A Space Opera Podcast: Dune Trailer, Raised by Wolves Reviews. Rewatch: Star Trek Into Darkness

This week on A Space Opera Podcast host Jon Justice covers:

-Teaser for DUNE
-Raised By Wolves first 3 episodes
-Rewatch: Star Trek Into Darkness
-Listener Feedback


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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's my nerd world. Welcome toit a space opera podcast. I'm glad
you're with the show this week.Here is what we have in store for
you today. Dune Trailer and Raisedby Wolves reviews. I've watched both in
the first three episodes of Raised byWolves. I'll give you my thoughts on
the Dune trailer and the new HBOMax show a little bit of a teaser

(00:22):
on that. I'm actually really enjoyingit. It is quite thought provoking.
Your rewatch this week is Star TrekInto Darkness. Plus we do have some
listener feedback to get to all ona space opera podcast. This week's show
is brought to you by Zone.One million users, users united with one
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(01:33):
Zone platform. Again. Zone launchesin October. So join me and claim
your zone today at our zone dotZone. That's oh you are Zone dot
Zone. Now on with the showmy nerd World. It is my nerd

(02:09):
World on a space opera podcast,and I am your host, John Justice.
Is the show where we talk allthings space opera, the genre,
TV, books and movies and yourlistener feedback. You can always email Talk
Show Nerd at gmail dot com andof course go to my nerdworld dot net.
Almost daily blogs are being written atmy nerdworld dot net. Been really,

(02:32):
really busy this week, There's beena lot going on. Took a
trip down memory lane to the firstmovie theater I ever went to, the
first movie I ever saw. Actuallyfound an image of that movie theater in
Rosemeat, California. The Rosemeat forCinema where I saw Star Wars for the
first time, and that'll be abit of a topic coming up on this

(02:52):
week's a Star Wars podcast that'll bereleased a little bit later this weekend,
So if you go to my nerdworlddot net and you go to the Minor
blog, you can check out thoseblogs plus a lot of controversy around Star
Wars. Daisy Ridley and Josh Gadddid a sit down an interview where Daisy
talked at length about the ever changingparentage in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

(03:15):
So again we'll be covering that atlength in the Star Wars podcast. But
this is a space opera podcast,a podcast devoted to the space opera genre,
of which of course I write myembark science fiction space opera novels there
and you can get more details thereat my nerdworld dot net, and I'll
be talking a little bit more aboutthat later on in the show. Your

(03:35):
rewatch this week is going to beanother JJ Abrams movie speaking of Star Wars,
and that is Star Trek Into Darkness, a movie that I'm a massive,
massive fan of. It's one thing, it's one of the things about
JJ Abrams for me personally is thathe just makes incredibly rewatchable films. And
I found an article from Scott Mendelssohn, whom I'm not the biggest fan of.

(03:59):
To be honest with you, hedoes a lot of movie reviews and
pop culture commentary. I don't agreewith a lot of what he has to
say, but he does spark somereally interesting talking points and brings about a
lot of interesting questions. I founda recent interview from June of this year
of why he argues that Star TrekInto Darkness succeeded where Star Wars Ride the

(04:23):
Rise of Skywalker failed. Now Icompletely disagree, because I adore the Rise
of Skywalker and it's going to beone of the focus one of the one
of the focused topics on this week'sof Star Wars podcast. But he makes
some very interesting points about Star Trekinto Darkness that I want to share with
you. So I did some heavyediting to strip out a lot of his
negativity that I simply again don't agreewith. But he does provide some insight

(04:46):
that I can share with you alittle bit later on in the show today
and Star Trek into Darkness again,it's one of those jj Abrams films that
it's just a It's a great rideand incredibly rewatchable in my opinion, and
doesn't get old for me, andit's one of those movies that I have
a hard time stepping away from.That's not Star Wars because I don't want
to miss any scenes in the film. So we'll be doing that a little

(05:08):
bit later on in the show,but let's start here. I want to
talk about two recent pieces of spaceopera content. One of them isn't falling
quite into the space opera genre,but it's close enough. And we started
talking about that last week, andthat's raised by Wolves. So before I
get into the first three episodes andmy thoughts on raised by Wolves, I

(05:28):
want to talk about something that isdefinitely a space opera and that is the
latest attempt to make a big screenversion of the Frank Herbert novel Dune.
This is done by Denny Villeneu,who I'm a big fan of did Cicario
Arrival, Blade Runner twenty forty nine, which is just a fantastic masterful piece

