Squid Flicks: Fantastic Planet

Title: Fantastic Planet

Director: René Laloux

Original Release Date: May 11, 1973

My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

via Wikipedia

Humans, known as Oms, live as pets and pests for the much larger Draags on a strange planet.  In our tale, based on the novel Oms en série by Stefan Wul, Terr (based on the French word terre - translation: Earth) is young Tiwa's pet.  Tiwa dearly loves Terr but her parents insist she put a controlling collar on him.  Terr eventually manages to escape and join a band of untamed Oms.  The story that unfolds is an allegory for the relationship between the powerful and the powerless in our own world.  

Fantastic Planet was the Grand Prix jury prize winner at Cannes in 1973.  It generally does well on best animated films lists.  It's also widely considered one of the trippiest movies ever made.  With the psychedelic visuals and the invented vocabulary, it's unlikely to disappoint you if you're looking for an accompaniment to a chemically-induced experience.  Not that I condone such things...

Star Trek: Innocence

Episode: "Innocence"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 2, Episode 22

Original Air Date: April 8, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Tuvok and Ensign Bennett crash land a shuttlecraft on one of Drayan II's moons.  Sadly, Bennett dies.  Not long after, Tuvok encounters three Drayan children, apparent survivors of a recent crash themselves.  While awaiting his own rescue, he promises to help and protect them, for which they are grateful.

As a rule, Star Trek stories about children are terrible.  But most rules have exceptions.  "Innocence" is wonderful, drawing out extraordinary dimension for Tuvok.  Surprise surprise, the stoic Vulcan is an excellent father figure.  As ever, he professes a lack of emotion, yet the devotion he expresses regarding his own children is genuinely moving, whatever the motivations.  Highlights include a Vulcan epic lullaby and this line: "My attachment to my children cannot be described as an emotion. They are a part of my identity, and I am… incomplete without them."

Back aboard Voyager, Janeway and company must contend with the Drayan leaders.  Their society lives in isolation, eschewing contact with other worlds and their typical fascination with technology.  Trek, whose entire premise is dependent on super-tech, generally takes a patronizing view of such cultures.  And yet as I write this, the leadership of my own country is flexing hard, way too impressed with themselves.  Fear, distrust, even disgust with what the world has become are all understandable reactions.  Maybe the Drayans aren't so crazy.

Acting Notes

via Space: Above and Beyond Wiki

Marnie McPhail played the role of Alcia, First Prelate of Drayan II.  "Innocence" was the first of two canon Trek appearances for McPhail.  

McPhail was born in Columbus, Ohio.  Her professional career began on Canadian television.  At 14, she was cast in The Edison Twins.  Moving back to the States brought regular cast roles on Generations and Days of Our Lives.  Films include Star Trek: First Contact, Sugar and The Greatest Game Ever Played.

Squid Cooks: Pan-Cooked Pork Burgers

Pan-cooked because it's too damn hot to turn on the oven.  Pork because I couldn't find the ground beef in the freezer.  Once again, necessity is the mother of invention.

I've covered Mark Bittman's pan-cooked burger recipe before, including here.  I went with longer cooking times than I normally would with either beef or lamb.  I fear trichinosis.  I realize it's a relatively low risk with pork these days but it's not a zero risk

I was pleased with the result - very tasty and, following Bittman's instructions, one gets a nice sear around the outside.  That's harder to get in the oven because of temperature management - worth remembering.  

Star Trek: Deadlock

Episode: "Deadlock"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 2, Episode 21

Original Air Date: March 18, 1996

via Memory Alpha

The good news: Ensign Wildman's baby is born!  The bad news: while trying to avoid Vidiian space, mysterious proton bursts cause a space-time rift, creating split realities.  All goes horribly wrong in both, though for different reasons.  Can the two Captain Janeways find a way for at least one ship to survive?

I'm pretty sure this was the episode that once inspired my wife to ask, "How did the crew manage to survive through all of these endless disasters?"

"Deadlock" is a popular episode among fans.  The concept is certainly interesting, inspiring plenty of "What would you do?" questioning.  The scenes with the two Janeways are the highlights.  Lines like "Please don't make me call security and have you escorted off my ship, because... you know, I'll do it" carry meaningful weight.  The end twist is strong, too.  I can't help my own reflexive resistance to an alternate reality story.  Couldn't they have made a similar point with fewer bells and whistles?

