One of the greatest pleasures in life is indulging in the culinary arts and trying as many dishes as your stomach can handle. It is always a pleasure to try something you have never had before in your life and come away feeling not only content but also psychologically fulfilled in the process. Sure, there is always the chance that you might not like it but at least you gave it a shot – it just didn’t suit your particular tastes. I’m a pretty adventurous guy when it comes to trying new food although I haven’t quite gotten around to eating deep fried grasshoppers or scorpions yet as I just can’t stand the way they look. If someone were to “hide” it in, say a stew, I might be able to trick myself into eating it just like the time when I was a young pup and my parents told me to eat this piece of “chicken” that turned out to be frog. I liked it and I still liked it even after they told me what it was. Maybe I should just wear a blindfold so that I can’t visually look at something that might turn my stomach.

My wife and I make it a point to try and eat out every weekend. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy as even McDonalds works if we are in the mood for a Filet of Fish. We find it nice and relaxing to just hop into the car and decide on the spot where to go – maybe Chinese food, Greek, Italian, Mongolian, anything works. Maybe my wife saw an ad in the paper or something on TV that piqued her interest or maybe a friend of ours just gave their personal recommendation. Still, like everyone else, we do have our “regular” joints that we frequent. It is at these restaurants where the waiters and waitresses know us by name and can strike up a conversation about anything ranging from vacations to what we are wearing. Sometimes they just see us and know exactly which dishes we are going to order and the ultimate reason why these places are so good is that we go so often we end up getting discounts and even free food! That’s always a plus. I have a feeling just about everyone around the world has places they can go to where they are well known and they have tried every item on the menu.

Then there is what I call the “accidental” restaurant that we have ended up in even though we never intend to go there. Not even once. It is the place where we have tried at least half the menu, spent countless hours chatting up a storm but not really wanting to be there at all. It’s like the third wheel friend who tags along during your date with the prom queen who just gets in the way and makes you infuriated.

For us, that restaurant is the Expedia Café located in Toronto Pearson International Airport terminal 1. I can’t even begin to count how many times we have ended up in that eatery. It also doesn’t hurt that it is the only blasted sit-down and order restaurant in the entire ticket area.

Those who have not been to Toronto let me give you a quick overview of it. Terminal 1 is a huge high-tech gateway to the city that opened in August 2004. Like other newer airports from around the world like Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok, Beijing’s Terminal 3, or Heathrow’s Terminal 5, Toronto’s terminal 1 was designed with a striking modern look with a cavernous canopy covering the ticketing and arrival areas. All glass sides and almost bleached white concrete pillars accentuate the metallic highlights at the ticketing counters and row columns. Granted it is not as big as those Asian terminals but it is nonetheless an excellent facility save for one tiny problem. When designing this new terminal the planners decided that one of the greatest aspects of it was to make the flow of people easier from the ticketing area to the departure gates. They wanted that process as short and seamless as possible. To that end they designed the terminal so that the bulk of all the stores and restaurants were located inside the departure area meaning you have to past the X-ray machines and customs and into the gate area before you could really shop.

Although there are a few stores outside they are nothing more than a paltry number of magazines/convenience shops and an even lesser number of eateries. There is a Tim Horton’s donut and coffee store in the arrivals area along with an expensive watering hole but the way the terminal is designed it does not feel like a restaurant. It just feels as if someone decided to grab a few Ikea bar stools and some metal fences and cordoned off a small floor space in front of the arrival gate. If you want a fast hard drink go ahead but it’s an awful atmosphere if you want to sit down and have a bite.

So the only real eatery then turns out to be the Expedia Café located near the Starbucks on the upper ticketing area. Talk about monopolies. Whether we are there to pick up friends or relatives or see them off on their vacations we inevitably end up sitting, usually, at the same table, in that café and every time I get a huge wave of déjà vu washing over me whenever I sit down. For some reason it only happens to me at this particular restaurant – its like being Bill Murray in Groundhog Day where he gets stuck in a time loop, forever having to relive the same boring day over and over and over.

