andyrg099

Latest Posts by andyrg099

i've said before i love the way mccoy and spock take care of kirk. but the way kirk looks out for spock when his father is not only the first suspect in a murder case but also has jist had a heart attack. its slightly different the way kirk does it, he's more direct and more soft spoken- it's a tone of voice he rarely has- but he understands the topic is not up for discussion and he let's it go, hopefully letting him know hes there if spock need him

i'm watching Star Trek while I am working and I just got to Journey to Babel (s2 e10) and I'm absolutely losing it at the fact that Sarek is beefing with his son cause he chose to join Starfleet instead of the Vulcan Science Academy.

Sir. Maybe if your people hadn't been so shitty to him while he was growing up hw might have had more of an interest in staying there HELLO???????

crying. turns out being a petty parent is NOT unique to humans.

mr spock glows pink in the night in his room btw

remember when Jim introduced Spock to his own parents lmao we stan a legend

big fan of airing order putting these right next to each other. i think that sad little drone is in itself a tragic romance more compelling than a lot of the plots intended to be read as such in this series

zephram cochrane in metamorphosis is a weak ass bitch. if i found out a telepathic gaseus alien being was in love with me i would simply love and cherish it in return send post

one thing about Jim is he is gonna have the time of his LIFE doing a little skit during a mission. He is going to do undercover espionage and put his WHOLE ASS into the costume alone (facial reconstruction surgery). He is going to commit to the bit so hard and loop so many people into his little improv theater production that it breaks down a functioning society of androids

And he’s gonna sit there while it happens like this

Something about how Jim became so accustomed to Starfleet parlance that it’s the only parlance he can speak at all. Something about how his relationship with his ship and his work as Captain extends to language as well, to the way he handles and expresses his emotions.

Amok Time – Kirk is confronted with the fact Spock keeps a dangerous secret that, if not shared, might end up with his first officer killed

The Apple – With the landing party marooned on a strange planet and the USS Enterprise being pulled ever closer to the ground, Kirk asks Scotty something beyond excellence.

The Doomsday Machine – Commodore Matt Decker stands in the maw of a monster with a dead crew and stripped of any will to live. Kirk tries to bring his old friend to reason, but nothing else can be done for Decker as he looks death in the eye.

I understand how, especially in the third instance with Matt Decker, he might've seemed cold (your buddy is about to off himself, and you remind him the higher-ups spent too much money on his formation), but I see it more as Kirk trying to ground both himself and his friend (who is also a Commodore, might I remind you) than simply reducing Decker to his position.

It also accidentally reveals a lot about Jim (although reveal is not the best word, as that same thought has been explored in numerous episodes before), how much his sense of worth is tied to his job—to how well he can perform and excel at it.

But that's not all he's saying. In both instances (Amok Time and Doomsday Machine), Kirk puts himself in the Federation's place because he sees its recognition as more valuable, more "worth living for" than his own.

It's his way, the way of a man who knows no life other than that of servitude, of saying I care about you, and I don't want to lose you.

It's really tragic that it is not enough to save Decker. If both Matt and Jim share the belief (which appears more often than not in Starfleet overachievers) that your inner worth is tied to how well you can perform it, Matt is left face to face with the rather morbid fact that he failed severely and his whole crew is dead because of it.

To sin is human, yes, but if the Doomsday Machine is the Devil, as the Commodore himself put it, it truly is a shame Decker did not view himself as deserving of forgiveness

Actually so funny that McCoy gets so mad in "The Doomsday Machine" that Jim isn't in charge and Spock hasn't just fixed everything that when Decker tells him to leave the bridge he just leaves the whole episode.

