csdeptaa@unm-cvax.UUCP (06/21/84)
Age of Enterprise:
------------------
My last reference to the age of the enterprise was perhaps obscure.
Let me make it a little clearer with the following chart.
Date (earth time) Note: year(age)
----------------- --------- ---------
January 2188 Enterprise commissioned, 0
Robert April in command.
(to answer a trivia question)
January 2190 End of shakedown cruise, 2
start of first five year mission.
January 2195 End of first five year mission. 7
June 2195 Captain Christopher Pike takes 7 1/2
command.
November 2201 Third five year mission begins. 13 ~14
April 2207 James T. Kirk takes command. 19
April 2212 Fourth five year mission ends. 24
April 2215 After major overhaul, Captian 27
willard Decker takes command.
2223 Enterprise destroyed! 35 years
==== old
Oriental Vulcans & Temple Nymphs:
---------------------------------
I've been hearing a lot of crap about this subject. Like "how stupid did
that Vulcan Gonger with the Oriental hat looked." or "Vestal Virgins? come on!"
All I can say about this is "You STUPID IDIOTIC SLOBS!!!" Please, nothing
personal!
Remember one of the most important elements to Star Trek is the fact that
the actors are not really playing 23rd century roles in the 23rd century with
23rd century problems, but playing 20th century roles in the 23rd century with
20th century delimas (or something like that). The day before I sent this
letter I was looking through David Gerrold's "The World of Star Trek", trying
to find something else, when I just happened to run across the section that
refers to what I was trying to say(amazing, isn't it). What it was, was that
Star Trek is protrayed by contemorary standards. Look on page 47 of the first
edition to get the entire picture. Therefore, Oriental garb or Vestal Virgins
create no problems to be used as devices to show the differences between the
two cultures of Earth and Vulcan.
If you don't like that explanation, try this one. Obviously, we have not
encountered aliens from outter space that can give us an idea of what their
culture is like. All we have is the creativeness of man's mind and aleins
we find rigth here on Earth. These aleins are the elite, the primative and
others like that. People who are in their own worlds, either by their own
choice or by curcumstances that they live in or have no control over. For
example, a primative tribe that lives in New Guinea and one that lives in
South America are culturally different, but there are still enough similarites
that at a glance one would think that the tribe from New Guinea and the one from
South America are in fact the same, but of course, they're not. The same goes
for Oriental looking Vulcans! As far as the tribes are concerned, they live as
far apart from each other as Earth is from Vulcan. Saying that the Oriental
garb on Vulcans is terrible or unbelievable is like going to one of the tribes
and telling them that they'll have to change their clothes because some other
tribe wears almost the same thing or telling them that they are totally
unbelievable as a people.
Vulcan Ceremonies are very old, therefore, why not have virgins. That
reason may be a little weak, but think about this, these ceremonies come from
a time thousands of years ago. In most cases, in primitive cultures, virgins
represent fertility and that meant prosperity, good luck, and happiness. This
practice, of course, just stuck around. The planet is still a male patriarch
or at least on the family level it is. And that means that the female is
usually subordinate, but I really think that in this case it is submissive but
equal. There are exceptions like T'Pau and T'lar. The seven year mating cycle
would have to be staggered, therefore in any one year on Vulcan there is only
1/7th of the male population in heat. That must mean there are a few virgins
around.
STIV -- Spock, in search of his past:
-------------------------------------
While Kirk and crew hide out on vulcan, until Star Fleet gives them
amnesty, they could try to help spock "remember" his past life by weaving in
flash backs of past episodes (speaking of being Oriental -- like Kung Fu did),
but not only using clips from the series, but also making the novelizations into
movies. Thus, the continuing adventures of the Starship Enterprise continue
(using both the old and the new versions of the Enterprise).
Mean while, if a Federation detachment came to Vulcan, looking for them,
although Star Fleet doesn't yet know that they are there, Kirk and party can
always hide out on Spock's family land, which must be a huge spread or they can
always go aboard their new ship(this time they know where the warp engage button
is) and warp out under cloak and go join the Orion Pirates for awhile. Spock
could get his pirate outfit and become Blackfire again.
Kirk could have been following orders in the first place! To find and
capture the klingon scout, at the loss of the Enterprise. Then penetrate the
Orion Organization inorder to break up the Pirate Clans. Mean while, Star Fleet
sends out reward posters for the capture of Kirk. The Pirates then welcome a
very capable commander into their outfit. Before Kirk can break up the Orions,
the General War breaks out. The Tholians are being attacked by the Andromedans
and need help. The Tholians refuse to allow Federation intervention, Kzinti and
Gorn units are too far away. So they ask the Pirates to help (for a price).
