someone has DEFINITELY said this before and ive seen the post but this scene is so incredibly gay im actually throwing up and yelling angry obscenities
The ominous music cues in this episode are so good.
There shouldn't be anything ominous about the "Do you like me?" "Why not?" exchange between Bones and Charlie, but the music is so ominous that we just know something isn't quite right, even if we don't know what or why
In honor of me watching 2x01 with the iconic boob window shirt rip (taken from my notes), I’ve decided to reveal what I’ve been doing. I have been taking down each episode as I do a watch of TOS to see how many shirt rips actually happen out of curiosity. Here’s my season one statistics.
State of Star Trek Shirts - Season One TOS
Season Two’s Stats
1x01 - Perfectly intact but Kirk wears a slutty bed robe.
1x02 - Intact, but he is willingly shirtless for a scene.
1x03 - Kirk’s shirt gets torn at the end, shoulder and chest exposed.
1x04 - Somewhat willingly shirtless (and incredibly sweaty) Sulu! And Kirk shoulder rip, right at the end.
1x10 - Instantly shirtless and sweaty Kirk, opens with it. He fucking walks through the halls shirtless.
1x11 - No exposure.
1x12 - Double no exposure.
1x13 - Triple!
1x14 - Quadrouple! Shit’s getting boring.
1x15 - A Yeoman does get her uniform torn and has to hold up the top half for a while, and Kirk’s own shirt is torn all across the shoulder and chest, exposing titties. He gets all dirty and sweaty too, of course.
1x16 - Perfectly fine once again!
1x17 - Man, boring. Intact.
1x18 - Entirely fine despite a fight in the desert.
1x19 - Intact shirts. Sigh.
1x20 - Shoulder rip down the chest! Plus no undershirt so the silly cropped uniform keeps exposing him.
1x21 - Sigh, intact.
1x22 - Intact.
1x23 - Intact, ladies and gents.
1x24 - My stats are gonna be boring. Intact.
1x25 - I think people exaggerate. Intact.
1x26 - All good.
1x27 - Once again.
1x28 - Intact. Lame.
1x29 - He’s fine! So many shirts!
Keep in mind it’s possible I missed one here or there. Now, complied data.
Out of twenty-nine episodes in season one, only nine had a shirt rip or a shirtless Kirk. Now, that is a lot of shirt rips, but I am a little surprised at it.
That is ~31% of season one.
I wanted to make a pie chart and will continue with this as I watch the remaining two seasons. If I’m missing an episode, please let me know and I’ll fix my data. Do with this information what you will I guess, I just wanted to track stuff. XD
watching tos for the first time since like, roughly 2012/13-ish? i don't remember what year it was, or why i only got thru most of season 1 before stopping
it's been fun to refresh my swiss cheesed memory with this tho so here's a semi-liveblog of the first 10 eps that i watched over the past couple weeks
1x01 - the man trap
things i remembered beforehand:
salt monster
"plum" uwu
that gay little run and crawl jim does when he's taking cover (it fills me with such delight)
things i did not remember:
how many people died, good god man it's only the first episode
1x02 - charlie x
things i remembered:
jim's bright red exercise pants
that stupid fucking face charlie makes when he uses his powers
not liking this ep at all when i first watched it, possibly due to me being around the same age as charlie at the time
additional thoughts: i enjoyed it more this time and felt more sympathetic for charlie. poor kid needed some parents, and also, like, a hug
1x03 - where no man has gone before
things i remembered:
bones isn't in it :'( (bored) (sad) (missing my bestie)
"James R Kirk"
that post i saw on here recently about how their contacts were made of glass
the only thing i could think about while watching:
their contacts
were made
of GLASS
(yes i understand this was how contacts were made back then. still freaked out by the concept of people putting glass in their eyes on purpose)
1x04 - the naked time
things i remembered:
sweat disease
sulu fencing
oh kathleen
"ONE-MORE-TIME!!"
