Star Trek Meme: Day 4
Jun. 8th, 2015 08:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakDay 4 - What was the first episode/movie you watched?
I can't be a hundred percent certain due to all the rewatching later, but I think I did start at the beginning, i.e. the second TOS pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, as a child in the 1970s. At any rate, I do recall watching this as a child and not yet knowing the characters, so while the German Star Trek broadcast sometimes switched episode orders, it may very well have been the first ST episode I watched.
Otoh, I have two reliable first watch TOS episode memories, and not from my childhood in the 70s. This is because the German TOS broadcast left out one episode entirely - three guesses which one it was, and the first two don't count - and bowdlerized another in a retrospectively hilarious way, so that I saw the second one in its unbowlederized original form for the first time in 1990 in Munich, where my local rental video store had copies of the entire series in English, and the left out one I saw for the first time at a FedCon in Bonn in the mid 90s. The episodes in question: Amok Time was the bowlderized one. Star Trek was regarded as a show for the kids (which is probably why I started to watch it in the first place when I was one) and given an afternoon spot in the 70s, and our German television overlords regarded the whole Vulcan mating cycle thing as too much for the young 'uns. So in the German dubbed version, Spock doesn't undergo pon farr, he just catches face flu, has a really weird delirium dream about going home to Vulcan, almost marrying and killing Kirk, and thanks to McCoy's dedication wakes up cured. You can imagine that when in the 80s I started to read the occasional ST tie in novel and there was talk of pon farr, I was confused. Pon what? And why the references to T'Pring as a real person, when all that almost marriage and duel business had been a dream?
The episode which was never broadcast at all in the 1970s was, of course, Patterns of Force. After watching it at FedCon in the mid 90s, I decided German fandom hadn't missed much. ST did a couple of "they come across a planet just like Earth in historical era X" episodes, but this was by far the one with the dumbest explanation, because seriously, why anyone having even a bit of historical knowledge should want to reconstruct the Third Reich on a planetary level (or any other level), let alone a supposed Starfleet historian, is beyond me. (And no, "he did it for the organizational skills and thought he could avoid the genocide part" isn't any smarter.) (Starfleet employed historians seem to be a weird bunch, though, given the other one we meet is Marla McGivers who swoons over Khan because she longs for a time when men were men and did some war leading and conquering.) Oh, and then there's the scene where Spock gets tortured and does not utter a sound, because he's just that tough. Watching this in the 1990s, at an era where tv at last was allowing its heroes to feel physical pain when it was inflicted on them, this felt ridiculous. When the lights went on again after this episode was shown at FedCon, the audience had a collective "huh" and "okay, that was stupid" expression on their faces.
Back to Where no man had gone before - because Gary Mitchell had such a prominent position in it and was introduced as Kirk's best friend, I fully expected him to be cured, not killed, by the end of the episode, I remember that much. (This is something that only works when you're young enough to know nothng about ST via pop culture osmosis.) I was more surprised than upset when he died, but I was upset Elizabeth Dehner did. I thought since she didn't go evil with her powers, she could have stayed and learn to master them and do cool things next week. Alas, child!me had no idea the X-Men existed.
Oh, and the first ST movie I watched was Star Trek: The (Slow) Motion Picture. During the first beautiful shot of the Enterprise, I felt aglow in fannish fondness. Little did I know I had just spotted what two thirds of the movie would consist of...
Day 1 - Which Star Trek series is your favorite?
Day 2 - Who is your favorite character?
Day 3 - Who is your least favorite character?
Day 5 - What was the first Star Trek series you watched?
Day 6 - Your favorite canon pairing? (Canon being the series and the movies, including the reboot.)
Day 7 - Your favorite non-canon pairing?
Day 8 - Your favorite actor/actress? (Not the same as character.)
Day 9 - What's your favorite episode?
Day 10 - What's your favorite species? (Humans are a species as well.)
Day 11 - What's your least favorite species? (See question 9 about species.)
Day 12 - What's your favorite funny moment?
Day 13 - What's your favorite dramatic moment?
Day 14 - What's your favorite Star Trek quote?
Day 15 - How did you get into Star Trek?