Maybe not.  Maybe a glimpse of a scenario in which Voyager didn't survive is essential for appreciating the fact they did.  

Acting Notes

via Memory Alpha

Simon Billig played the role of Ensign Hogan, a former Maquis and an important recurring character in tracking the adjustment for the Maquis crew members to the Starfleet-driven life aboard Voyager.  "Deadlock" is Billig's fourth of seven appearances as Hogan.  The actor was born in Birmingham, England.

Billig also had multiple appearances on Babylon 5, Silk Stalkings and One Life to Live.  Films include Bad City Blues and The Thin Red Line.  

On the Road: A Long Overdue Statement on the Garbage State of the World

Hello America by Vincent Valdez

Our long weekend travels took us through our usual Western/Central Massachusetts stops: North Adams, Northampton and Worcester.  Our adventures helped me focus some of my thoughts about the state of the world, a subject I've been reluctant to address here - not because I'm not upset.  Indeed, I'm furious.  But I've been struggling to find the right words.  For months.  So, here goes...

"Why were we taught to fear the witches and not the people who burned them alive?"

That quote popped up on my Facebook feed a while back and it has stayed with me.  The Salem Witch Trials weren't really about religion.  That was just the excuse.  They were about power and social control.  That social control lives on in our mythology.  Mythology is social control on a trans-generational scale.  

Enter Professor James B. Haile III, Ph.D...  

In North Adams, we went to a reading by Dr. Haile at Research & Development, one of the retail stores at MASS MoCA (The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art).  He presented his new book, The Dark Delight of Being Strange, a genre-bending work combining both fiction and nonfiction elements.  Haile's philosophical charge for himself and for the reader is to challenge and reform our mythology, especially regarding people of color.  

If you control the mythology, you control everything. 

The political rhetoric coming out of Washington right now reinforces a mythology we've all been fed our whole lives.  For the MAGA crowd, the history of the United States - of "America" - is a story of white triumph.  People of color were to be conquered, subjugated and exploited.  The fact that any of them would with to be treated as human - never mind as equals - is intolerable.

The current immigration policies aren't about the law or economics as the policies are disastrous regarding both.  They're about race.  

You don't think so?  Fuck you.  

I'm not joking.  I'm tired of being nice about any of this.  If you're offended by what I'm saying, fuck off.  If you can't draw a line on this unacceptable shit, fuck off.  

If it were about the law, there would be due process.  People would not be snatched off the streets and out of their homes on suspicion alone.  Those arrested would not be hidden away in remote prisons in Florida or abroad in countries with appalling human rights records, even worse than Florida's.  

If it were about economics, there would be acknowledgement of how much even illegal immigrants contribute to our economy, never mind our society.  There would be acknowledgement of the fact that mass incarceration costs more than just leaving people the fuck alone.  But there isn't.  

It's about getting rid of brown people.

What is it MAGA fuckheads say to people they don't like?  "Go back where you came from!" or "Learn English!"  They just want people of color and their cultures to disappear.  Because if they have to see them, hear them, interact with them, share the community with them, then they have to accommodate them.  And I don't mean in the bullshit "Nanny State" sense.  The United States is only a nanny state for billionaires.  I mean they have to incorporate them into their reality, their normal.  They have to acknowledge their right to exist and that is intolerable.  

They have to incorporate them into the mythology.  As equal contributors.

There is a culture war, folks, and the good guys are taking a beating these days.  Why are people fighting so hard over what is visible in schools, libraries, sports, public spaces?  Because if you control the mythology, you control everything.  If LGBTQIA+ is presented as normal, they lose.  If the Ten Commandments are displayed in reverence, they win.  Because the mythology matters.

There's more but I need time to think it all through.  For now, I'll grant the last words to SNACKTIME, a funk/hip-hop/punk/thrash metal band we thoroughly enjoyed on Saturday night.  

They closed their show with the following message:

Fuck ICE!

Fuck Trump!

Free Palestine!

