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andrasteRecently, I finished watching the original Star Trek, beginning to end. Which actually makes it the first complete Trek that I have seen every single episode of! (I skipped an episode of DS9 - Covenant, I think? - because Selena advised me I was better off without it and I trust her judgement on these things, and I didn't watch all of the first two seasons of TNG because life is too short.) On the whole I enjoyed it, the irritations of television produced in the sixties not withstanding.
Things I had not previously realised about original Star Trek:
1. Random crew members wearing red die a lot, but not as often as I was expecting from the legendary power of the curse. (According to statistics I googled, it's really just being security personnel that you need to avoid. Those guys die incessantly. Which I guess is kind of their job.)
2. It's much funnier than I was expecting. I mean, intentionally. It's also the other kind of hilarious sometimes, but that's only to be expected after a gap of so many decades. I still think my favourite joke is the look on Kirk's face in The Trouble With Tribbles when Scotty explains why he had to beat up those Klingons. (Oh, like you wouldn't have punched the guy who called your beloved a garbage scow, Jim.)
3. Wow, Leonard Nimoy truly was the Most Valuable Player here, and it becomes particularly obvious whenever he's called on to play something other than Spock. Or to play Spock who has temporarily been afflicted with ~feelings~. This is not any insult to the rest of the cast, but he earned his reputation.
4. That said, Shatner is way better than pop culture osmosis would lead you to believe. (Especially in the first two seasons - I think he got a little lazy in the last one. Maybe one of those actors who needs a director to reign him in? Which would make sense given the stories of his behaviour on set.)
5. It's sort of boggling just how often Kirk's plan boiled down to 'seduce the closest pretty girl.' Except when he delegates that part of the job to McCoy or even Spock if she's a Romulan. It's even more boggling how often this works.
6. OMG, Kirk is lucky that his command style works out for him. The number of times the whole senior crew could have been taken out by one unlucky transporter accident is pretty frightening. I know they called this out in Generations, but still.
7. There were definitely more cats than I was expecting. Or, more aliens disguised as cats, anyway. It's a shame that later Trek series don't contain so many felines - I guess that after the various Spot actors were such a pain to work with during TNG they swore of animals that were difficult to wrangle. (Beagles are better behaved and fish just do their thing and look pretty in the back of the shot.)
8. I remain unconvinced that anyone understands or has ever understood the Prime Directive.
Things I had not previously realised about original Star Trek:
1. Random crew members wearing red die a lot, but not as often as I was expecting from the legendary power of the curse. (According to statistics I googled, it's really just being security personnel that you need to avoid. Those guys die incessantly. Which I guess is kind of their job.)
2. It's much funnier than I was expecting. I mean, intentionally. It's also the other kind of hilarious sometimes, but that's only to be expected after a gap of so many decades. I still think my favourite joke is the look on Kirk's face in The Trouble With Tribbles when Scotty explains why he had to beat up those Klingons. (Oh, like you wouldn't have punched the guy who called your beloved a garbage scow, Jim.)
3. Wow, Leonard Nimoy truly was the Most Valuable Player here, and it becomes particularly obvious whenever he's called on to play something other than Spock. Or to play Spock who has temporarily been afflicted with ~feelings~. This is not any insult to the rest of the cast, but he earned his reputation.
4. That said, Shatner is way better than pop culture osmosis would lead you to believe. (Especially in the first two seasons - I think he got a little lazy in the last one. Maybe one of those actors who needs a director to reign him in? Which would make sense given the stories of his behaviour on set.)
5. It's sort of boggling just how often Kirk's plan boiled down to 'seduce the closest pretty girl.' Except when he delegates that part of the job to McCoy or even Spock if she's a Romulan. It's even more boggling how often this works.
6. OMG, Kirk is lucky that his command style works out for him. The number of times the whole senior crew could have been taken out by one unlucky transporter accident is pretty frightening. I know they called this out in Generations, but still.
