#I love Vulcans a lot...I think - you know...what's the point of having aliens if you don't love em~??

[bumblingbabooshka]

Your vulcan characterization is so wonderful, the light you shine on both canon and OC vulcan characters is genuinely VERY inspiring. You really encapsulate and give a believable look into daily vulcan life that’s fleshed out and, most importantly, loved. Your care for these characters is apparent in every word, and it shapes them into real people that feel both alien and familiar. In some of the fanfics I’ve read involving vulcans, it sometimes feels like the author is just writing very stern humans who are misguided in their approach to love and emotion. In your writing, however, it feels like you really respect vulcans and love their way of life- that you find beauty and interest in what’s alien to us. Which, I would argue, is a big part of what sci-fi should be. Idk, I’m trying to write vulcans myself, and the way you portray them is a huge inspiration. Thanks for all you do!

Anywho, how do you think Tuvok’s kids (as young children) would react to an arcade? The mental image of a vulcan kid submerged in a Chuck E. Cheese ballpit is personally very funny to me

I'm sorry this is so late but this ask is one of the most beautiful and touching ones I've ever received and I didn't know how to respond (overwhelmed, pleasantly) so here's a bunch of doodles of Tuvok's kids being incredibly well behaved during their family outing at the Space Arcade/Play Place

(Arcade Trip Play by Play Under the Cut)

Elieth is the only one interested in the ball pit. He isn't doing anything in there he is literally just sitting in silence and observing the different balls. He does NOT want to leave the pit!!! <- This is foreboding to his parents who know that he must, at some point, leave the pit. Varith and Asil go in the ball pit in an attempt to understand Elieth's fascination but are quickly bored. Sek watches them with his hands clasped behind his back. Whenever an adult asks if he wants to go in he says "No, thank you." He appoints himself the safety officer and will tell the other children not to play too rough and 'rescue' the smaller ones if they look like they're struggling. Asil wants to leave the ball pit and Sek manages to pull Elieth away with the promise that they will return - they will each pick an activity so it is fair! They all go into that large overhanging contraption (reminds them of caves - fun to play in!) but only three make it out again. They try to use telepathy to find their lost brother but they can't do it (too little) so they have to go find one of their parents who has to telepathically lead them to the exit. This almost gets the trip cancelled but they all promise to stay together this time!! Sek fulfills his older brother duties of being fucking sick at a video game all his younger siblings watch him play. This actually draws a crowd of more than just his siblings - a VULCAN playing video games? He goes up against a human, wagering their tickets, and he wins. However, since Sek is against gambling he does not accept the human's tickets. This only makes him cooler. Elieth wanders away to the ball pit during this time. The remaining Tuvoklings figure out that the claw machine is rigged and think this is unethical and unfair. To remedy this, they find a way to plant their sister inside the machine where she proceeds to hand out as many toys as she can before the employees catch wind and alert their parents. That is it. We're going home. Where is your brother? (In the ball pit.) While Tuvok wrestles Elieth out of the ball pit, T'Pel takes the kids to the prize counter and they put all their winnings together and ask to be able to take a ball from the ball pit home. The clerk says that isn't a prize and they ask again to be able to take a ball from the ball pit home. The clerk is tired and says Sure. Whatever. So they each carefully select one ball from the ball pit and give them to Elieth which stops his tantrum. On the ride home Elieth happily stares at the balls from the ball pit which his siblings got him and Asil takes out several toys from her backpack which she took from the claw machine. A very satisfying trip! Indeed, we should endeavor to make a visit once a week. (No.) Twice a week? (Further.) Once a month? (Perhaps.)

[writing-till-i-am-dead]

Bengan oneshot

Is that the ship name?

“So, you see, the zodiac signs are not some star pattern that just determines your whole personality,” Logan said. “They’re just ancient star patterns that have been documented for centuries!” 

Ben nodded as Logan showed him his astronomy book. Ben honestly had no interest in space or stars. But he did have an interest in Logan…nnnnnn’s ramblings! 

Ben felt his face grow slightly red. He was still in slight denial about his crush on Logan… Logan talked a lot when he was comfortable. And Ben loved to listen.. listen to his voice, his interests, the little pauses and repeats he makes when he stumbles on a word.. Ben loves to listen to it all. He’s lucky to have a rather stoic face. He can hide his emotions and what he’s really thinking if he tries hard enough. 

But liking friends.. it could ruin things. He likes spending time with Logan.. admitting to anyone, even himself, that he likes him.. might ruin that.. Ben’s never been so close with anyone before..

Logan let out a soft, dreamy sigh as he ran his fingers along the page about the Virgo constellation. 

“Isn’t it fascinating that all those stars we see in the sky, the constellations, don’t actually exist anymore? Really makes you think…”

Ben was snapped out of his thoughts upon hearing Logan’s voice and he looked at the page and then at Logan before clicking his pen. 

“Think about what?” Ben wrote. 

“Oh, um.. yknow.. about how small we are in this big universe! Yknow?”

Ben nodded in understanding. 

“Like how Taylor talks about zodiac signs?”

“Ugh, nooooo! Astrology is a bunch of bologna! I’m talking about aliens!”

Ben raised an eyebrow and smirked slightly. “Aliens?”

“Yes! The math is in their favor! Plus there are some sightings that are completely unexplainable, like that time with all those kids who were visited by an alien who said the Earth was dying and all of the kids’ stories lined up exactly! I’m telling you, Ben, we are not alone in this world!” Logan said, doing the Vulcan salute. 

Ben started to laugh and Logan paused before laughing along with him, putting his hand back on the table. 

“B-Besides.. what about the phantoms? They could be, like, aliens, or something..”

“Maybe.. but we don’t know what they are..”

Logan leaned back slightly in his chair. “As messed up as it is.. I kind of hope they’re aliens..”

Ben gave him a half-entertained, half-concerned look, causing Logan to laugh.

“Ya, I know, sounds pretty bad when I say it out loud…” he hugged his knees. “Just.. at least that’s something I can understand. I know stuff about space and all that.. not.. whatever is going on in the dreamworld..”

Ben gave him a sad look. He was an empathetic person. He could read people easily. And he could read Logan like the front cover of a book. He knew Logan hated being useless and not understanding something…

He gently took the book from Logan and opened to a random page and pointed at it. 

“Oh..” Logan murmured, gingerly taking it back. “You wanna know about Orion?”

Ben nodded and Logan smiled. “Well, let’s start with the Ancient Greek myth of Orion-“

He was cut off by a group of guys slamming their hands onto their table, causing Logan to jump. 

“Well, well, well,” said one of the guys. “Hey there, Starboy.”

Logan’s eyes constricted and he tried to scoot back his chair. 

Ben’s face immediately hardened and he tried to remain calm, but he could already tell these guys were bullies.. and he hates bullies… Just the thought of them causes his hand to drift to his neck and remember that day..

Logan clutched his book tightly, holding it close to his chest, and averted his eyes. “Surprised to see you guys in a library..” Logan murmured, almost inaudible. 

“What was that, nerd?”

“N-nothing!”

One of the guys raised an eyebrow and took the book from him. “What’s this? Some astrology shit?”

“A-Actually, it’s astrono-“

The guy cut him off by tearing out a page and throwing it at him. 

“W-wait!” Logan exclaimed. “That’s a library book!”

Seeing them ruin Logan’s property was what broke the straw on the camel’s back.  They were destroying something he loved. Just like how bullies destroyed Ben’s love for singing. 

He grabbed a pen and threw it at one of the bullies, hitting him in the head. 

“Huh? The hell-?” The guy turned to Ben. “What do you want, mute freak!” 

He stopped when he saw Ben. 

His face was dark and there was an aura around his that radiated violence. 

The guys’ eyes and they both gulped and slowly back away before running off. 

That was the only perk about looking so big and intimidating. Assholes like that leave when you glare hard enough..

He turned to Logan who was holding his book sadly. 

��I’ll buy you a new one” Ben wrote. 

Logan smiled weakly. “That’s sweet.. but this is a library book.. the librarian has trusted me for years! I’ve never returned a book that’s been destroyed! What am I going to tell her?”

“The truth?” Logan wrote, confused. That should be the obvious answer, right?

Logan’s face turned slightly red from embarrassment and he looked down, his brow furrowed sadly. “It’s.. embarrassing. Telling people I’m harassed and bullied. It makes me feel.. pathetic.”

Ben felt his heart hurt slightly and sat back down and leaned in a little close to him, putting a hand on Logan’s shoulder. 

Logan turned his head to look at Ben and smiled slightly. “I admire you, Ben. You’re so strong and.. intimidating when you need to be. I wish I was like that..”

Ben looked away for a moment before turning back to Logan. 

“I admire you a lot as well. You’re so passionate about stars and space. I haven’t been passionate about something in a long time.”

Logan blinked at the paper before looking at Ben. “Really? Not since singing?”

Ben hesitated before writing his response, hiding the paper as he wrote. When he held it up, he hid his face in his hand, too embarrassed to see Logan’s reaction. 

“I’m passionate about you.”

Logan’s eyes were wide and his entire face and neck turned rose red. 

Before Logan even had a chance, Ben stood up and quickly sped walked out of the library. 

Logan was about to go after him when he saw the note he left behind. 

“Need to go meet up with Aiden so we can walk home. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Logan clenched his fists and held the note for a moment. “I’m passionate about you”….

The more he read in, the more embarrassed he got and the more butterflies filled his stomach to the point he was worried he accidentally swallowed milkweed seeds. 

What does that note mean? Passionate about him? What does he mean by that?!

Logan clutched his head as he tried to think logically about this. But he couldn’t. 

Did Ben.. confess to him?

The thought of that…

Logan grabbed his bag and ran out of the library exist to scream into his shoulder. 

“Ben liking me?! Highly improbable! I mean.. maybe he does..”

He looked at the note again, clenching it tightly. 

“He’s passionate about me? What does that mean…? What does that.. mean?”

Logan’s ears turned red and he looked at his astronomy book and then the page his bully ripped out. 

He opened the crinkled up page. It was from the section about the planets. 

This specific page was about.. Venus. 

Well.. Logan thought. That.. seems like a terrifying omen.. Goddess Venus, don’t strike me down with an absolute heart attack from how much my heart is beating…

[stra-tek]

Lots and lots of random spoilerific things about Star Trek comics

Gold Key's old run was written by people who had never actually seen the show. Later they involved fans like Doug Drexler to make things a bit more authentic

This however made them, IMHO, amazing

Blond scotty. Wearing green.

