#Sisko is great and all but Data is well... Data

[istherewifiinhell]

Apparently i needed to do a whole essay just about todays star trek sunday? WUH? HUH??? Okay anyway im culturally christian athetist and Literally just some guy on the internet but Sisko is The Emissary and please accept him into your heart

OKAY OKAY. theeee. literal narative purpose that the Fake Out Emissary guy is WRITTEN so he is an obstacle in and "social issue of the episode" thing aside. like. he could be his OWN very complex character, super juicy perspectives etcetc. But hes NOT hes a character in a FABLE. SEE.

Sisko is the MOST guy who doesnt want to do the thing EVER. im sure a thing that has never happened to any other religious important figure/messanger of the gods./s He is not a literal believer in the prophets. he does believe his senses tho. but that episode i think does a good thing in showing he does not just believe 'yeah theres aliens that live in the wormhole' a la the keiko school ep.

Cause sisko doesnt just believe his own perceptions. he believes the prophets/aliens perceptions too. sisko is so good as a character where we see him go up against character after character, and philosphy after philosphy. and i THINK. its a disservice to try and divide that into secular and religious aspects.

new not emissary guy so clearly interprets what happened to him. all these things for a REASON. see he would have DIED. but they saved him. he was removed from time. so CLEARLY hes been moved to bring something from the past. but sisko knows enough, even if he doesnt WANT TO. to know that doesnt make a lot of sense.

And they go to the wormhole to decide. does reaching the celestial temple FIRST give him crendence as the Real Emissary. but. of course, the prophet/aliens Have No conception of FIRST.

Well okay but the aliens/prophets. literally saved this man from death. Does That have meaning? well, they have no greater reason for healing him than, that is what you do with an injured person. does there ever NEED to be a bigger reason?

In fact, they YOINKED him out of the past, FOR SISKO. in the 'future'. they did something in the 'past' AFTER the thing they did in the 'present'. They DO NOT. experience time linearly.

SO WHY FOR SISKO? Well sisko is the one that talked to the prophet/aliens. and explained to them how linear time works. but they also showed HIM. that he is NOT linear. part of him exists in a past moment of loss of grief. despite that he continues in the present. They proving. Allowing for sisko to prove to himself, that he IS the right person, the person they choose, and thats a good thing.

AND WHY AT ALL? something the alien/prophets WANT. is the protection of bajor. (genuinly dont have enough of the show in my head to go more into why lets just say thats what they want). But they are NOT. telling sisko what do to or how to do it. part of siskos ability to protect bajor is his role/position in starfleet. part of what will MAKE him protect bajor is his feelings towards it. he WANTS to protect them.

Sisko is good for Bajor, as an Emissary, as a Man, in a way the miracle blessed famous poet was not. And getting caught up in the Religion as some Other Thing in that is kinda like a trap i think.....

like. grah. okay. episode we see directly after. Sisko is putting his GOD DAMN ALL. into representing Worf in the trial for like. Literal War Crimes. The option to lose, to go along with the klingon lawyers i guess. plea deal. IS NOT THERE. THE WHOLE TIME. We watch him and he is just In This Thing. Seeing everyones testimonies. which are given in such a striking non digetic format. one that blurs, linearity. that really PUTS the idea of perspective and recall and memory, in front of mind. btw.

This works to both as to make it more interesting, visually and emotionally. AND show there are completely mundane situations where this level of conceptional complexity come into play. If existence is just, things that happen, people who exist, etc. But what happens and who people are, is so fraught by perception, and our understanding OF peoples perceptions. We are working from perceptions of the past, decision of the present, and predictions of the future. So How the FUCK do you determine the TRUTH. OF ANYTHING? EVER!

But Sisko wins THAT GD CASE. by breaking the very CONCEPT of what they were debating over in the first place. The opposition said they agreed with the facts as presented, but want to decide what was in Worf's heart. WELL. the facts as presented WERE VERY MUCH up for debate. It was never a real ship that was blown up, or crime that was commited. All the while what was IN WORFS HEART was REAL, while the ship, was not.

AND THEN. we see Sisko reprimand worf for his actions. This Whole Time we had no SIGN of that in sisko. But now that Worf has been protected from that trail. There remains that An Incedent happened. (Except of course. that it didnt, it was an illusion) and the behaviour still needs to be corrected. So Sisko guides Worf into understanding that behaviour, his mistakes. (Which he already partly knew). They can settle that matter. Sisko lays out to Worf the assurance of future sucess and future dilemmas. With certainy. One day when you are captain. Which will of course. Happen. When you have Even more people to protect, which of course, you will, and maybe when you might have to sacrifice, which of course, you would. There will still be time to create joy, which of course, you must.

LIKE? DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME HERE? There IS NO DIFFERENCE. Between the religious Figure parts of sisko and the secular Officer. He is the same man. And he is Exactly the Right man. He IS OF BAJOR because he Decides to be and He WILL BE. Because time is not linear. He accepts the alien/prophets and the prophet/aliens accept him cause he is as keen and as canny at talking to and unweaving the ideas at play, the perceptions had and philosphies held by them, as he is to any mudane scenario. Because non off them are mudane. Existence is a headache and the stakes are monumental. But there's No Other Option and he will put Everything he is to it.

WEH HEHEHE. non linear aliens like yes indeedy. we did something in the past because of something we did in the more recent past. your past. what you call the past. LIKE. YEAH. OKAY.

[pedrocomicreviews]

Star Trek: Defiant #26

"I give you riddles because I'm bored, Data. "What Lore Hath Wrought" is awfully boring, don't you think?"

Things are going great!

Lore War continues as we sink more into this messed up Loreverse, with occasional flashbacks and checks and balances to historical events and characters we are familiar with. As far as a plot goes, we're still trying to enact the plan Sisko some issues ago, which runs into complications.

Before I go forward, I gotta say Davide Tinto's art is a little funky in this one. Characters and their anatomy change widely between panels, and at least once I had to reread a page to make sure I understood who was doing what. Some shots are beautiful, but especially when there's a lot of characters on screen it can be a tad difficult to differentiate them.

