Returning to Vina of Talos IV

            On Saturday morning I worked on reading and critiquing the poem of Blythe in my group. In one poem, which was my favourite of hers so far, she makes a list of very bad things and very good things but I couldn’t see much difference between the two.

In the late morning I rode down to No Frills. They had a lot of the black sable grapes and so I was going to take seven bags. An elderly woman, approached while I was grabbing bag after bag and finally reached in, saying, “I better get some before you take them all!” She was wearing lots of blue eye shadow like Mimi from the Drew Carey Show and wearing stylish but worn out and tobacco-smoky lady clothes. 

                               

I assured her I was only taking one more. She commented, “They’re so expensive!” I added, “But they’re so tasty!” She agreed that they’re very good. I pointed out that they weren’t that expensive today. I got two mangoes, two tomatoes, some bananas, two packs of roasted seaweed and some soymilk.

            I went down the personal items aisle to buy mouthwash and the same young woman was there stocking the shelves like she is every time I’m there. I said to her, “This must be your Saturday job!” She smiled and told me that this is the only aisle she works.

            I got in line behind the old lady at the express checkout. She turned to ask me how long it takes for me to go through all of the grapes I’d bought. She said she was just curious because it takes her two days to eat one bunch. I didn’t say exactly how much faster it is for me. I just assured her that I eat a lot of grapes. As the woman left she told me to enjoy my grapes and the rest of my day.

            I had cheese and tomato on toast and a slice of pie for lunch.

            I finished critiquing all of the poems for next week from the members of my group.

            I finished a first draft of a poem based on a YouTube chat with a Nazi and worked on the second draft.

            I had the same thing for dinner as I had for lunch but the coffee I had was creamed with coconut milk, which had curdled slightly.

            I watched the latest episode of Star Trek Discovery.

            Spoiler alert.

            The story begins with footage from the very first Star Trek episode titled The Cage and featuring Captain Pike. The Enterprise had landed on Talos IV, which is populated by telepathic beings and one beautiful woman from Earth named Vina with whom Pike falls in love. It shows how good the casting was between the original Pike played by Jeffrey Hunter and the current one played by Anson Mount. This footage is shown to set the stage for Burnham and Spock arriving on Talos IV. Burnham is trying to avoid their shuttle being sucked into a blackhole but Spock overpowers her and allows the ship to enter. It turns out to be a psychic illusion. They meet Vina and she takes them to the Talosians. They can heal Spock’s mind but Burnham must repay them with a traumatic childhood memory from when she deliberately bullied Spock in order to save him from running away with her. We learn from Spock’s repaired memories that the red angel is a human from the future trying to save all sentient life from extinction.

            Meanwhile on Discovery, Culber is not adjusting well to having been brought back from the dead. His favourite things no longer please him and he seems to no longer be in love with Stamets. Culber goes to confront his murderer, Ash Tyler. He attacks him and demands that he bring out his repressed Klingon personality.

            The Discovery goes to rescue Burnham and Spock but are pursued by Section 31. Their efforts are also sabotaged from within. Evidence points towards Tyler but the viewer can see hints that it is actually the robot crewmember, Airiam that has committed the sabotage.

            Section 31 beams aboard Burnham and Spock but they turn out to be psychic projections created by the Talosians as the real Burnham and Spock arrive on Discovery in the shuttle. The Discovery crew are now fugitives.