TV Database Star Trek (1966)

"We must acknowledge once and for all that the purpose of diplomacy is to prolong a crisis." — Spock

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What is the true cost of paradise? We’ve seen lush “Eden” planets before in The Original Series—worlds where everything appears ideal until the philosophical gut punch lands. But this time, the cost is steeper, the paradise more ironic, and the moral implications far more unsettling.

While the episode was intended to tackle the issue of overpopulation, what emerges instead is a surprisingly sharp—and perhaps accidental—interrogation of birth control, bodily autonomy, and the ethics of pro-life absolutism. It never utters those words, of course, but the subtext is loud enough to echo through the halls of the Enterprise. What happens when a society values the sanctity of life so deeply that it refuses to acknowledge the quality of it?

There’s also the now-familiar theme lurking beneath many third-season episodes: male agency being casually discarded in the name of some “greater good.” Much like “Wink of an Eye,” this episode once again finds its male lead pulled into a situation where his autonomy is quietly stripped away for the sake of another society’s idealized vision. Whether intentional or not, it eerily mirrors real-world shifts, where performative progressivism sometimes leaves male perspectives written off or silenced entirely.

Yes, there are plot holes. The bureaucratic indifference from both Starfleet and the involved planet’s leadership is a little too convenient. The Enterprise’s response feels handcuffed more by plot necessity than logic. But the themes are compelling enough that these flaws become background noise. The core concept is bold, unnerving, and rich with subtext that still resonates today.

Meanwhile, Spock’s increasingly exasperated back-and-forth with the Federation and planetary officials adds an entertaining subplot. It’s Starfleet stonewalling at its finest, and eerily reminiscent of the Mass Effect Council’s “Do nothing and delay everything” playbook decades before that game even existed. If you’ve ever screamed at the Citadel Council while Shepard’s life burns, this is the prototype.

Despite its narrative flaws, The Mark of Gideon succeeds on theme. It forces you to ask uncomfortable questions about what freedom really means in a society obsessed with preserving life, and whether obedience to ideology—any ideology—can cross the line into cruelty.

It’s not the tightest episode structurally, but its resonance lingers far longer than most. And for that? It deserves your attention.

A surprisingly solid entry from Star Trek's third season, “The Lights of Zetar” delivers an engaging character-focused story that balances mystery, sci-fi weirdness, and emotional stakes without tipping into melodrama. It’s not a showstopper, but it’s refreshingly competent—especially by late-season standards.

The plot centers around a strange space phenomenon and its unnerving effects on the Enterprise crew, but what gives the episode its weight is its focus on Lieutenant Mira Romaine, a newcomer to the ship who quickly finds herself at the center of the crisis. In a show that hasn’t always treated its female characters with grace, Mira stands out as a quietly strong presence—resilient, intelligent, and given genuine agency in the narrative. Her internal struggle adds both tension and depth, and thankfully, she’s not just a love interest or a victim. She’s a participant.

Scotty’s emotional involvement is both a strength and a minor comic flaw—his starry-eyed devotion veers into unprofessionalism at times, but it never feels wildly out of character. In fact, it’s kind of charming to see the Enterprise's resident miracle worker go soft for once. His emotional investment complements the episode’s themes rather than overshadowing them.

Visually, the episode leans into classic Trek FX—read: wobbly, trippy, and occasionally laughable. Even the remastered edition can’t quite modernize the strobe-heavy chaos. But honestly? That’s part of the fun. Zetar doesn’t hide what it is, and it commits to the weirdness without apology.

While it doesn’t reinvent the wheel or deliver a huge philosophical punch, it also doesn’t fall apart in the third act or undercut its own message. It’s competent, focused, and better paced than many of its peers. If you’re looking for an episode with strong female characterization, a rare emotional spotlight on Scotty, and a plot that doesn’t insult your intelligence, “The Lights of Zetar” is worth a look.

Final Verdict: A decent, character-driven episode with a goofy FX budget and a surprisingly progressive core.