Characters are falling into place as their respective missions go through ups and downs-- the most compelling core aside from Data and Lore, in my opinion, is Sisko, Beverly and Kahless right now. They bounce off each other really well, especially Kahless and Beverly, and their "Age of Apocalypse" designs are really fun.

Which, that's something that shouldn't be expected, also-- I don't like most designs in Age of Apocalypse or other stories that follow this exact structure. I don't even like most Mirror Universe designs. "Scrappy in an evil world" and "Evil version of a character" is a tough aesthetic to nail and, so far, all of these are winners. Shout-outs as well to fun explanations of where characters are and why, some of which actually get to be a lot more interesting than I was expecting.

It's a bit of a shame that Lore is by design not really interacting with characters that often, but it also serves to showcase how woefully unprepared for his own project he is. He keeps resetting reality over and over again and it just never fits, while making Data watch and have to see him crushing versions of his friends over and over again. And yet there is a piece of the old self in the new self every time-- things that always happen, people who always show up, events that must happen for there to be a galaxy worth keeping around.

I don't know if that's going to say anything about destiny, or fate, or free will, considering how much of Sisko's recent history has been about breaking the chains of expectations and generational trauma. But so far it's a fun, interesting enough romp that will probably end in a lot of explosions, and maybe a cat killing god.

Overall we're 2 issues in and this is shaping up to be a great finale for my all-time favorite set of Star Trek comics.

[walkingstackofbooks]

My Julian ships, ranked

So someone commented on one of my Sloanshir posts the other day "I don't ship Sloanshir, but..." and that started me thinking - do I ship Sloanshir? What makes a ship?

And then that spiralled into thinking about all the other/actual ships I enjoy and I always enjoy getting an insight into how other people conceptualise shipping, so this came about...

(Now that I've done this, I realise my basis for a lot of these ships is basically where can the best hurt/comfort stories be found? ... Yeah I really should have been able to predict that 😅)

Platonic ships

Jadzia&Julian - best friends, understand each other so well (but also sometimes not at all), there for each other and just so much love.

Fluff: 8/10. Hurt/comfort: 10/10. Angst: 6/10.

Kira&Julian - slightly awkward, not thinking they're that close to each other until suddenly they are and there's a lot of love and respect. What their post-canon friendship could become is 👌👌👌

Fluff: 7/10. Hurt/comfort: 7/10. Angst: 7/10.

Romantic (mostly) ships

Miles/Keiko/Julian (+anyone else) - just the fluffiest, all the group hugs, all the comfort, everyone loves Julian and I'm happy 🥰

Fluff: 10/10. Hurt/comfort: 10/10. Angst: 5/10.

Miles/Julian - all the hurt/comfort, all the awkwardness and love 👌👌👌 top tier, I just love them.

Fluff: 8/10. Hurt/comfort: 10/10. Angst: 7/10.

Garak/Julian - there's a lot to be liked, but I can never quite believe that Garak's great at comfort, so it goes below Jiles, sorry. But all the parallels, all the mutual pining, an their arguments and banter and ridiculous fondness for each other despite everything - yeahhh that's the good stuff.

Fluff: 6.5/10. Hurt/comfort: 7/10. Angst: 9/10.

Leeta/Rom/Julian - I like Julian/Leeta well enough, but if you've got J/L you might as well add in Rom because as a trio they are just so cute. All of them having special interests and encouraging each other and listening to each other, all of them bent a little insecure and building one another up - idk, this is just really special to me (tysm to Udaberri's Fly Me to the Moon, this ship has never left my brain since).

Fluff: 10/10. Hurt/comfort: 8/10. Angst: 3/10.

Martok/Julian - mmmm internment camp angst and a highly accomplished Klingon admiring Julian and looking after him? Yissss. There's so much to love here.

Fluff: 5/10. Hurt/comfort: 9/10. Angst: 9/10.

Ezri/Julian - I just think they're neat. Cute and adorable, both absolutely rubbish with their feelings, an oasis of messy fluff in the middle of the war.

Fluff: 8/10. Hurt/comfort: 6/10. Angst: 5/10.

Sisko/Julian - I love the mutual respect, I love the desire overcoming Julian's insecurities and Sisko's doubts if his position makes this okay. I'm very here for them both looking after each other when everything gets too much, and both probably giving *too much* to each other and taking turns to overextend themselves and get scolded by the other.

Fluff: 6/10. Hurt/comfort: 8/10. Angst: 4/10.

Odo/Julian - I don't think this is endgame, but I can see it when Odo is human and Julian is helping him figure out how to do it (stuffedtiger's fic, while platonic, left a mark on me here) and also I love their parallels in their treatment and upbringing by their parental figure(s). 10/10 if there are no romantic feelings but they both act as if there are because they're curious and lonely and aren't quite sure what the difference between platonic and romantic is anyway (arospec solidarity for the wiiiiin)

Fluff: 7/10. Hurt/comfort: 6/10. Angst: 4/10

Data/Julian - it's just cute. The most autistic vibing ever. 😘😘😘

Fluff: 8/10. Hurt/comfort: 5/10. Angst: 2/10

Worf/Julian - I'm so here for Worf grudgingly admitting he likes the doctor, and Julian being surprised but pleased. Youngpettyqueen's fic and Worf's "he takes the pain well" are FEELS. Actually I think this is more of a fluff pairing than I'd realised XD

Fluff: 7/10. Hurt/comfort: 8/10. Angst: 4/10

Worf/Julian/Jadzia - I don't think it would work, but it would be fun to see them try. Everyone thinks they're more on board with it than they are.

Fluff: 6/10. Hurt/comfort: 5/10. Angst: 5/10

Not-ships... but I love to see it

Sloan/Julian - so creepy, so angsty, all the non/dubcon possibilities and Julian hates it. 👌👌 The mindfuckery that Sloan can bring is especially appealing.