"love mankind"
spock breakdown (extremely uncomfortable to watch)
bones casually ripping jim's shirt sleeve to jab him in the arm (extremely hilarious every time i think about it)
did not remember:
anything about them almost crashing into a planet lol
jim's little monologue when he gets infected (lmao)
time warp???
additional thoughts: hey remember when they reused this plot in tng and tasha and data fucked (<- literally the only thing i can remember about it) ((edit from future fex: i rewatched that ep. it was wild. tos did it better tho))
1x05 - the enemy within
things i remembered:
unicorn dog :)
evil kirk and poor little meow meow kirk
"I'M CAPTAIN KIRK!!!"
things not remembered:
dog dies :(
evil kirk's killer eyeliner
additional thoughts: say what you will about shatner / his acting but this ep is Peak shatner performance and a lot of fun to watch. he put his whole pussy into it, as the kids say these days
1x06 - mudd's women
things remembered:
could not forget harry mudd if i tried
the women are color coded like the powerpuff girls lol
they're also like, on some kind of drug that keeps them looking young or something
cool costumes tho
i don't have much to say about this one lol, harry's a fun character but the rest of the ep wasn't super interesting to me. did finally learn how to pronounce "ophiuchus" tho so i'll thank it for that
1x07 - what are little girls made of
things remembered:
is this the penis rock episode (it is)
uhhh i think kirk gets put into some kind of spinny machine that makes androids (he does)
more cool costumes (debatable)
things i find funny:
the number of planets we've encountered so far that are populated by like. 2-4 people
the way ruk (the big guy) just picks up and throws kirk like he weighs nothing
so much buildup with kirk and the penis rock and he doesn't even get to hit ruk over the head with it smh
also not a funny moment but i liked the way kirk was able to get a message to spock thru the android kirk, v clever
wait i just realized bones wasn't in this ep either. deducting 1/4 of a star from my mental rating bc i missed him (but apparently not that much)
1x08 - miri
remembered:
planet of children (bc everyone else died of terminal puberty)
"no blah blah blah!"
bones tests his newly discovered, untested cure on himself, in true mad scientist fashion (also spones moment <3)
saw this ep on a "what's your fave 'bad' episode" poll here recently and i can't remember if i thought it was good or bad when i first watched it lol
forgot:
another earth?? there's just a second, identical earth floating around out there?? and (of course) they don't mention it at all for the rest of the episode
300 year old children
oh these kids are so much more annoying than i remembered, however i may just be biased bc i don't like kids shfkshfk
1x09 - dagger of the mind
remember:
absolutely nothing! oh boy!
thoughts:
wow this ep is fucked up!
okay actually i don't think i've seen this one at all before?
usually there'll be moments that jog my memory but the only thing even slightly familiar to me was kirk going "helen don't go!" while in the neutralizer chair, but i could've just seen a clip/gif of it before
i remember skipping episodes in season 1 (i was impatient and wanted to get to city on the edge of forever) but i thought i'd at least made it to halfway thru the season before skipping any
anyway did i mention this ep is fucked up? (star trek really does love to drop an absolutely haunting 50 minutes of television on you and then never address it again, i understand this now. roll credits!)
1x10 - the corbomite maneuver
remember:
uhh
there's a thing out there
it's in the way
preventing them from boldly going, even
looks like an old windows screensaver
i might've skipped this ep too now that i think about it
thoughts:
cute mckirk moment in sickbay :3
i love that this cube has its own theme music whenever its on screen
oh shit it's the sequel to cube: orb
jesus christ that's a big orb
man they really said "okay we've got 3 music tracks and we're gonna get our money's worth out of them"
10 gifs from the show I May Destroy You, where Arabella is talking to several women in a support group.
1) Woman in support group: I took Bob aside, I said “Can you stop?” Barely finished speaking before he’s looking horrified, saying he’ll never talk to me again ‘cause it’s safer.
2) Woman in support group: “Lookin’ at me like I’m crazy. / Arabella: Well, Bob probably does think you’re crazy.
3) Arabella: He thinks this is all a little uncalled for, and this “personal space” thing is all going a bit too far. And he’s very confident in his view, because
4) he’s gone exploring to see what boundaries and violations these women might be banging on about, because Bob’s thorough.
5) And in these explorations, Bob found the line that separated him from everything else. Rather than crossing it, he tip-toed on it,
6) and he experienced this feeling, being on the boundary. On the border. On the line. Of being neither in one place or another.
7) And saw how in this grey area, where nothing was quite clear, no one could be clear.
8) They can’t articulate, follow our words, they couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was that we felt he did that was so wrong.
