#2021: star trek tos

[dandylyins]

realized i never actually posted the completed version of this painting from ages ago. direct study of a still from an original series episode. the back of spock’s head is so dear to me still

[ID: A digital painting of the back of Spock’s head. It’s dimly lit, and the background is a smoky purple vignette. End ID]

#spock #s'chn t'gai spock #tos #the original series #star trek tos #my fanart #2021 #<- i checked it really was from way back in 2021. that's crazy idk why i never posted this #my art #i still really like the random pops of blue i put into his head. and i think i filled out the background well #i actually still really like this overall #thanks again @princess-of-purple-prose for the ID!!

[epersonae]

interrupts yelling/crying/freaking out about that Our Flag Means Death S2 teaser trailer for this very important announcement:

my good friend @redsesame has written and posted her very first fanfiction and it is an AMAZING retelling of the classic TOS Star Trek episode Space Seed (aka the prequel to Wrath of Khan), with a gender-swapped Khan and Marla:

A Woman of Your Century (T, 15K)

from the notes:

"Space Seed" is my favorite episode (of all Trek, ever, maybe?) and I had so much fun reinventing it! In addition to the gender-bending, this rewrite attempts to fill in plot gaps and add backstory and context that the original episode skipped. Mostly I wanted to fix the power dynamics between Khan and Marla (just gross in the original), align Khan’s origin with the actual twentieth century (ish), and complicate the narrative with some sympathy for the devil.

it's so fucking good, y'all. if you are at all a Trek person, run do not walk, and read this immediately!

#star trek #star trek tos #star trek fic #(re those gross power dynamics: I still sometimes think about telling a Very Heavy story set between Space Seed and Wrath of Khan) #(I have notes even I think) #(but writing that got overtaken by The Horrors) #(as in I had that idea in spring 2021) #I was so delighted to beta this #it's incredibly compelling writing #sympathy for the devil indeed

[your-name-is-jim]

TOS fans, you may want to read this comic series!

Sooo I recently read this series of comics called Star Trek: Year Five, published in 2019-2021 by IDW Publishing; I heard it was good, but I didn't expect it to be that good!

If you haven't read it, I suggest to check it out! (it's also not hard to find it if you get what I mean)

The art overall is great and, more importantly, the characters act like themselves and there are several references to their canon backgrounds, past and future experiences! What I absolutely loved was also seeing a lot of "old faces" from TOS show, as well as mentions of events from the series and the movies.

As the title suggests, the story takes place during the last year of Kirk's five-year mission on the Enterprise. I'd like to tell you more, but I enjoyed the surprise of a lot of things I didn't expect, so first of all I'll post a few pics without major spoilers from the first 11 issues (there are 25, so you still have a lot to discover!):

I especially love how Bones and Sulu are drawn, they really look like them! Scotty and Uhura too, but that depends on the artist. Speaking of them, if you like a little Scotty/Uhura, this series has something good about it!

The joke about Kirk thinking there's something strange with the way the Klingons look now cracked me up. LOL

Also, I'm not sure Chapel would call McCoy "Bones", but she is very right in that panel. :)

The last panel is classical James T. Kirk's ass appreciation lol

Sulu has a love story with an alien who doesn't understand human genders and uses they/them pronouns. As someone who headcanons TOS Sulu as attracted to any gender, that was great to see :D

I'm also posting this "end-of-the-episode" panel because it's just perfection. TOS in a nutshell. Aww, look at Kirk and Spock just looking at each other! <3

I must say, you may be a little disappointed if you expect to see many moments with Kirk and Spock together, BUT the scenes they have together are really good! I won't say anything more, just read until the end and you'll see! :D

By the way, this series has a Valentine's Day extra, which is the only part where Kirk has a love interest (a female original character). Yeah, you heard me: in the main story, Kirk doesn't have new romances with anyone; Sulu is the one who gets all the action! ;)

The Valentine's Day issue is not linked to anything else and I don't think Kirk's female love interest is mentioned outside that story, so you can easily skip it if it's not for you. However, even if I can't say I'm especially happy with that story, I personally found something interesting there, for example this:

I think I saw this out of context once, but I didn't know where it was from, so sorry I'm just going to lose my mind thinking about ladies or GENTLEMEN in Kirk's life and Kirk not correcting her about his sexual preferences. Anyway, I might make a separate post someday about this special from a Kirk/Spock shipper's perspective, because I do have a lot of thoughts about it :)

So, if you haven't read Star Trek: Year Five, I hope I convinced you to check it out! I hadn't been lucky with other Star Trek comics before, so I had almost lost hope to find something good… and then here it was! Something that made me feel like it was really written with a lot of love for The Original Series! I really needed it!

