#trelane powers

[thatonegeekygirl]

“I object to you. I object to intellect without discipline. I object to power without constructive purpose.”

- Spock to General Trelane, S1E18 Star Trek: TOS

[trekmupf]

Puberty in space part II - this time with a military obsession 🎖️ 🪞 🪢

Pro

Everyone chilling at the bridge drinking coffee. Also McCoy being randomly at the bridge again.

Spock immediately taking charge when Kirk is gone and being super competent is really sexy of him

Spock saying Hipp Hipp Hurra

Bones accepting Spock's position as leader – direct opposite to the previous episode – by giving input, but following his orders, literally standing by his side on the bridge

The landing party in full gear!

The monster in the entrance was the salt being from episode 1

Everyone who is such a military fanboy is highly suspicious

McCoy's judgy eyebrow is completely out of control when they meet Trelane (and Sulu behind him has a whole journey)

Kirks face when evil guy shows up on the bridge

Spock being extremely bored by Trelane's antics, immediately seeing thorough his Bs and calmly telling him off is also extremely sexy

Kirks heart eyes face when Spock tells the guy off

The sexism is interesting - unlike the accidental / timely sexism in other episodes it's very clear that the way he sees women is bad, racist and upsetting

Also Kirk making it LOOK like it's about possessing the women and being jealous when he's manipulating Tralene, playing into the human traits he expects and wants to see (his aggressive and forceful behaviour towards Teresa is nicely contrasted to the scene on the bridge, where he's very nice to her again)

Generally the way Kirk sees through from the get go and manipulates him at every corner despite him being so powerful

The way McCoy leans on the console on the bridge during the turbulence

Kirk very confidently cocking a gun with a little smile and shooting with barely any flinching is weirdly sexy

The last convo between Spock and Kirk is fun, content wise but also Kirks heart eyes at Spock and Spock's utter confusion

The set design inside the castle is insane, but in a fun way; seems like they literally ran around the nearby studios and grabbed whatever they could (which suits who Trelane is)

Generally the idea of getting the surface level of humanity without any substance comes up in so many ways- understanding us and our behaviour, the decor, the missing taste from food and drink

The make up on our guys is just wonderful, especially Spock's, McCoy's and Sulu's; Generally the crew is just beautiful here

The music changes with the set pieces /scenes and is very fitting

The idea that this is literally a fanboy cosplaying 18th century earth is hilarious

Knowing the plot twist at the end that Trelane is just a child makes William Campbell's acting easier to bear and actually quite good – he IS like a child whose interest is earth history and humans and he finally gets to play. He gets irritated immediately, has tamper tantrums and zero emotional control; he basically just copies phrases and infos you would get from books without being able to question them, he likes the history equivalent of action men, he wants everyone's attention and gets angry when no one wants to play with him

The noose's shadow during the "court room scene" gives the setting a threatening aura (it also looks so cool)

Con

another superbeing, that somehow relates to earths past and is powerful, but this ep is less meaningful / good than the others; same goes for the humans as war / predator species

the fact that the way Trelane is written and acted serves his actual role as a child doesn't make his antics easier to watch, he gets tiresome quite quickly

even though the ep is self aware of the sexism and makes sure its bad the female characters are still just decor and plot points instead of characters with shit to do. they literally cling to Spock and bones in the background, which??

the entire last third after the mirror smash is too long, too flip floppy (it was all a test! also he's a child! -> they didn't commit to it enough and yet too much for it to work)

also the pacing was super shit

the last fight scene is way too whimsical and silly and the guy is just so annoying (at least Kirks pants were tight)

This screenshot looks like a promo pic for a guy comedy in the 80's

Counter

Powerful being testing humanity

Brains over brawl

Trio ready to sacrifice (Kirk is ready to die for his crew)

Quote: "I object to you. I object to intellect without discipline. I object to power without constructive purpose" - Spock

(literal heart eyes - Kirk)

Moment: See Quote

Summary: An episode with a less interesting (and more annoying) blue print for TNG's Q that's one of the shows earlier entries about mysterious and powerful enteties using humans for entertainment. Even though other episodes realized that set up better later on this episode gives Spock plenty of moments to shine (and plenty of opportunities for Kirk to send the biggest heart eyes in his direction)

Previous Episode - Next Episode - All TOS Reviews

[bardicious]

Star Trek TOS/SNW Prompt List

Okay, for now this is what I got, and I'm thinking maybe Ill try to make a list like this every month (???maybe?) to get my brain working. Might do another Garashir one tomorrow or after tomorrow. 🤔

Spirk are beamed down to a planet of giants

Spirk fixing a console problem from outside the Enterprise

Spirk feels their T'hy'la bond across the galaxy from each other. (Conceptualization of the T'hy'la)

Spock murders the giant Omni (The Price of Phoenix) in defense of an injured Jim.

