TTV Read

You Assay! You Essay!

From: Marc Thomas

Hi Trek TV Friends, Well, this is awkward. Have you ever been an American when a TV show concludes with some hella cheesy Yankee nationalism? No? Well I have. Right now for instance. But first, some quick call backs to last weeks episode and review Two phaser beams, emanating from beneath the Enterprise' saucer in non-convergant lines, striking the same target? This bugs Vaughn, this bugs me. I often puzzled over the elusive space geometry which made this possible. Then I grew up and realized that sometimes, Star Trek just doesn't make sense. also.. When I asked if you had listened to any or many podcasts before starting one, you seemed to take offense. Am I not on the record as digging this show massively? I meant to inquire after your creative process and inspiration and was very interested to learn that you are both the kind of people who like to make what you like. I certainly didn't mean to suggest that you should listen to other podcasts for pointers. Most other podcasts and all other Trek casts should take pointers from you. Oh and I'm sorry I called you hipsters, of course I was kidding, but if the word carries more pejorative baggage than I was aware of, please except this, yet another, apology from me. Well, I guess it's time to address the matter at hand. I'm glad Tracy likes us commenting in concert with the shows schedule, it was an accident that I'm doing it this way but I like it too. The Omega Glory then, as I indicated, a little embarrassing, the famously Canadian Shatner does pull off this maudlin Forth of July stuff with aplomb though. As surely as the Jewish Shatner sell's us his sense of earnest farm-boy Christian awe at the end of Bread and Circus' like its priceline.com.(gmail automatically made that a link, don't click on it) A master thespian at work, well played Sir and huzzah. What Shatner does is something beyond mere acting, Leonard Nimoy and Patrick Stewart are actors, Shatner is something else,but I'm not a scientist, so I can't say what that something might be. I wondered if this was a special independence day episode, but there was no summer TV season, back then, only the summer of love. And that was plain un-American. I don't generally like Post-Apocalyptic-Dystopia-Fi, but I think it works well here. The Omega Glory accurately anticipates my countries post 1990's degeneration into dogmatic xenophobia. A land, populated by savages who believe that The Bible and The Constitution are documents joined at the hip. I enjoy the occasional episode of Hyperdrive for it's abundance of, albeit satirical, British love of Queen and Country. It's a nice break from the climate of local flag-waving. What's less fun is the unsubtle racism. How I wish Mr Sulu or Uhura had been selected for Kirk's landing party. The Exeter's Captain's casual "The Yang's are white like us" remark, does not seem present to establish the bonifides of his villainy but rather, I fear, to inadvertently reflect the authors own self identity as an American to correlate with racial whiteness. Oblivious bigotry, if I'm reading that right. This type of thinking is a relic of it's time, granted, but what excuse did Enterprise have for Shran's general description humanity as 'pink skinned' (this always bugged me and credit to Lou Trek for bringing that observation to the podosphere when Collin was on his show). In the end, Sulu saves the day, after "We the people.." is counted as only one of many documents extolling The Federation's sublime values. Is the racism and the jingoism tempered by some irony or ambiguity here? Or am I searching for something special to plead so that I may exonerate my favorite TV show? I am really interested to hear what Trek TV has to say about this,but for now I'll just suffice to say... The Yang's are white like some of us, and others among us, look a little more like the Coms or otherwise, but that doesn't matter. What matters' is that there is a smoking hot cave girl who looks kind of like a Rocky Horror Picture Show era, Susan Sarandon. I forgot all about her. I knew there was some reason I liked this episode when I was 13. I wonder if she's an octogenarian cougar now, trolling the clubs for young innocents like me, to corrupt. How about the Commie Neo-Mongolian Warrior babe from that weird scene with McCoy? I wonder what she's up to. It's also nice to see a strong return to form of the "Every one else in Star Fleet is an asshole" convention. I am willing to cut Captain Tracy some slack however, on the off chance that he is a future apostate relative of The Tracy sisters. And yes I'm assuming their last name is Tracy. Notice that Captain Tracy is played by Morgan Woodward who also played the crazy man in a box from Dagger of the Mind. Watch enough sixties re-runs and you'll see him everywhere. Holding the record for guest-star appearances on Gunsmoke, the man worked for a living. Tracy was also the name of the heroic marionette family featured in Thunderbirds. They were 'Go'! The Jonathan Frakes directed remake of several years ago was such a lost opportunity. Veering back onto topic.... Red Shirt Galloway finally meets his maker here, but don't feel too bad for him, he was in six episodes before this, his inevitable red-shirted end. The Omega Glory, I believe,was a Rodd penned episode and it was nearly the second pilot, losing this distinction to Where No Man Has Gone Before. Tough luck O.G., you could have have been luxuriating in velour. The oft employed gimmick of having Mr. Spock cast as Satan's evil twin was a venerable bit of sci fi recycling. It brings to mind Childhoods End, a great A.C. Clarke novel from the late fifties, it's worth a read. Since their was no other good sci fi on TV, Star Trek funneled viewers into the library to rediscover the genre's golden age. Roddenbury owed nothing to other TV shows, very little to film and everything to the science fiction novels and short stories of the forties and fifties. I'm glad I didn't miss another live show, but I would have if you'd done one because I use my computer, not a smart phone, for Twitter so I don't get that special feeling in my pocket when a new Tweet shows up. I like the little messages and links so I check in when ever I'm at the desktop which is often if not constant...oh speaking of links... the photo from your Supernova convention Why it's a Starfleet archeologist, This does bring to mind the marked lack of sunglasses among Starfleet's beam-down-ware. Some of those Styrofoam planets are awfully bright and it would mercifully dim the view of a phaser bolt's advance. I look forward to the red skirt fan art coming soon to the fan art tab. You looked fab Tracy and I'm impressed by the seamstress-ism. Speaking of "making what we like" I once tried real hard to master the ol' stitch 'n' sow to comic results. I despaired of the unexpected difficulty, then discovered that I could simply buy clothes. Oh and I just saw the 'Kirk and McCoy play mutual understanding tennis', Thats! Funny. Follow Trek TV on Twitter everyone, and send them emails. I really enjoyed Julian's and Collin's letters last week. Great points were made. Howza 'bout a random non-sequitur? "It's only six months 'till x-mas" says the Grinch every June Marc Thomas