#But I do looooove tos Spock

[bumblingbabooshka]

Spock, Michael, and Sarek: Funereal Letting Go "Let Your Father Die Energy Drink" by Cecilia Corrigan

[thegeminisage]

ok, its time for a QUICK tng update before xm*s proceedings. saturday we did "best of both worlds part ii" and "family" and last night we did "brothers" and "suddenly human."

best of both worlds part ii: I LOOOOOVED THIS EPISODE. mwah. EVERYTHING i wanted. creepy little cyborg implants. brainwashed picard. his beautiful perfect cgi tear (which may or may not have been cgi, this is a point of debate, experts please weigh in). data bravely doing a robot mind meld. 1000000/10 more borg episodes please please PLEASE

can you imagine if the borg has ben in tos btw. what a thought experiment, except for how i quite literally can't think about it or i'll get so excited i'll pass out

did guinan imply she and picard were lovers in this ep...girl you can do better

my one nitpick with william riker was him promoting that lady he hated instead of someone who deserved it, like worf or data. it probably would have given worf ptsd but can you imagine that enterprise having a captain and first officer being gay on the bridge again...wonderful. except this time there would also be deanna <3

"how much do you remember" "everything" AHAHAHAHA GREAT. GOOD. WONDERFUL. anyway

family: extremely unusual episode but i loved it nonetheless. i was really shocked worf's parents were so sweet!!! i fucking loved them. they're like the cutest people on earth i can't believe they raised such a taciturn and stoic guy like worf...

picard's family i wasn't sure about at first until the wrestling match in the mud. sometimes you need to punch a guy and his brother stepped up to the job admirably. i kept thinking he looked like michael caine, which would have been an incredible choice.

WESLEY.....................................................we don't need to talk about it

everyone's accents in this ep were wack. why does picard have a totally different accent from his brother. why is worf's accent different from his parents. ik its not that deep but its making me crrrazzzyyy

brothers: i didnt even get a look at the title of this episode before we started bc vumoo (the shady site im using to watch) doesn't display them but it was SUCH an unexpected pleasure to get a data episode

absolutely scuh-reaming at the ease with which he hijacked an ENTIRE goddamn starship. he's so competent i love that. a real "glad he's on OUR side" moment, not unlike spock commandeering the enterprise in "the menagerie" (rip i wish that had been a better episode).

lore grew on me really fast. i was neutral on him during his last appearance, the meme aside, but in this episode he was really fun and unsettling. brent spiner can do horrible, horrible things with his face

this ep felt a little cut off? i expected another confrontation with lore, a getting back of the chip, or at least some kind of burial or funeral for dr soong, but we just quit like 3/4 through the episode. maybe less time spent on the opening section of the hijack could have fixed this

anyway i love the foil between data and lore...one has support and the other does not...but it doesn't make sense for lore to get the emotions chip because it seems like he already HAS them??

oh yeah and data repeating "i am not less perfect than lore" got funnier EVERY time he did it. little man was really going thru it i was cracking up genuinely <3

suddenly human: this episode was wack

ok, did you guys read face on the milk carton when you were in school? i did when i was way too young to be reading it and it fucked me up real bad and i completely forgot about it until i watched this episode and then i got to unlock that memory in real time

anyway, while it is obviously the correct choice to return a child to their family when they are kidnapped as babies, it is also hugely traumatic for an older child to be ripped away from a loving home* and transplanted with strangers, which those books explore in horrific detail. so the whole episode i found myself going "i KNOW it's bad politics but could they not just CONSIDER leaving him with the only family he's ever known as a possible choice" and then they DID THAT and i wanted to be ill because it was obviously the worst choice in the world

* this is a different scenario than the first tng episode involving kidnapped children, which strongly resembled the residential schools from real life. THIS particular situation, minus the method of kidnapping (during warfare), more closely resembled the crazy cult shit happening in those books, where the kidnapped girl was being raised by people who thought they really were her biological grandparents and weren't bad people and her biological family also weren't bad people. a "no fault" situation EXCEPT FOR HE KIDNAPPENED THAT BABY DURING WARFARE.

anyway this is the second time tng has dropped the ball on this subject so i think from now on they should not do episodes like this anymore. really really really really bad.

