Old fandom geek-out (B5 & TOS)
I had a lovely time on Thursday, finally having that long-delayed dinner with mizzykitty. After far too much sushi, we went back to mine to mainline B5 (she hasn't seen it! A possible new convert, hallelujah!) and geek out. It was ever so much fun, and it got me thinking.
We didn't watch all episodes, we watched "Midnight on the Firing Line" (aka "Sabre Rattling", as the DVD would have it), "Born to the Purple", "The Parliament of Dreams" and "Mind War" - so plenty of good, scary stuff still coming up. I keep being surprised by the alternative title to Midnight... every time I see the DVD box (it's Midnight... on the credits), it really throws me and makes me think that it's referring to a different episode. While I understand that both regimes were mostly sabre rattling during that episode, the point of it didn't seem to be the Centauri govt vs the Narn govt but, rather, the conflict between Londo and G'Kar (and, to a lesser extent, the differences of opinion between Londo and Centauri Prime, and Sinclair and EarthGov). It's the first episode, and already we are seeing that the Ambassadors don't necessarily agree with the official line, and can try to change the shape of the galaxy quite drastically through missed meetings and forgotten communiques. It makes it a lot more about internal politics and a lot less about relations with another power.
In the end, it's frustration and helpless rage directed at his own govt that makes Londo make the choices he does, rather than any continued rage against the Narn. It's interesting that G'Kar pretty much toes the party line throughout the episode - and for most of the first season - and is a good little soldier, whereas Londo is the maverick and rebel kept far away from the Royal Court.
Born to the Purple still amuses me with its references to a mindprobe. mizzykitty decided that it was an anal probe, and after that no sense would prevail in the household. It's a sweet love story for Londo, but it did sorta throw me a little. We skipped Soul Hunter, so maybe there was something in there that I'd missing, but Midnight... left Londo is a very rage-filled place vis-a-vis both G'Kar and his own govt, and also full of guilt about his own inadvertent complicity in risking his nephew's life. By Born to the Purple he and G'Kar are back on speaking (and drinking) terms again, which seems odd, given that he was ready to kill him two episodes past. It makes me wonder what happened in the meantime, and whether Kharn Mollari was returned with all limbs (and tentacles) attached.
Parliament of Dreams remains one of the favourite episodes, including the ridiculously sexual Minbari ceremony. Although poor Catherine is given some truly terrible dialogue (and it gets worse in Mind War). I am also amused at poor Ko'Dath having met a dread end courtesy of an airlock. Lennier is sweet and adorable in this, his first episode, and all of a sudden I remembered just how young and innocent he is, I guess the equivalent of late teens... and all of them spent at temple, poor sweet lamb.
Mind War - Kelsey and Bester, 'nuff said. Every time I watch this I am forced to agree with Bester - Ironheart is dangerous, and while we know the Corps as Evil (tm), that's because we're told they are, not because of what they do in this episode. The scan is deliberately sexualised in order to traumatise and scandalise, but other than that... I guess I guess had little to no empathy with Ironheart and his "I knew they'd scan you so I waited to contact you afterwards" pragmatism. His treatment of Talia doesn't seem much different from the Corps's treatment, and at least they have the excuse of trying to track down someone who is 1) paranoid, 2) dangerously strong, and 3) already guilty of at least one murder. Whereas Ironheart could have stolen a ship and headed off into deep space, or got himself off-beacon in hyperspace, and the Corps would have trouble tracking him. He chose to go to B5 and make Talia responsible for protecting him, regardless of the cost to her.
*
I also gave in to the inevitable and purchased S1 of the newer, brighter, more CGI'd remastered ST:TOS S1 boxset. It is, in a word, lush. I get that there's loads of extra exciting special effects in there, but I don't care. What really makes me happy is the colours. They went crazy with the tints and saturated the entire film with as many colours as it would stand, in order to make everything more vibrant. The result is something even brighter and more energetic than before. The young William Shatner is disturbingly attractive in his half-naked, tights-wearing costumes (and even more so when they make him run up and down polystyrene hills for a bit). I had forgotten just how flirtatious Uhura is in The Man Trap! She asks Spock to tell her she's an attractive young woman, and is basically batting her eyelashes at him the entire scene. Again, in Charlie X, more flirtation, this time via song. What I like best about it is that Spock is just amused or flattered by this, rather than being uncomfortable (as Chapel's declaration makes him in The Naked Time). Even if there's no romantic interest there on his part, he is close enough to Uhura to not be threatened by her teasing. (Also, God, I'd forgotten how terrifyingly attractive Nichelle Nicholls was, and just well-fitted that uniform was on her! Gosh.)
