#my favorite part of the episode that is not the actual story is when Spock’s bag keeps disappearing from the animation

[tableofshrooms]

I know that the animated series had like five bucks and a pack of gum as their budget but I wish they made the outfits in Yesteryear more slay, so I took matters into my own hand.

[electronickingdomfox]

"The New Voyages 2" review

Another collection of short stories submitted by fans, similar to the first volume (which I reviewed here). This one was published in 1978, and was also edited by Marshak and Culbreath. More uneven than the first volume, but there are still some solid tales in here. It would have been better if Marshak and Culbreath had chosen other stories (ANY stories) to replace the ones written by themselves. But I guess that's the privilege of being the editors...

Some spoilers under the cut:

Surprise! (by Nichelle Nichols, Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath). Nichelle is credited as one of the authors, though judging by the info in the introduction, as well as the unmistakable style, I'd guess that most of it was written by the dreaded couple, while Nichols just provided the general idea and the ending. It's Kirk's birthday, and Uhura, together with the rest of the crew, try hard to keep the party a surprise, while Kirk gets more and more annoyed in the process. The story drags too much, since the plot doesn't really have all that meat to begin with. And everyone behaves weirdly out-of-character, supposedly because it's a comedic story. I found the whole thing more silly than funny, to be honest.

Snake Pit! (by Connie Faddis) is much better. Chapel and Kirk are abducted by an alien tribe who has recently turned hostile, and ceased commerce with a nearby scientific station. The tribe has also started to kill people in sadistic rituals involving snakes. Kirk is tortured in truly Kirk-style, and put naked inside a pit full of snakes, that bite him. He'll die if he isn't given an antidote soon. Then Chapel offers the natives a bet: if she can rescue Kirk from the pit without being bitten once, they'll have to release both of them. If she fails, well... you get the idea. So Chapel jumps also naked into the pit, armed just with a knife, and battles the snakes in glorious cavewoman fashion. There's action and tension, and the opportunity to see Chapel's most badass side.

The Patient Parasites (by Russell Bates). This author wrote the TAS episode "How Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth", and this story is actually the script for another TAS episode, which got rejected. Thus, it's presented in TV script form, not as a narrative. Some crewmembers are captured by a strange machine, whose mission is to retrieve knowledge from any species out there, and bring it to its masters. Kirk and co. must find a way to weaken the machine's force field and rescue the crew, before their allotted time expires. It ends with Kirk making the machine self-destruct through the power of logic. Pretty "meh!" and generic argument. It's no surprise it was rejected as an episode, given the static scenery and lack of action.

In the Maze (by Jennifer Guttridge) turned out to be my favorite story. This is the same author of the also great "The Winged Dreamers", in the first collection. Kirk, Spock and McCoy are investigating a strange cube building, which doesn't fit that planet's culture, when Kirk disappears through a portal. Spock and McCoy follow him, but end up in a total different place of the maze. Kirk is being held in a cage by a disgusting alien, with whom he's unable to communicate, while Spock and McCoy must brave the maze and several dangers to rescue him. All part of an intelligence test by the alien. Spock and McCoy suffer a lot (specially McCoy) and embrace a lot. And they even have to fight a tentacle monster, similar to that one in the lake before Moria (from "Lord of the Rings"). It's dark, it bears a resemblance to "The Empath", and it would have made for a great episode of the series.

Cave-In (by Jane Peyton) is a strange "free texture" poem, so it's up to interpretation, and it's not entirely clear what's going on. The dialogue seems to happen between Spock and McCoy while they're trapped inside a cave, and McCoy is prodding the Vulcan about his mixed heritage. Not much to comment. I don't get this stuff.

Marginal Existence (also by Connie Faddis) has the crew investigating an eerie planet, where all the inhabitants have been placed in "sleeper chambers" and pumped up with drugs. Most of them have been dead for centuries, anyway. It all turns very sinister once automated robots, which respond to the sound of voices, start putting crewmembers inside the chambers, and piercing them with needles and tubes filled with drugs, which causes them great pain. As it's discovered later, this hedonistic society chose to live permanently under the effect of drugs, but it all backfired once the pleasure turned into pain. Poor McCoy also suffers a lot in this one, this time from too painful pleasure. Yeah. It's an interesting, a bit macabre story.

The Procrustean Petard (by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath). This one gave me actual brain damage. The awkward prose is mostly gone, at least, and replaced with supposedly witty banter (it isn't), and repetitions of the same bad pun that gives the story its title. It also takes a similar plot as "Turnabout Intruder", but turning the misogyny up to eleven. Let me explain. In the TOS episode, Lester can't be a starship captain because a law (described as "unfair") doesn't allow women to be captains. However, Lester doesn't become any better once she gets Kirk's body. She's just as deranged and tyrannical as before, no matter that she has now Kirk's muscles and hormones; that doesn't make her a better leader. And similarly, Kirk doesn't become a hysterical crybaby simply because he's now in a female body. In the end, what counts is the attitude, what is inside, and not the body in particular. This is completely subverted in this story. The Enterprise approaches a planet, which has the stupid quality of luring spaceships just to reverse the sex of everyone on-board, whether they want it or not (the point being what??). As soon as Kirk is turned into a female (not just any female; he's the same James Kirk, just with one chromosome changed), he becomes the most useless being in the universe. Nobody believes him capable of being a leader anymore, and the story proves this point time and time again. He faints in the bridge just because the ship is shaking a bit. He can't go alone anywhere. He distracts all men because he's too beautiful now. Starfleet wants to take away his command and give him a desk job. He can't even drive a shuttlecraft anymore because "oh! the controls are too big". This is a world where aliens of all shapes and sizes are accepted, but it seems that human females are still the most pathetic things in existence... Is Spock also turned into a woman? Hell no. The authors are Spock supremacists, so they spare him that indignity. Instead, the planet gives Spock an extra Y chromosome (because it does that to the strongest male on-board, of course) and this turns Spock into a super-macho, and an insufferable asshole. At once, he stops calling Kirk "Captain", since he's no longer worthy of the rank. Needless to say, everyone reverts back to their usual selves at the end, save Spock. Because super-macho Spock = good. There's also an appearance of the Klingon Kang (from "Day of the Dove"), which has lost his whole crew because they're all now useless women. No matter that in the series, Kang was married to a very capable female Science Officer... Sigh. The only one who remains more or less the same is McCoy, who doesn't see so much difference, save the purely biological, in being a woman. But I think I know what's the logic behind this. As McCoy is the most emotional of the triumvirate, the authors probably saw him as "less of a man" to begin with. Or, in their own rhetoric, as a "beta male".

The Sleeping God (by Jesco von Puttkamer). This author is an interesting case, since he's a NASA scientist, who later would help with technical details for TMP. (He's also, by his own admittance, one of the victims of Shatner's "habit of kissing men on the mouth"). This story is a bit longer than the others, and separated by chapters. A massive super-computer intelligence, called the Nagha, has conquered her own universe after millions of years, destroying every living being in her strive to become the only, supreme intelligence that exists. She's a malevolent counterpart to V'ger, even referenced as a "child" too. Which is curious since TMP wouldn't be released until 1979. Unless it's purely coincidental, it could be that Jesco knew something about the movie script beforehand, and took inspiration from it. Or it was Roddenberry who was inspired by this story instead. Anyway, the Nagha has found out how to invade the normal universe too, and is destroying planets. So Starfleet decides to wake up their ultimate weapon: a mutant with extraordinary mental powers, put in a sleeping chamber years ago. Of course, it's the Enterprise's task to carry the sleeping god and confront the Nagha. But it soon becomes apparent that the mental powers of the mutant are interfering with the crew. The plot isn't terribly original, but it's well-written and keeps the interest. A bit heavy on the technical details (as expected, given the author's background), but not to the point of being boring. McCoy keeps bitching about all the bullshit that's going on, which is fun.

After this come two short poems (Elegy for Charlie, by Antonia Vallario, and Soliloquy by Marguerite B. Thompson). I can't comment much on them, since poetry isn't my thing, sorry.

Spirk Meter: 9/10*. Not evenly distributed, but very much there.

Surprise! has Spock offering to tuck Kirk in bed, and after Kirk accepts, he becomes flustered. Spock also carries him in his arms for a minor injury (though there's a reason for it, since he's preventing him to enter the room with the surprise party). Both of them also share a chess room between their two bathrooms, and it's obvious they're going into there after taking a shower or such.

The Sleeping God has Kirk finding a naked Spock tied to a lab table, immediately running to him, and then being stripped himself and put on another table next to him. Spock keeps calling him "Jim" all the time, even when discussing mission details. Before the whole complex self-destructs, Kirk's last thoughts are for Spock to be safe.

And Soliloquy, a first-person poem about Spock, ends with the bold words: "I love you, Captain, written on my heart". Maybe I should give this book a higher score based in this line alone, but the poem is such a little thing in the scope of the book, that I don't know...

Spones also deserves an honorary mention. Cave-In has Spock and McCoy trapped in a cave and McCoy is really hot ("Hotter than you know"). Presumably because of the stuffy air inside the cave, but this is during an intense banter between both and... well, you get the idea. In the Maze has lots of love between the two, as they're both badly injured and keep comforting and healing each other. So yeah, it's like one of those episodes.

And Kirk is a bit touchy-feely with McCoy in The Patient Parasites.

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[the-derpy-duck]

For the world is hollow and I have touched the sky makes me think a lot of thoughts.

Yippeeeeeee!!! McCoy is my favorite Star Trek character. He might be one of my favorite characters in general. I like that he is empathetic but not exactly ‘nice’. He doesn’t express empathy in the way that is generally expected, but he obviously has empathy in a way that Kirk and Spock do not. His actions are driven by his emotions, him and Spock come into conflict because of this. The main two three characters make up a large portion of the show and it’s one of the easiest things to see in any given episode because both Spock and McCoy are extremely stubborn and believe themselves to be in the right. To Spock, McCoy acts irrationally, to McCoy Spock is sociopathic in everything he does. Despite coming from a planet filled with people who have minor telepathic abilities Spock has a difficult time understanding the feelings of those around him, and McCoy can’t fully understand Spock or his emotions despite being so empathetic. He knows that Spock feels emotions and he calls him out a lot because he wants to be right, Spock disputes him with logic every time because (logically) he also wants to be right. Long way of saying, they are fighting and the reason why they are fighting is fairly ironic.

I’ve been watching a lot of Star Trek. I’ve watched more of a show from the 60s then I ever wanted to. A lot of the episodes are really good. A lot of them are really bad. All of them are from a show that was made in the 60s. I think that the best and worsts parts of shows often stem from when they are made, as attitudes change with time so do the ways actions and ideas are presented in media. As we develop better technology we are able to do more. TOS Star Trek has a lot of charm and it is fun, it also is unapologetically and unforgivably from the 60s and I love it for being that. I think the show has told many good stories and I think ‘For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky’ is one of them. That’s a really long title holy shit.

The episode is centered around McCoy. He is the main character for arguably the fist time and he is dying. The episode opens with him telling Kirk that he is going to die (after a small fight with Nurse Chapel) and asking him not to tell anyone. Kirk agrees but is clearly upset because his friend and CMO is dying and he has one year to live. The enterprise runs into an asteroid that is going to collide with another planet in 390 days. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam aboard the asteroid which is actually a spaceship. Nurse Chapel says ‘a lot can happen in a year’ to McCoy. He is probably leaving Star fleet due to whole death thing and this is probably the last time he will ever go on a mission for the Enterprise. Kirk wants him to stay on the ship because it is a lot safer for him there, McCoy refuses and insists on going. Spock has probably clocked onto the fact that they are both acting weird. They are confronted by the people who inhabit the spaceship and are overpowered. McCoy is knocked unconscious for a very short period of time and Kirk explains that they come in friendship. He also helps McCoy stand up again. The priestess, Natira, takes them to see the oracle which is their leader. It is also explicitly stated that they think that the spaceship is an actual planet. The oracle shocks all three and they are all knocked out. The group is then taken to their own little space. Kirk and Spock wake up but McCoy is still unconscious. Spock comments that he must have been hit with a stronger shock. Kirk explains to him that McCoy is dying. When McCoy wakes up Spock puts his hand on his shoulder for an extended period of time. This is his way of showing support and that he is upset about the fact that McCoy is dying. It looks like he squeezing his shoulder, McCoy moves and he keeps holding on. He doesn’t say anything and I think this could be representative of Spock’s need for his friend, although they may bicker a lot they are friends and Spock’s life would be a lot more empty without McCoy in it. He isn’t ready to let go of him yet. Kirk tells McCoy that Spock knows and they move on. A man enters and he explains that he knows that the world is a spaceship because he climbed a mountain (which is forbidden) and touched the sky. He says this as he is out through an extreme of pain before he dies. A devise is in his head and it glows red when it is hurting him. Natira enters with some other women and she gives them food. Kirk notices that she likes McCoy and it seems to be reciprocated. Kirk comes up with the idea for McCoy to talk to her and stay with her while Kirk and Spock find out what’s going on with the oracle. Things go very badly and Natira wants to kill them but doesn’t because McCoy doesn’t want them dead. An interesting thing to note is that when McCoy was talking to Natira he says that he was never happy. He also wants to stay on this planet and I don’t think it’s entirely for Natira. He likes her a lot but I think another factor is the fact that he doesn’t want his friends to have to watch him slowly wither away and die. He wants them to suffer as little as possible and staying on this spacecraft living with someone he loved would be a way for them to think that he spent his last moments in peace. It would line up with the way he’s been characterized up to this point. Eventually the gang figures out that this is a ship from a galaxy long sense destroyed and it has been floating for around 10,000 years. This detail is important. McCoy becomes apart of the society and the obedience thing (what killed the old man from earlier) is put in his head. McCoy figured out how to access a book that Spock can read to fix everything. He contacts the Enterprise but almost dies in the process. Spock removes the obedience chip and he fixes stuff. They also find a large database of medical information so McCoy isn’t gonna die anymore.

