Dancing in his quarters. Why? Does he have more important things to do?
Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3x04 - "A Space Adventure Hour"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
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Dancing in his quarters. Why? Does he have more important things to do?
I believe the question is why he wasn't on the bridge during the episode's climax, a crisis so dire Ortegas was reinstated to duty despite being suspended last week. The "real world" reason is because we the audience are supposed to believe he really is in the holodeck with La'an, but it's not really addressed where he actually was in the episode.
The episode gives me "turtles all the way down" thoughts...
The question I am wrestling with -- did the holodeck program invent "The Last Frontier" whole cloth, or did it "absorb" an actual 1960s television series in-universe called "The Last Frontier" into the program? In other words, is "The Last Frontier" a space opera television series within the Star Trek universe? Could Gary Seven and John Christopher have turned on the television and watched Maxwell Saint star in The Last Frontier?
Then I wonder, did TK Bellows approach science-fiction writers of the era to pen scripts? Might one of those writers have been Benny Russell? Might Benny Russell had adapted one of his own "Deep Space Nine" stories of the 1950s for the crew of the USS Adventure?
Which then leads me to ask, the novel TK Bellows was interested in adapting to film... was it a raunchy smut fest like Pretty Maids All in a Row? Roddenberry also wrote a sexed-up Tarzan script; might Bellows have written an unproduced, sexed-up John Carter script? (Some unnamed producer in a meeting: "Look, Bellows, the pacing in this is good, but why the hell did you spend half a page describing Thark dongs?")
I'm going to be turning these ideas over and over in my head...
In retrospect, I assumed Spock was on the bridge all along, but the shots were framed in such a way as to exclude him, to keep the audience in belief that he was on the holodeck.
The question I am wrestling with -- did the holodeck program invent "The Last Frontier" whole cloth, or did it "absorb" an actual 1960s television series in-universe called "The Last Frontier" into the program? In other words, is "The Last Frontier" a space opera television series within the Star Trek universe? Could Gary Seven and John Christopher have turned on the television and watched Maxwell Saint star in The Last Frontier?
Then I wonder, did TK Bellows approach science-fiction writers of the era to pen scripts? Might one of those writers have been Benny Russell? Might Benny Russell had adapted one of his own "Deep Space Nine" stories of the 1950s for the crew of the USS Adventure?
Which then leads me to ask, the novel TK Bellows was interested in adapting to film... was it a raunchy smut fest like Pretty Maids All in a Row? Roddenberry also wrote a sexed-up Tarzan script; might Bellows have written an unproduced, sexed-up John Carter script? (Some unnamed producer in a meeting: "Look, Bellows, the pacing in this is good, but why the hell did you spend half a page describing Thark dongs?")
I'm going to be turning these ideas over and over in my head...
In retrospect, I assumed Spock was on the bridge all along, but the shots were framed in such a way as to exclude him, to keep the audience in belief that he was on the holodeck.
Kind of the point of my sass.
Ah, I get you now.
Just checked, there is a wide shot as they dive away from the gamma ray burst, and Spock can be seen sitting at his station. Well, it's man in blue with short shiny black hair anyway.
Scotty: So it can AI generate holodeck characters now? Because it could only copy the faces of pre-existing people back in my day.Now when Geordi and Scotty first go into the turbolift in "Relics(TNG)" the scene will hit a little differently.
Geordi: "Wait'll you see the holodeck!"
Geordi: Yep.
Scotty: That's good laddie. We wouldn't want any scandals about with officers getting too cozy with holodeck characters based on real people now.
Geordi: Um, yeah, of course not...
That was his stunt double
Scotty: I was checking the holodeck logs and found something interesting.
Una: What?
Scotty: The holodeck had ALREADY been tested before La'an entered. Quite a bit actually.
Una: By who? Who was in there?
Scotty: The warrant officer retrainer. Apparently he had orders suddenly routed to him that Lieutenant Ortegas' retraining was to take place in the holodeck. He went in there, spent several hours, then left. This happened periodically until you recalled Ortegas back to active duty.
Una: I gave no orders for Ortegas' retraining to happen in the holodeck! Who altered these orders, and why?
