High School is Hell

I thought that the High School is Hell article was very interesting. A few posts I’ve seen about the show have seemed really exciting, and I thought the teaser we watched today was also very captivating. I’m glad I read this article before actually watching the show because now I think I have a better way to understand the show than I would have. The way that the mix of supernatural and real has been described to me sounds very original, and it should make a great show. I am excited to see how the monsters are used to drive home the typical high school stereotypes, and even make them stand out more.
As a high school student myself, I also think it will be interesting to see what the show’s producers think high school is really like, but from what I’ve read it sounds like they are on the ball with a lot of the ideas that they have had.
One of the parts of the article that interested me very much was the discussion of the use of irony. It seems like the producers want to stop the audience from focusing too much on the supernatural aspect of the show, and pay more of their attention towards the drama that the high schoolers are experiencing, which to some of them are the real monsters they have to deal with. By eliminating the fear of the supernatural, the fear that the characters have of the real situations they’re in is illuminated, and this makes me think that the producers of the show have a very specific purpose in mind when putting it together.

Matthew

The Cloud Minders

I just finished watching yet another Star Trek episode, The Cloud Minders. This episode features the Enterprise crew needing to pick up medical supplies from one planet to save another one’s bio-disaster, but they get caught up along the way. On Ardana, the planet where they were meant to pick up the supplies, Kirk and Spock are attacked and learn of the two classes on Ardana and the racism there is between them. Although this episode is heavy on action, the overarching theme is racism.
Some people on the planet live on Stratos, a city in the sky, and they are without violence and very enlightened. Others, the Troglytes, live in the mines, supplying Stratos with everything it needs to stay airborne. The people of Stratos say that the Troglytes are mentally inferior and that it is perfectly acceptable to treat them the way they do. However, gas released in the mines temporarily impair the Troglyte’s mental capacities, making them seem mentally inferior, even though they are just under the influence of the gas.
This episode makes me think of equal opportunity. The Troglytes are viewed as inferior because most have not been given a chance to be away form the gas. This is just the same as people in America during the Civil Rights Movement were viewed as inferior. They did not have the same opportunity, so they were not provided with the means to succeed. However, we see that Troglytes who grew up in Stratos turned out just the same as the people of Stratos because they are all from the same species.
Captain Kirk has a quote that sums up the theme of the episode. One of the Troglytes say to him, “It’s hard to believe that something which is neither seen nor felt can do so much harm.” To this Captain Kirk says, "That's true. But an idea can't be seen or felt. That's what's kept the Troglytes in the mines all these centuries, a mistaken idea."

Matthew

Train Job Take Two

One of the things that we mentioned a few times was Jayne’s selfishness in the Train Job. However, I think that the theme of morality among all the characters can be extended to Jayne as well. This is not to say he isn’t selfish sometimes, that is certain. The main example we looked at in class was that Jayne wanted to leave when Mal and Zoe were stuck in the town. We used this to show that he puts himself before others, but I think that this shows how his strong sense of right and wrong is definitely there, just different from everyone else’s on the ship.
One of the themes from the episode, as illustrated when Mal said “I don’t believe he does [have a choice]”, is that everyone had such a strong burden to do the right thing, that they only saw one possible course of action in most situations. When they were debating whether to leave the planet, Jayne was insistent on leaving without Mal and Zoe. This may seem selfish, but I think he was trying to protect the crew as a whole. He recognized that everyone, himself included, would be endangered if they chose to stay, so he argued for everyone to leave. However, even when everyone decided to stay, he still saved Mal from Crow. I believe that Jayne has a reluctance to do things for others, but when it comes down to it, he is ready and able.
This reluctance is illustrated in the bar fight scene. As the fight starts to form, Mal looks to Jayne and asks him to help, but Jayne says he will not participate because it wasn’t his fight. However, after the fight begins, we see Jayne fighting against all the Alliance supporters once the brawl broke out. We see that he knew the right thing was to help out Mal, and even though he was unwilling at first, after it started he felt that he needed to join in.
To summarize, I don’t think Jayne is the entirely selfish man that we chalked him up to be in class.

Matthew

Mark of Gideon

For my third free episode choice, I watched the Star Trek episode The Mark of Gideon. In this episode the crew of the Enterprise attempted to make peaceful contact with the planet Gideon. Kirk beamed down to the planet but found himself still in the Enterprise, but it was completely empty except for him and a mysterious woman. There were two parallel stories going on in the episode, Kirk trying to deal with being on the empty Enterprise ship, and also the crew of the actual Enterprise trying to negotiate with the Gideons to beam down to the planet and search for the Captain.

The directors did a really good job of making the two parallel stories come together. It turns out that the Gideons live in such a picture-perfect atmosphere that no one ever dies. The planet they live on has become severely over populated, and they are suffering a lot because of that. They requested Captain Kirk to come down because they knew that he had had meningitis at one time. They used his blood to get the woman on the ship sick, so they could spread the disease to the rest of the population, to restore the world to the paradise it once was. The Gideons had constructed a replica of the Enterprise, and they slowly revealed the full extent of the state of Gideon over the course of the episode. I was captivated by the show because the acting was done well and it convinced me that they were really in the situation the show conveyed. The way they slowly revealed information was very well done.