That was a lot and a very bad summary, I highly suggest watching the episode as it is very good. I think the ship is a metaphor for how religion is used to manipulate and hurt people. Hear me out. So Natira is a priestess and whenever Kirk and Spock go see the oracle on their own it is called sacrilege, which is when there is a violation of what is considered sacred. The man walking up the mountain despite it being forbidden could be an illusion to a few different biblical stories but none would line up exactly. The book is the largest thing for me though. This could be interpreted as just humanity in general with facts and science and studies and whatever, but my own experiences make me lean more into religion. The people are not allowed to read the book. They have also been floating around for 10,000 years which I think is about how long our recorded history is. I could be wrong though. The people blindly follow the oracle and it will use its power to make sure that they stay in line. This is demonstrated with the old man, McCoy, and even Natira.

Widespread literacy was not always a thing and this was especially true during the Middle Ages in Europe. Art was so important because it was how the people could learn and know about their faith, but the upper class (which did include preachers) were able to read. The general population was unable to check to see if what they were being taught was accurate to the original text which created a power imbalance and an exploitable population. During the time a bit before the French Revolution (not the Middle Ages or when widespread illiteracy was a thing) the clergy used money from the peasants for their own gain.Religious groups have also used their power to silence people. Galileo was put under house arrest because the church believed in the geocentric model whereas he presented evidence for a heliocentric model. Despite this Galileo was still Catholic and believed in the Christian faith when he died. The old man who we see in the episode could very easily be a Galileo stand in. He climbed a mountain, a forbidden thing to do, in pursuit of scientific discovery relating to space. He spent a large portion of his life being unable to share this information but was willing to die to get it out. Natira is upset by his death but doesn’t seem to recognize it as a failing of the oracle but of his outspokenness and his need to spread his word. I’m not very knowledgeable about Galileo’s history but my astronomy teacher said that he believed that Galileo wasn’t put to death in large part because he was Christian and because the people who wanted him dead knew that he was right, but he was too loud about it. Old man is Galileo. Mistranslations and misinterpretations of the Bible specifically are widespread today and it causes a lot of people to be shunned and othered in certain communities. As a queer person who is also Catholic I have experienced this firsthand. I also live in a generally conservative area although it is very close to a city. Although my parents aren’t actively homophobia and I am very lucky that they were mostly chill they still have issues regarding the lgbtq community. I don’t think that this episode is specifically about gay issues but it is about control. McCoy no longer has control over how long he will live. Spock cannot control the fact that his friend is dying. Kirk can’t control McCoy. Nurse Chapel encourages McCoy to take control over the little time he has left and to live a good life. The oracle works to keep control over the people. I don’t fully think that the motivations of the oracle matter that much, because it’s not about the oracle it’s about what the oracle does and how it affects these people’s lives and how it reflects onto us. The oracle works to maintain control, because if the people read the book then they would be able to understand that they are not where they need to be. And the oracle would be corrected, as it is done in the episode. More connections to religion can be very easily spotted in the episode, the people kneel when they are in the presence of the oracle, they are promised a paradise that will eventually come and they are never given a date for this paradise (note that when the asteroid arrives at its destination it will crash into a planet and both the people on the asteroid and planet will die, creating a small Armageddon), the ‘creators’ gave the people a book of teachings that is hidden in a rock, and even the star that’s on the oracle has a bit of religious imagery. When Jesus and two of the apostles went up the mountain and Jesus either showed them god or turned into a heavenly form it was stated that his face shinning like the sun. The three wise men also follow a star (I think it was the brightest star) to find Jesus, and in old Catholic art (and modern catholic art but it’s a lot more toned down) people who were important characters were depicted as having a yellow halo/ring around their head.

Also this is the biggest stretch but I think the cure to McCoy’s illness being found in the data logs could be a reference to Jesus healing people, preforming miracles, and bringing people back from the dead. Look. It’s an explanation, that doesn’t mean it’s a good one.

A major part of this episode is McCoy facing the fact that he will die. Religion helps a lot of people feel calm about death and the potential of nothing. It brings people peace and that is not something anyone will ever have the right to take away from a person. McCoy joining this world could be like when people who are dying turn to religion. It can be inferred that McCoy is Christian through a few comments and context regarding where he is from. McCoy is from Georgia (or at the very least the American south but I think he’s specifically from Georgia) and that’s apart of the Bible Belt, aka lots of religious people live there. McCoy also makes a few references to the Bible, mainly in regards to the Garden of Eden. The spaceship (a religion) helps give him a sense of belonging, purpose, and community, as well as a sense of control that he lost earlier in the episode, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that this world will kill a lot of people. But the people on the asteroid, at this point in time, do not know or have the ability to change the fact that they are gonna crash into a planet. It was a malfunction and one that was actively hidden from them. It’s sort of comparable to Fahrenheit 451 in the sense that they never got to live in a world where they had a choice. This is how they were raised basically. Montag and co were never in control or their world, their parents and their parents’ parents were the ones who made the world the way it was, they were just raised in it. They didn’t choose to not read because it was never an option. They have only known propaganda and they were never taught media literacy. The same logic can be applied to the people of a Yonada, the decision was made for them centuries before any of the characters were born. They aren’t stupid, they just didn’t have a choice.

Another interesting thing to me is that McCoy doesn’t seem to be that good at lying to people about how he feels. We’ve seen Kirk flirt with women a lot of times but it is almost always because he is lying to them and trying to get something. McCoy doesn’t flirt, the one time that he does have a love plot he genuinely cared about the other person. Kirk doesn’t consider how his actions will affect people in the way that McCoy does. In the Omega Galaxy episode McCoy is very compassionate towards the captain of the other ship for the first third of the episode. Kirk is very compassionate, which is why he is (mostly) a good leader, but he isn’t exactly empathetic and definitely not in the way that McCoy is. Anyway, I do believe that McCoy genuinely cared about and loved Natira. Apart of why he wanted to stay was because he genuinely enjoyed her company, I think the other part has to do with not wanting his friends to see him die but that’s already been stated. McCoy has never come off as the type of person who would lie about emotions, he makes it clear when he is being sarcastic but I don’t think he has ever lied about his emotions to gain something. Although when Kirk and Spock lie it is mostly out of necessity so they can return to the Enterprise. Kirks main solution to every problem sometimes seems to be lie and flirt basically. But I think that’s mainly because I’ve been binging the show and watching like three or four episodes per day sometimes. McCoy isn’t very good at being manipulative or flirting but he is very good at disobeying orders.

The interpersonal relationships between McCoy and everyone else is developed quite a bit. He fights with Chapel at the start of the episode and they are implied to be very close friends. She genuinely wants him to spend the rest of his time doing things that would make him happy. Which makes sense, I would imagine that working closely with someone for such a long time would cause people to become very close. Spock is also affirmed to be McCoy’s friend multiple times, the whole logic vs emotion debate doesn’t really ever start because it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if something doesn’t make logical sense in this scenario because in a year McCoy will be dead. Spock cares a lot about both Kirk and McCoy, and despite how much they fight both of them do (begrudgingly) respect each other. When Spock asked McCoy to come with him and Kirk for the thing in ‘Amok Time’ he agreed without question or any snarky comments, he also did try to learn how to do the Vulcan hand salute. He said that it hurt but I think that was meant to be taken literally. I think most people need to train their hands to do the thing and I don’t think McCoy would actively go out of his way to insult Vulcan culture past the whole being obsessed with logic thing (not gonna get into the debate on if or not Vulcan is obsessed with logic or if a culture can be obsessed with something. Not what this is about.) the main issue that McCoy seems to take issue with is the way that Spock handles things. They are set up to fight but they are friends. The fact that McCoy wouldn’t have told Spock on his own is also interesting to me. I think a large part of that is because he is extremely prideful, but I also think that no matter how Spock were to react McCoy would be upset by it. If he had an emotional reaction (which he arguably did) then that would be bad because he is a Vulcan and that’s a big no no. But if he didn’t care then that would mean something else entirely and I don’t think that something is else is something that McCoy would want to confront in his life. He wants to die not knowing exactly how his friend would take this news because his friend is a repressed prick emotionally unavailable 99.99% of the time and is never emotionally available for McCoy. Kirk is also very badly affected by the news that McCoy is dying. He respects McCoys desire to not have anyone else be told. I think the way that he is portrayed in the episode is very well done, Kirk values the lives of all the crewmen on his ship but he is friends with McCoy. They are extremely casual with each other and I think that McCoy is the only person who constantly will go against Kirks’s orders in sound mind because he does not agree with them. In general I thought that the acting was well done in this episode, DeForest Kelly did an amazing job and I think he generally just plays the character of McCoy extremely well.

Outside of a religious reading, this episode has a lot of general commentary about dogmas and how misinformation spreads through generations. It’s fairly one to one for both a religious reading and a general secular reading, the asteroid spacecraft has been traveling for around 10,000 years which I think is roughly how long we’ve (humanity’s) recorded history. We’ve lost a lot of history due to the burning of books, purposely or accidental, and the longer we exist and the more history we record the harder it is to teach our history. Schools have to cut out parts of history because there isn’t enough time to teach everything (speaking in the us, I took ap history classes so it was very different for me I got to learn a lot more history but for on level classes I know it’s a bit different). We also just loose stories and we loose bits of history. Movies and books get lost because copies weren’t made, people cover up their own tracks to make sure they are safe and that makes looking back harder. There is that one Russian composer who was gay and his letters to his brother were censored for many years. Gay and trans people have existed for a long time and so has their works, but they get hidden and destroyed. A binary gender wasn’t fully the normal in native cultures to my knowledge and understanding but I’m also not an expert on that. We will never be able to learn everything but we can still learn a lot. But we have lost things to obscurity. People will continue to lie for their own gain and benefit, but sometimes we don’t realize that we are lying. When a fact becomes widely accepted it is what is true, which is part of what this episode is warning against. This also gives it another connection to F 451, in a very broad sense the societies are similar. They are both oppressive, the main population had no power in making the world, and the messages and themes are similar.

McCoy and Kirk are so similar yet so different that it makes me think they are almost character foils of each other. They both are compassionate and use emotions when making decisions, but McCoy actually understands and feels the emotions of those around him, he’s a bit more considerate than Kirk but he’s not as good with words or as tactful, he’s still blunt and he’s not necessarily nice about what’s happening. McCoy’s own emotions often blind him to all sides. Kirk doesn’t always consider how his actions will impact those around him, he lies to save himself and his crew numerous times but this ends up leaving a lot of people out of the loop when they really should have known what was happening or what the plan was. He’s a good leader and cares about others a lot, he is aware of the emotions others feel and he uses that to his advantage when he needs to. Which is something McCoy clearly struggles to do. Kirk didn’t expect McCoy to stay or to want to stay on the asteroid. I think he thought that McCoy and Natira were both physically attracted to each other and he probably didn’t think anything much would develop. He wanted McCoy to keep her distracted. But McCoy wasn’t able to do that because of the way he experiences the world around him and emotions. Kirk definitely feels sympathy and some empathy but, for the seventh time, not to the extent that McCoy does. McCoy would be an awful captain because he rarely considers logic in non medical situations. Even then, I don’t think he would actively consider the risks of providing medical aid to someone (who he is confident operating on), he just would. He is impulsive and can be a voice of reason when he isn’t the one who is in charge of the enterprise. He is a good doctor and is presumably good at leading the medical team. Kirk is sort of if you combined McCoy and Spock, which is why he is a good leader as only focusing on logic or emotion will lead to failure or at least a breakdown. Kirk very clearly wants McCoy to come back to the Enterprise, but he does let him stay. Kirk and McCoy both have a mutual respect for each other which is part of why he lets him stay. But Kirk (mostly) shows respect to those around him. Which is probably why people like him. McCoy is 100% willing to disobey Kirk if he is asking him to do something that goes against his moral compass. Also this is a small thing that doesn’t fully relate to anything but McCoy didn’t tell anyone that Miranda was blind because it was her choice on if or not she told the others. And I just think that’s neat and didn’t fully expect that from the show. Anyway McCoy is one of the few characters that will openly go against Kirk when he is of sound mind. He is definitely loyal to Kirk but it doesn’t make him blind to Kirk’s flaws and he’s usually one of the people who will point out when he is doing something wrong or out of character. Spock does it as well but I don’t think he’s as willing to go against Kirk. Like he will, but he won’t like it and he’s a lot less aggressive when compared to McCoy, who will tell Kirk that he’s being an idiot and that yes we need to go investigate the mental hospital you idiot.