Day 16 - Are you involved with Star Trek fandom?
Day 17 - Have you read any of the books? If so, which ones?
Day 18 - If you could be any species in the Star Trek universe, what would you be?
Day 19 - How did the Star Trek reboot affect you?
Day 20 - Of the minor characters (one shots, not the recurring ones) who’s your favorite?
Day 21 - Which Star Trek food would you want to try at least once?
Day 22 - Which Star Trek world would you want to visit at least once?
Day 23 - Is there anything you'd want to change about Star Trek? Why?
Day 24 - Is there anything about Star Trek that has disappointed you?
Day 25 - How has Star Trek changed you?
Day 26 - Lots of Star Trek Parodies out there. Which do you dig?
Day 27 - What would you cross over with Star Trek?
Day 28 - Your favourite friendship in Star Trek?
Day 29 - If you could tell Gene Roddenberry one thing, Star Trek related or not, what would it be?
I can't be a hundred percent certain due to all the rewatching later, but I think I did start at the beginning, i.e. the second TOS pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before, as a child in the 1970s. At any rate, I do recall watching this as a child and not yet knowing the characters, so while the German Star Trek broadcast sometimes switched episode orders, it may very well have been the first ST episode I watched.
Otoh, I have two reliable first watch TOS episode memories, and not from my childhood in the 70s. This is because the German TOS broadcast left out one episode entirely - three guesses which one it was, and the first two don't count - and bowdlerized another in a retrospectively hilarious way, so that I saw the second one in its unbowlederized original form for the first time in 1990 in Munich, where my local rental video store had copies of the entire series in English, and the left out one I saw for the first time at a FedCon in Bonn in the mid 90s. The episodes in question: Amok Time was the bowlderized one. Star Trek was regarded as a show for the kids (which is probably why I started to watch it in the first place when I was one) and given an afternoon spot in the 70s, and our German television overlords regarded the whole Vulcan mating cycle thing as too much for the young 'uns. So in the German dubbed version, Spock doesn't undergo pon farr, he just catches face flu, has a really weird delirium dream about going home to Vulcan, almost marrying and killing Kirk, and thanks to McCoy's dedication wakes up cured. You can imagine that when in the 80s I started to read the occasional ST tie in novel and there was talk of pon farr, I was confused. Pon what? And why the references to T'Pring as a real person, when all that almost marriage and duel business had been a dream?
The episode which was never broadcast at all in the 1970s was, of course, Patterns of Force. After watching it at FedCon in the mid 90s, I decided German fandom hadn't missed much. ST did a couple of "they come across a planet just like Earth in historical era X" episodes, but this was by far the one with the dumbest explanation, because seriously, why anyone having even a bit of historical knowledge should want to reconstruct the Third Reich on a planetary level (or any other level), let alone a supposed Starfleet historian, is beyond me. (And no, "he did it for the organizational skills and thought he could avoid the genocide part" isn't any smarter.) (Starfleet employed historians seem to be a weird bunch, though, given the other one we meet is Marla McGivers who swoons over Khan because she longs for a time when men were men and did some war leading and conquering.) Oh, and then there's the scene where Spock gets tortured and does not utter a sound, because he's just that tough. Watching this in the 1990s, at an era where tv at last was allowing its heroes to feel physical pain when it was inflicted on them, this felt ridiculous. When the lights went on again after this episode was shown at FedCon, the audience had a collective "huh" and "okay, that was stupid" expression on their faces.
Back to Where no man had gone before - because Gary Mitchell had such a prominent position in it and was introduced as Kirk's best friend, I fully expected him to be cured, not killed, by the end of the episode, I remember that much. (This is something that only works when you're young enough to know nothng about ST via pop culture osmosis.) I was more surprised than upset when he died, but I was upset Elizabeth Dehner did. I thought since she didn't go evil with her powers, she could have stayed and learn to master them and do cool things next week. Alas, child!me had no idea the X-Men existed.
Oh, and the first ST movie I watched was Star Trek: The (Slow) Motion Picture. During the first beautiful shot of the Enterprise, I felt aglow in fannish fondness. Little did I know I had just spotted what two thirds of the movie would consist of...
