Spock and Sherlock: A study in Geek

30 Jun 2012 Leave a comment

by C.O. Bonham in Random Musing, Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek Tags: , , , , ,

Hello All,  I am so sorry that these posts are so far and few between. Anyway I hope that this one is interesting enough to make up for the long wait.

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

This quote was first used in The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1890. It has since then been used to death in reference to Sherlock Holmes.

But in 1991 in the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country the character Spock quotes it and attributes it not to Holmes or Doyle but rather to a Vulcan ancestor.

But I am not angry instead I am geeking out because just this year in the BBC series Sherlock, Episode 2 The Hounds of Baskerville, Sherlock (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) recites the infamous quote and then in the same scene after Sherlock rants about his need to stay above emotions John Watson (played by Martin Freeman) says, “Alright, Spock.”

Isn’t that amazing!

‘Why is it amazing?’ you ask.

It’s amazing because it means that in a, granted fictional, universe in which Sherlock Holmes is a person  living in our modern-day they still have Star Trek. Which means that Spock’s unattributed quote combined with John’s remark implies that Sherlock is actually quoting Leonard Nimoy’s character Spock. Thus proving for all time that Sherlock is a Treker.  He doesn’t know that the earth revolves around the sun but he watches Star Trek. Well that’s Sherlock for you.

Though one wonders what he makes of The Next Generation episode: Elementary, My Dear Data.

For more on the Sherlock/Spock connection check out this Blog : http://thenewdiogenesclub.blogspot.com/2012/01/mr-spock-and-mr-holmes.html

Drinking, Highly Illogical

14 May 2012 Leave a comment

by C.O. Bonham in Random Musing, Star Trek, Victorian Fiction, Well founded paranoia Tags: , ,

I haven’t posted anything in a while so here is an extra long one.

Every age comes with certain privileges that we can choose to partake in.  At 16 we can drive at, 17 watch an R rated movie and, 18 we become voting citizens of our great nation. But then nothing truly interesting happens at 19 or 20 and then at 21 is finally given the right to legally buy and consume alcohol. Why? It’s such an odd number to choose? At least 18 has a certain logic, you can vote you graduate from high school and start worrying about things like student loans and car payments, 19 would at least follow in sequence. In Ohio we have to renew our drivers license every four years. So if they made the drinking age 20 then they could get rid of that extra year before your first renewal.

Does anyone really think that a 21-year-old will really be anymore mature than an 18-year-old? Is it some medical fact that at 18 alcohol will affect your brain cells but not at 21? Drinking will kill your brain functions no matter what age you are.

I found this website that seems to answer the 21 question though I have no idea where they got their facts from.

http://www.madd.org/underage-drinking/why21/

My question is really Why Drink at all? What is the point? And how can people stand it? Alcohol messes with your memory and it dulls senses it ruins your reaction time and it just tastes bad.

The only time that I am ever really satisfied after a bit of spirits is when I am sick. I think of it this way Alcohol is used to disinfect therefore drinking it when you’re sick will disinfect your insides. Maybe not technically true but it makes me feel like I’m doing something to get better.

In Victorian era fiction we read about Spirits being used as a medicine, a restorative, a calming agent, something to warm your insides, and yes like I said a disinfectant.

Am I proposing that we bring prohibition back? No. Consuming alcohol just doesn’t hold any appeal for me. It doesn’t make you have more fun it just shuts off your common sense. So drinking at home with people you know and who you know want the best for you is fine but anywhere else is just Illogical.

In his autobiographical book I Am Spock Leonard Nimoy, writes a fictitious encounter between Spock and one of his many female fans. She has just offered Spock a drink and this is how Spock refuses her:

Spock: Madam, my mind is in precisely the condition it should be. I see no reason to alter that condition with stimulants or depressants.

Spock is right, if you are thinking clearly and you are walking without bumping into things and falling down, who in their right mind would want to change it? Personally I do not like to feel stupid and clumsy, trust me I feel that way enough when I’m sober there is no way I would purposely place myself in that state of mind.

I have actually used Nimoy’s quote before to turn down an invitation to go out to a bar. Though after that I didn’t get many invitations to anything. Oh well, people who need to be inebriated to have fun mustn’t be very good company anyway.