The plots are variable, as I remembered. Where No Man... is inconsistent with anything else, but that's to be expected for a pilot. Weird to see Sulu being a science officer, though - maybe he was transferred later? The Man Trap makes no sodding sense. If the creature needs salt, and we have loads of it, why doesn't it just ask? Why don't we just provide it? For that matter, once it's on the Enterprise, why attack people, why not just go to the mess and eat an entire salt-shaker? It's a little too much 'monster of the week' for me to take it seriously.
Charlie X still creeps me out something chronic. The scene where he screams "no laughing!" and the crew-woman's face is suddenly missing gave me nightmares and it loses none of its scare factor. I think I was a little too young to feel sorry for Charlie when I first saw this - I figured that if I could play nice and not kill people, clearly he deserved no sympathy. On re-watching, I have a little more sympathy, but not that much. He has too much power, in the end, and though Kirk tries to make a weak pitch to have him stay put, you can tell his heart's not in it. He doesn't believe that Charlie can be rehabilitated, he showed no remorse for killing people, and didn't even seem to register that as something undesirable. In the end, Charlie grew up in an environment where he was the only 'person' - so that is his worldview. And if the Enterprise crew aren't 'people', then he can do whatever he likes to them. It's sad, but he hasn't shown himself capable of anything else. And how many people's lives would need to be sacrificed to teach him otherwise?
The Naked Time - aaah, naked!Sulu! I also loved Spock's D'Artagnan quip, and Uhura responding to Sulu's "I'll save you, fair maiden!" with "Sorry, neither!" Chapel's declaration to Spock remains buttock-clenching, despite Majel Barrett doing her best. It's that Spock really doesn't understand, and doesn't see her at all, that just makes it cringe-worthy. Oh, Christine, go lust after someone who knows you're alive! Much love for Sulu's many hobbies as well, and also Riley's awful, awful singing voice. For a lead-heavy show, this episode had a hell of a lot of stuff for the non-trio to do, and it was lovely to watch. Pity we didn't see an uninhibited Uhura, though...
*
I'm headed to bed now, to try to reset my body clock. Got to bed far too late last night, after a truly smashing party at mossman's. But it's work again on Monday, so needs must...
We didn't watch all episodes, we watched "Midnight on the Firing Line" (aka "Sabre Rattling", as the DVD would have it), "Born to the Purple", "The Parliament of Dreams" and "Mind War" - so plenty of good, scary stuff still coming up. I keep being surprised by the alternative title to Midnight... every time I see the DVD box (it's Midnight... on the credits), it really throws me and makes me think that it's referring to a different episode. While I understand that both regimes were mostly sabre rattling during that episode, the point of it didn't seem to be the Centauri govt vs the Narn govt but, rather, the conflict between Londo and G'Kar (and, to a lesser extent, the differences of opinion between Londo and Centauri Prime, and Sinclair and EarthGov). It's the first episode, and already we are seeing that the Ambassadors don't necessarily agree with the official line, and can try to change the shape of the galaxy quite drastically through missed meetings and forgotten communiques. It makes it a lot more about internal politics and a lot less about relations with another power.
In the end, it's frustration and helpless rage directed at his own govt that makes Londo make the choices he does, rather than any continued rage against the Narn. It's interesting that G'Kar pretty much toes the party line throughout the episode - and for most of the first season - and is a good little soldier, whereas Londo is the maverick and rebel kept far away from the Royal Court.
Born to the Purple still amuses me with its references to a mindprobe. mizzykitty decided that it was an anal probe, and after that no sense would prevail in the household. It's a sweet love story for Londo, but it did sorta throw me a little. We skipped Soul Hunter, so maybe there was something in there that I'd missing, but Midnight... left Londo is a very rage-filled place vis-a-vis both G'Kar and his own govt, and also full of guilt about his own inadvertent complicity in risking his nephew's life. By Born to the Purple he and G'Kar are back on speaking (and drinking) terms again, which seems odd, given that he was ready to kill him two episodes past. It makes me wonder what happened in the meantime, and whether Kharn Mollari was returned with all limbs (and tentacles) attached.
