Isrieri
My father told me this would happen
I'm roughly 6000 dollars away from finally paying off my student debts, and am basically pushing myself to the limits of sleep and patience with my jobs in order to meet that amount within the next 4 or 5 months. Thus, I have arbitrarily decided I'm gonna watch some Star Trek. I enjoy watching/reading people's initial experiences on the things I love so I thought I'd log my experience for posterity.
The Next Generation was one my favorite shows growing up, but its been over 20 years and I've not seen all the episodes as I would just catch reruns whenever they broadcast. The other series I only have knowledge of from cultural osmosis, and is more or less a mystery.
Make no mistake: I am a star trek noob, and for the most part these are going to be my sequential impressions. I am watching the series for enjoyment and not serious critical study. There may be potential spoilers but I'll try to keep things vague, so bear that in mind if you haven't watched these either.
★ = Irritating
★★ = Mediocre
★★★ = Interesting
★★★★ = Engaging
★★★★★ = Riveting
I've been itching to make this thread for a while so with that, lets begin our voyage.
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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Pilot – "The Cage" (★★★)
The best word I think I can use to describe this one is "Surreal." The camerawork, the strange star backdrop sequence when they jump to warp (I think? I had no clue what was happening), and especially Mr. Spock giving a little smile while they were petting that plant. Its certainly a pilot, trying to establish all the potential the show has to offer. We swing from a sci-fi glass menagerie, to an old castle, to a horse farm out of some 50s western. Its pretty wild, and I think folks in the 60s must have thought so too.
Those Talosians missed an opportunity. I couldn't help but think when they grabbed the two women from the transporter room "you've got one male human who absolutely refuses any attempts to bend him over your knee and resists your tampering with everything he's got, and a woman who seems more or less on board with the whole repopulation thing. Why not grab two or three of the men from the same away team?" Its that old 60s syndrome. I expected sexism in some form would be present in TOS but not right in the pilot. Poor Vira. If you had left with the crew maybe they could have helped you!
There's lots of pretty great details here. I was initially confused that Vira was clearly so young and not as scuffed up as the older scientists; chalked it up to the aforementioned syndrome. But turns out it makes a lot of sense in hindsight. This is clearly at the sales pitch stage, and a lot of what would come to be known and loved in the fandom hadn't quite materialized yet. Pike? Who the heck is Pike?! I wonder if he'll return. This doesn't feel like star trek so much as a dimestore paperback plot, but one adapted for the screen by diehard passionate fans.
I personally found the central conceit pretty interesting. "Live life, scuffs and all, or turn your back on it and wither" is something I can really relate to and thought about often. A strange pathway to explore it, but I hope its something the series revisits later.
I got a kick out of the one random guy walking around in shorts and a striped polo. Strap in Isrieri: its gonna be a long journey.
ep 2 "The Man Trap" (★★★)
Oh man. So this is the original series, huh? Things are gonna get jank I can tell.
Yet I'm kinda surprised that through the jank its still kind of...good? Compared to the pilot the dialogue and acting is leagues above, and I feel its only gonna get better. Pretty wacky to kick things off with some weird salt vampire monster, especially considering the modestly cerebral plot from before, but its kinda charming. What made the episode was the charisma of the actors & actresses, as well as the strange blocking: Kirk crawling around in the sand sneaking up on Crater was.... they must've held the camera on it for a fair minute or so. Got a chuckle out of me. I seriously can't wait until we get to that legendarily juicy ham. I live for that stuff.
If you had to ask me, what's the one thing that is unmistakably and quintessentially star trek, something that is the series signature, its the red alert sound effect. I didn't know it was this old and it threw me that it went unchanged from here to TNG apparently? Also I didn't mention last episode but these special effects are pretty damn good for the time. The props, I'd argue, might even be ahead of their time in some respects – the transceivers they used in this episode were basically flip phones.
Ep 3 – "Charlie X" (★★★)
Rated TV-14 for "Sex, Fear." That's a good sign right there.
And it delivered! Geez louise what a madcap episode this was; what an audience hook! A goofy stare, a musical sting, overlapping voices. That's one way to get you invested as the enterprise faces its mightiest foe yet, an adolescent boy! For something so goofy its a major downer.
Also can I just say, I know starfleet is a psudo-military organization and child-rearing is not in their wheelhouse but I mean c'mon now you can't offer better advice than perfunctory non-answers? Letting him roam around the starship as if he was just another member of the crew? And not as though he hasn't been cut off from all human society for 17 years? If this is even a slimmer of the sort of parenting commonplace at the time its no fucking wonder there's so much stupidity in the world. Just explain things! Mindfully! Literally! Just council the poor bastard and stop off-loading the responsibility! God-powers be damned! This is the reason why starfleet starting mandating psychiatric professionals aboard space vessels: to prevent just this sort of horseplay.
Already we're into the grey zone with the ethical dilemmas. Charlie is someone who's never had to deal with responsibility, and clearly the Thalians are even worse guardians than the enterprise. Having to send him back into their arms is clearly not the right thing for the boy, but what choice did they honestly have? He blew up an entire ship! How is he possibly going to learn about responsibility and empathy when his powers make his will paramount? Through no fault of his own the Thalians (out of pity) made him into a walking beast, his humanity a liability rather than an asset and now with no choice but to be made to quash it. The first episode was the escape from a cage, and this one is about remaining in one. Its tragic.
Y'know Spock might be a Vulcan in control of his emotions but that doesn't mean he can't feel them. Why ya gotta embarrass him in front of the entire mess hall Uhura? That's also why Charlie silenced her when she started singing for him. It might seem baffling to some since it clearly wasn't mean-spirited, but its pretty obvious to me there's little to love about being singled out and put on display for your awkwardness, like some sort of animal to gawk at.
