Switchblade Honey, Warren Ellis' "anti-Star Trek"

[superboyprime]

Switchblade Honey was a space opera graphic novel by Warren Ellis, which he described as "an extended gag at the expense of the colourless, clean SF of the big media. The anti-Star Trek, if you like."







He's sent to prison, where he stays for two months before being recruited for a very special mission...















Ryder explains why humanity ought to be saved:




Ellis goes a bit into the inspiration behind the book:




tags-- creator: warren ellis, title: switchblade honey

Comments

[theanswer]

Oh that's intere... *falls asleep*

[deleonjh]

Yeah, I remember reading it and not realizing it was supposed to be funny

[hurricane-jam.livejournal.com]

I was with you up to the words "anti-Star Trek." And then my brain broke trying to process the concept.

[box_in_the_box]

Part of the problem is that there are more ANTI-Star Trek franchises in sci-fi than there are Star Trek-style franchises, so trying to make fun of Star Trek has about as much cutting-edge credibility anymore as Jay Leno making jokes about Michael Jackson Roman Polanski being a child molester. Warren Ellis is to insightful sci-fi satire as the stand-ups who go "White people go like THIS, but black people go like THIS" are to nuanced racial humor. He's become the fucking Carlos Mencia of his genre.

So yeah...

[freezer]

A) We already had the "Anti-Star Trek". Twice (Babylon 5 and BSG 2.0)

B) So it's an entire crew of Ellis-brand assholes IN SPACE, huh?

C) Isn't this basically the plot of Mass Effect 2?

Re: So yeah...

[icon_uk]

Also, "Red Dwarf" for the deliberately comedic anti-Trek, and more recently the not as bad as some people assume "Hyperdrive"

[mullon]

I wonder if Warren Ellis has ever done anything that wasn't the anti-something.

[box_in_the_box]

I look forward to 10-20 years from now, when some angry, bearded Brit will proclaim himself to be the "anti-Ellis" by attacking all of Ellis' own tropes with as much vicious, cynical ineptitude as Ellis uses to attack everyone else's.

Of course, at that point, the universe will divide by zero.

[box_in_the_box]

... Has Ellis even SEEN Star Trek, or is he just reacting to secondhand accounts of it from online? Because this dogshit he's come up with has enough strawmen to populate the entire Sinestro Corps with Scraecrows.

[arbre_rieur]

He watched a lot of the original series as a kid, though he claims that's only because the family TV barely received any channels, not because he especially liked it.

And judging by the text piece above, he's at least seen some Voyager and Next Generation.

[catecumen]

Well, so far this is basic "WE's original Pete Wisdom as starship captain." That's not a bad thing, exactly; I like the irony of the concept. I would read this, even though I actually do like Star Trek in all its forms.

[box_in_the_box]

I actually think there's room left to explore for satires of Star Trek, if they're done with some modicum of intelligence and deft portrayal, but Ellis' attempts to send up Star Trek here are basically the Ellis-voiced versions of the "parodies" made by the Disaster Movie crew.

[box_in_the_box]

And the more I read Ellis' thoughts, the more I find myself wondering how far into his pensioner years his angry adolescence will continue to last.

Which, coming from me, is saying something ...

[strannik01]

The irony of this statement. It's so beautiful.

[pyrrhocorax]

When I first read the bit about being a reaction against colourless sci-fi, I thought it was star-trek-with-fewer-white-dudes and I was excited! Then I realised it wasn't that, so I thought maybe it was star-trek-with-less-grey-surfaces, and I was slightly excited. The I read it and it's star-trek-with-FUCKSHIT-and-TEH-DRUGS-HARRDDDCOREEEE

big woop

[foxhack]

...

i like it don't hurt me

[mullon]

He thinks differently from the group! Quick, get the guy who does the finger pointing and makes the screechy noise!

[seriousfic]

It's kinda weird that, in a sea of cynical, dystopian sci-fi, Star Trek presents a utopian future... and gets attacked for being stale and unoriginal. But still, Ellis did insult Voyager, so I can't very well hate him on that front.