The moment Spock mind melds with Jim (as Janice Lester) and the memories that pass between them.

Professor James T. Kirk, a stack of books with legs, teaching a class with Mitchell and Carol in attendance and Janice Lester as co-professor.

Jim takes a moment to mourn his brother, Sam, and his sister-in-law, Aurelian with his nephew Peter.

Jim fights the Gorn (SNW style)

Jim watches the Enterprise as it pierces through Tarsus IV's clouds. The crowds that are left stand in shock as well.

Trelane comes back, older (as teen personality vs TOS's young boy personality), a menace as ever. How will Spock and Kirk deal with him this time?

M'Benga in the middle of the Klingon War.

Doctor M'Benga and Doctor Chapel marry, post tmp. The Enterprise (TOS/SNW) are in attendance.

La'an mourns her Jim as the timeline switches back into place.

Omni (The Price of Phoenix) abducts Jim, on Vulcan as Spock prepares for Kolinahr hears Jim's distress. (pre-tmp) (yes, I am obsessed with this villain and the books)

Jim with his Tholian child, Bright Eyes, find themselves in Sulu's botanic lab.

Mirror Verse!Spirk meet over Pike's dead body, Uhura and Spock are aligned, and impressed with their new Captain.

The SNW crew ARE turned into bunnies, Jim, Spock, and Uhura have to care for them while they fix the problem

The Enterprise and Farragut crews team up to deal with a situation on a Greek themed planet. (SNW)

Harry Mudd and his double? is once again found doing something criminal and ridiculous. 

McSpirk finds themselves in the Mirror Verse's past, an earth where Khan wins, and successfully conquers the Earth (my headcanon on why the Mirror Verse exists).

Young Jim copes (or doesn't) with his first kills on Tarsus IV, while holding young Kevin Riley.

Uhura is planning a musical, sadly many of the bridge crew decline participation, surprisingly Spock does not! He plays the music. Their show becomes a yearly tradition.

Admiral Kirk sits alone in his home on Earth, and drinks. He thinks about Spock and the Enterprise and wonders how it all went wrong.

Yeoman Rand brings new Earth trends to the Enterprise, Uhura, Chapel, La'an, and Una all try something new.

Yeoman Rand and Captain Kirk fight a group of hostile aliens, their movements are in sync. (Yeoman Rand is Captain Kirk's protégée in this prompt)

Rand, Uhura, and Sulu attempt to talk to the local parliament comprised by what looks like sentient flowers.

Future!Spirk get time displaced and find themselves on the SNW Enterprise, not knowing whether they've stopped at an alternate universe, or the past, they keep quiet on the state of future affairs. Between a living Sam Kirk, and an uninjured Pike, both Jim and Spock are stressed.

Jim hesitates to fire at the dikironium cloud creature, and loses consciousness as the creature sets upon the Farragut.

Jim and Spock, and begrudgingly Droxine, catch the view from Stratos.

The enterprise picks up a child from a dying ship. The child with prophetic powers opens a popup storybook that involves the future of the enterprise, the art style depicts a style like the tos series, and two indistinct figures of a captain and his first officer. Chris Pike watches in trepidation as the story unfolds.

[binerd24]

"The Squire of Gothos" is my absolute comfort episode of TOS. It's just so wonderfully bizarre, like, an all powerful alien being *really* into Napoleon? Sure, why not. Everybody just being absolutely confused by Trelane(?), because he's just comical, but also somehow threatening. Spock just perpetually being done with this shit. I mean of course it's not as emotionally deep, complex or memorable like other episodes, but it's just so fun to watch.

[pluralzalpha]

Galactic Gazetteer: Gothos

Class: A or R (Rogue)

Type: artificial free-roaming planet

Quadrant: Alpha

Location: Quadrant 904 Star Desert, near Beta 6 system

Distance from Earth: 900 ly

Atmosphere: toxic, storm-ridden

Surface: molten

Appearance: TOS "The Squire of Gothos" (1967)

Fun fact: created by the incredibly powerful alien child Trelane as his personal playground.

Another fun fact: Trelane was able to move the planet through space and chase the Enterprise with it.

[onsomekindofstartrek]

Q presents a real problem for me, in that his episodes deeply clash with each other thematically and tonally.

