#That and the line about a plan decades in the making showing us the Romulan involvement

[spockvarietyhour]

This was such a great stinger to the coda, Here come the fucking Romulans (and only with the delivery of that line did I piece this was Todd Stashwick)

[weerd1]

Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1909.19: Missions Reviewed, “Time’s Orphan,” “The Sound of Her Voice,” and “Tears of the Prophets.”

Keiko O’Brien has brought the kids back to DS9 finally, and they plan a long overdue family outing. Traveling to a small Bajoran colony world, they are having a delightful picnic when eight year old Molly finds herself inside a cave and in danger. Miles tries to save her, but she falls into a portal leftover from an extinct civilization and they realize she’s been thrown back in time.  The station sends help and they manage to send a transporter beam locked on to her DNA through the portal, but when they beam her back, ten years have passed for her, and Molly is now a feral 18 year old.  Back on the station, Bashir prescribes a series of methods to try to reconnect to her, but even her language skills have atrophied after a decade alone. Worf volunteers to help keep an eye on Kiarayoshi (the O’Brien’s son whom of course Kira delivered) as he wants to prove to Jadzia he can be a good father (meeting Alexander certainly has not helped with that). 

Molly starts to make some progress, and asks to go home. They take her back to her quarters, but she reacts badly until she sees a picture of them on the colony planet, and they realize she wants back into nature. They take her to a holosuite, which goes well until their time expires, and Molly becomes angry, assaulting several of Quark’s patrons. Starfleet orders the girl to a treatment facility where she won’t be a danger, but O’Brien instead decides to take her and steal a Runabout, returning her to the time portal and destroying it behind her. Odo initially catches them, but lets them go.

 They put older Molly back, but she arrives at the same time as her earlier self, and sends the eight-year-old version of herself back through the time portal, erasing her existence, but restoring her family. Worf meanwhile has decided he likes Yoshi despite some problems, and he and Jadzia decide he could be a father.

We waited until late in the season for our “Screw with O’Brien” episode, but indeed here it is. There are a few echoes of the fifth season “Children of Time” here (and in the next episode honestly) but overall this is an effective science fiction plot that serves as an nice analogy for families dealing with sick children, and what it takes to be a parent with the Worf story line. Worf coming at babysitting like it is a Warrior’s task is amusing, and all the more poignant very soon.  I am interested in where this time portal came from, as much of it seems a little reminiscent of the Guardian of Forever, though the control interface looks rather pointedly like the TARDIS console from Doctor Who.  

“The Sound of Her Voice” starts with Odo citing Quark for installing unsafe barstools and Quark deciding he has to come up with something to distract Odo so he can sell some elicit merchandise. 

 With Jake watching for “research” purposes, he pushes Odo to celebrate his one month “anniversary” with Kira to provide a distraction allowing him to move his goods.  Meanwhile the Defiant is tracking a Starfleet distress signal to a lone survivor, Captain Lisa Cusak, of the USS Olympia (PNW, Represent!) who is on a class J planet, trying to stay alive.  As they track her, the establish two way communications and to keep her company, each officer takes a turn talking to her. In their own way she begins to talk them each through problems they have experienced in their personal lives.  On DS9, Odo shifts the day of his “anniversary” date, and that means Quark’s client will be there while Odo is on patrol. Without Quark and Jake knowing Odo overhears Quark lament how bad the war has been on him, and how he would like some recognition for helping bring Odo and Kira together.  Odo abruptly goes back to his original plan, allowing Quark to operate. Odo tells Kira that he owes Quark one…but just one. The Defiant makes it to the planet and finds that the strange energy field that caused the Olympia to crash in the first place has acted as a time dilation effect, and Captain Cusak actually crashed three years ago, and her oxygen ran out then. Sisko brings her body back to DS9 and they throw an “Irish Wake” for her (which Worf comments seems like a very Klingon ritual) to remember the time they got to know her, and the advice she gave. 

O’Brien toasts the fact that one day, it will be one of them not standing in the circle, and they should enjoy each others’ company while they can. The camera flashes to Jadzia Dax.

Holy foreshadowing, Batman.  They do, they cut RIGHT to Jadzia when O’Brien laments one of them may die.  Dammit, what are you people trying to do to me? Beyond that, I was struck by the similar circumstances between this episode and “Children of Time:” a planet with an strange energy field around it which displaces things in time. Being caught up with season 2 of “Star Trek: Discovery” I am struck how much the character of Captain Cusak (whom we see only as a body, three years deceased) has a personality and wit that reminds me of Tig Notaro’s character of Jett Reno. I just kept imagining her on the planet, similar actually to the situation which the Discovery crew WILL end up saving Reno from following the Klingon War in 2257 (about 117 years before this episode). I am not sure though why NO ONE tried to look up records on the Olympia, even just to see what her crew compliment was to aid in the rescue, and don’t notice the three year discrepancy in timelines.  As a bit of reference, since Cusak discusses the Olympia being on an eight year mission and the ship crashed three years earlier, they Oly’s mission would have started roughly the same time the 1701D launched under Jean-Luc Picard, and she would have crashed roughly the same time the Voyager ended up in the Delta Quadrant.

“Tears of the Prophets” opens with Sisko receiving the Christopher Pike medal of valor and with Admiral Ross deciding Starfleet, Qo’Nos, and Romulus will invade Cardassian space, specifically to knock out a new type of weapon platform in the Chin’Toka system.  The Romulan senator on scene is initially resistant, but becomes convinced. 

Meanwhile Dax and Worf become public about deciding to have a child, and Dukat returns to the Dominion.  He has recovered the Pah-Wraith Kosst Amojan (last seen possessing Jake Sisko in the apocalypse Kai Winn cancelled in “The Reckoning”) and will use it to attack the wormhole. When Sisko prepares to leave to invade Cardassia, he receives a vision from the Prophets warning him not to go, but he defaults to his Starfleet duty. While the battle is being hard fought (with the weapons platforms coming online mid-fight) Dukat infiltrates DS9 with the Pah-Wraith to deliver it into the Orb on the station. 

