being cringe about star trek (a collection)

self-indulgent post to show my star trek collection. this post also doubles as my way to get star trek fans to talk to me, pspspsps. please let me know if the photos don't work. ill die. also just a heads up i talk about spirk, sorry, i'm insane about them, you just have to deal with it. this is also really fucking long, didn't think it was gonna be this long. enjoy.

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okay so, most of what i own is mostly tos and aos related. that's my main thing, they're what i grew up watching, and i have fond memories watching my dad's torrent of tos on his old ass hp laptop that still ran xp in the good year of 2012. so we'll begin with all my current tos stuff!

about 15 (technically 16 but, i have killing time twice so it doesn't count really) books, the complete series box set (remastered version), and a complete box set of the movies with an extra 'movie' called the captains summit! i found these at different secondhand places near me, which i really recommend bc 1. car ride time 2. these places have a ton of stuff for cheap man!!!!! a lot of these books only cost me a $1. except for the fotonovels those suckers cost me 10 but that's understandable.

guys im sorry but. i really love the movie box. IT'S SO PRETTY. TO ME. you can't tell in the photo but the front is one of those things that 'moves' when you move it around. it's really cool. and the disc boxes are sweet too, all of them have a portrait shot of the classic tos cast (triumvirate, sulu, chekov, uhura, and scotty!).

it was kinda hard to get a good photo of these guys. you can barely see nimoy, i'm so sorry king. I TRIED!!!! rest assured, he looks very good. if you're wondering where kirk is, he's on the 'captain's summit' disc. it's basically a little round table documentary starring shatner, nimoy, frakes, and patstew hosted by whoopi. just a couple of guys being dudes.

guys. why is his photo like that. it's so funny.

the tos series box set!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love her!!!!!!!!!!! it says 'remastered' but it really means they replaced the old practical effects with cool early 2000's cgi. that is to say, it looks like garbage because cgi doesn't age well. ever. i was a bit sad to learn that, because i love the silly 60's practical effects the show uses, always makes me smile and laugh fr. i'm actually trying to find a box set that just has the original practical effects, which i know is weird because it would be essentially owning the same thing. but trust, that i don't care about owning the same thing multiple times in a different format. you'll see later.

i love you star trek symbols. i love you command, science, and operations symbols. kiss. i just thought it was a neat thing to put on the discs :).

with all the discs out of the way. lets talk books. the star trek books are probably the easiest to find in any secondhand store. there have been a TON of star trek books released over the years - including comics but i don't own any of those - and a lot of them are usually fan written stories that were picked up for publication!! they may not all be canon nowadays, and they certainly aren't the pinnacle of literature, but they're pretty damn fun to read anyways. we'll start with my favorites.

one of the first books i picked up was star trek: the new voyages 1. it had a cool cover, some forewards from some of the cast, and it's entirely a book created by fans for fans! a lot of these stories/poems/essays were often published in fanzines (see star trek and it's history as being a cradle for western fandom here and here) or fan collections. after the publication of Star Trek Lives! followed these two books. i really really love them. i love reading these fan stories, and i love reading the forewards left by the cast themselves!! did you know nichelle nichols (uhura!!) herself helped write a story for new voyages? it's called "Surprise!" and it's about The Enterprise Crew trying to throw a surprise birthday for Kirk while classic sci-fi background plot ensues. it's also really really good for spirk moments. at one point, spock carries kirk throughout the enterprise. BRIDAL STYLE. may i add. foams at the mouth. what kind of shit is this. hello. gay people can't be normal they have to carry their crush in their arms through the entire spaceship for their entire crew to see. and nobody bats an eye.. (literally. scotty doesn't even question the scene). the way kirk is written in that story is so good too, he actually blushes a couple of times. oh i need him SO bad. moving on before i go insane, Spock Must Die! is the first original novel for tos. the plot kind of reminds me of The Enemy Within, except instead of Kirk, it's Spock this time. i haven't read it yet, but i love it simply because it's about Spock and that Spock is on the cover. i am a simple man, with simple needs. for star trek 2, 3, and 10, they're essentially novelizations of star trek episodes! james blish, imo, is a really good writer. i actually prefer some of his tellings of the episodes over the actual episodes - naturally, because a book is able to expand more on certain feelings, details, etc. that just can't be described when filming something. it's pretty good stuff. i hope to get all of the books, but in order to not kill my wallet, i just got the ones that had some of my favorite episodes.

