#there was probably at least one investigation into why a situation where Spock had to donate blood happened in the first place

[odekiisu]

TOS s2ep10 Journey to Babel - from a lab medicine perspective

I love this episode. I really do.

I would, however, like to have some strong words with whoever’s in charge of blood banking on the Enterprise.

You have a Vulcan officer onboard.

You also routinely engage in dangerous missions with high probability of injury, very far away from medical facilities.

How do you not have at least one, more likely several massive transfusion protocols' worth of Vulcan-appropriate blood products constantly available. HOW.

It could be whatever passes for universal for Vulcans. It could be specifically for Spock’s blood group, T-neg and whatever other specific antigens he has. Doesn’t matter - either of those would have worked for Sarek, since Spock’s own blood clearly worked.

(Also - what did they transfuse? Whole blood? GBCs*? They filtered out ‘human factors’ which I would assume would have been in the plasma or possibly other types of cells, because idk if removing integral surface proteins from the oxygen-carrying cells is possible without damaging them.)

(I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that Spock and Sarek are either identical in terms of the vast majority of whatever blood group systems Vulcans have - minus said human factors - or that Spock exhibits some recessive blood type that Sarek is a carrier for. Therefore it’s likely that Spock could donate whole blood to his father. But that’s beside the point. The point is, he shouldn't have had to at such a scale in the first place. Because clearly whatever's suitable for him must be equally suitable for Sarek.)

Now, it might make sense for there to be a deficit if Spock** (or someone else) had recently gotten a transfusion, or if the required doses had recently expired and they hadn't had a chance to restock. But they've just spent a lot of time picking up ambassadors from various places - surely it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that they could have restocked at the same time as well? Plus, you can easily plan in advance to replace expiring blood products, by virtue of knowing exactly when they will expire.

*green blood cells. The Vulcan equivalent to human RBCs. AKA praseocytes, as I've been informed.

**He hasn't, according to Nurse Chapel. And according to Bones' relative willingness to let him go through with it.

[thelordofdarkreunion]

The Misty Planet

Here we go.  By request, a story (or, in this case, story line) where the Scoundrels meet Deus from the Empyrean Iris stories by starr-fall-knight-rise.  Things play out a little differently here, because this time, the Great Game has begun, and there are now more players...

“The game is afoot.”  -Sherlock Holmes

The view from the starship’s bridge was quite the sight to behold.  A massive red star, glowing with power, shone from outside.  The windows were tinted, of course, to allow the individuals inside to see without damaging their vision.  But, mighty as the star was, it was another structure that the individuals were examining.  The second star.  Smaller, but no less beautiful than the first.  This one, though, had strange, alien structures orbiting it.  Which was why the group was here.  

“So.  We’re the bloody universe’s problem solvers, I suppose,” muttered Thomas Drake, itching his nose with the edge of a black-gloved finger.  

“Well, we were the first to make contact with each other and the other galaxies after the… time-screwy thing.  We also prevented the attack on the Citadel, and found out who was behind it,” replied Shepard.  “Still working on finding the Shadow Broker and why he… or she, possibly, would want to kill the members of almost every government in the universe.”  

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.  We’ll figure that one out later.  One problem at a time,” sighed Krirk.

“I’m good with that,” said Drake.  “Now.  On to business.  Admiral Vir.  Why the hell are we here?”  Vir walked up to the viewing glass and let out a low sigh.  

“Well, basically, here’s the deal.  My crew and I came to the Polaris star, which most of you ought to recognize as it exists in all of your galaxies except one, and saw this weird, unknown structure on Polaris Ab, the smaller star of the two main ones.  We have also discovered a planet nearby.”  Vir went to a console and pulled up an image, taken from the ground of a strange looking alien wasteland.  He let out a deep breath before going on.  “This was a picture taken on a very similar planet that my crew found in the past.  The two seem to be related.”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” muttered Solo.  Cooper gave him a blank stare.  

“Do you ever not?” 

“Occasionally,” huffed Solo.  “When we aren’t going to mysterious planets covered with red mist and big black pillars.”

“I agree.  The whole thing is rather… ominous,” said Shepard.  

“Well, if in doubt, we nuke the whole thing and be done with it,” said Drake.  Vir gave him a long-suffering side glance.  

“No.  We are not going to nuke it,” he said.  “There is too much information at stake.”  He sighed again.  “On that planet, we, or some of my crew and I, received visions of an entity called ‘Deus.’  What Deus is or what it wants we do not know.  However, we believe that these planets are somehow aligned.”  The holographic image changed, showing the Polaris system interlinked with the other strange, red planet, the Drev homeoworld, the Celzex homeworld, and Earth.  “What this place is, who created the massive structure on Polaris Ab, and why these systems are all interlinked is what we are here to find out,” finished Vir.  

“Visions?” asked Cain.  Not good.  Most definitely not good.  