9) So yeah, Bob thinks you’re crazy. Yeah, he thinks he’s the smartest man in the room, who knoweth all the things, because Bob has observed the detail.
10) We have to start observing Bob, telling him we do see the detail. We see you, Bob.
11) And if we see you that means we are right there with you, tip-toeing in line right behind you.
12) And in that place, where rules, clarity, law, and separation cease to exist, we will show you exactly what we mean by “violation”.
The Antares done foisted a real problem onto the crew of Enterprise, maman. Charlie Evans who gots no père or maman. It's a sad situation, but that horny orphan got some rancid tricks up his sleeve, maman. Charlie ain't our darling...
Episode Reviewed:
Star Trek 1x08 - “Charlie X"
Hosts This Episode:
David C. Roberson
Effie Ophelders
(Re)Discovering A Strange New Spock: “Miri” (1x08)
Previous: What Are Little Girls Made Of?
Next: Dagger of The Mind
A meta anthology where I re-examine TOS, especially Spock, in light of the new information Discovery & Strange New Worlds has revealed about him to us.
Onto the Analysis!
No Appetite For Green Blood
“Being a red blooded human obviously has its disadvantages.”
Yet another testament to Spock’s utter distaste for Humans and rejection of the humanity within himself. I know you’d probably HATE to hear this Mr. Spock but you sound just like your father! Also, point of advice spock, maybe don’t tease the CMO whose tryna save everyone’s lives atm!
That being said his Vulcan blood is both saving his life, and could isolate him here on this foreign world. Doomed to live much, much longer than those around him. Almost a microcosm of his senior years… oof. So he gets to be a little flippant and infodump about microscopes a bit, as a treat.
Our Boys In The Only Blue I Respect (Science!)
On a slightly lighter note! This is the first time Spock & Bones have had to work together in a vacuum where there are no other science division members as a buffer. They are the only people on this planet capable of getting the job done.
Not only that we finally see them with the same priority, and agreeing with each other on something other than keeping Jim safe. It is the fact that the communicators are, in the grand scheme, more important than finding Janice. None of them can save her if they’re all dead. On this much, Bones and Spock agree, and remind Jim of that reality.
Almost Losing Bones (Do I Have A SECOND Friend?! Ugh! Annoying!)
They’ve stopped outright disliking each other, they’ve learned to trust each other, they’ve started teasing, they both realized Jim needs both of them. Now Spock is realizing he cares about and respects this curmudgeonly Doctor a lot more than he had anticipated.
Spock doesn’t want McCoy needlessly risking his life when Jim could get back to them in time. When Bones recklessly injects himself with the possible cure, and realizes something is wrong, the person he cries out to in panic is Spock. Possibly because McCoy instinctively knows, if anybody is gonna save him from himself, it’s gonna be him.
Then what does Spock do after checking McCoy’s vitals after he finds him?! He takes Bones hands and doesn’t let go, not even when Jim returns. The significance of touching hands in Vulcan culture brings further potency to this. Was this an instinctive, sentimental human gesture from a living man to a dying one. Or, was it subtle, deliberate Vulcan mental contact?
There’s a lot more adventures to be had in SNW, but as far as we know. This is may be the first time Spock has been in telepathic contact with someone who is unconscious and he believes is dying. I can’t help but be reminded of when AOS Spock stayed and melded with Pike as he died in Into Darkness.
On the same subject, I’ve talked about the ways Kirk reminds Spock of Chris (and Michael). I think, especially in this moment of reckless self-sacrifice, Bones reminds Spock of him too. Not only of Chris, but of Hemmer, who sacrificed himself as well, abrasive and grumpy on the surface but with an incredibly gentle soul underneath.
How much he gleaned of this truth from touch telepathy or from the immediate emotional pressure of Bones possibly dying is of course, ambiguous. Another aspect of this is for the first time since they’ve met, Bones was right! He was crazy and brash and almost died needlessly but Spock’s guilty of that too, just not today!
Spock is visibly relieved that it turns out he wasn’t dying after all, not only that but to his disbelief, correct in his risk. Jim is even present for most of the undeniable proof that Spock does care for Dr. McCoy.
I assume not wanting to ruin the progress or betray Spock’s trust Kirk might’ve kept his mouth shut. Just like he waits for Spock & Bones to concede to each other than oust the fact one confided to him that he agreed with the other in private.
