Japan's Real Castle In the Sky Offers Epic Views onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Japan's Real Castle In the Sky Offers Epic Views

This is Takeda Castle. It's located in Hyogo Prefecture. In the sky.

As website JCastle points out, the mountain top castle is now ruins, but it's amazing that in the 15th century, they got all those rocks up the mountain, to 354 meters above sea level.

No wonder the castle is called Japan's Machu Picchu and compared to the famed Studio Ghibli anime Castle in the Sky.

The castle was abandoned in 1600, after its last lord committed seppuku.

According to Japan Realtime, more and more people are visiting the castle each year. The grounds, JCastle notes, are in good condition, and thankfully, tacky fences haven't been put up everywhere, which would have ruined the visual tableau.

Here are views from the castle. Stunning, no?

The best time to go, apparently, is early in the morning to watch the fog cover the mountain, making the castle look like it's floating in air. Autumn is also popular, because the leaves are changing. If you do happen to visit the castle, be aware that the weather can be unpredictable.

Takeda Castle [JCastle]

The Mystery of 'Japan's Machu Picchu' [Japan Realtime]

探訪・竹田城跡 雲海に浮かぶ天空の城 [SankeiNews]

JAL JAPAN PROJECT 兵庫県 竹田城跡 [JapanAirlinesJp]

Photo: rolloutkato

To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft.

Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Japan's Real Castle In the Sky Offers Epic Views

Four Players Are Co-Op Heroes. The Fifth Is Their Giant Enemy. Fight! onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Four Players Are Co-Op Heroes. The Fifth Is Their Giant Enemy. Fight!

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In a lot of mainstream multiplayer video games, we dress up as a soldier and take on opposing teams of other, similar soldiers. What if there were a game about a team of soldiers taking on one GIANT opponent? Maybe a massive beast that breathes fire? That'd be cool.

That'd also be an actual thing: Turtle Rock Studios' Evolve, which I recently played and which left me impressed. A couple of weeks ago I attended a press event in San Francisco hosted by 2K, Evolve's publisher. There, a bunch of members of the press were stationed at one of several five-computer tables, where we spent most of the day playing the game against (or alongside) one another.

The setup for each five-player game is basically this:

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Evolve is best described as a cooperative multiplayer boss battle where one player controls the boss. Four players hop into the shoes of the hunters, a group of presumably well-paid mercenaries who parachute into troubled areas and take care of big beasties that show up and cause trouble. The fifth player controls the monster itself—a huge, extremely powerful beast that can shred just about anything in its path and only grows more powerful as the match progresses.

The hunters win by killing the monster, and the monster wins by either killing the hunters or "evolving" a couple of times and taking out a level-specific objective. (In the case of the level we played, that meant destroying a generator and eating some helpless scientists.)

I'll share some bullet-pointed impressions and facts here, but 2K sent over enough b-roll footage of the game that it'll be way easier for me to just show you. So, I cut together this video (apologies for any Google ads on the clip; not our doing):

Looks cool, right? Of course, the usual preview caveats apply: I only played one level of the game, it's still a ways from release, etc. (It's coming to Xbox One, PS4 and PC in fall of 2014.)

More thoughts:

• The classes all play very differently, and you'll have to dispatch with a full complement of the four classes: Medic, Assault, Support and Trapper. (You can't, say, dispatch with four medics.) There is simply no way to effectively fight the monster unless you stick to your class's designated skill: The medic must shoot a healing ray at injured party members, support must fire shields at the assault guy as he attacks, the trapper must smartly restrict the movement of the beast in order to let the rest of the team do damage. Teamwork is crucial, and communication is key. Without either of those things, the monster will destroy you, particularly since the monster player doesn't have to worry about either teamwork or communication.


• In the video I said I was pretty sure that the footage is from the PC version, but now I'm 100% sure - I confirmed it with 2K.