“Yes,” replied Vir.  “Not harmful or long lasting, though.”  The group was silent for a moment, as they decided on how to approach this.  Throughout his career as a ship’s captain, and later, admiral, Vir usually operated on his best judgement.  While occasionally shaky at times, it usually won the day.  However, when wasn’t sure what to do, he usually asked himself one question: what would Captain Kirk do?  Well, Kirk was now here, in the same room, and apparently he didn’t have any clue either.  Might as well find out what he thinks, I suppose.  “Captain Kirk?  You seem to be in these sorts of situations a lot.  What do you think we should do?”  Kirk looked over with a frown.  

“We should investigate,” he said finally.  “I don’t particularly like it, never have, never will, but we have to see what’s going on all the same.”  The group nodded to each other.  

“Cooper and Solo, you stay up here in case anything… funny goes on,” ordered Vir.  The two nodded their consent.  “The rest of us… prepare.  Meet you on these coordinates on planet in 45 minutes.”

Aboard the Apocalypse   

“Right you sorry lot!  We are going planetside to investigate a bunch of alien architecture.  There may or may not be hostiles, but this place gives me the creeps,” announced Drake.  The Third Squad of armsmen looked over to him.  Lucky them.  They drew duty rotation when we’re above disturbing planet central.  “I’ve been around long enough, seen enough, heard enough stories, and watched enough horror movies to know what’s probably going to happen.”  As he said this, a pair of robotic arms locked his armor in place.  The armsmen were gearing up and checking their weapons, but still listening intently.  “You are going to bring full combat gear, full weapons, the works!  The whole works!  Everyone is going to be wearing fully sealed armor, and carry an extra respirator on hand, just in case.  You are also bringing provisions, again, just in case.”  Drake grabbed his plasma rifle and double, then triple checked it.  He then keyed his comms.  “Richter.  Ordelphine.  If for some reason we do not make it back, you are not to send any more soldiers down.  You have full authorizations for Genesis 19 protocols.  Use your best judgement.  I trust you two more than anyone else in this fleet, so do not allow them to override you.  Hopefully it doesn’t come to that.”  On the other side of the comms line, Richter and Ordelphine winced.  Genesis 19 was code for the complete nuclear annihilation of anything on a planet deemed to be a threat.  Drake wasn’t taking any chances here, it seemed.  

Aboard the Normandy

Shepard took up a heavy machine gun and checked the ammunition.  This place reminded him too much of old Prothean planets, and the beacons located on them.  The massive black pillars and the visions Vir and his crew got from being near them were too much like the beacon he had touched on Eden Prime…  He still had nightmares about that mission.  This time, he was taking no chances.  Instead of taking a full team with him, he decided to go with what he normally did, and take three ground crew members.  All were carefully selected.  Garrus, because he wouldn’t trust anyone else to have his back as well as the Turian sniper.  Samara.  An ancient Asari biotic.  None more powerful or calm in a crisis.  Lastly, Mordin.  A Salarian scientist.  The only expert he had at the moment who might be able to figure out what these ruins were.  He hoped it would be enough.  

Aboard the Enterprise

Kirk, Spock and Master Chief stood next to the cylindrical grey transporters of the Enterprise.  The two Starfleet officers stood, checking their phasers and respirator masks, making sure nothing would go wrong once they got planetside.  Alongside them were a group of low ranking redshirts (hopefully they wouldn’t die this time, though Kirk was less than hopeful)  and the massive, green-clad figure of the Chief.  Said figure was currently looking over all of his weapons, making sure they were all there and battle ready.  Out of all the Scoundrels, it went without saying that he was the most physically powerful.  It would be his duty to eradicate anything particularly big or nasty they found on the planet.  If, of course, there was actually anything there.  The fleet’s scanners had picked up no life signs, but everyone was still on edge.  Kirk nodded and the group stepped into the transporter.  

“Beam us up, Scotty.”

Aboard the Omen

Commissar Cain leaned against a shuttle in the Omen’s massive hangar bay.  Of course, as the regiment’s champion of all things strange and alien, he had been chosen to lead the surface party.  He couldn’t say no.  How would it look to refuse to partake in a mission of this calibre in front of not only the Valhallans, but the Omen’s crew as well?  He would lose his status if he did.  So, it was with a very heavy heart that he warily donned his tattered set of carapace armor, strapped on his weapons, and made his way to the hangar.  Sargent Grifen was already there, along with her squad.  At least it was Grifen.  Cain had gone through a necron tomb with her squad and lived.  If he trusted anyone in the regiment with this mission, it was her.  And, of course, Jurgen.  Cain’s aide stood by his side, his ever present smell lingering in the air.  In his hands he held his melta gun, a weapon that had saved both their lives on numerous occasions.  Cain was sure Jurgen had other trinkets hidden in his pouches, in addition to the las rifle slung across his back.  Jurgen was ever prepared for anything.  