Is he this dark, biased judge with very specific powers (illusions, walls in space), holding humanity to account in a reflection of its worst mockery of justice? (“Encounter…”, “All Good Things…”)

Or is he this Myxzptlk-like omnipotent trickster who’s constantly trolling and secretly really lonely and desperate for mortal companionship? (Most of his one-off TNG episodes, that damned DS9 episode)

Or is he a genuinely caring friend to Picard who just really sucks at showing it? (“Tapestry,” arguably “Q Who” if you take the angle that he’s genuinely trying to warn Picard of the Borg out of benevolence and not just testing him or dicking off)

Or is he this insufferable but ultimately sympathetic Byronic dissident from a stagnant and ennui-ridden society? (“Deja Q”, “Death Wish”, “The Q and the Grey”)

Like, arguably he can be a few of those things but not all. I don’t blame the writers for wanting to do a lot with the character, since John DeLancey is great at the role and there’s a lot of potential to the concept “what if a god was really invested in bugging you personally.” But about half the time they want to be writing Trelane of Gothos and not the character from “Encounter…” and it really leads to some clashes of character continuity.

[t0ast-ghost]

Wow already episode 18 (The Squire Of Gothos):

- It hasn’t even been a minute and they [Spock & McCoy] are already at it (not sure who won that conversation. Not sure there’s even supposed to be a winner anymore)

- WHAT

- WHAT

- WHERED THEY GO

- next time I see my friends I’m saying “Greetings and felicitations. Hip-hip-hoorah. Tallyho!”

- I feel like McCoy is fighting for his life trying not to laugh at Spock saying “tallyho”

- I like how they’re giving more character to Scotty, showing his ability and also his drive for action when the situation is dire

- that guy trusted that the air was actually breathable too fast for my tastes

- next time I draw I’ve got to put in an effort to draw the boots.. HOW COULD I FORGET THE BOOTS

- McCoys leech monster thingy in the background

- McCoy causally scanning this bitch

- get sent to hell, idiot (towards Kirk)

- boyfriend conference (20:45)

- wait OH MY THEY ACTUALLY ARE TALKING! McCoy and Uhura spoke to each other! It was brief but it happened

- Leave Spock alone, bitch

- I love Sulu so much. Calm but he definitely has the ability to attack, he just knows when to pick his moments

- I want trelane dead

- “I don’t know if I like your tone. It’s most challenging” yeah I think he’d (Spock) much rather punch you in the face to be fair

- “I object to power without constructive purpose” get his ass Spock, Jim’s smiling at this

- “Oh Mr. Spock, you do have one saving grace after all, you’re ill mannered.” Oh my gosh this is why him and McCoy are besties

- Bones has been sitting there eating through all of this. Good for him I guess

- “does your logic find this ‘fascinating’, Mr. Spock” “No, ‘fascinating’ is a word I use for the unexpected. In this case I think ‘interesting’ would suffice.” I will think of this quote often

- *Trelane changes the yeoman’s dress* *Spock, Kirk, and McCoy all get into attack mode*

- Even McCoy looks ready to punch a bitch

- The council will decide your fate

- “but if you need to be persuaded” *threatens Spock*

- lesson number two: when trying to avoid objects in space, go to the left

- He’s like Q but less fruity and annoying… I don’t like it

- He put Kirk in a cage

- HE BROKE THE SWORD? OVER HIS KNEE

- Lol he’s a kid, what

- Kirk talks to gods and is just like “let me go home to my boyfriends”

- “forgive me, Mr Spock.” “I shall be delighted captain” Spock’s eyebrows proceed to shoot up

Editing this one while on a film set, and I didn’t put an ending so… yay I’m on a film set!

Master post

[je-brille-dans-la-nuit]

Watching TOS: back to fun & Spirk

The Galileo Seven: loved it!

Much tension very drama

Really liked the difficulties of Spock in command. I thought it was interesting to see him in such a tense context on an inhospitable planet. He's not the leader Jim is, but it's clear the men's behavior also come from them being prejudiced against him bc of his Vulcan nature

Spock still analyzing while they're being attacked is hilarious

This exchange i cackled

SCOTT: Mister Spock, you said a while ago that there were always alternatives. SPOCK: Did l? I may have been mistaken. MCCOY: Well, at least I lived long enough to hear that.

"No one out there to see it" Except!! Of course the Enterprise is still here!!

"Captain, transporter room just beamed up five persons. Alive and well." The relief on Jim's face is not his usual big smile and it gets to me

The whole ending scene had me clutching my heart I loved it okay! The happy ending we deserve!

Jim "You mean you reasoned that it was time for an emotional outburst" all the while leaning way closer than is necessary!!

KIRK: Mister Spock, you're a stubborn man. SPOCK: Yes, sir. EVERYONE LAUGHING ♥

.

The Squire of Gothos

It's fun!

Jim is good at handling people!

SPOCK: I object to you. I object to intellect without discipline. I object to power without constructive purpose.

