#discovery (i know its not kirk and spock but its spocks sister)

[dukeofriven]

I have so many problems with Strange New Worlds, but fundamentally I'd like it so much better if it wasn't about yhe USS Enterprise NCC-1701. It is forever cut-off by the knees by this idiotic choice to make it a prequel—for all that Discovery failed to achieve, its smartest idea was if you HAD to make it a TOS-era prequel, you set it on a ship never mentioned before, with a crew never mentioned before, and even its lead—nominally the sister of a famous TOS-era character—at least came from a prior tradition of never-heretofore mentioned spare Spock siblings. The show was free to fly around and tell its own stories, and as for the handful of canon characters it did have—at least in its most-ambitious-but-messy first season—they were peripheral enough that so long as they didn't kick the bucket they'd make their future character rendezvous fairly intact as characters.

But SNW is struck down by a fatal case of prequelitis. 'We've made Nurse Chapel so dynamic and three dimensional now' yeah sure but in doing so you've also made it really weird that Nurse Chapel eventually 'evolves' into a glorified background extra eith a boring fiancee. 'We've fleshed out Doctor M'Benga!' Okay, so that he can… later agree to a demotion and be replaced by Doctor McCoy as CMO for some reason? They've done the stupid Star Wars thing, in which the entire galaxy is only five feet wide and contains the same eight people, who all know each-other. What was Uhura's career before the Enterprise? She didn't have one: she apparently spent her entire Starfleet career aboard the ship, plagued with the same Muppet Baby Syndrome that her alt-unvierse counterpart got in the Kelvinverse. Other Starfleet officers lead diverse lives: it's a plot point that Riker's career was so damaged by the fact that he spent seven years about the D that if it hadn't been for the Dominion war wiping-out half of Starfleet's officer corp ,he'd never have made captain. Good officers move around. But SNW is doing an Abrams: everyone ends up on the Enterprise and then just... stay there. Forever. (They're probably going to bring Chekov back as a cadet too so that he's placed to meet Khan in the bathroom later and thus Screenrant can write an article about how we've finally fixed that 'plot hole' that doesn't fucking matter.) There's no reason to waste these actors in such a manner. Everyone who isn't Spock and Kirk (and sometimes McCoy) on TOS fairly infamously never got a damn thing to do. When they were filming the TOS movies most of the Bridge Crew did a couple of days of filming out of a month and a half long shoot because Uhura's only role was to do some reaction shots. So why make a prequel about people these characters clearly are not: Jess Bush can't be playing Nurse Chapel because Nurse Chapel is boring. Celia Rose Gooding can't be playing Uhura: Nichelle Nichols almost quit the series because of how little Uhura ever said or did. Who are these dynamic people and what kind of story arc emerge from them becoming one-dimensional? Even pike isn't freed from this: they beat us over the head, over and over, that he cannot escape his canon fate: he is doomed to live-through The Menagerie and get all melty. Why? WHY? I don't get it. They could be free of the weight of having to connect with TOS, but they keep doubling down and its that, more than anything—more than even the hair-pulling too-contemporary dialogue—that makes SNW so frustrating.

#Strange New Worlds #SNW #Star trek

[shrimplicitly]

as much as i love tos era im getting a little sick of seeing 2200s revamped new movie new tv series kirk and spock

#image.txt #star trek #yeah i love them!! classics!!! gives us something new to chew on please #like this is scifi im SURE you can make something new that doesnt rely on tos!!!!!!! #how many different series do we have!!! #tos. all those tos movies. tas. those 3 modern alternate tos movies #discovery (i know its not kirk and spock but its spocks sister) #and now strange new worlds like..... please guys give us new sr officers #ds9 was so cool bc it was a fixed space station they had to find 7 seasons worth of stuff andbthey DIS #DID #just give us something new PLEASE

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

Star Trek Episode 1.24: This Side of Paradise

AKA Yet Another Creepy Utopia Planet

Our episode begins with the Enterprise heading in to orbit around an Earthy-looking planet named Omicron Ceti 3. Omicon Ceti is a real star, by the way—also known as Mira or Mira A, it’s a red giant and part of a binary star system with its sister Mira B. It’s not a real likely place to go looking for such a nice homey sort of planet, though, because Mira is a pulsating variable star, which means its size and brightness is constantly fluctuating, and it’s hard to evolve life when your sun keeps flickering like a neon sign in a noir movie all the time.

Uhura reports to Kirk that she’s been transmitting a contact signal every five minutes just as he ordered, but she’s only getting dead air in response.  Kirk tells her to keep it up until they get into orbit, then moves on to talk to Spock. “There were one hundred fifty men, women and children in that colony,” he says. “What are the chances of survivors?”

Looks like the chances are, uh...not great. And by ‘not great’ I mean ‘nonexistent’. Spock explains that ‘Bertold rays’ are a recent enough discovery that there’s still a lot not known about them, but one thing that is for sure known is that exposure to these rays causes living animal tissue to disintegrate. Nasty. Evidently this planet is heavily exposed to these rays, because a group of colonists-- “Sandoval’s group”-- came here only three years ago and Spock says there’s no possibility they could have survived. Well why the heck would anyone build a colony in such a place? All Spock can say is “They knew there was a risk.”

Kirk questions whether they can risk sending a landing party down under such conditions, but Spock says the disintegration doesn’t start immediately, so they’ll be alright if they don’t stick around too long. The helmsman reports that they’ve successfully established orbit, and he’s found a settlement—or at least, something that was a settlement at one point. Kirk tells Spock to equip a landing party of five to accompany him down there, including a biologist and McCoy. That’s gonna be a fun mission briefing. “Yes, we're beaming down to a planet bombarded with deadly radiation, but no need to worry, crew, your tissues will probably only disintegrate a little bit."

Sometime later, the landing party—Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, a blueshirt and a goldshirt—materialize into a meadow near a dirt path and a picket fence. They’ve thoughtfully arranged themselves into a nice alternating pattern.

[ID: A shot of a sunny meadow with a dirt road, a few trees and a white picket fence in the background. Newly beamed down are six Enterprise crewmembers standing in two rows: in the front are Kirk and Spock, in the back are McCoy, a goldshirt, a blueshirt, and Sulu.]

The goldshirt, incidentally, is DeSalle, who we last saw back in The Squire of Gothos. The character was originally written for this story as Lt. Timothy Fletcher, but was changed to DeSalle after the production crew realized they’d cast an actor who had already appeared in the series. Yes, really. AGAIN. The blueshirt is Kelowitz, who showed up briefly in The Galileo Seven and Arena, and likewise started out as another character but was renamed after being cast. I don’t know how this situation managed to happen so often on TOS, but apparently it did. At least they both seem to have managed to hold onto more or less the same positions that they had the last time we saw them, a rare feat for any minor TOS crewmember.

The group walks forward towards some nearby farm buildings arranged around a dirt yard, with a horse-drawn cart sitting out in front of one of them. But there’s no horse to be seen, and no people either. They wander through the yard and over toward what looks like a paddock, but without any animals in it. Everything seems quite thoroughly deserted.

Kirk leans on the paddock fence and glumly muses, “Another dream that failed. There’s nothing sadder. It took these people a year to make the trip from Earth. They came all that way...and died.” Hold on, it took them a year? What, do they not give colony ships warp drives? Did they have to hitchhike here?

“Hardly that, sir,” someone says, and suddenly we see three men in green jumpsuits standing at the edge of the yard, looking very relaxed and also very not dead.

As the landing party all turn around to stare in shock the man in front strides forward and says, “Welcome to Omicron Ceti 3. I’m Elias Sandoval.” McCoy looks like he’s getting ready to spray the dude with holy water.

After the titles, we get a brief captain’s log to sum things up, just in case everyone forgot what happened during the commercial break:

“Captain’s Log, Stardate 3417.3. We thought our mission to Omicron Ceti 3 would be an unhappy one. We had expected to find no survivors of the agricultural colony there. Apparently, our information was incorrect.”

The colonists start happily shaking hands with the landing party—but happily as in “oh, it’s so nice to meet you” not “oh thank god you came to rescue us we’re all on the brink of death”. Sandoval says they haven’t seen anyone outside the colony since they left Earth four years ago, although they’ve been expecting someone to come by for a while. Apparently their subspace radio didn’t work right and they don’t have anyone who could “master its intricacies”. Now, I’m no expert on establishing colonies on alien planets, but ‘person who can work our only communication device’ does rather seem like a position you would want to make sure was filled before you left.

Kirk has to explain that they haven’t come to visit because of the dead radio. He does not explain why they did decide to come when they did. Spock’s comment about the colonists knowing there was a risk indicates that whether or not Bertold rays specifically were known about before the colonists left, they at least had reason to believe there was something dangerous about the planet. So why’d the Federation let them go and then wait another three years before sending anyone to check up on them? Eh, probably just another failing of twenty-third century space bureaucracy.

Sandoval’s not bothered about it, though. He tells Kirk that it doesn’t make much difference—the important thing is the party is here now and the colonists are happy to see them. Then he invites them on a tour of the settlement and casually strolls off, leaving the landing party to stand there and try to process what the hell they just witnessed.

“Pure speculation, just an educated guess...I’d say that man is alive,” McCoy says. Thanks Bones.

Spock says that his scans show that the planet is getting ray’d just as their reports indicated, so that’s not the issue. Under this intensity, the landing party could safely hang out here for a week if necessary, as per the usual Star Trek rule that you can be exposed to a deadly thing and be just fine up until the exact moment it kills you, but there’s a mighty big difference between a week and three years. Or as Kirk succinctly puts it, “These people shouldn’t be alive.”

“Is it possible they’re not?” Sulu asks. Great out of the box thinking there Sulu, love it.

Kirk takes a moment to consider that, which is fair—compared to the kind of weird shit they’ve encountered so far, the walking dead wouldn’t even stand out that much. But McCoy points out that when they shook hands with Sandoval, “His flesh was warm. He’s alive. There’s no doubt about that.” Spock fires back with a reminder that, “There’s no miracle connected with [Bertold rays], doctor, you know that. No cures, no serums, no antidotes. If a man is exposed long enough, he dies.” Okay dude, calm down, all McCoy said was “he’s alive” not “my god! Bertold rays have been fake all along! wake up sheeple!"

As Kirk points out, this whole debate is pretty pointless anyway for the moment—they’re arguing in a vacuum, and they’ll need more answers if they want to get anywhere. So they go to follow Sandoval, who leads them towards a nearby farm house, while a few colonists do various farm chores nearby. Sandoval explains that the colonists split into three groups, with forty-five people at this settlement and two more settlements elsewhere on the planet. Apparently they thought that arrangement would give each group a better chance for growth, since if some disaster struck one group the other two would probably still be alright.

“Omicron is an ideal agricultural planet,” he says. “We determined not to suffer the fate of the expeditions that went before us.” It’s rather vague what expeditions he’s referring to here, since at no other point in the episode are any previous attempts at settling Omicron Ceti 3 mentioned. But given that Sandoval specifically mentions the possibility of disease afflicting one group as a reason to split up, and Spock earlier said that Bertold rays were a recent discovery—and that the colonists knew coming to Omicron Ceti 3 was risky-- it seems possible that previous groups tried to settle the planet and, without knowing about the Bertold rays, mistook their effects for some kind of disease native to the planet. Of course that doesn’t explain why this group of colonists decided it would be a good idea to try to settle here again anyway, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past few months, it’s that not everyone sees the possibility of dying to a terrible disease as a compelling reason to change their plans in any way.

As they stand in the farmhouse talking about this, a woman steps forward from another room in the house. She’s in soft focus, just in case we might forget she’s a woman, and instead of the green jumpsuit all the male colonists are wearing, she’s wearing green overalls over a lavender shirt, a combination that somehow manages to be an even worse fashion disaster than the jumpsuits themselves. She starts to say something to Sandoval, then stops in surprise as she sees the landing party. But for once the romance-o-vision isn’t for Kirk—it’s Spock that the camera zooms in on as the woman stares at him.

“Layla, come meet our guests,” Sandoval says cheerfully, oblivious to the wistfully romantic background music. He introduces her as Layla Colomi, their botanist. Layla says that she and Spock have met before, but “It’s been a long time.” Kirk gives Spock a bit of a side-eye for that, but Spock offers no details.

Well, all romantic tension aside, they do still have a mission to attend to here, as Kirk reminds Sandoval. Sandoval tells them to go ahead with any examinations or tests they want. “I think you’ll find our settlement an interesting one. Our philosophy is a simple one: that men should return to a less complicated life. We have few mechanical things here, no vehicles, no weapons. We have harmony here. Complete peace.” Oh yeah, that bodes well. Remember the last place we saw complete harmony and peace? At least that explains why everyone on this farm is using equipment straight out of Stardew Valley, which is presumably not the most advanced agricultural technology available by the twenty-third century. I’m not sure why Sandoval’s idea of a simpler lifestyle excludes vehicles, though. They’re not exactly the most recent thing on the timeline of human technological advancements.

Sandoval tells the landing party to make themselves at home, and they all head off. All except for Spock, who lingers just a few seconds more to give Layla a completely neutral look before walking away as well.

Everyone goes off to conduct their respective investigations. Sulu and Kelowitz wander through a yard over towards another farm building. Kelowitz isn’t sure what exactly they should be looking for, though. “Whatever doesn’t look right—whatever that is,” Sulu replies, climbing up to sit on a railing on the building’s porch. “When it comes to farms, I wouldn’t know what looked right or wrong if it were two feet from me.” I hope you enjoyed that line, because “didn’t grow up on a farm” is about all the backstory TOS is going to give us for Sulu until the movies.

[ID: Three screenshots showing Sulu pulling himself up to sit on the railing of an old-fashioned farmhouse as he says, "When it comes to farms, I wouldn't know what looked right or wrong if it were two feet from me." Growing up from the ground nearby are two large plants with thick brownish-purple stems and large pink flowers on top.]

Hey Sulu, what's that about two feet from you? Oh well, I'm sure it's not important.

Kelowitz opens up a nearby barn and notes that there’s no cows there—in fact, the barn isn’t even built for cows, just for storage, and indeed it only looks big enough to be useful for holding cow, singular. Having a storage barn isn’t itself that weird, although the fact that there is nothing currently stored in the storage barn is a bit strange. But also, as Sulu points out, come to think of it, they haven’t seen any animals here, native or imported. No cows, no horses, no pigs, not even a dog. Which is a bit odd for an agricultural colony. They must have had or expected to have animals at some point—otherwise what was pulling that cart?

Back in the house, Sandoval is asking Layla about Spock (once again referred to as a ‘Vulcanian’). She says that she knew Spock on Earth, six years ago. Sandoval, apparently having noticed the dreamy background music by now, asks if Layla loved Spock. She says that if she did, “it was important only to myself...Mr. Spock’s feelings were never expressed to me. It is said he has none to give.”

“Would you like him to stay with us now? To be one of us?” Sandoval asks. Layla smiles at him. “There is no choice, Elias,” she says. “He will stay.”

Elsewhere in the house, McCoy is scanning a colonist. He doesn’t look exactly happy with the tricorder result he gets, but all he says is, “That’ll be all, thank you very much,” and the colonist leaves, passing Kirk coming in. Incidentally, I can’t help but note that this room contains two paintings on the wall and what appears to be a cabinet full of china. I suppose the paintings could have been done by a colonist, but the china could surely only have been brought there. Who decided to pack fancy china on a year-long space voyage to an agricultural colony?

[ID: A shot of the interior of a farmhouse with blue walls, with a large wooden table in the middle of the room, a cabinet with china and glassware in the corner, a wooden desk with a copper tea kettle and some other kitchen items on it against the back wall, and a painting hanging on the wall showing some blurry trees. Sandoval, a middle-aged white man with short brown hair wearing a green jumpsuit, walks past the camera as he says, "Oh, captain, I've been looking for you."]

Kirk asks if McCoy’s found anything yet. McCoy replies that he’s surveyed nine men so far, ranging in age from twenty-three to fifty-nine. And they’re all in perfect condition. Not just healthy—perfect. Textbook responses across the board, from all of them. “If there are many more of them,” McCoy muses, “I can throw away my shingle.”

At that point Kirk’s communicator goes off. It’s Spock, calling in from one of the crop fields. He’s made the same observation as Sulu—there’s no life on the planet aside from the colonists and the plants. No animals, no insects. Spock doesn’t have any explanation yet, so Kirk tells him to carry on with his investigation and hangs up.

McCoy notes the absence of animals as peculiar, and Kirk says it’s especially so because the expedition records show that they did bring animals with them to raise for food. And pull their carts, presumably. But it seems none of them are still around. McCoy says he’d like to see the expedition’s medical records, a request Kirk has apparently anticipated because he’s got the floppy disc on hand with him.

Sandoval comes in and says that he’d like to take the two of them on a tour of the fields, to show off what the colony’s accomplished. McCoy says he’ll have to bow out, since he’s still working on the medical examinations. “However, if I find everyone else’s health to be as perfect as yours...”

“You’ll find no weaklings here,” Sandoval says, which uh, sure is a hell of a way to phrase that. “No weaklings! None of those miserable, pathetic sods with imperfect health! Only the strong survive! THE SLIGHTEST BLEMISH SHALL BE CAUSE FOR EXILE!”

Leaving McCoy behind, Kirk and Sandoval head out to the fields, where Sandoval gushes to Kirk about how great this place is: they’ve got moderate climate, moderate rains all year round, and the soil will grow anything they stick in it. Which is pretty miraculous, considering there’s no such thing as growing conditions that are perfect for every plant. But as we’re about to see, that’s not the only weird thing going on with their farming practices.

The conversation is interrupted by DeSalle arriving to give Kirk the biology report. Sandoval excuses himself to attend to work elsewhere, leaving Kirk and DeSalle alone to discuss the report. At first, it seems to be just as Sandoval said: they’ve got a variety of crops growing here successfully. The weird thing is that they don’t actually have very many of those crops. There’s enough to keep the colony going at the size it currently is, but barely more than that. Which tracks with what we’ve seen of the place so far: a couple of tiny fields that look more about the size for someone’s backyard garden than for a prosperous farm, tended by the occasional person idly scratching at the ground with a hoe. For a supposedly bounteous agricultural colony, that’s pretty weird. What have they been doing all this time?

“It’s like a jigsaw puzzle all one color,” Kirk muses, taking a moment to stroll a few steps away so he can say this dramatically in the distance instead of actually talking to DeSalle. “No key to where the pieces fit in. Why?”

Kirk’s communicator goes off. It’s McCoy, saying Kirk had better get back over there. “Trouble?” “No, but I’d like you to see this for yourself.” Of course. No one can ever just explain something over the phone, can they.

So Kirk heads back to the house, where the thing that Kirk just absolutely has to see for himself turns out to be McCoy just telling him what he’s found out, but he definitely couldn't do that over the communicator for, uh, reasons. What he’s found out is pretty interesting, though: McCoy checked up on Sandoval’s medical records from right before the colonists had left, which said that Sandoval had had an appendectomy, and had scar tissue on his lungs from childhood pneumonia (the weakling!). Yet when McCoy scanned Sandoval himself today, the results came back just as perfect as all the other colonists’. Kirk’s first thought is instrument failure, but McCoy says no, he thought of that and tested it by scanning himself, and it recorded him just fine, down to “those two broken ribs I had once.” Which sounds like an interesting story. But Sandoval’s scan? No scar tissue, and one healthy appendix. That’s right, Sandoval’s apparently managed to regrow an entire organ. Do you think you would notice that happening? Like, would it itch?