Cain looked up and over to where Admiral Vir entered the hangar.  He was backed up by a full contingent of marines and members of the Drev clan, followed by a few of the ship’s scientists.  Vir was wearing his suit of Iron Eye armor, fully insulated against the outside atmosphere.  Inside it, he was one of the group’s resident super soldiers, able to perform feats no ordinary person could ever aspire to.  Vir nodded as the Drev came to ease, resting their spears on the floor, and the marines checked their rifles one last time.  

“Let’s get going then, shall we?”

On the Planet

The Omen’s shuttle had landed in some sort of marshland, brackish water reaching up to the group’s shins.  Red mist stretched as far as the eye could see.  Black plants and a few totally black, dead trees littered the ground.  The Milano was parked nearby, on a larger solid stretch of ground, and Quill lounged outside it while his crew looked merely bored at the lack of action on this strange planet.  The Valhallans filed out of the shuttle, looking apprehensive in contrast to the Quill’s boredom and Vir’s excitement over exploring new planets.  A tiled black road led to some sort of black mass in the distance.  A city, if Vir had to guess.  How exciting!

A high whining sound rang out, and Kirk, Spock, and Master Chief teleported in alongside a contingent of Starfleet red-shirts.  The Chief stood statue still, weapons ready, as the Starfleet operatives joined the crew of the Omen in examining the black plant life that dotted the ground and the spaces in between the road tiles.  

The roar of shuttle engineers pierced the air, and the Normandy’s sleek shuttle made its descent alongside the Apocalypse’s heavy gunship transport.  Shepard, Garrus, and two aliens Vir and Cain didn’t recognize stepped out of the first, while Drake and a full contingent of armsmen.  

One of Shepard’s crew, a Salarian, by the looks of him, made a b-line to the scientists examining the plants, while Shepard and the other two greeted Quill.  The Apocalypse’s armsmen disembarked quickly, weapons at the ready as if they were on an active battlefield.  Drake made a circular motion to the shuttle pilot, who gave a thumbs up and immediately took off.  Drake approached Cain and gave a curt nodd.   

“This is your galaxy, Vir, so you’re in charge, but I don’t like the looks of this place.  I don’t want to spend a second longer here than I need to.”  Cain nodded.

“I agree.  This reminds me too much of some of the… stranger things I’ve seen.”  Vir pointed to the buildings on the horizon.  

“I understand,” he said reassuringly.  “Plus, we need to investigate that way anyway.  Let's move on.”  Vir made a motion to the scientists still crouched along the beginning of the pathway.  Dr. Wilson, one of the Omen’s scientists, looked up and held out a vial of the black plant.

“These are all dead.  But they’re remarkably well preserved…”

“Wilson is right.  Planet is dead.  Was once alive, but now everything here is lifeless.  Strangely well preserved, though,” rattled off the Salarian, almost without any breaths.  

“I’m liking this less and less,” muttered Cain.

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

The group had walked the long titled road in silence, the red mist swirling around them.  At one point, there was a rain storm, and Vir had ordered everyone inside one of the decayed buildings they had finally reached.  Everyone had taken it differently.  Shepard and his crew looked apprehensive.  The crews of the Omen and Enterprise were looking over everything with curiosity.  Master Chief, Drake, Cain, the Valhallans, and the Apocalypse’s armsmen were fanned out, weapons raised, clearing corners and rooms as if they were expecting something to pop out of the dark any minute.  Quill and his Guardians merely looked bored.  Again.  

They had moved on further since then, into the city itself.  Huge black buildings, in varying states of decay, loomed ominously through the fog.  The scientists were all muttering to each other as the took readings, while the soldiers had all unconsciously moved into wedge formations.  Drake’s gunship whined overhead, ready to provide close air support at his request.  Some might have called it overkill and over-caution, but Drake hadn’t lived this long by not taking such measures.  

At this point, Vir was starting to get creeped out.  Everything here was… wrong, somehow.  It was like a faint childhood memory that one knew they remembered, but couldn’t actually remember.  The place was… familiar.  Sacred, somehow.  In addition, it was a decayed city with no signs of life, and no signs of what had happened to it.  

“Anyone know what might have happened here?” he whispered to the rest of the group.  Somehow, it felt wrong to raise his voice.  

“No.  Not the Borg’s style,” replied Kirk.  

“Reapers would have been more thorough,” whispered back Shepard.  

“I have no idea…” trailed off Cain.  In actuality, he had a few ideas.  None of them good.  None of them he could say, either.  

They came to a central spot, the roads all branching into what looked to be a main square.  A large building rose up in front of them, looking distinctly human in style.  

“Should we investigate?” asked Shepard.  

“Yes, and no,” replied Drake.  “I think some of us should stay here, outside, to make sure no one attacks our rear, while others go inside to investigate.”

“That makes… tactical sense,” replied Vir with a nodd.  “Alright.  Quill and Chief, along with some of the Enterprise’s crew and Valhallans, stay here.  The rest of you, follow me.”  

