vulcans

PARTY OF LINCOLN! We continue to look at Star Trek's BIG SWINGS with the episode where literally Abraham Lincoln beams aboard the Enterprise. It's a classic Star Trek story that includes wacky 1960s predictions about the future, alien gods pitting our crew against the forces of evil itself for their own amusement, and some really unsubtle Kirk-Spock slashfic material. 

Joining Bryan this week is returning guest Andrew Bloom (@TheAndrewBlog and andrewbloom.substack.com). Will they Trek, Marry, or Kill it?

The grades begin at (26:18).

The political intrigue and ritualistic knife fighting heats up as we review "United"! When Archer tries to get everyone to act like adults so they can deal with the Romulan CIA Drones, Shran goes full goblin mode, Travis has hidden talents, and we manage not to hate Reed (for once). 

Nothing like a little torture between friends as we review "Kir'Shara". When Jeffery Combs shows up, you know it's the good stuff as Shran and Soval have some personal time, Archer and T'Pol put on a sweet holographic display, and Koss comes through as too good for his wife anyway. 

This mid science fiction show we were watching suddenly turns into a tight political thriller as we review "The Forge". All those promises to Peter for the good Vulcan content pays off in spades as the Earth embassy gets bomber by Detective Guilty and Archer is on the case!

THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY of the debut of The Animated Series more or less coincides with Trek Marry Kill's 1ST ANNIVERSARY, and so to celebrate both, Bryan has decided to remove this podcast's original sin of holding the animated shows off to the side by fully embracing them with the first of what will be monthly special episodes dedicated to animated episodes. 

Joining him for the first special episode is Laurie Ulster of TrekMovie.com, who hosts the All Access Podcast on that network. She also copy edited Star Trek: The Official Guide to the Animated Series, an awesome reference guide for this Emmy-nominated Saturday morning cartoon that's not "just" a cartoon -- it's animated Star Trek!

This month, the first two episodes of the series. One written by the same guy who wrote the first episode of The Original Series and the other written by D.C. Fontana, perhaps the second-most important writer in franchise history after Gene Roddenberry. Hear about Bryan's chance encounter with her back in 2016. 

The grades begin at (22:15). "Yesteryear" discussion begins at (48:23). This episode features some old promos for which you can see here on YouTube. One of those promos is an old "Keep America Beautiful" PSA. Our theme is "70's Synth Funk Jam" by Phill_Dillow on Pixabay. We also use a snippet from Luis Humanoide from Pixabay's "Space Fleet" during our bridge. If you're liking the show, consider rating us five stars on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. 

A familiar face graces our screen as we review "Fallen Hero"! After Archer gets browbeat into doing a quick fetch quest for the Vulcans, the NX-01 winds up in the middle of the most unnecessary conspiracy of all time. But hey, any excuse to finally make the Warp 5 ship go Warp 5, right guys?

We meet the Vulcan everyone warned you about at the Goth Club as we review "Fusion". We get the standard Enterprise tropes here - Archer gets more traumatic brain injury, T'Pol gets the short end of the stick, and Trip is a super bro to the first fat Vulcan.

We settle in to some of that sweet continuity as we review "Shadows of P'Jem"! Marvel at an episode that is supposed to be all about T'Pol making a choice but ends up with her having zero agency and dumb boob jokes until Shran shows up and saves us all.

Enjoy an episode with the lowest possible stakes as the lads review “Breaking the Ice”. This one is so casual, it spends five minutes on a scene where they answer poop questions by 4th graders, and the villain is...poor footing.

Standard Orbit 261: Completely Illogical

Vulcans in the Immunity Syndrome

Hayley and Ken discuss whether it is logical that a crew of Vulcans would be unsuccessful in solving the mystery of the immunity syndrome. In this question and answer episode: Ken and Hayley challenge each other on this fascinating topic.

Would the best scientific minds in the Federation truly fail in thwarting the giant space amoeba? When something isn't logical does it really mean it is impossible to accept? Ken and Hayley explore the Vulcan mind-set and other examples of Vulcan behavior to understand if they could have survived. Boldly Listen to the this week's Standard Orbit.