While Kirk and McCoy try to figure that out, Spock is hanging out in a field scanning with his own tricorder, while Layla stands nearby smiling ominously at him. Spock muses that there’s “Nothing. Not even insects. Yet your plants grow, and you’ve survived exposure to Bertold rays.” Yeah, how are those plants growing without insects? Presumably the native plants have evolved some way around that, but the ones the colonists have brought from Earth would need some help. Are the colonists just manually pollinating everything? Maybe that’s why they haven’t grown very much.

Layla says this can be explained, but when asked to do so, she just says, “Later.” Spock looks annoyed and remarks, “I have never understood the female capacity to avoid a direct answer to any question.” Hey! Cut that bullshit out. No one on this colony has directly answered a question since you got here, there’s no call to go ragging on a whole gender for it. Besides, just saying “Later,” is hardly a stunningly deft diversion, it’s not like she threw a smoke bomb down and disappeared.

“And I never understood you,” Layla says, walking over and placing a hand on his chest. “Until now. There was always a place in here where no one could come. There was only the face you allow people to see. Only one side you’d allow them to know.”

[ID: Three screenshots of Spock and Layla, a white woman with a lot of long blonde hair wearing a lilac shirt and green overalls, standing outside in a field with a large tree in the background. Layla, seen from behind, is pressing her hand to Spock's upper chest and saying, "There was always a place in here where no one could come." Spock replies "you know that's not where my heart is right".]

If Layla was hoping this little speech would prompt Spock to cry out that yes, she’s figured him out, he does love her but has never been able to show it! she’s disappointed, because he just looks uncomfortable and steps away. He tries to steer the conversation back onto the mystery of the colonists. “If I tell you how we survive,” she asks, “will you try to understand how we feel about our life here? About each other?”

That’s a pretty vague thing to make a promise about, so Spock deflects by saying that emotions are alien to him; he’s a SCIENTIST. “Someone else might believe that—your shipmates, your captain—but not me,” Layla says. Oh sure! Obviously none of the people who have lived, worked, and risked death alongside Spock can be expected to know anything about Spock. Only you are the Spock Expert, gifted with incredible insight by virtue of having a crush on him.

“Come,” she says, sauntering off through the field with her hand outstretched to him. Spock rather pointedly folds his hands behind his back instead and follows her.

Back in the house, Kirk and McCoy are struggling to have a conversation with Sandoval. Kirk tells Sandoval that he’s received orders from Starfleet Command to evacuate everyone on the colony, since, y’know, deadly rays and all that. He expects Sandoval to start making preparations. But Sandoval, calmly, casually, says, “No.” It’s not necessary, he insists—they’re in no danger.

But...but the Bertold rays. Sandoval is unmoved,  pointing out that as McCoy’s own instruments show, the colonists are in perfect health and there have been no deaths. Okay, what about all those animals? What happened to them? “We’re vegetarians,” Sandoval says blithely. Which, as Kirk points out, does absolutely nothing to answer the question. Actually it raises further questions.

Sandoval remains thoroughly unbothered and thoroughly unhelpful. “Captain, you stress very unimportant matters. We will not leave,” he says, and goes back to gazing out the window, evidently considering the conversation over.

Elsewhere, Spock and Layla are still walking, and Spock is getting annoyed that Layla still hasn’t explained just what it is they’re going to see. “Its basic properties and elements are not important,” Layla says helpfully. “What is important is that it gives life, peace, love.” Oh boy.

Spock is dubious, but Layla pulls him forward, over towards another one of those large pink flowers. “I was one of the first to find them,” Layla says. “The spores.”

[ID: A gif of Spock approaching a large pinkish-purple flower and saying, "Spores?" The flower then sprays a cloud of white spores all over his face and torso while Spock recoils.]

For a moment Spock just looks startled, but then he starts clutching his head and falling onto his knees in the grass, dropping his tricorder and gasping, “No--” For the first time all episode, Layla’s absolute serenity starts to fracture slightly. Over Spock’s agonized protests, she insists that it shouldn’t hurt—it didn’t hurt any of them. But, as Spock gasps out, he’s not like them. Whoops, did the biologist forget to account for biological differences before handing out a facefull of spores? I bet you didn’t even check if he had any allergies first, did you?

Just as it’s looking like this might put actually put a crack in Layla’s blissed-out impassivity, Spock stops thrashing about and starts seeming less anguished and more confused. Layla’s concern vanishes once again, and she goes back to smiling happily while stroking his face. “Now...now you belong to all of us...and we to you. There’s no need to hide your inner face any longer. We understand.”

Spock still seems unsure, but then he takes Layla’s hand in his and smiles. Not the slight hint of a smile or sardonic quirk of the lips you’d expect to see from Spock, but a huge, broad grin from ear to ear. “I love you...I can love you,” he says, and then he kisses her.

Hoo boy.

After the break, we get a quick Captain’s Log to recap:

“Captain’s Log, supplemental. We have been ordered by Starfleet Command to evacuate the colony on Omicron 3. However, the colony leader, Elias Sandoval, has refused all cooperation and will not listen to any arguments.”

Sure enough, we see Sandoval exiting the farmhouse, followed by McCoy and an extremely frustrated Kirk. “Captain, your arguments are very valid, but do they not apply to us,” Sandoval says, as calm as ever. He tries to walk off, but Kirk grabs his arm and pulls him back.

“My orders are to remove all the colonists,” he says, “and that’s exactly what I intend to do with or without your help.”

“Without, I should think,” Sandoval says, and strolls off, leaving Kirk standing there fuming.

Sulu and Kelowitz come walking up to report that they’ve checked out everything and it all seems normal, except for the missing animals. Of course, they also both said they had no idea what to look for in the first place, so maybe take that with a grain of salt. Kirk tells them about the evacuation orders, and says he wants landing parties to start gathering the colonists and preparing them to leave. And by the way, where did Spock and DeSalle go? Sulu says they haven’t seen either one in some time, but McCoy says DeSalle was going to examine some native plants he found. Native plants, huh? I think we can guess what happened to DeSalle.

Since Spock still hasn’t reported in, Kirk gives him a call. Or tries to, at least—Spock doesn’t pick up. On the other end of the line, we see why that is: Spock's communicator is laying abandoned on the ground, while Spock himself, now dressed in the same horrible green jumpsuit as the colonists, is stretched out on the grass with Layla, watching clouds. The communicator beeps away while Spock happily describes how one of the clouds looks like a dragon. "I've never seen a dragon," Layla says. BEEP BEEP. "I have." BEEP BEEP. "On Barengarius 7." BEEP BEEP. "But I've never stopped to look at clouds before." BEEP BEEP. "Or rainbows." BEEP BEEP. "You know, I can tell you exactly why one appears in the sky, but considering its beauty has always been out of the question." BEEP BEEP.

"Not here," Layla says (beep beep), and they smile dreamily at each other before going into another makeout session. Meanwhile, Kirk is still on the line, and not getting any happier about it. Layla finally picks up the communicator and holds it up for Spock, who takes a break from kissin' to say, "Yes, what did you want?"

Naturally, this throws both Kirk and McCoy for a loop. While McCoy stands there with a "what the fuck" look on his face, Kirk takes a moment to recover and then demands, "Spock, is that you?"

"Yes, captain, what did you want?"

"Where are you?"

"...I don't believe I want to tell you."

[ID: Three shots of Kirk and McCoy standing in front of the farmhouse, Kirk holding his communicator while McCoy looks on. Kirk has a stunned expression on his face and looks around with his mouth open, trying to figure out what to say.]

Kirk plows on ahead, telling Spock that, whatever the hell he thinks he's doing, he's got orders: they're getting the colonists out, and Spock is to meet back at the settlement in ten minutes.

"No, I don't think so," Spock says casually. "You don't think so, what?" "I don't think so, sir."

Kirk has to take a moment after that one. It's rather amazing that McCoy's made it this far into the conversation without saying anything himself. Presumably he's just in shock. Eventually Kirk tells Spock to report in immediately, but by now Spock and Layla have gone back to kissing, leaving the communicator open but abandoned in the grass once more.

"That didn't sound at all like Spock, Jim," McCoy says, putting in his bid for the Enterprise’s bi-weekly Massive Understatement contest.

"No, it--I thought you said you might like him if he mellowed a little."

"I didn't say that!"

"You said that."

"Not exactly,” McCoy protests, and then somewhat grudgingly adds, “He might be in trouble.”

I'm sure McCoy did say that, or something like it, but "I hope Spock has his brain taken over by alien spores" was presumably not where he was going with it. He obviously sees this sudden change of behavior as something to be concerned about--even moreso than Kirk, who seems more irritated than anything. But then, it's only been a couple episodes since McCoy had his own run-in with an alien influence making people act a lot more mellow than usual, and he didn't enjoy that experience at all, so it's not surprising that "trouble" is his first thought here.

Kirk tells McCoy to take over the landing party detail and start getting the colonists up to the ship, and to make sure the party works in teams of two, with nobody being left alone. Meanwhile, Kirk himself takes Sulu and Kelowitz and heads off to find Spock, using the open frequency from Spock's communicator as a homing signal. They follow a dirt path out of the main settlement and soon find said communicator, laying open and abandoned in the grass just off the path. As Kirk picks it up, they hear laughter nearby, and Sulu points in astonishment further down the path, where Layla is watching Spock dangle upside-down from a tree branch like a kid on a jungle gym.

[ID: A shot of Spock and Layla among some trees at the end of a dirt path. Layla is standing on the ground and holding hands with Spock, who is hanging upside-down by his knees from a large tree branch, laughing.]

For a moment all Kirk can do is stare weakly at this weird spectacle. Then he collects himself with a stern AHEM and marches over like a principal about to deliver some very serious detention.

Meanwhile, back at the main hub of the colony, the landing party seems to have gotten well underway with preparations for departure, with several colonists and crewmen piling up luggage and equipment in the middle of a field while McCoy stands nearby overseeing everything, a job I’m sure he’s enjoying since we all know administrative work is McCoy’s favorite thing. Then DeSalle arrives, carrying a couple of the spore flowers and tells McCoy to take “a good, close look” at them, because they’re very interesting. McCoy steps forward to check them out right before the scene cuts away again, leaving us with little doubt as to what’s about to happen next.

During that little interim, Kirk and his crew have made it over to where Spock and Layla are cavorting. Spock just grins happily at Kirk, clearly not bothered one bit, even as Kirk asks if Spock’s out of his mind. He didn’t report to Kirk, he says, because...he didn’t want to.

Kirk glances back and forth between Spock and Layla, who’s standing there smiling rather smugly, and tells Layla that she’ll need to come get ready to evacuate with the rest of the colonists. Spock cheerfully says that there’s not going to be any evacuation. “But perhaps,” he adds, “we should go and get you straightened out.”

That really doesn’t bode well, but rather than ask just what Spock means by that, Kirk tells Sulu that Spock is under arrest in Sulu’s custody until they get back to the ship. Which will certainly work out well because it’s not like Spock is strong enough to chuck Sulu all the way across the field barehanded or anything. Not that Spock seems especially perturbed about being under arrest; instead he just shrugs, drops down from the tree, and says, “Very well. Come with me,” before heading off across the field, leaving else to follow in confusion. That’s how you arrest someone, right?

Of course, Spock leads them right to another group of spore flowers, which the group stops and stares at obligingly for a moment. Then the flowers explode a bunch of spores at them. Somehow, even though he’s standing right next to Sulu and Kelowitz, Kirk manages to totally avoid getting any spores up his sinuses, while the other two are immediately affected. “Yes...I see now,” Sulu says blissfully, with that trademark Very High grin that George Takei does so well. “Of course we can’t remove the colony. It’d be wrong.”

Kirk grabs him by the shoulders—Kirk’s go-to method for snapping people out of it--but when this somehow fails to bring Sulu back to his right mind, all Kirk can do is say that he doesn’t know what these plants are or how they work, but “you’re all going back to the settlement with me, and those colonists are going aboard the ship.” This stern proclamation has absolutely no effect on anyone. The whole group just stands there happily watching Kirk stomp back toward the colony. “I can see the captain is going to be difficult,” Spock remarks.

Kirk’s day isn’t about to get any better, because upon making it back to the colony he’s greeted by McCoy, who we can immediately tell is under the influence as well because his accent is absolutely out of control. It’s so thick even the subtitles pick up on it.

[ID: A screenshot of McCoy walking through a meadow with his communicator out, saying, "Sho’nuf."]

“Hiya, Jimmy boy!” McCoy very happily says to a very unhappy Kirk. “Hey, I’ve taken care of everything. Now all y’all gotta do is just relax. Doctor’s orders!” With a very resigned look, Kirk asks how many plants McCoy’s beamed up to the ship, and McCoy says it must be going on a hundred by now.

So Kirk beams up to the ship and heads right to the bridge, where he tells Uhura to put him through to Admiral Komak at Starfleet, though what he expects Komak to do about all this I don't know. But it’s too late. Uhura turns around to show that she’s smiling as happily as everyone else, and says, “Oh, I’m sorry Dave, I mean, captain. I can’t do that.” She’s short-circuited all the ship’s communications, except for ship-to-surface, since they’ll need that for a little while yet. Then she leaves, pausing in the door of the lift to tell Kirk that it’s really all for the best.

Kirk stands there seething for a moment, then stomps over to grab a plant that’s been left in Spock’s chair. He throws it across the bridge, and the camera lingers ominously on it as Kirk heads back into the lift.

Things aren’t any better on the rest of the ship. Kirk soon finds a long line of crewmembers of all different shirt colors, patiently waiting to transport down to join the colony. Out of what I can only assume is some desperate futile hope that someone will follow his orders if he just keeps trying, Kirk orders them all to go back to their stations at once. Unsurprisingly, they all ignore him. Kirk points out to one of the redshirts that this is MUTINY! but it doesn't get him very far.

[ID: A gif showing a young white man with brown hair wearing a redshirt as he says, "Yes, sir, it is." The camera then zooms in very dramatically on Kirk's stunned face.]

So...they’re all going down to join the colony? All four hundred thirty of them? Or four hundred twenty-nine, I guess, if Kirk refuses to join the fun. That’s almost ten times the amount of people the colony currently has in it. That seems like it could present a bit of a problem, because if you’ll recall DeSalle told Kirk earlier that right now the colony’s growing enough food to feed their current population, with little left over. How are they going to handle such a large and sudden influx into their population? Do they have housing for all these people? Or are they just all going to eat dirt and sleep on the ground because they’re all too high to notice anyway?

After we’ve had a commercial break to contemplate this shocking turn of events, Kirk takes some time out to give vent to his feelings in a captain’s log:

"Captain's Log, Stardate 3417.5. The pod plants have spread spores throughout the ship, carried by the ventilation system. Under their influence, my crew is deserting to join the Omicron colony, and I can't stop them. I don't know why I have not been infected, nor can I get Doctor McCoy to explain the physical, psychological aspects of the infection."

And indeed, just in case we had any doubt, we then see McCoy strolling through the field and happily telling Kirk, “I’m not interested in any physical, psychological aspects, Jim-boy. We all perfectly healthy down here.” Kirk grumbles about how much he’s been hearing about things being perfect lately. “I bet you’ve even grown your tonsils back.” “Sho’nuf!”

Kirk tries desperately to get McCoy to do something to figure these spores out—run a blood test, take a scan, type the symptoms into WebMD, something, anything—but McCoy is more interested in rambling on about mint juleps.  Meanwhile, back in the farmhouse, Sandoval’s having tea with Spock while they talk about how nearly everyone’s beamed down from the ship and things are “proceeding quite well.” Kirk storms in and demands to know where McCoy’s gotten to, and Spock says he went off to make that mint julep. Which could prove quite difficult unless this tiny half-assed farm colony has somehow managed to set up a working distillery around here somewhere, but Kirk’s got bigger concerns right now than where McCoy’s going to get his bourbon.

Sandoval wants to know why Kirk won’t join them in their private, spore-sponsored paradise. Kirk asks where these spores came from, anyway, and Spock exposits that there’s no way to know—they just drifted through space until they arrived at this planet, which is perfect for them because it turns out they actually thrive on Bertold rays. The plants act as a repository for the spores until they can find a human—or half-Vulcan—body to inhabit. No explanation is forthcoming as to how Spock knows any of this.

Spock and Sandoval insist that the planet is “a true Eden” with belonging and love and no needs or wants for anyone, but Kirk is skeptical. “No wants, no needs. We weren’t meant for that. None of us. Man stagnates if he has no ambition, no desire to be more than he is.” Of all the things wrong with this situation I’m not sure “BEING TOO HAPPY IS BAD FOR YOU” is the take I would go with, but okay. Spock says that Kirk doesn’t understand, but he’ll come around...sooner or later.

Kirk, disgusted with this whole conversation, goes back to the ship. The bridge is dark, silent, and utterly empty. We get a slow pan of the blinking lights and displays of the consoles, with no one left to man them. Kirk walks over to his chair, hits the intercom, and starts calling one part of the ship after another, with no response from any of them. With nothing else left to do, he sits down in his chair and starts glumly recording a captain’s log so angsty it could be a LiveJournal entry:

"Captain's Log, Stardate 3417.7. Except for myself, all crew personnel have transported to the surface of the planet. Mutinied. Lieutenant Uhura has effectively sabotaged the communications station. I can only contact the surface of the planet. The ship...can be maintained in orbit for several months, but even with automatic controls, I cannot pilot her alone. In effect, I am marooned here. I'm beginning to realize...just how big this ship really is, how quiet. I don't know how to get my crew back, how to counteract the effect of the spores. I don't know what I can offer against...paradise."

Hold on hold on HOLD ON what do you MEAN the ship can be maintained in orbit for several months? Every time someone takes their hands off the controls for five seconds we get told that the orbit is decaying and they’re gonna plummet into some hapless planet within a few hours at most but now all of a sudden it’s fine to hang out up there for several months? MAKE UP YOUR MIND.

Kirk gets up to go sit at the helm, just to get a change of scenery mid-mope, and as he finishes his log/rant the camera slowly pans down to reveal the spore flower that he chucked across the bridge earlier. Which is weird because we just got a wide shot of the bridge and that flower definitely wasn’t there then.

[ID: Two shots. The first is a wide shot showing Kirk alone on the empty, darkened bridge, preparing to sit down at the helm. There is nothing in on the floor in front of the helm. The second shot is a closer shot of Kirk sitting at the helm with his chin in one hand, now with a large spore flower poking up in the front of shot.]

The flower promptly shoots Kirk in the face, and for a moment he just continues to sit there with spores in his hair and a “yeah, this might as well happen” expression. But then he slowly starts to smile, suddenly as happy as everyone else. Exactly why Kirk’s been unaffected by the spores up until now, even after hanging out for quite a while on a ship that’s supposedly been thoroughly contaminated by them, is never really explained. Maybe he's just on a lot of Zyrtec. But it seems even Kirk’s determination to not be happy can’t hold out against a point-blank spray in the face. He calls Spock to say that he finally understands now, which Spock is happy to hear. Kirk says he’ll be down just as soon as he packs up a few things, so Spock says he and Layla will wait for him at the beamdown point.