The building, as it turned out, was some sort of massive laboratory.  There were test tubes of strange, glowing liquid, some form of massive, incomplete mech hanging on calves, and endless rows of filing cabinets.  There were huge factory floors, complete with conveyor belts, all decayed and rusted into ignominy, and rooms filled with rows upon rows of vats of sludge.  With every passing room, the entering group got more and more apprehensive.  What the hell is this place?  What were they doing?  Vir wanted to yell.  It was all so very strange.  So very… creepy.  

This went on for some time, the invaders of this strange sanctum touching nothing, until they got to a central room.  The heavy blast doors that should have protected it were open.  Not a good sign.  In the center of the room was a pedestal, and upon the pedestal, a glowing white ball.  

“Safeties off,” hissed Drake.  “If there’s an ambush coming, now’s as good a time as any.”  Vir, Wilson, Kirk, and Shepard walked up to the ball. 

“What the hell is this?” asked Shepard warily.

“I don’t know,” replied Vir.  “Maybe… some sort of artifact?  Communication device?  No clue.”  Wilson reached out.  

“Don’t touch it!” screamed Cain and Shepard as one.  It was too late.  As soon as Wilson’s skin made contact with the glowing ball, a blast of pure white energy rang throughout the room, knocking everyone off their feet.  Soldiers flew in tangles of weapons, and scientists stumbled and knocked into walls.

Cain slid on the floor, and shook his head a moment to clear it of the force the ball had unleashed.  He looked around.  The Valhallans stood up, checking their weapons to make sure they were still working.  Shepard’s team stood up, Garrus bringing his rifle around and Samara glowing with blue energy.  Kril and the Salarian scientist stood up.  Rigaldis, leader of the Apocalypse armsmen, pushed himself to his feet.  All of the aliens were fine.  All of the Imperial humans were fine.  But the rest, the other humans…  Cain checked Shepard’s neck for a pulse.  It was there.  They were all alive, but completely unconscious.  

“What the hell was that?” asked one of the Valhallans.  

“Don’t know,” murmured Cain as he studied the unconscious humans.  With a suddenness that caused the medic checking him to recoil, Vir’s one organic eye snapped open.  It looked straight ahead, completely unseeing, and seemed to have an incandescent white glow about it.  The medic waved his hand in front of Vir.  He didn’t blink.  

“Deus…” he murmured, before falling once more into unconsciousness.  Everyone looked around uneasily.  

“What do we do?” asked one of the red shirts. 

“Don’t touch that,” Cain pointed at the white orb, “But bring them outside.  We can’t leave them here.”  

Outside was calm, or, as calm as a planet filled with roiling red fog could be.  Quill and Master Chief walked up to the group, noticing the bodies flung across many of the soldiers’ backs.  

“What the hell happened?” asked the Chief.  

“One of the scientists touched some sort of strange white orb,” replied Cain.  “It knocked them all unconscious.”

“We noticed some sort of burst of white energy,” said Quill.  “Didn’t know what it was.  Now we do, I guess,” he added with a shrug.  

“What do we do now?” asked the Chief once more.  

“It’s a strange, alien artifact, and they seem to be… possessed,” replied Cain.  He didn’t want to say it, but there was no avoiding it.  All of the unconscious humans had a white glow around their eyes.  

“Hmm,” muttered Quill.  “Possessed… I think I know someone who might be able to help us here,” he announced after a moment’s deliberation.  “I’ll send a message to him.”  

“I need to send a message too,” said Cain.  “We need to call in the experts.”

Stay tuned, because next time, the experts will arrive, and things are about to get pretty cool...

As per usual, none of these characters except Drake and his crew belong to me.  If you have any questions, comments, criticisms, requests, or concerns, please, feel free to ask!

[kinetic-elaboration]

July 17: 2x26 Assignment: Earth

Finally finished up S2 of TOS yesterday. That was... a rough episode tbh. I’m just gonna say it: back door pilots are bad! They’re bad. If I wanted to watch that other show, I’d watch it.

Wow, they’re just really jumping right in, huh? “Here we are, on a routine mission into the past, using a time travel method that we invented nbd.”

Investigating desperate problems in the year 2020...2016.... no wait 1968.

Ooh, Spock in the transport room today. Does he have a whole extra random station there? That’s so weird; I’ve never seen that before. It’s like hidden in the corner.

Cat!! Cat!!

What a good actor. I’m still bitter that wikipedia has a whole section about the casting for “Isis the cat” that talks entirely about the human who played Isis for 2 minutes and nothing about the talented feline actor. Where did they find her? How did they teach her to act?

She has a lot of thoughts about Kirk.

I wrote down “Scully, you’ve got to see this” in my notes and I’ve already forgotten what it refers to lol. Some moment that I thought would fit well with my favorite x-files meme.