• I also confirmed that Evolve won't offer split-screen multiplayer. It'll be one player per console/PC.


• The jetpacks are a lot of fun—between Evolve and Titanfall, it seems like enhanced verticality and jet-jumps are becoming more of a trend in multiplayer games. I'd be into that.


• The game will be on next-gen consoles (Xbox One and PS4) and PC only. Ashton said that's largely because most of the sacrifices they'd need to make to get it running on last-gen consoles would have directly impacted gameplay and balance. You can't just take out some of the wildlife or flocks of birds, since they're all a crucial part of the level. (The monster needs to eat the wildlife to evolve, and birds give the hunters a sense of where the monster is hiding.)


• You can play any of the roles you'd like offline, with bots fleshing out the other roles. You can also practice your monster game against AI hunters.


• I asked how the game was performing on next-gen consoles, but Ashton told me it was way too early to say. The PC version we played, naturally, was running at 1080p and 60 frames per second. It looked great.

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• Of all the classes I played, I think I enjoyed Support the most. He's the most versatile class, able to fire shields around other players, cloak and become invisible (the better to flee the giant beast), and call in a super-powerful airstrike, which can be devastating if the hunters happen upon a cocooned, vulnerable monster. Medic and Trapper were both fun as well, and the Trapper seems like the role that you'd want to give to your most seasoned player. Assault was the least interesting, but was still fun, provided you've got a good Medic and Support shielding you and healing you as you mix it up with a monster the size of a building.


• Playing as the monster is the most fun of all, of course. In my turn as the monster, I took some major gambles, evolving almost in plain sight and reaching level 3. The initial hide-and-seek of levels one and two is often pretty exciting, but man does it open up when you reach level three. At that point, my coach from 2K told me, "Okay, you don't really have to run away anymore. You can take these guys." I turned around and just laid waste to the hunters, winning the match while a bunch of people stood around our table cheering. It was the best. (I never win in multiplayer games.)


• In our demo, each of the four classes was represented by a named character. There was Hank the Support, Markov the Assault, Val the Medic and Griffon the Trapper. Of course the lady is the Medic, I initially thought. Later, though, design director Chris Ashton assured me that there are many different named characters that can fulfill each role, with women in other roles than just Medic. Sounds like this game will have a larger cast than the demo we played.


• Each named character will fit into one of the four classes, but there'll be some variety in how they all work. They'll all have the same primary weapon/tool, but each one will load out with different backup weapons and abilities. As you play, you'll also unlock upgrades and new gear, though the developers weren't really going into specifics.

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• It'll be crucial for Evolve to come with a wide variety of monster. The matches we played were like jacked-up Tank battles from Left 4 Dead—which makes sense, given that Turtle Rock made the first Left 4 Dead. The Goliath, the monster we controlled, was very much like a Tank from L4D—he even had a boulder-throw ability and a "pounce" like L4D's Hunter. That was fine (and fun!) but it also felt a liiiiittle been-there-done-that. The developers were tight-lipped on other monster types, but I'd love to see some greater variety. Maybe a cloaking, stealth-based monster, or a flying monster, or some sort of Xenomorphian, agile hunter? Just saying!


• The level we played was large and varied, and left room for a lot of strategy, particularly with the larger, more dangerous AI monsters roaming around. A smart monster player could lead the hunters into a trap, getting them bushwhacked by the giant alligator that lives under the factory, or leading them into a horde of poison crawlers. Knowing the level can give either side a substantial advantage.


• As we played, everyone got better at playing as the monster, to the point where we started to understand the choke points in the map, the good hunting grounds, the best ways to sneak up on the hunters, etc. It'd take me at least a half-dozen more go-rounds to really get my head around the whole map, though. At one point, we played as hunters and our "monster coach" from 2K took us on and absolutely destroyed us by mostly using the monster's stealth mode so that we couldn't track him easily. Some other people from 2k also told me a story of how 2K's best monster player took on Turtle Rock's best team of hunters. He apparently went in cocky, sure that he could take them down, but they broke out strategies he'd never even heard of and wrecked him. It sounds like there'll be room for some very high-level play in Evolve.