Now the food at the Expedia Café is not exactly bad. I know people always carp about airport food being terrible but I’ve always enjoyed it. Heck, I even like airplane food. Bring on that microwaved plastic tasting hunk of meat or the rubbery fish. It all tastes good! The menu at the Expedia Café is your typical western fare like burgers, chicken fingers, chicken wings, daily soup, sandwiches etc. The wings are not too bad although they really lay on with a bit too much hot sauce making the skin a bit mushy – I’d rather have it just plain or mild leaving the skin crunchier. The hamburger use to be like any other you’d find in most places with a single beef patty sandwiched between two buns. They previously served it in a basket but the last time we went there about a month ago they must have decided to spice things up a bit and now it’s served on a normal plate and the burger now sits on top of a big hunk of bread. Darn, why do I remember how these things use to be served? Makes me wonder how much of my brain is filled with useless information. Then again, I use to know Captain Kirk’s safe combination from Star Trek. Thankfully, time has excised that from my memory, probably replaced with what I use to eat at the Expedia Café. Sigh.

Being in the airport you’d think it was mega expensive but it really isn’t and comes out about the regular price you’d pay at a family restaurant in town. Now the ambiance might not exactly exude anything other than airport frenzy but that is actually part of its “charm.” I think just being in an airport is inherently exciting. It’s probably a psychological side effect that occurs since the very notion of being in an airport usually equates to one taking a relaxing vacation to some exotic locale.

I have always loved being in airports and just walking around seeing the people buzz about or going to the observation deck to watch planes take off and land. It is actually a downer when you see kids in an airport who are completely oblivious to the inherent “coolness” each terminal exudes. I guess the golden days of flying are long gone as taking a trip has lost much of its allure. Now taking a flight is as common and banal as taking a cab ride around the block.

When I was young I remember my parents gave me this little book/log which I carried with me every time we flew. I’m sure some of you remember them – you would ask the stewardess to give it to the pilot who would fill it out for you telling you the flight information, how many miles you were going and he’d top it off with his signature. Wow it was so cool to get a pilot’s signature! Nowadays you can just sit back in your seat turn on the personal TV in front of you and pull out the GPS digital map showing the same info. It’s great since the info is there at your fingertips but there’s no sense of adventure or mystery anymore. Remember those times you sat in the window seat and saw a landmass below you like a range of mountains and tried to figure out and guess where you were? Now you just flip on the GPS and it’s just there.

I’m sure my love for traveling and flying influences how I feel whenever I go to the airport. I just get a natural high I guess which probably contributes to my thoughts on the Expedia Café. I do like to get to the airport early as my wife can attest to. Although I do it partly to avoid the traffic, which, if you have ever been to Toronto can get downright congested, I think part of me just wants to get there so we have enough time to chow down at the Expedia Café and enjoy my wife’s company. It might be the furthest removed from being romantic or being that favorite restaurant you can’t get enough of but in my case it’s part of the whole airport atmosphere that I love to experience even though I might not be hopping on a plane to Shangri-la.

People who know me realize I’ve been trying to predict (yes call if guessing is you want) box office numbers since high school. For all those who remember “Entertainment News and Views” the quarterly magazine we published you know who I am! Or maybe not. Anyways, here I go again and unlike twenty years ago (it’s been that long) I now have at my disposal a whole wealth of numbers to showcase so let’s begin with the myth that Star Trek films don’t really do too well.

All figures compiled from www.boxofficemojo.com. Please click charts to enlarge. (Also please pardon the jpeg pictures as I am too lazy to code html tables right now!)









Take a look at the above chart carefully and you’ll see the box office performance of all ten Star Trek movies in strict dollar revenues as well as how much they made overseas (if available), their budgets (if available) and how much they made in their first weekend of release. Don’t worry I’ll break it down to what it all means a bit later.