Voodoo planet, with papier mache versions of Earth landmarks which, when blasted with a death ray, cause the real ones to collapse

Spock learns voodoo to combat this threat

The Enterprise completely razes a planet of hostile plant spore things. Like full on extermination of all life

There's a locked room on deck 7 full of evil Vulcan spirits. A yeoman blunders in and all hell breaks loose

Kirk doesn't know what a god damn black hole is

Spock is kidnapped by aliens, has their entire knowledge downloaded into his brain which makes him into a bobblehead for awhile

The Enterprise is briefly taken from Kirk and given to Captain Zarlo, who is a total bellend

Spock forgets to have pointed ears sometimes

The old UK newspaper comic strips were even worse. The first few issues feature "Captain Kurt" and he wears a red shirt. Bailey is also a lead character, giving away which one episode they had knowledge of

Depictions of the Enterprise in their very first strip will shock and horrify you, but after that the art becomes amazing and maintains a very high standard

Marvel did a series following The Motion Picture, and it was a vast improvement, although they technically had rights to the movie and not the series, which led to a little weirdness. Tons of references still were snuck in, though

There's a series of Book and Records, which you can listen to on YouTube and are goofy fun. The Enterprise desperately needs a meal in the art, though.

They draw Romulans as green wizards

They didn't have the rights to Nichelle Nichols or George Takei's likenesses, so get ready for White Uhura and Black Sulu!

They didn't have the rights to The Animated Series either, so M'Ress is a human with weird face paint and Arex is substituted for just some guy

There's an unlicensed Chinese adaptation of The Motion Picture's novelisation (made with zero prior knowledge of Star Trek), which features an all-star cast like O.J. Simpson as Decker and James Brolin as Kirk. It's called The Star Trek, which is a better name than The Motion Picture, IMHO.

DC comics' first run is considered some of the best Trek ever. They're made with love and a deep knowledge of the source material

You know how Star Trek III takes place right after II? WRONG. It was several months later and the crew (with Saavik taking over from Spock) had tons of adventures in the interim. It just seemed like it was right after😂

Before Worf and long long before Ash Tyler, Kirk had a Klingon on his crew

He was a cowardly Klingon named Konom who fled the Empire

He fell in love with a human woman named Bryce

They adopted an albino Klingon/human child with dwarfism which they named Bernie

Kirk has an unhinged, insubordinate crewman on board named Bearclaw and they hate each other

Tension escalates and eventually there's a stabbing

Sulu/M'Ress happens and I don't think people knew what furrys were in the 80's

You know how Spock comes back at the end of III but isn't his old self until the end of Star Trek IV? WRONG AGAIN. He came back just fine, and lost his marbles following an incident months later that just happened to line everything up to make it all seem like it was right after.

After STIII, Kirk becomes captain of the U.S.S. Excelsior NX-2000 and Spock becomes captain of the U.S.S. Surak. We get a few issues exclusively focusing on Spock's ship and his band of merry weirdos.

The U.S.S. Surak keeps changing design, starting off as a sort of Oberth-class ship, then randomly becoming an Excelsior-class ship and finally ending as the warp sled shuttlecraft from The Motion Picture

The Surak's crew include a giant chicken man, a Vulcan hating racist lady and a balding man with a bicycle

They all die horribly and a massive reset button is pressed so everyone is exactly where they were at the end of Star Trek III

In order to make that work they had to bs that the Klingon Bird of Prey was hidden in Excelsior's shuttlebay all this time despite it being way, way too big for that

There's a full on mirror universe invasion

Kirk becomes a celebrity from saving the galaxy all the time

Mr. Arex comes back and becomes chief of security but doesn't really do much

HORTA CREWMEMBER. It's as amazing as it sounds

The first Next Generation comic miniseries was made with knowledge of the first 2 or 3 TNG episodes and nothing else

Everyone is hench as fuck. Picard has washboard abs and bulging muscles

Data is emotional and Troi feels the emotions she senses a la "Encounter at Farpoint"

Wesley is drawn as if he's 10

The B-shift con and ops team are a husband and wife who wear caped superhero versions of Starfleet uniforms with bare legs.

They argue. A lot.

The crew meet an alien Santa Claus and Q loses his powers years before "Deja Q"

The whole Q Continuum visits the Enterprise and they're all John De Lancie but in Starfleet uniforms of every colour under the sun.

After that initial miniseries, the Next Gen crew lose a lot of their muscle mass and start resembling their on screen counterparts a lot better

Picard had a brother who fell down a hole and died as a child. Q offers to rewrite history so he doesn't die. Claude Picard grew up to be Space Superhitler and turns Starfleet and the Federation fascist.

Before all this Q turned Jean-Luc into a goat for the lolz

Marvel's The Early Voyages was very literally Strange New Worlds before Strange New Worlds.

They have a pyrokinetic security officer named Nano and he's awesome

Marvel lost the Trek license quite suddenly, and so the series ends on a cliffhanger where Admiral April is up to something iffy.

Marvel did a Starfleet Academy series featuring Nog and its utterly fantastic

A female Andorian cadet tries to make Nog feel at ease by greeting him in the nude, but Nog fails to take it as an innocent gesture and she immediately sends him flying across the room

Romulan agents with split personalities in Starfleet Academy!

They visit Talos IV and get help from Captain Pike, who's still alive

IDW comics did a prequel to the 2009 reboot where Picard is an ambassador, Data is captain of the Enterprise-E and Nero has hair. It was co-written by the movie writers and was considered sort of vaguely semi canon ish for a time

They originally wanted the Romulan supernova to destroy a lot more, including Earth and have Nero kill the TNG crew. It was the Star Trek Online devs that got them to scale things back because they'd have no universe left to set their game in.

Nero's ship looks like it does because after Romulus was destroyed he took it to a secret Romulan base and had it equipped with reverse-engineered Borg technology

You thought DC struggled to keep ship designs correct? IDW's comics keep using traced fan art from Google Images, and fan art (sometimes with unique ship designs) has shown up on multiple occasions as the Kelvinverse U.S.S. Enterprise

In one IDW TOS comic, the bridge is totally covered with TNG LCARS graphics.

In another, an Orion ship is a gigantic Stargate sticking out of the middle part of Battlestar Galactica.

Wanna see Kelvinverse versions of TOS episodes? That was their first comics run, picking up after the 2009 reboot movie. They start off very faithful and as the series goes on things diverge more and more

To the extent some stories have very different backstories and outcomes

We visit 2 Kelvin mirror universes and a genderswapped universe too. No, Kirk doesn't do what you're thinking.

Q visits the Kelvin Universe and brings the crew forward in time to their version of Deep Space Nine

Nero's time in Klingon prison (from the Star Trek 2009 deleted scenes) and escape is fleshed out

Nero meets V'ger.

Nero mind melds with V'ger.

V'ger turns away due to the sheer force of Nero's hatred.

I wish I was making that up.

Klingons get their hands on Narada's technology and go to war

We get a Khan backstory where the Eugenics Wars are a full on nuclear conflict and "Khan" is the title that little Noon Sing adopts when he takes power

After being revived in the 23rd century, Admiral Marcus has Khan surgically altered to look like Benedict Cumberbatch as part of his John Harrison cover identity

They did a series of shorts called Waypoint, and in the first one Geordi is captain of a future Enterprise and his crew is made up of holographic versions of Data and it's a really sweet concept (this was several years before before ST: Picard brought Data back twice)

There's a prequel series centred around Number One where nobody manages to say her name before being interrupted. If you put the bits together it seems her name was Eureka Robbins. Of course, this is long before novels and SNW made her Una Chin-Riley.

[leohtttbriar]

I think Michael like for all that she is she is definitely an anthropologist like I think she takes a very great cultural lense before a scientific

you know, i think you are absolutely right! thank you so much for bringing this up! i wasn't even thinking about her academic specialties when i wrote this post. her first question being about "praying" could very easily just have been the way she was trained to meet alien peoples where they are first before obnoxiously being like "what is that, tho"

and, to your point about the cultural v scientific lens:

for better or worse, i'd say star trek collapses the boundaries between a lot of academic disciplines. "hard" v "soft" science doesn't seem to be a distinction in the star trek speculative world, where linguistics and anthropology are as much about physics and biology and no one is going to pretend like learning languages is a different kind of Study to learning chemistry. this sometimes does not work, imo, because sometimes the writing will accidentally slip into an unexamined essentialism with the alien cultures, which renders the whole of the allegory sort of silly and potentially all kinds of offensive. but it sometimes does work.

discovery, from what i remember of the first two seasons (i'm only just now starting the third, bc i lost my cbs account between 2 and 3, alas! etc), seems more able than other series to collapse the distance between disciplines and walk the line between what is cultural and what is material culture informed by biology. like saru constantly talks of his alien species and how their history of being hunted on his planet manifests in a perpetual anxiety and tamed-curiosity for him but also lends a level of care and sensitivity that he excels in---all of which fleshes out the character while giving him the awareness and consciousness to know why he may be acting a certain way compared to others and why he shouldn't ever be demeaned for it and where his body and his body's millions-of-years-old natural history can be challenged with that consciousness and how his consciousness can be valued precisely for its origins.

the klingons and vulcans, while not as sophisticated as the character saru, also seem to be largely cultural products that are informed by their specific biology. michael, somewhat caught between the cultural product and her own biological reality, can affect vulcan mannerisms and is very often portayed as thinking like a vulcan, while remaining very recognizable to us. her phrasing and her pattern of speech, while not monotone, are normally utterances that move from established fact to logical conclusion. I have nowhere to go back to...the only thing I can do right now is trust something, she says, upon being thrust nine-hundred years in the future. it's the statement of a stoic philosopher (probably one of the "vulcan" influences). she is concerned with what is material and what is real and what is real to others.

which is why i really like what you pointed out about her anthropology expertise--culture is real and often naturalized to those who live in it. michael is definitely someone, what with her studies and how she was raised, who is intimately aware of how the alien can be made familiar, how bodies can't be denied but you can learn to know them, how consciousness is strange and existence-in-causal-time stranger, and how people (all creatures included) are never all one thing or another.

obviously there's no perfect speculative fiction creating speculative cultures. the hurdles of making a sell-able show and the ingrained biases and limitations of the writers are not insignificant. but the storytelling here is engaging with conceits concerning the preciousness of life and the immutability of that preciousness--even if you don't understand it.

(also i just love michael burnham with all my heart. don't think it was a coincidence she was named after the angel who carries a sword.)

[fxoye2]

i love asking you stuff about characters and reading your replies. it feels like you understand them so well and you delve into their psyches and personalities and struggles with such passion and care, and love. you genuinely give so much reasoning and explanations for why they are that way and prompt people to look past the superficial aspects and actually consider their roots. i am genuinely interested in your thoughts about snw Spock. you seem to be one of the few people here who actually don’t straight up hate him and actually give valid opinions about why he is the way he is, and why he is not TOS spock yet, despite most fans hating that version of him. i am one of those who don’t really like how he’s portrayed but i feel like that’s because i am so used to TOS spock snw spock just feels.. wrong. i would love to understand him better from your perspective since you seem like a really thoughtful person and your analysis are always on point.

