Blogs

Podcast Enterprise: S2E08 I, Mudd

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

When this episode starts, something is wrong because there’s a new crew member aboard the ship, Enterprise. Dr. McCoy does not like Norman. Norman is very odd. Spock, of course, does not notice because Norman is cold and emotionless and Spock likes that.But Dr. McCoy knows that there’s something wrong with Norman.

Dr. McCoy’s suspicions are not entirely unfounded, because Norman goes into the engineering section, he tampers with the controls, he takes over the ship’s controls, puts them on some sort of an automatic drive, so that it goes straight towards a particular planet.Nothing that Sulu on the bridge does can alter the course of the Enterprise, and now Captain Kirk is very worried because they are supposed to be somewhere else and they’re going into another direction. And Norman seems to be a lot stronger than the average human. He makes his way to the bridge, he talks to Captain Kirk, and he says that they’re going to a particular planet.Captain Kirk has no business stopping the ship from going to that planet. And any attempt to change course, or to override the controls that Norman has programmed into the ship, will result in the ship’s destruction, and Spock confirms that this will happen. Therefore Kirk cannot do anything but wait for those four solar days that it takes to reach this planet that Norman is talking about.And Norman also reveals that he is an android during this time.

He’s not human. And that’s why he’s been behaving odd all this time. Now when they get to this peculiar planet, Norman, who has deactivated himself, reactivates himself and says that Kirk, Chekov, Uhura, McCoy and Spock must beam down to the planet.Everybody else must stay aboard the Enterprise. And if they don’t do what he says, again, he threatens them with engine destruction and various other forms of destruction. So Kirk decides to beam down.

Once they are there on that planet, they find themselves in a network of tunnels which are habitable for humans.And they meet up with an old nemesis of his called Harry Mudd. Now, this character actually appeared in a previous episode. He’s back. He’s a smuggler. He’s a criminal. He’s a thief. And he’s also extremely entertaining. What we learn now is that Mudd has captured this planet. He has kept all of these androids as servants.There is some technology here that allows him to create more androids. He creates more and more androids, mostly females, so that he can have some fun with them.

But, this scheme of his has backfired because the androids have decided that he’s a very interesting human specimen, and they want to study him, and they want to use him to lure more humans to this planet, so that they can study them also.And to Mudd’s amusement, he manages to capture Captain Kirk and the Enterprise, and not just some random ship. There were a lot of coincidences there. The androids start revealing themselves more and more.

They are completely logical, placid, they cannot be swayed this way or that and as Dr. McCoy says, they are physically and mentally perfect. Nothing can reach them. They are created by some sort of an alien civilization apparently from the galaxy of Andromeda. They study the humans and then they decide that the humans are too violent and impulsive and therefore they will serve the humans and bring them under control.Eventually that turns into, they will serve the humans and bring the galaxy under control, much to Kirk’s alarm.

This also affects Mudd because he becomes a prisoner of the androids as well. They find him as illogical as the rest of the humans, and Kirk, to escape this prison that they find themselves in, must come up with something creative so that he can literally short circuit those androids and work their logic against them.And to do this, towards the end of this episode, what we see is that Kirk employs certain illogical ways of dealing with the androids. He talks about being in captivity and then being happy while he’s in captivity. He tells the androids that humans must work themselves to death to be happy and all sorts of nonsensical dialogue follows after that.And Norman is something of a conduit for all of these androids.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S2E07 Catspaw

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis:

Captain Kirk is worried. The USS Enterprise is in orbit around the planet Pyris 7 and there’s something wrong because a landing party has gone missing on that planet.The landing party has Sulu, Scott, and Crewman Jackson. They’re not able to communicate with them, and there’s some sort of subspace interference, so Uhura has not been able to contact them.

