The classic US stereotype of attempted Iranian ideological indoctrination via chants of Death to America and such has been old hat for quite some time. As noted. Editorial 1. Big Picture Takeaways From The Star Trek Discovery Trailer Trek. Movie. com. The new Star Trek Discovery trailer has been with us for a few days now. Weve already done our deep dive analysis, a podcast, and reported on fan and media reactions, and we plan to do even more closer looks at different aspects of it in the future. But today I wanted to take step back from the trees and take a look at the forest. This trailer is a big moment as the first look at what is the return of Star Trek to its natural home on television. Hi-Def Me And My Shadow Movie' title='Hi-Def Me And My Shadow Movie' />There are some big picture takeaways to be had, so here, in no specific order, are 1. Discovery. 1. This is definitely the Michael Burnham show. Its long been known that Sonequa Martin Green is the lead in the new series, playing first officer Michael Burnham. For all the talk about Klingons, uniforms and bridge consoles, this notion of having the someone besides the captain take center stage is really the biggest break in Star Trek tradition. Star Trek Discovery actually has two captains Michelle Yeohs Captain Georgiou and Jason Isaacs Captain Lorca, but this trailer really drove home the point that Martin Greens Michael Burnham is the emotional heart of the show. The trailer began and ended with her, and made it clear that shes the star. This non captain focus comes from executive producer Bryan Fuller, who was always interested in doing a Lower Decks take on Star Trek. Even though he stepped away from the show to focus on American Gods, this original vision remains itll be interesting to see if it perseveres in his absence. As a big fan of The West Wing I remember how it was envisioned as a lower decks take on the White House, where the character of the president was not the main focus. But over time, writers gravitated more and more to stories focused on the president, because of the draw of the office. Star Treks captain centric tradition and the draw of the power of the captains chair may prove hard to resist to future Discovery writers, who, like us, were raised on very Captain focused Trek. Some are speculating that the best way to keep Martin Green as the lead but also return to Trek tradition would be for her to assume command and get the chair for herself. The trailer even starts off with Georgiou telling Burnham that its time for her to get her own command, so perhaps her journey there is pre destined. But Im still rooting for Fullers lower decks concept, and hope the show spends some time exploring Burnham as the first officer. JJ Abrams has nothing everything to do with Discovery. This new Star Trek show is being produced by CBS Studios in conjunction with Alex Kurtzmans Secret Hideout Productions. J. J. Abrams, who produced the last three Star Trek films, has no involvement at all in this show, nor does Paramount Pictures or Abrams Bad Robot production company. That said, Abrams shadow hovers over the trailer. Many observers have come away assuming that this new show is somehow related to the Kelvin universe movies. Why Because not only does the trailer match the frenetic Abrams style yes, including lens flares but also the production design seems more Kelvin verse than original Star Trek. CBS is clear that this show is a prequel to the original Star Trek series TOS, is set specifically in the prime timeline, and has nothing to do with the Kelvin verse. So in terms of continuity, we wont be hearing about Nero and Ambassador Spock coming back in time, and the planet Vulcan is still in existence. However, CBS is clearly trying to leverage the success of the recent Star Trek films, which have sold tens of millions of tickets and in some ways made it possible for there to be a new series. The stylistic message here, as they reach out to new fans as well as old ones, seems to be if you liked those movies, you are going to like this too. Not your fathers or your grandmothers Klingons. When you first heard about how Klingons would feature prominently in the new show, maybe you said to yourself, Again with the Klingons Theyve been the go to aliens for Star Trek for decades and were shoehorned into almost all of the feature films. But watching the trailer made one thing clear these Klingons are different. Theres a lot of buzz about the look of new Klingons, and many fans are struggling to figure out how they fit in with others seen over the years, but lets face it Star Trek has a long history of making design changes to the Klingons, along with other races. In this trailer, the difference seems to be more than just cosmetic its not always about the foreheads. The Klingons on this sarcophagus ship led by TKuvma seem less like bloodthirsty warriors and more like a religious cult. It has been speculated that they may not even be what we consider contemporary of that era, but some kind of ancient Klingons. Star Trek has always reshaped the Klingons to reflect the timesthe real times of production, not just the in story timelines. In the 1. 96. 