“This troubled planet is a place of the most violent contrasts. Those who receive the rewards are totally separated from those who shoulder the burdens. It is not a wise leadership.”
– Spock, being the only adult in the room

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One of the great joys of Star Trek, even at its most inconsistent, is the way it tosses big ideas into the middle of serialized space melodrama like philosophical depth charges. But with “The Cloud Minders,” you start to feel the weight of just how often Season 3 has pulled from the same tired bag of moral allegories—segregation, prejudice, labor inequality, and “what if the ruling class were oblivious jerks?” Again.

And sure, the setup's decent. A civilization floating in the clouds, quite literally above the working class, whose backbreaking labor keeps the whole sky-utopia running. Add in a time-sensitive mission involving life-saving minerals, and you'd think we’re set for a powder keg of commentary. But the script fumbles its own themes. Instead of an incisive dissection of class systems and exploitation, we get a pseudo-scientific excuse that blames gas-induced stupidity for the workers’ plight. That’s right: it’s not racism, it’s airborne neurotoxins. Because nothing says systemic oppression like a lack of proper PPE.

Kirk, as usual, handles the situation with the subtlety of a jackhammer—shirt half-off, phaser waving, and solving sociopolitical crises by locking people in a mine and yelling “DIG!” like he’s starring in Space Dirty Jobs. Meanwhile, Spock philosophizes between half-flirtations with a barely-dressed cloud heiress who looks like she wandered in from a high-concept perfume ad.

Stratos, visually, is intriguing—like a space opera dreamed up by a 1950s pulp illustrator after three martinis—but its metaphor ends at its elevation. It’s more of a matte painting than a meaningful construct, and that’s sort of how the episode feels overall: stylized, interesting on the surface, but hollow underneath. You keep waiting for it to say something more, only to realize it’s content repeating what’s already been said five episodes ago.

And when the Enterprise leaves orbit, little feels resolved. There's a vague promise of future reform, but it lands with all the impact of a polite shrug. The Prime Directive isn’t even hiding behind the curtain—it’s just conveniently ignored until it's time to bail out.

Bottom line? It’s not a trainwreck. It’s just tired. You can see the skeleton of a great story here—something that could’ve echoed Brave New World or The Time Machine (even if you only know the Guy Pearce version)—but instead, the episode settles for shallow observations, awkward romance, and an ending that feels like everyone just gave up and went home.

Moral of the story: Float all you want, but if you build your utopia on gaslit labor, Captain Kirk’s coming to punch your aristocracy in the mouth.

"Because this is poison to me. This stuff you breathe, this stuff you live in, the shields of artificial atmosphere that we have layered about every planet. The programs in those computers that run your ship and your lives for you, they bred what my body carries." – Dr. Sevrin

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Ah yes, the musical episode. A rite of passage for many shows, from the legendary (Buffy’s “Once More, With Feeling”) to the laughable (Xena’s “Lyre, Lyre, Hearts on Fire”). “The Way to Eden” clearly wanted to tap into that same “music = message” magic, using space hippies, acoustic jams, and a not-so-subtle nod to the counterculture movement. Instead, it feels like someone photocopied a parody of the Beatles and then stuffed them into a Federation morality play.

This episode reeks of '60s commentary. You can feel the writers grappling with flower power, Woodstock, and the generational divide. Unfortunately, it comes off more like an eye-rolling “those crazy kids” segment from a boomer variety show. Rather than truly exploring the ideals behind the counterculture—anti-materialism, peace, environmentalism—it just paints them as naive morons strumming lutes and chanting “Herbert.” There’s a dismissiveness baked into the portrayal, one that misunderstands what the movement could have stood for and instead treats it like an awkward party you’re trying to sneak out of.

But that’s not to say the episode is worthless. Beneath the surface-level cringe and cringier musical numbers lies a surprisingly relevant undercurrent—one that tries to critique the shiny utopia of Starfleet’s sanitized, tech-saturated future. Dr. Sevrin, the episode’s cultish antagonist, drops a monologue that genuinely feels like a dagger aimed at the heart of Trek’s worldbuilding. His rejection of artificial air, of over-automation, of the sterile perfection surrounding him? It’s not hard to hear echoes of modern-day critiques about surveillance, digital dependence, and how we’ve outsourced meaning to algorithms.

