Entertainment
Iconic Star Trek Character Was Written So Badly, The Showrunner Intervened
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Here’s a story that dates me (hey, it’s not like anyone else was dating me at the time): I was a high school student when Star Trek: Voyager was on the air. I watched the show with the rest of my geeky friends, and we generally enjoyed the wacky adventures of Captain Janeway and her misfit crew. We also spent hours (and I mean hours) making fun of Neelix. He was the ship’s cook, but he might as well have been its mascot because he was always written as the broadest form of comic relief. Why, we wondered, did Star Trek go out of its way to make a new character such a butt-of-the-joke oaf?
As it turns out, Voyager showrunner Michael Piller shared those same concerns. When reading the script for the Season 2 episode “Twisted,” he began to worry that the writers were transforming Neelix into nothing more than “the buffoon of the ship.” That’s when Piller decided to take definitive action. He didn’t make Neelix into a deadly serious character, but he decided to do the next best thing. In the very next episode, he removed the character’s growing jealous streak that he rightly assumed viewers would absolutely hate.
Orange Man Bad
This all goes back to the most problematic thing about Neelix: his extremely underage girlfriend. In the Voyager premiere episode “Caretaker,” Neelix goes out of his way to save Kes, his Ocampan mate, and they both join Captain Janeway’s crew. Kes presents as an attractive young woman in her early ‘20s, but her species ages at a different rate than those of us here on Earth. She’s only one year old when she joins the crew (no, really!), and the writers had to take care not to present Neelix as the dirtiest old man in the Delta Quadrant.
That’s actually how Michael Piller’s concerns about Neelix began. The previous episode, “Elogium,” dealt with Kes’s mating drive activating years ahead of time, forcing her and Neelix to consider whether they were ready for children. While it’s bizarre enough to watch the weird orange alien try to figure out if he is ready to breed his one-year-old girlfriend, “Elogium” also made Neelix into a jealous figure. Specifically, he started thinking Tom Paris was being too friendly towards her and that the pilot was secretly trying to put the moves on Kes.
Jealousy, That Orange-Skinned Monster
When Piller read the script for “Twisted,” he became concerned about an early plot point in which the crew was celebrating Kes’s birthday (she had finally turned two). Neelix made her a cake, but Tom Paris gave her a locket. Once more, Neelix felt jealous of the hotshot human pilot. According to Captains’ Logs Supplemental – The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, Piller was “terribly concerned about Neelix.” He was “afraid we were going to destroy this character if we made him the buffoon of the ship. If all he is is comic relief, we’re in trouble.”
For better or for worse, Piller decided to focus on only one of the ways the writers had transformed Neelix into the comic relief: his jealousy. “The jealousy he was showing toward Kes was becoming irritating, so we wanted to put that to bed quickly,” he said. Accordingly, Piller made sure that “Parturition” (the episode that came directly after “Twisted”) killed this particular character conflict. That episode begins with Neelix and Paris having a fight over Kes, but then they are sent on a mission where they crash land on a hellish planet. They must fight for their survival and take care of a baby alien, ultimately becoming friends who never fight over Kes again.
It’s a heavy-handed fix, admittedly, but Michael Piller’s decision is one that Gene Roddenberry would have agreed with. The Star Trek creator never wanted his main characters to constantly bicker with one another, but Paris and Neelix were constantly fighting over Kes. Thanks to “Parturition,” Piller effectively killed the conflict that was driving these two characters apart. If you think that kept Neelix from being written as bad comic relief, though, I’ve got a whole shipload full of leola roots to sell you!
Entertainment
The Sci-Fi Thriller That Killed Director's Career Deserves Another Look
By Brian Myers
| Published
The 2009 thriller The Box had all the makings of a Hollywood hit. A-list stars (Cameron Diaz, Frank Langella, James Marsden), a $30 million budget, and a hot new director to take the lead. However, the lukewarm reception at the box office and the mediocre critical response to The Box led director Richard Kelly’s career to take an almost immediate nosedive. Fifteen years later, streaming maks it possible for viewers to get a second look at a film that deserves a lot more credit than it originally received.
