Have you googled Star Trek?

The fun part of Star Trek links is searching for Star Trek in unusual places.

Etsy is an ebay style site that sells crafts and artisan creations. If you want soap with Guinness in it, jewelery containing every bead known to man, stunning photos made into cards.. well this is the place to look. The site is very attractively done and quirkiness abounds. Yes it is time to search etsy for Star Trek. Shockingly only two pages come up and some of those listings are spurious (as opposed to 427 pages for soap). But it is in just these out of the way places dedicated to non-Trek things where some really interesting Trek stuff lurks.. or so I hope.

The "I miss Data" shirt is cute. I don't miss him (he is a toaster, so shoot me) but it's cute for those that do. And I DO miss Enterprise.. and Kirk.. and Tucker until I read The Good That Men Do.

However this item is an absolute work of art. Since it is one of a kind and likely to vanish once bought I reproduce its fabness below.

Star Trek Voyager Barge of the Dead Bag

Fabulous!

Here is the description given by the bag artist:

"This bag is constructed from a spread from an issue of Star Trek Communicator magazine, a National Geographic map of Orion's Nebula and scrapbook paper, with fusible interfacing, laminate, embroidery floss, 3-d craft paint, wire, and beads.

The images are from the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Barge of the Dead" and feature B'Elanna Torres in rarely adorned Klingon garb. Details are picked out in embroidery and craft paint.

Fusible interfacing was applied to all pieces and lining pieces in order to provide flexibility and strength and the outside of the bag has been laminated for durability and a small measure of water-proofing.

The lining pieces were machine basted to the outside pieces. However, the bag was pieced together by hand with red embroidery floss.

The dimensions are 8.5" x 10 7/8" x 3" (not including handles)"

Bag artist is graverobbergirl. Thank you for the pleasures of viewing your bag graverobbergirl, may you live long and prosper!

Enterprise Commercial

This was a commercial aired before the premier of Enterprise.

"the books.. the books.."

I have been faithfully purchasing Star Trek books for some years now but unfortunately I have not been faithfully reading them. It's a shocker. I've just finished reading the Daedalus books. What to read next when I am so far behind.. if only there was another Enterprise relaunch ready the answer would be easy.

I first got bogged down in the "A Time To.." series. Some of the early ones were just so awful I was reading one painfully bad page a day. Doggedly plodding forward. I'm still there, I think I'm up to "A Time to Kill". I am absolutely hanging out to finally get to Keith R. A. Candido's offerings, the last two books in the series. I would love to just skip ahead but I'm too compulsive to do that. So the KRAD pleasures sit unread because of my reluctance to keep wading through the series.

And then there's DS9 Relaunch. I haven't read a thing since Unity and the first in the "Worlds of.." series. Once again a truly bad offering bogged me down. Andor was horrible angsty girly THING that choked on it's own Andorian's are Special fetish. And yet once again if I can just get through one and half more books a KRAD offering awaits me!

Would it be so wrong to only read ENT books and KRAD books? And umm.. the Borg book that is coming soon? I have no idea what to read next.

This is KRAD. Hopefully some day he will write an ENT novel.

Star Trek Voyager: Ebay

Such cuteness! VOY is cute, the only Trek that can really claim to be. Now I'm not saying it's the Hello Kitty of Star Trek but it has a certain whimsy that was a part of its charms.

Shadows of P'Jem

Having finally figured out the simple screenshot program I am in heaven! Suddenly I get how people end up with 6000 archived screenshots on their webpages. OH this fabulous shadow, and more Andorian goodies to come!

NX-01

"Explorers have to be ready to die lost."
Russell Hoban


Here's something I like about ENT: the NX-01 is a toy compared to so many of the other ship they come across. It is clearly vulnerable. Pissy fire power, slow, lacking all kinds of bells and whistles other species bring to the arena of space. Obviously they have not blow up in 4 seasons so they do manage to get out of scrapes but their vulnerability is always evident. I love it that Archer gets so nervous about this in Silent Enemy he turns the ship around for upgrades. This is very refreshing after future set series where they had to bring in the Borg to find any kind of acceptable threat.