7. There were definitely more cats than I was expecting. Or, more aliens disguised as cats, anyway. It's a shame that later Trek series don't contain so many felines - I guess that after the various Spot actors were such a pain to work with during TNG they swore of animals that were difficult to wrangle. (Beagles are better behaved and fish just do their thing and look pretty in the back of the shot.)
8. I remain unconvinced that anyone understands or has ever understood the Prime Directive.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-03 03:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-04 03:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-03 03:36 pm (UTC)re: William Shatner - I do think he's one of those actors who benefits from strong direction. Walter Koenig writes in his memoirs that when they shot Generations, Shatner for the first time since eons got told by a director to play a scene differently than he'd done, and took the direction without any tantrum, which made Koenig reflect self critically that all them had done their share of making the Bill the Egomaniac situation possible simply but not standing up to him.
Speaking of Walter Koenig, isn't it weird to have seen him as Bester and go back to harmless Pavel Chekov?
re: Prime Directive, I think the only ST series who a) took it seriously, and b) did interesting things with it was TNG. On TOS I had the impression it was just there so Kirk could go up against it. On TNG Picard actually tried to work with it, and we got reflections on the damage done to indigenious cultures in ye conquistador days as an explanation of why it was originally developed.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-04 03:57 am (UTC)I have also never seen Power from B7, also thanks to you :). (Nobody needs more Ben Steed episodes after The Harvest of Kairos.)
re: William Shatner - I do think he's one of those actors who benefits from strong direction. Walter Koenig writes in his memoirs that when they shot Generations, Shatner for the first time since eons got told by a director to play a scene differently than he'd done, and took the direction without any tantrum, which made Koenig reflect self critically that all them had done their share of making the Bill the Egomaniac situation possible simply but not standing up to him.
I feel like the set could have greatly benefited from someone standing by with a rubber bat to gently but firmly bop Shatner on the head every time his ego got out of control ...
Speaking of Walter Koenig, isn't it weird to have seen him as Bester and go back to harmless Pavel Chekov?
So weird! Truly a situation where a multiverse portal swap would confuse everyone involved, and not only because Bester can pronounce the letter w.
re: Prime Directive, I think the only ST series who a) took it seriously, and b) did interesting things with it was TNG. On TOS I had the impression it was just there so Kirk could go up against it. On TNG Picard actually tried to work with it, and we got reflections on the damage done to indigenious cultures in ye conquistador days as an explanation of why it was originally developed.
You would think that A Piece of the Action alone would convince Kirk of its value, never mind Patterns of Force, but yes, Picard seems to be the only captain who really cares about this. TNG does get a lot of good mileage out of the conflict between his Lawful impulses and his Good impulses.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-04 07:00 am (UTC)When I wrote my B5/DS9 crossover for Multiverse wherein Bester meets Garak, I had the Starfleet crew notice the resemblance, of course, but this being the middle of the Dominion War, they just assumed at first that Bester was a Founder who for some reason had shapeshifted into looking like a legendary member of Kirk's crew, and not even in the right 100 something age. And there are some (very few) crossovers which use the actor factor directly, but I've never found one that satisfied me.
Mind you: any plot developing would depend on the age in which they switch places. A young Ensign Chekov ending up on the B5 era when Bester was young would be discovered as a non-telepath (not to mention non-Psi Cop) instantly because chances are he'd end up among other telepaths, and even if he wasn't, if, say, young Alfred B. was on a mission among mundanes, he'd give himself away instantly. Meanwhile, young Bester on board Enterprise might stay undetected somewhat longer, but he'd assume this was an elaborate mind game/test scenario (because these if you take the Psi Corps novels as canon were actually inflicted on telepaths growing up within the Corps as Bester did quite often, and he would be in his early 20s, so school days weren't that long ago), even accounting for the fact the thoughts of everyone around him don't match with that theory. Once he does figure out this is for real, he's absolutely unlikely to simply ask for help and very likely to start implanting orders in people's minds, at which points this turns into another alien intruder with superpowers episode and/or Kirk gets Gary Mitchell flashbacks, only now he thinks it's young Pavcel who's gone insane.