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for this! I’m genuinely honored that you enjoy my ramblings about these characters because I get so emotional and attached when it comes to Spock (in all his forms). I completely get why SNW Spock doesn’t sit right with you (and a lot of people), especially when you’re used to TOS Spock, who’s just this untouchable, beautifully alien, and deeply queer-coded character. But I’d love to help you understand my take on SNW Spock and why, despite his rough edges and some questionable choices, I think there’s a lot going on with him beneath the surface that we can explore and appreciate.

First off, I totally agree that SNW Spock is hard to relate to for TOS fans because he’s so much more humanized and… well, messy. And that messiness can make him feel like a betrayal of the Spock we know from TOS, who is all about restraint, logic, and this very dignified alienness. But here’s the thing about SNW Spock: he’s not supposed to feel like TOS Spock yet, and that’s not an excuse to justify everything he does—it’s about showing us a version of him that’s still in the process of becoming.

SNW Spock is still figuring himself out—and I mean that in the most profound sense. At this point in his life, he hasn’t fully accepted that his human side isn’t something to hide or suppress. He’s still caught in this place where he believes he needs to earn acceptance, whether from Vulcans, from Starfleet, or even from himself. He’s trying to fit into these societal molds, and that’s where a lot of the disconnect comes from when you compare him to TOS Spock. In TOS, Spock has already done a lot of this internal work, but in SNW, he’s still deep in that struggle.

Let’s talk about the “relatability” issue, because I think this is where the heart of the discomfort lies. A lot of fans, especially queer folks, have always found Spock relatable because of how unrelatable he is. His alienness, his restraint, his sense of always being on the outside looking in—those are things that resonate so deeply with people who feel different from the world around them. SNW Spock, on the other hand, feels more traditionally relatable, in a very human, almost insecure way. He’s awkward, he’s unsure, and sometimes, he’s even a little bit emotionally sloppy. It’s a jarring shift from the Spock we know, and I think that’s what makes it feel wrong to a lot of people. It feels like they’re stripping him of his alienness and making him “just like us,” when part of what makes Spock Spock is that he isn’t like us.

But here’s where I think it’s important to dig deeper. SNW Spock’s relatability isn’t supposed to be comfortable. It’s supposed to show us that he is uncomfortable. He’s not at peace with himself yet, and that awkwardness we see, the messiness, the moments where he’s not quite as restrained as we’d expect—that’s a direct reflection of the fact that he’s still struggling to reconcile his two sides. He hasn’t yet learned to embrace his human emotions or his Vulcan logic fully, and so he’s in this liminal space where he’s trying too hard to be something that he’s not.

Take his appearance, for example—the fact that he’s fit, perfectly groomed, and polished. This isn’t just about looking good for Starfleet. It’s about control. It’s about Spock trying to hold onto something, anything, that makes him feel like he’s in charge of his identity. By keeping himself physically perfect, he’s projecting an image of control and discipline, even though inside, he’s far from it. His appearance is his way of compensating for the chaos he feels internally. He hasn’t reached the point where he’s comfortable letting go of those superficial markers of success and perfection. And that’s why he feels so different from TOS Spock—he’s not yet secure enough in who he is to stop caring about how others perceive him.

Now, the really tricky part: his relationships with women. I know this is one of the biggest sticking points for a lot of fans, especially because TOS Spock never really shows any interest in women, and his bond with Jim feels so queer-coded and deep. So why is SNW Spock out here kissing women? Is it just bad writing? Is it erasing his queerness? Personally, I don’t think so.

To me, Spock’s interactions with women in SNW are another symptom of his internal conflict. He’s following a script—a script that says if a woman shows interest in you, you’re supposed to reciprocate, because that’s what people do, right? At this point, Spock is still so wrapped up in what’s expected of him that he’s not acting out of genuine desire; he’s acting out of a sense of obligation. He’s not comfortable enough with himself to reject those scripts yet, and he hasn’t fully realized that his feelings don’t have to align with societal norms. It’s not about homophobia or heteronormativity, exactly—it’s about Spock still figuring out what he wants, and until he understands that, he’s going to go along with what he thinks is “normal.”

But here’s the thing: it feels out of character because Spock is out of sync with himself. He’s not fully Spock yet—he’s in this awkward, uncomfortable stage where he’s trying to be something he’s not, and we’re watching that play out. It’s uncomfortable for us because it’s uncomfortable for him. He hasn’t figured out that he doesn’t need to fit into those expectations—whether that’s maintaining a perfect appearance, or engaging in romantic relationships that don’t actually resonate with him. That’s what makes his portrayal in SNW feel so disjointed from TOS Spock, but it’s also what makes it interesting. We’re watching him struggle, and struggle is never pretty.

And that’s the part that I think people hate, because we want Spock to be Spock—this wonderfully strange, alien figure who doesn’t fit in because that’s what makes him so relatable to people who don’t fit in either. But SNW is showing us the painful process of him realizing that. Right now, he’s still trying to perform, to meet expectations, to fit into a mold that was never made for him. That includes his relationships, his appearance, and even how he carries himself emotionally. He’s not out here kissing women because he’s suddenly straight—it’s because he’s trying to follow a path that doesn’t suit him, and he hasn���t yet figured out that he’s allowed to forge his own way.

So, I get it. SNW Spock feels wrong because he’s supposed to feel wrong—he’s still out of balance, still trying to reconcile who he is with who he thinks he needs to be. But that’s what makes this era of his life so important. It’s the uncomfortable, awkward, messy part of his journey where he’s still learning that he doesn’t need to meet anyone else’s expectations to be enough. He hasn’t learned yet that his humanity isn’t something to suppress, but something to embrace. He hasn’t yet figured out that it’s okay to not fit in, and that trying to be perfect all the time is a losing game.

SNW Spock is searching. He’s trying to find himself in a world that’s constantly telling him to be something else, and that’s why he feels so distant from the Spock we know and love. But that discomfort? That’s part of the process. It’s hard to watch, especially when you love TOS Spock’s alienness and queerness, but it’s a necessary step for him to get to a place of peace with himself. He’ll get there, but for now, he’s still lost in the mess of trying to fit in. And that’s what makes him so human, even if it’s uncomfortable to see.

[dykepulpfriction]

Thoughts on aftg/star trek?

oh god. so many!

vulcan andrew. he fits the mold pretty well, except for the violence. I could see him similar to spock in that case, a half vulcan, which would add to the way hes kind of seen as an unpredictable character by the upperclassmen -- working with the idea that people who are both terran and vulcan dont fit perfectly into easy behavior stereotypes. im thinking a lot about the pocket book "mindshadow" where spock's "inconsistencies" get expored. in an aftg to tos recast, id put him as spock.

that brings me to neil, who i think in said recast is a really solid kirk. There's this one tumblr post by @/na-nanu talking about kirk's alienation, and one line that has stuck with me ever since i read it: "Kirk, while personable, is a fairly Vulcan human." this strikes me as so so neil. until they really get to know him better, the upperclassmen tend to read neil in opposition to andrew. neil, to those outside, is the more personable of the two, the one who feels. as we all know, neil and andrew are incredibly similar -- which is why i referenced that quote just now. like kirk, neil takes andrew as he is, and never asks for more than he can give.

more kirk qualities: neil is ride or die (literally) for his team, self-sacrificing and quick-witted. he's not afraid to lie or trick his way into getting what he wants. lets be honest, both of these men love a good ruse.

going back to andrew for a moment, the way andrew is talked about as unfeeling and monstrous rings a very similar bell to the way terrans talk about vulcans and their lack of emotional display. kirk can read spock better than anyone, sound familiar?

this gets its own bullet point because i dont know where to put it. not all of my thoughts on aftg/st are so matchy-matchy (like, trying to make things line up), but i think the episode "The Enemy Within" and Neil-Nathaniel-Only-One-Of-Them-Can-Survive-Both-Of-Them-Want-To-Live have got some interesting similarities. Nathaniel dying in that basement too, and such.

I feel like people might want to cast Kevin as McCoy, because of McSpirk, and how they're the main trio. but because of Spock and Bones' frequent disagreements, similarities, and general vibes i really see him as Aaron, who's more explosive then Kevin when it comes to Andrews apathy. Bones and his wife and kid back home are also kind of Katelyn-esque.

renee and uhura... i think that this parallel works if spock/andrew, vulcan andrew what have you, is at the core of this thing. theres a lot of similarities for everyone, but god. he's the reason i'm even thinking about tos and aftg together. the "unlikely" friendship, everyone thinking they have a thing, bonding over a shared activity (but its music instead of beating the shit out of each other)

i can really imagine andrew getting into star trek. its a really good "what if?" show that i think he'd enjoy, given his feelings on the zombie apocalypse. renee could definitely get into the morality aspect as well. i can see them talking about the questions in the epsodes, like "so what would you do if your evil clone tried to take over the ship?" and the like. Andrew seeing himself in Spock, seeing someone who also can only deal with his emotions on the lowest volume, and him being loved nonetheless. Maybe seeing a little bit of his not-boyfriend-nothing Neil in Kirk.

another thing about spock/andrew. they are both surprisingly open! I'd have to go back and look to find the exact post, but someone made a great post about how kirk is actually not that forthcoming about his past/life, while spock, if you literally just ask him, will tell you a lot! this i think is hilariously similar to neil being seen as the more open one, when he is actually so cagey and full of false pasts, while andrew will answer most questions. people just never seem to ask (until neil, ofc).

There's definitely more where this came from, so ill add on to this later, but im battling a bit of a headache right now and need to end it here. Thank you so so much for the ask, im excited to hear what you think!!!!!!!!

[1shirt2shirtredshirtdeadshirt]

Spock has resonated with me deeply from childhood. The idea of contact with aliens always excited me, and what a sterling concept for what it could look like in Spock/Vulcans. Gene envisioned a best case scenario that just *worked*.

But I think it is Spock's humanity, the facet of Spock that he feels is imperfect and should be ashamed of, that I think makes him appealing to so many in every generation: We all know what it is to be the outcast, to feel othered, to feel at home nowhere, awkward, unwelcome. To have a less than perfect family with impossible expectations. To feel ashamed of our families and of ourselves.

And above all else, that hard earned journey we all must go through of trying (and frequently failing) to love ourselves.

It took Spock connecting with his humanity -- and humans like Pike and Kirk who showed him just what incredible potential humanity has when we send out the best of us to make connections -- to realize his own humanity had value and worth. That perhaps Vulcans were wrong about humans all along.

I think it took having people around him like Pike and Kirk -- who did not try to change him, ask him to be more Vulcan or human, just unreservedly accepted him as he was -- to learn he could accept himself. I always say that journey from "Jim, when I feel friendship for you, I'm ashamed" in S1 to "this simple feeling" in TMP is one of the greatest character story arcs of all time. It felt like such a deserved win.

That lesson of "if you do not fit in where you are, find your people, find the ones who love you and lift you up exactly as you are and learn to embrace yourself" -- I think that is why Spock was and still is such a powerful character. That hard earned journey of self love, accepting one's self, and found family I feel resonates with so many people.