Looking at raw numbers is actually not very useful other than seeing certain things like both Star Trek V and Star Trek Nemesis as being the two outright flops in Star movie history. We can see basic elements like 70% of all Trek films opening in the Christmas movie season as well as opening weekends seemingly come in on average in the high teens. Also note that there is only one movie to break the 100,000,000 barrier in Star Trek IV as well as the budgets on a general increase until we plateau at Nemesis’ 60,000,000 figure.

Let’s now get into the nitty gritty and drill into these numbers in a more meaningful way. As anyone can ascertain, looking at raw numbers from different years is basically pointless although Hollywood loves to keep telling people that film revenues are on the rise. It might seem that, for instance, this year’s The Dark Knight is blowing away the box office, but you can only tell by how much when you put it into relation to other films in different eras. Would you be surprised if I told you that if you adjusted for inflation it only ranks 26th highest of all time? That it has only made 41% of the total gross of the #1 film of all time?

So here is the next chart where, by the wonders of magic (called math!) I take the raw grosses and translate them into 2008 dollars.



This is not rocket science. Simply put you divide the film’s domestic box office by the estimated ticket price average for that year to get the estimated number of tickets sold which, is THE REAL INDICATOR, on how well a film did. For comparison purposes we times that estimated number of tickets sold by 7.08 which is what it is nowadays in 2008 to see how well the particular film did in today’s currency.

Now take a careful look at this chart and see what new conclusions you can begin to draw.

Right away you can see a whole wealth of new information that is more relevant. Trek’s golden era was most definitely between Trek 1-4 where grosses would have been at or approaching 200,000,000 in 2008 dollars. To put that in perspective that’s generally the size of hit as this years Kung Fu Panda, Wall-E, or Hancock. Any of those four Trek films would have cracked 2008’s top 10 and have a shot at top 5.

Then of course Star Trek V happened and the franchise took a nosedive to which it has never really fully recovered. Still, looking at the numbers one of the ones that should stand out is now the comparison between the two Trek failures. In the first chart it looked like Nemesis only made nine million less than Star Trek V but in reality the result is much more damning. Nemesis was a complete and utter box office disaster that 44% more people saw Star Trek V than Picard’s last outing. It lost 50% of its audience that saw Insurrection while having a higher budget. People with good memories will even remember the debacle in that Nemesis did not even win it’s opening weekend losing to Jennifer Lopez’s Maid in Manhattan. How’s that for rubbing salt in your wound?

Also prescient looking at this new chart is how Trek has been on a downward trend since the height of First Contact. It lost roughly 30% of its audience between First Contact and Insurrection and the aforementioned 50% between that and Nemesis. That’s an aggregate loss of 65% of the audience. In short, we call that franchise erosion.

There are many reasons that contribute to that: too many Trek shows, too many other alternatives, a general decrease in Trek’s quality, people just get tired of it etc. For all these reasons and more, Trek is showing a tell-tale sign of being ignored and thrown to the wayside.

However, based on these numbers when people mouth off and say Trek never did well at the box office they are, at best, only semi-correct. With all these numbers available you can basically break the franchise’s performance into two eras – before Trek V and after Trek V. Treks 1-4 were clearly some of the top grossing movies of those years while even Treks 6-8 featured an albeit diminished renaissance but by then you can see the series had fallen into second tier status. Still there’s no denying that the last two Trek movies have plunged the franchise straight into dire straits.













There is though the whole matter about foreign box office grosses and in this case the evidence is clear. Trek bombs hard overseas. For a series that keeps trying to portray itself as some sort of global phenomenon the numbers don’t bare any evidence of this at all. There might be pockets of success such as the UK but by and large the world outside of North America has ignored Trek.