I feel like the romance aspect of this episode was done pretty well, and I think I do have an explanation for the insta love thing. So McCoy is someone who is isolated, not the way that Spock is but he still is isolated. In TOS it is never confirmed that McCoy had a wife or kids. It’s also not outright denied but McCoy’s family isn’t mentioned to my knowledge. He is friends with Jim, Spock, and Chapel but he states in the episode that he is unhappy and the implication is also that he is lonely. I think that he was desperate for any sort of connection after getting his diagnosis, he clearly found a lot of joy and purpose in helping others but (from what I know) working in the medical field is stressful and death is an inevitable part of the job. McCoy isn’t unfamiliar with death, he’s the main person who confirms that people are dead in the show, but he was actively putting off confronting his own mortality and loneliness. I also think that it is possible that he just couldn’t connect with anyone else on the ship the way that he could connect with Natira. He obviously has friends, but it isn’t that difficult to take a queer or neurodivergent reading from the episode (if your a bit off like I am). Kirk and Spock are both fighting back when they meet Natira, but McCoy choses to surrender and that makes her take an interest in him. He cannot fight very well (it’s explicitly stated and shown in one episode) which makes him an easy target but it also shows a clear difference. Him initially surrendering could have been a sign that he was more friendly than Kirk or Spock, the latter of which insulted Natira when she welcomed them although the insult was not unwarranted or even that harsh. It wasn’t even really an insult actually. He was just sort of rude. Regardless, McCoy is different. He is physically weaker than the other two and he was the first to try and make peace. He also was the first to point out that they didn’t know that they were on a spaceship. Natira notices that McCoy was struggling and she wanted to stay with him. I do think they were both intended to be physically attracted to each other, but they don’t express it in the same way that Kirk or Spock would with their own love interests. McCoy asks about the Oracle and wants to know more. Even if he was just trying to get more information about what they are dealing with but it’s more fun to think that he did take genuine interest in her and her culture. McCoy also does say that he values truth and I don’t think he would lie in this situation. Like he wouldn’t have a lot to lose but I don’t think he would lie. McCoy saying that he valued truth makes me think that he was being genuine about his feeling for her. Natira seemed to also be lonely. McCoy said that he was lonely and Natira talked about how her heart was empty until she saw McCoy, saying that it sustained her but that it was empty. Her job likely isolated her in a way similar to McCoy. Her job is important and everyone knows who she is but she has so few connections to others. She could choose a partner but she doesn’t even consider it until McCoy shows up. This could be viewed as a metaphor about relationships, specifically queer ones. Neither character felt attraction to others before they met each other and that could speak to a gay awakening or dating and having crushes when you are asexual. It could represent finding a person who understands you and how your brain works when you’ve previously been surrounded by people who simply cannot understand how you. It’s definitely a stretch, but I do think it is a potential reading. I don’t think it was intended at all to be anything remotely like that, but the author is dead and I killed them.

Overall I really enjoyed the episode. Again, McCoy is my favorite character from Star Trek and I like that he got his own episode, even if he needed to be diagnosed with a terminal illness to get one… Regardless of everything I said I think it is a powerful story about having a terminal illness and being forced to face the fact that you/your loved one is dying. Kirk struggles to let go of McCoy and he very desperately wants to stay with him (he was actively fighting that one star fleet officer so he could stay near the Asturias for just a little longer) and it’s very understandable. I could write a whole other post about how much Kirk struggles to let go of loved ones but I think this one is long enough as it is. Actually fuck it. Kirk spends the entire episode attempting to grieve his friend who is still alive. He’s going to lose a person who is so very clearly important to him. I haven’t watched The Search For Spock yet but from reading the little blurb thing I do know that Kirk is not handling his friends death well. Even in The Wrath of Kahn (which I have watched) Kirk has a really hard time accepting the fact was gonna die. He was clearly shaken when he was giving the eulogy at Spock’s funeral. Which makes sense because he just lost a person who was very very very important to him. When McCoy is telling him about how one of the crewmen has the terminal illness he is not happy but when he is told that it is McCoy he is devastated. He continues to be upset after the fact and he starts to treat McCoy like he is made of glass afterwards. He openly objects to McCoy coming with him and Spock on the mission and is more protective of him than he would have normally been. He very briefly freaks out when McCoy doesn’t wake up when his name is called. It’s sort of a blink and you’ll miss it type thing but it is there. He’s not coddling McCoy or even that controlling over him, Kirk treats McCoy with respect and dignity. He recognizes that McCoy is still a person who has the right to make his own medical decisions. Kirk is upset and he doesn’t want to leave his friend but he cares for and respect him. He isn’t the type of person who would force his friend to do something he didn’t want to do, especially if said friend was dying. He spends the entire episode in shock and just morning his friend while he also needs to do his job. He isn’t ready to let go of McCoy, multiple people tell Kirk that he needs to let go, including McCoy although it was indirectly. If they actually had the balls to keep the terminal illness and have everyone deal with the consequences it would have been really interesting to see how Kirk would continue to grieve. Spock as well because I’ve noticed that he has this tendency to literally hold onto people. He does it to McCoy in this episode and in ‘The Empath’ and he does it to Kirk in ‘The Motion Picture’. You can definitely get some interesting analysis out of that, which I sort of talked about but not that in depth.

McCoy and Spock have a very complicated relationship and it gets explored in a few episodes which I really like. Most of those episodes also have Spock in command which I also like seeing because it does a good job at showing why both Spock and McCoy fail as captains (for extended periods of time at least). Spock often ends up being so logical and distant that he comes off as cold, uncaring, and apathetic. This is most obviously seen in ‘The Galileo Seven’ where everyone gets more and more upset with him as time goes on. But the relationship that Spock and McCoy have when Kirk isn’t around and they are under pressure becomes antagonist in a more genuine way. McCoy verbally rips Spock apart in the episode where the one ship disappears for a bit and everyone looses their minds. He was under an extreme amount of stress but it’s one of the few times where we actually see McCoy loose his shit with Spock. Despite the fact that they have opposing personalities and philosophies they are still friends, the fact that they both care about each other is very clear to the viewer. If or not the characters both understand this is a bit more unclear. They mutually are fiends and they both know that they care about the other, but I don’t know if McCoy thinks Spock cares about him. If he is so lonely, it would make sense to assume that he feels disconnected from the world around him and also makes sense to me to assume that he assumes (or knows) that the people around him do not feel as strongly as he does. He has three friends that we know of; Kirk, Spock, and Chapel. He’s also on a giant spaceship floating around in empty space. Being lonely and isolated makes sense but it makes more sense when you consider that one of his closest friends is emotionally unavailable, although you do know that he feels emotions. You’ve seen him show emotions, but never for you. You care deeply for him but he can’t feel the same way for you, even if he is your friend and he feel friendship for you he doesn’t feel the same amount of friendship and he doesn’t feel it as strongly. And I mean that it a completely platonic way. It sounded like I was describing an unrequited crush, which I guess you could see it as. I get why people ship Spones. Silly little guys. Anyway Spock’s general disconnection makes McCoy’s worse, even if it wasn’t intended. They don’t mean to hurt or isolate each other but they do. McCoy didn’t want to tell Spock he was dying because no reaction would have been a good one. I also think that he doesn’t want to know that his friend wouldn’t feel anything or care about McCoy’s death. He has a year left and he doesn’t want to spend that year dealing with the aftermath of him telling Spock. Sorry this repeated a lot of stuff I already said but I wanted to talk about McCoy and Spock’s relationship in a more complete way.

McCoy doesn’t want to let others know that he has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and he doesn’t want to tell Spock. It’s an upsetting position to be in and McCoy really can’t do anything about it. Apart from kind of the oracle there isn’t a real villain in the episode. There is a conflict but not a person who is actively being antagonistic. The conflict is generated by two inevitable outcomes, McCoy’s death and the asteroid colliding with the planet. They both are ultimately changed but for most of the episode death was the only real outcome that could happen. Anyway, thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

[kcscribbler]

Star Trek Asks, Yay!! (iffin' you feel so inclined)

8, 35, 49!

I do feel inclined, thank you!

Disclaimer: I'll freely admit my answers will be biased in favor of TOS/possibly AOS, with occasional TAS, TNG, VOY additions. Haven't seen any of the rest other than the odd episode of DS9 and the 3rd season of Picard.

Full Ask Link for reference

Answers under the cut!

8. Which captain would you most want to serve under?

Hmm. I may not be best qualifed to give an answer here, as I haven't seen all serieses. But as far as someone I could work directly under every day from what I have seen, I would probably say Picard. I like stability and a quieter form of leadership, someone who doesn't feel the need to micromanage and can delegate properly. I'd have an issue with some of Janeway's decisions, and I would throttle someone like Kirk in real life. Love writing for TOS, want no part of actually being in the middle of it.

I don't think I've seen enough of the other primary captains to really make a judgment call, although I'd have liked to see more of Captain Sulu in STVI.

35. A minor character you wish had become a main character?

This is tough, because I feel like when a character's a minor character in ST, we don't get enough of them to really want to see more. (This adding backstory is what I hear SNW is doing, which I appreciate in general even though I'm not a fan of the clips I've seen).

I would like to have seen more of Spock's parents in TOS and the movie era, and more of Carol Marcus in STID. She could have been a really solid addition to the crew, if the script hadn't been garbage in general. Beyond did a much better job of giving people enough screentime for character development, and I loved Ensign Syl in that movie in particular.

49. A favorite ST fic?

Answered this here too, but here's another oldie but goodie: A Man of Integrity by WeirdLittleStories. This author puts almost as much effort into footnotes as they do into the story itself, and I love it.

Thank you for asking!

[favvn]

youre literally so so right about the naked time. once my sister asked me which tos episode was my favorite and i literally said "well excluding the obvious ones (meaning amok time and the naked time, because i felt they were on another tier of obsession entirely)" like i genuinely felt that theyre existence was so obviosuly unfair to every other episode that i had to ignore them. anyway i answered city on the edge of forever which i think does have its weird parts and issues but is still so good and iconic. there are many other good ones id have to rewatch to be certain though. havent ever been a fan of the tribble episodes though

A fellow connoisseur! You're so right, The Naked Time and Amok Time do exist in their own tier, separate from the other episodes lest they outshine everything else (season three fails for not having an episode with "time" in the title. We could have had the Time Trio, the Time Trifecta, the Time Triumvirate but no).

For me, Mirror, Mirror exists in that same tier, but a lot of that is owing to going too deep into my own headcanons of, "What if Mirror Kirk was regular Kirk but minus the compassion and ethics? Hmm..." But that couldn't have happened because then the episode would've had to split between the two universes and Mirror Kirk is Evil and Not Our Good Guy, so lock him away to focus on Our Kirk. The City On the Edge of Forever might as well exist in that same tier for me owing to it being adapted from a Harlan Ellison screenplay (the cut scene between Spock and Kirk will haunt me... Spock: You could come with me for a rest... [gently] All the time in the world... Kirk: [hopelessly] And full of tomorrows...) and what the story introduces both for Kirk and Spock together as a pair (weeks of sharing a bedroom, possibly only one bed owing to where all the computer pieces are placed 👀 don't tell me Spock didn't sleep in that time when Kirk is spending their meager funds on vegetables for him) and the specific anguish that Kirk has to deal with by the end. Dare I call it the perfect example of how he is torn between the duty demanded of the captaincy and his desire for love and what rest it could bring him as The Naked Time reveals? (If only he could bring himself to actually choose love over duty, at least, within the series anyways.)

Aw, I do love The Trouble With Tribbles though. It's a beautiful Kirk and His No Good, Very Bad Day episode and cheers me up on my own bad work days (infestation of alien rodents, diplomacy woes, the Klingons are there and his crew got into a bar brawl with them, his chief engineer only cares about the ship so not even a confinement to quarters is a punishment for the bar fight, etc.). That one, I, Mudd, and A Piece of the Action are the episodes I put on for a guaranteed laugh owing to their humor (I'll overlook the sexism in I, Mudd because their plan to fry the androids is brilliant, amazing, showstopping, etc. and of course I am a sucker for a good Kirk speech)

I really should keep better track of which episodes I've really enjoyed beyond those, but I'm also still in the process of my first-time watch, so there's more to come that I've heard about but haven't seen yet, such as Plato's Stepchildren and The Empath. (Spectre of the Gun was last night's episode and I definitely enjoyed it for what it did. What a fun twist on the plot of Arena)

[calliethetrekkie]

Star Trek TOS S01EP15-16: The Menagerie

I decided to review both parts in the same review. It's the same story, so I'd rather be able to go over it all at once. Plus at least half of it when put together is footage from the first pilot, The Cage. I also want to note that, at the time of writing, I have NOT watched Strange New Worlds yet, so I won't be mentioning/considering anything from it or its portrayal of Pike and crew for this review. Anyway, that should do it for window dressing, let us get underway.

