An Average girl from the 24th Century, the golden age of exploration for Earth and Sol's colonies in the home solar system. It wasn't a week without a new venture towards an unknown planet, an unknown star somewhere in the Milky Way. Her own family were one such hopeful explorers hoping for a brand new home and a fresh start somewhere in the cosmos, The Great Unknown, when they boarded a colony ship destined to parts unknown. However, what was not known when they boarded that ship and departed was what was to greet them when they reach the stars, and the true danger they were about to experience.
The War to end all wars. The battle for Temporal dominance and supremacy of the stars across all time and space. Every moment of time was a separate battlefield, so twisted and warped that paradoxes became the normal course of time. One of the daily trials of life during this turbulent period was wondering if you were going to be written out of time at any given moment.
So, on the day of the launch, when the colony ship Jessica and her family had boarded barely had time to leave the atmosphere for parts unknown, the Time War arrived to her old colony home. The worst thing was that there was no man in a blue box, nor a Timelord relief force there to stop the carnage caused by the Daleks. Like a mass of robotic vultures, they swarmed the colony, raining beams of pure death upon the colony, and taking control of the hibernation colony vessel. Why? These Daleks did not show up out of pure chance. These Daleks, were a collection squad.
The early days of the Time War, while not admitted by any of the higher up Dalek drones who survived the war, was going horrifically bad for their forces. The Dalek High Command was almost in pure shambles, and they were still years away from ordering the "Upgrade" protocols, believing that their white and gold forms were still superior to anything that the Timelords could come up with. That type of thinking however lead to heavy losses, and as such, they needed new drones, and on a near constant basis. Luckily for them, these Daleks were still young enough to remember their creator's "Necros Project", using the nearly dead to convert into Dalek drones to serve the creator.
Jessica awoke some time later, thinking she would be waiting in paradise promised by the crew of the colony ship. Instead, she awoke covered in cobwebs, trapped in a Dalek casing from the neck down, left to rust away in an abandoned Dalek conversion laboratory long ago attacked and deserted, leaving the remains of hopeful people who just wanted a new life to rust away forgotten.
That was, however, mere moments after she awoke from the hibernation medication that pulsed through her system, when she heard this loud, booming wheezing noise, followed by gongs that echoed and shook the walls of the old lab. A machine had come to this forgotten place. A sentient machine, piloted by a man which, just like her, was a victim in the war to end all wars.
This is a very difficult post to come to, especially given how hopeful a lot of people were at the beginning of the month, thanks to the end of the Writers' Strike and them finally getting their just dues and earnings that they deserve to receive. However, as this month has rolled on, and negotiations have fallen apart, and especially over the last two weeks, bits and pieces of the negotiations have come to light, I have begun to feel more and more angry not just at the studios for leaving the table, but at the Actors' Union for not learning to make compromises and trying to hot potato the blame of what happened to cause the break down.
What finally brought this on, today, to make the statement I have in the title was of a column I read, an opinion piece from the Head of SAG-Aftra and how she is viewing this strike going forward, and fighting for two things most important, which is the just payment of actors for their work in Streaming shows, and the use of AI towards actors and in these shows going forward and how actors can be protected. However, again, as had been reported more than once, while the Studios gave them a low ball and disrespectful offer, SAG seemed to look to the moon and shot for Mars when try to counter the offer, not realizing compromise is the art of every deal. Not everyone is going get what they want, but a deal is there to allow them to continue negotiations WHILE your actors go back to work.
AI is another important part. While I do see its uses and how it can be abused, there are some uses that can be beneficial to the craft and to flat out rule out everything that SAG-AFTRA tried to do in the deal, again, that was reported, feels like they tried to sabotage the deal just so they could continue the blame game and guilt and force the studios back into that room, just the same as the Studios are trying to divide the union and fracture it's beliefs.
My support has always been for the Actors and Artists in this strike. The common individuals we see in the background, or the ones just starting out on their own, getting low and small parts to build their careers and begin to make a life on the screens of people all around the world. These are the people who deserve our support, the people that the Union claims they represent.
If one has a voice, they should speak it to show support.
If one has a complaint, they should not be afraid to let it out into the open.
If one has an audience, they should use that audience for good.