Adam, Spock, and Eve -- an Analysis on The Apple from TOS

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it”, in a promised vow Adam and Eve swore to allow themselves to remain blissfully unaware of the nature of sin or face divine punishment for eating the apple that would give them this knowledge. Star Trek season 2 episode 5, "The Apple", captivates viewers with its exploration of these themes of autonomy and the consequences of blind obedience in the face of authority; or so the episode tries to sell. I would argue that it does tackle these topics in an interesting manner, though not how the writers initially intended. The crew of the Starship Enterprise continually demean the autonomy and personhood of the people of Vaal, denying them the freedom of choice and posit themselves as white-knighted heroes who would fix the unjust systems of Gamma Trianguli Six. However, the landing party fails to acknowledge that they have been here for less than a day, and their understanding of the culture of this small part of the planet is flawed. Ursula K. Le Guin’s essay, American Sci-Fi and the Other tackles these themes, highlighting how limits in our perspective leads to the alienation and dehumanization of people and practices we do not understand, which results in a denial of their autonomy.

Le Guin outlines 4 forms of alienation that have become popular in contemporary Science Fiction – the sexual alien, the social alien, the cultural alien, and the racial alien. Though each comes from a similar vein of popularized ignorance, their manifestations vary greatly in Sci-Fi. The sexual alien in The Apple takes the form of the narrative treatment of female characters like Yeoman Martha Landon. Landon’s 14 lines throughout the hour long episode quickly characterize her as a character whose femininity undercuts her competence as an officer of the Starship Enterprise. Chekov and Landon share a brief, intimate encounter early in the episode,

MARTHA: All this beauty, and now Mister Hendorff dead, somebody watching us. It's frightening.

CHEKOV: Martha, if you insist on worrying, worry about me. I've been wanting to get you in a place like this for a long time.

The conversation gets interrupted by Kirk returning and asking them to not “conduct a field experiment in human biology”. Landon is one of the only characters regularly referred to by her first name rather than her title. While this could be attributed to her low rank as a red shirt, the four other redshirt officers are still often only referred to by their last names as a sign of respect.

"KIRK: Mallory! Marple, stand back! Watch it! The rocks! (kneeling by the body) Kaplan. Hendorff. I know Kaplan's family. Now Mallory.”

Yeomen in The Original Series are often almost exclusively young women, with a notable exception being the season 1 episode The Cage, where the male Yeoman is killed to show the competency of the villain of the week. Their role is to dutifully fulfill the petty orders given by their captain, such as light administrative work or ensuring the wellbeing of the captain and his surrounding male officers. These female Yeomen are often treated by the narrative to have the sole imperative goal to be “an object of desire for the surrounding men.” This is seen especially in The Apple, when Landon voices her concerns for the Starship she is told to be quiet and sit down by Kirk, or silenced by Chekov’s seductions. Her views, questions, concerns, and opinions are constantly used as punchlines for men, as though she’s too stupid to understand the complexities of what is going on around her.

“MARTHA: But these people, I mean, if they don't know anything about. What I mean is, they don't seem to have any natural– er. I mean, how is it, done?

KIRK: Mister Spock? You're the science officer. Why don't you explain it to the young lady.”

She is alienated from the rest of the cast for being a woman, and as Yeomen often are, the women of Starfleet “are also assigned a sexed identity in their professional lives, based on their supposedly “innate” qualities” of “modesty, sweetness, fear, shyness, compassion, [and] languor.”

The social alien is one that focuses on class and hierarchy, specifically, on the lower ranks of it. This form of alienation has many reflections throughout the episode – from Kirk’s treatment of Scotty as they struggle to pull the Enterprise from the tractor beam, to the Vaalian’s role of feeding Vaal. Those who are not leading men are treated as “masses, existing for one purpose: to be led by their superiors.” Those in the Starfleet are under threat of losing their jobs – their financial security and role on the ship – if they do not listen to their superiors. The Vaalians, however, must actively choose to listen to Vaal for their instructions. There is no threat of violence as they do not know what it means to kill, nor incentive for greed as they are already provided everything they need for a happy and healthy life. As the Vaalians go to feed Vaal – their sole role in exchange for eternal life and long lasting prosperity – Spock notes that in his view, this is “a splendid example of reciprocity”. 

This point of view, however, is heavily contested by Captain Kirk and Chief Medical Officer McCoy, and is a prime example of the alienation of the Vaalians and S'Chn T'Gai Spock as Racial and Cultural Aliens. Multiple times throughout the show, Spock’s vulcan lineage has placed him in an uncomfortable position in relation to Starfleet.

