I chose this photo for the background:
I chose it partly for design reasons--Kirk's hands create a frame, in which I could place my url.
I also chose it because it's from the episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion," which I use in my favorite vid (and also the most viewed on youTube) "Kirk: To His Mistress."
It's the freakiest of all the ST episodes, being entirely about bondage and dominance, but it's also the silliest, having the highest quotient of outrageous outfits, characters, and plot, or, rather, PWP ("plot, what plot?").
So, I'm thinking it's a clever design with a fun fruity flavor, but when I showed it to a couple different friends (admittedly non-fans), they both got a really funny look on their face, and each tentatively queried whether this wasn't a bit, you know, ...sexually kinky?
Then I felt kinda self-conscious, like oh dear, just how weird am I that I thought putting Kirk in a harness and collar was all in good campy fun?
It reminds me of the time I casually mentioned at a party years ago that I liked spanking, and almost everyone was horrified, even though I made it perfectly clear I meant the jolly kind, NOT the hanging-from-a-meathook kind.
But just to dig myself in deeper, I pressed on, saying I thought it was normal--even bland--to like a bit of slap-and-tickle. No harnesses involved.
Well, I was in the distinct minority, I can tell you. I don't know if they liked it or not, but they didn't think it was "normal."
I still don't know what to make of this, because all of us were Catholics, who should be used to people tied up in ecstasy.
Anyway, I was worrying a bit if I'd made a mistake with this image. I mean, I don't want to promise something that's not on offer, after all. And here I'd already printed and cut all these cards, and Bink had even taken one to give to her brother.
Well, last night Bink told me her brother, who has not seen my vids, had immediately crowed, "Oh! That's from the episode with the green-haired woman!"
Whew.
Bink's brother represents my target audience--people who'll recognize the reference. Turns out he hadn't even watched ST in 20 years, but he could place the image exactly:
"This is where Kirk is talking to the alien brains!"
Yes, indeed. It's one of the funniest scenes in all of Star Trek.
Here's the scene from farther back:
Kirk is not doing a vaudeville routine, he is convincing the alien-brain dominators that they should let his people go, that slavery is wrong. It cements Shatner's place among the great. (The great what? I'll leave that up to you.)
Bink's brother is a comic-book artist, and some people might say he's a bit of a freak himself. I guess he's my kind of freak.
What do I think is freaky and abnormal? What my people were doing in Vietnam when Star Trek originally aired (1966-1969). Or I wish it were abnormal, anyway.