Spock being his little shit self gives me life. Besides, when he says that, we have a close-up on Jim smiling lovingly! This only happens when Spock speaks! This is on purpose! I see you!

The fact that Trelane, to get Jim to do what he wants, threatens Spock of all crewmembers. I mean.

The ending was funny!

.

Arena

"Nevermind about me, protect my ship" smh

Spock calling him 'Jim' instead of 'captain' or 'sir' when he's trying hard to get through to him, to make him listen

The sounds the Gorn makes were really getting on my nerves argh

Spock's live-comment ("Good. Good") on the fight

I liked the message of the episode! Hopeful ending! He wins by being merciful!

Jim you could just tell Spock he was right about not killing them

.

Tomorrow is yesterday

Not bad but pretty unremarkable except for:

CHRISTOPHER: I never have believed in little green men. SPOCK: Neither have I.

krrkrrkrr

Jim playing dumb in front of the soldiers was hilarious

What was that? What was what?

Believe me, Colonel, you wouldn't believe me

.

Court martial

I liked it enough, although it's a pity it's never really about what Jim may have done wrong. As viewers we never doubt he didn't do it.

Look, I'm an easy girl, it doesn't take much to make me happy and Spock saying

It is impossible for Captain Kirk to act out of malice or panic. It is not in his nature.

is enough for me. That and Spock and Bones working together to save Kirk's ass, again.

JIM: And nothing is more important than my ship.

He means Spirk right?

Who knows? You may be able to beat your next captain at chess.

Cute

[astercontrol]

I think it would be extra hilarious if the whole pig roast was just like a completely visual graphic skin

like a videogame avatar the actual food was wearing,

and the actual food is just liquid energy, like from that spring

Which I imagine tastes like heavily caffeinated sugar water.

Bite into your slice of pork and it turns into Red Bull in your mouth

...this would be awful, but the more I think about it, the more this seems like exactly Kevin Flynn's style

Like

It reminds me of the Star Trek TOS episode The Squire of Gothos

Where they land on this planet occupied by a powerful energy being who's basically a spoiled little kid at heart

Who has this gorgeous ballroom and an incredible spread of food

But the food has no taste

And Spock's like, "interesting"

this is not even surprising enough to call "fascinating"

And his explanation is: This guy is all about the aesthetic. None of his illusion has any substance. He doesn't care about anything except how it looks. Obviously

Anyway Kevin Flynn is basically Trelane, that in some ways explains his Grid better than anything

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Hikaru Sulu

By Ames

Have at thee! Pick up your foil and get into the proper stance as A Star to Steer Her By shines this week’s character spotlight on the Enterprise’s helmsman (and occasional musketeer), Hikaru Sulu. We may have had to get a little nitpicky with noteworthy moments from Scott last week because he’s just used less than the three main characters, and Sulu will be even tougher because he does even less and then is gone for a lot of season two while he was off filming The Green Berets (which I wouldn’t even recommend, so that’s a waste!).

That’s not to say Sulu isn’t a great presence in The Original Series, and we came up with some great (and not so great) moments from this ship’s jack of all trades. He swashbuckles, he collects pistols, he tends to plants, he quips with his Russian bestie. Check out the best and worst of Sulu below, listen to this week’s banter on the podcast (discussion starts at 1:19:43), and give us warp speed on my mark. Mark!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best Moments

Someone give this man a hand… plant Sulu started the series with a passion for botany that never really came up much after it was established in “The Man Trap” (even when it would have been applicable, as you’ll see), but it was endearing to see him caring for Beauregard and worrying about his flowery friend after a salt vampire masquerading as crewman Green gave him a fright. There there, Beauregard.

Richelieu, beware! One of the most memorable moments for Sulu and also for the whole damn series comes in “The Naked Time” where we see our favorite helmsman get affected by the space madness disease and start running around the ship shirtless with a foil, provoking crewmen into duels. It’s that bonkers kind of fun episode that really worked for TOS and gave us decades of referential humor after.

Lower us down a pot of hot coffee While we gave Kirk a lot of guff about his characterization(s) in “The Enemy Within,” we’ve really got to give Sulu credit for his work in the B plot. While slowly freezing on Alfa 177, he manages to keep morale up with the occasional light-hearted room service call to the Enterprise. And this is the first we see of what we dubbed the “Sulu Maneuver,” when you heat up some rocks with a phaser! Clever!

He’s doing a countdown! Okay, this one’s here partly because of the running joke we made out of Bailey’s delivery pointing out Sulu’s rather macabre countdown, but Sulu also displays some serious chops in “The Corbomite Maneuver.” Bailey can’t handle the pressure, and Sulu has to literally lean over and do his job for him at the same time, all without losing count!