They get a message from Jackson, who’s promptly beamed back onto the Enterprise.There’s a voice coming from his throat, but he’s dead. Kirk realizes that there’s a problem down there on that planet, and he must have himself, McCoy, and Spock transported down there and try and figure out what’s going on. He leaves de Salle in charge of the Enterprise. And these three, they decide to go down and investigate what has happened. So now while they’re down there, they find that this planet is totally wrong. First off, there is mist where there shouldn’t be mist.

And there’s a lot of fog where there shouldn’t be fog.There are echoes of voices, and then they find three heads floating and screaming at them and talking about curses. Jackson, even though he was dead, warned them about being cursed. And now, down there on the planet, they see these three floating heads of witches, who speak very melodramatically.They also warn the Enterprise of a curse of dying and they should keep away from that planet. But Kirk and the landing party decide to investigate They navigate the fog. They find a big, huge medieval type castle.

They enter the castle. They find a cat, a black cat. Very witchy looking cat. They follow the cat, the cat leads them here and there, and then ultimately, without them really realizing what is happening, they find themselves in a big huge hall, facing an individual called Korob.He’s dressed like a wizard, he has a wand in his hand, he’s able to talk to that cat. Korob is some sort of alien entity, who thinks that he has understood humanity or he wants to understand humanity.

He thinks that showing them castles, wizards and cats and some sort of witchery will entice them.He also calls them honorable for some reason. He talks about loyalty and being very forthright. He attempts to tempt the landing crew with some food, which they do not eat. Then he loses his cool a little bit and tries to tempt them with gemstones. Again, they’re not impressed with that. The cat goes out of the room.It comes back as a woman who calls herself Sylvia. She is apparently the collaborator of Korob. And she has some sort of an evil streak to her. She has these three men imprisoned. This is the second time they’re being in prison, they find that both McCoy and Sulu have been hypnotized and they’re no longer on their side.

They’re on the side of those two aliens. The aliens have some sort of telekinetic power and they also have the ability to override your free will and make you do what they want you to do.Kirk and the landing crew must find a way out of here. McCoy is also captured and brainwashed and turned against them. Korob is very disturbed by Sylvia’s evil nature. She tells Kirk that she is experiencing sensation for the first time. She’s also infatuated with Kirk.Then she realizes that Kirk is returning her affection by trying to get her wand for some reason, because that is a transmuter that changes the environment. And both of these aliens are dependent on those transmuters. They have to use those transmuters and create an environment that is suitable for them.

They also are here apparently to study humanity. Kirk manages to fool Sylvia by pretending to be affectionate with her.She realizes it a little too late, and Kirk and Spock are returned to the dungeons. They manage to get out of there with Korob’s help. And then the cat, Sylvia is apparently able to change form. She’s able to take on the form of that cat. She tries to threaten them. Kirk and the crew somehow through some sort of mind trickery, they manage to evade her.

He gets that transmuter wand that she’s been using. That is the device that has created the castle, and that is the device that allows Sylvia and Korob to change shape. It is the device that has created some sort of a hospitable area within that planet.

He destroys the transmuter, and then what happens is the castle disappears, the torture room disappears, the dungeon disappears, everything disappears, including the forms that Sylvia and Korob have taken. Now, because they have lost their forms and the transmuter has been destroyed, both of those aliens who resemble tiny puppets, they fall over and die, and Kirk and the crew are able to go back to the Enterprise.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S2E06 The Doomsday Machine

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: When this episode opens, you have the Enterprise with Lieutenant Palmer at the communications console, receiving some sort of a distress signal from across space. And it seems to be from a distress beacon of a starship. But they can’t make anything out of that distress signal because of heavy subspace interference. But she does figure out the word Constellation. And so the Enterprise must find the source of this distress signal, and then they enter a star system called L370. When they enter L370, they find that the sun is intact, but all seven planets have been destroyed.