[shanejayell]

I kinda think Next Gen ruined the franchise with blandness. It's a BORING utopian future with annoying people.

I liked DS-9, tho. And the novels are good.

[espanolbot]

Aw, I liked this comic. The aliens not quite understanding human culture and resorting to such propaganda messages as "Bart Simpson is sleeping with your mother!" for example.

Kind of liked Ocean a bit more though, to be honest. Ignition City was also extremely good.

[skjam]

The misfiring propaganda messages were done years ago in "Enemy Mine" (the book), where it was Mickey Mouse that was the target. On the other hand, swiping from the best does help.

[theanswer]

BTW, isn't the concept of anti-Star Trek just everything that isn't appealing about the future? The whole concept of Star Trek is that no matter how bad things seem today, the future is bright. So to make the antithesis of that would be to make the most depressing story ever.

[mcity]

So, Battlestar Galactica.

/loves BSG

[jarodrussell]

Can't we make fun of how Doktor Sleepless never comes out with any regular frequency?

[okkult3000]

It's Warren Ellis' "anti-comic-books-coming-out-within-anything-resembling-a-schedule". Or, you know, any book written by Warren Ellis.

[okkult3000]

Now, I'm not a fan of Star Trek (I also don't like Star Wars and have never read The Lord of the Rings; I'm in danger of having my nerd license revoked). That said, isn't writing an anti-Star Trek book like making a parody of It's a Wonderful Life? It's the most well-worn road this side of the Via Appia.

[cmdr_zoom]

Well said.

[shanejayell]

I don't consider this the 'anti-Star Trel' I consider it the anti-VOYAGER. There's a big difference. *lol*

[domino_blue]

The only thing I'm bothered by is the fact that they are smoking on a space ship, it's just rings kind of stupid in the fact that I'm assuming they are in a pressured environment that has an air supply and they are wasting it. I know Warren has most of his characters for whatever reason smoke but it just bugs me.

[cmdr_zoom]

It's Europe. You will be issued tobacco at the age of three years.

[mcity]

In retrospect, how much of Ellis' career is reactionary; parodies or outright mockery of traditional genres?*

And more importantly, how many of them do not feature smokers?

*Honestly, I prefer that RHJunior thing as far as Star Trek deconstructuions go. Not the ongoing one, just that one arc a few years back.

[aaron_bourque]

Now, Ray Winstone's type as a Star Trek captain is actually the kind of kick in the pants I think the franchise actually needs, not this reboot garbage.

[icon_uk]

I'd certainly watch it.

[bliumchik]

I liked this! I think if the parody thing weren't mentioned it would stand bloody well as its' own story. SPACE GUERILLAS! :D

But fuck anti-star-trek, I find it hilarious that scans_daily has such a heated anti-warren-ellis element. Sure, it would suck if the entire comics universe consisted solely of Warren Doing His Thing, but that really doesn't mean you have to jump up and down shaking your fist at the fact that he has a Thing in the first place every time someone posts some of it. Go read some Heinlein.

[cmdr_zoom]

A lot of people here are probably at least a little tired of Heinlein's thing, too.

Wait. That came out wrong.

[halloweenjack]

Congratulations, Warren, you've reinvented Deep Space Nine, only making it about 30% as intelligent because you've got a crush on a particular character actor. Well done.

[halialkers]

I hate Star Trek because it's an unrealistic idealistic series which especially in TNG had Moral Dissonance and Marxist Utopia Taken Beyond the Impossible.

....

It's still one of my guilty pleasures. And frankly, there's a right way to mock it and there's a wrong way. This happens to be the wrong way.

[lamashtar]

Now I want to watch the Annotated Star Trek TNG, pointing out the Moral Dissonance and Marxist Utopia bits..

[schmevil]

I find this vaguely ridiculous and dull. Pass.

[ar_feiniel]

This comes off really...well...boring. I'd rather watch a cornball simplistic episode of Trek than read about the characters in this Ellis-verse. At least the Trek episode would have a meaningful story.

[scenesaroundjackson.wordpress.com]

i dug it