Change history, you say? Spock is intrigued. ...Admittedly, Spock is often intrigued.

“What if it turns out you’re an invading alien from the future?” Honestly...let him invade. You’re not supposed to be here anyway.

I’m pretty insulted by this. The aliens went through all this trouble to help in 1968...where are our alien helpers NOW?

The cat straight up attacked his face.

Kirk is so fond of Spock being fond of the cat.

“It’s a lovely animal. I feel myself strangely drawn to it.”

Kirk is way too confused by Seven--an allegedly human person with super-human abilities that he says come from aliens--and yet, he’s met Charlie X so??? Is this not the same?

Kirk’s got the whole crew checking in on zoom.

(I actually do like this sequence of him getting video calls from different parts of the ship.)

“Weren’t orbiting H-bombs a huge problem in 1968?” Looks at the camera like he’s on The Office. Not the subtlest bit of writing in the “social commentary” genre. I do say this with love, though. I always enjoy when they comment on contemporary problems.

“He has a totally perfect body.” Lol don’t distract these two bisexuals.

[soft meowing]

“The prisoner has escaped.” The way this is shot, it looks like he’s talking about the cat.

Hmm, I do love the decor. Very 60s. This honestly immediately feels like a different show, and a much more dated show; even when the Enterprise time travels, it tends not to time travel to... office space.

Love the little sounds the computer makes.

So is Isis supposed to be one of the fancy aliens? It’s never explained but one must assume she is.

Aw, he’s petting her paw.

So I assumed the cats sounds are real, but just dubbed. They’re not lol. Which I guess isn’t surprising: this cat makes a lot of noises! They were provided by a human voice actress.

Damn.... I want a secret bookshelf that turns around to reveal a super computer with a big screen. “Computer... play Netflix.”

That’s what Seven does in his spare time.

The computer is an AI. “Beta 5 snobbery” lol.

Where are OUR alien overlords to stop US from destroying ourselves before WE can mature into a peaceful society?

This is really masterful exposition lol. Not forced or awkward at all.

ST sure does love the snooty female computer trope.

“Get us the proper costumes.” Yes, get Spock his Requisite Hat.

Omicron IV....that’s one of the names they use in Futurama lol. Such nerds.

Another excellent Spock Hat.

I love Seven’s various IDs. Great style. I wish my driver’s license looked like those.

“Who do you think you are?” He hasn’t decided yet. That’s why he was shifting through his IDs.

Seven is not smart lol. Like, he should have figured out way faster that this lady isn’t one of the Alien Overlords. He asks her the code question, she doesn’t understand it, and he... assumes she’s just really in character? Dude, that’s what the code questions are for!!! To help you identify people! Otherwise you could just straight up ask: are you an alien?

Instead he’s like “oh, you silly alien, you’re playing with me,” and then is forced to trap her, reveal his whole mission, and ultimately ensnare her in his plan.

I want that typewriter. Voice recognition typewriter.

"My incompetence has made you aware of very secret devices." Well at least he knows.

Trained cat!

The alien overlords were killed in a random car accident. That’s ironic.

Oh look, a real rocket!

Brown pants + short sleeved shirt + tie is such a Classic 60s look.

This security guard doesn’t think it’s weird that this random dude has a cat with him? Is this part of Isis’s alien power?

Except for the part where it’s a weapon, it’s pretty cool to see all this build up to, like... launching stuff into space. Exciting.

Isis likes to be on shoulders. Just like Little Guy.

New hat for Spock. His outer wear hat, and now his fancy hat. There is something to be said for this ep, and that is Kirk and Spock in suits.

Amazing how they literally launched rockets with computers that old. Like seeing the big bank of primitive computers is totally wild. We put people on the moon that way! Amazing.

“Meow.” Lol, Isis is stressed so she’s speaking like a cat. That’s a pretty funny joke actually.

Seven is so incompetent. If he’d just let the Enterprise help, Scotty could have fixed that rocket issue in like 3 seconds.

Lol everyone’s just pulling Gary through space. Now on the Enterprise. Now in the office.

Why does this computer have a hug black screen if it only displays images on the small white circle?

"Spock and  I in custody. Main characters, doing nothing, knowing nothing, totally useless and irrelevant. I have never felt more helpless." Literally what is even the point of them today? Does Spock even have lines outside of “I like the cat”?

Isis is jealous of Roberta. Is she.. in a relationship with Seven lol?

Uhura is listening to everyone in the world. She probably has a universal translator on, but I do feel like this scene implies she just...understands all the languages.

So now the warhead is armed and heading to somewhere vague... in other words, everyone has collectively made the situation worse.

....Or this was Seven’s plan all along? To scare people into ceasing to be so careful with nuclear weaponry? As someone who knows humans better than this guy, I think this is a dumbass plan.

“That’s why so many people in my generation are kind of crazy and rebels.” Same, sweetheart.