Kirk leads a squadron into Tholian Space and attacks the Andromedans, at the
same time he has the opprotunity to observe the Tholians to gain much needed
information for the Federation. Anyway more stuff happens, Kirk is victorious
and successfull and returns to Star Fleet a hero and is given command of a
FLEET, not just one ship, of his own and sets off to the front.
Destruction of the Enterprise:
------------------------------
I did not cry, but a sniffle did appear. I think that because the
Enterprise was going to be scraped anyway was the reason (myself included) that
Scotty and the others did not show that much emotion. It was something from
deep inside that hurt, but to know that a ship that ends its life under the
scrap cutters torch is a disgrace and hurts worst than a ship that dies in
battle. Even though it had self-destructed, she had the best of times and the
worst of times. It was a far, far better thing she did than she had ever
done before.
I agree with David Gerrold, when he said that he didn't know what's going
to happen now. It will not be the same without the Enterprise that we all
grew up with. It just doesn't sound right to say "these are the continuing
adventures of the Starship Excelcior".
I reply with, in conjunction with my STIV story line, "these are the
enterprising adventures of Kirk and crew. To reach out and grab new booty (to
reach out and touch someone - for you AT&T people). To boldly go where only
pirates have gone before." Perhaps under the curcumstances it should really be
"these are the enterprising adventures of Harve Bennet and Co."
New stories:
------------
David Gerrold as released new editions of his work (the World of Star Trek,
The Galactic Whoolpool, The Trouble With Tribbles). And Bataan will be
publishing new stories about the old Enterprise. I wonder what is going on??
Star Trek 3 (the Blish books):
------------------------------
The other day I was going through my collection and I picked up book 3
and read Amok Time (the last story in the book). Spock is out of the room.
McCoy: "You know, Jim, some one of these days these ceremonies will be the
death of you."
Kirk: "In which case, Bones, REMEMBER: you have standing orders to bring
me back to life."
I wonder if Spock knew about this short conversation when he core dumped into
McCoy???? Maybe that's the reason Spock said remember and not something else,
knowing that McCoy and Kirk would end up in a Vulcan Temple and recall Amok Time
including those last words said. This is a weird coincidence; Book 3 -
Movie III?????
Vulcan - 1st member of UFP:
---------------------------
Somebody made a dumb remark that Vulcan was a fringe member, not really
involved with the Frederation. They went on to back their statement up with
the fact that T'Pau had turned down a position on the Star Fleet Counsil. Now
how they came up with that brilliant deduction, I'll never know. For one thing
Vulcan is one of the first three members of the Federation along with Earth and
Alpha Centuri. Secondly, someone else from Vulcan took the seat after T'Pau
turned it down. Sarek could have been asked too, and turned it down as well in
favor of his ambassadors job. T'Pau and Sarek probably would have said that
the reason for turning down the position in the first place is because "at the
time it was the logical thing to do."
Klingon Scout of 12:
--------------------
1) Sulu said there was about 12 officers and crew on board. That doesn't
mean that there has to be 12.
2) The twelveth was sleeping in his bunk.
3) He was fed to Kruge's pet.
I like all of them, but number 1 and 2 are very logical. In fact, the
Klingons may have a drug or something that enduses a very deep sleep and the
twelveth member takes this durg and is only awaken when the "reserve crew"
is needed. This is done to save on energy. Since Maltz was already on board,
it wasn't necessary to revive the RC. Then you say, why wasn't he used for the
boarding party? It probably takes longer to revive someone than it does to make
the split-second desicion to board the other ship. There's one more I like, but
has not been mentioned until now. What about Kruge's Mistress on the small
(J-Class?) cargo vessel? She could have been the twelveth. She had to have
come from somewhere. But, why I don't understand is why kruge didn't have her
beemed aboard??????
Speaking of Kruge:
------------------
I knew that Chris was playing lead Klingon a long time ago, even before
it showed up here (for once). So, it was already set into my mind what was to
come. I agree that he'll never out run his Rev. Jim character, but the part of
his character that comes through when he plays Kruge is delightfully wonderfull.
