RicePiece

*sigh* This is gonna go over well.

My friends and I have had this conversation over lunch so many times Basically we've talked about all of the same thing you guys have mentioned: The too episodic nature of the storylines The lack of (lasting) character development Too much filler - see Transporter Accident eps The ruining of the Borg And my biggest personal beef - everything ALWAYS works out, just by doing the right thing!! With these points in mind, what we've come up with is a "covert Ops" type of star trek series. Tell the story of the ppl that do things behind the scenes that make it possible for caption X to do the "right thing" and have it work out. These are the guys that are experimenting and using the cloaking device, the meta-genic weapons. These are the guys that do not work within the constraints of the Prime Directive. I think you could do some really good stuff with this. Character development, which is sorely lacking on all star trek series, could be really well done - you could have the characters who have no problems with what they need to do to maintain the federation, as well as the character who is reluctantly acting out of a sense of duty. If they really wanna get serious about characters, Paramount might wanna think about stealing some writers away from something like E.R. They're characters are fantastic - engaging, FLAWED and evolving - in short - they are human - not whatever the hell ST has been serving up for years. This could also explaing why the Borg / cardassians / Klingons / Romulans have never been able to get a decisive win over the Federation. So, what do you think?

We've all seen posts on how much we've paid to support this valkaholism, and I don't really mind spending money on things I enjoy. But it drives me nuts when I overpay for things. Here's my story: When the Yamato TRU VF-1A came out, I hmm'ed and haw'ed about getting it - finally after staring long enough at the pics of it on MW I decided that the CF was too cool to pass up. So I bought it - for $105US! Last week I saw a MIB TRU 1A go on eBay for a whopping $26.01 (Link). I guess in retrospect I paid to get the CF at that point in time rather than wait for the general release. I also paid for the better paint choice for the CF. *sigh* So, please share your tales of over-paying for stuff and let me know that I'm NOT alone in this!!!

Gotta be my Yamato 1/72 YF-19. I still remember being absolutely amazed that someone was able to figure out how to make this thing transform and look good (admit it, when you first saw it you were floored!) in all modes. Just fantastic work. (Editted for spelling)