RAW, is that a Magic Lantern setting?

We continue!

21 - Return of the Archons

The crew guest star in a western! Seriously though, the crew beam down to the set of a western. Or maybe Westworld. The society on this planet's run by this powerful being called Landrew, which I kept thinking was similar to Andrew, so that was a bit distracting. Landrew runs the place like a cult and so Kirk decides to put a stop to it, in what I believe is the first example of him deliberately breaking the prime directive. It's nothing special, the resolution is the best thing - Kirk using his wits and talking Landrew into submission. There's this thing where the society are all in a dazed happiness and then run wild for short time with 'anything goes' during that period. The residents of the western backlot completely trash their home, and rape, robbery and presumably murder all occur, then they go back to normal once the 'festival' is done. I don't really buy the idea that a society that has 'limited crime anmesty' can be functional, but at least I now see where that recent movie The Purge got the idea from. The epilogue implies that Kirk's actions have screwed up the planet, but the message appears to be that mankind needs its dark side to mature and that they're ultimately end up being ok.

22 - Space Seed

This is what it's all been about! (well, at least partially.) Kirk and his crew wake up Khan, who has been floating in space for a couple hundred years, and as we all know from Wrath of Khan, the 20th century (!) superhuman tries to take over the Enterprise and is marooned on Ceti Alpha V instead. My first thought watching this was, wow, Montalban looks so young! And whilst I knew the beats from the movie/Chekov's summation, it was fascinating to see how the events unfolded and the interactions between Kirk and Khan, both psychological and physical. They have a bit of a punch up too, which I thought was surprisingly well done for the 60s. I was rivetted the whole episode, except one part. Khan is incredibly abusive towards a female crewmember (who I assume ends up becoming his wife) and she's written to take this abuse and still adore him. I know that there are stories in real life about wives staying with their husbands despite the occasional abuse, ultimately because there's still love there, but this lady has only just met Khan and he's twisting her arm and causing her pain - her reaction? Something like 'oh please don't send me away'.

Good episode, but not as good as I thought it would be. I suppose it's hard for it to live up to the expectations set by the movie.

23 - A Taste of Armaggedon

The Enterprise visits a planet waging a war with its neighbour via computer. Over hundreds of years each civilisation has been killing its own people in accordance with casualty projections provided by the computer. As a result, each civilisation - its buildings, traditions and culture - is preserved. The chosen few line up and walk into a chamber to be disintegrated, entirely willingly. Ok, weird, but the Enterprise and its crew are declared casualties too and so must also be proccessed, prompting Kirk to ignore the prime directive and put a stop to the whole affair.  On the planet, Kirk and Spock and a few others must escape capture and on the ship in orbit, Scotty has to contend with not knowing what's happened to his captain and being ordered about by a diplomat. There's a great moment where Scotty uses his wits and checks a message supposedly sent to them by Kirk, and another even greater scene where he refuses to obey an order to lower the Enterprise's shields. Memory Alpha says that in real life James Doohan, whilst serving in the Canadian Artillery, refused an order given by a colonel during a training exercise which would have killed his own men. The asshat diplomat even has an arc too, which means that everything comes together really well.

This has been my absolute favourite episode of all so far, as I felt the message of the episiode was right on. Absent the true horrors of war, the society lacked the motivation to see it end. Further, Kirk goes about enacting his plan to enact change with the kind of coolness, cunning and perceptiveness that I've come to expect from him and what I've enjoyed seeing so much whilst watching the series. I am simply loving this Kirk.

24 - This Side of Paradise

A deserted colony turns out not to be deserted at all, the residents alive and well thanks to weird plants; plants that then infect the Enterprise crew and turn them into happy dappy folks. I get the feeling that these 'magic substance affects our emotions' episodes are really about letting Spock not be so Vulcan. As you can probably tell, I wasn't a fan of this one. I'm not sure what this episode is supposed to be about, or what it's revealing about the characters than we've not already seen - especially since it essentially ends with a reset. However, it's pretty funny, with Spock goofing off, so maybe this is the obligatory comedy episode of this season?

Last batch coming next I'll bet folks will be happy to know I won't be doing this for the next 2 seasons!

I was really looking forward to that one. Damn... I blame Teague, he jinxed it.

Moving into the second half the season now, and it's starting to get really good in my view.    Some episodes are a real delight to watch.

Trying to hold back off on the spoilers from here on, in case some haven't seen them yet.

