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chillychive · 11 months

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Because I’m insane, I’m watching TOS. And since it seemed to be entertaining, I’m writing commentary. I take no responsibility for how incoherent this is. (Fair warning, there is swearing bc this show is wild)

Bro why were there two people walking around in street clothes? Why does she walk like thattttt

Not the doctor giving him alcohol

Also hello Una ik ur not Una yet but hello <3

This is so weird cause there’s absolutely *no* context to anything they mention. Whatever happened on Rigel, we have *no* idea about.

Ayo Pike’s horses!!

Hello Spock.

HAHHAAAA WHATTT was that a PIECE OF PAPER???? BRO WHAT CENTURY IS THISSSSSS HAHAHA

IT IS!! It’s a piece of PAPER hahahaa

Intercraft? What does that mean??

The bridge was soo tiny back then.

And i love the little goofy effects. They so silly.

Yet again, reports on paper??????? They can pilot a ship through space and go to different star systems, but they can’t send an text??

“I Can’t get used to having a woman on the bridge?” BRO WHAT THE BLATANT SEXISM IS KILLING ME. C’mon, pike, in about 60 years of real time, you’ll be on a bridge with primarily woman. AND UNA’S LITERALLY YOUR FIRST OFFICER WHAT ARE YOU ON ABOUT

The sound effects are soo silly

And the audio is killing me

Im gonna stop commenting on the obvious low budget stuff because it is *so* bad. But also so wildly impressive for a show that has such a low budget

A SPOCK SMILE IN EPISODE 1?! What is this???

Ah hello, Vina. Of course, it’s been only 18 years since the landing and Vina is very much 18 years old, and pike is very much not, but of course there’s gonna be a whole thing now. And hello talosians!!

“Prime specimen.” What

HAHAHA the way the talosian put him to sleep that was hilarious

I love how the phaser produces wind HAHA

Yo ik he just got kidnapped but that bed/couch looks so comfortable i want it

The shadow puppet aliens are hilarious

It’s so strange how in the same breath this show can have a woman in charge of the ship and then be totally sexist

Oh the transitions are SO BAD he’s not even vaguely looking the same direction as he was in the last frame

THe whip sounds on the axe im dyinggggggggg

BRO WHHAT why did she hug him like that TF ive never seen anyone do that ever

EW BARF THIS IS SO GROSS VINA WHAT

Their little goggles I canttttt

Okay turn off the lasers now ur just wasting power

ADAM AND EVE WHAT

The random music hahahhaaa

Ayo he refuses to eat so they put him in hell??? The goofy fire effects lolll

Also i wanna know about that bird species that they put in the cage. There are so few winged species in memory alpha, literally just that one that has wings made of butterflies in disco

YO its the horses and a picnic

Im so confused how this becomes the pike and vina we know from disco

“I can’t help but love you.” Ew ew this is all ew

What is happening

Literally the misogyny is weirddddddddd

What just happened.

Ayo she’s not 18 she’s actually old gross. Wait they changed that in disco i think.

EW what why do they say that abt una. I doubt any of these things are true

Literally the whole premise of this episode is pike resisting fucking one of 3 women while aliens try to make him horny

This is weird as helll

The airbag veins hahaha

“A unique hatred of captivity” bro tf

Whoa they had no idea how to make old or injured makeup. Oh wait that actually makes some sense

Bro wait so the ending is just she stays as a captive with a fake pike??

What is this

Also the lighting was so wacky

A clipboard with paper whattt

The yeoman i cant

#the cage #tos #Star Trek tos #Star Trek the cage #talosians #captain pike #vina

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ichayalovesyou · 2 years

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What is REALLY Going On In “The Menagerie” (Captain Pike Meta)

Speculation on the culmination of Pike’s Story Arc. In which he has so little dialogue, so little insight into what’s going on in Pike’s head. I just had to tackle the questions rattling around in my brain! If one things for sure I think we’ll be seeing Talos IV again before SNW is over. I’ve watched The Cage, If Memory Serves, Through the Valley of Shadows and The Menagerie to prepare for this meta.

I’ve taken notes on each of these episodes on Pike’s relationship with Vina, his relationship with Spock, and his relationship with his eventual disability. All of which culminates in my final analysis of The Menagerie. Hunker down y’all, this one’s gonna be a bit of a doozy! So I've saved all the good stuff for UNDER the cut!

