CompassJimbo
Where’s Your North?
- Location
- The former Rubber Capital of the World
Isn't Argentina an ally of the UASR? I smell a flashpoint.
Reds! A Revolutionary Timeline
- Thread starter Aelita
- Start date
- Timeline Post-1900 Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- The Midlands.
Not necessarily. The treaty that ceded the Falklands to the UK was about a century before the point of departure, so the FBU's claim to the islands is as solid as it is IOTL. And there isn't much of a colonialism angle to play up; the only truly indigenous population are the seabirds.
EcoSyndieDragon
Free Palestine, Oppose the Fash
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, here we are again, I hope the good people of SV who are new to this timeline will find this part as fascinating we did over on AH. So many stories are told about the deposing of tyrants but very rarely is the aftermath covered. It's a shame because about winning the peace can be be just as compelling as one about winning the war. The same could said about a story about revolutionaries actually setting about to build a better world and the steps and mistepstaken to ensure there's no backsliding into old habits or that one hasn't traded one set of tyrants for the other. Red Dawn is all that and more!
Comrade Ronnie Reagan really is a blessed concept isn't it?
Comrade Ronnie Reagan really is a blessed concept isn't it?
Miss Teri
The Queen
- Location
- West
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yeah, that tends to happen when you copy it over from Google Docs. I also had to fix the top of it.
However, I kept it that, because I liked the way it looked.
AKuz
Been Better
- Location
- A Rising Tide of Horrors
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Interesting. The Falklands War isn't really the UASR's problem, although presumably Argentina will already have better quality American equipment to fight the Franco-Brits with. What's the 'PUAAF' (I don't know what you'll call it but most communist militaries have "people's" in the name) look like now? Should be different from OTL since there's no Vietnam or Korean War experience but a longer WW2 .
Miss Teri
The Queen
- Location
- West
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Worker's and Farmer's Revolutionary Army Air Force
Arthur Frayn
Fake God by Occupation, Magician by Inclination
- Location
- Land of Do As You Please
- Pronouns
- They/Him
One thing I'd be interested to hear (and kind've piggybacking off of the "What's daily life like in the UASR?" post) is what are the downsides of life in the UASR? Obviously YMMV as to what constitutes a "downside", but I imagine everything isn't all sunshine and rainbows in a perfect land of socialist brotherhood.
I mean, right off the top of my head, it sounds like the DFLP and the Democratic-Republicans are basically de facto honeytraps for counterrevolutionaries. On paper yeah, you can still subscribe to ideologies outside of the mainstream, and these parties are represented in the government, but they're utterly ineffectual and will never gain power, and voting for them/joining them/subscribing to their newsletter gets you on The Naughty List.
I mean, right off the top of my head, it sounds like the DFLP and the Democratic-Republicans are basically de facto honeytraps for counterrevolutionaries. On paper yeah, you can still subscribe to ideologies outside of the mainstream, and these parties are represented in the government, but they're utterly ineffectual and will never gain power, and voting for them/joining them/subscribing to their newsletter gets you on The Naughty List.
Last edited:
- Pronouns
- She/Her
DFLP does become a strong power in its own right, since a large portion of the GEACPC are inclined in that direction.
Jane Dough
(She/Her)
- Location
- Occupied Cascadia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
What does Star Trek look like ittl? I'd imagine the federation would have a flag with more red on it, but what else changes?
- Location
- The left-wing of the impossible
As Mr.E noted, it's an integral component of the Army and not an independent service branch. The Army Air Forces are more strongly organized around the support of ground forces mission, which includes reconaissance, battlefield air superiority, close air support and operational interdiction. "Strategic Forces", like long-range missiles and strategic bombers, are a joint-Army/Navy command, even before the invention of the atomic bomb.
I can't say anything more than that without spoiling a lot.
At least in the DFLP's case, they are more closely trusted institutionally. Their membership was rapidly radicalized in the Depression, and during the Civil War they were enthusiastically pro-revolution.
The exact roadmap is still being determined, but they will eventually be part of coalition governments, and not merely as a united front sort of situation like in the 30s. The DRP however is much more clearly treated with some level of suspicion.
It's hard to really talk about downsides, because it gets muddied based on our own early 21st century Anglo-American conceptions of The Way of ThingsTM . Things that are perfectly normal for people living in-universe would be quite alien to us and vice-versa. For example, a one person apartment is a fairly normal thing for us in urban areas, but that'd be considered lonely and claustrophobic to them, while the norm of communal living, where multiple families or individuals share common cooking, dining, and living spaces, would come across as overwhelming to us.