Chapters 
Welcome to Standard Orbit! (00:01:27)
Why not Logic? (00:05:30)
Logic in the Moment  (00:16:30)
Hayley's Introspective (00:27:30)
POTFM (00:36:41)
Closing (00:42:61)

Hosts
Ken Tripp
Hayley Stoddart

Production
Zach Moore (Producer) Ken Tripp (Editor and Producer) Hayley Stoddart (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Nicolas Anastassiou (Associate Producer) Tim Robertson (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Associate Producer) Corey Elrod (Associate Producer) Dan Rhodes (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)

Standard Orbit 252: He's Weird, Whatever

Spock's Emotional Moments.

For someone who claimed to be emotionless and that emotions were "alien" to him, Spock certainly became "emotionally compromised" quite frequently over the years. This week on Standard Orbit hosts Ken Tripp, Zach Moore and Hayley Stoddart discuss Spock's emotional moments in The Original Series, the movies and the Kelvin Timeline.

What's up with the smiling and shouting Spock of the pilot era? Does it count as being emotionally compromised if external forces are at work? Is the Kelvin Timeline's Spock too emotional? All this and much more on this week's Standard Orbit, boldly listen!

Chapters 
Welcome to Standard Orbit! (00:01:27)
Half Human, Half Vulcan (00:02:07)
Emotional Spock in TOS (00:03:31)
Emotional Spock in The Movies (00:27:26)
Emotional Spock in The Kelvin Timeline  (00:40:47)
Emotional Spock in TNG, Final Thoughts (00:53:16)
POTFM (00:57:27)
Closing (00:59:07)

Hosts
Ken Tripp
Zach Moore
Hayley Stoddart

Production
Zach Moore (Editor and Producer) Ken Tripp (Producer) Hayley Stoddart (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Nicolas Anastassiou (Associate Producer) Tim Robertson (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Associate Producer) Corey Elrod (Associate Producer) Dan Rhodes (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)
 

Hosts: Ed Brown, Penny Dumsday, Lucas Randall, Dr. Pamela Gay

00:00:58 What happens when octopuses are given ecstasy? They get... cuddly.

00:07:23 Gene Roddenberry got it right, there IS a planet orbiting the star 40 Eridani. That's where the Star Trek creator said the planet Vulcan would be, homeworld of the pointy-eared logicians.

00:10:23 The Japanese space agency, JAXA, has had a spacecraft orbiting the asteroid Ryugu since the end of June this year. It has now deployed three of its four rovers onto the 1km wide near Earth object.

00:17:00 The failure of a gyroscope onboard the Hubble Space Telescope was a concern for NASA engineers, who scrambled to resurrect a backup gyro. It also raised questions about the future of the telescope, and the its ever-postponed successor the James Webb Space Telescope.

00:33:09 Questions from the audience.

This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre in Carlton, Melbourne.

Dr. Pamela Gay is astronomer, podcaster, and artist. She is the co-host of the AstronomyCast podcast and the Director of Technology and Citizen Science at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. She is also the principal investigator of CosmoQuest.org.

This episode contains traces of NASA's video detailing all the things that could go wrong with the upcoming InSight Mars landing.

Innocence.  

Tuvok may be known for his Vulcan stoicism, but his Vulcan parenting skills are second to none. When Tuvok's shuttle crashes on one of the moons of Drayan Two, he's forced to care for three children who, unbeknownst to him, are actually elderly Drayans aging in reverse.  

In this episode of To The Journey, hosts Suzanne Williamson and Zachary Fruhling discuss the second-season Voyager episode "Innocence," in which we see a kinder, gentler Tuvok keeping the monsters away and singing the children to sleep with a Vulcan lullaby. Suzanne and Zachary also discuss reverse-aging as a metaphor for senility in old age and the fear of death, along with Chakotay's diplomacy learning curve.  