“MCCOY: Negative. Did you know this is the first time in a week I've had time for a drop of the true? Would you care for a drink, Mister Spock?

SPOCK: My father's race was spared the dubious benefits of alcohol.

MCCOY: Now I know why they were conquered.”

Many of his conversations with McCoy end with a quip from McCoy about how vulcan biology is inferior to human biology, how their culture is strange and alien to him. He complains about how Spock has green blood, and a heart closer to his abdomen than his chest, even after Spock nearly died protecting them from the deadly flora of Gamma Trianguli Six. McCoy also overdoses Spock, in a blind attempt to get him to wake up from the poisoning. While these could be read as light-hearted quips to maintain the lighthearted tone of the series in face of the Hamlet-ian deaths of the redshirts, McCoy’s refusal to learn about vulcans speaks to a larger theme throughout the episode of doxastic ignorance about other people and cultures.  

The Vaalians are repeatedly noted to be happy and healthy, as explained by McCoy, as he cannot tell if they have been around for “twenty years, or twenty thousand years”... “add to that a simple diet, a perfectly controlled temperature, no natural enemies, apparently no vices, no replacements needed”. Their only natural exchange for this is the gifting of some excess fruit to Vaal each day. McCoy takes issue with this manner of living, and that the Starship must intervene, stating that their society is stagnant, and needs something to strive for. However, Spock states in the episode that the Vaalians, as any other group of people, reserve the right to choose a system that works for them. This argument continues throughout the episode, and exemplifies their alienation of the Vaal due to their ignorance, as the human crew of the Starship attempt to overthrow the system of Vaal. They eventually settle on a final course of action, with the Starship trapped in Gamma Trianguli Six’s atmosphere – to kill Vaal. This response could be predicted by LeGuin’s explanation that “[t]he only good alien is a dead alien”, especially in the context of racial and cultural alienation. The Starship landing party alienates and subverts the autonomy of an alien community because their ignorance leads them to believe they are superior . Le Guin’s essay outlines precisely in each area how this episode creates divides in its cast, both between the Starship Enterprise and Vaalians, but within the Starship as well. At the end of the episode, Spock, McCoy, and Kirk ruminate on the consequences of killing a being who was providing for an entire community of people, and the starship leaving that community with nothing but their own wits.

SPOCK: Captain, I'm not at all certain we did the correct thing on Gamma Trianguli Six.

MCCOY: We put those people back on a normal course of social evolution. I see nothing wrong in that.

KIRK: Well, that's a good object lesson, Mister Spock. It's an example of what can happen when a machine becomes too efficient, does too much work for you.

SPOCK: Captain, you are aware of the biblical story of Genesis.

KIRK: Yes, of course I'm aware of it. Adam and Eve tasted the apple and as a result were driven out of paradise.

SPOCK: Precisely, Captain, and in a manner of speaking, we have given the people of Vaal the apple, the knowledge of good and evil if you will, as a result of which they too have been driven out of paradise.

KIRK: Doctor, do I understand him correctly? Are you casting me in the role of Satan?

SPOCK: Not at all, Captain.

KIRK: Is there anyone on this ship who even remotely looks like Satan?

(McCoy and Kirk walk around Spock. McCoy is gazing intently at Spock’s pointed ears.)

SPOCK: I am not aware of anyone who fits that description, Captain.

KIRK: No, Mister Spock. I didn't think you would be.

This is not to say all of Star Trek treats its nonhuman, lower class, and female characters with this lack of respect throughout the entire series, but The Apple speaks deeply to both Le Guin’s thoughts on Alienation and Patriarchal White Supremacy, and Star Trek’s need to appeal to the larger American audience in its messaging. Landon’s alienation stems from her role in patriarchal systems that would create a divide between her and the leading male cast; The Vaalian and Spock’s alienation is due to being foreign to a capitalist system that pushes for constant productivity, and being denied agency by those who believe their own views are the ‘correct’ ones. Considering the episode was released in America during the Cold War, it’s not hard to infer that this episode was cautioning Americans against communism. However, it treats everyone who isn’t coded as a Red Blooded American Man as mindless and abused, in need of a push in the right direction. This episode tries to speak for a better, more unified divine future – to take people from a corrupted garden and give them true Eden – but it regresses directly back into idealizing colonization in its efforts to homogenize any culture it can touch.

