By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 21 seconds ago

The most recent Starfleet Academy episode made very dramatic changes to two of the fandom’s most favorite characters. When SAM begins glitching, the Doctor teams up with her people to develop a startling diagnosis. Namely, that she is unable to process trauma because her Makers didn’t implant any memories of growing up.

To fix his holographic homie, the Doctor makes the major decision to raise a rebooted version of SAM on her homeworld for the equivalent of 17 years. Doing so helps the Doctor heal from his own emotional trauma (he’s still mourning the holographic daughter he lost over 800 years ago) while giving her the emotional resilience she will need to handle pain.

This is obviously meant to be a sweet episode that establishes a father/daughter bond between two unlikely characters. Unfortunately, this episode accidentally makes Starfleet the villain because it confirms they let a child into their academy and subsequently put her in various dangerous situations.

Life’s A Glitch

When Starfleet Academy first premiered, SAM was the character that confused me the most. She had a bubbly, childlike personality that was implicit in her programming. Even though she holographically presented herself to the world as a young woman, she was only recently programmed. Therefore, she came into the world with fresh eyes, often approaching things like a hyper-teenage girl version of Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

After the show’s first episode, my question was simple: “Wait, y’all let a kid into Starfleet Academy?” While different alien races must mature at different rates, it always seemed like you had to be at least the equivalent of 16 years (like young Wesley Crusher) to even apply. Therefore, it seemed weird they would accept SAM, someone who was practically born (er, programmed) yesterday.

Gathering Enough Data

Soon, I mollified myself with the notion that 32nd-century Starfleet likely saw SAM the same way that 24th-century Starfleet saw Data. To such an organization, the actual age of a person may be less important than their knowledge and relative maturity. Data knew more than probably any human from the moment he was programmed, so it’s not like Starfleet would have wanted him to arbitrarily wait 16 years before applying to the academy.

SAM, I reasoned, must be the same way: programmed with the knowledge needed to excel at Starfleet Academy and ultimately become an exemplary officer. However, what I hadn’t considered was that Data originally had no emotions for Starfleet to worry about. Combined with his extensive knowledge, that made him more or less like a Vulcan. SAM’s emotions, however, were front and center in “Life of the Stars,” an episode that accidentally reveals Starfleet as a villain.

Starfleet’s Sudden Heel Turn

In that episode, SAM begins glitching out, and things get bad enough that the Doctor and Chancellor Ake take the hologram back to her homeworld. Eventually, they realize that she is stuck reliving recent trauma that she was literally unable to process. That’s because her Makers never gave her any memories of growing up, and without learning resilience, she would be unable to handle the flood of negative emotions that come from traumatic experiences.

Our heroes save the day by proposing that the Doctor raise SAM until she is 17, effectively giving her an entire childhood with which to develop necessary emotional resilience. But I was struck by the revelation that SAM was programmed with no experiences or memories of any kind. Sure, she had plenty of intellect programmed in, but in every other respect, she had the mind of a child.

The Dangers Of Enrolling Literal Children

In that way, the happy ending of this episode confirmed my original suspicions that it was weird and downright dangerous for Starfleet Academy to accept a child into its ranks. She was someone without the capacity to really understand most of what she encountered, and her attempts to process something as relatively commonplace (at least, in Starfleet) as trauma nearly got her killed. Put another way, Starfleet nearly got this cadet killed because they didn’t accurately vet her during the application process!

Maybe there will eventually be some crunchy backstory to this; for example, we might get a revelation that, post-Burn, Starfleet is accepting almost every application they receive. Back in the 24th century, applicants like Wesley Crusher had to pass a psychological test where they confronted their greatest fears and showed they had the emotional resilience needed to be a Starfleet officer. In dropping tests like this and just blindly accepting SAM’s application without knowing exactly how she was programmed, Starfleet put her and her fellow cadets in danger.  

Skeezy administrators cutting corners in order to boost enrollment numbers? Maybe Starfleet Academy is more like the modern university system than any of us ever imagined!

