My thought's and responses to Roddenberry's Mission Log Podcast:

So, I have a question. IN the Original Trek series episode "Amok Time"-  Why don't "we" meet Spock's parent's in this episode ( as opposed to later, in "Journey to Babel"), where he goes "home" for his ""wedding", where he is not only well-known but he states that his family has "owned the land here for over 2000 "Earth-years" right, and the high priest shows up, and yet, no parents @ the prearranged wedding?

If Vulcan weddings are prearranged from when a Vulcan male is 7 years old, how is it then that Spock's Dad skipped this and ended up with Amanda? Did he get rejected in the past by another Vulcan women as well?

Maybe? JUst maybe this was one of Trek's way of saying something about how truly stupid our TV censorship rules were @ that time,, where in @ this time Trek Actress Mariette Hartley, and Mary Ann from "Gilligan's Island," Jeannie from "I Dream of Jeannie," and "Gidget" are all barred from baring their navels on the TV screen, however it was perfectly "ok" to show two men using hand held weapons in a battle to the death. Today it's even worse because it's perfectly ok to show realistic gun violence,( hell how many people can been seen getting shot in the head in and on primetime today?) but Lord forbid if a female performer has a Epic wardrobe failure and they show some cleavage!!! Please. Just Imagine if Mr. "Spock" had been Mrs. "Spockette", and it was the female Vulcan's who went "into heat" and had 2 have "it" every 7 years? They would have never gotten any talk of "sex" past the censors in those days. Ironically enough, Trek was produced by Desilu, and back when Lucy Ball was pregnancy for and during an entire season of the "I Love Lucy," show, the actual word "pregnant" was not allowed because it could not be used on air. Instead, the show uses phrases that seem equally informative but (somehow) less fraught with sin, such as "with child," "having a baby," and "expecting." I don't know, maybe I'm wrong here, but it was just a thought I wanted to share, and isn't that what Mission Log is all about?

Time

      "I  believe that time is a companion that goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again." - Captain Picard.

Well, it's about time. About time for an event, one designed by our old friend Steven Hill for us "Space Traveler's", over @ Hearts of Space, in order to celebrate their  40TH ANNIVERSARY !

By producing their 1st ever live concert.

Details here: AMBIcon 2013.. 

 Episode 76 of Star Trek: TNG Copyright 1990 Paramount Pictures

 

I hate 2 admit it, but the greatest Blog site of all time is NOT mine.

A Real Retro McCoy Poster 

Ok, so there. I said it. Not that I'm hanging my head in shame, I've tried to produce a good read, but OMG I love art, (always have) and I just love this guy's Blog. I mean like it's 4 Stars, 2 thumbs up, and all that plus a bag of chips. I'm telling you, dress in drag and go go Mountain Dew the hula.  It may well be one of the greatest Blogs covering different 'geek related pop culture" Artwork ever produced to date: I just can't get over the collection of great stuff that he's gathered together all in one place. I've spend days here because it's just so easy to get lost in all of it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have;  so here is both my wholehearted endorsement and the link:

http://geekartgallery.blogspot.com

                                

 Now, I'd say, try not to get lost, or dare you not to     get lost, but really, go get lost. It's a futile attempt not to.However, even though I know u don't have 2 have it, or even need it, you most certainly have my permission.

Their Cages: Captain Pike & the Prisoner

 Today, older  fan's of the Original Star Trek Series by now knows what plot elements from Trek's pilot episode "The Cage"  had in common with  the film  "Forbidden Planet", including the fact that the planet  which  Captain Pike was held Prisoner on (Talos IV )  was also  the only "Forbidden Planet" for Starships to travel to in Federation space. 
Anyone  remember The General Order?
Do the words "Death Penalty" ring a bell?  
  In this episode, Pike was captured and caged, his every move watched and studied by his "Keeper's", as they tried to control him, by the use of illusion.
  He was, a Prisoner! like Number 6!
That's Six of One, NOT, repeat, NOT Seven of Nine.

Who then is Six?  
Why, Six was "the Prisoner" of course. 

As it so happens, The Prisoner was a 17-episode series ( produced by ITC ) that was first broadcast in the UK on the BBC a year after Trek 1st aired in the States , from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968 & follows a former secret agent (    John Drake ?  also played by Patrick McGoohan,)   who is kidnapped and held prisoner in a mysterious coastal village resort .
 In "The Village" they do Not use names,
 but instead assign people numbers.
  As a matter of fact, in the episode "The Cage", Captain Pike had an "Number One", who served him, while the Prisoner's Number  6 also had different "Number 2's" , who were his "keeper", and Six was always asking:
 "Who is Number One"?

Pike

  Both character's are fairly low-keyed. Both use "their heads" to out smart their "keepers". 

          




In Fact, it could be ( and has been ) argued that most
 of what happens to these character's takes place
 only in their mind's eye. 

One is trapped "underground", the other was "undercover".  Both refuse to perform or give into their keeper's wishes, even though both their keeper's play "mind games."  

Long before the famous 
"Red pill/Blue pill" scene in "The Matrix", 
where our hero has to either choose to face reality
 or continue to believe the lie of the illusion of his reality, there were these characters -
 Chris Pike and Number Six.