So Kirk goes off to his quarters to pack up a suitcase, the contents of which seem to mostly consist of uniform shirts. Apparently paradise for Kirk does not include one of those green jumpsuits, which, really, who can blame him. He opens a small vault by his bed and pulls out a couple of black cases, one of which he opens to reveal a medal. This seems to stir some sense of conflict because he sits down and stares at it for a long moment, but then puts it aside and heads to the transporter room, where he puts the suitcase on the platform and then prepares to set the controls.

But then Kirk hesitates, and stands there for a moment looking conflicted. Possibly he’s still having feelings about those medals, or maybe he’s having second thoughts about whether he packed enough shirts. In any case, he eventually exclaims, “No...No! I...can’t...LEAVE!” Then he punches the console for good measure.

Apparently this little emotional outburst is all it takes to cure the spores, because Kirk gasps a little, looks momentarily confused, and then seems to be back to his old self. “Emotions...violent emotions. Needs...anger,” he tells the empty room. “Captain’s log, supplemental. I think I’ve discovered the answer...but to carry out my plan entails considerable risk. Mr. Spock is much stronger than the ordinary human being.” Then he treats us to this remarkable line:

[ID: A shot of Kirk in profile at the transporter controls as he says, "Aroused, his great physical strength could kill."]

um

Down on the planet, Spock and Layla are still waiting at the beamdown point when Kirk calls Spock up and says he’s realized there’s some equipment on the ship that they’ll need for the colony, and he needs Spock’s help to get it all beamed down. Really, you’d think there’d be quite a lot of equipment on the Enterprise that a farming colony could make good use of, but I guess they’re really determined to stick to the whole no-technology approach. Despite this, Spock cheerfully accepts the explanation, gives Layla a quick smooch, and beams up.

But upon materializing, Spock is greeted not with a smiling Kirk ready to go move some equipment with his bro, but Kirk standing there holding some nonspecific heavy metal rod thing that he’s smacking threatening against his hand. “All right, you mutinous, disloyal, computerized half-breed,” he says, “we’ll see about you deserting my ship.”

Spock reacts to this bar-brawl-starter with nothing more than a nonplussed expression and polite correcting Kirk on his syntax. Kirk, determination unshaken, continues laying into him with a stream of insults that would have made that fucker from Balance of Terror go, “Whoa, hold on there a minute.” Undeterred by not being able to use any actual expletives, he compares Spock both to a machine and to various fairy-tale creatures, makes fun of his ears, and rounds it all off by having a go at the entire Vulcan race. He even insults Spock’s parents.

[ID: 1. A shot of Spock standing in the transporter room looking perplexed as Kirk, off-camera, says, "Whose father was a computer and his mother an encyclopedia?" 2. A gif from Monty Python and the Holy Grail of John Cleese as the French knight on the battlements yelling, "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"]

Spock stands there taking it all stoically for quite a while, even as the background music gets increasingly tense. He finally starts to crack when Kirk goes after Spock’s relationship with Layla, and when Kirk keeps going despite Spock angrily telling him, “That’s enough,” Spock finally flips out big time. You know what that means, it’s time for a STAR TREK FIGHT SCENE! This one’s got it all: close-up shots of the actors intercut with long shots of very obvious stunt doubles; cardboard props getting punched; even people picking up random unidentifiable bits of starship equipment that may or may not have ever been there before to use as weapons. The only thing we’re missing is Kirk doing some kind of weird wrestling move.

[ID: Three gifs showing a fight scene between Kirk and Spock. First we see a long shot where Kirk and Spock are clearly being played by stunt doubles, as Spock punches a metal rod Kirk is holding, bending it in half. He then punches Kirk in the jaw, sending him careening into the wall. Then a close-up of Nimoy and Shatner as Spock advances on Kirk and throws a punch but misses, denting the control panel in the wall behind Kirk. Kirk dodges out of the way towards the console, and Spock throws another punch that hits the side of the console. Then back to a long view with the stunt doubles as Spock throws Kirk into the opposite wall, which Kirk careens off of, falling on his back on the floor, while Spock picks up something resembling a square metal stool or stepladder and raises it over his head. Finally, we see Nimoy and Shatner again as Kirk lays on the floor looking up at Spock, raising the thing he's carrying over his head.]

We dramatically cut to black as Spock stands poised above Kirk, raising whatever-the-hell-that-thing-is over his head threateningly. Apparently the ad break gives him enough time to cool down, though, because instead of bringing the thing down on Kirk’s skull, he hesitates.

“Had enough?” Kirk asks. “I didn’t realize what it took to get under that thick hide of yours.”

Spock slowly lowers the thing, looking a bit regretful about having to do so. Kirk says he doesn’t know what Spock’s so mad about, anyway. “It isn’t every first officer who gets to belt his captain...several times.” Dude, you just stood there and unleashed a screed of personal and racial insults at your best friend here. A “sorry” probably wouldn’t go amiss here.

“You did that to me deliberately,” Spock realizes, and then realizes that the spores are gone. “I don’t belong anymore.” Kirk explains that since the spores are “benevolent and peaceful,” violent emotions overwhelm and destroy them—that’s the answer. Which...definitely makes sense, chemically speaking. Sure.

Spock, still looking pretty glum about all this, points out that Kirk’s method might have worked out alright for curing one person, but they’ve got over five hundred infected people down there, and trying to pick a fight with all of them probably isn’t going to go so well. But no worries, Kirk’s got another plan. He wants Spock to rig up a subsonic transmitter that they can hook up to the ship’s communications system and then broadcast to all the communicators. Spock says he can do that, but hesitates as Kirk turns to leave. “Captain. Striking a fellow officer is a court martial offense,” he points out.

Kirk mulls over that one for a moment. “We-ll...if we’re both in the brig, who’s gonna build the subsonic transmitter?” he says, and Spock concedes the point. Besides, it’s a bit late to be worrying about striking fellow officers now.

[ID: A gif from The Naked Time of Kirk and Spock standing in an Enterprise conference room. Kirk slaps Spock across the face, and Spock retaliates by backhanding Kirk so hard he is thrown across the table in the center of the room and falls onto the floor on the other side.]

But what with the insults and the punching and de-sporing and everything, it seems that something has clean slipped Spock’s mind: Layla’s still down there waiting for him to come back. As she stands around the field, McCoy wanders over and asks what’s up. When she tells him that she’s been out here for some time now waiting for Spock and Kirk to come back, he gentlemanly offers to fix that for her and calls the ship. Spock picks up, and Layla asks if everything’s okay up there.

With obvious discomfort, Spock tells her that yes, he’s...quite well. Layla, oblivious to anything being wrong, asks if she can come up there, because she wants to talk to him, and besides, “I’ve never seen a starship before.” Wait a minute, never seen a starship before? You’re on a planetary colony! What, did you drive here?

Spock asks if she’s still at the beamdown point, and if McCoy’s there. Layla says yes to both, so Spock tells her to give the communicator back to McCoy, since she won’t need it to transport, and he’ll have her beamed up in a few minutes. One might think that at this point they might take this easy opportunity to also beam up McCoy and get him cured (it shouldn’t be hard, McCoy is already 85% comprised of negative emotions to begin with), so he can start investigating these spores, just in case Operation Go For the Eardrums doesn’t work. But they don’t. Kirk awkwardly asks Spock if he’s sure about talking to Layla while she’s still spore’d, but Spock just nods and heads to the transporter room.

He beams Layla up, and she happily runs over to give him a hug—they’ve been parted ever so long, after all—but when he just stands there stiffly, not reacting at all, she slowly pulls back and says, “You’re no longer with us, are you?”

Spock says it was necessary. Layla begs him to come back to the planet and belong again, but he says he can’t. She starts crying and saying she loves him. "I said that six years ago, and I can't seem to stop repeating myself. On Earth, you couldn't give anything of yourself. You couldn't even put your arms around me. We couldn't have anything together there. We couldn't have anything together anyplace else. But we're happy here. I can't lose you now, Mr. Spock, I can't." Look, if the only time the relationship you want can possibly work out is when the other person is being mind-controlled by alien spores, I think it may be time to consider whether this is really a relationship you should be pursuing in the first place.

“I have a responsibility to this ship...to that man on the bridge,” Spock gently tells her. “I am what I am, Layla. And if there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else’s.”

Layla soon realizes that all this anguish has resulted in her getting de-spore’d as well, and she’s not happy about it. “And this is for my own good?” she demands angrily. Well...yes, I mean, it is, but Spock doesn’t say that. Nor does he respond when she asks, “Do you mind if I say I still love you?” but she hugs him again anyway.

[ID: Layla tearfully embraces Spock and says, "You never told me if you had another name, Mr. Spock." Spock replies, "You couldn't pronounce it."]

ROMANCE

We’re obviously supposed to read this little story arc as the tragic tale of true love destined never to be, because Spock is only able to express his feelings for Layla under the influence of the spores. He has experienced paradise, but alas, he cannot linger there, and so on. It’s never set all that well with me, though. The problem is we never really get Spock’s side of the story and so it leaves open the question of how much he actually did want this relationship in the first place. Layla said earlier that “Mr. Spock’s feelings were never expressed to me” so evidently he never outright said “I love you but I can’t be with you” or anything of that sort to her. When they’re alone in the field before Spock gets spore’d he seems stiff, standoffish, awkward, and deflects all of her overtures with what appears to be discomfort, even annoyance. He clearly has no interest in talking about whatever history they had together, even when they’re all alone. For all that Layla goes on about how she can see a side of Spock that his crewmates don’t, we see interactions with those crewmates multiple times throughout the show that prove that Spock is perfectly capable of showing people that he cares about them, even if the ways he does it are usually a bit atypical. We don’t see any of that in his initial interactions with Layla.

If we accept the premise that the spores only make people act as they would if they had no inhibitions or fears holding them back, then yes, Spock saying he loves Layla after he’s been spore’d would indicate that he did secretly love her all along. The problem is that we know the spores make people do things that they would not ordinarily want to do. You think all of those four hundred thirty people on the Enterprise secretly longed for a quiet life among the soil but all chose to instead join the space navy for some reason? Should we believe Scotty is actually deep down perfectly okay with abandoning his beloved ship to a slowly decaying orbit? I doubt that Kirk has always harbored a subconscious desire to give up exploring the final frontier to pursue a peaceful agrarian lifestyle, but he very nearly does do just that. So the question of how much a relationship with Layla is what Spock “really” wanted seems to be a bit hazy.

Mind, I’m not saying this makes Layla an evil person who deliberately drugged Spock so she could have a relationship with him or anything like that. It’s clear throughout the episode that the spores induce those who are infected by them to spread them around to anyone nearby who’s not in the spore fandom yet, so there’s no reason to believe Layla would act as she did if she wasn’t under the influence herself. I just personally find it hard to buy into the tragic romance of a star-crossed relationship when the thing crossing the stars is that one of the participants is only enthusiastic about the whole thing when they’re not fully sober. It makes me question how much of their previous relationship really was Spock having feelings for Layla but being unable to express them, versus Layla projecting a lot of feelings onto him and writing off his disinterest or discomfort as denial.

Kirk and Spock go back to working on the signal, while Layla deals with her heartbreak by disappearing into thin air for the rest of the episode. Spock says that the sound they’re going to send out is on a frequency that won’t be heard so much as felt, but apparently it will be felt quite emphatically. Kirk compares it to putting itching powder on someone. Which may seem like another silly technobabble deus ex machina, but speaking from personal experience, driving someone into a frantic frustrated fit by playing an obnoxious noise just on the edge of hearing sounds totally legit. All they need to complete the sensory overload meltdown experience is find a way to simulate some flickering florescent lights and put tags on the backs of the uniform shirts.

And indeed, as the device starts to work, we see Sulu and DeSalle working in one of the fields—for a certain value of ‘working,’ anyway, they’re kind of just digging around aimlessly—when Sulu accidentally elbows DeSalle in the back. He apologizes, but DeSalle shoves him back, and before long they’re having a full-on brawl right there in the field, which can't be good for the crops. As the device on the ship hums away, two more crewmembers start their own fight over by the farmhouse, and when a third tries to break them up he promptly gets dragged into it as well.

The effects haven’t quite reached everyone just yet, though, as we see McCoy chillaxing under a tree with some unspecified concoction. Sandoval strolls up and says that he’s been thinking about what sort of work he could assign McCoy to. When McCoy protests that he does one kind of work and that’s doctorin’, Sandoval says that he’s not a doctor anymore—they don’t need any doctors here.

This does not go over well.

[ID: A gif showing McCoy reclining against a tree in a grassy meadow, a stalk of grass in one hand and a grass of something brown with several leafy stalks in it. Sandoval is standing over him. McCoy says, "Oh, no?" and then slowly stands up, tosses his grass stalk aside, looks Sandoval in the eye and says, "Would you like to see just how fast I can put you in a hospital?"]

Undeterred, Sandoval says that he’s the leader and he’ll be assigning McCoy whatever work he wants to, but when he tries to walk away McCoy pulls him back and snarls, “You’d better make me a mechanic. Then I can treat little tin gods like you.” Sandoval throws a punch at him, but McCoy dodges and whacks Sandoval in the stomach, putting him out flat on the ground. See, I told you it wouldn’t be hard to cure McCoy. Everyone else on the Enterprise was perfectly happy to give up their careers to go do a bit of light farming, but tell McCoy he can’t be a doctor anymore and no amount of spores are going to save you.

While Sandoval is busy rolling around on the ground, McCoy stands there looking confused for a moment, then—presumably having only just now noticed that instead of a mint julep he’s actually been drinking a coke with a bunch of cilantro in it—throws his drink aside and admits that he’s not sure why he just clobbered Sandoval. But Sandoval has other concerns for the moment. With a look of dawning horror familiar to all us chronic procrastinators, he abruptly realizes that they haven’t actually been doing anything all this time. “No accomplishments, no progress. Three years wasted. We wanted to make this planet a garden...”

McCoy points out that the colonists really will have to leave—they can’t survive here without the spores handling all that radiation for them. But the dream’s not over; the colonists could be relocated to start again somewhere a bit less deadly, if that’s what they want.

“I think I’d...I think we’d like to get some work done,” Sandoval muses. “The work we set out to do.”

McCoy calls Spock and says that Sandoval wants to talk to Kirk. Spock notes to Kirk that the crew are all starting to rather sheepishly call in by now. Sandoval tells Kirk that the colonists will fully cooperate with the evacuation now, and Kirk tells him to start making the preparations. Real ones, this time.

Sometime later, everyone’s back on the bridge getting ready to head out. McCoy reports that he’s examined all the colonists and they all remain in perfect health. “A fringe benefit left over by the spores.”

One would think that this would have been quite the eventful afternoon for the medical sciences, given that they just discovered spores with such incredible healing powers that they can make people regrow organs, and McCoy just confirmed that anything healed by the spores stays healed after the spores are gone. Sure, they’ve got some side effects, but Kirk’s already discovered a simple way to get rid of the things once they’re no longer needed. Strap someone to a bed, give em a facemask full of spores, let them lay there for a while having a nice buzz while they heal their cancer or whatever, then play an irritating noise at them until they sneeze the spores back out again. Boom. Done. You’ve solved medicine. Or, y’know, we could vacate the planet and never speak of it ever again, that works too.

Notably unmentioned by anybody during this little denouement is the fate of the other two settlements on the planet that Sandoval mentioned back near the beginning of the episode. The length of the timeskip isn’t specified, so it’s possible that the crew went and collected them as well in the interim, but we never get any details as to how that little adventure went, assuming that it did happen and that the Enterprise isn’t about to get halfway to the next starbase before Kirk realizes he forgot something.

As they watch the planet diminish behind them on the viewscreen, McCoy muses that this was “the second time man’s been thrown out of paradise.” Kirk disagrees. "No, no, Bones, this time we walked out on our own. Maybe we weren't meant for paradise. Maybe we were meant to fight our way through--struggle, claw our way up, scratch for every inch of the way. Maybe we can't stroll to the music of the lute. We must march to the sound of drums."

Spock remains unimpressed by this bit of philosophizing. “Poetry, Captain. Nonregulation.” Kirk notes that they haven’t heard anything from Spock about this whole ordeal, since, y’know, that definitely seems like something Spock would want to talk about. He says he’s got little to say about Omicron Ceti 3.

[ID: A close-up of Spock on the bridge as he says, "Except that for the first time in my life...I was happy."]

oh my god someone needs therapy

On that INCREDIBLY CHEERFUL note, the Enterprise flies away and the episode ends.

It’s somewhat baffling to me that of all the quite reasonable objections available to the whole situation with the spores, the main problem that Kirk—and by extension, the episode—seems to have is that “the spores make things too EASY and mankind was meant to STRUGGLE!!!” I mean, effectively what we had going on here was people being drugged without their consent into a state that overwrote their own desires, ambitions, emotions and much of their individual personalities and replaced them with bland, happy conformity to a goal and lifestyle none of them actually chose. That seems a bit worse to me than “people weren’t working hard enough.” Kirk goes on and on about how the spores made things too easy, but what they really did was make people apathetic to whether they succeeded at anything or not. Sandoval’s horrified when he’s cured of the spores because the colonists had much different plans for their colony; far from making those plans easier, the spores made them impossible. The dreams and desires of the Enterprise crew for a life of exploration among the stars would have been forever unmet if they had permanently joined the colony, they just wouldn’t have been able to care. Kirk seems to believe that the ultimate evil of the spores is that they deprive people of ambition; to me it seems that the worse evil is that they deprive people of their individuality and their autonomy.

Then there’s the fact that while the spores make people happy and friendly, they also make them remarkably blasé about the well-being of anyone who isn’t part of their collective. They have to be—caring about whether someone else is upset or hurt would make them unhappy, after all. Spock and McCoy are completely unconcerned with the mounting distress of their best friend, and beyond peer pressuring him to get with the program and take the spores like everyone else, they don’t seem to much care if he remains the only unhappy person on the planet. The colonists seem completely unbothered by the fact that all the animals they brought with them died a rather grueling death by radiation poisoning. Everyone on the Enterprise is happy to abandon the ship and join the colony with no message left behind for Starfleet, with apparently not a thought to spare for any friends and family back home, who would only ever know that their loved ones disappeared into space never to be seen again.

Or at least, they would if things actually went according to plan, which they probably wouldn’t, because the spores also made everyone cheerfully oblivious to the idea that anything could potentially cause a problem or pose a threat to them. After all, if Kirk hadn’t had a recovery at the last minute, the Enterprise would have been left unmanned in orbit around the planet, with no way for anyone in the colony to get back onboard. Uhura also goes out of her way to make sure that they no longer have any off-planet communication. So it’s probably not going to be long before Starfleet notices that one of their prize starships has abruptly gone incommunicado, and I’m willing to bet they’d be a bit quicker on that investigation than they were about checking on a tiny backwater colony (although it is Starfleet, so who knows, really). And since they know exactly where the ship was headed on its last recorded mission, it probably won’t take them long to find it. If Starfleet sends another ship along to investigate quickly enough, they’ll find the abandoned Enterprise hanging out in orbit around the planet, and Kirk’s log clearly lays out what happened, so all the other ship has to do is figure out how to neutralize the spores and everyone’s going to get rescued from Omicron Ceti 3 pretty quickly whether they want to be or not.

