Places of fandom (both online and cons), plus Star Trek's The Naked Time and The Enemy Within
I've been very much enjoying participating in the new-ish comm tumblr_refuge, which was founded by people trying to have a fandom space of respectful community and substantive communication, which tend to be lacking in tumblr. Mostly it's been Sherlock-focused, because the Sherlock fandom on tumblr has apparently been pretty toxic lately (not much on my dash, where I see only faint ripples and vague complaints about stuff happening elsewhere) and driving a lot of people to seek a better venue. However, the comm is open to all fandoms at the moment, and I'd love to see more fandom diversity. It's been really active so far, and people have mostly managed to be respectful even when talking about contentious issues. So if you need some good discussions and active posting on your LJ friends list, I recommend it.
Elsewhere in Sherlock fandom, I was disappointed when Sherlock Seattle changed its dates to something in January I'm probably not going to be able to make. Seattle is a long distance away, and I don't know if it would be a good idea financially anyway, but I had such a marvelous time last year that I'd been hoping to go again anyway. However, I just realized that there is a con called Bay Area Sherlock Con in Berkeley (an easy distance for a weekend trip), and it's at a time I should be able to make the trip, in fact on my birthday. So I'm thinking of doing that. I don't think I've talked to anyone who's been to this particular con, so I don't know its reputation, but I suspect it will be good.
I've also watched more Star Trek! Here are my thoughts.
[The Naked Time]The Naked Time: This episode is a hoot! It's an early example of the trope of that SF tradition, The Episode Where (Almost) Everyone Loses Their Inhibitions. (Later examples include Buffy's "Band Candy" or Dollhouse's "Echoes.") It's interesting that they put it so early in the show's run, when the audience barely knows the characters, but I guess one way to get to know them a lot better is to show what they're like when they're not trying to behave for polite society.
Shirtless Swashbuckling Sulu with a Sword is the best part. I wonder if whoever wrote this knew at the time that George Takei was gay, because looking at it from a modern perspective there is so much homoeroticism with the sword and the trying to convince the other man to go to the gym with him and more. Also, the best dialog of the episode was the exchange between Sulu and Uhura.
Sulu: I'll protect you, fair maiden!
Uhura: Sorry, neither!
Nichelle Nichols ad-libbed that, because she is the actual best. Also, she seems to be immune to the contagion. She definitely touched Sulu, and it's spread by touch, but she never appeared to be symptomatic.
Awww, poor Spock is overwhelmed by his emotions. Also, Kirk apparently wears a shirt made of tissue paper, because McCoy ripped a huge hole in it without apparent effort.
The crewman who initially picked up the infection was apparently trying for a Darwin Award. In a place where lots of people were dead under mysterious circumstances, he took of his hazmat's suit's glove, touched some surfaces, then reached under his helmet to scratch his face. Really, dude? Does anybody on this ship know anything about infection? Eh, whatever. I loved this ep.
[The Enemy Within]The Enemy Within: This is one of those episodes where terrible handling of one plotline ruined my enjoyment of the whole thing. A teleporter accident split Captain Kirk in two, one half aggressive and driven by id, the other better on the surface but indecisive and meek.
Parts I enjoyed: the utter ridiculousness of the alien creature created by strapping a unicorn horn and some random antennae to a small dog, Sulu's wittiness even on the brink of freezing to death, the use of guyliner to mark which was the "evil" Kirk, laughing my head off at Shatner's over the top acting.
Parts I hated: Poor Janice Rand apparently can't be in one episode without someone sexually harassing or assaulting her. In this case, Kirk's nasty double snuck into her quarters and tried to rape her.
The really frustrating part is that I thought her attack by Kirk's aggressive half was really badly handled by the other characters in this episode. She was assaulted by someone she thought was Captain Kirk, and then she was interviewed about it with Kirk present. None of the men present (and looming over her) seemed very interested in consoling her, making her feel safe, or validating her experience in any way. Instead, Kirk's meeker half just kept repeating that it wasn't him. I feel like the conversation can be paraphrased like this:
Yeoman Rand: I was just attacked in my own room by Captain Kirk, a person I had previously trusted. He used both his physical strength and his institutional authority to attempt to rape me. I feel very upset and unsafe.