Original Thoughts

I'm not even going to try and copy/paste and re-edit both of them to add onto here. This is going to be long enough. You can read my old watchthrough here, but the short version is I liked Part 1, didn't like Part 2 as much, and overall I liked it for the Spock content but it was meh otherwise.

Rewatch Thoughts

God, this took me way too long to get done...

So this episode is the first and only two-parter in TOS. We wouldn't get another one in Star Trek until TNG. One thing kind of weird about this episode is that it's more or less Spock on court martial... after we'd just done a court martial episode for Kirk. When I watched these in the airing order, I think one reason I didn't care for Court Martial is because it felt like we'd 'been there, done that' with The Menagerie, a feeling that didn't repeat in production order which let me enjoy that episode a lot more.

I thought long and hard about how I wanted to organize this. How much I wanted to go into regarding both the actual episode and The Cage footage. It's part of why this review took so long. So after thinking it over... there's not much about the pilot footage that I have to say. It's there to give context for why Spock is doing what he's doing and that's really it. I think I'd rather wait to talk about Pike and maybe the pilot itself in-depth after I've seen SNW, which from what I've heard, adds some additional context. But I'm not there yet, so all I'll say is that the pilot footage really made things drag on what would have otherwise been Court Martial: Spock Edition otherwise hey ST people, if you ever do TOS again, give us the McCoy court martial episode please.

The most I have to say about the pilot footage is that it made the episode a chore to sit through. It's not bad, it's even kind of fun to see the early stuff and cast like Pike, Una, and a younger Spock. Seriously look at Spock's reaction when he and Pike look at the alien plants, its adorable! But it goes on for so long, especially in Part 2, that I lost complete interest in paying attention until it went back to the court martial. At that point we just want to know why Spock chose Talos IV to go to, not to watch an episode within an episode. I know they did it most likely as a cost-saving maneuver, but that doesn't change the fact that it just drags when they could have just... you know, had Spock explaining himself or whatever. It's the only reason that this is a two-parter at all. Again, I get it, but I kept tuning out during those scenes until we finally got to the end of it and we finally understood Spock's plan.

The present-day parts, however, were very much able to keep my attention. We're here at about the mid-way point of the first season, and to say that Spock's actions are a shock is putting it lightly. Spock has been nothing but loyal and by the book the whole series. Just last episode, he defended Kirk despite the evidence to the contrary and did everything possible to find the evidence to clear his name. We already questioned his loyalty in Balance of Terror, but the vast majority of the cast never questioned it, and any possible doubt was brought to a close at the end of it. But in fairness, this is very much a different dilemma as it concerns his former captain. One that he'd been as loyal to as he is to Kirk now. It brings a very unique problem for our favorite Vulcan.

Personally, I find Spock's whole plan... well, convoluted as Hell. I know it's to justify using the pilot footage, and it does add stuff to make it make some sense like Talos IV being forbidden to all ships. But it still feels ridiculous that Spock had to go to these extreme lengths to take Pike to Talos. Honestly, I'm iffy about having Pike taking to Talos at all. I mean... it's just an illusion. He's pretty much been put in a guided cage where he can pretend that he's still physically well, even though that's very much not the case. I guess it's better than his fate of being confined to that chair and only able to blink a light to communicate. But... I don't know, I keep thinking about it and I just don't like it. It feels messed up. But I guess Spock felt that it was the best place for Pike, where he could at least have some kind of happiness.

That said, it says a lot about Spock. The man put absolutely everything on the line just to help his former captain. He outright said at the start that he knew that it was mutiny and that he would be facing the death penalty if caught. But he doesn't care what becomes of him. All that matters is completing the task and getting Pike to Talos IV. Even regarding Kirk, he clearly didn't like going against his back and was not at all happy that his actions inadvertently convicted Kirk as well. Something that I believe that he wanted to avoid... unfortunately for him, Kirk doesn't take having his ship/command taken over from him well no matter who does it or why. Whoops. But still, for all the 'unfeeling, logical Vulcan' bravado, he sure as Hell had no problem dropping all of that here.

Kirk is angry and upset that his First Officer and friend would do this. As I said, he hates it when anyone threatens or endangers his command. Especially at this point in the series. We saw him get mad when Spock pried into him in The Conscience of the King, but this is even worse. As soon as he's back on the Enterprise, he hates it because it means court martialing Spock, which he doesn't want to do. He's willing to give Spock the chance to clear up everything, but he's also angry that Spock is holding things back from him and even lied to him. The last scene of Part 1 is him having Spock thrown in the brig because he won't just tell him why he's done what he's done. I don't even think that he cares too much about his own possible fate. He's certainly unhappy about it, but moreso about Spock because he can't make sense of it and Spock won't talk, only pleading guilty to everything. Why? Why won't his First Officer talk to him? Why go through all of this behind his back? Why allow himself to risk death? He doesn't know, and he can't stand it but can do nothing about it. He can do nothing but let the answer reveal itself, everything out of his control. Sure once it all comes together he's glad and clearly forgives Spock, but I'd imagine that he had a loooot to say when they had that talk later.

McCoy is really only relevant in Part 1, but what he got was so freakin' good. Spock fabricating orders is just impossible in his mind. He is steadfast in his belief that Spock would never lie or deceive them. Sure he ended up being wrong, and about why (Vulcans not being able to lie is the biggest lie in this whole show) but the fact that he doesn't doubt Spock at all and is the one to tell Jim this when he's questioning as he did in The Conscience of the King is so freakin' good. When he realizes that Spock did commit mutiny? And when Spock tells him to have him arrested? You can tell that he doesn't want to do it, let alone believe it. It really sucks that McCoy has no part after that because I can only imagine how much he would have had to say and try to make sense of, especially with also reasoning it with Kirk. But for what we did get, it's good stuff. And especially after The Galileo Seven, it's good to see that McCoy is still loyal to Spock and believes in him despite all the tension in that episode (and even after Court Martial where he got mad at Spock for seeming to not care about the situation, even though it was brief).

Aside from that... I really don't have a lot to say. The episode is okay. Really, everything in the first half of Part One I really enjoyed. It was tense and made me want to keep watching just to make sense of it all. It's when the pilot footage starts that things begin to bog down. Part Two is even more guilty of this until around the last few minutes, and like I said I'm pretty uncomfortable with the ending. It does a lot for Spock's character, adding more depth and showcasing his loyalty to both his old captain and his current one, as well as some nice bits for Kirk and McCoy. Heck, even bits like Uhura being in disbelief by all of this are really good. The episode's weakness is just going for far too long when this could have all been resolved in a few minutes and feels contrived to begin with. I'd still pick this episode over ones like Mudd's Women and the vast majority of Miri, but like with Miri I'd only want to watch it for certain parts (though unlike Miri it's because I'm bored, not squicked out). It's fine, and that's all I've got left to say about it.

Original Ratings: 4/5 (P1), 3/5 (P2), 3.5/5 (Both) Rewatch Ratings: 7/10 (P1), 5/10 (P2), 6/10 (Both)

[My TOS Reviews]

[TOS S1 Reviews]

[Previous Review] / [Next Review]

[eco-lite]

Time for another Star Trek book review! This time: Sarek by A.C. Crispin.

When I picked up this book at my local used book store, I figured it was going to be "Daddy Issues: The Book." And frankly, that's what I wanted it to be. I have a deep need to read about Spock confronting Sarek for all the bullshit he put Spock through, his refusal to connect with Spock on a level they can both understand, his inability to have a suitably emotional reaction to Amanda's death, etc. And there was some of that--just not as much as I was expecting.

Likewise, I expected Amanda's death to be the focal point of this story--the event that becomes the catalyst for Spock and Sarek's further division and perhaps eventual reconciliation. However, all of that is the side plot. The main plot centers around a Romulan scheme to sow xenophobia and division amongst the Federation using non-consensual telepathic suggestion carried out by kidnapped Vulcans. And only Sarek is uniquely suited to foil their plan! Yeah... Don't get me wrong, it was a very interesting plot; it just came out of nowhere.

Author A.C. Crispin has a lot of interesting ideas about inter-planetary politics and diplomacy, which is a bit of a double-edged sword. While it was great to see multiple different perspectives of this political conflict--Federation, Romulan, and Klingon--the story became a bit bogged down by the shear number of POV characters and story lines going on at the same time. I never thought half of this book about Sarek would be from the perspective of Kirk's nephew Peter, but that's what we got. (Peter kind of sucks, but Valdyr is great. Read this book for Valdyr.)

You know who I wish had gotten more time dedicated to her? Amanda! She is a very important character in this story, yet we get very limited moments of her perspective in the events leading up to her death--although her death was handled very well. After her death, we still get to see her point of view as Sarek reads her journals she left behind. I thought these journals were a great plot device to keep Amanda present in the story, but she really gets lost in the middle when all the action and drama with the Klingons and Romulans is going down. It's a shame because I felt Crispin writes for Amanda very well. I wanted more!

Crispin actually does a great job capturing the family dynamics between Spock, Amanda, and Sarek very well. Each character's thoughts and actions feel very true to canon, drawing especially from the TOS episode "Journey to Babel" (my favorite episode). The interplay between these three was the best part of the book. And it was nice to see an author develop Sarek and Amanda's relationship further, and posit what their lives together had been like. Again, I wish there was more of it!

Overall--while not what I was expecting--this was quite an enjoyable read with an interesting (though messy) plot and nice character details. I also like how it bridges some of the gap between the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and the TNG episode "Unification." Pretty good job, A.C. Crispin.

[im-all-out-of-ideas]

star trek: strange new worlds s2 ep1

so i had a blast. yes, there were problems, but they were overwhelmingly overshadowed by the positives experience. this was the does of 23rd century trek i needed after the year wait, and i gotta cherish it while it lasts because there will be a WAY LONGER WAIT for s3 with the writers strike.

my favorite part of the episode were absolutely the klingons. the 90s look is back and better than ever with influences from discovery and a shocking amount of variety compared to actual 90s klingons considering how prominent they used to be. the makeup and costuming were even better than the trailer led me to believe we'd get.

the plot was basically what you might expect for a 90s season premiere: very broad implications for the galactic stage with not nearly enough elaboration. so it's exactly the same mental experience as a TNG klingon politics episode but not a two-parter. the real draw is in the crew and how they interact with the given plot.

the best part of the episode was spock. he's as emotional as he should be for a vulcan that is younger and inexperienced and who has removed some of the inhibitions and is recovering from that. the spock and chapel story gives that much more weight to their later years under kirk's command. and his following of the logic to order the destruction of the false flag and his immediate regret and grief over the apparent ordering of chapel and m'benga's deaths is the peak highlight of the episode. hats off to peck.

smaller positives are Pelia, and Carol Kane is as hilarious as her fans have declared. the Lanthanite idea seems to be their attempt at a Guinan, right down to the timing of her appearance in the series, but Pelia is instilled with so much personality that i just want to see more of this kooky immortal.

also loved that "crossfield" ship. it's CLEARLY a mid-23rd century luna-class made from mishmash parts, but i digress. its good to see more tos ship configurations and not constitution-class ships at different scales. more farraguts, less sombras.

m'benga finally has a dramatic character plot outside of his daughter, and a doctor suffering from having taken part in an interstellar war is a perfectly logical place to take him. same with chapel but to a lesser extent. i do think this will be retreaded territory by the time bashir comes back but it's all the better as a tos era story.

ortegas is fun as always, can't wait for her episode to finally come. uhura is growing into her role as comms officer. la'an drinks with the best of them and seems a little less guarded than before. i hate to see how she eventually departs from the enterprise by the time kirk takes command.

now pike and una have to hear about what the kids did with the station wagon when they were left unsupervised for literally 3 days lmaooo

[itsawritblr]

Things I like/love that have been ruined in canon.

In no particular order:

Star Trek: I was so-so about all the TV sequels/prequels (liked DS9 for about a minute).  But the movies . . .  Fuck Amok Time, they gave us Horny On Demand Spock and Kirk sexually harassing females across the universe.

Star Wars:  Jar Jar Binks.  Need I say more?

Doctor Who:  I really enjoyed the original series, even though it fell apart in the last years.  The remake made The Doctor a romantic/sexual being.  No no fucking goddamn no.

Supernatural:  After Season 5, took everything everybody loved and broke it, killed off favorite characters for Shock Value, then faked bringing them back just to kill them again.  Really really hated its fans.

Sherlock: Second season became super self-conscious that it was A Hit, started mocking women because being written by a gay man and a misogynist.  Really really hated its fans, then whined when fans stopped watching and the series was canceled.