If Starfleet doesn’t show up in time...Kirk says the ship can be “maintained in orbit” for several months, but then what? It can’t stay up there forever. Sooner or later, the orbit will decay and the ship’s going to crash into the planet, and if it crashes anywhere near one of the colonies, their magic healing powers are going to be put to the test. Also their magic agriculture powers--rich soil and mild weather is all well and good, but is that going to be enough to carry all those crops through the ensuing environmental effects of an impact that big? Especially since, as already mentioned, the colony has enough to feed them and that’s about it—so they really can’t afford to lose any crops for very long.

Sure, maybe the Enterprise wouldn’t crash close enough to any of the colonies to ruin them, but why take the risk? All they had to do was have a helmsman set it on a course out of orbit, then take a shuttlecraft back to the planet. Doesn’t occur to anyone, evidently. Nor do we see anyone bothering to bring any supplies or equipment from the ship to the colony, even though there’s gotta be lots of stuff up there that would be useful. All in all, it seems quite likely that Paradise would have eventually collapsed in on itself simply because the spores make people unable to pay attention to any potential threats or obstacles long enough to do anything about them.

So what’s the moral here? ‘Society can’t survive if everyone is stoned all of the time’? I mean, okay? Sure? Cool? Glad we sorted all that out.

That said, despite having ranted for the past nine hundred words about the weird moral, I’m not saying this episode is bad. As a serious point about human nature I don’t find it especially compelling—YMMV, but I just personally tend to side-eye stories that center around the idea of “wouldn’t it be awful if we all had it too easy??”--but as fifty minutes of extremely Star Trek-y silliness it’s glorious. We’ve got Spock hanging from a tree and talking about dragons while making out in the grass, McCoy going full Georgia and wandering about with something he thinks is a mint julep, Kirk stomping around in increasing agitation as he tries to get some sense out of somebody and then making emo log entries while he sits on the bridge alone...it’s great.

The original draft of this episode apparently had the romantic subplot be for Sulu, who would have been motivated to stay with Layla after having been diagnosed with a serious medical condition that was cured by the spores, kind of like the eventual plot with McCoy in For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky. D.C. Fontana rewrote the story to focus on Spock, since if you have an episode about something that causes a strong emotional reaction, throwing Spock and his ever-present internal conflict into the mix is kind of the most immediately obvious way to generate some pathos and drama. The spores originally granted those affected with them telepathic abilities, enabling them to link with everyone else who’d been spore’d and form a hivemind. There are some traces of this in the final episode with spore’d people talking about “joining us” and “being one of us” and so on, but without the telepathy part it just kind of makes it sound like they’re in a cult. Also, the cure for the spores would have been consuming alcohol, so presumably in that draft McCoy never got infected.

For the purposes of the Trek Tally I’m going to count the spores as a Space Disease, which might be broadening the umbrella of that term a bit but hey, close enough. Next time we’ll be looking for life, Jim, but not as we know it, in The Devil in the Dark.

#star trek #star trek TOS #star trek TOS season one #recap tag #star trek TOS recaps #1.24 This Side of Paradise #1.24 This Side of Paradise recap

[aion-rsa]

The Star Trek: The Original Series Episodes That Best Define the Franchise

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

By the time my generation got to watch Star Trek: The Original Series, the episodes often were being presented in top-ten marathons. When I was ten-years-old, for the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek, I tape-recorded a marathon of ten episodes that had all been voted by fans as the best-ever installments of The Original Series. Later, I got lucky and found Trek stickers at the grocery store and was able to label my VHS tapes correctly. But do I think all the episodes that were in that marathon back in 1991 were really the best episodes of all of the classic Star Trek? The short answer: no. Although I love nearly every episode of the first 79 installments of Star Trek, I do think that certain lists have been created by what we think should be on the list rather than what episodes really best represent the classic show. 

This is a long-winded way of saying, no, I didn’t include “Amok Time” or “The Menagerie” on this list because, as great as they are, I don’t think they really represent the greatest hits of the series. Also, if you’ve never watched TOS, I think those two episodes will throw you off cause you’ll assume Spock is always losing his mind or trying to steal the ship. If you’ve never watched TOS, or you feel like rewatching it with fresh eyes, I feel pretty strong that these 10 episodes are not only wonderful, but that they best represent what the entire series is really about. Given this metric, my choice for the best episode of TOS may surprise you…

10. “The Man Trap” 

The first Star Trek ever episode aired should not be the first episode you watch. And yet, you should watch it at some point. The goofy premise concerns an alien with shaggy dog fur, suckers on its hand, and a face like a terrifying deep-sea fish. This alien is also a salt vampire that uses telepathy that effectively also makes it a shapeshifter. It’s all so specifically bonkers that trying to rip-off this trope would be nuts. Written by science fiction legend George Clayton Johnson (one half of Logan’s Run authorship) “The Man Trap” still slaps, and not because Spock (Leonard Nimoy)  tries to slap the alien. Back in the early Season 1 episodes of Star Trek, the “supporting” players like Uhura and Sulu are actually doing stuff in the episode. We all talk about Kirk crying out in pain when the M-113 creature puts those suckers on his face, but the real scene to watch is when Uhura starts speaking Swahili. The casual way Uhura and Sulu are just their lovable selves in this episode is part of why we just can’t quit the classic Star Trek to this day. Plus, the fact that the story is technically centered on Bones gives the episode some gravitas and oomph. You will believe an old country doctor thinks that salt vampire is Nancy! (Spoiler alert: It’s not Nancy.)

9. “Let that Be Your Last Battlefield” 

There are two episodes everyone always likes to bring up when discussing the ways in which Star Trek changed the game for the better in pop culture’s discourse on racism: “Plato’s Stepchildren” and this episode, “Let that Be Your Last Battlefield.” The former episode is famous because Kirk and Uhura kiss, which is sometimes considered the first interracial kiss on an American TV show. (British TV shows had a few of those before Star Trek, though.) But “Plato’s Stepchildren” is not a great episode, and Kirk and Uhura were also manipulated to kiss by telepaths. So, no, I’m not crazy about “Plato’s Stepchildren.” Uhura being forced to kiss a white dude isn’t great.

But “Let that Be Your Last Battlefield,” oddly holds up. Yep. This is the one about space racism where the Riddler from the ‘60s Batman (Frank Gorshin) looks like a black-and-white cookie. Is this episode cheesy? Is it hard to take most of it seriously? Is it weird that Bele (Frank Gorshin) didn’t have a spaceship because the budget was so low at that time? Yes. Is the entire episode dated, and sometimes borderline offensive even though its heart is in the right place? Yes. Does the ending of the episode still work? You bet it does. If you’re going to watch OG Star Trek and skip this episode, you’re kind of missing out on just how charmingly heavy-handed the series could get. “Let that Be Your Last Battlefield” is like a ‘60s after-school special about racism, but they were high while they were writing it.

8. “Arena”

You’re gonna try to list the best episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series and not list the episode where Kirk fights a lizard wearing gold dress-tunic? The most amazing thing about “Arena” is that it’s a Season 1 episode of The Original Series and somehow everyone involved in making TOS had enough restraint not to ever try to use this Gorn costume again. They didn’t throw it away either! This famous rubber lizard was built by Wah Chang and is currently owned by none other than Ben Stiller.

So, here’s the thing about “Arena” that makes it a great episode of Star Trek, or any TV series with a lizard person. Kirk refuses to kill the Gorn even though he could have, and Star Trek refused to put a lizard costume in a bunch of episodes later, even though they totally could have. Gold stars all around.

7. “Balance of Terror”

The fact that Star Trek managed to introduce a race of aliens that looked exactly like Spock, and not confuse its viewership is amazing. On top of that, the fact that this detail isn’t exactly the entire focus of the episode is equally impressive. The notion that the Romulans look like Vulcans is a great twist in The Original Series, and decades upon decades of seeing Romulans has probably dulled the novelty ever so slightly. But, the idea that there was a brutally cold and efficient version of the Vulcans flying around in invisible ships blowing shit up is not only cool, but smart.

“Balance of Terror” made the Romulans the best villains of Star Trek because their villainy felt personal. Most Romulan stories in TNG, DS9, and Picard are pretty damn good and they all start right here.

6. “Space Seed”

Khaaaan!!!! Although The Wrath of Khan is infinitely more famous than the episode from which it came, “Space Seed” is one of the best episodes of The Original Series even if it hadn’t been the progenitor of that famous film. In this episode, the worst human villain the Enterprise can encounter doesn’t come from the present, but instead, the past. Even though “Space Seed” isn’t considered a very thoughtful episode and Khan is a straight-up gaslighter, the larger point here is that Khan’s evilness is connected to the fact that he lived on a version of Earth closer to our own.

The episode’s coda is also amazing and speaks of just how interesting Captain Kirk really is. After Khan beat the shit out of him and tried to suffocate the entire Enterprise crew, Kirk’s like “Yeah, this guy just needs a long camping trip.” 

5. “A Piece of the Action”

A few years back, Saturday Night Live did a Star Trek sketch in which it was revealed that Spock had a relative named “Spocko.” This sketch was tragically unfunny because TOS had already made the “Spocko” joke a million times better in “A Piece of the Action.” When you describe the premise of this episode to someone who has never seen it or even heard of it, it sounds like you’re making it up. Kirk, Spock, and Bones are tasked with cleaning-up a planet full of old-timey mobsters who use phrases like “put the bag on you.” Not only is the episode hilarious, but it also demonstrates the range of what Star Trek can do as an emerging type of pop-art. In “A Piece of the Action,” Star Trek begins asking questions about genres that nobody ever dreamed of before. Such as, “what if we did an old-timey gangster movie, but there’s a spaceship involved?”

4. “Devil in the Dark”

When I was a kid, my sister and I called this episode, “the one with giant pizza.” Today, it’s one of those episodes of Star Trek that people tell you defines the entire franchise. They’re not wrong, particularly because we’re just talking about The Original Series. The legacy of this episode is beyond brilliant and set-up a wonderful tradition within the rest of the franchise; a monster story is almost never a monster story

The ending of this episode is so good, and Leonard Nimoy and Shatner play the final scenes so well that I’m actually not sure it’s cool to reveal what the big twist is. If you somehow don’t know, I’ll just say this. You can’t imagine Chris Pratt’s friendly Velicrapotrs, or Ripper on Discovery without the Horta getting their first.

3. “The Corbomite Maneuver” 

If there’s one episode on this list that truly represents what Star Trek is usually all about on a plot level, it’s this one. After the first two pilot episodes —“Where No Man Has Gone Before” and “The Cage”—this was the first regular episode filmed. It’s the first episode with Uhura and, in almost every single way, a great way to actually explain who all these characters are and what the hell they’re doing. The episode begins with Spock saying something is “fascinating” and then, after the opening credits, calling Kirk, who is down in sickbay with his shirt off. Bones gives Kirk shit about not having done his physical in a while, and Kirk wanders through the halls of the episode without his shirt, just kind of holding his boots. 

That’s just the first like 5 minutes. It just gets better and better from there. Like a good bottle of tranya, this episode only improves with time. And if you think it’s cheesy and the big reveal bizarre, then I’m going to say, you’re not going to like the rest of Star Trek. 

2. “The City on the Edge of Forever”

No more blah blah blah! Sorry, wrong episode. Still, you’ve heard about “The City on the Edge of Forever.” You’ve heard it’s a great time travel episode. You’ve heard Harlan Ellison was pissed about how the script turned out. You heard that Ron Moore really wanted to bring back Edith Keeler for Star Trek Generations. (Okay, maybe you haven’t heard that, but he did.)

Everything you’ve heard about this episode is correct. There’s some stuff that will make any sensible person roll their eyes today, but the overall feeling of this episode is unparalleled. Time travel stories are always popular, but Star Trek has never really done a time travel story this good ever again. The edge of forever will always be just out of reach.

1. “A Taste of Armageddon”

Plot twist! This excellent episode of TOS almost never makes it on top ten lists. Until now! If you blink, “A Taste of Armageddon” could resemble at least a dozen other episodes of TOS. Kirk and Spock are trapped without their communicators. The crew has to overpower some guards to get to some central computer hub and blow it up. Scotty is in command with Kirk on the surface and is just kind of scowling the whole time. Kirk is giving big speeches about how humanity is great because it’s so deeply flawed.

What makes this episode fantastic is that all of these elements come together thanks to a simplistic science fiction premise: What if a society eliminated violence but retained murder? What if hatred was still encouraged, but war was automated? Star Trek’s best moments were often direct allegories about things that were actually happening, but what makes “A Taste of Armageddon” so great is that this metaphor reached for something that could happen. Kirk’s solution to this problem is a non-solution, which makes the episode even better. At its best classic Star Trek wasn’t just presenting a social problem and then telling us how to fix it. Sometimes it was saying something more interesting — what if the problem gets even harder? What do we do then? 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The humor and bombast of “A Taste of Armageddon” is part of the answer to that unspoken question, but there’s also a clever lesson about making smaller philosophical decisions. In Star Wars, people are always trying to rid themselves of the dark side of the Force. In Star Trek, Kirk just teaches us to say, “Hey I won’t be a terrible person, today” and then just see how many days we can go in a row being like that.

What do you think are the most franchise-defining episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series? Let us know in the comments below.

The post The Star Trek: The Original Series Episodes That Best Define the Franchise appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3qfxnii

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[almaasi]

I wanna watch Star trek but I don't know where to start! Is there a series that's most popular? Do I have to watch them in order?

OOH YES. it’s all on netflix so watching it is EASY PEASY

i’ll tell you about each of them, personal opinions included.

so!

there’s “star trek”, the original series, made in the 1960s, which is what my mama grew up watching. this is the one with kirk and spock and uhura etc. this is the fandom that kickstarted Fandom. it’s perhaps worth watching for the historical revolution aspect. i haven’t seen more than few episodes here and there (i found its pacing slow these days, yet adored the ones i saw as a kid, and would rewatch them over and over). you could watch “the trouble with tribbles” as a stand-alone. it’s 10/10 and hilarious. i intend to get back to watching the rest sometime. i’ve enjoyed this series mostly through tumblr gifsets and fanart. as far as i can tell, not watching all of it doesn’t really affect the watching of the rest… because…

imo, the 90s era of star trek shows were the best (the next generation, deep space nine, voyager…. and enterprise, which i haven’t seen yet). they’re mostly weird, cheerful, and upbeat. tng comes first, which gives some context to ds9, but besides a few crossover characters and storylines, you could watch either without the other. voyager occasionally has characters from the others but it’s pretty stand-alone (you could definitely watch this one with zero context).

show concepts (of the ones i’ve watched, sorry enterprise):

the next generation (tng): utopian adventure looking at space!! people trying to be perfect and being like ooooh aliens. ooh planets. this is the basic 90s trek. some bad stuff happens, but not a lot. mostly wacky spaceship antics/intrigue and people trying to do their jobs even when space shit hits the space fan. (season 6 of tng runs parallel with season 1 of ds9, and there’s one ds9/tng crossover episode in tng. the character of worf is developed here and is later introduced to ds9.) definitely a good one to start with!

deep space nine (ds9): everyone lives on a broken space station. this show is the edgy goth cousin, but the one with the heart and soul that i am so freaking in love with right now. my favourite star trek by far. the characters have SO MUCH DEPTH and i swear they’re all queer or autistic or both. this one gets plot-heavy as it goes on, but it maintains its underlying warmth and still has those ridiculous fun episodes that make everything okay again for 45 minutes. i love the characters so muh-hu-huuuch and the FOUND FAMILY vibe is literally out of this world. there’s only maybe 3 episodes out of 176 that i didn’t like, and they’re all one-off-romance episodes that squick me for personal reasons (compulsory heterosexuality, ableism?? ew ew ew, scrubbed forever from my personal canon). overall the writing is phenomenal. like maybe one of the consistently best-written shows i’ve ever seen, including modern stuff. plus i found another otp (garak/bashir) and that’s undoubtedly a big part of why i love this show so much. i am deeply compelled by character relationships, and this one has oodles of exactly that. you can ship anyone with anyone else and you’d be right.

voyager (voy): just a bunch of nerds tryna get home for 7 years straight. a lot of funky weirdness happens along the way. this is my second favourite after ds9. found family, but in a more professional way than ds9. i dunno if it’s just my opinion formed after not seeing this show for a few years, but i remember the writing of this one seemed kinda all over the place. always fun though, maybe because of its changeability. lady boss captain, hell yeah. (season 2 of ds9 runs parallel with season 1 of voy.)

then…

well, there’s the new shows, discovery (dsc) and picard (pic)

and i haven’t watched picard yet, but i’m getting the impression it has a similar vibe as discovery, and i just……. don’t like it. discovery is dark, violent, emotionally harrowing, and i guess there’s a time and place and audience for that, but it’s not me, or any time i want to watch something. it’s supposed to be ~reflecting the modern zeitgeist~ or whatever, but imo in these trying times i’d rather watch something soft and hopeful that makes me think about how to improve things, rather than something that hits a little too close to home and makes me think about oh god where are we headed if this keeps happening. i mean, it’s still going for the “help humanity improve” schtick of the 90s shows, but in a very different way.

and then there’s the modern jj abrams movies…….. eh, i guess they’re okay. lens flare and explosions, man. give me seven-season arcs with hundreds of ridiculous plot concepts any day.

tl;dr:

i conferred with my sister, and she gave some very good advice: start with tng, and if that doesn’t vibe with you, try voyager, and then ds9, since it’s good to get the context of how star trek deals with morality before ds9 knocks the entire concept on its ass.

but no, you don’t have to watch the series(es?) in the order they were made. background world-building storylines would make more sense if you did, but each show is generally unrelated. my family even found it kinda rewarding to watch them out of order (tng, voy, ds9) and piece together plot threads laid down in other shows.

but you can just pick one and go. c:

–

sister (@sweetdreamspootypie) adds which question each show attempts to ask and answer:

tng: how can we grow into the best of humanity? / what does it look like to be the best of humanity?

voy: what will we give up to stick to our principles?

dsc: what principles will we give up to stay alive?

ds9: capitalism, war, religion, diversity, real people just tryna live, leaning into the grey morality of Being Good. this isn’t a question. “how dare you infect me with morals!!”

#star trek #ishachan #ds9 #tng #voy #Elmie watches things #post of postiness #replies #long post

[biscuitreviews]

Biscuit Reviews Star Trek Discovery Season One (SPOILERS)

So I know I normally review games, but I figured I’d try out a different review, mostly because I have a lot to talk about with one of the new Star Trek series, Star Trek: Discovery. I recently subscribed to the CBS All Access streaming service and granted it was mostly for Picard, I figured I’d give Discovery a go in between episodes.

As for my history with Star Trek, it’s been around for pretty much my entire life. My dad is a huge fan. I remember that he used to have a huge VHS collection of TOS and TNG. My first introduction was actually through TNG and it holds a special place in my heart. I’ve also watched every series minus Enterprise (will soon be remedying that), watched every movie, was in the initial launch of Star Trek: Online and watched the fan series Star Trek Continues, where despite being “fanon”, has been regarded by Rod Rodenberry as the true continuation of TOS and has gone on record multiple times that his father, Gene Rodenberry, would consider the series canon. 

So yeah, I’d say Star Trek is a pretty big deal for me.

