"I mean, every Star Trek episode you saw was just phenomenal"
About this Quote
There’s a particular kind of showbiz reverence baked into Persis Khambatta’s offhand “I mean” and the absolute blanket of “every.” It’s not a careful claim; it’s a gush, the sort of praise that tells you more about the cultural weather around Star Trek than about a catalog of episodes. The phrasing moves like a fan talking at full speed: no qualifiers, no exceptions, just the adrenaline of remembering how consistently the series felt bigger than its budget and stranger than standard TV.
Khambatta’s context matters. She wasn’t a lifelong franchise evangelist; she’s best known to Trek audiences as the bald, enigmatic Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, a film that arrived with enormous expectations and got a famously mixed reception. From that vantage point, calling the TV episodes “phenomenal” reads like an affectionate recalibration: the small-screen Trek as the real miracle, the place where the ideas landed cleanly and regularly. It’s also a subtle act of solidarity with the fanbase. By praising “every episode,” she’s endorsing the communal mythology that Trek isn’t merely entertainment but a weekly dose of moral argument, speculative politics, and earnest humanism.
The subtext is show-business savvy. An actress with one iconic genre credit understands that franchises aren’t just texts; they’re living ecosystems. Compliment the canon, and you position yourself as part of the family, not just a hired guest. “Phenomenal” doubles as both genuine admiration and a handshake to the people who keep your work remembered.
Khambatta’s context matters. She wasn’t a lifelong franchise evangelist; she’s best known to Trek audiences as the bald, enigmatic Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, a film that arrived with enormous expectations and got a famously mixed reception. From that vantage point, calling the TV episodes “phenomenal” reads like an affectionate recalibration: the small-screen Trek as the real miracle, the place where the ideas landed cleanly and regularly. It’s also a subtle act of solidarity with the fanbase. By praising “every episode,” she’s endorsing the communal mythology that Trek isn’t merely entertainment but a weekly dose of moral argument, speculative politics, and earnest humanism.
The subtext is show-business savvy. An actress with one iconic genre credit understands that franchises aren’t just texts; they’re living ecosystems. Compliment the canon, and you position yourself as part of the family, not just a hired guest. “Phenomenal” doubles as both genuine admiration and a handshake to the people who keep your work remembered.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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