When he plays parts in other movies, you have to take a double+ look before you
can convince yourself that it is him. Like his corporal part in "To Be Or Not
To be", or his engineer's part in "Mr. Mom" (by the way another Star Trek
personallity was in this one, Terri Garr. Maybe she did some recruiting to get
Chris to play the part of Kruge). To me, that is one mark of an excelent actor.
To play a role with out giving himself away at the start, although, his voice
does eventually punch through. I would like to see him in many many more parts.
That's why, even though I cheered when Kirk killed him, I was disapointed that
he won't be around as a regular "bad guy".
Criticisms:
-----------
Most of the bad things about STIII I have been hearing, I would have to
agree with more or less. Any movie can't be perfect, especially this one.
We've had fifteen years to fantasize what it would be like and we were
disappointed when it turned out differently. Someone else said it was to much
like Star Wars. Well, with ILM working on both, why shouldn't it. Besides,
what's wrong with one looking like the other or visa versa? I know I don't
mind, mainly because they take place in a different time and place. You've got
to realize that these series of movies, albeit fictional, are molding our
furture. Not only in the things we watch, but our atitudes and those of our
children. These movies(ST & SW) are something good for the future. They
stimulate the mind and creates hope of a better tomorrow. Today's Science
Fiction becomes Tomorrow's Science Fact, and that gets me EXCITED!!!
(...bleep.....buzz.....click...bleep....spezz..bleep....Earth calling chris....)
True, I don't think "STIII" will out do "Indiana Jones" or even "STII" as far as
intense action goes, but it does out do "indiana" for realizism. And after
all, "STIII" struck me in the way that this was pure Star Trek at its best. It
gave me the feeling that I was watching one of the original episodes, which was
very pleasing. To para-phrase from Ben in Star Wars "It's all really in the
point of veiw you have." (talking to Luke in ROTJ about being a Jedi) And I
don't care who says what about Lenard Nimoy. He is a good director, he knows
his Star Trek!!!
Genisis - a sin??
-----------------
The creation killing the creator idea was fine, but what is this stuff
about David's Sin anyway?? Look, Man was created in the image of GOD,
therefore, I believe that Man has the ability to do things GOD can or at least
atempt to. Man is just an infant, learning and growing. Only his young mind
and worldly body limits his ablities. In two-hundred years, don't you think Man
will be able to create life, to discover its secrets. I guess it all hinges on
the Pinoccio Theory (see below). So I don't think it will be a sin because
somebody with a closed mind says it's taboo. These people are the ones who say
"If GOD had wanted Man to fly, he would have given Man wings." GOD did give Man
wings, in the form of his mind and heart. I thought that the Genisis Device was
a wonderful miracle. It would relieve over population, create new renewable
resources, help build agricultural farms and ranches of all types, but like
David said "it could be perverted into a dangerous weapon." The Device is not
bad, but the taboo Man puts on it or the evil he does with it!
Pinoccio Theory:
----------------
Man can create Man, but does the created Man have a soul? If he does, he
is a Man like any other Man. He has the CHOICE to accept CHRIST or deny him.
If the created Man does not, then he is nothing more than a machine or a
computer. Like the Yegemot were on Trellisane. But if he believes in God then
does he receive a soul and become a real man, like the way Pinoccio became a
real boy?? It doen't matter what Man does or doesn't do, It depends on the
choice he makes.
I have not heard anyone else state this theory before, so, YOU HEARD IT
HERE FIRST!!! I know, I know, this should have been put in net.religion or
net.philosophy, but it seems very very appropriate here with the Genisis Device,
and David's sin and the very very close symbolic resemblence of Kirk/Spock/McCoy
to the Trinity in these last two movies. Besides, my relationship with Jesus
and my fanatical interest in Star Trek are so weaved into each other that I just
can't talk about one without saying something about the other. I know, that's
very weird, but it's me. Take me or leave me. (In one piece - please!)
Kattra:
-------
I thought that the ceremony of bringing ones body and kattra together was
originally used on Vulcan the way cryogenics was used here on Earth. When it
was found out, most of the time, to meld the kattra into some collective mind
was a better way than trying to store the fleshy body until a cure, for whatever
killed the person in the first place, could be found.
Well, there it is, just about everything that popped into my head and
what I could remember when I watched STIII for the fisrt time. I am open for
comments, good or bad. I know I got somebody out there irritated, which was
one reason for writing this, let me hear from you. I've enjoyed writing this
and I hope you have enjoyed reading it.
My Two Cents Worth,
Chris Wayne
UNM, Albuquerque, N Mex.