Bones doesn’t know how much Spock cares yet, and won’t for a while. Spock may know that Bones cares thanks to the events of the episode. They’ll both know they care about each other eventually, but won’t admit it for a looong time. Jim knows they care about each other, but knows they’ll have to figure that part out for themselves.
The triumvirate continues to solidify as their adventures continue. Bones and Spock’s relationship in particular, crossed a threshold in this episode.
4/10. The plot revolved around a compelling concept: a virulent contagion making the heroes work against the clock, plus a hostile alien society peopled by children. The execution was… well, it stumbled, let’s just say that. I appreciated the ludicrousness of Kirk’s signature shirt-ripping being in full effect; also Spock being bored of the proceedings and McCoy getting all riled up and injecting himself with what may have been poison because he couldn’t wait for Kirk’s nonsense to play out. I think that there’s a great story waiting to be thoroughly explored with the Onlies and their history - not just how they’ve survived for centuries on an apocalyptic Neverland, but what happened before that with the mass deaths of the adults. That must have created a pretty messed up generation. Plus like, the trauma of being aware of millions of babies who died without the right care after their parents died, or else those that remained babies for hundreds of years, trapped in a helpless body while their minds got old. Yikes. One aspect that I really did not like was Kirk flirting with a 14 year old to gain her trust, that seemed strange, not to mention how the crew made it explicit they were still emotionally and mentally children but Kirk called her an ‘older woman’ at the end, double yikes. Rand was also a dead leg in this episode, being captured and asking Kirk to stare at her legs and that’s about it. It’s a story that if it were properly developed could be very interesting, but so much was left unexplained – like why the planet resembled Earth exactly, or how the Federation was supposed to muster up resources to feed and educate the entire planetary population of elderly kids, or what those kids were meant to do until those resources made it out there. Also why was Kirk’s shirt left unzipped for long. Mysteries.
Favourite quote: “NO BLAH BLAH BLAH.” – Kirk. // I laughed, really hard, because Kirk would be a terrible grade school teacher. Never get into a shouting match with a child, Kirk, good lord.
livewatch thoughts for sga 1x08 (or 09, because the order on my dvds seems to differ from the one on wikipedia), home:
rodney being so sure he can do a very risky but scientifically interesting thing that he doesn’t even deign to acknowledge that it is risky (because he’s the one doing it, so of course it will work, because he believes himself infallible, so basically there’s no risk at all!) is such a warning for things to come (cough-trinity-cough) and it’s not like i think they were intentionally setting up a single season 2 episode already, but it does make me appreciate that we get a whole episode exploring the consequences of this character flaw of his later on.
we can see john thinking for a second while rodney is talking and then he goes “eight hundred and four years” (how long it would take them to get rodney by puddlejumper if he breaks the gate on the fog planet) and that’s our first hint at math nerd john!! beautiful
rodney, talking about travelling 804 years by puddlejumper to come get him: “but you would do that, right?” john: “of course we would.” fjdkf.
ALSO the first time we see john with his brick of a copy of war and peace! many iconic sheppard things contained in these first six and a half minutes of the episode.
same point as the one above but i’m not done yet because he just... thinks he’s so clever for this, gosh. i feel like there’s something to be said here about how this is not at all a fun read (and he’s a very repressed man used to denying himself), and i don’t imagine john has some hidden deep interest in russian literature (i mean, possible, but unlikely), so the actual real point of it is just performance, start to finish. if he ever finishes it, that’s some weird bragging rights, but even better is when, like in this scene, someone catches him at it while he’s reading because they will ask because it’s not a very inconspicuous choice of reading material. and it makes him look smart, potentially, but it’s also a little “look at me! i’m weird and quirky! #sorandom.” (yes, i am diagnosing john with socially awkward lonely teen girl disease because he decided to bring russian classic lit when he moved to another galaxy. i am.)
anyway, here’s his face, now that i’ve spent so many words on this:
elizabeth giving john a chance to be the one to go home if rodney’s gate project works out (giving him an excuse, even, because she says he’d be the one most qualified to brief general hammond) is both kind, because obviously john entered into the mission very late and he did NOT sign on as military commander fighting wraith, and also extremely silly, for pretty much the same reasons. you found this man in antarctica, elizabeth. he was cut off from earth way before he left the planet.