Without spoiling too much, there are some downsides that are baked into the setting. Some people go to medical school/law school IOTL and expect the privilege of commanding the servile labor of others, whether it's in the form of housekeeping, personal shoppers, valet parking, fine dining, etc. That's functionally impossible, and this is the unspoken part of wealth and privilege. People more usually talk about nice things like mansions and luxury cars as the 'rewards' for 'hard work'.
The world is also in the midst of an ongoing worldwide revolution for the coming decades. It's not really a socialist paradise yet. And part of life in the setting is that even in the relatively privileged UASR, this process demands the toil and blood of its citizens. On the whole, it's a much more fraught and militarised world, and many things will be deeply uncomfortable.
Like, for example, the American population is on the whole much more healthy and fit. That's partly just dietary because sugar and meat are more expensive, but it's also because K-12 there's a lot of physical education, and it's pretty hard to opt out. And that's because military training is a universal obligation, and this fact permeates into education.
And while there's a logic behind this, I also find the idea of high schoolers learning to tear down and reassemble a rifle in class, or being part of the school air soft team disturbing on a visceral level. In a lot of ways, it's a less authoritarian society...except where it isn't.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
CompassJimbo
Where’s Your North?
- Location
- The former Rubber Capital of the World
Since this is likely written by a Gene Roddenberry who's grown up in the shadow of the Revolution and all of the cultural changes from that and the Second World War, a lot of the classic races likely still bear their names and looks, but how they're written likely changes. I can't tell who changes how, but I can see the Klingons being even more like the Imperial Japanese that inspired them, and the Romulans being Space Nazis. Humanity might be more multicultural, or it might still be Space!America, but with the obvious full Communist bent.
- Location
- The left-wing of the impossible
I was going to hold off on posting about this, but looking over the doc we prepared, in spite of telegraphing way into the future this is pretty low on spoilers. Big post incoming
Star Trek
- Location
- The left-wing of the impossible
Star Trek
Since its debut on Friday 11 September 1964, Star Trek has been a colossus in the field of science fiction. It is perhaps the largest, in terms of output and number of participant writers, shared universe project in modern art, rivalled only by the equally long-running Doctor Who franchise from across the Atlantic.
Star Trek began as the brainchild of television writer and science fiction fan Eugene Roddenberry. A veteran of westerns and police procedurals for PBS, including head-writer of Watch Brigade, a show detailing the fictionalized efforts of the elite Watch Brigade of the Proletarian Guard to thwart counterrevolutionaries and Franco-British spies.
Roddenberry pitched a short treatment to a Writer's Guaild exploratory commission in early 1963. The early version centered around an interstellar spaceship, the S.S. Shiloh, on a mission of exploration and diplomacy, captained by a Horatio Hornblower figure.
Eying a generous grant being offered by the AeroSpace Exploration and Development Administration(1) to promote space exploration, the independent Prometheus Films collective optioned the treatment. Prometheus was willing to invest considerably in the production to secure the grant. To Roddenberry's consternation, while he'd get producer credit on the developing project, Prometheus insisted that the writing be done in the democratic centralist model.
Prometheus Films recruited a laundry list of talent in writing and art. Veteran science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein was signed on in June based on the similarity in subject matter between the Star Trek treatment's setting, and Heinlein's unpublished "Starship Soldiers" story, also currently under option by Prometheus. Mack Reynolds, another prolific author, joined the collective to, "make sure Bob didn't get stuck fighting the wars of the present and forget he was writing about the future."
Roddenberry, Heinlein and Reynolds would become the troika that dominated the basic vision of Star Trek, the mixture of exploratory humanism, revolutionary cause, and critical utopianism respectively that resonated deeply with audiences.
Working closely with concept artists Ralph McQuarrie and Matt Jeffries, the troika spent the fall of 1963 building the setting manifesto, as well as some of the scripts for the first run. The show would focus on the officers and crew of the starship Enterprise, a Solidarity-class battlecruiser serving with the Federation's Starfleet. The Enterprise is on a five-year deep space mission to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go where no man has gone before.
The Federation is a multispecies interstellar commune, of which Earth is a founding member. The setting manifesto detailed a post-scarcity, higher stage communist society. The Federation is a society of poets, artists, explorers and scientists. There is no state apparatus superimposed on society. Free love has dissolved the nuclear family, with children being raised communally. Earth is hooped by an immense orbital ring, serving as a space elevator and shipyard for interstellar travel. Numerous colonies and space habitats dot the solar system and the surrounding stars.
As more writers joined the project, and scripts began to develop, Star Trek's core characters began to emerge. Roddenberry started casting in November, as Heinlein began to polish Reynold's script "Caliban" to serve as a pilot episode.
