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Month: May 2020

Minneapolis and the Bell Riots

In the wake of George Floyd’s death and the unrest that has followed, many have taken to the Internet to compare recent events with the Bell Riots from Star Trek, and others have questioned whether the comparison is apt, or even appropriate.

In the two-part episode “Past Tense” from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s third season, a transporter accident sent Commander Sisko, Lieutenant Dax, and Doctor Bashir back in time to San Francisco in the year 2024. Sisko and Bashir were immediately taken into custody and placed into a Sanctuary District, while Dax was taken in by a wealthy media executive. The fact that Sisko was a black man, and Bashir middle eastern, whereas Dax was an apparently white woman (her spots notwithstanding, which were quickly dismissed as tattoos), was not lost on most viewers when discussing their treatment.

Dungeons, Dragons, and Disease

In the COVID-19 world we all have had to make changes to our routines. People have begun working at home, businesses have switched to curbside pick-up, restaurants have switched to a pick-up or delivery model, and in-person meetings have been replaced with virtual meetings. One of my weekly rituals was going down to my local game store to play in-person pen and paper roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons. I would meet weekly with a group of friends and huck the dice around while imagining my players in a fantasy world of fighters, wizards, rogues, dwarves, and elves. 

Let your geek flag fly on Geek Pride Day

Monday, May 25 marks the 14th annual Geek Pride Day, which was officially begun in Spain in 2006. Taking inspiration from geek pride festivals in the United States that dated back to the late 1990s, Geek Pride Day celebrations quickly spread worldwide. The day is also Towel Day, which honors the anniversary of the death of author Douglas Adams; the anniversary of the release of Star Wars in 1977; and in the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, it is the anniversary of the Glorious Revolution of the Twenty-Fifth of May.

All Access Expansion a Renaissance for Star Trek

In late 2019, CBS and Viacom merged, bringing the two companies back together following their split in 2006. The two companies have a convoluted history dating back to the 1950s, when Viacom was created as the distribution arm of CBS. Viacom spun off in the 1970s, eventually acquiring Paramount Pictures and other media companies, then acquired its former parent in 1999. Following this latest merger, CBS has announced that it will be expanding, renaming, and revamping the CBS All Access streaming service this summer, and has added content from Viacom properties like Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, and Comedy Central. This massive expansion gives the service a diverse range of content that will allow it to truly become competitive against rival streaming networks like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and most notably Disney+, which has exclusive in-house properties like Star Wars, Marvel, Fox television, and National Geographic.