#tos s3

[atomiccollectionanchorme]

Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3 Episode 23 "All Our Yesterdays"

All Our Yesterdays

[comebackali]

they really popped tf off with spock as a character. no one will ever be him again. the way he bitchily says, "35" when the lady from plato's stepchildren asks him how old he thinks she is, and he doesn't even look sorry when she's so offended cuz she stopped aging at 30. i'm obsessed.

[spockvarietyhour]

Star Trek "The Savage Curtain"

[bazilisk]

Watching season 3 (the last season) of The Original Series right now. This is my first watch through.

I looked online a little bit at fan reactions. I saw that many fans dislike this season, because its budget was noticeably cut.

It's true, you can really see it. There's lots of reused footage. Lots of very minimal, obviously inexpensive, or reused, sets. There's a few sequences with narration, overlay, and what's clearly stock footage from CBS' library - this probably seemed lame at the time, but I loved how expressive and filmic those parts turned out.

This series is my favorite of the three, so far, because the characters are the most compelling. The writers and performers really embody the characters by now, And the lack of budget forces the plots to be more about the bridge crew, and less about the aliens, than in previous seasons.

This makes it more like an ensemble drama or comedy. It takes advantage of what TV as a medium does differently than movies: it gives you more time with the characters that the viewers enjoy.

It looks like Strange New Worlds learned this lesson from The Original Series when they wrote their stories: the most interesting part of a Star Trek show are the crew members reacting to and living through those long journeys through space. The aliens can be fascinating, but they just can't help but be less dramatically and comedically potent in the story than the main cast.

[atomiccollectionanchorme]

Star Trek: the Original Series - Season 3 Episode 10 "Plato's Stepchildren"

"Do you still feel anger toward Parmen?"

[pigegone]

I don't think the seduction is working bestie

[dmynte]

this is fucking killing me

[anghraine]

It's silly, but one of my favorite Kirk/Spock things is that they are clearly very much more on each other's wavelength intellectually than most others are, but—

There are so many scenes in which everyone else is baffled or missing something important that Spock or Kirk see in the other's behavior. Probably the peak moment for this is Spock, and Spock alone, realizing in "Arena" that Kirk has the raw materials to make gunpowder just as Kirk himself realizes it. So you get Spock murmuring "good, good...yes...yes..." right there on the bridge as his beloved starts reinventing the bazooka (pretty sure this counts as sex for him), but McCoy and the bridge crew are completely confused about what they're seeing. And there are plenty of moments of this kind of half-unspoken mutual brilliance while their co-workers wish they'd just use their words.

However. The important counterpoint to this is that Kirk and Spock each possess the special ability to instantly incinerate entire neuron paths in each other's brains and become 10x stupider around each other, also. Spock barges into Kirk's quarters in "The Enemy Within" without explanation, sees his naked chest, and his higher functions crumble into ash on the spot; when he regains the power of speech, he asks the baffled Kirk what he can do for him as if this somehow explains what he's doing there, and Kirk is just confused but pleased, and smiles enough that Spock's gay awakening visibly burns through even more neural circuits until he runs away.

And Kirk himself doesn't need to see skin to completely lose track of what he was even talking about because Spock did a thing. For instance, the scene when Kirk looks at Spock with flirty adoration at the end of "A Taste of Armageddon" and bats his eyelashes and says, "Why, Mr. Spock, you almost make me believe in miracles"—yes, it's extremely gay, but I feel it's important to understand the immediate context is a general conversation on the bridge about the horrors of war. But then Spock raised his brows and ambiguously complimented him, so Kirk's entire cognitive process melted into Spock Spock Spock Spock. In S3, Spock sits down beside Kirk to tenderly watch him sleep, without appearing to consider that anyone (like say the empath standing right by them) would notice, and then poorly fakes looking at tricorder readings when said empath picks on his emotions. Surely that will fool her psychic powers! (It doesn't.) Kirk, often a master of performance and theatricality, has to be physically held back from trying to singlehandedly maul a Klingon while in disguise and surrounded by an occupying Klingon force because one guy slightly shoved Spock.