13 - Conscience of a King

A fascinating episode where an old friend of Kirk's insists that an elderly Shakespearean actor is actually a long-thought dead war criminal. And thus a sort of detective story unfolds as Kirk employs various methods of exposing the actor, including getting the actor to read out a speech the war criminal had once given. Meanwhile, witnesses of the criminal from years ago are being murdered. It has obvious parallels to the hunt for Nazis but there are a few twists added in to make it distinct. Firstly, the actor has a loving daughter who's doing what she can to protect him, second, they introduce this possibility that by killing thousands, the war criminal may have actually saved millions, and thirdly, a crew member whose family had been among the victims overhears the suspicions and decides to serve some justice of his own.

Great episode! I was riveted and they manage to involve Kirk in more ways than just starship captain who happens to be around - he's personally involved both due to him being a witness and the fact that his friend has been murdered. I like how history is constantly coming up, supporting the current events and providing scope to the universe and its characters. All without being introduced in some clumsy flashback wraparound story like it does in the other Trek series. At this point, I'm acutely reminded that the flashback doesn't seem to have become a TV trope yet!

14 - Balance of Terror

The Enterprise pursues a Romulan warbird that's destroyed several Federation outposts as it retreats back across the Neutral Zone. One of the top 5 for me definitely. It's a tense submarine cat and mouse story with Kirk pitting his wits against... Spock's father? One of those unfortunate results of watching this all back to front is seeing the actor who played Spock's father in the movies showing up in his first Trek role as the Romulan commander. Again, events of the past come to influence the present, as a tense peace exists between the Federation and the Romulans, which the latter part have broken with their sneak attack. And further, they never learned what the Romulans looked like so we're all equally treated to a stunning revelation that they look just like Vulcans (except I guess if you're already seen Next Gen, oh well). This then introduces a rather startling subplot as one of the Enterprise bridge officers develops a strong dislike of Spock as a result of the similarity and isn't the least bit subtle about it. I don't believe it's a 1:1 racism analogy, as the officer only develops his feelings after Vulcans and Romulans are shown to look alike, but to me it seems reminscent of the Cold War, with a "you're a commie too and I don't like commies!" vibe. That the crewmember had a personal grudge against the Romulans due to the war (history again!) I feel contributes more to this interpretation than anything to do with race.

Highly recommend this one. Actually, if there's any one episode that I'd get someone to see it would probably be this one. Accessible, exciting without stuff constantly exploding, engaging and genuinely surprising... all without any really obvious moments of ACTING!

15 - Shore Leave

I guess they can't all be great. The Enterprise away team beams down to a bizarre magic land whilst searching for R&R. And it's just that, a magic land where things happen for little to no reason thanks to a mind-reading, seemingly omnipotent race of beings. This to me is weak Trek. Be careful what you wish for I guess could be an underyling message, but it could surely have been done better than this. Maybe Crichton got his idea for Sphere from this?

Tripe. Next!

16 - The Galileo Seven

And right back into the game! The shuttle Galileo, carrying 7 crewmembers in its sparse interior including Spock, Scotty and McCoy, runs into trouble during a space storm and crashes onto a planet. Straight from the screenwriters' manual, there's a time limit to their rescue as the Enterprise has to deliver medical supplies somewhere else and a guy on board is insisting on assuming command over Kirk if he stays too long there. Meanwhile, the Galileo crew have to work together to fix their busted ship, contending both with Spock's command style and the hostile planet natives. And of course, some redshirts may have been harmed in the making of this episode (though again, not wearing the red shirt - where does that trope even come from then?)

Another good one, really didn't know what was going to happen in this one (aside from predictably of death) and the ending is just great.

And more information (a sort of FAQ) here:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/10/floati … educe.html

Interesting but not entirely convincing. Some problems that come to my mind are how they plan to get a mile-long inflatable into orbital velocity without it breaking apart under stress or being shredded by space debris, how the Dark Sky Station (2 miles long) or orbital ascender stages (1 mile long) get up there in the first place and are deployed, and how the ascender stage is supposed to rendezvous with the station (which if untethered is likely not stationary). The sheer size of these massive structures will pose significant engineering challenges as well, they're an order of magnititude larger than anything built so far, not to mention the atmospheric drag they introduce.

It comes back to the same problem as earlier, the orbital airship still needs to reach 15,000 mph, and the fact that it starts at high altitude isn't helpful. The only benefit is that it doesn't drop out of the sky like a brick. But... any propulsion method will need to be constantly firing to counteract air resistance and drag, which are still present that high up, whilst still generating sufficient thrust to increase speed. Something like 5 days was mentioned, but could be a lot longer than that (which in turn means added weight for consumables which means greater size to keep that weight bouyant which means greater drag and so on). The ISS for instance, which is a lot further up, requires frequent burns to maintain its orbit.