If you decide to give it a try, I'd love to see your thoughts and see your favorite parts! I hope you enjoyed this little review. :)

#star trek comics #star trek the original series #star trek tos #star trek: year five #idw publishing #james t. kirk #spock #leonard mccoy #montgomery scott #nyota uhura #hikaru sulu #pavel chekov

[caladeniablue]

Star Trek Fandoms in 2022 on AO3

It’s January: time to udpate my colourful graphs from last year.

2022 showed a 20% increase in the overall Star Trek universe compared with 2021, with nearly 13,000 updated fics in 2022. Despite that increase, 6 fandoms went backwards compared with 2021. Voyager (for the first time since 2015), Discovery and the AOS (Kelvin Timeline) Movies (about 12-15% each) were the main fandoms in regress. The main increases were DS9, Picard and Strange New Worlds.

Among the TV shows only, TOS has regained its 2nd place, maybe due to crossovers with Strange New Worlds, while Voyager has declined to 3rd place. DS9 continues its strong growth. Picard and Discovery show their usual ups and downs due to airing dates, while Strange New Worlds is already showing its mettle for a show which only aired for 10 episodes in the middle of the year.

The fragmentation of the ST fandom continues. In 2022, the ST fandom was more or less evenly divided between the AOS movies (Kelvin timeline), the Original Series (TOS) and the three TV shows which followed in the ‘80s and ‘90s: Next Gen, DS9 and Voy. That fragmentation has been going on for some time, following the consistent decline of the AOS Movies. The more recent series: Disco, Picard and SNW now form the largest portion of the fandom at >20% together. Then come the older movies and newer cartoons, <6% altogether. Note: The graphs above exclude crossovers with non-ST fandoms, but include crossovers within the ST universe.

#fanfic statistics #star trek #AO3 fanfics

[old-type-40]

I just finished watching the Star Trek documentary series The Center Seat last night. It came out in 2021 but it was on The History Channel which I don't have on my TV service and so I never saw it. But it's now on Freevee and Pluto TV.

There was one interesting bit of info about the set design for the Enterprise refit. You see the figure in the radiation protection suit in the background? That's actually a child in the suit as they were using forced perspective to give the illusion of greater depth than was actually there.

There was all sorts of great info. I think the vast majority of the fandom knows that Lucille Ball was very important in getting Star Trek on the air. But I had no idea she had to put up a portion of her own money to get the 2 pilots made. Also, I figured TOS was a fairly expensive series despite the incorrect belief of those under a certain age that it was low budget. And the Center Seat gave details on how TOS was the 2nd most expensive series on TV at its time which was a significant part of the reason why NBC wanted to get rid of it.

The cast of Enterprise talked about how much they despised the series finale and how it was a really bad idea cooked up by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. (You could say that the series finale was Enterprise's equivalent of TNG's Sub Rosa and Voyager's Threshold thanks to Braga.)

And there was a segment in the last episode about all the different actors who appeared on Trek and the challenges of dealing with the makeup and learning lines especially if you had to deliver them in Klingon. But one of the actors who played a Klingon in the DS9 episode Soldiers of the Empire was still able to sing the Klingon victory song from the episode in his interview!

#star trek #the center seat

[hjea]

If you get this, answer w/ three random facts about yourself and send it to the last seven blogs in your notifs. anon or not, doesn’t matter, let’s get to know the person behind the blog!

aw hi! thanks for sending this along—how about i share three me + star trek facts, since we connected through enterprise, my beloved.

i started watching star trek for the first time in 2021, after only 15 or so years of (gentle) pressure from my darling friend @eggsworthy. despite loving lots of sci-fi, i was always under the impression that star trek was kind of stuffy and boring. plus the sheer amount of it was pretty intimidating. but a year into the pandemic, i finally reached the “eh, fuck it, it’s all on netflix anyway, let’s do this” and we started tng from the beginning. and uh… yeah! obsession ho, trek is exactly my jam! who knew? (@eggsworthy knew)

i’ve since watched all of: TNG, Picard, Lower Decks, Voyager, Prodigy, Strange New Worlds, and Enterprise. I’ve also seen a handful of TOS episodes, plus Star Trek II - VI and the four TNG films. I’ve only seen one episode of Discovery, so I should probably give it more of a shot, but I can’t say it really held my attention. i’ve also been SLOWLY making my way through DS9, but (unpopular opinion time?) it has yet to really make me fall in love with it, the way I fell for TNG, Voy, and Enterprise so much more quickly. i’m midway through season three, and i know most people say it really picks up when it gets to the dominion war stuff proper, so I’ll keep plugging away at it. but where i think it’s lacking for me is i just don’t love the characters as much as the other treks. i’ll be the first to admit that Voy and Enterprise had some pretty significant writing structure and plot problems along their runs, but at least the characters had me going “yes! i love this idiot. i gotta keep watching and find out what happens to them next” from season one all the way through.

