intodarkness

Standard Orbit 298: The Rise Of Fan Service

JJ Abrams, Star Trek, Star Wars And Fan Service.

With the recent release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, JJ Abrams has now directed two Star Trek and two Star Wars films. Each respective first film was embraced by the overwhelming majority of casual and die hard fans alike, while each respective second has been divisive to say the least. Is fan service (or attempted fan service) to blame?

This week on Standard Orbit hosts Ken Tripp, Zach Moore and Hayley Stoddart discuss the concept of fan service and how perhaps too much creeped in to JJ's second films in each franchise. What is fan service, is it what the writers and directors of our favorite franchises think it is, does is do more harm than good, and do we as fans really even want it? All this and more on this week's Standard Orbit, boldly listen!

Chapters 
Welcome to Standard Orbit! (00:01:28)
Star Trek, Star Wars And Fan Service (00:03:41)
Misguided Fan Service? (00:15:11)
JJ Abrams (00:27:13)
Misguided Fan Service?, Contd. (00:33:18)
Final Thoughts (00:44:51)
POTFM (00:46:55)
Closing (00:48:46)

Hosts
Ken Tripp
Zach Moore
Hayley Stoddart

Production
Zach Moore (Editor & Producer) Ken Tripp (Producer) Hayley Stoddart (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Nicolas Anastassiou (Associate Producer) Tim Robertson (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Associate Producer) Corey Elrod (Associate Producer) Dan Rhodes (Associate Producer) Mike Richards (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)

Preemptive War and Star Trek Into Darkness.  

Star Trek has a long tradition of dealing with ethical, social, and political issues in the real world, and Star Trek Into Darkness is no different. One of the most important issues in the world today is how far a society should go to protect itself. What freedoms should we be willing to give up for sake of safety and security? Should a government be allowed to spy on its own citizens? And is it morally and ethically permissible to start a preemptive war with a real or perceived enemy? Star Trek Into Darkness tackles this last question head-on through Admiral Marcus's attempt to start a preemptive war against the Klingons. In this episode of Meta Treks: A Star Trek Philosophy Podcast, hosts Mike Morrison and Zachary Fruhling examine the ethical issue of preemptive war as the principle ethical dilemma in Star Trek Into Darkness.  

Chapters
Welcome to Episode 20 (00:01:07)
Preemptive War and Star Trek Into Darkness (00:03:12)
The Portrayal of Khan (00:07:28)
Synopsis of Star Trek Into Darkness (00:09:38)
Star Trek Into Darkness and the Post-9/11 World (00:11:52)
Preemptive War - Consequentialism vs. Care Ethics (00:20:14)
The Trolley Problem, a.k.a. The Shuttlecraft Problem (00:28:27)
Preemptive War and Deontological/Kantian Ethics (00:38:08)
Militarism and Fear of the Klingons (00:40:34)
Final Thoughts (00:53:39)

Lindelof, Part 5: Star Trek Into Darkness.

Last year Max and Mike looked at the films that Damon Lindelof had written up to that point. Since then, Lindelof has written two more films. The first of these was Star Trek Into Darkness.

In this episode of Commentary: Trek Stars, we return to Lindelof's body of work to examine his work as a Star Trek writer. We discuss the concept of "spectacle creep" and how it applies to Into Darkness, the similarities and differences between Into Darkness and Wrath of Khan, and the challenges of telling a small story on a big scale. We also remember the work of Next Generation director Robert Wiemer.

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Twitter: @trekfm

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Contact Form: http://www.trek.fm/contact

Chapters

The Parsec Awards (1:17)

Into Darkness (5:13)

Spock vs. Khan (15:57)

Kirk's Sacrifice (27:01)

Final Thoughts (32:29)

Robert Wiemer (39:31)

Wrap-Up (41:46)

Abrams, Part 1: Trek.

In 2005, after eighteen consecutive seasons of television, Star Trek was suffering from "franchise fatigue." In an effort to revitalize the property, Paramount hired A-list filmmaker J.J. Abrams to direct a reboot of The Original Series.

In this episode of Commentary: Trek Stars, Max and Mike begin a new series looking at Abrams's career as a feature film director. In Part 1, we are joined by Matthew Rushing of The Orb and Literary Treks to examine Abrams's work on Star Trek. We discuss the reasons behind hiring Abrams, our initial thoughts concerning his involvement, and what exactly his contribution to the franchise has been. We also examine the similarities between the 2009 film and The Motion Picture.

Send us your feedback!

Twitter: @trekfm

Facebook: http://facebook.com/trekfm

Voicemail: http://www.speakpipe.com/trekfm

Contact Form: http://www.trek.fm/contact

Chapters

Intro (02:00)

Initial Thoughts (10:18)

Continuity (22:18)

The Mystery Box (33:13)

Mainstream Trek (39:52)

Final Thoughts (54:37)

Closing (1:02:57)

In which Thom & Travis shine some light on Star Trek Into Darkness (SPOILERS abound!) and reflect on the anniversary of the Buffy and Cheers series finales, while swapping tales of prog rock glory, movie usher paranoia, and insect hostage crises.