Monday, January 07, 2008

Spock - Fight to the Death.

Remember Kirk's and Spock's fight to the death in Amok Time? well I betcha you never thought Jim Carey aka "Cable Guy" was keen on Star Trek? Lets warp back in time. Science Officer Spock is experiencing a loss of emotional control caused by a build up of adrenaline in his body. In this Star Trek classic we see a crazy guy Spock but there is an underlying logic to his madness.


Questions: Who stepped in and injected Kirk to give the captain a fighting chance? What class of stimulant was it and what were the overall effects?

Image Creator/Owner: Paramount Pictures or CBS Paramount Television.

Spock's in the gripping throes of Pon Farr and needs to go home to vulcan to mate. Dr. McCoy runs tests on the First Officer and tells Kirk that Spock is suffering from an imbalance of toxins that will kill him within a week, eight days max. Kirk's decision to head back to Spock's home world finally happens after much deliberation with crew members, Starfleet, and emotional upheaval for Spock.

It was Starfleet's intention to demonstrate a show of force to the Klingon Empire by sending their best Federation starships at the Altair VI border.

Dr McCoy discovers that Spock's body is being flooded with adrenaline. If the Enterprise doesn't reach Vulcan in eight days, Spock will die. So what did Starfleet say when Captain Kirk asked for authorisation?

"Forget it Kirk, he's just the half breed vulcan!!, Altair VI has top priority. Starfleet out."

At the recommendation of Dr McCoy, Kirk flatly disobeyed the chain of command and risked his starship command. In a bid to save First Officer Spock's life, the USS Enterprise 1701 diverts her course and proceeds to Vulcan in-order to find a cure for the vulchie's life threatening blood fever.


Amok Time shows us some very interesting character moments amidst a wonderful backdrop of Vulcan scenery in the Star Trek continuum. Spock meets his lovely Vulcan fiancee T'pring (pre arranged by the parents ever since their childhood by a meeting of minds.) T'pring only had plans for her secret Vulcan lover Stonn revealed after the battle.

Image Creator/Owner: Paramount Pictures or CBS Paramount Television.

T'Pau is the High Priestess who presides over the wedding ceremony, with Kirk on standby as T'pring's champion who is forced to fight a duel to the death with his best friend!! This isn't just any ordinary wedding and I was surprised to notice Spock's parents absent.

I guess Spock's mom and dad didn't have the stomachs to watch their only son slaughter innocents on their precious ancestral grounds. Star Trek fans see Spock's home world "Vulcan" for the first time in this episode with the science officer's famous words "Live Long, T'Pau and Prosper" voiced for the first time. This is just cool classic Star Trek.

Kirk agrees to fight for T'pring but is mortified to discover, its a duel to the death. Spock and Kirk are evenly matched except for the thin Vulcan air which takes its toll on the captain. McCoy gives Kirk an injection to give him a fighting chance in the Vulcan atmosphere. The fight resumes and Spock strangles Kirk, dropping his captain's apparently lifeless body to the ground. Dr McCoy steps in and confirms Spock's worst nightmare. Kirk is dead. Shock sweeps over Mr Spock snapping him out of his Plak tow blood fever. T'pring's reason for invoking the challenge is because she wants to marry Stonn. The marriage is cancelled. Back on the starship Enterprise 1701 all is revealed by Dr McCoy who faked the captain's death with a neural paralyser. Of course, Spock displays a momentary lapse of emotional control with a big grin, when he sees the captain alive.


Jim Carey did a re-enactment of the "Amok Time" with Spock and Kirk's - fight to the death duel in his "Cable Guy" movie. It was brilliant. In the duel scene you'll see why this master of crazy comedy is just so funny with Chip and Kovac slugging it out in the arena. Jim Carey's improvised "Star Trek" crazed sound effects are totally hysterical. I love how Cable Guy carries on with humming the "Amok Time" lyric as he walks away from Kovac (Broderick), triumphant and with his hands held high.





"All right you want to play rough? Daddy can play rough."
Da-na, na, na, na, na, naaa, na-naa, na, na.
"Like when Spock had to play Kirk on Star Trek, best friends forced to do battle." - Cable Guy.
"Chip this isn't funny, will you stop it!!"
"The name is Spock, if we don't battle to the death, they will kill us both." - Cable Guy.
"This isn't Star Trek" screams Kovac.

Lol. that's what Kovac thinks, try telling the Cable Guy that.


Answers: Dr. McCoy saved Captain Kirk. He stepped in with his hypospray and injected Kirk with a triox compound telling Kirk it should help him breathe better. The stimulant was in fact a neural paralyser which faked Kirk's death and saved Spock's life.



Live Long and Prosper Trekkers!!

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Star Trek vs Star Wars

The trekkie and darkside ravers on Youtube are funny. It seems the endless Star Trek vs Star Wars debate will never end. Two spaceships are facing each other in a battle for their very lives.

Image Owner/Creator: Paramount Pictures or CBS Paramount Television.

