Equinox

This article is about Philosophy and Art. The premises are of philosophical nature with a draft of art-criticism or art-philosophy. The issue is really prominent when it gets to the devorce of the Star Wars fanbase into Episode VII haters and Episode VII lovers because the relevant issues behind that devorce take us deep into the space of "legitimacy". To be less contemporary - lets ask: What if Tolkien stopped midway writing Lord of the Rings and let someone else do it? Or what if Shakespeare sold his stuff to someone else who'd then take his own spin on it? Clearly, we can't really tell! We say or think - at least so the suggestive side - that they are 'great figures' for what they've done, saying that what they've done is great, unique - but in movies we have it that many people are involved into creating one; And many issues are put on the desk, many questions asked that an author wouldn't dare to ask!

These are issues. Issues like how the audience will react on a certain thing. What we there have in Star Wars for instance, let me spread it out loud, is the term "Star Wars Moment". What is that? What 'makes' a Star Wars movie? Or Star Trek? Star Trek is more specifically where this article is rooted in - as the Headline is written in context to an Episode of Star Trek Voyager.

The Equinox is a Starfleet ship that got stranded in the Delta Quadrant, much like the Voyager. The problem with the Equinox crew is their ideological difference to that of the Voyager. So there is this lifeform - some species that can warp in and out of our space; And the crew of the Equinox has found a way to use this lifeform to boost their warp-drive and to so get back to the Alpha Quadrant quicker. The crew of the Voyager disagrees with this because the lifeforms are killed in process, and also do these lifeforms attack the humans out of some attitude of revenge.
This is an ethnical dilemma as we know of the 'better' kind of fiction. In reality however, thats my impression, we miss to see when such moments, dilemmas, ethnical problems challenge us ourselves. What would we do? Or, in other ways, what would we think of a movie wherein the situation was reversed? Where the crew of the Equinox would be displayed as the Heroes and the Voyager as the wrongoers?

There is one piece of fiction that I know wherein this could work. It of course is a video game. The story would go: We have to get back as quickly as possible - even if we have to do ugly things - and so your mission is to ... do it.
Of course it wouldn't work once taking the very same setup, the one of killing peaceful aliens. I suppose! I hope so!
And thats where I present to you the "thin line" between right and wrong! Lets say our 'heroes' really had to get back as quickly as possible - then, so the Bible tells us - there will be a way! One that is legitimate (enough). And thats reality! And if you don't believe that reality works that way - well - you're possibly part of the pessimist fraction that is on the line with "humans can't be trusted" and such things. There are however astounding situations; Really hardcore accidents that people survived. "Dashcam" might be a keyword to start with. But so - in my world there is a God - and therefore things work out that way!

To so get in-depth with Star Trek Voyager: The crew of the Voyager 'also' wants to get home ASAP; But they also use the opportunity of being stuck in the delta quadrant to explore it! So, yea, thats ... is that an 'accidental synergy between fiction and real-life-logic'? You know what I mean? I mean: We can talk about fiction as though it were real, sometimes, but there are problems with that if the author wouldn't believe that things are the way they are for believers! In this case the author would possibly be 'Equinox', not 'Voyager', to just put it that way. I'm certain there is grey between black and white; More than 50 shades by the way; But you know what I mean.
There things aren't always the way we like them to be!
Many disliked the idea of 'Midiclorians' - some lifeform that George Lucas invented into the Star Wars Universe that many felt didn't work; Being some sort of 'demystification' of the Force. But let me 'slap' those people into the face for a moment - as I'm going to 'add', without retconning, something to Midiclorians that works as though we'd remove them entirely!
First of all: Nobody is perfect! That means that whatever Qui Gon believes they are can also be marginally wrong! So, in the end we can say that Midiclorians are a lifeform that exists in living organisms that are close to the force because - thats just so! Its like red and white blood-cells and that too many, ... uhm, white ones (???) mean that we have cancer (or was it tuberculosis???)! White Blood Cells don't cause that, they are a symptom - as Midiclorians are a symptom of some organism close to the force!

Simple!

This kind of problem is at first totally different to the Equinox problem. But the issue is anyway: What is right and wrong 'in Art'?
Starfleet personell, mostly, are straight forward people that can be fooled - so we can say they are naive - so, each in their own way is perfectly imperfect; But once they figure out whatever there is wrong their "Bilderbuch" (picture book) straight forwardness comes back and that is something we can admire! We don't suggest they are real people, but their accomplishments 'in fiction' still make us value them, well, for what they are: Good examples - kindof!
And Star Trek, as 'science' fiction, is in this case a good 'hands on' example of what we, in my honest and upright oppinion, should aspire for! There is the technology on one side - but those that only see that are in my hoau oppinion suckers that should not be listened to!

We have a lot to learn!