Dukat/Julian - often brings a revenge-on-Garak vibe, again I enjoy it purely because Julian's not into it 😅

[annakie]

From Broken Bow to Calypso - Check-in #18 - The Next Generation, Season Four

Yep, already, since this was another week of mostly recovery (and I did work three half days and two whole days.)

TNG S4 continues the streak of some of the best Trek, pretty consistently for the season with just a couple of low-point dips.

All Star Trek By Stardate Review Posts

Twenty six more episodes, let's gooooo...

5/10/25 - 335 - The Best of Both Worlds, Part II Part 2 I think doesn't QUITE live up to the hype part 1 left us with but it's very good regardless. There had been a little speculation that Stewart might leave after season 3 so it was good that we saw Picard get rescued. I think also they could have done a little better job showing us the true horror of the battle and aftermath of Wolf 359 even though the Enterprise wasn't there. We don't REALLY start feeling the full scale of it I think until we personalize it with Jennifer Sisko's death, and then Shaw's monologue in Picard S3. But there's some really good emotional beats here, like Riker getting promoted to Captain, and then him picking Shelby as first officer. Getting Picard back always felt a bit too easy, but I mean, it had to happen. Overall, though, it's satisfying enough as-is and basically everything resets in the end, almost.

5/10/25 - 336 - Family Man, what a great episode. No scenes on the bridge, very little sci-fi, and lots of emotion. Picard first, because honestly he has the biggest and best role here. To see him so shaken, trying to hard to be brave, it's jarring. And getting to see his home, his family, having him brought back to his roots is fantastic. His relationship with Rene shows that he absolutely can be a great father figure, or uncle figure in this case, he's so good with him. And his relationship with Robert, having someone who CAN bring him back down and treat him like an equal like that is so needed. The entire storyline is cathartic, empathetic, well written, and really shows us so much more about Picard. It's fantastic. Worf's plot is also so good. Seeing his human parents, their warmth and love for him is beautiful, and also so relatable in that "mooooom, daaaaad, stop embarrassing meeee!" way. With him growing up in Russia(?) and those parents he should have had a Russian accent maybe? lol. But their love and support in the face of his Klingon dishonor is SO good, as is Guinan counseling them about Worf, too. Such an unexpected and well-crafted story. And then there's the Wes and Bev plot with Jack's message. It's the smallest plot but also so impactful, to get to see Beverly relive a bit of Jack, and then Jack's message to Wesley ALWAYS makes me cry. It's so sweet and beautiful, and knowing Jack died so soon after it was recorded after pouring his hopes into the message… ugh. Amazing. This episode was so unexpected but feels so necessary after BOBW. I only wish we could have gotten a little more in it for some of the others.

5/10/25 - 337 - Brothers Well, Data gets his "Family" episode for an entire episode of his own, I guess. Great suspense in the beginning with the stealing of the ship. There's definitely more facepalmy security issues shown here, but I mean, an Insider Threat is one of the harder contingencies to plan for, especially one that can perfectly imitate the captain, so this one is more forgivable. The subplot with the kids is a nice parallel, but it's kinda crazy that the parents left those two kids on the ship when they went on sabbatical? Guess there was a good reason. Bringing Lore back was the right decision, and it was really cool seeing Brent Spiner play three characters together for so much of the episode. He's SO good. And this episode has repercussions far into the future. Another really good one. It's been a pretty good run lately.

5/10/25 - 338 - Suddenly Human Annnd we're onto a less memorable episode. It's not bad, just not great. Chad Allen is good in the role of Jono / Jeremiah. I think it brings up a good point about raising children in a culture rather than their own and which culture they really belong to. I do think they could have had Worf chime in with an opinion about this since he… basically went through exactly the same thing as Jono was going through and that point was ignored. I also think maybe they could have left a bridge open for Jono / Jeremiah to have contact with his human family and maybe an invitation to go visit and learn about his human side WHEN HE WAS READY. That could have been talked about with his Talarian father. Their patriarchal culture sucks, though. :p

5/10/25 - 339 - Remember Me Yay, Beverly gets a GOOD and MEMORABLE episode, with a heavy amount of Wesley, too. The mystery of this one unfolds in SUCH a cool and intriguing, and well-paced way. Like really, what the HELL is going on? It's truly scary. One thing that I really love about it, too, is that Beverly is ALWAYS taken seriously. She's never dismissed as being tired, or hysterical. There's a logical amount of questioning, but NOT dismissing, and that's awesome. I'd feel like I was going crazy, too. Beverly nearly breaking down describing Worf, Riker, Deanna, desperately trying to convince Picard of the people they love dearly who are gone, Gates is so good in that scene. When we finally get back to the "real" universe and see Wes and Geordi trying to figure things out, it's SUCH a relief. And then the Traveler comes in and it's a really cool "reunion" with Wes kinda playing up his Traveler powers and doing everything he can to save his mom. The space, time and thought speech from the Traveler made me want to immediately go turn on Prodigy season two, lol. Beverly talking to the computer to figure it out is great, she also does a good job with talking to no one scenes, it's only frustrating that it takes her SO long to get to Engineering when it's pretty obvious when the Enterprise starts getting swallowed by the universe that Engineering is the center of the universe. Anyway, overall, probably Beverly's best episode and a good one for Wes, too.

5/10/25 - 340 - Legacy So this is episode #80 of TNG, making it so there's more TNG than TOS episodes and Memory Alpha has some cool trivia on how they kind of tied it a bit to Turnabout Intruder which is kind of cool, mostly with the planet and ship names used. I like that this episode is tied back to Tasha so much, showing the lasting effect losing a crew member can have. Overall the plot itself is okay, if a bit predictable. We all really wanted to trust Ishara because we miss Tasha. They used Data especially to good effect here, though I wish they could have used maybe Worf a bit more. I don't think anyone is REALLY surprised with Ishara turns out to be playing the crew, as much as it would have been nice if she hadn't. I mean, damn, if I had a ticket to get out of that place I'd take it in a heartbeat, but I guess there's a "this is the only home I ever knew" thing happening with her.