0s, they were villainous stand ins for the Soviet Cold War foes. When Star Trek The Next Generation arrived in the era of Glasnost, they were transformed into allies, and later fleshed out to be a sort of cross between Vikings and Samurai. Honor and family were their highest values, and they had the ability to connect with other cultures. So perhaps these Klingons, too, will reflect our current era. This time they will be morphed to fit with heightened international tensions, or could be there to reflect either the fight against fanatical ideologies or the determination of some to understand those who are so completely alien to us in their way of thinking. The new Star Trek Discovery trailer has been with us for a few days now. Weve already done our deepdive analysis, a podcast, and reported on fan and media. Are they enemies Are they misunderstood Will they understand our world A new spin on Klingons for a new era may just work. There is much yet to be Discovered. Even though a handful of episodes of Star Trek Discovery have been shot, it is pretty clear that all the footage in the trailer comes from the pilot. It is understandable that many viewers, especially fans who havent been reading up on every development, think the ship featured in it was the U. S. S. Discovery when it is actually the U. S. S. Shenzhou and that the captain on the show will be played by Michelle Yeoh. CBS doesnt seem to have a problem with creating this false impression for those who dont dive into the details on sites like this one. And CBS has made a conscious decision to hold back quite a bit, most notably not revealing the titular U. S. S. Discovery and much of its crew, including Captain Lorca Jason Isaacs. It is quite possible the Discovery doesnt feature prominently in the pilot, or maybe its not there at all. After a drought of essentially nothing it seems like a lot was revealed, but really, this trailer is just the tip of the Discovery iceberg. Burnham and Sarek have history. One of the ways the trailer indicated how much the focus is on Sonequa Martin Greens Burnham was by including two different exchanges she has with James Frains Sarek. It looks like Burnham and Sarek have a long relationship that goes back to her childhood. Sarek is the only main character that provides continuity from past Star Treks. As an Ambassador, he is an important part of the Federation, and could have a key role in any Star Trek show based on that alone. However, this may go deeper, as Sarek seems to be a sort of mentor to Burnham and can apparently dispense advice via hologram wherever she goes. The exact nature of their relationship still isnt clear. Did she grow up on Vulcan We dont know yet, but as someone who has known Sarek for decades, it makes sense that she might also know Sareks son Spock. So dont be surprised if you hear Spocks name get dropped on the show, and maybe they know each other and hell send his friend a subspace message. If nothing else, Michael and Spock can commiserate about how Sarek is so darned hard to please. They spent a lot of money on the pilot. Nine Days With an Absurd 9,0. Gaming Laptop. There may exist inside of you a desire that burns white hot for the Acer Predator 2. X, but you will never buy this laptop. It is not for you, because if you want this laptop, you probably cant afford it, and if you can afford it, you are probably old enough to not want to spend 9,0. But if youre reading Gizmodo youre still enough of a gadget fan to want to at least understand the 9,0. To that end, I spent nine days working almost exclusively with Acers ode to excess. Here is its story. Day 1 The arrival. Our office manager looked suspiciously from me to the box, which is the size of three ten year olds squeezed together. Its a laptop, I explained. While the office manager was incredulous, others were delighted. I want to sit in the box, a colleague shouted while snapping photos. Following the included instructions, I managed to open the gigantic cardboard boxas well as the nearly indestructible Pelican case contained within. Desiring nothing more than to game, I plopped the Predator 2. X on my knees as I would a Mac. Book. Fortunately, I used to bicycle a lot, so Ive got strong thighs that dont weep under the weight of 1. When I told inquisitive on lookers the price, they looked at me aghast. Why does a 9,0. 00 machine existI didnt have a good answer. So I pulled the trackpad out of its slot and showed people that it can be flipped over and used as a number pad. Everyone agreed that was very neat. The trick earned the computer its first wow unrelated to size or price. After an hour and ten minutes of use, the computer died. It was after 5pm, and I did not want to find outlets for the computers two two necessary power supplies, so I left it on a coworkers desk and went home. Day 2 Set up. When I got to the office, I finally found outlets for the the 2. Xs two 3. 