I was impressed with Evolve, and certainly want to play/know more. If next-gen multiplayer games want to entice new players with this sort of asymmetrical design and smart cooperative gameplay, sign me up. Just as Left 4 Dead did last-gen, games like Evolve will likely get me to hop online much more often than I do now.

Here's a new trailer for the game:

And here some more screenshots that 2K sent over:

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onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Four Players Are Co-Op Heroes. The Fifth Is Their Giant Enemy. Fight!

Your Complete Winter 2014 Anime Guide onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Your Complete Winter 2014 Anime Guide

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With the end of the year, we have come to the end of the fall season and are beginning the winter one. But with 47 new anime in the pipeline, how do you know which ones to watch? Check out the trailers and brief blurbs about each to see which of them catches your interest.

[*Note: Series are grouped loosely by genre.]

Silver Spoon Season 2

Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy

Premier Date: January 10, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: The second season of one of last year's best anime which follows a boy from the city who attends an agricultural high school out in the countryside.

Seitokai Yakuindomo *

Genre: School Life, Comedy

Premier Date: January 4, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: The second season of an anime about a boy who enters a formerly all-girl high school and is forced to be the student council vice president.

Tonari no Seki-kun: The Master of Killing Time

Genre: School Life, Comedy

Premier Date: January 6, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: This is a short-form anime about a young girl who is constantly distracted in class by the crazy antics of the boy sitting next to her.

Saki: The Nationals

Genre: School Life, Sports

Premier Date: January 6, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: The second season of an anime about a high school girl in a mahjong club.

Tesagure! Bukatsumono Encore

Genre: School Life, Slice of Life

Premier Date: January 12, 2014

Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced

What It’s About in One Sentence: The second season of a short-form anime about a group of school girls and their extracurricular activities.

Sakura Trick

Genre: Romance, School Life

Premier Date: January 10, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: Two longtime female friends, afraid of drifting apart as they enter high school, decide to share a kiss—and thus begin a relationship of a different nature.

Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions! REN (Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren)

Genre: Romance, Comedy

Premier Date: January 9, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: This is the second season of an anime about a high school boy who used to suffer fantastical delusions and a girl who is still suffering from them.

No-Rin

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Premier Date: January 11, 2014

Where to Watch: Funimation

What It’s About in One Sentence: A high school boy at an agricultural school finds that his newest classmate is his favorite idol who quit performing recently under mysterious circumstances.

Onee-chan ga Kita

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Premier Date: January 9, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: When a teenage boy's father remarries in this short-form anime, he finds he has a new sister—one who is in love with him to a disturbing degree.

Recently, My Sister is Unusual (Saikin, Imouto No Yousu Ga Chotto Okashiinda Ga)

Genre: Comedy, Romance, Supernatural

Premier Date: January 4, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: To move on to the afterlife, the ghost of a dead girl must fall in love with a boy by possessing the body of his step-sister.

NiseKoi

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Premier Date: January 12, 2014

Where to Watch: Aniplex USA

What It’s About in One Sentence: The son of a Yakuza crime boss finds himself engaged to a rival gang leader's daughter that he hates but must pretend to like to keep peace between the gangs.

D-Frag!

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Premier Date: January 7, 2014

Where to Watch: Funimation

What It’s About in One Sentence: A high school boy fancies himself a real bad boy but his behavior is nothing compared to that of the four girls he becomes entangled with.

Engaged to the Unidentified (Mikakunin de Shinkoukei)

Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life

Premier Date: January 9, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: An ordinary 16-year old girl finds out she is betrothed to a boy—who then moves into her house along with his little sister.

Soni-Ani: Super Sonico The Animation

Genre: Comedy, Ecchi

Premier Date: January 6, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: This is an anime about a rock star/pin-up model and her busy life.