(05:51):
of filmmaking. The Dune trailer droppedof this week. I have the audio
for it here, and then I'mgoing to share with you what is essentially
what was my instinctive reaction to theofficial Dune trailer. But here's the audio
for Dune by Denny Villeneus. There'ssomething happening to me. There's something awaking

(06:19):
in my mind. I can't controlit. What did you see? There's
a crusade coming. Do you oftendream things that happen just as you dream
them? Yes? The test issimple. Remove your hand from the books

(06:46):
and you die once in the box. Pain you inherit too much. Both.
You have proven you can rule yourself. Now you must learn to rule
others, something none of your ancestorslearned. My father rules an entire planet.

(07:11):
He's losing it. He's getting aritual. He'll lose that one too.
Ja Arachis is a death trap.This is an extermination. They're picking

(07:36):
my family off one by one.Let's fight like demons. An animal coat
in a trap will nor of itsown leg to escape. What will you
do? I know you h oneday the legend will be born. All

(08:11):
of civilization depends on it. Thefuture I see it. I must not
fear fierce the mind killer all LordDuke, where the fear is gone only

(08:39):
I will remain do Do Do.I'll tell you what I did not get

(09:11):
goosebumps watching the Dune trailer the firsttime I did. Just now listening to
the Dune trailer for the first time. That's the first time I've actually just
listened to the audio the song thatwas played in there, and this seems
to be the trend as of lateas a somewhat slowed down might even be

(09:31):
a cover version of Pink Floyd's Eclipse. Look, I really enjoyed the trailer,
and I'm gonna get into some specificshere with regard to the filmmaking and
some comments from from Denny Villeneus,But I really did enjoy the trailer.
It didn't grab me on an emotionallevel because I'll be completely honest with you,

(09:52):
I have not read Dune. Itis on a list of things to
read. And as an individual who'swritings science fiction and space opera, I
imagine that there's any other authors outthere that write and space opera who are
listening to me say that I havenot read Dune. They're probably shaking their
head right now. But I havenot read Dune. Um. I've watched

(10:13):
the David Lynch version of the filmin various shapes and forms, but never
all the way through to the youknow, for me getting to end.
It's on HBO Max right now withRaised by Wolves, which I'll be talking
about here in just a moment.And um, I actually sat down to
start watching it the other day.I had seen a trailer for it,
and it's kind of seen further visualsand parts of the film I hadn't I

(10:37):
hadn't watched before, so I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna go
ahead and sit down and get thisa shot. There was a point when
I turned it off and I mightrevisit it. It plays out super slow
and not in a compelling way.The effects do not age well in the
David Lynch version of Dune, andit wasn't all that well received when it
first came out, and I canunderstand why. So I'm gonna wait now

(10:58):
to have my first experience with theentire story of Dune when this movie comes
out in December. That's what I'vedecided, because I've got an opportunity here
personally for me. While I don'tmind spoilers, and I talk about that
quite often on my other shows,because I really do like the build up,
especially when it comes to Star Warsmore and more specifically for Star Wars.

(11:20):
I don't mind getting into spoilers whenit comes to Star Wars because half
of the fun when it comes toa Star Wars movie, at least for
the Skywalker Saga films, was thatlead up and speculation and hearing the rumors
and the leaks and all that.I know that I'm ruining that first experience
of seeing a Star Wars movie goingin blind, but I still get a

(11:41):
tremendous amount of enjoyment reading all thoseleaks and rumors. I'm not going to
do that with Dune. I knowa bit of the storyline and I'll share
it with you here in a moment, but I'm gonna go in blind because
I really want to see Denny Villeneus'svision for this film, because I really
just respect him as a content creatorand a director. So jumping ahead a

(12:01):
bit, friend of the show,Edwin Lowe from The Lowdown Show, who's
had me on a show a coupleof times. You can find it up
on YouTube lo The Lowdown Show,Lo Down Show. He had messaged me,
emailed me for the Space Opera podcastthis week and says, what do
you think about the Dune trailer?What is doing? I'm not familiar with
it, are you Look? Ireally liked the trailer. It looks absolutely

(12:24):
beautiful. I'm incredibly compelled by it. It was a little less colorful than
I had imagined. I guess Ihad Denny Villeneus Blade Runner twenty forty nine
kind of in my head since that'sthe last movie of his that I have.
You know that he's what's the lastmovie he's made, and that is,
you know, basically a cyberpunk film. That and the color palled in