NEXT TIME: "remember me" and "legacy"

[croc-odette]

snw ep 10

doesn’t this woman’s long middle-part hair get in her face. i’m starting to understand why classic hairstyles are all like tight ponytails or cropped

there’s a TOS episode named like this i think

IT HAS BEEN THE GREAT PRIVILEGE

i know i accuse this show of nostalgia-baiting but i do fall for it a lot. i looooove when they use the old music stingers

hey jim

man this guy looks nothing like jim

also its funny that he’s not trying to copy shatner’s patter UNDERSTANDABLY he’s like i refuse to be made fun of for decades for talking so damn slow

trying to remember if this schoolyard meeting argument is verbatim from TOS

love that the klingons are like pike you have to stop being captain because you’re so fucking bad at it

this might be the one situation where i’m like. wish this guy had blonde hair

i loooove the costume designers on this show they are really doing the heavy lifting

SCOTTY?????

i cannot for the life of me understand what the political message this show is trying to send, specifically from a modern USA perspective. like you can’t shift post-world-war-2 to our current military climate without it being.... concerning

i know the romulans are wild as hell canonically and i love that, but again the message of this episode seems to be ‘pike’s preference for diplomacy over immediately attacking and distrusting those nasty untrustworthy romulans led to the worst possible future! the federation can’t look weak by trying to be NICE or it will destroy everything! because those romulans are so awful and bloodthirsty!’ like girl what do you want me to take from this

idk. like again the romulans are shitbirds in canon but errand of mercy was about finding common ground despite being enemies without diplomatic recourse. not ‘theyre absolutely evil and we have to teddy roosevelt this shit and beat them up or the WORLD WILL END’

good lord i don’t care about war movies

maybe it’s just because i live in MCU culture so i’m overly paranoid about it being snuck into everything under the guise of lighthearted shenanigans but i hate military propoganda i hate women crying over wounded soldiers while violins play i hate the US military I hate dumbing down everything i hate the portrayal of instinctive aggression as valiant and noble

but this stuff exists in other star treks obviously. i guess it just usually feels more examined or put into doubt even if it does end up being the choice... not pushed repeatedly as the only possible choice with the gorn or the romulans or whoever

anyways are pike and spock gonna bang. love this for them

WUH OH. UNA TIME

LAKSDJFASLDK pike blank-faced just twisting a man’s arm to save una without even thinking. that is funny

okay well whatever

[kikutrashcan]

Inktober/Spirktober (part 3)

What do you mean, it’s February already ? Doesn’t matter ! I still have a lot of theme to go through, and I indend to ! You guys can take this as a gift for Valentine’s day ! (what-? Valentine’s day’s over too ? Oh, man.) The drawings are taking me more and more time to complete, as I’m trying to get better at backgrounds. Also, I’m having fun experimenting with new supplies ! (what is money anyway)

Hope you’ll like it ! Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone ! <3

(Also, I’m considering posting the drawings one by one, instead of doing a master post every 5-6 drawings. What do you think ?)

[Part 1 and Part 2 here !]

Day 14 : Soulmate AU - Or the AU that wasn’t actually an AU because they are soulmates, it’s canon, thank you for coming to my TedTalk. Spock unlocks Spock!Prime’s memories stuck inside Jim’s head through a mind meld, and both of them realise they’re actually each other’s T’hy’la

I think this is my favourite drawing of Spirktober. I’ve always loved the concept of T’hy’la, of a universal constant that it’s Jim and Spock’s destiny to meet in any reality. Same thing for the idea of Spock!Prime accidentally giving some memories of his relationship with his captain to Jim, like “Woops, sorry bro, you weren’t supposed to see that, lol” Also, mind meld ? Yeah, man, awesome stuff. It was also fun drawing scenes seen in the movies, love it !

I also want to credit @t8oo​ and @djiange​ as I used some of their marvelous drawings as references (because I don’t know how to draw people kissing and... hands ?? Wtf are hands, anyway ???). If you like Spirk, I advise you to go check their art, it’s beautiful. 

Day 15 : Furry AU - Captain Puppy!Kirk and his First Officer Cat!Spock go through purrfect adventures (okay, that was terrible).

