It's strange, but Derek and I rarely fight during bad episodes. "Spock's Brain" is an exception to that rule. I'm saying it's bad. He's saying I'm not saying it's bad strongly enough.
He might be right. We usually mention bad episodes at least having good bones, but at best this one has some broken bones inside of a mutilated flesh bag.
The Beastie Boy's song referring to the "pinch on the neck from Mr. Spock" was "Intergalactic." The one where they dressed up in Star Trek uniforms and fought was ""Ch-Check it out."
Finally, the Semisonic song I was talking about was "Never You Mind," which is a personal favorite.
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5 comments:
Whoa, this ep opens with extended background chatter and main cast silent. Kinda nice.
Definitely a 20-minute plot stretched to 50; I think ST:ENT did this ep better. Also: Spock's head in a jar! You mention Futurama but not the heads in jars.
The existence of Spock-bot raises some serious ethical questions about Federation medical and labor practices.
When Derek mentions a society bred into populations of intellectuals and laborers, he's probably thinking of Huxley's Brave New World, maybe with shades of H.G. Wells' eloi and morlocks. I'm baffled that "women and men live in separate society's" wasn't one of his B-Movie tiers, I don't think it's ever not been cliche... you're right that they could have explored themes of "women as a civilizing influence" & women/education more.
I realize Star Trek is fond of the "life without struggle is infantilizing" theme, but Kirk has no intention of helping these people, he's just there to pillage and burn (more evidence that TNG Klingons are modeled on Kirk). He at least could've kept Spock's skull hooked up to the machine and asked Starfleet to send a more intrepid Vulcan to take over. As it is, the place seems ripe to turn into, well, Tasha's homeworld.
We completely missed the consequences of this episode and the humanness of the aliens.
Yeah, BNW almost got a mention but I think we didn't quite spill over into it. Probably should've pushed into it though. Might've added some intellectual heft to this desert.
Especially because Nimoy was in the Brave New World TV movie. I mean, how do I even miss that?
Dang! Dunno. Hm. On one hand, I'm tempted to watch nimoy and classic sci-fi; on the other hand, it's a 1960s TV movie...
Oh hey, speaking of intellectual deserts, best of luck to ya for That Which Survives.
We are recording that one tomorrow. It'll be a challenge.
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