Which one will reign supreme over the galaxy? Could it be Picard's Enterprise of the Federation or Darth Vader's Imperial Star Destroyer? One way to settle this is perhaps by analysing the spaceships firepower, like the fanboys are doing on Youtube except how can a Trek or Empire sci fi addict be objective about this? So Never underestimate the Power of the Dark side! right?
wrong! We always question darkside reasoning. Captain Picard's Galaxy Class Enterprise NCC 1701-D photon torpedoes can be fired in concert with its phasers. This is the Federation's Flagship, our pride and joy for most Star Trek TNG fans. It carries a full payload of 275 torpedoes. One of these Federation sweeties has an explosive yield of up to 64 megatons. Multiply that by a maximum of up to ten photon torpedoes. That equals 644 megatons of power fired in successive pattern, after the phasers have melted the enemy's target's defense shields. That should make one helluva kaaa-booom! Yeah!! Blow that sucker. Woo Hoo!!!

Except theres one problem. I've uncovered spaceship specifications which makes for interesting reading and I'm sure Galactic Empire enthusiasts will, enjoy the news. So here it comes.

Jango Fett's small patrol craft is a Star Wars ship of the Galactic Empire of even technological magnitude, to compare against the United Federation of Planets Galaxy Class Enterprise NCC 1701-D. I know this is like admitting defeat trekkies but what if Picards flagship is outmatched by Fetts ship? Starfleet code of honour won't protect us thats for sure.
I watch Star Trek and try to imagine a happy, untroubled 24th century timeline for humanoids. Millions of fans love Star Trek and Star Wars. Its true. So trekkies, lets put down our phasers and not take these spaceship specs to heart even if the Jango Fetts starship specs are based on mere speculation.

Star Wars: Slave-1 specs: Published in Star Wars Episode II Incredible Cross-Sections.

Main guns: 64000 Gigawatts (2 kilotons per shot, 480 rpm firing rate onscreen in AOTC for time-averaged power output rather than peak output).
Missiles: 190 megatons (tail-launched missiles; seismic charge mines are approx 12000 megatons).
Sublight acceleration: 2500G.
Operational range: not stated (however, Obi-Wan's starfighter has an operational range of 150,000 light-years, or similar).
Shield heat dissipation: not stated (however, Amidala's personal yacht has shield dissipation of 2 billion Gigawatts peak, or similar).
Reactor power: not stated (however, Amidala's personal yacht has power output of 7 billion Gigawatts max, or similar).
Max hyperspace speed: not stated (however, same-day flight from core to galactic outer-rim systems requires speeds in excess of 10 million c). c = speed of light.


Star Trek: Enterprise-D Specs: Published in Star Trek Next Generation Technical Manual.

Main phasers: 3.6 Gigawatts
Photon torpedoes: 64 megatons max explosive yield. (The actual explosive output figure is shy of 64 megatons due to the matter, anti-matter intermix delay time.)
Sublight acceleration: 1000G.
Operational range: 2750 light-years.
Shield heat dissipation: 3311 Gigawatts peak.
Reactor power: ~4 billion Gigawatts at max warp 9.6
Max Warp speed ~2000c or speed of light in a vacuum (warp 9.6)

On the face of it Picard manages to bag one of the bad guys! Does'nt that mean the Enterprise-D busted the Empire up? Darth Vader will need to regroup his troops for the next battle, I wonder why Jango Fett's spaceship did'nt come to the rescue?





Merry Christmas Trekkies and may the Force go with the Galactic Empire.


Saturday, December 15, 2007

Space and Sci Fi Quiz

1. Which sci fi series did De forrest Kelley star in? 2. In what sort of home does Ben Kenobi live?
3. What is the name of Blake 7's apologetic computer?
4. What planet were the rebels on before Darth Vader destroyed their base in The Empire Strikes Back?
5. Who had a father called Jor-El?
6. In which state does Invasion of The Body Snatchers take place?

Image Owner/Creator: Paramount Pictures or CBS Paramount Television.

7. Who is Luke Skywalkers's squadron commander in the final battle in Star Wars?
8. In what episode is Data's cat first seen in Star Trek The Next Generation and what is her real name?
9. What is the name of the robot in forbidden planet?
10. What retired admiral launched a witch-hunt aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701 that questioned the loyalty of the crew?
11. Which film has the line - "Houston, we have a problem!"?
12. Who beat Worf's best score in the phaser range?
13. Why did Wesley lose his cool with his mom in Star Trek's TNG Evolution episode?

Image Owner/Creator: Paramount Pictures or CBS Paramount Television.


1. Star Trek.
2. A cave.
3. Slave.
4. Hoth.
5. Superman.
6. California.
7. Red Leader.
8. Data's day and the cats real name is Spot!
9. Robby.
10. Admiral Norah Satie.
11. Apollo 13.
12. Guinan.
13. Beverly walked in on Wesley's messed up nanite experiment, which has infected the Enterprise and now moms going to find out everything!!! Wesley has to come clean. Its fess up time. Oh No!


Happy Christmas Trekkers, enjoy the festive season.

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