TV Review: Star Trek Voyager

On June 1, 2015May 11, 2015 By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science Fiction7 Comments

I’ve been a Star Trek fan ever since I was ten or twelve or thereabouts–whenever it was my dad first showed me “The Empath.” Since then, I watched every episode of Classic Trek, and sizable chunks of…almost everything else, even the animated series. But until recently, there was a gaping hole in my Star Trek experience. I had never watched Voyager. I’d seen maybe a dozen episodes and could identify every major character, but compared to the other series I felt decidedly unacquainted with Voyager. Happily, Netflix streams every series of Star Trek, so a year or so ago I set out to fill in this gap.

Voyager covers the adventures of the crew of the starship Voyager under Captain Janeway, lost in the Delta Quadrant with a 70 year journey ahead of them to get home. I watched the last episode a week ago. Here at the end of the journey, I think it was a decent show, but the weak link of the franchise. Mostly, I struggled with the characters. I know people who say they love this crew, and I liked them well enough by the end–but I had a lot of trouble connecting. Continue reading “TV Review: Star Trek Voyager” →

Favorite Quotes from Mr. Spock–and Friends

On March 13, 2015March 4, 2015 By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations5 Comments

It was a sad day recently when Leonard Nimoy died–the actor who brought us one of my very favorite characters, the ever (or usually) logical Mr. Spock. I watched “This Side of Paradise” that evening–a good Spock episode that shows his not so logical side.

For today’s post, I thought I’d bring together some of my favorite Spock quotes…but swiftly realized that they’re all “Spock and someone else” quotes. Which makes a lot of sense, because the truth is, I love the triumvirate of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. In a ranking of my favorite characters, those three have to be a unit, because it’s not so much any one of them as the way they all fit together.

One of the nicest compliments I ever got in the long ago days when I wrote Star Trek stories was when someone called me “the queen of Kirk, Spock and McCoy dialogue,” remarking that even in ridiculous situations, they still sounded like them.

I might quote myself another day 🙂 but for today, here’s some “Kirk, Spock and McCoy dialogue” from the original source. Continue reading “Favorite Quotes from Mr. Spock–and Friends” →

Weighing Down the Shelves…

On September 19, 2014September 18, 2014 By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations14 Comments

Before I get to the actual focus of this post, just a note about novel news! Last week I told you The Storyteller and Her Sisters was available for pre-order on Kindle. If Kindle’s not your thing, you can now pre-order other ebook formats through Smashwords! All ebooks will be delivered, and the paperback will go on sale, on October 10th.

Now on to other business…

I’m really dreadful at keeping up with Top Ten Tuesday (even though it’s such a cool meme!) but every so often I see that they’ve done a neat topic I’d like to write on…so even though it’s Friday, and even though this was the topic for several weeks ago, today I’m going to write about the Top Ten Authors I Own the Most Books By.

1) Edgar Rice Burroughs: 56
It helps that he was extremely prolific. There’s probably still a good 15 books I don’t own. Though perhaps I should point out, of my 56, 54 of them work with the same two plots: the hero is castaway or the heroine is kidnapped, or both.

2) L. M. Montgomery: 47
You expected this one, right? That breaks down into 21 novels, 12 collections of short stories (200 total stories), 6 volumes of her journals (7, but one is an abridged version of 2 others), 3 books of letters, 2 books of poetry, 2 collections of early writings, and 1 autobiography. And…that’s going to stay as-is because there’s nothing else to buy, until someone digs out another archive and publishes something new. (Though I also have two biographies and two collections of critical essays…) Continue reading “Weighing Down the Shelves…” →

Favorites Friday: TV Themes

On March 28, 2014March 24, 2014 By cherylmahoneyIn Favorites Friday8 Comments

A great TV show is one thing–a great TV opening theme song is something else entirely, and today I thought I’d make the nod to a few of my favorites…

Firefly: With its Western air and refrain, “You can’t take the sky from me,” this opening song perfectly encapsulates both the style and the theme of the show, in the way that the best openings should. I just wish there were more verses (and episodes…but never mind that).

Big Bang Theory: This song crams the entire history of the universe into 20 seconds, and it’s fun and fast and a little bit frantic. Again–kind of encapsulates the show! Plus it’s really fun when you get a group of people who can spontaneously go through it in unison at high speed. It sounds very impressive to people who don’t know the song!

Star Trek: Enterprise, “Where My Heart Will Take Me“: I’m actually not sure this one is really in the right style for Star Trek, but on the other hand–I think it captures the “I can reach any star” theme at the heart of Trek better than the series’ episodes do.

Psych, “I Know You Know“: This is a fun, bouncy opening song, that fits a fun, bouncy show…but what I really love is whenever the show changes the opening to reflect a particular episode. Like sleigh bells for the holiday episodes, or Spanish lyrics when the plot involved a telenovela…(and I found a video with the different versions!)

And even though they’re not songs, honorable mentions to the openings of Star Trek and The Twilight Zone. It doesn’t get more classic than to boldly go, and Rod Serling is our perfect guide through the land of both shadow and substance, whose boundaries are that of imagination…

Your turn! What are you favorite television theme songs?

Saturday Snapshot: Celebrity Sightings at Comic Con

On March 15, 2014March 10, 2014 By cherylmahoneyIn Saturday Snapshot11 Comments

Last weekend, Wizard World put on a convention in my city–and I and many other geeks turned out to browse merchandise and watch celebrity interviews. Naturally I brought along my camera…so naturally I thought of sharing some photos with you!

First presentation was by Michael Rosenbaum…who you might recognize more easily if you imagine him without hair. He’s best-known as Smallville‘s Lex Luthor. He was brilliant in-person, doing his entire presentation from the center aisle.

I was much farther away from Bruce Campbell, who I know best as Autolycus from Hercules and Xena, but apparently he’s far better-known for other things…or so I’ve been told. All I know is that the horror fans at my writing group found Campbell to be the most exciting celebrity guest.

But my most exciting guest was…

…Mr. William Shatner, Captain Kirk himself! He gave a hilarious, rambling interview (discussing, for instance, the precise meaning of the phrase “larger than life”). He also allowed me to complete my set of celebrity sightings–with the exception of the late DeForrest Kelly, I’ve now seen every regular cast member from Star Trek: The Original Series. Achievement unlocked! 😀