Did you ever miss a significant other so much that you recreated them with the power of your mind? Well, “The Survivors” might dredge up painful memories. Did you ever accidentally contaminate an alien culture? Well, “Who Watches the Watchers” might dredge up painful memories. Did you ever wonder how TNG got good so fast? Well… oh, nevermind. Plus! Richard jumpstarts a hard-on.
Stoek
-Hey guys. A few weeks ago I got a notification from Twitter that I was being followed by something called “Trekabout”. Curious as to what was the deal I checked you out. I have feeds for all of Trek.FM and for the other one that’s like Trek.FM but not Trek.FM and I listen to some of their shows from time to time, but frankly not very often. It’s not that any of the shows offered by those groups are bad. They’re just a bit… light I guess. I mean they are a damned sight better than one podcast that I quit in disgust when one of the hosts said (and not in jest) that he hated all the betterment of humanity, thinking and learning stuff. Or as I like to call it Star Trek. It would be like doing a baseball podcast and carrying on about how much you hate watching people throw and hit a little white ball.
The only podcast about Trek that I’ve considered a must listen is Mission Log (BTW if you two and the ML hosts have not met you really should) wherein they take Star Trek episode by episode starting with TOS and analyze each episode. Now to be sure there are some key differences between your show and theirs (and yay for that) but what is identical is the fact that both you and they take Star Trek seriously. Not in a pompous or ponderous way but rather in a way that understands that while there is sometimes a silliness, and even sometimes a crass commercialism, when it is good Star Trek is not just art, but something more.
Anyway I’ve been playing catchup and while doing that have been making a point of keeping up with your current output. There’s been a lot of times that I’ve wished I heard this episode or that one when it came out because I have been inspired by many of your comments (even when I’ve disagreed with them). Like a lot of people, hell probably most though even if I had been listening at the time I’d still not have commented just because well, ya know life and stuff.
But with your most recent episode I felt I had to speak up.
First let me take a self indulgent moment and offer my bonafides. I have been a Star Trek fan for as long as I can remember. The first episode I can recall was Yesteryear. My dad worked his ass off at a shitty and dangerou job, and to make extra money he worked half a day on saturday. Leaving the house at like 6 am. Well one morning I happened to be up and we watched that episode together. There was me right there on the screen. (Ever seen Velvet Goldmine? If you have then just picture lil me jumping up and down like Christian Bale shouting “That’s me! That’s Me!”) I’ve always had painfully strong emotions and it was in Spock that I found a role model. Over time I came to appreciate all the cast, and all the episodes. It seemed like often even a crapfest might have something to offer. For example Savage Curtain, which is pretty terrible gave me, “In our time we’ve learned not to fear words.” That line has stuck with me in a very profound way.
I’m boring you with all this so you’ll understand that my love for Trek is deep and wide, and includes the man who created it Gene Roddenberry. I tell people and I am not in the least joking that Trek is the closest thing in my life to religion.
And now I’m going to answer the question you posed about why TNG suddenly got so good in the third season. To me the answer is both simple and painfully obvious. Less and less involvement by Roddenberry. I know it sounds awful, and in a way it is. But it’s also true. At some point a corner was turned and Roddenberry ceased to be capable of understanding his own creation. At some point he went from wanting to show a “world” in which humanity had improved and was striving to keep improving to wanting to show one in which we were all a bunch of navel gazing “new humans” who never get upset, or have problems with each other or blah fucking blah. And if his health had not given out he would have I’m quite certain turned Trek into a completely unwatchable farce of its former self.
I have always maintained that a lot of the power of Trek is the fact that unlike so much Science Fiction, it is neither a dystopia, nor a utopia. Instead it took our worst fear (nuclear war) and showed that we could survive it. That we could rebuild, and that finally we could come together, get over our bullshit and move out into the stars. Yet we were not perfect. There was still fear, and prejudice etc. But we now understood the need to keep working on it. That is so fucking inspiring that I’d tithe. But the weak ass shit that Roddenberry wanted to foist on audences with TNG? Hey if I wanted to hear boring ass stories of impossibly perfect people I’d still be a Christian. But fortunately (and yes I know that’s an assholeish thing to say but it’s the truth) Roddenberry got sick enough that he had to take his hand off the rudder. Enter Berman etc. Fortunately while they did have due reverence for Gene’s “vision” (perhaps too much but that’s an argument for another day) they also understood that people need characters that they feel they can relate to, not cardboard cutout visions of perfection. And thank god they did understand that, because frankly I think that Trek would have been swept back into the dustbin of history.