Wake Up, Girls

Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life

Premier Date: January 11, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: A struggling celebrity management company makes a last ditch gamble to create a female pop idol group by scouting completely unknown talent.

Go! Go! 575

Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life

Premier Date: January 10, 2014

Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced

What It’s About in One Sentence: A Sega-made Vita game tie-in anime about a pair of girls who become pop idols.

47 Todoufuinu R

Genre: Comedy

Premier Date: January 12, 2014

Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced

What It’s About in One Sentence: A new season of a short-form anime following a group of dogs that are anthropomorphic versions of Japan's 47 prefectures.

Nyan-Men

Genre: Comedy

Premier Date: January 12, 2014

Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced

What It’s About in One Sentence: A short-form anime about a group of ramen-inspired cat girls.

Strange+

Genre: Comedy, Mystery

Premier Date: January 10, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: A short-form anime where, after finding that his missing brother has become the head of a detective agency and refuses to return home, a young man decides to join him in solving mysteries.

Wooser’s Hand-to-Mouth Life: Awakening Arc

Genre: Comedy, Sci-Fi

Premier Date: January 8, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: The second season of a short-form anime about a cute but evil creature.

Chou Zenmairobo: Patrasche

Genre: Comedy, Sci-Fi

Premier Date: December 7, 2013

Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced

What It’s About in One Sentence: When the empire invades their country, a boy who wants to become a scientist—as well as his friend and their dog—decide to fight back in this short-form anime.

Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Premier Date: January 15, 2014

Where to Watch: Funimation

What It’s About in One Sentence: As thanks for saving a fox pup, a fox god grants a young unpopular girl the ability to shape-shift.

Pupipoo

Genre: Comedy, Modern Fantasy

Premier Date: December 21, 2013

Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced

What It’s About in One Sentence: A short-form anime about a girl, bullied because of her ability to see things others can’t, befriends a floating pink blob who protects her from supernatural monsters.

Witch Craft Works

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy

Premier Date: January 5, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: A high school boy discovers that the most popular girl in school is, in fact, a powerful witch and her sole job is to protect him from harm.

Hoozuki no Reitetsu

Genre: Fantasy, Comedy

Premier Date: January 10, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: As an aid to The Great King of Hell, a demon tries to resolve the problems in Hell while making time for his own peaceful hobbies.

Yokai Watch

Genre: Japanese Modern Fantasy, Comedy

Premier Date: January 8, 2014

Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced

What It’s About in One Sentence: Based on a game by Level-5, this is an anime about a child who uses his special watch to collect data on Yokai (traditional Japanese monsters).

Minna Atsumare! Falcom Gakuen

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy

Premier Date: January 5, 2014

Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced

What It’s About in One Sentence: A short-form anime about JRPG-style characters messing around in a JRPG fantasy-style world.

Hamatora

Genre: Mystery, Sci-Fi

Premier Date: January 8, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: Two detectives with mutant powers begin investigating a series of murders of fellow mutants.

The Pilot’s Love Song (Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta)

Genre: Adventure, Drama

Premier Date: January 6, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: A prince who has lost everything leaves his kingdom on a quest of hatred and revenge but learns about friendship and love as he travels.

Ghost in the Shell Nyumon Arise

Genre: Documentary, Sci-Fi

Premier Date: January 6, 2014

Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced

What It’s About in One Sentence: This is a short-form making-of documentary series about Ghost in the Shell: Arise hosted by two animated characters.

Pupa

Genre: Horror, Fantasy

Premier Date: January 10, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: This short-form anime follows a boy hunting for the cure to his sister's disease—a disease causing her to sprout grotesque wings and attack people.

Noragami

Genre: Action, Fantasy

Premier Date: January 5, 2014

Where to Watch: Funimation　

What It’s About in One Sentence: A young god—struggling to gain followers—scrawls his number on a bathroom wall, claiming to help people for a mere five yen offering.

