Karol Traven ... Fan Fiction Writer?

 Karol Traven ... Fan Fiction Writer?


I don't watch TV. My set (It has a CRT ... A cathode ray tube!) is used for my video collection. As the banner at the top of this blog states, it's not hooked to cable or antenna. Nothing on worth watching.

I have no idea what The Good Wife is about and don't really care to know.

I did however read an article on Mr. Travens' blog about the series conclusion to this shows' season run and linking it to Star Trek. I found it entertaining.

Now being a non-viewer, I couldn't tell if Mr. Traven was putting the reader on by pulling a "Bob Newhart" or not. If he was, then I see some potential for him as a writer of fan fiction. He should rewrite it in story form, make up an account on fanfiction.net and post it.

I'd certainly read it.


Mr. Travens' Ex-Army blog here. Quibcags everywhere!

Fan Fiction dot net website here.


Go to Jay's Tee Vee blog main page here. Beam me there Scotty! No need to use the transporter if there's articles already under this 'un. Yer already there.

Long Ago, Not So Far Away

                                                         
                                                        Long Ago, Not So Far Away

                                                                            by

                                                                               Jay Agan
    
     Returning to Ohio from Jersey back in '88, I hoped to gain employment soon after arrival. Turned out no & I worked through temp agencies for awhile & not in my chosen field as a data systems operator. Three of these brief temp jobs were to exclusively help small businesses sort out their files.

     It's amazing, the number of people out there who can't alphabetize. You'd think with that song being so prevalent (You know. The one that rhymes with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?), most everyone could. Not so.

     A lot of folks can alphabetize only so far. Subsequent letters after the first in a name seem to confuse them. It's reasonable to think they could figure out Wallace comes before Ward or Lowe after Lawrence but they can't. So they throw all the Ws together, Ls in one place, etc. Makes for quite a mess. Shoot. A lot of 'em can't even spell their own names.

     There are other protocols for alphabetizing. If a book/album/movie title has A or The as the first word, you drop it & go the next. Example: The Brain From Planet Arous would be shelved right under B. A Man Called Horse would under M. Some folks don't get that (I just noticed. Neither does the Blogger labels indexer!).

     One mid 90s winter day, I was wandering around the Sawmill Rd. Media Play north of the I270 outerbelt, when I ran afoul of a Trek weenie who worked there. We're talking science fiction when, out of the blue, he decides to try out his mastery of Klingon on me. Out of disgust, I mention how some folks have too much time on their hands.

     He gets this frown on his face & decides not to talk to me anymore (Yay!), when a lady walks up to him with a question.

     "Young man, I seem to be having trouble finding A View To A Kill. Could you show me where it is?"

     I'll give Trek boy some credit. He did leap to his job. Unfortunately it was to the A section.
After a few seconds, I suggested they go to where the V titles were shelved. SHE found it rather quickly.

     Trek weenies .....

                                                       Article copyright © Jay Agan

William Campbell: The Squire of Gothos

No! It ain't Liberace! It's worse!
Credit: Paramount Pictures

                                     
                                 
William Campbell: The Squire of Gothos

    by
                                                                            
    Jay Agan


"The Squire of Gothos". A Star Trek (tos) episode some don't like, but for some strange reason, I do. It has some elements I would usually dislike in other shows. A quirky, plummy character, acting more like comic relief than serious. (General Trelane,ret.) A fantasy setting with a fairy tale feel, it borders on a Lost In Space episode. (A show I detest.)

Yet, everyone else plays it straight, taking the situation seriously in regard to Gen. Trelane being the real threat he is.

I guess that's why I like this one. In spite of the general coming accross as such a goofy ham, what with his silly grin, exagerated mannerisms, and over the top theatrics, at the same time........you KNOW this guy is dangerous. Yes, it turns out in the end he's really just a kid with a lot of growing up to do. But what a deadly, calculating one.

William Campbell did a great job portraying this character. It would have been cool to have seen Trelane in other episodes. (Instead, Campbell was wasted as another character in that one very execrable episode.) Were they thinking of Trelaine when they came up with Q in Next Generation?

Kind of makes me wonder how Vincent Price would have handled this role. Now THERE is someone I would like to have seen in Trek!