This review is going to cover the entirety of season 1 for Discovery. I won’t break down episode by episode as the season did have a continuing storyline throughout the entire season. I will go ahead and state that I’m not going to harp on the inconsistencies of Discovery’s technology. I know season 1 takes place 10 years before TOS. In fact, I gave it a pass because when it comes to long lasting sci-fi IPs, I feel that it’s an issue that has to be forgiven. How the 1960s audience viewed the future is vastly different than how we today view the future. So with that all of the technological inconsistencies, are just going to get a pass. As far as the subject of Lore such as well established events within Trek history, that will be taken on a case by case basis and I’ll be explaining those in my review as well.

Oh, and I will also be mentioning spoilers for season 1. A lot.

I walked into Discovery with an open mind, I was actually excited for the pitch on how it followed a first officer and would be more of a personal story. Discovery follows Michael Burnham (portrayed by Sonequa Martin-Green), first officer of the USS Shenzhou, a human who was raised by Vulcans. Immediately I loved this idea as Michael Burnham, which is traditionally a masculine name, is played by a woman and a person who identifies as a woman pushing another boundary that names are just names, they got no gender.

Even her backstory on how she got adopted by Vulcans was intriguing. Her home was attacked by Klingons which resulted in the death of her parents. This not only created depth but immediately establishes that Discovery is very much Michael’s story. Then came what is what I consider the biggest blunder to Michael and perhaps her greatest weakness. The Vulcan who adopted her was Sarek, Spock’s father. 

This is the first case of lore that I have a problem against. For one it’s never been mentioned that Spock had a sister, adopted or otherwise. Now you can argue that the idea of Spock having a sister is open to debate as Spock himself has teased that in the movies when he mentioned having a brother to Kirk. However, we never got any actual confirmation that it was the case. Also, we see that Sarek actually has somewhat of a close relationship with Michael which goes against Sarek’s character in that point of time in the Trek universe. Although Sarek is more open and accepting to emotions, he always still projected the outward appearance of Vulcan logic to his peers and his son. He was also always stand-offish towards Spock, yet despite that he did a lot for Spock and tried to teach him both his Vulcan and Human heritages. There’s also another issue with the Sarek/Michael relationship that I have that I will expand upon later in the review.

If you thought lore inconsistencies would be my major sticking point, my other major sticking point is the first two episodes of Discovery. These episodes cover the event that started the Federation/Klingon war in TOS, an event that would be known as The Battle of the Binary Stars. What’s my issue you might ask? This very episode actively contradicts a certain event, an event that Discovery itself established. That Michael’s home was attacked by Klingons. How does it contradict this? By having Captain Georgiou say in the same episode and to Michael that Klingons have had no known contact with the Federation for 100 years.

Now, we don’t know how old Michael herself is, but I’m assuming her tragic backstory happened 20+ years ago. Last I checked, Michael and her parents are considered Federation citizens. Having Klingons attack what is a Federation outpost, I would consider that a contact. So to have a character say that didn’t happen, when that very contact makes up Michael’s backstory was quite a head scratcher. You could argue that maybe the Federation is trying to cover that up, but if that’s the case, they’re doing a pretty terrible job by allowing one of their leading ambassadors to adopt a survivor of this attack and then accepting that survivor into Starfleet.

Aside from that bit of lazy writing, there’s also some really stupid character and narrative decisions that occured within the first two episodes. I feel that these two episodes were prisoners of the established lore so to keep in line with that, they tripped over themselves to make sure said event still happened.

You have Captain Georgiou not listening to Michael. Michael tells her how the Vulcans managed to open a dialogue with the Klingons. Despite Michael giving Captain Georgiou a proven working tactic, Gerogiou actively does the opposite thing saying, “no we can’t shoot at them, we have to talk, peace, Federation principles.” Yeah, but Federation principles are also figuring how to communicate with a species and seeing how Klingons respond with aggression and you have Michael who is citing how Vulcans established contact, nope, we gotta talk to them, not shoot them.

Now, there are a couple of sticking points that the first two episodes also show. For one, the Klingon redesign. Klingons have always had lore inconsistencies in terms of their design so I don’t see a reason to give Discovery grief on that so it gets a pass. The other point, Michael being labeled the first mutineer, with as controversial as that is among the Trek fans, I’m letting that one slide as well. I know TOS said that there has never been a mutiny on a Starfleet vessel. I know technically Spock was the first mutineer but even TOS itself has been weird about that detail. So, I feel that argument doesn’t really hold much water to count as a lore inconsistency if even the established canon likes to be wishy washy about the fact.

Anyways, it’s not until episode three that we finally get to the titular ship and meet its crew. We have Captain Gabriel Lorca, First Officer Saru, Lt. Staments, Chief Medical Officer Hugh Culber, and Cadet Tilly. There are some other regular crew members throughout the entirety of the series, but they have such little screen time that I’m not going to count them.

As far as supporting cast goes, Captain Lorca actually does an excellent job in helping establish that this Trek series is different than the usual fare. It’s more focused on war and he considers himself a Soldier more than he does an explorer. Saru, is by far the best new character introduced to this series. He’s a new race never before seen in the lore and the past he shares with Michael during the Battle of the Binary Stars creates good drama and tension in all these fronts. Staments is researching a new travel method that involves space mushrooms and his personality falls under the “cold and jerkish, but has a heart of gold” trope. He’s also the resident gay and how Discovery showed his relationship with Dr. Culber was so beautiful and amazing, that I really wish other series would take note. Then it had to do the typical “kill the gay” trope and it lost my respect.

Then there’s also… Ash Tyler. He is perhaps the most mishandled character in the entire Trek series. Honestly, he felt like someone that was just written to create problems for the sake of creating problems. I don’t mind showcasing PTSD and bringing awareness to it. But when you constantly throw the guy with PTSD at Klingons and even acknowledging it multiple times that’s not bringing awareness, that’s terrible writing and a blatant lack of understanding. Let’s not forget he’s also a result of Klingon torture, experimentation that caused his personality to be shared with a Klingon personality, brainwashing, and rape. When he recognizes something is wrong, he reaches out for help, but what does everyone do? They just keep bringing him on missions and then yell at him for fucking up. The crew keeps telling him he'll be fine, it will pass he has their support and then proceed to chastise him for not seeking help and having their back when he was having a mental episode.

The series also brought a classic TOS antagonist as well, Harry Mudd (portrayed by Rainn Wilson). I have to say if there was a way to bring a classic Trek character to help build the universe and show the relation between Discovery and TOS, having a minor antagonist from TOS was a great way to build that bridge. I’m talking about the episode where Harry Mudd attempts to steal the Discovery and he tries to do it in the most Trek way possible. Creating a timeloop with technology that is beyond our understanding, but alien enough and futuristic enough to have the audience intrigued about how the device itself works and the cast also trying to figure it out and finding a solution.

There’s also two other classic Trek trope episodes, first contact and saving an ambassador. First contact was amazing and further showcased Saru as a Starfleet officer. The saving an ambassador episode was a bit of a mess.

In the ambassador episode (which is episode 6) Sarek’s ship has been attacked by...Vulcan logic extremists. This is something that I’ll admit was a really tough pill to swallow, Vulcan logic extremists? I was against the idea at first but then I sat down and tried to think logically. I mean it’s not unheard of, as we do have Vulcans in the Maquis during the TNG and DS9 era. Having a Vulcan terrorist organization on Vulcan would make as much sense as there have been Vulcans in previous series that are in terrorist organizations. Then there’s also the Vulcans that followed and worked with Spock during his attempts to broker peace with the Romulans during the TNG era. They too were considered extremists, so much so that the Federation ordered Picard to get Spock for fear that he was defecting. So having a Vulcan logic extremist group actually isn’t as much of a leap as I initially thought.

However, it’s the event that followed the attack I have issues with. After the terrorist attack, Sarek reaches out to not Spock, but Michael. This is an issue because it’s been proven that although Sarek can be a bit callous, he will always reach out to Spock in times of trouble and need. I feel like Sarek reaching out to Michael, as he is possibly dying, is a bit of a slap to the complicated relationship showcased between Sarek/Spock throughout the years. “Sorry Spock, got to make way for your adopted sister that was messily written to have connections to us in an attempt to get the long time Trekkies to buy in the series.”

As mentioned previously, I want to make it super clear that I have no issues with Michael Burnham. I just wish that the writers treated her character with more respect to allow her to be her own character rather than have a sloppy connection to legacy characters. I feel that Michael would have stood out more if she were adopted by a Vulcan that was not Sarek, but rather some other Vulcan. I feel by having a different Vulcan adoptive parent, Michael could have had a lot more room to grow as a character. You want the connection to Spock still? Fine, make them childhood friends or something else other than adoptive brother/sister. Make them Starfleet Academy rivals, I felt anything would have been better than Sarek adopting Michael.

Then there’s the Mirror Universe, which I’ll admit the multiple episode arc that covered the Mirror Universe gave me a love/hate feelings. First, I do love that it continued and added on to the fan theory turned canon event of the USS Defiant being shifted to the Mirror Universe in the past. I love that it touched more on how a Prime Universe person, living in the Mirror Universe can take a toll on them as they do things against their morals to stay under cover. TOS only scratched the surface and with Discovery taking it further and actually having that impact Michael was truly a nice change of pace to other instances of Trek characters encountering the Mirror Universe.

But there were definitely weird moments. Again, continuing to put Ash Tyler in situations that trigger his PTSD or his dormant Klingon personality, Captain Lorca actually being from the Mirror Universe. Now I’ll admit I wasn’t a fan at first, but the way he left the Mirror Universe and returned was such a Trek way of going back and forth, I can’t help but actually admire it.

Of course we run into counterparts of other characters as well. For example, we find out that the Mirror Universe version of Captain Georgiou is actually the Emperor of the Terran Empire. It was such a beautiful build up and made so many changes to Michael and bringing the Emperor to the Prime Universe could and does lead to some great dilemmas. However, there is one very tiny thing that I feel negates all of that and something that plagued Discovery in its first two episodes. Being a prisoner to established canon. When Discovery makes their way back to the Prime Universe they are ordered to never reveal the discovery of the Mirror Universe to anyone, because you know, Kirk hadn’t found it yet. So how does Discovery explain this? The Klingons can’t know about alternate universes and that it’s possible to travel to them so they are ordered to never reveal the possibility of alternate universes.

Anyways the Federation is on the verge of losing the war and desperate means call for desperate measures, that being genocide. Now it’s the not first time the Federation has threatened to commit genocide, they’ve threatened to do that in the established canon a few times as well. TNG did it, DS9 did it, Voyager did it, and from what I can tell, Enterprise did it too. So being in the corner that they were in is not uncharacteristic of the Federation, especially with how desperate they were to turn the war around. It also establishes Emperor Georgiou as a recurring antagonist to appear in future episodes.

After turning the war around, the Federation and Klingons agree to end hostilities, the Klingons are united as one empire and glorious speeches all around then off to Discovery’s next mission: Escort Sarek to Vulcan and pick up its new Captain. However, during the journey, Discovery picks up a distress signal from none other than the U.S.S. Enterprise and ends with the classic ending theme from TOS, which I’ll admit really hit hard and brought many happy feelings.

Discovery does have a lot of potential. However, I feel the writers are trying too hard to keep within established lore. The attempts to also sell Michael as the sister of Spock holds her back so much that it weighs her down unnecessarily. A lot of issues I have with Discovery is with its writing. It has all the ingredients to be a great series, but it was greatly mishandled. I feel that if Discovery was either not a prequel series, or a prequel series that didn’t try to play coy with established events the first season would have been great. With as big as a universe there is to play with, they could have had the potential to truly explore new worlds and ideas and it wasn’t seized upon. Hell, despite a rough beginning, it had a great idea with introducing the theme of war it established in the beginning and how it affects someone on a personal level.

However, despite the good, it was mishandled in so many ways and did these new characters more of a disservice than anything.

Star Trek Discovery receives a 2 out of 5

#Star Trek Discovery #Discovery #Disco #Biscuit Reviews #Series review #Star Trek #CBS #CBS All Access #Star Trek: Picard #Michael Burnham

[halfblood-fiend]

Fictober 2019 - Day 12

From The Fictober 2019 event <3

Prompt 12 : “What if I don’t see it?”

Fandom : Star Trek: The Original Series, mentions characters from Star Trek: Discovery (season 2 spoilers)

Words : 1,008

Warnings : none, somewhat inspired by this post that made me cry the other day

Day 12 - What if I don’t see it? (Alternative title: Reach For Him)

Despite the distance in both space and time, Spock cannot help but think of Michael often. The years wasted, the years he cannot ever get back. The regretting is irrational, he knows, but he allows himself to hope that she is safe, that the future is safe.

On his good days, he is certain that there is no one else in the cosmos more capable of ensuring that security than Michael Burnham.

On his bad days, despite the confidence in her abilities, her intelligence, and her stubbornness (or perhaps because of it), Spock finds that, selfishly, he misses her.

“Dear Michael,” he often addresses his personal logs. Spock gets most of the way through before he catches himself in his sentimentality, pauses, and sighs. “Computer, delete log.”

Spock has not fully considered his sister’s parting words to him for some time, but they have recently lodged themselves in his mind and refuse to be moved. As stubborn as the woman who said them.

Find that person that seems farthest from you and reach for them. Reach for them. Let them guide you.

“But how will I know?” Spock asks the stifling empty air of his quarters when he is at his weakest. “What if I do not see it?” The prickling at the corner of his eyes is just enough to be a nuisance, a casual reminder that he is not Vulcan. Not completely. It is insult to injury.

As the years on the Enterprise go by, Spock’s work seems somehow unfinished. No matter how hard he tries, no matter where he looks, he cannot seem to be able to fulfill Michael’s last wish. He does not know to whom she could have possibly been referring. Perhaps it was to no one at all. Perhaps it was merely meant as an ideal. Possible, considering Michael’s penchant for allegory.

Find that person that seems furthest from you…

A metaphor then, Spock decides one day. For the Klingons, perhaps. Or the Romulans. Or indeed any as yet unknown foreign species. There was no way to tell, no way to know.

Time continues to pass, and Spock begins to believe that Michael’s advice meant nothing particular at all. She was speaking out of desperation at the time, which made it illogical to latch onto her words so literally.

Yet they still nagged him.

“Well, Mr. Spock,” Admiral Pike said conversationally as the two of them made their way to Transporter Room 3, “it has been a pleasure serving with you all this time. Congratulations again on your promotion. No one on this ship deserves it more.”

Spock pulled on the sleeve of his uniform, the new rank braids catching the light in the corridor. He is satisfied with his time spent with Captain Pike, and optimistic that the next will have more to offer. “Thank you, sir. Starfleet has taken one of its best into the admiralty. Your promotion is not only deserved, but most logical.”

“Maybe, but I’ll sure miss flying.”

“I sincerely hope that we work together again in the future.”

Pike smiled. “Oh, we will. I’m sure of it.”

The doors slid open and Admiral Pike walked into the transporter room, with Spock close on his heels.

“Starbase 10 has confirmed it is standing by for transport, sir,” the technician greeted them as they entered.

“Goodbye, Mr. Spock. And good luck with your new captain.” Pike climbed onto the transporter and held up his hand in the Vulcan salute.

Spock returned it. “Commander Kirk is highly accomplished and merited his new captaincy. I do not foresee any scenarios where luck would be necessary.”

“Of course not, Mr. Spock. How silly of me.” Pike nodded to the technician, the smile still on his face. “Energize.”

Amber light filled the room as Christopher Pike disappeared from the Enterprise and 4.6 seconds later, the particle beams reappeared on the transporter pad, this time in a new receiver.

Spock interlaced his hands behind his back and waited to greet the new Captain, James Tiberius Kirk.

The light disappeared and Captain Kirk blinked rapidly, adjusting to the brightness of the starship’s transporter room.

His hazel eyes fell on Spock as he stepped off the transporter pad and beamed.

While Spock had duly noted his face to be aesthetically pleasing before, Kirk’s shining grin from ear to ear made any intended greeting stop short in his throat, suddenly extremely aware of the heartbeat in his side.

“You must be Mr. Spock, my new first officer,” Kirk said kindly.

“Affirmative, Captain.”

“Well, I’ve never had the pleasure of working so closely with a Vulcan before, but I look forward to our time together. Do be sure to let me know if I do anything untoward. I wouldn’t want to be offensive to you in any way. Oh!” Kirk held up his hand with his fingers spread in salute, and Spock nearly forgot that he ought to do the same. His response was delayed by that sunny smile for 1.7 seconds. He hoped Captain Kirk did not notice.

“Your request is noted, Captain,” Spock forced himself to say.

“Please. You can call me ‘Jim.’ If you’d like of course.” The man smiled again and batted his eyelashes causing the breath to catch in Spock’s throat.

A most curious response that he had not foreseen.

“I…I will not, Captain. I hope you do not think it rude.”

“Not at all!” Kirk said quickly, spreading his hands in front of him. “Not at all. Do what makes you feel comfortable. Or…is ‘feel’ the wrong word to use...?” He tilted his head a little, peering at Spock and looking so concerned that Spock’s heart ached.

Strange.

“It is sufficient,” he managed.

Kirk seemed to visibly relax with a small, lovely sigh. “Alright. Well the first order of business, I think, Mr. Spock, would be for you to give me a brief tour of our new ship. Do you find this agreeable?”

“Indeed, Captain.”

“Perfect. Then let the five-year mission officially start now. After you, Commander Spock.”

#fictober19 #Spirk #Star Trek: The Original Series #Mr. Spock #Jim Kirk #Christopher Pike #TOS #Star Trek #Michael Burnham #Star Trek: Discovery #look if this line of hers never makes me emotional consider me dead okay? #I love it so SO much

[frasier-crane-style]

Let’s talk about Treks baby

The One Where Riker Stars In The Grey.

When Riker is reassigned to go over a terraforming colony bedeviled by pesky, genetically engineered wolves, a new first officer is assigned to the Enterprise. And he’s kwazy.

The irritatingly named Quintin Stone is sort of the Nick Locarno to Peter David’s later Mackenzie Calhoun. Brooding rogue, troubled past, gets the job done, you know how it goes. It’s a pretty unabashed power fantasy/Mary Sue in New Frontier, but there the whole thing is so over the top and tongue in cheek that you really can’t take it too seriously. Quintin, on the other hand, is more played for drama--for most of the story, there’s a question as to whether he’s outright homicidally insane. Luckily, Troi is on top of things, checking on his mental well-being and also kinda being his love interest, like a literal version of this gif.

Spoiler alert: It turns out he’s deeply traumatized by a not wholly believable incident in his past*, so good on ya for catching that one, Troi. 

Looking back on it, this book would almost seem to count as a deconstruction of the ‘broody antihero’ trope, showing that the character type just doesn’t work in TNG. He infuriates most of the cast and doesn’t get the girl, while those who are taken in by him are presented as saps (yup, Wesley). 

Speaking of New Frontier, with the self-aware jokeyness and tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of Trek’s campier elements, would it be fair to say PAD was ahead of the curve in predicting the modern incarnation of Trek? Its take on Star Trek would definitely fit in with the Kelvinverse movies and especially with The Orville, which is pretty much the people’s choice for Trek these days.