Current electric propulsion isn't used in gravity wells for good reason. So the key technology here is definitely this a hybrid ion/chemical engine they're talking about, but it's performance unfortunately seems mostly theoretical at this point.

Oh I think I know this one 

Attaining an orbit is about speed, rather than height. It doesn't matter how high you are in the atmosphere or even above it when you start, your craft still needs to achieve a velocity of about 7 km/s or 15,000 mph to achieve an orbit around earth. Otherwise you just fall back down again. That's a lot of thrust, and if you're launching a lot of weight (which is usually mostly fuel), it's actually easier to start from zero speed on the ground rather than half way up at X speed, where you'd need a very powerful engine to take off and get you going, as it were. The current airspeed record of a jet is the SR-71 blackbird, and that's a 'mere' 2000 mph (according to wiki mind) without carrying something else like a payload. That's a big difference in speed which rockets then need to accomplish, which require substantial fuel, weighing down the plane further. Unfortunately, the business of getting into space is this awful race between engine and weight and the ratio between fuel used and actual payload put in orbit is almost sickening. Unfortunately, our currently most efficient method of thrust needs all that fuel weight to function, as rockets work on the principle of ejecting all that mass to provide acceleration (reaction thrust). It's all horribly inefficient but it's all we have for the moment and in the grand scheme, the 2,000 mph speed boost you'd get from a plane isn't worth it.

Remember, SpaceShipTwo (Virgin's plane) is only suborbital, so it's never attaining the necessary speed to go into orbit (wiki says it's top speed is 4000 km/h) and it's also reasonably lightweight so it doesn't need to hitch a ride on a monster to get into the air for the first leg. The speed difference in this case does make it worthwhile.

I think at the start of the thread I posted about the Skylon spaceplane, which is still in development and involves a special hybrid engine which gets the plane up to around Mach 6 and then starts burning like a rocket. The idea of a SSTO spaceplane has been around for decades, and no-one has really figured out how to make it work. The Skylon people are closest, but it's still years away with many more hours of testing and engineering. It is, in my view, the future and could dramatically change the way we do space.

edit - DAMN YOU TREY!!

More Trek. I've actually finished the first series now so going back in time a bit with these.

07 - What Are Little Girls Made Of?

Kirk and Nurse Chapel beam down to a planet (which seems to be how most of these stories start) where they find a doctor working in an underground network of tunnels. There's a big android (played by the Addams' family guy?) who tosses men to their death and Kirk ends up being duplicated. The doctor plans to create a race of android duplicates and is revealed to be one himself. Cue lots of questions about the nature of man vs machine, and also love between human and thing. I liked Kirk in this one, I find myself drawn to smart characters and he's pretty smart in this one, employing the 'Zarkov tactic' when being mind copied, as he repeats an uncharacteristic anti-Spock outburst that gets imbedded into the duplicate's mind. The duplicate of course later says this to Spock, and thus is revealed to be an imposter. Kirk also uses that wonderful smile of his to confuse the female android, who ends up killing the duplicate version when it doesn't reciprocate the romantic advances she had learned from the real one. That it ends with a realisation that the experiment has failed, and the android doctor ending both himself and the girl, I especially like. Any time Trek ends without all weapons being fired or the Federation punching someone, I like it.

What I remember most about this one is the giant android, who is pretty intimidating and chases after Kirk, but then rescues him from falling. I thought that was an interesting twist, as Kirk, clever as always, had insisted that it be programmed to obey Chapel's orders as well. 

08 -  Miri AKA the One with the Kids

The crew visit a strangely earth-like planet (re-using another set?) and contract a disease there which kills grown-ups. The remaining inhabitants are kids who aren't particularly helpful until Kirk teaches them a valuable life lesson. There's an interesting dynamic where the crew are working without the aid of the advanced technology but I can't recall much about this one other than Kirk playing a father figure again.

09 - Dagger of the Mind

Kirk beams down to a planet where they're up to something fishy and gets mind probed? I really don't remember this one much. In fact, I suspect that I either fell asleep or lost interest and went to do something else. May have to rewatch this one.

10 - The Corbomite Maneuver

The Enterprise encounters a mysterious and powerful alien, Balok, who threatens them with destruction for trespassing and what follows is a great story with bluffs and twists. It all turns out to be a test and Balok turns out to be a small and friendly being (though badly dubbed!). Some great interplay between Kirk and McCoy in this one, and a new bridge officer that features prominently and then completes his arc by joining Balok (reminds me of Decker in The Motion Picture). The real Balok claims the Enterprise crew wouldn't have been scared of him, but I don't know, I found the crazy dubbed child (played by a young Clint Howard) to be just as unnerving as the fake alien version!

One of my favourites so far (top 5 of the series for sure).

