Major Malphunktion is now Live Producer.

[UurlockYgmeov]

The final months of the 60's.

When BACON™ was king!

[Ungood]

Major thanks for this link. I'm highly impressed. I mean wow, way to capture the best of what TOS was. I especially loved seeing Michael Forest as Apollo, and I cheered out loud when I recognized Jamie Bamber. I haven't watched Lolani yet, but Pilgrim was just Awesome. STC is a MUST watch for any TOS fans.

+1

Glad you liked it. The fact that there are all kinds of "Easter eggs" in it, like the new Scotty being the old Scotty's son, and the like are just amazing.

I found out about it because Lou Ferrigno is starring in the Lolani one, and I am huge Hulk Fan, and yes, he gets painted green again, LOL.

[noneill]

Top 5 films:
Alien
Wizard of Oz
Kubrick everything (I cheated) Hands down the greatest director who ever lived.
Godfather II
Star Wars: ESB
Honorable mentions: Anything by Sergio Leonie, Spielberg, Scorsese,Woody Allen pre-1990 or Kurosawa. Ang Lee, and Woo get some props too. I like the new guy who is doing Godzilla. Monsters was a very competent film. Let's see if he has the chops.

TV:
Star Wars Clone wars-better than it should be
True Detective-best **** writing in years
Cosmos
Game of Thrones
Whatever the wife is watching.

All time: Trek. and...Trek. Bab5, Space 1999...early CSI,

Agree with a ton of those but Space 1999 made me smile. One of the coolest toys I had as a kid was an Eagle.

[noneill]

You chose Alien over Aliens???

"Game over, man... Game over...", "In case you're not keeping up with recent events, man... we just got our a$$es kicked", "Nuke it from orbit... it's the only way to be sure".

Aliens was awesome but Alien was a game changer. Somehow I saw it in the movie theater with my parents when I was 11. It was space that was gritty and not all shiny clean jumpsuits. Star Wars had some of that outside the Empire but not on the same level as Alien. You felt that things would really look like this.
That chest explosion scene might seem tame now but actually seeing that in the theater without a clue it was going to happen, yeah that beats Aliens.

[madmaxhunter]

red dwarf was a comedy in a scifi setting. it wasn't really a serious scifi show. babylon 5 clearly was.

Don't get me wrong, I loved Babylon 5, and Dr. Who? I named my daughter after a character on that show! Most sci-fi series have a serious, even self righteous tint. Red Dwarf was the anti-sci-fi show, which made it stand out, and therefore made it the best.

[Snarglefrump]

All time: Trek. and...Trek. Bab5, Space 1999...early CSI,

I used to think Star Trek was a good Sci-Fi television show. Later I started watching Babylon 5, and I thought "Wow! This has real drama and character development; everything isn't neatly returned to the status quo at the end of every episode". Still later I started watching (revived) Doctor Who, which is not only better science fiction (the 7-season revived series has earned more Hugo awards than all of Star Trek combined) but also better all-around writing (winning the British National Television award for "Best Drama" 6 times).

Like many television programs, the first season takes a little time to find it's voice, with a marked increase in quality at around "The Empty Child".

Don't blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And don't blink. Good Luck.

[Snarglefrump]

Don't get me wrong, I loved Babylon 5, and Dr. Who? I named my daughter after a character on that show!

What did you name your daughter?

[FlaviusMaximus]

Top 5 films:
Alien
Wizard of Oz
Kubrick everything (I cheated) Hands down the greatest director who ever lived.
Godfather II
Star Wars: ESB
Honorable mentions: Anything by Sergio Leonie, Spielberg, Scorsese,Woody Allen pre-1990 or Kurosawa. Ang Lee, and Woo get some props too. I like the new guy who is doing Godzilla. Monsters was a very competent film. Let's see if he has the chops.

TV:
Star Wars Clone wars-better than it should be
True Detective-best **** writing in years
Cosmos
Game of Thrones
Whatever the wife is watching.

All time: Trek. and...Trek. Bab5, Space 1999...early CSI,

Awesome lists and thanks for taking the time to answer. Barry Lyndon and Strangelove are in my pantheon as well.

I'll have to borrow a friend's HBO GO account and watch True Detective. If the writing matches the cast, then wow.

[haulindonkey]

Have you checked out "Star Trek Continues", if not, you might want to give them a look see, I was rather impressed by their camera work and attention to detail.

Boy between you and sirgog finding lots of fan continuation material that is quite good. Have to check out this series (after I re-watch TOS on netflix). Forums fanfiction/material links ftw!

[haulindonkey]

Pffft! I got you beat, then, you young whipper-snapper. And get off my lawn!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NelBNtNm8l0

[haulindonkey]

(snip)

Don't blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast. Faster than you can believe. Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And don't blink. Good Luck.

Wow those angel statue aliens have a creep factor of 15 on a scale of 10. *shudder*

[sephiroth1084]

Yes. Alien is the best haunted house movie ever made. the Alien and all the iconic stuff that was used for the next 20 years came from the first one. The ches tburster scene, the drippy water and chains stuff, the Space Jockey with it's amazingly subtle warning of the future, the sound design, the model making and the detail...it is just an amazing genre changing film. Cameron's film is great, but it had the net effect of ruining storytelling in games for 2 decades.

