STC Ep. 7: "Embrace The Winds" speculation and discussion....

[Zaminhon]

I don't know about future Garrett, but I got more of a Shelby feel in her demeanor. I don't consider it a call out as much as the result of the crap that female officers have to go through to attain their rank and position . I have no problem with any of the references, they're connecting the dots. Although cliffhangers and mysteries weren't given to be resolved in future episodes in the original series, I can see that happening in hypothetical future seasons.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

I don't know about Garrett, but I (Betazed) sense we will definitely be revisiting what happened to the Hood before this series ends, as well as the increasing loss of starships. (The Constitution decommissioned already? It's only 25 years old...)

It was mentioned they're still in year four of the FYM. So are we jumping ahead a year before the series finale (possibly fitting TAS into the gap), or is the FYM coming to a premature end (again) in more ways than one?

James Kerwin has figured this out. In STC's chronology, seasons 1-3 were years 2-4 of the mission, because there was an unseen first year between "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and the rest of season 1. So we are now seeing the fifth year.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I (Betazed) sense we will definitely be revisiting what happened to the Hood before this series ends

I got the same feeling. Well, it was from Scotty's line that what worries him is not knowing what happened. That should be a hint dropped that it will be revisited later on.

 

[Philip Guyott]

I agree that we will probably find out more about what happened to the Hood’s engines in later episodes. Perhaps the refit engines were installed out of some necessity to correct a potentially fatal design flaw.

I loved that this episode tackled the issue of women captains head on, although I am slightly relived that Garrett did not get the job as she appears to have some deep issues that needs to be worked out. Besides, who would want to inherit a ship full of corpses anyway!

For me at least, it's hard to believe that the Federation would intentionally discriminate just to please one member race. That being said, whilst it is hard to imagine today that such discrimination would still exist in the 23rd century, this is 1960’s Trek and the future is not perfect.

The topic of positive discrimination a very current issue. As Kirk asked, “Do you believe that a person should receive special consideration because of their gender, religion, race?” Is it really right to hold to a policy of favouring individuals belonging to groups which have historically suffered discrimination, even if someone else is more qualified? Hopefully we will one day have no discrimination, either negative or positive, and that everyone will be treated with equal opportunity.

Also, did Spock just get caught out lying, well at least to himself anyway! That scene cracked me up.

Overall I really enjoyed this episode.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

I agree that we will probably find out more about what happened to the Hood’s engines in later episodes. Perhaps the refit engines were installed out of some necessity to correct a potentially fatal design flaw.

I loved that this episode tackled the issue of women captains head on, although I am slightly relived that Garrett did not get the job as she appears to have some deep issues that needs to be worked out. Besides, who would want to inherit a ship full of corpses anyway!

For me at least, it's hard to believe that the Federation would intentionally discriminate just to please one member race. That being said, whilst it is hard to imagine today that such discrimination would still exist in the 23rd century, this is 1960’s Trek and the future is not perfect.

The topic of positive discrimination a very current issue. As Kirk asked, “Do you believe that a person should receive special consideration because of their gender, religion, race?” Is it really right to hold to a policy of favouring individuals belonging to groups which have historically suffered discrimination, even if someone else is more qualified? Hopefully we will one day have no discrimination, either negative or positive, and that everyone will be treated with equal opportunity.

Also, did Spock just get caught out lying, well at least to himself anyway! That scene cracked me up.

Overall I really enjoyed this episode.

Spock's lie must be a point on the arc that leads to Kolinahr.

 

[rocketdave]

Was it just me? The tempo of some of the scenes sounded sped up to the point where Vic almost sounded like he took a breath of helium. Seems like I'm not used to lines being delivered so quickly.

It's not just you. Both Kirk's and Scotty's voice-overs in the beginning sounded sped up. At first I half-jokingly speculated that they were trying to skirt one of the new guidelines by speeding up the video, but since the episode wasn't close to fifteen minutes, that obviously makes no sense.

