#cause it's canon that spock and kirk can fight really well when they have to

[laney-rockin]

I love the canon implications in "Bread and Circuses" that McCoy can't fight for shit. Spock is over beside him absolutely trying his hardest not to kill the gladiator he's fighting as McCoy has to be told to defend himself lmao.

Kirk knows his too, seeing as he asked if Spock could help McCoy when he was done with his own opponent.

McCoy is the grumpiest doctor around and can't fight for shit and I just adore that character detail so much. He can argue with the best of them but give him a sword and he's mostly at a loss.

#star trek #jim kirk #spock #star trek tos #tos star trek #bones mccoy #bread and circuses #i love that mccoy can't fight #cause it's canon that spock and kirk can fight really well when they have to #i guess bones traded fighting skills for common sense #which is fair considering who spock and kirk are as people #someone needs to make sure that the mad scientist vulcan and his nerdy yet himbo boyfriend are kepy safe

[sshbpodcast]

Doublemint, Doublemint, Doublemint Trek: Doppelgängers in Star Trek (Part 1)

By Ames

This week, it’s just me, myself, and I as A Star to Steer Her By is having a 2-for-1 sale of all the doppelgängers, imitators, shapeshifters, and other character duplicates on Star Trek. Whether it be a mistaken identity, an existential crisis, or some kind of cloning accident gone wrong, leave it to science fiction to turn the art of the soliloquy into a dialogue. But giving actors the opportunity to act across from themself makes for such a fun sight gag, depending on how well the compositing holds up.

We’re not even including all the mirror universe doubles running around (that can wait for another day), and this is still going such a long list that I’m going to have to break it into two posts because we get progressively looser and looser with the definition of doppelgänger, so check out batch one below and listen to our replicants on this week’s podcast episode (discussion at 1:08:06). Check out Part Two here! What can we say: two heads are better than one.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

“The Man Trap”

We start things off really early in the canon with the very first released episode of TOS, when the technology to show duplicates on screen wasn’t there yet. Some clever cuts, scene transitions, and never having the M-113 creature in the same shot with the person they were impersonating certainly helped. We love us some salt vampire, so it’s a good way to start the show off with a lot of shape changing!

“The Enemy Within”

Certainly one of the most infamous double-Kirk instances (and there are a lot!) is in the Jekyll-and-Hyde allegory “The Enemy Within,” in which the captain is literally duplicated and forced to reunify himself. Again, we’re mostly treated to a TON of watching Shatner and his stunt double, but there’s a brief moment when we have our first onscreen pair! We’re Captain Kirk!

“What Are Little Girls Made of?”

Yet another double Kirk just two episodes later, and still not the last time either. The composite work to get two Shatners in the same shot is the most extensive yet, when the android copy of Kirk is created, and you know what? It’s not bad! This episode gets two Kirks up!

“I, Mudd”

Next season, we get a ton of doubling up when we go to Mudd’s planet of androids. While most of them are just twin actors to make things slightly easier, we definitely get a whole ton of Stellas! Harcourt’s got another thing coming because we know there are at least 500 copies of his nagging wife, all ready to tear him a new one!

“Whom Gods Destroy”

We’re back to multiple Kirks when Garth of Izar proves he can shapeshift into anybody he wants. This episode is epic for its over-the-top Shatner acting, but also deserves some praise for a Kirk-on-Kirk fight scene that holds up pretty well!

“Yesteryear”

You’re going to see a handful of character doubles caused by meeting oneself during a time travel incident in this list, and the first (but not the last) involves meeting oneself as a child. Young Spock remains oblivious about the identity of his cousin from afar who’s trying earnestly to amend the timeline broken by those fools playing willy nilly with the Guardian of Forever.

“The Survivor”

You’d think that using the animated medium would allow for more scenes that would be unfeasible in live action filming, but alas. When it should be intrinsically possible to have a whole bunch of Kirks running around when our Vendorian friend takes on his shape, we never get them in the same shot! What a waste of the whole format (you know, like that whole series).

“The Infinite Vulcan”

Somehow, the very next episode in the animated show gives us exactly what we want. Two Spocks who interact and are in the same shot together. Sure, one of them is a giant for no particular reason, but that’s at least doing something new and different with the animation that we couldn’t do on the original show. And I’m counting that giant Apollo scene from “Who Mourns for Adonais?”

The Motion Picture

Sure, the original Ilia is killed by the time we see her replacement in probe form, but it’s still a duplicate. And this duplicate is just like the real thing, even down to her eye moisture, as is pointedly shared with us if only to make us cringe even harder.

The Undiscovered Country

One final double Kirk to get out of the way, as the final of the TOS movies introduces us to Martia, a chameloid who can take on other beings’ shapes, including for our final Kirk-on-Kirk fight which is always a bowl of fun.

“We’ll Always Have Paris”

If you thought that was a lot of Shatners, get ready to see a ton of our Enterprise-D heroes throughout The Next Generation. Let’s start things off with a season one banger, with a time hiccup that makes the crew keep running into themselves from a few seconds out of sync.

“Datalore,” “Brothers,” “Descent”

Data’s brother Lore may be his own character and is treated as such, but also being portrayed by Brent Spiner gives him the advantage of getting to pretend to be Data pretty much every time we see him, so I’m lumping all these together. And how can we fault the show for giving us as much onscreen Spiner as it possibly could, as we’ll see when we get to the more spoiler heavy batch next week?

“Where Silence Has Lease”

The Nagilum doubles in this generally meh episode sadly never get to interact with their counterparts, but just come in and talk to Picard while in disguise to try to trick him into stopping his plan to self destruct the ship. There was some level of trickery afoot, so I’m mentioning it in this exhaustive list.

“Time Squared”

Here’s what we’re all here for though: dumb Picard. This episode gets to contain lots of great camera trickery and compositing to get two Picards in one shot, but one of them is there just to make acting hard for the other one. Or vice versa? It’s a little confounding, but it just makes me wonder so long after we covered the episode on the podcast: What did they do with the body?

“Up the Long Ladder”

The clone half of this episode is outshined by the absolutely bananas little Irish village half. But when you get past the chickens and utter thirst for Riker from that plot, the violation of having a bunch of people clone you without your consent is downright disturbing! I don’t blame Riker and Pulaski for wanting them dead, but boy, could this have been explored more and felt less like an afterthought in a way too busy episode!

“Allegiance”

Another double Picard, since captains probably get the most duplicating throughout their series, even more than O’Brien somehow. In this one, Picard has been captured because his abductors are testing some of humanity’s traits, while they take his place (and shape!) on the Enterprise to test the crew’s limits and how far Bev will go with him.

“Second Chances”

While many episodes that duplicate people through various means (the transporter, pretty often) effectively undo their work by the end, “Second Chances” has some lasting effects in that our second Riker, who IS in fact another Riker, gets to stick around and muddy the waters in his later episode and in some books. It’s a great concept but doesn’t get explored as much as it could; what I mean to say is Farscape does it better.

“A Fistful of Datas”

You’d just expect an episode about Data and the holodeck merging a little would have just a ton of Datas running around, and you know what? Needs more Datas! Sure, we get a handful of them, even in the same scene, and Brent somehow rocks a drag look, but if you’re gonna tease us with a fistful of our favorite android, then give us a whole fistful!

“Parallels”

Now we definitely get a whole fistful of Worfs in “Parallels,” when multiple dimensions start interacting with each other, including a super scruffy Riker who just wants out of his Borg-infested universe. This one gets some extra credit for its clever premise and a plot that’s unusually followable despite all the physics.

“Firstborn”

As if one Alexander isn’t enough, we put him in the room with his older, time-traveling self in “Firstborn.” Sure, it’s not like it’s a second version of the same actor playing across from themself, but it’s definitely a double character. And despite all the time traveling we do on this show, there’s less acting with yourself from another time than you’d think!

Nemesis

Oh boy, this asshole is back. Shinzon is a clone of Picard. Ish! Sure, Tom Hardy isn’t a literal copy of Patrick Stewart (his loss), but a clone is a clone, as this movie seems to want to force that fact down our throats. There’s also another double-Spiner when we meet Data’s dopey little brother B4, but do we need another screengrab of multiple Brents?

Yes. Yes, we do.

“Visionary”

Come Deep Space Nine times, there’re even newer ways to get the same character on screen with themself, starting obviously with Miles! “Visionary” is one of those time travel episodes that’s on the cusp on being too smart for its own good. Think about it too much and it falls apart, but we’re so excited by how many Mileses get killed that it’s AOK.

“Whispers”

And we’re not even done killing off different versions of Miles, this one a replicant who has no idea he’s not the real deal! It’s a good time watching the perfect copy that was made of the chief, right down to the way his wife treats him like a stranger and the existential crisis he has that is just so typically Miles O’Brien.

