“Don’t spend today away, cause today will soon be gone, like yesterday is gone…”
Interstellar News: Another year has come and gone. 2022 had a lot of changes for me both personally and professionally.
Professionally – We finally got another advisor on the team as well as a student services specialist and two graduate student interns. This means we’re going into 2023 fully staffed, as well as our largest number of undergraduate students ever… yay? I co-chaired a committee on professional development and put on a successful half-day symposium. Everyone who is more important than I am at work seems to think I’m doing a good job, so I’ll just keep trucking along.
Personally – I got to do a lot more travel, which made me extremely happy: Virginia (twice), New York (five times), Indianapolis (IN – for a convention), Charlotte (NC – to see Billy Joel in concert), Red Lodge (MT – for a wedding), Atlanta (GA – Dragon Con!), NJ, Salt Lake City (UT – for a convention), Maderia Beach (FL – to perform my best friend’s wedding), and St. Louis (MO). I also started to take my physical and mental health a bit more seriously, something I plan to double down on in 2023.
The husband person finished the built in bookshelves in the living room (they are gorgeous and just need some finishing touches), we hired someone to build us an amazing back deck (complete with stairs for us and Zoom), and we started the GREAT DOWNSTAIRS REMODEL. 2023 is going to be hella expensive – but absolutely worth it when it’s all said and done.
I’ve watched a lot of Trek I haven’t written about – so that’s up first. I may do more Marvel MCU movies, or perhaps some TV reviews here and there. I also may be doing more PA work for one of my author friends, so I might have to muster up some “free time” first. I’m also back to teaching this semester, which I am not looking forward to for some reason.
Remember to be excellent to each other, party on dudes, live long and prosper, and may the Force be with us all. Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2023.
This song was featured on The Suicide Squad, which I know is a DC property — but I’ve been digging it recently.
Interstellar News: This is my 9th post of the year, and that’s just awful. It’s also telling what a bat-shit year this has been. I want to devote more time to writing in 2023, but there are a lot of things planned and I’m not sure how many spoons I’ll have left for things like this. It’s often relaxing to write – but after a day of composing emails, sometimes I just want out from behind the keyboard. I also need to work out more, spend more time organizing, and taking time to be present with my loved ones. I’m going to try to finish the year strong… but we’ll see.
Anyway, please enjoy this very belated post from when we were doing a chronological re-watch of the MCU. I haven’t decided if I’ll do a round-up posts of all of the movies after this, but rest assured you’ll find out if I do.
Avengers: Infinity War(2018)
“Dude, you’re embarrassing me in front of the wizards.”: This move escalates things quite quickly, as Thanos goes from one power stone to completing the set in a relatively short span of time. Our heroes are outgunned and outmatched from the get-go, but prove they are heroes by never giving up. I love watching the main characters all meeting each other for the first time and trying to work together with their mismatched styles. There is, of course, the Big Ass Battle in Wakanda, which is epic to watch for so many reasons. Thanos telling Thor that Thor should have “gone for the head” is the biggest burn and one of the best bad guy lines ever… it’s completely devastating.
There is a lot of death and destruction in this movie and it always makes me ugly cry. The sacrifice Gamora never wanted to make, the defiance of both Loki and Heimdall, the heartbreaking decision of Wanda and Vision, the bravery and foolishness of Thor, and the vanishing of half the world are all packed into one movie – and it’s absolutely gut-wrenching. Having had to wait a whole fucking year before knowing how it was all going to turn out was a special kind of torture… so it’s a good thing we watched these in one weekend.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
“And I am Iron Man. snap“: The sequel picks up and we’re right in the action. There’s a rescue, a fight, a meeting of the minds, and even a beheading! Then we fast forward 5 years and my heart sinks every time. 5 years is a long fucking time. Maybe not in the grand scheme of things – but think about all of the things a human typically accomplishes in their first 5 years of life… it’s a lot. Then out pops Ant-Man and we have ourselves a time heist.