5/11/25 - 341 - Reunion So excited to see K'Ehleyr… until I realize this is the LAST time we see K'Ehleyr. Damnit, killing her off was the worrrrst decision. Honestly love this one again. It is kinda nonsensical for Picard to be chosen to decide who rules the Klingon empire but, well, that's Trek for you. K'Ehleyr very much get fridged, it's all for Worf's pain and to make him be a father. She's such an amazing character, too. But maybe we wouldn't have gotten B'Elanna as she was if we'd had a recurring K'Ehleyr. We also get 'ol bug eyes for the first time here. Gowron is a pretty great character for quite awhile. It's crazy that this is when we get the Bat'leth for the first time, too. It felt like something that's always been a part of Klingon culture (but I guess in Stardate order we've seen them a few times.) But honestly other than that it's a decent episode that holds up well and gives Michael Dorn some really meaty stuff to work with, including mourning and killing. RIP K'Ehleyr, you were too good for this world.

5/11/25 - 342 - Future Imperfect Oooh an Alternate Universe episode, except whoops, no not really. I do love like, "possible future" episodes even if this was more or less all just made up in space-child's brain. It still had some intriguing possibilities and I do love the new Starfleet commbadges shown here. Kinda crazy that sixteen years later most of the command structure is still the same people, but I mean… again, the kid was just making things up. The realization that Minuet was the "mom" was a really great moment, really well hinted at ahead of time and the perfect kind of thing to make it clearly something was wrong. Then the double fakeout with the Romulan captivity was also great. Was excited to see Tomalak again until he was again a fakeout. There's a cool list of how the fake future here is prescient of what really happens though. Ferengi in Starfleet (Nog), more Klingons in Starfleet (B'Elanna), Geordi getting his sight back, Picard working with the Romulans, a few other things. I wonder what ended up happening with the alien kid, we never hear from him again.

5/11/25 - 343 - Final Mission The final regular-starring Wesley Crusher episode. Man, I was DEVASTATED when this aired the first time. I had NO IDEA Wil had resigned from the show and I sat through the whole thing waiting to see how Wes would get thwarted from going to the Academy again, thinking we'd JUST had a Wes Doesn't Go to Starfleet episode not that long ago near the end of S3. And then when the next week his name was no longer in the credits and Wes really was gone… I'm sure teenage me cried about it a LOT. But he'd come back four times and most of those were really good episodes so… it all worked out okay, especially with Prodigy Season two. I really can't wait to rewatch that. (And when he shows up in Picard and Lower Decks!) The Garbage Scow plotline is whatever and just feels like filler. Except for Beverly's anxiety about Wes (and Picard) being missing, it's barely worth mentioning. Anyway, it's really sweet of Picard to just want to spend a little more time with Wes before he leaves for reals this time and this episode is such a good showcase for them both. Dirgo is an incompetent dingbat asshole and I never feel bad when he gets wrapped in plastic. I can't believe they didn't just take an Enterprise shuttle to get there. NEVER AGAIN. All of the emotional moments between Picard and Wes works so well, it provides a lot of emotional closure and I always get teary eyed, great job to both of them. Goodbye Wes, you'll be missed, until all the times you show back up again. <3

5/11/25 - 344 - The Loss I joked with my mom when this one started that The Loss was a good name for how I was feeling now that Wesley was gone, lol. Anyway, I'm glad they gave Troi such a big episode and gave her a lot to do and play with here. I do feel like… maybe Troi wouldn't have gotten THAT out of hand emotionally? But hey, I've never lost a sense, so maybe I'm wrong. The two-dimensional creature thing is interesting, but it felt pretty obvious with how Troi kept saying she felt "flat" that she had the solution to what was going on all along, but it's a nice scene when she and Data figure it out. I'm glad they let her be an integral part of how to get out of the conundrum though. The scene with Will comforting then confronting her, and Guinan kinda light bullying her into seeing her value were the highlights of the episode, though. It's not a particularly good or bad episode, overall. Glad to give Troi more to do.

5/11/25 - 345 - Data's Day Oh this is a FUN one. Data spends a "day" writing a letter to Bruce Maddox and we see what he typically goes through. From running the entire night shift, to still having to do hours of work during the DAY, while handling Keiko and O'Brien's wedding, and… T'Pel? Wait, is that our T'Pel… Tuvok's wife? No, thankfully, it is not. Weird that they named Tuvok's wife the same thing as this ROMULAN SPY but I mean, people have the same names sometimes. Oh yeah, there's also a T'Pel named in TAS: Yesteryear, too, which is the earliest mention of the name. Crazy. I love that Data has little moments with everyone in the crew, though I wish he had more time with Geordi, since this is the first time their BEST friendship is acknowledged. We also see Spot for the first time!! He gets counseling with Troi, he shops for wedding presents with Worf. The dancing lessons with Beverly is an unforgettable scene that really shows Gates' talent, and Brent does OK in the scenes he's not using a double. In the end, we get a new recurring character (two if you count Spot), everyone gets something to do, the Romulan plot is kinda intriguing, and it's just a whole lot of fun.

5/12/25 - 346 - The Wounded Two really big episodes in a row for O'Brien. I think it's easy to forget how much he ends up doing in TNG since he becomes main cast in DS9. It's the introduction to the Cardassians, our first Marc Alaimo as a Cardassian, though not Dukat. Also, Bob Gunton, who will forever be the Warden in Shawshank Redemption to me. He's great here. The Cardassian helmets and facial hair are really stupid and I think / hope they're retired after this. The plot overall is pretty thrilling with a rogue Starfleet captain going off and killing Cardassians on his own, though I'd like to know how his crew was reacting to all the things he was ordering, it feels like that's getting to where a mutiny WOULD be advised. Giving O'Brien more to do here was a really cool thing, too. Gives Colm Meaney a chance to really show what he can do. And in the end, the Cardassians really were being the sneaky assholes we'll soon learn they can be and usually are. Good episode.