(12:46):
Blade Runner twenty forty nine is absolutelyincredible, Dune being due and it was
basically a wash in tans and browns. That being said, it looks amazing.
It really does. And I imaginefor an individual who's actually read Dune
that the trailer carried a heck ofa lot more significance seeing that they're watching
scenes that they know of from thebook play out on the screen. So

(13:13):
for those that are not familiar withDune, it is set in the distant
future amidst a feudal interstellar society inwhich various noble houses control planetary fifes.
Dune tells the story of a youngPoltranes whose family escapes the stewardship of the
planet Iraqis. While the planet isan inhospitable and sparsely populated desert wasteland,

(13:37):
it's it is the only source ofthe milange, or the spice, a
drug that extends life and enhances mentalabilities. The spice is also necessary for
space navigation, which requires a kindof multidimensional awareness and foresight that only the
drug provides. As the spice canonly be produced on Iraqis, control of

(13:58):
the planet is thus a coveted anddangerous undertaking. The story explores the multilayered
interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, human emotion, and the
factions of the Empire, as thefactions of the Empire confront to each other
in a struggle for the control ofIracous and its and its spice. You

(14:18):
know this is one of you readthat plot and you go, what that's
daunting And just from the angle ofbeing an author myself, which I use
that term lightly, but from theangle of being an author myself putting together
a book that is that dense andrich with mythology, I've got nothing but

(14:39):
the utmost respect for and it hasto be done right. It reminds me
quite a bit and sort of modernstorytelling of what we got from a visual
standpoint in a show like say Gameof Thrones, and I would I would
actually argue, and I've seen peoplemention this that Doune very much has this
sort of Game of Thrones esque layersset in a in a space opera environment.

(15:01):
I have an article here from Gizmodowhich I thought was interesting that I
wanted to share with you about DennyVilleneus. When he was asked to direct
the adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune,he had two requirements. One was that
he wanted to divide the book intotwo movies, which he's done, and
the other is that he wanted itto be as real as possible. He
said, I strongly believe that ashuman beings, what is around us has

(15:24):
an impact on inspiration. The othercondition that I had was to shoot the
movie was that I wanted to shootin a real desert. My argument was
they didn't shoot Jaws in a swimmingpool. The title is Dune. It
needed to be a real environment sowe would be inspired by the infinity and
the impact of those landscapes, onthe actors, on the actor's inspiration,

(15:50):
and myself too. He said,when you are pushing on the camera button,
you need the chaos of life.You need to recreate life in front
of the camera in order to documentreality, and most importantly, you need
nature. Dune is about an ecosystemat its very core, he continued.
What I did learn about Done isthe exploration of the life and the ecosystem,

(16:11):
and the ecosystem and the biosphere andall the science that Frank Herbert put
behind. That is so beautiful,it's so poetic. I think that in
order to bring Done to the screen, I had to be as close to
nature as possible, to make Duneas close to us as possible. So
when people see the movie, theywill be amazed by the power of the
landscape, and more importantly, theywill feel strangely at home and look man

(16:33):
again. This is one of thereasons I love content creators, and I
love individuals that have their own ideason what is going to make something good
and different. I just I haveso much respect for that. I was
listening to an interview from twenty sixteen. There's a band that I've only found
over the past a couple of months. It's a band called Gunship, and

(16:57):
they are actually a part of amusical genre that I was unaware of,
but oddly enough a big fan ofgrowing up, you know, in the
eighties and nineties as a massive DepecheMode fan. As I say with Star
Wars, I was a fan ofStar Wars before I was a fan of
anything else. I was a fanof Depeche Mode before I was a fan

(17:17):
of any other band. And Iwas a fan of Nascar before I got
into any other sports, you know, sort of deeply, and I never
got into any other sports deeply otherother than Nascar. I love electronic based
music, and there is a newsubgenre of electronic music called synth wave.
Okay, so why am I bringingthis up. I'm bringing this up because
there was an interview that I foundwith the band Gunship that I found recently

(17:41):
on a synth wave podcast, andin that interview, one of the three
members of the band talked about howwhen it came to songmaking, most artists
would say most musicians would say thatany song worth a lick you can play
on a guitar with a hook,right. If a song is good,
you can it sounds good with anacoustic guitar, and he said that he

(18:03):
actually operates differently. He finds amood or a sound and then builds a
song off of that to make likea landscape. He sees it as being
as being very cinematic, and withGunship, their approach to music making is
very cinematic, synth based, eightiessounding, but they create visuals to go

(18:23):
along with almost every single project thatthey do, and I just I dig
that. And getting back to DennyVilleneus, I dig the fact. I
love the fact that he had thisthought in his head that like, look,
this is a space opera, butI wanted to feel as real as
possible when it comes to the elementsof being on you know, the planet.