And they cannot figure out why those planets have been destroyed, because only a supernova or a star explosion can cause such a destruction. There seems to be nothing of the sort there. So they cross L370 and they go over to L374, which is the next star system. And there they find except for the two planets closest to the sun, all the other planets have been destroyed. They also find the source of the distress signal and that is the USS Constellation, which is basically a sister ship to the USS Enterprise. Kirk gathers a small landing party and along with Scotty and Dr. McCoy, transport over to the USS Constellation and try and figure out what happened here.

He leaves Spock in command of the Enterprise. Now when Kirk transports himself to the USS Constellation, they find that the ship has been almost completely abandoned. There’s nobody there. It seems that everybody left of their own volition or they were kidnapped, something of that sort. They also find that the captain of the USS Constellation is still on board. This is Commodore Decker. He’s in a state of shock. Which means that Dr. McCoy has to somehow revive him using a hypospray. And when he does that, Commodore Decker is in a state of absolute trauma. He’s not able to talk properly, but eventually, Kirk figures out that there is some sort of a planet killer running around destroying planets and solar systems. It leaves the suns intact, but it destroys all the planets that it comes across. And then it uses the debris of those planets for fuel. As to what happened to the crew of the USS Constellation, Commodore Decker had them transported down onto the third planet of the system of L374, and the third planet was subsequently destroyed by the planet killer, which is why Commodore Decker is in a state of absolute shock and trauma.

To have him treated, Kirk sends Dr. McCoy and Commodore Decker back into the Enterprise. Now this is where things get a little interesting because Commodore Decker wants to have this planet killer destroyed, and the Enterprise, much to its shock finds that the planet killer has returned to L374. Apparently it is because they are there and this machine, the planet killer is a machine and some sort of robot. It’s a doomsday machine designed to destroy everything in its wake. It has detected the Enterprise and it has come back into L374. And here Commodore Decker, he uses his power and his slightly deranged mentality to assume command of the Enterprise.

He wants to destroy this thing called the planet killer. He can’t do it because the Enterprise does not have the technology to pierce the pure neutronium hull of this machine. Kirk, meanwhile, is trapped on the Constellation. He gets Scotty to somehow rig the engines and get them working. Commodore Decker wants to take the Enterprise and ram it into the Planet Killer’s throat. He wants the Enterprise to destroy by going into the thing’s maw. This is where… Spock has to use his powers and relieve him of duty by exciting suicide because you’re not supposed to use a starship to commit suicide. He uses that clause in the federation regulations and relieves Commodore Decker of his post and re assumes command of the Enterprise once more.

Commodore Decker is still unhinged. He goes down to the shuttlecraft hangar. He picks up a shuttlecraft, takes it to the planet killer without authorization, and he literally rams the shuttlecraft into the maw of the planet killer. He doesn’t do much damage, but there is some slight energy drop in whatever emanations the planet killer has been giving out. Kirk uses that information to turn the Constellation into some sort of a bomb. He has to time it perfectly. He has to take this Constellation, ram it into the planet killer’s throat and detonate it. And he also has to get out of there within a 30 second margin, which is all very dicey, but he pulls it off, gets back to the Enterprise and the planet killer’s destroyed completely because of that detonation.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S2E05 The Apple

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: We have the US’ Enterprise orbiting a planet called Gamma Trianguli VI, and a landing party has beamed down on the planet’s surface. This landing party has Spock, Kirk and Chekov.

There’s a new character called Martha Landon and a lot of red shirts, at least three or four of them, and McCoy. They go down to this planet and it looks a lot like a peaceful garden of paradise, except for the fact that the sky is a violent orange, but we shall ignore that for now. In any case, they’re down there, they’re examining this planet. The temperature is a very beautiful 76 degrees Fahrenheit. Everything is very temperate. There’s a lot of greenery. It’s very lush. It’s beautiful. But as is a case with planets like these, there are always hidden secrets. As they wander, one of the red shirts is killed by a peculiar plant that turns in his direction and fires darts at him.