the one star trek fic i posted this past fall (an enterprise one here if you’re curious) is the longest fic i’ve ever finished. at less than 10,000 words it’s maybe not a GREAT accomplishment, but i’m still feeling pretty good about it. :D my fic writing style has always been “ooh, here’s an idea for a really cool scene! …yeah just the one scene… that’s it” so breaking out of that made me proud. i would definitely love to write more Enterprise, or any Trek fic, if another idea ever strikes me. prompt away if you’ve got ‘em! though i make no promises. the muse is shy and ever-rusty. but never truly gone.

#asks #more-better-words #star trek

[explorersaremadeofhope]

I would like to know more about both your Star Trek Terror fic and your Crozier hates tinder fic please 🙏

omg okay so like, these are both a bit old, star trek terror fic is proper old, i think i wrote it in 2021, but im still hoping!! i had so much fun just working out the worldbuilding on that one and how the different characters slot into different roles, but then i ran up against my old nemesis The Actual Plot and was like 'hmm ok, i think i need to know a bit more about Star Trek TOS lore for this', aaaand that's where i stalled. it's fitzier, but like, eventually. very eventually. you'll see why from the snippet 😂

crozier hates tinder fic was me going 'why is there almost no modern au romcom rossier fic' and then having a very funny convo with some folks on discord about science nerds on tinder. that one mostly exists in vague outline form with a scene or two written out plus random details like 'james ross owns not one but several tacky early 2000s mugs from various places in the southern hemisphere, preferably with penguins on'.

snippets mostly below a cut because they got long (sorry about that)!

Star Trek Terror:

francis raised his brows, but said nothing. ignoring fitzjames' confused expression, he turned his attention back to the file in his hand. "i see from your service record that you've received several commendations for bravery in engagements with the romulans and the klingons." he looked up. "out of curiosity, do you speak klingon? or romulan?"

"ah, no, sir," fitzjames smiled apologetically. "i'm afraid i don't."

"i see. so your expertise lies primarily in firing at alien races, not communicating with them."

it wasn't a fair question, nor a fair conclusion. clearly taken aback, fitzjames blinked in open surprise. "sir," he began carefully, "i believe my qualifications -"

"your qualifications, commander fitzjames, are perfectly adequate. even impressive. for war." francis fixed him straight in the eye and held his gaze. "but don't let the repurposed nature of our ship fool you. we are a survey vessel. you will appreciate, no doubt, that the primary goal of any exploratory mission is to avoid bloodshed, not to excel at it." fitzjames drew breath to speak. francis ignored it. "put bluntly, commander, we don't particularly need a war hero. what we need is someone who knows how to calibrate a spectrometer correctly."

"with all due respect, sir," said fitzjames, once he was sure francis had finished speaking, "i think you'll find i have the requisite scientific training to apply for this post." he'd uncrossed his legs while francis was speaking and now sat ramrod straight. his mouth was pinched, his dark brows drawn together.

francis waved that away with a flick of his hand and a shake of his head. "this isn't a twelve-month patrol tour along the neutral zone, commander. we will be five years in deep space. sometimes uncharted space. in that situation, a man's merits on paper will matter far less than his personal qualities."

there was a pause in which fitzjames lowered his gaze to the floor, his jaw working. when he spoke again it was to a point just above francis' shoulder. the affable buoyancy had drained from his voice, leaving a gravel harshness which francis privately suspected was far more genuine. "i respectfully posit, sir," said fitzjames, "that you don't know my personal qualities, seeing as we've only just met."

francis' smile did not reach his eyes. "be that as it may. i'm afraid my decision is made, commander." he set his padd aside and folded his hands on the table. "thank you for your interest. and good morning."

Tinder fic:

“Well,” says Blanky flatly. “That's sexy.”

But as he reads over the message one more time, Francis’ heart is actually slowing down from its panicked gallop – his dread replaced with sheer relief at being given a topic of conversation he's fluent in.

“No, no, it's fine,” he says absently, staring at the words I'm thrilled we matched. “I don't mind.”