 What might surprise you to learn, is that before there were modern day TV productions that would tackle these issues, there was a English Scientist and politician named Francis Bacon, and way back in 1620, he published  his Novum Organum, which was an plea for objectivity and clear thinking, and in it, he wrote about four different classes of "Idols" ( or "false delusions") which beset men's minds.

Yep . According to Bacon- these delusions are "productions of the human imagination, corrupt and ill-ordered predispositionof mind, which pervert and infect all the anticipations of the intellect."

 For distinction's sake,
 he assigned different names to these Idols,
 calling them the:

1) Idols of  The Tribe ( aka, "group think" mentality),

  2) The Cave (one's own privately held false beliefs), 
  3) The Marketplace - 
 ( or how ad's produced by ad agencies bend or attempt to twist    one's perception of truth)  and finally
 4) The Idols of the Theatre ! 

  Today we could/ and should substitute the word "Movie", as many film's that are "based on a true story" but may not have happened like the way we are lead to believe that they may have really happened - while watching the fake "reproduction" of said "true" event. He further goes on and discusses the idols together with the problem of information gained through the senses, and how deceiving that information can be and remarked that men should renounce the qualities of these Idols. ( I'm not making this stuff up.)

A variety of other techniques are also employed in an attempt to try to extract information from the Prisoner, including hallucinogenic drug experiences, identity theft, mind control, dream manipulation,
and various forms of social indoctrination in an attempt to break Number Six, not only to find out about why he resigned as an agent, but also to extract "information." 

  According to Prisoner fan Vance Socci , another common element between Cage and the Prisoner  is "the hero's rejection of female temptation, which seen as a path to another  kind of imprisonment. The Village makes several attempts to "hook up" the prisoner with feminine delights - the first of which is the blonde maid in "Arrival" ( Episode One)  who offers her services in quite a saucy manner. Pike also rejects his fellow prisoner Vina, who is actually bait for him. Both sets of captors use illusion to try to sway the respective heroes."

 Both Pike and Six operate a post-war atmospheres, 
both of them no longer wanted "the job".

  One "resigns' after he is caged,

 one is "caged" because he resigns.

 How about that? 

the Prisoner, #6.

In the end- both of them "escape", ( or do they?)
only to end up back where they physically started.
Chris Pike on Talos IV, Six in the Village.

    The only difference is that in the end, both of them WANTed to be there, where they were. 
 Both locations switch from Prisons to places of Freedom. Pike "free" of the wheelchair & his body,
and for some reason -

  I can't help but think of William Wallace's  "Freedom" scream at the end of  the film "Braveheart" when it comes to Drake's Number 6 . However Six didn't have to die, he  just had to survive and make it out "alive."
 

 But is there a Prisoner connection back 2-

 "The Forbidden Planet"?

Why yes, I think "one" could make a claim that both "the Prisoner" and 'Forbidden Planet" do indeed have something in common, & that's with a little concept called, " Responsibility assumption",

 a doctrine that states an individual has substantial or total responsibility for the events and circumstances that befall them in their personal life, to a substantially greater degree than is normally "thought".

     Forbidden Planet  featured an analogous concept to responsibility assumption; in which a race of advanced beings called  "Krell",  through the development  of technology, became able to materialize/project their thoughts into reality, to disastrous ends -

               wiping themselves totally out of existence.

      The Prisoner featured an ambiguous climax spawning several interpretations, one of which implicates "responsibility assumption."
  In the final episode Number 6 apparently succeeded in determining the identity of the mysterious "person" who led the group and thus ultimately determined his own fate.

         The Question that was ALWAYS asked by Six:  

                             "Who is Number One?"
                              Answer:  "You are Number Six." 
                                 And here you thought , 
                                 but "NO man is just A Number." 
                                  Which brings us to ask-   
                                       was Rover just a Monster from the ID? 

                                                

Ah - The Monster's we create !

 Maybe, just maybe, like Morbius's character ,

   the Prisoner is more about exploring one internal unconscious feelings   ( fears,  jealousies, prejudices,  hate, power and control illusions/ issues, etc etc) that all of us harbor , and how those very thoughts effect how we react to the world & those around us,       than it is about anything else.

                                    

      In a real ironic twist,

 the Prisoner's final episode, "Fall Out", 

 received a HugoAward nomination for

 Best Dramatic Presentation in 1969.

  However that award went to"

 2001: A Space Odyssey,

 which starred Gary Lockwood,

 known for his role as

  Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell 

 (You know- the guy who was given God like
telepathic and telekinetic powers, transforming him into Dr. Evil )

 in the second Star Trek pilot episode:

 "Where No Man Has Gone Before." 

                                                                            

Be Seeing You. ..

                                                                 

Decoding................

