blogspot.com/

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  51. Just a heads up, I have set up a Google Reader with all of Dystopian Group 21 in it to help organize all of our . Link is:

    http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user%2F08181744977128699830%2Flabel%2FDystopian%20Group%2021

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  52. Hey Michael, Fellow Campaigner here. Happy to be a member of Club Awesome!

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