Pike’s Relationship with Vina

The instantly being smitten with Vina I don’t think is all that weird (knowing how he reacts to Alora). I don’t think it’s that he’s shallow and definitely not lecherous BUT that combo he’s got of being a bit overly trusting, empathetic and protective absolutely leaves him vulnerable to a good old fashioned “damsel in distress” act. Although in this case it’s not an act because Vina is definitely in distress, so there’s that! Even with her own (honestly kinda understandable considering her trauma) selfish motivations, Vina IS trying to help him. I think it is important to take note (which makes their relationship/Pike’s later decision more believable) that he does actually like her for her, cuts through the illusion. Pike obviously respects Vina and her choices, even if the Talosians don’t seem to get it. Despite resisting the situation every step of the way, beyond that, he obviously cares about her. Weirdly, the Talosians plan worked. Just not in the way that they would’ve liked. (The Cage)

I think it’s really interesting how Pike makes Vina and the Talosians change. Vina is willing to put her life on the line to help prove Chris’s point. She obviously knows he’s right and refuses to put anyone else through what the Talosians put her and Pike through. I also think it’s important that Vina hasn’t completely lost her grip on illusion versus reality. She chooses to stay, perhaps because Starfleet medicine couldn’t undo how the Talosians attempted to fix her and she’d be in a lot of pain (which potentially mirrors why Pike goes back to Talos). Maybe has unfinished business with the Talosians in general. They clearly allow her more freedom later in If Memory Serves. Probably because they consider themselves doomed to extinction and have no more reason to imprison her. (The Cage, If Memory Serves)

“She has her illusion, you have your reality, may you find your way as pleasant” hits different when Vina finds herself incomplete and unsatisfied with her illusion of Chris. I read the way she’s talking in If Memory Serves as very “Someone Like You” by Adele if you catch my drift. While Pike’s future eventually becoming incredibly difficult to bear for him, enough that he’s willing to return to Talos for it. Vina clearly holds some bitterness towards the Talosians (UNDERSTANDABLY) even if she’s no longer a prisoner and chose to stay. Vina echoes the choice Pike makes again when she says “they offered me a choice, to live as I am or as I was.” Which further implies there’s more to her staying than vanity when you take what happens to Chris into account. (The Cage, If Memory Serves, The Menagerie)

The reunion with Vina is so intimate and intense without actually being like, unbelievable. It feels like they’ve both changed a lot, but still obviously really care about each other in that ‘old flame’ way. It feels like Vina has gotten a lot bolder, she’s still obviously got a thing for Chris but like, it’s a bit less selfish and codependent, and she’s not imprisoned anymore. Meanwhile it feels like Pike has softened significantly. He was bitter and cynical and self-pitying and angry when they first met. It feels like he’s saying and doing what he wished he could have at the time when he wasn’t so busy trying to escape. UGH! And then the way she’s the angel on his shoulder at the end of the episode?! I kinda love it. Maybe we’ll see her again somehow in SNW to flesh that relationship out even more? (If Memory Serves)

Pike’s Relationship with Spock

I love Ethan Peck’s carry over to Spock being a lot more nervous and smiley as an Ensign from that one Short Trek. Including the not noticing that he is like, yelling, at certain points lol, it’s cute! Also, even if it wasn’t intentional Spock’s low-key constant hovering around Pike during the away mission absolutely follows with the relationship they develop later. Reminds me a lot of that Spiderverse meme. (The Cage)

Spock has been in communication with the Talosians before he lost his sense of linear time, but that couldn’t have been when the Talosians made their offer regarding Pike. Unless it’s nature was to welcome them with safe harbor should they return (but that no one else in Starfleet could come). Either Spock utilizes this amnesty twice (first for himself and Michael, then later for Chris) or he encounters/communicates with them again with the intention of helping Pike and we may see that further down the line in SNW. (If Memory Serves)

I just love love love the continuity of Pike being so unapologetically ride or die for Spock. Like, he’s ride or die for everyone he cares about but he’s willing to bend and break all kinds of rules and shit for his surrogate baby brother (just like Michael!). Externally he’s pretty chill with what he needs to do but internally you can almost hear the internal screaming of “HAVE YOU SEEN MY SON??”. I mean, he even loosens on his principles in Obol for Charon when he thinks they’re gonna lose him while they’re caught, which is CRAZY because the guy is made of principles. His disdain for Sec 31 and Tyler will never not be funny to me. Tyler’s over here like *please listen to my tragic backstory* while Pike (like Amanda) is like “My boy could NEVER do The Bad Thing”. The relief in his voice when he sees Spock alive and sane for the first time in this whole goose chase? No wonder Spock feels so deeply motivated to help Chris, even before he learns that Pike’s fate somehow saves him. (If Memory Serves)