To add another layer, as a queer person, that found family concept is very near and dear to our hearts in the community; sadly, many of us have known the sting of being unwanted. I had many found family members live in my home when their biological family kicked them out.

I feel like that pain of constant rejection and the self hate it can create is very present in Spock, and it is a poignant representation of vulnerability in a character who always tries to be so strong and indifferent. We all know what it is to try to maintain a facade outside while a storm is brewing within. I believe that speaks to so many of us who have known what it means to feel self loathing, to be on the outside looking in, desperate for approval, but never willing to admit it.

As Jim says, Spock's is the most "human" representation in a character that is ironically alien, and I think that speaks to a lot of us: to the aliens trying to pass as "normal" while everyone else can't seem to stop pointing out our differences or flaws.

Spock gives us hope that even one so fractured, insecure and unforgiving -- especially to themselves -- can eventually find a way to love themselves. Spock gives the audience courage that with the right support and people around us, maybe we could sort it out for ourselves, too.

Sorry if I gushed a bit there, but damn. I love Spock. He's not only my favourite TOS character, but quite possibly my favorite fictional character of all time. There's a reason his name or likeness appears in just about every series in Star Trek.

--------------------------------------------------------

TLDR: Me when Spock --

I cannot be normal about him. Oh, at all.

Who is your favourite Star Trek character of all time?

[los-ninos-tortugas]

Tuvok and Donnie interacting is so funny to me, because on the one hand I can see Donnie admiring Tuvok for his logical outlook and for not being driven by emotions, but on the other hand I can see him totally resenting Tuvok for being The Authority Figure That Says No. Add to that the facts that Donnie is used to little to no adult supervision and that the he is used to FIGHTING ADULT VILLIANS, and I can totally see Tuvok getting unwillingly pulled into a rivalry with a 16 year old. Which is especially funny when you consider that Tuvok is over 100 years old and from his perspective he is essentially being threatened by a toddler. (I kind of want Donnie to try and convince the other kids to join in on this feud...)

Lmao I love the phrasing of Tuvok being "threatened by a toddler."

It's kind of interesting because Tuvok is the first (non-hostile) alien Donnie has ever met. I think he would be very fascinated by Vulcan philosophy and the long and complicated relationship Vulcans and Humans have. Tuvok himself has a very complicated personal history with Vulcan teachings and humans so his unique perspective on the topics would definitely draw Donnie in and feed his love for learning. Add to the fact that Tuvok is chief security officer, he is in charge of the tactical functions of the ship (weapons functions, shields) as well as protecting the ship from internal threats. Tuvok being inherently level headed lends incredibly well to his job as an officer and I think in that Donnie might see a lot of what he wants to be as he grows into himself (not necessarily the whole suppressing all emotions thing that Vulcans do, just the logic aspect of it). There are quite a few parent aged adults on Voyager that Donnie would like to earn positive reinforcement from and Tuvok is definitely one of them... Which yes does make Donnie intensely frustrated when Tuvok has to be that authority figure that says no.

Because as you pointed out, Donnie is quite used to fighting adults and never really having to deal with an actually strict authority figure, so what I really think would happen is that Donnie would get very very annoyed at Tuvok because of the insinuation that Donnie can't handle things himself or that he is in any way incapable or incompetent in some capacity. To Donnie's mind I think it would be, "I don't understand why Tuvok won't let me do 'x' mildly dangerous thing I've gotten through way more perilous situations, logic should dictate that he would say yes >:(" And of course the line of logic that Tuvok is actually following is, "Adolescents have a tendency towards making up stories and tall tales in order to claim skills and accomplishments they do not possess for the purposes of seeming more impressive, because youths often struggle with self esteem. Donatello wishes me to believe he is capable of performing dangerous and nigh impossible feats because he seeks my approval, however I cannot in good conscience allow a child to attempt 'x' action as it poses a physical danger to him. He is angered when I tell him this."

I don't think it would take too much convincing from Donnie to get the other kids on board when he's feeling particularly rebellious, mostly because they also know Tuvok as The One Who Says No All The Time (even if they're not trying to do something particularly dangerous/disruptive, Tuvok isn't exactly known for being fun). I mean, the borg kids went from trying to seek out and be a part of what is the Ultimate form of Authority in the galaxy to learning the importance of their individuality, they're practically hard wired (no pun intended) to be especially rebellious at this phase. Naomi is maybe slightly less on board because she has a mom so she's a little more well adjusted to taking no for an answer than the other kids are but she's not necessarily left entirely out of it either.

In any case I do plan to explore Donnie and Tuvok's dynamic in Set a Course for Home because there's way too much story potential there to just leave it out. (I'm really going to try to give as many crew members their time to shine as I can.)

[empress-violetlight]

For the Star Trek ask game: gosh! I haven’t gone through the list of essential episodes you gave to me yet (but I can’t wait to do so, it’ll be on my short list of to-do’s!) so I still know close to nothing about Star Trek! But I wish I could ask you something in regards to it lol 😆 So I’m going to randomly pick #5 for the ask game. 💙

Okay, I'll try to pick a few. Thanks for the ask!

Star Trek Ask Game

4. favorite character

From each show:

TOS/TAS: Uhura

TNG: Lt. Barkley

DS9: Odo

VOY: B'elanna Torres

ENT: Shran

(I haven't watched enough of DIS to make a decision)

LD: Tendi and T'ana

PRO: Rok-Tahk

SNW: Una

5. favorite species

Overall? The Horta. I love creative, non-humanoid aliens, and the silocon-based Horta are just so interesting, and yet this acid-spewing, living rock is so relatable as well. She's just a mother defending her babies. "Devil in the Dark" is my favourite TOS episode, and I so want to see the Horta again on screen!

As for the more "usual" humanoid aliens, I love the Andorians! They might have technically come first, showing up in TOS, but they weren't really characterized until Enterprise, and they're basically Trek Chiss. Both are blue, come from icy worlds, and have a strong warrior culture, while being more calculating and intelligent than most "strong warrior races" like Klingons. Shran is awesome! (I named a very prominent Chiss OC of mine after him), and we *should* learn a lot more than we have about them and the Tellarites. They're founding members of the Federation as well, just like humans and Vulcans, and they deserve more time in the spotlight.

25. favorite captain-first officer dynamic

Janeway and Chakotay's. I've been shipping them since the 90s. What can I say?

30. favorite plot of the week episode

TNG's "Disaster". I loved how so many characters were thrown outside their comfort zones, yet still came out on top in this episode. Picard's dynamic with the kids, reassuring them as he got them to climb up the turbolift shaft was touching, and Troi managing to take command of the Enterprise was a turning point for her character. I usually don't like O'Brian that much, but I loved how he stood up for Troi against Ensign Ro (imagine an ensign thinking she can tell a Lt. Commander what to do! The nerve!) I liked the ongoing arc in the last two seasons of TNG with Troi beginning to see herself as more than just the councilor, her wearing a real uniform and taking the Commander's test, just becoming more confident with herself and her career in Starfleet, and it really started with this episode.

33. favorite pilot episode

Strange New World's pilot, simply called "Strange New Worlds". I loved how it looked at just how Starfleet would respond when it turns out a pre-warp species got ahold of technology they "shouldn't" have, and it's Starfleet's fault. I think the way Captain Pike handled the situation was pure genius, and it really got me hooked on the series, even if the premise of the show itself ("The Cage" made into an actual series), and favourites from TOS returning wasn't tempting enough! The rest of the 1st season was incredible too, and I can't wait until the next!

[noitsbecky127]

rebecca watches ds9: the nagus

hello ferengi, what shenanigans are you getting up to today

shoes are important jake!

sisko i think jake has plans already

noticing a recurring theme of “jake is growing up and sisko doesn’t like that” so it’s good to know some things stay the same in the future lmao

quark: ROM WHY DIDN’T YOU ROB THIS LADY

i wonder how many rules of acquisition there are

c’mon rom don’t pass your chores onto your teenage son

grand nagus? sounds important

old wrinkled ferengi with giant fucking ears

five holoprograms is a lot

keiko’s school is bustling!!! happy for her

ah miles is the substitute teacher for now

keiko’s been on earth for a while! guess that’s reasonable for a hundredth birthday

wait hang on, i just thought a little harder about the fact that keiko’s mother is a hundred. keiko’s not that old. i just looked rosalind chao up and she was in her mid-thirties at this point. how fucking old was keiko’s mom when she had her daughter

i’m thinking too hard about this aren’t i. i’m probably thinking harder about it than the writers did

ANYWAYS. time to go over homework

i don’t think vulcans make a habit of stealing

why would the grand nagus bother to buy this bar in the middle of nowhere

actually why is he at this bar in the middle of nowhere anyway

glad to see sisko is at least not gonna force jake and nog apart

are they eating gagh or do multiple alien species make a habit of eating live worms

tube grubs. the latter, then

ferengi logic is a hell of a thing

poor nog

oh god the station’s about to be overrun by ferengi

“see if i care” jake definitely cares

ferengi are definitely not to be trusted

congratulations quark! ahem, GRAND NAGUS quark

nog can’t read? guess that’s why he didn’t write the ethics essay

school must be pretty hard if you can’t READ

quark has a new friend to protect him from assassins

ah nope the new friend probably is the assassin

85 years??? how old is this guy? how long do ferengi live?

ah. about five more minutes after that statement apparently

that’s not gonna look good for quark!

ferengi do WHAT with corpses

ah jake and nog are still friends at least

the attempts on quark’s life have already begun

sisko please let your son have secrets he’s fourteen not four

what the fuck is quark holding

rom why do you want to kill quark. that’s your brother. you stand to benefit from him being grand nagus the way i see it

jadzia my beloved

i love how, left unattended, jadzia immediately begins stealing food. granted if she asked sisko for a bowl of stew he would certainly say yes and she knows it so ig it doesn’t really count as stealing

i think sisko going after jake is a bad idea, but i’m closer in age to jake than to him so what do i know

HE’S TEACHING NOG TO READ 😭🥺

doors mean nothing to odo

airlock’s gotta be an unpleasant way to die

ZEK???

ah yes, the secret test of character

wait so who was the discs

ferengi love betrayal i see

i want parental hugs now. my parents are coming to visit next weekend though so i’ll get lots of hugs then!!!

