(no subject)

Watched some more original series Star Trek episodes.

Thank the little grey gods of Asgard for the remastered version of The Doomsday Machine, because the episode before it on Netflix was The Apple, and OH GOD WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY

There were just... there were just so many things wrong with The Apple, and I had forgotten virtually all of them. I think I had mixed it up with A Private Little War because of the hair and the lower-tech natives, or possibly with the space hippies episode because of the body paint. (including the fact that I could no longer look at the body paint design on at least one guy's cheek and not see it as a scroll up/scroll down cursor.) I don't know. There was so much wrong with The Apple, including 'One of my fellow crewmembers died in- whoops, two of- whoops, three of- oh, whatever, hey, yeoman who looks like Adele, wanna get it on?' Chekov, that the only redeeming feature I could think of for it was that the yeoman who looked like Adele actually kicked some ass when it came time to fight. Mostly it was just Benji Saves The Universe levels of bad.

The remastered Doomsday Machine, however, was brilliant, and overcame the only issue I think I ever really had with the episode, which was that I first saw it when I was maybe nine or ten and had to have my father explain to me that Star Trek was made before George Lucas came on the scene and that it really wasn't fair to compare the special effects to Star Wars. I believe I thought the Machine itself was made of papier-mache at the time. Having dealt with that issue, the writing and acting and characterization all got to stand out properly, and I very much appreciated that fact. I'm putting that one up there with Balance of Terror for best episodes I've rewatched so far.

Memory Alpha said two things about the episode that surprised me. One was that D. C. Fontana said it was her least favorite episode of the entire series. The other was that the actor playing Commodore Decker admitted that he thought the whole premise was silly, that he acted the part like he was in a cartoon, and that he didn't realize it had been written as a Moby Dick analogue with him in the Ahab slot until seeing it in a review several years after the fact.

(no subject)

Still dealing with the post-nasal drip cough I get for weeks on end after a respiratory illness. I have no fever, no headache, no other symptoms, just congested nasal passages, post-nasal drip, and cough. They get massively worse upon exposure to cold air or after particularly vigorous exercise. I do not know if they are allergies or 9/11 dust exposure related, or what, but the whole thing is really annoying, and always has been.

I do my best to take as little OTC medication as possible, especially when it is the kind of stuff that can cost me a flight lesson. Guaifenesin is permissible under FAA guidelines, but dextromethorphan HBr is not- I would have to wait between 48 and 60 hours after taking a dose of Mucinex DM or DayQuil. I bought a bottle of no-alcohol, no-dye, no-artificial-sweetener DXM/guaifenesin store brand syrup at CVS this morning, though. I can only control my cough so well on my own, and although I know I'm not infectious with anything right now, I travel on mass transit. I do not want to spook people unnecessarily. I'm just going to have to avoid taking anything for 60 hours before my flight lesson on Sunday.