You are not of the body Mind-controlled Sulu is best Sulu and gets some really fun acting out of George Takei every time. We see it in the afore-mentioned “The Naked Time,” in “Catspaw,” and in “This Side of Paradise,” to name a few, but my favorite mind-controlled Sulu has got to be in “The Return of the Archons” because of all the extra points he gets for this ruffly outfit!

It’s Greek to me Let’s also commend Sulu for rigging up the ship’s phasers to destroy Apollo’s temple in “Who Mourns for Adonais?” Why this plan worked I have absolutely no idea. What self-respected god entity puts all of their powers in a single object? Trelane wouldn’t gaff this hard. Anyway, props to Sulu for somehow avoiding phasering the humans who were hiding only ten feet away like fools.

Lay back and thinking about vegetables Holy cow, guys. A whole episode in which only Spock, Uhura, and Sulu are featured from the entire cast? It must be “The Slaver Weapon” from The Animated Series. Only TAS could get away with giving to Sulu scenes that would go to Kirk any other day, and he owns it! He outwits the Kzinti. He avoids their telepathy by thinking about broccoli. He does it all!

Don’t call me tiny As usual, some of the best moments we’ve collected come from the films, where the characters all really get the shine. Even the minor characters like Sulu, who gets to sashay around in what we previously dubbed the Ta’cape in The Search for Spock and hold his own against a security officer who stands probably a full foot taller than him, like a small dog in a fight. Bowwow!

Special delivery While we’re a little sad that Sulu had probably the fewest character scenes in The Voyage Home (they evidently cut a family reunion scene due to bad child acting), we do have to thank this San Franciscan for obtaining and flying a helicopter around to deliver the transparent aluminum to the ship. How did he pull it off? We’ll just have to use our imagination.

Emergency Landing Plan B Wow, we’ve had more good moments from The Final Frontier than bad ones to mention in these character spotlight posts, which is kind of fascinating considering that film on the whole is among our least favorites. But when Sulu totally rocks it and manually lands the shuttle in the bay using a barricade, we have to admit that the film knew how to use its characters.

Fly her apart then! How often does Sulu get to save the day? Not often enough, I say, because when he gets the opportunity to have the Excelsior join in the battle in The Undiscovered Country, it’s positively thrilling. Your heart just wells at the love these crewmembers have for each other that Sulu would ignore orders to come rescue his friends with passion that I wish we got to see more often in the show.

Tossing a match into a pool of gasoline For the 30th anniversary of Star Trek, Voyager treated the fans with a little Sulu action in “Flashback” and he proved to be just as heroic as ever! Not only do we get to see his decision to go save his old crewmates, but we see him outwit Kang by igniting the sirillium in a nebula. Not only that, but he does the humane and diplomatic thing and makes sure it won’t destroy the Klingon ship utterly. Now that’s a great birthday gift!

—

Worst Moments

It’s a he plant – a girl can tell Ya know how we were lauding Sulu for all his great botany work before? Well, he insists that Beauregard’s name is Gertrude for some reason in “The Man Trap.” Dude, just let Janice name him Beauregard if she wants to. He’s her plant, you just feed him sometimes. And frankly, Beauregard is the perfect name for this plant, so we have to give you points off for this one.

I’ll protect you, fair maiden Another instance that’s on both our good and bad lists comes in “The Naked Time.” Drunk or not, assaulting his coworkers is not okay, pal. And Uhura can defend herself from the likes of Richelieu or whoever else. Can we do away with the constant need to protect female characters like they’re damsels in distress? Luckily, Uhura managed to own this moment, as we’ll certainly see next week.

I knew he would Here’s another example of Chris putting the same moment in both of his lists. Funny as that interaction with Bailey was, did we really need the countdown in “The Corbomite Maneuver”? Balok was already doing it for us, as we could tell when the Clint Howard–shaped alien was supposed to repeat “one minute” after Sulu, but the line was cut, and Sulu reacts to it anyway like a weirdo.

Fantasy island, er, planet Most things in “Shore Leave” are perplexing since the episode was being written on the fly and all the characters are acting entirely out of character (we postulated the whole planet was drugged, but who knows). So when Sulu is evidently thinking about samurai for some reason, we can just blame the writers if that comes across as a little racist, especially considering Takei fought to NOT be written as a samurai in “The Naked Time.”

If it were two feet from me You know how we were giving credit earlier to Sulu for caring for Beauregard and having a knack for botany? Well all that goes out the window in “This Side of Paradise” where Sulu suddenly can’t notice a plant that is literally right next to him and slowly turning to face him. I call this man’s botany skills into question. No wonder he misgendered Beauregard! 