In the sanctuary he finds Jadzia Dax, having a rare moment of religious curiosity, and blasts her with the Wraith’s power. The ancient being enters the orb, and the wormhole collapses. When the Defiant returns, Dukat is gone, and Worf arrives just in time to say goodbye to Jadzia; Bashir saved the symbiont, but could not save the host. The Celestial Temple collapsed, his friend dead, and Bajor looking to an Emissary who has suffered such major blows, Sisko decides to return to Earth for a time to clear his head.  Kira assumes command of DS9, and when she enters Sisko’s office, is heartbroken to see that Sisko does not know if he will return: Benjamin has taken his baseball with him.

The death of Dax is almost arbitrary and just a senseless tragedy, which I think makes it all the more affecting. You would have expected her warrior’s death, but the almost meaningless happenstance of being in the wrong place when Dukat appears just hurts.  Dramatically it is effective; the behind the scenes story about how Rick Berman treated Terry Farrell leading to this death is infuriating. I know Berman kept Trek alive a long time, but damn, am I glad he’s no longer affiliated, and Terry gets to be married to Leonard Nimoy’s son (no, seriously) and appear at conventions alongside Nicole De Boer whom we will meet next season as the new Dax host Ezri. Jadzia was an amazing character, and I will miss her as the show continues, but it is effective and visceral storytelling that brings us Ezri Dax. At least something good came out of Berman’s abuse, and Jadzia, as I rewatch, re-meet, and re-lose her 20 years later will ALWAYS be one of the best things about DS9 and Star Trek in general.  And SCREW YOU  Kai Winn! This Pah-Wraith  being on the lose is YOUR fault. Also, I really like David Birney as the Romulan here, wish we'd seen a little more of him!

NEXT VOYAGE: A broken Sisko receives a distant mysterious vision, and an old friend with a new face appears to help find the “Image in the Sand.”

[actionfigurebullshit]

MORE projects I’ll never finish!

I kind of wish I had found it in myself to do that DS9 stuff. I was all ready to go, all I had to do was set up the camera and start taking pictures.

Oh, well. There will be other chances to do it, hopefully with more tolerable weather. To that end, I should probably wait until October... another film bonanza?

This hasn’t stopped me from collecting more action figures.

As stated on STID, I got a lot (”lot” as it collection, not a short world for large) of 14 Star Trek action figures. Of the 14, 8 were Star Trek Voyager- the original main cast minus Torres. I wrote about these on STID because there is the potential to do the Better Than Voyager stuff that’s been dreamed about for almost a decade now.

Of the other six, there’s Saavik, Nurse Chapel (regular), Rom (with Nog accessory!), Jake Sisko, Tasha Yar (original), and Yeoman Rand.

WHAT A FIND! Was there a catch? It was an estate sale, apparently... and they were coated in a strange film which I suspect was talc that mixed with the oils in the plastic. It seems harmless enough- it may have preserved the joints to some degree, and it’s easy to remove if you can get something to wipe it off. Some of the action figures have details that’s hard to get into, but we’ll see about that when I go after it with a Q-Tip. A little powdering isn’t such a bad idea, as that could keep from making the action figures too reflective, especially if I try out some green screen effects.

Today, I got seven more action figures.

The first is a Seska action figure... she looks nothing like Seska, but I like that. I like that she’s generic looking and she’ll work out just fine for that one script. I’ll need a few supernumeraries back there tooling around here and there in the background. Perfect.

The other six come from this “command” like- Sisko and Kira action figures, Picard and Riker in dress uniforms, and Kirk and Spock in dress uniforms. I wanted a Kira action figure, so that’s cool that I have it even if there’s no plan to use it for filming. This action figure is... weird. Her head seems so tiny, and she’s shorter than the others. Curiously, the smaller head might actually make her proportions more accurate to real life compared to the others. Still... it’s kinda funny, but at least they put a lot of nice detail into it!

I don’t have much use for Kirk and Spock right now, either, but if I continue to do TOS stuff, these will come in handy.

I have some bold plans for Sisko, Riker, and Picard. I want to make a new action figure out of some of these. I wrote about this a little bit. They already have a dress uniform Sisko, but I think I can make one out of these parts. Sisko gets Picard’s body, and Picard becomes OTHER TEMPORAL SPHERE PICARD. It will be unique- it won’t be Picard’s head on Bashir’s body with command colors. It will be Sisko’s instead, and he will have the rank of commander, better fitting the line on the back of the “Picard in a DS9 uniform” regarding him being unsuitable for starship command.

I may do something about the arms, if possible. The TNG ones have Geordi’s weird arms, and the arms show up on a lot of the action figures- they stick way out because of the shoulder piece. I thought...

Oh...

I got to step back a little bit.

Why do I want a dress uniform Sisko? I was thinking about one day redoing the “TV Room” scene from Action Figure Bullshit, with the biggest difference being that the scenes from “Move Along Home” are replaced with action figure bullshit. I got a Jake! Soon, I’ll have Sisko in a dress uniform. Harry Mudd can be tweaked to become Falow, and since Quark appears for a split second, I might as well use the Rom action figure... Niners will notice, but maybe it can be fudged a little since he’s there for just a second, if at all.

Back to Picard. He can also be modified a little further to become a Voyager officer, although his uniform might look a little funny. Season 1 and 2 DS9 uniforms are not the same as the Voyager ones, and this especially so with the action figures. Still... another gold shirt in the background will go a long ways. Or, I could leave Sisko alone for now, color his hair gray, and he can be that one guy who is always in the background in the mess hall in a blue uniform.

