meg. fandom aunt among fandom elders. writer. scifi, outlaws, lady criminals, and spies. rogue one always. mollivanders on AO3. mod @jynappreciationsquad, @therebelcaptainnetwork, and @fytwothree. new followers, feel free to say hi!
Three details I unironically enjoy about TOS Starfleet and adhere to with all my heart (all the more as I'm fascinated by the TOS-era conception of Starfleet that I think was pretty aggressively disregarded in many ways by later ST):
1— Members of Starfleet assigned to "ground" service rather than space wear a stylized flower as their breast insignia. It's apparently based on the starflower plant, IIRC, which grows down in northern California as well as the rest of the West Coast. We often see the flower insignia on very high-ranking administrative officers as they're been promoted beyond single starships, but it's also worn by those posted to starbases (like Areel Shaw) and cadets at the Academy (you know the really important ground personnel because they get bigger flowers vs the cadets only getting little blossoms as their insignias).
2—Speaking of cadet uniforms, we do see a cadet uniform in TOS! It's kind of awful and I love it. It's distinctly silver and glittery (not grey) striped velour with a black collar and white long-sleeved undershirt that I wish later ST and fanart did more with. This is not because it looks badass, it absolutely does not. Look at this silver velour situation:
I'm nevertheless charmed at the idea of an Academy-era Spock and Kirk who actually look like young Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner—
—in those uniforms. Sorry JJ Abrams and whomever else, you will never take our heroes as baby-faced Starfleet teens in sparkles from me.
3— There is no officer/enlisted distinction in TOS outside of the Terran Empire of "Mirror, Mirror." Everyone on the Enterprise is an officer.
There's a pretty good discussion of it here, apart from minimizing the glaring differences from the real US Navy and, relatedly, the rather franchise-poisoned contortions around continuity/lore at the end. Its own evidence indicates that this is a very deliberate world building/thematic choice driven by the writers' and creators' grievances with their own experience of the US military and not just the Enterprise being special; they were pretty obviously trying to envision a half-familiar but better world, as far as their audience as they thought of it and themselves were concerned, one where the closest thing to a standing military is something like NOAA (then very recently consolidated into ESSA) rather than a full navy.
That definitely doesn't exclude WWII, the Cold War, and US policy in general militarizing the marine research agencies, and then expecting them to go back to normal but also be ready for combat at any time, but it's a different idea of the Starfleet "normal" than something purely naval—and, incidentally, NOAA's corps does not have an officer/enlisted distinction either (for context, NOAA has ~300 officers in the corps and ~12,000 civilians). The fact that we don't see the officer/enlisted distinction in any other Starfleet context in TOS except very specifically the Mirror Universe is, uh, a pretty standard TOS level of subtlety.
All of that said, the linked article very thoroughly covers pretty much all the arguments and counter-arguments around enlisted in TOS, esp on the Enterprise.
(There is also no distinction between cadets and midshipmen, btw; the terms are used completely interchangeably depending on, as far as I can tell, vibes.)
#I feel like the cadet uniform could actually be very pretty if it didn't suffer from bad materials like a lot of TOS costuming does.#I do really love the silver look and the stripes. It's so unfortunate a lot of their designs I adore but the fabric choices look awful.#Not everything of course there's a few costumes I remarked on the fabric of but.. a lot of it does.
In all honesty, I adore many of the TOS fabrics (even if the velour's shrinking was unfortunate over time) and the IMO magnificent lead costume designer's approaches to style and design were specifically inspired by the fabrics themselves, rather than the fabrics as mediocre vehicles for the design, with an eye to the contemporary and futuristic (by contrast to the film costumes, which after the dire TMP costumes played it safe by looking to the past for their primary inspirations and leaning on much more overtly militaristic nostalgia and much more conservative choices around both style and materials).
Sometimes the TOS costuming was working on a shoestring budget (esp in S3), and the crews, actors, etc were always being worked at an unjustifiable pace to turn out the sheer quantities they did, but Theiss and his team also just re-purposed all kinds of things regardless of budget in ways that I think make them look all the more imaginative and fantastically zany (like the shower curtains used for the space Hazmat suits!). The TOS fabrics also seem to have been much more comfortable for the actors than a lot of later uniforms tbh—but either way, the styles are inextricable from the fabrics.
I think the cadet uniform in particular is one of the less exceptional looks without the silver glitter velour and the undershirt, for sure—those make it fun! I genuinely love the idea of teen Spock and Kirk in it, no tongue in cheek, as much as I think they'd look very young and very silly. A Starfleet cadet should look sparkly and silly in a world with glitter bandages.
I'm finishing this year pretty discouraged and tired to be honest. I'm all for trying to have a positive outlook but truly i have no energy for this anymore. I hope 2026 will be kinder.
"But Éomer I cannot spare, nor would he stay," said the king; "and he is the last of that House."
"I said not Éomer," answered Háma. "And he is not the last. There is Éowyn, daughter of Éomund, his sister. She is fearless and high-hearted. All love her. Let her be as lord to the Eorlingas, while we are gone."' -conversation between Théodan & Háma before they leave for Isengard, The Two Towers.
Háma: last I checked you're related to your niece, sir. Another win for Háma.
#i unfortunately believe the popularity of rohan is a significant reason the fandom downplays how awful rohan was for éowyn#éomer cared but couldn't see how harrowing her life was until gandalf of all people pointed it out. théoden - well. this!!#they loved her. they did not remotely understand her.#pretty sure háma's is the most meaningful praise éowyn receives at any point until faramir is basically proposing marriage (via @anghraine)
trying to buy home decor items for my new place, like curtains and a rug and a shower curtain, without buying AI garbage is a real crapshoot these days D: I am doing my best but in all honesty I'm just veering towards fewer patterns and going for simpler designs just to avoid the risk of accidentally having to stare at AI ''''art'''' every day
as a reward for all the decision-making I've been having to do with the move and for getting a paper out under review and finishing a grant report AND a referee report this week, though, I did buy the wicked 2-film set and kiss of the spider-woman on blu-ray :) as soon as I find the AV cables for the blu-ray player, movie night is on!
Matching your freak is beautiful and all but what you really need is a boy who's infatuated with your freak. Down bad for your freak. Deeply intrigued by your freak. Eager to see more of your freak. Supportive of your freak. Gets bricked up witnessing your freak, even. (insp.)
The serum amplifies everything that is inside, so good becomes great; bad becomes worse. This is why you were chosen. Because a strong man who has known power all his life may lose respect for that power, but a weak man knows the value of strength, and knows compassion. Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are, not a perfect soldier, but a good man.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STEVEN GRANT ROGERS (July 4th, 1918)
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