It kills him instantly. And then now Kirk is disturbed because there is danger on this planet and it’s not as peaceful as it looks. Kirk has already lost a man. Scotty reports from the ship that something has gone wrong with the ship. The ship is losing power from the anti-matter pods, and they’re not able to use the transporter to get the ground crew back onboard the ship, and this is a problem. So, while this is going on, Kirk and the crew have to stay down there, examine the planet, and Spock also reports that there’s some sort of humanoid following and they have to figure out what that is, and they have to find a way to stay down there and stay alive while Scott does whatever repairs he can do on the Enterprise in space.

Spock finds a peculiar rock that looks strange. It looks attractive. There are multiple colors on it, but as he tosses it aside, he finds that it explodes like a landmine and things go quickly downhill from there because more red shirts are killed with these landmines and then they find that there’s a village nearby that they should not interfere with according to the prime directive, but they may have to anyway. They find the humanoid trailing them and Kirk gives him a punch, which makes him cry, for some reason. This humanoid is a strange looking, coppery skinned person with white hair and a pair of antenna sticking out of his neck and a lot of war paint. And this humanoid is apparently a speaker and a listener of some entity called Vaal, which controls the planet. And they also learn that Vaal can control not only the humanoid, but he also controls the weather.

He can change it in the blink of an eye. Kirk and the crew, they go to this village. They find a group of very strange and childlike people who thinks Spock’s name is very funny. They try to integrate with the people there, but it’s very difficult because there are so child like there are no children there. So obviously there are a lot of things missing. It’s feeding time for Vaal. They want to go and see what this Vaal is. Vaal is a stone snake head that’s dozens of feet tall with a yawning, gaping mouth. The villagers of this planet go in there, give Vaal some sort of nourishment and keep it active.

And then Spock finds that there are a lot of subterranean frequencies coming from under the planet’s surface and it’s spread out over a large area. So they come to the conclusion that Vaal is some sort of a computer. It is not only draining the Enterprise’s power, from down here. It has also kept the villagers in some sort of fugue for about 10,000 years, and there’s been absolutely no change in that civilization for about 10,000 years. It’s a stagnant civilization. And now because of these outsiders, the villagers start picking up different, more bold habits, like they have no concept of love or romance, and then they find Chekov and the ensign kind of getting very friendly with each other, and then they try to mimic that, which makes Vaal very angry because he has forbidden all such interactions.

And he gives orders to Akuta, who is his listener, to have the landing party killed. But of course, these villagers have no idea how to kill anybody. They kill one red shirt because the red shirts have to be killed. One red shirt is killed. That’s the last of the red shirts. Everybody else is not a red shirt. The villagers look physically very strong, but they’re absolute weaklings. They cannot handle any sort of pressure. Their temperament is childlike. So the landing crew of four or five manage to overpower these people. They keep them in a hut and then they go to Vaal to try and deactivate it.

And Kirk with a little technical knowhow and some wizardry manages to get Scotty from the Enterprise to fire phasers at Vaal, forcing Vaal to drain all his energy, trying to defend itself. And then short circuit itself, which is, which is a very short scene towards the end. Then they go back to the Enterprise and all as well. And the, basically you have Kirk and McCoy as usual, trying to rag Spock, who’s naturally very confused because he does not understand human humor.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S2E04 Mirror, Mirror

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: So what we have here is when this episode begins, you find that the USS Enterprise is orbiting an alien planet, Captain Kirk, Scott, Dr. McCoy and Uhura down there on the planet. They’re trying to negotiate something with the alien race that calls themselves the Halkans. They’re talking to the Halkan council and they’re trying to get access to their dilithium crystals.

So now the Halkans have this peace policy that is taken to the absolute extreme, and they’re not giving the dilithium crystals to the federation because they believe that the dilithium crystals will eventually be used to harm somebody. And according to them, the loss of even one life due to something that they did cannot be tolerated.

So they’re not giving them the dilithium crystals. There’s also an ion storm happening around that planet and it is hitting the Enterprise. And so Kirk and the crew, they have to get back on board. While they’re trying to use the transporter to get Kirk and the crew back on board, something happens, there’s a power surge.