There are so many possibilities!

More are on the way. I got a second Kirk in a space suit. I hope I find the helmet to the first- it’s been missing for a while, probably in a box somewhere (I hope!). Having two would make things a lot easier for some ideas I’ve had for a long time, like having a whole bunch of them running around. I could put Spock’s head on it, or put someone else’s head in it.

Then there’s AGT Data. I might use his body with Tuvok’s head for the one scene where Tuvok is wearing “casual attire”. During Vorik’s one scene, a Romulan could borrow his body. I need to cut this entry short, but you get the idea, there’s a lot of possibility here!

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek: Bringing the Enterprise Home, 55 Years Later

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All odysseys must end. 

The final year of the starship Enterprise’s five-year mission has long been speculated about, but never before been given such descriptive and reverential treatment as in IDW’s Star Trek: Year Five, a comic written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly. Yet, it too must come to an end as the intrepid crew of The USS Enterprise complete their final year of exploration in this true-to-The-Original-Series story that wraps up this summer.  Den of Geek was able to sit down with Lanzing and Kelly to talk about the journey, its challenges, and how they managed to bring the Enterprise home in this epic comic series that gives the final year of James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise’s mission the proper examination it deserved.

“I’m happy to have finally landed the ship,” Lanzing tells us, before continuing in a bittersweet tone: “I’m sad. Star Trek means so much to me and Collin. We’re enormous fans and we have been shaped by it in a lot of ways and fought really hard to get to work on it. Hitting that point, and getting to work on it with such an iconic crew of the original series – it felt like we couldn’t drop the ball on this. When we got it – we felt the enormous weight of responsibility that it had to stand apart from other Star Trek books.”

Which, of course, was the purpose for this odyssey. This series had to be different from other Star Trek comics and there could be no other way to show its distinction by exploring the ending of The Original Series. As any loyal Trek fan knows, TOS ran for only three seasons. It survived, sporadically appearing in novels and other literature. There was room to create stories about the seasons that never were. For many writers and fans, additional stories were just accepted to be in that missing time span. Some even accept The Animated Series to be the missing years, but there was never any formal acknowledgment that, when that series ended, so did the Enterprise’s five-year mission. 

Star Trek: Year Five boldly announced its finite nature from the start. With 24 issues in two years, Lanzing and Kelly created a set of stories that filled a void by incorporating elements and recognized work from other comic creators that any TOS fan would have instantly recognized and accepted into the canon of the franchise. While this may have been the Enterprise’s last leg of her journey, it was certainly a full one.

“I really felt it was important to know what had come before,” Jackson says of the series. “I’d read everything Mike Johnson had done, the work the Tiptons put out, but I had to also look at the DC and Marvel works as well. I had to know what we were living up to.”

Both creators cut their Trek teeth on The Next Generation, DS9 and Voyager; in Lanzing’s case, it wasn’t until his early twenties when TOS would be available for greater study: “TOS was the distillation of everything I had learned about Star Trek. It was the first, there were Utopian visions, character studies, dramatic military stories, morality plays! It was everything that I had learned from TNG, DS9, Voyager and it all came from this core … thing that I originally dismissed as cheesy or old, but it evolved into the stories it tried to tell, the lessons it tried to teach and the characters it grappled with. I found myself blown away and Kirk, Spock and Bones became the focus.” 

Kelly had this to say about his formative Star Trek experiences: “For me, it was about spending time with my dad in middle school. We moved a lot and we were different people. I was a pale, bookish kid in Hawaii and my dad was an outdoorsy type. But the one thing that we could come together about was Star Trek: Voyager. Every Wednesday night, we would create a big old meal, and sit down for some solid father-son bonding time. Even though we were different, my dad was a big nerd, especially when it came to Star Trek and we would bond over the higher-concept science fiction ideas that we wouldn’t be otherwise be talking about.” 

The most exciting adventures begin with the simplest of vessels. Both Kelly and Lanzing were avid table-top role-players and really wanted to create their own Star Trek adventures. Within months, they had small, persistent Star Trek universe, it swelled to over thirty player characters, over a hundred and fifty games and was essentially four seasons of television in its own right. They incorporated characters from the Federation, Romulan, Klingon and Cardassian Empires and by the end of the experience, they had learned how much they loved telling Star Trek stories. This became the core of and the first step of their Trek writing journey. 

“Who gets to write Star Trek stories?’ Kelly laughs.

“We loved it,” adds Lanzing. “But what we realized from this experience was that how many people could become Star Trek fans if you gave them the right in. That game taught me that. We had friends who wanted to be part of the game but didn’t know Star Trek. We were like: that’s fine! No problem! Here’s a watch-list. Watch some Star Trek, pitch me an idea and we’ll figure something out! We had so many people become Star Trek fans through the game and saw that people could become fans if they were interested in astrophysics, or religion or they are pulp-adventurers and love that style of storytelling.”

Kelly adds: “My wife really loved sneaking around and betraying people, utterly savagely, with a knife in the back! So, she loved playing a Romulan! She was a part of the Tal’Shiar and then eventually usurped the throne for herself!

“Yeah – she was great at it!” Lanzing confirms.

Meeting new people along the way is a characteristic of an epic journey. In this case, Lanzing and Kelly were able to not only meet new people but they were able to turn them into Trek fans. That’s a pretty impressive accomplishment. “We found all sorts of entrance points for people to get into Star Trek,” says Lanzing. “So, we thought, well, shoot, If we could write something like this that gets people into Star Trek, then … “

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After all this preparation, how did Year Five start?