Cast
Norma Jeane Baker as Commander Gillian T. Kirk
Roddenberry's captain, a Horatio Hornblower figure, was one of the few characters explicitly gendered in his initial treatments. Initially named Robert April, successive treatments would run through numerous names before finally settling on Kirk. A quirk of fate would lead to Kirk's metamorphosis from masculine socialist hero to feminist icon.
Norma Jeane Baker was a hard-nosed theater actress, committed to the art and disdainful of television as medium for the talentless. She'd had a modicum of success in the late 40s, but her reluctance to play roles based on sex appeal (or endure the casting couch treatment) ensured she only did minor work in film, usually with avant-garde projects. Despite aging very well by all accounts, as she neared 40 most in the biz regarded her as a has-been (or never-has-been, as she sardonically remarked). Reluctantly, her agent convinced her to make a foray into television drama.
Baker agreed to read for the role of "Bones", the melancholy ship's physician. She liked his acerbic wit and prickly demeanor, and rejected Roddenberry's entreaties to read for the role of the bubbly nurse "Chapel". The intellectual side of the show appealed to her, and she decided to help auditions by reading for other parts.
In her reads as the captain, she adopted a transatlantic accent and a choleric demeanor. Baker's relative age and experience (the casting call had been for young actors) compared to applicants stood out. After considerable lobbying from Heinlein, Roddenberry agreed to offer the role to Baker.
Leonard Nimoy as Lt. Commander Spock
The character of Spock had existed in some form from the very earliest story treatments. It had survived Heinlein's withering criticism of a pivotal character "devoid of pathos, wooden and inhuman," and the disapproval from some in Prometheus, who felt that an alien character might be hard to relate to.
The original draft called for a half-Martian character. Heinlein (in an attempt to mitigate what he saw as the worst traits of the character) took influence from a concept he had bounced around called "Mowgli on Mars", and added a philosophical edge to the character, focusing heavily on his alternate viewpoint based on his upbringing and more rationality based worldview, including the idea of God as the sum of all being and "Grok", an intuitive understanding. While Roddenberry ultimately changed the character to be "Vulcan" instead (because of the potential for a Mars mission to occur during the series run), much of Heinlein's ideas were still used for the character, which would be a vehicle to explore concepts like religion and societal mores.
Leonard Nimoy had been an actor on the stage and television, with the occasional role in the odd B-movie. Nimoy was brought to Roddenberry's attention from his guest role on Watch Brigade (playing an informant within the Knights of the Republic(2), who is killed when discovered.). While Nimoy was reluctant to take up a role (especially one that required as of yet undetermined make-up), Roddenberry was able to convince him to take the role.
The character would become the breakout star, and would be involved with some of the most famous parts of the series (including the Vulcan salute, inspired by a gesture Nimoy saw an Orthodox priest use, and the word "grok")
DeForrest Kelly as Dr. Leo "Bones" Bogdanov
Playing the aforementioned role of Bones was DeForest Kelley, an actor who had been on Watch Brigade and Paladin, a western that Roddenberry had worked on. (3) who had been considered for the role of Spock. The character had transitioned from a doctor named McCoy, to a Russian descended doctor named for two popular Russian authors.
Roddenberry envisioned the character as the third part of a trinity since the earliest drafts, serving as more of a compassionate, emotional advisor to Kirk, as opposed to Spock's more logical nature. This dynamic would be key to the arcs of many episodes and one of the enduring elements of the series for its fandom.
Though, Kelley would retain his American accent for the role, with the eventual explanation that he was educated in the UASR, and spoke English with an American accent. Kelley had gotten his start in film during his enlistment in the Workers' and Farmers' Army Air Forces, much of which was spent with the First Motion Picture Brigade.
As part of this sometimes hazardous deployment, Kelley had spent 1943 to 1946 deployed in the Soviet Union. He learned to speak Russian, and served in a number of roles both in front and behind the camera. To add authenticity to the role, Kelley spent a number of months working with an accent coach, and would frequently ad lib Russian words and phrases in dialogue.
Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
Roddenberry was committed to displaying a diverse future, showing characters of different races and ethnicities (and aliens) interacting in peace and harmony. To this end, he cast the role of the female communications officer with African American actress Nichelle Nichols, yet another Watch Brigade veteran.
The character was meant to represent a pan-African identity, which coincided with the advent of the Congo Wars in the 60's. Her name was indeed from the Swahili for "freedom", and an expert in many different languages.
Uhura's role as the ship's communication specialist made her the envoy between the ship and the "new life and new civilisations" they encountered. While sometimes jokingly referred to as "Miss Exposition" by fans, Uhura's expertise and calm under pressure helped the Enterprise out many jams.
