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Sense 8 (Review)
Jun. 10th, 2015 03:22 pmWithout spoilers: I liked it, depite some obvious flaws. Not least because what it did well, it did really well.
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Jun. 10th, 2015
Star Trek Meme: Day 6
Jun. 10th, 2015 04:57 pmDay 6 - Your favorite canon pairing? (Canon being the series and the movies, including the reboot.)
But I'm a gen inclined person, she wailed. But okay, fine. Pairings. And let's add the definition of "canon" as "is acknowledged on screen as a mutually romantic relationship" (thus excluding examples where X pines for Y but not vice versa). With that in mind, here's a list for various shows and the movies.
TOS: Kirk/Enterprise. What? It's acknowledged on screen early on (he angsts about it coming in the way of his other relationships in The Naked Time). He's very possessive and jealous when other people get to touch her. (Most blatant example: ST: TMP, made especially galling because in this instance Decker actually was better than Kirk at Enterprise-handling.) And eventually, they have this Buffy and Angel in Becoming moment where he kills her for the greater good in ST III. ("My god, what have I done?" "What you had to do.") It's messed up and tragic in the best way. Seriously now, Kirk is certainly the Starfleet captain most invested in his ship. (Several shows later, Ron Moore tried to go for that with Adama and Galactica, but misjudged the balance between pathos and ridiculousness by letting Eddie Olmos go totally overboard with the relevant scenes.) And it's the canon relationship that keeps the show going, so...
TNG: still took place in the tv era where romances were limited to one or two episodes, but there were exceptions. Riker/Troi was my first experience with a couple which had broken up, had become friends with some lingering feelings which didn't stop them getting involved with other people, and which eventually got together again. What makes me still very fond of them is that they were there for each other (for example, Riker for Troi when she temporarily lost her empathic abilities in Loss) in a crisis and didn't sabotage each other's other relationships, neither actively or passively.
DS9: aka the show where on screen romances were now developed long term for several couples. I was okay with all of these in varying degrees and didn't object to any in general (my problem with Kira/Odo in s6 is limited to s6 - I thought they made a great mutually supportive couple in s7, but their getting together in s6 annoys me by the way the issues between them were just brushed aside/solved off screen, and also by Kira employing a double standard for Odo and her mother within the space of a few episodes), but as for actual favorites, I have to go for a couple of villains. Dukat/Winn all the way! I mean, I to this day carry a grudge about the show making Dukat into a one dimensional mustache twirler for the last one and a half seasons, but his scenes with Winn I enjoyed. I thought Winn's extistential crisis about her gods and her lack of visions was well done, and in terms of issues, scheming and mutual backstabbing, not to mention obsession with Bajor and being the non-favorites vis a vis Sisko as the Chosen One, they were well matched. Lastly: hooray for middle-aged-to-old characters having a sexual relationship on tv!
Voyager: Paris/Torres, no question about it. This started in one of the crackier episodes (species jumping pon farr, what the hell?) but turned into a long term relationship between two different people which really convinced me. I thought they were a good match in their respective strengths and weaknesses - for example, he greatly contributed to helping her self-loathing issues re: her Klingoness, she otoh taught him about total commitment because nothing less would do -, and I would have been seriously upset had the show not ended with both of them alive and together.
Movies: not many to choose from. After being not certain during the fist watching, upon rewatch I embraced reboot Spock/Uhura (she's supportive but also not afraid to call him out when she thinks he's wrong; also,on a Doylist level, certain fans who complained that this relationship "reduced Uhura to a mere love interest" when what they really meant was that it interfered with their favorite pairing, got my back up and made me root for them in irritation at the hypocrisy), so it's probably them by default. Honorary mention goes to the shapeshifter from ST VI who after making out with Kirk turns from Iman into William Shatner and tells Kirk, on screen, this is whom he always wanted to do. How Nicholas Meyer got away with that one, I don't know.
( The other days )
But I'm a gen inclined person, she wailed. But okay, fine. Pairings. And let's add the definition of "canon" as "is acknowledged on screen as a mutually romantic relationship" (thus excluding examples where X pines for Y but not vice versa). With that in mind, here's a list for various shows and the movies.
TOS: Kirk/Enterprise. What? It's acknowledged on screen early on (he angsts about it coming in the way of his other relationships in The Naked Time). He's very possessive and jealous when other people get to touch her. (Most blatant example: ST: TMP, made especially galling because in this instance Decker actually was better than Kirk at Enterprise-handling.) And eventually, they have this Buffy and Angel in Becoming moment where he kills her for the greater good in ST III. ("My god, what have I done?" "What you had to do.") It's messed up and tragic in the best way. Seriously now, Kirk is certainly the Starfleet captain most invested in his ship. (Several shows later, Ron Moore tried to go for that with Adama and Galactica, but misjudged the balance between pathos and ridiculousness by letting Eddie Olmos go totally overboard with the relevant scenes.) And it's the canon relationship that keeps the show going, so...
TNG: still took place in the tv era where romances were limited to one or two episodes, but there were exceptions. Riker/Troi was my first experience with a couple which had broken up, had become friends with some lingering feelings which didn't stop them getting involved with other people, and which eventually got together again. What makes me still very fond of them is that they were there for each other (for example, Riker for Troi when she temporarily lost her empathic abilities in Loss) in a crisis and didn't sabotage each other's other relationships, neither actively or passively.
DS9: aka the show where on screen romances were now developed long term for several couples. I was okay with all of these in varying degrees and didn't object to any in general (my problem with Kira/Odo in s6 is limited to s6 - I thought they made a great mutually supportive couple in s7, but their getting together in s6 annoys me by the way the issues between them were just brushed aside/solved off screen, and also by Kira employing a double standard for Odo and her mother within the space of a few episodes), but as for actual favorites, I have to go for a couple of villains. Dukat/Winn all the way! I mean, I to this day carry a grudge about the show making Dukat into a one dimensional mustache twirler for the last one and a half seasons, but his scenes with Winn I enjoyed. I thought Winn's extistential crisis about her gods and her lack of visions was well done, and in terms of issues, scheming and mutual backstabbing, not to mention obsession with Bajor and being the non-favorites vis a vis Sisko as the Chosen One, they were well matched. Lastly: hooray for middle-aged-to-old characters having a sexual relationship on tv!
Voyager: Paris/Torres, no question about it. This started in one of the crackier episodes (species jumping pon farr, what the hell?) but turned into a long term relationship between two different people which really convinced me. I thought they were a good match in their respective strengths and weaknesses - for example, he greatly contributed to helping her self-loathing issues re: her Klingoness, she otoh taught him about total commitment because nothing less would do -, and I would have been seriously upset had the show not ended with both of them alive and together.
Movies: not many to choose from. After being not certain during the fist watching, upon rewatch I embraced reboot Spock/Uhura (she's supportive but also not afraid to call him out when she thinks he's wrong; also,on a Doylist level, certain fans who complained that this relationship "reduced Uhura to a mere love interest" when what they really meant was that it interfered with their favorite pairing, got my back up and made me root for them in irritation at the hypocrisy), so it's probably them by default. Honorary mention goes to the shapeshifter from ST VI who after making out with Kirk turns from Iman into William Shatner and tells Kirk, on screen, this is whom he always wanted to do. How Nicholas Meyer got away with that one, I don't know.
( The other days )