Although we don’t have the foreign box office numbers for all the Trek movies the ones we have show a rather ominous trend of North American grosses accounting from 60-70% of total revenue. Paramount executives are probably looking at the percentage and wringing their hands in worry as to how the new Trek movie might perform. To put it bluntly, JJ Abram’s Trek cannot maintain this ratio if it expects to relaunch this franchise to any form of success. The only possibility that might offset this is a wildly optimistic scenario where Trek XI earns 250-300+ million domestic while foreign receipts maintain 30% of gross. Even then I have a feeling that Paramount will look at that result in a “glass is half full” way. By spending 150,000,000 on Trek XI they intend to hit a home run worldwide and bring Trek into the mainstream. If the new film merely mimics past Trek performance Paramount will think twice about making a sequel with a similar budget.

To put Trek’s poor foreign performance in perspective that a look at the following chart where I highlight other pure science fiction franchises and their worldwide grosses.












Notice that only in rare cases (I’m looking at you Alien 1+2) you find that total domestic box office revenue actually makes up, on average, between 40-45% of total receipts. In many cases that percentage is lower than 40%. A good rule of thumb when reading these box office numbers on how to gauge a film’s worldwide impact is precisely this ratio of domestic versus foreign receipts. Although there are always cases that go against the norm, the rule of thumb we should be looking at is really a close to 1:1 ratio. Thus a film that makes 200 million domestic should count on something around 200+ from overseas. In this light Trek movies can be easily seen as being only relevant to North Americans as the rest of the world has not jumped onto the bandwagon.

So the next time you hear someone yell that Trek movies just bomb all the time remember this quick analysis. Trek use to do very well in North America but alas has slid into the abyss with the past two features. Overseas, unfortunately, the person ranting is dead on. Trek doesn’t do well, nor has it ever done well, to the rest of the world. Will JJ Abram’s new film manage to right the ship? It is no doubt a daunting task to not only reboot (yes I know I said reboot) the franchise but also present it to a jaded worldwide audience that has managed to ignore movie Trek for over 30 years. Whatever marketing gurus Paramount has employed will no doubt be burning the midnight oil on this one as they attempt to get a new generation of fans onboard.

Well, that didn’t take long. The new Star Trek trailer has been released, in high-def no doubt, and, as if on cue, the nay Sayers are out in full force damning it to no end as a disaster in the making because, “it doesn’t seem to be like your father’s Star Trek.” Admittedly, the trailer has generated an overall positive buzz amongst cinéphiles but a large percentage of others feel that it represents a step in the wrong direction.

I am reminded of a recent South Park episode in which George Lucas and Steven Spielberg unknowingly “guest” star and are portrayed as literally raping Indiana Jones in two particularly harrowing sequences – the message here being that Lucas and Spielberg screwed up Indiana Jones And the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull so much that, in effect, they raped the sweet childhood memories of all the fans who loved the series. Now, I’m not here to condemn or praise what South Park did other than to say that the show has always been controversial but I can’t help but chuckle when reading some of the comments by angry Trek fans regarding the new trailer and how, in a span of two minutes, has ruined forty years of Trek lore.

There appear to be significant canon infractions like Pike seemingly becoming an Obi-Wan figure to young Kirk, or even the sight of Nero’s ship might pose problems as Kirk isn’t suppose to see Romulans until the episode, “Balance of Terror.” Not to mention the outrage that is still raging about seeing the Enterprise being built on the ground rather than in space. Still, without seeing the new film we have no idea whether or not these issues are addressed.

Now I’ve already asked in my previous post that fans try to have an open mind but I suppose I will have to be realistic in noting that people have their own strong opinions. I am not saying my opinion is correct. I might see the film and think it sucks in the end. To everyone who is on the fence or downright hated the trailer let me try using this analogy:

Do you like sushi?

I’m always surprised when someone answers with an emphatic ‘NO!” even though, upon further discussion, you find out that they have never even tried it. Granted sushi might look funny or even disgusting but you never know how it is going to taste until you put the blasted thing in your mouth. Yes, there is a chance you’ll spit it out and run squealing for the nearest latrine but there’s also a chance you’ll actually like it. Remember that Simpsons episode (One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish) where Homer refuses to go to eat sushi and upon arrival finds he likes it and stuffs his face?

