Geekmas 2017: Starting Over.

The holiday season is here again, as marked by the inevitable drawing of names for our workplace gift exchange. In order to simplify the process for whichever of my co-workers has pulled the folded paper slip with my name from the traditional red velvet bag - or anyone else seeking seasonal gift-giving inspiration - here's my annual Geekmas Gift Guide.*

This year, I'm the victim of my own success, as it were - thanks to remarkable follow-through on gift suggestions last year, I'm obliged to pretty much start from scratch. My sincere thanks to all of the people who selected items from the list, and to my girlfriend Karli** for managing the process from behind the scenes.

As always, the following list has been selected to fit more or less within the $20 - $25 range applicable to workplace Secret Santas (and Karli's** immediate family). To keep things simple for potential gift-givers, I've tried to source as many things as possible from Amazon.ca or equally accessible retailers - which will make more sense when you get to the Toys section. 

Books
I've had a pretty good year for buying myself reading material, so I had to dig around a bit more than usual for this section.  However, that being said, my first choice here was easy: Artemis, the sophomore work from Andy Weir, author of The Martian.  Early reviews are positive, although there have been a couple of comments that Mr. Weir isn't completely successful in writing a female lead.

 

From the non-fiction aisle, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, by Sean Howe (whom you may recognize as the editor of Give Our Regards to the Atom-smashers!, which I picked up during our New York trip.).  If you're at all curious about the background behind Marvel's rise to fame, you may want to buy a copy for yourself, as well - or borrow mine.

A little Cancon to round things out, and a confession:  I've never read Margaret Atwood's classic dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale.  There, I admit it.

Other options would be Luna: Wolf Moon, by Ian McDonald; Red Seas Under Red Skies, by Scott Lynch, and The Murders of Molly Southbourne, by Tade Thompson.

By the way, as per the above stipulation regarding price range, paperbacks or trade paperbacks, please, no need to go hardcover.  


Movies
I know that the era of physical media is on the wane, but I'm still fond of my library of movies and TV shows - I think of it as my own little On Demand service. As always, blu-ray by preference - although we're starting to think about a 4K disc player to go with our 4K flatscreen.

 

How could I not ask for a copy of Wonder Woman, 2017's superhero feminist breakout movie? Well acted, well directed, and hopefully a how-to guide for future Hollywood female comic book character adaptations.

On the vintage movie front, I'm going to suggest the classic 1954 black and white SF/horror film Them.  If you're not familiar with Them, three words:  giant radioactive ants.  This movie frightened me beyond words when I first saw it at the age of ten - now I'm more appreciative of the manner in which it overcomes the limitations of Fifties effects technology with an excellent cast delivering excellent performances. (And the debut of the giants ants still scares me a bit.) Alert fans will catch a brief appearance by a youthful Leonard Nimoy as an Air Force staff sergeant. 

Either Rogue One or The Force Awakens would be useful additions to the lineup, although I lean a bit toward Rogue One:  The Force Awakens will probably end up being part of an eventual purchase of the sequel trilogy, whereas all evidence would suggest that there won't be another Rogue One movie.

And, as a wildcard suggestion, any of the DC Animation Justice League series collections.  DC's animated adaptations have been uniformly excellent, with good storylines and superb voice acting.  If you're not certain, yes, Justice League Unlimited is part of the same group.



Toys
Yes, toys. As previously mentioned, toys are a huge part of the fan experience. My current haphazard collection is a bit idiosyncratic compared to the standard approach: it's not specific to a fandom, and I haven't invested thousands of dollars in it.  It's predominantly made up of contributions from other people in the form of gifts.

I don't have any Star Wars toys, and I honestly wouldn't know where to start in terms of recommending something from the list of options available - anyone buying me a Star Wars item has complete carte blanche.  However, if you want to pick up something a bit different, I'd love to have one of the Funko Fallout Legacy Collection toys - either the Lone Wanderer or the Power Armour figure.