“Jack and I have been writing together for about a decade until this point in our journey,” recounts Kelly. “Our first comic we wrote was Joyride – we pitched it as ‘teenaged punk rock in Star Trek’. We used the Kirk-Spock-McCoy triumvirate as the apex of storytelling, which if you get that, it’s the most powerful engine for storytelling in any genre. We wrote 12 issues and it remains one of our all-time favorite books. That was around when we started to get into comic book sphere, make relationships and get us to the door of IDW.”

“We literally thought: who’s going to pay us to write Star Trek? So, we wrote our own!” Lanzing says, with a laugh. After a series of different editors at IDW, eventually Lanzing and Kelly managed to find a launching point for their grand adventure. “We put together a two-year multi-book plan, to take all of the characters from TNG and Voyager and do what we had done with our role-playing game and create a multi-threaded, Game of Thrones–style of story. It was a tapestry. We had a book that was going to be a ship book, another that was going to be a station book and then a Section 31 book. They were all going to work together to tell this story and it was going to be over two years. We pitched it to IDW.”

With that pitch came the first challenge to the odyssey.

“We pitched it with all the Trek maps, the official maps of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants,” says Kelly. “We spread them all over the table – told everyone to clear their notebooks off the table – four square feet of space! We had a conspiracy board. The Federation was going to cross over into the Beta Quadrant, they’re going to face Romulan forces … we had this whole thing mapped out! The pitch lasted a while and it was gripping! They were eating out of the palms of our hands! I am happy to say it was one of our proudest pitches!”

“It was a great pitch,” Lanzing continues. “We went out for lunch with David Hedgecock afterwards and he thought it was going to happen. Awesome … let’s do it, he said. We got really, really close and then they greenlit Picard.”

This meant that Lanzing and Kelly couldn’t use the characters from TNG, so it was over and it looked like this odyssey was over before it even began.

“We went from ‘this is going to happen!’ to ‘No Star Trek for you’!” says Lanzing, with a laugh.

However, Star Trek IDW editor Chase Marotz was in the room when it happened. 

 “We got a call from Chase. He was like ‘Hey guys – I was in on that pitch. You clearly love Star Trek. We’re doing an issue of Star Trek: Waypoint. Are you interested? We pitched one about Data and Spot, and Spot manages to save the ship. We turned it in and suggested Sonny Liew. We never thought it would happen – but Sonny made time out of his schedule to do twelve pages of Star Trek. Lo and behold, it came out and that was our first Star Trek story.”

Chase came back to Lanzing and Kelly on the success of that story and offered them Star Trek: Year Five.

“Chase said they were going to run it like a television writers’ room,” explains Lanzing. “They were going to have writers pitch stories but if we had an idea for an over-arcing plot that would run from Issue #1 to Issue #24, then please pitch it. If that worked, we would be hired to be the showrunners. We would write the first 12 issues, run the writers’ room and then our plot would be the over-arching narrative for the rest of the story.”

With that, the odyssey was afoot. 

What is striking about this series is the overwhelming attention to detail in the presentation of the characters. The dialogue reads like script lines from a TOS episode; speech patterns, turns of phrase and even body language is emulated. In Issue # 1, Page 9 in the second panel (drawn by Stephen Thompson), we see a Kirk in an all-too familiar, arms-outstretched pose as he describes the importance of the decision to become Admiral Kirk and leave Captain Kirk behind. 

In Kirk’s own odyssey, this is a pivotal moment in the lore and no other series has taken the time to examine this process of the final year of the Enterprise’s return and Kirk’s career. It’s the detail that not only pays homage to that essential piece of Trek lore but gives it the reverential consideration it is due. Every TOS fan would pick up on the importance of this transitional moment.

“We didn’t want to tell Star Trek comics; we wanted to tell Star Trek stories. We had to drop our egos and tell the story that Gene Coon would have approved of. We couldn’t write Kirk as we imagined him. We had to write Kirk as Bill Shatner would have performed him.” Lanzing adds about the artistry in the series: “Stephen Thompson doesn’t just get Shatner or Kirk – he gets the essence of Kirk.”

Every odyssey needs a hero, and Kirk is at the center of this series—a decision that was made intentionally.

“We wrote a ‘bible’ heading into the writers’ room,” says Lanzing. “We noticed that comic writers love Spock. They love Bones. So, Spock and Bones get all these great stories. Kirk gets forgotten a lot in Star Trek comics because they feel like he already had the stories to begin with … He also gets lampooned a lot. When an audience thinks about Kirk, they think about a portly sex-fiend! And that’s hard – especially for people who don’t know the character. They don’t see him as the brooding, stoic warrior genius that he is, so, we saw that and Kirk needs to be at the core of this.”

Lanzing reads from the “bible” he presented to writers Jody Hauser, Brandon Easton and others in the writer’s room: “When in doubt: Kirk. James Kirk is the unabashed protagonist of this series. While Spock and Bones will both have arcs, Kirk must remain a focus. He is not the reckless youth that the Abrams movies have ingrained into the public consciousness but instead a thoughtful, mercurial warrior poet, who couldn’t bear to waste Khan’s potential in a Federation penal colony. He’s 37 years old; he’s a father who does not know his own son and he is completely without close friends other than his first officer and the ship’s doctor. In his own way, he is a tragic figure and we are catching up with him on the cusp of a life-change that we will know he will come to deeply regret. This story is about legacy and responsibility and giving up command after five years. So, think about whatever story you tell as a chance to tell the last tale of Kirk in whatever field your story attacks.”

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This is the Kirk loyal fans who grew up with him as their idol would recognize. Not only is this true of the Original Series, but it is also at core, the essence of Star Trek, as Kirk is the figure who epitomized all of humanity’s passions, failings, ambitions and capacity to learn. This is James T. Kirk as he was meant to be and has now been realized in this missing gap of his career. 