Sleepy Hollow:  Was just staring to get into the Ship when its creators literally verbally attacked fans on Twitter, then intentionally destroyed Ichabod/Abby by killing off Abby. Really REALLY hated its fans.

American Auto: Started out clever and funny like The Office, in Season 2 devolved into 4th grade potty humor.

Clarice:  Gave it a chance even though there was no Lecter.  First two episodes showed promise, then made Clarice a whiny, weak character, then added an incredibly ahistoric 1991 trans “women” FBI agent -- at a time when in reality gay male agents were fired for fear of their being blackmailed -- who literally yelled at Clarice, and Clarice took it.  Thankfully its ratings plummeted after that and it was canceled.

Grantchester: Watched it for Geordie, then they had Geordie cheat on his wife.  NOPE.

Foyle’s War: The original series ended perfectly.  Then they dragged it from its grave and made a thin, forced series about the Cold War.  Bleh.

Inspector Lewis: The original series ended perfectly.  Then they dragged it from its grave, made Dr. Hobson clingy and whiny, ruined the dynamic of Lewis and Hathaway, ended it terribly.  Bastards.

Endeavor:  Revealed Thursday cheated on his wife during the War, then had Thursday accept bribe money, then the series finale . . .  Don’t ask.

Shetland:  Perez goes against his ethics and tries to fuck his close friend’s wife.  But especially they had Tosh r*ped.  Fuck that shit forever.

Once Upon a Time: First season was wonderful.  Second season iffy.  After that turned the series into a promotional vehicle for Disney movies.  Robert Carlyle gained 30 pounds, lost all energy, and mailed in his performance.  They tried to end it well, but brought it back rebooted and godawful, especially by killing off Belle.  Truly, truly awful.

MCU:  I loved the first Thor, first Captain America, first Avengers, the Ironman trilogy, and especially Spider-man: Homecoming.  Then it all went to fucking hell.  Don’t get me started.

Miraculous Ladybug: From season 3 on, its creators took it from being a fun, exciting, sweet, enjoyable superhero story to trying to turn it into part of the MCU.  Fucking do NOT get me started about what they did to my man Gabriel.

Possible Future Canon Ruin:

Father Brown:  3 cast members have left the series and been replaced.  Haven’t seen Season 10 yet, but I have a bad feeling about this . . .

Addendum:

Rewatched Seasons 7 & 8 of Foyle’s War and actually liked them quite a lot.  Me having a crush on Tim McMullan helped.

Have seen Season 10 of Father Brown . . .

The directing is slow and stiff.  There’s no dynamic worth mentioning among the new characters.  All the episodes felt like dress rehearsals, not polished performances.

[admiralchristopherpike]

Stance On: Relationships

Okay, I'm just going to put this up here because I'm seeing a lot of weird, cringe takes on Pike and his relationships, and just the overall discourse is gross.

Everyone is entitled to having their favorite ships, that is across all fandoms, not just Trek. Just because you don't necessarily enjoy what is canon doesn't mean it's wrong and doesn't give you the right to send people nasty hate who may like the pairing. It's 2023 people, grow the fuck up. If you want to have an actual, intelligent conversation/debate about a character, that's fine. But if you come at it calling people shit like N*zis, you're not worth anyone's time.

I'll admit at first I was not a fan of the Batel/Pike relationship, nothing to do with the character or the actor but I thought it was very shoe-horned in the beginning, HOWEVER. As they've started to give more screen time, I'm developing to really enjoy it because it shows that not all relationships are kissy kissy. Real, adult relationships are hard, they're messy, especially with Pike and Batel both being incredibly career driven, they're trying to navigate what a relationship looks like for them. The whole she doesn't eat his food argument is just lazy when if you look at almost any scene with food in the series, it's rare to show someone actually stuffing their face. Yes, they may have a couple but not everyone is eating. Also the weird hate Batel gets over what happened with Una is weird, they're all a part of the same system, if you're calling her a N*zi then by default, what is the Federation? If I'm not wrong, doesn't Una even tell Chris she likes her in an episode after that one?

I'm also a fan of Pike and Una, but let's face it, both of them are FAR too professional to be in an active relationship whilst serving together on the Enterprise. I love RP-ing it, but I don't hold any illusion that they are endgame. Unfortunately, unless Pike finds a way out of it, he's not going to be around much longer and I cannot see him allowing himself to be connected to anyone for that long. That goes for either Batel or Una. I personally don't like the narrative that SNW poses that becoming disabled = death, but Pike being the proud person he is, is going to have a hard time in any relationship when he knows what's on the horizon, he just wouldn't want to force anyone into that, full stop.

And am I seeing people actually think Vina is Pike's soul mate? I know there may be people out there that haven't seen the original series episodes but Pike was captured to be part of a breeding program with Vina for the Talosians to gain pretty much slaves to rebuild their planet. The Talosians even went as far to kidnap Number One and another Ensign to pick a "female of his choosing" since he resisted Vina. He's also ultimately taken to Talos IV really against his will by Spock. (Again this is all very cringe to begin with but this is another rant). This isn't a soul mate story, these are people being held against their will, potentially being forced into a breeding program. I've actually had some incredibly lovely threads with Vina and have had ships with them in the past but not without a lot of conversation, and a lot of development that hasn't historically been shown in the show.

The bottom line is, I don't care if you don't like who I ship or don't ship with, I'm not going to come at you if you don't like Pike/Batel, but I ask that you have a little maturity and not have a meltdown and spew your hate towards others. If I see that shit on my page, consider yourself blocked. You're absolutely entitled to your opinions but be mature about it.

In regards to RP-ing with my Pike, I go off of chemistry. If there's something there we want to develop I'd be more than likely the first person to suggest a ship. I'm equally open to anyone who wants to explore a relationship with him, just know the man will be a hot mess. Let's just be a bit more adult about these things? Thanks.

[doopcafe]

Picard S3E1

Oh shit, I forgot we watched this! Here's a "review"...

Summary: Jonathan Frakes and Patrick Stewart hang out for an hour.

Comments: Well, it's finally here. And it turns out that, despite all the early reviews promising this would finally be different (read: good), it’s actually just more of the same dark, violent crap. 

Okay, so we open on Beverly Crusher aboard a ship without any lights. She’s hiding in a nebula from scary alien monsters who track her down and board her ship. Beverly wields her trusty assault rifle (set to kill) and has a way-too-long firefight with the intruders in a hallway, eventually vaporizing both of them while sustaining some serious flesh wounds. She limps over to a control console and sends a distress call to someone called Admiral Picard. 

Hey, remember that DS9 episode Duet where Kira’s painful history with the Cardassians is explored and serves as a transformative moment for her character? Y’know, the one when she’s confronted with an alleged Cardassian war criminal and becomes determined to bring him to justice, even as doubts over his true identity surface?

LOLz no! PhaSers go PEW PEW! 

Why does Beverly’s ship not have any lights? Why did Beverly look at her gun after it told her, in audible words, that its power cell was depleted? Why did Beverly’s mixtape stop playing the moment the aliens came aboard the ship and switch to a dramatic, action movie soundtrack? 

...come to think of it, why was Beverly’s son still playing his mom’s mixtape when Stewart and Frakes later came aboard?

Right, so the B-plot is Raffi on a shady, dystopian sex-and-drug planet asking her drug dealer for another fix (this is "New Trek", after all). We are supposed to believe here that Raffi is undercover and the "drug addict" bit is all a ruse to gain information but, through the fault of the first and second season, I just don’t know enough (or care enough) about this character to know any better, so this scene was mostly the two-person-one-polar-bear audience over here in Tokyo wondering aloud if Raffi is legit addicted to drugs (reasonable) and was actually kicked out of Starfleet (long overdue) or if she’s just faking it in an undercover operation (actually the case). Turns out, the writers couldn't trust we'd know one way or another either so they actually have Raffi say, "Starfleet Intelligence Officer Raffi reporting in" to spell it out for us.

Actually, I’m making the B-plot seem more involved than it actually was. Here:

Raffi looks for information on a stolen weapon before witnessing that weapon being used against some building.

That’s the B-plot. 

As an aside, we (the aforementioned audience) don’t know/care what building was destroyed and the emotional effect was zero, but I guess all the stock screaming sound effects communicated well enough that random!building was actually important!building. The B “plot” (I suppose) will be that someone has “a device that can create inter-spatial portals between two flat planes” and is using it as a weapon. See, I literally just copy/pasted the Wikipedia article on the portal gun from Portal and the description matches what’s in the show. So there’s that. 

With that out of the way, the A-plot is as follows:

Jonathan Frakes and Patrick Stewart attempt to find Beverly Crusher and then do.

Really thrilling stuff. My favorite part is when Frakes sat down. I hope we get more of that.

Y'know, if this “feels” like Star Trek, it’s because the show is playing a dirty trick on you. There are at least a few music cues lifted from the movies (The Motion Picture and First Contact at least) and during the scene when the Titan pulls out of space dock the cue from The Wrath of Khan is played (where Spock orders Savvik to do the same with the Enterprise). That’s why it feels like "Star Trek". Not because anything substantive is happening in the story or characters, but because your monkey brain subconsciously recognizes notes from something you enjoyed as a child. 

I wanted to make some more points, but reading through the episode summary to refresh my memory made me tired, bored, and a little nauseous, so I’ll leave it at that for now. There’s hope this can still improve because, unlike previous seasons, it’s not irrevocably damaged beyond repair yet. 

Oh wait, there's a bullet list option in Tumblr:

These are not the same characters as in TNG, so it’s really challenging for me to see them as anything beyond the actors that play them

Stewart lifting up the flute from The Inner Light was distracting, as it brings into stark contrast the writing of that masterpiece with the levels of skill this show cannot be expected to attain

I liked that there wasn’t a big, dumb action-movie villain and instead we got an actual antagonist (Captain Shaw) with motivations that made sense and were believable

I like that Frakes and Stewart didn’t just share UEMs with each other for an hour

# make star trek boring again 

My enjoyment: 1/5

Edit: I have a prediction! I think that—because it was so dark on her ship—Beverly couldn't see what she was doing and cloned her ex-husband. That's not her (other) son—it's a clone of Jack Crusher.

I also think Raffi's "handler" is Worf. The use of the word "warrior" kinda gives it away.

My predications are rarely correct...

[tailsrevane]

[movie review] star trek: generations (1994)

we watched this around the christmas season because it’s a much hotter christmas movie take than die hard or even batman returns. literally no one is talking about how star trek: generations is a christmas movie! justice for star trek: generations, you guys!

i like the tos movies even though they’re pretty un-star trekky, so when i was a kid i would actually oftentimes watch the beginning of this movie just because it was a nice little 15 minute tos movie, you know? it was funny, it was action-packed… i don’t know a lot about the production of this movie, but it really does feel like people who worked on the tos films worked on this opening scene and people who worked on tng worked on the rest of it? that might not be remotely true, but it’s what it feels like.

also like… the enterprise-b is just gorgeous? over the years i do think i’ve come around to the basic bitch version of the excelsior class as my preferred version of that ship, and honestly my appreciation for that class of ship in general has skyrocketed, but like idk it’s always very fanservicey as a star trek fan to get to see a new enterprise, you know? and filling in all the little gaps in the franchise’s history is just always something that’s gonna be inherently appealing.

it is weird as fuck how obvious it is that they originally wrote scotty & chekov’s parts for spock & mccoy and barely changed them, though. like, i think there were a few very small rewrites for scotty (or, hell, some of them might’ve been ad-libs by james doohan for all i know), but yeah then you have distractingly weird stuff like… dr. chekov??? taking charge of sickbay??? and just blatantly acting the way mccoy would in that situation? like, it isn’t too much of a stretch to imagine chekov jumping in and helping with that because no one else has the training or whatever, but the way he acts like it comes that naturally to him and he had bones’ personality transplanted onto him is just so weird.

lastly in the tos era prologue, it is pretty obvious that someone involved in the writing of this movie has some serious beef with journalists??? like, uh, wow? and that whole angle with the swarm of reporters with vlogger headcams just felt weird & out of place for a star trek story, though i guess props on predicting the whole headcam thing?

while i did love this part of the movie as a kid, my trek preferences have shifted emphatically in the opposite direction over the years, so that when we get the “seventy-eight years later” transition it feels to me now like the movie is finally getting started. more than that, i just wholly question the necessity of a “passing of the torch” movie, you know? i felt like the ending of star trek vi was the perfect swan song for the original cast, and kirk’s final captain’s log explicitly passes the torch to future crews of ships called enterprise (a metatextual nod to tng, which had already completed four seasons of television at that point).

i really don’t think tos’s inclusion in generations added anything to either series. i assume the thought process is that the general moviegoing audience hadn’t formed a relationship with the tng crew the way they had the tos crew, but i really question whether the tos crew was really a particularly strong box office draw by this point? my (admittedly unresearched) assumption here is that this is one of those overly cautious movie exec moves that makes them more comfortable with a movie’s marketability regardless of whether it actually fits the facts of a situation, and it just makes this movie age terribly.