 

Funko is better known for their ridiculously comprehensive selection of Pop! figures, but as you can see, they also produce more realistic action toys. To my surprise, the Fallout toys shown above can be found at walmart.ca - who knew? They're currently on sale, too.

And, in all fairness, if reading all of this has just made your head spin, not to worry - I'm completely content with gift cards. 

  - Sid

* To be honest, this isn't an easy process for me. My British mother left me with a marked reluctance to actually ask someone to give me a gift, which makes the whole idea of publishing a list of "I wants" a bit of a challenge. However, I take comfort in the fact that if someone has already made the gift-giving decision (or had it mandated by workplace imperatives), they may well be eager - if not desperate - for some guidance.

** My gorgeous girlfriend, to be accurate.

Toy Story.

For whatever reason, a substantial part of being a geek involves toy ownership. Toys have always been associated with being a fan - it's tempting to blame it on Star Wars, but as far back as 1934, fans of Buck Rogers mobbed Macy's Department Store in New York to buy the Daisy-produced XZ-31 Rocket Pistol.

My modest personal toy collection reflects my broad interests in the genre.  It's an idiosyncratic collection, based on entirely on whimsy and contributions from other people, which still manages to cover quite a wide range of fandom.

Scopedog, Defender, Warpig

I don't own the XZ-31 Rocket Pistol: my Buck Rogers sidearm of choice is a vintage XZ-38 Disintegrator pistol.  I also have a phaser, a communicator, a Halo UNSC M6 blaster, and a sonic screwdriver.  My treasured 09-ST Scopedog figure from the 1983 Armoured Trooper VOTOMS anime was a surprise stag gift: I had commented to my best man that it seemed unfair that there was a bridal shower but no tradition for pre-wedding gifts for the groom, and he was kind enough to get me something as a consolation prize.

My Spock bust and Dalek were also gifts, and my Major Matt Mason and matching Supernaut Power Limbs were impulse buys, based on childhood ownership.  I have a plastic Defender and a cast metal M.A.C. II Monster from the 1985 Robotech series but sadly, my GBP-1 VF-1J Veritech fighter came to an unhappy end many years ago.  There's a Starcraft Terran Marine "War Pig" figure that I believe was never sold in stores, but was instead a bagged promotional item of some sort, as well as a Batman toy, a Halo sniper that Colin gave me, 10th and 11th Doctor Who bobbleheads that were also from Colin, a wind-up Lost In Space robot, a GoBot, a Gundam figure of unknown origin, and of course, the classic 12 inch toy robot that I received as a fiftieth birthday gift at work.

Oddly enough, I have no Star Wars representation, other than a set of light saber chopsticks from Japan that Karli gave me - great souvenirs, but not toys as such.

Because my status as a geek and collector is a somewhat known phenomenon, one of Karli's co-workers suggested that if I was interested in that sort of thing, we should pay a visit to Toy Traders, located in Langley.  Recent weekend plans took us in that direction, so we decided to make a stop at the store.

For whatever reason, I had pictured a small collector's shop, a few hundred square feet with locked glass displays and so on, and I had hopes of possibly adding to my little Major Matt Mason collection.  When it came to the actual location, I was overwhelmed.

 

Toy Traders is an epic 17,000 square feet of toys, featuring an incredible selection of action figures, vehicles, busts, statuettes, models, games and accessories from virtually every part of the geek and fan spectrum. In addition to its massive and comprehensive inventory, the store is decorated with an astonishing collection of props and collectables: statues, masks, helmets, weapons, and costumes.

Photo by KT

The upper level of the store's warehouse space also showcases toys from Marvel Comics, Star Wars, the Muppets and other franchises in an amazing array of dioramas.

Photo by KT

I suspect that it would be easy for a fan who was obsessed, impulsive, rich (or all of the above) to blow ten grand in Toy Traders without even breaking a sweat - or or having to shop in more than one aisle. As an example, the 21 inch Skeletor statue shown below is characteristic of the pricing for the gorgeously detailed collectibles available at the store.