Day 1 - Which Star Trek series is your favorite?
Day 2 - Who is your favorite character?
Day 3 - Who is your least favorite character?
Day 5 - What was the first Star Trek series you watched?
Day 6 - Your favorite canon pairing? (Canon being the series and the movies, including the reboot.)
Day 7 - Your favorite non-canon pairing?
Day 8 - Your favorite actor/actress? (Not the same as character.)
Day 9 - What's your favorite episode?
Day 10 - What's your favorite species? (Humans are a species as well.)
Day 11 - What's your least favorite species? (See question 9 about species.)
Day 12 - What's your favorite funny moment?
Day 13 - What's your favorite dramatic moment?
Day 14 - What's your favorite Star Trek quote?
Day 15 - How did you get into Star Trek?
Day 16 - Are you involved with Star Trek fandom?
Day 17 - Have you read any of the books? If so, which ones?
Day 18 - If you could be any species in the Star Trek universe, what would you be?
Day 19 - How did the Star Trek reboot affect you?
Day 20 - Of the minor characters (one shots, not the recurring ones) who’s your favorite?
Day 21 - Which Star Trek food would you want to try at least once?
Day 22 - Which Star Trek world would you want to visit at least once?
Day 23 - Is there anything you'd want to change about Star Trek? Why?
Day 24 - Is there anything about Star Trek that has disappointed you?
Day 25 - How has Star Trek changed you?
Day 26 - Lots of Star Trek Parodies out there. Which do you dig?
Day 27 - What would you cross over with Star Trek?
Day 28 - Your favourite friendship in Star Trek?
Day 29 - If you could tell Gene Roddenberry one thing, Star Trek related or not, what would it be?
no subject
Date: 2015-06-08 12:07 pm (UTC)Patterns of Force makes zero sense from the historian's POV. It's just stupid and really, I'm not sure that a highly organized government, even one led by a charismatic leader, necessarily means genocide. I don't know much about the Third Reich, except the Holocaust, but I kind of remember that it wasn't so much that they were great organizers, just that they documented like all get out and people thought they were good organizers.
Oh the first Star Trek movie. My ex and I went to see it the first night it came out. We too loved the pan of the Enterprise until it went on and on and on. We got talking after the movie and stayed to see it a second time. My ex decided to time the fly around the Enterprise scene. It was five entire minutes.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-08 01:24 pm (UTC)Leaving all morals aside, there was incredible corruption, infighting and rivalry going on at every level. (One reason why all the "What if Germany had won the war?" AUs don't work for me because I can't believe in the very premise; this was not a stable state.) The "Hitler made the trains run on time" cliché ignores that the boost to the German economy that happened during the early years of the Third Reich depended partly on projects that were already started before Hitler came to power (the Autobahn, for example; that was a building project Chancellor Brüning hat started and which Hitler later got the credit for) and partly on the militarization of the entire country, building up the weapon industries etc. This was always meant in preparation of war. It depended on war and slave labor to maintain itself later on. Even from a purely pragmatic pov, this just isn't a viable model to follow unless you want your futuristic society to collapse as well.
(Of course you can run long term modern dictatorships which don't collapse. Ask the Chinese. But not ones modelled on the Third Reich.)
no subject
Date: 2015-06-08 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-09 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-09 09:48 am (UTC)I also watched TMP first (I'm going to call it the slow-motion picture now forever, lol) because I wanted to see them all in proper order. Man, was I left with a ???? for the first half of it. WTF. (Other bits were cool, but geez. Also, pastel pajamas! As much as I'm not super into the burgundy ones that followed, they were more believable than the pastel jumpsuits. Starfleet designers are about on par with Starfleet historians, it seems!)
no subject
Date: 2015-06-09 11:37 am (UTC)TMP uniforms were totally pastel pajamas. I think someone in the fashion design just wanted to see how much they could mess with the fleet before anyone protested. :)
no subject
Date: 2015-06-10 12:47 am (UTC)Oh my god this is the funniest thing ever :D
no subject
Date: 2015-06-10 04:33 am (UTC)