u/JustinCaseyBlewit

The lawsuit and the ownership of the name Styx are discussed in this video.

After the underwhelming S4 of SNW, I've started a rewatch of Season 1. Two episodes in, I am reminded of the promise this show began with and how awesome it was to have a TOS prequel. But this isn't a sad post--a "too bad it all went bad" whine--just a celebration of what Star Trek is and what it can be.

The first episode, "Strange New Worlds" updates some Star Trek tropes such as Pike lecturing an alien civilization about how Earth has overcome its violent past and, if the other civilization wants to survive, they can join the Federation, too. We are also treated to a Vulcan near-sex scene, and some other stuff. It's a good introduction to the series and the cast, but not a great one.

The second one, "Children of the Comet" kicks things into full gear. Cadet Uhura is our main character, and she must overcome a lot of self-doubt to save the day--classic Trek stuff. The Enterprise also encounters an alien race of zealots who don't want their comet icon tampered with. Pike and crew do some sleight of hand and eat crow to avoid war and to save a planet from destruction. Classic TNG tropes.

And there's the crew. Pike is more laid back than the captains we are used to, but I never felt he didn't know what he was doing or was too lax. Number One, Ortegas, La'An, and Spock are well-delineated and come across as competent Starfleet officers. Sam Kirk less so. I guess they have to reduce him to a clown to make way for his ultra-competent brother. Chapel flirts with Spock but has little else to do, and M'Benga does not appear at all. Hemmer has a great introductory scene with Uhura, which foreshadows their eventual mentor-mentee relationship.

These two episodes build off of the established Trek traditions and update what arguably needs to be updated. There's a sequence in the second episode in which Spock flies a shuttlecraft through an asteroid field as one would navigate through a video game. And the sets are much too modern to believably tie in to TOS. The science is also suspect. I'm still not sure why Spock flew the shuttlecraft into the rocks to divert the main asteroid's path, but never mind. Star Trek has never been about the science. It has been about the Enterprise crew solving problems, saving lives, being respectful to alien cultures, and knowing when to kick ass.

I've very much enjoyed these rewatches. They rekindle my interest in what Star Trek can be. If you've rewatched SNW S1 recently, or even if you haven't seen it in a while, what are your thoughts?

When discussions about Styx and its musical direction come up, the conversation always focuses on Dennis, Tommy, and JY. Missing from the equation are Chuck and John, who were part of Styx from way before it was called Styx. They and Dennis founded the Tradewinds, which became TW4 and then TW5 before finalizing the name to Styx. Yet both appear to have been silent in band matters.

I recall a Rockline interview around the time of Kilroy Was Here in which the question was put to Chuck about his input. He said all he ever wanted to be was a bass player in a rock band, and he was satisfied with that.

Chuck and John were not credited as writers on any Styx songs that I'm aware of, yet they must have played a role in shaping the songs and the Styx sound. This makes me wonder if they'd ever spoken further on their roles in Styx or if Chuck addressed them in his autobiography (which is quite expensive on Amazon and not available on Kindle).

Thoughts?

I know the album came out over a year ago, but I recently bought it, and I'm starting my fourth listen. Four hearings in a row tells me I quite like it and haven't got tired of it yet. Further, I'm finding depth in the lyrics as I go.

Some of the lyrics are banal, such as Tommy's "Blue Eyed Raven" (which I think should be called "Gypsy Woman"). But other songs are unified by the theme of reaching for dreams, encountering obstacles, and looking for easy solutions such as AI ("Build and Destroy") or becoming a maniac ("The Things That You Said"). The songs tell a unified story that feels wholly relevant to our current times.

"She Knows" is about finding hope and courage from the love of an understanding woman. It reminded me of "She Cares" from Paradise Theater and "Inspiration" from Tommy's solo effort 7 Deadly Zens. "She Knows," however, was written by Will. It also evokes "Yes I Can" from Cyclorama.

The album then leaves us with the plaintive declaration that only we can choose what to do next. The closing song "Only You Can Decide," also by Tommy, is stark in its beauty and clear in his final message to the listener: "Don't be another one your age reaching for a gun."

This is clearly a Tommy-led effort, but it also feels like a more cohesive group project than Brave New World or Cyclorama. All of the songs are credited to Shaw, Gowan, and Evankovich in different combinations or solo, and they blend together well.

My favorite cuts are "It's Clear" (which I think should have been a single), and "We Lost the Wheel Again," which is credited only to Will. Is that him on lead vocal? It doesn't sound like Tommy or Lawrence. The way he emphasizes the "n" on "again" is distinctive.

JY's songwriting contributions are absent, as has been noted elsewhere, and his only lead vocal is on part of "King of Love" (Tommy takes the other part, their voices providing an effective contrast). Although Styx loses something from him stepping back, it gains a lot. Best known as a five-piece band, Styx has seamlessly grown into a seven-piece with everyone pulling his weight. This is shown in Evankovich's production. Each instrument is distinct, allowing everyone to shine.

Circling From Above sounds like a Styx album albeit a mature and polished one. It has been criticized for sounding like Pink Floyd and other bands. That may be true to an extent. but if I heard these songs on the radio (I wish!), I would have no doubt they were Styx songs. The band maintains its sonic trademarks--the bombast, the show tune elements, the hard rock guitars, and the harmony vocals--but it has grown in an unexpected and interesting direction. Few legacy bands continue to make new music or change with the times.

I know there was a review thread a year ago. Opinion seemed to be evenly divided among the few posters: Some loved it, and others hated it. If you listened to the album before, have your thoughts changed? If you are also discovering it now, what is your reaction?

When band members have spoken it (which hasn't been very often), I hear it as "Sir-Lesky" or "Sir-Levsky." Is this how John pronounced it, or was it something else?

