524 - Thunderbits and Trek Trash

[8:56 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

The actor that played Mr. Belvedere once sat on his own balls and they had to stop filming for a few days

[8:57 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

I never sat on mine that hard before

[8:57 AM] 

hehe

On that note...a “Thunderball” story

Was my favorite Bond when I was a kid and getting older.

I've watched it a lot.

[8:58 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

thunder thunder BALLL

[8:59 AM] 

First macho title track

3 solid babes

Good gadgets

Sharks

Fight scenes

[8:59 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

though you can listen to Live and Let Die a lot

[9:01 AM] 

So, as I've said before, one of the luxuries I take advantage of watching the same movie a lot is that I can start looking at things the direction hasn't presented as the focus.

Background stuff...details...characters doing things you'd never see because the HERO is RIGHT THERE to look at.

Like me catching the "3 Blind Mice" 100 yards away in the background in "Dr. No".

So

We're watching T-Ball last night. 

Started a bit late and Mrs. Silver wore out and quit before the end. 

This is important.

Hehehe

At the end, Largo is dead.

Controls jammed!

Disco Volante hurtling towards a reef!

Bond, Domino and the repentant scientist leap off the boat!

They watch the boat zoom towards destruction and at the last second, Bond and Domino turn and dive under the water.

And me? I'm not looking where the director wanted.

("Really?")

Because Mrs. Silver had gone to bed, I had the luxury of rewinding and pausing and clicking forward little by little about a dozen times to be sure.

When Domino dives...

If you happen to be looking at the right part of the...um...screen...

She's not wearing any underwear, and the shorts she has on are doing a very minimal job of covering her lady bits.

"Oh my..."

It was late...I'd had some Vodka...

I must confess I went down this morning and fast forwarded through to the end of T-Ball just to be sure I wasn't deluded.

[9:09 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Haha

I noticed the scuba mask switch gaff

[9:10 AM] 

?

[9:10 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

In the battle under the water

Orange scuba suits

Bond jumps out of a helicopter to enter the water and fight

So when they are fighting under the water and the one guy rips Bond's scuba mask off

he reaches over grabs another guy's mask

When it comes back to show Bond's face he is wearing a blue scuba mask

A completely different design than the one he grabbed

Basically he keeps the same exact one on

[9:14 AM] 

Cut out of order, huh?  He went in with blue, took an orange, finished in blue?

[9:14 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

They never fixed it

yep

[9:15 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

"A wizard did it"

[9:16 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

I notice stuff like that in general

but more if I watch stuff over and over

I think i notice stuff cause i have ADD

So i don't always focus on the main character

[9:16 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

I liked the skeet shooting scene in Thunderball

"seems terribly difficult."  *PEW*  "no it isn't is it?"

[9:17 AM] 

I remarked on the skeet shooting thing to Mrs. Silver.  hehe

[9:18 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

I think he really fired and hit it too, and from the hip

Obvious recoil

[9:18 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Connery is Scottish correct

[9:18 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

yeah

[9:18 AM]  Mr. Brown.: 

So he probably shot skeet all the time

For some reason that makes sense in my head

hehe

[9:26 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

He was in the navy... so probably at least decent with a rifle

[9:29 AM] 

You think he shot skeet all the time...because he's Scottish?

[9:30 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

That classic Scottish past time

[9:31 AM]

It's not even listed in Wikipedia's rather huge listing of Scottish sports

[1:37 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

In which Star Trek does Kirk's son die?

I watched wrath of khan and undiscovered country last night

[1:42 PM] 

3

[1:42 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

ah

I've seen that one but don't recall it

only ones i haven't seen are the final frontier and generations

[1:43 PM] 

"Space Seed", 2, 3, 4, 6 are all the same extended story.

So that's how we watched it.

We still haven't put 5 in...

(To this day it's remained unwatched. - Mr. Silver)

[1:44 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Voyage Home?

[1:44 PM] 

No

5 was … Um

[1:45 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

oh The Final Frontier

[1:46 PM] 

"...so one night the new Trekker decided to try out this joke system and shouted out 'Hey!  Number 5!".  But nobody laughed."

(wow...what a blend...)

You both know that prison joke?

[1:49 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

no

[1:51 PM] 

New prisoner, first lights out.  All settling down and there's a shout.  "31!" 

Whole block starts laughing.

Guards quiet everyone down.

Next night someone shouts "Hey!  22!"  Place goes nuts.