The NX-01 really feels like a starship. I love the utilitarian grey and the background noise and vibration that is so often evident. The curved ship's doorways, surely very annoying to step over, are a far cry from TNG's comfy Hilton. Fans who rail that it should look worse than the TOS era miss the point. It is less comfortable--see the metal bunks crewmates share. It is less colourful--even the mess hall, the social focus of a ship, is unadorned. The corridors are narrower to the point of being cramped. There are no lute recitals or chess playing in evidence; presumably personal life goes on in quarters. The ship is on a mission and once you don your practical unisex jumpsuit and leave your room you are too . It is early space exploration before anyone has had time to grow comfortable enough so far from home that they feel free to make a new one.

Humans 101

"Your compassion is admirable, but misguided."

So says T'Pol to Archer in Sleeping Dogs. I believe this all purpose, fortune cookie phrase is carefully spoon fed to Vulcans who are preparing to interact with humans as a kind of cultural trick of the trade.

Sukphoc, expert in inter-species diplomacy intones to his pupils: "Humans will always place the emotions of sympathy and empathy above logic even if it means endangering themselves. To appeal to their logic at the expense of these emotions will prove fruitless. Rather you must compliment them on these emotions even as you usher them towards the logical truth of the situation."

Of course not all Vulcans choke down these diplomacy gems. For some it appears that this kind of diplomacy is beneath them. T'Pol is something of a natural at it as evidenced by her stubborn refusal to participate in these niceties when she is stressed.

Archer's Salt and Pepper Shakers

Here they are, Archer's salt and pepper shakers as seen for the first time in Cold Front. Where? Where? you say.. those silver balls in front of Archer with the wand-like handles sticking straight up. Archer picks one up by the wand and deftly waves the ball, which is rigidly attached, back and forth over his eggs. Very cute though in my house this design would inspire folk to use them as mini pepper weapons. What I find odd about them is that there is no corresponding ball or knob on top of the wand which would make more sense. They succeed however in being cutely futuristic though I doubt fans will be rushing to buy them like Saurian brandy decanters.

"Polarize the hull plating!"

Okay I understand that they don't have shields at this point but that is no excuse for taking seven syllables to give an order that may save your ship from having very large holes blown into it. In all other Trek we hear "Raise shields" or in the real scary moments when you see the actual firepower heading into the viewscreen "Shields!!" And yet in four seasons of ENT Archer never shortened the command to, at least, "Polarize!"

Consequently the order "Polarize the hull plating" sounds wankier with each episode. I guess it's time for a little snack.

Civilization

When I first saw Civilization a sense of fatigue fell over me. Now this may have been a result of Ch. 9's predilection for broadcasting Enterprise somewhere around midnight after hours of interminable sport; that certainly added to my less than stellar experience of ENT in the beginning. Civilization has many elements from TOS with a glossier TNG coating. It has your classic Star Trek Villagers (all 5 series are cursed with these) looking earnest and rustic in their homespun robes. It has Kirkian kissing. It has a plot which was ripped straight out of TOS but lacking all the campy cool bits. Civilization is A Private Little War desexed. Yawning, I wondered why I was staying up so late.

"They don't look so different." Archer

"You'd be recognized immediately as outsiders." T'Pol

"Not if we look like them." Archer

Repeated viewings have been a lot more enjoyable. The charming enthusiasms of Archer and Trip have a poignancy now post the Xindi arc. T'Pol looks like a Barbie Princess with her long hair and flowing gown--please please Art Asylum I want a Civilization T'Pol with an oversized pink plastic hairbrush. The ripping of the Malurian flesh to reveal lizard underneath was an awesome V moment. And of course there's the haunting thought of what the future holds for the Malurians, their system wiped out in the TOS episode "The Changeling".

Trip and T'Pol both looking all fey and King Arthurish..

T'Pol off her tucker (no, not that Tucker)

Poor old Enterprise is ever and always canon fodder on the forums, giving some relief to Voyager fans no doubt. From the yawning canon chasms of Qo'noS-too-close to the very piddly matters of Vulcan etiquette Enterprise cops the lot. But to the Trek Apologist these matters are of very little import.

"Vulcans do not touch food with their hands," T'Pol tells us in Broken Bow. And so we see her sawing away at breadsticks and celery with what appears to be a butter knife, the picture of control and very slow eating. And yet in future episodes T'Pol eats popcorn with her fingers. Oh the horror, the liberties taken with canon even as it is barely formed!

