Thursday, November 6, 2014

Trek Thursday: Spectre of the Gun

#49: Spectre of the Gun




In case you forgot: On orders to make contact with the reclusive Melkotian race,The Power Trio, plus Scotty and Chekov, are stuck on a planet that's a half-finished Tombstone. Seems like Kirk pushed the Melkotians a little too far and now they're facing justice in a moment "constructed from Kirk's memory." Spock convinces everyone not to believe in the bullets and so the landing party is safe for another day.

It's been a while since we've had a good case of backassing in this countdown. This time it seems less for plot contrivance ("how do we get Bones to jump into the time portal?") and more for filming practicality ("how we do we get the story happening on a set we've already built because we are way behind schedule?"). At least, I hope it's backassing, because otherwise that means someone thought the Wild West shootout at the O.K. Corral was a great idea.

Don't get me wrong, I'm always a fan of Matrix-style "it's all in your mind!" premises, but the setting really limits the coolness factor.

Well, the setting and the internal inconsistencies within the logic established by the story. Spock figures out that everything is just in their heads because a sleeping gas that should have knocked him out doesn't. Somehow he makes the leap that because the laws of science are not working as they should, they must be in a weird Matrix-style construct. That's a far leap there, but okay.

But if just believing is enough to unravel the whole thing, why wouldn't the Melkotians have, I don't know, made sure that sleeping gas actually worked? It's such a massive oversight, especially for a race of super intelligent, super powerful god-like beings. And even if the Power Trio convinces themselves that the bullets are fake, can't the Melkotians still kill them in a thousand other ways?

Also, why does Spock know about the Tombstone shootout? How much Earth history has he studied? If they're still on the bridge, what is going on around them? It would have been nice to have a couple shots of the Power Trio et al. ignoring the rest of the bridge and babbling nonsense about the O.K. Corral.


On another, non-Trek–related note, I'm sorry to have disappeared from the blogging world. I am (1) fighting back a not particularly nasty but incredibly persistent and lingering cold and (2) NANO. On top of my usual Swedish studies and editing work.

I am already at 30,000 words, though!! I am really into this particular story—maybe a little too into it, considering how mentally unhinged most of the characters are—so I am extremely confident in my ability to clear the 50,000 goal before the deadline. I thought my idea this year was going to be a hard, difficult one but it's turning out to be the easiest I've done yet. Maybe this means I need to see a therapist or something?

I promise that once I hit 50,000 words, I'll slow my relentless pace and spend some of those words here instead of in my NaNo. I do have some exciting news that I CAN'T WAIT to share with you guys but it is a little premature so I'm sitting on it....for now. But don't wander away!

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