5/12/25 - 347 - Devil's Due Annnnd a kinda forgettable episode next. Like, not terrible but nothing here is that interesting or unique. Ooooh the devil might be real, and she's HOT! Except she's not real and just a con artist. But Marta Dubois is great in the role and there's some good humor in this episode. Turns out this was an idea Gene had for TOS, and wrote for a Phase II script that got heavily modified, and you know what? I really see it. There are a couple of good "huh, how DID she do that?" moments that are easily explained later. I really think the Enterprise wouldn't have been hidden and incommunicado that long, even with Geordi and Data not on the ship to figure out the problem. Maybe if Wes was still there he coulda fixed things sooner. Anyway, it's fine. Not great, but fine.

5/12/25 - 348 - Clues Now here's a fun mystery. Starting with Picard and Guinan in the Dixon Hill universe then the real problem starts and Data is SUS! Our sweet innocent Data, reduced to being a big lying liar. Really cool to put the mystery together and a neat way to wrap it up. I think it DOES still fall apart when the Enterprise is STILL going to need to find out they are missing TWO DAYS once they like, hit a SNTP type beacon or a Starbase, so they can't really explain that away. I guess maybe they can say the wormhole threw them forward in time? IDK. So maybe this one wraps up a little TOO neatly but the journey is intriguing and cool.

5/12/25 - 349 - First Contact AKA Riker gets SA'd, that's always what I think about in this one. Bebe Neworth, not cool. He clearly didn't want it. Anyway, other than that, I do really like this episode. You see a first contact more from the perspective of those being contacted than the Federation. All of the guest cast is great, especially Carolyn Seymor (who shows up quite a bit more) and they had a lot of lifting to do. Riker feels like he could be in real danger, too. I'd say there was good comedy but most of it is around Riker and, yeah not a fan of that bit. But anyway, a really interesting episode that shows a perspective of something we haven't seen much of before. There's probably several teams of actual first contact specialists we should have been seeing instead of the ENT crew but that's not what TNG is going to show us, so this was cool to see. Also, it's got a "show a native their planet from space for the first time" scene, which, you know, I love. And apparently this is the last time in the regular series it happens, until the MOVIE First Contact with Lily. MA says that the Malcorians are around much later, in Discovery, so I'll have to keep an eye out for that when we get there.

5/12/25 - 350 - Galaxy's Child UGHGHGHGGHGHGHGHGHGHGHHHHHHHHHH… the WORST Geordi episode and yes I'm including Aquiel in here. The sequel to Booby Trap, which I also hate. Because now Leah Brahms shows up for real and it's TERRIBLE. Guinan does her best to warn Geordi and SHE'S RIGHT. Geordi somehow doesn't realize Leah's married? And sure she's standoffish but Geordi definitely has that "What, no hug for me?" vibe the entire time and it's just gross. I hate how much this episode makes me hate one of my favorite characters. I want to pretend it doesn't exist. And then when he sees her in the Holodeck HE gets to be the wounded party? Ugh no, fuck that. Everything about the Geordi plotline here just screams creepy male entitlement. I'm glad the general consensus on this episode now agrees with me. I want it scrubbed from my memory. Season low point, for sure. The baby alien thing is an OK plotline, not particularly great or not, just a vehicle for Geordi's story.

5/13/25 - 351 - Night Terrors This one is rough, and fairly boring. Troi's flying scenes are real tedious, no shade to Sirtis, just not much you can do with that. Watching people mentally deteriorate was kind of interesting and the hair/makeup people did a good job making people look just that tired, but I liked what they did with people not being able to sleep in Voyager better. A lowpoint of season 4 probably.

5/13/25 - 352 - Identity Crisis A muuuuuuuuuuch better Geordi episode than the last one, thankfully. A cool mystery to solve. I liked Leitjen and was glad that they didn't force a romance with her and Geordi since it probably would have just been a showmance and Geordi deserves better. A bit frustrating because Geordi should have had Data (or someone) with him during his investigation especially in the Holodeck, Worf maybe should have assigned some security to him but hey, bad security had to happen for the climax I guess. The glowing costumes / makeup are really cool and effective. A decent episode, not the best but LeVar had a lot to do that wasn't being Creepy Geordi and I enjoyed it.

5/13/25 - 353 - The Nth Degree Welcome back Barclay. A good story for him, with him getting his confidence and all through alien probe technology. Plus some great Cyrano acting in there, love slice of life starship stuff. Plot clips along and gets deeper as we go, Barclay gets creepier. Still a lot of great Geordi stuff in this one, too. Troi gets to do some of her best work with Barclay, which is also great. The holodeck Barclay interface machine is very cool looking with all the lasers. When they get to the center of the universe and then there's a big god-head it made me nervous because I'd forgotten what the conclusion on this was and was worried they were going to try to redeem ST5 somehow, and it IS similar but thankfully a benevolent all-powerful being and not nearly as lengthy as the bullshit in ST5. Honestly maybe ST5 God is like a criminal Cytherian that got imprisoned, it actually would make that movie maybe make more sense… how they traveled so fast (Evil!Cytherian!god gave Sybok the knowledge, maybe this nice Cytherian we meet here sent them back just as fast as an apology, IDK.) Honestly, I'm going to keep that headcanon and maybe it DOES make ST5 a little less bullshit. Anyway, decent episode overall.

