Trek Thursday: Errand of Mercy

#26: Errand of Mercy

In case you forgot: The Enterprise's mission is to obtain permission from the residents of the planet of Organia to build a Starfleet base there, as it is a key strategic point for both the Federation and the Klingons. The Organians refuse and Kirk can't deal with it; the Klingons come and take over and Kirk can't deal with it; finally, the Organians (who are of the ~beings of pure energy~ variety, surprise!) stop all the fighting and tell the Klingons and the Enterprise both to basically "go, and sin no more."

Mostly I just really like the Organians. They are perfectly, incredibly mellow, even when dealing with Kirk and his temper tantrums. Often TOS encounters alien races who claim to despise violence and destruction, despite begetting more violence and destruction themselves (see last week's Metrons). The Organians, on the other hand, are consistently and totally pacifist. They stay out of the conflict until they absolutely have to, and they do it in a fairly minimal, noninvasive way, without killing anyone or destroying anything.

If the Aliens of the Week are cool, though, our Power Trio is carrying the idiot ball. Not once do Kirk and Spock stop to think that the Organians may have a reason for being so confident in their own safety. Understandable in Kirk's case—he seems pretty eager to phaser some Klingons, much as he may insist otherwise—but come on, Spock! If the Organians are ~beings of pure energy~, wouldn't he notice that they weren't really growing or consuming any food or resources in his little scientific survey? He managed to pick up on the fact that they were "totally stagnant," after all.

If the Organian's power is as immense as is implied, why haven't they stopped violent conflicts before? Why don't they just tell Kirk and Kor right off the bat, "We're beings of pure energy, it's impossible for you to hurt us and we won't let you hurt each other, GTFO."?

Science Saturday: The Intersection of Anthropology and Science

The great thing about having a Facebook page (for Kokoba, I mean; in addition to the private personal account I have) is that it's a great way to store links and stories I find interesting but don't have the time to immediately blog about.

One such story is this article from NPR about constructing a giant telescope in Hawaii. The peak of Mauna Kea is considered sacred ground to a number of people; astronomers also say that it's the best possible location for this new telescope. A clash ensues.

The Twin Keck Telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. 

If you look at this as an isolated incident, it's easy to brush away Hawaiian concerns as silly superstition. However, if you posit this conflict as part of America's longer history in Hawaii, the waters get muddied. Land grabbing, arguably including land used to build the other telescopes in the islands, has been a pervasive issue in this history; I don't think it's too much of a stretch to make a connection between repeated land grabs and the resistance this telescope is facing. As this piece in Nature points out,

The Mauna Kea debate reflects larger issues of Hawaiian history, including past abuses such as using one of the islands as a practice bombing range, says Robert McLaren, associate director of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “There’s more to this than just a telescope on Mauna Kea,” he says.

Maxwell emphasizes that many of the protestors are not anti-science. “It’s just that enough is enough,” he says. “The land is an extension of you, so any destruction is hard inside.”

The telescope would be the largest so far on the Mauna Kea site, commonly referred to as the TMT—Thirty Meter Telescope. It's a joint project between two California universities as well as the governments of Canada, China, India, and Japan.Because of its location and isolation, Hawaii is a great place to build telescopes and observatories. There are already more than a dozen observatories on Mauna Kea for that very reason (including the ones pictured above). Some of them—maybe even most or all of them?—have faced similar objections. Can one of them be updated instead of building a new one? One of the pre-existing Mauna Kea observatories is actually slated for deconstruction and the land will be left untouched, allowed to be reclaimed by nature.

There is a lot more on this topic that deserves to be written, and I didn't have the time to write as much as I would, but I wanted to at least float the topic. It's a problem that speaks to two things I hold near to my heart: social justice/decolonization and the stars. This is more than just a simple religion versus science issue. This is a conflict that has its roots in political decisions going back two hundred years and beyond. How do you heal that rift? How can both sides win? Any thoughts, readers?

Trek Thursday: The Arena

#27: The Arena

In case you forgot: Tonight, on galactic home box office, it's captain James T. Kirk versus the captain of the Gorn ship!

This one is solid "classic" territory; it's probably the episode people think of when they think of TOS (that or "The Trouble With Tribbles"). But there's a lot more to the episode than Kirk fighting the Lizard King. There's a whole setup that's really grim and analogous to so many military conflicts: who attacked the peaceful Federation outpost? Why? What should we do when we find them? Tracking and pursuing the Gorn ship takes up quite a lot of the episode, and I mean that in a complimentary fashion, because it is expertly paced. It's kind of a shame, though not at all surprising, that this episode's claim to fame is Kirk wrestling a dude in a rubber suit.

Still, there's some bullshit. The Metrons say that they are above violence and destruction, but they're totally cool with destroying a ship full of (lizard)people? They don't even try to arrange for diplomacy between the Federation and the Gorn, they just straight off go for the gladitorial one-on-one method of problem solving. Even that wouldn't necessarily be hypocritical, if that meant saving the lives of everyone else aboard the respective ships, but the Metrons are totally cool with blowing the loser's ship into space dust. So much for saving lives. You can argue that it's "just a test," I suppose, but it really doesn't come off that way. Kirk sparing the Gorn captain doesn't seem like a possibility the Metrons were expecting or, more importantly, hoping for.