As the last few blogs indicate, I think I’m getting too involved with Star Trek.

Matthew

Spectre of the Gun

For my episode choice today I watched another episode of Star Trek. This one was called Spectre of the Gun. In this episode, the mission of the Enterprise was to establish friendly contact with a new race of aliens, the Melkotians. When approaching their planet, the Melkotians sent out a ship to warn then to turn back, but the Enterprise landed on their planet, determined to complete their mission. Five crew members came down to the planet; Captain Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Chekov, and McCoy. They encounter one of the Melkotians, and then find themselves in a recreation of an American frontier town in the 1880’s. They soon realize they have been placed in this situation because it is the day of the famous shooting at the OK Corral, and they are the people that lost.

I thought it was interesting to see how different characters tried to deal with the situation. Captain Kirk was resolved to stay away from any violence, but when he tried to leave the OK Corral and was blocked, he realized he would have to stay. Chekov got very involved with the world he was in, and he ended up dying halfway in.

Another intriguing thing about this episode is the way they got out of it. They tried to use a tranquilizer to subdue the people they were agreed to duel with, but the tranquilizer did not work, even though all signs said it should. This led Spock to realize that since the tranquilizer did not work, they were not in a place that physical laws applied to. All the crew then convinced themselves that the bullets being fired at them were not real, and were safely transported back to the Enterprise to find Chekov safe and sound, albeit confused.

The way that the Western theme was incorporated in was very similar to the Firefly episode I watched earlier, and it did a good job of making me understand what was going on better.

Matthew

The Turnabout Intruder

For my first free episode selection, I watched The Turnabout Intruder, an episode of the original Star Trek series. I have never watched Star Trek before, but both my parents are big fans so I thought I would give it a shot. The Turnabout Intruder was an interesting concept for an episode. The crew of the Enterprise land on the planet Camus II, where the crew find a sick women in need of help. You find out that Captain Kirk used to be romantically involved with this woman, but he placed the starship before her. She uses a machine to switch bodies with the captain so she can experience the power that comes along with the post that he has.

It was interesting to see how the woman, Dr. Janice Lester, used the trust that people had for the captain to avoid suspicion. She quickly made sure that Captain Kirk, who was in her own body, was subdued and regarded by everyone as insane.Dr. Lester, in Kirk’s body, also made sure to quickly arrest anyone on board who gained too much knowledge of her plan. The acting was well done, as you could tell that William Shatner was not playing Captain Kirk, he was playing Dr. Lester in Captain Kirk’s body, and the same goes for the actress who played Dr. Lester. Anyone with the knowledge that they had switched bodies could easily tell because of the way they were not acting like themselves. It must be hard to act as a person in another person’s body trying to slip by unnoticed, but it was magnificently pulled off.

Live Long and Prosper,

Matthew

The Train Job

I just finished watching the Train Job and I was very impressed. I like the Western style that is incorporated into all of the show. It allows the audience to feel familiar with what they are watching even though the show is taking place in a world with interstellar travel. It alienates people who are not already into the science fiction genre to have a show that is purely in the genre. The brawl at the beginning is very similar to what most people depict when they think of a western style movie. Mal is a rebel with a cause, and that is a character figure that transcends genre and everyone has an easy time relating too. I think it is important when watching science fiction to not get too caught with how things in the world work. The Train Job did a fantastic job with making relatable characters that are easy to empathize with and putting them in situations that are easy to understand.

Another way that The Train Job made itself feel familiar was the music selection. Anyone who has seen a western movie knows the type of music that you would expect to find, and after long enough that music will put you in the proper frame of mind to watch a western film. Firefly played off this by incorporating traditional western themed music into their show. This allowed me to think of it more as a western with some space travel rather than a science fiction show with some western elements. I am definitely looking forward to watching more of Firefly as the quarter continues.

A Brief Introduction

Hey everyone, here is the very first blog on my Super-cool English 110 blog. My name, as the title indicates, is Matthew Brew and I am 17 years old. I am taking English 110 as part of my post secondary program, and next year I plan on entering Ohio State as a freshman, although if all goes to plan I'll be quite ahead of the typical freshmen.

I was born in 1993 in Edinburgh, Scotland and moved to Columbus when in 2000 when I was six years old, because my dad was given a job as a professor at OSU. Both my parents were born in London, England, but they’ve moved around a lot because of university jobs. I have an older brother who is currently going to Brown University in Rhode Island. My family has placed a very big emphasis on academics, but I think that there are more important things to involve myself in. With my test scores and resume, I could end up going to college in some of the more selective schools, but the relationships I have with my friends and family are too important to me to leave Columbus, a city which has been my home for over half my life, and start all over again somewhere else.

I think of myself as a laid-back person who is willing to go with the flow. I am willing to not get my way when I can realize it won’t make too much of a difference. However, when I do feel passionate about something, I will pursue it until I feel satisfied.

I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts as this class continues! And I think so far this blog has not been as super-cool as I first expected.