i do really like generations, it’s one of my favorite star trek movies in spite of all of this, but that’s basically entirely because of the strictly tng portions of the movie. at this point i just really find myself wishing tng’s first movie had been strictly a tng movie from start to finish.

both criticisms & praise of this movie often point to the fact that the bulk of it feels like a longer, better-funded episode of tng, and like… yeah! that’s exactly what i love about it, and exactly what made it my favorite tng movie for a minute when i wanted to resist the obvious fact that first contact is the best tng movie. and like… i’m glad we got generations (even in its somewhat adulterated form), but i find myself just wishing we could’ve gotten more of these kinds of tng movies, you know?

i love the enterprise-e, i think it’s a gorgeous ship, but it was really nice seeing some real resources thrown at the enterprise-d. doing more interesting things with the lighting, etc. and like… this is silly, but at the end of the movie jonathan frakes puts his hand on the enterprise-d’s captain’s chair, and says, “i always thought i’d get a shot at this chair one day,” and holy heck we didn’t let jonathan frakes direct a movie set aboard the enterprise-d??? considering he leonard nimoys the next two tng movies, that just feels like a massive missed opportunity, but alas.

before i entirely move on from superficial details that literally no one else cares about, i know there’s a general consensus that the ds9 uniforms look kinda dumpy compared to both the tng uniforms and the upgraded tng movie uniforms (which end up being carried forward into ds9)... but i actually kinda loved seeing a lot of the tng main characters wearing ds9/voyager era uniforms? it’s probably a nostalgia factor because voyager was the first star trek series i actually watched start-to-finish as it was airing, but yeah i’ve always liked those uniforms.

and yeah, this wasn’t the most expensive movie ever or anything, and you can see a few places where they cut corners, but even seeing a fairly cheap movie compared to a tv budget… it was just pretty fucking cool, you know? and it was all just like… heightened versions of shit we already liked. like, tng already had great music, but giving that crew the resources of a movie to make more tng music gave us a fucking awesome score. we got to see new locations like guinan’s quarters and stellar cartography. we got to see ten forward be as crowded as it probably always was supposed to be.

superficial details aside, there’s plenty to love about the tng portions of this movie. as a confirmed worf stan i fucking love that the first thing we get is his badly overdue promotion to lieutenant commander, and how playful and fun that whole deal was. and everyone rushing to the bridge still in costume to answer the red alert was fucking glorious, i love that kind of shit.

and although some segments of it were more successful than others, i liked that there was room for some of the cast to split off and do their own things. deanna gets to do some good therapy shit with picard (and to a lesser extent data), geordi & data get to have their friendship tested & reaffirmed, geordi gets to end up as the damsel in distress for the fucking millionth time, riker gets to be in command during a crisis/space battle… it feels like a lot more characters get serviced in this one than in future movies.

don’t get me wrong, this isn’t perfect. it would have been nice to get more of this, and there are some rather obvious characters on the short end of the stick. like, picard and data definitely have the biggest stories to chew on in this movie, and that’s a trend that will continue throughout the rest of the movies. deanna’s story, while still a better utilization of her character than you get in many of these movies, is still ultimately there to have someone for picard to emote at. (and like… yeah, patrick stewart kicks ass at this because of course he does, but it still bears mentioning.) geordi’s role is as the subordinate character in data’s story… and then there’s dr. crusher, who has literally nothing to do other than be the butt of a joke on two occasions. woof.

like, they all have something to do, and that’s nice, and compares favorably to the other tng movies, but there’s still a pretty pronounced gap here. some of that is almost certainly attributable to the understandable difficulty curve in hammering a tv series into the shape of a movie, but the patterns of which characters get the juicy parts and which ones get the subordinate ones is… well, it’s pretty fucking telling. and before anyone comes at me like “well, it’s just the most marketable actors,” a) that’s been the excuse used to focus on cishet white guys in hollywood for literally forever, and b) you really want to look me in the eye and tell me that levar burton isn’t at least as good of an actor as anyone else in the cast? if you can’t market him, that’s on you.

i mean, hell, this movie brought back (and killed) the duras sisters, and they weren’t even the big bads of the movie! they were subordinated to a one-off appearance by malcolm mcdowell! and while it was undeniably cool seeing him chew up scenery across from patrick stewart, we aren’t just subordinating our own black & women characters to our own white guy characters, we’re importing whole new white guys to subordinate them to!

still, though… this kind of movie with its greater faithfulness to the series that came before clearly allowed for more space for little individual stories to happen, and it only makes me wish even more fervently that we had gotten more tng movies with this same rough format. maybe then we would’ve seen juicier parts for these characters. or maybe not. because, again, while there were definitely pressures pushing the creative team towards making this the picard & data show going forward, in the end those pressures are going to push you towards the things you value the most anyway, right? it’s probable that the shape i wish these movies had taken wouldn’t have ever really been able to happen without some pretty massive changes in both the movie industry and the priorities of the people making them, so it’s all well and good for me to point out their shortcomings, but at the end of the day i can only be so hard on them considering i do genuinely like these movies for all their shortcomings.

a-rank

[sporkandpringles]

Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episodes: Ranked

These are just like... my opinions. From worst to best. #10 (my least favorite): 1x09 “All Those Who Wander”

I’m trying to think of a single good thing in this episode, and I think the only part I liked was when Pike put the apron on Spock. That was funny! The rest of this episode sucked though. From Hemmer being fridged for Uhura’s character development (way to give a WOC more trauma and kill off the show’s only recurring disabled character at the same time, paramount!) to the Gorn retcon in facilitation of a painfully obvious and thematically empty rip-off of Alien, and topping it off with everyone pushing Spock to be more human in extremely uncomfortable ways that aren’t addressed or called out, this episode was painful to watch from beginning to end.  0/10. #9: 1x07 “The Serene Squall”

A lot of people really liked this episode and that had me scratching my head. Yes the pirate gags were funny. Yes Pike cooking and causing a mutiny was fun. Yes I enjoyed seeing glimpses of Sybok and Stonn. (obsessed with the fact that T’Pring is gonna dump absolute Chad Spock for that extremely bland dude, like yes girl, give us nothing). Yes I felt like Dr. Aspen cut straight to the heart of Spock’s issues and the quote about maybe him being neither was good. But... I feel like all of that is undercut by them being a twist villain who said they were only doing it to manipulate Spock. After the twist was revealed, everything Angel said became invalid. And that made the rest of the episode very hard to watch for me. I also wasn’t crazy about the “pretend kiss”. And as a lore nitpicker, some of Angel’s and Spock’s lines about kolinahr have me concerned. Yes it’s possible that the writers were simply trying to show that Angel, by virtue of being Sybok’s partner, doesn’t understand Vulcan culture and logic at all. But Spock also said “I very much look forward to mine” as if it was already something he expected to do at some point. And maybe they were just trying to nod toward the fact that he does attempt it at a later date, but I just don’t trust the writers after they’ve blatantly disregarded so many other things.  2/10.

#8: 1x06 “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach” I actually didn’t hate this one when I first watched it, but on reflection I think it’s a lot weaker than it could have been. I really appreciate SNW for attempting to do a classic Trek ethical dilemma, but I think it falls short by not actually letting Captain Pike make a choice. Agree or disagree, Janeway’s choice in “Tuvix” is part of what makes that an episode we still talk about. But Pike was knocked out before he could do anything to interfere. I think if he’d successfully saved the child, but made the whole city sink into the lava and had to live with that/or he tried to save the kid, but decided to put him back when he saw the whole city was sinking, then it would have been a better episode. But I think the writers were too afraid of marring Pike’s perfect paragon image, and it’s ultimately to the detriment of the story. That being said, I did like the costuming and the worldbuilding of Majalis in this episode. I haven’t read or seen “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, which I’ve heard is extremely similar. So it didn’t feel too derivative to me—although I totally get why people feel that way. And I actually think the fact that Alora and the Majalans could just leave their homeworld at any time is fine. It mirrors the way that we could, at any time, decide to improve our society for the better, but we’re just so stuck in our ways that we would rather accept and enshrine suffering than change. 3/10 

#7: 1x01 “Strange New Worlds 

This was a pretty solid opener. Not quite as immediately gripping as what I still believe to be Star Trek’s best pilot episode ever: VOY 1x01 “Caretaker”. But it is a spin-off of Discovery, and so I think having a less grand opening is fine.Uhura’s hazing and the dinner in the Captain’s quarters is a great scene. Hemmer’s introduction is wonderful. The hijinks on the planet are fun. Spock in shorts! The genetic manipulation as disguises bothered me on the first watch-through (especially since only 2 episodes later they remind us that the Federation has a ban on genetic manipulation) but maybe that only applies to permanent modifications. Or the Federation are a bunch of big fat hypocrites. Which is probably true (wish SNW would address it, though).

I really appreciated the nods to Discovery. I’m a continuity nut and showing that Michael’s time-travel to the future did actually have consequences in the 23rd century, despite being classified, was really cool. Also Pike is 100% correct, Fuck the Prime Directive. A lot of people took issue with the scenes with Spock and T’Pring, but I actually thought they were okay. Really weird that the writers decided to put Spock getting engaged and almost having sex with T’Pring in like... the first five minutes. Really feels deliberate in a bad way. And I’m not crazy about them for continuity reasons (Spock, did all of your non 7-year-old pictures of T’Pring get deleted in a tragic shipwide memory wipe?) But the scenes themselves are fine. And T’Pring’s actress does a really incredible job. One nitpick I had with this episode is with Pike threatening the civilization with his big guns in order to get them to stand down. It’s a little at odds with his “I’m gonna talk the Romulans into peace” approach in 1x10, which was highlighted as one of the things that made that future a bad one. But he probably was bluffing in this instance anyway.

My biggest gripe though is definitely how poorly the writers are handling Pike’s arc. I think it’s okay for him to be afraid of change, and disfigurement. But calling it “my death” is just weird. He’s not dead. He’ll have to learn to live with more limited capabilities, sure. But he acts like his existence becomes suddenly meaningless after his accident and that’s a huge insult to everyone who has been disabled by accidents. 5/10.

#6: 1x04 “Memento Mori”

This episode was also pretty solid. I hate what SNW is doing to the Gorn, which started with this episode, but it’s certainly a less egregious offender than episode 09. La’an’s mind-meld with Spock is a good scene which establishes a connection between them on the basis of them both losing a sibling. It’s also one of the few scenes Spock gets with a woman that isn’t just oozing with overwrought sexual tension. (no shade to Spock x La’an shippers, I respect y’all). Sometimes SNW’s themed episodes feel a bit copy-pasted without really adding anything to the narrative. I think “The Serene Squall”’s pirate theme didn’t really match with Spock’s struggle to understand himself. And “All Those Who Wander”’s blatant ripoff of Alien still confuses me. Why do the writers keep bringing that up like it’s a good thing? But I think the “submarine episode” type-feel of this one works because it doesn’t feel like a carbon copy of any specific submarine movie, and it’s in service of the themes of isolation and mystery that are present throughout the episode.  6/10. 

#5: 1x05 “Spock Amok” I love hijinks. Hijinks are the best. I also am a #1 T’Pring stan so this episode really fed that side of me. I’m not the biggest fan of the whole Spock/T’Pring/Chapel love triangle, but I’m willing to set aside my issues and enjoy a good, silly bodyswap episode. I think this one also does a really good job of establishing that, while they’re trying their best, Spock and T’Pring just aren’t meant for each other. Their inability to properly perform the ritual to understand each other is just the first of many, many incompatibilities these two have.  Continuity gripe: Christine Chapel now apparently knows about T’Pring, even though she wore the same shocked face as the others in “Amok Time” when Spock said she was his wife. I could decide to headcanon that she was just surprised they were still together, because let’s face it, the greatest mystery now is why the hell didn’t they break up before that point, now that we’ve seen in “The Serene Squall” that they can terminate their bond at anytime. But that would be deliberately reading against author’s intent, methinks. Other nitpicking: I think Spock should have used the nerve pinch on that guy T’Pring was trying to bring in. Punching him just doesn’t quite feel right for his character, to me. It was kinda romantic though to punch the guy for insulting his fiancee. Too bad they’re doomed to fail. Is anyone else shipping Chapel/T’Pring after this episode? No? Still only me? 7/10.

#4: 1x03 “Ghosts of Illyria” I think this episode had some great things to say about the close-mindedness of the Federation and how they’ve let their negative history with Khan and the Eugenics Wars blind them to the ways other people might be using genetic manipulation for good causes. The light-spreading disease was a unique mechanic that was a really fun. Uhura getting to model Starfleet’s first durag was really cool and I loved her line about being like the Princess and the Pea. (Autistic Uhura with sensory issues, anyone?) I also enjoyed the Spock & Pike scenes on the planet. And Una carrying Hemmer like a sack of potatoes is a huge highlight. I think my main criticism of this episode is less to do with the episode itself, but more to do with the fact that it didn’t feel properly followed up on? Here’s to hoping Season 2 will do more to address the issues raised in this one. 8/10.