You are away from your post, Mister We can give normal universe Sulu a pass on this one, but his parallel universe self in “Mirror, Mirror” is just a monster. While it’s some good fun to watch Takei got down with his bad self by trying to get the captain killed and all that jazz, it is just plain uncomfortable to watch him terrorizing Uhura, so it’s definitely worth a place on our list.

A literal dagger of the mind In “And the Children Shall Lead,” it’s unclear how far the mental powers of Gorgan go since sometimes the crew only hallucinates things and sometimes they are straight-up mind controlled. Sulu seeing a ton of knives in space (which is just plain impossible and he should know it) is the weirdest instance yet. Kirk has to tell him what he sees isn’t there, but does he understand that? Who knows; it’s a nonsensical episode.

I am for you, Sulu This is just a little moment, but Sulu falls (literally!) for one of the oldest cliches in horror writing: When Losira is coming for him in “That Which Survives,” Sulu backs away and trips on some rocks like a chump, leaving himself prone to her attack. And what makes even less sense is that her touching him doesn’t kill him like the others; it only disrupts the cells in his shoulder. Like a chump.

It’s Walter backwards! More of Sulu getting made to look like a chump comes in The Animated Series episode “The Infinite Vulcan” when he nearly gets himself killed after getting bitten by a retlaw: a walking planet with poisonous bite. Luckily, he gets saved by the Phylosians, but you’d think a botanist like Sulu would know better. Oh wait, I’ve already questioned his botany skills, so there’s that.

You’re a wizard, Sulu! I can’t rant enough on what a trainwreck “The Magicks of Megas-Tu” is, but here’s a taste. To test out how to use magic (not even going to start; we’ll be here all day), Sulu’s first impulse is to make himself a pretty woman and then go in to kiss her. In front of everyone. What the hell, Sulu? I expected better from you, man, but making yourself a sex doll is utterly ridiculous.

One tiny step for a tiny man One more from The Animated Series, and this one’s stupidity is compounded by the super inconsistent animation. When he’s been shrunk in “The Terratin Incident” to somewhere between one foot and one inch tall depending on the art frame, Sulu goes to turn a dial, somehow trips on it, and falls off the equivalent of a ten-story building only to break a leg. Ugh.

Like a bull in a China ship I have to give Sulu grief about something that bugs me whenever I see it in Star Trek. Did you ever notice that the crew seem to use breakable items only so they can get smashed? In any other scene, the ceramic tea cup that we see in The Undiscovered Country might be metal or plastic or the paper cups we saw at one point, but because we need to see it break, it’s ceramic, and I slowly lose my mind about it.

—

Oh my. We’re reducing to impulse speed to prepare for more of these character spotlights, so keep your eyes here for more in the series! Also, keep up with our watchthrough of Enterprise over on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast, challenge us to a duel over on Facebook or Twitter, and take a moment to smell the flowers, if you take a half a second to notice them.

[walkingstackofbooks]

SNW 2x07 Those Old Scientists thought-stream

[24 July]

Ayyyyy! Boimler!!

"Yeah, Uhura was cool as hell. Probably because she had a life outside of work." Hah, nooope, not if last week was any indication!

You should listen to Tendi on this one... don't partcipate in Orion erasure, Boims 😬

Boimler's Spock impression was actually better than the crew's Vulcan ones from a few weeks ago!

"I wish I could disappoint Uhura." XD

"You guys look.... very realistic." Oh, you

Oooooh! Animated opening scene! Oooooh!

Directed by Jonathan Frakes?! Nice!

"But flipping it open's the best part." I mean you're not wrong

"Worf's honour" oh my goodness I cannot with this show

"Don't make any attachments" ohhhhhh, La'aaan 💔 "It's advice from personal experience." MY HEART CANNOT

"They never improved on these. I mean, yeah, they got smaller and more powerful and arguably less likely to explode, but design-wise?" "Explode, you said?" BOIMLER STOP

"Well, it's kind of considered offensive in my time to assume all Orions are pirates." Goodie <3

"I feel like I'm trying to stop a toddler from knocking over the furniture." XD

"Do you have jetpacks or what?" "We have jetpacks now."

"How do you know Pike's birthday?" "Well, I mean, in the future, his birthday's a holiday.... Crap! Crap. Crap." Hehehehehe

Close up on Spock's smile XD Yeah, you're damn right it's weird. Every time it happened in TOS it was deeply strange

"He'll get back to his, like, real serious self soon?" Oh Christine....

"We can't just not look!" I love this episode, really a lot

"Patience, forgiveness, benevolence... really great hair." XD

"Five to beam back." Pike's so done with this who thing, isn't he?