(18:45):
Dude for crying out loud. Um. There was something similar done with
the Rise of Skywalker, which againis going to be somewhat the focal point
of the Star Wars podcast this week. But when they when they when they
shot the Desert Sauna sequence, whenthey're on the stolen skiffs being chased by
the First Order on the tread speeders. I love that sequence. Uh,

(19:07):
they actually had those skifts built.Okay, the actors were on them.
They were on gimbals that could turn, and they actually took those gimbals too.
I believe it was Jordan. Itmight have been uh Waddy Rummy.
Anyways, they took them to adesert I believe it was in Jordan,

(19:29):
and they put green screens around them, but they actually had those those gimbals,
the actors on those skifts there inthe desert. And the whole point
of what they said, the reasonwhy they did that was because they wanted
the natural sunlight of being in thedesert, along the same lines of what
Denny ville Knew wanted to do withwith doone Um. I can't wait to
see what his vision is going tobe for this, for this movie.

(19:51):
And he adores the source subject us. He's mentioned this often that it was
it was a big inspiration for orfor why he ended up becoming a filmmaker.
I'll give you one more quote fromthis article from Gizmoto. It's pretty
interesting. A couple of here.Oscar Isaac, who plays Paul's father,
Duke leto a tradees chimed in withhis thoughts about the scale of production.

(20:15):
In short, he says it competeswith Star wars, but pales in comparison
to something else, or should Isay someone, He says, I'll just
to say that, you know,no set piece, no X wing,
no millennium falcon, could compare tothe sheer scale of Josh Brolin's head.
That just made me laugh. Itwas massive, both literally and figuratively,

(20:37):
and it really made me feel likeI was on an alien planet. I
just that quote made me laugh.It plays better. I should have grabbed
the audio. It played better withIt plays better with the audio. The
article goes on to say there's oneother big reason why Villaneus wanted to film
Doing on location. To get tothe heart of the film's environmental message.
He said, Herbert's original novel featuresthemes of conservation and exploitation, but the
director is taking it one step furtherto comment on modern issues of climate change.

(21:00):
He said the story of freemen adaptingthe needs of their plant in order
to survive as something that we shouldbe taking to heart, not just because
we might save our planet, butbecause eventually we won't have any choice.
Look, I don't get into that. I just don't. I'm forty eight
years old, I've been through theeducation system and I've been around long enough

(21:21):
to know that every sort of generationhas its global catastrophe pending. Whether it's
an ice age, whether it's aquaneteand the ozone, or whether or now
it's climate change. That's about aspolitical as I'm going to get. We're
gonna move on. So in short, I'm super excited for Dune. I
was excited for Dune before even seeinga trailer. I would have been the

(21:42):
first one in line on opening nighteven if I hadn't seen a trailer,
just because I know how important Duneis to so many people, and because
of the individual who was directing it. I am just a massive, massive
fan of my nerd world. Allright. Some quit comments on Raised by
Wolves, the HBO special Ridley Scott, the famous director another one of my

(22:07):
favorite directors is the individual behind thisdirector of the first two episodes, it
was pretty apparent he didn't direct thethird. It didn't mean it didn't doesn't
mean that I didn't enjoy the thirdepisode of Raised by Wolves any less because
Ridley Scott didn't direct it, butit was clear that it didn't have his
artistic touch on that third episode.So gonna be watching the fourth episode tonight.

(22:30):
They released the first three on HBOMax and every Thursday they'll release another
episode, which I'm really kind ofglad that they're doing. They did the
same thing with The Mandalorian of releasingit every week, and I like it
being spaced out, especially if you'redoing a podcast like mine, or you
want the opportunity to talk about somethingevery week. I think that we're getting

(22:52):
a little bit too used to havingeverything on demand instantly in our society,
and it's nice to have that anticipationand talk about it a little bit.
And Raised by Wolves is a showthat you talk about. It's a challenging
show. I don't want to getinto too many spoilers. It does sort
of fall into a bit of thespace opera category. This is taking place
after a massive war on Earth.Individuals are heading out into space, trying