what is there to say, yanno? movie novelizations!!! these are actually kind of hard to find. two of these i found in one shop, and the other in a different shop. but out of the many places i went to, they didn't have any other ones (i often found the undiscovered country a lot). i've resorted to going on ebay and just finding them, which has proven fruitful. i plan to order the other three soon, just need to find The Voyage Home. on the top, is two fotonovels! the store where i got them actually had a sizeable collection of the fotonovels, but because they were all priced about 10 bucks each, i only got two.

the fotonovels are exactly what they look like. stills from the episodes with text bubbles that have the dialogue of from the episode. it's like watching the episode, in book format. different from novelizations. here's how they look like, i chose the classic spirk scene from Amok Time where Spock smiled at seeing Jim alive. :)

i'm actually really scared to handle these because theyre so old and just taking this photo i actually ripped the photo off the spine a little bit. the terror that went through my body can never be replicated. i also don't want to crease it too much!! normally i don't care but....this time i do. i hope to get all of the fotonovels too, but we'll see because ten bucks a piece is kinda. ridiculous. i digress.

the first two in this stack were some of the first books i got. i know it sounds dumb, but i didn't know star trek had books until i saw them with my own eyes. the idic epidemic, strangers from the sky, and star trek the new voyages 1 were the first three books i got, mostly on impulse. i won't lie, part of how i choose my star trek books is how the cover looks and whether it focus on spock/kirk/bones/etc. sometimes i'll see snippets from books and be like "oh i need this book NOW" because the snippet was a single line of banter between kirk and spock and i am so unwell about them even if most of the story is something else entirely. vulcan's glory i found at the 2nd bookstore place i went to, and got it because it was a story about a young Spock under Cpt. Pike! i really really like Spock, if you couldn't tell. Strangers From the Sky is about vulcan's coming to earth before the canon First Contact period. kirk and spock go insane and then mind meld. ehe. now. killing time.....whew. as you can see, i own it twice. don't be fooled though, these books are different. #trust. if you didn't know, killing time is infamous as The Spirk story, mostly because legend goes that della van hise added some Moments between Kirk and Spock that were homoerotic in nature. paramount didn't like this, and tried to get all the first edition copies back and then printed their new approved version which removed Those Parts. you can read all about Killing Time in depth here. you can see the changes made to the newer prints here. to be honest, though, when you look this story up, della herself has said that it's just a rumor, and what happened was the wrong manuscript of the book was published. that's it. she also says "i would also like to point out that most people see exactly what they want to see." and then says beauty is in the eye of the beholder. so. whether you think killing time is a spirk story is up to you. for me it is, because i like spirk. but if you don't, then it isn't. that's all it really is. but man some of these lines really make you think "what the hell is going on between these two guys.". regardless, i own both a first edition print, and fourth edition print!! found them both on ebay and the first edition print is one of the crowning jewels of my collection. it's in pretty good condition, and like the fotonovels, i am super scared to really open it up and crease it because i don't want to ruin it. here's two photo's from my first edition and fourth edition, just for comparison to how different the books are.

it's really fun to go back and compare the two. it's crazy how one sentence, or even a word alone, can change the entire tone of the scene. on an unrelated note, it has been mentioned before that the plot of the first aos movie is similar to that of Killing Time. i don't remember exactly where i read it, but i do remember reading a post somewhere that della herself mentioned the certain similarities between her book to the plot of the first aos movie. shrugs. it's funny to imagine Killing Time but instead of Shatner & Nimoy you can imagine Pine & Quinto. either way, i really love this book, i spent a long while looking for it, and it's one of my most treasured items. the first edition genuiely has beautiful moments that sadly were cut from newer editions. honestly, even with its reputation as the K/S book, you don't have to be a K/S fan to really appreciate the beauty of the bond shared between spock and kirk as it's displayed here. della van hise is so good, i actually wish i could write like her a bit. <3

lastly, i present you star trek : collision course, by william shatner with the help of the reeves-stevens pair. to be honest, i don't think shatner actually 'wrote' most of this book, i find it hard to believe he could. i can accept he was probably the one throwing down the ideas that would later be polished by reeves-stevens. deforest said it best in a video i can't fucking find but i promise he said something along the lines of "dammit, bill. you're an actor, not a singer.".