“The Adversary” et alia

I’m gonna just lump all the times we see Changelings running around in other people’s forms all over Deep Space Nine into one item in this list, mostly for my own sanity, and just partly because there’s almost never a way to prove who is or isn’t a Changeling in the background of any given scene. And as this Changeling pretending to be Bashir in “The Adversary” says, “We’re everywhere!”

“Doctor Bashir, I Presume?”

There’s another good double Bashir in “Dr. Bashir, I Presume?” and not only does it make for a good sight gag (holoBashir walking into a wall over and over again never fails to crack me up!) but it also drives the plot forward when daddums, whom we discussed in our Trek parenting post recently, somehow mistakes a vacant-eyed husk of a being for his flesh-and-blood son. Maybe Richard Bashir does belong a few rungs lower on the list…

“Children of Time”

Sadly, we never see Gaian Odo, who got winked out of existence because his love for Kira outshone a whole population of the crew’s descendants, in the same room with the Odo we’re all familiar with. Normal timeline Odo spent the whole episode as a goo stuck in a breadmaker, so we really only got to know a version of him who got to make a Tuvix-level decision that not enough people give him shit for.

“Time’s Orphan”

If we counted the Spocks and Alexanders of different ages in “Yesteryear” and “Firstborn” respectively, then you’d better believe we’re gonna count feral Molly from “Time’s Orphan,” another time traveler who pops out of some kind of whatzit and meets themself as a child. All of them succeed in preventing their bad futures from happening, though Molly did fully expect to go live in the woods for the rest of her life.

“Treachery, Faith, and the Great River”

We’d be remiss not to mention some of the best clones in all of Star Trek: the Vorta! We see a number of Weyouns throughout Deep Space Nine, but we get the most of them in one place in “Treachery, Faith, and the Great River,” with two of them activated at the same time. The more Jeffrey Combs, the better, I always say!

—

We’re at our image cap and only halfway through the list we came up with. Sorry, I did NOT expect there to be quite this many instances of character doubles in Trek, and that’s totally on me. Of COURSE good science fiction is going to make its characters confront themselves to learn whatever the lesson of the week is. Of course.

And our lesson of the week is we need another week, so check back to find out how many more changelings have infiltrated our ranks, keep following our Voyager watchthrough on SoundCloud or wherever you get podthings, double your fun on Facebook and Twitter, and remember: we’re everywhere!

#star trek #star trek podcast #podcast #doppelganger #shapeshifter #transporter accident #the original series #the animated series #the next generation #deep space nine #jeffrey combs

[unagringagenerica]

I really want to start writing again but I’m not sure how to, so I’m thinking I’ll try to be on Tumblr again and see if shit inspires me I guess? It’s not really the same as a journal—not like the kind that Josh wants me to start for therapy, anyway—just a place where I’m gonna let myself write random thoughts. I miss having a place online that’s like “mine,” but not in the sense of like, Facebook or Instagram. My accounts there aren’t just “mine” because a bunch of other people I know can also see them, so I have to be mindful of what I’m putting on my page. I miss the internet being a place where I’m anonymous.

I miss writing, too. It feels like when I’m writing regularly I have a much more coherent sense of who I am and what I think about stuff. I don’t know what I want to write, though, which brings me back to my original problem. I think I’ll take it slow in the beginning. But I just worry about how the writing process contributes to like, forming my identity and forming my thoughts. Through the process of writing and editing—restructuring sentences, changing words, etc.—I may change the meanings of things without being aware of it. Or maybe I’m not aware of it on a conscious level, but it’s a subconscious way to present a palatable version of myself....to myself? But also at some point you’ve gotta stop and say “no this is what I think” and have that be that. Because you don’t wanna go nuts.

I’ve felt like I haven’t been able to write lately. Like I’ve lost the imagination for it or something. Maybe it was just being depressed. I also really don’t know what time period “lately” covers—probably Ashton and onward. I don’t know, Ashton eroded a lot of my confidence in myself I think. I want to talk to Alana about that more. I want to talk to her more about high school in general because that was a really weird time. Also my friends eroded my self esteem a lot. Becca and Kayla of course, but also Catherine. She really was not nice for a while, she’d always be telling me how annoying I was and how my interests were stupid. (Some of them were kinda dumb but still.) But then Becca and Kayla. Mostly Kayla. I don’t know, that’s when shit really got bad I feel like and when I started having such an issue about whether people liked me.

One thing I ask myself is why I held onto all these relationships where I was unhappy. Like Kayla and Ashton and Taylor, mostly. Like why did I keep putting so much of myself into it? Did I think that I couldn’t find better friends/partners? I mean I was so desperately lonely the first semester of freshman year of college, like Ashton was the only person I really talked to about deep shit. And the situation with him was.....the way that it was. It’s just so hard to remember things from that time period. I remember that I would text Ashton a lot, and one time we had that fight where he said he was getting bored with the relationship and we didn’t talk about anything substantial. That was true, we would just kind of send each other mushy texts and memes. But I like freaked out because I relied on it so much for reassurance—but I don’t know what it was even reassurance about. I mean, I guess reassurance that everything was ok between us. When things weren’t ok between me and Ashton it was like my whole world was falling apart. It felt like a reflection of who I was as a person.

I’m getting a little drunk now and I just have all these sad things to say. I sort of meant for this content to go in my iPhone notes app the way I used to. I meant for the Tumblr content to be more like comments on media I like or like, life in general, and the angsty personal shit to be saved for myself. I guess if I’m to talk about my relationships with media I will have to talk about some of the shitty relationships I’ve had with people, too, because reasons I don’t feel like describing. That would be interesting honestly. To talk about my relationship with media I like. Or media that I’ve seen. That would be fun, and I could just write whatever the fuck after I watched a TV episode or whatever.

(It’s funny, I can’t fathom what it would be like to not be able to put your thoughts to the page near-automatically. Well, maybe not my thoughts, exactly—is a thought a thought before you call it a thought? Does that question even mean anything?)

Josh and I are going to watch an episode of Star Trek tonight, maybe even two if I’m lucky. I don’t remember which one we’re on. [...] Ok I just checked, we’re about to watch Shore Leave which is a fucking great and hilarious episode. I can’t remember exactly what the plot is except they have a Shore Leave and everyone just goes batshit. I think there’s a K/S moment in there somewhere too. Oh my god, imagine if I got back into the K/S fandom. Oh my god, does a fandom still exist for TOS K/S? I mean it has to, right, it’s like the most famous slash pairing/non-canon pairing in existence. The OG, if you will. Maybe I will go back to whatever that website....the AAKSA! All-Ages Kirk/Spock Archive.

I was considering sharing this blog with Alana but lol.....maybe I won’t.......

I’m gonna quit writing this post now cause honestly I’m kind of lit and I want to watch Star Trek and maybe make Josh get me my vape.

[spockat]

Fave Fandom and Ships

in answer to an ask from weeks ago, sorry

Fave Fandom and Ships

001 Fandom Discovery

Least favorite character – when MU Lorca fully revealed himself a villainous villainous man [stomping that guy’s face – really?! Diatribe against alien races? Ugh]. I HATED what the writers did with Lorca. Emperor Georgiou also hits the stereotypical notes, since she doesn’t have a mustache she twirls cooked ganglia instead, and she’s also been given the Villain Trope of being bisexual – because [gasp!] “what could be worse” [this trope is on display in many shows and movies]. Yeah, we get it, she uses every. body.

5 Fave Ships – Prime Lorca/Cornwell; MU Lorca/PU Burnham; Stamets/Culber; Tilly/Tyler, I really don’t have any others. While Tyler/Burnham was well-acted, I didn’t really feel it except in the moment at the end of “Into the Forest I Go”

Character I find most attractive – ummm GABRIEL LORCA

Character I would marry – Prime Lorca [In my headcanon he’s a really decent guy – as I write in my BlackQat Katriel fics. [Although he can be stubborn as fuck, and when captaining his ship he’s pretty much like MU Lorca in temperament, using a tad bit of sarcasm here and there. He’s a little salty, but damned good and his crew would follow him through hell because he’s loyal to them.]

Character I would be best friends with – Katrina Cornwell. I hope I’d be good friends with her, she is so levelheaded and [headcanon] kind and compassionate, and probably encourages her friends. [You don’t become a psychiatrist because you’re unsympathetic toward, or uninterested in, people.] Runners-up, Sylvia Tilly, because she’s effervescent and a good friend to people.

