Persistent, Niggling Questions

[Flying Gremlin]

They did only have her on screen for one job and not one second more. That scene happens near the end of the movie, it's less than 10 seconds and nothing more than a brief cameo, which that movie had plenty of.

Scene for scene, Cushing was done a lot better, and I do agree that they should have spent some more time on Fisher. However, if ILM is to be believed, Fisher liked it. Can't exactly ask her directly now, can we?

[NAHTMMM]

I think I figured they had a near-enough lookalike for Tarkin and CGI'ed/makeupped him the rest of the way, and CGI'ed Leia. She did look a little off to me.

[Nate the Great]

For complicated reasons the following questions occurred to me...

PNQ1: If the creators had wanted the Bajoran and Starfleet crews on DS9 to be more balanced, which main character could've been made Bajoran?
PNQ2: If the creators had wanted the Maquis and Starfleet crews on VOY to be more balanced, which main charater could've been made Maquis?

Okay, DS9 first. Looking over the main cast, I'm led to believe that Bashir could've been made a Bajoran with minimal tweaks. Let's say that his grandparents fled Bajoran space when the Cardassians invaded at the start of the Occupation. His family has enjoyed the prosperity of the Federation for decades, but Kira thinks his family are traitors for not staying behind and fighting in the Occupation. Keep the genetic modifications, Kukalaka, and so forth. His relationship with Garak would also have new dimensions.

Now VOY. This one's more of a toughie. I get it that between them Tuvok and Paris sort of had the "third Maquis" quota met, and Seska had that role early on, but still...

[Nate the Great]

That does raise the question....

PNQ: They couldn't find a suitable Princess Leia cosplayer that could be tweaked with CGI without making a complete virtual actor?
PNQ: For that matter, I'm reminded of her first confrontation with Vader. Pull her out away from the background, mirror image it, and tweak the lip movements a bit. Wouldn't that avoid most of the Uncanny Valley?

[Nate the Great]

So today I was reminded of an odd tradition...

PNQ: Do you dip your french fries in your milkshake?

[Nate the Great]

It should be noted that I'm not really a milkshake guy, unlike the rest of my family. I lean more toward root beer floats, and you'd never dip a french fry in one of those, would you?

[Flying Gremlin]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

PNQ1: If the creators had wanted the Bajoran and Starfleet crews on DS9 to be more balanced, which main character could've been made Bajoran?

I would have liked to have seen the original plan for the series come to fruition, with Lieutenant Ro being in the Major Kira role. Would have really thrown the Emissary in with not one but two Starfleet officers struggling with the concet.

Besides that, Bashir was a good candidate, but Dax would be my pick. Granted, the Trill did bring in some good stories, but the whole change the entire species thing to suit the one actress with a skin condition? Also, with the personal connection with Sisko could have made the decision in the pilot a whole lot more complicated.

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

PNQ2: If the creators had wanted the Maquis and Starfleet crews on VOY to be more balanced, which main charater could've been made Maquis?

None. It struck a good balance in between the different factions.

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

PNQ: They couldn't find a suitable Princess Leia cosplayer that could be tweaked with CGI without making a complete virtual actor?

That was a Leia cosplayer (of sorts).

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

PNQ: For that matter, I'm reminded of her first confrontation with Vader. Pull her out away from the background, mirror image it, and tweak the lip movements a bit. Wouldn't that avoid most of the Uncanny Valley?

I think they were trying to show off a little too much. After the success with Cushing (despite the problems noted above), I think they just went for a double down.

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

PNQ: Do you dip your french fries in your milkshake?

Only if it's a Wendy's Frosty, and that's not even a milkshake per se. Any other one is disrespecting the fry... and the milkshake.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: Are there any Francophones out there that could tell me how the humor translates in the French versions of these web animations?

Poor Monkey: English and French
Naughty Heffalump: English and French

[Nate the Great]

So I'm watching the SFDebris review of "And The Children Shall Lead" again, and I notice the early Federation flag.

Thirteen stars. We know that the four founding members were Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, and Tellar Prime, so what could the other nine be?

PNQ: Speculations?