regardless of how i feel about The Shat and his writing skills, i do like collision course. the premise is simple "what if spock and kirk met when they were younger?" kirk is seventeen, and spock is nineteen respectively. technically, i think this book is supposed to be in canon, but frankly it just doesn't work (often the problem with stories/movies/shows set as sequel-prequels) so it's better just to imagine it as a story in a different universe or timeline. especially because kirk here is more akin to aos kirk than tos kirk, and while his behavior is explained as a response to what he went through on tarsus iv, i mean. tos canon of how kirk was when he was younger kind of breaks that illusion. also, he and sam are too good. we need brothers who don't know how to be brothers again. ok. we need brothers that love each other but are too different in their ways to really reconcile. ANYWAYS. kirk and spock meet basically at a strip club, spock is there to do some Shady Dealings (which he does w a very flirty lady and the whole time he's like BE NORMAL BE NORMAL VULCANS DON'T GET HORNY. which is a little cringe but also SO funny i couldn't help but laugh at it.) and kirk is trying to hide at the strip club after stealing a starfleet car. they fight, and then go on to solve a mystery together. theres a ton of really great moments between kirk and spock, and reeves-stevens are pretty good writers so i enjoyed it nonetheless. i would defo recommend you to get this one if you're looking to get some star trek books of your own. ebay is your best friend.

this is my segway into my aos stuff.

like before, we'll start with the movies. i know not everyone likes aos, and i get it. the movie trilogy definitely falls flat in aspects that are really important - both in character histories, motivations, and the relationships between them. of course, it could never be a proper copy of tos, it's a different timeline, and the story of our main crew have been changed enough to where they're no longer 1:1 copies of the originals. but, the core parts of these characters shouldn't change, and unfortunately aos does that. it's also criminal how bones essentially gets replaced by zoe saldana's uhura in the triumvirate (it's criminal how little bones is in these movies and often is relagated to saying metaphors and his catch phrase 'dammit jim!!!', which is so fucking sad because karl urban delivers such a GOOD bones, like truly. i remember how nimoy cried seeing karl's portrayal because it was just that spot on it reminded him of deforest.) and is relagated to the background (imo) when he should be just as important as the rest. he is the heart of the trio!! there's also the weird romance thing going on between uhura and spock and i know originally that was meant to be a thing in tos anyway but was scrapped cause shatner wanted to get the romance instead but i really enjoy the moments between spock and uhura. they are so best friend coded to me and it's very special to my heart their dynamic (especially with the moments we get in snw!!). and god. womanizer kirk strikes again, when will they free my man from the shackles of womanizing asshole. head in my hands. literally what was the point of that scene from into darkness. what purpose does that serve besides to drill our heads that KIRK LOVES WOMEN GUYS. HE IS A WHORE!!!! ONLY FOR WOMEN THOUGH. christ. GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!!! leave me alone with that shit dude. don't get me STARTED on beyond. it fails so hard on the kirk and spock subplot when it really shouldn't, it's such a simple thing - bones & spock get more time with their dynamic here than spock and kirk. and i know that's intentional because the seperation is meant to highlight just how much kirk needs spock, but thats also the problem. spock needs kirk too!! kirk is important to spock!! he is a fundamental person to shaping who he becomes later in life!!! there is not enough about spock reaching out to kirk in beyond!!! GRAAGGHHHHH