A random thought – I so want Cornwell to find and rescue Prime Lorca. [Headcanon] Prime’s been busting his ass trying to help the rebels in the MU, and succeeding in large part since the Emperor’s departure. Maybe Cornwell has to make a devil’s bargain with Section 31 to get over there … [story in progress, grin]

An unpopular opinion – Burnham was RIGHT and Georgiou was wrong. The Shenzhou should’ve given the Klingons “The Vulcan Hello.” It might have shocked the Klingons and sent them to regroup. OTOH it may have just resulted in …The Battle at the Binary Stars … anyway. So either a win/lose or a lose/lose, and since the latter happened, it would’ve been worth a try for result #1.

My Canon OTP – Prime Lorca and Cornwell. Though it’s not REALLY established in canon as a romance. I hope it will be. I’d love to see them on Risa or somewhere together and get into an adventure while Discovery’s on a subplot adventure. Or they could be the subplot adventure. I DON’T CARE I JUST WISH I COULD SEE THEM TOGETHER

My non-canon OTP – MU Lorca and Burnham. If only he’d been fighting a just revolution for the rights of all races. Michael may even have joined him, for a time, and returned to the Prime Universe, say, after helping MU Lorca institute a better government after the Emperor’s death. OH WELL.

Most badass character – Tossup between Michael Burnham and Kat Cornwell on the female side both BAFs, and Lorca is a BAF.

Most epic villain - Emperor Georgiou. Farming and eating Kelpiens, honest to god. Killing how many, like 10 people in her throne room because she couldn’t trust them to remain quiet? Blowing up the rebel base, well yuh, I guess that’s to be expected. Quite the opposite of her kind Prime counterpart.

Runner-Up: Kol. He’s a mean Klingon, even by Klingon standards!

Pairing I am not a fan of – Tyler and Burnham, not so much. Something about it seemed a lit-tle forced, and I can’t say what. The actors did a lovely job, but I didn’t see the chemistry that was so obvious between Lorca and Burnham and Lorca and Cornwell.

And this is totally personal and y’all knock yourselves out and enjoy them, but I’m not a big fan of slash pairings in general, i.e., “making a gay couple out of a sisterly or brotherly canon pair of friends.” It’s just not my thing and I know people love to do this because of many personal or fannish reasons, like more representation, and y’all have fun with it. It is a really big thing now. But … I ship Prime Cornwell/Lorca and it isn’t yet established as canon (any more than Kirk/Spock) that they’re a canon OTP, so …

… take my “slash” statement with a grain of salt. What you want is what you want and what I want is what I want, and in fandom we can have All The Things.

I love Stamets and Culber and I love that they are a canon gay OTP.  [Stamets is great because he’s a salty scientist and a BAF (“as I’ve explained to you, Captain”)(injecting himself with tardigrade DNA to save “Ripper” and get the spore drive on line, and Culber is a warm fuzzy person with medical brilliance and compassion, kind of like Dr Crusher in TNG. Don’t make the mistake of underestimating him.]

Character I feel the writers screwed up one way or another – Tyler got it the worst. Couldn’t he have just been a human with Voq’s memories implanted? Jesus, they had to CHOP UP VOQ? At least give me a reason for that. Maybe because L’Rell’s beliefs said Voq would die if his body died? But noooo, no reason is given, and gratuitous bloody surgery scenes are there just [it seems to me] for shock value.

Lorca got fucked over [by the writers] the second he killed that guy outside the Agony Booth – he might could have been redeemed by leading a revolution for just causes.

Also Prime Georgiou. See elsewhere.

And Culber. What could be a worse screwup than killing a character for shock value?

Fave friendship - Burnham and Tilly

Character I most identify with – I am a lot like Tilly in the sense that I can be insecure and unsure and talk wayyy too much. As an older woman I also identify with Cornwell [and love her age-appropriate relationship with (Prime) Lorca, and I hope they’re more than just occasional fuck buddies.] In temperament I also identify with Salty!Lorca or CompassionateCulber or SaltyStamets.

Character I wish I could be – Cornwell or Burnham. Cornwell because she’s brilliant and capable, a psychiatrist, and a BAF Starfleet Admiral … being defiant and fighting L’Rell; with its attendant risks; Burnham because she’s also incredibly brilliant and capable and a BAF herself. Beaming onto the Sarcophagus to plant the sensors? Fighting Kol? I mean dayum.

002

Ships – Cornwell/Lorca [my OTP]; Burnham/Lorca

When I started shipping them – I think when she said, “Gabriel, why don’t you fix your damn eyes.”

[And Burnham/Lorca, when I read LadyFangs’ stories including “Human Nature,” then co-wrote “Human Nature II” with her.]

My thoughts – Headcanon: they didn’t meet till after Lorca graduated the Academy; Cornwell is four years older than he, and is a fully certified M.D. Psychiatrist [12 years] and comes to the Academy Officer Candidate School, which teaches candidates about the service and its history; Federation history as it relates to Starfleet; what it is to be an officer, not a civilian, and basic SERE training, working out, leadership. Kat graduates with a commission as a Lieutenant. My headcanon is that she and Gabriel  actually meet when they each come to SFA for Command Training School. Kat has decided she wants to enter the command track after serving as counselor for a year or so on a Starbase. She’s heard from patients how bad upper leadership leads to a lot of poor decisions in the field, and she feels she can make a positive contribution in this area. More thoughts in my fanfiction at BlackQat on AO3.

What makes me happy about them – They are an age-appropriate couple!! This is pret-ty rare in TV and movies. I note that some actors do seek to have age-appropriate co-stars Cornwell is beautiful, but not a fresh-faced 25-y/o, and sexy Lorca finds her sexy, and yay, there’s hope for women my age, I’m so glad, and that’s why I ship them and write them.

What makes me sad about them – that MU Lorca fucked Cornwell in more than one sense of the word. Bastard! And, that now she feels “my Gabriel is dead.” I really started shipping pretty hard when she said that, and I really hope Season 2 brings us some canon Katriel “more than fuckbuddies” subplots or references.

Things done in fanfic that annoy me ­– Please, writers, I’m beggin’ ya, PLEASE proofread or have a Beta proof your story. I don’t spend much time on things that aren’t proofed and beta’d. I get too distracted from the story because I’m an editor.

If you love slash don’t read this paragraph which is strictly my opinion – It really annoys me when slash shippers tag their stories as het, then turn it into slash. This is stealthy and uncalled for. When slash shippers try to get hits on their stories by, say, tagging it as Spock/Uhura and then having Uhura “generously step out of the way because she realizes Spock has never really been into her, he’s really into Kirk,” blah blah blah, just so the author’s real OTP [not tagged], K/S, can be the OTP in the story. Feh! Just be honest and tag it as slash.

Things I look for in a fanfic – QUALITY WRITING, good proofreading, and BELIEVABLE CHARACTER  PSYCHOLOGY. Also staying fairly true to the characters, maybe pushing the limits, but not too much. [I like to write angsty private Lorca—and the character, so far, is pretty much not so angsty [that was MU Lorca]—yet I still write him as an efficient, sometimes salty captain on the job. [In his private reflections and relationships, though, sometimes, angst.]

I also really love it when an author writes a Trek-like plot, with exploration, a little world-building, or a battle scenario, or alien interactions [something I don’t manage to do that often]. I love romance and angst, occasional fluff, and always, always, a good happy ending or at least a believable and decent resolution for the characters. I don’t like downer endings, but sometimes they’re realistic.

My wishlist – A canon romance for Cornwell and Prime Lorca! But first, FIND PRIME LORCA. He’s fighting alongside the rebels in the MU. He comes back to Prime Uni with Acute Stress Disorder or PTSD. Kat recommends a counselor and checks in with Gabriel to see how it’s going, but not poke her nose into his actual therapy, because that’s not the done thing. Slowly they progress to resume their romance.

Also let’s have another CBSAA series about Pike’s Enterprise. [I know that’s not what you asked.]

Who I’d be comfortable with [my OTP] ending up with, if not each other – Lorca, with Burnham. Cornwell, with … hmmm … unless we go over into cross-over country I just don’t know. Dr. McCoy of AU Trek maybe?

My happily ever after for my OTP – a long-distance romance, occasional meetings on Starbases or Risa or other planets; passionate discussions about Starfleet policy over coffee; passionate other moments [wink-wink-nudge-nudge], shirtless Lorca ;^), followed eventually by retirement somewhere where they can have fun outdoors. I think they’d be hikers and sailors and really dig nature and space travel to many planets.

003. Character

[Ask: Philippa Georgiou]

How I feel about her – the writers gave her a raw deal at the Binary Stars, though she fought like a boss when she fought with T’Kuvma. If only Burnham’s entire subsequent story arc hadn’t depended on her mutiny against a fairly reasonable captain. If only Georgiou had opened with the Vulcan Hello per Burnham’s suggestion and opened negotiations from there. Or discovered the Klingons didn’t want to negotiate, and left the system to regroup with a group of Starfleet ships. OH WELL. Now she’s dead, and that’s really too bad, because she was a good nurturer to Michael. She did let Burnham and Saru bitch at each other too much; I’d have told those two to take it off the Bridge. They were being unprofessional.