The time heist is a lot of fun and also sometimes stressful and awful, like when Black Widow sacrifices herself for Hawkeye. Thor seeing his mother again and Steve catching a glimpse of Peggy tug at the heartstrings while other moments, like watching Quill be an idiot through other people’s eyes, is fabulous. Professor Hulk gets to be a hero, the Avengers get more than they bargained for, and Tony Stark makes the ultimate sacrifice in the most Iron Man way ever. This sets up several of the Disney+ TV shows, which I have now actually watched all of, though I still have to catch up on the Netflix era shows (which I will watch even if they aren’t canon, thank you very much).
Overall, these two were an epic conclusion to a story that had been building for a long time. There was a lot to pack in and, while they are no means perfect, they are good to rewatch as a set and a satisfying conclusion to the power stone saga.
Season 2, Episodes: 14, “Stigma” and 15, “Cease Fire”
Music Video of the Day:
Recently featured in Clerks III, this song sums up my relationship with my home state. “I’d give anything to go home. I gave up everything to leave.”
Interstellar News: My life has been unusually hectic lately. I’ve been watching Trek, but it’s been hard to have the time to sit down and write the words when I am stuck behind the keyboard for my day job. First Year Fred has been keeping me on my toes and I’ve been able to do a bit more travel recently. I had a wonderful trip to Florida where I officiated my best friend’s wedding, I got to see Clerks III and listed to Kevin Smith after, and I’m super stoked for my upcoming trip to St. Louis in a few days.
As today is Veteran’s Day, I’ll thank all for their service – it’s not a happy day, but one for reflection on the sacrifice of others.
Episode 14 – “Stigma”
“And because you find them undesirable they’re not entitled to medical care?”: T’Pol has contracted an illness because of the mind meld she was forced to endure. The Vulcans are prejudiced bastards and Archer is gobsmacked at their behavior and intolerance. Phlox’s second wife, Fezal, comes aboard and hits on Tucker – who is too vanilla to consider polyamory a valid lifestyle choice.
“We got rid of bigotry nearly a century ago. We’re not afraid of diversity. We don’t persecute it, we embrace it. If you call yourselves enlightened, you have to accept people who are different than you are.”
This is clearly the “AIDS episode” and you couldn’t miss the symbolism if it river-danced on your couch. There are a lot of things this episode gets right, and it’s hard to watch because it’s still so damn prevalent today. People are fearful of what they don’t understand, almost always find a way to blame the victim, and think a man needs to save the day. T’Pol, being the only adult on board ever, knows she should be entitled to medical treatment NO MATTER how she was infected. Archer is doing his best to dress down the Vulcans about their intolerance, but he does his usual ineffective pontificating.
My favorite bits, though, were Phlox and Fezal. They are so fucking adorable AND it was a positive display of polyamory/polygamy. I will note that everyone does polyamory differently, and because marriage is involved that becomes more polygamy – but they were respectful of their time together, gossiped about family, and encouraged each other to pursue their own passions. Tucker, bless his heart, is working on the wrong damn ship. The whole point is to explore other cultures. You don’t have to agree with them, you don’t have to understand them, you don’t have to participate in them – but you DO have to respect that people have other views that can be just as valid. Now that I’m done with my rant – I’m giving this episode 5 borks from Porthos… bork bork bork bork bork.
Episode 15 – “Cease Fire”
“And my underwear is flame-retardant. That doesn’t mean I’m going to light myself on fire to prove it.”: The Andorians are battling Vulcans, when Shran calls for Archer to mediate the conflict. Archer wings it, Shran is betrayed, and Soval is not a total dick.
“Join me in a drink to celebrate our mutual dissatisfaction.“
I actually enjoyed this episode a lot, and not just because Suzie Plaxson was in it! Archer gets to savor the Vulcans asking him for help and he thinks about what the future will look like (ahem, the Federation, cough cough). Shran seems more amenable to peaceful negotiation with Archer around and Soval does his typical Vulcan stoic bit. While I hate the “pink skin” moniker, Shran says it with admiration. This is different than how Tarah says it, almost with disdain. It’s also telling about how little humans really thought about space travel, since Archer was the closest thing they had to an ambassador… sigh. 8 treat-os for Porthos!
