Monday 10 June 2013

Ar an Luan - On the Monday



Today is Monday, so a little about how to say Monday in Irish

Ar an Luan - on the Monday

Dé Luan - the day of Monday


Oíche dé Luain / Oíche Luain - the night of Monday

Dé Luain comes from the Latin "luna" for Moon. So Dé Luain means  Moon Day


Monday 3 June 2013

Star Trek - into Darkness

Space, the final frontier...?

I'm aware that not everyone has seen the new Star Trek, so I'll keep spoilers to a minimum.

But after seeing the new film, I have to ask. Do you really think that the writers are capable of creating a new universe, and to make us care about them in 2 hours, and to deliver all the whizz bang pyrotechnics at the same time?

For me, the answer is no. It was a good enough popcorn movie, but neither it nor the characters in it were smart. Who was able to think their way out of a situation, instead of punching through? The unique thing about Trek, or was at the time the series were released, was that the characters outsmarted their opponents. There was the thrill of the new, new races, new situations. This film played it safe, and it bored me.

I knew exactly what was going to happen. It didn't help that I saw a massive spoiler about who the main antagonist was. But the one thing that really irked me was how retrograde the whole thing was. Yes, Uhura got more to do. As the "girlfriend". Yes, she ran around with a gun, for a bit. But ask yourself this - whose story were we being told?

Does Uhura's empowerment negate sexism in Star Trek? An interesting, if spoilerific article is available to read here Another article (again spoilers) asks where are the women? Star Trek the next generation and star trek deep space nine tackled this so well, I am disappointed that the NuTrek is taking such a retrograde step.

To wipe the taste out of your mouth, I recommend you try Screamlet's AU fanfic, exploring what would happen if Amanda Grayson survived the first film and not her husband. It's called An upbeat sort of dirge, and it has a good selection of characters.