Kirk and the landing party appear in the transportation room. They disappear completely. And then they reappear somewhere else, apparently wearing different clothes. And they find themselves facing the transportation room crew along with Spock who has a beard. This is all very confusing for Kirk and the landing party.

They also find that this place where they are in it is very much like the original Enterprise, but it’s also different. There is some sort of a salute that they must adhere to, everybody salutes them in a strange way, unlike the Enterprise that they’re used to. They also find that the people here are quite cruel.

And it doesn’t take long for Kirk, Scotty, McCoy and Uhura to realize that they’re actually not on their own Enterprise. They’re in a parallel universe. And this happened because of the ion storm striking the Teleporter machine at the time of their transportation back into the ship.

And now here the problem is they have to find their way back home. But it’s difficult to navigate this new Enterprise because everything is actually barbaric. Cruelty is a norm. Officers ascend in rank by assassinating their superiors. It’s very difficult for Kirk to actually control the ship and here also, they’re on a similar mission to get the dilithium crystals from the Halkans, their counterparts from the parallel universe were on a similar mission to get the dilithium crystals from the Halkans, but here, since the Halkans aren’t giving them the crystals, they’ve been ordered to destroy cities and destroy the entire civilization, and then take these crystals by force, which is not something Kirk wants to do. He still gets along somewhat with the Spock of this universe.

He’s almost assassinated by Chekov. There’s also a lot of trouble with Sulu, who’s a security chief here. With some conference with Scotty, McCoy and Uhura, they decide to somehow get themselves back into their own universe. They have to use the ship’s power to divert that power to the transporter machine and get themselves teleported back at a particular time.

And then they find that they have just about half an hour to do it. Kirk also has to deal with a lot of other things because his counterpart in the parallel universe appears to have this wife mistress kind of woman. And she shows him some things about his cabin, including a sort of device that anhilates his enemies, and then one thing leads to another.

Spock in the parallel universe somehow discovers that the Kirk onboard the Enterprise is not the real Kirk, and then he has to take care of him because it’s going completely against the wishes of Star Fleet command of this parallel universe. And eventually what happens is they manage to rig the power systems of the parallel universe Enterprise, put everything in place to have themselves transported back home. And then they also find an unlikely ally in the Spock, the bearded Spock of the parallel universe because, despite the cruelty around him, again, he does have some integrity, some loyalty towards the captain.

He’s willing to listen to Kirk, even though that is not the Kirk he’s used to. And Kirk somehow tells him to kind of instigate a revolution so that this universe is a lot less cruel and then their places are swapped and they find themselves back in their original setting.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S2E03 Changeling

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: when this episode begins, you find that the USS Enterprise is en route to the Malurian star system.

They’re responding to some sort of distress call, but when they get there, they find that there’s no one to answer to their arrival or to greet them because according to Spock, there is no one there. Everybody has died out. And it’s a peculiar situation to be in because there were some 4 billion Malurians.

All of them have disappeared. And then what happens is they spot something in the far distance, the shields snap on. Some sort of an energy attack comes towards the Enterprise and reduces their shielding by 20%. Spock says that the ship can survive some Three or four more of those attacks and after that the shields would come down and they’ll be completely destroyed and these attacks keep coming.The shields keep coming down. They lose their warp power and Kirk decides to finally try and communicate with whatever is attacking them. It seems to be a small object just about a meter tall and about 500 kilos.

Kirk tries to talk to it. The thing responds in some sort of odd binary that they cannot decipher in the beginning, but putting this binary through the computers, they managed to convert it into English.And then they find this robotic voice talking to them, asking them whether they can leave the ship, interacting with them in a very odd way. And then Kirk decides to kind of stop this attack. These attacks from continuing because this object is apparently able to also absorb photon torpedoes. Kirk decides to take this object into the Enterprise.At first, they think it’s some sort of miniature spacecraft with miniature aliens inside. But once the thing comes aboard, they find that it’s a floating machine of some sort and it identifies itself as Nomad.

