Star Trek: Into Darkness

In the interest of full disclosure, let me preface this review/discussion with some back ground. I love Star Trek. I’ve been a fan for almost my entire life. I was raised on re-runs of TOS and was there to see TNG hit the airwaves live at the ripe age of 8, and have been watching reruns of that for many years as well. I was into DS9, up until the dominion war got hot and heavy and I was left bored with that whole story line in all honesty. Voyager had promise, but I felt they squandered it for the sake of pure soap opera in space plot lines. And Enterprise will not be mentioned here. I love Bakula, and none of it was his fault, but that was a total travesty of a show that should never have been associated with Trek. I still consider myself a Trekkie and as Weird all so poignantly put it, “Only question I ever thought was hard Was do I like Kirk or do I like Picard?” I consider myself a Trekkie and eschew the term Trekker with extreme prejudice. If you like it, I won’t hold it against you, as that would be highly illogical and counter productive.

So when the reboot came out, I was on geeky pins and needles, tripping between possible elation and bitter despair. I needn’t have worried, because the first reboot was great gobs of snarky fun. Did it have problems? Are you kidding? It’s a Trek movie, of course it has problems, but that’s half the fun with Trek. It also had that fun, exploring a new world concept, even if the world was just the divergence from one we already knew.

Coming into the second re-boot, I avoided pretty much all of the online discussions and articles and just stuck to watching the trailers. As Sherlock fan, I squeed at Cumberbatch being in the movie. So I went into the movie not knowing exactly what to expect but being mildly apprehensive. I also had the distinct advantage of going to a double feature with friends, so I got to watch the first and second re-boot back to back.

*Warning! If you have not seen it, SPOILERS ahead!*

I will not go into a plot run down because I find them a tedious waste of time. If you saw it, I need not explain how the whole thing goes down, you already know. Over all, I liked it a lot. It was fast and funny and that forgives a great number of flaws in movies, books and TV. It kept me entertained for the most part, though there were some cringe worthy points that I will get to later. The lens flairs were kept to a minimum this go around, and while it might not seem like it, just watch the first one again and gape anew at the total opacity of whole scenes due to lens flare. One of the things I really, REALLY hate about the re-boots in the engine room. I don’t know why there are huge water tubes, vats of nuclear waste and wide open spaces in a fairly small vessel that would have been built with spacial economy in mind. That bugs the ever loving crap out of me every time I see it. Sorry, just had to get that out of my system.

So let’s dig into the meat of this movie shall we? The real conversation? Khan Noonien Singh. The biggest bad ass and bad guy of TOS. Or was he? I am in a unique situation to view this movie, as I am currently going through the Original Series on Netflix along with the and we have recently seen ‘Space Seed’. This is the first appearance of Khan and while he was pretty cool, he wasn’t the man we think of him as being today. In this episode, he was just a man, a very intelligent, manipulative, genetically engineered man who almost took over the Enterprise, but not the man we meet later in the Wrath of Khan. If anything, he was pretty mild mannered and seemed pleased to be given a whole world to tame at the end of said episode.




But we don’t remember this man, we remember this man.



But this is an unfair comparison. This is not the man the re-boot cast is facing. And while I admit a certain amount of discomfort at Khan being in the second movie of the re-boot series, it wasn’t a problem for me until they started to try to mirror the Wrath of Khan in the latter half of the movie. Up until that point, Cumberbatch played Khan beautifully. He was cunning, manipulative, brilliant and self assured. This is the Khan of Space Seed, the Khan that makes sense to see at this point in the time line.

And let’s talk about the whole ‘race’ thing for just a second, because I know this caused quite the tempest among some fans. There were rumors of casting a Latino actor to play Khan and that confuses me to no end. Khan is not Hispanic. He *might* be from northern India, but that was just a guess on Uhura’s part in ‘Space Seed’, and while I’m guessing she’s right, still, a Latino guy int he role makes no sense. I could see it being an English guy though. India was colonized by the British and still has British people living there, so the idea of Khan being British is fine by me. I would have preferred an Indian guy myself, they do exist, like the guy from Heroes, but I can stretch it for Cumberbatch. He did an amazing job of playing Khan. He was scary in a very subtle way, making you want him to be good and decent when you know darn well he isn’t. He slices and dices Klingons like a boss and that voice gives him a presence of leashed fury that Montalban had in the movie, but not in the series.

