Thoughts On - Star Trek Discovery (Spoilers alert) Part 1

Hi all,
           My first reaction to watching the Pilot episodes - "You've got to be kidding me"! The episode length was too short. The show credits were rubbish. The bridge design bore no relation to any "canon" starship that had gone before. The female lead character has a male name, why? She is a human version of a Vulcan, illogical to even try? Brought up by Sarek, rubbish. They complete a mind-meld over Interstellar distances - more rubbish.

There was a very poor plotline. The length of the actual episodes is pathetic. The first thing you see them do is to bend, if not break, the "Prime Directive". The Klingons looked nothing like I expected, that is in the little time when you could actually see them, the sets were too dark. The Klingonese language sounded like they were eating a mop head. After all of the above, this is not the starship or characters that we will see in the rest of the shows, apart from two, I think. Deep sigh of relief.

I'm glad I was watching at a pal's house and had not bought that rubbish.

Must do much better.

Rating  - 3 out of 10.

I am going to cheer myself up by watching Star Trek: Horizon, a fan film.

Additional: Since this initial posting went out, I have been catching up on what some of the other reviews have been saying, not to mention the convoluted history of the show in regard to the CBS and Paramount buyout and copyrights.

What it boils down to is that they had to make it look different from the original "Prime" universe, which was a shock, but why not say so and be honest and upfront about it all. That still does not excuse the awful script decisions though. No doubt there will be more for me to find out.

I have seen talk of a different ST series being prepared if this series bombs. 13 episodes to go, or rather 13 tiny episodes "to boldly go......"

What did you think of it?

I have heard from one source that part three is better, so fingers crossed again.

"Give me your thoughts...." to quote a phrase.

Ivor Cogdell

P.S. 20 April 2019 -I have now bought series 1 of Discovery, look forward to a review soon.

RPG_Chronicles Part 0

Hi all,
           I have just provisionally joined a weekly Role Playing Game / Wargame club in my local area called The Circle Battle Group. Yo gang.

 On my first week, on my table, they were running a Sword and Sorcery GURPS RPG in 15mm, other tables were doing war games.
          Currently, we are using D20 Modern rules for our RPG.  I went for a tech type, for a change. I will be doing write-ups of some of our adventures so you can join in the fun. Currently, I am doing the Department 7 Adventure first, getting it roughly typed up, taking it to the members about what I missed, then doing corrections and inserts, finally posting it on here.  Since I am the new kid on the block, I'm not sure how regular the episodes will be though, probably three weeks to a month for each adventure. I will just go with the flow.

             The only snag is that it actually takes longer to type up and expand the story than it did to actually play it in the first place, also I am an evening short each week to do stuff, so I will cherry-pick the stories that I put on here. There will be photos to go along with it, but don't expect very exotic scenery, more like just diagrams with figures. I am giving priority to my homegrown blog stuff, so once I have finished what I am doing, I will slot some of this in.

If you are in the Erdington / Stocklands Green area of Birmingham, the UK on a Wednesday evening come along and see us at the Highcroft Community Center.

http://highcroftcommunitycentre.co.uk

Not sure if the website is current, apologies.

485 Slade Road,
Stocklands Green,
Birmingham
B23 7JG

0121 - 382 5101

There are food vendors in the area. We usually eat before a game.

Ivor Cogdell

Postscript: At one point, due to unforeseen circumstances, I thought I was going to have to postpone my joining the club for the present then attend in the future. Then that fell through and I managed to go for another week to finish off a game. It is now full steam ahead again.

A little treat

Hi all,
          I have just been on the http://www.wargamevault.com/ website and just treated myself to the Adventures in the Lost Lands from Two Hour Wargames. Their partner store, Rebel Minis, are doing it for £7.99. There is an expansion pack on offer, Motor City in the Lost Lands. They do a very nice range of 15 mm Neanderthal minis for them too, located on their Pulp page, Rebel Minis / Pulp. I have just added 6 Dinos to my menagerie, they are only slightly bigger than the correct scale, but they can be juveniles or adults, depending on how they fit the rest of the herd.

           I also got the intro pack to "Gentlemen prefer Zombies", a Victorian-era zombie hunt. I will see how it stacks up against the Mordheim rules, all good stuff for the future. But I will need some Victorian figures for that to go ahead. It's time to search the net again.

           I have downloaded some Mordheim, Battlefleet Gothic, Age of Sigmar, Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago and some Star Wars - Legion video battle reports (one from Gen Con - Hi to everybody who visited the Con) to watch on my phone while on the move. Just viewed it, nice and simple mechanics, depends if you like your games crunchy or not.
                  I bought a few superhero baddies at my local RPG / Wargame hangout, not sure what I will fit them in yet though.
            Speaking of videos, I want to give a quick shout out to Guerrilla Miniature Games, for their Throwback Thursdays Battle Report videos. They are always great quality. Any recommendations of battle reports you might have for me, please leave in the comments section below.

           For the present, it is the Xmas move around, so busy, busy, busy at work. I am currently just finishing off a painting session ( a sunset over a lake on a 16 x 20-inch canvas) plus playing and writing part three of my Dwarf journey towards Mordheim. The question is, will they actually get there, or will their bones bleach in the wilderness?

           As you may have realised, my brave travellers have come across some more nasty critters, who are intent on doing them harm or even worse. The final tussle has now taken place, I am just left with the task of slotting in the pictures. Which I have now done. Yaay, the end, I thought. But alas no, it was not to be just yet, my font sizes seemed to have got completely screwed up, going extra small and needed some tweaking before they were presentable, so I have given the computer a good telling off and got the code to behave itself.
            I have posted it with the corrected text now, so you can enjoy another skirmish, dwarf style.

Ivor Cogdell