(23:17):
to find new places to go andset up and bring about life about a
couple of androids who give birth tohuman babies who they are supposed to raise,
but unfortunately things don't go as planned. It is an incredibly challenging show,
and that's why I'm digging it.A little more violent than I had
I had expected, not necessarily ina bad way, but just wasn't quite

(23:40):
expecting it to be as violent asit ended up being. And it took
a lot of twists and turns inthose first and especially in that first episode
that I was not expecting. Youhave some religious elements to it, you
have some political elements to it,but you also have and raised by wolves,
some challenging how how do I wantto word it? It's challenging from

(24:03):
a standpoint of at the moment,there really isn't anybody to root for.
The protagonists doing that thing with myfingers aren't falling into the sort of typical
category of protagonists as you would expect, And where you have two different schools
of thought, one being sort ofan atheist, not a sort of it
is an atheism school of thought,and then a religious higher power school of

(24:27):
thought. The protagonists separate from theatheists, weren't necessarily completely aligned with the
religious elements. So in the firstthree episodes you're kind of presented with a
challenging dynamic among the core characters ofall, right, who are we going
to root for here? It doesn'tmake for bad entertainment by any stretch.

(24:51):
Certainly isn't the first time when you'vewalked into a movie or walked out of
a film going I really enjoyed thatmovie, but nobody was really right or
wrong. Unforg given with Clint Eastwoodis probably one that sticks out in my
mind the most as being a filmof well, you want to root for
Clint Eastwood, but at the endof the day, he's not really all
that good at dude either. Sofar, though the show has not disappointed

(25:15):
I really I'm really enjoying it.It is very much in line with what
Ridley Scott has been doing with sciencefiction, especially with Prometheus and Alien Covenant,
two movies that I love. Ilove those films. I'm a big
fan of the Alien franchise. Whileyou know, some of those films are
a little wonky, especially Alien Resurrection. The director's cut of Alien three is

(25:37):
spectacular. Love Alien one and two. I am a real big fan of
Prometheus and of Alien Covenant, andthat's largely due to the fact that they're
kind of complicated films. They're notas easily as accessible as those other Alien
movies were, and they are abit challenging. And Raised by Wolves certainly
does fall into that category as well, and I'm really looking forward to watching

(26:00):
the next episode tonight. So whatare your thoughts? Do you watch the
Dune trailer? Have you read thebook before? Am I missing out?
Should I read the book before Igo see the movie? You know?
Tell me tell me something different?You watch and Raised by Wolves? What
are your thoughts on that? Talkshow nerd at gmail dot com Again,
talk show nerd at a gmail dotcom My nerd World. All right,

(26:22):
let's get to the rewatch this weekand the rewatch this week for a star
ward for a excuse me, aspace opera podcast? Is Star Trek Into
Darkness. I know that this filmgot panned by a lot of Star Trek
fans. I love Star Trek inthe Darkness. And the one thing that
Scott Mendelssohn, who penned the articlethat I have here in my hands and
I agree with, is that Iactually think it's superior to the two thousand

(26:45):
and nine Star Trek that JJ Abramsdid, even though I very much liked
that movie too. The thing aboutthese Star Trek films that I really enjoy
is that they're almost Star Wars movies, especially that two thousand and nine version.
In JJ Abrams said is said asmuch for me, and I'm gonna
put a hat tip to Brennan Maherwho had me on his show this week,

(27:07):
A Page Turners Day. Were notreally enjoyed my time talking about the
Rise of Skywalker with him, Buthe had mentioned something a couple of months
ago in an email responding to myStar Wars podcast, saying that he goes
off of emotion and how a moviemakes him feel. And I'm very much
that that same way as well.You know, sometimes you just want to
get in the Millennium falcon and takenfor a ride. You don't need to

(27:29):
break it part piece by piece bypiece. It's fun. I do that
a lot. But at the endof the day, my enjoyment of a
film and the rating and the reviewthat I give it is really going to
be based on how did the moviemake me feel? Was I entertained and
at what level was I entertained.Scott Mendelsohn gets into a little bit of
nuance. I skipped out, Icut out a lot of the Rise of

(27:52):
Skywalker stuff and stuck mostly to hiscommentary around Star Trek into Darkness, which
I'll share with you right now.He says, this bull JJ Abrams sequels
because he directed Star Trek Into Darknessattempted to revert to a prior status quote,
but Star Trek Into Darkness attempted todemilitarize. Star Trek was more aspirational