Interstellar News: I’ve been doing a lot of traveling. We went to a concert, caught Covid, got better, went to Galaxy Con, then some other stuff happened, then there was Dragon Con, and then a surprise birthday party for my dad, and finally I’m heading to SLC for FanX this weekend – wheeeeeee. Today, I hope to tackle 7 loads of laundry and write up this long overdue post.
Episode 12 – “The Catwalk”
“It’s hard to tell them apart in those ridiculous hats.”: Enterprise and three members of another ship weather a class-5 neutronic storm in the catwalk for a week. The three aliens are actually fugitives, the crew of the Enterprise saves the day, and T’Pol even joins the crew for movie night after they all survive the storm.
I write notes while I watch an episode because I don’t always remember everything, or lately it’s because I write about them way after I’ve watched it. I wrote down “Porthos was a good fucking boy”, but now I don’t remember why – likely because he was good in a crisis situation and gave Archer lots of love and attention in the several scenes he was in. It takes a special pupper to deal with turbulence and other people’s stank for a week, so kudos to Porthos. This was a pretty standard Trek episode, though with an industrial engineering twist. They were able to come up with a plan in very little time, that likely became some sort of standard protocol in the event of another similar emergency. 5 hours of pets for Porthos, who is the only quadruped on board.
Also, fun story about this episode. According to the Captain’s Log – this episode took place on September 18, 2152.
Episode 13 – “Dawn”
“Unfortunately, your first word is something you wouldn’t want to use in polite company.”: Tucker has a run in with a hostile alien, an Arkonian named Zho’Kaan, while in a shuttlepod. They encounter each other again on a desert planet but eventually come to an understanding and work together. Enterprise reaches the planet first, but Zho’Kaan would die – so Tucker waits for another option. They both get saved at the last minute and come to an even better understanding of each other before parting ways.
This episode is very much like “Darmok“, but not quite as good or meme-able. There’s a part where Zho’Kaan uses something like velociraptor spit and I laughed a lot. When Tucker was trying to help Zho’Kaan to understand him, there was a bit of “who’s on first” going on, which was also quite humorous. Tucker is the quintessential Starfleet officer, leaving no man behind and doing his best to work well with others – especially under the circumstances and limited resources. I really enjoyed this episode, and it gets 7 bowls of water for Porthos.
This song was in an episode of A Discovery of Witches and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head ever since I watched that episode.
Interstellar News: I can’t believe how long it’s been since I wrote in here. Life has been absolutely bonkers and I haven’t had the bandwidth, or spoons, to do much writing. I have watched a lot and have on backlog – so here are 5 more episodes with my apologies.
Episode 7 – “The Seventh”
“When you don’t have the ability to repress emotions, you learn to deal with them and move on..”: T’Pol goes after a renegade Vulcan named Menos. On the ship, Tucker is acting captain while Archer and Mayweather go off with T’Pol. Menos claims to be innocent, T’Pol’s memories were tampered with, and in the end Menos winds up in Vulcan custody.
“We don’t do quickly and quietly very well but we are good at arithmetic. It seems there are three of us and only one of you.”
I couldn’t quite get into this episode. There was a lot of trying to figure out what actually happened, and I hate that T’Pol had her mind messed with. I did like how supportive and compassionate Archer was, as it was really T’Pol’s mission and episode. Otherwise, not much to say. Four goldfish crackers for Porthos, crunch crunch.
Episode 8 – “The Communicator”
“You don’t have to leave technology behind to contaminate a culture.”: Reed’s communicator goes missing on a pre-warp planet. Archer and Reed get caught when trying to retrieve it and are thought to be spies. Tucker and Mayweather fix the Suliban ship, while Tucker becomes partially cloaked, in order to rescue the boys.