If Boimler is bad, Mariner will be even worse XD Boimler's just incompetent - Mariner won't care about flaunting time travel laws

"Stuck in San Fransisco in middle of a riot." Very specific. Do people now know Sisko pretended to be Gabriel Bell?

"I really want to say no, but how much more damage can you do at this point?"

"Are you familiar with Starfleet break codes?"

"Erica, you're brilliant!" "I am true why?"

"They had a Trelane thing." TOS REFERENCE

"And I never get caught." "What are you doing?" The comedic timing of this episode is so on point.

The fact the the two are being reprimanded by Pike while he's cooking cooking XD

"I love grapplers."

It's so cute everyone freaking out about the NX-01 :3

"Are we sounding like.. them?"

"Ad Astra per Aspera." "They put that on the poster?" My heart!!! Una you deserve this! "Your flagrant disregard for temporal protocols by telling me this is deeply troubling" Hah! Of course she has to cover up her emotions like that :3

"Live long and prosper." :o :o :o

The Orion scientist saying "That's all I've ever wanted" is everything.

The animated SNW crew is a real nice touch at the end :3

That was so much fun, guys. So funny too, I really loved it!

[hang-on-lil-tomato]

Rhys Darby on Faux Trek

ok…my emotions are so opposed. I am so happy for Rhys to get such a prominent role on this show…for a season opener. Yay Rhys ! The overnight sensation that took 30 years! On the other hand, I’m an old skool ORIGINAL REAL Star Trek. The new stuff isn’t trek at all. The trailer has a cgi space battle and the big solution they arrive at is ramming the ship. I can’t count how many times they did that in Berman Trek. It’s a cliche of chiches. It’s NOT at all like a real Star Trek battle. It’s more like Star Wars, with the ship ramming thing shoved in. The images are dark, not bright like the TOS by necessity had to be lit.

they’ve only told us Rhys will be a “legacy character”. Because gawd forbid they invent a new concept or character. Gotta get those memberberries in at every opportunity.

Here are my guesses: he’s going to be a Q, some kind of all powerful god being. Maybe a Trelane type.

Faux trek writers don’t have very much imagination, so that my initial idea.

when Cumberbatch announced he was Kahn—ugh… ludicrous idea. So that tells me the writers don’t know much about Star Trek except for a couple movies and maybe they saw Space Seed, but I doubt it. They’re writing really bad fan fiction, because at least fans KNOW the material they’re writing about.

bottom line: happy for rhys; disgusted with calling this stuff “star trek” when the showrunners and writers have such disdain for the original source material.

[buds-and-baubles]

since i've been sick i've been reading through stormwatch volumes 1 and 2 and

hoooo wow. i have numerous complaints how some things were handled but the way henry bendix's true self was slowly exposed like a ball of yarn was heavily intriguing. it was like watching a roll of film be unspooled so it can be played.

also shoutout to christine trelane. the public would've never known the depths of henry bendix if you didn't hack his memory tower. also your powers are absolutely awesome and terrifying.

[aromantictendi]

Star Trek TOS Rewatch: Squire of Gothos

-It's probably because I rarely watch this show in any kind of order, but somehow during earlier watches I never really noticed the rotating navigation officers who would come and go before Chekov joined the cast. I mean I noticed them, but always thought they were random extras. But a few get a bit of personality and character development.

I liked Lt. DeSalle. It's too bad he only got one episode at the navigator's chair before being transferred somewhere else for his next appearance. My other favourite navigation officer so far has been Lt. Dave Bailey from The Corbomite Maneuver.

-The timeline's still a bit inconsistent this early in the series. Trelane says he's been watching Earth during Napolean which someone says was 900 years ago. That would put this episode in the 27th or 28th century. Shore Leave, which Netflix has just before Squire of Gothos, has them in the 23rd century which they'd eventually go with.

Uhura at one point also calls Starfleet 'Spacefleet Command.' another term I like but didn't stick.

-I've never seen official confirmation of it, but I always saw Trelane as a proto-Q. I don't think he works as an actual Q because he's not powerful enough (getting the food wrong, having a power source Kirk was able to at least briefly destabilize, etc.). But so much of John de Lancie's Q reminds me of Trelane, I'd be really surprised if he wasn't at least an inspiration.

[trekkingthroughthestargate]

I do genuinely love the fact that Kirk’s plan is legitimately to sacrifice his life in a desperate gamble to get rid of Trelane’s power source.

Literally the only thing that saves Kirk is the fact that his heroism is getting all the attention and Trelane wants the attention back on himself, so he shoots into the air and then opens himself up to be dramatically slain.