 

[dmac]

After the 1st captain's log I was going to blame it right away on Vimeo but it's just a line here and there.

 

[Not Herbert]

Hey, the "admins" have allowed Ray to call me an "asshole" twice now in violation of the board's Terms of Service. Complain to them.

As Uhura once said (or will say in the 23rd Century) "In our time, we don't fear words"

 

[DarthPipes]

For me at least, it's hard to believe that the Federation would intentionally discriminate just to please one member race. That being said, whilst it is hard to imagine today that such discrimination would still exist in the 23rd century, this is 1960’s Trek and the future is not perfect.

Overall I really enjoyed this episode.

Yeah, I didn't buy the Federation intentionally discriminating it either. I know the Star Trek series was a product of its times but I thought the gender discrimination issue was silly. It didn't feel like Star Trek.

If any military officer acted in real life the way Garrett did when she was being questioned about the Nimbus III incident, their career wouldn't go very far. Her behavior was ridiculous and unprofessional, showing she wasn't qualified to be a commanding officer.

I like though that the show is acknowledging all of the massive losses Starfleet suffered in the original series. They made a reference to it in the last episode and it looks like something that will continue. I think Gene implied the Enterprise was the only ship to return from its five-year mission. I don't see many people joining Starfleet if there was a 95% casualty rate. Human self-improvement my ass.

I liked the Hood storyline and Checkov's role in it.

 

[Phoenix219]

James Kerwin has figured this out. In STC's chronology, seasons 1-3 were years 2-4 of the mission, because there was an unseen first year between "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and the rest of season 1. So we are now seeing the fifth year.

Thats very cool to me... I have always wondered what all of the adventures before the pilot could have been like, and have always said that the pilot would have been a fantastic season 1 finale in the modern tv sense, especially if we had just gotten to know mitchell and kelso for 20 some odd episodes. Losing good friends could be a good reason their doctor retires, too.

 

[JE Smith]

The episode's problem is that it's dull. It takes a full half-hour before anyone is under mortal danger and the nature of that danger is left unexplained by the end of it, which is frustrating.

I don't mind the ham-fisted morality per se. The issues it raises are relevant, especially given the nature of this election season, for instance, but they didn't frame those issues into a plot that was engaging enough, instead relying on an extended socratic dialogue. They also seemed to be done to rationalize and soften TOS' social justice contradictions/anachronisms. I would have let this one slide and taken on some other topic.

This eloquently and beautifully sums up pretty much my exact feelings about the episode. I wanted to love it, but the first half especially was just so dull. The writing was bad enough, but the cutting should have been much tighter and faster. If you're going to preach, at least throw a little hellfire and brimstone in there. I did admire the tension built during that brief sequence on the Hood, though -- even though we know the regulars aren't gonna get kilt, it was still quite a suspenseful little nugget.

The technical standards were up to their usual excellence, with a couple of small exceptions: I could see a very clear seam on Admiral Stomm's ear appliance, and neither of Erin Gray's costumes seemed to fit quite properly.

 

[JE Smith]

Also -- the entire crew of a starship is killed for no adequately explored reason (which could be some massive technical malfunction), and the ship is still hanging out in space, full of corpses, having not even been recovered yet. Isn't it a little early to be battling over who will command that ship when it eventually gets put back into action?

 

[Mordock]

I think the dilemma in the episode was a little contrived (why didn't it occur to anyone to compromise by offering Cmdr. Garrett the 1st Officer position? If she objected to that, it could be played for more conflict); plus, the sudden destruction of the Hood neatly avoids the question of which way Kirk would have ruled, which I found unsatisfying.

 

[mos6507]

the sudden destruction of the Hood neatly avoids the question of which way Kirk would have ruled, which I found unsatisfying.

Yes. A real anti-climax. And what really went down with Garrett's deadly mission? There are so many loose ends in this episode that it almost feels like part 1 of a two-parter. If there is enough criticism maybe they will write a second half and re-edit to make it a two-parter where the mystery of the Hood becomes more central. That would improve things tremendously.

