Vee

None of those actresses should be saddled with a nothing character like Jordan. Anyway, that new man is very attractive. I'm not going to complain.

Yikes.

It's all of a piece of Discovery being arrogant enough to think their brand is bigger than HBO, AFAIC and to think they can mold it to being all things to all people, like their aspirations for their own content. But they are climbing out of a mountain of debt too and this merger won't last. These are dark times for the various platforms and providers creatively and financially after a drunken boom period and an oversaturation of content above all. I think ultimately HBO will survive and repair itself in time (along with other platforms), but I think what's been done to it and its library in the meantime is a travesty.

A nexus of hilarity.

Robotic 'Hosts' from Westworld have more range than Harper.

Frakes and Elizabeth Dennehy (Shelby) on The Ready Room. Frakes also talks a lot about wife Genie Francis.

Our spoiler time has passed, so here's Elizabeth Dennehy (Blake, GL) interviewed with Jonathan Frakes (Mr. Genie Francis) for a Star Trek: Picard BTS feature. Dennehy discusses her time on GL briefly re: the skills she picked up like most daytime actors, but Frakes talks at length about Genie and her helping him recapture the role of Riker around the 20 minute mark.

Wow.

An extended promo plus the series finale of Paul Abbott and Frank Cottrell Boyce's early supernatural soap opera Springhill, which Russell T. Davies wrote for (and may have co-created as well?) on Granada TV in the mid-'90s and which Davies described as 'the story of the Antichrist born on a Liverpool estate'. Apparently lost except for these materials. @DRW50

Since before then, that's just roughly when he stopped bothering AFAIC.

Donnell Turner stopped acting on this show around 2016. None of the Jordans have had a personality but Vinessa Antoine had charisma. She has always been a plot function vs. a character. The current one is unwatchable.

This thread is a prime example of why I think most of us would accept more moderation. I couldn't care less about Soapsuds, Foxton or their private beef; I have had one of them blocked for years. But their feud has been splashed out across multiple public threads and spaces, including spaces as diverse as the "Thought of the Day" thread as well as inside the mostly-defunct status update feature (which the activity feed occasionally displays, that's the only way I know about this) where lots of people, not just one, get attacked. On any other board, this kind of behavior would've been shut down a long time ago and the update feed destroyed. Here it is a recurring feature. There is a big difference between silencing valid opinions about soaps or discussion topics vs. exercising some moderation over public behavior. Even 4chan deletes threads or bans IPs. I'm fully aware that I'd probably get in trouble sometimes if there was more moderation and I am fully prepared for that. I've been prepared that for almost 20 years. I have no problem modulating my behavior in accordance with the rules of a forum if someone lays in on me, and I've done it many times since then (or done it myself, here, holding my tongue many times). The problem that I can see is this forum doesn't want to let anyone else go, so it doesn't act on interpersonal issues that just fester and rot. And no, I don't think it's fair that Errol should have to decide who to warn or ban (and as I've said before, I'm not really interested in banning anyone other than our most virulent sockpuppet-using trolls, who to the best of my knowledge aren't active these days - and I have never called for banning anyone above) when there is no compensation, and often no thanks to be had for running this board on less than a skeleton crew. But unfortunately when you own the board that's the punchline. We don't exist in a utopian online space, and the Internet has changed a lot in 20 years. Errol knows how I feel about this and I know how he feels so I truly don't mean to put him in a bad position or embarrass him, because in the very rare times I express myself about this issue I usually do it in passing or occasionally in private. I think hard choices should be made if behavior continues, and if that includes me someday, so be it. You won't see me hiding within the unused forum architecture talking shít about everyone. But I have no pull here, so all I can say is that's how I feel. And I hope Jane doesn't go anywhere over some tacky jokes. I should add, though I've said it to Errol directly before: I am truly grateful this place exists despite my issues with it and my private misgivings, because of the wealth of anecdotal history and one-on-one experience with the medium that is still rich among the user base. The people here with the knowledge of history and ability to expound on it and discuss it intelligently is the main reason I stay when I have plenty of other places I could (and do) frequent, though I don't frequent any of them as regularly. When those people, mostly quieter people, are gone, then that oral or experiential history of a sort is gone. That to me is the invaluable thing about the board. Everything else could change and I wouldn't blink.

