There is a multi-verse, some say possibly an omniverse. Where there are heroes and mutants. Wizards and Warriors. Ghouls and Ghosts. Scientists and beings that are godlike.
Magic is real.
Science explains the how.
And a new portal has burst open.
Ram Man prepares to help his friend He-Man, can Clamp Champ stop the new intruder…
Is this sword wielding battle axe throwing Barbarian friend or foe
But who is this new wizard having come through the realms of beyond the veil of this life, casting a spell to save a Ferengi?
Will Trapjaw fall? Or will Evil Lynn save her ally?
And what role does Quark play in setting things on track once more?
What new scheme has Q hatched to judge bi-peds and the humans and allies of the United Federation of Planets? Still trapped on Eternia in a struggle between good and evil, our landing parties out of time and place, find themselves trapped in a dimensional rift that brings both Snake Mountain of Eternia, and The Fright Zone of Hordak of Etheria to sharing the same temporal space…
Wait…Q hiding in the shadows, a version of Skeletor trapping Stratos as Buzz Off prepares to sore… Why is Saru in the throne of villainy? As new heroes and villains , will their roles be flipped– blur in and out of existence…
A battle commenced at dusk and through the night can we see what awaits as Skeletor and his TrapJaw mechazoid trap Spock and Quark, which He-Man is the one that can bring evil low? And which are simply bizzaro Fakers or not yet of the time?
Which Hordak is the true Hordak that has opened the rift to reclaim his place of villainy?
As the light breaks who controls the thrones?
Are they simply puppets this Merman controlled Fright Zone with Kobra Kahn trapping heroes with the snake and Webstor serving a clone? A temporal fugitive? Or the true form of Eternia’s Evil dethroned? As the Tyrannarosaurus Rex with weapons of mass destruction prepares to stop Chakotay from bringing light back to the dungeon and sewers…
Who will the Salt Vampire feast on as Ram Man prepares to break Hordak’s Hold…
As the snake traps Sisko, Ram Ma’am and a He-Man, another lofts his magic sword but will the power find him in time?
“Bwahahahaha” Q bellows from the shadows of the throne room as Hordak prepares to fire on He-Man and Jitsu who want to release the throne from being occupied…
Kane and Warrior move forward through the rift from the Fright Zone as Whiplash prepares to dispell the next shift…
Who is that other Hordak lurking in Fright to spread fear?
Which of the Three Skeletors holds the Chaos Magic of Snake Mountain?
And will Stratos fly?
Can Orko’s Magic stop chaos and free Spock and Quark or will he trap himself?
Oh and will Beast Man defeat Chakotay with his new pet and its rockets?
Q is perplexed, he calls on Webstor to leap into the fray, is this a gambit of the Prophets?
or?
What is this new Fright Zone (a special thanks to my big bro, for his Granddad level skill in crafting this new zone) that emerges from the whirling fog and dust
New monsters to the fray
A possible Evil Horde?
But has a coup happened for is that not a
Multi-versal Skeletor conducting Hiss’ mayhem and Scully’s roar?
Who is the serpent seeking for a snack pack?
And what evil lurks in Whiplash, could he be the true mastermind of this new fear?
I am one of those annoying Trekkies to the “serious” ones, that is, I do not worry about what is canon or not canon, I want good stories with characters and universes I love. Ones that percolate thoughts, and discussions. Growing up, serial killers were not plentiful storylines like they are today with the mystery shows. It was usually one off murders, yes, we knew of Olson, Bundy, Zodiak, but there was quite a fixation on Ripperology.
That is the study of Jack the Ripper, one whose identity is never been 100% verified, but also who may have been the western world’s first known serial killer (that is one in the limelight). An anti-semite that preyed upon sex trade workers (then known as prostitutes) in Victorian London in the impoverished White Chapel disctrict, 1888. A mystery, a curiousity, and with the rise of psychology as an active field and the connections with occult, spiritualism, and science fiction, it was only a matter of time before it was tackled on television.
