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

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.

The Big Three

09 Nov 2011 2 Comments

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

There are three great works that are so deeply ingrained into our popular culture that there isn’t a person on the planet who wouldn’t recognize quotes from one of  The Big Three.

These three opuses will forever be around to shape the human imagination and to inspire future generations.

The three greatest collections of knowledge and inspiration, which are so powerful that each was built on the shoulder of the one before, are:

The Holy Bible — which is the very truth of God. This is the work of works. It has shaped our modern culture into what it is.

The Christian Bible tells us why we are the way we are and what we should yet strive to be.

The Complete Works of Shakespeare — Encompasses of the human spirit. It tells us what we are as the Human race. Shakespeare shows us how we think and how we feel.

Like the Bible, Shakespeare requires Faith. denying that Shakespeare wrote his own plays is like denying that Jesus was the Son of God.  In the same way that no one would die for a madman, would Shakespeare’s friends have bothered spending the money to publish the First Folio if someone else had written the plays?

And the last but definitely not the least is. . .

Star Trek — Take the franchise as a whole or just take the three original seasons of The Original Series, either way it would be hard to deny Star Trek’s influence over our modern way of life. Just flip open your Cell phone and talk, you are holding the communicator from Star Trek.
Star Trek inspires us to look to the future. It encourages progress and it shows us what we can achieve and what the future can become.

Star Trek also embraces the past and reminded the generation of the late 60’s and the early 70’s of the moral lessons that were no longer being taught in their class rooms. Maybe not a lot of people realize it but Star Trek is actually a series of Morality plays that expound Biblical morals and Shakespearian ethics.

Go ahead question me but then sit down and really watch it. Even if the show is lacking in direct quotes you have to admit that the ideas are there.

So there they are the Three most important contributions to modern society. The inspirations for everything  we achieve.

The Record of the past that tells us how we began and why we are here.

The poetry and plays of The Bard that move  us to thought and spark our imaginations.

And the Futuristic morality plays that dare us to move forward without losing sight of the past.

Interesting how the Big Three move through the different mediums from written record to stage plays to television production.

One wonders, Will there be a fourth and what form will it take?

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