If we could start using it like a medicinal helper instead of, “A sure sign of a good time,” (Bud light’s slogan) then maybe the drinking age wouldn’t matter so much. Maybe if people would stop doing stupid things with stuff that should be used sparingly then maybe we wouldn’t have to worry about monitoring alcohol usage in the extremes that we do. But people are stupid and they do drink to be numb and to get stupid. So the illogic behind the drinking age must be overshadowed by the illogic of drink itself.

But Wouldn’t you Really like . . . Two.

24 Feb 2012 1 Comment

by C.O. Bonham in Star Trek Tags: , , ,

A couple of months ago I wrote a Blog post about my meeting with the fictional Sherlock Holmes and that got me thinking about other fictional characters that I might like to meet. So this post details my meeting with that paragon of Logic Mr. Spock from Star Trek.

I think that a meeting with Spock would make me feel much the same as meeting Sherlock would. Though I tend to think that the emotionless Vulcan would be more sensitive to my human emotions (go figure.) This would no doubt cause my meeting with Spock to be full of awkward silences and random comments that result in “fascinating” and “Interesting” responses from Spock.

Me: So you’re from the future?

Spock: As I have already stated.

Me: So have you ever heard of me?

Spock: You’re attempts to extract information about your future endeavors is in vain for I will not risk changing history in order to fuel your human ego.

Me: I see. That takes a lot of conversation topics off the table then.

Spock: Indeed.

Me: I noticed that you are reading something on your tablet there.

Spock: Yes I have taken the liberty of viewing your previous blog postings. I must say that they are rather interesting.

Me: Really!

Spock: Yes. For example many of them seem to take an anti-technology slant yet didn’t you tell me yourself that you earn currency by selling electronics to people? How can you sell things that you openly disapprove of?

Me: Well you see I don’t actively try to talk people into buying the items in question, usually they already want it and then I always try to emphasis the downside and they still buy it anyway.

Spock: Fascinating. So you inform these consumers that the Item they wish to buy is inferior and yet they purchase it anyway.

Me: That’s about the size of it.

Spock: The illogical  motives of humans will never cease to amaze me.

Me: Trust me I am human and I still don’t understand them.

Spock’s Genealogy

01 Feb 2012 Leave a comment

by C.O. Bonham in Star Trek Tags: , , , ,

Here’s post number two. (The hint by the way was “even Vulcan Genealogy can be a worthwhile and rewarding endeavor.”)

Now anyone who has ever seen Star Trek should know that Mr. Spock is the one with the pointy ears. And they are pointy because he is half Vulcan. Vulcans are a race of Aliens that are all very logical and show very little emotion. Spock’s other half is Human.

 Now I’m sure that Spock’s Vulcan ancestry is all very interesting but what I really wonder about is Spock’s Human side. It takes two people to make least child so every generation adds an entirely new family tree on to the already extensive genealogy provided by just one parent. So it stands to reason that the family tree of Spock’s Mother would be long and distinguished all on its own.

 It also connects two 1960’s television shows. In the novel Star Trek #23: Ishmael written by: Barbara Hambly, the main plot has Spock stowaway on board a Klingon ship as it travels back in time on a mission to pave the way for an invasion of Earth’s past. After being discovered by the Klingons Spock is tortured but manages to escape unfortunately taking a bad case of Amnesia with him. Once on Earth Spock is befriended by a man named Aaron Stemple.

 Aaron Stemple is a Character from the TV series Here Come the Brides, a show about three brothers who own a logging camp inSeattle and decide to bring 100 women from back East to marry their bachelor workers.

 Now in the book Ishmael it is revealed that Spock’s Mother is a descendent of Aaron Stemple. The truly funny part of the story is that the actor who played Aaron Stemple on Here come the Brides, Mark Lenard, also played Spock’s Father Sarek on Star Trek.

 Only in Star Trek could a man in 1800’s Seattle share the same genetics as a Vulcan born five hundred years later and what’s more said alien actually marries one of his descendents.  Or should I put it more to the point and say, “only in little read fan fiction novels.”

 Very, little read it took this person 26 years to read it:

   http://doorq.com/2011/10/14/how-star-trek-met-here-come-the-brides-26-years-later/   

 The book is good but it is more Star Trek Fan Fiction than Here Come the Brides Fan Fiction. But it is still an interesting and little known anomaly in a large fan based universe. But please do yourself a favor and find Here Come the Brides on DVD if you have never seen it before you don’t know what you’re missing. Season Two comes out this spring.

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