Nobunaga the Fool

Genre: Sci-Fi, Mecha

Premier Date: January 6, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: When Jeanne Kaguya D'Arc and Leonard Da Vinci travel from the “Western planet” to the “Eastern planet,” they begin an adventure that will change the fate of both worlds.

Buddy Complex

Genre: Mecha, Sci-Fi

Premier Date: January 6, 2014

Where to Watch: Funimation

What It’s About in One Sentence: After being attacked by a giant robot and then saved by his classmate (in her own giant robot), a young boy starts on the path to become a mecha pilot.

Space Dandy

Genre: Sci-fi, Action

Premier Date: January 5, 2014

Where to Watch: Funimation, Animax (Asia), Madman (AU), Wakanim (UK)

What It’s About in One Sentence: From the creators of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo comes the story of an alien hunter who is the “dandiest man in space.”

Nobunagun

Genre: Action, Sci-Fi

Premier Date: January 5, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll, Funimation

What It’s About in One Sentence: While on a fieldtrip, a high school girl is attacked by monsters and discovers she is able to wield a mystical weapon infused with the soul of legendary samurai general, Oda Nabunaga.

Wizard Barristers

Genre: Modern Fantasy, Action

Premier Date: January 13, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: In a world much like ours but with magic, a teenage girl becomes the country's youngest defense attorney for wizards.

Magical Warfare (Mahou Sensou)

Genre: Action, Modern Fantasy

Premier Date: January 10, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: One day, a normal high school boy comes across a girl collapsed at his school who turns out to be a magician—and has turned him into one as well.

Z/X Ignition

Genre: Action, Sci-Fi

Premier Date: January 10, 2014

Where to Watch: Crunchyroll

What It’s About in One Sentence: Based on a trading card game, this anime focuses on creatures invading Earth from other worlds.

Maken-ki! Two

Genre: Ecchi, Action

Premier Date: January 15, 2014

Where to Watch: Funimation

What It’s About in One Sentence: The second season of a “many-boob, school, action, love, comedy” anime about a boy who unwittingly enters a school where the students partake in magical combat.

World Conquest: ZVEZDA PLOT

Genre: Action, Comedy

Premier Date: January 12, 2014

Where to Watch: Aniplex USA

What It’s About in One Sentence: An anime about a young girl and her group of bad guys trying to take over the world.

Double Circle

Genre: Sci-fi, Superhero

Premier Date: December 19, 2013

Where to Watch: YouTube

What It’s About in One Sentence: A short-form anime where Four super heroes who personify alternate energy sources—wind power, water power, green power, and solar power—protect the city of Kawasaki.

Robot Girls Z

Genre: Superhero, Comedy

Premier Date: January 4, 2014

Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced

What It’s About in One Sentence: A short-form anime about a group of female superheroes—each based on a different giant robot from long-running anime Mazinger—who promote the new power source “photon energy” and protect it from those who would abuse it.

Happiness Charge Pretty Cure

Genre: Magical Girl

Premier Date: February 2, 2014

Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced

What It’s About in One Sentence: The 11th season of the long running Pretty Cure anime about a group of school girls who transform and fight evil.

Meitantei Rascal

Genre: Children’s, Mystery

Premier Date: January 9, 2014

Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced

What It’s About in One Sentence: This anime follows a raccoon detective and his bear assistant as they solve mysteries.

Pic-lele

Genre: Children’s, Music

Premier Date: December 7, 2013

Where to Watch: No Western Simulcast Announced

What It’s About in One Sentence: A cute short-form anime for children about a group of ukulele-playing animals.

Future Card Buddy Fight

Genre: Yu-Gi-Oh!

Premier Date: January 4, 2014

Where to Watch: Youtube, Hulu

What It’s About in One Sentence: An anime series based on a collectible card game about children who battle by using cards to summon monsters.