[bumblingbabooshka]

Trying to pull together my thoughts about missing family and Vulcan bonds vis a vis Tuvok

Married Vulcans seem to be joined together telepathically in some manner: “Parted from me and never parted. Never and always touching and touched” These words, as well as being hopelessly romantic and making my damn heart ache;  Seem to imply that Vulcans have a constant awareness of/closeness with their spouse and I would assume a facet of that closeness would extend towards their children.  Thinking about Tuvok specifically we know he loves his wife and children, even though he wouldn’t describe it that way. We also know that his love for them is not seen as something to be ashamed of, it’s not an emotion - they’re part of his identity and he’s not complete without them. I wonder if without his wife and children, Tuvok is different. We only really see him/get to know him while within the delta quadrant. I wonder if there are small changes to him because of the loss of his family. I’m sure if I were a person who was constantly sharing my thoughts with another person for years I would grow in tandem with that person and they would be like a part of me. Like Inosculation. I’m sure it would be strange to be so incredibly alone all at once. Tuvok and T’Pel existed together, with one as an integral part of the other for decades and now Tuvok is utterly alone - not just physically but like...he’s now a singular person. Which I’m sure is brand new. It’s not just immediate family - Vulcans are implied to be connected to all other Vulcans through some distant psychic link web. I’ve heard people talk about an episode where a ship of Vulcans die and Spock[?] feels it. So I’m sure that even before Tuvok was married/had children he had these bonds. To his parents and also all Vulcans. And all of that’s just gone in the delta quadrant. Vulcans seem to put a lot of emphasis on family and pride. When you do something unfortunate you reflect poorly on your family and it’s a problem. I wonder if that’s in some part due to their bonds. Like, for a human it’s not like you can control your daughter at a certain point. She’s fully her own person but maybe Vulcans are never fully their own person - you’re always an extension of your family and by extension of them - All of Vulcan. So when you look at something it’s not just you, so many eyes are looking at it. And I don’t mean literally that when Tuvok looked at something all of his family were also looking at it but more in the sense that he had access to them and knew them. It’s sort of an alien idea so it’s hard to explain but I hope I sort of got close with my illustration. If you’re painting something you have a palette of colors at the ready. You may only use two or three but you have more than that. You always have access to more, you always have the option to use more. Even if you decide not to, it’s there and you can imagine what that color would look like on the canvas. Before every step of the painting you’d be able to look at the pallette and go “Hmm no not red, not green....maybe if I mix these two...no, what about...?” In the Delta quadrant Tuvok only has his own color. I’m sure in the beginning he can remember what his family’s colors were and how they might look but over time wouldn’t those senses dull? Wouldn’t those colors fade, unable to be replenished? If you only have one color, over time you won’t be able to properly imagine what other colors might look like. Over time you probably wouldn’t even consider it. In Tuvok’s pon farr episode he implies that he remembers what T’Pel looks like to the exact measurement of her features. I wonder if he goes over his family’s faces in his head - clinging tightly to facts and numbers as more elusive things like voices and colors fade.  “[My family is] part of my identity and I am...incomplete without them.” And faced with both this and 70 years I wonder if Tuvok strives to find a new “complete” on his own or if he’s resigned himself to being incomplete - and if he does I know he’d do it for the same reason he’d rather die than be with another woman during his pon farr - love. Perhaps (by nature of being Vulcan) being complete again, to be fully at peace would be to stop missing them. It would be the logical thing to do of course, but, like sleeping with another woman - Tuvok wouldn’t. Because he’s loyal to what and whom he loves. Even if that love is going to manifest as lack for the next seventy years, he’ll hold onto that lack. Just like he was prepared to die T’Pel’s husband, utterly each other’s until the end.

[trek-tracks]

Heyy. I took a long vacation from Tumblr. But...

Have you watched Strange New Worlds? What do you think of it?

👀👀

Okay, this is going to be a bit of a long one, and there will be spoilers, so anyone who hasn’t watched SNW should probably scroll by.

Overall, I feel quite positively toward SNW. I think the characters are compelling. I’ve always wanted to know more about characters like Uhura and M’Benga, and I love that they are getting a chance to shine; I enjoyed the “fairy tale” episode. I think the cast is lovely. I love the found family aspect, and I’m really enjoying Pike as a character. (One day, I’m still hoping to meet Anson Mount because we graduated from the same tiny grad school department…maybe it’ll happen.) I hope we get more from Ortegas next season (I am, uh…very bi for her, and unexpectedly being in the same room with Melissa Navia two weeks ago was a lot). I enjoy the episodic format with some overarching ideas. I love it when I recognize the Toronto locations masquerading as alien planets.

That being said, for a show called Strange NEW Worlds, I wish it would be more adventurous, relying primarily on exploration and ideas we haven’t seen yet, rather than rehashing things that were supposed to be brand new in TOS, and in doing that making the TOS characters look naive and foolish. Discovery (another show I feel generally positive about) does that, too. Instead of the Mirror Universe being new, everyone’s been there. Instead of tribbles being unstudied, they’ve already been engineered by a Federation scientist. 

Basically, my own private joke now is that TOS Kirk just thinks he's the first Federation person to encounter these things, but really it's Starfleet or his crew planting species and phenomena in the universe's version of a sandbox, like you'd bury "treasure" for a child to find, because Kirk just gets so goshdarn cute and excited when he thinks he's made first contact.

Kirk, to Starfleet: Didja see?? I found a species called the GORN! They're new! 

Starfleet, sitting down to talks with the Gorn ambassador who's been a Federation envoy for five years: That's great, honey. Put your drawing on the fridge.

Don’t get me wrong — I love fan service, and am as susceptible to it as anyone else. In my mind, though, there’s a way to go about it. Writers of any prequel need to be careful about having the benefit of hindsight and pretending it's foresight. For example, I was initially skeptical of Spock’s arc, thinking that it would leave him far more emotionally developed and different than he was in TOS, and potentially negating his later character arc as something he had already experienced, and in more depth.

However, at the moment I’m trying to trust the writers, because I can see how Spock’s trajectory could easily lead toward him opening up, getting burned (metaphorically, not like in ep. 10), and retreating into a more Vulcan-like aspect for his next ship, having to learn to open himself up again.

I do think that they are focusing too much on Spock right now. I love Spock. I love him a lot. But I want other characters to have more of an existence outside of his periphery. I don’t want to get burnt out on Spock being the focal point of the entire universe. (Luckily, a lot of things Spock seems not to know about in TOS that he finds out about in SNW can be explained by the fact that Spock loves to obfuscate and lie.)

I am, on the other hand, genuinely uncomfortable about what the series has done with the Gorn, not because I’m a TOS purist who wants to have the aesthetic stay exactly the same — I don’t need to see a lizard in a leotard — but because, to me, making the Gorn irredeemably monstrous negates some really important messaging in Arena; maybe the Federation judged too hastily, because we knew nothing about the Gorn. Maybe relentless colonization is an issue, and seeking revenge will just beget a never-ending cycle of revenge. Maybe we should decide to make peace.

Yes, the Gorn in Arena seemed disproportionally cruel and violent, and perhaps they were. However, the point of the episode was that humans have that same capacity in them, as well, and we need to actively choose against violence.

Currently, making the Gorn a previously-known species that is essentially a mindlessly violent Alien chest-burster just doesn’t sit well with me. (Also, with all that, total missed opportunity for Sam Kirk to say something like “At least I didn’t get killed by those parasites” dun dun dun). Maybe the writers think they’re making Kirk’s choice in Arena even more powerful by making the Gorn more alien, but it’s not working for me at the moment.

I was also a little weirded out to see one of the episodes take so liberally from LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” without clear credit or even a nod. In one of the subsequent episodes, La’an tries to get out of eating one of Pike’s egg-based breakfasts; I so badly wanted him to say “Come on, don’t be the one who walks away from omelets.” (Yes, that would have been very silly. But it was right there. Well, maybe next season there will be time for Sam to get scared by a…flying pancake, dun dun dun…)

My main philosophy is this: fine to ditch the aesthetics, just keep the progressive ethics. Perfectly happy to see 60’s sexism, for example, get the boot; I just worry when other messages seem regressive. But maybe there is a long game here! 

There’s so much out there to explore, and I hope the show can trust that we’re willing to go to those completely new places.

[mystery-star]

Shipping Experiment– Spock

Pairing: Spock x reader (gender neutral)

Warnings: involuntary drunkenness

Words: 3686

A/N: I got this idea when I stumbled upon a BTS picture of the AOS movie productions. Then I discussed it with @cleversturmhond​ and decided it had to be written. I know the pic is for AOS but can be read for TOS as well.

Please do not repost my work on other sites or platforms!

-

Being an Ensign usually meant that you couldn’t go on many away missions. So it was always something very special for you to get chosen. You only hoped that your husband had no saying in it because you wanted to be chosen because of your skills and not the fact that you were married to the Chief Science Officer and First Officer of the ship. On the other hand, if it had been Spock’s idea to take you on the mission, it probably had a logical reason, after all he always claimed that he did not make emotional decisions while on duty. Maybe you could ask him later on who had had the idea to allow you to come to the mission.

For a reason you were surprised to learn that the aliens that lived on the planet were very friendly because so far you had usually only heard stories of how the landing party had been almost killed or abducted by the inhabitants of the planet. The natives even invited you for dinner and the Captain immediately agreed. You on the other hand didn’t know if it was such a good idea to just eat foreign food, what if it was poisonous for you? Sure, Kirk claimed that the alien’s physiology was not that different from your own but it still was no guarantee that the food would not hold and unpleasant surprises.

Unfortunately, the meal tasted a bit bland but otherwise it was very good and you ate a lot, probably more than usual. They even served some kind of ‘dessert’, just that it consisted of a bitter drink. After the meal, you were allowed to watch some kind of welcome dance the natives did for you and also encouraged all of you to dance as well. To your surprise, even Spock joined them a bit later, but probably only because four of your hosts were pulling on his arms and trying to get him up and on the dance floor. With determined steps he came over to you, offering you his hand

“Do you mind?”

“I’d love to” you said, taking his hand and placing the other hand on his shoulder. When you had first seen what a skillful dancer he was, you almost couldn’t believe it. Even less that he had never taken dance lessons in secret and just seemed to be a whiz kid, like at everything else. Not that you minded though, it was something you loved about him, how good he was at everything or how quickly he learned if something was indeed new for him. You amused yourself very much and also Spock seemed to do so. But then you saw him smile at you and in shock you let go of him “What’s wrong’” you asked.

“What are you referring to?”

“Your smile, you just smiled”

“I do not believe I did. You must have imagined it”

“Yeah sure, let’s just deny it all as if it was a shame” you said, gently taking hold of him again to continue your dance. Probably you would have just forgotten about it, if his smile had not etched itself into your memory and made it hard to be forgotten. And it wasn’t just his smile, suddenly, he also leaned his forehead against yours and pulled you closer, letting out a small sigh. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Your definition of ‘okay’ is unclear” he muttered

“I want to know if you’re feeling as usual. Or if you think that something’s off”

“Nothing is ‘off’. I simply enjoy having you close”

“Well I take that as a compliment” you pecked his cheek. While some of the other crewmembers seemed to have had enough, Spock was still twirling you around, even more energetic than before. And at times you could have sworn to see a big smile on his face. Finally, the Captain approached you

“I didn’t know dancing made you that happy”

“What are you trying to say?”

“That you’re grinning like a Cheshire cat” Spock raised an eyebrow

“You are referring to the animal from Alice in Wonderland”

“Yeah. You have something of him right now”

“Is it true?’” he asked looking at you

“Yeah you have been smiling at times But that’s okay. As long as it means you’re feeling happy that’s perfect”

“I would not call it ‘perfect’. I do not like not being in control of my emotions” you had stopped dancing by now

“So what are we gonna do? Do you want to go back to the ship?”