Okay now before I go just one more thing, as to Kevin Uxbridge. The debate between you two was whether it was beyond him or not to bring the Husnock back to life. Trekfan argued that it was not beyond him and nontrek fan argued that it was beyond him (and I’m really really sorry but I’m really shitty with names and I’m kind of zoned out right now but I promise that next time I bug ya with my opinions I’ll try to remember your names). Personally my belief is that if he had the power to bring them back to life (and I’m not offering an opinion of whether he did or not) and did not because of some self created “rules of the game” or the feels or what have you, then in his own way he is every bit as arrogant as Q or any of the other pseudogods that Trek has shown us. Imagine it like this, let’s say that I get into your wallet and take your last hundred bucks. You have no other money. And I spend it. Later you confront me about the theft and I admit it. And tell you how very very sorry I am that I stole it.I also happen to mention that I have a million dollars in the bank. And I could give you back your hundred. But I won’t because giving you back your money would do nothing to assuage the guilt I feel. Or because I don’t know what might happen if I give you back the money. Or what have you. Well then I’m pretty much an asshole. And quite frankly so’s Kevin. I mean the guy basically brain beats Troi to keep his precious secret. Not the actions of a nice dude. But whether intentional or not it ends up being kind of a callback to old school Trek and the message that you’ve both mentioned on more than one occassion about how anyone with power is automatically suspect. Basically no one, no matter how nice they may be is capable of handling power above a certain level and Kevin Uxbridge is proof of that.
Anyway I’m going to go now. I’ll be looking forward to next week’s episode as I’m curious to see if you like The Bondings not so subtle Fuck You to Roddenberry’s perfect humanity bullshit as much as I do.
Until next time Peace, and Long Life to you both.
Eric Brasure
-Hey man! I love your analogy about Kevin Uxbridge, and I think yeah, it does make him kind of an asshole to not bring the Husnock back. In some respects I think it’s the episode painting itself into a corner that it wasn’t really ready to deal with, if I can mix my metaphors up a bit.
Never thought about it being more like TOS though, which is interesting. I definitely can see that you’re right on that score.
And thanks for sharing your Trek story, I always love hearing those. It’s such a great piece of the culture, and I’m glad that you love it so much!
Richard Goodness
-This is a wonderful comment and I really like thinking about the morality in these terms. You know, I think in these terms, that reversing death in this way is impossible for Uxbridge–and while power certainly gets the better of him, his actions in the episode seem more like someone dealing with a clusterfuck that he can’t fix rather than someone who’s able to fix his mess. So far, the Vulcan Katra Method is the only time we’ve really seen *anyone* come back to life from being full-stop dead; there’s a lot more that Crusher or Pulaski can do as far as clinical death is concerned, but in general, there is very much a Point Of No Return, and I think it’s clear that in Uxbridge’s case both his people and the Husnock have reached it. Hell: He’s only capable of creating a simulcrum of his own wife, who is a person he pledged to give up his own powers for.
But yeah, that’s a really great way of looking at it: It’s very difficult to feel sympathy for a perpetrator who has the *means* to make restitution towards his victims but refuses to–in the case of your thief, the thief is making the victim’s loss of money not about the victim’s poverty but his own shortcomings. And Uxbridge, his shortcomings aside, is very clearly meant to be a sympathetic character. Hell, he’s anguished over the torture he’s putting Troi through, and he takes it back as soon as it’s no longer necessary, and the episode frames that as a demonstration of his integrity. An Uxbridge capable of restoring life might have restored the Husnock–and let them know very clearly that they just need to mark his planet “quarantined forever” and move on with their lives, or at the very least wait until they leave and then restore his own planet. That he does neither does seem to me like he’s incapable; whatever Uxbridge is, I don’t think he’s an asshole.
I think “nontrek fan” might not describe me anymore…
Stoek
-*points at Richard and in a high pitched voice exclaims* One of us! One of us! heeheehee.
I think you’re right. And giving the matter further consideration although they don’t make it explicit (and good for them) I think that truly returning the dead to life is beyond his power. Hence his wife being a simulcrum (a very good one but one all the same.) The podcast I mentioned before Mission Log has a section where after recapping the episode they discuss among themselves if the episode has any “morals, meanings, or messages”. Well I think there is a HUGE one here but while it’s almost self evident I think it’s also understated. In a nutshell, it’s easy to take life, but it’s impossible to give it back. Not wanting to beat a dead horse, but I feel pretty certain that in Season 1 and probably 2 as well there would have been a big speech. Hell even in TOS there would have been a big speech, but well in TOS the big speeching didn’t seem nearly as annoying. I think in part because it was that time and it was that place.
Anyway, thank you to both you and Eric for your lovely replies to my comment. I will be looking forward to the next episode.