I've been blind ever since I tore out my eyes trying to escape from Moulin Rouge. I could still hear, so I seared my ears with burning wax. Music was ruined for me forever so I also cut out my tongue. But now I sure play a mean pinball.

Interesting....

SF movies from bygone days were inflation-adjusted blockbusters

Planet of the Apes and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Prior to Star Wars, this was science fiction's one-two punch at the box office, and it was a pretty hefty combination: Planet of the Apes, helped by the star power of Charlton Heston, brought in $32 million -- equivalent to $175 million today, and a sum no one would complain about. 2001, with its groundbreaking special effects and oh-so-serious weirdness, did even better: $56 million, or just over $300 million today, which would have put it at number four in last year's box office list, just below the latest Indiana Jones flick. The two movies in fact helped spur a series of largely dystopic, serious-minded science fiction flicks, such as Silent Running and Soylent Green (not to mention, in the case of Apes, a bunch of sequels).

Hey, tommy. Yeah, I heard about that movie. Lucas isn't involved is he?

Okay, to seriously get my geek on re: ST (spoilers ahoy!)

In regard to the Romulans: The first contact between Romulans and the Federation was NOT in the ST:TOS ep "Balance of Terror". According to Spock in said episode the Romulan Neutral Zone had been established as the result of a war between Earth and Romulus a century before. So the Federation was aware of the Romulans. Also, Uhura's intercepted message dealth with a Romulan ship (Nero's) attacking a Klingon outpost.

Red matter is horseshit. I don't know why they bothered since TNG dealt with artificial singularities like they were slightly less common than cheese.

What else you got? Huh? Hit me, motherfuckers! I'M THE KING GEEK! KNEEL BEFORE ZOD! SNORK!

Regarding MM's whitefont, I think there was some confusion in that, in ST:TOS the first time the Federation saw a Romulan was in "Balance of Terror", but yeah, the Federation did know about the Romulans from the war earlier. This was the source of much geek angst before the film came out, but since this is a new timeline, all is well....

I forget who brought this up earlier, and what exactly she had to say about it.

Yeah, I was forty quagillion posts behind. I skipped and skimmed.

Brenda, I was thinking of seeing Trek again this weekend (I have no interest to see Terminator). I'm on a budget until payday so I was thinking of a matinee - would that work for you?

AMC Rivereast would work for me, but my ideal theater would be Davis Theater (4614 N. Lincoln Avenue) as I can walk to it (the Brown line Western stop is a block or so away).

Miracleman, re: your whitefonted discussion...

Ah, but I didn't suggest that the Federation wasn't *aware* of the Romulans. I understood that there had been a war before the first visual contact in 'Balance of Terror'. But I had previously been almost sure they weren't aware of the relationship between the two races before this point. If this is so, we surely have a continuity problem as soon as it is claimed that it's difficult to tell the Romulan language from the Vulcan. Here are two possible premises. 1. Let's say that, from monitoring communications along the Neutral Zone, etc, they knew all along that the languages were similar, and that the Federation had surmised from this that there was a kinship between the two races. I got the definite impression that "Balance of Terror" was the first realisation of any relationship between Romulans and Vulcans, at least on the Enterprise. (It wasn't just what the Romulans *looked like* that was making the humans on the ship suspicious of Spock - it was the potential of a connection between him and the enemy - wasn't it?) So either this relationship between Romulans and Vulcans was classified information (in which case, why the open chattering about it on the bridge in this movie?), or Kirk's people were out-of-the-loop and/or being a bit stupid when they first saw the Romulans. 2. The other possible situation is that they didn't know much, if anything, about Romulans, despite the war (certainly the impression I got from what was said in the episode in question). In which case, we have a whole new premise in this movie. The alternate reality starts at the point where Nero goes back in time. As such, the 'it's a new timeline, so all is well' only works for me if Nero has been running around the galaxy making Romulans known about. And if this is so, why didn't they just make this clearer (instead of leaving me all head-spinny and geek-angsty?) Tell me that, for once, an apparent continuity error in recent versions of Star Trek can be explained logically, and I will be deleriously happy. To cheer myself up in the meantime, I'm going with the explanation that also solves the problem of what Nero's been doing for the past 25 years. If someone were to prove me wrong about the premise on which I am basing this entire line of reasoning, I'd be fine with that. Like I say, not seen ST:TOS for a while.

Edited for not understanding how the spoiler tag thing works. Lost all my paragraphing in the process, so you'll have to excuse me going on and on and on.

In which case, we have a whole new premise in this movie. The alternate reality starts at the point where Nero goes back in time.

Where else would it have started?

Where else would it have started?

Nowhere. I just said that to keep it clear in my mind...

Brenda, I have to work at the bookstore tomorrow from 10-2, but I'd love to come down and see the movie with you and Tom! If the time interferes with your plans, though, I understand. (I could cover any extra cost if we have to pay non-matinee prices, fyi.)