“Perhaps that would be a good solution. Then I can extend my meditation period”

“And leave poor (Y/N) all alone down here?” Kirk said, patting your back.

“Or I can just leave with him” you said “I kinda am getting tired from all the dancing”

“I apologize” Spock said “If you wish to accompany me back to the ship you are welcome to do so”

“Perfect” also Jim gave a nod and so your husband and you left the place after bidding your hosts goodbye and requested to be transported back to the ship. On the way to your shared quarters, Spock took your hand and squeezed it. You checked the time “It’s only 2014 hours. Would you like to do something?”

“If you do not mind I would like to engage in meditation for some time”

“Right, you said that you’d do that. I’ll just be reading something then”

-

Two hours later, Spock was still in the bathroom for meditation. But unless most times he was talking to himself. With a sigh you got up and stopped in front of the door. Of course you knew he didn’t like to be disturbed and that meditation was private to Vulcans. Yet you gently knocked at the locked door.

“Are you okay?” you asked with a quiet voice but got now answer “Spock?”

“Yes”

“Sorry for disturbing you but you were talking and I wanted to see if you’re alright”

“I am” he said “Test Object Leonard... Time: 1.28 seconds”

“What are you doing?” you asked, entering the code to open the door. You didn’t know what to say when you saw what he was doing. He had rid himself of his meditation robes and was standing at the sink in underwear, a dozen or more of origami swans or folded boats, made from toilet paper were sitting on top of the sink. In his hand, he held your lip balm, which he obviously had used to write something on the mirror “Oh Spock” you said, not sure if it was a good idea to laugh “What’s this?”

“I want to find out how long it takes until the figures are soaked with water and unfold”

“Oh well… uh” you only knew one thing. This was not normal behavior for your husband “What about your robes?” he looked at the pile of clothes, something else atypical because usually he carefully folded and put his clothes away unless he put it in the laundry box (and even for in there he did fold them a little).

“I took them off so they will not get wet”

“Well okay” you moved closer and watched, how he launched a swan called Sulu and noted that it was soaked within 1.31 seconds before noting name and the time on the mirror “Come on, you can drown more toilet paper tomorrow”

“I do not drown it. It is an experiment”

“You still can continue it tomorrow”

“Then the conditions might be different”

“Shouldn’t something be tested under different conditions?” he looked at you then turned back to his ‘experiment’, putting the next thing into the water, this time a boat called Sulu. You had the impression that he had each a swan and a boat that were named after someone of the crew. When you checked the list, you saw that also your name was at the top of the list, making you smile. “Come” you said “You can finish tomorrow. I think you have enough data for today” you pointed at the mirror

“I am not done yet”

“We continue tomorrow. I’ll help you” he looked at you

“Then I can get started with the report now”

“Or we go to bed. It’s late”

“I usually write my reports at around that time”

“Yeah but usually don’t soak toilet paper figures in the sink either. Let’s go” he looked at you

“No!” he said, rather fiercely, making you wince

“Spock!” you insisted “I don’t know what’s wrong with you but you are not alright right now. So let me get you to bed or I’ll call McCoy”

“He will be off duty by now” he grabbed the next swan but you took hold of his wrist.

“I can just call med bay. I bet you’d hate someone else looking at you even more”

“I do not need a doctor, I am fine”

“Don’t you usually not use the word fine because it has no logical definition just like ‘okay’?”

“It does, I only tried to make it clear to you by using your vernacular” still he started a lecture of the different meanings of the two words, depending on the context. You sighed and gently tried to lead him away from the sink and to your surprise and relief he complied. As long as he was talking, you could get him back to your bed room and hand him his sleeping shirt which he put on without further ado. But then he was done with his explanation and the started behaving like a kid again, refusing to but on his pajama trousers and insisted he had to continue his experiment.

“No you don’t. If you go back into the bathroom, I’ll throw all your boats and swans into the toilet and flush them” he stared at you and his mouth fell open slightly. You couldn’t hide a grin

“I will make new ones” he said and left for the bathroom

“No!” you shouted and wrapped your hands around his waist, trying to stop him. But since he was stronger than you, due to his Vulcan heritage, he managed to walk to the bathroom anyways. So you let go of him and went to the intercom instead, contacting Med bay that they came to have a look. After all it was possible that his state could be dangerous. You were quite certain it had to do with something that happened on the planet, probably something he ate or drank. When you ended the communication, you saw that Spock wasn’t in the bathroom anymore. He also wasn’t in the bedroom either “Spock?” you called but you got no answer. His figures were still standing on the sink but you noticed that his lute was gone. With a sigh you started the computer on the desk “Computer, where is Commander Spock?” you asked, not wanting to search him. Besides, he could be everywhere.

“Commander Spock currently is in recreation room 3 on deck 5”

“Oh” you said and left your quarters hurrying there as fast as you could. The scene you saw did shock you but you still had to pull back to not start laughing. It was even worse than what you had seen in the bathroom in your quarters. Spock was still only wearing his nightshirts, boxers and was sitting on one of the tables, seeming to be tuning his lute. And of course he was not alone in the rec room and almost everyone was staring at him or you “Spock!” you hissed as you slowly approached him “What are you doing, honey?” you placed a hand on his arm

“I am not making honey” you rolled your eyes

“I can see that. It wasn’t a question. I meant you by honey”

“Why?”

“You’re not in a state to discuss this. Come, let’s go back. You still have your experiment to finish”

“I am off duty” he said trying out his lute again.

“Well then we just go to bed. Or are you hungry again? Just let’s get you out of here. People are watching” you said quietly. At that, his head shot up and he glared at the people in question and they were quick to look away or pretend to focus on something else. You sighed “Come on. We can come back when you put pants on” he looked down his legs “Yes, you’re only wearing underwear”

“That is not underwear” he gestured at his shirt

“Yeah. But this” you pointed at his boxers. Come” you offered him your hand but he slapped it away, putting a foot on his table and started to play on the lute.

“I would like to play you a song”

“You can do this when I’m in bed. Because I’m very tired” you faked a yawn “Then you can help me fall asleep. How does that sound?”

“As if you think my song is boring” he pouted and you shook your head.

“That’s not what I meant. But it is very calming. And it’s been a long day. Are you not tired?”

“I am Vulcan”

“That doesn’t answer the question” he didn’t say anything and you sighed “Fine” you pulled your hand back and gave a nod, walking over to the intercom to contact Med Bay again because the doctor had to come here and not your quarters. You probably didn’t’ have the strength (or will) to bring your husband back to his quarters. When you were done, you also contacted the Captain to tell him what was going on and to let him know that maybe Spock wouldn’t come to work tomorrow

“What do you mean by ‘behaving odd’? Is it a Spocksih odd we’re used of him or odd odd?”

“Odd odd. Unless he’s sitting on the tables in rec room just wearing his boxers and playing his lute each day”

“No, you’re right that is odd. When did he start behaving like that?”

“I don’t know. He went mediating when we returned. But maybe his smiles on the planet already had to do with his situation”

“Did you let McCoy know?”

“He’s got off, so I contacted Med Bay”

“Very well. Do you need help?”

“Are you already back?”

“Yeah, we all are by now”

“Oh okay. But no, I called for a doctor he’ll help me to bring Spock back home”

“Perfect” you turned around to your husband

“Oh fuck”

“What? What is he doing now?”

“No idea”

“How do you mean that?”

“Because he’s gone. He’s not here anymore”

“Do you need help searching him?”

“Only if you don’t mind”

“My friend and First Officer is running around the ship drunk and half naked. Of course I can make time to search him”

“Good” you quickly discussed where you would go looking (respectively that you’d ask the computer for his location again) before contacting Med Bay yet another time to let them know that you had lost your husband again. Then you went to the next computer to hear his location. As it seemed he currently wasn’t in a room but was still underway to wherever he was heading. That was if he had a place he wanted to go. As you followed his path, you stopped to ask a computer again and when you heard where Spock was, you sped up even more. He had gone to the Pharmacology lab and in his state you had no idea what he’d do and he could get himself killed if he did something wrong. When you arrived at the lab, two people of sickbay were already there, talking to your husband. “What’s going on?” you asked, taking your husband’s hand.

“Your explanations made me realized that something is indeed wrong with me. I was trying to find something against it” he gestured at two small vials in front of

“Did he take anything?”

“No, luckily not” the nurse said while the doctor ran a scanner over Spock

“Is he okay?”

“No” Spock replied, making you squeeze his hand. To your surprise he pulled you closer until your head was resting against his chest. Suddenly he let out a yelp and when you looked up you saw how the doctor had injected a hypo into Spock’s neck. At the same time as your husband you asked what it was and were told that it something that would help him calm down a bit. The nurse then continued explaining that everything was alright so far and he just seemed drunk. So you should just take him back to your quarters and let them know in case something happened. With a grin you shook your head.

“What did you do huh?” you nudged his arm, making him glance down at you

“I did not take anything”

“On the planet. But you couldn’t know. We all didn’t. Now let’s get you to bed and tomorrow everything will be better” also Kirk now arrived in the lab and was asking what was going on, whereupon he received a briefing from the doctor.

“And he’s fine now?”

“He’s always been fine. But (Y/N) should keep an eye on him, just in case. But I don’t think something will happen. I’d take some blood but I have the impression that in his state he will not allow it”

“What if you wait until the sedative you gave him works?”

“Of course we could but as far as I can see he’s fine. Just not used to being drunk. I only thought we could find out what put him in that state. Maybe we’ll have to take some blood if he gets worse which he shouldn’t”

“Okay, that’s great to hear” you said with a nod and when you saw, how your husband slightly slackened you took hold of his arm

“It’s starting wo work” the nurse commented and you tried to lead him back to your shared quarters which you only could when also Kirk took hold of him and helped you. Together you more or less dragged Spock back to your quarters and after asking if you could manage, the Captain left you.  Spock pulled you to the bed, sat down on its edge and after you were in his lap, he embraced you tightly.

“Careful” you muttered “Don’t forget how strong you are and your thousand lectures about how you could snap all my bones just like that” he didn’t reply but nuzzled the side of your neck. “How about you let me get ready for bed and then we can lie down and cuddle until we fall asleep?” again he did nothing so you let out a sigh “Aren’t you tired?”

“Not very much. However, I wish to hold you longer”

“You can also do that when we’re trying to fall asleep?” now his arms disappeared and you got up, getting out of your clothes, when you heard the bathroom door close. “Please just don’t continue your experiment” you muttered as you put on a top for in the bed. You sat down on the bed, taking out a PADD to read an article before Spock returned but again he stayed in the bathroom. After fifteen minutes you put your device aside and knocked at the door but got no answer, so you opened it. You had to cover your mouth to not burst out laughing. He was cuddling his robes he had discarded earlier against his chest and was fast asleep on the bathroom floor. Of course you knew that you wouldn’t be able to bring him back to bed so you returned to your bedroom, got your blanket and spread it over him. For a while you stood there, looking down at him and considering if you should join him or spend the night in bed before you sighed and grabbed your pillow to lie down beside him as well.

