We’ve made it through the first week of February which means we are closing in on one of the most important holidays on the calendar—The Mrs’ birthday! I can’t say anything else on that topic at the moment, as someone is very sneaky and likes to try and spoil surprises even though she likes them.

Speaking of things I’m not going to talk about, I did something today. I’m hoping for the best, but I do not want to jinx it so I won’t go into any more detail until later (hopefully).

What the Hell? Is he going to talk about anything this week? Of course. I had a great time at Akronomicon over the weekend. The trip down to Akron wasn’t too bad. It’s close enough that it was only an overnight trip—drive down and set up on Friday, show on Saturday, then break down, pack up, and drive home. While it was bitter cold, the weather wasn’t awful. With the exception of Friday night. I went out with a few of the other vendors (Peggy Christie and David Hayes among them) for dinner. It was nice when we went in, but by the time dinner was over the snow was coming in sideways. I white knuckled it back to the hotel and was happy to go in and get warm. I went out the next morning to find that there was absolutely no new snow on the car.

Which meant that the snow stopped the moment I got into the hotel.

Fucking Ohio.

Listening To: The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. It’s a little similar to There is No Antimemtics Division but with more math and potential incursions from extra-dimensional beings.

Currently Reading: Upcoming DRP publications. Stay tuned for more.

Current Obsession: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. See below.

Now that we are back from Ohio we get to enjoy a weekend at home without any public appearances. As mentioned in the previous weeks, we will be at the Historic Howell Theater for Gator Bait. The following weekend (the last weekend of February) we will be in Pittsburgh for Horror Realm.

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Thursday, 12 February you can tune in to Otherworldly Culture to hear my review of Together just in time for Valentine’s Day.

In other publishing news, I’ll be taking on more responsibilities with our publishing partner Splatter Theatre Press.

I’ve been a Trek fan for a long time. I used to watch reruns of TOS on channel 50 in Detroit every week. I even had the never seen on screen until Lower Decks helmet. I spent an entire day at the Star Trek Experience when it was still open in Vegas. I visited the traveling exhibit a couple of times. Hell, I have even sat on the bridge of the NCC-1701 and NCC-1701-D.

I was extremely excited when Next Generation hit the airwaves in 1987. I’ve been hit or miss with some of the other (loved DS9, not a fan of Voyager, never got into Enterprise). Since the launch of the many new series, I’ve been leery of tuning in.

As I may have mentioned before, I thoroughly enjoyed Lower Decks. I recently decided to dive into Strange New Worlds. So far it is pretty enjoyable. It is interesting to see the crew before TOS. I also find the idea of Pike knowing his fate and having to deal with that knowledge an interesting plot point. It will be interesting to see how they tie things into what we know will happen.

I am most of the way through Season Two. While I am enjoying the show, I have noticed that the writers are relying on some old Start Trek standbys. We’ve had multiple time travel episodes. I will admit that I did love the Lower Decks cross-over. We have had the Spock must deal with his emotions episodes.

“Under the Cloak of War” (which I have on in the background) deals with the trauma of war much better than Kirk’s reaction to the Klingons or Picard’s anger at the Borg in the movies.

But the real question is what the hell happened to the Gorn? We all know how much I love the Alien films, but did we have to turn the Gorn into Xenomorph clones? I don’t know. That’s just weird.

So, what are your thoughts on this series. What should I move on to next? Discovery? Starfleet Academy? Picard?

Want an amusing side note? When I did a quick search of Star Trek shows to include in the previous paragraph, the seventh title listed is The Orville.