“Aye, you wouldn't, would you. What the hell are–” Thomas peers at the screen more closely. “Pinnipeds?”

“Seals. Well. Not just seals.” Francis looks up. “It's one of those things – all seals are pinnipeds but not all pinnipeds are seals. You know?”

Blanky regards him with the look of a man who absolutely does not. "Right."

After staring at his phone for a few moments longer, Francis opens the keyboard. 

Hi, he types out with deliberation. Thank you for – no. That comes off a bit pathetic, doesn’t it. Backspace. 

Thank you; likewise. Exclamation point? Does the full stop look dour? Cold? But he’s never been much of an exclamation point man. Likewise – I’ve always wanted to visit Antarctica. What

He stops typing, seized by a sudden fear. Hurriedly erasing the message draft, he looks up at Blanky. “Can people see me typing on this thing?”

“Fuck should I know, Francis? I’ve been married for twenty years. – Give us a minute, though.” Blanky pulls out his own phone and writes a text. Less than a minute later, his phone pings. “Hannah says aye. Also wants to know if I'm cheating on Esther.”

#* #asks #wip game #thank you for asking!!💖

[jonfucius]

Great Star Trek Rewatch - TOS Feature Films

Originally posted on Twitter 12-19 January 2021

Star Trek: The Original Series Feature Films are up next in my Great Star Trek Rewatch. As with ENT, DSC, STX, TOS, and TAS, mini-reviews will document my progress.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture: A quintessential Star Trek/Roddenberry story, V’Ger’s quest for the Creator recalls Nomad from “The Changeling.” The visual effects, score, and direction are top-flight, especially given its troubled production. 7/10

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Often cited as the best film, it is certainly a classic of Star Trek and science fiction cinema. Ricardo Montalban’s Khan has yet to be bested. James Horner’s score is excellent, often quoted in the sequel. 9/10

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock: Melancholy is the overall tone, until the final few minutes. Not as strong as the preceding or succeeding films, this is still an excellent TOS story. Kruge is an underrated villain. Stealing the Enterprise is a fantastic scene/score. 8/10

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: The One with the Whales is a fun, lighthearted romp with a timeless environmental message. A crowd pleaser for over 30 years. 9/10

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier: Shatner’s reach exceeds his grasp (and budget), but I’ve yet to see a better portrayal of the core trio’s relationship. The score is excellent; Sybok is charismatic. Sadly, the effects are rough and the supporting crew doesn’t get much to do. 7/10

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: A poignant and thrilling swan song for the TOS era. The themes of aging and irrelevance first broached in TWOK are fully confronted here. Kirk goes through some major character growth. The perfect cap for Trek's first 25 years. 9/10

And with that, the TOS Feature Films come to an end in my Great Star Trek Rewatch. Final score: 8.17/10. Highest score(s): “Star Trek II,” “Star Trek IV,” “Star Trek VI.” Lowest score(s): “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” “Star Trek V.”

#star trek #great star trek rewatch #star trek tos #star trek: the motion picture #star trek ii: the wrath of khan #star trek iii: the search for spock #star trek iv: the voyage home #star trek v: the final frontier #star trek vi: the undiscovered country

[walkingstackofbooks]

📚 Favourite ST fic you've read.

🖖 First Trek media you encountered?

I've already answered 📚 Favourite ST fic you've read here - but I'll take the opportunity to do another fic rec. Or two 👀

"open up my eyes" is one I read recently which hadn't had a comment since 2021 which is in my eyes a CRIME. Following snippets of O'Brashir moments after Jadzia's death, it's achingly beautiful, the Keiko/Miles is wonderful too, and it made me cry a couple of times.

"Logic and Prejudice" is SO much fun, I had a complete riot reading it. Spirk, but it's the plot of Pride and Prejudice, but it's woven into the Trek universe SO carefully and beautifully, the worldbuilding is immense and it's simply great (tbh everything I've read by @jennelikejennay is incredible)

🖖 First Trek media you encountered?

I watched Into Darkness in the cinema when it came out, because I had recently got into Sherlock, and also knew I could get my dad to take me and he'd be excited to think he was "getting me into Star Trek" when I was really just there for Benedict Cumberbatch. (I really don't know why, I was far more of a John fan than a Sherlock fan?)

Anyway, I fell hard for James Kirk, and though it was some years before I watched ST:2009 - it honestly might even have been after Beyond? - I read AOS fic sporadically and was a fringe fan for some years I guess?