Pike’s Relationship with Disability

I’ve always had mixed feelings about how Pike’s premonition of his eventual severe disability is initially characterized. When he learns about it as well as how it haunts him in the SNW pilot. On the one hand you can interpret it as disability being characterized as something evil or monstrous but, I feel like, based on what I’ve heard in many interviews with Anson Mount and other bts people about that vision scene that that wasn’t the objective. That sort of injury, that level of permanent injury, it’s not monstrous, but it is scary/overwhelming. Pike confirms that he FELT every second of the vision later on. So Chris is stumbling out of an immense amount of physical pain into a “2001 A Space Odyssey” moment where his future self is grieving for what he once had and his present self is reeling from what he will lose. It doesn’t surprise me that Pike is (for now) reacting to it like it’s his death because he doesn’t know how to move forward from a point that hasn’t happened to him yet. Hopefully his arc in SNW will help him think about what’s possible beyond that fixed point in his future. (Through The Valley of Shadows)

I do think that, despite having even less of a choice now than he did before, it is good for him to know for certain that the disability is unavoidable. Not only that it’s gonna happen but when it will happen more exactly. He can plan around it, and hopefully learn to plan for after it. He’s already in the process of accepting the conditions of his fate, he’s already gone through the stages of grief that came with just knowing about it but not knowing if he can dodge it. I fully expect the next season to be him grieving/coping with it happening for certain, maybe still not emotionally prepared to work on a plan for after, but we'll see. I do think when he is ready to tackle that, Spock will be a part of it. He is the closest thing Chris has to a son and can trust him to handle it logically, not feel compelled to save him. Spock knowing that Chris would not give up his well-being or the Enterprise lightly. Not only that, but Spock feels indebted to him to do so. (A Quality of Mercy)

Which leads me to my final speculations.

The Menagerie: The BIG Analysis

We know that Spock falsified the message that sent Enterprise to Starbase 11. But I do have to wonder why Pike was at Starbase 11 at all, the one station that just so happens to be closest to Talos IV. Pike doesn’t want Jim or Bones there but does make an exception for Spock. Yet at the same time he doesn’t want Spock to take him to Talos IV. On the one hand it could be that he doesn’t want to go. Which is confusing, why would he the say yes at the end of the arc and the trial was a sham to test Jim with no deadly consequence for Spock? I think it more likely Chris doesn’t want Spock risking his career and relationship with Jim just to do this.

Especially since putting his needs/desires aside for others is a very strong trait in Pike, and he knows how valuable Spock will become, which is why he sacrificed himself in the first place. It could be that is what he wants, but as usual, is refusing to consider himself in the matter. How would Spock know that, and Chris knowing what he meant immediately Spock is referring to Talos without him saying it out loud, unless they’d discussed it previously when Pike was still well? It could be that Spock knew Pike wanted that, but Pike ordered him not to endanger himself for him, and Spock said screw that and helped him anyway.

The second thing to factor in is Pike’s condition. If it were simply a matter of him being mute, paralyzed and wheelchair-bound I would find what Spock did and the end of the story a little more troubling. A few things that stuck with me, both from discussions I’ve had with people on my Disabled!Pike posts and from the actual episode, are that Chris might be in a lot of pain, he’s fully retained his mental faculties, and there’s no recovery/rehabilitation beyond the chair. He’s in the intensive care unit and has been for months (probably at least 4, maybe 5 since Balance of Terror takes place 6 months after the incident). His condition is so delicate that emotional agitation could put him in a coma.

It’s also implied that there’s no rehab for what’s happened to him. Otherwise why would Spock go through the trouble, and why would Pike capitulate? If there was a road to recovery there’s be no logical reason for Spock to endanger himself or Chris. It is also not at all like Chris to quit, I doubt he would decide to go to Talos if there were means of rehabilitation that would let him get anywhere close to where he was before. This is reinforced by Pike saying “even the best of Starfleet medicine won’t be able to help me” to Alora in Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach.

