Trek Thursday (Parenthetical): Obsession

Where it should have been: #31, so another decent-to-good workhorse of an episode.

In case you forgot: Kirk becomes obsessed with destroying a cloud-like monster that he's convinced it's the same creature he encountered eleven years ago on the USS Farragut. He gets pretty close to going full-on Ahab, but his obsession pays off and they're able to kill the monster.

The good: The monster and what it does—draining all the red blood corpuscles from someone's body—is pretty cool. I always like the monsters that are just these giant thoughtless blobs of instincts and reactions. Not all life has to be intelligent, after all. This episode is also as close as it gets to Kirk really screwing the pooch, which is a nice foil to his usual hypercompetent self.

The bad: The episode seems to undercut its whole point by making Kirk's obsession pay off (by way of a dead monster). I really wish the danger would have come not from the monster of the week, but from Kirk being wrongly obsessed, and that the issue had been resolved by Kirk coming to his senses, not killing another monster.

Newly Listed: Amethyst Swarovski Pi Bracelet

Time for another weekly shop update! I'm getting near to the bottom of my stock, which means I need to sit down and do some crafting soon. But I've been keeping busy recently, between NaNoWriMo and a book club reading (yes, a book club! though sadly it's not one based on drinking wine, which I would still totally join, Natalie!), so I don't know if I'm going to have the spoons anytime soon. Yikes.

Amethyst and green Swarovski pi bracelet

This bracelet was another stash-buster. I really love this color combination. It's bright but not too garish (I will grant maybe a little garish but that's just how it is with Swarovskis) and it reminds me so much of Mardi Gras. I'm not from New Orleans, I don't observe Lent (except as the occasional personal challenge), and I'm certainly not religious, but Mardi Gras cheers me up. I guess I like eating donuts and listening to Dixieland jazz?

Pictured on my chubby, disembodied hand.

I've found and RT'd a few cool sciart pieces on Twitter, like most Mondays, but you should check the #sciart hashtag yourself and see what's new and cool! If you dig the little piece of sciart pictured above, you can cruise on over to the Kokoba Etsy shop and pick it up for you or someone you love.

Five Fandom Friday: Favorite Halloween Episodes

Image courtesy Katelyn Jade

Since it seems like Nerdy Girlie and Super Space Chick have left this spot blank, I can just continue on my week-delayed 5 Fandom Friday posts and then next week I'll be on track. All right!!

So, my favorite Halloween specials, then. Truth be told, I don't watch a lot of TV. (I feel like I bring this up a lot in 5 Fandom Friday, but it's true.) So allow me to reach a bit:

5. The "Treehouse of Horror" episodes (The Simpsons)

Image courtesy Mrfebruary / Wikimedia

I'm not enough of a Simpsons fan to be able to sort all of the "Treehouse..." episodes from memory, but I always like watching one if it's on! I like that the one-off nature of the episodes lets the writers do crazy, off-the-wall things with characters that are otherwise well-established and hard to kill, and I also like when they reference classic gothic, horror, or science fiction stories.


4. "Epidemiology" (Community)

Image courtesy Keith McDuffee

Community's take on zombies and zombie tropes is, as usual, dead on. Pun intended.


3. The Twilight Zone

Really, isn't every episode of The Twilight Zone a Halloween episode, one way or another?


2. "Catspaw" (Star Trek: The Original Series)

Witches of Pyris VII, courtesy Memory Alpha

As far as Star Trek TOS episodes go, "Catspaw" is pretty meh. But once you know what to expect out of it (hint: it's not great science fiction or drama), it's goofy and fun. So much camp. So much.


1. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

I mean, come on. It's the Great Pumpkin! Though I never understood who the awful adults were that kept giving Charlie Brown rocks. That's just a bridge too far! Poor Charlie Brown.

Trek Thursday (Parenthetical): The Enemy Within

The Enemy Within


Where it should have been: #34, so another middle-of-the-road episode.

In case you forgot: Good Kirk and Evil Kirk run around the Enterprise while Sulu and an anonymous landing party almost freeze to death on the planet below.

Serious ethical dilemmas and meditations on the greater philosophical point about the duality of man are the kind of heady stuff that makes Trek stand out from the other pulp of its time. Even if it doesn't really dig that deep into the questions, it's nice that they even bothered to ask. Sulu's deadpan lines are great and probably the highlight of the episode; it's not much, but it does reveal a certain amount of stalwart, stoic courage he doesn't often get to display up on the bridge.

I also just love that goofy little space dog. TOS could have used some more costumed animals.