5/14/25 - 354 - Qpid Vash -- And Q -- Are back in a big TNG Hijinks episode. Gotta say one thing I do love about this episode is the scene where Beverly walks in on Vash's breakfast with Picard. She's immediately happy for them and super stoked to meet Vash. No stupid catty jealousy stuff, they team up and are friends like immediately and good on the writers for that. I do like this story of Picard trying to deal with two separate worlds, his attraction to Vash and exasperation at her unlawfulness. And then throwing Q in the mix to make things very chaotic. I feel like they could have done more with the Robin Hood angle somehow, IDK, especially for the crew. And then also they throw some of the feminist points away because Beverly and Deanna have to SMASH POTS over dude's heads instead of getting any weapons to fight with, boo to that. Memory Alpha says they were the only cast members who HAD SWORDFIGHTING TRAINING, too. BULLSHIT. But it is very fun seeing Picard get to play the dashing hero. Vash leaving with Q at the end… well I think it's a twist nobody originally saw coming but it works.

5/14/25 - 355 - The Drumhead What an episode. So good, so prescient, still so relevant. Honestly wish we could have met Simon Tarsas earlier than this episode. I really like that Worf plays such a big role and also is shown to learn so much here. The climax I do think tends to be a bit heavy handed and I wish they allowed Satie a better rebuttal than kind of falling apart, though. Overall... absolutely a great episode with a really timely message even still.

5/14/25 - 356 - Half a Life Another really big episode that grapples with a lot, and it might be Majel Barrett's finest work on Star Trek. A really good concept, some really good debates. Some really human topics grappled with here. Though I agree that sixty is too young for anyone to die (and hey, I AM saying this as someone who just turned 50 lol). I watched this with my 77 year old mother who's also still very active and vibrant and couldn't imagine if I'd lost her 17 years ago. Like, I get that this is that culture's way, and Michelle Forbes is great in the role as the daughter and made a good case for her father coming home… but I think it's hard to agree with the culture overall. Like JFC… sixty? At least start at EIGHTY. Anyway, David Ogden Steirs is also good here, but Majel really steals the show the entire episode. I do wonder why she didn't take Mr. Homm down to the planet with her and how she'd get back to Betazed. I really love this episode.

5/14/25 - 357 - The Host This episode is frustrating because of what DS9 ends up doing with the Trill. Like, this episode establishes the Trill as a race and practices and then DS9 tears like 70% of it up… but also gave us Dax, especially Jadzia and Ezri, along with bits of the previous hosts. There's just a frustrating amount of incongruity here, like what the Trill look like (forehead ridges, no spots), the fact that the host's personality is suppressed, how long they can survive outside a host, the fact that nobody KNOWS about Trill and symbiants!? But like, Dax has been in Starfleet a couple of times for awhile and Trill is a Federation planet? (I'm also reading a post-Enterprise book where TOBIN Dax is a minor character.) TBH, I almost feel like DS9 should have just taken the concept and called the Trill… something else. I hate that this episode makes Beverly look stupid in retrospect for not knowing about Trill, when all on its own, she does great with an unknown situation and a lot of confusing feelings. I don't think I could do it if I had to suddenly transfer feelings for someone from one body I knew intimately to like, one of my best friend's bodies? Ew. Gross. No, sorry. I really also hope Beverly and Odan-in-Riker didn't fuck, because I don't think Riker would consent to that and he's already had a pretty non-consensual encounter thrust on him a dozen or so episodes ago. But these complaints aside, it's a good episode for Beverly, we get to see her truly happy for a bit. Picard has to deal with that and does a worse job than Bev does with Vash, but is still really sweet to her when she's hurting and that's a great scene. And it did give us the Trill, in the end, which I'm happy for. Good, but not great episode. Also, glad that they didn't turn the new Trill host into a statement about Beverly not being attracted to a woman -- her "I really can't deal with this, it's too much" is a much better way to do the reset we all knew was coming anyway. If they did TNG these days though, I'd hope they'd make it MORE clear that it wasn't about the new host being a woman. Bev is definitely past that.

5/15/25 - 358 - The Mind's Eye I uh, completely forgot about this episode. Almost the entire way through it was like it was completely new to me. That happens occasionally in other series but I didn't expect it in TNG anymore since I've watched all of TNG a minimum of a half dozen times, haha. But it was good! I honestly thought Sela returned in Reunification, so it was great seeing shadow-Sela and I do not remember if that was a surprise the first time we watched this or not. There's a bunch of holes in the plot here, especially like, with travel times, how the Geordi-stand-in fared at the conference and stuff but I mean, overall it's a suspenseful Manchurian Candidate episode and poor Geordi really goes through it, with a good double cross from the old Klingon.

5/16/25 - 359 - In Theory Data actually gets a girlfriend, for like, two days, and neither of them are prepared for the realities of that situation. Like, Jenna seems nice and all but she didn't put much thought into what it would be like to not only be someone's first relationship but someone who had no baseline for how to be in one, and, of course, no emotions at all. Data really gives it his all, but he also just doesn't have a frame of reference really and would need a lot of time and patience to get it right. Jenna doesn't really have that time and patience needed. Not her fault, just not the right person Data would need, someone who really understands what they're in for. It's a good story, though. There's some neat character moments when Data goes around asking everyone for their advice, too. Oh and also there's an almost totally forgettable B-story that even though I watched the episode just a few hours ago I can barely remember. Oh, right, a too-lengthy scene of Picard piloting a shuttlecraft. Yawn. The only good (and horrifying) part of that story was the woman falling through the floor and being split in two. Absolutely terrifying and stomach-churning. Maybe the most grotesque thing TNG ever did. I like this one.

5/16/25 - 360 - Redemption, Part I Mooooore Klingon stuff! I like the Klingon stuff, but wow that's fast after The Mind's Eye. Oh hey, that's because THIS is our real introduction to Sela. Gowron still only kind of sucks, and good on Worf for standing up for himself to Gowron. Also yay, the return of Kurn! Annnnd the introduction of the Duras Sisters. Honestly better characters than Duras himself was, something new and interesting. Lots of political maneuvering in this one, not a lot of action. Picard gets put in a couple of rock and a hard places, but comes out well. The end, with Worf resigning his commission was a big shocker, everyone saying goodbye to him in the hallway / transporter was a good way to end the season. Well, then the Sela reveal. I do remember going NUTS over that the first time. And yay for the family dis-commendation being rescinded.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Yeah, pretty great season overall. Maybe not quite the highs of season 3, but only two really bad episodes, too, with a few Meh and several really good ones. I will still miss Wesley Crusher, but they still weren't giving him much to do anyway. It feels even more like the Picard And Data Show here, but some efforts were made for the others, too, which mostly worked.

