TTV Read
Trek TV is free to enjoy but not free to produce. Please consider encouraging new episodes with one of our Membership levels.Go!
Obsessed with a lack of Hellenic Themes... and more Faux Du Shop....see both attachments
From: Marc Thomas
Hi Trek TV Friends, France Nguyen, the actress who played Elaan of Troyius and Shatner previously shared the stage in a theatrical production of The World of Suzie Wong and later in an episode of Kung Fu, the iconic western of the early seventies which brought asian martial arts into the main stream. Thus consigned, was the old put up yer dukes fight scene, to the dumpster of history. She has continued to work into modern times and steadily, among her 1980's credits was an episode of Columbo. Star Trek and Columbo, what more could one hope to achieve in life. Nguyen is probably the best part of the episode. Her over the top performance left as many teeth marks on the scenery as Captain Kirk's. It's nice to see that for once just once the more alien species was presented as the more reasonable. I enjoy the cooler spectrum of colors getting there epithelial due in Trek, the Orions, the Andorians and now the Troyians. My main gripe with this episode, and naturally i have gripes with them all, thats what fandoms for, is the wholesale neglect of the Helen of Troy angle once were past the title block. I dont mind the Egyptian chic in leux of Homeric style, that's cool Cleopatra was Greek after all. This episode is cleopatronizing to women…. But why this My Fair Lady in Space set to the tune of Love Potion Number 9? Howzabout some thematic consistency, The Space Iliad or if you prefer a Space Odyssey. Dudes! You coulda scooped Kubrick and Clarke! But no, it's Taming of the Shrew or Pygmalion maybe. This entire screed by me would be unnecessary if the title of this episode had ben Eliza Doolittle of Troyius, or some sci fi-ifified distortion of same. Wow, don't I have anything more constructive than that to say? No, Not really, not constructive, but More? Of Course We see a return of the slap for slap pas de deux as seen in Fridays Child. Elaan is petulant and quite mean, understandable in many ways since her life is ultimately not her own, but that of her state. However, forcing your male body guards to wear such demeaning out-fits is a crime against humanity even humanoid-anity. Men, fit or not tend to look less than dapper in shorts and molded guilt tops. I will not eat green eggs and ham But will not sicken Sam I am If served green roasted chicken ….that from Dr. Seus' collection of deleted couplets. Yes there is Green Poultry here….. Food of the Future! Far out man! Interesting that they are traveling from one planet to the other at impulse speed. I always understood this to mean sub light speed, traveling by rocket propulsion just as we do now. Scotty notes that this will take along time but we get no indication that years are involved, which would likely be the case if moving from one star to even it's very nearest neighbor in the firmament. Unless we are dealing with a binary. Most stars exist in multiple systems so nothing odd about that. Planets orbiting stars mere light months apart? Around binary Red Dwarves I'll bet... I'd assume this is the case, If these two planets lived in the same solar system, would there not be an enormous temperature variance between the two? Both species seem comfortable in the earth normal environs of the Enterprise, so this seems unlikely Any scientists out there want to vet my reasoning? I was really excited to learn that the forth coming TNG had a character named Troy among the cast,but alas, not the same species as our sensible green courtier here. But Greek! I'm sorry I just cant let it go, the Helen of Troy thing, just imagine a stars-scape on the screen, a class M planet in gibbous phase, then slowly and majestically enter the frame… a giant wooden horse in orbit the font appears now Elaan of Troyuss and the point is obvious "Oh yeah, like Helen of Troy!" I just obvious The single most irritatingly unresolved question left by this the second of season three is this… while her pad is getting trashed by the cranky Dolman, what's a communications chief to do? The answer is so obvious I may have to get in line to propose this scenario, nonetheless here it is.. Uhura must share Tracy's quarters whilst the slow voyage to Troyius is underway But where, alas, to display her collection of U.S.S Julip action figures? They decide to make a party of it and invite Lt. Columbo over for a beer. Tracy calls him on her computer. A nomad probe repurposed to serve as a PC, an impressive feat of tech improv accomplished by her 21st century celebrity husband whose sentience has been preserved in a Futurama jar There may something under the fan art tab documenting my claim Those poses are fantastic Tracy, I accept the download Tracy and photoshop her challenge. Anyone who doesn't is chicken, or maybe anyone who doesn't is perhaps someone who doesn't have photoshop. It's really an expensive program. Try the Sesame Street Learning and Growing CD-Rom for Windows 95 called Elmo's Artist Workshop, that one's good too. Well that's more than enough from me I'm sure, great show last week, loved the four way although, like the rest of the star trek podcast universe we miss Collin from England. I stood on my roof here in Oregon and peered deeply into the south east toward Florida looking for him, then I remembered I don't know what he looks like. END TRANSMISSION Marc Thomas