Scotty: And that's another thing. I checked life sign monitoring logs and Ortegas was relaxing in her quarters during her period of re-training. I have to assume the warrant officer was retraining a holographic Ortegas in the holodeck under the mistaken belief that she was the real McCoy.
Una:
Una: What?
Scotty: The holodeck had ALREADY been tested before La'an entered. Quite a bit actually.
Una: By who? Who was in there?
Scotty: The warrant officer retrainer. Apparently he had orders suddenly routed to him that Lieutenant Ortegas' retraining was to take place in the holodeck. He went in there, spent several hours, then left. This happened periodically until you recalled Ortegas back to active duty.
Una: I gave no orders for Ortegas' retraining to happen in the holodeck! Who altered these orders, and why?
Scotty: And that's another thing. I checked life sign monitoring logs and Ortegas was relaxing in her quarters during her period of re-training. I have to assume the warrant officer was retraining a holographic Ortegas in the holodeck under the mistaken belief that she was the real McCoy.
Una:
Since the first season, I've felt that La'an was designed to be so traumatized by the Gorn that in spite of her professionalism and hardness, she is still a frightened little girl, clinging to fantasies. Her aria in the musical episode felt like a princess waiting for a prince, IMO. When I saw her costume (do we know if it was replicated or did she own it?), I thought Carmen San Diego. Despite what Pike wanted her to do, she was engaging in a childhood fantasy. Indeed, the whole program she runs needs to be seen in the light of her personality, not the task she is supposed to do, and the whole thing was never going to test the holodeck as a training device. Where I think the episode drops the ball is that it doesn't turn the corner on her character. Solving the mystery wasn't important. She should re-evaluate her personality, symbolized by picking real Spock over holo-Spock. But that never comes across. I'm very forgiving of this episode because it pushed the characters in the direction I wanted to see them go from the start, and if I may say, the last scene was hot. However, the episode is very loosely structured.
Sulu: Appeared first as an Astrophysicist, then Botanist, then Helmsman and an experienced combat officer (per Spock) with an interest in Botany.
Scotty: We could only use the faces of the crew for holodeck characters.
Barclay: The Good Ole Days!
Barclay: The Good Ole Days!
Well, rumor is the Board said they could do either Mission Impossible or STAR TREK - not both due to the financial strain it would cause - and their vote was for Mission Impossible because the TV series Man From U.N.C.L.E. was doing very well; James Bond films were very popular too - to the point other studios were doing Spy themed films such as In Like Flint and Matt Helm.
So yeah, the Head of the Studio overruling her Board of Directors to also get STAR TREK approved for production (if she didn't, they wouldn't have done it) is hardly 'exaggerated'.
Oh this episode was an absolutely scathing rebuttable of Hollywood productions if you know what to look for.
I'd say a little of both.
The door problems for example were a classic problem in early Trek that I could absolutely see Frakes setting up so the "new" actors got to see what it was like back in his day.
Meanwhile stuff like actors missing their cue for the Star Trek shake, the alien actress bonking her head, and getting caught on the stage. Looked somewhat real.
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I think that may be the most damning critique.
"Adult woman wants Nancy Drew series to be DEEP, EPIC, and SERIOUS."
Nancy Drew? Seems more Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher.
I loved how Bellows tipped his hat to the fan theory that Jessica Fletcher was a serial killer on Murder She Wrote with his suggestion that Amelia Moon was actually the killer.
On my second viewing last night I watched on my television instead of my laptop with my headset plugged in. And, surprisingly (or not to some) it fell a little flat.
Having slept on it, I'm truly baffled by the La'an/Spock thing now. Last nght after my initial viewing I was so focused on the unintentionally-depressing nostalgia aspect that the new romance just sort of washed over me, but wtf? It doesn't feel natural for either character, and it's been given no time at all to develop naturally or breathe.
Anyone got any behind the scenes info on this? Was it just the hobby horse of one of the writers? It feels absurd in how abruptly its been introduced.
Anyone got any behind the scenes info on this? Was it just the hobby horse of one of the writers? It feels absurd in how abruptly its been introduced.
From what I gather scenes with Peck and Chong give off some sort of "energy." A spark or something.
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