This Strike has reached 100 Days. 100 Days since the Union went on strike for the right reasons and for the right cause, to give the Actors their fair share and just dues, just like the Writers. However, unlike the Writers, it feels like SAG-AFTRA has begun to fall into a Game of Chicken with the Studios, with no end in Sight, trapping innocent people and crushing dreams in the process.
For those who wish to read the Statement from the Head of SAG-AFTRA which lead to me to this decision, Here is the link:
I thank you for your time, I thank you for reading this post.
It's time Everyone came together.
It's time, no matter what, that a deal is made.
Compromises will be made to achieve this goal, it may not be what everyone, or even anyone wanted originally, but a deal leads to more negotiations as they work onwards.
Normally I would try to write something else down, or at least begin something about how I have wanted to do something like this for a couple months now, but I have gotten to the point where if I was going to write something down, I better just sit down and do it. For those who are new here, Hello, I am MichaelWhovian and welcome to the corner of the internet I have decided to place a flag down and spout incoherently about topics, tell stories and sing hoedowns so that someone's day can be just a little bit happier than it was before. I have an Obsession.
All of us do in our own way, some have a library of books in a general sense, some of us like a specific show, or tale spun in so many different ways, and some of us have a hobby they love to spout facts that only the deepest of people into those hobbies would know about. Mine is about the many many adventures of Dorothy Gale and her friends in the Marvelous Land of Oz, a tale that has spun so many authors to write, so many different adaptations over the years, and is such a inspiration to so many more that it has nearly driven one of my friends to Insanity over just how many references to it there are in Media.
(If you could, Go and Subscribe to FreezingInfernos's channel if you haven't, He, Rainiac, and Kat are seriously three of the funniest people out there and deserve every ounce of attention that could be sent their way.)
But, That brings up the question I bet many people have. Why This? Why specifically the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, why choose this as the specific thing to be obsessed about? One Reason.
The Adventure.
Now, that may feel like a cop out answer to a lot, and how that could describe a LOT of different things, but truly that is the best way to describe the nearly 130 years of books, and adaptations which has taken so many people across the barrier into the Magical Land, and so many people have their own favorite versions of the famous tale If I had to pick two reasons to describe to you today, It would be just how mature the books are, and just how in depth the books get without describing the exact situations.
The Books are horrific in some of their descriptions, even starting in the first book, the one everyone has seen or read for so many years, but has been edited in some forms to try and pull back on some of the more graphic details. Nowadays, the story of the Tin Woodsman is thought to be well known, that the Witch of the East cursed him so he would turn into a Man of Tin, as such he would have no heart to love the woman of his dreams. However, in the original book, It wasn't the man himself she enchanted, but his axe, which through multiple incidents of falling out of his hands, sliced off his limbs, then his own head (Which the Tinsmith every time was able to use enchanted tin to keep him alive), until eventually his body was sliced in two, and when the tinsmith once again put him back together, he forgot the most important detail to the woodcutter. A Heart.
Then, there are the witch's forces. The MGM movie is one of the more famous in this regard, that the Wicked Witch of the West saw Dorothy and her friends in her land and sent the Winged Monkeys off to capture Dorothy. However, in the original book, The Monkeys were her last option. She had a Myriad of Minions at her disposal against the group, but most of their fates were not suitable for film. The Scarecrow against her army of crows, him breaking their necks each time one got close enough to try and attack Dorothy. The Army of Wolves with Teeth and Claws, felled by the swing of the Tin Woodsman's Axe (This one is graphic enough, that in some book versions this is replaced by an army of Bees, which after using the Scarecrow's clothing and straw to hide under, only find the Tin Woodsman to sting.) Finally, she sends an army of her own people, the Winkies. They are not harmed, merely as scared as the Cowardly Lion, who finds enough courage to roar and send the Army fleeing.
The Books are graphic not just as shock value, but to show just how dangerous the land of Oz is. These two incidents are not the only graphic or terrifying bits in the books, there are many different decisions made, to show that while the Land is full of Wonder and beauty, there is also danger, and quite a lot to scare those who willingly choose to follow the paths. That's what makes the books so much more exciting, is just how captivating the journey is.