-

It was one of the first times in your marriage that you woke up before Spock. But knowing he’d probably be awake any time, you waited for him with breakfast. When he appeared in the door frame you had to bite back a chuckle because you had never seen him so disheveled.

“Morning” you greeted, putting your PADD aside

“Morning, (Y/N)” he replied with a nod. “I cannot find a logical explanation why I have woken up in the bathroom”

“Because you fell asleep there. Bam, logic” you got up and walked to the replicator “Water or tea?”

“Then I cannot recall why I would have chosen the bathroom floor as suitable place to spend the night”

“Oh well I can’t answer that either. But I might have an idea”

“That is?” he asked, walking to the bed to put the blanket on it, of course folding it neatly before taking a new uniform from his wardrobe.

“You don’t remember?”

“I am not certain I understand what you are referring to”

“Well” you grinned, getting your own breakfast, “I guess I’d better tell you before Kirk surprises you with made up stories about your half-naked adventures in the rec room. Come to think of it, you might want to make sure he doesn’t find the video”

“Which video?” if he hadn’t been shocked before he definitely was now. The intercom beeped and Spock answered it

“How’re you doing, druggie?”

“I do not understand your reference”

“You don’t remember? Pity, I’d love to see your face. I could tell you everything but I guess that (Y/N) knows a few more details. In fact I’d love to hear the whole story. Anyways, I just called to let you know I pulled a few strings to let you take off this morning, Spock”

“I do not see…”

“And I don’t care. I won’t let you come to the bridge. Oh and Bone’s awaiting you in Med Bay he said” the call ended and Spock looked at you as if he was lost.

“It seems there something you should tell me”

“Yeah” you gestured at his chair “I know Vulcan got nerves of steel, not anatomically, but you might better sit before I start”

-

Taglist: @softsapphicideals

[tmntkiseki]

Part 3

So, I started this episode and watched through the cold opening as narrated by the Ultimate Ninja... then I noticed I was hungry. I have meatballs now. I'm channeling my inner Michelangelo.

tfw last episode we only got Splinter and Usagi's reactions to Leonardo collapsing. Only now do we get to see Donatello's.

Donny is literally about to bite Usagi's hand off thinking he poisoned Leo

"What's with the Vulcan Mind Meld?" "Vulcan Mind Meld?" "What is the HEALER doing to LEO?" God, Sam Riegel's delivery of that line SKDGJKDFJGF

Ultimate Ninja, trying his damnest to act surprised that Leo got poisoned.

"What is the meaning of this?" Daimyo, I regret to inform you that your son is kind of an asshole.

"How long is a mega-quagon?" You and me both, Raphael. (I'm thinking it's the Battle Nexus equivalent of an hour?)

RAPH AND MIKEY REALLY HAVE NO IDEA THAT LEO HAS BEEN POISONED HELP

Don despairing because at this point in the series, his specialty is engineering and mechanics, not medicine ;A;

Usagi: * tries to reach out and touch Leonardo * Donatello: * grabs his wrist and glares * DON'T even THINK about touching him!

I love violently protective Donny so much. We deserved more of him going apeshit.

The hilarity that 4Kids couldn't allow any references to Gen alcoholism, so what did they do? Amped up his obsession with money. Because, you know, gambling is clearly more child-friendly.

Though to be fair, the game corner was still a thing in the Pokemon games at this point. Oh, how times have changed

There are so many background character designs being reused from "The King" and "Turtles in Space," holy crap (I just spotted the alien guy who was flirting with Mikey when he was in that pink hooded dress.)

Mikey, you're REALLY gonna regret ticking off Kluh in about... 1.4 seasons.

Ultimate Ninja, you idiot, do you know how bad of an idea it is to gloat about your secret plans to the very people who can stop you?

And thus it is revealed that the Councilman is actually Drako. Funnily enough, I think the reveal actually caught me off guard the first time I watched through the series. Now I'm just giddy to see all the foreshadowing beforehand.

This episode really had a lot of good Mikey and Raph moments. We get to see them when they're the best of friends and the worst of enemies (in other words; typical brothers.)

"I am soooo gonna enjoy this." You're really not, Raph.

Ia is such a cool character and yet she NEVER FRIKKIN SPEAKS. (Just like Chrysalis from the Justice Force.)

"How well do the brothers know each other?" "Mikey used the exact same tactic he used to best Raph in their sparring match during 'Meet Casey Jones' in order to beat him during their Battle Nexus match, as he knows damn well the angrier Raph is, the more uncoordinated his attacks become." "Ahhhhh."

Traximus is such a bro. I'm still sad that the Triceraton Republic never properly appeared again after Space Invaders/Worlds Collide arc (though I could easily imagine it as having been a plotline they explored during Season 6/7 if the Fast Forward/BttS reboot never happened.)

Okay, the only flaw in the plan of these assassins to frame Leo for killing the Daimyo is the fact that he's STILL UNCONSCIOUS BECAUSE OF THE POISON?

Okay, how were Don and Usagi not knocked out by the smoke bombs like the healer was?

"I believe this belongs to my friend, Usagi." We went from "I'm gonna bite that rabbit's hand off if he touches my brother" to "EXCUSE YOU, THAT'S HIS SWORD, ASSFACE."

Usagi really deserved to interact more with the other turtles besides Leo. I'm eating up this Don-Usagi team up.

TMNT 2003 really, REALLY loved its cliffhangers for its multi episode arcs. Also, Raph and Mikey still have no idea Leo's spent the entire episode poisoned. Actually, I think Mikey at this point is the only one completely out of the loop about all the stuff that's going on in the background sdjgkjsgkdf.

Big Brawl rewatch, let's goooooo

Part 1

"But we need not fear the past. It is the future we must fear." Gotta love it whenever Splinter is narrating the cold opening.

I feel like Splinter should know at this point in the series that if he tells his sons not to do something, they are going to do it anyway.

Also, I keep forgetting that the Battle Nexus takes place every three years, not four. (Why do I keep thinking it's four?)

"Nice going, Donny. You got any chalk in your magic bag of tricks?" Honestly, it would be hilarious if one of the only things Donny doesn't have in his duffel bag is something practical, like a pen or a pack of tissues.

All of the turtles staring at Michelangelo when he reveals he knows what a nexus. The reason being because he, like Donatello, watches Star Trek. Pfffffft

ATTACK OF THE TOOTHPICKS

Once again, I love it whenever the animation suddenly becomes a lot smoother and more detailed during action/fight scenes like this

I'm not surprised that Leo is so upset over his swords being broken during this quick fight. (I mean they're the same swords he forged with Raph back in "The Monster Hunter.")

There is something I really love about the Gyoji as a character and I do not know what it is. His voice? How calm, composed, chill, and reasonable he is? The fact he literally dies at the end of the arc and yet he's brought back during "Grudge Match" as if nothing happened?

The Gyoji is actually god

Turtles see Splinter being attacked by someone unfamiliar; first instinct is to try and help him. These boys love their dad <3

Raphael instantly admitting he was the one who talked Leonardo into following Splinter when Splinter starts scolding Leo... If I had to pick one thing I love about his character, it is the fact he does take responsibility for his actions.

Tell me again why the Djinn was never brought back after this arc? He seems like a nice guy and I wanna see what his dimension looks like.

I'd say of the Big Brawl Episodes, Part 1 is probably my least favorite? But it's entirely circumstantial seeing as this is basically the exposition episode explaining the Battle Nexus and Splinter's history with the competition.

The first appearance of Usagi... Even as a pre-teen, he is powerful. Though why was he at the Battle Nexus three years ago? Was Katsuichi competing maybe? Gimme the lion sensei, damn it.

Drako is such a piss baby loser jesus

I adore this moment where Splinter agrees to let Leo, Raph, Don, and Mikey compete. He's been very overprotective of his boys for the longest time, but he's starting to realize that they are growing up and becoming more independent.

I still firmly believe that had the Fast Forward reboot never happened, TMNT 2003 would have been the first animated iteration to kill off Splinter. Just saying.

I never realized how much of a giant the Ultimate Ninja is compared to the turtles, holy shit

I recall seeing a theory somewhere that the reason Leonardo didn't get a mystic weapon in Season 5 is because of his katanas getting reforged in the Battle Nexus, where the swordsmith likely used magic to get the job done quickly? I dig it.

TRAXIMUS

Forever kills me how even though the turtles never got a chance to meet Hamato Yoshi, they still revere him as an ancestral figure (especially Leo, since this episode ends with him praying in front of his statue.)

Also you're about to be assassinated, Leo. Leo. LEO.

[getoutofmyjaneway]

Enterprise is also Leaving Netflix. What Should you Watch Before it Boldly Goes Away

So let’s talk about Enterprise shall we? The black sheep of Trek, it is very different from what came before it. And you are right, Enterprise starts off slow.  R e a l l y    s l o w.  Do not let that stop you, Enterprise has a lot to offer! How you can watch depends on how much you have to put into the show:

Option 1 - Long Option

Enterprise is primarily comprised of story arcs in its third and fourth seasons. You can see Star Trek actively starting to transition its’ form of storytelling from usually one- or two-episode stories to the multi-episode to season-long story arcs we typically see in TV today. I will also not be the first to say that Enterprise really blossoms in those two seasons. Because of this, it is really hard to just jump into an episode in the middle of a story arc without being a little lost

Your best option is to watch all of the Xindi story arc and most of the story arcs in season 4.

Start at season 2 episode 26 The Expanse and watch all the way to season 4 episode 21 Terra Prime. This is the true series finally, do not watch These are the Voyages, it is one of the most insulting series finales, like worse than Seinfeld.

Please note that you can skip season 4 episodes 18 and 19 if you don’t like/ are annoyed by the Mirror Universe. These are for-fun episodes that I enjoyed, but I understand are not for everyone. Additionally, season 4 episodes 10 and 11 are not part of any broader story arc, but I would only skip episode 11, Observer Effect. I personally really like episode 10, Daedalus, which gives insight into the history of the Star Trek Universe.

This leaves you with anywhere from 42-46 episodes to watch. Now if that seems like a lot, don’t worry! You can always watch:

Option 2 - Just 10 Episodes

Season 1 Episode 13 - Dear Doctor

Ship's Doctor and resident non-human character Phlox is on Enterprise in a type of exchange program, with a human taking his place on a Denobulan vessel as they strive to learn more about each other's cultures. Phlox writes his human counterpart a 'Data's Day' style letter in which he recounts the adventure of the day. So what's on the menu today? Oh, I don't know, just the origination point of the Prime Directive, you might have heard of that before. 

