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iWinc
From: Marc Thomas
I tweeted about this, but my last audio 'e' was sort of punchy on the subject of dystopian 'bummer-fi' and I hope I didn't offend anyone. Sorry if I did, I'd like to acknowledge for the record that I recognize the artistic and intellectual value of cautionary science fiction and that my real issue was with the contention made by certain authors of that type of work, that optimistic speculation is a lesser craft. That was really good podcast last time, a very dynamic discussion and congratulations to your advertising department for lining up the Mudd's Insurance account. All Cheese, you'd think I've never done this before I forgot the salutation…. Hi Trek TV Friends, Here's a rare instance of air-date and production number correlation, Wink of an Eye, was the next show shown after Plato's Step Kids. Before I dive into the nitpickery, here's what I like about this one. I like very much that this is Hi-Concept sci-fi, the story is rooted in a bizarre 'what if' scenario, "What if someone has a massively fast metabolism? How must our lives appear to to a speedy critter who lives it's life in a day?" This episode really blew my mind upon my first viewing. An Art C Clarke short called "All The Time in The World" plays with a similar notion. It's what science fiction should do. This is not just some other genre transported onto a spaceship. and.. I also like the tilted frame sequence used to indicate transitions into Scalos time. They used the same trick on Batman to represent the POV of evil. But of course the execution of the concept, invites my aforementioned dive into these murky waters of incongruity and ridiculousity. . Lets do the math, if it takes, say fifteen minutes to walk into sickbay…wait, this could take a while, maybe I'd better go into accelerated mode here, that's good, now then, where was I, oh yes, normal time guys appear stationary, even statuesque, while Kirk and Deela are hanging out and performing a task which takes, lets say.. 45.37 minutes……(Buzzing sound followed by a cartoon skidding to a stop)Ok, arithmetic is not my strong suit, but it does not seem to add up. You don't even have to parse the particulars, since the early dramatic demonstration of Kirk's predicament involves Deela's casual side stepping outa the way of a phaser beam. I always assumed that the perception of Trek energy rays relative motion from point of origin to target was a stylistic concession. That they were light and traveled at that speed. Given that assumption then, the Scallosians are actually living in an FTL world and that brings up more problems than I could begin to enumerate. I went on a Memory Alpha quest to learn if phaser fire blasts away at C, but couldn't get a straight answer. They are, apparently nadion particle beams, Trek make-believe, to be sure. Well, perty sure, but I looked up particle beams in my mid 1960's Giant Golden Book of Knowledge and found that particle beams don't actually propagate quite as fast as normal day glow does, but close enough for significant relativistic fuckwithery to attach. Veering slightly, but not much, off topic, LASERSs were only invented a few years before Star Trek, and while most popular science fiction immediately employed them as Ray Guns, Roddenbury had the integrity to discontinue the use of that word after a science literate viewer of 'The Cage' pilot explained to him that LASERs wouldn't do what his futuristic armaments were purported to. So, he called them PHASERs instead. Lost in Space, Voyage to The Bottoms of Sea, My Three Sons in Spaces, Adam 12,000 AD……. (accerate then decelerate)…….RayGun Smoke, I Dream of Gene Modification 'E', Spacenanza…..and the rest of TV Sci Fi, abused the misunderstood new invention of Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation and didn't care. There is of course, also the melodramatic aspect of iWinc which stories about people seem fated to entail. After Kirk breaks the all time land-speed record for the doing of nasty, Deela's, long suffering platonic friend gets his panties in a twist. I don't buy it. The Scalotions have lived this way for so long that jealousy over this kind of dalliance would have shifted right out of the culture but part of Rodd's vision was that people and all their hang ups, especially about love and relationships, are static and the same everywhere. Golden Age futurism never seemed to understand the mailability of social attitudes. \ I absolutely need to checkout that book Kaelin mentioned. Wonder if theres an audio version, I wish all the Trek read-out-louds weren't abridged, and I can't stand the sound effects and music they cut into the mix, so irritating, just let the language stand on it's own. Anway, Happy Holiday Season to you my Trek TV Friends, Tracy and Vaughn's studied conflation of Dr. McCoy with 'The Grinch who Stole X Mas' has rendered December a little Trekkier for all of us. Here's the Flying Brain Parasite Band with an early Yuletide audio card Please don't have a fuckie christmas Please don't have a fuckie christmas Please don't have a fuckie christmas Have a good one instead