Star Trek Thoughts: This Side of Paradise
Aug. 14th, 2013 05:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerI figured from the start that I wasn't going to comment on all of the Star Trek episodes I watched, but it does seem I keep being struck with unexpected ideas by at least some of them. That was the case with "This Side of Paradise," the episode "where Spock gets hits with happy space spores." There was at least a bit more to it, though.
It is sort of amusing to see episodes where the show was able to go on location and present conventional architecture as an alien world; in this case, the Enterprise has reached a nascent colony. With the initial problem of the crew expecting the colonists to be dead from radiation only to find them alive, I did imagine an idea or two not developed; before long, though, the space spores were showing up. The episode wound up concluding the sort of genial "paradise" created isn't good for humanity, but I did find myself thinking that only a few years after it had been made countercultural perspectives might have started making some people wonder about that. I then got to wondering how the point could have been made more strongly, but had to confront how I find "I'd have done it this way" comments by other people to have a smug and obnoxious edge, and decided to keep the thoughts to myself.
The spores wind up leaving Captain Kirk on an empty ship, but Spock is the first to be hit by them and the only one who changes into colonist garb. This does seem connected to Leila Kalomi, established as having harboured feelings for him before, now able to act on them, and I did think a bit about all the comments I've seen about "attaining unattainable characters." I'm still sort of afraid to admit, though, that I could see just how a "Kirk/Spock" perspective might be applied to the episode, aware that to wonder aloud about slash perspectives oozing negative opinions about whatever gender is left out could leave me awaiting "you're setting up a strawman" criticism. (I also got to thinking a bit about how female characters always seemed to be filmed in soft focus, which perhaps stands out because the episodes I recorded off cable aren't the sharpest-looking to begin with.)
The resolution to the episode involves Kirk goading Spock into anger, and there I did think of the first new Star Trek movie. At the time, something about that way to get the young Kirk in charge, as he was apparently supposed to be, already seemed a little askew to me. In the episode, at least, there's more of a "it had to be done" feeling of tragedy.
It is sort of amusing to see episodes where the show was able to go on location and present conventional architecture as an alien world; in this case, the Enterprise has reached a nascent colony. With the initial problem of the crew expecting the colonists to be dead from radiation only to find them alive, I did imagine an idea or two not developed; before long, though, the space spores were showing up. The episode wound up concluding the sort of genial "paradise" created isn't good for humanity, but I did find myself thinking that only a few years after it had been made countercultural perspectives might have started making some people wonder about that. I then got to wondering how the point could have been made more strongly, but had to confront how I find "I'd have done it this way" comments by other people to have a smug and obnoxious edge, and decided to keep the thoughts to myself.
The spores wind up leaving Captain Kirk on an empty ship, but Spock is the first to be hit by them and the only one who changes into colonist garb. This does seem connected to Leila Kalomi, established as having harboured feelings for him before, now able to act on them, and I did think a bit about all the comments I've seen about "attaining unattainable characters." I'm still sort of afraid to admit, though, that I could see just how a "Kirk/Spock" perspective might be applied to the episode, aware that to wonder aloud about slash perspectives oozing negative opinions about whatever gender is left out could leave me awaiting "you're setting up a strawman" criticism. (I also got to thinking a bit about how female characters always seemed to be filmed in soft focus, which perhaps stands out because the episodes I recorded off cable aren't the sharpest-looking to begin with.)
The resolution to the episode involves Kirk goading Spock into anger, and there I did think of the first new Star Trek movie. At the time, something about that way to get the young Kirk in charge, as he was apparently supposed to be, already seemed a little askew to me. In the episode, at least, there's more of a "it had to be done" feeling of tragedy.