Kirk, when he hears his name, he puts two and two together and he remembers that there was an old earth probe called Nomad.It was supposedly lost in space, but apparently it isn’t because it’s right in front of them. And then this Nomad has some very odd ideas. It wants to disinfect, it wants to cleanse biological infestations as it calls it. It’s very unreasonable, difficult to talk to. And it also wants to know the point of origin of the Enterprise, which is Earth.And Kirk does have trouble dealing with this entity, particularly since the Nomad’s memory banks are damaged. And it somehow comes to the conclusion that Kirk is its creator.

So here we have another problem and It’s also something of an advantage because the only reason the Nomad isn’t wiping the Enterprise out is because it thinks Kirk is its creator.But then as things go bad, the Nomad becomes more and more erratic. It starts killing people. It starts disintegrating people. It goes to the engine room and decides that the engines are inefficient and then tries to, I don’t know, reset the engine so that the ship goes much faster than it was made to go.And then Kirk makes it slow down but ultimately what happens is it goes up to the bridge hearing Uhura sing through the intercom. It wipes Uhura’s memory because it, I don’t know, through its odd logic it doesn’t like Uhura singing, it wipes out her memory. And then it also kills.

Scotty, who tries to stop it from attacking Uhura. This is where we see that the Nomad also has some peculiar capabilities because once it is fed the biological records of humanity and Scotty’s physiology, it’s able to resurrect. Scotty, then you now you know that it’s a dangerous thing. It is dangerously unstable. It figures out that Kirk is not actually its creator and that it’s made a mistake.It goes back to the engine room decides to switch off the life support system so that it can turn the Enterprise into a more efficient system, then go to earth, destroy everything there, because according to its own warped programming, its duty and function is to destroy all by imperfect biological infestations, and according to it, all biological entities are imperfect.So now towards the end, what happens is Kirk uses his logic. He manages to short circuit it.

He convinces it that it has made errors of its own, and therefore it is an imperfect creation on its own and it must self destruct. Eventually what happens is Nomad activates self-destruct protocol and then Kirk and Spock manage to put it into the teleportation room.They have it transported out into deep space where itself destructs and then the Enterprise is safe again.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Books n Stuff Podcast: S2 Episode 05 - Meet Author-Editor Dr. Pallavi Narayan

Note - This summary was written by the AI module in Descript online software and not by me

Introduction:

Hello readers and book enthusiasts! Today, we have an exciting blog post for you based on an intriguing podcast episode. In this episode of the “Books N Stuff Podcast,” we meet Dr. Pallavi Narayan, an author and editor extraordinaire. She joins host Bala to discuss her incredible journey in the world of writing and publishing. So, grab a cup of coffee and get ready to be inspired!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S2E02 Who mourns for Adonais

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: When this episode begins, you first of all, you find that Scott is flirting with a new ensign on the bridge. Her name is Carolyn Palamas.He seems to have an interest with her, which is something very new. We haven’t seen that before. After that, we learned that the Enterprise is en route to a planet called Pollux 4. And as they near the planet, some sort of an energy field crops up and it takes the shape of a giant green hand.

And it holds the Enterprise in place.And this energy field is so powerful that the Enterprise cannot move, it cannot fire, it cannot break free. And as Spock notes, this energy field, even though it looks like a hand, it is not made of any sort of organic matter. It is not a living thing. It’s just plain energy. So this is very confusing because what sort of an entity can create that sort of an energy field and then they find a certain figure come up on the viewing screen. It’s just a head but it looks human it’s got a laurel wreath on its head and it claims to be Apollo and as the Greek god Apollo and it’s not going to let the Enterprise go.