Yoshio Tsuchiya as Hikaru Sulu
Roddenberry chose the name "Sulu" from the Sulu Sea in the Philippines, hoping to create someone who represented most Asian ethnicities, and would mollify many concerns after an early draft written by Reynolds described the character in less than stellar terms. After considering many Asian American actors, the role ultimately went to Yoshio Tsuchiya, at the time a Japanese actor known for his role in both Godzilla films and the films of Akira Kurosawa. While Tsuchiya's grasp of English was tenuous at best, his enthusiasm for the script and his commanding presence caused Roddenberry to offer him the role of the Enterprise's navigator.
His presence made the show a very popular hit in Nippon (where Tsuchiya dubbed himself), and cemented him as a leading genre actor, as well as grant him a role as the host of Mysteries of the Gods, a Nipponese show dealing with ancient aliens and UFO.
Robert Reed as Paul Scott
While the first season was a big hit, some were not happy with the cast selection. One was a columnist for the British newspaper The Guardian , who complained that, in spite of the significant strides that ESA had made in the space race, the Enterprise had no European members.
That, and the rise of Quarrymania in the UASR in the 60's, prompted Roddenberry to add a new British crew member, complete with a mod style haircut similar to the Quarrymen to appeal to the youth. To that end, Paul Scott was created. The ship's engineer of English-Scottish descent, "Scotty" was played by Shakespearean actor Robert Reed, who could affect a decent British accent for the role, and would satisfy fans of the series from across the Pond (as well as a decent portion of fans at homes).
Setting
Much of the setting was fleshed out by the troika, with additional details provided by their associates, including Gene Coon, Poul Anderson, DC Fontana, and Norman Spinrad. The setting was the full realization of communism: a post-scarcity society where resources could be made, work was unheard of, and money was replaced by a credit system. All boundaries, be they racial, gender, sexual identity, or species were completely deconstructed and demolished, with all beings regarded as equals (references are made to synthetic meat, among other developments.) While never brought up in the context of the series, time travel episodes heavily imply that there is one universal language used as a space lingua franca.
The Federation of Planets is opposed by the Klingons, a brutal imperialist empire built on a heavily stratified caste system and a strong emphasis on authority and honor, lead by a cabal of figures representing the ruling class. Also in opposition were the Gothans, a Vulcan off-shoot whose society is modeled off Second Republic capitalism and German militarism, with the government being bought off by major businessmen and captains of industry. The parallels between the Klingons and the British Empire, and the Gothans with Nazi Germany was not lost on many fans, and was indeed used to give contemporary commentary within a genre setting (along with more explicit parallel.)
The FBU itself is never mentioned, with Paul Scott largely referencing "England" or "Britain" (though he also references "Angevin" cuisine, referring to the Franco-British fusion cuisine), and Earth is explicitly a commune, with governments largely dissolving.
The Vulcans were a race whose focus on logic had transformed their society and way of thinking. They have a concept of "grok", which is more of an intuitive feeling between two individuals, replacing the concept of empathy in their minds. They have an egalitarian society, and various human concepts, such as war and vice, are foreign to them. The strange culture of the Vulcans would be embraced by the SecCulRev-ers, who latched onto the character of Spock as an inspiration (a common phrase for the period was "The Two Spocks," with Spock and Dr. Benjamin Spock).
Notable Episodes
"Caliban" was chosen as the name of the first episode, because it reminded Roddenberry of a leading inspiration for the series: the 1955 film, Space Tempest, a science fiction retelling of William Shakespeare's The Tempest.
The story begins with the standard narration, before setting up the plot. The Enterprise gets a distress call from the outer part of known space. They eventually come across three planets in the Caliban system, each at a different stages of technological advancement. One is a primitive planet (Odin), the other roughly at 20th century levels (Sedna), and the other at more advanced, space faring stage (Indra).
Whilst the crew attempts to determine the origin of the signal, Bones expresses concern that the crew is starting to show signs of a special kind of space fatigue called cafard, which is only shown for members of a crew who have been on long space missions.
Eventually, it is determined that the signal was sent from the planet of 20th Century due to space raiders from Indra attacking Sedna and Odin. After Indra is forced to surrender from threats from the federation, it is agreed by Kirk to have a brief reprieve to recover. (4)
Heinlein and Roddenberry extensively edited the script due to issues in Reynold's script. Heinlein had described the script as "dull, plodding, uninteresting," and fixed many of the issues with the script.Still, when the pilot finally made it to the air, it would become a massive success, signalling a good start for the series.
Over the next four years, a total of 81 episodes would be aired. Most episodes were self-contained hour-long stories. In the first season, there was minimal emphasis on continuity, and several inconsistencies occurred due to a lack of communication between episode writers, and the major workload on the main show runners.
