There was a story on NPR’s Morning Edition today about the great Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson’s appearance in the current issue of Action Comics in which he helps Superman locate Krypton. Dr. Tyson, in addition to being funny and engaging as always, takes the opportunity to get in a couple of digs at the Whipping Boy of the Justice League, Aquaman.
And thus was I inspired:
Moving on to Roddenberry & Co.’s second effort at a pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Certainly more action-oriented than “The Cage,” but also kind of stupid, and starts us down the unfortunate road of the USS Enterprise’s all-too-frequent encounters with god-like, all-powerful beings.
Even so, this episode is a lot of fun, in spite of not being entirely clear on how things like chess and, you know, galaxies work and its passing mention (never brought up again) of ESP in humans. Though the god-like, all-powerful beings do get a little tiresome, this is also of course the first of many, many times over the years that Kirk would willingly head into combat – often single, hand-to-hand combat – against a foe that he knows there shouldn’t be any way for him to defeat, culminating in his straight-out statement of his philosophy in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: “I don’t believe in no-win scenarios.” This is reinforced by his status as the only opponent aboard the Enterprise who can beat Spock at chess.
It is the brief glimpse of Kirk and Spock’s chess match that I’ve chosen to illustrate here. Three Dimensional Chess, that is – the only fictitious game ever introduced on any iteration of “Star Trek” that looked like it might be a real game with real strategy and not just the “wiggle your fingers fast” game. It is introduced here, along with Kirk’s “illogical” style of play besting Mr. Spock. I’m not a great chess player. I’m not even a good chess player. But I’m pretty sure that’s not how chess works. Maybe it’s more differenter because it’s 3D or something. I always liked the concept of the the game itself, however, as it does make sense as a game of strategy and tactics for a space-faring society, in a “The enemy’s gate is down!” sort of way. Yes, I did just completely mix sci-fi geek metaphors there. Deal with it.
I’ve pulled it out of the airing order in which Netflix shows the episodes, because its pilot-ness is all over it. They clearly haven’t quite worked out the uniforms yet – Spock is in gold, jarringly, but then so is pretty much everybody else – or the standard make-up treatment that turns Nimoy into Spock. The ears aren’t quite right, and the eyebrows are just entirely wrong.