HIGHLIGHTS

Family, Brothers, Remember Me, Reunion, Final Mission, Data's Day, The Drumhead, Half a Life.

Several more could also make the list. Probably still could put BOBW2 on there and Redemption 1, and/or Clues, maybe Qpid.

LOWPOINTS

Galaxy's Child and Night Terrors were by far the worst.

Maybe The Loss, too.

[thegeminisage]

okay WHEW it's star trek update time. last night* we watched tng's "interface" and ds9's "the siege." *i'm typing this at fuck o clock and scheduling it to go up tomorrow when i'm not here <3

interface (tng):

i don't want to talk about it

actually wait no yes i do but mostly i just want to complain. i wish there was perhaps some sort of skip/watch list with the dead parent episodes labeled. for star trek. i mean i know i'm making one but not that one i can't use that until it's too late. i can't crowdsource EVERY dead parent episode of star trek through my tumblr followers. though i will say whoever warned me about 4.02 of ds9 (i forgot which person it was, i'm so sorry 🙏) has my deepest gratitude. ok. complaint lodged.

what else...um, geordi and data. emptiness. Yeah

yeah. that's all. sorry. my spidey senses started tingling about halfway through the episode and i googled whether or not his mom really was dead and upon receiving my answer we stopped the episode to go directly to ds9.

the siege (ds9)

LOVED this one. where do i even begin

well i will begin at the obvious: women! kira and dax in the shuttle. mwah

what i loved most about kira and dax in the shuttle wasn't even the homoeroticism, though i did - of course - deeply enjoy the homoeroticism. what i loved MOST was that they seemed to have invented a personality for dax at last! i have no idea what was going on in this episode or who this dax was or where she was during s1 but i REALLY liked her. it's shocking bc i almost gave her LAST PLACE in the character rankings, but she was so fun here?? and also kind of like...airheaded and weird. "i might keep the nose." seems like they really DIDN'T know what to do with her in s1, but better late than never. i will continue to try and forgive her really terrible hair even though it makes her head look soooo weird and offputting

big spider bad. actually it was too stupid looking to be scary but i still didn't like it

quark and odo's gay little goodbye <3

julian FUCKING bashir pretending he was hot shit when he held those guys up. KING.

actually all of the action sequences in this episode were great. all three of season 2's episodes have been really funny even as they're also very serious at the same time, i fucking love it

love also the little nod to o'brien's service record on the cardassian front in the way of wartime rations. not only is it funny but it is, again, a great reminder of his cardassian trauma, and why he might feel obligated to stay behind

SPEAKING OF. everyone in ops, down to the last person, agreeing to stay at ds9, even though some of them have families like o'brien does. i'm SO glad they didn't forget his family, that they actually showed him and keiko arguing about it, but he STILL felt morally that he had to stay - that it was more important than his own life, and the risk of his family having to continue on without him.

PLUS the fact that not a single person wanted to leave, even after sisko assured them that they SHOULD think of their families...girl he is literally the best captain or commander or whatever. that's stone cold loyalty. they all trust him or love him or both.

i was a little ambivalent on li nalas as a concept but he actually was used finally...i think "off the hook" was a great way to take care of that arc neatly, because making him live the lie would have felt cruel, but him just ghosting would have made him look like an asshole, no matter how justified. i hope there's a bajoran afterlife he can chill out in

did we get set up for season-long villains with winn and jaro? that would be fun. the concept of "storylines" feels so foreign in a star trek show but there it is........

TONIGHT: tng's "gambit part i" and ds9's "invasive procedures," which with any luck will hopefully be about subjects besides dead parents 🤞

[emonydeborah]

trektober day 4: retirement

“Stop fidgeting.”

Miles huffed, tapping his fingers on his thighs. “Stop fussing,” he retorted. Keiko just tsked and adjusted his collar for the umpteenth time.

Across the room, Kira hid a grin in her champagne flute, and Deanna Troi sent him an amused glance. The back of Miles’ neck burned with nerves and embarrassment, but he didn’t pull away from his wife’s ministrations.

“It’s your retirement party, I want you to look nice,” Keiko said breezily. “Don’t look so nervous, everything’s going great.”

“Except my wardrobe, apparently,” Miles muttered, but she wasn’t wrong. The smaller, more intimate party that had stayed after the ceremony was mingling and chatting, enjoying the food and the music. Worf and Data were listening intently to Captain Picard saying something about grapes, and Nog was regaling Jake and Captain Sisko with tales from his first deep space mission. Miles’ whole life was in that room- his wife and children, and all the people who had changed and bettered his life through his career.

Well, all except one. Miles told himself he wasn’t bothered.

Keiko finished smoothing his collar to her satisfaction, and Miles squeezed her hand. She smiled up at him.

“He’ll be here,” she said, a knowing glint in her eye as Miles glanced at the door. He gave her a blank look, and she rolled her eyes.

“I don’t know who you mean,” Miles blustered.

“Sorry we’re late!” Keiko’s eye roll intensified as Miles’ entire face lit up. Julian and Ezri strode into the room, Ezri looking frazzled and Julian as boyish as ever. Greetings swept through the group and the DS9 crew swarmed around, passing drinks and hugs until everyone had their fill.

Julian went straight for Miles and pulled him into a hug, and Miles didn’t bother pretending to be gruff about it. “Congratulations, Chief,” Julian said, and pulled away to raise a glass.

“To Miles O’Brien, a job well done.”

————-

this also vaguely fills the crossover prompt

I hope Miles gets a big party when he finally retires. And that he doesn’t get kidnapped from it. He has a poor record for kidnapping though.