Otoh, if they are middle aged, things might happen a bit differently. Because middle aged Chekov is not only more seasoned but past many a bizarre experience and might be able to bluff long enough to find allies before being arrested as an impersonator. For maximum hilarity, of course, he needs to be en route to B5 when the switch happens and meet with fellow Russian Ivanova first thing. (How on earth he's going to convince her he's not Bester playing games, I have no idea.) Meanwhile, I can't decide whether Bester being dumped in Chekov's place during that encounter with Khan at the start of ST II would consider Khan a fellow homo superior or a mundane with delusions. (Physical superiority and heightened intelligence do not a mutant make, or do they?) He'd definitely try to take advantage of the situation, but how?
You would think that A Piece of the Action alone would convince Kirk of its value, never mind Patterns of Force
Oh God, don't remind me. Patterns of Force is so dumb, and I never can decide whether the "historian" who in it supposedly founded this society or Marla McGivers in Space Seed are a more insulting depiction of the profession.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-05 02:10 am (UTC)He sure would - young Parvel is a trusting sort, and finding himself in a strange situation his first instinct would be to ask where the hell he was and how he could get back to the Enterprise. Which would result in mind scans and the Psi Corps being deeply confused. I agree entirely that Bester in Chekov's place would have a much more elaborate plan *g*.
(How on earth he's going to convince her he's not Bester playing games, I have no idea.)
Hopefully either Talia or Lyta is around to scan him, because there is now way in hell she would believe him at first. And Ivanova would find Bester 'pretending' to be a Russian space commander unbelievably annoying.
Whatever happened when Bester met Khan, it would be bound to be interesting. And probably even more horrible for the Enterprise crew than the canon version, which is saying something. Meanwhile, I wonder how he'd react to other telepaths in the Trek universe like the Vulcans and the Betazoids ... (I mean, he must be used to encountering aliens who manage without any equivalent of the Psi Corp, given that the Minbari exist and the Centauri also have their own way of doing things, but still.)
Oh God, don't remind me. Patterns of Force is so dumb, and I never can decide whether the "historian" who in it supposedly founded this society or Marla McGivers in Space Seed are a more insulting depiction of the profession.
And Carolyn Palamas the archaeologist and anthropology officer in Who Mourns For Adonais? isn't much better. Methinks the TOS writers had a low opinion of the humanities.
Marla McGivers is the main reason I just cannot love Space Seed, despite its other good qualities. 'Star Fleet officer falls for Khan' could have worked OK, but I did not need all that 'woman secretly long for Strong Uncivilised Supermen' nonsense with it.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-03 04:57 pm (UTC)7- One of the novels had alien cats, too - Uhura's Song. I really loved the worldbuilding and that whole species. I think the Animated series had an alien-cat Starfleet officer, as well. (I am in favor of ALL THE KITTY ALIENS)
5- this happens in Man from UNCLE too, every time, so I guess it's very sixties? But also MfU is hilarious to watch for the sheer number of TOS stars who show up in it.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-04 03:42 am (UTC)Honestly, I cannot think of a Trek episode that would not be made even better by the presence of more kitty aliens.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-04 05:10 am (UTC)8. I agree, but I also liked that TNG explored it from a lot of angles rather than it being a barrier to fight again.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-05 01:19 am (UTC)In TOS, it does often seem like 'it's a shame we can't just solve the problems of this primitive and inferior culture with phasers, but what are you going to do?' Whereas TNG actually tries to grapple with the reasons why this is often a bad idea.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-04 10:27 am (UTC)Prime Directive: If solving this problem by throwing our weight around and using our fancy-schmancy tech would reduce the episode to five minutes, we have to spend the remaining 39 minutes dithering about the human condition with regard to the socially relevant topic of the day first.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-05 01:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-05 01:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-06-05 02:10 am (UTC)