Along with Lanzing and Kelly, the writers’ room boasted the talents of Jody Houser, Brandon Easton, Jim McCann, and a one-shot Valentine’s Day special by Paul Cornell. The artists on this series included Stephen Thompson, Martin Coccolo, Silvia Califano, Christopher Jones, Angel Hernandez and one of my personal favorites: J.K. Woodward. The cover of the inaugural issue was by the legendary Greg Hildebrandt. The crew of the odyssey was a rich and accomplished one. 

Sadly, it has to end. Why? “We ask ourselves the same ding-dang question!” Kelly answers. “It’s been the highlight of our careers to write these characters. The nature of the title suggests that it has to, but it’s something we regret every day.”

“The power of the book comes from the fact that it does end,”  Jackson adds. “We know that the story is ending. We know that it is a tragic story about Kirk giving up the captain’s chair. So, we knew that we were going to land somewhere poignant. Kirk giving up that chair is inherently poignant. So, the challenge is how poignant we can make it. The real power behind this story is turning around and going home and sadly, the odyssey has to end. It’s no good if he doesn’t get back to Ithaca.”

At the time of this article, Issue #20 is the current one. We have four more issues to go, with the finale coming in July. Jackson reports that he had received the art for Issue #24 and, with that, the ship is safely at port for him. For loyal readers who are loathe to see this series end, at least there are more issues to read and enjoy until then. 

On social media, fans exclaim that it should be considered canon, high praise for writers who saw the appeal of this franchise to the point that they felt they had to explore its origins, eventually writing what some consider to be the defining story of this missing period. Not only have they given fans something that is acceptable but they have done it with the kind of careful observance the television series deserved. 

However, both Lanzing and Kelly take effort to report that this would not be the last time they are to be involved in writing Star Trek. Perhaps we might see them create stories within TNG, Voyager or the other iterations that this franchise has created. In that, perhaps we will see, and enjoy, other odysseys of their creation? If so, then here’s to the next journey.  

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Star Trek: Year Five is available to buy here.

The post Star Trek: Bringing the Enterprise Home, 55 Years Later appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[blockheadbrands]

Buzzes & Bummers: 2018 Was a Wild Ride in the World of Cannabis

David Bienenstock of Leafly Reports:

It took a whole lot of rolling (joints) and scrolling (old news feeds) to complete a thorough review of the most important, inspiring and infuriating stories about cannabis from the past year—and no doubt I still missed a few along the way. In my defense, 2018 has been a wild ride in the world of weed, a 12-month timespan which truly could be called “the best of times and the worst of times,” or perhaps just the highest and lowest of times.

My personal year in cannabis began on New Year’s Day, when I waited in line along with countless other Californians to buy some cannabis on the first day of legal adult-use sales. The fact that I was already stoned before I made my purchase would seem to indicate that it wasn’t exactly difficult to find cannabis in the Golden State prior to this momentous occasion, but that’s kind of besides the point.

And cannabis just kept getting legal-er and legal-er all year, including in Vermont, Michigan, Missouri, Utah, and the entire nation of Canada (see more below). Election Night also ushered in new, pro-legalization governors in so-far not legalized Illinois, Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, and New Mexico, and also saw the defeat of staunch cannabis opponent Pete Sessions, who’s been blocking cannabis legislation for years.

And then you scroll a little further down and discover that the new Farm Bill is going to legalize hemp farming in the United States for the first time in eighty years (huzzah!). Or that Big Tobacco just invested $2.4 billion dollars in the weed business (fuck!). Or that Thailand is blazing a trail in Asia—where cannabis laws are often draconian and harshly enforced—by legalizing medical use (yes!). Or assholes like recently retired Speaker of the House John Boehner think that after decades of pushing prohibition they deserved to get rich off cannabis (oh, hell no!).

It’s honestly hard to know what to think these days. Perhaps my new year’s resolution for 2019 will be more rolling, less scrolling! But until then, here are the buzzes and bummers 2018 had to offer.

Buzz: Vermont Legalizes Adult-Use Cannabis

Less than two weeks into 2018, Vermont lawmakers gave final approval to a bill legalizing adult-use cannabis, and the governor subsequently signed it into law, making it the first state to end prohibition through the legislature rather than a direct vote of citizens.

Bummer: Big Tobacco Makes Moves in Cannabis

It’s no longer a question of if Big Tobacco and the booze barons will enter the cannabis market, but rather how aggressively they’ll move in and how much market share they’ll manage to gobble up.

Neither corporate giant lifted a finger to help legalize cannabis or bring justice to the millions of people who’ve been incarcerated or had their lives disrupted as a result of prohibition.

In August, Constellation Brands (brewers of Corona beer) spent $4 billion to massively up their stake in Canopy Growth, which in 2014 became the first publicly traded cannabis company in North America, and now lists on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange.

And then in December, Altria (formerly Phillip Morris) made a $1.8 billion investment in Cronos, a Canadian cannabis company, which includes an option to take a controlling stake in the future. As first reported by Leafly, Altria has “over the past five years quietly patented dozens of devices that could be used to consume marijuana, a review of public documents at the US Patent and Trademark Office shows.”

Important to note: Neither corporate giant lifted a finger to help legalize cannabis or bring justice to the millions of people around the world who’ve been incarcerated or had their lives disrupted as a result of prohibition. And Altria in particular comes to the table with a long track record of corporate malfeasance, which is why they changed their name in the first place.

Buzz: Bong Wick Fighting Crime

On September 6, four men burst into the Recreational Cannabis Farmers Market in Shannonville, Canada, spraying a can of bear mace and screaming “get down.” The plan was allegedly to rob the place blind, but as they say in the action movies, these punks picked the wrong dispensary.

Despite being outnumbered and taken by surprise, John Wick—the store’s clerk—reached down below the register, pulled out a borosilicate glass bong, and prepared to defend his turf. As captured in the store’s surveillance video, the four cowardly criminals were clearly no match for a good guy with a bong.

