Saturday, July 12, 2008

TODAY'S TWD: ON MIDNIGHT, AT THE OASIS

Each week in the classic 'Star Trek', the starship Enterprise would seek out new worlds to explore. But what happened between those episodes; how many new worlds and new civilizations did they discover?

And more importantly, once they had boldly gone where no one lese had gone before, what happened to all those uninhabited planets, Class M and otherwise, after they left?

The next wave of human development would occur, just as it had in earlier eras on Earth - settlers and others would follow, looking to stake a claim.

Some would be mined, like that planetoid in the episode "Devil In The Dark". Others would be exploited for other natural resources.

And some would be transformed into getaway resorts!

In the 'Doctor Who' episode "Midnight", the Doctor and Donna traveled to the planet Midnight (ironically named because it is always bathed in extreme deadly sunlight. Even though exposure to the surface could kill you, still somebody saw fit to build a resort there. (Probably for the tourist attraction of the sapphire waterfalls.....)
[They don't want you to know this, but there are people who come to New York and go to the Marriott Marquis just to ride the bubble elevators to the roof and then jump down into the elevator wells. I bet the same thing will happen at the Leisure Palace on Midnight - people go to the resort, pamper themselves (like Donna does in this episode), and then go outside into the extonic atmosphere unprotected in order to kill themselves.]

Molto bene!

Because the Leisure Palace appears to have been built and then lowered onto the planet's surface in the first rush after discovery, I'm thinking the lack of proper investigation into the planet's properties (which would have discovered the alien presence) means that this episode occurred early in Man's piglrimage to the final frontier. And this resort would fit perfectly with the main reason Mankind pushed outwards to the stars -
The chance to "dance" with aliens. Nudge nudge wink wink!

So I'm thinking that on the Toobworld timeline, "Midnight" should be placed somewhere between 'Star Trek' and its sequel eighty some-odd years down the road, 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'. And it was at a time when 21st Century fashions were back in vogue, judging by how everyone was dressed among the passengers. (Behind the scenes, it was a good way to keep down the budget on such a "bottle show".)
BCnU!
Toby OB

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