(28:15):
than Star Wars. The Rise ofSkywalker's retreat to conformity and general and generational
nostalgia. Okay, I have someissues with that, but for the sake
of the time and the show,we'll move on. Just get to more
of what Scott Mendelsohn had to say. The third Disney Star Wars episode played
like a retroactive reassurance that the adultfans of a New Hope Empire strikes back

(28:37):
in Return of the Jedi were stillthe most important. Star Wars fans disagree
with that. As such, theRise of Skywalker makes for a fascinating double
feature with another jj Abrams sci fisequel, Star Trek Into Darkness. You
know, and it's I haven't heardanybody make this comment before, but I'll
make it here and again, thisis about Star Trek, not Star Wars.
But that being said, I thinkit's one of the reasons why I

(29:00):
love The Rise of Skywalker so muchis that it really does feel like Star
Wars to me more so than TheLast Jedi, even though I think on
a sort of filmmaking standpoint, theLast Jedi is a better directed film.
It's a beautiful film. The Riseof Skywalker. When we're looking at pure
Star Wars entertainment, what feels likeStar Wars from the story, the action,

(29:22):
and definitely John william Score for theRise of Skywalker. It feels absolutely
one hundred percent Star Wars to me. All right back into Darkness. He
goes on to say, I wouldargue that both Star Wars, The Rise
of Skywalker and Star Trek both attemptsto revert to a theoretically idealized status quo

(29:47):
with their respective properties. I likeInto Darkness, actually preferring it to the
first Star Trek, right, ScottMendelssohn, And that's partially because it feels
like a battle between new blockbuster actionStar Trek and the old exploration and Discover
Star Trek. I'm also not toofond of the action climax, which mimics
the Wrath of Khan and contains asequence of mass destruction that puts Man of

(30:07):
Steel to shame. I dig it. I think it's cool, but it
can't completely negate a thoughtful parable forthe desire to ramp up a blockbuster eyes
popular franchise properties until they threaten tomerely become just another megabudget action fantasy tent
pole. Star Trek flirted with manifestdestiny. Okay, with its Kirk should

(30:32):
be captain just because storytelling, StarTrek in the Darkness puts his leadership to
the test and offered evidence that hemight deserve his command. The critical moment
in the first act sees an angryand vengeful Kirk reverse course and disobey the
orders of an increasingly militarized starfleet tounilaterally execute mass murderer John Harrison slash Khan.

(30:53):
Instead, he attempts to capture thevillain so he can stand trial,
and in doing so, exposes aplot to push the Federation toward perpetual war
over brokered peace. Of course,CON's climactic act of crashing a starship into
a crowded civilian populace, presumably killingthousands, negates that, but don't think
too hard about the collateral damage.Star Trek Into Darkness is about a battle

(31:18):
for the soul of the Star Trekproperty itself. Would the movies and attempts
to conquer global marketplaces and earn hundredsof millions of dollars become just another like
a frankly number of films. Thusfar Wrath of con First Contact, etc.
Kill the bad guy, save theworld action franchise? Or would it
pull itself from the braink and reassertits value as a science fiction adventure that

(31:42):
prioritize exploration and discovery over action overaction and might makes and might makes right
heroics, Might makes right heroics getthat inflection right. Since Into Darkness ends
with Kirk's enterprise getting that five yearfloratory mission, it's not hard to see
where the filmmakers stood on the matter. If Star Trek Into Darkness reads like

(32:06):
a make Star Trek Star Trek Againaction movie, then so too, can
the Rise of Skywalker be construed as, perhaps even more explicitly, give Star
Wars back to Star Wars fans.Star Wars fans flick Into Darkness's narrative and
de blockbuster. Rising Star Trek meanta return to the idealistic and aspirational stories

(32:29):
about discovery and exploration. Rise ofSkywalker was about centering the stars and fans
of the original trilogy, he writesat the expense of the new cast and
the younger fans who discovered Star Warsfrom the prequels of Clone Wars, Rebels
or even Force Awakens. I completelydisagree with that, but be that as
it may. Let's move on.Star Trek into Darkness argues for progress,
while the Rise of Skywalker argued forretreat, and again I'm going to cast

(32:52):
that aside because I completely disagree withthat. Look, just because the movie
happens to be entertaining doesn't mean thatit's doing all the things that Sky Mendelssohn
is saying, and ultimately right quicktrying to be so existential, it's a
wholly entertaining movie. Right again,sometimes you just want to take the Millennium