All of this taken into account, Starfleet medicine may not be able to fully inhibit the pain he’s constantly in from his DNA unraveling (which is what radiation tends to do), and they lack the technology to compensate or rehabilitate his body. Inaccuracies to scientific advancements aside, perhaps the Watsonian explanation for the simplicity of the chair isn’t because of lack of advancement, but that the machine prioritizing other things. Maybe it’s not just a mobility and communication aid, but keeping him alive as well. Potentially it’s taking so much power for the machine to keep him alive, lucid, and not deteriorating further that moving and communicating in binary responses based on his brainwaves is all it can do.

Different disabilities, and disability representation, has different needs. Pike, who is very much still in his right mind, consents to going to Talos IV when the chips are down. After Jim has learned his story and can be trusted, after establishing no danger to Spock or himself. I think, if Chris had said no, Spock would’ve listened.

I don’t think Talos IV is a magical fix it cure trope meant to unburden the abled people in Pike’s life, they’re not “putting dad in an old folks’ home where they can forget about him because they don’t want to deal with his disability”. If the Talosians can inflict physical pain it stands to reason they can suppress it as well. Not only that, but they can provide him with his voice and a body that isn’t actively falling apart at the molecular level anymore. Talos isn’t a cure, it’s treatment, it’s painkillers, it’s a more effective mobility and communication aid than current Federation medicine could ever provide.

Just like he couldn’t leave the chair or he’d die, Pike can’t leave Talos IV or he’ll be wheelchair bound and in pain and generally back at square one. I know many, many disabled people (a prime example being my own mother) who can’t leave their homes very often due to their exhausting/temperamental condition. They’re comfortable and accommodated for at home, but leaving takes a lot of effort and energy. It’s not ideal, it’s isolating, it’s frustrating and it doesn’t take the disability away, but it prevents their condition from exacerbating itself. I don’t think Chris being “stuck” on Talos IV is all that different. Also, Vina is there to keep him company and she’s Real, and it’s established in Discovery he still has deep-running feelings for her.

Even if they don’t cover it at any point after The Menagerie due to the many drawbacks of purely episodic television. It stands to reason Pike could potentially leave Talos or be visited. He’s still an active duty officer (the Commodore, before the Talosian illusion kicks in, still refers to him as Fleet Captain Pike) and considering nobody gets in trouble, the ban/death penalty regarding Talos IV was probably lightened or removed afterward. Establishing the possibility of Pike continuing his career if he so chose, albeit still relatively confined to Talos IV.

All of the disability representation nuance aside, The Menagerie does provide one last step to Pike’s character arc that genuinely makes sense. For once in his life, he is finally letting someone else take care of him instead of him taking care of everyone else. Selfless act after selfless act that leads to him sacrificing his body and voice and any moment free of pain, just to ensure the best possible timeline, the one where Spock lives. Chris finally, finally, let’s himself be selfish when he says “yes” when asked if he wants to go to Talos IV.

It’s not about choosing illusion over truth, he already knows the difference (and so does Vina). It’s about choosing happiness over suffering when there’s no real reason to continue to suffer. He lets himself not be in pain, he lets himself have what he wants, he’s earned it, he earned it the second he put the fate of the galaxy over himself. Even if there was no plan for after, even when he assumed the rest of his life after the incident would be one of pain and difficulty. He lets himself need Spock, and Spock gets to return the favor for all the kindness he showed him. Even if Chris initially resists it (because of course he does, he’s Chris). It’s a passing of the torch, the student becoming the teacher when it comes to an act of compassion.

I think that’s a pretty good ending for him and a great character development moment for Spock when all is said and done. Don’t you?

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hrisrizz · 9 months

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On day 11 I sketched my headache at that moment.

#art #fan art #my art #drawing #star trek art #star trek tos #talosians #sketch #dailysketches #daily art #daily drawing #funny #star trek memes #star trek #Youtube #art challenge

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raurquiz · 2 years

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#otd #startrek #themenagerie #part1 #kirk #spock #mccoy #christopherpike #vina #josemendez #numberone #lttyler #philboyce #cpogarrison #lthansen #misspiper #orionwoman #talosians #uhura #scotty #startrek56 @startrekonpplus https://www.instagram.com/p/ClESb_4u9t3/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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betashift · 1 year

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STAR TREK: DISCOVERY | 2.08 "If Memory Serves"

#discovery #spock #michael burnham #trekedit #startrekedit #discoedit #discoveryedit #star trek #star trek: discovery #scifiedit #tvedit #*mine #i forgot how disco spock was especially cunty >:) I miss him #also i know this wasn't actually them it was talosian magic or whatever but still #he served ok.