And yet… they aren’t totally wrong. The distrust of a society that tells you how to live, what to inject into your body, how to define “progress”—that paranoia aged well. Sevrin and his cult are the proto-COVID-truthers, raging against the machine in a time before the internet gave them Facebook pages and monetized rage. And I get it. I’m not someone who blindly swallows what the government hands out either. During the COVID years, I questioned things, read everything I could, and only went through with the vaccinations because I acknowledged that people more informed than me had made a call based on overwhelming evidence. That’s the line the space hippies never found. Skepticism turned into zealotry. And that turn makes them compelling, even if their space-cult methods are idiotic.

Where the episode really falters, though, is character. This was meant to be a Kirk romance story with McCoy’s daughter Joanna. Instead, we get a rewired Chekov love plot that feels patched in from a B-list YA drama. Chekov suddenly becomes a “by-the-book” rule-follower, which clashes with how he’s been portrayed elsewhere. Meanwhile, Spock jamming with the hippies like some space-age jazz prodigy? Out of character. That role would’ve fit Chekov better—he’s younger, more idealistic, and already emotionally invested.

Even the Eden metaphor—complete with a character literally named Adam—goes from cheeky to eye-roll when you realize how heavy-handed it is. The snake in the garden? Sevrin. The poison fruit? Well... just watch. Visually, Eden even resembles the Halo ringworld: serene, impossibly idyllic, yet hiding lethal truths under the surface. I half-expected the Halo battle music to kick in as Master Chief rode in on a warthog saying, “You’re late, Captain.”

Still, for all its failings, “The Way to Eden” tries to do something. It may be a clumsy something, filled with space jam sessions, preachy allegories, and characters hijacked by the Message, but it reaches. In a season full of flailing scripts and budget cuts, this episode swung for the stars—even if it landed somewhere in a pile of space compost.

It’s messy. It’s misdirected. But damn it, it almost worked. And hey, maybe that’s just season 3 in a nutshell. A collection of big swings, weird choices, and ambitious failures—each one teetering on the edge of something meaningful before tripping over its own boots and faceplanting into space dust.

RAYNA: I choose where I want to go, what I want to do. I choose. I CHOOSE!

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Another day, another plague creating problems for the Enterprise crew. By this point in the season, it's not even lazy writing anymore; the writers have stopped pretending and just handed us the two most well-worn tropes in TOS history: an inexplicable disease threatening the crew, and a godlike jerkass tormenting the mere hapless mortals. What follows is an hour-long descent into vintage '60s male ego, philosophical grandstanding, and enough red flags to line a Federation parade route.

If you've been following my reviews, you know I’m not the type to clutch pearls over political correctness. TOS often handles its social commentary with a sincerity that's aged better than you’d think. But every now and then, the show takes a hard swerve into “what were they thinking?” territory—and this episode skids right off the cliff.

Enter Flint (James Daly), a reclusive art hoarder with a superiority complex and a “ward,” Rayna Kapec (Louise Sorel), who just so happens to be a stunningly intelligent woman with an encyclopedic knowledge of science, music, literature... and the social experience of a literal shut-in. Her dynamic with Flint is uncomfortable from the jump, not because of mystery or tension, but because everything about it radiates ownership. Flint doesn’t act like a guardian—he acts like he’s filing a patent.

And then Kirk enters the picture. If you’ve ever defended Kirk’s romantic exploits as exaggerated, or argued that he’s more about diplomacy and duty than raw libido—this episode will personally hunt you down and slap you in the face. From the moment he sees Rayna, Kirk acts like he’s been possessed by the spirit of a lounge lizard on shore leave. Subtlety goes out the airlock. Respect for boundaries? Torpedoed. And while one might argue there’s some intention behind the “contrasting male archetypes” setup—Kirk the passionate liberator versus Flint the possessive tyrant—the execution is a mess. You can’t convincingly champion Rayna’s autonomy when every man around her is trying to claim her.

The moment she does assert her will—forcefully and powerfully, in what should’ve been a defining moment of agency—it’s undercut by everything leading up to it. The narrative wants it to feel triumphant. Instead, it lands like a last-minute apology card shoved into the mailbox after a year of ghosting.

