Mark R. Kelly
-
Recent Posts
- Links and Comments 19 Feb 2021
- Notes and Quotes: Ray Bradbury on Good, Evil, and Knowledge
- Links and Comments: Reality as a Common Ground
- Links and Comments: RL, as despicable as DJT
- Links and Comments: Republicans and Doing the Right Thing, Not; Religion as LARP
- Links and Comments: Astronomical Photos from APOD
- Nonfiction Notes: Matthew Hutson’s The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking
- Nonfiction Notes: Alex Rosenberg’s THE ATHEIST’S GUIDE TO REALITY
- Links and Comments: Political Matters This Week: 11 Feb 2021
- Nonfiction Notes: Bobby Duffy, WHY WE’RE WRONG ABOUT NEARLY EVERYTHING
Bookmarks
- CNN
- NYT
- WaPo
- Guardian US
- NPR
- Google News
- Slate
- Salon
- Vox
- The Week
- The New Yorker
- The Atlantic
- Nature
- Science
- Scientific American
- Why Evolution Is True (Jerry Coyne)
- Friendly Atheist (Hemant Mehta, et al)
- Progressive Secular Humanist (Michael Stone)
- The Morning Heresy | CFI (Paul Fidalgo)
- File 770 (Mike Glyer)
- Tor.com
- AlterNet
- Towleroad
- Joe.My.God
- APOD
- xkcd
Categories
- Arthur C. Clarke
- Astronomy
- Atheism
- Bible
- Book Notes
- Changing One's Mind
- Children
- Commonplace Book
- Conservative Resistance
- Conventions
- Cosmology
- Culture
- Economics
- Evolution
- Films
- Games
- Heinlein
- Human Progress
- Humanism
- Isaac Asimov
- Links
- Lunacy
- Mathematics
- Meaning
- MInd
- Morality
- Movies
- Music
- Narrative
- Personal history
- Pet Peeves
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Politics
- Provisional Conclusions
- Psychology
- Quote at Length
- Quotes
- Ray Bradbury
- Religion
- Reviews
- Robert Silverberg
- Robert Wright
- Science
- science fiction
- Science Fiction Nonfiction
- Short Fiction
- Silverberg
- Skiffy Flix
- Social Progress
- Space
- Species Reset
- Spirituality
- Star Trek
- Steven Pinker
- Supernatural
- Technology
- Ten Commandments
- The Book
- The Gays
- Thinking
- Travel
- TV Sci Fi
- Uncategorized
- Website Issues
- Writing
Archives
- February 2021 (13)
- January 2021 (20)
- December 2020 (10)
- November 2020 (11)
- October 2020 (15)
- September 2020 (13)
- August 2020 (22)
- July 2020 (27)
- June 2020 (11)
- May 2020 (13)
- April 2020 (9)
- March 2020 (7)
- February 2020 (3)
- January 2020 (5)
- December 2019 (3)
- November 2019 (7)
- October 2019 (12)
- September 2019 (5)
- August 2019 (4)
- July 2019 (5)
- June 2019 (9)
- May 2019 (3)
- April 2019 (2)
- March 2019 (4)
- February 2019 (16)
- January 2019 (3)
- October 2018 (4)
- September 2018 (5)
- August 2018 (9)
- July 2018 (3)
- June 2018 (7)
- May 2018 (6)
- April 2018 (11)
- March 2018 (5)
- February 2018 (6)
- January 2018 (3)
- December 2017 (8)
- November 2017 (11)
- October 2017 (8)
- September 2017 (14)
- August 2017 (12)
- July 2017 (13)
- June 2017 (15)
- May 2017 (21)
- April 2017 (24)
- March 2017 (16)
- February 2017 (22)
- January 2017 (14)
- December 2016 (3)
- November 2016 (1)
- October 2016 (9)
- September 2016 (3)
- August 2016 (4)
- July 2016 (2)
- June 2016 (18)
- May 2016 (11)
- April 2016 (12)
- March 2016 (9)
- February 2016 (9)
- January 2016 (18)
- December 2015 (21)
- November 2015 (17)
- October 2015 (14)
- September 2015 (22)
- August 2015 (16)
- July 2015 (12)
- June 2015 (14)
- May 2015 (14)
- April 2015 (7)
- March 2015 (13)
- February 2015 (19)
- January 2015 (20)
- December 2014 (11)
- November 2014 (15)
- October 2014 (9)
- September 2014 (3)
- August 2014 (2)
- July 2014 (16)
- June 2014 (19)
- May 2014 (34)
- April 2014 (26)
- March 2014 (37)
- February 2014 (27)
- January 2014 (19)
- December 2013 (11)
- November 2013 (8)
- October 2013 (10)
- September 2013 (21)
- August 2013 (13)
- July 2013 (6)
Meta
Category Archives: Star Trek
The Blish/Lawrence Star Trek adaptations