(33:14):
Falcon or the Starship Enterprise out fora spin. Now, he does bring
up some good points, and Ilike the article from the standpoint and covered
it on the show this week becauseI think that he broke down nicely some
of the some of the different elementsof the film itself. That being said,
it is a fantastically entertaining movie anddefinitely falls into that space opera genre

(33:36):
and has the elements of why Ilove space operas so much. Look,
I'm not a Trekky by any stretch. I like space operas and science fiction.
That's why I watch Star Trek movies. I love Star Wars and those
other things. That's why I watchStar Wars movies. So when I go
to watch a Star Trek movie,I'm just looking for good science fiction and

(33:58):
space opera and that's what I get. And Star Trek Into Darkness. The
action is fantastic when they when theyend up going in disguise to Vulcan and
they get chased down and we endup having John Harrison come to their rescue.
All the space elements that chase headingback to Earth is fantastic. The

(34:19):
writing in it is snappy and strong, the characters and the acting is great.
The only beef that I have wasStar Trek Into Darkness, and this
is one beef and I don't normallydo this except for the fact that it
is such an egregious oversight that itpulls me out of the film every time.
And that is at the end ofthe movie when they have the and

(34:42):
I can't remember the name of itright, oh, the Dreadnought. They
they have their own Dreadnought right,the big black militarized starship Okay, Peter
Weller is piloting, winds up beingthe bad guy spoiler alert. At the
end of that the end of IntoDarkness, a ship ends up just trashing
the Enterprise to the point where itloses power and it begins to plummet to

(35:06):
Earth. In the movie, thathappens right next to the Moon. Within
a matter of seconds, they're notby the Moon anymore. They're caught in
the gravitational poll of Earth. Thatone, to me, I'm still completely
lost on. I get the ideathat this is cinema and they can go
when they can take leaps in logic, however, that one is a bit

(35:29):
of a stretch. The visual ofthe Enterprise damage next to the Moon is
spectacular, but the suddenly either there'sa time jump or their moon is way
closer to the Earth and it's supposedto be and they end up getting caught
into the gravity of Earth. Thatthat part of it, I kind of
go, huh, But it doesn'truin the movie completely for me. And

(35:52):
there are some incredibly epic sequences inthat closing battle, especially when the Enterprise
is seemingly doomed falling to Earth andthey're able to get the engines re engaged,
and it comes out from under theclouds when we get that hero shot
of this battered and beaten and smokingon fire enterprise above the clouds over Earth.

(36:14):
It really really is spectacular. Solook, if you haven't seen Star
Trek in the Darkness, I can'trecommend it enough, especially if you're a
fan of space operas, which yougotta be ear else why would you be
listening to this show? It reallyis my favorite of the Star Trek films,
of the newer film and actually ofall the Star Trek movies. To
be honest with you, I'm abig fan of Wrath of Khn. But

(36:35):
if I'm going to a desert islandand i can only take one Star Trek
movie, I'm taking Star Trek intoDarkness. One last point on this,
which I just want to point outand uh and I'll probably bring it up
on the Star Wars podcast this week, is that isn't it interesting that here
you have another franchise that does abit of revamping of of an intellectual property

(36:58):
in IP in modern time. JJAbrams is involved. He also does two
of these movies, not all three, they get a separate director to do
Star Trek Beyond. There is adefinite sort of through line between Star Trek
two thousand and nine Into Darkness thatJJ Abrams did, But when you get
to Star Trek Beyond, it takesa bit of it takes a bit of
a deviation from the central storyline thatwe got in those first two films,

(37:21):
and doesn't do anything with the plotelements set up into Darkness in Star Trek
Beyond. And yet I didn't seeany fandom freaking out over tinkering with the
mythology or not having anybody follow adistinct trilogy through line or map mapping it

(37:42):
out prior. No. Man,it seems like Trek fans just went and
watch those movies and they either likethem or didn't. If only that same
thing could possibly happen when it comesto the Star Wars franchise. But yes,
I know I'm asking for far,far too much. My nerd world,
I got a couple of emails talkshow nerd at a gmail dot com
then I want to share with youThis week, I got another one from

(38:05):
The Lowdown Show, Edwin Lowe,and he just said thanks for the recommendation
of Trek Nation. It was goodto see. Yeah, I really enjoyed
that documentary. It's on HBO Maxand if you haven't checked it out,
definitely go and do so. Afriend of the show, Miranda writes,
this titan Ae, which we talkedabout on the last show, is an
underrated gem. I agree, Let'splay a game wrote this, My favorite