This situation reminds me of something similar that occurred a short while ago regarding Daniel Craig having the gall to have blond hair as the new Bond. Imagine that! BLASPHEMY! You’d think rabid Bond fans would have tarred and feathered the film’s producers for such an affront on their childhood memories. Well, we all found out just what happened after that. Casino Royale went on to not only invigorate the franchise but it became one of the highest rated (check www.rottentomatoes.com) films of the year. Craig’s hair colour be damned!

I find that many people, fans in particular, who might know and breathe a heck of a lot of Trek lore are actually clueless in terms to how Hollywood works in this day and age. Not only that, they haven’t the vaguest idea how box office results can be minutely analyzed to show the corporate accountants and planners just how exactly their films are performing. Because of this some fans and even mainstream media still perpetuate many myths about the franchises’ movie track record that I will attempt to rectify here.

So for the next couple of posts I’m going to try my best to lay out the facts in terms of dollars and cents. I’ll try to leave out my biases and just show numbers.

I’m not going to comment much about the trailer as there are more than enough discussion groups raging out there at this very moment on that topic. I will say that on the surface it definitely looks epic and very action oriented. The $150,000,000 budget is easily discernable as the level of effects is truly through the roof and while we can’t see much in terms of sets, the ones shown like the bridge have enough nods to past Trek that I’m willing to live with the redesign. The Enterprise herself is roughly the same shape and the uniforms are spot on. The one thing people keep carping on is that the trailer shows little plot and instantly concluded that the story elements must be ultra sparse. After all, this is the team that wrote last summer’s Transformers so plot must be secondary. Right? I have no idea, well I do have some, where and how the plot fits together but I’m not going to write the movie off because JJ Abrams decided to make an action-orientated teaser.

The trailer has had its intended effect though – non-fans are suddenly curious and intrigued that finally Trek looks cool while long time fans are more hesitant. If I were JJ Abrams or a Paramount exec I’d be breathing a sigh of relief. Why? Let’s turn to some numbers and see where it takes us.

Well, after much cajoling, my wife has finally convinced me to start up a new Internet endeavor. Suffice it to say, instead of doing my usual regular web designs I've decided to do the trendy thing and start up a blog. As for what it is that this blog will be about, the quick answer would be - I have no idea! Actually, that's a bit of a misnomer since I have some clue as to which topics I would like to expound on but for now let's just say that it is going to be a mish-mash, hodgepodge of topics ranging the entire gamut from entertainment (movies, video games) to politics (OBAMA!) to what I ate last weekend for dinner. I just KNOW you really need to discover exactly what I stuffed into my stomach!

Since this is my first post in my brand spanking new blog I might as well begin with the obvious -- Star Trek and more importantly, WTH is the Galactic Pillow? I won't get into the grand concept of the Galactic Pillow today (it would take too long to explain) but I will speak a bit about Gene Roddenberry's creation.

As you may or may not be aware, the new Star Trek movie premieres next May 2009 and while expectations are running high I can certainly ascertain a concurrent stream of anxiousness rising from long time diehard Trekkers who are only hoping for just one thing -- please don't screw this up!

JJ Abrams, the visionary behind such recent hits as Alias, Lost, Fringe, and Mission Impossible 3 has taken over the reigns for the new Star Trek flick and while expectations are running high I can't help but give a little chuckle whenever a new piece of information is leaked to the public which results in Trek message boards lighting up like Christmas trees damning the film because it breaches canon and goes against previous Trek history.

Although I love the original series and cherish it as one of the greatest science fiction series of all time, the simple fact is that Star Trek as a franchise stands at a crossroads. After a few truly awful feature films and some less than brilliant TV series the once great Trek brand is beginning to resemble road kill more than anything these days. Once lauded for breaking new ground Trek now feels tired, old and most notably, out of sync with today's viewing public. In short, Trek is NOT cool and is seen more and more as the sanctuary for geeks and nerds who spend their time arguing over whether James Kirk's middle initial tombstone engraving should really be a T or an R. The horror!