Really this is just a story about bad communication. If Seven had told Kirk his plan upfront, Kirk would have helped him. And if Kirk weren’t so insistent on involving himself in something just because he happens to be somewhere he probably shouldn’t be, we wouldn’t have this issue either. The hubris of everyone.

Overall, just a really forced narrative imo.

Or that’s how it was supposed to be lol. The Irony of time travel. By it’s nature, everything has already worked out.

Kirk and Spock are like “You’re welcome. Peace out.”

Honestly... Isis was the only good part. Such a talented cat actor!! Or trio of cat actors, I guess. Had to do all those stunts and stuff.. .amazing. I also liked the concept of Isis. How she turned into a human later just to troll Roberta. How she’s never really explained--one must assume, an alien? Plus I pretty much never get tired of human + animal teams where the animal makes animal noises and the human just understands and answers in English.

As a stand alone sci fi concept...it was okay. Kinda dated by now. The alien tech was nifty and Roberta could have grown on me. Maybe even Seven, though he left a lot to be desire. That said, the narrative relied a lot on people getting in each other’s way for no reason, which I find very frustrating.

But as a Star Trek episode....no. The main characters were just nuisances on the side lines!! I’m not even sure what Kirk’s mission here was--to try to figure out what Seven was doing? And stop him if necessary? But he never really decided if it was or not, until the point where not trusting him would basically cause a nuclear war? I don’t know, I found it all very frustrating. The melding of the original show and the spinoff was not smooth.

If I were watching this in 1968, I’d feel very cheated. THIS was the season finale? That’s it? I don’t even get a real Star Trek episode and now I have to wait months for anything new?

And what I get after all that waiting is Spock’s Brain?? I’d be tempted to quit. If I had a tumblr in 1969 I’d be writing multi-paragraph rants about how the best show on television has completely nose-dived lol.

But then there’s The Enterprise Incident, which is one of the best episodes... I don’t know, man. It’s a conundrum. I’ve only seen maybe half of season 3 but from what I remember it’s very uneven: some of the best eps (The Enterprise Incident, For the World Is Hollow, Day of the Dove) mixed in with some of the worst (Spock’s Brain, The Paradise Syndrome), plus some that are good concepts but shoddily executed (The Way to Eden). So we’ll see what I think about it when I see it all in one piece, in air date order.

[kinetic-elaboration]

September 4: 1x13 The Conscience of the King

Past midnight and I’m tired but!! The Conscience of the King!

This was a wild ep. A lot to untangle about it.

Dramatic Shakespeare! Jim’s very invested in the performance.

I legit thought that the guy next to him was McCoy the first time I watched this. I hadn’t seen much ST at the time and that’s my excuse but also in my defense he has a similar facial structure and it’s dark.

“What do I do about my log???” New hydration game: drink whenever someone mentions their logs.

So Tarsus had only 8,000 people--that’s not very many. They must have been very isolated and new. And Kodos killed 4,000.

The Karidian players are part of the “Galactic Cultural Exchange Project.”

One of my problems with believing this Kirk/Lenore romance outside the usual honeypot aspects is that she is a little young for him perhaps??? I say as if I didn’t know couples with a bigger age gap but--she’s only 19 so it’s different.

So Kodos faked his death, fairly immediately had a daughter, and then changed his identity. Her age being exactly 19 is probably just about keeping math simple but I would like to read more into it than that.

Major plot hole that there’s a PICTURE of Kodos in the database. Like???? Then everyone knows what he looks like? The idea that only 9 people have the secret knowledge to bring him to justice and yet also everyone with an internet connection can see his photo is just nonsense.

Kirk, being charming at a party. I feel like his flirt game isn’t so strong at first (here, have this glass I’ve already sipped from?) but it gets stronger as their conversation goes on. He doesn’t have the greatest lines but his attitude is so charming and attractive it legit does not matter what he’s saying.

I used to feel, at least, that Lenore was one of his real, legit love interests, probably because of the ending and because it was one of the first eps I saw so I took it as more face value, but on a rewatch... not really sure. At any rate this initial flirting is all about the Strategy.

I find it somewhat disturbing that Lenore played her father’s wife.

The Astral Queen??

Lenore is really bad at judging Kirk, like from beginning to end. If this were airing now and I were in the fandom, I’d be getting into internet fights with people about how her analyses of him are biased and shouldn’t be taken at face value because they clearly have no connection to how he actually is. “Where’s the brash young man from the party?” Was there ever a brash young man? Is he in any way different on their walk versus inside??

A dead body, what a mood killer.

I like the aesthetic of this planet, though.

Wow, wtf, Kirk, your friend’s widow is crying and you give her a five-second hug and then literally push her off screen? Gotta hurry it up ma’am!

So he just has to say ‘over and out’ and the communicator cuts the transmission and he can call someone else. Very high-tech.

Spock is displeased. A little suspicious. A little jealous.

How did you know she was coming on the ship? “I’m the Captain.”

