Aging comes with all kinds of challenges, but our culture has sanitized the process so much that it is rarely in the forefront of a young and healthy person’s mind. Medical science bombards us with trendy new ways to keep healthy and sharp as you move through life, championing the superiority of youth. In a … More Radioactive Aging, TOS: S2E12 “The Deadly Years”
The Original Series of Star Trek was ground-breaking for its era, even if many of the stories seem dated by our standards today. During a time when the initial idea of a female captain was rejected, as producers thought a woman would never rise to that level, Gene Roddenberry still pursued his vision of a … More Perception of Progress, TOS: S2E11 “Friday’s Child”
Diplomatic missions are tricky business. An onslaught of conflicting interests and ideals tend to clash with interpersonal conflict and individual quarks. It takes a range of advanced personal skills to navigate everyone’s interests to the point where they can be mostly satisfied without completely falling out with each other. In the end, it was up … More A Puzzle of Hidden Pieces, TOS: S2E10 “Journey to Babel”
Is love the ultimate purpose for our existence? We seem to go through great pains to find a partner worthy of our attention and care. When we find such a person, we share our passions, plans, and adventures with them. In a sense, we grow together. What if one finds oneself in a relationship where … More A Tethered Life, TOS: S2E9 “Metamorphosis”
Perfection, beauty, immortality, and safety… are these the things for which every person longs? The human capacity to reason is more complex than any creature on Earth of which we are aware. Our language allows for the finest detail, and our behaviours are intricate. We even have the ability to predict the future, at least … More The Perfect Cage, TOS: S2E8 “I Mudd”
When the fog gathers, the witches cackle, and the air grows cold under the full moonlight, our tenuous grasp on rational thought gives way to self-preserving fear. This is the time of year when the boundaries between the spiritual and physical worlds were said to be at their thinnest. This is Halloween! Although the spiritual … More Irrational Thought Police, TOS: S2E7 “Catspaw”
Few people have heard of Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov, which is a shame, as we all owe him our lives. A silent and obscure hero, Petrov can claim the honour of single-handedly saving the world from nuclear annihilation, all by humbly opposing authority. In late September 1983, the Soviet Union detected a nuclear missile launch originating … More The Day the Earth Stood Sound, TOS: S2E6 “The Doomsday Machine”
Utopias and dystopias are often explored in science fiction, with speculative storytellers imagining vast possibilities of what the perfect world could look like. One could argue that the first ‘utopia’ story found in many Western cultures is that of the Garden of Eden. However, this legend is not concerned with the inner day to day … More Eternal Childhood of the Forgotten Mind, TOS: S2E5 “The Apple”
A person of strong moral character benefits the society of which he or she is a part, and the society itself was the most influential in fostering the individual’s beneficial traits. The Enterprise crew faced their own test of character, but emerged championing the superior society. When transporting through an ion storm, Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, … More Contract or Character, TOS: S2E4 “Mirror, Mirror”
In response to a distress signal, the Enterprise finds no sign of life, and no indication as to where the signal could have originated. Instead, they find a strange machine, which seems to be confused about its identity. ‘Nomad’, a space probe launched from Earth in a quest to explore the galaxy, is beamed aboard … More It’s not a Feature it’s a Bug, TOS: S2E3 “The Changeling”