This goes on for a while.  Eventually he makes a couple friends and asks what's up.

"Well, new guy, we've been in here so long we know everyone's jokes.  We never get to tell the whole things before they shut us up so we numbered them.  When one makes you giggle...you can shout out the number."

So he decides to try it out next light's out.

"Hey!  Number 5!"

Nothing.

"5!"

Nothing.

Next day

"What the heck happened?  Nobody laughed."

"Welllll...some people just can't tell a joke..."

So...

Trek variant...

No one likes 5

[1:57 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

hahah

The Shatner directed one nobody likes.

looks like he developed the initial story line too

makes sense why it flopped

"um, just play Kirk"

[1:58 PM] 

Just too goofy

[1:59 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Why would they need to find God?

i mean "god"

[1:59 PM] 

Because the cult leader wanted them to

'bout it.

[1:59 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Lots hated the 1st one too

it was bad enough that the studio pushed Gene Roddenberry out of the picture for 2

[1:59 PM] 

Meanwhile i like 1 a lot

[2:00 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

The franchise was dead until Wrath of Khan saved it

[2:00 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

They probably don't like 1 cause it's over packed

[2:02 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

It was too slow and the special effects overshadowed the characters

and the villain was a giant cloud

i mean i liked it but i can see why people didn't

[2:02 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

It was a big original Star Trek episode with all the stuff they wanted to do in the show

They dealt with a lot of clouds on that show

lol

they did the same stuff on next gen episodes later down the road for cheap

lol

[2:04 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

#1 was crazy expensive

So they hired a guy that had previously done TV stuff because they knew he could trim costs

I post this yesterday?

According to Bennett, he was called in front of a group including Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner and asked if he thought he could make a better film than The Motion Picture, which Bennett confessed he found "really boring".[23] When Bennett replied in the affirmative, Charles Bluhdorn asked, "Can you make it for less than forty-five-fucking-million-dollars?" Bennett replied that "Where I come from, I can make five movies for that."[24]

So they reused sets, costumes, even B-roll footage from the first movie and upped the character interactions

[2:05 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

character interaction is what makes it

[2:05 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

yeah

particularly between kirk and spock IMO

[2:05 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

when jim and bones are barking at each other

[2:06 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

because they're such polar opposites, but also because they get along in real life, that it just meshes well

Bones is pure comic relief in the undiscovered country

[2:06 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

yep

kinda has always been that

voice of reason

that speaks up every so often

Wait what are you going to do? You're crazy!

[2:07 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

interesting bit about Wrath of Khan is it was already leaked that Spock was going to die

so they altered it

Instead of him dying in the first 3rd, they moved it to the end

[2:08 PM] 

Good ending

[2:08 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Then they put a fake death at the very beginning (during a training simulation) to make people question whether or not that was the actual death that was leaked

Apparently the original idea was for him to die in the first 3rd in similar fashion to janet leigh in psycho in an attack by someone

[2:08 PM] 

Too bad 3 was a weak followup

Decent elements were there

Loved the mind upload

[2:10 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

i didn't like the plot of him "growing up" on the planet or whatever

if you wanna just have him cured by Genesis... do that

[2:10 PM] 

Yup

[2:10 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

But basically him starting from scratch.

[2:10 PM] 

(David) "We've been running some simulations.”

(Kirk) “Simulations? Simulations of what?”

(David) "We're going to be killed by an ethics committee, but the opportunity was THERE.  A fully developed life form was dropped right into the late stages of the Genesis Effect.”

(Bones) “And?  What are WE going to get killed for?”

(David) "And...I used proto-matter in the matrix and Genesis might...MIGHT...have repaired Spock."

(Kirk) "What???"

(David) "Computer...bring up the encrypted files on the...project."

(5 minute animation)

Bones - "You...SICK...maniacs!"

Also Bones "However...the prospects are quite fascinating..."

...

I mean...that took me a couple minutes and it's better than what they made.

And they get there and find Spock and...well...his mind is gone.

Because of the events in 2

So we'd have Brute Spock. 

I would have loved to have see him show up partway through the search and break a Klingon in half -- they're stronger than both them and humans

The team would still have to steal the Enterprise.

They'd still have to deal with the Klingons.

All of it, really

Just no Spock “growing pains” BS

[2:39 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Yeah

Nimoy directed 3, I forgot that

[2:43 PM] 

(David) "NOW what is he doing?"

(Saavik) "Our people call it Bar Mitzvah..."