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hypergryph · 1 month

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"Some secrets are locked away for a reason..."

Arkadi could not have known what lay in wait beneath the ashen shell of the relic's exterior. His gaze had always strained upwards, past the heavens and deep into the realm of the stars themselves, hungry and anxious, desperate to reclaim the long lost glory of his now humble clan...Such a fiercely covetous prince, plagued by an obsessive sense of pride. How neglectful he's been. How utterly selfish...How tragically blind.

Arkadi has made this mistake before. How catastrophic must the consequence be for him to finally learn?

#twblood #tw blood #flight rising art #flight rising #ancient!Talos lore #talosian lore #Curseoftheceruleans #Ancient!Talos Comic

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zoobus · 9 months

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Prometheus (2012) was entertaining but annoying in such a way that describing it would heavily suggest I didn't find it entertaining. For a movie that's (allegedly) meant as thought provoking, they sure did let a lot of unchecked stupid happen. What's a protocol? What's wrong with immediately anthropomorphizing an alien planet? Why can't I wear my mask under my nose while playing with a corpse? These are all scientists.

#Prometheus (2012)#asks a lot of (uninteresting) questions that it won't answer #ignores the number one question on every viewer's lips: why did you cgi a young guy to look like a Talosian #instead of just hiring an old man actor to play an old man character?

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curator-on-ao3 · 4 months

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Wednesday (Quadruple) Drabble: The Lost and Found

She had been lost before.

Moving as a child from the Illyrian side of the city to the non-Illyrian side, hope for increased safety as consolation for leaving a part of her identity behind.

He had been lost before.

Refusals overridden, his would-be captors gaining control of his computer to falsify assent for a descent into fantasy, life in unreality as corrosive as the battery acid that powered his radiation-damaged heart.

Starbase records made clear Spock’s betrayal and, once Una reached Talos IV, it didn’t take long to locate Chris— his illusion screaming in pain from fire-borne punishment, his true form immobilized in his support chair.

The rage she needed to defeat Talosian mind control came easy.

In the shuttle she’d… procured… Chris declined her algorithm to match his speaking voice, choosing instead to use a computer default, no intonation of anguish or joy, no movement in his scarred face or change to his mechanized, steady respiration as he answered her questions.

“My best guess is Spock exploited that you’d be away from Starbase Eleven for a few weeks. He knew he was disobeying my orders and committing mutiny. He did it anyway.”

“If the Illyrian doctor is willing to try, I understand the risks.”

“Leave Vina behind. She made her alliances clear.”

So it’s at an Illyrian colony far from Federation arrogance or authority that his DNA unfurls and re-forms. Genetic engineering is usually performed before birth, but this is his rebirth, no longer the Christopher Pike who upheld Starfleet ideals but a Christopher Pike who is wary of a Starfleet that would tolerate a sham court martial rather than search for a greater truth.

Is Una reborn, too? Her belief in something greater than herself, in a Starfleet that could, in fact, become what she had hoped it to be in her idealistic younger years, that belief is withered, gone, replaced by allegiance to people, not an organization.

His skin is pockmarked, his voice reedy, gait unsteady. Genetic engineering isn’t a miracle cure.

Her sense of purpose has telescoped from appreciation for differences to appreciation for those who share her values.

Are they still lost?

Isn’t everyone?

But to be lost together… a shuttle course laid in toward a curious-looking cluster of stars, his hand a comfort on her shoulder, her soft hum the music of his naturally-beating heart… to be lost together… is something like being found.

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Christopher Pike drabbles: 3, 2, 1/?

#wednesday drabble #can’t tag wednesday100 with a quad though #christopher pike #una chin riley #pikeuna #pikeone #pikeuna fanfic #pikeone fanfic #star trek strange new worlds #star trek the original series #cw upcoming rant in tags #if anyone wants to debate spock with me please first do me the favor of revisiting the menagerie with current standards of consent in mind #chris’ no no no no no no no breaks my heart #not to mention chris’ vote to have spock found guilty of mutiny for what spock was trying to do #but whoops the whole court martial was a sham #and increasing talosian control over computer systems lends doubt to chris’ last effort to communicate using his chair #to cast someone out of reality is among the cruelest things i can imagine #though it certainly tracks with 1960s views on institutionism

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