*Okay, I get the interpretation of the Prime Directive as not interfering or revealing yourself to alien cultures until they develop warp drive, at which point they’re going to figure out you’re there anyway. And if you can stop an asteroid from wiping them out without them knowing about it, fine. Cool. I get that. But I don’t get Star Trek stories where the PD means you can’t interfere with the Romulans’ development, even though they’re showing up on your doorstep every other week and shooting at you. It’s like saying if Hitler 2.0 showed up in Germany and started amassing power, the US shouldn’t try to discourage that shit or, I guess, engage in any diplomacy whatsoever. It’s mindbogglingly isolationist. And isn’t it arguable that part of a culture’s natural development is interacting with other cultures? Like the back and forth between America and Japan driving forward the medium of animation?

The One Where Picard Nearly Bangs Guinan’s Sister

This one has a bit of nontroversy attached to it, because it came out while Star Trek was still kind of hashing out the Borg, so there’s a disclaimer at the beginning basically going

The gist of it is that Borg aren’t supposed to have gender (a bunch of people with blue hair just had their ears perk up, didn’t they?), but PAD here has a drone that gets detached from the Collective and is a girl. It seems pretty self-evident to me--Picard gets assimilated, they get him back, he’s still a dude, so why wouldn’t it work that way with a chick? But this is back when assimilation wasn’t the Borg’s m.o. the way it would later become. They assimilate a Ferengi in this book (yup) and it’s kind of a big deal. Oh, and as you might’ve guessed, Girl Borg bears a few similarities to Seven of Nine, who would show up later in the franchise, although PAD’s take on it is more “we rescued a girl from a serial killer’s basement after ten years and she’s totally catatonic,” less “what is this human emotion you call ‘kissing’?”

Good thing we have Deanna Troi, a counselor, to ease Girl Borg through the healing process. Oh, wait, she basically takes one look at GB and goes

Thanks for the help, Troi. I guess this subplot is supposed to prove that it’s pointless to try to save any assimilated person other than Picard, because mentally they’re already dead, so might as well just have a bunch of fun guiltlessly blowing them away

(And that goes for you too, audience.) But still, bit of a downer. At least Spock would’ve tried a mind-meld.

There’s also this chick Delcara, who in a pretty XXtra Flamin' Hot narrative choice is like Picard’s soulmate and he’s sort of in love with her slash obsessed with her after having a psychic vision of her in Starfleet Academy and y’know? TNG might’ve opened the door to this by having Crusher bang a ghost, but we should close that door. We should close it right now.

(By the way, in case you’re wondering if this Guinan’s sister business means Picard is down with the swirl, it turns out she’s Guinan’s adopted sister, so is it just me or is that weirdly ambiguous? She’s a beautiful black woman and Picard wants to do her. You can come out and say it, book. No one minds.)

Anyway, Delcara is piloting one of dem planet-killers from back in TOS--in hindsight, it’s weird that the Abrams movies never did anything with the one big Death Star-y thing that actually is canon to TOS, isn’t it? They gave Khan and Nero ridiculously super-sized ships, but the one kaiju that’s actually in continuity, nothing--on a vendetta against the Borg, who basically killed her family twice over. Man, if only there were some kind of psychologist on board the Enterprise to help her through that trauma.

I sense she feels great bitterness, Captain.

Yeah, why does she get a seat next to the Captain again? Let Worf have that seat. How is it fair that he has to stand around all day, he actually does stuff!

Anyhoo, as you might’ve guessed from the opening set on a holographic rendition of Don Quixote, with a Data Discussion(tm) of quixotic endeavors... and the fact that Delcara intends to totally wipe out the Borg, gosh, I wonder if she’ll succeed--this one’s something of a downer. It does give the promised Planet Killer on Borg Cube action for those fanboys who’ve wondered who would win in a wrassling match, and Picard learns a valuable lesson about not pursuing suicidal vendettas against the Borg, which he definitely takes to heart...

(Wow, he did that one-handed? What kind of gains does Sir Patrick have?)

But still... bit depressing.

The One Where Bones Becomes A Space Pirate

Another giant novel, I’m surprised this one never got raided for parts in any adaptation. Even on the page, it’s pretty breathtakingly cinematic, and yet, the only part of it that’s really been used is, if you squint, Bob Burnham in Discovery being a disgraced Starfleeter.

The premise is that, some months ago, the TOS Enterprise crew was involved in a breaking of the Prime Directive that resulted in the destruction of a world and the ‘Enterprise 5′ of bridge officers blamed for the tragedy being shunned and hated wherever they go (ah, that utopian Star Trek future, predicting an entire population that’s politically engaged). 

Now, with the command crew scattered, everyone’s trying to get back to the planet where it all happened to find out what tf went down for reals. In a bit of a stretch, this is really hard for them--no one seems to be able to call in a favor or hire Han Solo to take them there or anything, which I suppose is in keeping with Star Trek 3′s similar situation six years prior. They don’t have to go so far as to steal a Constitution-class this time. I suppose it’s fitting for the wild and woolly TOS era. In TNG time, they’d probably be able to dial a Space Uber. (As it turns out, it seems like if they’d just coordinated their plans, they all could’ve hitched a ride with Spock, but then there’d be no book, much less a Giant Book.)

Anyway, Kirk’s been court-martialed and is working as an asteroid miner, Chekov and Sulu fall in with Orion pirates, Spock is challenging the whole thing in court, and Uhura’s in jail........oh. It’s like that, huh, Starfleet?

Like I said, most of the plot involves the crew going off on all their separate adventures, eventually getting the band back together and figuring out what went down. Apparently, the book was criticized for its nonlinear structure, but I think it worked out really well. Starting months after the incident, with everyone disgraced, gets you pumped to find out what happened. Then when they flashback to the shit going down, there’s a great sense of foreboding because you know something is going to happen, just not what exactly. 

If I can make a criticism, it’s that after some great build-up, the ending seems a bit anticlimactic. The nature of the threat requires some unbelievable Hollywood Evolution to buy (nothing new for Star Trek, admittedly, and this is a crew that’s fresh off meeting Apollo and Abraham Lincoln) and while it is fitting that they’re able to resolve the situation without blowing up anything or punching anyone (Star Trek loves to talk the talk about how anti-military it is, then end their movie with some Klingons getting blasted), it still seems a little... dry. You’re not going to have Kirk hang off of anything, story? Not even a little? Okay. I still had fun. 

And you’ll note that once again, Deanna Troi was of no help whatsoever. Geez, woman, you’re oh for three here!

#star trek #peter david #judith and garfield reeves-stevens

[panicatthediaz]

Tarsus IV aka Olduvai

(So much shit under the cut. I should just write the fic.)

You know those random ideas that just... Invade your thoughts? Well, let’s go. I started this one week ago, and just now came back to this.

First of all, disclaimer: I have seen a fic in AO3, I’ve since lost it, where the author made Tarsus IV a settlement on Mars eons before humans really existed. Jim was one of the surviving Martians.

This is sort of, but not really like that. Vaguely like that. This is more of uh... “What if Tarsus IV was Olduvai?”

Olduvai is the fourth of Tarsus colonies on Mars;

One of the other three is also research, although specifically Energy Research (Tarsus II aka Argent) and the other two are residential colonies (Tarsus I aka Lazarus, and Tarsus III aka Titan);

Yes, John Grimm still quite hates it, and yes, he’s a marine;

Yes, Samantha Grimm spent the last ten years up there, since the twins were 18;

Everything happens mostly the same? But instead of taking the Ark back to Earth, the mutants break out of the facility and start advancing towards the other colonies. What is the atmosphere again? The mutants don’t need to breathe, not exactly;

The ones remaining are Sarge, Reaper, and Destroyer, so they suit up, each going to a different colony (With the Praetor Suit?), killing off whatever mutant they do find along the way;

Tarsus I received the name of Lazarus after the biblical character and meant a second chance for humans. A second home. The original Ark was discovered there and led to the other end in Nevada. A transportation system was created by the responsible engineer, based on the Ark, and is the most common method of traveling between the colonies, although suits were also created to allow travel outside the contained environments of the colonies.

Tarsus II was the first research facility, established after UAC’s discovery of an element/compound (or both) not too different from silver, but a far better energy conduit than anything on Earth. The facility was named Argent after the French word for silver, silver coin, etc.

Tarsus III was the second residential colony, far larger than Lazarus, and it received the name Titan due to such fact. it still isn’t as populated as Lazarus, but it certainly could, and likely would surpass it.

Tarsus IV was established after a scan starting from Argent discovered the remnants of what seemed to be buildings in a gorge not too different from the one in Tanzania and as such was named after the location, Olduvai, but the initial diggings destabilized the area and, in 2036, a landslide killed its two head researchers and almost took their two children as well.

A well-known, albeit secretive physicist is the head of the Argent facility. He’s known simply as Spock. People gave up trying to get his real name at that point (20 something years old? Maybe still a Vulcan, who knows, that could still work);

J.T. Kirk is a 13-year-old boy living in Lazarus with his father George, a shuttle pilot between Mars and Earth. His mother is still on Earth for the time being;

Pavel Chekov, 5 years old, is in Titan with his family.

Nyota Uhura, 11 years old, is also in Titan, the other residential colony and wants to participate in the archeological research in Olduvai.

Hikaru Sulu, 17, is training to be a pilot (under Geroge? Possibly);

Montgomery Scott, in his early thirties (??), is the chief engineer for the entirety of Tarsus colonies. This poor man has a lot of work;

(oh god I almost equated Scotty to Pinky, god no, thanks but no thanks)

Sarge went to Lazarus, Destroyer to Argent and Reaper to Titan;

Needless to say, Reaper is the first to question Sarge’s orders of simply clearing out the residential colonies, no matter who they find there;

He cleared Tarsus III of mutants and searched for survivors, finding Hikaru, Nyota, and Pavel;

He contacts Spock and sends the kids over to Argent through the internal transport system;

Spock is needless to say not “happy” ("does he even emote?"), but thankfully Hikaru is there and he’s actually good with kids;

(11-yo Uhura still sticks to Spock anyway, but she’s okay and a damn smart kid)

Reaps try to contact the other two, as well as Sam still in Olduvai. She’s the only one to respond, so he tells her to go to Argent, as it’s still apparently safe;

He starts to make his way to Argent, the closest colony to Titan, and he finds that the mutants already broke in;

And he may or may not be panicking, he just sent three kids and his sister into this place with also god knows how many scientists in it;

Way too many were actually killed, but even more turned, so he locates Destroyer and starts working on clearing the place of mutants;

Destroyer ends up dying all the same too (Maybe I’ll figure out a way to keep him alive? I like him a lot)

The events in Argent lead him to get the C24 injected all the same; 

Reaper still has to locate Sarge, so he finishes what he started, locates Sam and Spock (and therefore the kids) and leaves for Lazarus after he’s sure they’ll be safe;

Sam is relieved that her very ill-thought-out plan didn’t end up turning her brother (and really condemning Earth in the process);

Nearly as soon as he arrives, a very startled, dirty Scotty jumps out of cover, with an Argent plasma weapon in hand, not even really relaxing after seeing it’s another person and not a mutant;

After convincing him that he’s not a threat to him (and checking his neck - as well as being checked by Scotty), he has Scotty give him a layout of the colony;

The Scotsman then warns him that another marine had come in, ordering him to seal the colony off and saying that he would clean out the place;

Scotty was a bit wary of Sarge, he didn’t “look right in the head”;

And rather than stay put (and alone), Scotty tags along Reaper, with the goal of reaching the transporter;

Doesn’t take long for the two to find a clearly shocked JT, protecting a five-year-old kid.

(Y’all didn’t think I’d forget Kevin Riley, did you?? With this, we have 9 survivors... ;D)

Too many bodies, as the other colonies had, but there is also a lot more of structural destruction from the BFG;

Reaps has Scotty take the two kids to the transporter while he deals with Sarge and whatever mutant is left;

(If I were to write this, and you know I will, this feels like a good place to have that first-person sequence...)

Their encounter and this last battle occur mostly the same...

... Except a very tired, angry and desperate 13-year-old James Tiberius Kirk is the one to fire the final shot against Sarge, with the gun he stole while Scotty was distracted.

The two eventually make their way to the transporter, and back in Argent, three out of the five oldest people in there are ready to scold him for running off, but John doesn’t let them.

“You didn’t have to do any of that, you know?”

“Yeah well, I felt like doing it.”

“And you just do things without thinking of consequences?” The kid nods. John laughs. “Thanks, kid.”

They have to return to Lazarus to access the Ark, but Scotty says he can just modify the transporter system to be used for longer distances. He did develop the system, he can make ‘her’ do what needs to be done.

Ten years pass. Spock looks the same, Sam notes as she sits down beside him. He notes the same about her, but he is interrupted before he can say her name. She introduces herself as Christine Chapel, this time. They make small talk until another person sits by Spock’s other side.

John Grimm also looks just the same as he did on Mars. He introduces himself as Leonard McCoy, doctor, with a small smile. The fact that neither of them seems to have aged doesn’t escape Spock. They ask about the others fairly quickly.

Hikaru did become a pilot, and Pavel, still glued to his side, became a bit of a genius child and is on his way to becoming a navigator. 

Nyota still has a great interest in archeology, but her focus shifted into linguistics very quickly. Spock has been tutoring her on certain relevant topics.

Scotty has been working as an engineer for the global government in its early unification process and has since taken Riley in as sort of an adoptive child.

JT - now introducing himself as James, sometimes Jim - has just signed up into the space program, wanting to go out to space proper this time, further than Mars. Spock’s not sure how he managed to find that desire.

“Kid just does things without thinking of consequences," John- Leonard notes. “But it’s a good thing we signed up as well, someone’s gotta keep an eye on him.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sweet mother of Jesus this is gigantic. Imma just tag whoever may enjoy this.

@littlecrazyfangirl-98 @schatzi-89 @cuddlememerrick @shewhowillrise @lt-trick @bunnygeneral @urban-trek-thru-middle-earth @jiminthestreets-bonesinthesheets @yueci

#Star Trek #Star Trek AOS #Doom #Doom (2005) #Doom movie #Doom (2016) #John Grimm #John Reaper Grimm #Samantha Grimm #Spock #James Tiberius Kirk #Pavel Chekov #Nyota Uhura #Hikaru Sulu #Montgomery Scott #DoomTrek #Leonard McCoy #Leonard Bones McCoy #Christine Chapel #Way too many tags #Hardly any room for commentary left #BUT boy did I have fun writing this #I keep squeezing Doom 2016 into my movie headcanons so here we have it #I'd say this is peak squeezing... but it is not #i can do so much more #I learned during this that Tarsus is the name of a crater on Mars #Funny coincidence #This last bits were the first things I really imagined in all of this #The rest? I winged it

[traincat]

im like 99% sure you've probably answered this kind of question before but if you dont mind, i want to get into star trek but cant seem to find a consistent watch list consensus, what order would you recommend watching the various series in?

I’m probably the wrong person to ask about this because I got into Star Trek in a way I feel is very different from how most people my age got into Star Trek, which is through either having parents who watched The Original Series and The Next Generation, or just by watching The Next Generation themselves. This is not how it worked for me. I was so sure I didn’t like Star Trek until I was like 23. I’d tried to watch the 2009 movie a couple of times, because the fic was good, but I could never get through it. Then I saw Star Trek: Into Darkness on a whim with a friend, totally fell in love with it (look don’t @ me I know but it still got me into the series), then followed a friend’s recommendation on what Original Series episode to start with. Then I watched all of The Original Series as a marathon and loved it entirely.

The first episode I started with is The Trouble With Troubles, season 2 episode 15. Most episode of The Original Series are standalone, so you can always pick a summary that sounds interesting to you and give it a try – the only episode I would recommend not starting with is the first episode listed on Netflix, The Cage, which is an unaired pilot featuring a different captain and, aside from Spock, an entirely different crew – its footage is cut into future season one episodes, so you won’t miss anything by skipping because you’ll end up seeing it later anyway. But Trouble With Tribbles is my favorite: it’s hilarious, a classic, has cute pom pom fake animals (a tribble keychain lives on my purse), has great character interactions between the crew, and is a great introduction, in my opinion, to Captain Kirk. 

(A little while ago, I wrote up a TOS episodes reclist for a friend that served two purposes: episodes I thought she should see before she watched Star Trek: Discovery, and episodes I just particularly like. It is very serious. So serious. If you want, you can view it here.)

So I would personally suggest starting with The Original Series, with the caveat that I know television from the 1960s can be difficult for some people to get into due to a number of things like differences in pacing and acting norms compared to modern television, or the stark reality of how much social norms have changed. I find Star Trek TOS remarkably progressive for its time, and it definitely did try to be just that, but it is a television show from the 1960s and so the way it addresses certain topics, particularly sexism, may seem dated to modern viewers. I’d give it a try and see how it clicks for you.

After that, I would hit the original movies, 1-6. If you’ve looked up watching guides, you’ve probably come across that inane rule that “only the even movies are good”, which is bullshit, because if you skip the third movie you skip the most romantic film ever made. I am not kidding, it’s literally unbelievably romantic. A lot of people will also tell you not to watch 5, but fuck that because 5 is pretty fun actually, and if you skip it you’ll be left wondering where Spock’s brother Sybok comes from when you inevitably encounter him in fic. 

I think the common and chronological thing to do after TOS is to get into The Next Generation, which is the show that follows TOS. That being said, I had a really hard time getting into TNG after TOS. It’s a much drier show in terms of tone and it took me a while to grow attached to a lot of the characters because of that. I did grow to like TNG! But I did that by essentially leaving on all day TNG marathons on BBC America while I did other things. I would say I’ve seen about roughly 80% of the series, but I don’t feel like I’m the best person to recommend how to watch it. Similarly with Voyager – I watched about half of the show, and while I like the characters, the show itself didn’t hold my attention. (I do want to finish it one of these days, though.) Enterprise is a prequel series – I’d hit it up if you’re in a completionist mood or want more Trek, but I wouldn’t start with it.

This is the point where I’m not sure what to recommend you. Last time I answered a post like this, I said – and I’m going to stick to my guns on this one – that you could start Star Trek: Discovery with or without serious Star Trek TOS knowledge. Star Trek: Discovery is a prequel series that takes place around ten years before Star Trek TOS and stars Michael Burnham, Spock’s human foster sister, with established TOS characters like Spock and Pike joining in the second season. (Ethan Peck kills it as Spock, by the way.) Discovery has a very different format than TOS – for one, it has an overarching plot instead of an episodic one, and it’s first season is much darker and more cynical in nature than a lot of Trek, although there is a reason for that. It’s a beautifully cinematic show, though, and I have a friend with no Trek experience whatsoever who watched it on its own and loved it. There are certain things about it that are enhanced by Trek knowledge – knowledge of Spock, knowledge of Klingons – but I wouldn’t say they’re strictly necessary to your enjoyment, just like a good modern comic run should be enhanced by but not totally dependent on stuff that came 50 years before it. (My above TOS reclist does include notes on which episodes are helpful for Discovery.) 