Spock should appreciate how sneaky Kirk is being with all his schemes. It’s not Menagerie level but still.

Riley! I wish he were in more eps. He’s one of my favorite minor characters. I realize he’s only in this one because they accidentally cast the same actor twice but still--he had potential. I see he’s been taken out of Navigation. And given a backstory in Engineering, and then moved to Communications. But he keeps the gold shirt. Busy fellow.

“Star Service.”

So he transferred Riley to protect him because he figured... no one knows where Engineering is?

I love this Spock and McCoy scene. McCoy being so laid back and Spock being like “I am suspicious of this suspicious situation.”

Vulcan was never conquered though??

“Your personal chemistry wouldn’t allow you to see that” sounds an awful lot like a veiled “you’re gay” reference.

Someone finally comments on the romantic lighting that follows Kirk around.

Wow, how did all this “surging and throbbing” talk get past the censors? Tone it down, Lenore.

Kirk claims he eventually really liked her, but this is like the last positive scene they have and he’s still CLEARLY fishing for information.

Love that cut from Lenore and Kirk making out to Spock alone on the bridge at night, brooding. (No one needs to steer the ship at night I guess?)

Poor Riley, stuck by himself in Engineering during the late shift. “You’ve been a bad boy.” I love when the crew gets to just hang out and be friends. Also interesting that Uhura has borrowed Spock’s harp.

Spock: “Riley can’t die because KIRK.”

This is a great triumvirate scene. I love how they play off each other, and how they simultaneously care about each other and about their jobs and doing the right thing.

I do find it weird that McCoy is so anti this whole investigating Kodos thing. Like, this isn’t some crazy vengeful path that Jim’s on or whatever he’s implying. Jim’s actually being pretty careful and slow in his actions? And there is someone actively killing people, like--the threat is imminent? It’s just a weird side to represent. I get the balance they’re trying to portray with the three sides but McCoy just doesn’t have a good argument and Jim doesn’t really need to be pulled back--if anything, he needs to be pushed, as Spock is pushing him.

“Logic isn’t enough. I’ve got to feel my way.”

 Double red alert sounds like double secret probation.

Spock shushing the Captain.

Throw the phaser out the window.

Lol after all this hullabaloo about being extra sure and all this scheming to get people on his ship--Kirk just comes out and asks Karidian if he’s Kodos. Well that’s one way about it!

Kodos, like his daughter, fundamentally misunderstands Jim. I know he seems very ‘starship captain with his technological tests’ or whatever but--to call him not human?? He is the MOST human!!

Kirk does understand life or death decisions but he would never have made the decision Kodos made.

I’m with Spock, this is not ambiguous. This man is clearly Kodos. I’m glad there was a character actively saying that the alleged tension in this “who is he really?” plot line is not actually real.

This guy is such a manipulative drama queen oml.

I feel like the morality of this situation is not as gray as some characters are trying to make it. Like, no, Lenore, no one’s crying a river for Kodos lol.

The Kodoses again are either not good at reading Kirk or are deliberately trying to gaslight him into incorrect beliefs about himself because he has literally been nothing but human and merciful this entire time!!! An inhuman person would be like “logically he has to be Kodos” and an unmerciful person would be like “and he needs to die” and just like killed him 10 minutes into the ep.

This is the downside of audio logs--private things don’t stay very private.

Riley’s on the loose! Very IC of him.

I love that the ship has a theater, btw.

Riley must have been very young on Tarsus. No more than maybe 6, 7 years old. Knowing what I know about people’s inability to actually remember things or identify people with any accuracy at all, I don’t actually believe he recognizes Kodos’s voice. But what were we saying about how Kirk is unmerciful and in human?

Riley sure backs down fast when Kirk says so.

This Lenore and Kodos scene is probably the best in the whole ep. Really laying bare their fucked up relationship and how absolutely, tragically, irredeemably mad she is. The drama! I love a true wild woman.

The irony! The Shakespearean over-the-top-ness of it all!

You know at least one person in the audience thinks this is just a really weird play.

Leave it to McCoy to ask all the wrong questions lol. He wants to know if Jim liked the girl--who the fuck cares? He knew her for one day. Maybe he was briefly legit interested in her for a few minutes there, but she’s certifiable AND she tried to kill him, so that’s that on that.

The real important thing we should be talking about here is how Jim feels about the death of a man who killed 4,000 people and traumatized him for life.

And Spock stays away entirely, instead of walking over the chair as he usually does. Giving Kirk space to sort out his feelings, perhaps?

So yeah there’s a lot to unpack in this ep.

I think I once ran across a tumblr post that said this ep implied Kirk was slated to be on the to kill list but honestly it’s pretty clearly the opposite--Kodos killed exactly who he wanted to kill, so if Kirk’s alive, Kirk was supposed to live. (I guess they thought the implication came from Kirk being one of the people to see him? But we have no idea what the circumstances of that were, or why the people to see him included a couple of teenagers and a small child.) Also I think I heard once that there was a deleted line about Kirk saying he was one of the people considered worth saving.