Any/all people I ship romantically with her Hmmm. She was a bit of a cipher so far as that went. I feel like she has an old friend / lover she goes on shore leave with. Hetero or bi/pan? IDK. Not sure if she’d have a long-term fully committed relationship; I think she is mother to her crew and that takes much of her emotional energy, but she could’ve been like I hope Gabriel will be and have had a long-distance romance. We have not met a lot of people her age in Discovery except Lorca, Cornwell, and the admirals at Headquarters, and sadly, Georgiou is no more, so the point seems moot.

My fave non-romantic rel for this character – other than “mothering” Michael Burnham, we don’t see a lot of this either. Some fanfic writers have Philippa as Gabriel and Katrina’s Academy classmate, an idea that I really like, although in my fic, she and Katrina are the same age and Gabriel’s a bit younger. [In my headcanon Philippa’s an Academy grad and proceeds straight from there; Kat’s a practicing psychiatrist who goes to Officer Candidate School, getting her commission as a Lieutenant, then straight on to Command Training School – where she meets Lorca and they fall in love.]

My unpopular opinion about this character – she should have listened to Michael and prevented the Battle at the Binary Stars. But could The Vulcan Hello have prevented it? Who knows. The writers had their plans. Alas Philippa paid the price :^(  … she need not have died; the fallout from Burnham’s mutiny could have made for some sparks between them before Burnham went off for sentencing, and Michael could have been equally heartbroken that she had sundered her friendship for a battle prevention tactic.

One thing I wish had happened with the chac in canon – That she had listened to Michael. The Klingons might still have fought, but I feel Burnham was right with the Vulcan Hello and would have set the Klingons back a bit. [Shrug] But then there would have been no Lorca rescuing Burnham, no episodes 3 – 15, so … there we are. As I said above, she could have lived.

Favorite friendship for this character ­– Her friendship with Michael was not one of equals exactly, seeing as their ranks differ greatly. But I like the idea in some fics that she, Lorca and Cornwell are friendly.

My crossover ship ­– Haha, again, I’ve no idea, I don’t tend to think in those terms. Romantically? Matt Decker, before he lost his crew, got ASD and gave his life heroically to stop the Doomsday Machine, maybe. Or a stellar cartographer.

#fandom and ships #admiral katrina cornwell #captain gabriel lorca #captain philippa georgiou #star trek discovery

[aion-rsa]

Why Star Trek: Discovery Needed to Write Out Its Klingons

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The third season of Star Trek: Discovery was many things, including a trip into an uncharted future that released the series from concerns about pesky things like existing franchise canon and a soft reboot that allowed a show that had often struggled to determine its identity to find its voice at last. It was also the first Discovery season that didn’t feature one particular Star Trek staple: The Klingon race. Are those things connected to one another? Signs definitely point to yes.

To be fair, few fans were probably that surprised by this particular narrative. The Klingons are essentially Discovery’s white whale, the one part of the show’s universe that it can never quite get right and whose appeal it can never capture, no matter how it tries or what twists it pulls. Virtually every subplot involving Klingon characters has been nothing short of a disaster, whether we’re either talking about the galaxy’s dullest war story or that time Michael Burnham ended up falling in love with a Klingon sleeper agent essentially wearing a human suit. (Season 1 was a journey, folks.) By the time Season 3 started, many viewers were probably more than happy to bid these characters farewell.

The show’s first season focused heavily on the fallout from the Battle at the Binary Stars, the opening salvo in the supposedly epic Federation-Klingon War that turned out to involve a lot more longwinded talking than exciting space battles. Discovery Season 1 went all-in on showing us the intricacies of Klingon politics, complete with multiple, extended scenes spoken only in Klingon (with subtitles) that derailed the momentum of any episode they happened to be in. There were weird tribal prophecies and a potentially intriguing conflict between various Klingon houses that unfortunately never really went anywhere.

Season 2 of Discovery, perhaps realizing that most viewers weren’t particularly interested in watching the Klingon version of C-SPAN, turned its focus to the arrival of Captain Christopher Pike and the mystery surrounding Spock and the Red Angel. Klingons, as such, weren’t a particularly large part of the story anymore, outside of Mary Chieffo’s High Chancellor L’Rell. And though her arc, which centered on her fight to claim her own power in a society that doesn’t particularly value its female members, was interesting on paper, it eventually got derailed by a truly ridiculous subplot involving her having a baby with the aforementioned Klingon sleeper agent. (There’s a whole bunch of other stuff about consent, sexual assault, and which “mind” was in control of Ash Tyler’s body that, really, we’re all better off forgetting ever happened. Big yikes.)

So, in many ways, it’s perfectly understandable that, when the series was offered a fresh start in the form of a third season set nearly over nine hundred years in the future, Discovery jumped at the opportunity to shed the alien race that gave the show so many problems in its first two outings. Granted, the series wasn’t particularly graceful about its decision to essentially delete the Klingons from its narrative, spending most of its third season dropping in nostalgic Easter eggs for fans even as it moved its own story forward. It’s just the Klingons weren’t one of them.

Season 3 saw Burnham and friends revisit several planets familiar to Star Trek fans like Trill and Ni’Var, the world that was formerly known as Vulcan. Its world feels more expansive than ever before, with new characters of varied races throughout. Ryn the Andorian – a member of an iconic Star Trek alien race that had previously appeared in just a single episode of Discovery – suddenly played a pivotal role in Season 3’s story. Even Linus the Saurian had more to do.

Yet, we never see a single Klingon. Not even in a random crowd shot. Not once. In fact, the only time Klingons are even mentioned is in the Terran Mirror Universe two-parter, which technically takes place in the past. We have no idea what happened to the Klingon Empire in the wake of The Burn, or what their society is like now. That’s some pretty hardcore ghosting, particularly when it would have been so easy to just drop a few vague hints about things like their Federation status, the ways that a largely warrior race adapted to a world with (a whole lot) less dilithium in it, or how they feel about the infamous Michael Burnham’s return from the proverbial grave. Yet, Discovery deliberately bypasses all those stories without looking back. And, in the end, it’s difficult to argue with that choice.

Read more

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Doesn’t Need Captain Kirk

By Lacy Baugher

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Star Trek: Discovery: How Book and Burnham Have Quietly Become TV’s Healthiest Romance

By Lacy Baugher

Season 3 is the series’ strongest and most complete outing yet, a return to the first principles of Star Trek with a generally brighter and more hopeful feel, despite the occasionally dystopian vibe of the 32nd century. (The big takeaway from the season finale is a lesson in empathy, after all.) The third season was focused not just on solving the mystery of The Burn and rebuilding the Federation, but on reasserting the idea that such a thing as a good or helpful institution was still possible. Klingons were never likely to have much of a place in that kind of story, so basically ignoring their existence was a win-win for everyone.

And at this point, so many viewers probably had Klingon-related Discovery PTSD, that the clearest, easiest path was to simply remove the piece of the show that had caused it the most problems in the past. Which is fine, there are plenty of other stories to tell in this universe, and maybe the series will figure out a way to reintroduce the Klingons in a way that doesn’t derail all the other good work the show has done since the last time we saw them. (Sure, I’m not hopeful, but this is Star Trek. Anything is possible.)

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Perhaps the Klingons as characters will find a more forgiving home on Strange New Worlds, set at the interesting narrative juncture in which both the Klingon Empire and Federation will have to try and iron out something that looks like peace. But maybe it’s time for the world of Discovery to do a little more seeking out of new life for its future stories, and not try to return to a narrative well that’s never really worked for the show.

The post Why Star Trek: Discovery Needed to Write Out Its Klingons appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[chronotrek]

760. [MOV] Star Trek Beyond

SCORE:

(5/5 stars)

This is it. This is the one. It took two movies of setup but we've finally arrived at a proper Star Trek movie that feels like it should. We're in the five-year mission, Kirk is rocking those pointy sideburns from the TV series, and for once we're nowhere near Earth and the ship is actually exploring deep space. The film starts with Kirk visiting some CGI aliens as a neutral representative of another species that has presented them an ancient weapon artifact as a peace offering. The Teenaxi do not take the peace offering as intended and instead attack Kirk. Fortunately, they're about the size of chihuahuas, and Kirk is able to beam back to the Enterprise with just a couple of them tagging along, running loose in the corridors. He managed to tear his shirt, of course. Since the Teenaxi didn't want the artifact, he has Spock catalog and store it.

