One Month Until...

...Torchwood season 3, titled "Children of Earth", hits our screens. The five part series will be broadcast on consecutive nights starting on July 20th, and promises to be "bigger, crazier and more political than ever".

Can't wait.

UPDATE: In the UK, Torchwood Season 3 will air at 9pm on BBC1 for five consecutive nights , starting on Monday, 6th July.

Alternate Quantum Realities

In the latest Star Trek movie, manipulation of the timeline causes a whole new series of events to occur. This has lead to many to speculate whether the Star Trek universe we all came to know would continue to exist.

As the handy chart from Star Trek Online shows, the new timeline splits off from the standard timeline and both alternative realities continue to exist, in fact the alternate timeline needs the events in the standard timeline to have occurred, otherwise the alternate timeline could never have been bought into existence. So both timelines are valid.


Of course this is not the first time alternative universes have been seen in Star Trek.

The Original Series episode "Mirror, Mirror" introduces us to the idea of a Mirror Universe, which runs parallel to the Standard Universe. Virtually everything in the Standard Universe is duplicated in the Mirror Universe, however the Mirror Universe counterparts are opposite in nature and so are morally corrupt. In the Enterprise episode "In A Mirror, Darkly" we see how this alternative universe came about. Instead of welcoming the Vulcans when they make first contact, the Humans kill them and seize control of their ship. Thus, the Terran Empire is born and becomes a conquering force instead of a society based on peace and exploration.

We saw how in "Yesterday's Enterprise" (a Next Generation episode) altering the events of the past has repercussions in the future. When a previous starship Enterprise ( the Enterprise C) emerges from 22 years in the past, Federation history is distorted, and an alternate timeline is produced. Instead of living in peaceful coexistence, the Federation and Klingon Empire are at war. The Enterprise C left a focal point in history, and needed to return to its point of origin to restore history. The alternate timeline that had been created was still valid, as it allowed Tasha Yar to exist, and thus go back in time with the Enterprise C, which played a role in the events surrounding the Klingon civil war.

In the Voyager series finale "Endgame" we see Admiral Janeway alter history to get the crew of Voyager home. In the Admirals timeline it takes Voyager 23 years to travel back to Earth, but by manipulating the timeline, Voyagers' journey back to Earth only takes 7 years. Using technology from the future, the Admiral also deals a crippling blow to the Borg Collective, and so a new timeline is created. Again both timelines would exist simultaneously as the technology used to defeat the Borg and travel back in time came from Admirals alternative timeline.

It may all sound like science fiction mumbo jumbo, but it does illustrate the principle of quantum theory, which is a valid scientific hypothesis. Like ripples in a pond, the further away you get from an event which causes an alternative quantum reality to form, the more divergence you are likely to see. It just means that in the mulitiverse, all possibilities exist.

Jensen

Finally

I'm a bad Trekkie. I finally went to see the latest Star Trek movie, a month after it was released. On the plus side, I had the entire theatre to myself, which was cool.

To sum the premise of the film in a sentence:

A deranged time traveling Romulan miner screws with the established timeline and viola, a new alternative quantum reality is born.

Overall I thought the movie was enjoyable. I think the casting was good too. I didn't feel like I was watching a parody of the original Trek, and I just accepted that the people on screen were younger versions of the characters I loved from the original series. I particularly liked Karl Urbans' uncanny portrayal of Dr. "Bones" McCoy. Zachary Quinto did a good job as Spock, although there were a few moments where Spock took a slightly Sylar-esque turn. Chris Pine did a good job as a young James Kirk.

One of my favourite scenes was when Dr. McCoy keeps injecting Kirk with various medications to counteract the effects of a vaccine the McCoy gave Kirk as a way to get him on board ship.

Like the first X-Men movie, this movie is preliminary designed as a way to reform the original crew of the Enterprise in this damaged universe, so the plot takes a backseat and a gaggle of coincidences are used to advance the narrative, which is kind of lazy.

One of the worst plot developments was promoting Kirk from a Starfleet academy graduate straight to captain without him needing to gain command experience, like the original universe Kirk did on the USS Republic and the USS Farragut.

Another was the way they got Kirk to meet the older Spock. The young Spock ejects Kirk out of the ship in a life pod, which crashlands on the exact planet that Nero left the older Spock on (the same planet that Scotty is also on). I guess they forgot to add a brig when they redesigned the Constitutional class Enterprise.

An entertaining way to spend two hours at the cinema, if you ignore the plot holes, some of which are as big as black holes.

Manscaping

I Am Spock

Which Star Trek character are you? Take the quiz here.

My results:

You are Spock
You are skilled in knowledge and logic.
You believe that the needs of the many
outweigh the needs of the few.

Spock		100%
Data		88%
Mr. Scott		85%
Jean-Luc Picard		80%
Mr. Sulu		70%
Beverly Crusher		70%
Deanna Troi		70%
Geordi LaForge		60%
Worf		60%
Chekov		50%
Leonard McCoy (Bones)		45%
James T. Kirk (Captain)		40%
Will Riker		40%
An Expendable Character (Redshirt)		35%
Uhura		30%

Teething Trouble

Having one wisdom tooth erupting is painful enough, but I have two of the blighters coming up at the same time, one each side of my lower jaw.

The pain resonates throughout my jaw, and each tooth sings it's own song of discomfort. Add to that the sore gums, swollen glands, sleepless nights and slight fever, I am not a happy guy at the moment. Trying to eat is a nightmare, and man cannot live by soup alone.

However, a combination of warm salt water washes, constant chewing gum chewing, and the use of an antibacterial mouthwash seems to be keeping the soreness to a bareable level.

No wonder teething babies are so cranky.