(38:25):
space opera right now has got tobe the TV show The one hundred on
the CW. I'm intrigued. Theworld building in this show is amazing.
I've never seen it. If youhaven't seen it, I haven't. You
can binge the first six seasons onNetflix. Excellent. They're in their final
season now and here's the synopsis.Awesome because I have no idea what it's

(38:46):
about. When nuclear armageddon destroy civilizationon Earth, the only survivors are those
on the twelve International space stations inorbit at the time. Wow, I'm
already in Three generations later, thefour thousand survivors living on a space arc
of linked stations see their resources dwindleand face draconian measures established to ensure humanity's

(39:13):
future. Desperately looking for a solution, the ARCS leaders send one hundred juvenile
prisoners back to the planet to testits habitability. Having always lived in space,
the exiles find the planet fascinating andterrifying. Terrifying, but with the
fate of the human race in theirhands, they must forge a path into
the unknown. Dude, I'm inlet's play a game. Thank you for

(39:36):
recommending that. I had no ideathat's what that show was about, and
that sounds that sounds awesome. I'mactually going to put it on my watch
list for this weekend. If youwant to be a part of the show,
email me Talk show nerd at gmaildot com and hopefully we have another
show coming up again next week becausethat wraps up this show. But before
I let you go, I gota contest going on right now that you

(39:57):
can enter for free and there's noobligation to buy anything to win. Go
to minordworld dot net, click thelink on the home page and join the
mailing list. If you're already onthe mailing list, you can go ahead
and sign up anyways. I willstill get you in the running. No
spam or sharing if your information.Ever, the mailing list is simply for
podcasts and information in details and exclusives. When it comes to my Embark Space

(40:20):
opera series, and I only sendout maybe one or two emails a month.
Okay, you'll get a little bitmore when we're closed to an Embark
book release. We're still working onthe fourth book, Gon Corbin and the
Asteroid of Misfortune and Embark Adventure thatshould be out in about a month or
so. But if you go jointhe mailing list right now at my nerdworld
dot net, you'll be registered towin free Embark audiobooks narrated by the author

(40:44):
John Justice. Yes, that's me. So. The grand prize is the
complete Embark Trilogy and audiobook. Sothat's book won, The Great Evacuation,
Treasure in Darkness and the Vanishing War. The second place prize, four winners
are going to receive Embarks Book onein The Great Evacuation and Treasure and Darkness
in Audiobook, and third place there'llbe five winners. You'll all get Embark

(41:07):
Book one, The Great Evacuation inAudiobook. So again, simply enter your
information in the form on the websiteat my nerdworld dot net for your chance
to win. The drawing is goingto take place next Saturday on a Star
Wars podcast. Listening is not required. To win, and the winners will
be emailed their free codes after thedrawing. And remember you can get the
entire trilogy of Embark in ebook,paperback and audiobook at Amazon dot com or

(41:31):
just go to my nerdworld dot netand hit the link right there on the
homepage. And again that's the waythat you can support a Space Opera podcast
or a Star Wars podcast. Allthe podcasts actually on my nerd World.
I don't do Patreon, at leastfor now, I'm not planning on doing
that anytime and then your future either. But if you want to support the
show, go pick up a copyof one or all of the Embark books.

(41:54):
And right now Embark Book one inebook is just a ninety nine cents,
and books two and three or fourninety nine. You can get the
paperbacks for thirteen ninety nine, elevenninety nine and twelve ninety nine for books
one, two and three. Andthen if you don't win the audio books,
if you don't register but you wantto get the audiobook, purchase of
an e book get you a bigdiscount and audible on the audiobooks. And

(42:17):
again that's how you can go andsupport this podcast, and you're gonna get
hours of entertainment. Those audiobooks arelong. Embark book one, The Great
Evacuation I think is twelve hours long, and then we're looking I think nine
and ten for Treasure and Darkness andthe Vanishing War. And all the details
about the books if you're not familiar, are also available there at my nerdworld

(42:38):
dot net. And one more quickshout out to this week's sponsor of the
show, Zone Go claim your zonetoday again. It's a better all in
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(43:02):
Thank you so much for checking theshow out this week. We'll be back
again next week and I look forwardto hearing from you again. Talk Show
nerd at gmail dot com is theemail address. Be safe, be healthy,
and I'll talk to you again realsoon. Bye, my nerd World