Season 2 Episode 23 -  Regeneration

Regeneration is a follow-up to the movie, Star Trek First Contact. Yes. I am serious. A group of scientists encounters a crash site where they find Borg corpsickles and so kindly bring them back. This means that the Borg's attack at Wolf 359 was actually a predestination paradox created by the same man who leads the charge against the Borg at that very battle. Yikes. Overall though, a Borg episode was surprisingly appreciated, reminding us that this is overall still a part of the current Star Trek canon.

Season 2 Episode 24 -  First Flight

The point of Enterprise was to give us a glimpse into the early years of human space exploration. While we only saw so much, we did see the beginning of humans traveling at faster than warp speeds. As part of the NX program that spawned Enterprise herself, many tests had to be made to push the maximum possible speed. Of course, being the prolific piolet he was, Archer was there. Making drama.

Season 3 Episode 8 -  Twilight

Enterprise ran into an anomaly that slams into a corridor where Archer and T'Pol are. T'Pol becomes trapped and Archer frees her. This allowed her to escape, but he did not share her fate, being rendered unconscious by the same anomaly. That was 12 years ago. As a result of his injury, he can no long-term memories and Archer has to come to grips with what has been lost during that time. This is my favorite episode of Enterprise, that invokes shades of DS9's The Visitor and Voyager's Year of Hell. In my research, I found out that this was originally pitched as a Voyager story which is now so obvious. The relationship between Archer and T'Pol is never romantic, but you can see the true care they have for each other in their interactions here.

The “Romulan Interference” Arc

Season 4 Episode 12 - Babel One

Season 4 Episode 13 - United

Season 4 Episode 14 - The Aenar

I have decided to select this three-episode arc which is defined by Memory Alpha as the Romulan Interference Arc. By trying to turn the founding members of the federation against each other, the Romulans accidentally created one of their biggest rivals. Oops. Of course, the Romulans are not the main focus, where this really shines is the interplay between the different cultures of the founding races, the humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites. You can see that this was originally planned to be long and drawn out, but they did a good job of condensing it into a nice little arc. Andorians are at their best in Enterprise and this is the most in-depth look that we see in the series. Star Trek Legend Jeffery Combs plays Shran and of course he is amazing, his chemistry with Archer is real. As a reoccurring character, this is not the first or last time we see Shran, but probably the most focused look we have on the character.

The “Xenophobic Humans” Arc

Season 4 Episode 3 - Home

Season 4 Episode 20 - Demons

Season 4 Episode 21 - Terra Prime

Another arc here to round off the list. I had originally only planned on placing episodes 20 and 21 here, but as there is setup done earlier in the season, episode 3, so I have also included it here as it contributes to a bigger part of the story. It makes sense after all that people have been through after the Xindi war, there would be pro-isolation groups. Heck, they probably were already there, but it makes sense that here, the tension would grow. It’s kind of ironic that after all of these struggles with alien races, the climax of the series sees a struggle not among aliens, but among humans. As a premise, this is what we all expected of Enterprise, a Coalition among explorers coming together to see what is beyond their shores. This is the true ending of Enterprise.

Again there are multiple ways to watch Enterprise, and again, these are just snippets. I know I left out some episodes that people will probably enjoy like The Expanse, Carbon Creek, or even the pilot Broken Bow (which in my opinion is the best pilot episode in the pre-reboot Star Trek era). This list was composed of episodes that would best give the Enterprise flavor, and in my opinion, the effect of an episode on Star Trek mythology was one of the biggest contributing factors. Would love to know what you think or if there are other episodes that should be added. 

[data-is-my-favorite-android]

Let’s talk about Star Trek canon and what we consider bendable (but still compliant enough) to remain canon and what changes we consider significant enough to be divergent.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I confess it’s because I’m already on high alert looking for signs that SNW is going to ultimately follow its own path (if you’ve read anything else on my blog in the last week you know why lol). So I’m probably reading too much into things or thinking about this too hard for my own good, but the question of what can bend and what can’t break to remain canon-compliant still stands, and it’s an interesting one.

Btw, most of the stuff I’m thinking about centers around Spock, not only because he’s a long-time favorite of mine but also because, of the characters shared between TOS and SNW, his was the most fleshed out in TOS.

All shows with an established canon have inflection points, and some of those points are “harder” than others, more fixed and enshrined as important, immutable events/facts in the course of a story. If you bend them too much or break them, the existing story as the audience knows it is quantifiable changed. Softer inflection points can bend the facts in a way that might make audiences give writers the side-eye, but are permissible bc in the grand scheme of things they don’t tinker with the core backbone of the known story. The audience can still accept that these events occur in the same universe.

For SNW’s part, it has already committed several minor breaks with canon which are related to soft inflection points. In TOS, Spock was the only noticeably alien member of the crew, for instance. Discovery sort of changed the rules on that, and SNW followed suit. There’s lots of behind-the-scenes/budget/practical reasons why TOS didn’t show other aliens on the Enterprise, whereas now Star Trek properties have the budget and the technology to invest in prosthetics and special effects for more than one core character. And that’s a good thing! We love aliens 💕 But it is a notable difference.

In TOS, Spock states that he has never mind-melded with a human before, but Spock mind-melds with La’An in SNW. Bones doesn’t know shit about Vulcan biology while Dr. M’Benga seems to know more (at least when it comes to pure Vulcans; Spock has always been trickier bc of his human genetics). Some of the ship’s technologies are more advanced than in TOS. And of course Nurse Chapel has WAY more personality (which is a wonderful improvement and I am so freakin’ happy that the writers brought her on board and really dedicated effort to making her a nuanced character).

These are all fairly minor and can mostly be chalked up to the fact that they’re relatively obscure, trivial facts, and that we have better production technologies and want to show them off and we need to make Star Trek feel like it’s in the future, which means updating the aesthetics and functions of the tech. When it comes to characters like Uhura, Chapel, Pike, and Una, it’s pretty easy to tweak their characters (because there wasn’t a lot of detail in the source material to begin with) and update them for modern audiences and values without violating the audience’s sense of continuity too much.

But there are larger deviations happening too, and they’re operating in a gray area that make them /just/ plausibly canon-compliant enough but also are arguably not. Whether they are truly “hard” inflection points depends on whether they indeed have larger ripple effects downstream.

In Amok Time (TOS), for instance, nobody knew Spock was engaged, including Nurse Chapel and Uhura. Literally everyone was shocked. It is also (not stated outright but) heavily implied that Spock and T’Pring have not seen each other since they were very young. In fact, it is stated that Spock hoped he would never undergo pon farr, though he was certainly old enough to have gone through at least one. You can write that off as either an error on the part of the writers or that his human genetics may alter the internal clock for his pon farr, but the fact remains that a) he probably hadn’t been in contact with T’Pring for quite a long time (possibly since childhood) and b) for sure NOBODY knew or suspected he was engaged/betrothed in TOS. And that’s… not an inconsequential difference between TOS and SNW, in my opinion. It isn’t necessarily an obvious and outright deviation, but it is definitely not an insignificant revision SNW made.

(Also it seems like everybody in Star Fleet knows a fair bit about Vulcans by this time in SNW, whereas in TOS there’s very much this sense that working closely with Vulcans is extremely rare and they guard the secrets of their lifestyles and culture well.)

Like I said, this has just got me thinking about the malleability of canon and what is acceptable to mess around with and still claim adherence and what isn’t. A lot of these things are small infractions, but Amok Time and the information it conveyed about Spock’s character and Vulcan culture therein is a MAJOR cornerstone of Trek lore. It’s one of the most notable episodes of the TOS canon, arguably a hard inflection point as a whole, and you wouldn’t think the writers would want to muck around with it. But they did. T’Pring is VERY present in Spock’s life in SNW. Nurse Chapel is absolutely painfully aware of her, and Uhura may also know of her too (though I don’t think they’ve directly interacted). Other Bridge members also know who T’Pring is by name, if not on sight.

These facts by general consensus still don’t seem to outright break canon, even if they do represent a more significant break from info established in TOS. The hard inflection points of Amok Time are that Spock has a fiancée and goes into pon farr, and when he arrives on Vulcan she forces him to fight Kirk so she can end up with Stonn. This effectively ends their betrothal. Explicitly break with any of those points and you have divergence, but all the other details are just that: details. And SNW takes place more than ten years before the events of TOS, which leaves lots of room to play and makes it easier to avoid doing things that would DIRECTLY violate canon. But idk, the changes they made particularly in regards to T’Pring and Spock’s relationship are already subtly shifting away from canon. It’s certainly bending the narrative details of one of the more important episodes in TOS. It wouldn’t have been hard for the SNW writers to leave that aspect of Spock’s life alone. They didn’t have to bring T’Pring in, and they also didn’t have to bring Chapel in either (or Stonn now that I think about it!). Spock also seems to be actively confronting aspects of himself in SNW that he largely avoided discussing/examining in TOS (though this could be a matter of perspective. It just always seemed to me like he was never really comfortable/never really reconciled his human and Vulcan halves in TOS, but it’s been a while since I’ve watched TOS end to end, so maybe I’m not remembering some things right. He seemed happy to live among humans, but he always had trouble embracing or admitting to his own humanity). His character development already seems on track to put him well ahead of the curve of where he started in TOS.

So with all that in mind, what exactly would it take to definitively signal a break from canon and the establishment of a new timeline in SNW? At this point, it probably all hinges on something significant Spock does, or maybe Pike. If Pike figures out how to bend fate or avoid it entirely, that would obviously create an AU. But that branch point is ten years in the future, so I’m not quite sure how they could show him avoiding that without a weird time skip or something. But Spock? If he breaks it off with T’Pring (and/or T’Pring gets with Stonn who has already shown up), that could signal a clear departure. If Spock gets with Nurse Chapel, that could also do it (though that’s a little more gray; you could say that TOS Chapel’s unrequited love for Spock is rooted in an earlier failed attempt at a relationship). Spock has a LOT more hard canon inflection points in TOS than anyone else, so his actions and development in SNW bear the most weight.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Star Trek has always played around with alternate universes and divergent timelines, and that is true—but rarely does the eye of the story shift to follow one of these branches. The cinematic Star Trek universe made a whole new timeline, but it can get away with that because that story is told through a different medium (movies vs tv series). For the shows, it’s harder to justify. Discovery had to REALLY do a lot of heavy wrangling to remain canon compliant, and some fans were mad about the deviation it presented up until Michael went to the future with the Discovery and her name was stricken from all records.

Personally, I appreciate a core canon, but I love me some AU shit. I love exploring different expressions of the same characters, seeing different choices lead to different (or shockingly similar!) results. I think a lot of fandoms are becoming more open to the flexibility of multiverses, in part bc of the influence of fanfic, and in part bc of other properties/mediums doing the same (namely comics and their spin-off Hollywood franchises). Whether Star Trek and SNW follows suit remains to be seen.

Idk, ya’ll have any thoughts on this? I’m spending way too much time mulling this over lol