I was really anxious about this theme as I’m not really into furries, and i’m usually terrible at drawing animals. But while searching for some references, I stumbled onto some Zootopia fanarts, and realized a drawing mimicking Disney’s animal style could work ! Overall, it was pretty fun to do, even if that’s not the drawing I love most. I also didn’t really know what to do with the background, but I decided to keep it for maybe later, just as the first drawings I did for Inktober. 

Day 16 : RPG/Fantasy AU - Princes Spock and Kirk decide to team up to beat up the dangerous creature terrorizing the fantasy world. 

I spent weeks on this drawing, because I actually didn’t know what to do ! I did a bunch of sketches, but I was never really satisfied. I also wanted to do a more elaborate background, maybe showing the inside of a cave, but I didn’t feel like doing it. But this is also were Clip Studio came into play ! I downloaded it some time ago, and it’s absolutely amazing, especially thanks to the 3D models, that can help create references. It’s a blessing for me as I usually rely on pictures and fanarts found on the Internet. I also brought back the outfits from the Fairy Tales AU, because I really like them, and they fit in this theme too ! All in all, a difficult drawing that came up to be pretty fun when I knew what I was doing (so... rarely). 

Day 17 : Mirrorverse - Everyone fears James T. Kirk, captain of the ISS Enterprise, and his First Officer Spock, who seems to hate his captain as much as he loves him. 

You guys, I looooove the Mirror Universe. Especially the kind of love/hate relationship between Kirk and Spock. I had a bunch of ideas for this drawing, but I preferred to keep this first idea : the menacing captain who seems to be in charge, but is in fact hidding a much greater threat, who could make him the most powerful man on Terra by killing all of his enemies, as much as just snapping his neck at the first sign of betrayal (what do you mean, it’s not what happened in TOS ?). I love this drawing. I think the red pen as well as the blue and gold glitters were perfect for this. 

Also, the uniforms were mainly inspired by @leifor​‘s art for her fanfic trilogy “Mirror, Wall, Door” which I absolutely adore. Go check it out, it’s awesome.

Day 18 :  Heroes/Villains AU - Jim, San Fransisco’s most popular hero, keeps tracking Spock, a Vulcan villain and his rival, to make him turn and get him to the good side.

Honestly, what is a background ? I really liked the concept of this drawing, and I like the foreground, but getting started on the background was so hard, because I wasn’t sure of what I was doing. I’m bad at this. However, designing heroes/villains outfits for Kirk and Spock was really fun. And yet again, I can’t resist putting glitters all over the place. Anyone that looked at my drawing was very surprised because “Kirk’s got a BELLY” “Of course, he does ! It’s Kirk ! He’s chubby”. I love his tum. But for some reason, Spock seems smaller on the photograph than on my drawing, and the colors of the background are really weird ? I should learn to take a correct photograph for my traditional drawings.

Next theme will be Cowboys/Spaceboys ! I already have an idea of what I’m gonna do, and I bet it’s gonna be fun ! 

Hope you guys have a great day/afternoon/evening !

[homosexualspock]

TOS Tag Game

tagged by @1shirt2shirtredshirtdeadshirt thank you so much!! <3 i looooove talking about TOS and i have some Things. To. Say. The rules (as i understand them lol) are to answer 5 questions asked by the person who tagged you and then ask 5 questions to the people you tag! Since there were only 2 questions asked i’m gonna answer 3 from the previous ones ;)

1. Which is the most defining moment for Spock and Jim as couple, in your opinion? One which left you most shaken?

This is a super hard question because every single moment between Jim and Spock as a couple leaves me Shook but here we go

For me there are a couple of defining moments: of course the “this simple feeling” moment from TMP for obvious reasons, Amok Time (again. obvious reasons), but I also think a moment that less people think about is from This Side of Paradise; Spock was given the chance to live in a complete Utopia in complete happiness and acceptance, something he even mentions he’s never felt before. Yes, I’m 1000% aware that this utopia was an effect of the drug-like spores and the positive feelings came from being drugged, but Spock willingly left that behind to stay with Jim. He gave up complete emotional bliss (however fabricated it might be) to stay loyal to the man he would die for. We know that Jim would do anything and give up everything for Spock, and in this episode we truly understand that Spock would absolutely do the same for Jim. I think that that moment not only showcases Spock’s devotion to the one he’s in love with, but also his devotion to his most beloved friend. 

