The Triumphant Return of Treklets

As true proof of the quality level of the original Star Trek- over five years after the first set of posts we have returned to family viewing and  Anabelle’s comments on this franchise.
 
No, she still refuses to watch the cartoon.
 
When Rosa and I started watching the Original Series again, Anabelle was at college and said we should watch it without her. We were up to an end of the first season episode when she was out one night after the semester ended. She caught the end of it and started asking to watch the show frequently and on a regular basis. I was certainly not going to argue. 

Anabelle was worried about choosing it every time we went to watch something, and Rosa cleared that up,
“When would your Father EVER say ‘no’ to watching Star Trek?”
 
She did insist on skipping “City on the Edge of Forever.” She’s never been a fan of that one. I maintain that it doesn’t deserve its frequent “Best Star Trek Episode” spot on many lists. 

It is a fantastic story…it is not fantastic Star Trek. Star Trek is about hope for the future, and Captain Kirk doesn't believe in the "no win scenario." That episode puts him in one of those scenarios with no hope of getting out of it.
 
She missed seeing a couple of first season episodes she highly regards.

“Court Martial”- Her favorite which would have an important effect.
Also  “The Corbomite Maneuver,” “What are Little Girls Made Of” and "Miri."
 
She enjoyed most episodes, some of the poorly regarded ones (“Spock’s Brain” “And the Children Shall Lead”) are still her favorites, other ones appeared duller through her older eyes. (“Specter of the Gun”)
 
She went back to check her younger comments and found she repeated herself many times on the viewings.
 
Fun fact-
We only skipped credits if we watched more than one in a row, and then only the opening credits. While the opening and closing theme played, she sang along to the operatic part…
Directly into my face.
As loud as she could.
 
 
From this viewing, she has added five items to Star Trek Lore:
 
A) “Court Martial” is her favorite season one episode, and a darn good one.  
(We watched it and several others after the movies to avoid “Star Trek Withdrawal.”

I can acknowledge that this is a real thing)
From watching it the last time through she remembered the prominent button on the arm of Kirk’s chair that shot a crew member out into space and pointed out how often he hits it with emphasis, or he or others lean on it.
Every time that happened on this viewing, she simply went, “Weeeee!”
It happened so frequently she’s got me doing it now.
 
B) This one is an augmentation to my crazy theories about the extra galactic invasion and other connecting threads. She said my theories were weird. I pointed out that they made sense and she thought they were correct most of the time. She said that’s what was weird.
 
C) She believes Kirk and the Enterprise have gone into the Romulan Neutral Zone so frequently that the Romulans gave up caring about it, and basically have given him a free pass.
 
D) Kirk’s pathological need to Captain’s Log in any circumstances is always met with her talking over it, starting with “Dear Diary” and her interpretation of his emotional problems.
 
E) Anabelle feels her greatest contribution to Star Trek Lore is pointing out the bond between the junior bridge officers she calls, “The Besties.”
Due to the nature of the “second tier” stars being behind the leads often (partially by design, partially by Bill Shatner’s stage acting method of always walking to front and center) Uhura, Sulu and Chekov were often in the background together. Because they are excellent actors, and because they are sometimes reacting to that front and center Bill thing, they were frequently seen exchanging suspicious and accusatory looks and conversations in those backgrounds. Anabelle has decided that those three are best friends and have regular slumber parties in Uhura’s quarters (“because they are the swankiest”) to “spill the tea” about the senior officers. She is also convinced that they occasionally invited Spock for a laugh, and under extreme circumstances (such as after Kirk falls in love with an android … again) the Vulcan showed up AND brought the alcohol.
She illustrated this often by pointing out whenever they were together by yelling, “THE BESTIES!”
At times when one was using a com-link on their panel in the background as the latest wild thing happened in the main shot, she’d add dialog such as:
“Hey, Sulu, you’ll never guess what Jim did now! I’ll tell you tonight.”
 
 
Bonus - two things she noticed on this watch:
 
1) Kirk’s main mode of contact with people he cares about is touching their shoulders.
 
2) DeForest Kelley’s pinky ring.
We looked it up. It’s the only possession of his mother he wanted when she passed. It kept him grounded and “from losing himself” in all the westerns he played bad guys in. Awwwww.
 
After the show she immediately wanted to watch the movies. Since those will always be “MY” Star Trek, it took even less convincing.
 
I wasn’t sure it would be worth taking notes since I thought she’d remember a lot and not have much to say.
 
I was incorrect.
 
First of all, she forgot nearly everything about them.
 
Honestly, as she’s gotten older and knows she’s riffing, these have gotten longer.
They’re much less “In a Kid’s Eyes Treklets” and much more “Mystery Star Trek Theater.”

Therefore, I include a lot of film dialogue to recreate the viewing experience.
 
We discussed what photos should be used for each film. Sometimes I’ve used movie posters. Shots of the whole crew would have worked just as well. We decided reusing all the photos from “Short Treks” or searching the films on screen for shots of “The Besties” would be too much effort. However, when I recommended a picture of Doctor McCoy to start each film, Anabelle thought that was hysterical, and said that was perfect, 

“Since we’re like this 🤞🏻🤞🏻”
 
Here are the links and her custom titles. There are links in the main Star Trek Index as well.
 
Star Trek: The Movie
Star Trek: Khan, Uck
Star Trek: Spock is Dead Let’s Go Find His Body
Star Trek: WHALES!
Star Trek: This One Doesn't Exist
Star Trek: The Last One, Whew
 
She pushed to watch all of the classic shows and films partially because they are awesome and partially to get to the Kelvin films. She was extremely excited to view them again.
 
I was thinking about why she likes them so much. They are amazingly well done, but there seemed to be more. Then I thought about when they were released. She was just about six years old when the first one came out. Based on my review of another Franchise and its different iterations I realized it this time through-
 
These films are her “Star Wars.”
 
Fast moving excitement, with real humanity and emotion built in.
Obvious good versus evil conflict.
Archetype characters.
 
I spent so much energy looking at which Star Wars films and shows were released when she was the proper age, I missed other things released at those times.
 
The fact that she can recite almost the entire first film including music and sound effects like I did when Return of the Jedi was in high HBO rotation should have been a clue.
She also watched them again about a month later at school when she found out the first two were leaving Netflix.
 
These are much more “HOORAY, I LOVE THESE!” based comments rather than poking fun at them.
Here’s the links
Mystery Star Trek 2009 Theater
Mystery Star Trek Into Darkness Theater
Mystery Star Trek Beyond Theater

Grandma Treks Return!

Grandma Treks the Return Part 2!

Working better with these titles is why I went with the classic reference and not the (likely smoother sounding) "RiffTreks."

Click for Star Trek Index