I enjoyed "The Enemy Within" a lot the first time I watched it, but a second viewing soured much of it. Poor Yeoman Rand didn't have much purpose in her few episodes except to bring food to Kirk and to be menaced/assaulted as the script called for. The pacing also drags: they figure out fairly early on that the transporter is duplicating things into Good and Evil (though it seems like Passive and Aggressive would have been better descriptors), but it still feels like it takes everyone much longer than is necessary to solve the freaking problem. Evil Kirk has to accidentally phaser some of the components of the transporter (in the engine room...?) to stretch the episode out even more and give it a bit of extra dramatic tension.

What I Played: Never Alone and Fox Tales

I'm in the middle of NaNoWriMo and so I don't have a lot of words to spare on blogging and game reviews and things. But I wanted to take some time to inform/remind you all that Never Alone/Fox Tales exists.

Whale interior from Never Alone, courtesy Upper One games

Never Alone is the original game, based on Iñupiat legend, and Fox Tales is the sequel? prequel? parallel story? available as DLC. Both are quite short, but they're great.

The co-op is well done: Nuna and the fox have slightly different physics and abilities, and both are equally important when it comes to solving the game's many puzzles. Of course, you could play by yourself (just switch between characters) but that seems counterproductive for a game that's called Never Alone. The art is simple and understated but no less effective and striking.

As you progress you unlock short, informative videos about Iñupiat culture. I like them a lot, but  I wish they were better integrated into the game aside from a completionist "gotta catch 'em all" achievement. Still, I think this is a good first step when it comes to using modern media (in this case, video games) to preserve indigenous heritage and stories that are in danger of dying out.

If you haven't tried Never Alone/Fox Tales  yet, you should add it to your wishlist.

Five Fandom Friday: 5 Characters I Would Dress Up As For Halloween

So I love Halloween and putting together a costume. I'm not a brilliant seamstress or even particularly clever, but I do get immense satisfaction out of doing the best I can with what I've got. This list is a combination of characters I've already been and ones that I would like to be.

5. Link

Thank you, @House_Owner. Thank you.

This is one I did back in high school and was probably the most labor-intensive costume I've ever made: I sewed the tunic and the hat (rather poorly) and I made a master shield out of cardboard. I managed to scrounge up a boomerang and some weird red fruit punch flavored drink mix for a health potion from around the house, and a crappy toy sword from the Halloween shop. 

4. Silent Bob

Image courtesy GabboT on Flickr

All I had to do was paint on a fake beard, borrow Lawyer Mom's London Fog trench coat, and I was good to go.


3. Velma

Image courtesy Michael Mol on Flickr

I got to buy a cute skirt and sweater that stayed in my wardrobe for years afterwards. I should probably be Velma again at some point.


2. Amethyst

Steven Universe logo courtesy Cartoon Network Studios

I've finally started watching Steven Universe and I am so much in love. So much! Amethyst is my favorite of the gems, and I have enough on hand for an okay Amethyst costume. The only issue left is the hair: dye it? wig? So I'm saving Amethyst for a future costume, when I have a little more expendable cashflow to spend.

1. Athena

Do gods and goddesses count as characters? It's a tough question. I say yes, so that I can show you guys my rad Athena costume from 2010 and 2011.

Trek Thursday (Parenthetical): Friday's Child

Friday's Child

Where it should have been on the list: #38, so a tolerable middle-of-the-road episode that sometimes approaches "good."

In case you forgot:  The Power Trio is tasked with negotiating an agreement with the aggressive, semi-barbarian residents of Capella IV over topaline. Unfortunately, the Klingons have gotten there first, poisoning the well and sending the Enterprise on a wild goose chase. The leader, Akaar, is sympathetic to the Federation but gets assassinated, leaving the Power Trio and Akaar's pregnant widow Eleen in a precarious spot. All four escape, McCoy delivers Eleen's baby, and the Enterprise returns just in time to help oust the Klingon scout and install Eleen (and baby Leonard James Akaar) as the new leader.

Clearly some thought went into creating the Capellans and their culture, more than in some other aliens of the week. I can appreciate that, even if their costume design is pretty silly. I also like that Eleen ends up in charge of the Capellans, though whether this will set a better precedent for Capellan women or whether it will just be an anomaly in their history is hard to tell. Overall, the story doesn't lack for action or intrigue: there isn't anything in the way of filler here (except maybe shots back on the Enterprise during its wild goose chase).

There's just a bunch of random little things keeping this episode from being better. The costume design is just so silly in this one. Everyone looks like Muppets! It kind of detracts from the seriousness of the story. Then there's the final confrontation; with people forfeiting their lives in exchange for others and crazy distractions and so on, it's a bit garbled, even in the re-watching. You also have to wonder if the Prime Directive applies here, since Kirk is totally cool with people waving their phasers about in front of a more or less primitive culture. And even though it's "culturally acceptable," it still feels damn weird to see Bones slap a woman.

Some trivia: this is the first appearance of McCoy's "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a ____" catchphrase.