In January 1967 – only four months after the show debuted on NBC – Bantam published STAR TREK, by James Blish, a noted science fiction writer since the early 1950s and winner of a Hugo Award for the novel A … Continue reading
Posted in Star Trek
Comments Off on The Blish/Lawrence Star Trek adaptations
Trek Season 1 Rewatch, Introduction
In April 2017 I sat down, having planned for many years to do so, to systematically rewatch Star Trek, the original series, that ran from 1966 to 1969. I was 11 years old when the series debuted, and I saw … Continue reading
Posted in Star Trek
Comments Off on Trek Season 1 Rewatch, Introduction
Worlds Beyond Time! Worlds Beyond Ken!: Star Trek 2, by James Blish
James Blish’s second book of episode adaptations was published in February 1968, just past the half-way point in the production of the show’s second season, even as all the scripts in this book are, as in the first book, from … Continue reading
Posted in Star Trek
Comments Off on Worlds Beyond Time! Worlds Beyond Ken!: Star Trek 2, by James Blish
Notes on Trek music, Season One
The essence of Star Trek’s music was that it was composed of many themes that recurred across many episodes throughout the series, sometimes in variation, sometimes not, in ways that made the series’ music a sort of extended symphony-cycle of … Continue reading
Posted in Star Trek
Comments Off on Notes on Trek music, Season One
Many Such Journeys: TOS #28, “The City on the Edge of Forever”
The Enterprise visits a planet where a time portal enables a deranged McCoy to inadvertently change Earth’s history, forcing Kirk and Spock to travel to 1930s Earth, where Kirk falls in love. This justly celebrated episode is not without its … Continue reading
Posted in Star Trek
Comments Off on Many Such Journeys: TOS #28, “The City on the Edge of Forever”
Pure Energy: TOS #27: “Errand of Mercy”
The Enterprise attempts to claim the peaceful yet strategic planet Organia from the rival Klingon Empire, only to find a curious indifference by the natives to any kind of threat. This is the episode that introduced the Klingons, a … Continue reading
Posted in Star Trek
Comments Off on Pure Energy: TOS #27: “Errand of Mercy”
The Instinct Can Be Fought: TOS #24: “A Taste of Armageddon”
The Enterprise attempts to initiate diplomatic relations with a planet conducting a computer war with its neighbor planet, a war in which theoretical causalities voluntarily go to die in disintegration chambers. This is one of Trek’s best ethical conundrums, a … Continue reading
Posted in Star Trek, Uncategorized
Comments Off on The Instinct Can Be Fought: TOS #24: “A Taste of Armageddon”
Forcing Us to Build Ships for Them: TOS #29: “Operation—Annihilate!”
The Enterprise comes to the aid of a colony planet – where Kirk’s brother lives with his family – that has been invaded by alien neural parasites that cause mass insanity. The last episode of the 1st season, both in … Continue reading
Posted in Star Trek
Comments Off on Forcing Us to Build Ships for Them: TOS #29: “Operation—Annihilate!”
The Chamber of the Ages: TOS #26: “The Devil in the Dark”
The Enterprise comes to the aid of an underground mining colony where miners are being killed, and machinery destroyed, by an unseen monster that moves through solid rock. This is a justly famous episode that challenges our assumptions and overturns … Continue reading
Posted in Star Trek
Comments Off on The Chamber of the Ages: TOS #26: “The Devil in the Dark”
The Good of the Body: TOS #22: “The Return of the Archons”
The Enterprise visits a planet run by a computer in the guise of religious belief to the all-seeing “Landru”, a computer Kirk defeats through a battle of logic. This is a fascinating episode because it encapsulates, as well as any … Continue reading
Posted in Star Trek
Comments Off on The Good of the Body: TOS #22: “The Return of the Archons”