My other big Star Trek recommendation is Deep Space 9, which, like Discovery, has an overarching plot rather than strictly being episodic. DS9 features the series’ first black captain, Benjamin Sisko, played by Avery Brooks. A unique thing about it is that, unlike most Trek, DS9 takes place on a space station instead of a space ship, which allows for a lot of plots involving mysterious travelers and visitors to the station. Like Discovery, DS9 can have a darker tone – it is a war story, and it questions the apparently Utopian future that Trek has presented. It is an extremely good show, though, and up there with TOS and Discovery for my top 3 favorite Treks. (I also just posted about how gay it is in a separate ask, if that sways you either way.) Like Discovery, DS9 benefits from some knowledge of both TOS and TNG, although personally speaking I don’t think it’s anything that would prevent you from understanding the series on its own merits, and there’s also always google for plot summaries.

Those are my recommendations! I think they’re kind of unorthodox but they’re what worked for me personally when I was getting into Star Trek, so maybe they’ll help you too.

#*replies #Anonymous

[impendingfascination]

Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow In A Slow Lead To The Finale For Star Trek Discovery

For an episode that sets up potentially one of the biggest battles we’ve seen in ‘Star Trek’ save some of the final battles from ‘Deep Space Nine’, we sure do spend a lot of time saying goodbye.  That is mostly what this episode is in fact.  It says so right in the title.  Of course, for a crew about to go in to a battle they think to be incredibly difficult if not impossible, it makes sense that you might want to say how you feel about being separated from a loved one before that battle begins.  It would just have more impact if the audience also believed that this set of people would never see each other again, but that is a lot to ask when you consider a third season is on its way.  

All of that considered still doesn’t take away from the impact of all the crew of ‘Discovery’ deciding to stay on board the ship despite it’s doomed mission.  Well, not doomed exactly, but future unknown.  There are some questions in that mix that we may or may not get answers to before the end of the season, like: will Culber and Stamets ever get back together?  Is Jet Reno now going to join the Discovery’s crew?  And, perhaps the biggest question of the moment, how will Spock get back to the correct timeline if he does go with them into the future.  It’s his decision to stay and help his half-sister that leaves me the most unsure about what was going to happen in the conclusion of this season.  Had he just gone back to the Enterprise, I would have thrown all my money on the Discovery crew ending up stuck in Picard’s timeline.  It would have solved the canon issues and allowed for easy shared universe stories.  Now I’m not so certain because you can’t have Spock in that timeline.  Though, I guess he could stay for a few years.  The character does appear to age between ‘The Cage’ and ‘Where No Man Has Gone Before’ so who knows what happens that we haven’t seen.  

It’s nice to see another throw back to the ‘Short Trek’ episodes.   Me Hani Ika Hali Ka Po, last seen in ‘Runaway’, returns to help the crew sort out how to use the time crystal.  I am guessing that ‘Calypso’ will get a nod next week by showing the ship arrive at where we find it in that episode, which I suppose is further proof that there won’t be a 24th century solution to this season.  It is interesting though that, at least as of the end of this episode, Me Hani Ika Hali Ka Po is still onboard Discovery.  Will she be travelling to the future as well?  Might she be the key to getting the Discovery crew back to the current timeline?

The reveal of the bridge of the Enterprise points out one of my biggest disappointments of the season thus far - the under use of Number One and Rebecca Romijn.  Why go to the trouble of casting the part and landing a well known actress to play her if you are only going to give her a few scant appearances?  I still am holding out some hope for a possible ‘Enterprise’ spin off that would further detail the adventures that this crew of Pike, Number One, and Spock have before Pike’s accident and the arrival of Kirk.  That would be tough though as the writers already have a struggle with continuity.  We’ll see next week how they plan to lineup what we’ve seen so far against what we know from years of watching.

#star trek #star trek discovery #such sweet sorrow #michael burnham #spock #captain pike #christopher pike #number one #me hani ika hali ka po #calypso #runaway #sonequa martin-green #ethan peck #anson mount #rebecca romijn #yadira guevara-prip #picard #the cage #where no man has gone before #hugh culber #paul stamets #wilson cruz #anthony rapp

[weerd1]

Star Trek DS9 Rewatch Log, Stardate 1909.03: Missions Reviewed, “Blaze of Glory,” Empok Nor,” “In the Cards,” and “Call to Arms.”

“Blaze of Glory” has Sisko receive a coded message intercepted by the Klingons sent from the Badlands.  It would seem to be a last ditch effort by the Maquis. The message is meant for “Michael” whom Sisko believes to be Michael Eddington, and talks about a missile strike launched as a last ditch effort against Cardassia. Sisko goes to Eddington’s prison, and brings him along to find out the story of the missiles. 

 Eddington tells him he has no real desire to cooperate, and after all, they would need to go to the launch site to stop them. Sisko convinces them to take him there, and after some tense close calls with the Jem’Hadar, they get to the base. They find out the Dominion is already there.  Slowly infiltrating in, they initially find a group of Maquis corpses, but in the main launch room about a dozen survivors, including Eddington’s wife Rebecca. 

The entire set up was a code to allow the Maquis to escape, playing on the fact Sisko would bring Eddington along. He agrees to evacuate the survivors, but they are ambushed on the way out.  Eddington stays back holding off the Jem’Hadar so the others can escape dying a hero.

I don’t like Michael Eddington, and I’m glad he’s dead.  There I said it. I’ve been waiting for him to go since he showed up to take Odo’s job.  I didn’t like him when we were supposed to like him. Good riddance.  This does though bring some closure to the Maquis storyline.  They won’t really come up again aside from Voyager, though they missed a bet in their finally when they sidestepped the question of how their Maquis crew would be received back into the Federation.  As a larger point, it is time to let the Maquis go though, as worse things are gathering on the horizon.

“Empok Nor” has a crew visit another abandoned Cardassian station, a sister design to DS9 (Terok Nor) by that name.  O’Brien, Nog, and four victim…uh, engineers go with Garak to the station to gather parts to make some much needed repairs to DS9.  

Garak is there to deal with all the booby traps the Cardassians have doubtlessly left in place.  What no one is expecting is two Cardassian special forces operatives left in stasis, woken up by the team’s arrival.  Neither does anyone expect they are juiced on a powerful psychotropic drug to make them more violent…and Garak has been affected as well.  The Soldiers take out three Starfleet officers before Garak takes each of them out, and then he takes out another officer.  

He kidnaps Nog and begins a game of cat and mouse with O’Brien, which O’Brien only wins by engineering a booby trap of his own. Back on DS9, Garak is recovering, but also mortified by what he has done. He and O’Brien reach an understanding that both of them have violent pasts…perhaps best left in the past.

This episode is written by Bryan Fuller who will later go on to write “Hannibal” and create the outlines for the first season of “Star Trek: Discovery.” Indeed there are similarities between this episode and the Disco episode “Context is for Kings” and Garak as he becomes more manipulative feels like a proto-Hannibal.  The whole episode is filmed, effectively, like a horror movie, and it is bold to actually have Garak, under the influence or not, actually kill one of the officers. Andrew Robinson is of course fantastic here, as is Colm Meaney.  Aron Eisenberg’s Rom has been used to great effect this season as the cadet, and continues to shine here.  Perhaps a stand alone diversion from the larger plot, but a worthwhile one.

“In the Cards” starts with the single most morose officers’ mess in the history of Star Trek. Sisko has his whole senior crew over for dinner, but negative news about the Dominion has everyone down. Worse, Sisko finds out Kai Winn is coming to the station to meet with Weyoun and discuss a non-aggression pact between Bajor and The Dominion.  Meanwhile Jake and Nog find Quark is auctioning off a bunch of crap, but among the useless items is a Willie Mays rookie card from the 1950s. Trying to buy it at auction as a gift to Sisko, the lot instead goes to a mysterious Doctor Geiger, whom they find is trying to build an immortality machine, and being chased (supposedly) by the “soulless minions of orthodoxy.”  

Though they think he’s crazy, he wants a list of things for his work which are harmless, and he is willing to trade the card. To get the items needed, Jake and Nog begin helping out the crew in trade.  Meanwhile Winn asks Sisko as Emissary what she should do and he recommends stalling the Dominion talks by referring the treaty to the Bajoran council of ministers. Weyoun hears the machine Geiger is working on and investigates, and believes Jake and Nog are involved in some plot against him.

 When he learns the truth, he let’s them take the card and listens intently to Geiger. Jake gives the card to his dad who notes the crew has cheered immensely, due to the help Jake and Nog provided for their assistance.

A fun episode, well crafted in its layering, and light hearted enough to miss the fact that Winn is basically negotiating Bajor into the Dominion’s hands.  This comes into play next episode, but here we get a good Jake/Nog buddy episode, as they work their way through the station in pursuit of their goal.  I almost wonder if Weyoun took Dr. Geiger with him into Dominion custody to continue his research?

In “Call to Arms,” the situation with the Dominion has come to a head. Reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant have been flooding into Cardassia through the wormhole, and the Federation wants it stopped. Sisko tells everyone that they can’t get new Starfleet reinforcements right now, but he wants to mine the wormhole.  O’Brien, Dax, and Rom design cloaked, self-replicating mines but it will take some time to deploy them, during which time the Defiant will be vulnerable; they know there is no way the Dominion will let them try it without an attack on the station.  Sisko advises Bajor to sign the non-aggression pact, and then starts laying mines, and evacuating Bajoran personnel.  Along the we, before she evacuates, Leeta and Rom get married under Sisko’s command. 

The Dominion fleet however is on its way, and Dukat and Damar plan to take DS9 and then Bajor; Weyoun tells them they WILL follow the Dominion’s treaty with Bajor, and first…they need to actually capture DS9. The minefield is almost in place when the fleet arrives, and DS9 and General Martok have to work to defend them. They hold off the Dominion fleet as the Defiant completes the minefield, cutting off the Gamma Quadrant. With the Dominion regrouping, Sisko bids the Bajoran crew farewell, telling them he will return to this place “where he belongs.” He also tells them that Starfleet could not send more reinforcements because while the Dominion was engaged here, a joint Federation/Klingon fleet attacked Dominion ship-building facilities in Cardassian space.  The war between the Federation and the Dominion has begun.  As the Rotarran (Martok’s BoP) and Defiant cloak and escape, Dukat lands on DS9, welcomed by Kira, Quark, and Odo.  Sisko however has booby trapped the station himself, leaving it barely functioning, much as when Cardassia handed it over five years before. 

Rom goes back to work for Quark, but to act as a spy for the Federation, and he finds Jake has stayed on the station as a correspondent for the Federation News Service. Dukat goes into Sisko’s office to find he has left the baseball on his desk. Weyoun is puzzled, but Dukat knows it is a message that Sisko plans to return. The season ends as the Defiant and Rotarran take their place among hundreds of ships in the joint Federation and Klingon fleet. The Alpha Quadrant is at war.

Again, you needed those lighter episodes leading up to this to get things going to hell here.  The war is on, Starfleet has lost DS9, Bajor is if not allied, at least in treaty with the Dominion.  Things are grim, and this is not the way one expects a Star Trek show to go.  It is incredibly compelling though, and for those who might still throw up the argument that DS9 isn’t “Star Trek” because Roddenberry’s Trek was about a bright future, I would counter that GR never truly shied away from conflict in the future (just ask Spock and McCoy) and he often had flawed humans struggling with one another in order to examine the human condition. As sad as it may be, there is no way to truly turn a magnifying glass on humanity without talking about humans at war.  Even Kirk said, “we can admit that we’re killers, but we will not kill today; that’s all it takes.” (“A Taste of Armageddon.”) Starting with TNG, Star Trek shied away from examining humankind at war except perhaps with little glimpses: “The Wounded” and “Chains of Command” on TNG.  The Klingon war that was mostly elsewhere on DS9. Now though with the Dominion War, Trek is going to look our darker nature right in the eye, pick up a mirror and hold it up to our violence. It’s going to make for some of the most compelling television ever filmed; it’s also going to make sure we get a good look at us when we don’t decide “not to kill today.”

NEXT MISSION: Season six opens with the war going poorly for the Federation allies, and Sisko decides it’s “A Time to Stand.”

#star trek #Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #DS9 Rewatch

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2 Episode 1 Easter Eggs & References

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Star Trek: Lower Decks article contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 1: “Strange Energies.”

The mission of the USS Cerritos is to do the jobs other Starfleet ships can’t; following up with all sorts of minutiae and boring outer space logistics, long after the Enterprise or the Defiant has warped out. But whether it’s Lower Decks or Picard or Discovery or Strange New Worlds, the mission of hardcore Trek fans is the same: Pause the screen and see what deep-cut Easter eggs got slipped in this time!

In Season 1, Star Trek: Lower Decks earned the reputation for the most meta-textual Star Trek ever. There are layers and layers of Trekdom within every frame of this series, making it hard to look at one episode and catalog all the references. But if you thought Season 1 went deep into the wells of Trekkie references and Easter eggs, Season 2 is here to make Season 1 look tame. The Season 2 premiere of Lower Decks — “Strange Energies” — is one giant Easter egg with a bunch of reproducing tribble-ish Easter eggs inside of it. Unless you’ve got ESP powers on the level of Dr. Elizabeth Dehner, there’s no way you caught all of these. 

Cardassian ships

The episode has a cold-open on some kind of prison inside of an asteroid field. This is surrounded by two kinds of Cardassian ships, the Galor-class and the smaller Hideki-class scout ships.

“The Keep Showing Me Lights”

Hologram Boimler says the Cardassians “keep showing me lights.” This line, and the existence of the secret Cardassian facility references the famous Next Generation two-parter, “Chain of Command,” in which Picard was kidnapped and tortured by the Cardassians. If you somehow haven’t seen that episode, the whole idea is that the Cardassians try to gaslight Picard into thinking there are five lights in front of him when there are only four. Lower Decks referenced “Chain of Command” in Season 1, too! In Season 1, Episode 7, “Much Ado About Boimler,” Mariner joked about the Cerritos getting a “Babysitter Jellico-type,” for a subsitute captain, which referenced the temporary captain the Enterprise got in “Chain of Command.” Freeman, Shaxs and Ransom whore the all-black special ops outfits in that episode, too, and Tendi did the same in “Veritas.” 

Too Many Ships to Count 

As Mariner escapes from the Cardassian facility, there are soooo many ships being stored in this particular hanger. It’s all the ships. Here’s just a few we caught

A Federation runabout

Jem’Hadar fighters

A Nemesis-era Romulan warbird

An old school Romulan Bird-of-Prey from TOS

Federation fighter craft (like the ones seen in TNG’s “Preemptive Strike.”)

And many, many more.

Miranda-class USS MacDuff

Mariner steals a Miranda-class Federation starship with the registry NCC-1877, and the name “USS MacDuff.” There’s a lot going on here.

The Miranda-class was first seen in The Wrath of Khan, in the form of the USS Reliant. That film also featured someone stealing a ship like this with ease.

The bridge for this ship is basically identical to the Reliant.

Lower Decks showrunner Mike McMahan said in 2020 that he was inspired by the Reliant for the design of the Cerritos. 

The name “MacDuff” might reference the TNG character, Kieran MacDuff, from the episode “Conundrum.” In that one, the crew has temporary amnesia and MacDuff manipulates them into fighting a war they’re not supposed to be involved in.

Jennifer 

Jennifer is back! Mariner is interrupted during her holographic work-out by Jennifer, an Andorian crewmember from last season. In the Season 1 finale, “No Small Parts,” Mariner runs through the halls and pushes this character out of the way, saying, “Move Jennifer.” As far as we know, Jennifer is the only Andorian named Jennifer, but you really have to wonder, was this an Andorian name, or a human name? 

“I know we’re not supposed to have interpersonal conflict”

Mariner’s dislike of Jennifer is punctuated by her talking to herself saying, “I know we’re not supposed to have interpersonal conflict…but I really hate that Andorian.” This references a long-standing rule from the TNG–era of Trek TV; that Starfleet officers weren’t supposed to have petty differences with each other. This rule was apparently implemented by Gene Roddenberry and drove several writers, including Ron Moore and Jeri Taylor, nuts. 

Slightly new opening-credits

In Season 1, we saw the Cerritos running away from a battle involving a bunch of Borg cubes and Romulan Warbirds. Now, that same battle includes a Pakled ship from the Season 1 finale, a few Klingon Birds-of-Prey, and seemingly, fewer Borg. 

Fred Tatasciore’s name in the credits?

Although Shaxs died in the Season 1 finale, Fred Tatasciore’s name appears in the opening credits…hmmm…will this ever be explained? 

Rutherford’s date with Ensign Barnes

“Strange Energies” directly parallels the 2020 Season 1 debut, “Second Contact,” in several ways. The crew is involved with a second contact mission that goes horribly wrong and Rutherford starts dating Barnes for the “first” time. In the Season 1 finale, Rutherford lost his memory, which is why his relationship with Barnes seems new to him. This is why Mariner says “that sounds familiar.” 

Hating pears…a Doctor Who reference? 

Tendi is concerned that Rutherford used to hate pears, but now he doesn’t. This is possibly incorrect, but this could be a Doctor Who reference. In the Doctor Who episodes “Human Nature,” “Twice Upon a Time,” and “Hell Bent,” the Doctor (both David Tennant and Peter Capaldi) mention hating pears. In fact, in “Human Nature,” when the Doctor’s memory is erased, he asks Martha Jones to “never let me eat a pear.” 

Sonic power washing 

“Sonic showers” have long been a thing in the Star Trek universe, making their debut in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. But, we’ve never seen sonic power-washers before!

“Ever heard of Gary Mitchell”

Ransom’s possession is very much a tribute to Gary Mitchell’s god-like powers in the second TOS pilot episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Dr. T’ana’s insistence that Kirk beat Gary Mitchell with a “boulder” is accurate. For whatever reason, the very first canonical Kirk-adventure ever, established that rock beats god-like powers any day of the week. It should also be noted that Mariner referenced Gary Mitchell in the first episode of Season 1, too.

Possible Harlan Ellison reference?

While Ransom is starting to work out, you can briefly hear him say, “The trick isn’t becoming a God. The trick is staying a God.” This could be a reference to the axiom attributed to Harlan Ellison: “The trick isn’t becoming a writer. The trick is staying a writer.” Ellison wrote “The City on the Edge of Forever,” for TOS. In Star Trek: Picard Season 1, Soji traveled on a ship called the Ellison, which Michael Chabon revealed was an Easter egg meant to reference Harlan Ellison. So, you never know? 

“The Trick isn’t becoming a god, the Trick is staying a god”

Harlan Ellison reference?

Ransom on the Mount

Mariner says that Jack is “going all Ransom on the Mount.” This almost certainly references a hilarious fan video called “Shatner on the Mount,” in which a group called Fall On Your Sword remixed a behind-the-scenes interview with William Shatner (promoting Star Trek V: The Final Frontier) into a hilarious kind of talking-rap song. It has to be seen to be believed. 

Giant God Head

A giant God head coming out to grab a starship might seem silly, but there are several precedents for this kind of thing in Trek canon. In the TOS episode “Who Mourns For Adonais?” a giant green hand grabs the Enterprise, which is later revealed to be the hand of the god Apollo. In the TNG episode “The Nth Degree,” the giant head of a Cytherian finds its way onto the Enterprise-D bridge. And, of course, in The Final Frontier, the crew meets “the God of Sha Ka Ree” which also, is a giant floating head. 

My older sister got a symbiont 

Barnes and Rutherford joke around that her Trill sister has a symbiont, but she doesn’t. This references the idea that not all Trill are joined, which was established in both TNG and Deep Space Nine.

