Star Trek Memories

[science_officer]

Star Trek Memories

I bought the DVD sets of ST: TOS last year and finished watching all of them a few months ago. Paramount has since re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-released at least some of the TOS episodes on home video, this time on HD-DVD (just in time for HD to lose the format wars to Blu-Ray). Because I have only an ordinary DVD player

Comments

What you don't see can't hurt you, just ask Al Gore!

[bear_helms]

As someone who quickly became fond of David Gerrold for his Tribbles episode, and especially for his book "The World of Star Trek" (1974), I had a positive prejudice for The Cloud Minders and in my youth, I could see it as a class allegory - words like "proletariat" and "bourgeoisie" were still being bandied about despite the 60s being well behind us, and I could see how this was an example of the physical separation of the haves from the have-nots. People who labor (those in China) not enjoying the fruits of their efforts (as we in the US do). Well, China has McDonald's, automobiles, computers, and currency. They may lack free speech, but with the kind of anti-terrorism Patriot Act measures I see taken day after day, I wonder just how long before the US and China are even more similar.

I actually like Trek having morals to its stories. Just as with Aesop's Fables, I don't have to agree with every moral, and of course don't take it as scripture (although I still do see that year of 3000 religion coming around

Cloud Minders

[science_officer]

Well, great--now my previously obscure blog will be archived by all sorts of three-letter agencies! :-) (Kidding.) In case I'm right about this: he said it, I didn't.

I think it was in the audio commentary of the Animated Series episode "BEM" where Gerrold sounded dismissive of "Cloud Minders," saying something like, "'Cloud Minders'... or 'Mind Clouders'... or whatever it was called..."

I think of "Cloud Minders" as a midlist Trek episode. Could have been better, but it's not crummy.

Gotta log off soon... stuff to do. It's been fun... I'll probably be back tomorrow.

Science_Officer

A Mind Forever Yoyageraging

[bear_helms]

I must get my obligatory paranoid rant in every so often. You took it better than most people I've unintentionally trolled. I really do not know that I'm taking a tone like that when I'm writing - it takes the distance of a day or two for me to perform the facepalm maneuver.

You may not get opportunity to meet alien life, but by continuing communications with me, you will meet a very alien brain. Here's the best quick guide I could google up on Bipolar II Disorder.

Re: A Mind Forever Yoyageraging

[science_officer]

First of all, I appreciate the apology. I didn't think you were trolling, but instead I concluded that you just got a little excited. For many Trekkies, everything seems to remind them of a Star Trek episode, and Star Trek episodes remind them of numerous things. This isn't exactly unexpected, since Star Trek refers to almost every conceivable subject in one way or another.

No harm done... at least as far as I'm aware. (And if anyone is looking in on this blog, allow me to reiterate: he said it!Thanks for being honest about your condition (Bipolar II). A good ground rule for interactions--regardless of whether or not someone has Bipolar II--is basically this: please avoid saying anything that could be construed as threatening, or that could get someone else in trouble. Sure, sometimes these things are visible only in hindsight, as you acknowledge above

Re: A Mind Forever Yoyageraging

[bear_helms]

You do win the cupie doll, it was a reach for me to believe you might have also heard of the Mind Forever Voyaging InfoCom game. (Which is an interesting SF kind of story - you have to interact with your environment through the sensory facilities of various robots; some can only tell textures, and so on.)

I have suffered worse attention-span difficulties of late and therefore read perhaps 2-4 books a year now. I can't recall reading anything by David Foster Wallace, I'm afraid.

I believe I seldom will take a threatening stance even when in a paranoid manic state. Fear and phobia are things I've yet to find any competant psychiatric counseling for in this pitiful corner of Texas.

In case you missed my startrek post on the subject, my public LJ gallery contains well over 100 photos taken during the last days of Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton, and I have granted permission for copying.

Re: A Mind Forever Voyaging + Trek Experience

[science_officer]

1. [A Mind Forever Voyaging]: The Infocom promotional posters that they sent along with game diskettes listed "A Mind Forever Voyaging," but I never bought it. I found the description intriguing, but was scared off by the "advanced" difficulty level, or whatever term they used. Somewhere around here, I still (hopefully) have the packaging and inserts from several Infocom games; one of the most interesting was either "Witness" or "Deadline" which included a fake book of matches, among other things. (At least I hope they were fake.)

2. [Trek Experience]: Good photos! As an Apple Computer enthusiast, I especially liked the Macintosh from Star Trek IV. (That's one of the best scenes in the whole film: Scotty speaks into the mouse!) I never went to the Experience, and, if I understand correctly, it's now closed forever. A few people I know IRL--some of them non-Trekkies, amusingly enough!--have gone there, and they've all been unanimous in their praise. (Probably they were in Vegas to begin with, and just decided to go to the

Re: A Mind Forever Voyaging + Trek Experience

[bear_helms]

Deadline had fake matches, a case file, etc. Many InfoCom games at the end had a lot of "props" in them to encourage people to want the original packaging as opposed to a "locksmith copy