I occasionally have full-length feature movies as dreams. Complete with scene changes, flashbacks, the whole nine yards. I've had Harry Potter dreams, dreams about some of the other books I read, murder-mystery dreams, but this dream takes the cake so I had to write it down.
Setting:
USS Enterprise NCC 1701-G.
It is a brand new, giant enterprise, more like a space station than the original or last enterprise Enterprise. It's been about 4 1/2 years since the majority of old crew has moved on- they've all been promoted or retired. A few secondary characters from the original Next Generation crew remain, and/or their children.
Opening sequence, we see Data up close. Remember, he's been sorta humanized, so he's acting a lot more fluid. He's bending over a dark console/table in a dark room, suddenly he looks up. His pupils dilate, contract, dilate, contract, and then we see that he is mechanically massaging a corpse in the morgue in rhythm to his pupils. We shift to the corpse and it is becoming re-animated. It wakes up and although it's legs are stumps it regenerates what looks to be a whole, healthy body in a nice, crisp uniform and it leaves the room, a young officer zombie, excited about it's new body and hard to tell that it's not a human crew member.
We see more of these zombies scattered throughout the Enterprise now. The only way we can tell they're not real is when they sit down to eat the food goes right through them and gets re-absorbed by something larger/scarier/hidden (all you see is a hand) that reaches into each stomach and takes the food as it is consumed (it looks a lot like the corpse stomachs from Pirates of the Caribbean). We see signs of a struggle here and there, but otherwise things look like they're running smooth. Business as usual around the Enterprise.
Out of a service chute in a small hallway slides a perfect, nude body in a loose plastic bag. It's still breathing, as there is steam inside the bag. In some secondary bags come a few loose articles of clothing. The person in the bag works her way out and we see that it is a naked Martha Stewart. They have only given her pants and shoes to wear (so that she can be told apart from the Zombies). She defiantly gets up, puts on her clothing and holds a conversation with the "captian" over the Enterprise P.A. system
Basically we find out that she was kept human becuase for some reason this alien Zombie found her much more useful than anyone on the bridge or any other main character and needs her unique talents (which we still haven't figured out yet and in my dream I kept questioning why they saved the interior designer). She screams her defiance at the alien over the computer, makes a mad dash to the bridge, which is only a short ways away, and then proceeds to dodge zombies.
In this sequence we manage to see a computer roster of the commanding crew. We see a few names on the roster that denote them as children of the past generation, but 75% of the important officers are considered deceased. Some of those remaining alive are like Martha except they have been brainwashed and wholeheartedly support the zombies (they act like the zombies but are actually alive). Rememeber, the Enterprise is a city unto itself, so although the main officers are all zombies there are still hordes of regular people behind the scenes- families, children, teachers, etc. that make up a working space station. Martha figures out that when she "woke up" out of the plastic bag she hadn't been totally brainwashed yet so now the zombies can't utilize whatever latent talent they saw in Martha beyond her ability to arrange flowers.
Martha curses at the computer, (I never realized how sleek her body was, how athletic she is, and how she can curse like a sailor in her neat accent when she wants to), works her way into a storage bay where there are lots of shuttle-craft and steals a sleek black number that looks like the Star Trek team hawked from the Star Wars reject pile (Definitely un-trekkish- it's armed totally wrong as well). Anyways, harrowing chase scene inside hangar ensues, she's dodging little flying computer drones, fighting off everything that the zombies can send her way. She narrowly escapes crashing through a gorgeous wall of windows into outer space and having the vacuum of space suck the entire hangar contents out the window. The shuttle she stole has awesome shields- it must be the private spacecraft of the captain or something because it is NOT starfleet regulation.
At this point in my movie, the young family in the seat in front of me got up , the mom wanted to use the restroom and she was concerned that all the shooting was getting her young son riled up. I was thinking- lady, why did you bring small kids to a Star Trek movie? The son wanted to go play video games (this was much better than a video game, kid) Her husband stayed put- probably still mesmerized by the scantily clad Martha (who by now at least had a loose fitting jacket on that she found in the shuttle- you can still see cleavage though). The family gets re-settled with some sandwiches, and we see that Martha has managed to evade all the computer drones. She hid the suttlecraft behind some storage and is proceeding to escape on foot down a hallway.