[2:45 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

So the only reason Shatner directed 5 was because Nimoy directed 3

“During the 1966–69 Star Trek television series, Shatner and Nimoy's lawyers drafted what Shatner termed a "favored nations clause", with the result that whatever Shatner received — e.g., a pay raise or script control — Nimoy also got and vice versa.[13] Nimoy had directed Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Shatner had previously directed plays and television episodes;[2] when he signed on for The Voyage Home following a pay dispute, Shatner was promised he could direct the next film”

So Nimoy directed a Voyage Home too

Trekkies are incredible.

The wikipedia articles on each trek movie is more detailed than any other film, even Star Wars

Just so much info. Maybe too much

[2:53 PM] 

Gotta love rabid fanboys

523 - Some Thoughts On Pathetic Invasions From Space and Time

[11:28 AM] 

Oh yeah...way back..."Stargate" 

The nuke

Ra not stating it but realizing that Earth tech had advanced WAY farther than he could conquer, Ra declared he's sending the bomb back through the gate in a box of his special metal.

"Which will result in an explosion 1000 TIMES more powerful and destroy you all!" 

On review, my response might have been:

"Pfft...ok."

"What? Did you think all of civilization was still grubbing around on the Nile or something? That little thing is a tactical atomic bomb.  x1000, it's still not that big, and you'd be setting it off under a fortified mountain.  Humanity would call it an accident and forget it."

"...though if I know our government – and I do – they've already reverse engineered most or all of your gate technology, and they're going to be mighty PO'd."

That last bit is not spurious character bluffing, BTW.

Earth science got the thing to work, had systems to track where probes had gone, so they probably also figured out how it does it.

That was another thing about the experience of watching it again – sitting back and realizing that Earth science got an alien device properly powered, turned it on, and built an interface that actually worked.

They had everything but 1 coordinate and they would have guessed it eventually.

[12:00 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Maybe his bomb improvements would've destroyed technology like an EMP bomb

[12:03 PM] 

He didn't change the bomb...he just packed it in unrefined nuclear...ore?

It went from a tiny A bomb to a larger A bomb

Heh

[12:07 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Yeah

It'd actually be an interesting story from Ra's perspective

[12:56 PM] 

What? The immortal alien running into his biggest mistake?

That does sound interesting, yes.

What if it was about the cargo cult passing up the alien?

(something I've pondered with us and UFOs)

Show up as a god and pray you can pull off the superior act.

Very much like "The Man Who Would Be King", I guess

"Back off, primitives, or I'll fire my... (looks around...picks up juice box) ...space... box."

[1:31 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Even a Glock with plenty of ammo would be enough to subjugate most people prior to say 1600

[1:33 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

That is for sure

[1:27 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3963226/

[1:35 PM] 

AKA "The story of the pizza delivery guy but with more events, interesting characters, and not such a sad abrupt ending."

Sorry...not such an abruptio ending. ;-)

[1:36 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Pizza guy travels back in time, has a pizza becomes a god

lol

That would be funny

Somebody delivering a pizza going back in time

All he has is the pizza

Gets natives to eat it

Calls it the food of the gods

[1:40 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Then they'd eat him

We've discussed this but i think if any of us went back in time it'd be very hard for us to survive

At worst they think you're some kind of witch and hang you

At best you're merely a foreigner and many would still try to kill you depending on time/place

Anything prior to about 1800 and we wouldn't even speak the language right.  Anywhere.

We would have an odd accent no matter where we went.

We'd get by in English speaking countries but it'd be like we were speaking a 2nd language poorly.

Our general cleanliness and health would probably make us stick out like aristocrats or nobility...which would leave us vulnerable to mugging or kidnapping

And our clothes?  Not even sure there.

We would be wearing colors that people would have never seen before on man-made items

[1:47 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

But if you have a gun you're set

lol

[1:48 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Probably

[1:49 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

But when you think you're gonna die, you need to get rid of that thing

Not let them get it and make them before their time

[1:50 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Just go back in time and give the glock to, like, the Mayans or something

and then come back and see what's changed.

Even just give them the recipe for gunpowder

[1:53 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Watch how we worry about all this time stuff, and then time travel gets invented and it all works just like on Bill and Ted

You can go back in time take people from anywhere, flip them around - nothing changes

lol

[1:54 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

lol yeah

There's no tangents at all, just do whatever you want

[1:54 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

"Man, gotta pass my history report. Better go bring Hitler back"

Nothing changes

First hand accounts on why he did it

Goes back with knowledge of how to win

Still loses

Nothing changes

What if when you are pulled out of your time you may gain new memories and such but once you're back to your time it goes away?