McCoy swipes some whisky from Chekov's locker and has a drink with Kirk, who is turning 30. Kirk is a year older than his dad ever was, and is getting mopey. The endless expanse and his responsibilities as captain are isolating him a bit, and he's applied for a vice-admiralty position on Starbase Yorktown, a brand-new station on the outer frontier that looks like Justin Lin really wanted to direct Inception. He's recommending Spock replace him as captain of the Enterprise, but unbeknown to him, Spock is considering resigning his commission in Starfleet to help repopulate the Vulcan species, a decision that's caused him and Uhura to break up. (Though, really, he'd only need to take leave every seven years, he wouldn't have to quit his job.) Uhura wants to give back the necklace Spock gave her that belonged to Amanda Grayson, but Spock insists she keep the gift.

An escape pod approaches the Yorktown with a distress call. The lone occupant Kalara says her ship and crew are stranded on the planet Altamid. It's on the other side of the nebula near the Yorktown. Kirk volunteers the Enterprise for a rescue mission, using their advanced sensors to navigate the nebula's thick debris fields. They arrive at Altamid and are quickly met by a vessel of unknown configuration that starts jamming their comms before breaking up into a swarm of "bees" that attack the ship. They're frighteningly methodical, attacking with suicide runs. First they take out the deflector array, then sever the warp nacelles, then start boarding the ship by impaling the hull with breaching pods. Phasers do minimal damage as they only destroy a few bees at a time, and the swarm completely avoids torpedoes.

The leader of the swarm, an alien named Krall (hi Idris Elba!), begins looking for the weapon artifact stored aboard the Enterprise. He has the ability to drain the life from other humanoids, leaving them as dessicated husks. Kirk gets to the artifact first and gives it to a crewmember with a facehugger-style head to hide. Scotty reroutes impulse power to draw from the warp core so they can try to escape at impulse, and the swarm severs the saucer from the stardrive section to cut the power feed. Spock and Bones are in the turbolift when this happens and their car is launched into space before a bee captures them, but they're able to kill the pilots and take control of the bee themselves.

The impulse drive is still attempting to draw power from the warp core, and in order to switch it back they'll need to perform an actual saucer separation, removing what's left of the neck from the saucer. Kirk orders the crew to abandon ship while he performs the separation but like Kirk and McCoy, the escape pods are all captured by the bees. Scotty hides himself in a torpedo and launches it, knowing the bees will avoid his torpedo, letting him fly to the surface. Uhura helps Kirk fight off the invaders as they prepare for saucer separation but Uhura is stuck on the neck section with Krall when the separation is complete.

Even with impulse engines drawing from saucer power, they don't have enough boost to escape the gravity well of the planet. Kirk orders the bridge crew to escape in Kelvin pods. It's a cool escape pod system on the bridge, likely added because of George Kirk's sacrifice flying into the Narada. It's a single pod bay with individual pods loading in one at a time. Kirk is the last of the bridge crew to escape in a pod, and the saucer crashes to the surface below.

Most of the crew have been rounded up by Krall. Kirk, Chekov and Kalara's pods land near each other, Scotty escapes his torpedo before it careens off a cliff, and McCoy and Spock crashland their bee. Scotty meets an alien named Jaylah who has been stranded on this planet for years. She is a highly skilled melee fighter and engineer, developing holographic duplicates of herself to confuse in a fight, and she's constructed many traps to protect her home. Her home, as Scotty discovers, is the 22nd century Earth Starfleet vessel Franklin, humanity's first Warp 4 ship. Jaylah and her family were captured by Krall years ago and she escaped, fending for herself ever since.

Kirk and Chekov get Kalara to admit that she lured them into an ambush. She claims her crewmates were being held hostage by Krall and he'd let them go if she lured the Enterprise here. Chekov isn't able to scan for the rest of the crew, but the tricorder range is limited so Kirk suggests they hike back to the saucer and see if they can get its sensors online. While there, Kirk heads to the lockers to pretend to retrieve the weapon, and Kalara attacks him and informs Krall of its location... just as Kirk and Chekov wanted. The artifact is obviously not here, and they are able to get Krall's communication frequency from her call. This turns into another Inception-style gravity bending fight scene as Kirk and Chekov run through hallways to avoid Kalara and Krall's other minions. They end up igniting the saucer's thruster fuel tank which buys them time to escape, but flips the saucer and kills Kalara and the other minions. While looking for other survivors, they get caught in one of Jaylah's traps, an amber-colored gas that quickly solidifies and encases them. Jaylah frees them from it after Scotty assures her they're friends.

Uhura, Sulu, and the rest of the crew are rounded up in a camp. Krall reveals to Uhura that he can speak English, broken as it is, and he harbors a deep hatred for the Federation and its ideals, which he believes to be a lie, of peaceful coexistence that stand in stark contrast to the natural competition of evolution. Uhura and Sulu are able to break out of their holding cell thanks to a rather acidic sneeze by Keenser, Scotty's tiny alien assistant, and they find a monitoring system that's tapped into Federation frequencies. Krall knew that the weapon was aboard the Enterprise the moment Spock cataloged it. Once Krall knows it's not aboard the Enterprise, he realizes one of the crew must have it, and threatens to kill Sulu unless it's given up. The facehugger alien opens the back of her head to show it, and Krall is able to complete his superweapon, the Abronath, which he tests on said facehugger alien, who is dissolved before Uhura's eyes.

Spock is impaled by a piece of shrapnel on their landing, and McCoy has to improvise a cauterizing implement after pulling out the piece. Spock explains why he and Uhura broke up to McCoy, stating that he's planning on resigning his Starfleet commission to return to New Vulcan. He hasn't spoken to Kirk about it yet. There's plenty of banter to be had between the two, something that we hadn't seen quite enough of in the last two films, and they're definitely making up for lost time. Just as they are found and surrounded by several bees, Scotty reactivates the transporter on the Franklin and beams them over one at a time.

Spock's injury is able to be better treated on the ship, and thanks to that necklace he had Uhura keep that happens to have a unique radioactive signature, they're able to track down where Krall's camp is. ("You gave your girlfriend a tracking device?") Scotty reconfigures the transporter, an older model that was originally intended only for cargo, and believes he can get about 20 crew at a time with it so long as they can erect transport enhancers near the base. Jaylah is apprehensive about helping them go back there, fearing they will all die like her father did, but Scotty gives her a pep talk and Kirk has an idea about how to mount a distraction during the rescue attempt.

Using a vintage motorcycle that was aboard the Franklin, the holographic duplicator, and a canister of that insta-amber gas, many Kirks drive many motorcycles around Krall's base, distracting Krall's minions while the rest of the team gather up the crew and beam them to the Franklin a group at a time. Jaylah gets separated from the rest of the group and loses her transport beacon when she gets into a big ole fight with the guy who killed her father, but Kirk is able to get her out when he does a big ole Fast and the Furious style stunt of jumping off his bike as she falls off a roof and grabbing her while he's in process of being transported.

As they are all rescued, Krall mobilizes his bee fleet for departure. Now that he has the Abronath, he can use it against Starbase Yorktown. Kirk asks if Scotty can get the Franklin up and running to pursue them, and Scotty thinks it's impossible without a "jump-start"... which would involve dropping the Franklin off the cliff it sits on and waiting until it hits terminal velocity before firing thrusters. So of course they do that, because Sulu is Sulu and can fly anything. I can't stress enough, once we see the Franklin in full silhouette, how much it resembles the NX-01 Enterprise. This is not the last homage to the Enterprise era in the film, which is great because it means the filmmakers know that they still have to acknowledge anything before 2233 as canon to both timelines.

Pursing the fleet, Spock and McCoy beam over to one of the bees since they have prior experience flying them. They quickly fight off and eject the drone pilots, and then examine how the thousands of ships in Krall's swarm coordinate with each other. Recalling the Enterprise signal jam that was most likely a broadcast storm attack from the swarm, they realize that such a system of coordination and communication would be vulnerable to VHF frequencies. Jaylah has a boombox with Earth music on it that she's been rocking out to throughout the film. They plug it into the ship and broadcast "Sabotage" which not only disorients the bees, it actually blows them up. Yeah. They blast Beastie Boys to blow up ships. Is it dumb? Yes. Is it awesome? FUCK. YES. They surf a wave of exploding bees and give the frequency to Greg Grunberg at Yorktown's command center, who boosts the signal, repelling the attackers.

Krall's ship manages to break through the airlock and they take the Franklin to pursue it into Yorktown. They're able to stop his ship but he escapes from it. On the Franklin, Uhura watches an old recording of the crew and realizes she recognizes the voice of Captain Balthezar Edison in the recording... it's Krall. Edison was a MACO who served on NX-01 Enterprise during the Xindi campaign in the Delphic Expanse and fought in the Earth-Romulan War. When the Federation was founded, MACO was dissolved and Edison was absorbed into Starfleet and given the Franklin. Somehow the ship got lost, possibly through a wormhole, and stranded on the planet Altamid. Edison felt abandoned and betrayed by the principles of the Federation, and discovered that the former inhabitants of the planet had left behind a bunch of mining drones and life-extending technology. They find more dessicated crew corpses and realize he might look human now.

