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Mudd: *Shows off his legion of robot fair ladies, all beautiful and designed with the purpose of satisfying human needs and wants. Like, ALL of them. Mudd is into sex.*

Captain James T. Kirk: Is there any male androids?

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I'm convinced that given half a chance Uhura could talk her way out of as many situations as Kirk does. She's got that It factor of charisma, she's wildly articulate, she's literally a communication professional. Also every time she speaks five words together I am mesmerized and forget about everything else that is occurring.

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I, Mudd

Not the character I personally would have picked for a return, but I was quite pleasantly surprised by the episode.

Have I mentioned I adore Bones' little bounce? Because I adore Bones' little bounce.

Yeah I know every writer may not have the interesting vs fascinating dichotomy (where fascinating = interesting + surprising) from Gothos in mind every time they put those words in Spock's mouth, but I read it in every time. And so I really really enjoyed when Kirk says “Mr. Spock we seem to be taking an unscheduled ride” and Spock answers “Interesting" and walks away without a single follow-up question. Like yeah a hijacking is something to figure out and deal with, but it's hardly a surprise with the kinda shit they have going on.

The 'control and ease vs freedom and struggle' dichotomy is getting a bit old, and I didn't think this ep added anything particularly new to the discussion, but I was pleased that for once it wasn't the grand civilization of the enterprise delivering enlightenment to a 'primitive'/tribal culture.

Kirk is such a little shit this whole episode, it's great.

I'm always excited when Uhura is on an away mission—even if they don't give her enough to do, Nichelle Nichols' reactions are always a delight to watch—but also scared because I don't trust them with her. That being said on the scale of tos I think she is the best written woman, and so far has less bad plots (such as they are) than just about any others?

In this case, most of the men being bribed with matters related to their knowledge/expertise/interest while Uhura's bribe is eternal beauty is *sighhhhhh* (I'm down with the eternal life part though, we should get Uhura eternal life), but she also gets a key role in the subterfuge and shenanigans.

(side note: Uhura is often close with Spock in fics, which I adore, but in addition I saw someone recently say Uhura and Kirk had one of their favourite friendships in the series. I've been paying more attention, and I get it! Only a little of it is written into the script, but there are a lot of moments of warmth between them regardless.)

Mudd is so tall and the whole crew looks tiny next to him. I find this disproportionately entertaining.

Aaand Kirk talks a computer to destruction part 3.—oh. I was mistaken. The crew dances the computer to destruction via postmodern theatre??? Hell yeah.

I don't have a lot to say about the postmodern theatre portion, but I loved it so much. A highlight of the whole series so far tbh.

Also love that Spock participates, but gets to do it in a way that is so very himself.

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The Deadly Years

I enjoy that the moral of the story is 'be more scared.' I thought it was slightly odd how intensely Chekov reacted to seeing the dead body on account of what their job is like. Then I talked myself out of that because he's young and hasn't been here long and then the episode added 'yeah stop that it's the whole reason he isn't 60 going on dead'.

Oh they've brought a woman who is a professional scientist, maybe this time they'll let the highly skilled woman do the job she's highly skilled in :D Nope she's here to be Kirk's love interest.

At least she said some sciency things (even if they didn't really contribute to the solution) and got to play around with vials at the end?

Kirk fondly comparing Janet to Spock out loud while she's working up to saying she's still in love with him is a thing that occurred.

Other thoughts ummm why does McCoy get more southern every time he's subject to some mental alteration. At first I thought it was an accident but at this point it's just a character choice. I can't parse why but I'm not complaining.

Kirk is such a mean old man.

This is the second ep in a row of 'stop trying make Spock take over the captaincy he Does Not Want To.'

I love Nimoy's line read of "I resist that suggestion" when whatshisname tells him to set up the thingy to judge Kirk's competence to keep running the ship. Because you can see him grasping for a response that isn't 'i do not want to' and the moment he hits an appropriately detached turn of phrase.

Not that anything else about him was detached this episode, damn.

I love how put out Uhura looked during Kirk's trial.

Kirk, Bones and Spock in a room and only one gets to make the big potential self-sacrifice Who Will Win (the answer is Kirk this time but that was partially circumstantial, who knows about next round).

