Articles & Miscellaneous

Content Listing

Jammer's Blog

  • I also post (and cross-post) articles at Jammer's Blog. Topics include non-Trek television, movies, pop culture, and things that either interest or annoy me. Articles are sometimes posted here, and sometimes in the blog. It do what it do.

Essays, Columns, Features

  • 1/24/1995. Trek's Musical Problems — Music on Star Trek in the mid-1990s was too muted for my tastes. Here's some venting on the subject. (Originally posted on rec.arts.startrek.current)
  • 12/23/1996. Viacom's Web Assault — One of my early rants about copyright issues, when Viacom was shutting down certain fan site. They never shut me down, though. So HA!
  • 2/3/1997. Clarity Needed in Viacom-Induced Web Mess — A followup post to "Viacom's Web Assault." Like with the FCC, it would be nice to know ahead of time what's permissible and what's not, but what ya gonna do?
  • 12/8/1997. Four Series and the Trek Ideology — An in-depth look at the Star Trek ideals and success as conceived through four different Star Trek series. Warning: Written for a general non-Trek audience.
  • 2/21/1999. A Tribute to Gene Siskel (1946-1999) — Remembering a man who, along with the indispensible Roger Ebert, helped bring film criticism to the mainstream of America.
  • 8/10/1999. The Franchise's Future — My segment of a multi-writer series, with some thoughts on what lies ahead in Trek's future. (Originally published at TrekNation.com)
  • 3/7/2000. Five Years on the Web — Five years, and we're still here. Take a look at some of this site's backstory. And to think I'll have to write something like this every five years.
  • 4/26/2000. Jammer Goes to L.A. — A report on my trip to Los Angeles to pitch a few story ideas to Star Trek: Voyager. Spoiler: I didn't sell any stories, but I did make L.A. my bitch.
  • 9/14/2001. On A Tragic Tuesday Morning — Today, we mourn. Some thoughts in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
  • 10/14/2002. At Death's Door — It's dying, and there's nothing I can do. Can it be saved? Or is it destined for the trash bin? What will I ever do? Ah, melodrama.
  • 1/8/2004. Return of the AnyKey — Or "At Death's Door, Part II" You just can't keep a good Gateway 2000 keyboard down. Especially when they're built like tanks.
  • 2/20/2004. Confessions of a Closet Trekkie — Jammer has issues, man. Serious issues. And he cops to everything in this epic exclusive expose. Documents situations ranging from movie theaters to Super Bowls to Italian fast-food restaurants.
  • 1/3/2005. Wake Me Up, Scotty — I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. To be honest, I'm not sure where we are. Somewhere between insomnia and madness. Like Ed Norton in Fight Club.
  • 3/22/2005. One Decade and Counting — We've been here for 10 years, believe it or not. Damn, I'm getting old. I promise not to be sentimental about turning 10.
  • 4/25/2006. We've Moved and Stuff — Star Trek: Hypertext is no more. And this time, it's not April Fool's Day. New name, new server, new independence.