By Joshua Tyler
| Published 19 seconds ago

In 2001, Halo was launched, sending shockwaves through the entertainment and technology industries. There hadn’t been anything like it since the debut of Star Wars, a totally fresh, fully formed original property with complex lore, background, technology, big ideas, and even bigger action sequences.

It seemed poised to become a generational hit, an SF juggernaut. Blockbuster movies were planned, tie-in novels were released, and fans camped out days in advance for each new release. Then it fell apart. The promised Halo movie never happened, the games based on it declined in quality, and it was buried under a mountain of cash-grabbing and corporate greed.

Now, what should be the biggest sci-fi in the world is nothing but a fading memory from the past. This is why Halo failed.

Halo Launches And Becomes A Juggernaut

On November 15th, 2001, Microsoft released Halo: Combat Evolved. Developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios, the game was first released for the Xbox console. In 2003, Microsoft released versions for Windows and Mac OS.

Since then, Microsoft has released numerous Halo games, books, shorts, and, most recently, a television show. Halo has become a globe-spanning franchise with legions of fans. But now, it’s stalled, and as evidenced by the recent failed attempt at a Halo TV show on Paramount+, after nearly 25 years, Microsoft still has no idea what to do with it.

It didn’t have to be this way. Back in 2005, Microsoft went to work on a Halo movie, a movie that could have delivered everything the space franchise’s fans had been waiting for. Unfortunately, twenty years later, there is no Halo movie. 

Microsoft’s Halo Movie Dreams

After the mega-success of the game Halo 2, Microsoft wanted more from the Halo series. They knew they had something big on their hands, and as such, they could make lots of cash from box office sales. Not only that, but they thought a Halo movie would increase sales for their Xbox consoles.

To actualize its Halo movie dream, Microsoft commissioned a full script. They paid acclaimed 28 Days Later screenwriter Alex Garland a whopping $1 million to complete the script, and he delivered. 

Microsoft “supervised” the screenplay to protect their brand. Alex Garland finished the first draft in just a few months, and in 2005, the title of the first movie, Halo, was announced. 

The software giant approached iconic Hollywood talent agency CAA about its Halo movie ambitions. It was such a big deal and thought to be such a sure moneymaker that they held an auction to find the highest bidder.

The Biggest Movie Pitch In Hollywood History

To up the ante, CAA and Microsoft put together one of the biggest pitch events in the history of Hollywood, something that’s still never been topped. They hired actors, then dressed them in Spartan armor like that worn by Halo’s main character, Master Chief, and sent them to pick up and deliver scripts to major Hollywood studios. Around midday on June 6th, 2005, these fully outfitted, script-bearing Master Chiefs marched through the streets of Hollywood in costume and arrived at the studios in red, blue, and green Spartan armor. 

It was Larry Shapiro at CAA who came up with the idea that the messengers dress in Master Chief’s armor. He wanted the Halo deal to make headlines, and this stunt seemed like a sure way to make that happen. He was right. It was a massive spectacle, one that was widely discussed and covered by the then-flourishing independent online entertainment news industry. Everyone was excited, everyone wanted it, and word was that the script they were delivering in such an attention-getting fashion was as good as fans hoped.

Each of the Master Chiefs had a red-bound folder bearing the Creative Artists Agency logo. In the folder were two items: a terms sheet and a copy of the screenplay commissioned by Microsoft. These red-bound folders were delivered to every major Hollywood studio, except for Columbia, which is owned by a direct Microsoft competitor, Sony, the company behind PlayStation. 

After the delivery of the scripts, the various Master Chiefs waited for hours outside while Studio Execs read the screenplay.  Each studio had 24 hours to read the script. Each script came with a term sheet. 

Since Microsoft was unfamiliar with Hollywood’s culture, they wanted to dictate the terms. They planned to protect the Halo franchise by controlling how their game was portrayed. The clock was ticking. Everyone wanted to know if Hollywood would be ready to make an offer. 

