synchronicity. it's a weird thing, right? we'll get back to that. i'm supposed to be job hunting right now... so, um, let's talk STAR TREK!

PICARD (1/2)

omg! hi, commander ro!

oh... my god... bye, commander ro...

ENTERPRISE

hahaha jk, fuck ENTERPRISE.

okay, so in an act of desperation a couple of months ago i did think to myself, "maybe i should watch ENTERPRISE, the only STAR TREK series i've never seen."

i couldn't make it through the pilot.

do you know how much bad STAR TREK i've watched over the years?? but this cis, white, american military bro version of STAR TREK... it makes me fucking shudder. i will never, ever watch this series.

THE ORIGINAL SERIES

the overwhelming white-maleness of this show isn't easy to deal with either, but the non-stop sexual tension between kirk and spock at least helps. it's not just because i'm brainwashed by tumblr, right? it's there! it's constant! there's so much fucking heat.

i made it to early in the second season on my most recent re-watch and i guess that felt like enough for the moment. i can continue to enjoy kirk slash spock through all the tumblr art.

THE ANIMATED SERIES

on a recommendation from one of the too many STAR TREK podcasts i listen to, i put this one while falling asleep the other night. it was perfect magical nighttime STAR TREK aesthetics/vibes.

THE ORIGINAL FILMS

around the holidays i finally dug into the new 4K/HD transfers of the first six TREK films. they were absolute works of beauty, and i'm happy they finally got the treatment they deserved.

i've owned these films in so many fucking differently packaged formats that i should just change my handle to "paramount's bitch." i'm glad this box set is definitive, because it's the last goddamn time i'm ever buying them.

all my love the original cast really comes from these films, not TOS. the uniforms might suck but the crew are finally a family, even if uhura and sulu are still criminally underserved. i know there are so many kirks to choose from these days, but any of my nostalgia for the character is for the cinematic kirk from THE MOTION PICTURE through THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. shatner and nimoy are magnetic all the way through, and it's clear why these movies were able to crossover with mainstream audiences and keep getting made.

and as far as THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY, there could be no better farewell to the original crew than this spectacular film. to end with the federation and klingons achieving peace and kirk overcoming his own racism... and to simply end with their best movie, a true STAR TREK adventure... i can't think of a more beautiful final statement.

cheers to spock, kirk, uhura, sulu, saavik, the whales, the museum lady, valeris, ilia, and *gestures vaguely* everyone else.

THE NEXT GENERATION

the NEXT GEN hype is obviously high right now and i've been considering rewatching the series, but the honest truth is... i'm just too in love with being on DEEP SPACE NINE. every time i try to choose an episode of TNG i somehow end up back on DS9 page in the STAR TREK app.

what do you mean there's other stuff on the STAR TREK app?

i've only been able to resist the call of bashir and kira and quark and jake/nog and *gestures inclusively* everyone else for two TNG episodes.

the first was ENCOUNTER AT FARPOINT, because after PICARD S3 started it felt cute to watch everyone meet each other . (plus, space jellyfish!) the moment that struck me the most on this viewing was riker meeting data for the first time on the holodeck, where data is trying to whistle. the scene felt so genuine, optimistic, and a sign of show TNG would become.

the second was BIRTHRIGHT PART I because... it's the DEEP SPACE NINE crossover, duh. i had just finished season one of DS9 and before i started season two i wanted to see the station in HD and watch bashir help data learn how to dream!

how strange for those to be only two episodes of TNG i've seen in perhaps a couple of years, and how strange to watch them exactly when i watched them, because.... remember i mentioned synchronicity?

PICARD (2/2)

to have seen those two episodes just a few days before this week's episode of PICARD, THE BOUNTY... to see both data and riker's first meeting as well as data's first dream called back not just visually, but emotionally... this season was already hitting me in the feels even without such strange coincidences.

our characters stealing "superior klingon technology" from the hms bounty after having so recently watched THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK/THE VOYAGE HOME also tugged at my heart, even if that's probably less synchronous.

a new, evolved data (+ everyone else in that brain). geordi and data together again. worf and riker bickering. beverly and deanna being... around. it's all happening! i can't wait for the next four episodes.

that said... we have to talk about raffi and seven.

so, seriously, why break them up? why not have them still dating, what difference does it fucking make? can't two middle aged women have their separate career paths? we're smart enough to know they're still dating even if they're off on their own separate stories and arcs, dating doesn't mean they have to be attached at the hip.

also... their relationship seems to be one of many stories from seasons one and two that we're sweeping under the rug, but the silliest thing from those seasons -- picard's robot body -- is turning into a huge plot point??

whether seven and raffi are broken up because the new writers didn't like the idea of them, or they're broken up just so they can get back together again by the end of the season... either way it reeks of not wanting to show queerness onscreen. considering that the TNG cast reunion, fun as it may be, added a lot of straight white characters to the show... not to mention the way this season has amplified the voices of the cis-het-yt-male TREK fans in real life... to take away even the little bit of queerness we had really hurts.

and if this is how TREK is going to be now, fuck... i'm really, really, really going to miss DISCOVERY.

anyway, back to the silliness...

section 31 stole kirk's body?? rude. it must have taken forever for picard to lift all those rocks in GENERATIONS.

2023.03.27

1 // people have been praising the music of PICARD, and yeah the remember-when themes are fun and fine, but nothing so far struck me as anything i'd listen to outside of the show... until DOMINION last week... which funnily enough was the first time composer freddie wiedmann subbed in for stephen barton? (sorry, stephen.) damn tho, freddie killed it with the moodiness and tension. can he do the rest of the season? (uh, sorry again stephen.) he really made the silly drama of PICARD actually feel worthy of being a follow-up to the dominion war.

2 // speaking of DEEP SPACE NINE... of course was thrilled to see mirror changeling-tuvok and tim russ in uniform again, but if PICARD is seriously going to talk this much about DS9 but not actually show us any DS9 characters? i'm gonna be fuckin' pissed. i'd love to see literally any of them -- and would prefer all of them -- but as the story stands so far... isn't it begging for julian bashir, now head of section 31? i know the world is hyped because we're obviously going to see janeway, but fuck... bashir. that's what i want out of this ridiculous nostalgia-fest. give me dark, intense, struggling-to-stay-uncomprimised, cool-ass uniform, hair grey AF, julian fucking bashir.

3/ ...please?

2023.04.05