Nonetheless, the self-contained episodes were used to considerable effect to build a sense of depth to the setting. In the third episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," the Enterprise breaches the barrier at the edge of the galaxy after finding the distress beacon of a pre-united Earth space probe, with commentary from the crew about the "illogical, destructive conflict" for resources and profit in the 20th century.
"The Shepherd" introduced one of the recurring antagonists, the Gothans. Modelled on Germanic peoples, the Gothans were the inscrutable adversary of the Federation, both proud yet paranoid, romantic yet callous. The Enterprise is dispatched to escort a convoy of ships to deliver aid to the planet Tellarus IV, currently locked in a terrible civil war. The Gothans support the other faction, and seek to block the convoy with a cloaked bird-of-prey in a sequence giving homage to submarine warfare serials.
In "Megiddo", the Enterprise is sent to investigate reports of a strange outbreak on Vesta III. The mission of mercy goes awry, with many of the crew falling sick, and the colony verging on panic. While Bones treats the epidemic as best he can, Spock uncovers evidence of an ancient war on the planet, where two rival civilisations destroyed themselves with nuclear and biological agents. The episode ends grimly, with the Enterprise evacuating the remaining uninfected colonists it can before enacting General Order 24, destroying all life on the planet, to contain the outbreak.
The first season finale, "Paradise Lost", introduces the recurring rival and foil to Kirk, the augment Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban). A "product of late 20th century genetic engineering," Khan is plucked from cryosleep after his refugee ship is found by the Enterprise. Due to the cataclysms unleashed at the end of the 20th century, Khan's identity is a mystery to the crew of the Enterprise. The misunderstanding and suspicion results in a struggle between Khan and his fellow augments and the Enterprise crew for control of the ship, slowly revealed to be a bitter fratricidal struggle between two groups fighting for the same cause.
Khan, a tool who had turned against his masters, who created augment to serve as the instrument of class rule on Earth, had fought a doomed revolutionary struggle. The tyrant revolutionary leader had been defeated, and with the planet and proletarian revolution seemingly doomed by nuclear war, fled to space to live to fight another day. With the Enterprise, he'd hoped to return from his self-inflicted Elba, and begin the struggle anew. The episode ends with Khan accepting defeat at the hands of the unaugmented Kirk, having proved that humanity did not need supermen to rule it.
Season 2 opened with what would become a fan favorite, "Amok Time". The Spock-centric episode fleshed out elements of Vulcan culture and physiology. Spock begins to undergo pon farr, the mating urge, and must return to Vulcan or face life-threatening consequences. The break-down of the logic-centric Vulcan lifestyle and the limits of self-repression explores the Kirk/Spock dynamic. Upon return to Vulcan, the increasingly erratic Spock finds his betrothal cancelled by ancient ritual, and must challenge his betrothed's champion to single combat to win her back. Fearing that Spock would be too weak for the challenge, Kirk sneaks into Spock's estate the night before the duel. After giving some flustered words about hating see her friend in such pain, she begins to disrobe. The onscreen love scene is chaste by modern standards, with only the minimal of nudity, but was quite controversial on its first broadcast. Cured of pon farr, Spock rescinds his challenge the next day, and bids a somber goodbye to his betrothed.
"Better Feared than Loved" introduced another fan-favorite alien, the Klingons. The head of an empire with numerous client races, the depiction of the Klingons is influenced by perceptions of British and Japanese culture. Honorable, refined and affable, but possessing a profound sense of natural superiority and a deeply embedded martial culture, in this episode the Enterprise faces off against Kor and his war party, in a proxy war on a pre-spaceflight civilization in an homage to sword-and-planet science fiction.
While Season 2 gained praise by focusing more effort on developing the relationships between characters, especially the friendship between Kirk, Spock and Bogdanov, there were a few flubs. "Patterns of Force" depicted the Enterprise investigating a missing Federation cultural observer, only to find that he'd contaminated the primitive world he was researching and inadvertently created a cargo cult centred around himself, leading a fascistoid regime to "develop and modernise" their culture. The episode failed to make any interesting statements on fascism and stirred controversy among veterans due to several remarks made by the character Paul Scott.
"Mudd's Women" drew mixed reviews due to the content. While many reviewers commented on the poor taste of the Enterprise crew's interactions with Mudd and his consorts, comparing him to a pre-revolution pimp with a ship full of prostitutes, the subtle nods to Kirk's bisexuality were appreciated by others.
