boldly watching what I have not watched before

[aria]

Earlier tonight there was a fangirl gathering to watch some Star Trek. (When I say fangirl, though, I mean it included two good-natured fanboys, one of whom happily joined our discussion re: the attractiveness of Zach Quinto.) It was a night entirely of TOS viewing, and, my god, I really love it. This is unsurprising, considering how much I love old school Doctor Who, but I think I have a different absurdity threshold for every show I watch, and I have now hit and moved past my Star Trek one. YAY.

Tragically, the number of TOS episodes I have seen still remains only three: Devil in the Dark, City on the Edge of Forever, and of course Amok Time. These are the things I have learned so far: lava monsters are, in fact, always cute; Kirk and Spock are incapable of standing more than no feet apart, which is something I very much approve of in a pairing; you hardly need crackfic because the show does it for you (Theodore Sturgeon, I know almost nothing about you, but I salute you for the original Aliens Made Them Do It, even though technically there was no doing it); there are so many mindmelds, oh my god mindmeeeeelds; and, if you don't fridge the woman, Hitler will win. (This is not to say that I didn't love City on the Edge of Forever! I kind of did. I am all about Spock in civvies. I just also kind of hate Harlan Ellison.)

Anyway, um. For those of you who care about TOS, do you have any recommendations? I already have The Naked Time, Mirror Mirror, and The Trouble With Tribbles on my mental queue, but I am so open to suggestions. Especially suggestions that have lots of Spock in them.

In conclusion, LINKS:

+ Fighting Gravity, ST XI fic that I ... kind of forgot was AU part way through, even though "Spock resigns from Starfleet, goes home to rebuild New Vulcan, and ends up essentially homeless on Earth before Jim runs into him five years later" is pretty damn AU. My rec is, perhaps, completely absurd considering that the fic has in excess of 2000 hit counts, but it is SO GREAT. It has lots of Spock Prime, and excellent Jo McCoy and Winona Kirk and Uhura, and exactly the Jim I want at all times, and ~defying fate~, and tasty irony, and tasty popcorn, and accidentally drunk Spock, and mindmeeeelds. In conclusion I want fifty billion more fics like it, but then I would never sleep again, because I would have too many excellent epics to read.

+ Tik Tok, a TOS vid that is full of great timing, the normal amount of inappropriate Kirk/Spock groping, a really great showcasing of just how gloriously absurd TOS is, and, wow, quite a lot of drinking. Warning: the goddamn song will get stuck in your head FOREVER.

In real conclusion: rec me episodes! Because what I really need in my life is even more really ridiculous telly.

Comments

[china_shop]

I haven't seen any TOS, but thefourthvine asked for episode recs in December. I expect there's much wisdom in the comments there. :-)

[aria]

Oooh, thank you for that! So many tasty recs. :D

[starlady]

I don't know any of them by name, practically. Um. By Any Other Name, Journey to Babel, the one with the Romulan commander (you'll know who she is when you see her), the one with the giant space tube-weapon and the commodore, the one with Pike.

But if you want the real crack, you should watch The Animated Series.

[were_duck]

We did watch one ep of the Animated Series! And I was trying to describe the giant space tunnel but all I could come up with for an adjective was "vaginal".

[ellen_fremedon]

The one with the Romulan commander (and the Vulcan handporn OMG!) is "The Enterprise Incident," the space-tube weapon is "The Doomsday Machine," and the one with Pike is "The Menagerie," and you should watch them all!

[aria]

Oooh, thanks! *adds to list*

[aria]

I am quite charmed by the Animated Series! I think I am going to follow up your TOS recs first, though. :)

[sophia-sol.livejournal.com]

...dude. If the point of that vid is to tell the watcher how utterly gleefully ridiculous TOS can be, then it SUCCEEDS BRILLIANTLY. It reminds me of the reasons why I rather wish I could watch TOS, even though I know perfectly well that as a show it tends to hit my embarrassment squick too hard.

Also, omg, Fighting Gravity is BRILLIANT and I love it to bits.

[aria]

I KNOW RIGHT. I am pretty sure that TOS is something that should be watched with people, though, so you can loudly mock anything too embarrassing/horrifying/etc.

[feverbeats]

watch all t os

or you are not my friends

=the ends

[aria]

*cracks up* Yessir.

[feverbeats]

. . . Wow, sure don't remember leaving that comment. SORRY. /o\

[aria]

Yeah, I was wondering. But it is a GREAT COMMENT.

[gominokouhai]

Tik Tok is earworming the hell out of me right now. I had to go and watch it again, didn't I.

[oldstarnewshine]

TOS EPISODE RECS: Return of the Archons (makes no sense but everyone's in period clothes), Journey to Babel (Meet Spock's Parents, and my personal favorite episode), Shore Leave (the crackiest crack ever to crack, and Bones is a BAMF), Arena (the worst fight scene ever put to television), Space Seed (KHAAAAAAAAAAAN), Mirror Mirror (for the obvious reasons, and Uhura being amazing), A Piece Of The Action (canon gangster AU), The Empath (gratuitous Bones h/c). I would recommend The Conscience of The King too, only it actually sucks, like a lot, and I only like it because I watched it with friends and we were pretty tilt-silly at the time and that made it completely hilarious instead of awful.

I have a year-old but still full of goodness XI fic recs list here, if you like.

[aria]

Yay, thank you! I'm fascinated to see what crossover recs there are; pretty much everyone is all about Shore Leave and A Piece of the Action, apparently! All of those sound pretty great, though.

FIC RECS. <333

[srevans]

I do not know what TOS episodes to tell you about since I have only seen about a dozen myself, but I would dearly love to know which episode it is with the dancing-on-a-giant-chessboard crack.

That Tik Tok video, it is madness. :D