It was the deal of the century, and everyone expected that the Halo movie would take over Hollywood in the same way the games took over their industry. Every studio responded, but they tried to negotiate the terms. Only Fox responded with a “Yes” on their term sheet without negotiating. 

Microsoft Makes Ridiculous Demands Of Hollywood

Microsoft demanded $10 million for 15% of the box office gross sales on Halo. This was in addition to a minimum $75 million budget for the film. They also wanted a fast-tracked production and required creative approval over the Halo movie’s director and cast. The demands were far outside the norm for Hollywood culture, and some of them were, admittedly, ridiculous. For instance, Microsoft requested 60 first-class plane tickets for its employees and guests to attend the Halomovie premiere. 

It’s also important to keep in mind here that Microsoft was not putting up ANY of its money into production. All they were willing to risk was the $1 million already paid for Alex Garland to write the Halo script. Additionally, the company was unwilling to assign any of the Halo merchandising rights.

Microsoft’s enormous requirements kept Paramount and others out of the fray. Eventually, Fox and Universal decided to jointly fund the movie. The agreement was that Fox would take foreign box office revenue while Universal took the domestic box office revenue. Unfortunately, Fox and Universal soon realized that Microsoft was an impossible partner. The numbers didn’t work out. The amount of profit left for Fox and Universal after Microsoft skimmed off the best parts wasn’t enough to move forward with the Halo film.

Peter Jackson Starts Work On The Halo Movie

While Hollywood’s execs were worrying about the numbers, they were well aware they had what seemed like a sure-fire hit in their hands.  

Alex Garland’s Halo movie script laid out a storyline that was basically the entire plot of the original Halo game. The Master Chief, assisted by an AI called Cortana, would fight the Covenant while attempting to save the human race from being pulverized. The story was a direct adaptation of exactly what happened in Halo: Combat Evolved.

In other words, Alex Garland’s script was exactly what fans wanted. It was also pretty much the exact opposite of what we all got in the terrible Paramount+ TV show years later.

Several filmmakers wanted to be part of the Halo movie project. Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings movies, came on board as a producer in October 2005. Commercial director Neill Blomkamp (who would later be known for thes sci-fi movie District 9) was to direct the film. 

Neill Blomkamp Tries To Remake Halo In His Own Image, Destroys Everything

Before Neill, Guillermo del Toro had also been in negotiations. It was Del Toro that everyone really wanted. Unfortunately, Del Toro passed on the Halo movie opportunity to work on Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. So, Neil got picked instead. Lord of the Rings special effects gurus WETA Workshop were chosen to handle the Halo movie’s effects. 

Unfortunately, Neill Blomkamp wasn’t happy with giving fans what they wanted. He began insisting he would do something different. Instead of making a Halo movie where a warrior battles his way across a mysterious alien ring and uncovers its secrets, Neill wanted to make a cyberpunk film. 

Blomkamp spent five months at WETA rewriting the Alex Garland screenplay, a screenplay that most thought was already perfect. When he was done, Fox did not like the idea, and they knew Microsoft would hate it even more.

The only people in Blomkamp’s corner were Bungie, the developers of Halo. Despite being almost certain to alienate their fans, Bungie loved the cyberpunk style Blomkamp planned for the film. Their support didn’t matter. Fox was getting sick of battling with Microsoft, and the entire project imploded in a fireball of greed and ego.

The Slow, Final Death Of The Halo Movie

The potential for profit lingered for a few years, occasionally drawing in newly interested parties.For instance, in 2010, DreamWorks briefly considered taking a stab at making the Halo movie. Just as Neill had a different vision for the film, DreamWorks also wanted to explore the Halo novels instead of the games.

Their idea was to sidestep Microsoft and its ties to the game entirely. It was as if creatives refused to take the game seriously and wanted to slap the name on something different. None of the execs involved thought that was a good idea either, so after a few months, they abandoned that idea too.