This ep is really wild because introducing Tarsus into Jim’s background really changes a lot and introduces a lot into his character and yet it’s basically just done for plot purposes, to make sure the main character stays at the center of the story. But truly it must have transformed him to witness that at ~15.

Overall we hear very little from Kirk directly here. We know he wants to be sure Karidian is Kodos, and he goes to a lot of trouble to be sure, even though it’s quite obvious there’s no mystery to these massive coincidences. We know from his actions--bringing the players aboard, using Lenore, transferring Riley--that he’s deeply affected by this. And sometimes people (who don’t know him well) talk about him, mostly incorrectly (though in a way where I wonder if the writer was trying to get us to think this stuff is true of him? for the dramatic effect?) But for all that, he doesn’t talk about his feelings much at all.

Another take on this ep that I also saw on tumblr and liked a lot was that Kirk is so optimistic and hopeful in part because of Tarsus, because he saw that Kodos rushed to kill people when he really didn't need to, when he didn't think the supply ship would come in time--but then it came early. So the lesson to take from that is, to always be hopeful, to always believe in the last minute save, to always prioritize people's lives and safety first because anything could happen.

I feel like we're supposed to feel bad for Kodos in some way because he left all the mass murdering behind ages ago BUT it doesn't work so well because we're also supposed to believe, imo, that he was the killer, not Lenore. Like, Spock wants Kirk to act as if this man is Kodos and be proactive, but he's not doing it because he's a vengeful person--he's doing it because Kodos, he thinks, is threatening Kirk. Spock never goes beyond that to advocate, for example, a vengeance killing versus giving him to the authorities versus idk just yelling at him or something. So this idea that interfering with Kodos in any way is just being mean is sort of bizarre--there's an active threat here.

Plus sorry but committing genocide 20 years ago isn’t something we just sweep under the rug. He was the mastermind of something truly horrendous and he got away with it! I’m not going to feel bad for him!

And on top of that the idea that he was just killing people to save other people is one thing--at least morally gray I GUESS lol. But he was targeting people for his own eugenics purposes!! He even says this is part of "the Revolution." The famine was an excuse. He wanted to kill them.

Like I realize most of the people getting on Kirk's back for literally everything are the Kodoses, who are nuts and evil, but I feel like he took a lot of shit for doing nothing wrong.

My mom was wondering how Lenore knew her father was Kodos. I’m not entirely sure but I will say I love her and how just unrepetentedly mad she is. I prefer Lenore to most TOS women because I often feel like the show doesn't......really know how to write women. With Lenore there was no attempt to make her anything but off her rocker nuts. And the twist that she was the killer was effective.

She has that very classic insanity, which is the person who has only one thought and it consumes them. Only one purpose. I think she must have been raised separate from literally everyone but her father--he's been a traveling actor her whole life, so she never socialized, she never went to school, she had no other family. He's very private so she never had, like, a social circle. So he's her WHOLE WORLD. And then maybe she got suspicious as to why that was, and discovered his past. And then she felt that this past threatened him, and anything that threatened him threatened EVERYTHING. So she became...this person we see here.

And, as my mom also pointed out, the ‘body burned beyond recognition’ story is so suspect. With all their future tech? There was no way to id it? Also, what was the official explanation as to how that happened? We know 4,000 people were killed; we know a supply/rescue ship came early, and we know Kodos died and his body wasn’t identified. But what’s the rest of the sequence of events? Was there a riot or revolt and he was killed? Did he kill himself? It’s unlikely he burned to death on accident. The point is that he did not fake his death by himself.

One downfall of this ep is that it is very complicated for only 50 minutes. So much stuff is cut short or cut out--a lot of the backstory, most of Kirk’s feelings, but even stuff like Riley backing down so fast, or Tom’s widow getting literally pushed off screen while she’s grieving. The idea that Lenore and Kirk were supposed to have a real romance somehow? And, the eugenics angle is obviously a huge part of the story but it’s barely touched upon.

According to the trivia on amazon, the original script explained Kirk's presence on Tarsus as being related to Starfleet--he was just out of the Academy and stationed there. That would make him older than other episodes assume him to be--about 42, versus 34-36. But I like it better having him be a teen bc then we don't expect him to know all the stuff that went down later, the aftermath etc. My mom suggested he might have been doing the high school version of a study abroad year, since he’s so smart. This would also explain why his family doesn’t seem to have been on Tarsus, even though if we take his age from other episodes, he was not an adult.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think AOS Kirk was on Tarsus, if in fact Tarsus happened at all in the alternate universe. I just see no evidence in his character that would make me think he’d had that experience.

Next up is Balance of Terror, yet another favorite episode. I mean Mark Lenard?? Romulans?? Can’t go wrong with that.