DESPITE. i still really love the movie series. i was about five when the first one came out, and i remember being so excited and bouncing in my seat and my mom telling me to quit. core memory honestly. for me, this is what really planted the seeds for my love of star trek. even though i had been watching tos with my dad, that was still more his thing that i just happened to join in on, especially because tos had came out long before i existed. but the movies came out in my life!!! i saw into darkness and beyond in theaters!! they came out at key points in my life!!! yes the movies have glaring problems, but i still really love them!!! i have seen them many times and idgaf i will always give them 5 stars on the letterboxd even though they don't really deserve it!!!!! BESIDES, I THINK ABOUT THIS DELETED SCENE ALL THE TIME. moving on. i own them in regular dvd, and bluray. i actually got the 3-movie bluray recently, mostly because even though i already had star trek (2009) on bluray (3-disc digital copy edition seen in photo) it was cheaper just to get the 3 movie edition then buy into darkness and beyond seperately. though i was tempted because the store had a steelbook edition of into darkness. i would have gotten it if it was anybody but benedict cumberbatch on it tbh. yes, this means i have 3 copies of star trek (2009).

i lied. i own FOUR copies of star trek (2009). I KNOW. IT'S REALLY DUMB. JUST LISTEN TO ME OK. one day, when i was at my regular secondhand store with the intent to get more star trek books (they have A LOT) i saw this white star trek movie box. i thought it was a collection, and took it out just to look at it, but then i discovered. it was a target exclusive star trek (2009) copy that had an ENTERPRISE DISC HOLDER. guys. it's a figurine-like thing that doubles as a disc holder. GUYS.

she's so beautiful. throws up. and listen man, this thing was like 11 bucks at the store. and it's in like perfect condition, both the dvd and disc holder itself. no scratches, cracks, anything. sure, the box outside protecting it was a little banged, but honestly who cares. we're here for the dvd holder. currently, it's sitting on my desk as i type this silly post up. when i bought this i texted one of my friends and he clowned me for buying this (i already owned two copies of star trek (2009) at this point. did i really need to get it again just for the dvd holder? yes. yes i did.) but we do not care. i love this thing. i think one of the discs is also some game demo? i don't know tbh, i barely skimmed the box it came in (in fact i threw it away right after i assembled her) so i'll have to look that one up. anyways. this is another one of my crown jewels.

surprise!! aos has novels too!! only two, sadly. it's got some comics too, i think, but again, i don't own any of them and i haven't looked into it all that much. i should though. anyways i'm sad to report that i didn't get The Unsettling Stars & More Beautiful Than Death secondhand, i actually bought those new (for 16 bucks a piece....gbuh...) at barnes & nobles. i wasn't even planning on it, i just was hanging out and looking around for the hell of it, but then i thought to myself. is there star trek books in the sci fi section? there was! in fact there was a 40th anniversay paperback for TMP's novelization. i didn't get that one just because i saved a listing for a TMP paperback priced at 5 bucks. but when i saw the aos novels....impulsivity struck again. i bought them without really thinking and then sat down and started reading The Unsettling Stars. from what i've read so far, i think it's good!! bones has a personality in it!!!! he's real!!!!! he's with jim and spock and they are being the triumvirate they should be!!!! alan dean foster is okay in my book. i haven't read More Beautiful Than Death, so i'll let you know how that one goes. following those two is the novelization for into darkness and star trek (2009). strangely, beyond doesn't have a novelization, which i think sucks, because beyond could definitely benefit from a novelization. it would certainly improve it, i think. these i did get secondhand, and to be honest. i peeked at into the darkness, skipped right to The Chamber Scene (you know. That scene.) and was kind of dissapointed. this supposed poignant moment which is supposed to parallel the same chamber scene from Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan falls flat in the novelization, to me anyways. it's also missing the part in the scene where kirk says "i want you to know why i couldn't let you die. why i went back for you.". this is a call back to earlier in the movie, where kirk after arguing and being annoyed at spock for causing him to lose the enterpirse after reporting him for violating the prime directive to save him, asks spock, "do you at least understand why i went back for you?". i know it's just one line, but it's so important, because earlier in the movie spock fails to find an answer, he is unable too. even as kirk tells him "i'm gonna miss you." spock still can't answer. but now that he can admit just how much kirk means to him, he finds the answer. "because you are my friend.". i just think its a bit annoying how that's missing from it. petty, i know, but i'm the type of person who is a sucker for details. they're important!!! i honestly plan to read these novelizations last. i think they stick pretty close to the movies - the tos novels, at least, have moments where they differ from the movies which makes for a pretty good read - and because i have these movies burned into my brain anyway i won't be missing much. i'm still happy to have them, though.