(This, For Reference, is from the Wizard of Oz Anime made in the 80s, and aired on HBO. These covered the events of Dorothy and her friends traveling to the Wicked Witch, but again, made more tasteful for Children's experiences.)
The Other way these books have caught my eye is just how smart the Author was in talking about specific things, pushing adult subjects and themes in a way children can understand and showing them in ways that one can learn while reading.
In one circumstance, after Dorothy has been to Oz a few times now, helping people and showing her magical land to many a friend along the way, she has returned home to find her Aunt and Uncle in Crisis. Apparently, Because of the Tornado, Her Uncle had borrowed and tried to find ways to keep the farm, and since they were able to grow much of anything after the storm which sent Dorothy on her original journey, they are in danger of losing the farm altogether. Dorothy, seeing this, thinks of a plan. Asking her friends back in Oz, they all come up with a solution. Dorothy's permanent move to the Land of Oz, with her and her Guardians in tow. The threat, the real threat, of facing financial crisis, but fixed in the view of a child, showing and using a real life problem and turning it and giving it a magical solution.
The Other one, is one that is more inferred, but it has become quite a symbol in some circles over the years, and that would be the character of Princess Ozma. For those who have only heard of or seen the original book, Princess Ozma is the rightful ruler of the Emerald City, who as a baby was given by the Wizard to a wicked witch in order to make sure the child was well taken care of. (It is inferred he did not know the old woman was a wicked witch at the time.) It is during this time that Ozma is raised, as a boy, named Tip, and one day, after seeing Mombi's evil tactics one too many times, runs away with one of his own creations in an attempt to find his own adventure, eventually coming to terms with who he truly is. Over time, she becomes dear friends with Miss Dorothy Gale, and compares her to be closer to her with anyone else. Now, it should not take a rocket scientist to read into what he had written, and what he was implying here, but again, showing just how the author put adult themes and subjects in ways even a child could understand, and not doing it in a way that's in your face.
In a way, I think that's what keeps bringing me back, and why I keep showing it off,
even when I do go a bit far, but I think in all of Oz, there are things people can find that one does like.
For Nearly 130 Years, Oz has been written, and adapted, so many times, people taking so many different and varied pieces to show off about these stories, that the stories can and will bring
to so many other people. I think that's why Oz is, well, my particular obsession topic.
How many stories, yet to be told, of the Little Girl from Kansas and her many friends,
facing foes unimaginable and seeing sights only dreamed about in the most beautiful sunlights.
"I lied to you." The short, black bob haired man slowly looked to his alien companion, sat on the windowsill as they eyed out at the wet, mushy ground of a jungle after a hard rainstorm. "I was like that man, because I liked it. Because I thought there was nothing else. That my hearts were too scarred from what I was forced to do during the war I needed to be everything I wasn't. To be a hero for personal, selfish reasons, because there was nothing else for me besides that."
"The War." The Blue, tendrilled Alien, Aurora Tetiana, slowly looked to the Professor as he stared out the window.
He nodded softly. "There are moments. Even when I was changing my life for the better, to face you again, to apologize for what I had done, that I could pretend I could show you. Even though I hate them for what they did to me, turning me into another weapon against...." His voice faded for a moment. "You can hate your home, Aurora. You can tear it from your soul, try to make a break from it, look away and believe you can separate yourself from it and yet when you see it you burst into tears."
His hand slowly ran down the window, as he stared up at the cloudy sky. "The Burnt Orange Sky which looked like fire dancing across the mountaintops. The Red bark of the trees, with Silver leaves which shone in the sunlight like jewels. Snow forever at the tips of those mountaintops, even when the heat would hit, which made the tips look like glistening, towering guardians. Guardians with their shiny spears to protect the planet."
Aurora could see his other hand shaking a bit.
He looked to her a bit. "They lied about our very history. About the reasons for everything that made us who we were. Yet when I picture it in my mind, the night I left with her, my assistant, one of my friends who led me here, I can't help but hurt in the deepest points in my hearts." He looked to her. "I was wrong. I was wrong to just throw you here. I was wrong to make you do things you were uncomfortable with."
"Professor...."Aurora looked to him.
"That is why, if you would allow it, my old friend. Will you come with me, again?" He held out his hand gently. "Help me be a better person?"