I think the moment that left me (literally) on the floor with Feelings was the “you almost make me believe in luck/you almost make me believe in miracles” moment on the bridge lol

2. What is the most disappointing thing about TOS for you?

TBH I think the character work could have been wayyyy better!!!!!!!! Like obviously we’re given Enough to appreciate the primary characters, but I wanna know MORE about Tarsus IV and Spock’s childhood and the bridge crew’s academy days and HOW they decided to join Starfleet and UGH!! I feel like there was such a missed opportunity there!!! Most if not all of the episodes are incredibly situational which works for, like, a fun tv show based on lessons and political commentary and everything, but I really wish there was more character background.

3. Which section of Enterprise are you most curious to see which was never filmed?

LET ME SEE THE DAMN OBSERVATION DECK FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!!

4. What was the defining episode that you watched that made you go: Yup. I am 100% on board for this.

Honestly. Tbh. In my honest opinion... The Naked Time (or Charlie X tbh)

5. What. The fuck. Happened in the story between Season 3 and The Motion Picture. Seriously. What happened between Jim and Spock.

OKAY. HERE’S WHAT I THINK.

Spock and Jim are in a relationship aboard the Enterprise before the five-year mission ends. Jim has never been happier and neither has Spock, but Spock is afraid of just how much he cares for and loves Jim. He’s scared of his feelings and how he can’t control them around Jim and how Jim brings out this very un-Vulcan-like side of him that he’s unable to deal with; he thinks he can’t be what Jim needs because he can’t be a human, he can’t express his feelings like Jim can. Cue “The Talk” they have concerning their relationship once the five-year mission ends; Jim wants Spock to stay with him and Spock tells Jim that he is returning to Vulcan to undergo Kohlinar. CUE TERRIBLE FIGHT WHERE THERE IS ANGER AND CRYING AND HEARTBREAK AND SPOCK LEAVING JIM (Skinny Love by Birdy literally makes me cry every single time because it is the Perfect song that I imagine playing in the background of their Fight. like they’re going back and forth and Jim is crying and there’s yelling and this song just encompasses the vulnerability and Pain that they’re both going through in that moment and the desperation from Jim that they stay together and make it through this). They’re both DEVASTATED, of course, and Jim accepts admiralty because he can’t be in space without Spock, he can’t go where no man has gone before without his best friend and soulmate. And Spock attempts to purge his emotions because a life without Jim is too painful for him to bear.

A very rudimentary description of what I think happened but there you have it.

**My questions now!**

1. Who’s your favorite “villain” from TOS and why? How would you have defeated them?

2. What’s your opinion on the Prime Directive and how flexible do you think it is?

3. Which planet from the series was your favorite to visit and which one do you wish you knew more about?

4. Obligatory “favorite Jim/Spock moment”? :)

5. Do you think Sarek is a bad/good father, why/why not?

tagging: @federations @spockt @greenjimkirk @warpfactornonsense @zetomato and anyone else who wants to! <3

[karajstorm]

Hello, I have a question regarding chapter 11 of colony wars in which Kirk ponders the motive of Starfleet HQ when they promote him back to Lieutenant Commander and give him command of the Ranger :« While he waited in queue at the transporter station, Kirk considered how he'd gotten to such a place in just a matter of hours. With Starfleet stretched as badly as it was, promotions did tend to be based on desperate necessity and luck. part 1 of message

There were certainly a lot of personnel at the bottom who wouldn't be in uniform without the same necessity. It would be a sign of normalcy when the service could be choosy again.Even so, his instincts told him there was more to it than that. Was he being protected or gotten out of the way? Was he being given a golden opportunity or being set up to fail? The last possibility failed to bother him. He half hoped it was true. »I am not sure I understand the last sentence.

Is it because Kirk in this alternate universe has always been treated like an outcast and is more used and comfortable with adversity and failure than acceptance and success ? 

Kirk would definitely like to show up someone who gives him an opportunity they consider too big for him. That’s probably his best vision of getting revenge, given that no one gets hurt, but someone bad’s plans get foiled. And Kirk loooooves a challenge. The worse possible world is one where no one gives him anything impossible to do.

Authorial authority here: You can take any interpretation you like, but I imagine the main reasons they gave him the Ranger was a mix of lucky timing and they wanted him out of the way to make it harder to figure out who wrote the virus. I don’t think he was set up to fail. Oh, and Admiral Coyran was probably trying to fill command slots with people he felt could be relied upon to act less than militaristically. Just his own culture war against the machine at play.