I'm about halfway through watching this video and find it fascinating how a historian reacts to DA. One takeaway so for: The relationships between the aristocracy and their servants is portrayed as more chummy than it would have been. Thoughts?

At first, I didn't like "Planes" because it was too maudlin and sentimental, but after repeated listenings, it has grown on me. It sounds loosely autobiographical. In narrating the story about the boy in the song, Paul sings, "His mother didn't want him, and his father was always working." Jet aircraft, the song implies, became the boy's escape from an unhappy childhood.

In reality, Paul's mother died when he was about six years old. His father was a traveling salesman who placed Paul in a military boarding school, where Paul essentially grew up. One fact of his life that has always stood out to me: Instead of being allowed to attend his mother's funeral, Paul was sent to the circus. I'm just guessing, but I imagine that such an experience would have circumvented his ability to process grief. He didn't have a chance to say goodbye to his mother.

At the end of the song, Paul reveals that the "little boy" met a "little girl." They created "another little boy" and gave him a loving home the main character never had. It almost sounds too cloying and maudlin, but Paul was never subtle in his lyrics.

I've always wondered how much of this story is based on Paul's real experiences. Does anyone know if he ever commented on the song and its meaning?

A video that provides the historical context of the week before Star Trek premiered including political events, TV shows, music, and sports.

I was going to use this post to express how Star Trek's 60th anniversary doesn't feel like an anniversary due to the cancellation of Starfleet Academy and the bizarre transformation of Strange New Worlds into self-parody. But, rather than dwell on the negative, I decided to look at it from a broader perspective: It's a miracle that we have a Star Trek to celebrate at all.

Six decades is a remarkable duration for any franchise, and there was a time when even a 10th anniversary appeared unlikely. The original series fell on the network chopping block after only three seasons, yet it grew a following in reruns. That following led to movies, TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. A Star Trek series was on the air every year for an incredible 18 years (1987-2005), transforming a once forgotten TV show into a franchise of interconnected series with a more-or-less stable chronology. Star Trek, as future history, felt "real" to many fans because each series belonged to a greater whole.

When it looked like the franchise had run out of steam in 2005, it rested for a few years, and then was rebooted with the Kelvin timeline: new actors playing old roles and with the timeline starting from scratch. Leonard Nimoy guested to give the new version a warm hand-off. While subsequent movies didn't live up to expectations (mine, at least), something curious happened. Paramount realized there was still interest in Star Trek and especially in the original timeline (now dubbed the "Prime" timeline). So, we got Discovery, Picard (the series) Lower Decks, Prodigy, Strange New Words, and Starfleet Academy. Each met with some fan resistance (and often outright hostility), but each tried to advance the Star Trek universe in new ways. Most importantly, they kept the franchise alive for a solid decade (2017-2027, if the final seasons of SNW and SFA air next year). This is no small achievement in the era of memes and short attention spans.

So, on September 8 (U.S. premiere date), I will raise a toast to Star Trek. The franchise is not currently where I wish it would be, and I have no idea what Paramount's plans are (I tend to avoid advance releases so as not to prejudge shows). But I am grateful we have a Star Trek franchise to celebrate. The series has changed the world by promoting a positive view of the future. Star Trek items, characters, and dialogue have become part of the culture. In 1976, during the 10th anniversary (and around the time I discovered ST), Star Trek was a fringe interest mocked by adults and teens who didn't understand it and who thought the show with the pointy-eared guy was silly.

We've come a long way, Star Trek. Happy Anniversary, and here's to the future.

So, I've been listening to this album for the first time in many years. My initial thought was that it's better than I remembered it, but it also feels like the band was struggling to figure out what Jefferson Airplane should be in 1989. There are the usual songs from Paul, Grace, and Marty, and Jorma contributes three songs (which all sound like they would be more at home on a Hot Tuna album). The LP is a mishmash of different styles and genres without a clear direction.

"Planes," written by Paul, was released as a single, but I don't think it was the best choice. "Now is the Time" is much more memorable and features lead vocals from Grace and Marty. I think it would have fit quite well on 1989 radio.

Two other songs were released as singles. "Summer of Love," Marty's sentimental ode to 1967, is fine for what it is, but middle-aged people looking back at their glory days probably didn't play well with listeners at the time. The third single, "True Love," was written by members of Toto and sounds like it. It's memorable only for Marty's passionate vocals.

Paul delivers a couple of anthem rockers in "Madelaine Street" and "The Wheel" (which I think should have been called "One World") to celebrate his recent trip to Nicaragua, which rekindled his revolutionary spirit. Marty's "Solidarity" is another song along these lines. Grace tries hard to be relevant with "Panda," but it comes across as cloying. She's much more successful with "Freedom," which explores the uncertainty and loneliness of growing. It reminds me of "Hyperdrive" from Dragon Fly.

Reunion albums are usually a waste of everyone's time, and while this one is not, it does show a common problem with such efforts. Everybody had spent 17 years growing in different directions, and it was hard to rekindle that common spark they had in their 20s. I'm enjoying the album, but it feels like a compilation of different artists.

What are your thoughts on the album?

Star Trek fans seem to be divided on the importance of canon--the idea that something established in previous episodes cannot be contradicted. Some fans take this to extremes--blasting SNW for Kirk stating he was a Boy Scout when Carol Marcus had said he wasn't. Other fans don't care about canon at all. They want a good story, and to heck with everything matching up.

I personally like canon, but I don't niggle over it. The Boy Scout comment did not bother me, and I'm fine with Klingons looking different from one series to the next. However, I find it harder to accept a Scotty who is younger than Kirk and Spock or Chapel knowing T'Pring when she did not know who she was in "Amok Time." A prequel is either a prequel or it isn't. Some things should be consistent.

What is your take on canon?