11 - The Menagerie

Scarred and immobilised, Pike is 'kidnapped' by Spock, who takes over the Enterprise and warps to a planet where the inhabitants will allow him to live free of his disability. Urgh... a double episode clip show using footage from the first pilot, The Cage. I'd seen that already years ago and wasn't terribly impressed, so this left me cold, especially since the wraparound story incorporates the footage awkwardly - the crew just sit down and watch the episode! It's not clear how Pike would live hereafter either, since the transformation is a little more than that shown in the pilot. Pike can't see speak or move after all, which I didn't particularly like the idea of happening off screen. Also there's little to no urgency in the whole affair, despite Spock undergoing court martial and the conceit of their destination being forbidden on pain of death (the Federation executes people?). Spock's whole motivation seems emotionally-driven and illogical, which I'd consider out of character. Pike's feelings remain a mystery, which isn't too bad I guess since you can project what you want onto him.

Thinking about it though, I'd consider this to be the good basis for a movie, in the sense that you can have a injured or dying crewmember on a ship commandeered by his or her friends travelling to a place they shouldn't be going in order to find some way for that person to live again. Add in a pursuit and find a better way to frame the historical background (i.e., the prequel), and I think you have quite a compelling story.

Wow... just wow.

Out of curiosity, how many "POC", which is frankly an awful term, does it take to make something diverse in your eyes?

As for your textual evidence, you're projecting a lot of it. You've found one racist, and you've equated repetition in the author's writing style to be a prevailing social attitude in Oldtown. What's more, you're omitting a fundamental part of the story that influences every character's opinion of Elia - her husband went for another woman and the realm divided. Every criticism of her stems from their feeling that she failed to keep Rhaegar happy, i.e. she wasn't beautiful enough, she wasn't healthy enough etc., and as a result thousands perished in a bloody war. These same characters then wonder on the suitability of others, usually their local beauty/someone they've admired, in the way one wonders about history happening differently should a few variables be changed. This is far more of an indication of how Westeros views women than skin colour. You've also appeared to have forgotten than the Martells had historically married into the Targaryen family.

You're also grossly cherry-picking or twisting character attitudes to Elia in defence of your projection. Barristan says of her: "Princess Elia was a good woman, Your Grace. She was kind and clever, with a gentle heart and a sweet wit."

That you consider reports of her being weak and delicate as possibly racially motivated is bonkers. Especially since the story states that she bore only two children, both difficult births, and Rhaegar feared for her life enough to go to another woman to have his third 'head of the dragon'. From ADWD:
Elia was never worthy of him. She was frail and sickly from the first, and childbirth only left her weaker.
After the birth of Princess Rhaenys, her mother had been bedridden for half a year, and Prince Aegon’s
birth had almost been the death of her. She would bear no more children, the maesters told Prince
Rhaegar afterward.

My point was that there's uncertainty about whether Oberyn is indeed the POC you claim he is. You appear to be stating rather definitively that he is, and I'd dispute that, given that he's explicitly not 'burnt brown' like a sandy Dornishman. I think we can agree olive-skinned is a broad enough description that applies to a wide real-world area. So the outrage that he's not 'brown enough' seems misguided.

Having looked at some pictures of the man via google, he does look lighter in a lot of flash photography. However, as fireproof notes, he can and does appear to be look more Mediterranean in others such as this picture.

I appreciate how you might have a dog in this race, but I think that greatly diminishes the character of Oberyn when you say that, as if there's nothing more to him than his skin colour. Oberyn is a fantastic character because he's Dornish, and GRRM has built up a fascinating and exciting culture and a concept of what that means in terms of behaviour (passionate, fiery, and uninhibited), not because he's coloured. Tyrion's thoughts aren't constantly about his skin colour, so I can't really see how you'd reach that conclusion.

This isn't Hollywood though. It's the UK, where colour-blind casting has been in practice for the last decade or so (see Robin Hood and Merlin for prime examples). I can see how you might be frustrated with the lack of racial diversity in American TV, but that's not the case over here and GOT is no exception.

Out of interest, were you complaining about Xaro's casting? What about Daenerys' eye colour? The Stark kids' hair colour? Because it seems a double standard to be a book purist for some characters and not for others.

I've always considered Dorne to be analogous to Spain, soI think the casting is pretty spot on.

And didn't thhey cast a black actor in a role clearly specified as white in the book (Xaro Xhoan Daxos)? So they've gone both ways so far.

I wonder how people would react should aliens ever visit. Fifty years of movies and TV have really messed us up (at least in the western world).

I really liked this. Fascinating and extremely well read. I'm so sorry to hear you went through this, even though your recounting of your experience was very entertaining.