Works Cited under the cut

Boquet, Damien, et al. “Editorial: Emotions and the Concept of Gender.” Clio. Women, Gender, History, no. 47, 2018, pp. 16. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26934334. Accessed 10 Apr. 2024.

Hulshult, Rachel. “Star Trek: What Is a Yeoman & Why Did They Disappear from Starfleet?” ScreenRant, 4 Aug. 2023, screenrant.com/star-trek-yeoman-rank-disappear-why-explained/.

Le Guin, Ursula K. “American SF and the Other.” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 2, no. 3, 1975, pp. 208–10. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4238969. Accessed 10 Apr. 2024.

Pevney, Joseph. Star Trek. 13 Oct. 1967, episode 31. TV Series Episode. The Apple.

Trivers, Barry. Star Trek. 8 Dec. 1966, episode 13. TV Series Episode. The Conscience of the King.

Vatican. “The Book of Genesis.” Www.vatican.va, www.vatican.va/archive/bible/genesis/documents/bible_genesis_en.html. Genesis 2:15.

SPOCK DOESNT LOOK LIKE SATAN WHY ARE THEY SO MEAN TO HIM LET ME THROUGH THE FUCKING SCREEN IM GONNA BEAT THEM UP

As @gunstreet once said, The Apple is Spock’s Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day.

Was just watching the first mirror-verse ep in DS9 and I thought it was interesting how the course of events were changed bc of Kirk + co’s visit in “Mirror, Mirror”.

Mirror Kira says how after Kirk talked with mirror Spock, he became a whole different person and rose in the ranks to create something new for the world, which before he never would have. Mirror Spock was like “I just enjoy working in the science department, I don’t want to be a captain” but Kirk changed all of that!!!?!

In every timeline and universe, Kirk and Spock affect each other. In every way. No matter which Kirk and Spock they are.

Watching Mirror, Mirror for the first time is an experience that is so fucking hilarious and awesome.

Like the costumes for the mirror universe are so cool to look at and the fact that the og landing party is just in Kirk's quarters going "I wonder how alternate us is doing" and it cuts to Shatner screaming bloody murder as he's being dragged by red shirts.

Mirror!Kirk's threats are also so fucking funny because Spock is just so unbothered with this man that isn't his Jim. Like he knows this ain't his husband and therefore he does not give a fuck.

Shoutout to Kirk's look of horror when he realized that Spock would have to deal with evil versions of the landing party without him. Truly iconic homosexual behaviour.

thinking about tarsus and the mirror universe, and wondering in what ways the events may or may not have differed between the two. how can an already nightmarish situation have been twisted even worse - and what kind of effect would that have on young james?

our jim likely came out of tarsus with an even deeper sense of compassion for his fellow man - kindness forged in fire. he’s been through such hardship and pain that all he wants to do is alleviate that in others - his idea of “let me help” perhaps being even more romantic than “i love you” being cultivated there

and what the mirror image of that must be. any sense of trust or heart mirror!kirk may have possessed as a child completely shattered - kindness quite literally starved away. he’s been through such hardship and pain, so why should everyone else get off easy?

Thinking about AOS Mirror!Verse Spirk is fucking me up a little because, canonically, in the prime Mirror!Verse, Spock killed Kirk, tried to reform The Empire, and caused the fall of The Empire in doing so by weakening it to invading parties. This man must regret basically every single thing he did with his life. He thought he was doing the right thing, the logical thing, ensuring the longevity of his world, and all he got was a dead soulmate and a legacy of failure.

And now he’s been granted the chance to tell his younger self to not do any of that. That there’s no saving The Empire from itself, but The Empire doesn’t matter. That killing Kirk would feel like killing himself. That he would regret it every day of his life. That his life will feel so, so content if he just follows this man and his trail of bloodshed through the galaxy.

Torture for him.

Kill for him.

Die for him.

