mind meld Archive

Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch: “Sarek”

– August 8, 2013 8:00 amPosted in: TNG Re-Watch

“Sarek”
Written by Peter S. Beagle
Story by Mark Cushman and Jake Jacobs
Directed by Les Landau

Season 3, Episode 23
Original air date: May 14, 1990
Star date: 43917.4

Mission summary

Picard and Riker are giddy to be hosting a very special guest: Ambassador Sarek from Vulcan, who will be presiding over the first meeting and negotiations between the Federation and a race called the Legarans. Word is, the 202-year-old Vulcan will be retiring soon after, leaving this as the crowning achievement to an illustrious career.

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Tags: bar brawl, data plays violin, diplomacy, emotion, getting old sucks, logic, loyalty, mind meld, patrick stewart is awesome, sarek, wesley has a crush

Star Trek Into Dimness

Torie Atkinson

– June 10, 2013 10:00 amPosted in: Movies

Star Trek Into Darkness After several busy weeks I finally got around to seeing the new AbramsTrek. I didn’t like the first one because it felt like a lame action movie with a Trek skin grafted over it. This is much, much worse. Warning: this will be a spoiler post, so do not proceed if you have not seen the movie and wish to remain unspoiled.

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Tags: angry klingons, diplomacy, emotional Spock, fully clothed man-wrestling, handwaving mumblemumble, kirk is a jerk, loyalty, mind meld, sexism, were they drunk when they threw this one together?, why did this have to happen to our beloved legacy

Re-Watching Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Torie Atkinson & Eugene Myers

– November 10, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Movies

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Screenplay by: Nicholas Meyer & Denny Martin Flinn
Story by: Leonard Nimoy and Lawrence Konner & Mark Rosenthal
Produced by: Steven-Charles Jaffe & Ralph Winter
Directed by: Nicholas Meyer

Release date: December 6, 1991
Stardate: 9521.6

Mission Summary

A mining accident destroys Praxis, a Klingon moon where energy for the entire Klingon Empire is produced. With only 50 years of life left to the Empire as a result, the Klingons open a dialog with Vulcan ambassador Sarek about ending hostilities with the Federation and dismantling all bases around the Neutral Zone. Spock has recommended Kirk for the diplomatic honor of escorting the Klingon High Chancellor Gorkon to a peace summit. This enrages Kirk, who has come to despise the Klingons for killing his son David.

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Tags: angry klingons, assassins, Cold War, getting old, kangaroo court, klingons, loyalty, mind meld, mysteries, politics, prejudice, racism, shakespeare, swan song, the end of an era

Re-Watching Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– October 20, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Movies

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Written by: Harve Bennett
Produced by: Harve Bennett
Directed by: Leonard Nimoy

Release date: June 1, 1984
Stardate: 8210.3

Mission Summary

Enterprise returns to Earth to be decommissioned, with Kirk and the crew still mourning Spock. A visit from the Vulcan’s father, Sarek, offers some hope that their friend is only mostly dead–just before Spock gave his life to save the ship, he mind-melded with Dr. McCoy to implant his living spirit, or katra, in the doctor’s head. Kirk decides to go to the Genesis Planet to retrieve Spock’s body and take him to Vulcan, but there are two problems: Starfleet has classified Genesis as off-limits, and they don’t have a ship to get them there.

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Tags: death, fully clothed man-wrestling, Genesis, handwaving mumblemumble, klingons, loyalty, mind meld, sabotage, starship jacking, transwarp drive, Vulcan magic, Vulcan sex

Re-Watching Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– October 13, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Movies

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Screenplay by: Jack B. Sowards
Story by: Harve Bennett and Jack B. Sowards
Produced by: Robert Sallin
Directed by: Nicholas Meyer

Release date: June 4, 1982
Stardate: 8130.3

Mission Summary

The U.S.S. Reliant makes an unexpected discovery on a scientific mission to the Ceti Alpha system: the genetically-engineered superman Khan Noonien Singh and the surviving crew of the S.S. Botany Bay, who has been cooling his heels on the inhospitable fifth planet for the last fifteen years. Khan’s somewhat pissed that his old friend James Kirk never called or wrote since marooning them there, so he takes over Reliant and begins plotting his revenge, which mostly revolves around a) inserting gross, brain-controlling slugs into Captain Terrell and Commander Chekov’s ears, b) stealing the Genesis Device, an experimental probe that can terraform a dead planet within days (what could possibly go wrong?), and b) killing Kirk. A person has to dream big, and galactic overachiever Khan is reaching for the stars.

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Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch: “The Time Trap”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– June 30, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Animated Series Re-Watch

“The Time Trap”
Written by Joyce Perry
Directed by Hal Sutherland

Season 1, Episode 12
Production episode: 22010
Original air date: November 24, 1973
Star date: 5267.2

Mission summary

Enterprise is investigating the “Delta Triangle,” a region of space where starships have been disappearing for centuries. It’s almost as if the suits back at Starfleet are trying to get rid of them.