They're a brilliant and wildly successful command team together and they are also so incredibly stupid about each other, it's beautiful

[atomiccollectionanchorme]

Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3 Episode 1 "Spock's Brain"

Star Trek: The Original Series // S03E01: Spock's Brain

[theflikchic]

The real reason Riley isn't in every episode is because they knew Chekov's Gen Z energy and Riley's Gen A energy would be too powerful combined for both us and the Enterprise.

[kyanitedragon]

Captain James T. Kirk is alloaro

Evidence:

It's said 3 times in season 1 alone that the Enterprise is his lover, and that he would prioritize it over any woman

The only "romances" he has are (1) past lovers of his returning for an episode, or (2) flirting with the woman of the week in order to save his crew — femme fatale style

His uniform is gold, and his secondary wraparound outfit is green — the alloaro flag colors

[aqua-cultured]

the Reunion Job wouldn't have gotten busted if ford had just been like "yeah he transitioned like 7 years ago man you didn't hear? kinda a dick move to misgender him like that"

but alas it was 2008 😞

[boneskullravenriver]

I'm sorry but McCoy immediately going "that's not Spock!" Then a second later "that's Spock!" While he was being possessed by the alien ambassador had me dying of laughter. The delivery was comedy gold😂

[basimdasasonst]

tos spock: logic may be a philosophical path that i have dedicated much of my life to the path of -- as far as considering and almost completing kolinahr -- but it does not make me all that i am. i am a person outside of my physicalities, with wants, needs, and other such things that i can allow myself through the cracks of my teachings

snw spock: did u know im a vulcan. only half tho ... raagaghaahhah ... (meek noises of protest against his humanity)

no. but seriously. on that ... thing of an snw s3 recap: others have divested much more time and energy into talking about vulcan philosophy vs biology (and there's a plethora of very good takes about it if you do only the most minor of searching) so i won't harp on the matter, but i want to step back and observe the writing and characterisation beyond the colossal fuck up that is -- well, their disintegration of vulcan culture/complexities.

[i'll -- try to keep this brief but no promises. i did spend 2000 words ranting about how badly they did spock so, brevity thy name is not basimdasas]

let me just. let's just pretend we can get over the fact they mixed biology with philosophy. let's just let that slide for a second. why -- and i cannot stress this enough -- the fuck do (pike, uhura, la'an, chapel -- i'll call them fake vulcans for my own sake) the fake vulcans talk the fucking same ... ? moreover -- why are they the same person -- logical. Purely Wholey Logical (trademark). if you transcribed the text of the 5 minute episode we were given and took out the dialogue tags -- they're. they're all the same person. you cannot tell who's talking, maybe through context clues. Guys. (shakes the writers really hard, enough to give an adult shaken baby syndrome) VULCANS HAVE PERSONALITIES TOO. i've felt a small undercurrent of this in the previous seasons but it feels directly amplified to me now -- spock's "humanity" is -- is his personality. They're making his personality his humanity. dude.

let me put it this way: you put two nihilists in a room. they've grown up in different ways, in different places, and were introduced to nihilism by their parents who also believed and practised in the philosophy. you let them talk. they're going to disagree, they might even get angry at the other. they'll agree. if there is something inherently correct that they can both acknowledge, they will have different viewpoints of tackling the concept -- based not just on the objective teachings, but the environment they grew up in, their communities, their parents, and their own personal traits. now let's take them out of the box. you compare the two at a distance: one likes grape smoothies, the other likes peach. one is a morning person, one is not. one is a competitive swimmer. one works in an office. they both find relative comfort from their jobs, even if in different ways. they are both nihilists. yet, inextricably, they are different in many ways.