And he will, and he does, and this time when The Empire burns itself out, Spock regrets absolutely nothing.

oh mirror spock i think of you constantly....... how jealous do you think he was of og spock for having an actual useful, reliable and cute jim kirk. that one talk og jim and mirror spock had before jim went back to og universe..... oh i know mirror spock thinks about it every night. maybe sometimes he gets slightly satisfied that at least, in another universe, he got to have a jim he could love (and one that could love him back)

was it casual when his evil alternative version helped you get back to your universe because he wanted your evil counterpart back

hey look it’s another world in its darkest time and we know this because spock has a supervillain goatee and jim is dressed even sluttier then usual.

star trek is great because the episode i watched last night was like: have we as humans progressed to the point where there is no longer any need for gods/faith? maybe the only thing we can and should have faith in now is each-other.

And then the episode i watched today was like: yeah so kirk has this bitch computer son thats weirdly sexist? and then kirk tells his computer son to kill himself and he and spock stick bombs to it and fling it out the window and then spocks like wow captain that sure was a great display of logic when you molotov cocktailed your bitch computer son out the window and kirks like yeah i ate that fr

when people said they were married, it was an understatement

still cannot believe Star Trek canonically made an episode where the plot was ‘Spock goes into heat and is going to die unless he has sex but then he rolls around on the ground with Kirk and pins him down and chokes him and after that he’s fine". 

Also this episode establishes that touching and sharing thoughts is so intimate that it is used to seal an arranged marriage pact…in the same episode where in an earlier scene Kirk just casually grabs Spock’s hand and Spock seems cool with it. 

Oh. And ALSO. After Spock has explained to Kirk that he is in heat and needs to have sex or die he’s all “Captain, there is a thing that happens to Vulcans at this time. Almost an insanity, which you would no doubt find distasteful.“ And Kirk’s response is to kind of raise an eyebrow and say “Will I?” in a way that suggests very much the opposite.

I just. This show was something else huh. No wonder it manifested modern fandom and fanfiction culture. 

its the way spock closes his eyes when kirk says "you've been called the best first officer in the fleet" like he knows he's trying to tell him he needs him without saying that and the mask of professionalism is unbearable. and the way he follows it up with "that's an enormous asset to me" with way too much emphasis and way too much restraint just for the love of god. the secrecy of it all and the mutual understanding and the pleading pleading pleading and neither of them can say it out loud

a hazy gaze from madness, sweat and, perhaps, non-existent tears

on september 15, 1967, spock and kirk gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named slash fanfiction

I’m noticing something absolutely fascinating about the early part of Spock and Kirk’s relationship. I’m making video compilations of every time kirk says Spock/Mr.Spock and vice versa every time Spock says Captain/Jim (I’ve got a spreadsheet and EVERYTHING because I’m obsessive like that)

Regardless! In the beginning, Kirk is very verbally/publicly protective of Spock which makes sense Star date-wise since Kirk just got promoted to captain of the Enterprise and Spock to first officer instead of just science officer:

He’s the first to call out people that won’t let Spock talk in Where No Man Has Gone Before, Charlie X and Balance of Terror.

He has an I’ll Kill You glare whenever anyone is racist/xenophobic toward Spock like Styles and Charlie (even Bones initially if you watch the Man Trap! Which is only their fourth mission).

You can even pin point exactly when Kirk is like “alright... I’m in love with this man” you can pin point it as a slow motion tumble from about halfway through The Enemy Within when he asks Spock to tell him when he’s slipping, to watching Spock stand up against Trelaine in The Squire of Gothos.

He’s got this “if Spock won’t fight for his place on this ship, I will.” Attitude that hits a fever pitch in The Menagerie

Spock on the other hand is extremely physically protective of Kirk from the get-go, even though he hasn’t even fully sized Kirk up. I think at least initially this could be chalked up to feeling like he failed to protect Captain Pike in The Cage (and later from the events that prelude The Menagerie) but it’s more than that. I think it’s also a manifestation of his inner frustration about how closed-off Kirk is because of his painful past:

He goes so far as to request a freaking phaser rifle in Where No Man Has Gone Before, just to potentially protect Kirk from Mitchell, and seems a little peeved that Kirk fought him alone. That’s not his freaking job, he’s a science officer

Pretty much ALL Spock’s actions in The Man Trap, Charlie X, Squire of Gothos, What Are Little Girls Made Of are directly to protect Kirk, forsaking his scientific curiousity (something he will keep doing for Kirk’s sake as we know)

In Dagger of The Mind Spock even forsakes his own personal boundaries to potentially protect Kirk by mind melding with Dr. Van Gelder.