Even Spock and McCoy, usually the balancing forces in Kirk’s orbit, stumble here. McCoy serves up greasy quips like he's auditioning for a Rat Pack reunion, casually commenting on Rayna’s limited exposure to men as some kind of male privilege jackpot. Meanwhile Spock, the supposed beacon of logic and restraint, ends the episode with an act that is framed as compassion but registers more like a psychic lobotomy. The most charitable reading is that it's an emotional gesture. The more honest one? It's a violation dressed in soft piano music.

And as for Flint’s big dramatic reveal and backstory? Let’s just say it’s equal parts Saturday morning cartoon villain origin and midlife crisis wish fulfillment, and it’s delivered with the kind of straight-faced gravitas that makes it unintentionally hilarious.

In the end, Requiem for Methuselah wants to be Shakespearean tragedy wrapped in sci-fi robes. What it delivers is a hot, uneven mess of melodrama, misogyny, and missed opportunities. Rayna’s cry of “I choose!” should’ve been a triumph of agency. Instead, it feels like a moment of clarity dropped into a room full of men too busy declaring ownership over her soul to listen.

Skip it if you value character integrity. Or watch it as a cautionary tale of what happens when your space opera gets hijacked by your worst male instincts. Either way, brace for impact.

"There is no honourable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war except its ending."

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That’s not Kirk speaking. That’s Abraham Lincoln, beamed straight into Star Trek’s ultra-progressive future and forced into a situation that strips away platitudes and dives headfirst into the ugliness of moral choice. It's a jarring moment—but then again, the entire episode is a jarring reminder that real life doesn’t play by the rules of fiction. Especially the kind of squeaky-clean fiction that’s infested our modern screens like a plague of platitude-spewing replicants.

In the '60s, America was raw. The Vietnam War wasn’t just news—it was noise in every home. Civil rights weren’t just slogans—they were people being beaten on TV. Gene Roddenberry, like Rod Serling before him, understood that TV couldn’t just be a distraction—it had to mean something. And sometimes that meant making you uncomfortable.

This episode, originally born from a story pitch titled Mr. Socrates, is very much Roddenberry’s way of kicking sanitized moral storytelling in the shins. It's Secret Wars meets Epic Rap Battles of History, if you stripped away the polish and made the whole thing a bleak thesis on how humans justify their morality when people start dying.

The setup is delightfully absurd on paper: Kirk, Spock, and two historical titans—Lincoln and the Vulcan philosopher Surak—are pitted in a battle of ideals against various figures representing evil. But this isn't a cartoon cage match. It's a dissection table. The “fight” is less about punches and more about principles being flayed open in real time.

Of course, in an idealistic utopia like Star Trek, it’s only natural that Roddenberry would eventually wheel out Lincoln himself. The man’s practically Starfleet’s founding spirit. And boy, does Kirk geek out. He has the crew suit up in full dress, roll out the presidential red carpet, and beam aboard with more reverence than he’s shown some alien royalty.

But what’s most striking is not Lincoln’s presence. It’s how Roddenberry uses that presence. There's an exchange between Lincoln and Uhura where he refers to her as a “charming Negress”—a term laced with the weight of slavery-era America. But instead of outrage or performative hand-wringing, Uhura calmly responds that they’ve learned not to fear words. It’s so radically progressive that it makes the current cultural climate look like it's still trapped in a toddler’s morality play.

And that theme—the difference between words and actions, between symbols and substance—carries straight through the heart of the episode. Lincoln, for all his gentleness, admits he sent a hundred thousand men to die for what he believed was right. Surak, the embodiment of Vulcan logic and pacifism, volunteers to negotiate with genocidal maniacs, because violence, even justified violence, is still violence.

It brought me back, oddly enough, to my recent playthrough of Full Metal Daemon Muramasa, a visual novel soaked in blood and regret. Like The Savage Curtain, Muramasa understands that true heroism isn’t forged in clean lines or noble speeches—it’s in the muck, the contradictions, the soul-crushing weight of impossible decisions. It’s the kind of media that doesn’t just flirt with ambiguity; it marries it, has kids with it, and then tells them bedtime stories where the heroes cry themselves to sleep.