The season ended with several strong episodes. Khan Noonien Singh returned in "El Dorado", now serving as an agent of the Federation's secret service. Kirk is ordered over her protests to aid him in his mission to recover an ancient precursor artifact held by the Orion Syndicate. Their away mission dialed up the sexual tension and the larger-than-life aspects of Khan's character. The undercover mission is complicated when faced with the cruelty of Orion culture, particularly the plight of its slave undercaste. While the exploitative elements of Orion slave girls drew some criticism, the episode did not shy away from depicting the violence and exploitation inherent behind the notion of "pleasure slaves".
The two-part season finale, "City on the Edge of Forever", had the Enterprise crew encountering a mysterious artifact on an unexplored planet. This temporal portal sends Kirk, Spock, Bogdanov and Uhura back to Earth in 1932. During their short stay, they inadvertently set off a butterfly effect that results in the defeat of the Red May Revolution. They return to find a changed universe, and are arrested by the crew of the ISS Enterprise, a warship of the Terran Empire.
After affecting their escape, the four meet with the Guardian of Forever, who agrees to them return to the past to set right what was changed, ending part one. In part two, they search through New York City to find the event that they changed. By comparing the databanks of a captured Terran Empire tricorder with their own, they track down the source of the divergence. In this timeline, there was no coup in 1932. President Thomas, hamstrung by opposition, is unable to resolve the contradictions of the depression, resulting in a protracted civil war in 1936 that ultimately dooms the world revolution. Bogdanov is horrified at the implication, while Spock contends that logic requires that the sacrifice be made. Kirk agrees, and begins to track down the epicentre of the divergence. To her dismay, she finds that it is her very actions that created this divergent timeline. By saving a pedestrian, Edith Keeler, from a traffic accident, her father, a key general in the U.S. Army, was not traumatized enough to succumb to MacArthur's whispers in the dark.
Kirk goes into denial that her acquaintance must die to preserve the timeline. Spock agrees that the evidence is not yet conclusive. As Kirk grows closer to Keeler, Uhura appeals to the military officer in Kirk. Whatever her feelings for Keeler, no matter how sweet or innocent she is, she must die so that billions may live. The episode ends with Kirk restraining Bogdanov from saving Keeler from a speeding truck. While their friendship is sorely tested by her overriding his medical compassion, the Guardian of Forever confirms that the timeline has been set right.
The cast and crew returned in Season 3 with a larger budget. New technologies that have since become core to the setting would be introduced, and much of what is quintessential Star Trek in the eyes of viewers took shape.
In the two-part season opener, "Rote Kapelle", the Enterprise crosses the Gothan Neutral Zone on a secret mission direct from Starfleet Command to steal a cloaking device. Delivering a group of Starfleet Marines led by Lieutenant Juan Rico (Raul Julia), the Enterprise must avoid detection en route to a secret Gothan research base on a remote moon.
The mission goes awry during the infiltration of the moon base. Gothan commander Tirek (Marlon Brando), suspecting espionage, has set a trap for the Federation. The Mobile Infantry are pinned down inside the base, forcing the Enterprise to maneuver close to provide orbital phaser support. She is engaged by planetary defenses and severely damaged. The second wave of marines, led by the recurring security officer Janice Rand, succeed in securing the experimental cloaking device. Rand is killed securing the away team's retreat to the shuttles. Mournfully, Kirk orders a photon torpedo bombardment of the base to cover up any evidence of their involvement, a "Viking funeral" for the brave soldiers who gave their lives.
With several Gothan battlecruisers bearing down on them, the Enterprise races against time to activate the cloaking device to escape. On the way out of Gothan space, the Enterprise rendezvous with a tramp freighter carrying the spy whose information led them into the trap. Upon seeing Khan entering, Kirk confronts him angrily for the disaster, but is surprised when he apologises for the loss of life. Spock is similarly surprised to see his estranged father, Sarek (Mark Lenard), the Federation Ambassador to Gotha aboard the ship. Sarek explains that the Enterprise was chosen to test Spock, to see if his enrollment at Starfleet Academy was ultimately logical. Spock and Sarek share harsh words for Vulcans.
Spock's relationship with his father is developed across several episodes. While dealing with the crisis/anomaly of the week, Spock must come to his father's defense when he is accused of murder by the Sybillites in "All That Glitters." Now cleared to attend the Klingon-Federation Peace Conference, Sarek is targeted for assassination in "Journey to Babel." Spock provides a transfusion of the otherwise unavailable T-negative blood, saving Sarek's life, and the two reconcile over the different paths their lies have taken.
"Hard to be a God", written by Soviet writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, deals with a more standard plot of the Enterprise observing a planet resembling that of the medieval Earth, ruled by a tyrant named Don Reba. Despite this, Kirk and Spock go undercover to rescue the planets intellectual and political leaders after Reba kidnaps them to ensure total power.