Travel through time, discover all kinds of stuff

Come back and forget you even traveled in time

Best part about Bill and Ted is them permanently removing two princesses from time

Planting them in their time

[2:13 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

Yeah that would be bad.

Everything they did would have changed history drastically

[3:03 PM] 

(catches up)

Rufus grabbed the princesses because he knew they were in the band in the future.

"Bill and Ted's Appalling Misadventure"

[3:07 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

"Bill & Ted Flush History Down the Toilet"

[3:09 PM] 

(presenting on stage, Adolf posing in front of map) "My man Hilter totally would have lasted longer and might have held all of Europe for like, forever, if he hadn't betrayed and attacked the Russia dudes on June 22 1941."

"Was?"

(Churchill mumbling into mike) "What a Kraut ass...does he really?  Ho ho!"

[3:09 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

What should've happened is they go back for Socrates... and then everyone else doesn't exist.

No Genghis Khan or Napoleon or Billy the Kid, because they F'd with Socrates and it caused a tangent

[3:20 PM] 

"Bill and Ted's Bitchin' Butterfly Effect Botch"

[3:23 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

That's good

[3:33 PM] 

They ever do a snow post-apocalypse movie?  Like Mad Max but in, like, The Yukon instead of the Australian desert?

"It's time for another edition of Thunder Rink, eh?" 

[3:35 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Not sure assless chaps would work in that film

[3:35 PM] 

(crowd chants) "31 teams enter...1 team leaves...31 teams enter...1 team leaves..."

[‎3:35 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

hehehe

[10:19 AM] 

Do bad guys assure each other with "Dishonest to badness"?

[10:20 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

heh

[10:21 AM] 

"So easy I'll lie to the Devil about it being hard."

[10:22 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

“Most homes have a dead zone” (Ted discussing wifi)

[10:23 AM] 

"It's in that room that never seems to get warm and you won't go in without reaching around the corner to turn on the lights first."

[10:24 AM]  Mr. Blue: 

heheh

"Wow the old McNare place... Never thought they'd get it all cleaned up after what happened here." 

"What happened?" 

"...they had a lot of cats."

[10:27 AM] 

:)

[12:46 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

So ALF is on Prime

watching it again has ruined it for me

lol

[12:48 PM] 

Watched several episodes, I think.

That bad, eh?

[12:48 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

i don't remember if i liked the show or not

i think i liked the idea of ALF more than the show itself

[12:49 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

so the first episode is the dad and mother in the garage

where he has radios and signal tracking equipment setup

suddenly we are thrust into him picking up a signal no explaination to why he is in there at all

he talks to the signal it talks back he cannot understand it

then everything starts shaking

lights flashing

kids run in - “what's going on”

ALF then crashes into the garage not killing any of them just getting stuck in the roof

they carry him into the house

WTF

he wakes up and immediately starts talking English and making recent pop culture quips

[12:53 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

lol

[12:53 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

Then the family has a very small discussion and just lets him stay there

[12:53 PM] 

(80s show pitch) "Dad goes into the garage, finds a baggie of shrooms.  Thinks they are his favorite mushroom from the Chinese restaurant and eats the whole bag."

(producer) "That's the show?"

"Yeah."

(producer) "Maybe add a puppet."

"Yeah."

I think one can worry too much about backstory in old sitcoms. 

heh

[1:13 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALF_(TV_series)#Production

Sounds like everyone that worked on it hated it

[1:18 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

yep

[1:23 PM] 

Nasty anecdotes

[1:24 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

In an interview on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Tina Fey said that her biggest frustration as producer of NBC's 75th anniversary special was dealing with ALF's "people". Fey said Fusco would only allow ALF to appear on the show if the puppeteers were hidden from everyone else. After ALF's cameo alongside former Family Ties star Michael Gross, ALF disappeared through a hole in the riser, was stuffed into a case, and immediately removed from the building.

[1:25 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

haha

ALF the DIVA

I know there was a cartoon

comics

they did dumb stuff like his planet has blue grass and and green sky

[1:39 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

they really didn't put much thought into any of it

[1:39 PM]  Mr. Brown.: 

nope

[1:39 PM]  Mr. Blue: 

like it makes Mork & Mindy seem like 2001: A Space Odyssey