 

Rare and vintage collectables can be found in the Darkside section, located in a small upstairs mezzanine. I was surprised to see that a lot of the upstairs stock was loose, rather than Mint On Card or Mint In Package - I tend to associate serious toy collecting with toys still in sealed packaging.

I was a little tempted by the Captain Power action figures in the upstairs displays, both MOC and loose.  Not terribly pricey, and an unexpected trip down memory lane to the short-lived Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future series from 1987.*

Impressive though Toy Traders is, it's actually possible to find a few gaps in their inventory. For example, I didn't see any of Blizzard Entertainment's Heroes of the Storm action figures (my main interest is in the Starcraft characters) or any of the Fallout Legacy Collection. However, in the interests of fairness, it's 17,000 square feet of toys, I may well have just missed the right shelf.

After much thought, I decided to buy a Marvel Select Avenging Captain America action figure in the World War II costume from the movies.  I've always been fond of the character, and Marvel is completely unrepresented in my current lineup.  It's a well detailed and constructed figure, although there were a couple of rogue paint marks on his shield, which could either be mistakes or attempts to create the look of field repairs to the shield's finish.  Either way, I find the shield's red to be a bit dull, and may consider repainting it in a more vibrant scarlet.

As I was paying for my purchase, the young woman at the till asked me the pro forma "Did you find everything that you were looking for?" question. I initially delivered the equally pro forma, "Yes, thank you", but then decided to perjure myself, and replied, "Actually, to tell the truth, I was hoping to find some Major Matt Mason toys."

She frowned in a slightly puzzled fashion, but then from my right, a baritone voice replied, "We don't get a lot of Matt Mason toys, when we do , they go upstairs. Did you see the upstairs?  We had his Space Bubble come in recently, but it's gone now."

It turned out that I had attracted the attention of Matthew Purdy, the affable and knowledgeable owner of Toy Traders.  Sensing an opportunity, I mentioned to him that I had a co-worker who had inherited what might well be a quite rare selection of first generation Star Wars toys.  Purdy, who confessed to being a Star Wars collector himself, was obviously intrigued, and suggested that my co-worker contact his assistant to set up a possible meeting. So there may yet be a happy ending to Damon's search for a home for his Star Wars collectables.

Who knows, if all goes well, he might even get me something like a Toy Traders gift certificate by way of thanks - hint, hint.

- Sid

* Weregeek moment:  does anyone else remember Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future? It was an American-Canadian series that ran for one season in 1987.  It was an ambitious but not completely successful attempt to create an interactive TV program - viewers could buy toys that allowed them to shoot at the onscreen villains during combat scenes, and the villain's weapons would produce bright flashes of light that would be picked up by the toys and register as hits. (At one point, someone gave me one of the interactive toy/guns, a Captain Power Powerjet XT-7. I wonder where that ended up?) It was also ahead of its time in integrating computer graphic characters with the live action footage. 

The show had some surprisingly adult themes for a children's show, and the first (and only) season ended on a dark note with the death of a major character.  J. Michael Straczynski, who went on to create the Babylon 5 series, was the show's story editor and a contributing script writer and Jessica Steen, who played the role of Corporal Jennifer "Pilot" Chase, later appeared briefly as Doctor Elizabeth Weir on Stargate Atlantis before Torri Higginson took over the role.
 

Mutiny Up My Sleeve.*

 

Michael Burnham: All my life, the conflict inside me has been between logic, and emotion. But now it's my emotions that are fighting. I think about him and I want to cry. But... I have to smile. And I feel angry. But I want to love. And I'm hurt, but there's hope. What is this?

Ash Tyler: Ah, it's just... being human.

[She looks at him curiously, then offers him her hand]

Michael Burnham: Michael Burnham. Pleased to meet you.

Ash Tyler: Ash Tyler. We've met.

Michael Burnham: Have we? Let's try it again.  

Lethe: Star Trek: Discovery

To my surprise, I've somehow managed to watch all the episodes of Star Trek: Discovery to date.  For the record, this is more of an accomplishment than it sounds. I exist in a continual state of media deficit and there's a long list of things that have just dropped off my radar due to lack of time.  Having stayed in sync with Discovery, I’m pleased to say that I'm cautiously enjoying it.