 

[Amaris]

I've never been comfortable with rationalizing that Janice just imagined the whole thing, so I'm glad they found a credible (if convoluted) in-universe explanation that respects the original material.

I think whenever they find out what went wrong on the Hood, it'll be time to give the Enterprise a major overhaul ... y'know?

As for Garrett's backstory, I thought this was something that should have been spelled out. If this had been TOS, they'd have gotten into some details of what her act or omission was supposed to have been on that ship. Yes, the exact story would be just a MacGuffin for evaluating her character, but it would have lent some interest and believability to the hearing, and it would only have added a couple minutes to the running time. Besides, if I were a kid watching this episode, I'd want to know what Garrett was supposed to have done and feel cheated by never finding out... and there's no important reason not to tell us any details; it just makes the "message" more of a sledgehammer.

All that said, I wonder if Garrett will be back. There's so much still unknown about her... not only what she did, but why she's so concerned about her family pride.

This was my feeling as well, about the condition of the Hood. As I wondered where the story would lead, the thought did occur to me that "hey, well that just may require a complete upgrade and replacement of key ship systems, which would require a spacedock visit. Mmm... this pretzel is delicious and chewy." (I was eating a soft baked pretzel at the time)

Anyhoo, just watched it, and I really enjoyed it. I love it when the story is topical, and this one's about as topical as it gets, and like Captain Kirk opined, we shouldn't even need to have this conversation, but here we are. The production values were top notch, as always, and the acting solid from all main cast members, as always. The level of professionalism put into this production just really shows the blood, sweat, and tears involved in creating a great piece of drama, and STC delivers again and again. If I have any complaints, it's that some moments in the episode feel rushed, but none of that really took from my enjoyment of the episode, or the performances of the actors involved.

All in all, it's a great episode, and I think we're starting to see some of the pieces beginning to make their closing moves as we approach endgame. Thank you to the wonderful people at STC who worked so hard to bring this episode to completion.

 

[Phoenix219]

I really enjoyed the episode. All of the actors are so comfortable in their roles now, and it shows. I think I see what they are doing - drawing on all of the continuity of STC, starting with the "Turnabout Intruder" vignette, Lolani, the themes of both Fairest and Divided, recurring characters like the Commodore; the previous joke about Chekov wanting stripes; Drakes arm being useful; the thread of the losses of ships... when viewed as an entire series, I think it will hold up much better rather than as standalone episodes. Doohan is just amazing, and both the Vic and Todd completely *are* Kirk and Spock at this point. The humor is perfect. I enjoyed this one much more than Dragons. It got borderline too preachy, but worked in the context of the series as a whole. I'm sure whatever is going on with the Hood will be addressed in a future episode.

 

[DavidAntman]

James Kerwin has figured this out. In STC's chronology, seasons 1-3 were years 2-4 of the mission, because there was an unseen first year between "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and the rest of season 1. So we are now seeing the fifth year.

Um... actually Mike Okuda is the one who said this. If Kerwin said it too, he's simply repeating what Okuda wrote.

 

[Tosk]

neatly avoids the question of which way Kirk would have ruled, which I found unsatisfying.

I'd argue that the final conversation between Kirk and Spock makes it clear which way he was going to vote.

 

[USS Intrepid]

Y'know, I think this would have been a much more compelling story, for me, had it focused on the mystery of the Hood, with Garrett being the officer sent to oversee it's retrieval. The backdrop of the Hood mystery could have been a good setting to explore why Garrett had perhaps been overlooked for command, show us that she was captain material (instead of telling us) and explore the issues they wanted in a much more naturalistic (and compelling - at least to me) way.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

Um... actually Mike Okuda is the one who said this. If Kerwin said it too, he's simply repeating what Okuda wrote.

Yeah, thanks, I just meant Kerwin pointed this out to the STC team.