Star Trek: Investigations

Episode: "Investigations"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 2, Episode 20

Original Air Date: March 13, 1996

via Memory Alpha

A couple of subplots have been running through the last few Voyager episodes.  Crewman Michael Jonas has been sharing intelligence with the Kazon and Tom Paris has been acting like a jerk, even getting himself thrown in the brig and removed from duty.  Both stories come to conclusion in "Investigations" and - surprise! - they're connected.  Neelix gets to play investigative journalist with his new morning show, A Briefing with Neelix.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was firmly against continuing stories.  To a point, it's an understandable objection.  In the 1960s - an era long before streaming or even home video collections - you would want a new viewer to be able to tune into your show any given week and be able to get caught up in the story right away.  Going back and binging from the beginning simply wasn't an option.  In the 2020s, the television industry has moved so far in the other direction that Roddenberry's objection seems archaic.  

But the mid-'90s, there was still some resistance to the idea within the franchise.  Showrunner Jeri Taylor didn't like "Lifesigns" quite as much as I do, for instance, because she didn't like how the otherwise strong story was broken up by unexplained teasers from the two threads that culminate in "Investigations."  I think the format is clever, but I suppose I understand the purist point of view.

As for "Investigations" itself, I see positives and negatives.  On the plus side...

• The reveal of what's really going on with Tom is satisfying.  Very Trek.
• Pushing on the no one trusts Tom button is effective.
• Neelix's show within a show is an accurate parody of 1990s television.  

On the negative...

• I'm starting to feel the same way about Neelix episodes as I do about droid episodes in The Clone Wars - groan-inducing.
• The plan for getting Tom on the Kazon ship works too well.  I understand the press for time within a TV series but they still could have stretched that out a bit.
• Jonas's story is short-changed.  In an earlier installment, he is encouraged by his Kazon contacts to damage Voyager's warp coils (which happens by accident anyway) and he flatly refuses.  He makes clear he won't do anything to harm the ship or the crew.  Clearly, he's motivated by something other than anger or resentment and he's killed off too quickly for us to learn more.
• Making Chakotay the chump doesn't feel good for the long-term development of the character.  Tom's apology is meaningful but the implications for a trusting Janeway-Chakotay relationship are not encouraging.

Acting Notes

via Film and Television Wikia

Jerry Sroka played the role of Laxeth, a Talaxian who takes Tom on as a member of his crew as part of the scheme.  "Investigations" is his only Trek appearance but he has another fun connection with the franchise.  He has been married to Mariette Hartley, Zarabeth in the original series episode "All Our Yesterdays," since 2005.

His films include Godspell and Our Almost Completely True Love Story.  The latter is the tale of his romance with Hartley.  The two wrote, produced and starred in the movie.  Beyond Trek, Sroka's television appearances include Seinfeld, Murphy Brown and The West Wing.

Squid Eats: Zaytoona

There's a new halal restaurant in South Burlington, Vermont!  We're big fans of Middle Eastern cuisine.  Unfortunately, such dining options in Vermont are limited so any new place is well worth checking out. 

(Don't feel too sorry for us.  Nearby Montreal offers plenty - plus my wife is pretty damn good at cooking her own.) 

We went to Zaytoona for the first time this past weekend and I'm confident in predicting it will become part of our regular rotation.  The chefs are Jordanian and the owner is Yemeni so the Arabian peninsula is the focus.  The space is small, sparse and simple.  Service is prompt and very friendly.  Prices are reasonable.  Informal, too.  The staff were enthusiastically following a football match on the television.  PSG v Bayern Munchen.  I appreciate a place that feels human.

Right, the food.  I got the lamb & beef shawarma bowl, my wife the kofta bowl.  As you can see, there's a lot on there.  There's rice under the meat, salad and hummus you can see in the photo.  It was both tasty and filling - quite filling.  I almost couldn't finish mine.  As is often the case, I think my wife ordered better.  The pomegranate lemonade was lovely, too.  The restaurant is BYOB so it's nice they have satisfying non-alcoholic option.

We'll definitely be back.  Unfortunately, the mixed grill options - kababs, ayares, tawook - are not available for lunch.  So, dinner next time.  Based on this one visit, I'd say I still prefer Istanbul Kebab House in Burlington but it's good to mix things up.

I also may feel differently once I've tried the kababs.