Cetacean ops

Barnes mentions going swimming in “Cetacean ops,” a part of the USS Cerritos that we’ve never seen, but we have to assume has something to do with sea creatures. This is the second time Lower Decks has referenced Cetacean ops, which itself derives from an overheard line in TNG’s “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” Again, with yet another parallel to its Season 1 debut, “Cetacean ops” was last referenced by Lower Decks in Season 1, Episode 1, “Second Contact.”

“LDS thing”

Rutherford incorrectly refers to SMD as “LDS.” This references a few things. First, for most fans, the official abbreviation of Lower Decks is LDS. But, that abbreviation also references a joke from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in which Kirk incorrectly refers to the drug “LSD” as “LDS,” saying that Spock “did a little bit too much LDS back in the ‘60s.” 

Nightengale Woman 

At the end of the episode, Stevens tells Ransom he’s going to read him “Nightengale Woman.” This too is a reference to “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” which Gary Mitchell quotes from the poem “Nitengale Woman,” from memory. In Trek canon, the poem was written in 1996 on “the Canopus Planet.” In real life, the poem was written by Gene Roddenberry, who originally wrote part of the poem to describe flying a plane. 

Riker’s jam session

As the final moments of the episode cut back to the USS Titan, Captain Riker says “This jam session has too many licks and not enough counts.” In jazz, a “lick” refers to a pattern or musical phrase which is predetermined, but open to interpretation. Usually, a lick could result in a long jazz solo.  A “count” on the other hand, is more about the beat and form of a piece of music. Riker’s obsession with jazz began in the TNG episode “11001001.” In the season finale of Lower Decks Season 1, Riker’s catchphrase for sending the Titan into warp was a jazz count.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Lower Decks Season 2 airs new episodes on Paramount+ on Thursdays.

The post Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2 Episode 1 Easter Eggs & References appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3xEGQn9

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[claudia1829things]

“Aligning the Franchise”

“ALIGNING THE FRANCHISE”

I had learned from a Star Trek forum that the show runners of “STAR TREK DISCOVERY” had promised to “align” the series with “STAR TREK” (the Original Series) by the end of Season Two.  And honestly, I believe making such a promise was a big mistake.

The timeline for “STAR TREK DISCOVERY” began in 2256.  That is ten years before “THE ORIGINAL SERIES” began (in 2266) and nine years before James T. Kirk had assumed command of the U.S.S. Enterprise  In other words, the series, as of Season Two, has nine-year gap between its current position in the Trek timeline and the beginning of Season One of “THE ORIGINAL SERIES”. 

I have no idea how long “DISCOVERY” will be on the air, but why do the show runners think it is necessary to align the series with “THE ORIGINAL SERIES” by the end of its second season?  Why?  The worst thing about all of this is that many from the Trek fandom is taking this promise seriously.  I am not surprised.  I have the deepest suspicion that many want this series to fail so badly . . . and for a very shallow reason.

Personally, I refuse to take this promise rather seriously.  I think it is a stupid promise.  Nor do I believe it is a good idea to pay attention to what a show runner or producer promises.  And I do not  think it is a good idea for viewers to demand such promises or for a show runner to make such promises.  I believe it is best to allow these show runners/writers/producers to tell the story that they want to tell and leave it up to the audiences to decide whether they like it or not.  When the public succeeds in forcing writers, show runners, producers, etc. to tell the story how THEY want it told, then the series/movie/story, etc. usually ends up being either a mess or simply a piece of mediocrity.  I have noticed that more and more writers/producers, etc. in the entertainment business are allowing themselves to be dictated by the public.  And this is why I feel that pop culture or the arts today is basically in a state of mediocrity and slowly declining.

And if certain members of the public find themselves in a snit that the television series or movie was not written the way they wanted it to be, I suggest they consider writing fan fiction or ignoring that movie or television show.  For an artist/producer/show runner to allow the public to dictate someone's story for the sake of dollars is just abominable to me.  It is abominable.  And we might as well toss away the concept of arts and entertainment.  What is the damn point in being an artist if a person allows someone else to dictate his or her creation?  If the majority of the public see nothing wrong with that . . . then this whole situation is just disturbing on so many levels.  If "DISCOVERY" ever aligns with "THE ORIGINAL SERIES", then fine.  But there is no need for the show runners to engage in a rush job and achieve this by the end of this season.  And it is sad that so many cannot or will not understand this.

Many have claimed that “DISCOVERY” desperately needs this alignment.  They have also complained that the series is riddled with plot holes.  One of the biggest plot holes, they have claimed, was the revelation that the series’ leading character, Michael Burnham, was Spock’s adopted sister and the adopted daughter of Ambassador Sarek and his wife, Amanda Grayson.  This is a plot hole?  Then those critics really need to check the franchise's canon.  Since when has Spock ever volunteered any information about any member of his family?  Since when?  He never said a word about his older half brother Sybok until Kirk and the Enterprise's other senior officers met him in "STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIERS”, which is set some twenty years after "THE ORIGINAL SERIES".  When Kirk and McCoy were first introduced to Sarek and Amanda in Season Two of "THE ORIGINAL SERIES", Kirk had suggested to Spock that he beam down to Vulcan to visit his parents.  Only then did Spock inform the good captain that Sarek and Amanda were his parents.  Spock not mentioning Michael is not plot hole.  It was just Spock being in character.  I am still amazed that so many fans have forgotten this.

Speaking of plot holes, the Star Trek franchise has been messing around with its canon since the films from the 1980s.  And yet, certain fans have NOW started demanding that this one particular series - especially one led by a woman of color - refrain completely from plot holes?  It sounds like these fans simply want an excuse to dislike and complain about this show.  If so, they should stop watching it.

The question of Michael Burnham’s connection to the House of Sarek or the spore drive arc (another complaint by detractors) does not strike me as a good reason for the show runners to align the series with "THE ORIGINAL SERIES" so soon.  According to the Trek timeline, "DISCOVERY" is about nine years away from the beginning of "THE ORIGINAL SERIES".  Nine years.  I know why the show's producers have made this ludicrous promise to align the two shows by the end of Season Two.  They want to maintain viewers for the show and stop the constant complaining about the series.  The problems with this goal are that "DISCOVERY" is a hit series, it has been renewed for a third season and there is no need for this "rush job" to align the two shows by the end of this season.  There is no need.  I keep saying this, but many are ignoring my words, because they want the producers to keep what I believe is a ludicrous promise to begin with.  

Or perhaps these negative fans believe that this quickie alignment will never materialize and they will have another reason to complain about this show.  I have no idea.  But from what I can see, the producers are making the same mistake that show runners and producers of other television shows have made.  They seem so busy paying attention to those fans who are constantly bitching and moaning about a particular series or franchise, that they are ignoring the signs that their series, movie or franchise is successful and has acquired a good number of fans.  And that is just sad to me.

#Star Trek Franchise #Star Trek Discovery Season 2 #Star Trek Discovery #anti trek fandom #house of sarek #michael burnham #spock

[pennywaltzy]

The Paths We Take, Glittering And Entwined (2/? - A “The Paths We Take, Glittering And Entwined” Story)

So I’m not entirely sure where I want to end this one so I’m taking a break from it for a moment, but there’s a few extra chapters up on AO3 that I’ll post here in the near future. In this one, Spock has a conversation with his adopted sister, Nyota (I had this idea before Discovery aired, I just didn’t get this chapter out in time as it’s been sitting in my Google Drive for years).

The Paths We Take, Glittering And Entwined -Before the new ship the USS Enterprise is set to take its maiden voyage, it’s new captain, Captain Spock, attempts to meet some of his crew on their “home turf.” What he and Ensign James Kirk do not expect, however, is the rare connection that makes Kirk Spock’s bonded t'hy'la. But Kirk is hiding a secret that is slowly killing him, and this unexpected connection leaves them both with problems: for Spock, it is how to remain unattached in the face of a personal crisis and for Kirk, it is how to remain alive with the secret he is keeping from both his captain and his best friend.

READ CHAPTER 1 | READ CHAPTER 2 | SERIES PAGE | HELP ME SURVIVE? | COMMISSION ME? | BUY ME A KOFI? | MY PATREON

By the time they docked port in San Francisco Spock had a better idea of improvements that he could make to make this five-year mission easier. He had heard stories of captains who did not fare well under long term missions such as the three-year one he had just completed. A five-year mission beyond what had been explored before was an entirely new matter. He needed his crew to be at their utmost physical and mental best before the voyage.

Which meant, he feared, having to interact with them on what they would call “home turf.”

He had never been a sociable person among the Vulcans as a child, though he had been warm and inquisitive when very young. Traits passed down to him from his mother and mirrored by his adoptive sister, he supposed. But by the time his schooling began and he saw how viciously the full-blooded Vulcans treated him for being something “other,” he soon saw conforming to their standards was better. He had emotions, he just buried them deeper down than most Vulcans, though they could flare to the surface much faster. Meditation had been a great help over the years in keeping them at bay, but it had cost him much.

There was the fact he was the superior officer to the majority of the people he would be meeting, so he could go into the situation as aloof and detached, but that would not entice his new crew to want to trust him or to work with him. He was not a slavedriver, as some captains had a tendency to be, but he did not overly care for the small problems his crew faced, and one thing he had noted was that if there was not care given they could, at times, escalate into larger problems that had the potential to trouble more than just one crew member. Should he get to know this new crew on a more personal level, at least on a cursory level, he may be able to head off this problem this time.

He knew there was a bar near the Academy that most of the students went to. As the vast majority of his crew were to be recent graduates, it was logical that they would still be residing near the Academy and most likely attending the same social haunts they did as students. And this is where he went to ask the advice of one of the few people he trusted, one of the few he requested on his crew, the only other Vulcan Learning Center graduate to attend Starfleet, much to the chagrin of their father.

“You have to look normal to not stick out like a sore thumb, Spock,” Nyota Uhura said with a grin, looking at the outfit he had chosen to blend in with the people at the bar. “That outfit screams ‘I am your new boss.’”

“I think I am attired quite adequately,” Spock said.

Nyota chuckled. Though he had known her since she was an infant, there were times he truly thought he did not understand her. But she had been instrumental in his understanding of the human side of himself, in many ways much more than his mother had been, and if she found humor in the situation there must be some. “You still have an air of authority. This is casual by Vulcan standards, S’cchn T’gai, but jeans are an actual thing.”

He permitted himself a slight scowl. There were only two humans he knew who could correctly pronounce his Vulcan name, and Nyota only chose to do so to tease for the most part. It seemed to be her fondness as his adopted sister. He, personally, did not care for it. “You are going to use me as a mannequin for your dress-up pleasure,” he said, his voice taking on a sour tinge.

“Hey, you are the one wanting to do covert espionage,” she pointed out. “I'm sure Bones has probably left at least one pair of pants here, and a belt. Kirk might have left a beanie or something, too.”

His expression perked up at the mention of the name Kirk. “Would this Kirk be James Tiberius Kirk?”

Nyota nodded. “Yes. He and Bones...Leonard McCoy? They're best friends. Bones is pretty much here every night he doesn't have clinic duty. He and Christine are pretty serious, so that's why I asked you to take her on, too, aside from getting one of the best damn nurses in the galaxy.”

“So you are on good terms with them?” he asked as Nyota disappeared into one of the bedrooms in the apartment.

“Pretty much,” she said, her voice muffled from being in the other room. “I mean, I’m not best friends with them, like I am with you, but I knowthem pretty well.”

“Tell me about them,” he said.

Nyota emerged a few moments later with well-folded trousers. He imagined that if the relationship between her friend and her significant other was as serious as she claimed, the clothes were laundered and kept in a drawer and not simply plucked off a bedroom floor to be folded like that. “Bones is a grump, but it’s kind of an act. I mean, he is a pessimist, or maybe more of a realist, but he’s a decent person. He cares, he just doesn’t like showing it. Kirk is...I don’t know. He’s smart, and he’s charming, but I guess there’s something...off, maybe?”

He nodded. He had learned long ago to trust Nyota’s judgment. “How so?”

“He’s jittery sometimes. He tries to hide it well, but it’s gotten worse over the last year. I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was an addict of some sort.” She shrugged. “He never tests dirty on any tests, though, so maybe he’s just a caffeine addict, I don’t know. Or an adrenaline junkie. I mean, he does own that old fashioned motorcycle and all.” She handed him the trousers. “Go try those on.”

“Very well,” he said, heading towards her bathroom. This had given him something to ponder, and a candidate to get to meet first. If James Tiberius Kirk could be a problematic crew member, he wanted it sorted out before he ever set foot on the Enterprise.

#star trek aos #spirk #kirk x spock #fanfic #fanfiction #spock #Nyota Uhura #my au: the paths we take glittering and entwined #multipart: the paths we take glitering and entwined

[republictrooper]

Star Trek Discovery Season 2 Finale Thoughts.

Ok, so like. I finally got to watch the last episode since I was on Vaycay last Thursday.

I like the ending. It was 90% explosions and 10% plot, but I liked it, a lot, some reservations aside.

I mean, I always felt like we needed a new Trek series set in the future instead of all these prequels (one reason I’m not on the “Pike Miniseries” train), but sending the prequel series into the future to BE that series was... actually a pretty smooth move.

On one hand, it’s a little ingenious how many holes it plugs up from the timeline perspective - Spock never talks about his sister because it’s a matter of temporal security, the Spore Drive never sees wide use because both ships that used it met a grisly,grisly end, Cornwall never showed up in TOS because she was KIA in a battle that was at least partially classified, etc.

On the other hand, I found that most of the people concerned about that stuff were of the whiny fanboy brigade angry that the SJWs were taking over their beloved trek, and honestly, screw those guys. Retcons are a standard of most longrunning series, so just retcon that Michael took her wife Tilly to the Enterprise for regular visits with Spock and constantly teased him about how he was obviously smitten with Jim, and that Hugh and Bones constantly traded tips about how to be gay doctors in space and the Red Lizard alien bridge crew member actually always existed on the bridge even during the TOS era and was Uhura’s beloved wife and helped Spock spirit Pike away to Talos after his injury and etc, etc, etc... Cuz retcons can be ok in a lot of cases and the fanboys could learn some humility.

So it’s comme-ci, comme-ca, I guess. Overall, I do think releasing the series from the shackles of being a lore-friendly prequel was a GOOD thing for sure.

Other thoughts:

We finally got the promised Paul/Hugh reconciliation and it was everything I hoped for and more.

Jet Reno has seen the future, and says she has “at least” 5 lives left? 

Did she see herself almost die 5 more times? 

Did she see herself DIE?

Or was she just using a colloquialism and I’m reading too much into it?

Nhan definitely likes ladies, I’m pretty much convinced of it given how she and Phillipa were basically flirting while they pursued Leland. Hopefully she gets with a nice girl who’s not a backstabbing evil bisexual empress from an alternate dimension, though, tbqh. I could see her and Jett or even her and Michael making a great team, tbqh. I’m pretty sure she survived the fight with Leland, at least.

Speaking of the fight with Leland, the fact that he WAS Control in the end (enough such that his fleet couldn’t keep fighting once he was magnetized) makes me a little nervous that he went to the future with everyone else. I don’t trust those magnets to completely stop him. Or even if they did, what if he reconstitutes in the future and keeps the apocalypse going? Frick, I hope they manage to completely erase and dispose of EVERY SINGLE NANITE. Or do future nanites get their data erased by magnets like old school floppies?

On the other hand, maybe Zora evolves in part because she IS the remnants of control. Which uh. might explain why she was abandoned. Control starts reconstituting again, gets full sapience via the sphere data on Discovery’s computers, so they have to leave her in a space storm in the past in hopes it prevents her from going full Borg again?

Man, I really hope Control isn’t somehow the protoBorg. THE BORG ARE ALWAYS AT THEIR BEST WHEN THEY’RE MYSTERIOUS DAMMIT.

I like to think that shot of Detmer getting back to her chair after Leland left the bridge was because she was making sure her girlfriend was alright. I am glad Owosekun looks alright, when she got hit I was bracing for the worst.

Still not sure I get the whole Ash Tyler situation. This is one of the biggest weaknesses of prequels, at least for me, and one of the few loose ends they didn’t actually tie up with the time jump, oddly enough. You can talk about Ash reforming Section 31 into something better and more transparent, but we already KNOW he fails. At some point in the future, Section 31 will be the horrific secret police of the DS9 era, even grimmer, more nihilistic, and less transparent than pre-Control Leland. I was never an Ashburn fan, and I’m still a little sore at him for killing Hugh, so I’m not especially mourning the fact he stayed in the past, but frick, at least let him go back to Earth and sail boats for the rest of his days. He deserves that more than vainly struggling to reform an organization we already know will fail to live up to the goals he has. 

Anyway, Section 31 was a mistake and Ash Tyler was too good of a character to waste on that. Given they sent Phillipa into the future, I was hopeful they had cancelled the S31 series in favor of keeping her on the main series cast and the concept of S31 as anything other than the clear villains could die a quiet, peaceful death, but I GUESS NOT.

Also, still a little weird that the Klingons are gonna be cold war enemies for the next few decades/centuries. I guess at some point L’Rell is no longer able to hold the Chancellorship solely on strength of threatening the other clans with blowing up Quo’noS and/or doing the whole “Mother knows best” thing? Or then again, they never quite established how or why she gave up the whole Klingon supremacy movement, so maybe she just goes ahead and gets back on that now that most of the Starfleet-aligned people keeping her in check on that are either dead or 900+ years in the future.

Anyway, the biggest question is, what happens in the future?

Do we have a weird Voyager-like situation in which they are so far in the beta quadrant and in time they have to work with limited primitive resources and/or try to make it to federation space despite a travel time of multiple decades, whether because Paul can’t jump anymore due to his injuries, or Phillipa fried the spore drive when she killed Leland?

Or are we gonna have a full on Federation that’s spread between Quadrants, and if so, how does Discovery slot into that? Do they just get reintroduced and get the Discovery retrofitted to full futurosity? Does Tilly get to fulfill her dreams of captaincy in the future Federation, or does she just have to hope Saru or Michael passes the captaincy on to her when they die or retire? Or does she give it up because everything’s gone sideways and instead stays on the Discovery (possibly as chief science officer, while her wife moves up to 1st Officer)?

I mean, I have always loved Trek for its optimistic view of the future, so I hope the Federation is around and basically a forward-looking, peaceful organization, but given the brief glimpse we got from Calypso was of a warn-torn future, I’m a little iffy. S2 was great in part because it dared pull away from the overly darkness-filled S1, I hope we don’t plunged back into a grimdark future. I guess there could also be a plot twist with Zora and Craft. Maybe the Alcor IV folk are human separatists and the V’draysh are the peace-loving forwarding thinking Federation.

The spirk nod was amazing and gdi, I would pay like a million bucks for a retcon somewhere down the line that establishes Kirk and Spock got married at some point and settled down somewhere, where Kirk died peacefully of old age (and not on some dusty distant planet after being swallowed by the metaphysical concept of heaven then spit back out to get unceremoniously bodied by Malcolm McDowell) sorry Generations) before Spock went back to being an ambassador and doing all the stuff in the TNG-era shows/movies/novels/etc.

I don’t even necessarily ship Spirk that hard, Spock is just undeniably queer as hell and we deserve that reading of him finally being canonized. 

Anyway, I liked Season 2 overall. I look forward to season 3!

#star trek discovery #star trek discovery spoilers #spoilers