Even for what the Times was already doing, this is a lot.

HP will always be a huge cash cow. But no, I don't think this will hit. I think it's too soon for anyone to embrace a whole new cast and the same stories. You'd need at least another 5-10 years, and the brand has refused to go away with the Fantastic Beasts films, etc. which were a mess.

I understand why Kevin and Laura have a decent amount of fans even if I find them pretty boring. He is committed to her and they're both good people. I would still give her a new, more exciting man and put him back with Lucy, but I get that contented happiness for her fans and for Genie and I would play that drama out. Anna and Valentin? That's just there to give JPS a foundation, like the Rebecca Herbst Love Interest Retirement Plan.

It amazes me that they have a fanbase, however small but vocal. I think some of Finola's fans (and well, FInola too who clearly loves working with Stuart) are just happy she has a pairing, any pairing. I know it was controversial and not the actors' favorite but I'd have put her back with Scorpio long ago. But Frank is obsessed with JPS.

Valentin remains the corniest dude alive. Say what you will about Guza, but he would've had Valentin up against the wall and plugged full of lead within 48 hours.

I can't.

Important thread.

I knew something was off with the theme song this week and I knew I knew that voice. I guessed it before the theme ended but sure enough, it's Alanis fuckin' Morissette!

My 79 yo mother has it bad for Jack Crusher, lol.

I know the Troi militants or the Seven/Raffi fangirls exist if I dig a lot but I almost never see them on Twitter in the trending #StarTrekPicard hashtag, so that's small mercies for me. I had no idea anyone could possibly have anything to complain about for Beverly. I do see the real crazies I mentioned on random Trek forums, and of course there's the hardcore who will never like anything produced for Trek after 2002. But for the most part with this season it's been a very positive mass response and I'm glad for it.

It's no big deal. I think those Troi stans online get pretty militant though lol. If Marina was truly pissed I think we'd know it, but she also speaks off the cuff a lot. But yes, why CBS won't give them another 5-10 mins more often outside of finales is beyond me. This is streaming, it's not an episode of Blue Bloods on the main basic network. I do think it will be a mistake if they don't show Janeway next week (especially since is going to be back). There is too much background with her, Seven and the Borg as well as her admiral's role in Frontier Day which has been heavily mentioned. If she doesn't show up I will have to blame either runtime, budget/scheduling or worst of all, Nickelodeon though I seriously doubt Nick could insist on them not using Janeway at present. She has to be at least mentioned. For the most part I am happy with all the time given to other character beats. All the Crusher stuff in the last few weeks, and the lovely little scene with LaForge and the new Data discussing his new self last week. I would've liked to see a little more of Marina before if it was possible (though that seems to be a matter of opinion BTS) but so far for me this is shaping up like Star Trek VI - would I have liked a little more here or there, sure, but it is a damn good finale for this group. It is heavily patterned after VI in fact, which may be my favorite Star Trek movie of all time. (Except unlike Picard with Crusher, they didn't get to do the romantic beat with Kirk and Carol Marcus they'd scripted originally in TUC.) The people I can't tolerate are the super weird, small but very vocal fringe subset of fans who ride or die for the first two seasons on some Trek forums and claim it's conservative right-wing erasure of progressive characters that this show is not using Soji, Rios, Agnes Jurati, Elnor, etc. lol. I enjoy some things about the first season and I love Allison Pill and Michelle Hurd, but I think that first season is largely a mess and I don't think anyone can sanely claim those characters or stories were generally well-received or popular. I wouldn't mind seeing poor Elnor (apparently stationed on the Excelsior last season, so hopefully he uh, transferred off before today's episode?) once more in the background or something. But with the exception of Raffi I don't care about most of those people.