"Nice" Kirk: #NOT ALL KIRKS
And then at the end Spock remarked to Rand about the supposed-imposter's "interesting qualities" in a way that made me think he was trying to sell her on him. Jeez, Spock, just because you think it's sexy when Kirk gets very commanding doesn't mean everyone agrees. That line was super gross.
Finally, happy birthday to Steve Rogers. And also, you know, America.
Elsewhere in Sherlock fandom, I was disappointed when Sherlock Seattle changed its dates to something in January I'm probably not going to be able to make. Seattle is a long distance away, and I don't know if it would be a good idea financially anyway, but I had such a marvelous time last year that I'd been hoping to go again anyway. However, I just realized that there is a con called Bay Area Sherlock Con in Berkeley (an easy distance for a weekend trip), and it's at a time I should be able to make the trip, in fact on my birthday. So I'm thinking of doing that. I don't think I've talked to anyone who's been to this particular con, so I don't know its reputation, but I suspect it will be good.
I've also watched more Star Trek! Here are my thoughts.
[The Naked Time]The Naked Time: This episode is a hoot! It's an early example of the trope of that SF tradition, The Episode Where (Almost) Everyone Loses Their Inhibitions. (Later examples include Buffy's "Band Candy" or Dollhouse's "Echoes.") It's interesting that they put it so early in the show's run, when the audience barely knows the characters, but I guess one way to get to know them a lot better is to show what they're like when they're not trying to behave for polite society.
Shirtless Swashbuckling Sulu with a Sword is the best part. I wonder if whoever wrote this knew at the time that George Takei was gay, because looking at it from a modern perspective there is so much homoeroticism with the sword and the trying to convince the other man to go to the gym with him and more. Also, the best dialog of the episode was the exchange between Sulu and Uhura.
Sulu: I'll protect you, fair maiden!
Uhura: Sorry, neither!
Nichelle Nichols ad-libbed that, because she is the actual best. Also, she seems to be immune to the contagion. She definitely touched Sulu, and it's spread by touch, but she never appeared to be symptomatic.
Awww, poor Spock is overwhelmed by his emotions. Also, Kirk apparently wears a shirt made of tissue paper, because McCoy ripped a huge hole in it without apparent effort.
The crewman who initially picked up the infection was apparently trying for a Darwin Award. In a place where lots of people were dead under mysterious circumstances, he took of his hazmat's suit's glove, touched some surfaces, then reached under his helmet to scratch his face. Really, dude? Does anybody on this ship know anything about infection? Eh, whatever. I loved this ep.
[The Enemy Within]The Enemy Within: This is one of those episodes where terrible handling of one plotline ruined my enjoyment of the whole thing. A teleporter accident split Captain Kirk in two, one half aggressive and driven by id, the other better on the surface but indecisive and meek.
Parts I enjoyed: the utter ridiculousness of the alien creature created by strapping a unicorn horn and some random antennae to a small dog, Sulu's wittiness even on the brink of freezing to death, the use of guyliner to mark which was the "evil" Kirk, laughing my head off at Shatner's over the top acting.
Parts I hated: Poor Janice Rand apparently can't be in one episode without someone sexually harassing or assaulting her. In this case, Kirk's nasty double snuck into her quarters and tried to rape her.
The really frustrating part is that I thought her attack by Kirk's aggressive half was really badly handled by the other characters in this episode. She was assaulted by someone she thought was Captain Kirk, and then she was interviewed about it with Kirk present. None of the men present (and looming over her) seemed very interested in consoling her, making her feel safe, or validating her experience in any way. Instead, Kirk's meeker half just kept repeating that it wasn't him. I feel like the conversation can be paraphrased like this:
Yeoman Rand: I was just attacked in my own room by Captain Kirk, a person I had previously trusted. He used both his physical strength and his institutional authority to attempt to rape me. I feel very upset and unsafe.
"Nice" Kirk: #NOT ALL KIRKS
And then at the end Spock remarked to Rand about the supposed-imposter's "interesting qualities" in a way that made me think he was trying to sell her on him. Jeez, Spock, just because you think it's sexy when Kirk gets very commanding doesn't mean everyone agrees. That line was super gross.
Finally, happy birthday to Steve Rogers. And also, you know, America.