Bummer: The Cost of Legal CBD

What would you call someone who spends $32,500 a year on cannabis that doesn’t get you high? GW Pharmaceuticals will soon call them customers, because that’s how much patients are estimated to shell out for Epidiolex, a cannabis-derived treatment for seizure disorders that was approved in June by the FDA, rescheduled by the DEA in September (though only Epidiolex was rescheduled, not CBD itself) and is currently moving rapidlythrough phase III clinical trials.

There’s nothing to justify the sky-high price (about $90 per day) beyond the cost of research and development to win FDA approval.

Marinol (synthetic THC) has been available by prescription since 1986, and other synthetic cannabinoid drugs are in the works, but Epidiolex is the first plant-derived pharmaceutical to reach the US market. It was fast tracked through the approval process in response to parents of severely epileptic children pushing for a way to legally use CBD, after seeing it work wonders for children profiled in a 2013 CNN documentary called Weed, hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Bringing pharmaceutical CBD to market will make it available to patients in every state (with a doctor’s prescription), allow it to be covered by health insurance, and guarantee a product that’s produced to high standards.

But there’s nothing to justify the sky-high price (about $90 per day) beyond the cost of research and development to win FDA approval and Big Pharma’s insatiable thirst for profits. No wonder GW has been working behind the scenes to lobby for a de-facto monopoly on legal CBD.

Because here’s the recipe, which includes nothing expensive:

EPIDIOLEX (cannabidiol) oral solution is a clear, colorless to yellow liquid containing cannabidiol at a concentration of 100 mg/mL. Inactive ingredients include dehydrated alcohol, sesame seed oil, strawberry flavor, and sucralose.

Buzz: Canada Legalizes Adult-Use Cannabis

On October 17, Canada made history by becoming the second nation (after Uruguay) to federally legalize adult-use cannabis. Leafly provided coast-to-coast coverage, and threw a party called the “Bud Drop” with a countdown to the big moment when the clock struck midnight.

We even got you ready to roll with a comprehensive list of the best Canadian cannabis strains of all time, including Island Sweet Skunk, Romulan, and Jean Guy.

Bummer: Patients Are Still Struggling for Cannabis Access

John Flickner, a 78-year-old resident of Niagara Falls, New York, was evicted from his federally subsidized housing in December of this year for using a vape pen. The facility, which has a “zero tolerance” policy on “drug use” (except alcohol and pharmaceuticals) kicked Flickner to the curb in the freezing cold despite the fact that he uses a wheelchair and has a doctor’s recommendation to consume medical cannabis per state law.

All because federal law still sees him as a wonton criminal. So he ended up in a homeless shelter. Thankfully, a public outcry led his old landlords to allow him back home.

Buzz: Utah Legalized Medical Cannabis

In October, as Utah citizens prepared to vote on Proposition 2, a statewide medical cannabis ballot initiative, Democratic state senator Jim Dabakis decided to head out on a fact-finding trip—in more ways than one. Claiming he’d never tried cannabis before in his life, Dabakis drove to Nevada, bought a cannabis-infused gummy, and then posted a live video feed of himself on social media as he ate the edible.

“I think the reefer madness crowd—you guys, you need to try it.”Sen. Jim Dabakis (D-UT)

“I think the reefer madness crowd—you guys, you need to try it,” Dabakis told the world. “It’s not that big a deal.”

On election night, Proposition 2 passed with sizable majority, but instead of enacting the law as written, lawmakers in Utah signed off on a “compromise bill” that’s more restrictive than Proposition 2 but has wider political support.

Bummer: “Just Say No to Nazi Weed”

Bethany Sherman, formerly the owner of OG Analytics, a cannabis testing lab in Oregon, filed a defamation lawsuit in October against online anti-fascist activists after they exposed her alleged ties to local white nationalists.

She claims that when Antifa activists publicized her posts to social media and message boards, they took them “out of context.” Then she hired an attorney to defend her who is a self-described white nationalist.

Allegations against Sherman included that she baked swastika-shaped cookies for a celebration of Adolf Hitler’s birthday (which is also, coincidentally, 4/20). The lawsuit is still pending, but in the meantime, just say no to Nazi weed and check out the real story of 4/20 for a highly inspiring tale that represents the best of cannabis culture.

Buzz: Cannabis Equity Programs Expand Opportunities

In late November, Blunt + Moore, the first dispensary to get permitted as part of Oakland, California’s far reaching cannabis equity program, held their grand opening in a small, sleek retail space just across the highway from Oracle Arena, home of the Golden State Warriors.

The shop’s proprietor, Alphonso T Blunt, Jr., is a 31-year-old, fourth generation Oakland resident who started selling cannabis when he was just 16. He qualified for the equity program based on a previous felony conviction, and having lived in a neighborhood disproportionately targeted for cannabis arrests.

Blunt told Leafly’s David Downs he could never have made it into the legal industry without the program’s assistance in getting licensed and attracting investors.

“Had you asked me even a year ago, I thought it wouldn’t happen. I can’t even put into words how it feels.”

But reviews of the equity program have been mixed, with critics arguing it so far has a disappointing track record for actually bringing equity-approved businesses online.

The effort has meanwhile inspired other municipalities and states to follow suit. In September, California passed a statewide Cannabis Equity Act, and undoing the damage of the War on Drugs has now become a standard part of the legalization conversation around the world.

TO READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE ON LEAFLY, CLICK HERE.

https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/buzzes-bummers-2018-was-a-wild-ride-in-the-world-of-cannabis

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Best Tv Shows Ever

'Lost' 2004-10

A cosmic mystery trip so complex nobody has ever really figured it all out – a band of castaways trapped on an island following the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, having a smoke monster and also the enigmatic group called the Others, several time lines, the Seventies back-story of the Dharma Initiative, each episode filled with clues to be argued over for years to come. Lost proved there was a broad audience around who needed their Television to be more unpredictable and difficult, not less – and Television would never be the same.

