{"id":4363,"date":"2015-01-12T13:00:30","date_gmt":"2015-01-12T21:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4363"},"modified":"2015-01-05T12:28:32","modified_gmt":"2015-01-05T20:28:32","slug":"mark-watches-star-trek-s03e17-that-which-survives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/01\/mark-watches-star-trek-s03e17-that-which-survives\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Star Trek’: S03E17 – That Which Survives"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seventeenth episode of the third season of\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>, the Enterprise<\/i> faces a harrowing nightmare when they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re split up by a being who is destined to kill everyone. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Okay, I was TOTALLY INTO THIS EPISODE. Like I said at the end of the video,\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i> has a good track record with what I like to call the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153minimalist thriller.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d We get a simple premise, but one that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deliberate mysterious. Here, the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise<\/i> is cast nearly a thousand light years away from a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153new\u00e2\u20ac\u009d planet, where Bones, Sulu, Kirk, and D\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Amato are stranded with no hope of water or food. This is certainly not the first episode this season where the main cast is separated from the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise<\/i>, so I admittedly expected all the scenes on the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise<\/i> to be kind of meaningless. However, the script expertly ties together this story through Losira, who acts as the main mystery within \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That Which Survives.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

This is not a happy story at all. From D\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Amato\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death on, this felt unusually grim for\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>. There are frequently deaths on this show that aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afforded much grandeur or meaning, but I totally believed that D\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Amato was safe. Even if I never questioned the fate of Sulu, Kirk, or Bones, I was still transfixed by what was happening. Straight up: I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand it. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something that\u00c2\u00a0can<\/i> be fascinating in terms of pacing or suspense, particularly if a story can arouse enough interest that you\u00c2\u00a0want<\/i> to know how the mystery is solved. Sometimes, that mystery can become frustrating when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dragged out for too long. I personally felt there was a perfect balance between all these elements within this episode, and it results in a rather exciting (and sad!) tale.<\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about some of the dynamics present here. I usually enjoy getting the chance to see Spock at the helm of the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise<\/i>, and this is no exception. More so than ever before, the writers explore his captaining style (is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153captaining\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a word???? NOW IT IS), and OH LORD. There are SO MANY moments where Spock misinterprets colloquialism or figures of speech or talks about logic or decries emotions and I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T BELIEVE HOW ENDLESSLY ENTERTAINING IT IS. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know this about him or that this is a new avenue for the show. But holy shit, there are so many eye rolls and pursed lips and\u00c2\u00a0I will never get bored watching this<\/i>.<\/p>\n

However, this is not the sole point of the scenes aboard the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise<\/i>. This episode takes Scotty to a\u00c2\u00a0very<\/i> uncomfortable place, and while I never truly believed that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d die, I was still rattled by his words towards the end of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That Which Survives.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say this story is one about survival, particularly what various people do to stay alive and how that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always pan out how they want. Numerous crewmembers perish on the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise<\/i>: Ensign Wyatt, Watkins, and D\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Amato all don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t survive, killed by Losira. But Scotty\u00c2\u00a0willingly<\/i> offers himself up as a sacrifice of sorts, certain that the only way to save the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise<\/i> is to jettison the fuel pod WITH HIMSELF INSIDE OF IT. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to imagine that the reason Spock hesitates in ordering Rahda to sacrifice Scotty is because he quietly had faith that Scotty could fix the matter-antimatter fuel flow. Even if Scotty\u00c2\u00a0was<\/i> emotional, that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean he was incapable of doing what was necessary.<\/p>\n

Still, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not gonna forgive this show for Scotty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s line about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dying anyway,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because holy shit,\u00c2\u00a0that was not fair<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the plot onboard the mysterious \u00e2\u20ac\u0153planet\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was INCREDIBLE. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a senselessness to what happens between the surviving crewmembers and Losira, and it was unreal to watch the absurdity unfold. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I mean by using a mystery to build tension. We watched Losira kill D\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Amato, but she did so while saying\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 nonsense. Her words didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make sense. How did she know his name and who he was? Why did she say she was made for him? Initially, I bought into the notion that she was her own person, that she was seeking out these people to truly warn them, but after she appeared on the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise<\/i> a second time, killing Watkins and sabotaging the ship, that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fit the pattern.<\/p>\n

And\u00c2\u00a0then<\/i>, she attacked Sulu, and I WAS SO LOST. But this is important: being lost in a story is not the same as being lost\u00c2\u00a0by<\/i> a story. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like this was pointless. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like a carrot was being dangled in front of me just for the sake of it. There had to be a reason for her behavior. Hell, I thought I had it figured out! Losira\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s robotic nature began to dissolve, so I was convinced that she was being controlled, that some group of beings who lived within this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153station\u00e2\u20ac\u009d were forcing her to attack the Enterprise<\/i>.<\/p>\n

But holy shit, the truth? It was\u00c2\u00a0so much worse than this<\/i>. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no happy ending here for Losira because LOSIRA WAS ALWAYS DEAD. I\u00c2\u00a0loved<\/i> the conclusion to this episode, because despite that it was incredibly sad, it perfectly explained everything I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seen. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a horrible outcome because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no way to save the Kalandan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s; they had long since expired after succumbing to the virus they had accidentally created. All they had left behind was a defense system \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which appeared in the likeness of the original Losira \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that had been programmed to defend the planet against all non-Kalandan species. EXCEPT NO KALANDANS WERE EVER GOING TO SHOW UP BECAUSE THEY WERE ALL DEAD ANYWAY.<\/p>\n

The show makes great use of the cellular-destruction-through-touch gimmick, though I kept wanting to burst into laughter after every time Losira said I WANT TO TOUCH YOU or I MUST TOUCH YOU. Still, it was creepy, especially when the defense system adapted in real time to the ways in which Sulu, Kirk, and Bones avoided death. In that case, the humans outlasted a machine.\u00c2\u00a0They<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re<\/i> what survived here.<\/p>\n

And because I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figure out where to stick this in the review, props to this episode for featuring two black characters (omg Dr. M\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Benga came back!!!) and a character with a bindi prominently displayed throughout. I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m rather brutal sometimes when it comes to matters of representation, but I think about how these appearances probably made a bunch of racists super mad, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m tickled by the thought of it.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That Which Survives\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– Mark Does Stuff is now on Facebook<\/a>! Feel free to Like the page, which I’m running myself, for updates and SILLINESS.
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