So Kirk and a small landing crew including the Ensign, the new ensign, have to teleport down to the planet where they’re met with this strange muscular huge man who claims he’s the greek god Apollo he lays claim to the ensign Caroline and he’s interested in her and he takes her away and she is obviously taken in by him also. He wants the landing party to stay back on Pollux 4. And he also wants all of the crew aboard the Enterprise to come down and make themselves slaves to himself.

He believes he’s a God and it seems that he is a God and Kirk somehow reasons that he probably is the actual Greek God Apollo. And he believes that these beings, all of these gods, are actually some sort of space travelers that came to earth a long time ago and sort of bedazzled and primitive inhabitants of the planet and took on the guise of gods.By the end, they find that Apollo is very very capricious he’s got some sort of a lightning bolt from his fingertip he can destroy things he can kill people but each time he does something to that effect. He weakens.

And this is noticed by Chekhov. Long story short, what happens is somehow Kirk and the others have to get out of this planet.They have to have the Enterprise released. So basically, they have to get away from there. They have to prevent the rest of the crew from getting enslaved by this character. And Kirk decides the only way to do that is to try and turn Ensign Carolyn against Apollo. And her loyalty will be tested. Therefore he tells her something and finally she sees the truth and she spurns Apollo.That makes him go into a meltdown.

And Spock from the Enterprise out in orbit discovers that it is possible to punch some holes into that energy field and fire the phasers. So they discover that the temple where Apollo is lodged has some sort of energy source, and if they fire the phasers there, they’ll be able to destroy that temple and Apollo’s energy.

They do that, they’re released, and Apollo becomes heartbroken, he cannot have any more followers, he says, and he disappears. It’s some sort of a death, as we understand, but not exactly, and he disappears. And they go back to the Enterprise, free from this entity that they don’t really understand.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S2E01 The Amok time

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: When this episode opens, what we find is that Dr. McCoy is very worried about Spock and he tells Kirk that there’s something seriously wrong with Spock. He’s not eating properly, he’s irritable, and he’s almost nervous to use the doctor’s words and there’s something wrong and nobody can figure out what it is.And Kirk and Dr. McCoy actually witness Nurse Christine Chapel taking some soup for Spock and Spock, throwing it out with some choice abuse for Nurse Chapel.

Now Spock has his pride and he is not going to tell Kirk what the issue is. But he does tell Kirk that he wants to go to Vulcan and there is something on Vulcan, his home planet that will cure him.But he absolutely refuses to tell Kirk what it is. The Enterprise already is on route to a planet called Altair VI, and this is for some sort of ceremonial event that’s happening there. And Star Fleet command has insisted that the Enterprise go there.

They cannot change course, but Spock insisted they change course.Over the course of time, he also manages to convince the bridge that the captain has given orders to change course to Vulcan. And there’s a lot of back and forth and a lot of humor there. But then Kirk finally confronts Spock and demands, orders him to tell him what is wrong with him. And the issue is there’s some sort of a mating season for Vulcans and Spock is in the throws of it and he can’t control it.He must go down. He must get back to Vulcan and have a marriage ceremony held.

Otherwise there’s going to be a lot of problems. And his wife, or the woman that’s supposed to be bonded to him is called T’Pring. Nobody else knew that. So finally, Kirk with a lot of thought he decides to go to Vulcan. And there, there’s this elaborate ceremony for Spock, and the marriage ceremony has to take place.But this woman T’Pring, she’s pretty devious. She decides that she doesn’t want to accept Spock directly. She wants a champion in his place and she chooses Kirk of all people. So now Kirk and Spock have to fight each other to the death. Spock is completely out of his mind with all of his emotions taking over.Kirk doesn’t know what to do exactly.

For one thing, it’s very hot on Vulcan, and for the other, it’s the atmosphere is so thin that he can’t breathe and he is losing this fight. So McCoy injects him with something. Kirk is knocked out and it looks as though Spock has won, and then T’Pring reveals a bombshell that she never wanted to marry Spock in the first place.There’s another Vulcan that she wants to marry, and she devised all this nonsense so that Spock releases her basically.