After some intense struggles with a few zombies- we find out that the zombies don't seem to be all there mentally, but still enough that it's hard to tell who is a zombie and who is normal- she is suspicious of everyone she meets. Breathlessly running, Martha manages to make it into an old AV closet- the type you see in school libraries, you know, with a couple of TV monitors on carts, and walls of media that are hand-labeled. For some reason this door has a manual lock- not computerized at all and she thinks that this will trick the zombies.
She is hotly pursued by a slightly portly man in a tan, different uniform and a nervous-looking woman. They don't seem to be the main officers that the zombies have so far inhabited. Martha peeks out and they start talking to her, trying to lure her out. What convinces her is that the portly man is trying to catch his breath. Martha timidly steps out and we find the woman to be just an average, secondary support level person- like a minor operations lady. The man however is wearing a uniform because he is a local cub-scout leader. Woo Hoo for the 24th century! The Cub Scouts survive. Way to go! Anyways, they thought that Martha was a zombie and they were trying to kill her. Now that we find that all 3 are not zombies you can tell that we've reached a turning point of the movie.
The 3 start filling in Martha on how much of the ship has been zombified and how the few of them have found to deal with the zombies. Plot wise we're starting to get somewhere.
At this point Anna Mae wakes up and comes in my bedroom crying. Aaaaagggh!! I tried to go right back to sleep to finish the movie but it didn't work (sometimes it does). So I figured I need to write it down somewhere. Sorry to all my readers. I'm sure this was NOT what you were expecting from my usual blog posts, but I have very vivid dreams. Usually I am in control of my dreams (called Lucid Dreaming). Even with these movie dreams I know it's a dream movie so I can throw my two rational cents in as I'm watching the movie. I'm bummed that I couldn't see the end because it was bound to be good-
As I was waking up my mind was throwing spoiler/hints my way about what was going to happen next. It involved somehow getting a message to Starfleet headquarters in San Francisco, collecting up the old crew (Picard and everyone) and they somehow sneak onboard, team up with Martha and her now large band of secondary characters. Somehow they manage to get Data away from the zombies which is the key to winning.
I'm bummed that I couldn't see it in it's full glory though, and my mental hints didn't include any Klingons or Vulcans (double bummer!). This must be my brain's subliminal way of celebrating Star Wars day (
FYI Monday was Star Wars Day- May the 4th be with you). I have always been more of a trekkie than a Star Wars fan so I must have mentally retaliated with a Trek Movie. Speaking of which, I probably should go see the latest spin-off and see if it's worth the digital film they printed it on. Ok, back to bed or on to a real post.
Here are a couple photos of the poor old school. I can't remember how many times I went into the gym as a child- for plays, for PE and for lunch. This will be the first section to go....
So when I got home and was taking care of the kids I made my regular rounds of the garden, checked on the progress of my rapidly ripening strawberries (which I am sooo looking forward to) and admiring how dark pink they are getting. Yesterday when I checked AnnaMae accidentally picked a pink one and ate it, green part and all.
As I think of all the sacrifices made by servicemen over the years I need to stop and say Thank You!
In February I had a chance to stop and visit the USS Alabama, which was built in 1940. Touring through the ghost of a ship was a sobering experience for both me and my husband. Thinking of all those men, away from their families for months at a time, sailing from the Atlantic to the Pacific, always on alert from weather or enemies... It really helped me appreciate my freedom and peace here in my homeland. I thank every person who has served, does serve, or will serve in defending and upholding their country.
So she's in town, we haven't seen her since she got married and what joy we had when we found she was still happily married, active at church, and had two great little kids. Then we made chocolate cupcakes and her kids promptly smeared chocolate all over everything.
Look! Here is the view again out my plane window of Buffalo and the ice blocking the lake. Wow. The saints prayed and the ice cracked just long enough for the boat to get through, then it closed right behind them after they passed. So this won't melt for at least another couple months. In this day and age it wasn't a problem because my life wasn't in danger and I flew right over it. Back then it was a major struggle.
Friday Brian and my nephew went to First Friday art walk. One of our friends in another ward is having an art show. Gayla Snow is a pretty interesting lady and her art show is made from "found art" or junk that you find and turn into artwork. The photo is of one of her works that was in a gallery in December. January's first Friday Art walk I was busy teaching a lecture on the History of Manga for the Eugene Library so I missed the gallery shows then as well. I didn't see the show because I stayed home with the kids and read The Tale of Desperaux. Luke had a fever after dinner. Who knows why, since he didn't show any other signs of sickness, just a fever.