By the time Kirk reflects on Lincoln’s sacrifices, there’s no hollow victory. No triumphant music. Just a simple acknowledgement: "I feel I understand what Earth must have gone through to achieve final peace. There’s still so much of their work to be done in the galaxy." It’s not an ending. It’s a continuation. Because the point isn't that good triumphed over evil. It's that good had to bleed to do it, and even then, the scars never fully fade.

In today’s era of moral storyboarding and committee-approved "flawed" characters who are really just misunderstood saints in waiting, The Savage Curtain feels like a gut punch of truth. It's not about proving who's right. It's about revealing who’s willing to risk everything for what they hope is right—knowing full well they might be wrong.

The episode doesn’t offer easy answers, and that’s precisely what makes it timeless. It reminds us that morality isn’t clean, war isn’t honorable, and peace—true peace—isn’t a destination but a perpetual struggle. The curtain may close, but the performance never really ends.

ZARABETH: Do you know what it's like to be alone? Really alone?
SPOCK: Yes. I know what it is like.

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That one exchange captures the beating heart of “All Our Yesterdays”—a surprisingly introspective hour that trades in starship skirmishes and cosmic diplomacy for a personal reckoning, especially for Spock. There's a raw emotional current here, tucked beneath the usual Star Trek tech and Trek-no-babble, and while it’s not a flawless execution, it lands with enough weight to linger after the credits roll.

The episode presents a fascinating conceit: a time-travel device used not as a weapon, but as a mass evacuation tool—a kind of Negative Zone with an existential twist. There’s enormous potential in that concept alone: questions of identity, displacement, cultural extinction, and what it really means to survive history by fleeing into it. But rather than mine this for heavy themes, the episode uses it as a thematic springboard, primarily to explore Spock's emotional duality—which isn't a misstep by any means, but it still feels like a missed opportunity given the weight of the premise.

Watching Spock, typically the model of calm logic, begin to thaw—not through grand speeches or dramatic revelations, but through small emotional betrayals of his own code—is what gives “All Our Yesterdays” its quiet resonance. There’s a certain warmth, even an illogical selfishness, that creeps into him here, and it’s far more compelling than it has any right to be.

This version of Spock feels like a precursor to the 2009 reboot’s Zachary Quinto portrayal, though thankfully without the emotional sledgehammer approach. There’s subtlety here. Restraint. A kind of aching vulnerability that doesn't break the character so much as expose the cracks he already had.

Unfortunately, Kirk’s side of the plot doesn't hold up nearly as well. While it’s serviceable and decently paced, it feels like an obligatory action subplot that drops him into a vaguely 17th-century setting with little thematic meat. There's a missed opportunity to lean into the Salem witch trial parallels—prejudice, paranoia, scapegoating—but it all ends up playing more like an obstacle course than a commentary.

McCoy serves as a solid emotional foil to Spock, delivering some of his best verbal jabs without quite realizing he’s poking a bear whose instincts are starting to awaken. Their scenes crackle with tension, and the episode arguably would’ve been stronger had it focused entirely on their snowbound philosophical clash and the strange woman caught between them.

From a production standpoint, some choices stand out—not always in a good way. The costumes in particular strain credibility, with a certain cold-weather outfit looking more like a mid-'60s cocktail dress with fur trim than anything suited for an Ice Age. And let’s not talk about the near-magical vanishing of the time portal logic, which is shaky even by Star Trek standards. Apparently, the rule for getting back is “just keep yelling at the wall until it works.”

Still, despite the flaws, the episode leaves a mark. Spock’s quiet emotional unraveling, paired with an atmosphere of inevitable loss, gives “All Our Yesterdays” a melancholic depth that makes it more memorable than many of its peers in the third season. It doesn’t reinvent the franchise, and it certainly stumbles in execution, but what’s good here? It’s very good.

"Your world of starship captains doesn't admit women. It isn't fair." – Dr. Janice Lester

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There’s a lot to unpack in Turnabout Intruder, and not just because it's the final broadcast episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. This one hurts—and not for the reasons the terminally online might clutch their pearls over, but for how much potential it wastes under the weight of clumsy execution and unintentional self-parody.