What I think happened here is that we’ve all retconned Khan into being the same man in ‘Space Seed’ that he later became in Wrath, but he wasn’t. And I think this movie made the same mistake. They never should have tried to recreate the Wrath of Khan this early in the new timeline, some 15 years earlier or more, than in the original timeline. That’s when I started to cringe, and Spock yelling Khan’s name made me squirm. I can only compare it to the hideous howl of Vader in the third Star Wars movie, the one everyone makes fun of so frequently and with perfect justification. This is the same thing for me and for that one scene, I am ashamed of my fandom.

 

The softer side of Dragoncon.

I’ve been to a number of conventions, anime conventions, small SciFi cons, a gaming con or two and last year I went to Montreal Comicon. This was my first Dragon*Con and it really was unlike any other I’ve ever been to. It had its similarities, as all fan conventions do, but it was also quite different. Everyone knows it’s huge, filling five downtown Atlanta hotels to the brim, pretty much every other hotel in walking range and there are attendees scattered all over the city, from those who live in the area or stay with friends, to those who choose to stay in hotels farther away but accessible via the MARTA system. In 2012 52k people came to the con and this year, I was told by a staffer that they expected 60-65k. It sure felt like they hit that number on Saturday.

In terms of sheer size, it’s one of the biggest fan conventions in the world. I won’t lie, I’m not fond of large crowds. I don’t like going to concerts unless they are classical in nature, I don’t go to crowded bars, I avoid large parties, hate sporting events and try to stay home on Black Friday. And yet I went to Dragon*Con and loved it. I’m hoping to go back again next year, and someday want to be there as an author on a panel. (squee!) So how can someone so against crowds love this event? Well, I avoid the big stuff for the most part, and stick to the smaller panels. Not because I’m trying to avoid crowds, but because this con is so big that it has a ton of panels and many of them are pretty specific and niche. I spent most of my time in these smaller panels because these were the things that interested me the most, and it was like being at a small convention until you went outside to swim upstream like a spawning salmon to your next panel. We went to a few big ones, cast panels for the Walking Dead and BSG, which were in big ballrooms and had hour long lines. And there are plenty of those to be had. What you hear about Dragon*Con is how big it is, how crazy the costumes are, that there’s a big parade and huge parties every night. This is all true, but there’s a softer, quieter side to the con that few talk about. Not because it’s bad, but because it IS quiet and no one thinks that’s exciting. Unless, like a lot of us geeky people, you’re an introvert. You could easily spend the con going from one giant crowd of fans to another, hit the big dances and parties and have a blast if that’s your thing.

If it’s not, you can have just as much fun on the softer side and never run out of things to do. This is the first convention I’ve been to that had me booked almost all day in one panel after another. We would get up at 7:30, get breakfast at the food court and be in the first set of panels for the day at 10am and not stop until the last panel at 10pm. I went to panels like ‘Magic and Mayhem: Witches in Urban Fantasy’, ‘Space Opera Then, Military SciFi Now’, ‘Down and Dirty Marketing for Authors’ and ‘Dragon Sex!’. Yes, Dragon Sex!. Let me explain that or this is going to turn into a very different blog. Dragon Sex! is a panel about the dragons of Pern from Anne McCaffrey’s best selling series. Apparently this panel started many years ago to answer questions for authors of fan fiction who submitted their work to fanzines. Yeah, remember those? While fanzines didn’t last, this panel did. You can ask anything you want about dragons mating and how their riders are affected and I mean anything. There was a discussion on green riders and who they had sex with, if you know what I mean. It’s held on Saturday night at 10pm and was the single funniest and most entertaining panel we saw.

And that’s one of the things that makes Dragon*Con so different from the other cons I’ve been to. It’s run by fans and doesn’t have corporate sponsors, unlike all the other big ones. Nothing against the sponsored cons, those are great too, but that does change the atmosphere a bit. The fans who run this shindig get to pick what panels to present, who’s on them and what to talk about. There are no outside sponsors to think about, no need to get approval or worry about offending the sponsors, or the sponsors customers. And Dragon*Con doesn’t court guests, guests court Dragon*Con. If you are famous in the genre as an author, actor, artist etc, you apply to be a guest. Dragon*Con wants guests who want to be there, not people who have to be there. (Apparently, George R.R. Martin will never attend because he hates it.) And the guests who come are also fans. I’ve never seen so many ‘guests’ at a con in all my life, from those who are known by a few fans to the very recognizable, they are all there. Again, without corporate sponsorship, Dragon*Con can have everyone and anyone who wants to be there, and a lot of people want to be there.

If you have ever thought of going, but are put off by the con’s size, give it another look. Yes, Saturday is a crush, but only in the halls, and 90% of the people there are awesome. My husband and I sat next to a random con goer for lunch in the food court, ended up chatting with him the whole meal, as with any other con you’ve ever been to. It’s a giant club and everyone there is into what you are on some level. But be warned, getting a hotel can be hard..