And he does, almost. He still has the Abronath and plans to release it into Yorktown's air recycling system, where it will kill all inhabitants of the station. Kirk pursues him atop a skyscraper that houses the central chamber of the system and they fight while Scotty attempts to shut down the system to prevent it from getting spread. After a fight of both fists and of ideals between Kirk and Edison, not to mention some bizarre tricks of intersecting artificial gravity fields at that altitude, they manage to get an emergency valve open to the outside and Edison gets sucked out into space with the Abronath activated, only consuming him, Kirk also careens toward the valve but is caught by Spock and McCoy, who still haven't figured out how to land their bee yet.

Commodore Paris tells Kirk that after his actions, the vice-admiralty position he applied for is his, but he realizes that vice admirals sit behind desks all day, so he declines the appointment. His first best destiny is on the bridge of a starship, and they just so happen to be building one at Yorktown. Spock opens a box of Spock Prime's belongings and finds a promotional cast photo from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and realizes he should stay with his crew after all. McCoy organizes a surprise birthday party for Kirk with the whole crew, where they toast to the crew and to absent friends (as Chekov is center in frame). Scotty manages to pull some strings and gets Jaylah an application to Starfleet Academy. And the five-year mission is resumed after a brief hiatus as the new starship built at Yorktown is christened NCC-1701-A, USS Enterprise.

NITPICKS

The JJverse films standardized stardates so they follow the Gregorian calendar, with the number following the point being the day of the year from 1-365. So for the film to start on 2263.2 means it's January 2nd, 2263, and Kirk is celebrating his birthday. But Kirk was born on the day of the Kelvin's destruction, which was 2233.04 (I assume leading zeros are optional), otherwise known as January 4th. Maybe McCoy was starting the celebration a few days early, or maybe Kirk's log was 2 days before.

The viewscreen on the Enterprise bridge has to be built to similar tolerances as every other bulkhead on the ship, especially as it is forward-facing and contains the senior crew of the ship. Therefore, there is no way in hell they wouldn't have built it to be able to withstand a few blasts from a freaking hand phaser.

Where is the deflector array on the Franklin?

Why wouldn't they return the Teenaxi who got beamed up with Kirk? Isn't that kidnapping?

FAVORITE QUOTES

Kirk: I ripped my shirt again.

Kirk: Captain's log, stardate 2263.2. Today is our 966th day in deep space, a little under three years into our five-year mission. The more time we spend out here, the harder it is to tell where one day ends and the next one begins. It can be a challenge to feel grounded when even gravity is artificial. But, well, we do what we can to make it feel like home. The crew, as always, continues to act admirably despite the rigors of our extended stay here in outer space. And the personal sacrifices they have made. We continue to search for new life forms in order to establish firm diplomatic ties. Our extended time in uncharted territory has stretched the ship's mechanical capacities. But fortunately our engineering department, led by Mr. Scott, is more than up to the job. The ship aside, prolonged cohabitation has definitely had effects on the interpersonal dynamics. Some experiences for the better, and some for the worse. As for me, things have started to feel a little episodic. The farther out we go, the more I find myself wondering what it is we're trying to accomplish. If the universe is truly endless, then are we not striving for something forever out of reach? The Enterprise is scheduled for a reprovisioning stop at Yorktown, the Federation's newest and most advanced starbase. Perhaps a break from routine will offer up some respite from the mysteries of the unknown.

McCoy: I found this in Chekov's locker. Kirk: Wow. McCoy: Right? I mean, I always assumed he'd be a vodka guy. Kirk: A vodka guy, exactly.

McCoy: You guys break up? What'd you do? Spock: A typically reductive inquiry, Doctor. McCoy: You know Spock, when an earth-girl says "it's me not you", it's definitely you.

Paris: It isn't uncommon, you know, even for a captain, to want to leave. There is no relative direction in the vastness of space. It is only yourself, your ship, your crew. It's easier than you think to get lost.

Uhura: How do you know our language? Krall: I know your kind. Uhura: I am Lieutenant Nyota Uhura of the USS Enterprise. And you have committed an act of war against the Federation. Krall: Federation? Federation is an act of war!

McCoy: They say it hurts less if it's a surprise. Spock: If I may adopt a parlance with which you are familiar, I can confirm your theory to be horseshit.

Jaylah: I am Jaylah. And you are Montgomery Scott. Scott: Aye, Scotty. Jaylah: Come now, Montgomery Scotty.

Scott: Wait a minute, is this your ship? Jaylah: No, Montgomery Scotty. It's yours.

Chekov: Do you even know what the combustion compressor looks like? Kirk: It's square, right? Chekov: No, it's [Kirk fires] round. Kirk: That's what I said.

Scott: Music's a bit old fashioned for my tastes, not to mention very loud and distracting, but hey, well played. Jaylah: I like the beats and shouting.

Scott: I have an idea, sir, but I am going to need your permission. Kirk: Why would you need my permission? Scott: Because if I mess it up, I don't want it to be just my fault.

Spock: Leaving me behind will significantly increase your chances of survival, Doctor. McCoy: Well that's damn chivalrous of you, but completely out of the question. Spock: It is imperative that you locate any surviving crew. McCoy: Here I was thinking you cared. Spock: Of course I care, Leonard. I always assumed my respect for you was clear. The dialogue we have had across the years has always... McCoy: It's okay, Spock. You don't have to say it. Well, at least I won't die alone! [Spock is beamed out from behind McCoy] Well that's just typical.

Spock: Lieutenant Uhura wears a vokaya amulet which I presented to her as a token of my affection and respect. McCoy: You gave your girlfriend radioactive jewelry? Spock: The emission is harmless, Doctor, but its unique signature makes it very easy to identify. McCoy: You gave your girlfriend a tracking device? Spock: ...That was not my intention. McCoy: I'm glad he doesn't respect me.

Krall: Your Federation has pushed the frontier for centuries, but no longer. This is where it begins, Lieutenant. This is where the frontier pushes back.

Kirk: I think you underestimate humanity. Edison: I fought for humanity! We lost millions to the Xindi and Romulan wars. And for what? For the Federation to sit me in the captain's chair and break bread with the enemy? Kirk: We change, we have to. Or we spend the rest of our lives fighting the same battles.

Kirk:You won the war, Edison. You gave us peace. Edison: Peace is not what I was born into.

Edison: You can't stop it. You will die. Kirk: Better to die saving lives than to live by taking them. That's what I was born into.

Kirk: I heard about Ambassador Spock. Is that what you want to mention that time in the turbolift? Spock: More or less. I trust your meeting with Commodore Paris went well. Kirk: More or less.

Kirk: Space. The final frontier. Spock: These are the voyages of the starship... Scotty: Enterprise. Its continuing mission: Bones: To explore strange, new worlds. To seek out new life, Chekov: And new civilizations. Uhura: To boldly go where no one has gone before.

#star trek #star trek beyond #chronotrek #chronological #review #jjverse #justin lin #idris elba #sofia boutella #john cho #simon pegg #chris pine #zachary quinto #zoe saldana #karl urban #anton yelchin #maco

[justanothercinemaniac]

Epic Movie (Re)Watch #155 - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Spoilers Below

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: Yes.

Do I remember it: Yes.

Did I see it in theaters: Yes.

Was it a movie I saw since August 22nd, 2009: Yes. #429.

Format: Blu-ray

1) Before anything else, I will say this: you never need to see Star Trek: The Motion Picture unless you are a MAJOR fan of the series. Wrath of Khan is a much better first film for the series and just a much better film in general, and the original motion picture has no bearing on the plot of ANY of the sequels that I’m aware of. Spare yourself the boredom.

2) I don’t often talk about how great the opening credits of a film are, but the movement through the stars and James Horner’s grand score creates a rousing score which helps you get in the mood for the space adventure to come.

3) The Kobayashi-Maru.

The opening of the film is great largely because it plays with expectations vs reality. You EXPECT Kirk in the captain’s chair, and while it plays out like a standard scene from “Star Trek” but it ends with everyone dead. And even though it turns out to be a simulation, the image of watching almost all the series regulars die before you prepares you for the darkness to come. It is an incredibly great and memorable opening to a film which can be described as the same.

4) Kirstie Alley as Saavik.