Related Related

The Five Best Anime of 2013

Over this past year, I've shown you my picks for the anime you should be watching for the spring, summer, and fall seasons. You've even had … Read…

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com Your Complete Winter 2014 Anime Guide

How AoS made me regain my appreciation for Star Trek: TNG onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com How AoS made me regain my appreciation for Star Trek: TNG

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I've mentioned that Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has problems, and that it's not too late to take steps to fix those problems. Fixing those problems boils down to developing the characters and plot more beyond the standard "Monster of the Week" formula that many of the episodes so far have focused on. Conflicts with trying to match the scope of the movie franchise are inevitable as there's no way the show can match the budget of the movies, but that's not the biggest problem the show has. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I started to remember a certain show that also belonged to a huge franchise that was able to do big things on just a syndicated budget. I think there are a few lessons the AoS crew (Whedon exempt, of course) can learn from watching a few seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation...and to be fair, maybe a few lessons for viewers as well.

It's possible for even a good show to start out slow

Whedon is certainly exempt from this lesson as Buffy and even Firefly haven't had the most dramatic, out-of-the-gate starts. Buffy still looks like a thoroughbred hopped up on methamphetamines compared to the Seasons 1 and 2 drone of TNG. Actually, TNG's problem was two-fold: it was slow and it was just plain-old awful. Justice, The Outrageous Okana and especially Code of Honor weren't just slow and awful, but where several steps backward compared to both the storytelling quality and social message the original Star Trek had become renowned for.

Obviously, things got better. It took a few behind-the-scenes shake-ups but TNG was able to meet and then exceed the storytelling quality of the original series. It's certainly possible for AoS to experience the same kind of growth - but keep in mind, when I said TNG underwent a few behind-the-scenes shake-ups, I mean Russ Mayberry (who directed the episode Code of Honor) was let go, Roddenberry himself had to surrender some power and two key individuals by the name of Brannon Braga and Rick Berman were brought in to help helm the show. Yes, the same two men who brought us Star Trek: Voyager and (Star Trek) Enterprise (and insisted that Enterprise be sans Star Trek in its first few seasons). My point is that it might take some dramatic crew changes - and given the dipping performance of AoS it might be inevitable. As controversial a move as it always is, the point of changing out the guard isn't to hurt the show but to help it, and if such a move is made it may hopefully be with people who are better able to make a product more closely matching the feel of the movie franchise within the show's budget. Who knows, maybe it will mean Whedon's greater involvement.

You don't need a big budget to have slick-looking sets

The interior of the "Bus" certainly isn't too cheap-looking, but goes overboard with the industrial and chromed-out metal look to arguably bland effect. Then again, it is on an airplane so it's to be expected. That said, I still think the sets on AoS tend to be generic.

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TNG on the other hand was able to create an interior for the Enterprise-D that came to define it as much as the exterior. The bridge was marked by a dramatic, low-angle arch made of wood, with carpeted floors and fancy command chairs in a nice off-beige color. Really, the whole thing looks like it was designed by Lexus.

...which isn't really the point of a starship.

...or not exactly the antithesis of bland. Ok, I'll admit my argument is falling apart here.

But the interior of the Enterprise-D at least looked inviting, for what that's worth. The ship's engineering room, on the other hand, truly was a wonder of what the future could possibly bring, with just a right mix of an industrialized hard edge with computerized gee-whiz-bang (I'm hoping you're keeping up with my technical terms here).

Even the ship's hallways were clean and warm-looking, even if they did carry over the beige-ness of the ship's other areas:

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Perhaps it's only because of the strength of the franchise or the fact that the ship was the most important setting of the show, but the Enterprise's interior, at least in my mind, has come to define the show as much as any other aspect.

You don't need anything fancy or special to tell great stories

The first five minutes of Best of Both Worlds begins with Riker, Data, Whorf and Commander Shelby (a Borg expert brought onto the mission) staring at a giant crater that used to be a Federation colony. It was a great opening and an effective way to introduce the kind of threat the Borg represent.