Can you expand on Kirk’s psychology in this story and on how the relation with his mother and the absence of a father shaped him ?

Whoa. That could fill a few essays. So, I’ll just blather a bit off the top of my head.

Kirk could be way more bitter, but his basic good nature has held him together. I see a nature aspect here, holding out against bad nurture. The combination of Tarsus and his toxic mother reinforced each other in ways that could have done a lot more permanent damage to his personality. The one scene where this alternative version of bitter, wounded Kirk shows through is in Chapter 20 of Inner War when Spock tells Kirk his mother went to speak with Kirk’s mother as part of arranging their bonding.

(I should probably had used that more. Seeing that side of Kirk really sets Spock back in the scene, but not later, which was probably a missed opportunity. But he’s already on eggshells around Kirk, so maybe it didn’t make much difference.)

Kirk isn’t fault-free on the family front. He blames Sam for leaving after saying he’d be the one to stay with Winona Kirk. In a narcissistic family there is often a Golden Child and Punching Bag assignment if there are multiple kids. I imagine Sam was more the Golden Child and Kirk still hasn’t lived that down, as well as how much worse things got after Sam left because James’d be left as the only target of all that additional ire. But really, Sam had to get out as well, and Kirk can’t bring himself to see that. Which he wouldn’t have trouble seeing if it wasn’t his own family.

Losing his father was more a mitigating factor in the other things that shaped James. Dad was absent a lot and not exactly a good defender or guide for James or Sam. Losing him is like losing an ideal less than losing a presence. When a parent comes and goes over long periods the kid can go through cycles of idealizing while they’re away to a mixture of disappointment and being rewarded for the wrong things because the absent parent wants to make up for lost time. 

I think his dad being away on something as romantic as a starship, then coming home, then going away again gave Kirk a good handle on recognizing his own weakness for making heroes or ideals when the cannot be supported by reality. Then Tarsus really reinforced the risks of idolatry to the point where Kirk doesn’t trust anyone in power. Although he’s getting better at that, now that he sees them as people and not roles.

To conclude, please accept some enthusiatic (and naive) praise from a grateful reader : You are an incredibly talented writer, I am so happy you are writing for the TOS fandom. Your stories are thought provoking, insightful and always find the right distance and subtletly to deliver great emotional punches. They bring me great joy, make the characters I love even more real and inspiring, and broaden my horizon, thank you ! Happy reader.

Aww, thanks. I get such deep enjoyment out of writing in this universe. I couldn’t stop if I wanted to. I’m glad someone else can come along for the ride. I’m so thrilled to see so many young fans (young==under 30) on here loving the same aspects I have for, um, a looong time. That’s really great!

[sigmastolen]

well thank the prophets WORMHOLE ALIENS i got all of the aftertrek trivia questions right

some thoughts on dsc 1.01–02 after the jump (spoilers ahoy)

i love everyone~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

okay, well.  i love all the starfleet characters so far.  the klingons... i’m not there yet with the klingons.

i mean, i’m doing my best to stay open-minded about these newfangled klingons.  klingon culture and spirituality has always been pretty interesting, so that’s an easier sell -- the visual revamp is more what i’m struggling with.  the hairlessness weirds me out, since klingon hair has been such a strong design element (worf and all his dandyish grooming! the definitely-racist but also ubiquitous and iconic fu manchus! the higher the hair the closer to god kahless!!!!).  the new ridges so far are smoother and seem less individual, which is kind of disappointing -- a klingon character’s ridges felt like they did a lot of the work in setting the character’s tone.  (i also really like that the ridge designs for tng–ent-era klingons were based on dinosaur teeth & vertebrae, that concept is like candy to me.)  plus we are now seeing even less of the actors’ actual faces and i am finding the nu!klingons therefore very hard to read. all the gold coloring of the ship and the armor could be a callback to tos-era klingon uniforms, but in my heart i long for the black-and-silver industrial look, with the riveted belt buckles and the boob windows.  (tbh i hold out hope for boob windows somewhere amongst the 24 great houses.)  and, like, yeah, it’s intricate and beautiful and it would be at home on an IMAX screen but i’m watching on a 13-inch laptop and so the armor?  maybe too busy; kahless help the poor souls streaming it to their smartphones.