The episode "Message in a Bottle" struck some controversy. The Enterprise finds a pre-warp human generation ship en route to the quarantine planet Lambda Serpentis III. Investigation reveals that the Ark is a Franco-British colony ship launched in the early 21st century amidst the chaos of World War III to ensure the survival of their way of life. The colonists, portrayed French and British actors in self-imposed exile, quite firmly castigated the culture of late capitalism. Their leader, Winston Frederick Lindley (Richard Burton), is convinced of their manifest destiny, and will use any means necessary, including the use of atomic weapons, to secure dominion over the elfin Bronze-Age natives of the planet. The episode drew minor criticism in America for its ham handedness in dealing with post-colonial narratives, but caused a major row in Europe, nearly leading to the cancellation of broadcast and a diplomatic incident.
Season 4 faced the growing problems of declining audience interest, increased competition from other projects for talent and viewers, and rising costs for visual effects. Most principals had, in keeping with standard practice, signed two-year contracts at the start of the series, and renewed for increased sums at the end of Season 2.
In an attempt to get viewership back from rivals, Roddenberry's flights of fancy were increasingly indulged, resulting in criticism from feminists that the show was becoming a "primetime exploitation flick." The season opener, "O Sappho," exemplified these problems. The original draft had been written by Norma Jean Baker herself as a means of exploring Kirk's implicit bisexuality and free love in the future. But the finished product, which put Baker against her better judgment in a chainmail bikini as the prize of the Orion pirate Marta (Yvonne Craig).
While some commenters praised the show for casting Baker as a sex symbol at 40, and the manner in which the episode deconstructed the toxic standards of masculinity with the Orion culture, others found the message needlessly muddied by Marta's performative masculinity being treated as almost farcical, and noted that the male and female bodies on display seemed more titillating that critical. Eventually, Kirk appeals to Marta's better nature, and her pain endured a slave rising through the ranks of the criminal gangs.
While the episode broke some grounds, the rewrites and set treatment damaged the working relationship between Roddenberry and Baker. Some rumors circulated that the increase in "below-decks" episodes, and the use of the plot-device of having the captain incapacitated or abducted in Season 4 were retaliations by Roddenberry, but neither side could confirm it.
In "Sargasso", the Enterprise and the Klingon ship Klothos become trapped in a space-time fold. After briefly fighting, in which Kirk and Spock are injured and the universal translators are destroyed, Uhura assumes command, and negotiates a truce with the Klingon commander Krell (Ned Romero). The episode marked the onscreen debut of the Klingonese conlang, as Uhura and Krell negotiated uneasy cooperation to escape the "stellar spider" hiding in the pocket universe.
Season 4 ended with a bottle episode, with Kirk, Spock and Bogdanov enjoying sometime in the recreation room, only to be trapped in the hologram simulation. The Holmesian murder mystery they were enjoying soon goes off the rails, leading to a very "mentally stimulating" challenge, as Spock put it. With the mystery solved, the simulation ends, and the three leave none the worse for wear, though unsettled. Kirk begins to wonder if the ship's computer is an emergent consciousness reacting to Spock's boredom with the pre-scripted scenario.
With Baker opting not to renew her contract at the end of Season 4, and the prospect of increased development costs, Prometheus opted to end the show after ratings failed to recover sufficiently. The series would be sustained by a continuum of official, semi-official, and self-published works for the coming years, along with the growth of home theatres and reruns bringing the canon to a new audience.
Fandom/Spin-offs
Star Trek fandom grew out of the existing American/Soviet science fiction/fantastik fandom, which had, from the First Cultural Revolution onwards, had primarily focused on science fiction magazines or novels. Roddenberry himself had been an avid reader of Spec Worlds as a teenager, and Heinlein and Reynolds were very prominent in the fandom.
The first "fanzine" popped up as season 1 came to a close, and by the third season, the show had a presence in science fiction conventions. The USSR, having recently adopted television en masse, also embraced the program when it was shipped to the country in 1965.
After its eventual end in 1969, the success of the show would keep it in circulation, and its memory was kept alive through conventions and fan publications. Fan stories (called "fanfiction") circulated, with many focusing on various relationships that were only hinted at on the show itself. (Kirk/Spock, Kirk/Uhura, Bones/Spock). Gradually, the fandom would become more organized and separate from general fantastik fandom.
Under the editorship of Bjo Trimble, Enterprise soon emerged as the leading Star Trek magazine to emerge from fandom, with various stories written both by aspiring writers and seasoned veterans (including several writers from the show itself, as well as interviews, reviews, and reprints of material made during the run. Eventually, even Heinlein and Reynolds would contribute to some degree.
