Loftwings and Demons

My heart super went out to T'Pring in the last episode, when we learn about her mother.

They say that Vulcans are not emotive. But no one does the 'dead inside' expression better than a Vulcan, and no Vulcan has emoted this as ably as T'Pring.

Currently in simultaneous 'obsessed with this' mode for both Star Wars and Star Trek, on the Star Trek end because I've watched a lot of Star Trek lately and found I really missed out on a lot the first time I watched the older shows. Have also seen a lot of the new Trek shows and have many Thoughts. Not sure if that will ever coelesce into much of anything, but it's definitely...there.

On the Star Wars end, there's Andor and also, to my surprise, Star Wars Visions. I have to admit, I didn't bother to watch Visions when Season 1 came out because while the animation looked impressive, I wasn't expecting to get much out of the stories.  I've watched them all now, and while there were definitely a fair few with little substance to them, there were also a few really thoughtful ones. Also quite a few I really enjoyed. There were a lot of interesting episodes that involve the Sith in some way, but I especially can't stop thinking about Screecher's Reach. Getting spoiled on that episode was actually what convinced me to watch Visions in the first place, and it remains my favorite of all the episodes. I also really like that there are so many miners in the different episodes. Just fascinated by how that is a significant element of the plot of more than one of the episodes, given that they are not otherwise related by their narratives or characters.

One of the things I enjoy about Voyager is that Tuvok gives the show a more consistent vulcan presence, which was missing in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine (where the most memorable episode with vulcans put them at odds with Sisko, albeit in only a mildly antagonistic way). So it seems that Tuvok was the first new major vulcan character since Spock?  Anyway, vulcans are one of my favorite Star Trek aliens and Tim Russ did a great job getting the vulcan mannerisms down while imbuing his character with his own distinct personality.

Was thinking about how much I wish I was a better essay writer because I'd love to write a long detailed essay comparing the politics of Star Wars and Star Trek and how I think that key among their differences is that Star Wars is a dystopia and Star Trek is a utopia.  This is one of the things that I think makes comparing them in a 'which is better' fashion, despite their superficial similarities (eg. genre, era of creation), an apples to oranges comparison.  What makes an exploration of utopian ideals interesting is inherently different from what makes an exploration of dystopia interesting.  Star Wars is a galaxy in collapse, stuck in a cycle of destruction and rebirth.  Star Trek is about a galaxy coming together and the creation of peace.  

In Star Wars, the war is never won.  Victory is inevitably followed by defeat in a seemingly unbreakable cycle.  Justice and happiness are transitory, fleeting, an illusion.  Star Wars is a tragedy unfolding slowly.

In Star Trek, war is beaten back by peace, intolerance by understanding.  The depths of despair may be deep, but emergence is inevitable.  Star Trek is a story of hope with a happy ending.

Additionally, despite being the happier tale overall, Star Trek is written more with adults in mind despite being rated so it could be viewed by children, whereas Star Wars was always written with selling toys in mind and thus was written to appeal to children first and foremost.  Star Trek is also the much more explicitly didactic of the two--I've mentioned before that Star Wars is much more confused in its politics but that lack of clarity makes it much less explicit in its politics as well.  

Where the narratives coincide, however, is the mutual scorn they share for conservatives.  This is not to say that Gene Roddenberry and George Lucas share identical politics, because I think it's clear they have some very important differences in that respect.  But having seen a great deal of both and having seen a number of interviews with Lucas in how he characterizes the political aspect of his work, it seems pretty clear to me that he is often criticizing contemporary American conservatives (and I'd say that J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson's works also sort of do this in addition to revisiting the political moment of the original trilogy by it's narrative reenactment).  And I think the scorn for conservatives Roddenberry has is communicated clearly by the didacticism of Trek.

I just have so many thoughts on this and I don't think I could elucidate them all properly or even write them all down.

Star Trek Discovery is a show I'm really into right now because I was introduced to it by someone who watches more tv than me and was able to watch it without buying a subscription to anything myself, which I have always been quite unwilling to do.

I was a little iffy on this series at first, but the characters really grew on me, and I've really enjoyed the story.  I've watched all three seasons and have generally enjoyed how the story develops in each season, but I've particularly enjoyed the third season.  This series both is and isn't like other Star Trek series.  It is because it is obvious that the writers of this show have taken great care to reference elements from the other shows, especially but not only from the original series.

However, it is different due to the approach the storyline takes with the plot.  This makes it easier to watch the shows sequentially since the seasons are fairly short and the episodes are all tied together with common story threads, but that means skipping episodes may cause more confusion than in other Trek series since the main story and characters change a lot as the series goes on.  

One thing to know about this series is that there are elements that are extremely fantastical, more fantasy than sci-fi, really.  They still have plenty of more plausible sci-fi elements embedded in the series, but some things are just like...no amount of rationalizing is going to explain that!  You just have to accept that Discovery runs on mushroom power and that's that!  For me this is fine, since I'm alright with a certain amount of handwaving in a story as long as there are enough elements I enjoy.  I just classify things like that as sci-fi+fantasy.  But this could be an element that some people might not be able to get past.

So yeah, this is a sci-fi I've enjoyed a lot so far.  The first three seasons are currently complete, but apparently there will also be a forth season, too.

I finished watching Season 2 of Discovery, and while they are still powering starships with...magic mushrooms...I did overall enjoy this season a lot.  I don't bother to get subscriptions for shows like this, but I know someone who does, so I watched it with them.  I've also seen a number of Season 1 episodes, including the very beginning and the last few episodes.  I disliked Season 1 initially, but I thought it improved considerably towards the end.  Season 2 was really good with holding my attention, and I'm interested to see where they go with Season 3.  I felt the main plot points for S2 were resolved pretty well, even though they initially seemed rather nonsensical to me.  I've also enjoyed the new characters a lot, especially Michael Burnham, but in general I like a lot of the characters in this series.