ONLY VULCANS WHO HAVE UNDERGONE KOLINAHR WOULD LACK EMOTIONS. VULCANS STILL HAVE EMOTIONS THEY JUST TAMP THEM DOWN.

ok. calm. i'm drawing a tad on my experience as a trans man with gender here, but there are some things about us that are fundamental to our being that we are inherently drawn to for various reasons, i believe. i mean, that's what personality is, in a severe nutshell. that's why we have assholes who continue to be assholes (garner pleasure from it, usually). people who continue to let themselves get stepped over (never learned to stand up for themselves, environmental factor, or is afraid, or what have you). people who learn from their mistakes (ambition, or an intense desire for personal growth. where does this desire come from? changes per person. it's never the same). people who don't. kind people. mean people. we can change our personalities (with work!), but they are as much a product of emotion as they are environment, personal wants, personal needs, etc. everyone is built different (lol, but literally) -- and there really are truly some things we cannot just -- purge completely, by a point. dilute, but never fully erase. example: i know in my heart that i am not a woman. i gravitate towards anger. i have never been good at history, no matter the angle i tackle it from. there will never be a day where i read the fine print of a legal document. i could become good at history, i am fixing my anger, but i will always naturally gravitate right where i want to be, and right where i need to be. i will always understand numbers better than words, because that's -- just how my brain works, and i'm alright enough with it to not feel the need to put in effort to change my state. shift my balance. my memory might always be a little wonky. this is all ok. fuck, it might not be logical that i'm so utterly useless at history, and sure i can work to change it, but i will always find myself more comfortable and more at ease in physics with the same amount of work. the logical thing from there is to just accept my weaknesses and move with my strengths. see where i'm going with this? and sure, i can definitely change most of my personality, but it's hard. sometimes that effort is good sometimes it's not. we have natural tendencies. we have different wants, different needs. and by the universe do we not all share the same body -- we will amble around in our flesh suits differently. my gait will be different than yours; it is no less of a walk.

[tl;dr -- based on how we are raised, and the effort we put in then, and now, to define our natures, i believe we have things we (as people) naturally gravitate towards. they can be changed, but its hard.]

((edit: i don't want to come across as saying we are locked into a person lol. we arent. we as people change often. where we gravitate will change over time -- that's good. never think you can't change, because you can. anyway, i've rambled on my point enough))

anyway. tangent aside. short story -- we gravitate to things. that's natural. that's logical. diversity of a species is logical -- especially for society.

now, vulcans, in my heart of hearts, are definitely more subtle about these things because, you know, surak, but. if every vulcan was the same and had the same inherent -- wants, needs, interests, subdued emotions, way of headbutting logic -- then you have a society of mirrors. snw is trying to make vulcan society a society of mirrors.

pike is caring. la'an is quiet, strict, efficent. uhura, also, is caring but in a different way to pike. chapel is enthusiastic. by embracing suraks teachings and (magically, mysteriously) acting in accordance to them fully, they are effectively tamping down their greater feelings. not completely ridding of them. despite the fact that vulcan!pike would logically find no sense in compassion, he would also find no sense in cruelty. he is, to his heart, a compassionate person because he has made himself one. one philosophical revelation wouldn't remove decades of that. sure, he might tamp it down, but he'd still be more compassionate than anything else. he would not be cruel for logic's sake -- even if, yes, there's only "4.5 vulcans", logically -- he wouldn't say that. he wouldn't fucking say that because he is kind hearted and though it's true, it would feel "illogical to point out" -- he is good with people. has been for the duration of the show, and probably a good majority before that. he'd understand the emotions of others regardless, he's very perceptive. he'd see spock flinch at "a half". he'd roundabout it in that way that tos spock loved to do -- talk in half truths. "5 people to beam down" is not wrong. it is imprecise but not wrong. (bones voice) goddammit, they're not all the same damn stereotypical rude vulcan asshole. i haven't read surak's teachings but i severely doubt he said, at any point: "harp on an unnecessary fact to be a total douchebag as often as vulcanely possible".

