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“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
#StarTrek
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Subcommander Tal
26.9K posts
Subcommander Tal
@SubcommanderT
I mostly riff on Original Series Star Trek (and also run @misterleslietos) Occasionally live tweeting #AllStarTrek and #TOSSatNight (mute to avoid logorrhea...)
The Neutral Zone Katılım Ekim 2020
463 Takip Edilen5.6K Takipçiler
@SubcommanderT why da baby in a christmas ornament
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Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb, which (very incorrectly) projected mass starvation as a result of overpopulation, died the other day. His book came out in 1968; “The Mark of Gideon” came out the next year. Hard not to imagine there was a connection!
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@Mr_Landru @DavidRoylance I’ve never heard it put that way before, but I like it!
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@DavidRoylance @SubcommanderT Season 1 was
dramatic science fiction
Season 2 was
action adventure/science fiction
Season 3 was
melodramatic science fiction
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@evan_kapitansky I am honored, sir. I wish I had been more articulate but realistically I am a chronic rambler…
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@SubcommanderT Bookmarked this post and I come back every now and then to enjoy it again.
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I recently found some excerpts of Original Series Star Trek musical scores and couldn’t help but give them a whirl. Allow me to inflict some on you with my shrill oboe playing…
1. Vina’s Theme/Survivor’s Encampment
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@BradRTorgersen Tolkien wrote poems and stories about Bombadil long before The Lord of The Rings, and even before The Hobbit. I like how you said he was kind of wandering into his story. But I also love the Bombadil section. I like that there are figures for whom the Ring holds no allure.
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But as soon as J.R.R. finds the story? Boom. Bombadil is gone. And I don't think that was even a conscious decision by Tolkien. I think Bombadil had served his purpose (helping the author get to the actual story, at last) and when his purpose was fulfilled he exited stage left and was never heard from in the story again. Which is just fine. Because he meant nothing to the remainder of the much more grim and adult epic that is The Lord of the Rings.
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Certain Tolkien zealots insist Bombadil is the core of the whole three-book story. I on the other hand insist Bombadil is clearly Tolkien wandering up to his story. He hasn't yet detached from the child's fable that is The Hobbit. Tom therefore is the last of the YA characters.
Sandy Petersen 🪔@SandyofCthulhu
Tom Bombadil stops the story cold. We are in an exciting cross-country trip as the hobbits pick their way through a creepy haunted forest to avoid the sinister Black Riders. A terrifying black huorn ensnares them. Poof! Here comes Tom deus-ex-machina Bombadil to save the hobbits from a threat which Tolkien seems to have created to give him an excuse to insert Bombadil. Then, just as the story starts to move again, Tom shows up a SECOND time as a deus-ex-machina to rescue the hobbits from the barrow wight. Ugh. Again stopping the story cold. What is Bombadil's function? He doesn't represent the Old Good Ways which the fellowship must save. Bombadil isn't threatened - he's a cheesy distraction. I'm not saying it's impossible to convince me that Bombadil is a Good Thing, but such a convincing would be an uphill battle, and I view Tom as one of Tolkien's missteps. I am happy Jackson left him out of the film, because it would have stopped the movie's flow too.
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@DavidRoylance Oh, the execution is terrible. But I think it contains an interesting idea at its core, which is true of many third season episodes.
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@SubcommanderT There is a laziness in the writing for And The Children Shall Lead. They have 2 security men stranded on the planet surface but no thought is given to going back to get them at the end of the episode.
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REASONS TO LIKE TOS SEASON THREE. It's definitely the weakest season of original Star Trek, with many bona fide cringeworthy moments in episodes like Spock's Brain, And the Children Shall Lead, and Turnabout Intruder. But there are also many reasons to enjoy it...
1/
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@nerdporeallife I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that the Gideonites could be against contraception but ok with introducing a fatal disease (and also if it's so crowded where did they get the space to build a replica Enterprise??) But the episode has interesting moments.
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@SubcommanderT Interesting concept for an episode. Mark of Gideon is one of the weaker episodes imo because they just leave the planet to its overpopulated fate without a potential solution to leave them with. I think I'm due for a rewatch.
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@DavidRoylance @SubcommanderT Once I gathered that the concept was the thing in season 3 and that the characters and settings were more of a mythic vehicle and less of a literal minded representation to carry that concept I began to see the unappreciated genius of season 3.
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@RealGabbyHayes His theory made sense at the moment in time when he proposed it, but he didn’t acknowledge that it made less sense as global fertility rates dropped and the technology and science behind food production advanced.
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@OldSchool1000 Makes sense in absolute terms, but it doesn’t account for technological breakthroughs in food production and changing fertility rates. Tough to predict what creative and unpredictable humans will do!
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@SubcommanderT Thomas Malthus's theory of population growth (1798) suggests that as population increases, the available food supply decreases, leading to starvation and overpopulation.
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@TheHorrorMike Great point about Soylent Green, which of course was from the same era. His book is a great example of the dangers of extrapolation based on just a couple variables which can be subject to great change in a multivariable environment.
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@SubcommanderT Erlich sold the over population myth on the whole world and even fooled great writers like Harry Harrison into penning such drivel as "Make Room, Make Room" adapted into the hilariously naive film "Soylent Green."
Harrison later apologized for his error.
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@EXgator50 I’ve read a little bit about him the last day or two. I don’t think his assessment was crazy given the circumstances of the day, but he completely refused to adjust his thinking to a changing reality, which is not a good look for a scientist.
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@SubcommanderT I remember when he was a big deal! That ended with a whimper!
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@SubcommanderT Right, but I hope it's obvious for everyone that takes like THIS are inaccurate and just absolutely ridiculous:
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@leedsichthys150 Star Trek was expansive: it put forward progressive ideals and traditional ones, depending on the story. What I like about this episode is that the Gideonites are not treated as evil: their values aren’t dismissed but they are not realistic about the consequences of them.
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@SubcommanderT It's an episode ahout the pro-life, anti-contraception planet being an overpopulated living hell.
But "old Star Trek wasn't woke" according to certain people...
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@SubcommanderT A shame that season 3 was full of so many excellent concepts but the scripts themselves fell short by focusing on the concept rather than the people. Mark of Gideon, an excellent concept, but the episode strain credulity.
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What’s interesting is that as a speculative science fiction idea, a planet becoming overpopulated is still a rich potential idea (although I didn’t like the episode). But as a metaphor for our current social reality it has not aged well at all.
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@SubcommanderT I'm surprised Flanagan wasn't in the Star Trek 2009 film. Which was set during Kirk's academy days.
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