the delphic expanse

That looks very, very interesting. I think I'll have to sign up for that!

Oh hey, that looks interesting. I've signed up. Thanks for passing that along!

So… is anyone else taking this free class?

I am, and I'm both enjoying it and finding inspiration for fanfic. Of course. It was the low commitment (do assignments and participate at your own pace) that was the deciding factor for my - I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep up with a class that I'd have to write papers or complete assignments for, given my crammed and hectic schedule. But basically this is just access to the lecture materials and some "class participation" via social media.

My knowledge of the production history of TOS is pretty good, so there was almost nothing new to be in the first lecture but I was still impressed with it and all the online materials. There's a "watch live" portion of the class every Monday night that's just like the Enterprise rew-atch chat sessions we've had in the past - but on Twitter instead of a chat room. (When they get around to some of the Enterprise episodes, y'all need to join in!!) Shatner himself took note and tweeted at all of us last Monday.

Watching the original episodes has been both fun, and eye-opening. I thought I remembered my TOS but apparently they've all started to blur together. I was confusing the ending of one episode with another, with certain aliens with another… In fact, watching the two live chat episodes and now three of the nine assigned "binge watching" episodes has me wanting to just start from the beginning and watch all of TOS again.

I thought re-watching these episodes would be painful (give the old special effects, etc.) but the remastered versions have juuuuuuust enough done to them to make them feel watchable, without the improved effects feeling too distracting. There's also a website that allows you to compare the original eps with the remastered ones side by side and that reassured me a bit that the experience wasn't overly changed.

I'm going to start a discussion thread in the Neutral Zone for this class, in case anybody else here wants to discuss some of the kinds of things that get brought up.

I've enjoyed the mission briefings and have learned some new things. Plus the briefings are giving me a new perspective on some of the episodes.

I was out of town a lot in September so I thought it wouldn't have time. Is it too late to start it now?

It looks like you can still join. http://www.trekclass.com/

Cap'n Frances wrote:I was out of town a lot in September so I thought it wouldn't have time. Is it too late to start it now?

You can! It's all at your own pace, and we're only 5 "missions" in, so it's do-able.