Reviewer: Miranda Fave Signed [Report This]
Date: 25 May 2015 18:38 Title: In the Ruins

This is a very interesting snapshot that explores some of the aftermath of World War III. More than that, it's the snapshot of a generation - the elder captain versus the youthful cadet and a generation of humans climbing out from under the clouds and ashes of WWWIII.

There's a certain brevity and sparsity to this that I'd normally find wanting but here it works to tell the tale. The desolation of the scene didn't need to be told or described in great detail. Instead, the focus is more on the comfort of the explorers within their suits and how long they can endure the e-heat and being cooped up inside the suit.

I love that slant and perspective, becuase you tell it very effectively, confining the sensory to what they feel within the suit. It adds to the claustrophobic feeling and discomfort of the wearers described and imparts something of what it must have been like to be a part of such an expedition. It would be harrowing but also frustrating, mind numbing and draining and very much like an archaeological dig or the clean up after a natural disaster after the immediate danger has passed.

The challenges are still huge but there is a glimmer of hope in the fact they are seeking out things for a museum, giving the notion that indeed the youthful Starfleet is seeking to learn from its past mistakes, that humans are seeking in that very Trekian way to become better.

And again, the moment of discovery is very Trekian but it is also that silver lining that makes such work rewarding and we see it in the Captain who at the start struggled to plod over to the cadet because of the suit but is renewed with vigor and marches away at the end of the piece.