Microsoft proved difficult to work with, Hollywood’s entrenched interests were uncooperative, and Halo was just too big for anyone to be willing to spend the kind of money on it that the franchise deserved. No one wanted that kind of risk. Halo was dead as a potential movie franchise.

Halo’s Creators Abandon Their Franchise

Amidst all of the mess, Halo’s creators at Bungie seemed to give up on their cash cow. From Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001 through Halo 3 in 2007, the series reflected Bungie’s priorities, not Microsoft’s long-term brand strategy. By 2007, Bungie was openly eager to move on. The studio no longer wanted to be defined by a single franchise, while Microsoft wanted Halo to outlive any one creative team. 

A separation agreement formalized this shift. Bungie would finish Halo 3: ODST (2009) and Halo: Reach (2010), effectively closing its own chapter, while Microsoft consolidated full control of the IP.

Given Bungie’s willingness to let Neill Blomkamp ruin their universe with his bizarre cyberpunk plans, some Halo fans might have felt optimistic about the change. But the truth is, the day Microsoft took over fully is the day fan enthusiasm began to wane.

The Halo TV Show No One Wanted

Microsoft’s inept stewardship eventually resulted in a Halo TV show, released in 2022, long after Halo’s peak, and produced by Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television. If you’ve seen it, you hated it. The TV series used almost nothing from the game and ignored the basic fundamentals of the Halo universe. 

For instance, not only did Master Chief take his helmet off, but he also almost never wore it. They even failed to get Cortana right. She ended up as a minor character who was never with Master Chief for more than a minute in the show’s entire run.

The Halo TV series seemed to go out of its way to avoid showing anything good. Characters often talked about cool things happening off camera, but aside from three or four minutes of actual style Halo combat (spread throughout the entire two seasons), nothing Halo-like ever happened. There wasn’t even a ring.

Now, with the failure of the Halo TV series, it’s unlikely anyone will want to invest time and money in a Halo movie. If you’ve seen the TV series, then you know they didn’t invest much money in that either.

Halo’s Future Is Not Bright

The idea of a Halo movie is dead, for now. Maybe in a far-off future not yet seen, fans will finally get the Halo movie they’ve wanted and deserved. But even that feels unlikely. Microsoft itself now seems to have given up on the Halo brand.

In 2025, they announced that Halo would no longer be an Xbox exclusive and instead would be cross-platform. They don’t think it’s enough of a draw to bother with anymore.

Worse, there hasn’t been a new Halo game released in years, and there aren’t any plans for it. Instead, word is that the old games will simply be remade and ported over to new platforms.

It didn’t have to be this way.  When those multi colored Spartans marched through Hollywood, they weren’t just selling a script; they were marching toward a once-in-a-generation sci-fi opportunity. This could have been, and should have been, the Millennial Star Wars. 

Greed, ego, and a failure to take gamers seriously doomed it all. Now, Halo is on life support, a dying franchise with little to look forward to, and fans with nothing to do but remember the glory days of midnight line release parties and wonder what if.

SAVE $500: As of Feb. 28, Amazon has the DJI Mini 5 Pro drone camera on sale for 30% off at $1,099, down from its list price of $1,599. 

If you’ve been wanting to upgrade your aerial photography setup, this weekend might be a great chance to do so. Amazon has DJI’s Mini 5 Pro on sale for almost a third off its list price, which is a pretty good deal. The Mini 5 Pro is an excellent sidekick for outdoor adventurers, aerial photography hobbyists, and professionals who want a compact, portable device.

The drone is palm-sized when folded and fits easily into a pocket. This model comes replete with 42GB of internal storage, so you can film your adventure or venture entirely uninterrupted. Its portability and compactness do not compromise its ability to capture high-quality video, either. As previously mentioned, the drone records 4k footage with a 60fps (frames per second) frame rate. DJI claims this drone will render your content in crisp, clear, highly defined detail.

The drone also comes with the DJI RC 2 (the remote control) that has a large screen in the center to see what you’re filming in real time.