“It’s gone.”
Archer isn’t the best at improv, but he does try his best. I love that it’s their red blood that terrifies the locals and a doctor is brought in to examine the strange organs. Not often enough are the biological differences talked about. I also loved the sub-plot where Tucker’s arm is cloaked, it was entirely goofy. T’Pol makes a good point about the society already being “contaminated” even though all of the technology was retrieved. I’m not sure why they didn’t try to either beam it back up, or just leave it because a communicator wasn’t that big of a deal. The story they came up with did more harm, in my opinion. 5 de-cloaked chew toys for Porthos!
Episode 9 – “Singularity”
“It would be irresponsible to dispense medication without examining you first.“: A flashback of the last few days shows everyone on the crew with some odd side effects as they pass through some harmful radiation. Archer can’t write, Sato gets obsessed with cooking from scratch, Phlox thinks there’s something wrong with Mayweather, Reed becomes even more paranoid about safety, and Tucker is snippy with everyone. T’Pol throws Archer into a cold shower in order to knock some sense into him and they get the ship to safety.
“You can resequence all the chicken and potatoes you want, but I am making this from scratch.“
WHY DOES NO ONE ASK WHERE MAYWEATHER IS? He goes to sickbay for a headache and he’s supposed to be piloting the ship. Even with everything else going on, I can’t imagine they just forget about THE PILOT. Sigh. I mean, poor Mayweather… he gets roofied by Dr. Phlox and almost had an unwanted surgery because of space drama. Once again, this episode demonstrates that T’Pol is the only adult on Enterprise and Archer knows it. It was fun to see the crew kind of ramp up to 11, everything seeming okay but just a little off until it was just off the spectrum. 5 barks for Porthos, who was very confused and just wanted some love and attention.
Episode 10 – “Vanishing Point”
“You’re in perfect health. You’re neither transparent nor porous.”: Sato and Tucker are exploring some caved when a storm approaches and they have to use the transporter. Tucker goes first, as Sato is nervous. When she arrives on Enterprise, she starts to feel strange. She eventually disappears but everyone thinks she’s dead. After finding aliens on board trying to destroy the ship, she goes after them and wakes up on Enterprise. She dreamed the whole episode and was stuck in the pattern buffer for 8 seconds.
“It’s not a joke, Doctor. If that machine could move a birthmark, who knows what else it could do. I’m telling you, I don’t feel right.”
I liked that I didn’t know she was dreaming and stuck in the pattern buffer, because the story sort of made sense. Transporter accidents have been known to happen and maybe she could become transparent or something. Maybe I should have known better, or maybe I gave into Sato’s anxiety about using the transporter. My two favorite parts, though, were when she decided to be brave and go after the aliens who were going to blow up Enterprise and then her whole interaction with Dr. Phlox at the end. I’m not sure why I liked this episode so much, but I did – so there! 8 days in the sun for Porthos.
Episode 11 – “Precious Cargo”
“Come visit me. Perhaps you’ll find out.”: Enterprise is helping a cargo ship with a life support system when there’s a problem and they escape with Tucker but leave one of their own behind. Tucker and the First Monarch get on each other’s nerves but eventually work together to escape. Archer tricks the pirate in order to get information and everyone goes home happy.
KAITAAMA: “Is your entire species so ill-mannered?” TUCKER: “No, just me.”
So Tucker is definitely the “Kirk” or “Riker” character of this crew, as he keeps getting into sticky situations with female aliens. On one hand I’m glad they made it the engineering, but on the other hand he’s a bit misogynistic at times – sigh. He does give good banter and I love how he interacts with a strong character like Kaitaama, especially since she was obviously living a very sheltered life. I also loved how Archer lies about a tribunal and T’Pol even plays along, it was a lot of fun to watch. Another episode that I liked a lot and I’m not really sure why. Porthos barks along as we take a 7 mile walk around a beautiful lake.
To Boldly Go Where Everyone Has Gone Before 