and now we've reached the end. strange new worlds is a relatively new addition to star trek, it started last year, and honestly i didn't get to watching it until very recently. for a brief moment, the first season was free on plutotv (and so is tos at the moment so you should really go check it out.) and i started watching it. i didn't finish it, however, because fuckass plutotv took it off. i really really like strange new worlds. i have the same relationship with it that i do aos. mostly in regards to how they treat spock and chapel. spock in snw is not the same as he is in tos. he is younger, and he is under christopher pike, who he served before kirk took over the enterprise. this is not the problem, but the writers sure do take their liberty with him. free my boy he did nothing wrong. i have. Feelings about Charades and the bioessentialist take it spews, which is so cringe, but i can admit that the episode does have some funny moments i giggled at. but it still is probably my least favorite. especially because this idea of spock being human was actually touched on in a story in the new voyages (ni'var by claire gabriel) and it was infinitely better. and that was a fucking fan piece man. 

now about spapel, i don't hate spapel. in fact, i probably wouldn't have mind it so much, if it didn't reduce chapel to just a side piece to spock. she loses herself man!!! they relagate a lot of her story to her doomed crush on spock, which sucks! bc shes so cool!!!! also, we know they don't end up together, and it just makes those scenes in tos really fucking sad. another classic hardship of the prequel-sequel (snw is set in the same canon as tos), canon already dooms you. which, i don't mind being doomed by the narrative, but in this case it just reduces chapel as a character. they could just give me chortegas or even, spuhura. give me a little baiting subtext guys, that would be infinitely more interesting and better than whatever spapel got going on. i will say tho. i do get sad about spock and t'pring. damn. they really. they really coulda been smth man, they rubbed off on me i won't lie!!!!!! also, KIRK AND SCOTTY ARE IN THIS!!! SO, PLUS 1000 POINTS IDGAF. i am trying to ignore la'an having a crush on kirk. i don't know how they're going to spin that one especially since la'an isnt even a THOUGHT in tos, so. i'm scared. if she dies i'll kill myself thats babygirl right there. i love her :(. this just brings up the weird romances they're shoehorning here. why do we need that bro. fr. we were so good with just campy sci-fi adventures.

in regards to the vampire diaries guy playing kirk. ima be real. wasn't quite on board. but you know what. he has grown on me. i love that dude. his head is a little too big, but thats ok. ethan peck also grew on me as spock (did you know he is gregory peck's grandson??? dude.) which i know he was spock in discovery, but i haven't seen discovery yet, so i hadn't had a taste of him till now. he doesn't have chest hair though (nimoy refused to shave his chest hair for star trek. he was right to do so, thank you sir.) so minus some points. he does pretty good though, and i don't blame him for whatever shit the writers pull to make spock ooc. i like him. I KNOW I COMPLAINED A LOT, BUT I REALLY DO LIKE THIS SHOW. IT'S FUN AND IT'S SWEET AND IT'S GOOD DESPITE IT'S FLAWS. besides, they show kirk and spock meeting and it's just. my two favorite guys have met.....gbuh. also this funny little interview clip between peck and wesley. and also also, i love the way strange new worlds has characterized pike. makes me feel so bad for aos pike. but i'm still sad bc pike's gonna get fucked anyways so. GUYS HE'S DOOMED BY THE NARRATIVE AND EVEN WORSE IS THAT HE KNOWS. i can save him guys. ok. back to talking about my fucking collection. i don't think season 2 dvd's have dropped yet, annouced, but not dropped. hopefully i can get my hands on a regular dvd. and then hopefully, once the strike is over (go writers!! go directors and animators and everyone on the pickett line!!!) snw will come back to me. i miss her.

that's the end to my insane blog post. thank you.

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i actually don't expect many people to make it this far down. it's also probably full of grammar mistakes because i think faster than i can type. idgaf though, it's my posts i get to do what i want. cringe is the mind-killer, we make long winded posts about how much i love a silly sci-fi show and have fun.