Like ten years later in 2021 I went on a AOS fic reading binge, falling deep into the Tarsus IV mines, and realising that had all come from an actual episode of TOS, got my dad to find out his TOS DVDs to watch with me... and the rest is history because James T. Kirk? Reader, I love him. Also I wasn't expecting it be easy to watch - I thought it would be sexist and kind of bad - and then I mean it was, but it was also being the most respectful it could be at the time and it was made with such love and kindness and wonder... Yeah, sorry, we all know why TOS is great 😅

Sorry I've just reread the question and I definitely answered too much but also, while AOS was the first media I encountered, TOS was what got me into the Trek fandom. 🤷‍♀️

#Thank you for asking! #I love thinking about all these questions! #fic recs #star trek #i can't imagine anyone's going to mind finding more fic they should read right? :P #personal #WSB

[garaks-padded-bra]

When did you first get into ds9?

PROPERLY?? like September of 2021, and when I started I was a real quarkhead because the first episode I picked to see if it were worthy of watching all the way through was THE ASCENT…… I’ve watched that one like 9 times since. I love the ascent. Bad place to start I know but unfortunately I am a bit joker insane. My favourite series of all time beforehand was Star Trek tos and ds9 took its place in like one season it was soooo sad.

[snakeplantships]

Tag nine (9) people you'd like to know better!

@beskarfrog tagged me

Last song: Handel recorder sonatas, because that's the kind of nerd I am

Currently reading: A few things to get ready for the next semester, and also The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race. Also loving a translation of the Apocryphal Gospels by Bart D. Ehrman. @beskarfrog I desperately want to hear more about this terrible "theoretic-practical theology vol 2" by petrus van mastricht lol

Fanfic-wise, I've been reading all the submissions (ha!) for the Sub Anakin Fest over the last day. And just read the new chapter of Redolent of You by @himboskywalker

Currently watching: Slowly making my way through the Clone Wars. Recently saw the 2021 Dune (finally, I was putting it off because I was afraid it was going to suck. I fucking love Dune), and I really liked it.

Current obsession: Star Wars primarily (OT, Prequels, the Mandalorian), but always up for conversations about Star Trek: TOS, Lord of the Rings, and weird religious subjects of all kinds.

People I’d like to know better (if you've already been tagged, ignore this freely and happily).

@moncuries @veelawings @veradragonjedi @urgirl415 @knivash @misovega @firealder2005 @thecrimsondandelion @kamsspice

[epersonae]

13,10,20,26 for the more writing asks!

10. what is the longest amount of time you’ve let a draft rest before you finished it?

this one has a weirdly complicated answer, in that this fic had two long periods where it was untouched before posting, and technically it was never finished. But: from right here the view goes on forever was mostly written in the spring and summer of 2019, got sidelined by first falling in love and then the creativity crash of the pandemic, had one tiny bit added to it in I think July 2020, and I started posted it in October 2021.

This is one of the last pieces of the series that Ryn and I wrote together, what we informally called "the beach epilogue", that rounds out the longest piece of that series. It is the origin of my first tattoo, even though we never got to write the part of the fic wherein the tattoo itself appears, and when I posted it after Ryn died, I included one of our engagement photos where you can see it on both of us.

13. a fandom you’re thinking about writing for

I still kinda want the extremely fucked up Star Trek fic that lives in my head about Marla McGivers, aka Khan's wife who dies sometime between the original Space Seed episode in TOS and Wrath of Khan. I'm 50/50 on whether it ends up being canon-divergent, because it's from her POV, and that makes it a Bad Ending fic, which is not usually my jam.

I watched the episode and the movie in the spring of 2021 for the first time after getting divorce and BOY HOWDY do I have thoughts about how they wrote Khan and emotional manipulation. It was going to be an exploration of some trauma stuff that ironically got pushed aside by actual new trauma.

20. in what year did you publish your first fic?

2017! This month is seven years since I started writing and posting fic!

26. are you able to write with other people around?

Usually; prepandemic, and when I was commuting to an office, I was a coffeeshop writing girlie, but now it's not so much part of my routine. A few times I've written while hanging out with friends, and that's nice if potentially distracting.