Let’s address the bat’leth in the room first: yes, the misogyny is loud, clumsy, and very real. You could practically timestamp the exact moment the episode trips over itself—McCoy diagnosing “Janice” with mental instability in a way that feels so gratuitously loaded, it could’ve been written by a cigar-chomping exec yelling, “Make her crazy! Broad wants too much power!” Lines like “jealousy, hatred, and ambition” aimed at Janice-as-Kirk don’t help, especially when framed as inherently feminine flaws. These aren’t just narrative beats; they’re neon signs blinking WOMEN = EMOTIONAL LIABILITY, which, in 1969, probably passed for subtext.

But here’s the kicker—I wanted this episode to be good. The premise had everything: a broken system, a woman raging against the machine, and a satirical mirror pointed at a supposedly “progressive” future that isn’t so progressive after all. Lester’s declaration about the exclusion of women from command could’ve opened a floodgate of character-driven, systemic commentary. And for a flicker, you think maybe, just maybe, the writers are about to say something incisive.

Then they forget all about it.

The “glass ceiling” is dropped like a misfired phaser, and from that moment on, any narrative weight the episode might have carried is replaced by clunky courtroom drama, plot holes, and a parade of unintentional comedy. What could have been a sharp critique of women having to internalize the very systems that oppress them becomes just another campy villain monologue in the body of a man.

What makes this episode so maddening isn’t just the clumsy execution, but how close it comes to actual brilliance before faceplanting into its own contradictions. There are genuine layers of commentary on gendered double standards, especially in how Kirk—trapped in Janice’s body—is treated with immediate suspicion, called delusional, unstable, and paranoid. It’s a cruel, unintended mirror of how women have historically been dismissed for showing conviction or emotion. And it only gets more fascinating when the power dynamic flips: Janice-as-Kirk parrots the same tactics used to silence her, accusing others of disloyalty and erratic behavior. Spock’s line, “She is dangerous only to your authority, sir,” lands like a dagger—Janice has become exactly what she hated, wielding the same systemic dismissal she once resented. And when she mocks the idea of a man being overpowered by a woman, the scene brushes up against modern conversations about how male victims, particularly those inflicted with sexual assault or coercion, are often ridiculed instead of taken seriously. There’s a fascinating thematic undercurrent about power, identity, and performance that could have rivaled The Enemy Within or Mirror, Mirror... if the episode didn’t treat these ideas like afterthoughts. This should’ve been biting satire. Instead, it’s a goldmine of missed opportunities buried under the rubble of ham-fisted writing and tonal whiplash.

And then there’s the Shatner.

Shatner, oh Shatner. If the rest of the cast is paddling through murky character logic, he’s pirouetting through it with full Broadway flair. His "convulsions" are the stuff of interpretive dance legend—equal parts mime routine and electrocuted jazz hands. It’s not good, but damn if it isn’t entertaining. If this was his curtain call, he made sure to go out with the ham cooked rare.

And that brings us to the most damning (and ironically most modern) takeaway of this whole affair: Janice Lester is the prototype of today’s “strong female lead”—a woman force-fed into a male archetype, written with all the nuance of a wet sock, and propped up not by growth, flaws, or earned competence, but by sheer narrative insistence. Sound familiar? Rey “I fix ships better than Han” Skywalker, CIA Cleaner “I used to be SRR” in The Cleaner, Viola Davis channeling Kamala Harris with biceps in G20, or Sabra singlehandedly body-slamming men twice her size like it’s an Olympic sport. These aren’t characters. They’re slogans with stunt choreography.

And that’s what makes Turnabout Intruder unintentionally prescient. It shows, with almost prophetic clumsiness, how insulting it is to take a woman, slap a man’s script on her, and call it empowerment. It’s not progressive. It’s just lazy. Even actors like Emily Blunt and Michelle Rodriguez have called this out, demanding roles that don’t just repackage Rambo in a ponytail, but explore strength in actual feminine form—intelligent, strategic, maternal, seductive, compassionate, ruthless when necessary, but not a copy-paste caricature of masculinity.

So yeah, this episode is sexist. But it’s also a warning label for every boardroom brainstorm that ends with “Let’s just gender-swap the lead and call it a day.”

If nothing else, let this episode serve as a cautionary tale: not just about sidelining women, but about forcing them into roles that were never written for them, and calling it progress.

It isn’t. And that’s the real tragedy.