The vast majority of the rest of the two-part special takes place either on the standard Enterprise sets or (briefly) on the Borg ship, which wasn't all that fancy of a set either.

Best of Both Worlds didn't even have that much going in the special effects department either. Yes, there was a giant particle beam shot from the Enterprise's deflector dish. Yes, there was a pretty fancy if small-scale battle between the two sections of the Enterprise and the Borg cube. And the cube exploded. But that was pretty much the extent of the episode's special effects. The big battle that had severe ripple-effects not only in-universe for the Federation but throughout the Star Trek franchise, the Battle of Wolf 359, took place entirely off-screen (and would remain so until Deep Space 9's pilot). Despite the episode's limitations, it's one of the most memorable episodes of the entire franchise. Hell, you probably didn't even notice the limitations until I just pointed them out.

Think back to another highly praised TNG episode, Yesterday's Enterprise. Save for a few redressed sets for the interior of the Enterprise-C and a new ship model, once again the episode was played off entirely on the strength of the script and the characters. Once again, the big battle that the episode revolved around was rather limited in special effects shots. The storytelling of the episode was so strong that it not only rose above those limitations but became an oft-cited example of great science fiction in American television.

I'm going to revisit another show that I've compared to AoS, format: wise: House. Probably the most beloved episode of that whole series is "Three Stories." That episode worked because, as the title of the episode implies, it revolved around simple yet good storytelling. It used the traits and strengths of the characters (like House's sarcasm) to tell those stories. And then it whammed us at the very end by revealing that these stories have more to tell about House as a character than the characters the stories were ostensibly about. Fancy sets and location shooting probably don't hurt storytelling, but they certainly aren't necessary to tell great stories. Like the House example, the best stories are able to reveal the characters in surprising, unexpected and entertaining ways. Actually, speaking of which:

Feel free to plumb the depths of your imagination and go outside of the show's comfort zone

This is a bit risky because there are good and bad stories that lie outside of a show's comfort zone. But given the stale and bland storylines AoS is already stuck with, halfway through its first season, going outside of the comfort zone can't hurt it at this point.

Like "Three Stories," TNG's "The Inner Light" tells a lot about Picard (and humanity) in a surprising, unexpected way. The episode opens with the Enterprise encountering an unknown alien threat, and then suddenly the audience and Picard find themselves on an alien world, living quite an alien life. It's a very outside-the-box kind of story for what the audience is used to for TNG - and yet it fits the tone and even mission statement of the show exactly. Very little of it actually features the Enterprise or the familiar crew save for Picard. The vast majority of the episode takes place on a primitive yet familiar world bereft of any of the futuristic technology we tune in to TNG for. And yet it ends up being an extremely well-told, heartfelt story that's exactly about the type of humanity Roddenberry wanted Star Trek to be about.

Perhaps the only other episode that can match the power of "The Inner Light" is next season's "Tapestry." Once again, very little of it features the Enterprise or its crew, being almost entirely focused on Picard. Rather than introducing a storyline completely foreign, the focus becomes Picard's own untold personal past, and we even get a familiar character (Q) to act as a tour guide. This episode rises and falls based on not only the interaction between Q and Picard, but how Picard reacts to and validates his own nostalgia. It's certainly got interesting-looking aliens, but those aliens and their culture are besides the point, not the focus. Despite taking place on a Federation training outpost, it's lacking any real futuristic feel. In fact, thanks to the strength of Picard's nostalgia, it even feels like it's taking place somewhere in the past - and that's the point. Like "The Inner Light," "Tapestry" explores the same aspects Roddenberry pushed Star Trek on by means that don't strictly involve starships, vast battles or super-exotic worlds.

onlinecollegedegreee.blogspot.com How AoS made me regain my appreciation for Star Trek: TNG