First Batch: SOS, Lordxana, Pixelmage, Eli Gone Crazy, NarrativeDilettante. SOS
DarmokSeason No 05, Episode No 02”Shaka, when the walls fell.”The Star Trek universe has this wonderfully handy, albeit unrealistic device known as the
Universal Translator. This tool is built into the combadges of Starfleet officers, and automatically translates whatever language an alien is speaking (even in totally new species) into Federation Standard, or Klingon, or presumably whatever language you set it to (and vice versa: they hear you speaking in their language, too. Don’t ask me how.)
I know right? Presumably in this era, language tutors are pretty much out of a job.
However there is one problem with this miraculous technology: it only translates words and grammar. It can’t elucidate cultural references or metaphors. So what happens if you meet an alien race that communicates primarily using those? A language in which understanding is based entirely on a knowledge of history?
The episode
Darmok attempts to address that question.
Let me use an example all of us as Metaguards will understand: if I were to compare an event I had just witnessed to
“Quixote, attacking his windmills”, you would know immediately that I was referencing folly, delusion, and illogical behaviour. But if you didn’t
know who Don Quixote was, or why he was attacking those windmills, the reference would be lost on you. You see this kind of pattern all over the internet today. How often have you seen a meme before you found its origins, and realised its significance?
In a time long before the advent of LOLcats and our current, extremely self referential culture, Star Trek TNG grasped at the possible consequences of a world defined by extremely personal internal knowledge. And it did so beautifully, with a surprisingly simple storyline.
Why I think this episode is great for you: There not a lot I can say without spoiling the episode more than I already have, but there are many, many aspects of this episode that I think would be right up dear Sauce’s theatrical alleyway. It pays reference to myth and allegory wrapped up in a good old fashioned survival plot, and demonstrates beautifully how divergent people can find a common ground through the power of storytelling. Also, it contains the Myth of Gilgamesh, Something I’m sure you are quite aware of already, SOS.
I hope you enjoy it. Or as the Children of Tama might say:
Quixote, his eyes bright. *
Lordxana
DescentSeason No 6/7, Episode No’s 25/01”Data - feelings aren't positive and negative. They simply exist. It's what we do with those feelings that becomes good or bad.” There’s a phrase in one of my favourite books, wherein the main character comments that:
“Thinkers rarely act. But when they do they are capable of unspeakable carnage.” One of my favourite characters in the Star Trek universe (and judging by the number of featured episodes he gets, one of the most popular in the franchise) is Data, the Enterprise’s Second Officer, and sentient artificial life form. He has the strength of ten men and the equivalent of a supercomputer in his head. He also paints, owns a cat named Spot, and is completely lacking in Emotional capability. If there is an Ur-Example for The Thinker in Sci-fi, then it’s probably Data.
Oh, also, he isn’t the first sentient AI created. That honour falls to his brother Lore, who is, for want of a better word, the biggest asshole you never want to come across in outer space. Imagine a person with Data’s strength and brainpower, but driven by cruelty and malicious intent? That’s Lore.
His introduction way back in series one was... lacklustre.
Datalore, while cunningly named, is not my favourite episode, but he returns several times over as the series continues. The two parter Descent marks his final appearance. It also deals with the consequences of Data receiving the emotions he has longed for all his life... but with a distinctively negative twist. And yet in a strange, twisted way, something of love remains in the minds of those who seem to care for no one.
Why I think this episode is great for you: When I read your works, Xana, I always noticed a specific tendency towards the issues of good and evil. You appear to be drawn to the duality of this issue. In a way, Descent encapsulates both this, and also attempt to explain how evil comes about, how it works, and why it happens. Also, it’s a pretty tense episode, well written, and even goes so far as to attempt to
humanise one of the worst villains in the Trek universe (there is one aspect of this you won’t understand as well if you haven’t seen an earlier episode, so just so you know in advance: it’s okay, Hugh’s been severed from the collective.)
*
Pixelmage
MasksSeason No 07, Episode No 17“Masaka is waking.”If there’s one thing the Metaguards understand, it’s that stories are powerful. Especially old stories. In a way, Myths are the aspect of humanity that seems to survive everything. You can argue that in the end, given enough time and forgetting, all history becomes myth, reduced from complex multilayered events to the most basic, fundamental truths of
who, and
why. In the episode
Masks, the Enterprise D encounters a comet, somewhere in the region of 90 000 years old. There also, to their surprise, seems to be something inside.
Naturally they decide to poke it.
Now this may surprise you, but that is pretty much the point of the Enterprise-D. I mean, it’s “to seek out new worlds and new civilisations”, not “seek out new worlds and blow them up with our superior firepower”. This is the kind of thing the ship was made for. But when they burn away the millennia worth of ice coating this particular comet, much like unwrapping a somewhat deadly Kinder Egg, they get more than they bargained for.