this goes for everyone too -- la'an is more the silent efficent type. why would she feel the need to say ... much of anything to the effect? spock knows he's half vulcan. everyone does. what the fuck does it bring to the table to reiterate it? nothing.

you're doing the jj abrams special: creating conflict where they should be none, and ignoring a greater place to create conflict. seriously, even if i do believe the whole thing about genetics that chapel does (WHICH! BY THE WAY! THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IT'S BEEN MENTIONED/PLOT RELEVANT SINCE 1X01!) why is spock not, instead, helping them regulate their emotions? why are they not like pre-reform vulcans? why not use this to help us stir a bit in spock's head instead of using an out that isn't "making spock the butt of the joke". why can't he show vulcan!kindness as he's so often showing in tos. mf let me into that writers room i just want to talk i ju-

also, the dialogue was super cringy. sorry, it was. i say this as a writer who has written super cringy dialogue before and occasionally does so now. it was cringy. i've written better at the age of 12 in the margins of my maths notebook while bored out of my mind. some of these lines made me tense up. misplaced, or corny, or so severely out of character that it gave me a genuine headache by minute 2 of 5, or what have you: it was so so so bad.

i -- selfishly, almost -- hope that it's not too late to go back and fix it, but since filming has long wrapped up -- well. it's probably a moot point, but i'm deeply annoyed. again, i really want to like snw, but everything "spock" (and, by extension, vulcan) has been butchered so badly that watching the show is rather like reading a fic you really like with one tag that just ruins the whole thing. like you'll stick it out, but begrudgingly, and not with a lot of joy in your heart because of -- i don't know, some weirdly prevalent "daddy kink".

tl;dr -- we are not just a product of the objective teachings of our beliefs, and vulcans are not only reflections of surak's teachings.

snw writers: please kick jj abrams out of your writing room. he's not doing you any favours

[hvezdnastreka]

Spectre of the gun isn't a bad episode imo, and I think it's filmed in a really interesting and beautiful way, but I can't help and be disappointed by the outcome.

The episode starts out with The Enterprise following a civilization, that warns them, that they want to be left alone. After not listening, the crew gets transported to an 1811 Western town, where they replace a group of men meant to die in a shootout, that day. Spock remarks, that the reason this location was chosen for their punishment, is because the civilization saw Kirk's violent heritage and found it a fitting punishment.

The brothers that are meant to kill them keep telling them, that if they don't leave by 5pm, they're going to shoot them. 5pm as a deadline is brought up constantly and it takes a good chunk of the episode for them to even attempt to leave the town (but they can't, because force fields lol). They choose not to kill, a mind meld happens, everyone lives and after seeing their peaceful ways, the civilization happily invites them to their planet.

I think that instead of the classic "look how peaceful we are!" TOS episode, that they've done so many times, it'd be more interesting to explore the idea that the civilization has a right to not involve themselves with the federation. It's actually where I thought it was going! They even call humans a disease, that will doom them (paraphrasing here). I thought the big revelation would be, that to escape the punishment, they must leave the town. That if they demonstrated their ability not to enforce themselves, where they don't belong, the civilization would either be thankful to be left alone or say that they're willing to talk now. Or maybe it would turn out that they'll literally die, if they're around humans and that's why they insist on solitude.

Again, I like the episode, but I think it'd be an interesting take. The federation wasn't really fleshed out in TOS, so they still resemble a navy more, than the peaceful curious scientists (with guns (for self defense)) they end up becoming.

To end on a positive note, the shot before Chekhov is shot (shot² haha), where the brother walk into the frame in the background like a bad omen is so amazing, I rewatched it over and over again. I think I liked it even more than the shootout scene and that was great as well.

[atomiccollectionanchorme]

Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3 Episode 3 "The Paradise Syndrome"

3x03 The Paradise Syndrome