After making my way through Star Trek: The Original Series, offering up my thoughts on Season One and then moving on to Season Two, I quickly got distracted by other matters (as you know), failing to offer up any more thoughts despite the fact that I finished watching Season Three back in September.

With the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Motion Picture upon us, though, this seemed like a good time to continue my ruminations...

All modern series-revival campaigns are built upon the template formed in 1968, when Star Trek narrowly avoided cancellation through the efforts of many dedicated fans (coordinated by überfans such as Bjo Trimble), who wrote thousands of letters to NBC and finally convinced the network to keep the show for a third season. However, another familiar template soon followed: NBC moved Star Trek to Friday nights and slashed its budget, effectively sealing its fate.

For someone watching TOS in quick succession, the budget-cutting effect is very obvious. Only one episode early in the third season ("The Paradise Syndrome") has any location shooting at all. All of a sudden, landing parties tend to be made up of just Kirk, Spock, and McCoy--without a redshirt in sight--for no particular reason except that they're the three stars of the show. Gone are the one-off focus crewmembers like Doctor Helen Noel, Doctor Ann Mulhall, or Lieutenant Dave Bailey, who show up once to do their thing and are never shown again. (Actually, Mira Romaine is one third-season example of this.) Kirk even stops having as many love interests towards the end of the season.

Where Season Two had many episodes with themed planets based on Earth itself, Season Three had outer-space variations on more traditional concepts. The Enterprise crew had already encountered Space Amoeba in the previous season, but now got to live through Space The Taming of the Shrew, met up with Space Napoleon, and famously encountered a group of Space Hippies.

Most people also tend to think of Season Three as having the lowest quality of writing overall, with cheesier, wackier concepts than what had come before. (This is the season of "Spock's Brain," after all.) Having said that, I think some of the achievements in Season Three are overlooked due to the Fromage Factor. An episode like "Plato's Stepchildren" is often remembered for moments such as Kirk neighing like a horse, or The Kiss between him and Uhura--and it's set on Platonius, yet another Earth-based planet, which might as well be called "Plato's World"--but it still contains one of my favourite lines in the entire series:

Alexander, where I come from, size, shape, or colour makes no difference--and nobody has the Power.

That sort of Roddenberrian concept manages to make its way into these episodes in spite of the cheese, so that even when Kirk meets Space Lincoln, that Abraham Lincoln gets a line memorable enough to be mistakenly attributed to the real one in later years:

There is no honourable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war except its ending.

Ideas like those are what Star Trek is all about, and the ultimate cancellation of The Original Series in 1969 (mere weeks before humanity actually landed on the Moon) couldn't stop them from living on, igniting the passions of people like me who weren't yet born when those episodes first aired--which is why the franchise has been revived in every decade since, right up to this year's feature film returning Star Trek back to its roots.

i am so sick of the alarmist "if you're fat you're callously/willfully stealing and wasting my health care!" argument. honestly, even if it's not socialized it's not like it's finite. it's not the fucking legend of zelda. we aren't fighting over treasure in the dungeon. if you get there after me, i promise those hearts will be replenished. you can still fill your life bar if/when you need it.

health is subjective. it is relative. nobody owes anyone "good health" let alone society's narrow idea of what it means to be "healthy/in shape."

also telling me "sickness will catch up with me" is likewise idiotic. you know what else will catch up with me, you, and everyone who isn't a vampire? DEATH. it doesn't matter how many marathons you run or how much carob you eat instead of chocolate, those skeletal hands will one day close around your shoulder (fat or thin).

this bizarre "OMG IT'S RUNNING OUT, STOP TAKING MY SHARE" argument also applies to success. it's not about creating enemies/toppling others. there should be enough opportunities for everyone if we stopped freaking the fuck out and sabotaging each other and buying into a system that tells us the only way to get anywhere is to hierarchize, belittle/take credit for the work of others.