The comet contains a giant structure, with the vague appearance of an ancient temple. It’s an archive. The collected stories and history of a lost culture: all that remains of them, drifting in space. Upon being revealed, the archive does what it was designed to do: it starts to tell those stories. And it uses the very structure of the Enterprise, not to mention android officer Data, in order to do so. Nobody knows why it is doing this or what it is trying to accomplish, but it doesn’t seem to matter. All the crew of the Enterprise can do is carry the story through to its end.
Why I think this episode is great for you: Okay I’ll be honest, this is your episode at least in part because it begins with them finding
a giant alien archive that looks rather like a castle .
That’s far from the only reason, but something about its storytelling reminded me of the world you created: a place separated from the outside world, definable only by its own logic. Masks is one of the most fascinating episodes Star Trek produced, and it always felt a little up your alley
*
Eli Gone Crazy
Remember MeSeason No 4, Episode No 5”If this were a bad dream, would you tell me?”
<<<Computer: That is not a valid question. >>> Here’s a question for you: what would you do if you woke up one morning and an old friend had seemingly vanished and nobody believed they were missing?
Welcome to the Life of Beverly Crusher, Population: Her!
This is one and only episode written for Star Trek by Lee Sheldon.
Remember Me is another of my personal favourites. In fact I did part of my first year Dissertation on it at university. Not least because Beverly Crusher (alas, like many of the female characters in this series, she is woefully underused) gets some time in the spotlight. Mind, you’ll have to put up with
Wesley too, for a while, but given the quality of the rest of the episode, I honestly don’t mind.
The episode begins with the Doctor in question meeting her elderly friend and mentor, Dr. Dalen Quaice, who just beamed aboard the Enterprise and is off to start his retirement on a nice quiet planet somewhere. Except he never gets to the planet. he never even checks into the Enterprise’s passenger logs. A confused Beverly tries to track him down and slowly uncovers a disturbing mystery in the corridors of the ship. Hidden under the main suspense theme of the episode, though, is the underlying theme of loss. Of people growing old, passing on, and the fear of forgetting those who went before.
Why I think this episode is great for you: Picking an episode for Eli was tricky. She’s one of the few people I actually talked to about her tastes before making the final selection. Mostly I’ve been trying to go with my gut, but in this case, I was really torn between two episodes. Clues, and Remember me.
What I have learned about you, our dear Eli, is that you like a good mystery. I also know you have a deep interest in science and in scientific theory that go straight over my head. So in the end, I went for Remember Me even though story-wise, I think it’s the less complex of the two, partly because Doctor Crusher needs more love, and partly because, when I asked about this as obscurely as possible, you said “I like creepy”
So there ya go, Eli. You got creepy.
*
Narrative Dilettante
Elementary, Dear DataSeason No, Episode No”To feel the thrill of victory, there has to be the possibility of failure.”Words to the wise: in the event that you are confronted with a technology that is intelligent enough to create an entire scenario based on a single sentence you speak, then for goodness sakes
watch your use of exact words. The reason for this will become quite clear upon watching this episode.
This particular episode involves the usage of the Holodeck, a highly popular recreational past time amongst busy twenty fourth century Starfleet officers. The Holodeck can create a complex, interactive digital world, so close to reality it’s impossible to tell the difference. And on a ship like the Enterprise, there can be upwards of hundreds of potential programs.
Yeah, basically everyone in the 24th Century role-plays.
In this particular role-play, Data and Geordi have gotten together in the respective roles of Holmes and Watson to take on one of his mysteries. Of course the problem with this is that Data, being an logical being, doesn’t entirely understand the concept of
how you act out a mystery. Thus, he’s solving the problems in mere seconds, and kind of ruining Geordi’s fun in the process.
Pulaski, (who was ship’s doctor for that one series during with Gates McFadden was fired – don’t worry, that didn’t last) insists that this is only natural. After all, as a mere machine, how can Data possibly fail at any Sherlock Holmes mystery? Geordi refuses to believe this though, and specifically asks the Holodeck to create a mystery, in the vein of Sherlock Holmes’ adventures, that is capable of defeating Sherlock Holmes.
And that, as they say, is when the excrement hits the rotational air circulation device. Remember what I said about exact wording? Yeah, turns out those computers aren’t all that smart after all.
Why I think this episode is great for you: Dilly’s episode was another difficult choice, where I was reduced to two possibilities. I considered
Clues for you, too, Dilly but a your insistence that you preferred comedy, I went for the most light hearted and whimsical episode choice. As one of the earlier episodes, it’s certainly of lower quality, both in terms of writing and in effects, than many later episodes, but it’s definitely entertaining. This also includes an interesting portrayal of a very classic villain, whom I’m sure you already know quite well
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