 

Why cautiously, you ask?  Well,on the positive side, so far almost everyone in the cast of Discovery is delivering a noteworthy performance.  Although I was very impressed by Michelle Yeoh’s brief turn as Captain Georgiou (and disappointed by her premature departure), Jason Isaacs is now presenting us with a good solid take on Captain Lorca, who came to us as a cipher and is being filled in very nicely as the show develops.  Doug Jones is doing a brilliant job as Commander Saru - I don’t know if I should congratulate him or his makeup team, but the result is a completely believable alien character. 

It's a shame that Mr. Jones doesn't get more work as himself.  I realize that his slim physique makes him an ideal candidate for roles like Saru or Abe Sapien in the Hellboy series, but it would be interesting to see him perform without prosthetics more often. That being said, his ability to express emotion in spite of a substantial barrier of molded latex is astonishing.

Sonequa Martin-Green is excellent as Michael Burnham.  I hadn't seen much of her on The Walking Dead (see media deficit, above) but she's doing a very good job of showing us the challenges of Burnham's situation:  dealing with the ambiguities of being raised in a culture dedicated to logic and emotional control, and still coming to terms with the very different expectations and assumptions of human society.  Her performance is natural and believable: as with all good acting, it doesn't feel like acting at all.

However, I do have some misgivings about the show itself.  I constantly find myself wondering why they felt it necessary to make this show part of the Star Trek universe. It doesn’t feel very Trek-like at times:  the technology and uniforms don’t really match canon, the Discovery’s magical instantaneous mushroom** drive is one of the strangest pieces of technological bafflegab ever, and to be honest, I'm not wild about the look of the re-re-imagined Klingons very much. (Or their place in the plotline, for that matter.  Is it my imagination, or does everything just slow to a crawl every time we get a subtitled guttural update on the state of the Empire?)

The bridge of the Discovery is loaded with three or four new entries into the Star Trek catalogue of species, none of whom appear in any of the programs set in Discovery's future (or its past).  So far, except for Saru they're all ciphers, set dressing with no explanation - if the creators of the show just wanted to fill the seats, why not go with aliens from the original series?  The good news is that Discovery has been approved for more episodes, so hopefully we're going to start finding out about some of the other crewmembers as the show progresses.  Regardless, there's no reason that they couldn't have been Andorians, Orions, Denobulans, Kzinti***, or Tellarites, all of which already exist in canon.

Finally, I'm concerned that they're going to rely too heavily on Michael Burnham's logic-based contrarian nature.  It would be far too easy to reduce her dynamic to an internet meme:

MICHAEL:  I think we should do the thing. 

SOMEONE:  I order you not to do the thing.

MICHAEL:  Imma do the thing, because I was raised by Vulcans.

SOMEONE:  Doing the thing was right, but we still don’t trust you, because mutiny.

There’s a fine line between character consistency and lazy writing, and, frankly, this is what did Wesley Crusher in.  Too many of the early Next Generation plots irritatingly relied on some product of Wesley’s genius to save the day, to the point where it burned out the character's ability to contribute to storylines.  I've been relieved to see that recent episodes of Discovery have shown us more of Burnham's background and exposed some of her weaknesses and vulnerabilities, which helps to provide greater depth to the character.  Please keep working on that side of things, people - I'd really hate to hear anyone saying, "Shut up, Michael!" in a future episode.

- Sid

* This is the title of my favourite Max Webster album, and as such I am painfully pleased to be able to use it here.

** Yes, Laurie, a magic mushroom drive.  Seriously, watch the show if you don't believe me.

*** Actually, I've always been a little doubtful about the validity of the Kzinti in terms of canonicity.  Science fiction author Larry Niven was invited to adapt one of his Known Universe short stories as an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series in 1973, which perforce added his felinoid Kzinti to the Star Trek universe.  Regardless, I suspect that almost everyone considers them to be part of Niven's continuity rather than Star Trek's.