'Star Trek' 196669

The Star-Ship Business took off having a five-year mission: "To discover odd new worlds, to to locate new life and new civilizations," and it succeeded in making the most beloved of sci fi franchises, not just inspiring many spin offs but also codifying fanfiction as an art form. Gene Roddenberry's original sequence stays the basis, with William Shatner's awesomely pulpy Capt. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy's logical Mr. Spock, Bones, Sulu, Uhura and Scotty. They speak to strange and inexplicable lifeforms – Romulans, Gorns, Joan Collins. During its three years, Startrek suffered from low ratings until NBC pulled the plug, but thanks to the most doggedly loyal of TV cults (remember when "Trekkie" was an insult?), Roddenberry's vision lives long and prospers for this day.

'The Daily Show' 1996-Present

The fa-Ke news show that became mo Re credible as opposed to news that is real. Comedy Central started The Daily Present when Jon Stewart took over in 1999, but it hit its stride. The Daily Present got more politically abrasive as the news got progressively worse. Stewart had the rage of a man who had signed on at the finish of the Bill Clinton years, only to finish up with an America significantly more scary and more ugly for, as well as the anger showed. "It is a comic box lined with unhappiness," he informed Rolling Stone in 2006. While the franchise struggles on without him, Everyday alumni John Oliver and Samantha Bee keep that hard-hitting spirit on their own displays.

'Friends' 1994 2004

A team of twenty somethings in New York sit around complaining about their day jobs, their sex lives, their screwed -up households. It's a formula countless sitcoms tried to get right on the years (great try, Herman's Head), but it took the Central Perk crew to get the best mix of personalities, from Lisa Kudrow's flaky folksinger to the schlub-fox romance of David Schwimmer's Ross and Jennifer Aniston's Rachel. Even at the time, it was absurd how luxurious Monica's West Village apartment and large was, and also the storyline where she's banging Tom Selleck just gets more abdomen-turning the Blue Bloods stays that are lengthier on-the-air.

'South Park' 1997-Present

Trey Parker and Matt Stone touched America someplace special and deep, and also you got to respect their authori-teh. Year after year, this cartoon began, Matt Stone informed Rolling Stone, "we'd view success as finally acquiring to the point where we get canceled because no one gets it." So here's to not exactly twenty years of failure – and hopefully 2 more.

'The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson' 196292

Heeeeeeere's Johnny! There's a cause Carson stays the template for each and every late-night host, after ruling The To Night Show for three decades. Like a TV answer to Frank Sinatra, he epitomized Rat Pack cool, and his monologues were a sound track to generations of Americans boozing every night themselves to slumber. Nearly 2-5 years after he signed-off (and more than 10 years after he died), Carson's the ghost king who nevertheless haunts evening. When he abdicated in 1992, Letterman and Jay Leno started battling for his throne and never quit. (In his last display, Letterman cracked, "It looks like I am not planning to get The Tonight Show.")

TV Series Third Watch

'The Sopranos' 1999-2007

The crime saga that slice the the history of Television kicking off a golden age when abruptly something seemed possible. About how much you could get away with on the little screen together with The Sopranos, David Chase smashed all of the rules. And he developed an American antihero in James Gandolfini's New Jersey Mob boss, Tony Soprano, presiding over a crew of gangsters who also double as dads and broken husbands, guys seeking to stay using their murderous strategies and dark recollections. As the late, great Gandolfini told Rolling Stone in 2001, "I noticed David Chase say one time that it's about people who lie to themselves, as we all do. Lying to ourselves on a daily basis and the mess it creates." What an inspiring mess it is. Since it transformed the world, this specific poll was run away with by the Sopranos. Chase confirmed just how story-telling ambition that was much tv could be brought to by you, and it didn't take long for everybody else to rise to his challenge. The breakthroughs of the next few years – The Wire, Mad Guys, Breaking Poor – could not have occurred without The Sopranos kicking the door down. But Chase had a difficult time convincing any network to battle a story of a guilt- gangster who goes to treatment, while his mother plots to kill him. "We'd no idea this show would appeal to folks," he told Rolling Stone. "The display really unexpectedly made this kind of splash that it screwed all of US up." The Sopranos kept heading for the long bomb over six masterful seasons on HBO having a wild mix of blood shed and humor. When FBI agents tell Uncle Junior which mobsters they want him to finger, he says using a shrug, "I want to fuck Angie Dickinson – let's see who gets lucky first." The Sopranos is full of damaged figures who linger on in the long term parking of our national imagination – Edie Falco's Carmela, Dominic Chianese's Junior, Michael Imperioli's Christopher, Tony Sirico's Paulie Walnuts. E Street Band guitarist Steve Van Zandt became Tony's lieutenant Silvio – Chase spotted him on early Bruce Springsteen album addresses. (As Chase told Rolling Stone, "There was something about the E Street Band that looked like a crew.") It might not have been possible without Gandolfini's slow-burning intensity – he was the only actor who could deliver Tony's angst to life. But the writing, directing and acting went locations Television had never reached before. Where Christopher and Paulie Walnuts get lost in the woods, realizing the Russian gangster they tried to whack is nevertheless out there-in the darkness, the Sopranos arguably hit its innovative peak with all the well-known Pine Barrens episode. They shiver in the cold. ("It is the the fuckin' Yukon out there!") They wait. And worry. The Sopranos never solved this mystery – for all we know, the Russian is still atlarge, yet another key these guys can not shake off. On The Sopranos, family loyalties flip, both in the streets and a T home. Beloved characters can get whacked a T any moment. It kept that perception of danger alive proper up to the final seconds. And not quite a decade after it faded to black in a Jersey diner together with the juke-box enjoying "Do Not Stop Believin'," The Sopranos stays the standard all ambitious TV aspires to fulfill.