Kelly had scored a major success several years leading up to the production of The Box, serving as director and screenwriter for the sleeper hit 2001 film Donnie Darko. However, in the years since The Box was released, Kelly has only had a handful of projects in the industry.
Some of this has been attributed to his own admission of wanting to prove to studios that he’s worthy of another modestly budgeted film, and some due to sheer bad luck. Kelly was set to work on a crime film titled Amicus with Sopranos star James Gandolfini, only to have the actor die from a heart attack in 2013 before the project could be started.
The Box’s Moral Conundrum
If you’ve never seen The Box, you’ll likely be intrigued by the storyline alone. Married couple Norma and Arthur Lewis (played by Diaz and Marsden, respectively) are approached by a disfigured stranger (Frank Langella) who gives them a mysterious box. Press the button inside the box, the stranger promises, and you’ll receive $1 million in cash.
However, the stranger reveals a caveat to receiving the prize money. Press the button, and someone that they do not know will die. The plot of The Box takes a good number of unpredictable twists and turns after Norma presses the button, and the young family sees a horrific fate unfold before their very eyes.
The Twilight Zone Episode
The Box was conceived from a short story written by acclaimed horror and science fiction writer Richard Matheson in 1970. Matheson’s original story, Button, Button, was turned into a radio show in the late 1970s. In 1986, a screenplay was written based on the story for an episode of the revived version of The Twilight Zone.
The theatrical version of Matheson’s story debuted in 2009 and wasn’t a favorite of critics. Though Roger Ebert gave it three out of four stars, other critics cited poor editing and the sense of the film being more of a pet project for Kelly as reasons for their dislike of The Box. Audiences at the time largely agreed as box office receipts led to barely making back the film’s budget.
The Box is certainly worth a look 15 years later, despite the lack of enthusiasm it received in 2009. The soundtrack alone should tempt a good number of curiosity seekers. Win Butler and Regine Chassagne of the pop band Arcade Fire teamed with composer Owen Pallett for a film score that more than redeems any of the film’s minor shortcomings that critics pointed out.
As of this writing, The Box can be rented or purchased on-demand through Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home.
Entertainment
FIFA World Cup schedule today: Games, kickoff times, livestream info for July 5
Table of Contents
The 2026 World Cup weekend excitement reaches a crescendo today with two heated matches: Norway vs Brazil followed by England vs Mexico.
It all kicks off at 4 p.m. ET, with the first game taking place in the United States and the second taking place in Mexico City, where the hometown fans will have the opportunity to cheer on their national team in a decisive match.
Read on to learn where and when the games are being played, as well as how best to watch them.
FIFA World Cup schedule today: July 5
How to watch FIFA World Cup games today
Watch Brazil vs. Norway
Fan-favorite Erling Haaland, Norway’s 6’5″ giant center forward, is proving himself one of the game’s most unstoppable forces, but he will have his work cut out for him against the more experienced Brazil team, led by their all-time top goal scorer, Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior. Legendary soccer manager and current coach of the Brazil team, Carlo Ancelotti, known as “Don Carlo” to the soccer faithful in Brazil, will battle Norway’s Ståle Solbakken in what is sure to be a chess-like battle of wits between the two master strategists.
Live coverage will be on Fox and Fox One. Peacock will carry the live Spanish-language coverage.
Mashable Top Stories
Watch Mexico vs. England
Coming into Sunday’s match, Mexico has not allowed a single goal in the entire tournament thus far, the only team to have held their opponents scoreless going into the round of 16, but if they’re going to continue this streak, they’ll have to shut down the two-pronged attack of Harry Kane (now the nation’s top scorer in the history of the World Cup!) and top-tier midfielder Jude Bellingham, who has already racked up four goals and one assist in England’s journey to the top.