Chapters 
Intro (00:00:00) 
Uncle Tuvok's Storytime Hour (00:01:55) 
Mind Meld?! (00:06:41) 
Old and Busted Version (00:15:59) 
A Simpler Way of Life (00:21:17) 
Is Death Something to Fear? (00:25:32) 
Propositioning an Ambassador (00:33:48) 
Closing (00:35:53)  

Hosts 
Suzanne Williamson and Zachary Fruhling  

Production 
Suzanne Williamson (Editor) Zachary Fruhling (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Bruce Lish (Associate Producer) Joo Kim (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Associate Producer) Patrick Carlin (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)

Vulcan Katras and the Mind-Body Problem.  

Episode 6 of Star Trek: Discovery, "Lethe," explored and expanded upon the metaphysics of Vulcan katras beyond what had been seen in previous iterations of Star Trek. But what exactly is a Vulcan katra and what properties does it have? From transferring consciousness from one Vulcan to another, to enabling a form of disembodied immortality, katras play an important role in Vulcan mysticism and metaphysics.  

In this episode of Meta Treks, hosts Zachary Fruhling and Mike Morrison give a philosophical analysis of the metaphysics of Vulcan katras in relation to the mind-body problem. Is the katra a type of nonphysical substance, as Cartesian dualism would hold? Is the katra a biophysical or emergent property of the brain and its functioning? And is transferring one's katra, through a mind meld or otherwise, an actual transfer of consciousness to a new location, or is it more like backing up a copy of your hard drive to the cloud?  

Chapters 
Intro (00:01:20) 
"Lethe" and Sciencing the Katra in Discovery (00:04:29) 
Naturalizing the Katra and Alternative Theories (00:10:59) 
Examples of Katric Transfers in Star Trek (00:15:52) 
Are Katras Necessarily Dualist? (00:20:24) 
Is the Katra Living Consciousness? (00:27:57) 
Emerging Consciousness from Katra and Body (00:36:58) 
Is a Katra Divisible Into Parts? (00:48:48) 
What Happens to the Disembodied Katra? (00:55:17) 
Vulcan Immortality and Gnostic Knowledge (01:01:25) 
Touch Telepathy vs. Mind Meld by Remote (01:12:34) 
Closing (01:19:29)  

Hosts 
Zachary Fruhling and Mike Morrison  

Production 
Mike Morrison (Editor) Zachary Fruhling (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Patrick Devlin (Associate Producer) Kay Shaw (Associate Producer) Mark Walker (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)

Katras, Memories, and Forgetfulness.

We knew that Sarek played an instrumental role in raising young Michael Burnham, but the extent to which she was part of Spock’s family remained cloudy—until “Lethe.” The sixth episode of Star Trek: Discovery—with its title aptly related to the past and memory—took the concepts of the katra and the mind meld to places never visited before.

In this episode of Notes from The Edge, in which we deep-dive into connections between Star Trek: Discovery and the broader Star Trek universe, host C Bryan Jones shares his thoughts on “Lethe”—particularly how it plays into the Ash Voqler Theory—and explores katras throughout the 51 years of filmed, written, and drawn Star Trek.

Chapters
Intro (00:00:00)
Thoughts: Meaning of the Title (00:02:15)
Thoughts: The Ash Voqler Theory Revisited (00:04:49)
Notes: USS Buran (00:22:39)
Notes: Grazer (00:23:30)
Notes: Yridia (00:24:47)
Notes: The Holodeck (00:26:56)
Notes: Vulcan Extremists (00:28:33)
Notes: The Katra (00:31:33)
Closing (00:41:25)

Host
C Bryan Jones

Production
C Bryan Jones (Editor and Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Tony Robinson (Associate Producer) Thomas Puleo (Associate Producer) Lisa Slack (Associate Producer) Shoaib Mirza (Associate Producer) Richard Rutledge (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)

It has been 12 years since a Star Trek series has graced our lives and after a very long wait we are introduced to a new crew and new adventures set 10 years before Star Trek the Original Series. While the show's writing is promising, there are many things about it which raise a Vulcan eyebrow so to speak. Find out what we think about the first two episodes in our discussion with Gary, from Trekkerprise and let us know what you thought of the premiere episodes of Star Trek Discovery.