Because Kirk’s plan is for them to shoot together, and while he himself take a bullet from someone who 1) says he never misses and 2) is definitely powerful enough to make sure that his bullet makes its way into Kirk’s body, he aims at the machine that is holding his crew captive.

And then Trelane insists that he shoots first, and threatens Spock to make it happen. So now Kirk has to stand there and potentially take a bullet, and hope that he’ll be able to destroy that machine before whatever injury inflicted on him makes him incapacitated.

It’s genuinely just luck that Kirk survives his own gamble, and he knows it, and he was willing to do it anyway

[calliethetrekkie]

Star Trek TOS S01E18: The Squire of Gothos

Original Thoughts

"Well… that was weird. Why am I still surprised at this? Admittedly the villain is fun to watch cause he’s just being over-dramatic as heck and loving it! But otherwise that’s all I can really say about this one, weird. At least Shore Leave’s weirdness was absurd enough to keep my attention and had some funny bits and lines. This was just weeeeeird."

Rewatch Thoughts

Ho boy, this episode. This was NOT a favorite of mine the first time. I thought it was weird but okay I think the first time? Then after it settled and I kept going on my TOS journey, I remembered disliking it and finding Trelane too annoying to find fun. Given what I wrote in the original watchthrough... that was weird. So three years later, how am I feeling about this one now?

It's not a favorite by any means, but I was WAAAY too harsh on this one. It's fun~

Trelane feels like a prototype for Q, being a God-like reality warper with everyone appearing helpless before his power. Q comes off more as a trickster with a hidden agenda however, he uses his methods either for his own amusement or to teach Picard and crew a lesson. An unconventional lesson, but a lesson nonetheless. Trelane? He is a child playing a game of pretend and views Kirk and company as his toys moreso than even as life-forms. Q may have seen Picard and co. as inferior and didn't hide it, but he at least recognized them as existing beings, unlike Trelane.

The episode feels like a fever dream not gonna lie. I enjoy the Renaissance-like aesthetic, no one can say that Trelane has bad tastes. I also enjoy how Trelane's actor, William Campbell, is clearly having the time of his life being a brat pretending to be a chivalrous Liberace-type character. Aside from him appearing as another character in DS9 (according to Wikipedia) I don't see any other notable credits, but he did this kind of character very well without it coming across as too annoying. His final moment, where Trelane is confronted by his 'parents' and his entire facade drops was especially a really good piece of acting.

One issue I had with the episode is that, for the most part, it feels like we're either standing around Trelane's lair or getting back to the Enterprise, only to get yanked back. The Enterprise crew feel overall powerless in this situation and we're just waiting for Kirk or someone to hurry up and figure out a solution. I feel especially bad for the Yeoman who Trelane puts into a dress and forces her to mingle with him. That woman did NOT deserve that even if it's one of the more tame 'TOS treat women like crap' scenes. At least Uhura got to play the piano.

I guess that's why I've been struggling with this review, what can I say about it? It has some nice little moments like the cold opening and Spock sending McCoy on the Away Team pretty much cause he knows he's gonna force him to let him go one way or the other. Trelane threatens Spock and Kirk's reaction, even as a mostly non-Spirk shipper that moment is hard to ignore. McCoy eating/drinking things he REALLY shouldn't. Seriously, if you think Kirk's the one who eats/touches stuff that may kill him and McCoy has to yank him away from it, you have them mixed up haha. And of course, the ending where Kirk gets hunted by Trelane and then Trelane's 'parents' show up, seriously it is wild.

Otherwise... I have no real strong feelings about this one? It's fun, but other episodes are a lot more fun (Shore Leave, The Trouble With Tribbles). The concept of Trelane and his parents is interesting, but they do this a lot better in TNG with the Q's, which I'm honestly convinced Trelane may be a Q or at least related to them. It has some nice little character bits, but we have equally good bits in other episodes. Even on the weirdness scale this isn't even close to the weirdest TOS gets, how naive I was when I did the first watch and thought this and Shore Leave were the apex of the weird episodes haha.

The episode is just okay. It's not good, it's not bad, it's just okay. It doesn't do anything particularly bad in any category, and it's not rage-inducing or boring. But it doesn't really stand out among other TOS or even ST episodes either with plenty of others doing similar things, but better. We had a similar thing with Charlie X as far as 'being with God-like abilities' goes and not only is Charlie much more sympathetic, but it felt like a lot more was going on and like the crew weren't so helpless to do anything. I don't know why my opinion soured so much as I went through the TOS rewatch, but now? It's okay, I am indifferent to it. I'd watch it again, but it's not gonna be one of my first options, or even one of my middle options. But I guess that's better than it pissing me off, can't say that about some other episodes, that's for sure.

Original Rating: 1/5 Rewatch Rating: 5/10

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