Yet! And in this case - our enemy would be 'commerce'. Commerce is a perversion of art; As ... uhm ... at first it is OK, a tool to spread it. But money isn't just a tool, it is of existential meaning. So, where businesses grow around art there is a demand for it - an existential one - and so the things that "work" aren't necessarily those that "should". The problem however goes deeper than that because, well, how are we - in this society - to respond to 'good fiction'?
So, lets talk about Roland Emmerichs Godzilla.
It was a desaster, financially, although I appreciated it. We perhaps can't know or tell for sure; But I can suggest that the problem was one ethnical points of the movie was really not going to work for someone living in ... uhm ... New York City for instance, maybe. The whole 'ellbow' thing. Maybe it is true and right that you need to be a little reckless these days if you want to make it somehow. You need to be willing to blow hard punches if you want to come out on top above the "shithead concurrence" - however speaking.
So we can even somehow say that things work for a reason, nontheless; Because in the end it are those things that come to public acclaim, being things we can talk about more commonly.

For that sake we can compare Stargate SG1/Atlantis/Universe to Star Trek. Stargate was successful, all together a good 17 seasons, but it wasn't as successful as that everyone knows who the Replicators are; Or even the Wraith; As compared to Klingons, Vulcans and Borg.
When speaking of Replicators most would possibly think about the Star Trek ones.
Now, when I wrote about Stargate and thus trying to sortof share my appreciation for it to let others in on enjoying it too, I always had the feeling that it backfired for some reason. I could argue that I put it wrong, or that you misunderstood, or think of some conspiracy; But maybe it just wasn't the time for it to work!

Stargate isn't Star Trek when it comes to ... well ... almost everything. Well, Stargate people are also Scientists, explorers of some kind, but their problem is that they are technologically inferior to their enemy and everything round about it is much more Military stuff than Star Trek. Stargate also is finally much more about Religion - and one of the big questions for starters were: Are the Ori supposed to resemble Christians or is that a prejudistic, superficial misconception?
I'd say its a bit of both!

Stargate in my oppinion however is a fiction that is like a path to what Star Trek shows us, just without the dark-ages that preceded the invention of the Warp-Drive.
Stargate people are good people too! Although O'Neill is to some extents a douchebag with a morons attitude - its to me just the way it appears to those that don't understand to see into a stranger with a high enough "resolution"; To say: We all are complicated individuals - and the first step to understanding other peoples kinks is to understand the own ones.
If you look at other people as though they are just shallow minded individuals - you sortof have to look at yourself the same way. And once looking at that you'll find the one or the other Episode of Stargate perfectly interesting - in a funny sense. Stargate is funny! They take jabs at themselves. That isn't necessarily good - but in Stargate, well, they dig that! So I see that the Stargate Characters are to some extent perfectly self-aware - totally aware of the fact that what they do is strictly impossible or at least highly unlikely; And so O'Neill is also perfectly aware of himself being a totally good guy you can trust your life with; But he isn't ... "biting off more than he can chew" - so it always takes a while when they have to convince him to do something important that isn't really in his lane at that time. So, he isn't Duke Nukem - but yet he is someone who'd do all he can without a second of hesitation. So, he isn't Duke Nukem in the sense that he needs the action; Its ... as I was writing ... living his life - and while he's a soldier its clear to him that he is there to 'do things'. He can't just sit on his butt doing nothing! But once the plot has him in a situation where he isn't a soldier at all; The classic: "O'Neill has retired" element; He does't care about what goes wrong in the Universe - just about ... fishing! But that is just O'Neill the good guy! Over time the conversation will chew him down and he'll change his mind and join the team.

So, how do these things come? These - 'real life resemblances' - these things that aren't explicitly created or explained, but seem to be much more like lucky co-incidents? It is to some extent the big final frontier of arts. How serious can we take it?

I'd say its pretty much like enjoying something to begin with! I didn't watch and enjoy Stargate because I knew that it would come to make sense this way! It just worked for me - well - after seeing 'The Ark of Truth' that is. (Don't miss out on 'the road taken' in case you decide to watch it). Its possibly a bad movie from some angles - and if I had to make a guess right now I'd say that is because some of the philosophical depth isn't really everyones piece of pie. I for instance really happen to like Teal'C for all that he is - and that begins with him being the Prime of Apophis. Teal'C is a real hero - and in the Ark of Truth we see a Teal'C after he stood up against the Gua'Ould - changed over 10 years of being amongst humans - and we can see the 'Hero' that Teal'C was during the days of being Apophis' Prime - just themed more relatable to us.
So his brief discussion with Tomin is really really good - but yea - in all the things that matter or should concern us these days really not on top of the list.

Those are however yet clear moments that exalt fiction above the "just fiction" standpoint. It is just fiction, OK, but that doesn't say that if I wrap my head around the situation that is being pictured I can't gain something from it!
And that is really where my Stargate fanboy is born from! I can wrap my head around the story and it makes sense! I'm not saying that there are no plotholes - but calling those out would be nitpicking; Before giving it a second thought or after discarding my second thoughts just for the sake of nitpicking on it.
So - to me one of the most "epic" Stargate Moments was the end of one Episode, and it simply consisted of Bratac (and Teal'C?) stepping through the Stargate. In the right context it was a moment where two worlds apart stood connected - and the combined "spirit" of a few individuals that played their game against the odds just came together in a sense of companionship and independence that ... just came to a point there.

I am however neither a big fan of the idea that things 'have' to go that kind of deep to be worth anything! For crying out loud; I've seen the Matrix Reloaded around 200 times (that is for like 2 weeks running it 24/7) until I was 'in the mode' of really enjoying the Matrix Revolutions!

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