i must admit i’m also having a little difficulty with the new starfleet uniforms.  i don’t understand how to read them yet tbh -- how to parse rank or division.  the heritage from ent’s blue cargo suits is clear, but it’s very difficult to imagine how they go from here to tos’s colorblocking.  then again, if you include the films, starfleet history is full of radical uniform redesigns...

i looooove that the shenzhou bridge crew is so diverse -- more bit-part and background aliens always!  kthx

wow, sarek is really not great at parenting (actually now i am thinking a lot about amanda, since sarek’s specialty in life seems to be Saying The Wrong Thing (this guy is a diplomat? really?))

how many times did i cry? not that many, actually!  but definitely at least five times.  once was during the opening sequence, despite not thinking it was all that when i saw it teased on social media.  and when they showed us the damage to shenzhou i wept like it was an old friend, which is.  healthy.

are we accepting vulcan science academy training as equivalent to starfleet academy (i mean, in some ways we always have but still)?  did burnham get a field commission? or did she have to spend some time in san francisco?  because the implication is that she spent the entirety of the last seven years on shenzhou, serving under georgiou and learning how to human.  i just... have questions.  (i would suggest it’s like archer, janeway, or sisko making non-starfleet people the first officer, except all of those were to force cooperation between their various factions.  it echoes the dynamic of kirk and spock, except spock did go to starfleet academy and moved conventionally through the ranks.)

the “kelpiens sense the coming of death” thing is so much less stupid than the advertising made it look, thank goodness.  so far i love saru very much and it is only partially because i love doug jones very much.

i also love georgiou very much and am Disappointed 

is this what indira varma’s fans felt like after the first episode of torchwood?

but i also can’t wait to actually be on discovery -- the information so far makes it seem like the island of misfit toys meets DARPA and i am Into That.

i’ve seen people complaining about the tone and i’m reserving judgment on that, too, i guess.  that it’s a wartime show makes it closer to later seasons of ds9, voy, and ent than anything in tos or tng, and just in terms of its visual language it’s most similar to the reboot films, though various interviews have been careful to talk about dsc carrying on the trek legacy of optimism.  i make no secret of my love of technicolor camp and monsters-of-the-week, which means dsc and i might just have Philosophical Differences.  we’ll see.

[hhawkeye]

alright here r my Thoughts on star trek discovery its not gonna be too Spoilery but i mean. u should wait until u’ve watched the episodes before reading this

i like the opening credits theyre cool

i liked the bridge design and how it kept the like... kinda retro shit from tos-time (since it’s set before even that) and managed to combine it with the ~new space agey shit we’ve seen in the new movies?? i hope it’s mostly the same with the new ship

SPEAKING OF the new movies i am Not a fan of how like... Epic and Big these episodes felt? like the whole time i felt like i was watching a movie rather than a tv show but Whatever maybe it’ll be less like that as the episodes go on? i cant tell if this is how its going to be or if it was just a Big Opening to get ppl interested? in any case i hope there are like... at least a couple of like. just kinda Fun and silly episodes bc really what is star trek if u dont have those! u kno

i looooove michael burnham and shes a lesbian (for real tho is there some kind of Law in starfleet that if the captain and first officer r the same gender they have to be boning... like...). however i dont love that her story is like... Spock Lite™ tbh? also not a fan of sarek like, Being Her Dad considering how hes... not a great father to spock who is his LITERAL BIOLOGICAL SON but whatever! i guess in general i dont like that it feels... kinda like its forced? like oh lets just shove this character into an existing family bc itll be Interesting? idk i dont like it but also tos was basically Surprise! It’s A Spock Family Member! so i GUESS i’ll be ok with it

uhhh i feel like i had more to say

SARU!!! my boy saru is amazin and i love him Dearly im excited for more of him

ive never really been into the klingons tbh? ive always found them kinda overrated and annoying but idk i guess we’ll see where this goes but im probably not gonna be A Fan

uhhh i think thats it those r my Thoughts OH i liked the uniforms theyre cute as hell

but yea overall its Good i was into it im excited just for like... star trek to be A Thing again and be free from jj abrams’ clutches etc but anyway it really just... put me in the mood to watch more tos so... thats what im gonna do