                                                    
Article copyright © Jay Agan


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Darn Tribbles, Darn Troubles

Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures

Darn Tribbles, Darn Troubles

by

Jay Agan

    
School days. Ah memories. I'll treasure them always. Not! Only the overachievers, jocks, and social butterflies will ever be fond of the high school pressure cooker. Any good memories of that time was from not being there.

One set of good times involved Star Trek (tos). I'd become aquainted with it during its initial network run in the late 60s. In military school, the nuns would (grudgingly) let us watch it ("Cadets don't whistle, chew gum, read comic books, watch cool stuff on tv, have fun, etc.").

I recall the "ruckus" that came up when it got cancelled. Not having been a full bore Trek weenie, I didn't experience the crippling depression afflicting believers. Some disappointment, yes, as it was (then) novel and different. There was so little intelligent sci-fi on tv, (still that way), and if the nuns didn't like it, it had to be good.

Thanks to the zeal and enthusiasm of the fans, stations across the country aired it a lot through syndication in the 70s. WLWC (now WCMH) ch. 4 was the central Ohio Trek pioneer. The time slot was (I think.) 5-6 PM. It didn't matter if it was a school night, (We weren't allowed to watch tv mon-thur.), I'd sneak down the celler and tune in on our older set. I'll always be grateful to the staff of 4 for including Trek in their programming (well into the 80s). A good daily dose of Trek helped in recovery from the indoctrination of several hours before. Usually but not always.

There was, however, an annoying glitch in 4s' Trek scheduling. A glaring defect, sharply curtailing my enjoyment of the show. A nuisance, so vexing, it drove me to obsessive distraction: The Trouble With Tribbles.

On first seeing it in the late 60s, I sorta' liked it. Cutsey, funny, not all that great though. Little was I to know TWT would later become the very fuel powering the ch. 4 Star Trek machine. I understand the station showing the more popular eps more often. Ad revenue and all. But ..... The Trouble with Tribbles? Every other day? Yeah, I exaggerate. It only seemed that way. It could have been once a week, or at least twice a month. Aw what the heck! It was on too dang often!

There I'd be on the bus home. Mixed feelings at conflict in my brain."Star Trek! Oh boy! Oh boy! Yeah! Trek! Please no TWT! Oh golly! Oh yeah! No TWT! Please! Please! PLEASE!"

And seemingly, more often than not. After a particularly depressing day of scholastic brainwashing, there it was, in all its fuzzy non-glory, The Trouble With Tribbles. (Aghh! That's it! I'm doing my homework!)

Why? Why this one? "All the time?" They played the other "top 20" to death too, but not seemingly every time I turned around. Arena, The Changeling, The Doomsday Machine, etc. These I could understand. They were great. But TWT? What a nauseatingly, sickeningly saccharine, piece of crud! It got to the point where I'd be ecstatic to see Miri, Turnabout Intruder, The Empath, or any of the other of the least popular ones.

I've no proof but I suspect there was a group of 5 or 6 Trek weenies in Columbus, constantly calling the station & urging them on (Ooo! Ooo! Can we see TWT again?! Huh? Please?! TWT! Ooo! Ooo!"). I recall a particularly annoying one (who shall remain nameless) showing up at wargame gatherings bugging the crap out of everyone over Trek. (Claimed he was a rear admiral in Starfleet in charge of research.) He had to have been the ringleader.

At a place I worked at in the 90s, we had a tv. 4 had a Trek marathon one Sunday, 8AM-8PM. The top 12 of all time. Naturally, we enjoyed ourselves as we went about our tasks. An older fellow I worked with (left the scene due to cancer) was a sci-fi fan as well. I was pretty much down on Trek weenies and he would kid me a lot about me being a "trekkie" as I knew more about the show than I cared to. (I like the show a lot. It's not my reason for being, however.) I found his word for word co-recital of Celia Lovskys' lines from the duel in the Amok Time episode to be quite amusing.

Things got a little tense as the marathon wore on. We knew TWT was in there somewhere. (He hated it too.) We KNEW an hour long bout of hypoglycemic, pseudo-cuteness was approaching .There were a few tense moments during the "A Piece of the Action" ep. (He didn't like that one either. I always did. Criminals as politicians? Never happen!)

As it turned out, TWT was the last one, thus the best "voted". As we were prepping to close that hour, we didn't care. Still don't.

I'll always have a place in my heart for Star Trek (tos), but not for "The Trouble With Tribbles". Those in love with TWT are TWiTs!

                                                 
Article copyright © Jay Agan


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