5MV Update History

maintained by Zeke

FEBRUARY 2004

February 1

We're finally back! The disappearance was the result of some sort of server malfunction, and Owen fixed it as quickly as he could, but unfortunately that still left us offline for several days. We don't anticipate any further problems.

Incidentally, this seems a good time to remind y'all about the update list (because if you'd been on it, you would have heard why the site was down and when it would be back). Basically, there's an email list I use to notify people when we update. I haven't been very consistent with it lately, but I'm going to change that -- I'm thinking of switching to weekly update letters since we add content pretty often, but maybe not. Anyway, to get on the list, just write me at zeke@sci-fivers.com.ar, preferably with "update list" in the title.

And to get us rolling now that we're back, here's Five-Minute "Similitude," published at the Trek Nation on Thursday.

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February 2

Before our little server mishap, I said I was hoping to make last week a week of many fivers. That's no longer possible -- so you'll just have to settle for this week being one. <g>

Today I've got a new videogame fiver for you, and if you know me and 5MVG, you know it's Mega Man. This one is a fiver in one more sense than usual because it actually covers five games. Back when they were making Mega Man games for the original Nintendo, they did this thing of taking half the bosses from each pair of consecutive games and putting them in a smaller game for the Game Boy. For example, the first Mega Man Game Boy game featured four bosses from Mega Man 1 and four from Mega Man 2. While each of the first four also had a new miniboss, there's just too much character repetition to make them fiver material. However, the fifth was all original, and interesting to boot.

So rather than have only the fifth Game Boy game fived, I've done minifivers to cover the original parts of the first four, and a full fiver for the fifth. (Say that five times fast.) The result is Five-Minute Mega Man: The Game Boy Games. I'm aware that the audience for these is pretty limited, but hey -- my little brothers love my Mega Man fivers, and that's enough for me. (Also, switching series once in a while keeps me creative. Think of this as practice for those Ent fivers I'm behind on.)

Finally, happy birthday to Sa'ar Chasm! You've heard that name here before -- Sa'ar is a five-time guest writer and prominent forumgoer. There's more to come from him, too.

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February 3

There are several fivers basically ready to go now, waiting only to be HTMLed. Unfortunately, I was too busy to process any today, so it'll be a link day. Behold The Brick Testament! I've linked to LEGO sites before, but this one is different -- rather than building complicated mathematical shapes or huge sculptures, The Brick Testament re-enacts parts of the Bible with those little LEGO guys. There's some very creative use of LEGO here, and many of the scenes are staged hysterically. Be warned, though: much of this site is not work-safe. If you've ever read the book of Deuteronomy, you know why. (Thanks to IJD GAF for the link.)

February 4

Today we've got a new fiver from Marc: "The Enemy." This is actually the first Next Gen fiver in over two months, to my surprise. Fortunately, you won't have to wait that long for the next one.

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February 5

Today's update: a new Top 10 list from the staffer with the fewest to his credit so far, Derek Dean. (Which is only fair. Not only has he been on staff less than a year, but he produces so many fivers I'd just be annoyed if he were churning out T10s besides.) Here's the Top 10 New Year's Resolutions of the Deep Space Nine Cast, slightly delayed for reasons of I forgot I had it in my inbox, dagnabbit.

And hey look, I picked a colour code for T10!

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February 5 Supplemental

Speaking of top ten lists, there's a highly amusing thread going on at the 5MV Forums on that very subject, entitled Top Ten List Of.... If you don't visit the forums, here's an example of why you should.

February 5 Supplemental Supplemental

If you found #8 on Derek's top ten list confusing, that's because my aim was off when I pasted that one. I accidentally pasted it over #7, leaving #8 unchanged from the previous list. I've fixed it now; sorry for the confusion. (Also, apparently the main graphic on all the T10 list pages never got uploaded. I'll upload it when I get home.)

February 5 Supplemental Supplemental Supplemental

And now it's uploaded.

February 6

Now for a special treat. Kira, as you know, has been busy like the dickens with her Master's program this year, but she recently found the time to five "Hide and Q." Enjoy!

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February 7

I've had a lot of sites brought to my attention this week, so today's a link dump.

• Worst. Children's toy. Ever.
• In my continuing exploration of Enterprise sites, I found an interesting one called Star Trek: Enterprise Power Rankings. They carry reviews and statistics on the writers, directors, and such.
• I've linked to the Mega Man Network before, but they've recently done a major redesign and added tons of content. The site now covers all the five Mega Man series, with tons of material on each.
• Insane rants are always fun, and Sa'ar has shown me a particularly deranged case: Time Cube.
• IJD would like to warn you that It's A Trap. (And here's one for old Nintendo TV show fans.)

February 8

Remember Wowbagger, who brought us Star Trek: Armada? He's back, this time wielding a classic original Star Trek episode: The Devil in the Dark. Bring your own calculator.

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February 9

I'm waiting to get the final okay from a couple of guest writers, so no new fivers today. However, I did update -- wait for it -- the Links section! No fooling! It's a small update, but given that I haven't even touched that section in over two years....

February 10

I guarantee you weren't expecting today's fiver. Here's the pilot of Doctor Who, "An Unearthly Child." It's by a new guest writer named Scooter, and he's got more coming, including one that's already in my inbox. What's more, SCMoll plans to do more Who fivers too. A big Doctor Who content increase... Who'da thunk it? (Yeah, he probably would have.)

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February 11

The stats pages in the About section are now up to date. Also, in the Features section, I recently discovered that the multimedia files were missing; I've put them back now. Yes, that includes the two incredibly sucktastic images I made way back when.

