The also overdue non-book post

It’s been an odd couple of months. Winter here has been very mild so the odd storms that we’ve had have thrown the city into chaos and irritated me greatly. I’m definitely ready for spring now! Just got tonight’s storm to get through…

When I’ve not been reading, I’ve spent some quality time with my telly box and the iPad. Thanks to Netflix, I’m now part way through season 4 in my Buffy re-watch and I’ve added in alternating Buffy with Angel so that the cross-overs match up. It’s been so much fun and I’m remembering all over again why I think this is one of the best shows out there.

To contrast with this, there has been the Deep Space 9 re-watch. It’s a lot harder going than I expected because so many of the early episodes are absolutely terrible. I must have had much more tolerance or maybe different expectations when I was younger. Thankfully I’m getting towards the end of season 2 and the bad:good ratio is improving. I just watched two good ones in a row (Profit and Loss and Bloodoath) and in a few episodes time, the Dominion enters the picture fully and as I recall this is when the writing really picked up. Phew! I think that I deserve an award for getting through those early episodes.

I also had a bit of a baking frenzy this for a while, mostly inspired by all the yummy cake consumed on Call the Midwife (and excellent BBC period adaptation of the novels) and watching Sport Relief Great British Bake Off. I’ve been a little more restrained in the last few weeks so I’m itching to try something new. I’ve got a rather delicious apple tart recipe in my sights for tomorrow and I’m also going to be playing around with my favourite tuna lasagne recipe 🙂

Must remember to blog these next week if they turn out well. So, my life seems to be books, TV and baking/cooking lately. The knitting has been entirely derailed by cuddly cats and exhaustion. Oops. Must do better.

Star Trek thoughts (probably spoilerish)

I’m cutting with a Read More tag so that those who haven’t seen the movie and follow this blog don’t get inadvertantly spoiled 🙂

The audience cheered (Star Trek review)

Just got back from Star Trek. I haven’t quite come down from the high.

Squeeeeeee!

Perhaps a review will help me to calm enough for sleep?

My plan for the afternoon worked and I got to the cinema at 6.30pm after a leisurely coffee and supper. Yum. I’m very glad that I arrived when I did: there were odd single seats dotted around the middle/back of the theatre but very few. The front rows and the pit were pretty much empty, but I really didn’t want to sit down there. I found myself a pretty good seat about halfway back and felt terribly smug every time a group climbed up and down looking for seats, complaining about the cinema selling seats to a performance that was full. After a while, the audience just started pointing everyone to the front immediately to stop the whining!

There was a small cheer when the film started and it became immediately obvious that everyone in there was on the same page. Laughter in all the right places, silence where needed and, best of all, cheering and clapping with the final credits. Everyone in there had a fantastic time and I’m so glad that I decided to go tonight rather than waiting: it was the fans in there, the ones who wanted to buy into the film and love it, and later on it won’t be quite such a fannish experience. All the people who recommended the digital presentation: totally worth it 😀

The film itself was great. It was absolutely born out of the original series, with enough references for the me to feel like it’s “my” Star Trek film yet at the same time I think it would be accessible to people unfamiliar with the original series. I even spotted the Enterprise reference!

The actors were all great in their parts: Zachary Quinn and Karl Urban deserve particular praise. I think those two had studied the original series because their voices and delivery as Spoke and Bones were just perfect. Thankfully the actor playing Kirk hadn’t studied at the School of Shatner, for which I am eternally thankful!

There’s not much more that I can say without giving away big spoilers, but I will say that this Trek fan gives it ten out of ten and a solid recommendation for anyone – Trekkie or not – to see it.

And now let the spoilers commence.