#3: 1x08 “The Elysian Kingdom” This episode was just pure fun. All the cast got to dress up and have a great time. Ortegas dressed as a knight made me ever gayer. Hemmer as a wizard/scientist was hilarious and iconic. Uhura made an amazing evil queen. Pike being cowardly and disloyal was really funny. And while I’d been hoping that M’Benga would be able to cure his daughter, I think that would have been like a slap in the face to Pike, who doesn’t get to escape his fate. So this is probably the second best option. My only complaint is that they should have let the crew keep their memories. Let Pike be embarrassed by how he acted. Let Spock trip over himself trying to apologize. Let Ortegas reminisce fondly about her sword, Starfall. This episode would be so much more impactful if they could remember it. Don’t be cowards, paramount! 9/10.

#2: 1x10 “A Quality of Mercy” Okay, okay, this episode ROCKED. I’ve heard people saying it’s just a cheap, bland rip-off of “Balance of Terror” but hear me out. I love Romulans. I love Alternate Timelines. Especially ones that include Romulan War Part II: Electric Boogaloo. I love it when characters try to change things and get bitten in the ass by the Butterfly Effect. I loved all the parallels and changes. I loved the gritty action sequences and updated special effects. I love that this episode did not violate canon. Someone in Paramount wrote this episode specifically for me, and I am living for it.

I’ve heard criticisms of Paul Wesley’s Kirk, and I just have to say, he’s a different person in this episode. He’s not TOS Kirk, because he’s missing out on a whole year of experiences as the Enterprise Captain. He doesn’t have Spock or McCoy to be his moral centers. He’s grim and solemn in this episode because he’s captain of the Farragut--a ship on which he he witnessed over 200 people get killed by a cloud creature, (an event which he blames himself for, by the way, and specifically for not acting fast enough, which I think motivates a lot of his impetus to charge in guns blazing this time). Yeah I agree it’s a shame they cast such a skinny guy who can’t carry on the legacy of James “Thicc” Kirk. But I think he understood the assignment. I have a few aesthetic nitpicks, like why did they add ridges to the Romulan Commander? And why is the Romulan Neutral Zone shown to be like... only a few hundred meters across and not several lightyears? But my one serious gripe with this episode is this line: “Every time we change the path, he dies.” Like, I can totally get behind Pike wanting to spare Spock from suffering a fate similar to the one he’s destined to face. No one wants to see their friend get mangled like that, if they can avoid it. But Spock wasn’t dead. The writers keep using that word. But disability isn’t death! Urgh. 9.5/10.

#1 (my favorite): 1x02 “Children of the Comet”

Saving a planet? Check. Sam Kirk immediately getting incapacitated? Hilarious. The themes of predestination vs. interference? Handled very well and very cool. The makeup, costumes and set design for the aliens on Persephone III? Phenomenal. Spock and Uhura getting to sing a duet? Amazing. (sidenote: I know I’m a spirk girlie, but if SNW was determined to make Spock have an m/f relationship besides his one with T’Pring, spock/uhura is right there. They actually have a lot of shared qualities that would make them a good match (intelligence, cultural sensitivity, both struggling with finding where they belong) and their duet scene here really reminded me of that one duet they shared in TOS. And both of those are really sweet. I do think it’s perfectly possible to read both scenes as platonic, if you want. But if Spock and Kirk had sung a duet I know y’all would be losing your minds.)  My one nitpick: like all of their scenes together, I felt like the way Chapel flirted with Spock was weird and off-putting. But I don’t blame her for shooting her shot. It’s unclear in this episode if she’s aware of T’Pring yet or not. And Spock is a hottie, what can I say? All in all, this episode was everything I wanted this series to be. It’s a shame they weren’t all a little more like it. I was really hoping “Strange New Worlds” meant we’d get more planet of the week stuff. But really only the first 3 did that, and this was certainly the best of those 3. 10/10. 

[mylittleredgirl]

gonna keep sharing a few thoughts as i watch the star treks this week. i pinned the post where i was asking for crowdsourced episode suggestions if you want to add some! i couldn’t limit myself to a clever one-liner for each episode and busted out the bullet points, so i’m putting it behind a readmore.

(episodes are all tng for this round: “schisms” / “masks” / “manhunt” / “the emissary” / “peak performance”)

“schisms”:

i LOVE when tng goes horror. that scene in the holodeck where they slowly reveal the alien operating table... 👩‍🍳💋. i need to do a Spooky Trek marathon soon.

add this one to the unofficial “counselor troi is really necessary and good at her job actually” theme for the week -- remember that post about how starships need a Weird Shit officer for people to report weird shit to? that’s deanna! worf had a strange reaction to a pair of scissors in the barber shop and must have immediately gone to tell her, as did riker and geordi and that civilian lady, because that’s what you’re supposed to do when Weird Shit happens in deep space, and that’s how you find out that aliens from another dimension are borrowing your crew.

i’m obsessed with the ship’s counselor role and will go fully feral on anyone who dismisses it.

“masks” for @mrv3000​:

look, this episode gets a bad rap, but it’s hard for an episode to be too bad when you’ve got patrick stewart and brent spiner trying their best, you know?

the premise that super sophisticated aliens sent out a super sophisticated probe that survived 87 million years in deep space for the purpose of a brief mythology larp is weird, but it makes me think that either the interaction with data (an unexpected sentient piece of technology not meant to interface with the probe) caused a glitch OR the 87 million years in deep space meant that the probe probably wasn’t supposed to do this exact thing. it’s like if someone in 87 million years encountered a derelict starship voyager, and whatever sensor beam they sent at it activated the tiny portion of the computer dedicated to Fair Haven and they were like “ah, these people for Spiritual Reasons recreate a ritual where they get drunk and throw ceremonial ring-like objects, how strange for a technologically advanced society to do that.”

actually, an alien holoprogram is the only thing that makes sense by Star Trek Rules™️, because the rules of holoprograms is that you can get stuck in the program, but the program ends and everything re-sets to normal once you play to the end of the story.

can we talk about that opening scene with beverly and deanna where there’s a random sculpture in deanna’s quarters and beverly is like “oooh maybe will left it for you as a little present.” i’m gonna leave aside the fact that they decide it’s probably a secret admirer randomly breaking into a senior officer’s quarters with anonymous gifts, and that’s not a cause for immediate investigation, and just focus on how i adore will and deanna’s are-they-or-aren’t-they relationship and beverly being like SOOOOOO is he leaving you booty call tokens? (and this is like an episode before the deanna/worf story starts heating up)

“manhunt” for @coraclavia:

this is an amazing episode of star trek because absolutely nothing happens. the a plot of the episode is “lwaxana troi is horny for alien reasons and goes around sexually harassing every man she sees.” the b plot is “everyone stares at funny looking aliens in stasis.” the c plot of “assassins attempt to bomb diplomatic conference” takes up 45 seconds of airtime in the last scene of the episode.

i live for pulaski and deanna’s hallway interaction where they decide that actually they ARE going to leave captain picard in lwaxana’s clutches for the evening because it’s probably hilarious

i haven’t read imzadi fanfic in years but someone who does please point me to whatever’s the best of the “deanna absolutely breaks riker with sex when she hits midlife” genre

honestly if i were a famous rock musician i also would want to appear on star trek, absolutely unidentifiable beneath sixteen pounds of latex and a voice modulator

“the emissary”:

K’EHLEYR MY BELOVED

i absolutely, absolutely love every interaction she and deanna have in this episode and i want them to become [girl]friends immediately

the conversation about culture is so rich and i want so much more of it, especially between worf and k’ehleyr -- worf fully klingon but raised by humans, overcompensating by being (as jadzia will later point out) so adherent to klingon honor roles that he can’t loosen up and have fun, but also remaining separate from his home culture; k’ehleyr both as human and klingon, raised by both parents, disdainful of the klingon honor code but also making it her life’s work to be a bridge between the two cultures. IT’S SO FASCINATING!

it also makes me think long and hard about b’elanna, and how both k’ehleyr and b’elanna see their klingon tempers as a dangerous burden they have to control, but k’ehleyr seems so much more comfortable with herself in general. in watching it this time, it occurs to me how much of that is likely due to the homes they grew up in -- b’elanna came from a broken home and is estranged from both parents, with the perception that her father left because she was “too klingon” and that her mother was disappointed in her for not being klingon enough; k’ehleyr seems to come from parents who put work into their relationship and dealt with cross-cultural challenges together (“klingon and human dna is compatible, with a little help -- rather like my parents”). 

i spent LONG HOURS as a kid trying to work out the biology of how klingons can get pregnant through their hands.

“peak performance”:

season two gets a lot of shit -- the episodes aren’t as tightly written as later ones because of the writer’s strike, but that means there’s lots of filler content which is awesome. the cold open poker game in “the emissary” feels like it leads into the whole strategema side-plot in this episode.

i love pulaski and data’s relationship in the back half of season two, with the same part of my heart that loves spock and bones’s relationship. is it unhealthy and problematic? yeah. is it also somehow heartwarming and my favorite part of season two? yep.

i love riker so much. his combination of confident swagger and “who WOULDN’T take the opportunity to be guaranteed pasted by the best” is perfect.

quark!! hilarious to me that the ferengi are still a Real Threat™️. i think they should’ve brought that back actually in the dominion war like oh you guys just FORGOT the ferengi have a fleet of ships that almost destroyed the federation flagship a couple of times? we’ll fight the changelings with you but we’re charging you market rate plus hazard pay for each torpedo used.

[kinetic-elaboration]

November 20: 3x14 Whom Gods Destroy

Returning to my modified tradition of watching TOS on Wednesday and writing about it on Saturday. I definitely don’t want to reach the end of the series (I’m kind of toying with starting again at the beginning when I finish) but I do feel like it’s getting harder to fit watching into my week, and fit writing down my notes into that day or even later in the week. I’m not even getting busier… I’m just getting more tired.

Anyway, this was an ep I’d seen before, but only once and quite a while ago. The only part I remembered was ‘a dream that made Mr. Spock and me brothers.’ Overall, I’d say it was fine, though it didn’t spark anything in me. I was a S3 apologist earlier on but recently I’ve felt like the eps have been… fine. Nothing objectionable, but nothing classic. That’s mostly how I felt about this one.

I was also so tired while watching this particular episode that my eyelids were straight up closing at the end. So, a minimum of coherent thoughts to come, most likely.

Elba II—an asylum for the (very few) criminally insane. Seems like we’re having our cake and eating it too there.

Star Trek Horror Story

Now you’re trapped…. That’s not an ominous warning at all.

Oh look, another hero from the Academy! Yet again. He had a lot of heroes.

You know what, I was joking, but this absolutely IS Star Trek Horror Story. The warnings: you’re trapped, that’s not Garth… the reveal of the real governor suspended from the ceiling… Absolutely on point horror tropes.

Why is this Andorian wearing a feathery robe?

He stunned Spock! Absolutely heartless.

I am LORD GARTH.

So Garth is actually an alien. Sometimes they say “so and so of a planet” but what they mean is the person is a human born on a planet that is not Earth but I do believe he is really an alien, which is interesting.

This guy lol… Kirk manipulates him very easily. I kind of love him and this actor, though. He’s having so much fun being over the top and, like, subtly but constantly unhinged.

I also love the Orion woman just chilling in this scene, poking at him and looking crazed.

Aaaaah, tricky tricky shapeshifter… Thinks he can solve all of his problems by just looking like Kirk.

“He was such a genius. What a waste.”

Aw, he uses chess moves as code words, I love this big ol’ nerd.

It’s the tantrum from the infamous reaction gif! (Not even technically Kirk… but a good excuse for Shatner to ham it up)

That is quite a luxurious coat Garth has.

I love when Scotty’s in command. He definitely goes into a different mode… there’s a different sort of confidence about him. Like, obviously this isn’t his preferred job or his ultimate goal, but he’s not scared of it.

And Sulu is looking extremely attractive today. (And every other day.)

“Why can’t I blow off just one of his ears?” Rude.

Lol, what the hell is this entertainment? Plagiarized poetry, dancing… everyone’s favorite party activities.

I think Spock is annoyed by Marta’s attentions.

“Captain, if you could create a diversion, I could slip away and not have to hear this poetry.”

"Why can Bram Stoker say Bram Stoker's Dracula but I can't say Sandy Griffin's Dracula?"          

LMAO Vulcan children do slinky, sexy dances like this… why do I HATE having this information? I haven’t felt like Spock has been so terribly OOC this season, as seems to be the conventional wisdom, but this feels dangerously OOC to all Vulcans. I mean… okay, yes they are decadent bitches, and I’m sure they have ritual dances. But this?? Hate it.

What is IC though is that Spock was uncoordinated and bad at it.

Spock at a little Vulcan dance recital.

Kirk is storing this information in his head forever.

Kirk is intensely uninterested in Marta lol.

The “finest military commander in the galaxy.” But he says he’s “primarily an explorer.”

They’re so casual about mentioning Garth is a fleet captain, even though he and Pike are literally the only ones.

