How do you see the Enterprise?
- Thread starter plynch
- Start date
It might telling just making note of who refers to the Enterprise as "it" and who refers to the Enterprise as "she".
The ones who prefer "it" clearly don't get it....
The ones who prefer "it" clearly don't get it....
I don't remember ever thinking of it in terms of which piece(s) supported other pieces. It always seemed like a whole entity. However, I've been looking at the thing for over 35 years, so I might have forgotten my initial impressions when I was a teenager watching the reruns after school on our 19-inch B&W set.
Doug
Doug
Thanks for understanding my question. And for responding, too, of course. And to everybody else who did.
As to Kirk's love of his ship, people and other animals can bond to -- love -- things and animals of other species. Remember also that it is a vessel (an ark, womb) preserving his and his crew's life in the cold vacuum of space. It would be weird NOT to love that, esp. if you're the Captain, eh? Be well.
(I'm glad this prompted thought, by the way. I thought it was a "pretty out there" post and might generate nada.)
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The way in which he usually expressed his "love" for the ship was self-dramatizing and a little fetishistic, yeah. Silly and insincere. When I was a kid, though, I thought it was pretty cool.
To be fair, isn't what you're quoting from the second Mudd episode, where he's deliberately saying somewhat whacked things in order to mess with the androids?
Ship always looks to me like a saucer with the cylinders attached. I think I tend to see the engineering hull and nacelles as a unit, and the saucer as a separate unit.
^^^^It was from that Mudd episode (although I didn't remember that at the time), but I think he really felt that way.
And, Beaker, I understand, and actually agree with what you said about the Enterprise representing his commitment to Starfleet and fulfillment of a dream, as well as her protecting and nurturing his crew. (Not your exact words) I just always felt that the actual comitment transcended the physical ship, and the "ship love/obsession" that he often expressed.
And, Beaker, I understand, and actually agree with what you said about the Enterprise representing his commitment to Starfleet and fulfillment of a dream, as well as her protecting and nurturing his crew. (Not your exact words) I just always felt that the actual comitment transcended the physical ship, and the "ship love/obsession" that he often expressed.
It was conceived early in the show's development that the saucer would be capable of separating from the rest of the ship and operating independently on its impulse engines, though this was never actually shown until the Enterprise-D in TNG.
Arguably, the best episode that shows Kirk's obsession with the ship and command is The Naked Time.
Early TOS was very much a recreation of the late 18th century navy (though shipboard procedures were inspired more by WWII aircraft carriers) . These sailors were thousands of miles from home, thousands of miles from any form of civilization whatsoever. Their only home was that ship. Their only tie to civilization, to any form of society, was the men aboard their ship. The ship's survival meant their survival. Loss of their ship meant death, or, worse, being marooned amongst godless savages, forever lost.
Early TOS was very much a recreation of the late 18th century navy (though shipboard procedures were inspired more by WWII aircraft carriers) . These sailors were thousands of miles from home, thousands of miles from any form of civilization whatsoever. Their only home was that ship. Their only tie to civilization, to any form of society, was the men aboard their ship. The ship's survival meant their survival. Loss of their ship meant death, or, worse, being marooned amongst godless savages, forever lost.
GR said it was Horatio Hornblower in space. He re-read those books his whole life, I've read elsewhere. I recently picked up a set at the local St Vinnie's store for a song. They are absolutely great. (And I like very little fiction.) VERY formal navy (British in the Napoleanic era) far from home, just as relations were more formal and E was more isolated in first half of season 1 TOS.
I think that he was riffing off of what he knew but stretching the irrational aspects of it in order to fuck Norman's circuits up.
Naval officers are not, generally, fetishistic goofballs in the way that Kirk was portrayed - that's as stereotypical as Popeye.
The Enterprise is a vehicle for adventure, like the TARDIS, taking us and the crew to fantastical places. That's how I primarily see her.
Agreed. I thought the new Battlestar Galactica did it far more effectively.
This BBS needs a "like" button. You nailed it.
