Sometimes being a nerd is hard. You get made fun of a lot, you’re usually kind of pasty and there are swirlies involved.
But if you’re lucky enough to land a hot wife who indulges your nerd tendencies? Well, you’ve just hit the jackpot, tiger. Just try not to be a jerk about it like Tom is in the most recent incentive sketch. To see what I’m talking about, vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics.
I like drawing the comics where Cami geeks out with Tom from time to time. I’ve done a few of them in the past and I think it helps to move their relationship beyond the loudmouth protagonist and the long-suffering wife. Not to say there isn’t some of that to be found in Theater Hopper, but that Everyone Loves Raymond dynamic gets a little tired after a while.
Hopefully it’s clear that Cami is dressed up as an Orion slave girl from the original Star Trek. I never know if I’m in safe territory when I’m making visual references from 40 years ago.
It was… interesting doing photo research for the Orion slave girl’s “look.” I found a bunch of images from when they made an appearance on Enterprise a few years ago. It was as if someone had sprayed them down with industrial strength whore. Guess I missed that episode.
Of course, there are the ubiquitous images of everyday fans dressed up as Orion slave girls. Ladies, I love you. But take my word for it when I suggest that there aren’t many of you who can pull off the green skin and tattered rags look. I’m just trying to be a friend.
So, as you know, Star Trek is in theaters today and it’s been really interesting getting e-mails and reading the feedback of people who’ve seen it. Pretty much all of them are saying it’s awesome. My expectations were already a little high, but I’m starting to worry that if I don’t see this movie soon, my expectations will be TOO high and it’s going to disappoint me in some way.
People keep saying that the film is like this year’s Iron Man. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, I think I might have seen a commercial for Star Trek that says the same thing. So who knows if that’s their real opinion or if they’re just parroting something they’ve heard elsewhere (like I have).
I assume people make the comparison for the fact that it sounds like Star Trek simply gets a lot of things right and puts the characters to the fore with a healthy dose of the science fiction elements that support them. I think the biggest thing Star Trek has going for it is that people are starting to remember that it was the characters – specifically the relationship between Kirk and Spock – that made the show so much fun to watch.
I mean, let’s be frank. By the time they got around to making Star Trek VI, it was more about the novelty of seeing these actors we had grown to love on screen together one. last. time. I mean, look at the way people treat Shatner these days. He’s like a Goofball Grandfather God. But I think audiences forgot why they fell in love with them in the first place.
I’m hoping to see the film tonight. Probably a late showing. Cami has no interest in it, of course. That’s okay. I can nerd it up all the more flying solo. I’ll let you know what I think on Monday. Or, if you want to know before then, I’m sure I’ll tweet about it at some point over the weekend. Maybe come back here for the more in depth review…
Anyone else ready to be beamed up? What are your expectations for the film? What elements do you think they have to include to keep the die-hard fans happy? What’s something new you’d like to see contributed to the franchise? Leave your thoughts below!
Apologies for the cut and paste job on today’s comic. But to be completely truthful, I spent most of the day in front of my computer writing my final paper for my Master’s research class. In fact, I took the day off from work to do it. By the time I was supposed to start working on the comic, I had a little trouble with the thought of sitting there for too much longer.
I don’t know how that’s any different than me sitting in front of a computer monitor at work for 8 hours and then coming home to do a comic. But maybe it has something to do with the location. Too much time in a tiny room ends up with you approaching Jack Torrence levels of crazy.
To make it up to you, I drew a pretty picture of Tom firing a phaser from Star Trek. To see it, vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics. And in case you’re not catching the reference Tom is making to the slinky dress and the green body paint, that was a sexual escapade introduced in last Friday’s comic.
Incidentally, regarding my research project, you guys knocked it out of the park when you came to bat for me by filling out those surveys. When all was said and done, almost 700 of you completed the survey! To keep that in perspective, during a round table discussion our class had about our research projects, many people were coming back with about 10 to 20 respondents for their surveys. You guys blew them out of the water. Even my professor was impressed!
So, at this point, I have to wait and see if she finds the paper that explains the research compelling. I felt like I wrote a pretty good paper. 9 pages, 3,000 words… respectable. Cami read it and she thought it made sense. Of course, by that point, it was due in an hour. I wasn’t going to be making any changes then!
I think what I found most interesting in the results is that the overwhelming majority of you – 82% – did not believe a background in film or journalism was a requirement to be a “legitimate” film critic. 81% of you felt that online reviews were no more or less credible than their print counter parts. In fact, nearly 8% of you felt that online reviews were MORE credible than print reviews.
That’s good news for me, but it makes me think about the traditional film critics who complain that online film criticism has devalued the art form. Turns out, education or background isn’t something the audience cares about.
The battle between traditional and online critics, to me, is very similar to the battle between syndicated cartoonists and web cartoonists. There’s all this finger pointing going on. One side says the other is devaluing the art form and if they had and “real” talent, they would have been able to make a name for themselves through traditional, “legitimate” print media. The other side points fingers back saying those in traditional media are behind the times and are clutching too tightly to their meal ticket instead of figuring out a way to monetize their talents in new media.
Less face it: Print is on it’s last legs right now. But of all the people losing their jobs, I would think film critics would have the easiest time cultivating an audience online. They’re afraid of starting over. That’s justifiable. But if their position is that only “legitimate” critics are good enough to make it in the world of print, let’s throw them into the global melting pot that is the internet and see the cream rise to the top.
Either you’re very talented and can attract your own audience or you’re a big fish in a little pond screaming bloody murder when the pond starts drying up. Better swim downstream into bigger waters before you get caught at the bottom of a dried up pond. That’s my advice.
Is there any interest from you guys in reading “The Value of Film Criticism Compared to the Decline of Print and the Rise of Online Publishing?” If so, let me know in the comments. Maybe I can upload it to the server later tonight and you guys can look it over for fun. That is, if your idea of reading a research paper is “fun.”
Not much else for discussion today. I pretty much exhausted all there was to say about Star Trek on Monday’s The Triple Feature.
In case you didn’t have a chance to listen to the show, I strongly encourage you to download it. We had a really good conversation about Star Trek as well as the teaser trailer for District 9 that was floating around last week. We didn’t completely see eye-to-eye on Star Trek, but I thought we got some interesting discussion out of it.
Just as a reminder, you can subscribe to The Triple Feature through iTunes. You can either search for us by name on through the iTunes store, or you can use this link. You can also subscribe to The Triple Feature’s RSS feed.
Just making things easier for you!
That’s all for now. Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you here again on Friday!