The Weekly Muse #108

On Star Trek and LOTR

Hello, all,

I’ve been going back through Star Trek: The Next Generation of late, in preparation for my rewatch of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and as I wait for Babylon Five to turn up on one of the streaming services I’m on. (It was on Tubi but it left there, to my dismay. Here’s where I should insert a bit about physical media and why you should get DVDs which is all very well in the abstract but we don’t have a DVD player anymore. So. Anyway.)

I’ve just finished rewatching “Skin of Evil”, Next Generation season 1, episode 22, and I had a thought. Spoilers follow, if you’ve never seen any of TNG.

In a later episode, the otherwise brilliant “Yesterday’s Enterprise”, Guinan will call Tasha Yar’s death in this episode “an empty death. A death without purpose.” Here’s why I disagree, given the circumstances of the actual incident in question. Let’s discuss.

What happens is an Enterprise shuttle, with Deanna Troi aboard, has crashed on a random planet. Riker, Tasha, and Data have beamed down and find their way to the shuttle blocked by a moving oil slick-like entity which appears alive and identifies itself as Armus. Riker tells Armus they meant it no harm, but he has injured crewmen in the shuttle and they need to pass. Armus, not being one of your nicer Living Oil Slicks, demands a reason.

Riker does not say “Look, buddy, I just told you why” which was what I might have done, but instead says that they need to get to their crew on the shuttle because they value life and indeed all life is very important to them. Armus calls this an “Interesting notion which he does not share”, and tells them to leave. Then Tasha steps up and tells him they’re not going without their shuttle crew. Armus starts with “I warn you-”

“Enough,” Tasha says, “We have people who need attention. We won’t hurt you but we must help them,” She then heads straight for the shuttle, Armus or no Armus, which is unfortunately when Armus kills her with a single flash of power. Of course the Enterprise beams her back to the ship and Dr. Crusher does everything she can, and it doesn’t work: Tasha is indeed gone.

…

Now, yes, it’s sudden, brutal, and violent [well, violent-ish: compared to the bug episode we’re about to see, Tasha’s death is practically a mercy]. That said, I wouldn’t call this a death without meaning, let alone empty. She died on an away mission, on duty, in the act of attempting to aid an injured member of her crew. How is that without meaning? True, her immediate effort didn’t succeed, but in the end her mission is accomplished; Deanna and the shuttle pilot are saved. Is not that worth something?

I would think so. But maybe I’m just overthinking the whole thing. This is what I do. Moving on, let’s go to the

Writing Update

Rise of the Pinball, my novel in progress, has passed the 10K mark! Hurrah! Only 40000-ish words to go! Meanwhile, Dawn of the Super Surgeon, the current Edison City serial, proceeds apace: you can find the page with all the latest episodes here:

Dawn of the Super Surgeon

Closing Time

As I mentioned on Notes, Lego has just announced that in June they will be offering an 8,278-piece model of Minas Tirith. You may recall I have an interest in Lego; I’ve built Notre Dame, Star Destroyers, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D (although that one needs a rebuild due to cough structural damage, among others. What I do not have at this point in time is the ability to buy the model for what it costs. As a result, I will not be putting up a paywall on my posts, but I will be asking very, very nicely. And replacing the Buy Me a Coffee button with a this button:

I don’t remember the scene in the movie because I only saw it once ages ago, but here’s the relevant passage from the book:

For partly in the primeval shaping of the hill, partly by the mighty craft and labour of old, there stood up from the rear of the wide court behind the Gate a towering bastion of stone, its edge sharp as a ship-keel facing east. Up it rose, even to the level of the topmost circle, and there was crowned by a battlement; so that those in the Citadel might look from its peak sheer down upon the Gate seven hundred feet below. The entrance to the Citadel also looked eastward, but was delved in the heart of the rock; thence a long lamp-lit slope ran up to the seventh gate. Thus men reached at last the High Court, and the Place of the Fountain before the feet of the White Tower: tall and shapely, fifty fathoms from its base to the pinnacle, where the banner of the Stewards floated a thousand feet above the plain.

Also, it comes with the battering-ram Grond, which is just really cool. I admit if I were more of a fantasy writer than I am, I don’t know that I’d have the mind to think of the name of a battering ram, except maybe Ramsey. (Heh). Tolkien, though? That ram’s got a backstory.

Impressive.

Anyway.

Until next time,

Michael