30 watt power supplies and began to use the laptop in earnest. It comes with Tobii Eyetracking, but it didnt appear to be working. The Nvidia graphics drivers were out of date too. Nvidia Ge. Force unhelpfully uninstalled its drivers, and the computer broke for twenty minutes. I uninstalled everything with the Nvidia name. Reinstalled. Inexplicably, the eye tracking started working on the third restart. After three hours of futzing with drivers and settings, I got Rise of the Tomb Raider running. My coworkers crowded around the computer shouting their advice on how to walk in a straight line. Take a moment, remember when there was only one controller for the SNES at a slumber party. This moment was like that, but burlier. Yet there was exactly one coworker who did not care. She was the one who told me to mute the computer earlier when shed had enough of Windows notifications exploding from the computers four speakers and two subwoofers. Now she was irritated because the work day was over and people were peering at a laptop. Lets go get beer she bellowed. The horde agreed. I saved my game and closed the laptop. The battery was still not fully charged. Day 3 Making my way downtown, part 1You are taking this on the train. It was not a suggestion. My boss and I agreed that you couldnt review a laptop without testing its mobilityhow easy it was to pack up and move around. In the case of the Acer 2. X, it is a chore. Thanks to the gentle curve of the display, the lid does not sit flush, so the 1. The 2. 1 inch display might crack. So I packed it back up into the Pelican case and headed home an hour and a half early. No one questioned this. A woman offered to help me carry it down the second flight of stairs to the train, but I declined. I need to do this for myself, I said. On the train, everyone eyed me like you always eye the asshole with huge luggage on a rush hour train. It was only 4 4. Thursday, but the train filled up the closer to Brooklyn we got. When I arrived at my stop, I had to muscle my way to the door and pray the wheels on the case didnt roll over a foot. I am too delicate to be shouted at by cranky commuters. Off the train, I made it up one flight of stairs, a line of annoyed passengers forming behind me. A man wordlessly held out a hand and helped me up the second flight of stairs. New York is nicer than youd expect it to be. It is. 4 miles from the train station to my home. The sidewalks arent the smooth and clean ones of the Flatiron District. Theyre broken with concrete jutting up out of the ground. On the day I brought the Predator home, it had just rained, and while the streets were dry, puddles of brown, stagnant awful lay in a pedestrians path at every intersection. I lifted and dodged and hurried home. The shipping weight of the box is 7. Pelican case, power supplies, and 1. I was sure I was dragging all 7. The dog and cat were both alarmed by the monstrosity that took up residence in our living room. That night my roommate arrived home. She saw the computer on my lap and could not take her eyes off of it. Is it like. for army she asked. Her voice was a whisper, barely heard over the hum of the machine. No. It was not for army. Day 4 I cannot feel my toes. The journey home had clearly affected me. Like the best friend in an 1. I was plagued by a cough and a sniffle and a weakness of indeterminate origin. My only salve was the laptop. I found a place for its two plugs, settled it on my lap, and downloaded Mass Effect Andromeda. The machine did not like the internet in my home and it took an hour, three attempts to fix the internet, and one restart to download the game. The laptop rested on my thighs and destroyed all sensation below my knees. I cannot feel my toes, I texted a friend at 3 3. Playing the game on the 2. Xs keyboard and using its trackpad was a study in painful frustration. I couldnt get comfortable. The Cherry Brown mechanical key switches were nice, and the trackpad gave me zero issues, but the spacing between the keyboard and trackpad felt all wrong, especially when the computer was sitting in my lap. I finally gave up and found my Xbox One controller. Gaming was instantly more pleasant. Day 5 Never mind, everything hurts. I played Mass Effect for longer than I should admit in polite company, and at the very least the gaming performance is incredible. The dual Nvidia GTX 1. GB SSDs in a speedy RAID 0 configuration, plus the 6. GB of RAM and the Kaby Lake i. It had zero issues giving me 1. And with two Nvidia GTX 1. As long as the laptop was plugged in. Nina Downloading. After a very rare bathroom break I sat back down, balanced the computer across my lap and was startled to see the game had slowed to a crawl. I quit. Restarted. Played again. It was still slow. Then I realized the plugs had disconnected, and I was running on battery power. I plugged back in and balance was restored Until my controller started to randomly disconnect every few minutes. As if the computer knew Id been playing Mass Effect for 1. I got annoyed and powered off for the night. Day 6 Its hot in here. It was over 8. 0 degrees outside. The heat didnt bother me, until I balanced the computer on my knee. Then I was reminded of summers in Texas, my god daughter sitting in my lap, all sharp bones and sweat and a furnace that would rival whatever burns in your basement. The laptop is like a toddler I can put in a box at the end of the day. The discomfort grew too bothersome for me to ignore. I tried placing it on my secretary desk, but it was too bigtoo heavyto be supported. I eventually gave up and went and played Mass Effect on my regular PC. I immediately missed the expanded field of vision the 2. X afforded me. The 2. X. Moving to my 5. K TV should have meant everything would feel bigger, but while the assets rendered by the game were larger, the 1. Yet I continued to play, because I did not miss the heat, or the disconnects, or the crushing weight of capitalism on my thighs. Day 7 A day of rest. I sat on the couch, and worked hard at my job, and I used the 2. X as a stand to hold my phone. It was better this way. Day 8 Making my way downtown, part 2. My dog has a fear of packed bags.