[✍️ more fic writer asks]

#it was really important to me to post the beach epilogue #even if it didn't get that many comments or kudos or whatever #and even if it was still rough around the edges and not entirely done #because it was such a part of *us* #ask games #my writing #my fic #my first two years of fic writing were kind of insane #my output was so much so fast #because I was going through it in a way where I needed that very badly #also someday I'm pretty sure I will write the Marla fic (speaking of going through it)

[melancholiaenthroned]

was tagged by @bladeofavernus tyyyyy<333 ily

3 ships: umm rn my big ones r. boostle private eyes & midpollo

first ship: i want to say rose/the doctor?

last song: headache by motionless in white

last movie: blue bayou 2021

currently reading: family business by jonny sims

currently watching: uhh nothing rn unless u count my very very slow watch of star trek tos

currently consuming: cough drop:-( i have a cold

currently craving: i want some kind of hearty stew soooo bad rn like beef or oxtail or smth.

no pressure obi but tagging @heliophaestus @honeylemony @spinecorset & @ruffolive

#poison.txt #^_^

[scarletfasinera]

Making my friend go from watching Dead Ringers (1988) —> Dune (2021) —> Revolutionary Girl Utena —> Star Trek: TOS is probably the funniest thing I’ve ever done. Like a nuclear triad of media that does immediate tangible damage to your psyche, and then following up with Star Trek: TOS.

#txt

[calliethetrekkie]

Star Trek TOS S01E11: Miri

Original Thoughts

"Miri was very much one of those ‘don’t watch during a pandemic’ episodes due to it involving a spreading disease and all. Also thinking that maybe this was what inspired Children of the Corn. But yeah, it was meh. Not horrible, but not great either. My biggest issue is how Miri betrayed the group just because she was jealous of Rand. But TBF Jim sweet-talking probably didn’t help and while he DOES have a mostly good reason for it and it was mostly just sweet-talking with nothing gross intended, it just looks SO wrong nowadays. Likely unintentional and they DID need her help to figure out what was going on and her crush on Kirk was the best place to appeal to her and again nothing gross behind anything, but yeah another sign of the show’s age cause that would NOT fly nowadays. But mainly the whole disease thing while we’re nearing a year into the pandemic… didn’t help make me get into the episode. It’s okay, but not one to revisit for a good while."

(Original Post)

Rewatch Thoughts

I've been feeling mixed about coming back to this one. On the one hand, it has one of my favorite Spones scenes ever (I hadn't gotten into the ship yet, hence why the original post doesn't mention it). On the other hand, it's Kirk manipulating a girl who is physically and mentally a young teenager. Do I even need to explain how f-ed up that is? But I expected to hate episodes like Charlie X on rewatch, and I didn't. Plus, I'm watching this as the pandemic has cooled down, at least in comparison to early 2021. So, how did this one fair this time around?

Eeeeeehhhhh?

It's not horrible, but I didn't really care for it either? There's stuff I like, but a lot of it is just... icky. I liked the scenes with the Triumvirate and he overall atmosphere, but most everything else... just didn't do it for me.

Having kid actors can go various ways. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It worked here, the kids come across as creepy as you'd expect after being stuck alone for 300 years. Which that in and of itself is confusing as heck. I don't know, the scenes do their job I guess, but it's just not my thing. Like I said in the original post, it gives me major Children of the Corn vibes, and that just is not my thing.

There's also the matter of Miri herself. Reading back through my old watchthrough... I was really hard on her, and I shouldn't have been. This is a young kid, whose been alone for who knows how long in an incredibly unstable world where the adults are all dead and others are slowly turning the same way, herself included. Of course she'd be willing to betray the adults because she saw Kirk with Rand. She's a confused child who is being used by said adults. Plus, she's very clearly in denial about the disease, which I failed to take into account the last time. When rewatching this, I just felt pity for the poor girl.

That being said, there are several things with Miri and the kids that I don't like. The implications that puberty means you don't like the stuff you did as a kid is annoying, but I'll let that slide. The biggest issue honestly is Kirk himself. I love the man... but Dear God this might be him at his most awful thus far. I know he's playing into Miri's crush for the sake of saving himself and the others, and he doesn't do anything gross. But even knowing that, it just feels so freakin' wrong. And no, Miri actually being hundreds of years old does not deter anything because she is very clearly still a teenager mentally. Again, I understand why, but that doesn't make it any less uncomfortable to watch.

Really, I'd have probably been fine had they just had the Landing Party beam onto an Earth-like world, unaware that a disease either killed everyone or drove them insane. Then they have to try and figure out a cure to save themselves while dealing with the monstrous survivors and to not lose themselves to the virus. That can still make for a good plot and keep the drama since you could have Kirk and McCoy at each other's throats, Spock being the only one immune/not going insane trying to keep everything together, etc. You can still have the aging virus and the implications as you imagine what had to have happened to the kids without adults and that the survivors are most likely the surviving older kids that have now turned. It could be the ST equivalent of a zombie apocalypse, at least in setting and atmosphere. That would have been a Hell of a lot better than 'Kirk manipulates a 300-year-old teenage girl' and allowed for some good character/thriller drama. I'm just saying.