rodney thinking he commands respect at the sgc and has a bunch of virtues of which “patience” is one is very sweet and very funny and i’m glad ford clearly recognizes it for that. the team bonding and found family of it all is very <3
john talking to teyla: “then there’s all those cool earth things i told you about. football, ferris wheels.” in part this is of course a function of this being a tv show and repeated mentions of the same little detail feeling like a fun callback that ties this moment to previous episodes (which it is and does!!) but in-universe it tickles me how incredibly specific and wildly misleading john’s descriptions are of what earth is like. it is going to be very disappointing when there is not, in fact, a football field full of ferris wheels at the end of every city block.
elizabeth making an argument for a continued presence in the pegasus galaxy is an interesting discussion because on the one hand she’s claiming that they have a responsibility to the people of pegasus after waking up the wraith and on the other she acts like they, the people from earth, are the only ones that could possibly do anything with the ancient technology, like they don’t have a pretty effective gene therapy and could give that to at least some of the people of pegasus, who could then operate atlantis mostly without the earthlings.
god, john getting compliments from general hammond that clearly mean a lot to him, while knowing that’s not actually happening as a viewer, that’s. that’s painful.
rodney coming home and turning on the television is great because a) he moved to another galaxy, possibly never to return, but kept on paying his cable bill? dude. and b) the tv plays something for which the audio is “we are controlling the transmission” and that’s FORESHADOWING. i love this. (of course alternately he did not continue paying for cable but he just doesn’t think about it and so the aliens make his tv work because they don’t know it shouldn’t, but my first interpretation is funnier, so i’m sticking with that.)
the way this contructed reality falls apart and the bits and pieces we as viewers see of where it’s not right is EXCELLENT and john’s undead buddies mitch and dex in particular are a whole eassay on their own, but rodney’s line about the laws of physics having gone out the window and that “it’s like looking through a microscope at a cell culture and seeing a thousand dancing hamsters” is quite possibly my favorite thing here. A THOUSAND. DACING HAMSTERS. so it’s a+ content and would make you go viral in a second on youtube, is what you’re saying, rodney.
fake hammond: “major sheppard seemed uniquely capable of manipulating his own fabricated reality.” john: “when i think about the scenarios i COULD have thought up i’d kick myself.” GOD. lots of john thoughts, lots of fic space.
john: “this isn’t life! what do you want us to do, just pretend?” fjdkfd. okay, so, in a reading of canon in which john is queer man pretending all the time, this is an interesting dialogue snippet.
the discussion at the end honestly makes so little sense (the alien’s like, every time the gate activates some of us die, and the humans are like, hm okay, but we are human and we like living so you should send us back anyway, and the alien is like, okay that’s fair), but i don’t mind in the least. this is such a nice episode and the dilemma they’re faced with feels very star trek to me (vague fog aliens that are never given shape other than fog or a human illusion and a plot that leads to moral questions and a true test of the character and the intentions of humanity? PRECISELY the sweet spot for the tos budget), and i love that.
Anonymous friend returning to reply - I said I’d been working my way through your other fics, and you asked me if I’d just been sticking to Bridgerton. No! There is where I began, but I was thrilled to find all of your other work, particularly your RebelCaptain stories which are another favourite of mine! It’s been lovely returning to that world, so thank you for giving me that! And thank you, of course, for Chapter 6 of Five Minutes which I adored. I LOVED that conversation, it was so needed!!
Hello again anonymous friend!
Oh my goodness, Rebelcaptain. The fandom that got me out of my bubble. I was seriously, like, already in a variety of fandoms, and if you go back deep enough, I have a wide array of gifsets and fanfics, but I never really toed my way into any fandoms other than like Teen Wolf, because of all of the burn out from the TVD Fandom, and then when Teen Wolf went sideways, I kind of edged again, UNTIL ROGUE ONE.
Rebelcaptain will forever be the what could have been ship of my heart and my soul.
YES! The conversation really was so needed. That stated, part of that conversation was what was going to happen in my 1x08 rewrite, so I’m going to have to figure out how I’m going about that whole situation... BUT!
They need this conversation in every universe! I’m glad they finally got it!