I must admit I became a Trekkie watching reruns on CBC with my Dad (it was the one night of the week I could stay up past my bedtime). I did not recall seeing the original series episode “Wolf in the Fold” during these reruns, rather it was once the series was on DVD. It is an intriguing episode, as an entity possess Scotty, and a murder happens of a woman, through an inductive investigation (and yes even Sherlock is inductive), they discover it is an alien entity that essentialy feeds on fear, and had manifested through possession as Jack the Ripper. They manage to lure the entity out, and disperse it thinking it destroyed.
But can you destroy that which feeds on fear?
It is an intriguing parable idea. What causes fear? What do you fear? Does it feel like a possession of an unknown force when our Autotomic Nervous Systems (ANS) kicks in the Fight-Flight-Freeze response? How does it affect those around you? Is it catching like negative thoughts or a cold?
As with any good foil/antagonist that can not only take the protagonists against something outside, but can also cause interior conflict, Redjac was not done. He has manifested twice more, once in the 1980’s DC Comics run of Star Trek #’s 22-23 (thank you to Alpha Comics 40% off sale on back issues for these coming my way). This is a fun run if you can find issues or collections, great writing and art, within the scope of the original movies (the monster maroon era as some dub it), has Kirk and company using the Excelsior, as well as Enterprise A. There’s also Arex and M’rss from the animated series, and the addition of comic created characters Bearclaw, Bryce, and Konom (a half Klingon) amongst others, and a youngling Klingon Bernie. This is Bryce’s story as she is possessed and the fear that comes in an enclosed environment.
How do you experience fear in familiar environments? Is it different in the unknown? If you are somplace you know you cannot leave?
Scotty had interactions with redjac twice now, and thanks to the episode Relics, and a transporter buffer, we know he is in the Next Generation era. Which is a wonderful bridge (how would you feel, knowing a fear manifester stalks you? Is there a fear that gives this feeling to you?)
Star Trek Holo-Ween was a weekly series this October, set in the Enterprise D era. Not a planet, but like the previous comic story, the ship. An enclosed environment that Redjac manifests and possesses. But there’s a twist this time– the Holodeck technology. And what does the Enterprise-D crew fear?
The Borg. And being the first series that had a major character killed, Armus.
Redjac taps in.
How do we disconnect from fear? The universal monsters make an appearance as being those that cannot fear other monsters (thank you to Another Dimension in Kensington for holding the issues week to week so I didn’t miss an issue, it was a fun respite each week).
Is this true?
How do you rescue hostages whose fear is feeding the possesor?
Essentially, the question of the parable from first episoe, to now, is how do we escape fear? Or more accurately, knowing it is an evolved response to protect, how do we begin to shape fear into a useful tool to respond, not in anger (that can consume and turn into hatred) but into emotions that aid us in moving forward through the fear, or escape.
Could I provide an answer, possibly, but using these parables/stories, enter into discussion with those you know and see where the path of overcoming Redjac leads you.
An amazing adventure day of music and bbq at an alumni day with my oldest yesterday, and working on prepping a sermon for next Sunday on the Imageo Dei and disabilities as a new semester dawns (an I won’t get into how badly funded our PSE’s are in Alberta currently). There is always time for fun, and fun discovered on adventures with my son.
When last we left our multi-versal mash up, things were looking dyer for our heroes, as Q took the throne of Snake Mountain
Muhahahahaha
But wait, did a hero escape the snake by de-powering and re-powering?
By the Power of Grayskull…
I have the Power!!!!!
But the Multi-versal madness continues, as Stratos squares off with Mer-Man emerging from the water, who is this firing on our hero? Like a multi-versity Trapjaw
but is there more than one He-Man? Or is it the start of a ring a ding dong dandy?
And is there a multi-versal team up of Ramman and Ram Ma’am to tackle Skeletor’s giganto spell on Trapjaw as Quark’s chokehold is not making much headway?
And what heroic magic machinations is Orko hoping to unleash?
The Sisko’s team from across time has arrived to aid the Tuvok and Chakotay in a reality not their own.
Was it Skeletor and Orko’s magic?
Or something Qful?
Spock Vulcan nerve pinche’s Clawful, will the drop from the throne distract Locutus enough for Clamp Champ to subdue?