While I think she has one or two more appearances after this, this is as I recall Rand's last major episode, so I feel that this is a good time to voice my thoughts about her. I really I just feel bad for her. She's crushing on a man who's going to choose to be a captain first, had a really horrible encounter with said man a few episodes ago, and really just thinking about this episode, The Enemy Within, and Charlie X, her time on the Enterprise feels like a nightmare. It's worse if you know why her actress left the show, which makes it all the more disgusting to look back at. I liked Rand well enough, and I'm disappointed that she was wasted like she was. But I also don't know what else she could have done since Spock and McCoy are around for Jim to talk with and otherwise doesn't have much purpose except as Kirk's possible love interest. One that we know he wuldn't be able to commit to. The worst part is that the show really lost nothing when she left, which just shows how much they really didn't care at the end of the day. Hopefully her time later under Sulu's command was better.

Spock and McCoy were the best part of this episode, bar none. They're not as in focus as Kirk, but they have some of the best moments. The scenes with just them and Kirk interacting (and Rand) were fantastic, with Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley bouncing off each other so well. Even small moments like McCoy lingering with the broken tricycle? Such excellent bits that add so much to the characters. Of course the best Spock/McCoy scene, and the best scene of the whole episode tbh, is at the end when McCoy injects himself with the untested vaccine. He knew full well that what he was doing was dangerous, but there's no time left, and the episode has made it painfully clear that he's going to be the one who goes insane from the disease first. If it works, then they're saved. If not and he dies, at least they'll know, and he won't be able to hurt anyone. This is such a defining moment for him.

Spock of course disagreed because it was too dangerous, but as soon as he's gone, McCoy does it. Spock checks his vitals before grasping onto his hands, watching his face and staying there even when Jim comes back and even as the marks fade. Watching McCOy is one thing, but holding his hands? Were's the logic there Spock? The two bicker, and bicker even more as the show continues. Even here, Spock couldn't help but try to prod at McCoy (and yes, he started it) just because McCoy said the disease didn't like green blood, but as soon as it looks like the doctor may die? He's right there and doesn't leave him until most likely McCoy regained consciousness, or they were able to beam him up now that he was cured. Now that's a missing scene I'd have loved to have seen. This is the section of S1 where we really start establishing the Spock and McCoy relationship a lot more, and this was by far one of those moments.

But is that enough to make me like the episode as a whole? Mmm... no. There's enough scattered moments to keep it from rating lower than Mudd's Women, but it doesn't make me want to watch it outside those moments either. Even without the pandemic, the episode made me uncomfortable and unlike The Enemy Within, where it's just one or two scenes that happen early on, it doesn't have enough to make me willing to sit through it. There's certainly good in it, but overall? It's a pass for me.

Original Rating: 3/5 Rewatch Rating: 5/10

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[scientific-tricorder]

Star Trek Episode IMDb Ratings 01/23

It's a new year, with new episodes and new data to play around with, as well as a convenient break in new episode releases. Therefore, my fellow nerds, let us gather 'round for more statistical analyses of Star Trek episode ratings.

I've done this twice before, in July of 2021 and April of 2022. You can look there for a more complete introduction. Basically, I used Python to scrape IMDb data on episode ratings for Star Trek, applied some stats, and am presenting the results.

On the broadest level, the average Star Trek episode is rated 7.36 (SD 0.82, IQR 0.9), continuing a downward trend from previous times. More details under the cut.

Analyzing series by series, Prodigy is keeping its throne as the highest rated series at 7.99, and The Animated Series its much less illustrious title of lowest rated series at 6.56. The greatest standard deviation is still The Next Generation at 0.94, and the lowest is The Animated Series at 0.46, although Prodigy is close behind at 0.48. The average for each series (with standard deviation in parentheses) is below:

TOS: 7.35 (0.80) TAS: 6.56 (0.46) TNG: 7.32 (0.94) DS9: 7.48 (0.78) VOY: 7.32 (0.73) ENT: 7.49 (0.69) DIS: 6.83 (0.86) PIC: 7.12 (0.84) LWD: 7.74 (0.56) PRO: 7.99 (0.48) SNW: 7.90 (0.78)

Compared to last time, the biggest changes are Discovery and Lower Decks each increasing by 0.06, Prodigy increasing by 0.11, and Picard decreasing by 0.25. Of those, only Discovery hasn't had new episodes released since last time, potentially indicating that more positive reviews come later on. Now, I'm not saying that Disco episodes have been the victim of negative review bombing shortly after release, but I'm not not saying it either.

