Trek Remastered -- earlier episodes and "The Omega Glory"

"No – no! Only the eyes of a chief may see the E Plebmnista!"
"This was not written for chiefs."
- Yang Scholar and Kirk

I missed "Spock's Brain" on its initial showing a few weeks back and it wasn't shown in the normal rerun slot the next week. I'll have to wait for the DVD.

However, I did catch "Plato's Stepchildren". I know this is one of the least-favorite for many fans, but to me it is underrated. Maybe nothing happens except the humiliation of the crew, but as I've said before, even bad Original Series Trek is better than nothing. There's still some good points in that script even if the execution is flawed.

This weekend's episode, in time for Independence Day, is "The Omega Glory". You might remember this as the Cold War analogy with the Yangs and the Kohms, and Kirk reminding them that the words apply to all people. I brought the videotape of "Omega..." in to my high school U.S. History class during our unit on the Constitution -- major geek check, there.

...and we're back!

Wow. Has it really been three weeks since the last post? Oops. I've been very distracted lately. More real posting starting tomorrow.

The replacement driver

This sounds like it's either the premise of a Hong Kong or Korean action movie, or a Cyberpunk RPG scenario:

Cityscape: Seoul: Taking the wheel for a drunken stranger

"Speed is money in this business," said Hur, 43, who received 15,000 won, or $16, for driving his customer to his destination.

"You want to get as many orders as possible before dawn breaks," he said, after making the drive of 20 kilometers, or 12 miles. "I sleep in the day, work at night, six days a week."

Hur is a "replacement driver" who makes his living by delivering inebriated people and their cars home. There are tens of thousands of them operating in this hard-drinking metropolis of 10 million people. They go to work when Seoul streets blossom with neon signs and thoroughfares fill up with streams of cars returning home. They end their shifts well after the last neon lights blink out in the early morning mist curling up from the Han River.

Trek Remastered -- catching up

I haven't posted anything about recent Trek episodes in quite some time. Here's a list of them:

• "Errand of Mercy" - 05/12 - The Organians impose peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.
• "Patterns of Force" - 05/19 - The Nazi episode.
• "Shore Leave" - 05/26 - Be careful what you think of...it comes to life.
• "Bread and Circuses" - 06/02 - The Roman Empire episode.

It's interesting that the "costume" episodes were all bunched together: "A Piece of the Action", the Chicago gangster ep, was on the last weekend of April.

I was pleasantly surprised by a couple of these shows. I forgot how good they are. "Errand..." and "Patterns..." have some good Kirk and Spock dialogue, and "Bread..." has great Spock and McCoy scenes that highlight their grudging friendship. And regardless of how preposterous the setup may be, "Patterns..." and "Bread..." are great stories.

This weekend: "Spock's Brain".