Is Quark actually trying to be heroic? Or simply materialized in the wrong place wrong time? What would the Rules of Accusation say about an attempted chokehold on TrapJaw?
Sisko seeing Triklops about to take out Spock, takes aim on stun.
Surely, Evil Lynn will stop Sisko’s shot with her pet.
Not if Saru can distract and rescue the Snake’s lunch, Man E. Faces
Spock hear’s Orko’s voice about He-Man, and goes to attempt to subdue teh Jem Hadar.
David Mack’s newest Star Trek: The Original Series novel, Harm’s Way (2022) is set within his Star Trek Vanguard series, and just after the TOS episode Doomsday Machine. There are many touches which makes it a fast read, and gives it a feel of an original episode, as Mack is equisite at getting the characters voice right. It is a subplot in the work where this ponderance comes from.
See the death/suicide of Commodore Matt Decker, has left Kirk with a quandry on how to communicate this loss to Decker’s family (his son, Will, many will be familiar with from his role in The Motion Picture). See, does he share that it was a suicide due to grief over losing his entire crew of the Constitution, or does he speak of him in a hearoes death that ended the Planet Killer? What is truth? What is comfort? Where does the power of grief guide one?
In the internal struggle, Kirk is brought back to his own loss of 200 lives when he was a junior officer on the Farragut, and that internal deconstruction we do of tearing ourselves down of past decisions, errors and losses in our life story when we look back on the events of what we know now.
It is a gambit that does not aid us in moving forward, or healing or keeping the healing work done. See, we cannot even judge yesterday’s decision by what we know today. For what happened yesterday and alld ecisions made were done with the full knowledge and expereince of who we were in that moment. It is unfair and unethical to ourselves to relook and re-judge those moments of our story from where we are now. This is the struggle within Kirk, and how he then has to struggle how to share the story of Commodore Decker’s Death with Decker’s family.
Why does this ponderance matter, I posit a simple refelctive question/exercise for you:
How would you write the letter?
Now look at your own life, and those moments when you want to use hindsight to tear yourself up:
How would you write a letter to yourself?
Be kind as we enter 2023, and may the new be birthed well in our world.
Spock Days is a family activities in Vulcan, Alberta that runs alongside (at leas this year, a Star Trek Convention in the town, Vul-Con). Now this is not new information to me, as the first Spock Days I believe, of all folks in my family, my Grandma Ragan, went on a weekend trip to it through the now defunct Golden Age. It has been on a list of things I want to do, and haven’t gotten around to (only Star Trek convention I have been to, was a community one in Calgary through the Village Square Leisure Centre when I was a kid).
Now, this year, on the sidequest with friends (Bruce, came in from Costa Rica, and his brother Doug), we did not buy the weekend access tickets (though after the day of free events, my hope is to be able to swing the tickets and weekend next year for my Dad and I, who introduced me to Star Trek, through CBC re-runs and the comics). There was a vendors market, local artisans, the two ships in the area from Starfleet International, this ia unique thing, as yes, it is fan clubs with social activities structured like starships, yet there is also service pieces. Which has made me wonder as some lament the waning of service clubs, are the cosplay-fan clubs stepping in and changing the way this works to create connection, belonging, values and change?
But i digress, for this is simply to enter into a photo montage of the day. And an encouragement to ake time to discover the hidden gems in our world. If you are a Trekkie, or just want to see how a town can use some uniqueness to create space for connection take a trip to Vulcan, AB any time of year, visit the Trek Station and Tourism Centre, do the self guided tour to see the artifacts, monuments, and local art shaped by one of the shaping mythologies of our time (55 years and counting from television, movies, books, comics, games, social media, etc).
And now some of the sights of the day, and the great fun of simply being, celebrating IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations), and welcome…that started with a hearty pancake breakfast, parade, sign unveiling, fun cosplay competition improv. I write of a yearly retreat in my rule of life, I have missed out over the last several years, and yes I still need one of solitude to focus on where my next book will go, and how the Holy speaks into my journey, yet in a pinch, this day, filled a bit of that missing void.
Paul Vargis
Ty
A Monk's Musings 