So I have a simple message for all the people out there who call themselves Trekkers, Trekkies or whatever else you want to call yourself -- if you truly believe in Star Trek and what it stands for you really should not worry about nitpicking and give the new film a chance.

At its core Star Trek is about a sweepingly optimistic view of humanity’s future where concepts of race, gender, class or religion no longer apply. It is vision of humanity working as one with the only goal being self-improvement rather than monetary or political gain. It is in this regard that Trek stands in stark contrast with other science fiction franchises like Terminator, Alien, or even Star Wars which all have much darker permutations and readings on humanity’s flaws and foibles and in some cases even showing how humanity is headed for a bleak future.

The best of Trek, albeit the best science fiction as well, does more than show us pretty space battles or buxom Orion slave girls gyrating and instead act as great commentaries on current social ills and issues. Let us not forget some of the taboos that Trek broke through including the first interracial kiss on TV between Kirk and Uhura and a slew of other cutting-edge elements such as having a Russian onboard the Enterprise in a crucial command position (remember Trek is from the 60s when the Cold War was in full swing and only a couple of years after JFK and the Cuban missile crisis).

Looking at Trek’s legacy through the years it is astounding at how much this one franchise has changed or influenced our lives both through pop culture and more scientific arenas. Much has been made about how many current scientists at NASA credit Trek for getting them enamored to pursue their respective careers and even noted luminaries like Stephen Hawking consider themselves fans. Communicators in the 60s might have seemed like a pipe dream but today’s extensive cell phone penetration is a testament to those Trek designers of yore. And lest we forget, without Trek we would never have gotten, “Beam me up Scotty,” “Dammit Jim I’m a doctor not a brick layer,” or perhaps the most infamous single cry in history, “KKKKHHHHAAAANNNN!!!!”

In short, Trek has made a huge impact on the way we live today and still continues to inspire people from all corners of the globe. However, Trek’s past success is a double –edged sword. No science fiction series, including Star Wars, can match the sheer volume of material written, filmed and produced for Trek and therein lies the biggest conundrum that Trek has gotten too ponderous for its own good. Trying to get new fans involved is sometimes a daunting task as there’s much too much material to cover to get “caught up” with all things Trek related. With numerous series, books and movies most neophytes are too scared to try and watch Trek anymore since it requires a huge time commitment few are willing to undertake.

It is in this light that the decision made by the makers of the new Trek film to basically, “reboot” (yes the dreaded word) and go back to the very beginning seems like it might have the best chance to make Trek accessible again.

Obviously, with a new creative team behind it and a new direction, the film is sure to cause friction with previous Trek lore and might even, gosh, totally go against some of it but in the end what Star Trek needs is a shot in the arm of new vibrant energy and purpose. It's time to bring Trek to a new generation of fans that will hopefully not only embrace it but find themselves so enamored that they decide to run to Blockbuster and watch the original series, movies and subsequent shows.

It is admittedly hard to let go of preconceived dreams (Kirk never died by falling off a bridge trying to grab a remote control!! It was all a bad nightmare!!!) and ideas that you might have as to how Star Trek should be made or be about but if you box yourself in and refuse to allow a new viewpoint on things you're doing yourself a disservice. Yes, the new Enterprise might look strange but is your life really ruined because the star drive secondary hull looks like it's too far forward in regards to the neck? Are you really going to go and jump off a cliff because the warp nacelles look like 1950s car headlights? If you are then you really do need some professional help or, more importantly, you are just taking Trek too seriously.

Now, the new film really might just blow chunks but that's a chance you take at anything in life. Subsequently, it could be better than Citizen Kane and win a dozen Academy Awards. Doubtful, but if the new Trek film does what Batman Begins and Casino Royale have accomplished in infusing an old franchise with new life than all of us can be none the merrier.

Live Long and Prosper.



Create your own visitor map!