February 12

Remember Kristina Runyeon-Odeberg? Sure you do! She's a 5MV veteran with seven fivers under her belt, the most recent being "The 37s" and "Once Upon a Planet." She hasn't had a new one lately, but that doesn't mean she hasn't been working; she's had several fivers in progress or awaiting processing, and the first of those, "Miri," is now online for your reading pleasure.

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February 13

Here's the third Next Gen fiver in a mere two weeks: Marc Richard's treatment of the classic "I, Borg."

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February 14

Remember Kristina Runyeon-Odeberg? I should hope so. Only two days after her fiver of a classic Original Series episode appeared, here she is with another one! Say hello to "Arena." (This being Valentine's Day, we felt a fiver about people beating the crap out of each other was appropriate.)

Read this and expect a very angry Angel post tomorrow.

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February 15

Well, if you followed that link I posted yesterday, you know what I'm pissed about: Angel has been cancelled. This doesn't come as a great surprise. Like Enterprise, its ratings are low by prime-time TV standards, despite a large and dedicated fan following. So the WB, always keeping the bottom line in mind, won't be renewing it for a sixth season.

Let me just take a minute to put this in context. Survivor will be renewed. The Bachelor(ette) will be renewed. Average Joe will be renewed. Queer Eye For the Straight Guy will be renewed. American Idol will be renewed. My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, WWE Smackdown... these will all be with us for seasons to come.

In contrast, Angel is cancelled. Firefly is cancelled. Enterprise is dangerously close to cancellation. Farscape has grudgingly been cleared for a miniseries, four episodes to tie up the brilliant plotlines and character arcs that could easily have yielded another four seasons. Nor is it only sf series that suffer: the most intelligent drama series, like The Guardian, are usually "on the bubble."

What is this? Do we just not care about creativity anymore? How long before the television medium isn't allowed to offer anything but fictional, staged "reality," sickeningly fake human emotion, and commercials?

Anyway, while the chances of saving Angel are slim, here are what links I can provide. This petition is growing very fast. RenewAngel.com played a role in getting the series picked up for Season 5 and is sure to do all it can now. And keep an eye on Sci-Fivers here at 5MV, because you can expect to see a reaction to the situation from us. Finally, before I leave this subject, here's a link to The Enterprise Project, a very worthy cause and one that'll get a full writeup from me on another link day.

There's still hope for Angel, and the Mutant Enemy crew are going to try everything they can. But with each piece of news like this I'm more convinced that there isn't still hope for television.

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February 17

Sorry I missed last night's update; once again I've been running a sleep debt, and I just konked out completely at 8 last night. For today, there's a new entry in Jokes and References.

February 18

Wow, quite the hitcount we got today -- over 640. Looks like the main cause is a thread over at TrekWeb.

There's a fiver ready to go, but I'm really tired and it's spring break, so I'm going to leave it till tomorrow. See you then.

February 19

And here's the new fiver: "The Galileo Seven," by IJD GAF. This is the latest in what appears to be a concerted effort to wipe out the original series' first season. (Speaking of 5MST, longtime readers will remember that that subsite's birthday is around this time of year. Indeed, it's February 22. Unfortunately, the celebration will be slightly delayed this year, but I guarantee it'll be worth the wait.)

I'm leaving for Waterloo tomorrow morning to check out their grad program, so I'll be out of touch till Sunday afternoon. I've asked Kira to make the next couple of updates; I know she has at least one fiver to entertain you with, so you'll have fun. See you when I get back.

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February 20

Kira here. There will be a new fiver tomorrow -- and a Voyager one, at that! -- but for today here's a link to the site for a show hosted by one of my favorite comedians, Rick Mercer: Rick Mercer's Monday Report. Every week they put clips from the latest show up on the site; they're hilarious and well worth a look if you poke around and find them. (If you're in Canada or get CBC, the show itself is even more worth your time, on -- surprisingly enough -- Mondays.) If you don't find it funny, it's probably because you're not Canadian.

February 21

Kira again, with a rare treat: a Voyager guest fiver. You may remember guest writer Nic Corelli from such fivers as "Symbiosis" and "Defiant", and today he brings us Five-Minute "Darkling."

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February 22

Zeke here. I'm back from Waterloo, which turned out to have quite an excellent math grad program indeed. Today's link is one almost all our readers know, but I have a reason for posting it. TrekToday is best Star Trek news source online and arguably the most useful Trek website out there -- and it just turned five years old! Moreover, TT just got even more useful with an episode guide that now covers all six Trek series and not just Enterprise. All the staff of TT have my congratulations, especially Christian, who started it all (and to whom I'm very grateful for offering to carry my parodies there). Happy fifth, guys!

February 23

As of this morning, 5MV has now had over 300000 visits! Thanks for reading, everybody.

February 24

No update today. Same reason as yesterday, and twice as frustrating. I'll have something tomorrow.

February 25

I used the word "tomorrow" again, didn't I? Sigh.

For today's link, if you missed out on the Real Ultimate Power craze as I did, it's not too late to witness the sheer awesomeness of it. This page is cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet.

February 27

For today's link, here are some Nintendo T-shirts IJD found. He has the Zelda one.

February 28

I like linking to Enterprise sites, so here's one of the longest-established, a rather specialized one. The Linguistics Database is your source for all things Hoshi Sato. LD's large, active forum is particularly notable.

February 29

Happy Leap Day... arrgh, I should have arranged for a Quantum Leap fiver.

Today's link is TermanWeb, home of Jim Terman. There are a number of things on this site, notably reviews of most of Babylon 5 and the last four seasons of DS9; he's a good reviewer with interesting comments. But my favourite part by far is the B5 Conventional Wisdom Watch, where he pithily summarizes how each character fared in a given episode (illustrated with helpful arrows).

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