 

Gluten Free Hazelnut Meringue Ganache cookies

I’ve been playing with this meringue for the last month now and I just keep making it. I originally found it as part of a cake recipe that I made and was struck by how good the meringue was all by itself. Frankly, the cake was a bit of a pain in the butt to make and I did it twice. The cookies are much easier and can be eaten alone, or with a decadent ganache filling! Bonus, this is a low sugar recipe and each cookie sandwich is only 200 cals. Win, win and win!

The only drawback to these is that they are time consuming, so plan accordingly. Better to make them the day before you want them and on a day when you won’t need your oven. The meringue will sit in there for 3 hours, but they will not need any attention other than turning the oven off once. Still worth it!

Ingredients:

Meringue:
1 Cup Hazelnuts, roasted (I bought them raw and roasted them myself the day I made this.)
1 Tablespoon coconut flour
1/3 Cup Truvia baking blend (or 1 Cup regular sugar)
4 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt if using unsalted nuts

Ganache:
1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
6 oz unsweetened baking chocolate chopped
1/3 Cup Truvia baking blend (or 2/3 to 1 Cup regular sugar)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 oz Frangelico (I used one little sample bottle, like you get in hotel mini bars)

Parchment paper, jar cover, marker and a 2 greased cookie sheets

Undress your nuts (take the dark brown papery cover off of them) and put them in a food processor. Process until it looks like corn meal.

Add to it 1/2 of the sugar, the coconut flour and salt. Pulse once or twice just to get it all mixed up.

On the parchment paper, draw circles with the market and a jar top. My jar top was just over 2.5 inches across and I got 24 meringue wafers, which is what I based my calorie count on. You can make them as big or as little as you want really, but the larger ones are more fragile. Basically, you want a generous inch of uncooked meringue thickness or the cookies will just fall apart on you. Put this sheet INK DOWN on the greased cookie sheet. You want there to be enough butter on the sheet to hold the parchment paper down. I had to use two cookie sheets.

Combine the egg whites and cream of tartar. Now whip the snot out the egg whites! Okay, maybe just whip them to soft peaks, then add the other half of the sugar and THEN whip the snot out of them! Once they get firm peaks, fold in the nut mixture, until fully incorporated.

Preheat the oven to 250. Spread the meringue on the cookie sheet in the little circles. Try to keep the thickness about even through the whole cookie and between the cookies. These do not spread out like regular cookies, so if you want even cookies at the end, they need to be even in the beginning. Put these in the oven, preferably on the same rack, and bake for 90 minutes. At the end of 90min, turn the oven off and leave them in there for another 90min. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN FOR THIS 3 HOURS! Apparently, the world will end if you do, so just don’t. It is written.

After three hours, take them out and let them cool for 20-30 min before you mess with them. Now to the ganache!

Chop up the chocolate and put in a mixing bowl. In a small sauce pan, combine heavy whipping cream, sugar and vanilla. Slowly heat to a boil, stirring to keep from scalding the cream. Pour the heated cream over the chocolate, stir with a spatula and let sit for 10 min. Using the paddle, mix the chocolate until smooth, then either let it sit until it cools, or put it, paddle and all, in the fridge for 10-15min to cool. Pull it out and mix on medium or so until it starts to thicken. Lower the speed and slowly add the 2oz/small bottle of Frangelico. Otherwise, you will wear the Frangelico. (Yes, I’ve done that before, but it was years ago. Mostly.)

While the ganache is chilling or mixing (it has a better social life than I do), pour your meringue a drink! Peel the cookies off the parchment paper and brush the bottoms with more Frangelico or chocolate liquor. I used creme de cacao because I only had the little bottle of Frangelico and it went in the ganache. YUM! This adds moisture and flavor. While awesome, the meringue cookies can be a little dry, so this helps.

Don’t let the ganache get too thick or you’ll break the cookies trying to spead it. If it is too thick, just put the bottom of the bowl in warm water to melt it back down again. I try for the consistency of greek yogurt. It will thicken as it sits, but should smooth out if you just mix it for a few seconds again. Put a dollop on a cookie, spead, and add another cookie. You should have too much ganache unless you go nuts with it, so don’t be stingy, but the chocolate is powerful. Try a blob of this stuff in a cup of coffee when you’re done cooking. Mocha delight!

Voila! Cookies sandwiches! I put these in the fridge overnight to get them set, then took them out the next day to warm.