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Monday, August 22, 2011

who loves star trek?

yeah, that's right. I do. Cripes, I was a Trekkie before there were Trekkies! I watched the original Star Trek on television with my Dad as it was first broadcast back in the day. I was just a kid back then, reading things like A Wrinkle in Time and The Bronze Bow and The Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander. I hadn't written anything yet - discounting the turkey piece in 5th grade, of course.

At any rate. here are my five faves. I may or may not offer up some favorite shows. we'll see what I can come up with.

Five favorite characters:

Spock - the episode when he is overcome by the need to mate and thinks he's killed the Captain. I love how he completely appreciates the cold logic of his intended but practically loses it as a Vulcan when he sees the Captain (who he thinks he killed), '"Jim!" he yells in joyous surprise.

And of course there's this line: "I have, and always will be, your friend..." I forget when he says that and I probably didn't get it right either but if you're like me you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Data - is it any surprise I love the two most logical, unfeeling characters? Is it any wonder I sometimes I have a little trouble with the emotional side of my characters? Surely there's no connection ...? Anyway. yes, I love Data. I love how he changed and evolved from simply a machine to someone with rights. And that's probably another favorite episode. It showcases both Picard and Data.

Which leads me to Picard. Much as I love James Tiberius Kirk, Picard is the better captain and, the better actor. Star Trek Next Gen was lucky to have him.  He gave a certain respectability to the show I think and was also amazingly good in so many episodes. It's hard to choose just one but I think I'll pick the one where Picard falls unconscious when the Enterprise intercepts something and lives another life on a dying planet. It's more of a memory really but he nevertheless experiences it and when he wakes up he grieves for what he never had. After that episode, you'll sometimes catch him playing that flute when he's feeling melancholy.

Q. How could I not pick Q? He's the most annoying, despicable, interesting, obnoxious character in a series I've ever come across. Love him or hate him he made a lot of episodes riveting. One of my favorites, however, is the one where he loses all his powers. Poor Q.

Tasha Yar. I just liked her. I can't say why, exactly, but there's a few episodes she's in I really liked. One was with Data and the two of them have sex after he assures her he's "fully functional." HA! Later, she whispers to him to forget anything happened. And later still this incident serves to demonstrate Data's humanness when Picard has to prevent him from being disassembled and autopsied. I hated how she died, in a useless stupid tragedy, and yet, isn't that what happens sometimes? To the best of people? And then I loved how she came back later, crossing over time.

I know when I go check all your blogs I'm going to slap my head and say, of course! Why didn't I think of that! But this is what came to me right after I saw the link for the fest, my initial thoughts. There's lots of other great characters and tons of episodes I absolutely loved, like Mirror, Mirror, or all those episodes with Q, or The City on the Edge of Forever or that one with Terry Garr and the cat who isn't a cat...you get the idea. I'll just mention one more, and that's the original premiere episode, The Menagerie, with Spock and Captain Pike. Loved it.

28 comments:

  1. Great pics. I hated it when they killed off Tasha Yar, but it was better when they flipped things around, brought her back, sent her sailing away with some guy, then she comes back playing her daughter with ponty ears...totally rocked!

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  2. I've never been much of a trekkie, but I know enough to wholeheartedly agree with you that Picard was the best captain!

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  3. i like your choices and reasons! so many to pick from, but i like that you didnt do the fab five =)

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  4. Awesome post! I'm new to Star Trek so I could only choose people that are in like... all the episodes. Anyway great choices!

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  5. I agree - Picard was the best captain!

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  6. I liked Data also. But if his manufacturers were so smart, why couldn't they come up with natural looking skin?
    Ah well.

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  7. I LOVED Tasha Yar!! I thought she was gutsy, beautiful, lovely and just yum!! I loved her and stopped watching ST:NG when she was killed off. Booooo! LOL!!

    Great list - wonderful!! Take care
    x

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  8. Spock was a great character. Loved it when his "half-human" side would slip out for just a second.

    Like you, I used to watch the old Star Trek reruns with my dad when I was a kid. Probably why those will always be my favs.

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  9. Spock's the man! It was so cool to see him in the latest movie.

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  10. Liked your choices. So glad someone else saw all the things I saw in Q and found it entertaining.

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  11. I liked it when they brought her back as a Romulan (Tasha Yar).

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  12. Great List! Its fun to see characters you love to hate lose their powers.

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  13. Great list! It's such an easy blogfest- both the entry and reading others. I mean how much fun to read about your favs which are also favs of mine. Even my least favorite trekkie characters are still great. And I loved Q too! I thought he was great!

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  14. Great post, was never to thrilled with Tasha Yar, but her story line was awesome.

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  15. "I have, and always will be, your friend..." Always brings a tear to my eyes.

    Picard the better Captain?! What is this treason. Okay. I did have a crush on him as well.

    Thanks for taking part!

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  16. Tasha Yar! It was a bummer they fired her.

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  17. Great Spock lines! When he shows his emotions it's always a tear jerker.

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  18. Tasha Yar! Yes! Nice to see her show up again as her daughter. Too bad it was only two episodes. Who doesn't love Kirk and Spock?

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  19. But... what about the Borg?

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  20. We were lucky to get Picard. I agree he was a better captain and actor. Loved your choices.

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  21. At the time, I found Tasha a bit of a mystery and didn't quite like her because of that. I just needed to be a bit older to. :)

    ♥.•*¨Elizabeth¨*•.♥
    Can Alex save Winter from the darkness that hunts her?
    YA Paranormal Romance, Darkspell coming fall of 2011!

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  22. Great list! Picard was a great captain and Data the most interesting character in all the series.

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  23. Hi, Marcy. I loved your post. I think we might be the same in that we love what we love, but didn't exactly memorize every little detail.
    Thanks for sharing.

    -Jimmy

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  24. Linda, I loved the Borg, too, I just couldn't include everything otherwise my post would've been way to long. My son reminded me of Mirror, Mirror (how could you forget that? He wanted to know.) and my brother and I got reminiscing about all our favorite episodes which made me realize how much I was leaving out. Oh well. I went with my spur of the moment post :)

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  25. Great choices. Data and Tasha are my top picks as well.

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  26. We did choose many of the same characters. There were so many to choose from I had a hard time narrowing it down.

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  27. I thought Tasha Yar was brilliant. Love strong female characters.

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  28. Thanks for warping around the galaxy with us. I love those Spock moments, and I agree with the rest of your list too.

    If you get a chance, check out a fellow writer's zombie story and help me make him wear an embarrassing shirt next year! It's the ultimate grudge match between social media and the zombies. Details are here:
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