The burgeoning fandom would release various novels, showing a number of episodes not depicted in the show itself. Western Publishing Collective would publish the first Star Trek comic series, with other publishers (some major, some minor or fan based) taking up the mantle after that ended.
(1) ASEDA is the equivalent of NASA
(2) One of the Sons of Liberty off-shoots
(3) TTL, Have Gun-Will Travel
(4) The plot of "Caliban" is that of the OTL first Star Trek novel, Mission to Horatius, written by … Mack Reynolds.
Last edited:
- Location
- The Midlands.
Is it a voluntary thing, like JROTC or the British Combined Cadet Force? That isn't honestly so bad, at least from my point of view; in this country we're willing to put volunteers through Basic at age 16, although they won't be allowed to deploy overseas until they reach the age of majority, and we expect people to start making decisions about their career path from at least two years earlier.
If it's mandatory, with few or no options for anyone who either has religious objections to bearing arms or just isn't suited for an armed forces career, then I can definitely see a problem. And not just a moral one, because we did away with routine conscription in this country at least partly because it was filling the ranks with resentful, unmotivated men whose only useful soldierly quality was their expendability.
- Location
- The left-wing of the impossible
Depends on which part you're talking about.
Unless you're a conscientious objector or physically unable, there is universal basic military training. The details and term lengths vary based on the era, but one of the cornerstones of the workers' republic is arming the whole people. Except in major wartime, the professional military is a volunteer force, but everyone gets to go through basic training and becomes a reservist in the Armed Masses Militia.
So part of that means learning some of the basics in school. Like the example of learning firearms proficiency as part of your core coursework. And I don't just mean 'universal' in the sense of all male-bodied individuals, it doesn't discriminate based on sex.
- Location
- The left-wing of the impossible
It wasn't meant to be exhaustive...so who knows. There are bound to be downright weird eps and stinkers in an 81 episode run
Arthur Frayn
Fake God by Occupation, Magician by Inclination
- Location
- Land of Do As You Please
- Pronouns
- They/Him
Dope! This went in a different direction than I was expecting, but I'm always down to see alternative versions of Star Trek.
One idea I had been kicking around was to keep the Klingons as Soviet counterparts and having them be the Federations frenemy, reflecting the relationship between the UASR and the USSR ITTL (at least, as I understand it, where the UASR and the USSR are nominally aligned but are more akin to friendly rivals than allied powers). I dig the Romulans as analogous to TTL's Nazi's, though I wonder who the Chinese expy will be?
*EDIT* You know, there's actually one franchise that probably fits better into the world of Reds! better than any other one, with themes that are already baked in that can carry over to a world focused on the lower classes rising up and throwing off the chains of oppression:
Last edited:
Jim Starluck
CO, ICS Vanguard
- Location
- Cincinnati, OH
Man, if anyone could do a Fem!Kirk justice, it'd be Marilyn freakin' Monroe.
Miss Teri
The Queen
- Location
- West
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I actually did a whole thing on the Planet of the Apes films, if you're interested.
The Jovian
It's not Easy being a Red Gas Giant
- Location
- Greenbury, Randomshire
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The alt-"City on the Edge of Forever" sounds like an epic season finale, even if it pretty much makes it so the Mirror Universe doesn't exist in this version of Star Trek.
AKuz
Been Better
- Location
- A Rising Tide of Horrors
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[QUOTE="Aelita, post: 12225591, member: 8689"]
"The Shepherd" introduced one of the recurring antagonists, the Gothans. Modelled on Germanic peoples, the Gothans were the inscrutable adversary of the Federation, both proud yet paranoid, romantic yet callous. The Enterprise is dispatched to escort a convoy of ships to deliver aid to the planet Tellarus IV, currently locked in a terrible civil war. The Gothans support the other faction, and seek to block the convoy with a cloaked bird-of-prey in a sequence giving homage to submarine warfare serials.
.[/QUOTE]
Nooooooooooooooooooooooo
Not muh Rihannsu! My most problematic of faves! ;_;
"The Shepherd" introduced one of the recurring antagonists, the Gothans. Modelled on Germanic peoples, the Gothans were the inscrutable adversary of the Federation, both proud yet paranoid, romantic yet callous. The Enterprise is dispatched to escort a convoy of ships to deliver aid to the planet Tellarus IV, currently locked in a terrible civil war. The Gothans support the other faction, and seek to block the convoy with a cloaked bird-of-prey in a sequence giving homage to submarine warfare serials.
.[/QUOTE]
Nooooooooooooooooooooooo
Not muh Rihannsu! My most problematic of faves! ;_;