'30 Rock' 200613

Alec Baldwin said it best: "You are truly the Picasso of loneliness." He's a point. The Liz Lemon of Tina Fey is one gal who spends her evenings working on on her behalf evening cheese playing Monopoly alone or viewing the Life Time movie My Stepson Is My Cyber-Husband. But Fey created her a timeless heroine -space experience at The Girlie Show to the backstage antics, having a crazy- deep bench that included Jack McBrayer, Jane Krakowski and Tracy Morgan. And Baldwin chewed up the role of his life, turning what might have been a generic sitcom boss into the only guy worthy to stand-by Lemon.

'The Office (U.K.)' 2001 03

Ricky Gervais created one of TV's most agonizing comic tyrants in David Brent – a bitter, awkward, pompous ball of vanities terrorizing his workers at a London paper organization. He fidgets, fondles his tie, cracks dreadful jokes, plays guitar ("Free Love Free Way"!), invisible to anyone except the longsuffering office drones who have to put up with him. This mockumentary raised the cringe level of sitcoms every where, spawning the remarkably great U.S. version (also on this checklist) while paving the way for the glories of Parks & Re Creation and Peep-Show.

[weerd1]

Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1907.28: Missions Reviewed, “The Way of the Warrior” Parts 1 and 2.

As DS9 is using Odo to pull “find the Changeling” drills, the entire Alpha Quadrant is on edge over the events of last season.  With the Obsidian Order all but destroyed after their attempt to ally with the Romulans, Cardassia has closed its borders and there are rumors the Central Command has fallen.  Starfleet meanwhile has started bolstering the defenses of DS9. No longer the dilapidated mining station, she will now stand as the first line of defense against anything that comes through the wormhole. In the middle of it all, Sisko (now bald and goateed- HIS PEAK FORM!) tries to get some quality time in with Kassidy Yates only to be called to Operations when the Klingon Empires flagship shows up, commanded by a General Martok. 

 He says he’s there at the request of Chancellor Gowron to help protect the Quadrant; he’s not alone though.  Dozens of Klingon ships decloak and ask to get shore leave. The station becomes tense with all the Klingons on board, and they begin enforcing their own rules about who can and cannot move about. When they try to stop and search Kassidy’s ship as she leaves the station in Bajoran space, Sisko flexes the Defiant, realizing decades of peace between the Federation and the Klingons is at stake.  He’s convinced though that something is going on.  He places a call to Starfleet headquarters and received a special assignment for Lt Cdr. Worf.  

Worf arrives, but is at a crossroads. He has spent time at the Boreth since the Enterprise 1701D was destroyed in “Star Trek: Generations” and plans to resign his commission and live again among Klingons.  While he’s deciding though, he calls in some old favors and finds out the Klingons are planning to invade Cardassia.  They too have heard that the Civilian D’Tapa Council has wrested power from the High Command, and don’t believe that’s possible without Dominion help. They’re going to take their fleet in and save the quadrant from the Founders.  Sisko confronts them which leads to Gowron himself coming to convince Worf to join them; he tells the Chancellor there is no honor in attacking the Cardassians without proof. The fleet proceeds toward Cardassia Prime, and the Federation tells Sisko NOT to warn the Cardassians because they are reluctant to ruin the treaty with the Klingons. Sisko makes sure he receives a briefing on the mission while Garak is fitting him for a suit.  Garak reaches back to Cardassia to find some of the rumors are true; the D’Tapa Council has taken over (with Gul Dukat’s help), but they insist it was a peaceful transition long in the works.  Dukat reaches out to Sisko to get help evacuating the council from their home before the Klingons arrive. 

 Sisko takes a cloaked Defiant into Cardassian space but comes upon the escaping ship being attacked by Klingons.  They try to warn the Klingons away, but are attacked, and end up destroying one of the ships, but taking the Cardassians on board and running for DS9. The Klingons are in pursuit.  Sisko has all of the Cardassians checked; none are Changelings.  Back at DS9 he tries to convince the Klingons of that, but they attack anyway and find out just how effective the defenses of the station have become.  There are too many Klingons though and the shields are overwhelmed. They are boarded and Dukat and Garak actually fight side by side to protect the council as there is fighting all over the station.  

They are able to keep control long enough for Starfleet reinforcements to arrive, and the Klingons break off their attack.  Before leaving through Gowron declares that the Empire is pulling out of the Khitomer Accords. The peace between the Klingon Empire and the Federation is done. Worf realizes the most important place for him to be and takes a permanent posting on DS9.

Whew! I don’t usually spend that much time on the summaries, but this feature-length story was worthy of being its own movie.  As great as S3 of DS9 was, we immediately see a leap forward here now that TNG is off the air, and Rick Berman is spending more time overseeing “Voyager.” Worf is a perfect addition to the crew, and seeing Dax decide she’s going to have a bite of that tasty Klingon snack about ten seconds after meeting him (after he starts a bar fight with Martok’s son to get the General’s attention) is wonderful…and heartbreaking when you know where this is going.  Plus, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that THIS is the “Root Beer” episode! Please watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VhSm6G7cVk

Also of note, look for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from actress and stunt woman Patricia Tallman, who was not just Nana Visitor’s stunt double, but of course played Lyta Alexander on that OTHER 90s Space Station show, “Babylon 5.”  This is our first meeting with Martok as well, though it will be a while before we find out that this isn’t the real Martok at all, but instead… well, that would be telling.

NEXT VOYAGE: The Dominion forces loyalty from the Jen’Hadar with a genetically programmed addiction to “Ketracel White.” But if Julian can cure that addiction what does it mean for his “Hippocratic Oath”?