Aliens locked me (M33) and my coworker (M36) in a cage together shirtless after whipping us (???), also they were space Nazis (not important), AITA for staring at his tits and telling him to step on me?
me: patterns of force is my favorite episode of star trek tos because it is a brilliantly written piece of media that perfectly encapsulates how fascism destroys a society, how bigotry and hatred will always lead to the suffering of all of us, how our--
I was looking through the behind the scenes of Patterns Of The Force to see if I could find what Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner’s thoughts on playing nazis, and I came across this…
Why would Gene Roddenberry want their chests Shaven?
It definitely explains why suddenly in the movies, Kirk has chest hair and even hair on his arms!
I do think one of the things that amuses me most about tos is that whenever they go somewhere that requires them to be ‘undercover’ or ‘wear local clothes’ they just conveniently have a hat for Spock. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if part of the prep for the landing crew is “oh, shit have we got a beanie for Spock”
"You look well for a man that has been utterly destroyed, Mr. Spock." Kirk (Patterns of Force)
PLEASE- KIRK IS SO UNSERIOUS ABOUT WHAT THEY'RE SEEING. And apparently couldn't resist the temptation to compliment his First Officer. Which is quite on brand for the man.
I'm really nervous on how Patterns of Force is gonna pan out- considering what the Ekonian peoples are modelled after. But as always I am gonna give it a fair shot because my motto for Star Trek has an always will be "fuck around and find out".
Everytime a Starship gets stuck somewhere the captain is just "I know what to do! I've read ancient Earth history! I shall recreate the planet using some of the worst regimes imaginable and myself as the ruler! I see no way this could go wrong!"
the thing about star trek tos is that it's so good conceptually. it'll set up a really captivating ethical dilemma. it'll have a premise that could be so politically bold. but every single time the episode takes the most revisionist route possible in how it "deals" with the conflict.
i.e. "Let This Be Your Last Battlefield". a fairly good, albeit very simplified, representation of the oppressor touting peace (as a means to stabilize society by instilling submission from the oppressed) vs. the resistance of the oppressed through necessary violence and disruption of the status quo.
but of course star trek decides to denounce the oppressed's methods as the reason their society is completely destroyed. and they have kirk make some grand speech about how great it is to take a moderate approach and always try to compromise. kill yourself
exact same thing happened with "The Cloud Minders" with them setting up a class divide premise but then doubling back and is like "oh no the people forced to live in the mines and do unpaid labor for the rich people in the clouds just have a biological deficiency built up from exposure to minerals that makes them really angry so lets just solve the anger issue and they can be normal functioning citizens in the mines again!" "and maybe we'll ask the people in the cloud castle to maybe give them better wages too and maybe come up to the castle sometimes!" it is LITERALLY THE IVORY TOWER
let's see, similar acts of cowardice happen in
mark of gideon
dagger of the mind
conscience of the king (kind of though this could be justified by kirk's internal struggle)
the omega glory
plato's stepchildren
Patterns of Force (this one gets praised ALL THE TIME about being anti-fascist but literally they punch like one nazi and then the resolution of the episode is them being like 'people can change! let's leave all the existing government officials in place and just tell them to be nice to the people they committed genocide against from now on! they were just mislead it's not their fault!' like i would think kirk would be a little more resistant to just fucking letting them be considering how ready he was to arm the populace in A Private Little War?)
the writers also have this issue where they can't stand to see societies not "progressing" by basing the value of their lives on innovation and capital. so places like the tribe in "The Apple" somehow become things to be fixed by western notions of progress? but yeah just go settler colonialism right?
to celebrate reaching the end of tos season two, the uss enterpurrise watch party server is going to be throwing a bit of a party! we'll play some games (probably some telephone, frantic fanfic, jackbox, etc.) and then we'll watch the two best episodes of season two, and vote on which one is better
over the next week, we'll be voting on what those two best episodes are! here are some fun results so far:
come join the server here https://discord.gg/DdpNKyuUgV to join in on the voting and party with us on saturday!