Trek Thursday: Metamorphosis

#28: Metamorphosis

In case you forgot: Gregor Samsa awoke...oh, wait, sorry. The Power Trio have picked up Nancy Hedford, an important Federation Commissioner who has contracted a deadly case of space AIDS that, for whatever reason, she wasn't inoculated against. They're trying to take her back to the Enterprise for treatment when the Galileo gets hijacked by an asteroid. Turns out some electrical being wants them to be playmates for Zefram Cochrane, and may also be in love with him. The being takes over the dying Commissioner's body and neo-Nancy and Zefram live happily ever after.

This is one of Trek's better science fiction premises: a totally inhuman lifeform falling in love with a human and doing anything to make him happy. But the awkward gender stuff in this episode is a bit cringe-worthy, even for TOS.The worst for me is: how the hell does this electric thing take over Hedford's body? Is Hedford still alive in there, trapped, unable to complete her mission or to advance the career she had chosen for herself?

Music Monday: Wanda Jackson

I grew up listening to the "oldies" station—"greatest hits of the 50s, 60s, and 70s"—and so, given my age, am probably more familiar with the names, songs, and faces of the middle of the century than I am with what's contemporary.

Yet somehow Wanda Jackson completely escaped my notice until she showed up on a Pandora station I created right after college. How had I never heard her before? Who knows. But maybe you haven't heard her either, which is a shame because she was a pioneer in early rock, helping to fuse blues and country into what would become rock 'n' roll.

"Hard-Headed Woman"

"Fujiyama Mama"

And she is still touring and recording today. Here's a tune you might recognize from the end credits of Bridesmaids.

"Shakin' All Over"

And a fun cover of a classic:

"Rum and Coca Cola"

Five Fandom Friday on Sunday: 5 Magical Items I Would Love to Own

This week's 5 Fandom Friday is something I think we've all thought about. Life gets hard, and a few magical items here and there would certainly make things easier!

1. A blessed bag of holding (NetHack)

The bag of holding (or a similar idea) appears in lots of RPGS; I chose the NetHack variant, as it comes with fewer restrictions. Imagine: one bag and you put all the crap in it you want! I mean, of course it gets heavier—though I specified a blessed bag of holding because it doesn't weigh as much as a regular bag of holding—but think how easier life would still be. No more checked baggage on long trips, moving is no longer a hassle, no more worries about closet space...

A bag of holding was my first thought, and to be honest it would be so useful and awesome that I had a hard time coming up with four more...

2. Link's ocarina (Ocarina of Time)

I have to travel a lot—or rather, I'd like to—and so long as I got to decide where the "fast travel" options are, the Ocarina of Time would be so handy. Plus, you can travel through time with it! With this and a bag of holding, you basically have a much more reliable TARDIS.

3. Magic pants (The Boy With Gold Pants)

I ran this question by JV. Funnily enough, his first choice was also a bag of holding: nerds of a feather flock together, I guess! But his second answer, "Golden pants," was an answer I didn't understand at all.

"You know, like from the story. The boy finds pants and the pockets are always filled with gold?"

"Um, this must be a Swedish story..."

And it is: a children's book from 1967, to be exact. Young Mats Nilsson finds a pair of pants and the pockets never run out of money (bank notes, not gold, so JV had remembered a little bit incorrectly). I don't know the novel has ever been translated to English. I guess it's like a magical realism version of Blank Check or Richie Rich?

4. A magical anti-aging portrait (The Portrait of Dorian Gray)

So the moral of the story is that Dorian Gray is an asshole, I know, and that's why it ends so unhappily, but if I could get a magical portrait without selling my soul, I would be so down with that.


5. An "eating your words" feast (The Phantom Tollbooth)

So this one isn't an item, really. It's a magic inherent in the world of the Phantom Tollbooth. But if this magic could be distilled into an item, like a table or a plate or whatever, that would be the best thing ever. Imagine: never cooking again! All you have to do is name whatever it is you want to eat and it appears right in front of you, just as you described it!


What magical items would you want?

Trek Thursday: I, Mudd

#29: I, Mudd

In case you forgot: The only recurring antagonist of TOS, Harry Mudd manages to use an android to hijack the Enterprise and bring it to a planet populated entirely by androids, intending to leave the Enterprise bridge crew there in his stead (the androids need humans to serve and study, after all) while he takes the Enterprise out all across the galaxy. At the last minute the androids won't let Mudd leave, either, so he teams up with Kirk's gang to outlogic the androids. Twist ending, Mudd gets to stay behind with the androids, including 500 copies of his nagging wife.

The shenanigans and pantomimes at the end are so ridiculous and so stupid that I love them. It totally goes on for longer than it has to, but I ain't even mad. It reminds me of some of the weirdo senior theater projects I saw back in college. Ah, nostalgia.

There's still a lot of holes in this episode, like why is everyone on the Enterprise suddenly so enamored of the idea of remaining eternal captives to the androids? And like so many sequels, "I, Mudd" somehow lacks the same spirit as the original, inspiring source material. Where "Mudd's Women" does edge around some instances of solid drama and pathos, "I, Mudd" is far more goofy.