Parliament of Dreams remains one of the favourite episodes, including the ridiculously sexual Minbari ceremony. Although poor Catherine is given some truly terrible dialogue (and it gets worse in Mind War). I am also amused at poor Ko'Dath having met a dread end courtesy of an airlock. Lennier is sweet and adorable in this, his first episode, and all of a sudden I remembered just how young and innocent he is, I guess the equivalent of late teens... and all of them spent at temple, poor sweet lamb.
Mind War - Kelsey and Bester, 'nuff said. Every time I watch this I am forced to agree with Bester - Ironheart is dangerous, and while we know the Corps as Evil (tm), that's because we're told they are, not because of what they do in this episode. The scan is deliberately sexualised in order to traumatise and scandalise, but other than that... I guess I guess had little to no empathy with Ironheart and his "I knew they'd scan you so I waited to contact you afterwards" pragmatism. His treatment of Talia doesn't seem much different from the Corps's treatment, and at least they have the excuse of trying to track down someone who is 1) paranoid, 2) dangerously strong, and 3) already guilty of at least one murder. Whereas Ironheart could have stolen a ship and headed off into deep space, or got himself off-beacon in hyperspace, and the Corps would have trouble tracking him. He chose to go to B5 and make Talia responsible for protecting him, regardless of the cost to her.
*
I also gave in to the inevitable and purchased S1 of the newer, brighter, more CGI'd remastered ST:TOS S1 boxset. It is, in a word, lush. I get that there's loads of extra exciting special effects in there, but I don't care. What really makes me happy is the colours. They went crazy with the tints and saturated the entire film with as many colours as it would stand, in order to make everything more vibrant. The result is something even brighter and more energetic than before. The young William Shatner is disturbingly attractive in his half-naked, tights-wearing costumes (and even more so when they make him run up and down polystyrene hills for a bit). I had forgotten just how flirtatious Uhura is in The Man Trap! She asks Spock to tell her she's an attractive young woman, and is basically batting her eyelashes at him the entire scene. Again, in Charlie X, more flirtation, this time via song. What I like best about it is that Spock is just amused or flattered by this, rather than being uncomfortable (as Chapel's declaration makes him in The Naked Time). Even if there's no romantic interest there on his part, he is close enough to Uhura to not be threatened by her teasing. (Also, God, I'd forgotten how terrifyingly attractive Nichelle Nicholls was, and just well-fitted that uniform was on her! Gosh.)
The plots are variable, as I remembered. Where No Man... is inconsistent with anything else, but that's to be expected for a pilot. Weird to see Sulu being a science officer, though - maybe he was transferred later? The Man Trap makes no sodding sense. If the creature needs salt, and we have loads of it, why doesn't it just ask? Why don't we just provide it? For that matter, once it's on the Enterprise, why attack people, why not just go to the mess and eat an entire salt-shaker? It's a little too much 'monster of the week' for me to take it seriously.
Charlie X still creeps me out something chronic. The scene where he screams "no laughing!" and the crew-woman's face is suddenly missing gave me nightmares and it loses none of its scare factor. I think I was a little too young to feel sorry for Charlie when I first saw this - I figured that if I could play nice and not kill people, clearly he deserved no sympathy. On re-watching, I have a little more sympathy, but not that much. He has too much power, in the end, and though Kirk tries to make a weak pitch to have him stay put, you can tell his heart's not in it. He doesn't believe that Charlie can be rehabilitated, he showed no remorse for killing people, and didn't even seem to register that as something undesirable. In the end, Charlie grew up in an environment where he was the only 'person' - so that is his worldview. And if the Enterprise crew aren't 'people', then he can do whatever he likes to them. It's sad, but he hasn't shown himself capable of anything else. And how many people's lives would need to be sacrificed to teach him otherwise?
The Naked Time - aaah, naked!Sulu! I also loved Spock's D'Artagnan quip, and Uhura responding to Sulu's "I'll save you, fair maiden!" with "Sorry, neither!" Chapel's declaration to Spock remains buttock-clenching, despite Majel Barrett doing her best. It's that Spock really doesn't understand, and doesn't see her at all, that just makes it cringe-worthy. Oh, Christine, go lust after someone who knows you're alive! Much love for Sulu's many hobbies as well, and also Riley's awful, awful singing voice. For a lead-heavy show, this episode had a hell of a lot of stuff for the non-trio to do, and it was lovely to watch. Pity we didn't see an uninhibited Uhura, though...
*
I'm headed to bed now, to try to reset my body clock. Got to bed far too late last night, after a truly smashing party at mossman's. But it's work again on Monday, so needs must...