All of this frustration culminates in the way they bicker in Conscience of A King, Kirk is closed off and has a self-destructive streak that Spock can only curb by physically getting in the way.

This protectiveness (like Kirk’s) hits its fever pitch in The Menagerie where Spock is willing to potentially face the death penalty for both his captains because of his intense protectiveness of them.

They protect each other in opposite ways that you’d expect them to, Spock the academic punches monsters and throws himself into bodily/mental peril without hesitation. Kirk the soldier cuts with words and wit to defend Spock from prejudiced assholes and is absolutely enthralled by Spock’s intellect.

All these episodes I’ve discussed are only the first half of the first season. It sets the tone for their relationship, their proclivities complete one another and it’s so... romantic. I don’t see how other people don’t see it.

Of course the relationship evolves beyond this simple feelings protectiveness but man, it sets a tempo to their romance.

Alright I’m now convinced this was intentional

Guys buckle in cuz it’s time for another installment of Kirk judges someone for doing something morally questionable for possibly good reasons and then finds himself doing something similar/faced with the same dilemma several episodes later.

First round it was the Menagerie and Conscience of the King

Kirk was mad at Spock for lying and hiding why he took the ship off course with Pike and then literally the next episode Kirk hides his intentions with Kodos as he takes the shop off course until he is confronted. Another fun contrast between the two is everyone except Kirk thinks Spock is acting weird in the Menagire before he explains himself, while in conscience of the king, only Spock notices Kirk is acting off and has to do digging on his own to figure out what is going on because Kirk refuses to explain.

Second round was a taste of Armageddon and the Errand of Mercy.

In the former, Kirk was pissed at the locals for fighting this war on computers, condemning 3 million to die every year, instead of going to the negotiation table and working this out. So he destroys the computer (their weapon of war) to force them to negotiate.

And then in the latter story, the locals of a planet take away Kirk and the Klingons’ ability to fight via disabling all their weapons across the entire galaxy in order to force a negotiation that both sides are hesitant to start.

And round three is Tomorrow is Yesterday and The City at the Edge of Forever.

In the former, after the enterprise accidentally time travels, Kirk kidnaps some pilot b/c said pilot has seen their spaceship and could change the future. The pilot tries to escape several times to get back to his country and wife, not caring about the consequences, much to Kirk’s annoyance. And the episode ends with them erasing everything, even the events themselves so the timeline is restored.

And of course, in the latter story, Kirk is faced with the dilemma letting the woman he fell in love with die in order to restore the future, or saving her and condemning millions to die in a changed future. He chooses the former, and is so wrecked by this he curses for the first and last time in the whole tv series. And the episode ends not on a shot of the enterprise sailing away to its next location, but lingers on the time portal.

Edit: This one really gets me cuz that pilot was willing to break the timeline to be with his family, something extremely selfish, while Jim was able to let Edith die, sacrificing his personal happiness, saving the timeline.

Big picture is we can watch Kirk both see these dilemmas or actions from an outsiders perspective, and then later he either does the same thing or faced with the same situation personally. In short, it humanizes Kirk in a way that doesn’t make him an asshole.

I love this so much and I hope it continues.

Edit: so it didn’t really continue but I still really like this. You learn what kind of a person Jim Kirk is based on how he interacts with each given episode plot and how he deals with said plots in comparison to other people rather than him just monologuing about himself.

Bones is spirk's no. 1 shipper

Star Trek: The Original Series S01E29 "Operation: Annihilate!"

what am i supposed to do with the fact that kirk is like "oh btw the words 'let me help' are stronger even than 'i love you' haha" and then in the very next episode spock says 'let me help' to kirk

your random blorbo who happens to die is not doomed by the narrative. edith keeler is doomed by the narrative.