SFDebris Review Site
So. I'm sure this fellow needs no introduction, but in case one is desired, here. Chuck Sonnenburg, an old school veteran of the alt.startrek.vs.starwars Usenet Newsgroup of the late 90s and early 00s, started text reviews of Voyager back in the 90s and went on to do Enterprise when it came out. He participated for several years on Stardestroyer.net's web forum, as it was effectively the successor to ASVS after Usenet began to decline.
Toward 2008, with the rise of YouTube and people posting online video reviews, Chuck decided to transfer his old text reviews into video format for multiple reasons, including making it easier for people to, say, listen while doing other things. He started and mostly focused on Voyager with occasional Enterprise episodes, using clips of episodes with audio commentary and humor. "Serious Analysis, Silly Behavior" was the phrase to describe his approach, and he gained a following on SDN and eventually elsewhere on YouTube as he picked apart bad Voyager and Enterprise episodes while praising those he felt deserved it. He also adopted some customs and traditions: every Christmas would be the worst episode of a series ,for instance, and he got a lot of humor out of depicting Janeway as "Crazy Janeway", a comic book mad scientist megalomaniac who tortures her crew for her own amusement and for science while plotting to conquer all. (There are other comical takes on other characters, and also serious takes - his analysis of Janeway isn't always for comedy but showing what he felt was the beating down of her character to the point he wondered if she was becoming a Death Seeker by the end of the series).
Eventually YouTube started blocking his videos on copyright claims, because Hollywood considers Fair Use laws to be something to wipe its ass with, so he went to content hosts, starting with Blip. Additionally, facing a lot of requests for other content - and starting DS9 and TNG to follow Q's arc for his Voyager appearances - he opened up the consideration of requests as well as inviting donations to keep his show going.
His user base also expanded, aided by word of mouth and being promoted by other online reviewers - Confused Matthew and Linkara particularly - and he started to expand to more and more shows and programs. Everything from the 80s Howard the Duck movie to "The Two Towers" appeared, and eventually anime became a big thing for people to request (especially after his clear enjoyment of "Puella Magi Madoka Magica" in 2013).
He also took a stab at documentaries. The biggest is the 13-part "Rise and Fall of the Comic Empire" from summer of 2015, an examination of the comic book boom and bust of the 1990s that saw the comic book industry nearly die out. He also did a three part series on the creation of the Transformers franchise and has done three six-part series on George Lucas' career and the making of "Star Wars": "Hero's Journey" for the first Star Wars, "Shadow's Journey" for the rest of the OT and the decisions and events that shaped his life and decision to stop making SW movies after ROTJ, and then "Hermit's Journey" for the time leading up to the Prequels, the PT itself, and then what came afterward and his ultimate sale of Lucasfilms and the SW rights to Disney.
For a time, from 2014 to early 2018, he was a part of Channel Awesome, and to this day comic book reviewer Linkara (Lewis Lovhaug) occasionally posts on the SFDebris web forums. Which, disclaimer, I'm an administrator of (although it's not a very demanding job).
Anyway, now that I've gotten that look at his material out of the way, I have to say this: I consider Chuck to be the pinnacle of what an online reviewer is, and more than that, he's a great guy whose work appeals to me personally. He's not perfect and he knows it, and he's not naive about the problems facing people, but he promotes optimism all the same. The idea that we can rise above our flaws, to be, as the late Sir Terry put it, "the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape". He is capable of presenting ideas even if he doesn't agree with them and promotes understanding and working out differences.
And in our world, we need that kind of beacon. It's why I'm a patreon supporter of his show.
Anyway, I hope his other fans speak up with their views, and of course we can use this thread to discuss his reviews as they come along. He's still cleaning up from a server host change for the web site, as it is.
So. I'm sure this fellow needs no introduction, but in case one is desired, here. Chuck Sonnenburg, an old school veteran of the alt.startrek.vs.starwars Usenet Newsgroup of the late 90s and early 00s, started text reviews of Voyager back in the 90s and went on to do Enterprise when it came out. He participated for several years on Stardestroyer.net's web forum, as it was effectively the successor to ASVS after Usenet began to decline.
Toward 2008, with the rise of YouTube and people posting online video reviews, Chuck decided to transfer his old text reviews into video format for multiple reasons, including making it easier for people to, say, listen while doing other things. He started and mostly focused on Voyager with occasional Enterprise episodes, using clips of episodes with audio commentary and humor. "Serious Analysis, Silly Behavior" was the phrase to describe his approach, and he gained a following on SDN and eventually elsewhere on YouTube as he picked apart bad Voyager and Enterprise episodes while praising those he felt deserved it. He also adopted some customs and traditions: every Christmas would be the worst episode of a series ,for instance, and he got a lot of humor out of depicting Janeway as "Crazy Janeway", a comic book mad scientist megalomaniac who tortures her crew for her own amusement and for science while plotting to conquer all. (There are other comical takes on other characters, and also serious takes - his analysis of Janeway isn't always for comedy but showing what he felt was the beating down of her character to the point he wondered if she was becoming a Death Seeker by the end of the series).
Eventually YouTube started blocking his videos on copyright claims, because Hollywood considers Fair Use laws to be something to wipe its ass with, so he went to content hosts, starting with Blip. Additionally, facing a lot of requests for other content - and starting DS9 and TNG to follow Q's arc for his Voyager appearances - he opened up the consideration of requests as well as inviting donations to keep his show going.
His user base also expanded, aided by word of mouth and being promoted by other online reviewers - Confused Matthew and Linkara particularly - and he started to expand to more and more shows and programs. Everything from the 80s Howard the Duck movie to "The Two Towers" appeared, and eventually anime became a big thing for people to request (especially after his clear enjoyment of "Puella Magi Madoka Magica" in 2013).
He also took a stab at documentaries. The biggest is the 13-part "Rise and Fall of the Comic Empire" from summer of 2015, an examination of the comic book boom and bust of the 1990s that saw the comic book industry nearly die out. He also did a three part series on the creation of the Transformers franchise and has done three six-part series on George Lucas' career and the making of "Star Wars": "Hero's Journey" for the first Star Wars, "Shadow's Journey" for the rest of the OT and the decisions and events that shaped his life and decision to stop making SW movies after ROTJ, and then "Hermit's Journey" for the time leading up to the Prequels, the PT itself, and then what came afterward and his ultimate sale of Lucasfilms and the SW rights to Disney.
For a time, from 2014 to early 2018, he was a part of Channel Awesome, and to this day comic book reviewer Linkara (Lewis Lovhaug) occasionally posts on the SFDebris web forums. Which, disclaimer, I'm an administrator of (although it's not a very demanding job).
Anyway, now that I've gotten that look at his material out of the way, I have to say this: I consider Chuck to be the pinnacle of what an online reviewer is, and more than that, he's a great guy whose work appeals to me personally. He's not perfect and he knows it, and he's not naive about the problems facing people, but he promotes optimism all the same. The idea that we can rise above our flaws, to be, as the late Sir Terry put it, "the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape". He is capable of presenting ideas even if he doesn't agree with them and promotes understanding and working out differences.
And in our world, we need that kind of beacon. It's why I'm a patreon supporter of his show.
Anyway, I hope his other fans speak up with their views, and of course we can use this thread to discuss his reviews as they come along. He's still cleaning up from a server host change for the web site, as it is.