“They rejected me and I condemned them to death.” Since this plot is so close to Beyond anyway, I feel like thy could have just more brazenly repurposed it but really done something with the fragility of the male ego and this line.

“I had risen above this decadent weakness, which still has you in its command.” Or that one, honestly!!

THAT MADE US BROTHERS!!!!!

I actually really enjoy this whole section; it’s probably the highlight of the episode.

“You are his subordinate, and that is all.” Uh, rude.

Lol, Spock. “In your Fleet? Uh, what fleet? I see no fleet of any kind. Not trying to be rude but you seem to have zero ships…?”

A society ruled by the elite. Okay, good plan, no one’s ever thought of that before.

LORD GARTH. Spock: “…As you wish. Whatever.” Honestly, that “love long and prosper (threatening)” in ST09 was quite in character. He doesn’t give a fuck. I’m sure when he was 17 that came off as aggression.

Kirk was 100% ready to FIGHT when Spock was taken away.

Kirk is so smart and brave. I know I say this every time but it is TRUE.

You know what… I like Marta, I’ve decided. She’s weird as hell, but fun.

Aw, she’s arranging to bring Spock to him. She knows the way to Kirk’s heart.

“He’s my lover and I have to kill him.” Yep, that checks out.

Spock finds that amusing.

Very glad to see you. 😊

Spock is yet again volunteering to put himself in danger to protect the Captain.

Oh snap it’s not Spock! I feel like I really should have seen that coming. I was too distracted by the trademark quick but sincere reunion and by Spock’s apparent attempt at self-sacrifice.

Kirk is trying his best to rehabilitate his hero.

“You were the prototype, the model.” I think that’s Kirk actually though?

Drink every time he says LORD GARTH.

Caesar, Hitler, Krotus. Your standard dictators.

Kirk really is refusing to get into the spirit of the thing (the thing = this random ass coronation).

“You could serve as a human sacrifice.” / “No, I wouldn’t enjoy that at all.” It’s that dry humor in times of crisis that really gets to me.

All of this is causing Kirk pain. It’s so silly and mad. (And it reminds me of that scene in Daria where they do the ‘family court’ and stack up all the furniture to make the judge’s seat.)

Uh, I think Marta’s role in the court should be Poet Laureate, duh.

Walk walk fashion baby.

I like the plaid pants on the Andorian.

I see we’re re-using the space suit costumes from the one with the interphase. Economical.

I feel like Garth can’t keep an idea in his head for more than 3 seconds. Like, he was going to get a fleet of ships, or at least one ship, but then he got distracted by a party, and then he got distracted by Kirk, and then he got distracted by a coronation ceremony he suddenly decided he needed, and then he got distracted by killing Marta for no reason.

Let’s punch (a hole in) it.

“Curious, I’m in a cage. How illogical.”

These insane asylum lackeys truly are dumb. Spock got them good and he barely had to TRY.

Oh no, the classic Two Identical Kirks scenario.

Either Spock is testing them subtly in this scene or he’s distracted by his ultimate fantasy—TWO KIRKS.

I mean he’s literally sitting here like “I’m just gonna wait for you to fight it out.”

There are literally millions of non-generic questions he could ask them to determine which Kirk is which. They’re BFFs, certainly he knows stuff that isn’t, like, public knowledge or the sort of thing any Starfleet Captain would know or be able to guess. Also, if he stunned them both, Garth would eventually just return to his real form, I would think. So that would also solve the problem.

“Oh no, they’re fighting over ME, how AWFUL.”

(The number of things that remind me of Daria in this episode is almost certainly a sign I should rewatch Daria.)

“Ensure the safety of the Enterprise.” That’s it! That’s the magic phrase! Only the real Kirk would put the Enterprise above all else.

“I am a science officer on a starship.” I mean that’s one way to describe himself, I GUESS.

Twist: he hears the word ‘captain’ and immediately screams IT’S LORD GARTH.

"I was waiting for a victor in the hand-to-hand struggle, which I assumed would be Captain Garth.” Lol, okay that sounds not fake at all. Lot to unpack there.

Spock had to think about that King Solomon comparison. To be fair, so did I.

So, overall, I’d say that was… an okay ep. I can see the similarities to Dagger of the Mind, though that was a superior episode. It was also similar to Star Trek Beyond, in the idea of the warrior/soldier/conqueror who doesn’t want to become a diplomat/explorer/adventurer. Except to make the timeline work with Garth, you have to do some extra finangling. Maybe. I don’t know. I know there was a Romulan war not that long ago, and there’s always some Klingon wars, so I feel like you could make the “I don’t want peace, I want BLOODSHED” thing work at any time. I don’t know. I guess I’m trying to say both that this ep was better than Beyond (most pieces of media are) and that I didn’t much like how they explained Garth’s break with sanity. He was injured and it just made him snap? Seems too convenient. And not really necessary. There can be a fine line between brilliant commander and dictator-to-be. I think it’s believable he got a big head gradually over time, and then that sting of rejection from a peaceful people sent him over the edge.

On a similar note the Magic Not Insane Anymore pill was…. Eh. I don’t care how sci fi this is, I will never believe you can just snap your fingers and make mental illness disappear. I mean, was that not the lesson of Dagger of the Mind? The real challenge is to show how an enlightened, future utopian society treats its most seriously ill people, not imagining a future where you never have to deal with thorny issues like how to protect your most vulnerable—when they are themselves a threat to others.

Also, I’m pretty bitter about Marta just being randomly killed off. I get it! Garth’s insane! He’s erratic! He has random ideas that are very dangerous! I kinda already got that point, and I liked Marta, and I didn’t like that she had to be sacrificed like that. Honestly, it struck me a little bit as poor plotting: we’re not sure what to do with these extra minutes we have, let’s just… tangent off. Instead, that time could have been used to go more into the concept or theme of the episode: maybe a more complex back story for Garth, or a different plot solution than magic medicine for everyone, or something.

Anyway, basically a B episode for me. I have not seen any of the next FIVE so… this’ll be fun for me.

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Vickie Moseley

Vickie Moseley has 252 stories at Gossamer, some of which have also made their way to AO3. She has obviously contributed a ton to the fandom over the years! I’ve recced some of my favorites of her stories here before, including Giving Thanks, Stunned, and a bunch of post-eps for particular episodes, including “Firewalker” and “Pine Bluff Variant.” Big thanks to Vickie for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

Not really. Well, actually, it has always surprised me that anyone would read my stories even during the heyday of the series, but that’s my self-consciousness talking. That people are discovering The X-Files is not at all surprising and that they are stumbling on fan fic is a natural extension and I find that wonderful. My husband and I never watched Grimm when it was on network TV and we’re currently going through that series, so it’s the streaming-on-demand-there-isn’t-anything-new-on-TV times we find ourselves.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

Friendships. I have a group of women that I’ve been friends with for over 20 years. Until this year we gathered in person every year. We are in contact on Facebook messenger all the time and a conversation will start up just out of thin air when we haven’t conversed for months! It’s been wonderful knowing these women from all parts of the country (and the world for that matter).

And strangely enough, medical research. My writing tended to focus on ‘injured Mulder’ (or Mulder Torture as we termed it) and I also liked reading that in fan fic. Two years ago this managed to help me in real life. My husband experienced a bilateral pneumothorax (both lungs collapsed spontaneously). One of my favorite stories that I have read and reread is “Short of Breath” by the incomparable dee_ayy. She did some serious research while writing that story and it’s all in that fan fiction. I’m not saying it’s the same as a medical degree, but I knew what was happening, why the doctors where performing certain procedures and it really eased my mind as we went through the whole experience. I never would have known what was going on if I hadn’t read that story so many times.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

Email was the ‘social media’ for the day. That, and newsfeeds. There were two newsfeeds in the beginning: the official FOX website had a message board, and there was one on ‘alt.tv’ which was an internet newsfeed where fans posted spoilers and discussed episodes. The alt.tv newsfeed got tired of the fan fic writers posting stories so a separate newsfeed was formed just for fan fic. EMXC, which was an AOL mailing list, was invite only and somewhat exclusive at first, but opened up to everyone. When the old OSU (Ohio State University) mailing list turned into Gossamer and Ephemeral, the fandom, and fan fic just skyrocketed.

But what you lived for the most, as a writer, was actual feedback. Emails from people all over who read your story. It was nice to get a quick ‘Hey, read this and really like it!’ but the wonderful emails, the ones you kept in folders on your inbox, were the ones that went into detail, sometimes critical, sometimes grammar related, but always showing where you could improve, or where you touched someone. Every friend I have from the fandom started as feedback, either to me or from me. I’m on AO3 and I appreciate ‘kudos’ but I really love getting comments.

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

Confidence in my writing. I learned a lot from other writers. Constructive feedback was a gift! I may never write the great American novel but I don’t think I’m afraid to give it a shot after all my years in fan fic.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

They had me at ‘aliens’. I’m a sucker for UFO shows. Was front row center at Close Encounters of the Third Kind, read many of the UFO standards, still watch Ancient Aliens on History Channel. I was waiting for The X-Files based on the tiny blurb in the 1993 Fall Preview Guide from TV Guide.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

I kinda got fired from a job I loved and couldn’t go back into that arena for a long time. I was so depressed I was cleaning out my kitchen cabinets. My husband ‘gave’ me the internet for my birthday just to get me out of the dumps. I went straight to ‘yahoo’ and typed in X Files. After reading all the character bios I saw a ‘hyperlink’ (yes, that’s what we called them in 1995) to something called ‘fan fiction’. It was the OSU tree directory of about 100 fan fiction stories. I was instantly hooked.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

I still love the show and all the fans I run across. I was not happy with S8 or S9 but I did watch The Truth. I was on Haven for a while during the reboots (S10 and S11) but it wasn’t the same. I’ve got all the seasons on DVD or blu ray and both movies. When I hear from fans, I’m so happy to connect but I don’t go out and look for new stories anymore.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

None. My heart belongs to Mulder ;)

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

Captain Kirk, Spock, Captain Picard, Will Riker, Luke, Han, Leia, Poe, Rae, Kylo at the end. I like strong characters but it’s OK if they have flaws. I’d like to see more strong female leads in science fiction (Gammora and Nebula are favs of mine, too). I love Brea Larson’s portrayal of Captain Marvel!  

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

Sure. When the Pandemic hit we started going through the series for maybe the 20th time. It’s nice to watch them on a larger TV screen. Kim Manners was a genius with lighting and showing just enough of the ‘monster’. I suspect he will be better appreciated in the future than he was at the time he was alive.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I still go back and read my favorites from XF. I read Blood Ties by Dawn about once a year, the whole series. I go back and read the Virtual Season X seasons. We had some really good stories in those years.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

Too many to list! Dawn, of course. Susan Proto (I co-wrote with her), Sally Bahnsen, dee_ayy, Suzanne Bickerstaff’s Magician Series was the first (and only) fantasy I ever truly liked! I loved all my co-writers and there are plenty of writers that I wish we’d gotten around to collaborating.

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

I’m proud of Out of the Cold because it’s Mulder before Scully. I’m partial to the Flight Into Egypt series because I like ‘righting’ what I thought Carter got wrong in the end.

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

I keep trying! I’m working (have been working for almost a decade now) on a Flight Into Egypt story set at Christmas. Each fall I drag it out of mothballs, write a paragraph or two and get busy doing Christmas stuff. Funny, but it was easier to find time to write when I was a working mom of 6 than as a retired grandma of 3.

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

I’m putting together a cookbook for my kids and grandkids of all our family recipes. It’s not just the recipes, but the stories behind them. It’s a WIP (work in progress).

Where do you get ideas for stories?

I had a book, just a cheap paperback of unexplained events—all true stories, supposedly—that I got a lot of ideas from. Or, like Carter, I would see something in the news and it would turn into a story. One time I had a dream about our Pur water filter and it turned into a fan fic.

What's the story behind your pen name?

My older sister named me because my Mom and Dad let her. I never used a pen name. That’s my real name, you can google me and find out all about me. I used to have a wiki page or so my kids told me.

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

My kids used to tell their friends that ‘Mom is famous on the internet’ as a joke. Most of my friends know. My other life is in politics and the two lives usually don’t cross but once on a campaign I was asked by a reporter if I was the ‘same’ Vickie Moseley who writes fan fiction. If I had lied, that would have been the story—that I lied about this hobby of mine. Like it was something to be ashamed of or I was ashamed of my writing. So instead of ducking the question I said ‘yeah, have you read any of my stuff?’ Fan fiction was not mentioned in the finished article.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

I’m on AO3 but only a partial list. My website is still up thanks to Mimic.

Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

Back when I started writing (1995) it was a sort of commune. We all loved reading fan fiction, we didn’t want the story to end with the credits. So if you wanted to read, you were encouraged to write, too, so that others had stories to read and share. It was a cooperative arrangement very much like the old Literary Societies back in the 19th Century.  I really miss that, so I hope that on some level that is still going on.

(Posted by Lilydale on November 10, 2020)