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L.I. Underhill is a media critic and historian specializing in pop culture, with a focus on science fiction (especially Star Trek) and video games. Their projects include a critical history of Star Trek told through the narrative of a war in time, a “heretical” history of The Legend of Zelda series and a literary postmodern reading of Jim Davis' Garfield.

4 Comments

  1. Daru
    March 2, 2015 @ 10:34 pm

    "And that's all well and good, except for the fact it's, all things considered, kinda boring, especially when compared with what John Meredyth Lucas would have come up with had “Kitumba” been made (seriously, Maurice Hurley-I will never understand why of all the Star Trek Phase II stories you could have gone with you picked “The Child” and “Devil's Due” instead of the clearly superior “Kitumba” and “Practice in Waking”). This is all standard issue dark, complicated realpolitiking and dark, complicated realpolitiking that our characters have a personal investment in is visibly a hallmark of Moore's even at this early stage in his career."

    I find it a big shame that they went down this route with the Klingons, as for me they have fallen into being a rather generic, comedic (unintentionally!) and one-note race.

    It would have been amazing if the revelation in Kitumba that the Klingons were not an entire race defined by warrior-ship, but that their warriors were but one faction.

    Also, I think I like it when I was younger, but the desire for doing "darker" or "more serious" stories just gets kind of dull I feel and in the end has writers and producers manipulating and contorting characters into moulds that don't fit them.

    In the end I always end up thinking, well what about the Klingon hairdressers, dentists, artists, etc – surely the have some basic functions that their society needs to operate that are not based on honour or battle?

    Reply

  2. Marionette
    March 3, 2015 @ 11:25 am

    The last thing you want is a Klingon bus driver who is thinking "this would be a good day to die".

    Reply

  3. Daru
    March 3, 2015 @ 11:28 am

    … or feels dishonoured when you don't give the correct bus fare.

    Reply

  4. Marionette
    March 3, 2015 @ 11:39 am

    Also, I notice they make an effort to show gender equality among the Klingon ranks, and yet it's still a sausage fest at the top levels. Apparently even Klingon society has a glass ceiling.

    Has there ever been even a female Klingon ship captain? I can't think of any (the Duras sisters don't count). Even the Romulans have female ship captains.

    Reply

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