Despite being Vulcan (and, depending on what you consider canon, half-Romulan) Saavik has more in common with Kirk than she does with Spock. She may have the appearance of being a logical and decisive creature, but she is stubborn and proud. And I love her for that. I think Saavik as at her best in this film when played by Alley (she would be replaced in Star Trek III and IV). Alley gives Saavik a unique flavor, making her more than just your typical Vulcan and holding her own with the original cast.

5) The scene where Bones and Kirk “celebrate” his birthday is great.

This is the introduction of Kirk’s key conflict and possibly the best analysis of it the film features.

Kirk: “Galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young, doctor.”

Bones [later]: “This is not about age and you know it.”

Kirk’s conflict here is not about aging, it is about aging INTO something. About being stuck behind a desk and bureaucracy. Of becoming obsolete. Age on it’s own does not result in that, but the choices we make as we age. It is in this film that Kirk will have to determine his future when faced with a threat from the past.

6) Carol Marcus and her son David.

Both Carol and David as individual characters are interesting, but by balancing out each other (with Carol being well reasoned and patient and David being more like Kirk with his stubbornness/rashness) they create an interesting dynamic that entertains in a way beyond their relationship with Kirk.

7) Ricardo Montalbán as Khan Noonien Singh.

Montalbán takes a memorable role from the original series and in this film turns it into not only one of the greatest villains cinema has ever featured but also a career defining performance. Khan is able to be both chillingly collected and show off fear-inducing anger. His intellect, physical strength, and progressing madness/drive is showed off brilliantly by Montalbán. There is a ruthlessness to this character established as soon as we meet him (specifically with his use of brain slugs) that let’s us know, “Oh shit, don’t mess with this guy.” He is totally frightening, with many of his decisions and scenes making your stomach turn. Only open my third (fourth?) viewing of this film did I realize just how long his intro scene is, but it doesn’t feel long. It is perfect, and Montalbán captures your attention for the entire time.

8) Hey that’s...that’s Tony from the Witch Mountain movies!

I would not have noticed that if I didn’t watch the Witch Mountain movies in March for the (Re)Watch.

9) So usually at this point in the (Re)Watch I talk about the writing and performances of the main cast of a film. I find it nearly impossible to do that for Wrath of Khan however as the cast from the original series are such mainstays of cinema and pop culture I’ve no idea what to say. What on earth could I possible say Kirk, Bones, Spock, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov that hasn’t been said before? In my analysis of the 2009 film I probably will, but right now I think I’ll just say they’re great and leave it at that.

10) I love how Kirk is freaking out when Spock lets Saavik pull the Enterprise out of dock.

(GIF originally posted by @readysteadytrek​)

11) I love Saavik and Kirk in the elevator. It speaks not only to how rash she is (which I love on it’s own) but will later show how similar they really are. She doesn’t really believe in a no-win scenario and as we’ll learn later neither does Kirk.

12) I love when Spock hands the ship over to Kirk. There is no bruised ego (as he himself says), there are no hard feelings, it’s not an issue of power or anything. He knows Kirk is the best guy to take the wheel. He trusts Kirk and Kirk trusts Spock back and they can just cut through the bullshit and do what’s best for everyone. I’m a sucker for good friendships like that.

13) Damn, Spock.

Kirk: “I would not presume to debate you.”

Spock: “That would be wise.”

14) There is one scene early-to-mid picture which is recalled HEAVILY later on and I always think it is best when the ending of the movie ties into something at the beginning of the film. You want it to feel like one picture, you don’t want to be sitting at the end going, “Oh right, that part early on was the same movie.” Spock’s speaking of how...

And how he has been and always shall be Kirk’s friend tie together at the end in very heartbreaking ways.

15) I was always impressed with the Genesis visual, keeping in mind this was 1982 and CGI was hardly in its prime.

16) The very first encounter with the ship Khan has taken over - Reliant - before they know it is Khan is incredibly tense and Hitchcockian. Because we as the audience KNOW it’s Khan. Pacing is derived not from faster pacing but from slower pacing. The uneasiness simmers in our bones as Kirk unknowingly wanders into a trap, even though everyone seems to suspect something is up. And it features one of the best quotes in the film:

Khan: “Do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish best served cold? It is very cold in space.”

17) And then Khan and Kirk finally encounter one another.

Montalbán and Shatner never share any scenes as Montalbán was making “Fantasy Island” at the time, but that does not undermine just how equally matched these adversaries are. Their very first encounter in particular feels like a chess game. It is not so much a battle of strengths as it is a battle of wits, yet still very interesting. And we as the audience really have no idea who is going to come out on top. Each is able to surprise and throw the other off balance, only to come back and deal another blow. It makes for great conflict. We know Kirk’s disadvantage: Khan is genetically engineered to be better than him. But in this scene we see a weakness of Khan’s which will become greater later on: his ego. He cannot see his own weaknesses and shortcomings. He is hundreds of years old comparatively speaking, so obviously some ways of thinking are foreign to him. But he can’t get past the fact he’s a genetically engineered super being to work on this. I love bad guys with flaws.

18) Oh no! Tony dies!

Preston [Ike Eisenmann’s character, after Kirk arrives]: “Is the word given, admiral?”

Kirk: “The word is given. Warp speed.”

[Preston dies]

Scotty [obviously torn up]: “He stayed at his post when the trainees ran!”

The fact that this death of a character we spent all of thirty seconds with packs such an intense punch speaks greatly to the craft with which this film was made.

19) The scene with Kirk, Bones, and Saavik on the scientist space station feels very Alien and I love it. For just a few minutes we are in a horror film, in an enclosed space where obviously SOMETHING is wrong and some sort of danger lurks. It is pulled off wonderfully well.

20) Part of the tension comes from the fact that we TRUST Chekov. He’s original series cast and he seems to have shaken the alien slug Khan was using on him. Why WOULDN’T we trust Chekov? Making the fact that he and his captain are still controlled later on all the more powerful.

21) This. Freaking. Scene.

This is when both are pushed to their furthest. Khan believes he has killed Kirk only to immediately learn he hasn’t, and Kirk is beyond pissed with Khan for all the death and destruction he has caused. This is where Khan accepts that he has defeated Kirk if only because it has become so difficult to kill him and it is where Kirk hates Khan the most (uttering the film’s famous line, “Khaaaaaan!”). But even through his hate Kirk is trying to play Khan. He is trying to get Khan in the same room with him so he can fight him face to face. But Khan is too smart for that and works against Kirk, leading to that yell. This is one of the best scenes in the film and it is because the conflict plays out so wonderfully.

22) The fact that David is Kirk’s son not only gives Kirk some personal stakes, but it ties into the idea of the choices Kirk must make in life. He is now dealing with two choices which are coming back to haunt him: how he handled Khan and not being a part of his son’s life. And that will directly influence the choices he makes in the future. Because life is too short.

23) This is so indicative of Kirk’s character.

Saavik: “Admiral, may I ask you a question?”

Kirk: “What's on your mind, Lieutenant?”

Saavik: “The Kobayashi Maru, sir.”

Kirk: “Are you asking me if we're playing out that scenario now?”

Saavik: “On the test, sir... will you tell me what you did? I would really like to know.”

Bones: “Lieutenant, you are looking at the only Starfleet cadet who ever beat the no-win scenario.”

Saavik: “How?”

Kirk: “I reprogrammed the simulation so it was possible to rescue the ship.”

Saavik: “What?”

David: “He cheated.”

Kirk: “I changed the conditions of the test; got a commendation for original thinking. I don't like to lose.”

Saavik: “Then you never faced that situation... faced death.”

Kirk: “I don't believe in the no-win scenario.”

24) The climactic chase through the nebula ties into Khan’s biggest weakness: his ego preventing him from admitting his flaws.

Spock: “He’s intelligent but not experienced. His pattern suggest two-dimensional thinking.”

I think this is the past scene to showcase space as a three-dimensional space. Ever watch a space film where characters encounter an asteroid field and think, “Why can’t they just go above or below it?” That’s what this film does. Like the initial Kirk/Khan mental face-off, the time in the nebula greats great tension from slowing down pacing while never being boring. There are surprises, there are twists, and they are on truly equal footing. And Khan, well he’s at his breaking point. How mad must this person be if even his crew - who were established to live and die by his word at the beginning of the film - are questioning his judgment? And what exactly will it lead him to?

That final visual of Khan’s face is also a great presentation of how he is on the inside. He is torn up and burned to a crisp with vengeance, and now he will die that way.

25) Spock’s ultimate fate.

First of all, he KNOWS what he’s about to do. You can see it on his face before he goes to the reactor room to save the ship: he is fully aware that this will lead to his death and it does nothing to change his decision. And even though Khan has died, he has succeeded in his goal to, “keep on hurting,” Kirk from beyond the grave by killing his best friend.

Kirk [trying to get to Spock]: “He’ll die!”

Scotty: “He’s dead already.”