Weighting the averages by number of votes doesn't do much, although Discovery and Picard both get notable increases. The difference between average and weighted average for each show is below:

TOS: +0.10 TAS: +0.03 TNG: +0.10 DS9: +0.06 VOY: +0.05 ENT: +0.01 DIS: +0.21 PIC: +0.17 LWD: -0.06 PRO: -0.12 SNW: -0.03

Breaking things down by season, the average Star Trek show has an average season rating progression of 7.34 - 7.17 - 7.31 - 7.23 - 7.55 - 7.52 - 7.42. The highest rated season is Prodigy's first season at 7.99, and the lowest is Discovery's fourth season at 5.63, an increase from its 5.52 rating last time. Season by season stats for all the shows are below:

TOS: 7.65 - 7.46 - 6.85 TAS: 6.59 - 6.48 TNG: 6.76 - 6.87 - 7.53 - 7.54 - 7.59 - 7.67 - 7.17 DS9: 6.96 - 7.33 - 7.42 - 7.66 - 7.62 - 7.60 - 7.63 VOY: 7.08 - 7.11 - 7.21 - 7.57 - 7.45 - 7.28 - 7.47 ENT: 7.24 - 7.37 - 7.67 - 7.74 DIS: 7.49 - 7.42 - 6.63 - 5.63 PIC: 7.59 - 6.64 LWD: 7.49 - 7.85 - 7.87 PRO: 7.99 SNW: 7.90

The highest and lowest rated episodes of the franchise haven't changed, with "Shades of Gray" at the bottom (3.3, down from 3.4 last time) and "The Inner Light" and "In the Pale Moonlight" sharing the top spot at 9.4. The lowest and highest rated episodes for each series are:

TOS: "And the Children Shall Lead" (5.2), "The City on the Edge of Forever" (9.2) TAS: "The Magicks of Megas-Tu" (5.9), "Yesteryear" (8.0) TNG: "Shades of Gray" (3.3), "The Inner Light" (9.4) DS9: "Let He Who is Without Sin…" (5.5), "In the Pale Moonlight" (9.4) VOY: "The Fight" (5.0), "Blink of an Eye" (9.0) ENT: "These Are the Voyages…" (5.3), "Twilight" (8.6) DIS: "All is Possible" (5.1), "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2" and "If Memory Serves" (8.2) PIC: "Monsters" (5.4), "Nepenthe" (8.3) LWD: "Second Contact" (6.8), "No Small Parts" and "wej Duj" and "First First Contact" and "Hear All, Trust Nothing" (8.7) PRO: "Starstruck" (7.2), "Supernova, Part 1" (8.9) SNW: "The Elysian Kingdom" (6.1), "A Quality of Mercy" (9.1)

Shout out to Lower Decks for having four episodes tie for highest rated.

For each series, relative opinions haven't changed for TOS, TAS, TNG, Voyager, Enterprise, or Picard. DS9's "Meridian" is no longer tied for lowest rated, "If Memory Serves" joins "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2" for the highest rated episodes of Discovery, "No Small Parts" and "Hear All, Trust Nothing" join the highest rated episodes of Lower Decks, and "Supernova, Part 1" takes over from "A Moral Star, Part 2" as the highest rated episode of Prodigy.

The average Star Trek episode receives 2342 votes (SD 1123, IQR 1392). For each series, the average number of votes (standard deviation in parentheses) is:

TOS: 3495 (802) TAS: 678 (103) TNG: 3207 (793) DS9: 1950 (376) VOY: 1772 (277) ENT: 1578 (360) DIS: 3677 (1328) PIC: 3754 (1201) LWD: 941 (34) PRO: 289 (147) SNW: 3475 (638)

The highest is Picard at 3754, and Discovery has the greatest standard deviation at 1328. The lowest is Prodigy at 289, and Lower Decks has the lowest standard deviation at 34.

I think the biggest conclusion here is that more of y'all should be watching Prodigy! It's the least popular based on votes, yet the highest rated series.

For more info on raw data or the scraping code, contact me.

#Star Trek #Trekking across the universe #statistics #Sorry for the lack of graphs. I had several made and went to the trouble of using thematic fonts and LCARS color scheme #but then accidentally deleted them and can't be bothered to redo them now #Maybe I'll add some later or in a different post #Tricorder log