Absolutely! Alien was fairly unique in how it approached the genre, and was very well-crafted. Aliens, while fun, is really just that--a fun movie. It takes the tension-filled, measured pace of the original sci-fi thriller and replaces all of that with a whole lot of shouting and action. Sure, the aliens en masse are scary because they overwhelm a force with superior armament and sophistication, but the presence of the xenomorph is largely absent from Aliens. There isn't all that much to distinguish the sequel from many similar movies that came before it, or those since.

I know some deride Alien 3, but I liked it for moving back towards (if not really returning to) the tension and suspense of the first film. Don't talk about Resurrection...or Prometheus for that matter.

[BDog77]

Thank you Gary Gygax and mom my first Dungeon Master.

Well, Maj, I'm late to the party, but congrats! Also wanted to say, kudos to your mom! I cannot imagine parents today taking this kinda time with their kids, sad to say. Even though my parents didn't really understand it, they bought me and my brother our first D&D boxed set (way before Keep on the Borderlands, kiddies!), and, AFAIK, before the classic red box set (ours was kinda bluish, as I remember, at least the rulebook was). This was, of course, D&D not AD&D. Elf was a class at that time, and I think you could advance to level 4 with the rulebook that came with the game. Good times!

Anyway, thanks for the trip down memory lane (I was a big star trek fan also), and Gratz again!

[Tscheuss]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NelBNtNm8l0

Nice. My grandma loves that movie.

[Arianka]

Major thanks for this link. I'm highly impressed. I mean wow, way to capture the best of what TOS was. I especially loved seeing Michael Forest as Apollo, and I cheered out loud when I recognized Jamie Bamber. I haven't watched Lolani yet, but Pilgrim was just Awesome. STC is a MUST watch for any TOS fans.

+1

disagree...alot!

the acting was horrible especially mythbusters dude who played sulu. he was the worst. the guy who played kirk was also terrible. in fact the only one who was good was the guy who played apolo. the redhead was pretty tho.

anyway the story itself was somewhat intresting but some pf it was way too contrived..especialy the self-sacrfice stufff...dumb dumb dumb.

doubt i will even watch the second episode the first one was so bad.

[die]

The final months of the 60's.

that would make you just a couple months older than me, I was born in the first months of 70

[katz]

disagree...alot!

the acting was horrible especially mythbusters dude who played sulu. he was the worst. the guy who played kirk was also terrible. in fact the only one who was good was the guy who played apolo. the redhead was pretty tho.

anyway the story itself was somewhat intresting but some pf it was way too contrived..especialy the self-sacrfice stufff...dumb dumb dumb.

doubt i will even watch the second episode the first one was so bad.

have you watched the original series? lately? lets face it... the acting wasn't so great back then,either. the guy playing Kirk really nails Shatner's mannerisms from the original Kirk. Grant might not be the perfect Sulu, but they're only 2 episodes in. Frakes took a whole season to warm up to playing Riker. if its not for you, its not for you, you don't have to watch it, but i watched the first 2 episodes, and it was like taking a step backwards in time... watching unaired episodes of the original series just discovered or something

[Ungood]

disagree...alot!

the acting was horrible especially mythbusters dude who played sulu. he was the worst. the guy who played kirk was also terrible. in fact the only one who was good was the guy who played apolo. the redhead was pretty tho.

anyway the story itself was somewhat intresting but some pf it was way too contrived..especialy the self-sacrfice stufff...dumb dumb dumb.

doubt i will even watch the second episode the first one was so bad.

To each their own, I think it really captured that feeling of "if they have just kept on shooting the show back when it was first made" as opposed to trying to modernize it, like they did with "Enterprise".

But, you know, for the people who may not have even got involved in the original series, I can see how it would not appeal to them, I personally think the guy who plays Kirk, really nails exactly how Kirk acted in the original series.

While Shatner did tone down the melodramatic acting when he moved to the Movies, the original series very old school.

[Tyrande]

Level up!

Ding! Congratulations!

Yes, I've crossed over to Live Producer on DDO. I'm now Vyvyanne's right hand. Most of my day is spent in making law out of chaos, be it the live servers, back end stuff, those kobolds in QA complaining about something, and design meetings. I'm totally psyched about this new role!

For the new folks, here is a bit about me:

It all started in the summer of 1979. I played an elf, with 4 hit points and was killed by a poison spider.

Should have rolled an overpowered DDO monk.

According The life long obsession with games began. Thank you Gary Gygax and mom my first Dungeon Master. I spent many an afternoon and evening at the amazing Science Fiction Bookstore playing DnD, Starfleet Battles, Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Traveller and Car Wars.

Hey, I like Star Wars & Star Trek too; and later Star Gate: SG1, Atlantis, Universe, watched all of them and try to catch any missing episodes online.

I wonder why TV doesn't have anything like that any more? Now its just Big Bang Theory...

6 years ago I got a call from Turbine to lead the international QA team. It was interesting to say the least. I moved to lead of DDO QA, then promoted to manager. In that time I've shipped 8 major updates and 2 expansion packs. It has been really fun, and at times really challenging.

So here we go, Phase III of my Turbine career. Let's see what tomorrow brings!

Good for you! Glad that there are some international kobolds working for you causing havoc and detecting bugs!

[Tyrande]

Star Fleet Battles would make a great iOS game.
[...]

Question for you, Maj: Would DDO or at least a variation of it make a great iOS game on iPad or Android tablets?

Objective C bug catching and squishing can't be that hard right?

Some companies out there are using Cucumber/Ruby/Calabash-ios for Mobile Automation already doing Test Driven Development and Behavior Driven Development and writing stories and writing tests actually prior to the product being done on mobile...