TNG – BALD JASON'S GAY GOTH BOY BLOG

Sunday and Monday I watched more television. I also had my teeth cleaned. The above image is of me in my dentist’s office at 827 11th Avenue in Manhattan. I slept well the night before and dreamed of Lestat, which I caught up on the day before and I’ve come to the conclusion that I love it. I also caught up on X-Men ’97, continued where I left off with X-Men: The Animated Series and watched 2 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation with Aaron.

Here’s what I watched:

Star Trek: The Next Generation S03E06 Booby Trap
Star Trek: The Next Generation S03E07 The Enemy

X-Men S03E08 Savage Land, Strange Heart – Part 1
X-Men S03E09 Savage Land, Strange Heart – Part 2
X-Men ’97 S02E03 Rise of Apocalypse – Part 1

The Vampire Lestat S01E04 The Devil’s Road
The Vampire Lestat S01E05 New York

TNG S03E06 “Booby Trap”. I had remembered this episode as a bit cringey as Geordie LaForge stumbles in love and forms an odd and nearly romantic relationship with a hologram, but I remembered nothing of the rest of the episode. Aaron said the same thing and we were entertained by the episode. It marks the first appearances of Julie Warner as Christy Henshaw and Susan Gibney as the holographic (and later real world) version of Dr. Leah Brahms; Gibney also later portrays Commander / Captain Erika Benteen in 2 episodes of DS9.

I always remember TNG S03E07 “The Enemy” as an episode that my sister Janice saw before I did, and how she spoke of it. The episode marks the first appearance of Andreas Katsulas as Tomalak, who later returns in the role at least twice, though they’re not really him, per say, if I remember correctly, one being an illusion and another being an alternate future take. Both of these episodes feature Colm Meaney as Miles O’Brien. It’s nice to see the recurring cast start to come together here and Season 3 really does feel like where the series starts to gel. And while that’s the common wisdom among fans, in retrospect, its insane that it took more than 50 episodes for the series to really get reliably good, especially since most of the series of the current era ever reach that number of episodes at all, with only Lower Decks and Discovery making 50 or more; Lower Decks ended with 50 while Discovery ended with 65.

The X-Men episodes, the “Savage Land, Strange Heart” 2-part story is unlikely to be anyone’s favorite, but I thought some of the writing was really clever (“Who died and made you Cyclops?”) and I appreciated the explanation of Sauron’s origin. I just don’t care about the Savage Land in general.

The X-Men ’97 episode continues the winning streak of this series. I’ve never X-Men stories featuring Apocalypse, so I’ve been dreading this new season, but so far I’ve loved all of it. If it were only Apocalypse, I’d probably be bored, but the thing about X-Men ’97 is that it feels like the big payoff for all the stories that came in the previous Animated Series – with fewer episodes, they don’t seem to hold anything back, and it’s all the better for it.

The Vampire Lestat episodes really knocked it out of the park for me. Things that I doubted about the season came into focus, both with the parts that were adapted from various Anne Rice novels, and others that are wholly original to this interpretation of the material. Very impressive. This season, and the series as a whole is probably best in a binge model vs. a weekly layout. I believe the Immortal Universe shows play out like this:

01 Interview with the Vampire Season 1: Part I
02 Interview with the Vampire Season 2: Part II
03 Mayfair Witches Season 1
04 Mayfair Witches Season 2
05 Mayfair Witches Season 3 ?
06 Talamasca: The Secret Order
07 Interview with the Vampire Season 3: The Vampire Lestat

The present day scenes in the first 2 seasons of Interview seem to be set over 11 days in 2022, ending shortly after the publication of the book in 2023. Season 2 of Mayfair Witches references the publication of the book and features a guest spot by a vampire introduced in Season 2 of Interview. Talamasca is set after the publication of the book with guest spots by a few characters; a later episode may feature a Lestat tune. Season 3, The Vampire Lestat seems to be set 2025.

Having said all of that, the only series I can wholeheartedly recommend is Interview / Lestat. Talamasca comes close to being very good at times but never quite arrives IMO, and from what I’ve seen of Mayfair Witches, it is a horrible adaptation of The Lives of the Mayfair Witches series (which are my favorite Anne Rice books, along with “Cry to Heaven”) and the series also features some truly dreadful “acting”. I may go back to it at some point, just so I can say I saw everything.

Today’s journal title song quote is from “All Fall Down”, theme from “The Vampire Lestat”, performed by Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt.

I’m trying to stay awake. I have stuff that I need / want to do that involves use of the TV, which Aaron uses on the weekends and evenings when he’s home, almost constantly. He plays a lot of video games and watches a lot of stuff to unwind. I could have used a smaller monitor but I haven’t wanted to. Plus, if the mood hits me, it’s easier for me to write when there aren’t a lot of distractions.

We had a good Saturday. We went to the NYC Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. It was our second visit; we’re members so we’re trying to go more often. I made the plans, which Aaron thanked me for. It was relaxing, fun and so very chill. We hold hands just about everywhere that we go but it has felt even more special of late given all the shit going on in our fucked up country. We went to the Orchid Show, which involved us being herded through a confined green house space, but everyone inside was lovely – except the people that worked there, who were needlessly rude, which everyone commented on. Later we walked around a bit then headed home. We didn’t try to see everything because, again, we plan on going more often.

When we got home we continued our “Re-Trek”. A couple of years ago now, we started watching all of Star Trek together in chronological order. We booked through Enterprise, Discovery and what exists of Strange New Worlds and we made short work of everything up to Star Trek: The Next Generation, but we’ve been dragging our feet for awhile now. Today we watched S03E03 “The Survivors”, which I don’t think I’d seen since it first aired in 1989. There was much that I didn’t remember, but I knew how it ended; likely because this story is retold a few times in Trek. I also remembered that Anne Ryan Haney played a character in it, though I wouldn’t have been able to tell you the actor’s name; I did know that it was the same actor from DS9’s “Dax” & the film “Mrs. Doubtfire”, both of which I love. The episode was okay. I’m much more familiar with the latter half of this season of TNG because I had everything from S03E13 “Deja Q” through Season 6 (?) recorded on VHS and I watched my favorite episodes multiple times. There are a couple of stories in Season 7 that I don’t think I’ve seen more than once or twice though, and not in decades.

I have mix playing which includes “In This Twilight” by Nine Inch Nails. I’ve always loved this song. When it was new I printed up the lyrics and included them in a collage (because, when I don’t I make collages?) – they were placed on my bedroom ceiling right above where I would lay my head.

Tag: TNG

“I’m a Lonely One”

“Remind Me What It Feels Like”