TTV Read

Columbus, Ohio Loves You

From: Seth

Trek TV, Greetings from Columbus, Ohio. I suppose you are in the throws of a Perthian summer. We are warming up for the winter, and I wonder if you will miss the Canadian hockey and other winter sports. Apparently Perth is warm all year round. I haven't heard much from you folks for the past month, but I hope that you are well. Your podcast is arguably the best of the Star Trek podcasts, or at least the one more to my flavor - a critical and humorous approach. I'm rewatching "Skin of Evil" or (since I'm watching it in German) "Die schwarze Seele" (literally The Black Soul). This episode is probably most famous for the death of Yar. I, when I first saw it, didn't think of this so much. I was surprised that she died, and somewhat saddened, but my critical mind didn't really care. Obviously not every show is "The Walking Dead" where main characters are killed off regularly for the reason that, I believe, people don't like the down notes. It would be too depressing and this is, after all, American television - an artistic medium known for its mindlessness and function as an escape. As I re-watch it, I see that it centers a lot on Troi, it is afterall, her psychic ability that serves as the tar blob's weakness. What funny moniker will your team use? There are a lot of discussions about the human spirit in this, along the lines of Troi's function as a counselor. We see Data angry at the tar blob's humiliation of Geordi. When do we stick up for what's right? We see the Tar Blob (now capitalized) force Data into pointing the phaser around. When are we responsible for our own actions? We hear of women raped in Iran who are still held responsible by the government. These questions seem typical of the early Star Treks and Rodenberry's humanistic philosophy. This is the formula to Star Trek that I've always preferred. Different is the writer Joseph Stefano. He also worked a lot on "The Outer Limits" and wrote the screenplay to "Psycho" among other things. I really see this haunting/horror flavor to the episode. It's probably the only Star Trek episode (and I've seen most of them), it's likely the only one I've seen, save perhaps Voyager's "Revulsion" that comes close to scaring me - and this villain does scare me. I liked the look of the monster, simple and silly. The simple monsters remind me that one can go out and make his/her own movie. I just saw a good, local, indie film "Red Luck". We also got the cheapish background, on the planet and on the holodeck. I like this too because it seems more campy, even though, at this point, Star Trek is too wide spread to be very personal in this respect. Yes, we got another Wesley sweater at the end, but I've never been a hater of him. All in all I'd give it a 5/5 as Star Trek goes, but it definitely has that sad, bitter note absent in most episodes. Much love!