I've gotten a bunch of cool ideas and awesome invitations from various people in the wake of my request for New Year's travel suggestions--everything from Chicago to Houston to Sydney to "Hold off and go to the Vancouver Winter Olympics instead."

To be honest, I'd like to take everyone up on their invitations, which could easily book my travel calendar for the next couple of years. ;) That doesn't even count annual events I'm eager to attend again, like Shore Leave and Dragon*Con, or the many other places I'm sure would also be interesting.

I think I need to start planning out travel scenarios if I want to make more of that happen next year.

Barring some remarkable act of patronage, though, I don't expect to be able to travel too far afield this time around, as budget and time considerations will limit me to North American options.

That trip to Antarctica will happen...just not yet.

So Folk Fest dates have been picked, and as such we have a date for our wedding XD

July 10th
Noon at Popes Hill at Birds Hill Park / Folk Fest
http://www.winnipegfolkfestival.ca/wp/

Again, no need for an invitation. I believe that is a waste of paper and me getting married to my boyfriend doesn't need to kill trees. If you're reading this, you're invited to come down and celebrate with us.

There is (limited) cheesecake for it, other than that, pack a lunch and drinks, bring a blanket. It will be a sort of Picnic thing <3

Please don't bring gifts ^_^;; We don't really have space to take them home from folk fest, if you really want to do something for us, you can donate to my Mum's Animal Rescue ( http://www.hullshaven.org/ ) or presentation on the day of.

I can't believe I am here! I can't believe that I am having the trip of a life time. I have been to England, Wales, France and now Scotland in the last three weeks!

I saw the Tower of London, took in all the marvelous english history and drank on a daily basis. You can't turn a corner in London without hitting a pub for a pint. God, I love this country!! I saw the Welsh countryside which is lovely. Breathtaking. I visited some castles and then stopped in to a nice little welsh pub in a quaint welsh town. Then we went back to Newport and freshened up and went to a couple of pubs in town. I went to Cardiff and saw all the Torchwood stuff, like the water tower and the stadium. I went to the wall where they put up memorials for all the dead characters. It was surreal. Cardiff Bay was rainy and windy but it also felt incredible and the view onto the bay was amazing.

I went to Paris and I walked up the Eiffel Tower all 400 stairs to the first level. I looked out over Paris at night and saw the most amazing view. I went to Sacre Coure, another hilly climb but worth it. The church was beautiful inside and out. The view of Paris from up there was stunning. I went down the cobble stoned streets and bought little gifts in the shops. I drank coffee in the little french cafes. I went to Notre Dame Cathedral and kneeled and said my prayers in front of a huge breathtaking crucifix. I went to the Louvre. It was the most incredible experience for me. I saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus Di Milo. I think I cried at one point, because it was so overwhelming to me.

I am now in Scotland. I have spent a wonderful day in Glasgow. I went to some beautiful museums and saw the most amazing Salvidor Dali painting. It was of the crucifixion of Christ. I took a picture of it but I don't think it will do it justice.

I am now off to Edinburgh. And then I am going to Belfast and Dublin. This truly has been an amazing experience.

This one goes out to Julia!! <3

....so now it would appear that I am getting married o.o I swore to myself I never would again, I've been married before, but then, I was a totally different person back then.

The dates aren't exact, but Matt suggested the perfect place to do it. We're going to get hitched at Folk Fest in Birds Hill. It'll be in July, hopefully not during Ai-Kon o_o; (last year was around July 8th)

Even so, it's strange, I always had an image of fire dancing in my head when people talked about weddings, or getting married, and I wasn't sure why. It makes sense now...and I won't be surprised when deja-vu hits me that evening...

How perfect is it though? Out in nature, we're going to do it on the hill....lots of friends to party with after. I don't want to make official wedding invites, I want whoever is going to be there when I send out the details, to be there.

More information when the dates arrive, but we're thinking the saturday afternoon of folk fest. Argh1! My keyboard battery is dying..more later