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S2E2 of Star Trek the Original Series
The ship becomes trapped in a force field and the crew is compelled to come down to the surface of a remote planet inhabited solely by the greek god Apollo. there the crew learns that the ancient greek gods were actually a sophisticated race of aliens who subsist on love and worship, who came to earth thousands of years ago, and that Apollo is the only remaining member of this species as the rest of the Olympians died out eons ago due to their worship declining among humans. Apollo refuses to let the crew leave, so they develop a plan to provoke him into exhausting his powers until they can penetrate the force field and destroy his temple to deplete his life force. at the end of the episode, Kirk reflects solemnly on how much the ancient greeks contributed and how much we owe to them, and regrets having had to kill Apollo.
the title is a reference to the poem “Adonais” by Percy Bysshe Shelley. the episode has a strangely sad and lonely tone, posing the question: who mourns for the gods?
This episode represents everything I love about Star Trek. philosophical explorations of humanity, where we come from, how we got here, and what makes us what we are. Honestly this could just be a rec for Star Trek the Original Series as a whole, but this is like MY episode
Jan 28, 2025
Related Recs
DS9 is easily my favorite Star Trek series. This quote/scene has been stuck in my mind for a while now.
Commander Sisko: [increasingly agitated] You know what the trouble is?
Major Kira: ...No.
Commander Sisko: The trouble is Earth!
Major Kira: Really.
Commander Sisko: On Earth, there is no poverty, no crime, no war. You look out the window of Starfleet Headquarters and you see paradise. Well it's *easy* to be a saint in paradise, but the Maquis do not live in paradise! Out there, in the Demilitarized Zone, all the problems haven't been solved yet! Out there, there are no saints! Just people! Angry, scared, determined people, who are going to do whatever it takes to survive, whether it meets with Federation approval or not!
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Someone with all of their needs met and are living in safety and comfort can easily be a saint. But people living in dangerous conditions have to respond to those conditions in order to survive.
Jan 15, 2025
it is not often that a show manages to install itself as a permanent part of my worldview, but i can honestly say that scavenger's reign has permanently changed my relationship to conciousness, nature, and god - and that process started with this scene.
even with zero context the scene still works perfectly - it's such a perfect vertical slice of what makes the show so profound. if it makes you feel anything at all then you must watch the full show, because it's full of moments like this
Feb 27, 2025
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Drop whatever you're doing right now and go watch Pantheon.
This is a story about people whose minds have been uploaded into a computer. We’ve seen this concept before, like in Black Mirror (S3E4 San Junipero), but Pantheon takes it to the absolute extreme.
Pantheon asks questions—thousands of them. Can a digital consciousness still feel emotions? How would it react to the absence of physical stimuli? Will human irrationality persist in code? How might governments and corporations exploit these technologies? And what can ordinary people do about it?
Pantheon terrified me with how realistic it feels. It doesn’t look like sci-fi; it feels like a documentary from the near future. It scares me how fast technology is evolving while we struggle to keep up. It scares me that people push forward with ideas without thinking about the consequences. And it horrifies me how easily some are willing to place dangerous tools into the hands of leaders who will do anything to achieve their goals.
For me, the most important part of the show was its focus on emotions—the idea that even without a physical body, we would still *feel*. It gives hope that beyond data and logic, there’s something more, something that truly makes us who we are.
Mar 2, 2025
Top Recs from @bisonspider
oh golly oh gee... I’m honored that anyone here on PI.FYI even recognizes me!! how sweet to be thought of. uhhhh as for who I am and what I’m about: my name is Ethyn, I’m 22, I’m American (flyover state), cultural Catholic, my favorite color is purple, of a forgiving disposition
I’ve been using this app basically since launch (?) bc a tiktok mutual was clued in on the ground floor and I got the invite lol. I consider myself a very curious and open-minded person and something I love about this place is how committed it is to sincerity, such that I can no longer stand the casual cruelty and close-mindedness of almost all other social media. so PI.FYI is the only social media I’m active on anymore. I suppose the reason I’m more of a lurker is because I love getting to read recs from others (and I’m pretty liberal with the like button) but I feel strange reccing something if I’m not like 100% behind it lol. like there’s gonna be a test. I’ll also go two days or so without logging on and then I’ll catch up on all the recs I missed so it results in a spam for my mutuals <3
As far as interests, I generally consider myself to be an ooky and kooky type of person. I love art in all mediums, but especially films, books, paintings, and poetry. I’ve rec’d PLENTY of all four if you care to take a look :) I’ll make the occasional lifestyle rec but most of the stuff I talk about on here is art. Lol since the earliest days of this site I’ve kinda harped on the function of story as the thing that makes us human, and myth as manifestations of the collective unconscious. This is one of my most foundational beliefs and lenses for the world.
Another common theme you’ll see in my recs is my love for the classics. Classic movies, classic books, all of it!! I think if something is classic there’s almost always a reason, and I think it’s important to understand foundations of influence for art that comes after. Everything is in context!!!! Everything is interdependent!!!!
some of my favorite films: The Wicker Man (1973), Goodfellas (1990), Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), Viy (1967), Nosferatu (1922), The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
some of my favorite literature: All of Edgar Allan Poe, Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, the work of William S. Burroughs, the work of Yasunari Kawabata, and all world myth categorically.
I want to affirm becoming!!!! I want to exist in service of the liberation of the full breadth of human potential!!! I want to be ripped screaming and bloody from the womb!!!! I will incarnate just to touch the wound ten thousand more times!!!!
Mar 13, 2025
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study the folklore and myth of your actual local region. live your daily life under the logic of fairytales. communicate as heavily as possible in proverbs and riddles. humans are a storytelling creature and there is a reason these archetypes and motifs appear to humans across times/cultures/places
Feb 13, 2024
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Substack that emails you the entirety of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in real time. since the novel is composed of diary entries, it sends you the diary entries day by day so you can read it on the same timeline in which it takes place. it started earlier this month but it’s not too late to catch up!! or you could wait until next may. classics can be intimidating but this gives you the opportunity to read it in daily segments in your email and follow along in an immersive way :)
May 20, 2024