Television

  • 11/6/1999. Try, Try Again, NBC — A brief gripe column about NBC's itchy trigger finger in canceling Homicide for the now-canceled loser, Cold Feet.
  • 1/8/2001. Network TV's New Pandering Low — Great, just what we needed: a reality show called "Temptation Island." I say we vote all these loser onto an island and force them to stay there.
  • 3/24/2001. Pandering Fails to Capture X-treme Audience — If "Temptation Island" was a success, at least I can take comfort in the XFL sucking it up. This is the kind of disaster that happens when a network loses its sanity after losing all its NFL contracts.
  • 3/17/2002. Documentary review: "9/11" — A look at the riveting photographed account of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York.
  • 8/31/2002. Resistance Is Futile: You Will All Become One With the Sisterhood — My rant on MTV's latest idiotic "reality" series, "Sorority Life," where individuality is perceived as a threat.
  • 3/12/2003. Why I Hate the Fox News Channel — Watch as political commentary becomes a witless bar fight. Seriously, I blame the sorry, divisive state of political dialog in this country on the likes networks like Fox, which prefer fighting to listening.
  • 6/30/2003. Busey's With Dumbass — "I'm With Busey," and especially that awful Adam guy, needs to go away. Far, far away from any television set anywhere.
  • 8/15/2003. Summer of Serialization — Nothing new in prime time, so I turn my attention to The Wire and The Sopranos. Two great shows that know better than to air on broadcast networks.
  • 3/4/2004. Review: America's Next Top Model — Jammer takes a critical, in-depth look at this UPN reality series focusing on the subtleties of the fashion industry. And when we say in-depth, we mean in-depth.
  • 3/4/2004. Hey, Promo Guy: You're Fired — For the love of God, find a new way to advertise your shows, NBC. Using the same clip for an entire season is lazy and lame.
  • 8/9/2005. Review: Too Late With Adam Corolla — Also known as, how to fill half an hour with two minutes of content. To think that this show once occupied the spot now filled by The Colbert Report. Amazing.
  • 4/20/2006. If You Haven't Already, Go Watch The Shield — Seriously, why haven't you watched this show? It's as good as the hype implies. Probably better. Ingenious plots, breathless momentum, mind-boggling situations, memorable characters and dialog.
  • 2/28/2007. CNN Is a Joke — A month after Anna Nicole's Smith's death, CNN is covering the "story" like tabloid whores. Here's a news flash: Smith is no longer "breaking news." Get a clue, CNN.
  • 11/2/2015. New Trek Series Coming in 2017 — A new Trek series has been announced and it will be streamed on CBS' digital subscription service. I offer a few thoughts and solicit your comments.
  • 8/15/2016. Discuss the latest on Star Trek: Discovery — As more details emerge about the latest Trek series I offer up some reactions and open the discussion for your comments.

"The Deeper Side of Trek" column series at Space.com

  • 8/3/2000. Defining a Franchise — It's a safe bet to say not everyone is intimately familiar with Star Trek and its various spin-offs, but is there anyone with any knowledge of mainstream American entertainment who hasn't at least heard of it? I tend to doubt it.
  • 8/17/2000. The Movies — Not surprisingly, some important chapters in Star Trek emanate not only from the small screen, but also from the big one, in the form of feature films.
  • 9/1/2000. Galaxy of the Elite? — I've been through the Star Trek canon and back, and I've found that the visible Trek universe (or at least the parts where humans live) is a pretty elite place. Where are the plumbers? Blue-collar factory workers? People performing manual labor? Do they exist in the 23rd and 24th centuries?
  • 9/19/2000. Technobabble — I'd like to single out a specific subset of Federation society that we can't fully comprehend: the technology.
  • 10/5/2000. Dogs of WarTrek has not escaped war. Instead of extinguishing war, the Federation has applied it to new frontiers.
  • 11/7/2000. Franchise at the Crossroads — The way I see it, Trek resides in a strange place it hasn't been in since The Next Generation was facing a launch marked with optimism but also uncertainty: There's concern that a new direction may not be successful.

Pranks

  • 2/25/2000. Vote to Rename Voyager — Think Voyager's name should be different? Try some of these. Note: Voting is closed, and the results were never published, nor will they be.
  • 4/1/2001. Star Trek: Hypertext shut down — My attempt at an April Fool's prank alleges that this site has been shut down for unspecified reasons. Gosh, I'm a cheeky, self-indulgent jerk.
  • 4/1/2002. All Your Base Are Belong To Us — Beware the wrath of CATS. What happen? Someone set up Star Trek: Hypertext the bomb. We get signal. It's you! How are you gentlemen!!!
  • 4/1/2003. Enterprise to be revamped as "ultimate" reality series — Look out, Reality Television. You are on notice. Seriously, I should pitch this to every studio in Hollywood. Some moron would buy it.
  • 4/1/2022. Jammer Is Reviewing The Expanse — After years of being asked about it, I decided to take the plunge.

Star Trek Books

  • 12/19/1996. Saratoga 2 stars. — Painful memories are reawakened when the USS Defiant carries the survivors of the Saratoga to an important Starfleet ceremony.
  • 1/12/1998. Wrath of the Prophets 3.5 stars. — When a fatal disease spreads over Bajor, threatening the entire planet with extinction, Captain Sisko must accept aid from an unexpected source: Ro Laren, Starfleet officer turned Maquis renegade.

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