Kirk was SO mean to Spock (who imo already had the worst deal of everyone who was affected) and I fully intended to ignore the extenuating circumstances and hold it against him for a hot minute. Then I remembered last ep was the mirrorverse and how Kirk's special curse is a regular diet of plots going 'what if you were forced to face your darkest possible self and then it was over and you just have to live with knowing that's inside you forever' and this ep is really another iteration of that and then I got sad for him.

So I decided I'd forgive him if he gave Spock a top-tier off-screen apology, which reminded me that he's quite good at apologies and I actually do trust him to have done that. So ugh fine, I'm still glaring at him but my heart's not really in it anymore.

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remember when spock was like ur honor i trust my boyfriends judgement in the same way i trust that gravity makes things fall. yes the boyfriend whos ptsd made a decision for him 2 episodes ago w dire consequences yeah that one u have to believe me vulcans dont lie ok

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Just picked up the Autobiography of Spock again and he claims that he got the idea to go through kolinahr because he stared really hard at a tree and started pondering the nature of existence??!?? Like, Spock. Spocko. I do not buy that in the slightest, I don't care if Vulcans never lie. You stared at a TREE?? And decided that instant you wanted to go purge yourself of all emotions as a result?? I'm going insane here.

A TREE

The only way I believe that is if the tree had his and Jim's initials carved into it or something.

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Something about how Jim became so accustomed to Starfleet parlance that it’s the only parlance he can speak at all. Something about how his relationship with his ship and his work as Captain extends to language as well, to the way he handles and expresses his emotions.

Amok Time – Kirk is confronted with the fact Spock keeps a dangerous secret that, if not shared, might end up with his first officer killed

The Apple – With the landing party marooned on a strange planet and the USS Enterprise being pulled ever closer to the ground, Kirk asks Scotty something beyond excellence.

The Doomsday Machine – Commodore Matt Decker stands in the maw of a monster with a dead crew and stripped of any will to live. Kirk tries to bring his old friend to reason, but nothing else can be done for Decker as he looks death in the eye.

I understand how, especially in the third instance with Matt Decker, he might've seemed cold (your buddy is about to off himself, and you remind him the higher-ups spent too much money on his formation), but I see it more as Kirk trying to ground both himself and his friend (who is also a Commodore, might I remind you) than simply reducing Decker to his position.

It also accidentally reveals a lot about Jim (although reveal is not the best word, as that same thought has been explored in numerous episodes before), how much his sense of worth is tied to his job—to how well he can perform and excel at it.

But that's not all he's saying. In both instances (Amok Time and Doomsday Machine), Kirk puts himself in the Federation's place because he sees its recognition as more valuable, more "worth living for" than his own.

It's his way, the way of a man who knows no life other than that of servitude, of saying I care about you, and I don't want to lose you.

It's really tragic that it is not enough to save Decker. If both Matt and Jim share the belief (which appears more often than not in Starfleet overachievers) that your inner worth is tied to how well you can perform it, Matt is left face to face with the rather morbid fact that he failed severely and his whole crew is dead because of it.

To sin is human, yes, but if the Doomsday Machine is the Devil, as the Commodore himself put it, it truly is a shame Decker did not view himself as deserving of forgiveness

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So it's just. Phileas Fogg is having some bad moments, but in the big picture he's being gently buffeted through trials that boost his ego where it needs boosting and tears it down where it needs tearing the fuck down and I'm pretty sure he's having the time of his life.

Abigail is having much worse moments but she's also living out her feminist power-hour.

Passepartout. Meanwhile. Within the first few days of this funtimes trip watched his brother be shot to death and had to kill someone. Deeply traumatized man is gathering more trauma at breakneck speed. And for his pains gets told he's a weak coward every time someone bothers to notice he has much in the way of interiority at all

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David Tennant and Ibrahim Koma - Around the World in 80 Days Photoshoot (as Phileas Fogg and Jean Passpartout)

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𝙸𝚋𝚛𝚊𝚑𝚒𝚖 𝙺𝚘𝚖𝚊 𝚊𝚜 𝙹𝚎𝚊𝚗 𝙿𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚘𝚞𝚝

𝙰𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝟾𝟶 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 ✶ 𝟷𝚡𝟶𝟹

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Basically Sherlock Holmes during and post So4

He is lost without his boswell

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crime frankenstein, without a doubt. next question

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which could mean nothing.

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Sherlock: Unbelievable. Here I am, the perfect wifeguy, and yet you haven’t even tried to propose to me >:(

Watson: wot

Sherlock: wot