Star Trek 2 The FORBIDDEN Planet

In 1956, a science fiction movie that made a Robot named Robby a household name, called  The  Forbidden Planet , (which is now considered the Grandfather of today's modern Sci-Fi cinema) was first released on April 1st, and it was no joke. In the film,  the United Planets Cruiser C57-D travels to the planet Altair IV, 16 light-years from Earth, to discover the fate of an expedition sent 20 years earlier.  Sounds a lot like A Star Trek episode, doesn't it?  And that's because it was one of the inspirations for the series. Now I could go on and compare "The Cage", Star Trek's pilot episode to the movie, however I feel that ground has been covered many times before. Besides, I'd rather discuss how and what  the "The Cage" and the BBC series "the Prisoner" have in common with each other.  However, very few people ever really discuss how many times the planet  Altair has been referenced in the world of Star Trek , so I thought I'd take a moment to shed some light on the subject (if you will pardon the pun).
                During the Original series, in the year  2267- an Interplanetary conflict between Altair III and VI ends. The Starship Enterprise ordered to attend inauguration of the new president, but the visit is  postponed when Spock diverted the ship to Vulcan because he was in "Pon farr" in the Episode "Amok Time". Also note, this planet, Altair VI, was mentioned in the audio transmissions of the Kobayashi Maru training simulation sequence in "Wrath of Khan"!
                    Apparently, almost a Century later, Altair III is still a hostile place to be, because it is mentioned in the 1st "Next Gen" Episode pilot episode "Encounter at Farpoint", that Will Riker would not his Captain, of the Starship Hood (NCC-42296, which was an Excelsior Class Starship ) to transport to the surface because it was considered to dangerous and high risk.
                    Again, this Episode was written by Gene Roddenberry, and the Hood was also the ship that was transporting Retired Admiral Doctor McCoy (now at the age of 137) to the Enterprise D in the year 2364.
                    Also note, "Altair Water" was a Beverage favored by Spock.

                    Also,  according to it's web site, Altair 4 itself was mentioned in "Star Trek -Deep Space Nine". Here is another thought. I was just amazed by how close the Captain's name of J.J. Adams in "Forbidden Planet" was to the Director of the New Star Trek movie, J.J. Abrams, of Bad Robot productions, who is now going to helm Star Wars Episode VII. And guess what,  the Scientist in "Forbidden Planet" said that there was a "Force" there, and "dark, unseen, invisible Force".  I believe that is what he called it. I could be wrong, it's been some time since I watched the movie. But I was just wondering if maybe, maybe this is where Lucas got the idea for the name "The Force"? in Star Wars.

 

The Guardian Stargate

Ok here is my problem with this, "the greatest of all Trek episodes", "City on the Edge"       Now I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I hate plot devices. I really hate the ones     that don't really work well in reverse. Let me explain. This "Guardian" is a lot like "The  Nexus" is "Trek VII: Generations." Yeah, Talking alien time machine is way cooler, but it   suffers from the same problem that made that movie bad. ? How do our hero's come  home? This "thing" should work like a Transporter platform, or better yet - A Stargate !  Ok, It can transport "us" across the galaxy to another planet @ another time.                ( Assuming that it can create a wormhole and "aim" the "other" "exit end" at that point  in space/time) but there is no Stargate at that other end. So once there, where on  Earth do our hero's go to step back into the "Guardian Stargate" once they fix history.  ???? They should have been stuck there on/in 1930's Earth, because a Stargate just  wasn't there for them to step back into to get back.  Just like once Kirk and Picard   went into the Nexus, how would they get out? They wouldn't be able to do it on their  own just by wishing it. Now, had they been Transported away...................

My LVD 2 DVD Transfer Station.

My "secret" to getting  solid Transfers 
from the old Laser 2 DVD.
                      

             
1st, lets get something straight, a good recorder is a must have. Don't expect the Wal-mart $98 dollar el-cheapo to do the trick. ( Better would be to have a Video capture card for your PC.) 

I have a Pioneer Elite. It will allow me to record in the HQ Super-bit mapped XP 1 hour record mode, and will record 2 channel LPCM. So this thing can copy the LD soundtrack perfectly, ok. None of that low end DD 192kbps sound is to be had here.

A HQ burner is a must !

Second of all, and this seams fairly simple and straight forward, you will also need a 1st rate Laserdisc player. It seems to me like Laserdisc fans understand that.

Here is the real trick. Instead of putting the machines on top of one another, put them BACK TO BACK. Also, if you can, set them each on their own isolation tables. That way, none of the vibrations from the Laserdisc player will be picked up by the burner. Then,and here's the really big secret, get rid of the video cable all together by directly connecting the machines together with a pair of couplers  ( in this case I used some of old Radio Shack's Gold series male/female plug to plug 75 ohm couplers) This way there is as little loss or change to the video signal that you can have, since all a cable can do is harm.

Video Direct Out

Set the video recorder's input mode to "dark" if that option is available. This helps prevent the disc from looking washed out during normal playback. I use an older high end JVC monitor because it has enough connections in the back to get the job done.
You are now set to Transfer your LD Title to DVD. Set the burner to the correct input, select the 1 hour record mode, and off you go. Note: I also use 1st rate audio cables that are very short in length for great sound.               

I then run the audio out of the tv, which allows me to listen to the sound on my "monitoring station"

The whole thing is plugged into a power supply which is run through a Tripp-Lite Isobar.

And that's the way I do it. 



























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