And for this match, there’s an added twist: Mexico will have home-field advantage in Mexico City, one of the loudest venues in all of soccer. ¡Olé!
Live coverage will be on Fox and Fox One. Peacock will carry the live Spanish-language coverage.
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More live streaming options
Live TV cable replacement
Not interested in signing up for a standalone streaming service like Fox One or Peacock? You can sign up for a live TV cable replacement service, like YouTube TV or Hulu + Live TV.
These services carry over 100 live channels, but run off a WiFi connection. You’ll get live access to Fox and FS1, plus a whole lot more. Here are some options to consider:
Watch the World Cup for free with a VPN
It’s possible to watch the World Cup for free on international services like ITVX, BBC iPlayer, NOS, or RTÉ. Our global World Cup watch guide can walk you through the process.
You will need a VPN to live stream the World Cup on these free streaming services. We recommend ExpressVPN — a Mashable-tested service and an Official Tournament Supporter of the FIFA World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Europe — as our VPN of choice for sport. It offers servers in 105 countries, a user-friendly app available on all major devices, a speedy connection, and up to 10 simultaneous connections.
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Entertainment
Marvel Icon Punished For Having A Huge Bulge
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Have you played Marvel Rivals? If you can get over the fact that it’s basically a reskinned version of Overwatch, it’s a lot of fun. This is a hero shooter where you take control of a character from the wide world of Marvel. There are a variety of team-based multiplayer modes; this variety, along with the fact that the game is free-to-play, keeps players coming back for more. How do the developers make money, though? Simple: they charge players for “skins” which completely change the look of the character. Many skins are modeled after famous outfits from the comics, and others are modeled after character designs in the MCU.
Whatever their original inspiration was, though, all of these skins have one thing in common: they are way hornier than you’d expect them to be. There are plenty of revealing outfits that pair perfectly with thirsty character designs that players can’t stop drooling over. Unfortunately, players recently discovered that the game had gone a little too far with Captain America’s latest summer skin. You see, the skin gave Cap a bulge so big that it messed up some of his in-game animations. This caused the Chinese developer to do the unthinkable: they shrunk Captain America’s penis, and they waited until the Fourth of July to do it!
The Battle Of The Bulge
Every year, Marvel Rivals developer NetEase Games releases skimpy summer swimwear outfits for various characters. This may seem like just a cheap way to appeal to gooner gamers, but it’s arguably a throwback to the ‘90s, when Marvel similarly appealed to horny comic book nerds with thirsty swimsuit specials. Captain America got an especially scandalous skin this summer, one that was basically short shorts and a skimpy tank top that showed off his hairy, muscled chest. Normally, fans would be panting about Cap’s thick legs and arms, but this skin made them fixate on something else: the comically huge bulge of the character’s penis.
Seriously, this thing wobbled with its own physics. While fans were both excited and scared (scaroused, if you will), some wondered if Captain America having such a huge package was an accident. Like, maybe the character model got tweaked in such a way that its pelvis was extending outward, giving the appearance of a much larger bulge. At any rate, it definitely seemed to be a mistake. In the game, Cap has an emote that echoes the recording in Spider-Man: Homecoming where he pulls out a chair and then sits in it. Previously, players activating this emote with the summer skin encountered a bug: Cap’s big, floppy unit clipping right through the chair!
Now, without making any kind of official announcement, NetEase games seems to have fixed the issue. While Captain America still has an impressive bulge, it’s not as obscenely huge as it once was. Furthermore, it no longer clips through the chair when players use the aforementioned emote. All’s well that ends well, right? Sort of. While the timing could be a coincidence, many players couldn’t help but notice how the Chinese developer waited until Independence Day to shrink Captain America’s weiner down to size. Do y’all really think this will even slow down an aroused Cap, though? It’s like the man says: he can do this all day!
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The Sci-Fi Thriller That Killed Director's Career Deserves Another Look