It's clear that T'Pol is very stressed by being the only Vulcan on a human vessel and in the first half of Season One she clings to her familiar ways and little rules. She needs to distinguish herself from these humans and the way to do that is to elevate all aspects of her culture and throw it in their faces. She is a Vulcan and she will not let you (meaning herself) forget it. Never mind that back home the eating rule is observed only in formal settings and a lighter approach is taken at, say, picnics. Everything she does will declare her identity.

Really she is no different than an Australian spewing strine in London, talking about his "china" and "hitting the frog and toad" even though no peer of his has used these words back in Sydney in 100 years.

Broken Bow: Four Words

Jelik, Sarin, Rigel, Tholia. The four words Hoshi could not translate from Klaang's delirious ravings in Phlox's sickbay. Lovely bit of foreshadowing there with the use of Tholia. I wish though that we had heard the word Jelik again. Not as something epic revealed but said in passing, perhaps by Daniels (though thinking about it I don't think he ever said anything "in passing".) The kind of reference that rewards the faithful viewer.

Jelik, Jelik, Jelik.. probably calling after his favorite Klingon dessert.

Weird Trek things I'd like to do part 1

Watch Enterprise all the way through with the peppy theme music for the first two seasons and the slower theme music for the last two. I don't dislike the peppy theme music of seasons 3 and 4 the way many folk do but I do think it is dissonant considering the darkness the crew is plunged into. With Archer resorting to piracy, the ship and crew in terrible disrepair, deaths every other episode.. the peppy "faith in my heart" deal is weirdly jarring. How much better to have had the slower theme for those seasons. Start off the series with the wildly optimistic peppy theme and switch to the more reflective one.

I've just starting re-watching Enterprise through from the beginning. I've only seen Broken Bow, it's not too late for this musical experiment. Of course I will miss all the credits, Guest Star this and Guest Star that but I can live without it. It will be a pain and I will probably give up after a while but I think I should try it.

I have abandoned Six Feet Under for the moment as I have failed to buy the dvd set at the bargain price. Because the sets are so inexpensive, especially when on sale, they fall into Mr. Teacake's ethics zone in which they must be purchased rather than downloaded. Mr. Teacake has these sudden ethical spasms and far be it from me to dissuade a man from his ethics especially if it means actual purchase of dvd sets. It goes like this: if you would buy it you should buy it. I would NOT buy Enterprise at its current price of AU188.00 a season so it is okay to download it. I will buy it when it is released in the affordable cardboard slipcovers, as I am currently buying DS9 (I've acquired seasons 1-4 so far). Just because I'm a collector doesn't mean I'm an idiot.

All of this is good news for this blog and it's thousands of readers because it means I won't be overly distracted by non-Trek.

In other news The Good That Men Do is so far a fabulous book.

"refulgent"

I consider myself to have a good vocabulary. The last book I read that required recourse to the dictionary was "Father and Son" by Edmund Gosse, a fabulous book I couldn't put down except when recording in a notebook the words I needed to look up while reading it. There was at least one a page. I must find that notebook, I am sure "refulgent" is in there somewhere.

Trek books are not great literature. Often they are not particularly well written. A great Trek book may well be quite embarrassing if held up to other great fiction in terms of the actual writing. A Trek book is great if it captures the voice of the known characters, if it creates sympathetic and interesting new characters and if it carries the Trek story forward in a believable and wonderful way. There are many books that do all this and not much more is asked of them in the area of literary craft.

Therefore it is particularly annoying to me to come across obscure and/or archaic words in the middle of maudlin run on Treklit sentences. It conjures up the image of the author with thesaurus.com at the top of his bookmarks, hoping to add some weightiness to his work. One Trek book was peppered with such words like truffles embedded in Velveeta. It was quite hilarious; I looked up every one of them and they were all lovely but wow, were they out of place. I can't remember which book that one was now but as I recall it was an excellent Trek tale and I will probably reread it again. Next time I'll have a little notebook at hand, for my amusement and edification.

"Shenar responded in the same manner that Theras had; he gently took Theras's hand, his blind face refulgent with a look of almost religious ecstasy."

The Good That Men Do by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin, page 51



Painting is "Refulgent Reflux" by Jonas Gerard.

Limbo

Unfortunately a person can only watch so much television. I fully intended to immediately begin watching Enterprise again after finishing it but I got sucked into a completely different show, Six Feet Under. Sometimes I think 6'U is riveting tv and other times I think it's a morass of sticky emotional slop. Kind of like E2.. (j/k!!) During the last few episodes my mind has been wandering and I've been thinking of the clean, sexless, idealistic Enterprise crew as I knew them in Season 1.