Props to Charlie's actor. I love how he invaded their personal space and stooped over everyone sitting. Made the discomfort palpable.
The Next Generation was one my favorite shows growing up, but its been over 20 years and I've not seen all the episodes as I would just catch reruns whenever they broadcast. The other series I only have knowledge of from cultural osmosis, and is more or less a mystery.
Make no mistake: I am a star trek noob, and for the most part these are going to be my sequential impressions. I am watching the series for enjoyment and not serious critical study. There may be potential spoilers but I'll try to keep things vague, so bear that in mind if you haven't watched these either.
★ = Irritating
★★ = Mediocre
★★★ = Interesting
★★★★ = Engaging
★★★★★ = Riveting
I've been itching to make this thread for a while so with that, lets begin our voyage.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Pilot – "The Cage" (★★★)
The best word I think I can use to describe this one is "Surreal." The camerawork, the strange star backdrop sequence when they jump to warp (I think? I had no clue what was happening), and especially Mr. Spock giving a little smile while they were petting that plant. Its certainly a pilot, trying to establish all the potential the show has to offer. We swing from a sci-fi glass menagerie, to an old castle, to a horse farm out of some 50s western. Its pretty wild, and I think folks in the 60s must have thought so too.
Those Talosians missed an opportunity. I couldn't help but think when they grabbed the two women from the transporter room "you've got one male human who absolutely refuses any attempts to bend him over your knee and resists your tampering with everything he's got, and a woman who seems more or less on board with the whole repopulation thing. Why not grab two or three of the men from the same away team?" Its that old 60s syndrome. I expected sexism in some form would be present in TOS but not right in the pilot. Poor Vira. If you had left with the crew maybe they could have helped you!
There's lots of pretty great details here. I was initially confused that Vira was clearly so young and not as scuffed up as the older scientists; chalked it up to the aforementioned syndrome. But turns out it makes a lot of sense in hindsight. This is clearly at the sales pitch stage, and a lot of what would come to be known and loved in the fandom hadn't quite materialized yet. Pike? Who the heck is Pike?! I wonder if he'll return. This doesn't feel like star trek so much as a dimestore paperback plot, but one adapted for the screen by diehard passionate fans.
I personally found the central conceit pretty interesting. "Live life, scuffs and all, or turn your back on it and wither" is something I can really relate to and thought about often. A strange pathway to explore it, but I hope its something the series revisits later.
I got a kick out of the one random guy walking around in shorts and a striped polo. Strap in Isrieri: its gonna be a long journey.
ep 2 "The Man Trap" (★★★)
Oh man. So this is the original series, huh? Things are gonna get jank I can tell.
Yet I'm kinda surprised that through the jank its still kind of...good? Compared to the pilot the dialogue and acting is leagues above, and I feel its only gonna get better. Pretty wacky to kick things off with some weird salt vampire monster, especially considering the modestly cerebral plot from before, but its kinda charming. What made the episode was the charisma of the actors & actresses, as well as the strange blocking: Kirk crawling around in the sand sneaking up on Crater was.... they must've held the camera on it for a fair minute or so. Got a chuckle out of me. I seriously can't wait until we get to that legendarily juicy ham. I live for that stuff.
If you had to ask me, what's the one thing that is unmistakably and quintessentially star trek, something that is the series signature, its the red alert sound effect. I didn't know it was this old and it threw me that it went unchanged from here to TNG apparently? Also I didn't mention last episode but these special effects are pretty damn good for the time. The props, I'd argue, might even be ahead of their time in some respects – the transceivers they used in this episode were basically flip phones.
Ep 3 – "Charlie X" (★★★)
Rated TV-14 for "Sex, Fear." That's a good sign right there.
And it delivered! Geez louise what a madcap episode this was; what an audience hook! A goofy stare, a musical sting, overlapping voices. That's one way to get you invested as the enterprise faces its mightiest foe yet, an adolescent boy! For something so goofy its a major downer.
Also can I just say, I know starfleet is a psudo-military organization and child-rearing is not in their wheelhouse but I mean c'mon now you can't offer better advice than perfunctory non-answers? Letting him roam around the starship as if he was just another member of the crew? And not as though he hasn't been cut off from all human society for 17 years? If this is even a slimmer of the sort of parenting commonplace at the time its no fucking wonder there's so much stupidity in the world. Just explain things! Mindfully! Literally! Just council the poor bastard and stop off-loading the responsibility! God-powers be damned! This is the reason why starfleet starting mandating psychiatric professionals aboard space vessels: to prevent just this sort of horseplay.
Already we're into the grey zone with the ethical dilemmas. Charlie is someone who's never had to deal with responsibility, and clearly the Thalians are even worse guardians than the enterprise. Having to send him back into their arms is clearly not the right thing for the boy, but what choice did they honestly have? He blew up an entire ship! How is he possibly going to learn about responsibility and empathy when his powers make his will paramount? Through no fault of his own the Thalians (out of pity) made him into a walking beast, his humanity a liability rather than an asset and now with no choice but to be made to quash it. The first episode was the escape from a cage, and this one is about remaining in one. Its tragic.
Y'know Spock might be a Vulcan in control of his emotions but that doesn't mean he can't feel them. Why ya gotta embarrass him in front of the entire mess hall Uhura? That's also why Charlie silenced her when she started singing for him. It might seem baffling to some since it clearly wasn't mean-spirited, but its pretty obvious to me there's little to love about being singled out and put on display for your awkwardness, like some sort of animal to gawk at.
Props to Charlie's actor. I love how he invaded their personal space and stooped over everyone sitting. Made the discomfort palpable.
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