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Tags: Bermuda triangle, emotional Spock, godlike powers, handwaving mumblemumble, immortality sucks, klingons, mind meld, Orion slave women, parallel universes, pink, romulans, science!, ship graveyard, spock the magic vulcan, vertigo

Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch: “The Infinite Vulcan”

Torie Atkinson & Eugene Myers

– June 14, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Animated Series Re-Watch

“The Infinite Vulcan”
Written by Walter Koenig
Directed by Hal Sutherland

Season 1, Episode 7
Production episode: 22002
Original air date: October 20, 1973
Star date: 5554.4

Mission summary

The Enterprise has come across an unknown planet on the galaxy’s periphery, so they’ve beamed down to investigate. The planet is a vaguely nauseating shade of puke green, and life signs are “confused.” Sulu discovers a little koosh ball in the grass but when he picks it up it pricks him. Dick. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy discover a nearby building emanating energy readings, but before they can investigate they hear a bass scream: it’s Sulu. He’s been poisoned, and only MacGuyver can save him now because he’s got one minute to live.

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Tags: augments, big heads, clones, distinct lack of half-naked man-wrestling, eugenics wars, evil doubles, evil spock, giants, handwaving mumblemumble, hentai, logic, mind meld, plants, sentient vegetables, weedwhackers

Star Trek: The Animated Series Re-Watch: “One of Our Planets is Missing”

Torie Atkinson & Eugene Myers

– May 31, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: Animated Series Re-Watch

“One of Our Planets is Missing”
Written by Marc Daniels
Directed by Hal Sutherland

Season 1, Episode 3
Production episode: 22007
Original air date: September 22, 1973
Star date: 5371.3

Mission summary

Starfleet Command has commissioned the Enterprise to investigate a cosmic cloud heading through the Pallas 14 system. Over 800,000 km across and half as deep, the cloud is immense and unlike anything the crew has ever seen. It seems to move intelligently, and sets its sights on the planet Alondra. Before they can say “horta,” it rapidly engulfs the planet Alondra and breaks it into tiny pieces. Soon it’s changed course and heads directly to a new target: Mantilles, the Federation’s most remote inhabited planet, with over 82 million residents. Do they warn those people so that a handful can escape? Is it worth it to risk full-blown panic? They decide to let the governor, Bob Wesley, in on the threat. It’ll be up to him to decide who lives and who dies.

As soon as the message is sent, however, tendrils from the cloud reach out and wrap themselves around the Enterprise.

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Tags: cosmic clouds, handwaving mumblemumble, heavy stuff, mind meld, moral complexity, scotty being awesome, Scotty works a miracle, seances, space bulls, Spock is a Jedi, Spock-blocking, spockblocking, tough choices, wonders of the universe

Star Trek Re-Watch: “Requiem for Methuselah”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– February 10, 2011 8:00 amPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“Requiem for Methuselah”
Written by Jerome Bixby
Directed by Murray Golden

Season 3, Episode 19
Production episode: 3×21
Original air date: February 14, 1969
Star date: 5843.7

Mission summary

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to planet Holberg 917G in search of pure ryetalyn, the only known cure for a deadly outbreak of Rigelian fever on Enterprise. If they can’t secure this maguffin and process it in four hours, McCoy says “the epidemic will be irreversible.” They certainly don’t have time to investigate the life form that Spock’s tricorder registers on the supposedly uninhabited planet, nor is it a convenient moment for a floating robot to wobble over and fire a blue laser beam in their general vicinity. But these things happen, so what are you going to do?

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Tags: amnesia, androids, Brahms, da Vinci, dancing, emotion, fully clothed man-wrestling, Galileo, godlike powers, handwaving mumblemumble, loneliness, loyalty, mind meld, really old people, robots, sexbots, waltz

Star Trek Re-Watch: “Elaan of Troyius”

Eugene Myers & Torie Atkinson

– December 30, 2010 8:00 amPosted in: TOS Re-Watch

“Elaan of Troyius”
Written by John Meredyth Lucas
Directed by John Meredyth Lucas

Season 3, Episode 13
Production episode: 3×02
Original air date: December 20, 1968
Star date:4372.5

Mission summary

Enterprise is on a top-secret mission to deliver Elaan, the Dohlman of Elas, to the nearby planet Troyius, where she is to marry the Troyian leader to avert nuclear war between their peoples. The Elasians are reportedly “vicious and arrogant,” like the neighboring Klingons who dispute the Federation’s claim over the Tellun system. On the other hand, McCoy has heard that Elasian women have a “subtle, mystical power that drives men wild.” It’s up to Troyian Ambassador Petri to civilize the savage Elaan and instruct her in the customs of her new home.

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