I find it even harder to read novels than to watch a decent amount of television. I think I am on chapter 2 of The Good That Men Do. Some days I manage only a few sentences before putting it down. So far it is nicely written. I was a bit worried as I was never able to get into the first book in the Titan series as the writing was long winded and dull but this seems much tighter. I am hoping I can actually keep up with Enterprise Relaunch as I am for once starting at the beginning. I love the cover of TGTMD.

I have been missing the Enterprise theme music, my nightly companion for 5 months. I always watched the whole thing. With 6'U I skip ahead, I don't think I've ever seen it through.

I think I'm pining for Enterprise..

A Phlox Question

Phlox's very weird grin: why do we only see this in BB and TATV? It does make a nice bookend. I imagine it was dropped after BB for who knows what reason and revived for TATV out of sentiment.

Stupid Escheresque Dilemmas!

The problem with studying TATV for clues as to Trip's being Not.Dead is that it just doesn't work if you see it as a holoprogram. Unless of course this is almost an easter egg the meticulous historian can discover when running this program (which assumes Trip's lack of actual death is known in Riker's time). These historical holoprograms would only have any real accuracy if there were constant cams recording folk allowing future holoprogrammers reconstruction opportunity.

If it were really that accurate I imagine it would be a terrible temptation to spend your life on a holodeck with someone you loved who had died. I think if you did spend time with a program of them it would seem stilted and odd and not really connect to you the way the real person did.

Even though I think that the future holoprogram aspect of TATV was a nice and interesting touch (I suspect I'm the only fan who feels this way) I would much rather be working with the real source material and not have the nagging "this is just a program" feel to the final episode of such a fine series.

TATV: Thoughts as the final theme music played

I jotted down these ideas just after watching TATV for the first time last night. Probably as a result of reading forums I was preoccupied with working out how Trip could manage to not be dead.

~~~

How Trip is Not.Dead

Shran disguised his own death and he is now ready to disguise the death of Trip. He needs Trip for.. something as yet unrevealed and he needs him DEAD in the eyes of the pinkskins to achieve this. The kidnapping is a fake and the kidnappers either his compatriots in his scheme or his hired hands. Their mission: seize Trip after making him appear killed. Heck, perhaps they even allow him to die knowing they can revive him once they get their hands on his body. Perhaps they substitute a fake body and take Trip’s real body away, revive him and use him for their plans.

“He’d never make it back”: Riker. Sure never make it back in time for the ceremony but perhaps he does make it back from the dead a decade in the future. (Good thing Vulcans have long lives.)

~~~

Since then I've been thinking about how un-sad the rest of the crew seemed to be in the days following Trip's death. I will be rewatching those scenes but I don't recall Archer or Reed making any definitive statements about him being dead and how tragic this was on the eve of their retiring the NX-01. So I'm starting to think this could actually be a ruse on the part of the crew, with or without Shran being a factor. Section 31? Starfleet intelligence? Both recently had their fingers in the warp coils.

And perhaps that might explain T'Pol's rather lame talk with Trip in the shuttle "do you miss me?" "I will miss you".. I don't buy that this all came about after a little chat with Chef. Maybe T'Pol knew Trip would be away for a long time, perhaps forever, on this mission that required him dead.


Chef serving Pyrithian bat droppings to galley visitors:

5 good things about almost being done with Enterprise

1. Mirror Universe eps finally coming up!

2. I will get to read "The Good That Men Do".

3. Can stop reading forums through my fingers.

4. Can read 1,000,000 shipper posts I have carefully avoided for the duration of watching Enterprise.

5. Already looking forward to starting ENT all over again.

I console myself with these little bonuses but really I am very sad.

Borderland: The Orions

Okay maybe this is just me but.. I could not get past how similar the big beefy male Orions looked to Shrek. They were supposed to be so menacing but all I saw was Shrek, Shrek, Shrek. This was very unfortunate.

Babel One

So what, was Journey to Babel supposed to be Babel Two? Tellarites, Andorrians, mystery ship, southeast Asian fruits pretending to be alien delicacies.. so far no daddy issues though.

Replicating

Many of my blog posts here will be replicated from forum posts elsewhere. This blog will be a kind of scrapbook of my Enterprise thoughts and most likely will be unread by anyone.