There is this intense feeling of sorrow and helplessness as we watch one of the greatest - if not the greatest - characters to come out of the original series die, tying into the conversation he and Kirk had earlier.

Spock: “The needs of the many...”

Kirk: “Outweigh the needs of the few.”

Spock: “Or the one.”

26) David and Kirk unfortunately don’t get too many moment together, just the two of them. But he did help Kirk through this tough time in his life.

David: “Lieutenant Saavik was right. You never have faced death.”

Kirk: “Not like this.”

David: “You knew enough to tell Saavik that how we face death is at least as important as how we face life.”

Kirk: “Just words.”

David: “But good words. That's where ideas begin. Maybe you should listen to them. I was wrong about you. And I'm sorry.”

Kirk: “Is that what you came here to say?”

David: “Mainly. And also that I'm proud - very proud - to be your son.”

27) But of course, this is a sci-fi movie...

Death is not as permanent as we like to think.

The Wrath of Khan is quite possibly the best film in the entire Star Trek canon. It balances high-stakes action and adventure with the intelligence, philosophy, and thought expected from the series. Ricardo Montalbán is freaking fantastic as Khan, with the rest of the cast delivering standout performances as well. The direction and writing blend together beautifully and it is just an incredibly fun and well done film. If you haven’t seen any Star Trek and you want to, Wrath of Khan is a very good film to start on.

#Star Trek #Ricardo Montalban #Leonard Nimoy #William Shatner #The Wrath of Khan #Epic Movie (Re)Watch #Kirstie Alley #Ike Eisenmann #Boom #Movie #Film #GIF

[astrangergivingthestrangewelcome]

Why I don't Believe in Star Trek's Triumverate

When I say Triumverate I mean the belief that many people hold which is that Spock Bones and Kirk have some sort of special bond that goes all three ways. Some people make it romantic (I ship Spirk, let’s get that up front now) other people make it one big bromance, but the key thing is that all three men feel the same way about each other.

This simply isn’t true if we look at the the canon material. The one exception would be the Final Frontier, Shatner practically beat us over the head with Triumverate in that film.

The thing is what was portrayed in that movie was not consistent with what we had seen up to that point.

While I personally though several bits of Final Frontier had merit (particularly the “Not in front of the Klingons” business but I’m biased) it’s scenes like the three of them singing Row Row Your Boat around a campfire and saying good night fifty million times that show why the film is considered the series’ worse. The Triumverate scenes don’t fit.

The relationships between the three men in TOS are completely different. Briefly: Kirk and Spock are in love, Kirk and Bones are best friends, Bones and Spock are a mess.

Okay. If you disagree with my breakdown I’d love it if you kept reading. I’d love some friendly discourse.

So I really want to get into how I perceive the relationship between Spock and McCoy, because that’s where I find myself shaking my head and going, “This feels wrong” in fics I read and posts I see. I *think* most people who’ll be reading this seeing as it is Tumblr will agree with me that Spock and Kirk are head overheels, always touching, dig it in there Mr. Spock in love with each other. And I hope many of you will agree that Bones and Kirk have always been there for one another through out their adventures and they really are like family to one another.

But there’s this sentiment in the fandom over how good of a relationship Spock and Bones have and this is what I have the most issue with.

I’m not gonna go saying how Spock and Bones are enemies or anything like that because that’s really not my point at all, I don’t believe that. Just watch The Empath. McCoy wasn’t about to let Spock die for him. Likewise in All Our Yesterday(ya know Bones and Spock get stranded on the ice planet) Spock wasn’t about to leave McCoy behind.

However the only times we see the two of them getting along and actually maybe being nice to eachother is under dire circumstances. Whenever it’s just normal day to day interactions they yell at eachother (hell they yell at eachother in dire circumstances as well most of the time). This isn’t normal. People like to pretend it’s all friendly bickering but it isn’t. Spock makes that quite clear in All Our Yesterdays with this little interaction

“You listen to me, you pointed-eared Vulcan.”

“I don’t like that. I don’t think I ever did and now I’m sure!”

Kirk enjoys an easy relationship with both of them. Kirk and Spock play chess together, Kirk and Bones drink and laugh.

Spock and Bones don’t have anything like that. They insult each other. That’s all they do.

Now I think McCoy is a good guy. I think he’s an excellent doctor with excellent bedside manner plus the fact he’s just always ready to fight amuses me to no end.

But he doesn’t understand Spock and he thinks that he does and it Bothers me So Much because after years of working with someone like Spock it’s like he never bothered to look past the surface.

For example the end speech of Requiem for Methuselah where McCoy goes on about how Spock will never know love and how pitiable that is and right after he leaves, right after he leaves, Spock tenderly goes up Kirk, puts his arms around him and goes “Forget.”

But Spock doesn’t know how to love someone remember? That’s what McCoy said.

Look at the space amoeba episode “Immunity Syndrome”. Those two idiots were at eachother’s throats the entire episode over who gets to go on a suicide mission to the point it was getting hiralious. Kirk’s over here sad and agonizing over which of the two people he loves the most he’s going to send to go die basically and meanwhile Spock and Bones are literally bickering over who gets to die first. My favorite thing is when Kirk decides to pick Spock and says the words “I’m sorry Spock” because,,, ya know,,, it’s a suicide mission and Kirk is sorry Spock’s going on one and Bones thinks that that means he got the job, because he’s just that eager to go on the suicide mission. (Like I said, idiots.)

Anyway look at this interaction right before Spock goes off into space.

MCCOY: You’re determined not to let me share in this, aren’t you? 

SPOCK: This is not a competition, Doctor. Whether you understand it or not, grant me my own kind of dignity. 

MCCOY: Vulcan dignity? How can I grant you what I don’t understand? 

SPOCK: Then employ one of your own superstitions. Wish me luck. 

(Silence and stares, then McCoy opens the hangar deck door. Spock walks across and into the Galileo. The doors shut.) 

MCCOY: Good luck, Spock.

McCoy gets it wrong. Again. Spock’s not interested in hogging an important scientific discovery to himself, he’s not selfish like that, he never was. Spock thought he was the best fit for the job, that was it end of story. McCoy doesn’t get him. It also speaks to how messed up their relationship is that McCoy can only say good luck when Spock can no longer hear.

But the strongest evidence for just how much McCoy doesn’t understand Spock is in the episode Tholian Web. Bones and Spock are both grieving the loss of Captain Kirk and Bones antagonizes Spock. I find it unbelievable, Bones really does question Spock’s every decision. If you don’t remember the episode basically the ship lost Kirk, there’s a thin hope they could get him back, but the Tholians are ordering them to get out of Tholian space. Tensions run high as Spock risks every thing to try and get him back.

Take a look at this interaction between Spock and Bones

MCCOY: (looking at a medal) He was a hero in every sense of the word, yet his life was sacrificed for nothing. The one thing that would have given his death meaning is the safety of the Enterprise. Now you’ve made that impossible, Mister Spock. 

SPOCK: We came here for a specific purpose, Doctor. 

MCCOY: Maybe not the same one. I really came here to find out why you stayed and fought. 

SPOCK: The Captain would have remained to recover a crew member at the risk of his own life or even his own ship. 

MCCOY: Yes, he would, Mister Spock, but you didn’t have that decision to make. What would you gain by fighting the Tholians? You could have assured yourself of a captaincy by leaving the area. But you chose to stay. Why? 

SPOCK: I need not explain my rationale to you or any other member of this crew. There is a margin of variation in any experiment. While there was a chance, I was bound legally and morally to ascertain the Captain’s status. 

MCCOY: You mean to be sure if he was dead. Well, you made certain of that. 

Yeah. What the hell. The fact that McCoy can’t put together that maybe Spock stayed because he would do anything to save his Captain, the fact that he would think Spock would WANT the captaincy at the expense of Jim’s life, that he would be eager and happy to take off and leave Kirk behind is baffling to me.

How the hell can you know a man for so long and yet get everything he is and everything he stands for so completely wrong.

Spock’s not an open book. He was taught to repress all his emotions when he was a kid and this has caused him so much damage it’s incredible. He has absolutely no idea how to handle his emotions in a healthy way, so when shit really hits the fan like it did in Tholian Web and he’s really hurting that’s when he puts up his shields the most because he can’t deal with what he’s experiencing. That’s when he really needs to be given a break but that’s exactly when he can’t get them because he’s the first officer and the whole ship is counting on him.

So it’s not easy to get to know him. But Jim does. Jim understands Spock completely. He doesn’t have to say a thing. He understands and has the uptmost respect for the bravery, competence and selflessness.

Bones doesn’t. He just doesn’t.

#star trek #jim kirk #spirk #triumvirate #leonard mccoy #mr. spock #spock #the original series #st:tos