This is a clip from the 1989 Bollywood film “Nafrat Ki Aandhi” staring Amrish Puri (who played Molo Ram in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom).

Molo Ram singing and dancing?  That, alone, is enough to justify the price of admission for this flick.

But this scene… it is a singing, dancing, He-Man.  Complete with Orko.  I kid you not.

Went to see Transformers 2 last night (show got out around 1am) with Chris and Jeremy (from CastaBlasta) and my lady.

It was… insane.  Two and half solid hours of, primarily, robot fighting.

And I loved damn near every second of it.

Sprinkled throughout were little homages to the original series and movie, plus it kept much of the concepts from the original (energon, space bridges and the matrix of leadership).  I know, I know.  It’s a all based on a cartoon made to sell robot toys that turned into vehicles.  But, still, for those of us that grew up on the original Transformers cartoons (three seasons plus the animated movie) that lore holds a special place in our hearts.

I wish I could express how much I enjoyed this movie.

It was rediculous.  It was over the top.  It was cheesy.

And it was awesome.

It was so awesome that I do hereby forgive Michael Bay for any other movie he may have made (or may yet make) that, let’s just say, I didn’t like quite so much.

What blows my mind, though?  Metacritic has it listed as a 37 / 100 (which is a lower score than such stellar films as Hannah Montana: The Movie, Fast and Furious 4 and Dance Flick).  Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 22%.  I’m thinking they either didn’t see the same movie as me… or they’re all 47 year old women who think “robots are confusing” and would rather watch something on ABC Familly.

I’m just going to say this once:

If you are a nerd.  If you are a geek.

If you like robots.  If you like robots fighting.

Hell.  If you were alive in the 1980′s…

… Then you will enjoy this movie.

Warning: Minor spoilers ahead.

I love Sci-Fi.  The Sci-Fi I watched as a kid is the reason I do what I do today.

But, more-over, I love great Sci-Fi.  And some of the best Sci-Fi we’ve ever seen has come from the Star Trek universe (be it The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, etc.).

Some of the greatest writers of our time have worked on these shows.  D.C. Fontana, Harlan Ellison, Larry Niven and David Gerrold immediately spring to mind.

So when we found out J. J. Abrams was going to be making a movie that took place in The Original Series timeframe (and with the original characters)… I was… concerned.

Turns out — those concerns were justified.

I saw the new movie the first moment I could.  And you can listen to my review of it in the latest episode of Casta Blasta (hint: There’s four guys on CastaBlasta.  I’m the one who didn’t love it so much.)

I’m not going to go into a full on review here.  Whether or not I like this movie shouldn’t matter to you.  If you like Star Trek, you really should see this film.

What I would like to talk about is what a colossal mistake this film was to make.  (We’re talking a Dr. Richard Daystrom level of mistake here.)

“But Bryan!  The movie did great openning weekend!  And so many people are enjoying it and being exposed to Star Trek for the first time!  How can that be bad?”

That is a great question.  And I’ll give you the quickest answer I possibly can.

JJ’s Star Trek reboots the franchise.  But that’s not the real problem.

The problem is that it reboots the franchise… while making it a direct continuation of the timeline from the original Star Trek.

What this means is that it’s not a completely different “thing”.  If you or I sit down and watch JJ’s Star Trek we cannot simply consider it on its own merits.  Because it is directly tied, by the events in the film, to the original Star Trek Univers (Pre-JJ).

Also this means that, since JJ’s Star Trek is in the same “universe” and has a direct timeline connection to the pre-JJ Trek (as opposed to a “pure reboot with no connection”), several problems immediately crop up.

1. All those great moments in Star Trek?  Not there any more.  Tribbles?  Gone.  City on the Edge of Forever?  Not there.  Wrath of Khan?  Nope.  Not happening.  So now, when we sit down to watch those wonderful shows — those epic moments in Sci-Fi history — we know that the new Star Trek movie has erased them from that universe.
2. What if there is a chance of seeing a new series or movie (or game) based on the many existing Star Trek series?  While those chances may have been slim before… they’re a lot lower now.
3. It was “rebooted” as a film, not a television series.  Which means we aren’t likely to ever get those defining moments that made Trek what it is (seriously… how likely is it they’ll make a Tribbles movie?).
4. Because it was an expensive movie.  And because any sequels are likely to go up in price (there are some great actors in this movie… they aren’t likely to get cheaper).  How likely do you think it is we’ll get a constant stream of new Trek movies in this universe?  Not likely.  Maybe one?  Two?  Then it’s done.
5. JJ’s Trek is designed to also appeal to the Gilmore Girls / Greys Anatomy fans.  Spock making out with Uhura?  Really?

The result?

The original Star Trek (Pre-JJ Abrams) has been rendered inert and impossible (or at least extremely unlikely) to expand upon in TV or film form.

And the odds of getting a large quantity (and quality) of movies and TV shows from this “new” timeline of Trek, well, that looks pretty slim even with this movie doing well at the box office.

And, even if we do get that, good odds it’ll be more akin to the super, over the top drama that has been the hallmark of some recent Sci Fi (ala Lost and the final two seasons of the new Battlestar Galactica).  ie. “Not Star Trek”.

So, what’s this all mean?  It’s definitely not good, I’ll tell you that.

Can it be fixed?  Sure.  This is Sci-Fi.  You can fix anything.

Maybe if they brought in some of the “old guard” of great Sci Fi writers that have contributed so much to the Trek universe (see the writers above for a good starting point) to fix it…

But.  In the mean time.  I think it’s safe to say this new Star Trek movie did about as much to kill off Star Trek as you possibly could do.

Oh hells yes.

On a recent CastaBlasta we made mention of the sound the clock in 24 makes… that it sounds like “Gadook”.  The next day?  Boom:

Wikipedia entry for “Gadook”

Then, just today, in an episode of Beer is Tasty, Chris used the term “Foundational Beer”.  Boom:

Wikipedia entry for “Foundational Beer”

You guys are awesome.  Kinda makes a man get all teary-eyed.

Now anyone wanna update our Linux Action Show wikipedia entry to be a bit more… up to date?  Huh.  We don’t have a Jupiter Broadcasting entry up there either.  I gotta remedy that!

And, just gonna throw this out there…

If an entry for “Bryan Lunduke” were to appear, it might be worthwhile to make mention of the fact that Jono Bacon refuses to sword fight me.

DUDE.

According to the NY Times, this coming July, the SciFi Channel is going to change its name to…. wait for it…

“SyFy”

SERIOUSLY

I mean.  HUH.

I really am just freaking done with new company and brand names that are made up of nothing more than “funny spellings” and “nonsense words that sound silly”.   Freaking done.

First the Sci-Fi channel takes Battlestar Galactica and adds in Baby showers and discussions of which retirement homes have the best brochures (seriously, the most recent episode is about exactly that)…

And now they take the “Sci Fi” out of their name entirely.

Weak.  Sauce.