Or even if he doesn’t release her, she can have an affair with this other guy. So Spock decides not to marry her. They get back to the Enterprise. He’s in temporary command of the Enterprise, but he doesn’t want temporary command because he believes he’s killed Kirk. And then what happens is, we’ll discuss this in detail, but what happens is Kirk is not dead. Spock is very happy.

He shows emotion for the first time, for about half a second, and, yeah, everything is back to normal by then because now whatever was bothering him, Spock is gone with, with the fight and everything.Kirk is alive and all is well.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading

Podcast Enterprise: S1E29 Operation annihilate

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: The USS Enterprise is approaching the planet Deneva. Captain Kirk is actually very nervous at this point because there’s something wrong with down there in Deneva, and Uhura is not able to communicate with the people there, and his brother is also down there.

And Spock very helpfully says that there’s some pattern of mass insanity that has been jumping from planet to planet, and now it’s going to be on Deneva. And Kirk is naturally very worried about this. There’s no response to their calls. While they’re approaching this planet, they find that a small ship, a Denevan ship is flying towards the Denevan sun, which is very hot, and then it gets very close to the sun. It disintegrates, but not before the Enterprise picks up an exclamation where the person on the Denevan ship says he’s free, and whatever it is, it’s gone. He’s free and he dies.

That’s it. So now, the issue is they have to get down on Deneva and with a small landing party. When Kirk teleports down there, he finds that the place is more or less deserted. It’s supposed to be a hugely populated planet, but there’s nobody there. However, they go down there, they look for people, and then, it looks like some people are coming out to attack them, but they don’t want to attack them, but they’re being forced to attack them against their will.

It seems they’re being controlled by something else or someone else We don’t know at this point. Kirk eventually finds that his brother is dead. His sister-in-law is acting crazy. His nephew is unconscious. So the sister-in-law and nephew, they take them back to the Enterprise and there they find that the sister-in-law is being controlled by something in her body.

She’s trying to tell them what went wrong on Deneva, but she’s not able to because something is choking her from within. And she starts screaming. Things go from bad to worse. Eventually she passes away, but they have to find out what is going on Deneva. So Kirk and the landing party, they return with Spock and they try to find whatever this infestation is, the source of this infestation.

And then they come across these icky, plasticy looking huge, pink colored creatures that are sticking to the ceilings and walls and making weird noises. One of them attaches themselves to Spock, and from then on he is also infected. He undergoes excruciating pain. He tries to talk, but this thing tries to prevent him from talking.

It’s controlling his thoughts, it’s controlling his emotions, but through his sheer Vulcan physique, he’s able to push down the pain and control whatever it is this thing is trying to do. The Enterprise must naturally now try and dissect these parasites. Parasites that are infecting people and turning them insane.

And they find that it’s some sort of brain cell or those creatures are some sort of loose brain cells of a creature that we never really see. They’re flying all over the solar system infecting people from planet to planet, bringing them down.

Driving them insane and through a lot of trial and error, to cut a long story short, they find that the only way to kill it is to throw intense light at it. So that’s the only way it can be killed. There is no other way of getting rid of it. It is resistant to almost everything. So the sample that they have in the lab, they take it to a chamber and subject it to that light, which I believe is 1 million candles per square inch intensity.

So when they do that, they find that the thing is dead. So naturally now Spock has to be cured and Spock being Spock decides to have himself cured without protecting his eyes from the intense light because the people down there on the planet cannot have that sort of protection. So he goes into the chamber, they switch on the light, and he goes blind.

And then after that, very conveniently they find that they don’t have to throw the full spectrum of light at the creature, just the ultraviolet light. So seed satellites are released all around the planet that release high intensity ultraviolet light, and the creatures are killed restoring order to some extent, and I’m sure we are gonna talk about this later, but Spock does regain his sight.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!

Continue reading