And Take Note Of The Quotation Marks
You Pikers*. Then you know I'm not harping on about the adjective, but an entity in it's own right. From the dim depths of my fetid memory I conjure forth an image, which I am going to prod Art to reproduce -
Fascinating stuff, yet as with all Intros we're not going to have anything remotely to do with matey, and that haircut looks rather effete if you ask me. Whilst on the subject of comics, allow me to bamboo-skewer Art into closer attention.
Ah yes, the days of what were termed 'Boys' Adventure Comics' and when we still had folding paper pound notes, which was quite a reward 59 years ago. Still not this, although I note it's the comic where "The Steel Claw" debuted. Art!
An ugly beast of an aircraft, in my eyes. It was part of Perfidious Albion's 'V' force of nuclear-capable bombers, and the only one to drop nuclear weapons, albeit only for test purposes, including A FUSION BOMB in 1957, foreshadowing quite a bit there.
Still no. Art!
Now we're getting somewhere. That somewhere would be the USS 'Valiant', a Star Fleet ship tasked with exploring the star cluster NGC 321. They come across a brace of warring planets - and that is the last we know of the Valiant.
50 years later, what else do we see bound for NGC 321 but the USS 'Enterprise', because yes, Conrad is going to do a deep-dive into The Original Series episode 'A Taste Of Armageddon'.
You'll have to forgive the quality of some photos I took of the television screen, my camera goes rather blue-ish in cases of high contrast dark and light areas. Art!
Not a great illo, rather undercutting what I'd hoped to prove, that this was one of the episodes where they'd done a lot of CGI over the original visuals, which is frankly CHEATING. Art!
Proof. The planets depicted when TOS was originally shown didn't have that level of detail.
ANYWAY let us proceed and I'll see if I can get the Snipping and resolution a tad better than that. Art!
Here you see the landing party: Mister Spock, wearing a shirt that scrambles camera lenses, Captain Kirk, Yeoman Tamura (wearing the skirt) and two Security Redshirts, Lieutenants Galloway and Osborne. INCREDIBLY and this is a teeny bit SPOILERY SPOILERY SPOILERY neither of them die, they are both very handy with the old unarmed combat, and adept at sneaking around covertly. Art!
This is one of the brilliant Albert Whitlock matte paintings of Eminiar VII, used to portray the high technological advancement of their civilisation, done with a painting instead of having to use props and sets. Art!
This is just for a little local colour. Here we see Mea 3, wearing a lot of a little, which naturally had Kirk's eyes pop out like organ stops, although, as a true Star Fleet professional, he manages to not slaver. Art!
Dog Buns camera contrasts! What I wanted to do here is go into the meat of the matter, as these pictures display the computer-controlled war effort of Eminiar. According to the plot, this planet settled the third planet from the sun, Vindikar, which is now a 'ruthless enemy', and the two planets have been at war for 500 years.
That's not all. The Enterprise has become part of this conflict and has been judged 'destroyed by a tri-cobalt satellite'. Big whoop. Anan 7, leader of the Eminiar High Council, spares no effort to either destroy the Enterprise, or to lure her crew planetside, where they will be executed. Art!
The skeptical Scot
We now know what happened to the Valiant; either it was destroyed in orbit or it's crew were lured planetside and disintegrated, every last one of them.
Conrad, inevitably, has to worry at the plot problems revealed. For one thing, we are never told of the casus belli between the two worlds. Anan 7 used the word 'settled' and Your Cynical Extrapolator rather wonders if this wasn't actually 'exiled', where Eminiar got rid of anyone it didn't like, approve of, want, need or otherwise saw as an irredeemable criminal. That would explain the bad blood. Art!
This 500-year war is being waged with a suite of three computers, with no back-ups, alternates or reserve units. The unit to port handles casualties, the one against the far wall, defence and the one Mister Spock is assessing is for offence. Given Captain Kirk's robust attitude to diplomacy you can guarantee what he'll do next. Art!
If you guessed 'Blows It Up' collect a cookie and go to the front of the class. As I remarked above, this is the only War Computer that exists on the entire planet, and once it's gone, it's gone. Thus ends the War By Computer, because, as Kirk shrewdly guesses, War Waged As A Real Thing is far, far less pleasant.
One thing I skipped over in this narrative is that, waaaay back at the beginning, Eminiar did warn off the Enterprise, telling it not to approach under any circumstances, which implies that Anan 7 and his High Council were well aware of what had happened to the Valiant a scant 50 years before, and didn't want a repeat performance. So they had morals, of a sort. You might even say that the Valiant encountered a (tri-cobalt) fusion warhead, just not in a test role.
Of course, I could be overthinking this .....
Finally! Except Not The Final Finally -
It's always the way: you come across an image on teh Interwebz and think 'I could use that' except when you go back it isn't there any longer and you cannot find it ON THE DOG BUNS INTERNET FOR LOVE OR MONEY, which is a bit annoying.
As here. Art!
Conrad can guarantee any politician reading that would instantly interpret it as 'FREE', because that's how their minds work. So might members of the public, but not Conrad. You see, I know what's involved in the construction of a Dyson Sphere. Art!
The traditional model has a sun at the heart of a solar system totally encased, allowing for total conversion of the stellar output, which is where the politicians eyes see $$$ signs.
HOWEVER - in upper case because it's a big however - how much effort, time and resources would be needed to totally encase a sun? It would be mind-bogglingly difficult and time-consuming and <drum roll> expensive. You know, that word politicians hate.
Current opinion is that you'd need to use a partial sphere or swarms of satellites to do the job. Sorry, Dyson. Art!
It's a bit like saying "All the problems of Hom. Sap. could be solved if we simply (!) created a Ringworld". Yeah right.
"The War Illustrated Edition 210 6th July 1945"
This is a bit of a speculative item as the last illo I put up from my camera was excrably blurred, so we'll see what this one is like together. Art!
This is a blast from the past - the Dutch East Indies, part of their overseas empire pre-Second Unpleasantness, which the Japanese had over-run earlier in the war. The Japanese were being kicked out militarily, but it was the end of the Dutch empire, as post-war their subject agitated and fought and got independence.
Conrad Is Unsure About This
Last night I made the 'Carrot and Cheese Pudding' from my Ukrainian cookbook, using cottage cheese, as instructed by the recipe. I also grated a boiled carrot, which the recipe demanded be grated finely. Art!
I've tried a slice and it's okay, nothing brilliant. I wonder, ought the cheese to have been curd cheese, not British cottage cheese? Perhaps the carrot should have been grated finer, too.
Whatever, I've made it, I'm going to eat it - the Conrad promise.
Messier Than Disintegration
Getting back to Mordorvia, for once, people wonder if Putinpot isn't having oligarchs thrown out of windows because he got out of bed on the wrong side, or stubbed his toe, or trod on a piece of Lego. Art!
Alas, no. The likely candidate is another oligarch, because the economic pie they divvy up has been shrinking for the past three years and there's a lot less to go around. With fewer oligarchs, the pie goes further.
Simples!
* In-joke. Art!
No comments:
Post a Comment