Andraste

... or whatever they actually call it, anyway.

Hurrah, my best beloved actor is going to be playing one of my best beloved characters again! Which is especially nice to hear because I've had a hell week and am going to have another hell week starting tomorrow. I'm especially glad he's coming back to the roll now that he's done playing Charles forever.

Fingers crossed this makes it to local Netflix like Discovery, otherwise I will have to return to my pirating ways. (These days I have a rule where I don't illegally download any new shows, although I keep stealing the ones I was already watching before I instituted the rule and cannot otherwise get in a timely and legal fashion without signing up for pay TV packages I can't afford and don't want. This is still a stupid number of shows, because Australian TV distribution is often ridiculous.)

I have already spotted a few instances of 'TNG is the worst Trek and Picard is the worst Captain'. Which is .... definitely an opinion that people are allowed to have on the internet? Also a few rounds of 'I hope Q is not in this because I hate him' which actually surprised me more. Do people not at least appreciate the funny hats???

I do not much care what Picard is doing in the new show, but it will be nice to get back to the 24th century main timeline again. (Or maybe we'll get into the early 25th? No word yet on how long after TNG this is set.) And I really hope Q does turn up and flirt with bother him again.

Recently, 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.

So, Star Trek: Disco Edition has completed its first season! It was not perfect, but was a much more auspicious beginning than, for example, the first season of TNG. (Which was frequently downright awful. I feel like many people critiquing Discovery with comparison to the past have blocked the likes of Encounter At Farpoint and Code of Honor from their memories more successfully than I have.)

I love a lot of elements of the show, especially the characters. I have never fallen in love with such a high percentage of a Trek cast so quicky. (I think Saru is my favourite, but ask me tomorrow and it might be Lorca or Burnham or Stamets or Tilly. Especially if Tilly is really high and/or becoming the first person to say 'fuck' and 'shit' in Star Trek.)

( Spoilers are Starfleet. )

Since real life spent most of January kicking me repeatedly in the head and forcibly separating me from my DVD collection, this has been a week for comfort television. Star Trek: The Next Generation is always good for that, since I would probably be comforted listening to Patrick Stewart read the phone book. (Of course, listening to Patrick Stewart read the phone book would probably be more interesting than parts of Encounter At Farpoint, but never mind.) Since the part I actually own on DVD is mainly the Q box set, there has been lots of Q, and that only makes the comfort television factor better.

Something I have always wondered what on earth Starfleet makes of the reports they get about Q. We know they've had at least one conference about him, and they must be keen to hear about the omnipotent species who have taken an interest in humans. Yet I imagine he's often difficult to explain. It cannot be easy for the Enterprise crew to write serious reports containing things like '... and then we were teleported to Sherwood Forest, because Q's idea of being nice to the captain involves kidnapping him, his crew and a woman he had a fling with and forcing us all to re-enact an Errol Flynn movie.' Luckily Encounter At Farpoint suggests that there are cameras on the bridge so there's at least footage to confirm some of what they say. Otherwise Starfleet might think they were making up the incident with the cigars, the half-naked women and the Mariachi band.

Of course, Starfleet are probably missing some of the finer points completely. I can't imagine that Picard ever informed them of Q's habit of leaning over to whisper in his ear or showing up in his bed. So their analyses probably lean more toward 'Q put humanity on trial and introduced us to the Borg' and less to 'Q flirted outrageously with Picard and wore a series of ridiculous hats.'

Although if I were going to hold a conference about the Q, there would definitely be a panel about the hats. It would have plenty of pictures and possibly a silliness rating for each one. I suspect that if the Q continuum ever have conferences about humans, the Q we know and love includes some kind of 'great hats in human history' presentation and uses this as an argument against destroying the species.