Memory Alpha posits Alpha Centauri as a fifth founding member. "Journey to Babel" features six other races that could plausibly be founding members, with Alpha Centauri possibly being among their number.

Memory Beta places Alpha Centauri as fifth and Rigel as sixth.

Other planets from the Memory Beta page that seem likely as old members include Benzar, the Medusans, and Regulus.

But that's just a theory, a...oh, wait, that's another show.

[NAHTMMM]

I would absolutely agree Alpha Centauri is a founding member. There might be a few independent Vulcan colonies as well -- I don't think we hear much about Vulcan's colonization efforts in canon, but they've been exploring space longer than Earth has.

[Flying Gremlin]

Likely in addition to the ones cited some other independent Earth colony worlds. I know you don't like discussing ENT, but the best one I can think of is Terra Nova. Mars might actually be that way too, which is terraformed by the 24th century and seen in the 22nd in the early phases.

Rigel is also very likely... and the planet Babel.

[Nate the Great]

Regarding this strip of Irregular Webcomic...

PNQ: That's a Hitchhiker's Guide joke, not The Far Side, right?

[Nate the Great]

So the Switch is getting a version of Street Fighter II.

Depending on how you want to count them, that makes this around the seventh version of Street Fighter II.

PNQ: Considering that Street Fighter V came out last year, why can't this be Street Fighter VI?

Look, my experience with 2D brawlers basically starts and stops with Smash Brothers. However, I never got the impression that things like "plot" or "continuity" were important in these things. So why can't the entries just be numbered sequentially?

PNQ2: Was Street Fighter II just that legendary that it will sell the game sight unseen, hopefully selling a few more Switches in the process?

[Nate the Great]

The Irish folks over at Tested trying ice cream floats.

PNQ: What's your favorite float?

And I mean a float as in "a scoop of ice cream in soda pop."

Before this all I'd heard of is either root beer or coke in vanilla ice cream. I love root beer floats.

Strawberry ice cream in lemonade sounds kinda interesting.

Chocolate ice cream in cream soda...NO. That's just wrong. Then again, I don't really like cream soda by itself anyway...

Wikipedia has a whole page on the subject.

A "purple cow" (i.e. vanilla ice cream in grape pop) sounds interesting.

On a related subject, I'm also a fan of the wedding reception staple: rainbow sherbet in ginger ale. Whether or not that still counts as a "float" if the sherbet is half-melted is up for debate as well.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: If you could see any five movies from the past on a theater screen again, what five?

This question is inspired by a fan commentary of Singin' in the Rain, where they recommend watching the movie on a big screen if possible.

The thing is, I have seen movies on a big screen that get a lot of their value from the "wow factor" I'm talking about. The Hitchhiker's Guide and Speed Racer movies come to mind immediately. I believe I also saw The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on a big screen as well.

However, in the name of more interesting answers I'll lay down a few ground rules...
1. No Star Wars.
2. Pre-2000 only.
3. Live action only.

Would I want to see Singin' in the Rain on the big screen? Of course, but does it reach the top five? I'm not sure. I think the Sound of Music could make better use of the wow factor. Going a bit more obscure, I could only imagine how good Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines would look. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, just think of it!

[Flying Gremlin]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

PNQ: If you could see any five movies from the past on a theater screen again, what five?

No fair on the Star Wars thing, by the way.

2001: A Space Odyssey
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
The Matrix
The Fifth Element
The King and I

[NAHTMMM]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

PNQ: If you could see any five movies from the past on a theater screen again, what five?

However, in the name of more interesting answers I'll lay down a few ground rules...
1. No Star Wars.
2. Pre-2000 only.
3. Live action only.

1. Close Encounters is the easy pick.
2. Wrath of Khan
3. The Last Starfighter while we're at it.
4. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
5. The Wizard of Oz

[Nate the Great]

You did mean WILLY WONKA and the Chocolate Factory, right?

Of course, the Wizard of Oz!

The Ten Commandments springs to mind once I start to think about it.

[NAHTMMM]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

You did mean WILLY WONKA and the Chocolate Factory, right?

I most certainly did.

[Nate the Great]

I hope so. Have a nice piano cover of "Pure Imagination" someone made last year to commemorate Wilder's death.