For some reason I read that in Roscoe Lee Browne's voice. Mr. Arrow from Treasure Planet.
At sea, their vessel is literally what the sailors depend upon to survive. It's more than just a place. It's an instrument that no amount of devotion to can necessarily be enough, but such devotion is essential nonetheless. That makes it more than a place, more than just something to which sentimental attachments can develop. It can be a strong bond, an extension and manifestation of the will to survive.
But a character? That's a bridge too far, especially in a story, where it lacks agency upon whose choices the course of the story depends. If it were an artificial intelligence with such agency, perhaps, probably. But the Enterprise as depicted is not like that, except when it's under the influence of a weird, unknown phenomenon, like in "The Practical Joker".
But a character? That's a bridge too far, especially in a story, where it lacks agency upon whose choices the course of the story depends. If it were an artificial intelligence with such agency, perhaps, probably. But the Enterprise as depicted is not like that, except when it's under the influence of a weird, unknown phenomenon, like in "The Practical Joker".
Fair. It has become shorthand to say "The ship / city / setting" is an Nth character. Obviously not strictly true. (Not even the TARDIS.) But it's a way of saying "Do not underestimate the importance of this detail of our show." The Enterprise is important and it needs to feel like home. (Scale issues aside, I think SNW knocks it out of the park on this one.)
But you knew that.
"Goodbye ole Right of Man"
-Billy Budd by Herman Melville
There's an old memoir I read once, I wish i could remember the title now, it was written by a commercial sailing captain who started out as a youngster on the tea clippers, and ended captaining the big multi-masted schooners that were all that was left of commercial sail at the end of the 19th century. It was interesting how much loyalty he and had to their clipper, early on. Those ships were often racing each other and jeering each other not out of any real need to get there a day faster. They were already ridiculously fast for the era, but just out of sure pride from it.
Shore Leave conventions, Hunt Valley, Maryland, 2008-2019.
Exactly. I'm not going to weep over an object as I would a person, no matter my attachment.
The house my father grew up in, and my grandparents that was lived in for 50+ years, was demolished to make way for the Sea-Tac Airport runway expansion.
Because of this, we had to move grandfather into a retirement/nursing home, and he went into a depression that he never fully recovered from.
He lasted 6 months to a year and passed away on Super Bowl Sunday 2002
"All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again."
From the last time [an old thread, with previous discussion about whether the Enterprise is per se a character]:
While I argued otherwise, @Citiprime 's quotation of "Setting as a character" was very interesting [link]. I'm not sure this ever applied to the Enterprise, except when possessed by a space anomaly. It did to the Millennium Falcon, though, as mentioned.
From the last time [an old thread, with previous discussion about whether the Enterprise is per se a character]:
"I really got the feels when HGTV made the actual Brady house inside the Brady house. [...] It's [...] an excellent practical, more than theoretical case study of matching a set as authentically as feasible inside an exterior."
While I argued otherwise, @Citiprime 's quotation of "Setting as a character" was very interesting [link]. I'm not sure this ever applied to the Enterprise, except when possessed by a space anomaly. It did to the Millennium Falcon, though, as mentioned.
The Enterprise isn't a character, it's a spaceship. Which is arguably even better than a character.
Spaceship! Spaceship! Spaceship!
Everyone asks,"where is the Enterprise" but no one asks, "HOW is the Enterprise."
I'm more apt to have sentimentality towards something like a former school, than something that is fictional.
But if others attach to fictional things, it's a compliment to those who wrote for the show and who designed said ship.
True enough.