[dragontamerno3]

DS9 S2E16 - Shadowplay

This episode was so sweet! I'm not sure if I'd say this is my favorite of Odo so far but its definitely one of the top five. I am a little unsure on how much "Odo is a real boy" that I can take, though, especially since we just did that whole deal with Data. It feels different enough that I'm not actually too bothered by it yet but it is sorta pulling my out of the story each time so we'll see if I get sick of it lol

I hadn't considered a whole society of holograms and the folks really took it extremely well, all things considered, but it was overall a nice episode, I think. Personally if someone said I was living in some kind of simulation or if I wasn't real I'd probably start walking around screaming "end program" to shut it down, but that's very much just a me thing.

Because of the weird acceptance and a few other things (Kira's investigation/hunt to stop Quark, Kiara's sex life, etc) that made the pacing on this episode to me. I mean, it was fine, I was engaging with it no issue but it did feel like it jumped around a bit.

On a side note: Bashir mentioning how Garak is teaching him spy stuff made me squee. The boyfriends are too cute.

Before the reveal of holograms, I kind of thought they were in some kind of city with an invisible barrier and the others had left. By force, by weird subconscious impulse, or completely voluntary, that part was uncertain, but I would not have guessed holograms.

Odo with Taya was adorable af and it started out so subtle. He seemed more or less indifferent towards her just like he is with most people and then she basically made him her best friend and he melted into the goo he is. It was super sweet. And I'm glad he shifted for her eventually. Even if she wasn't real, he grew attached.

In a way this episode kind of reminded me of the TNG episode where Data has been communicating with the alien child and he saves her from the erupting volcano planet but then has to wipe her memory of him. This time, though, Odo gets to keep his friend (that we'll probably never see again lol)

On the subplot side of things, I want to once again shout from the rooftops how good of a man and dad Benjamin Sisko is. He may have been pushing for Jake to get a job, which I find to be a little ick but experience is a great thing to have and a station like DS9 really can use all hands on deck sometimes, but he listens to his kid. Jake had every right to be nervous about admitting he didn't want to follow in his dads footsteps because life changing conversations like that are scary, but the way Sisko reacted? He didn't yell, his questions were all gentle and none of them were aggressive, leading, or accusatory, and it was clear that all of his attention was directed towards making sure Jake was happy. I love their relationship so much.

I also want to say Miles is a great dad/going to be a great dad when Molly is old enough for these kinds of conversations too. The way he helped Jake find the courage to talk to Sisko was sweet. And he was super patient with him while he learned a skill he knew next to nothing about.

All episodes should be character building but there are sometimes specific ones you can point to and show where the dynamics change and I think this is one of them.

7/10 - I was hesitant with this one but the character stuff was too good to mark any lower, I think

[spacefinch]

Star Trek characters as Octonauts characters AU: an update:

TOS crew:

Kirk: Golden retriever.

Spock: Black cat.

Bones: North American River Otter. An old friend of Ranger Marsh, with whom he shares similar opinions about technology.

Uhura: African Grass Owl.

Scotty: Scottish Wildcat.

Sulu: White-tailed Deer.

Chekov: Eurasian pine marten. I originally had him be a Siberian Lynx (since he’s from Russia) but it didn’t quite work. Chekov needs to be a small lanky boy and that is not what lynxes are. Pine martens, however…

Chapel: Tawny Owl.

TNG crew:

Picard: European River Otter

Riker: Alaskan Malamute dog

Data: Still an android, but in this version, he’s modeled after a short-eared owl. His brother Lore is modeled after a long-eared owl.

Tasha: Black-tailed jackrabbit

Geordi: Serval cat. Born blind, but uses a high-tech visor to see. Best friends with Data.

Beverly and Wesley Crusher: Red foxes. Wes has darker, almost brown fur.

Worf: Fisher. (A type of mustelid.)

Deanna: Spotted Owl

DS9 crew:

Ben and Jake Sisko: Swamp rabbits— same species as Tweak and Marsh. The Siskos have dark brown fur, rather than green.

Jadzia: Red Salamander

Garak: Lizard (doesn’t matter what species)

Major Kira: Gray Fox

Odo: Still a Changeling in this AU. Usually assumes the form of a beige-colored cat.

Ezri: Spotted Salamander.

Bashir: Sea Otter

O’Brien: European Hare

Quark (and all other Ferengi characters): Fruit bats. With gigantic ears.

Voyager Crew:

Janeway: Red Fox

Chakotay: Canada Lynx

Tom Paris: Dog.

Harry Kim: Sea Otter

Neelix: Fishing Cat

Kes: Brush Rabbit

Seven of Nine: Cat, with cybernetic implants.

B’Elanna: Badger.

Tuvok: Spectacled Owl

The Doctor: Hologram, takes the appearance of a penguin. (Which looks a lot like Peso’s species.)

Connections to the Octonauts and Octo Agents:

Scotty is an old friend of Shellington, and even recommended him for the position of the Octopod’s head scientist. Barnacles invited Scotty to be Chief Engineer, but Scotty declined the offer. After all, he’d seen Tweak’s work firsthand. The Octonauts would be in good care with her as its engineer.

Similar to Barnacles, Chekov was an old student of Professor Natquik. He’s always boasting about how everything great was invented in Russia.

Voyager’s Doctor was modeled after one of Peso’s many cousins. Despite being a program of a social species, he does have trouble actually socializing.

Jadzia is one of Dashi’s friends from school.

Ben Sisko and Ranger Marsh have been friends for a long time. And their kids get along quite well! Tweak is older than Jake by quite a bit.

Bashir is one of Shellington’s old classmates. The two of them bonded over their love of science and their sea otter heritage.

[ffcrazy15]

So the good thing is, because it’s split up into different shows, you actually don’t have to go in chronological order or release order, or even watch all of it to understand. I haven’t watched all of Enterprise, for example, and I’ve never seen an episode of Picard.

The chronological order of the shows is roughly:

Enterprise (Capt. Archer, T'Pol, Trip Tucker, etc.)

Strange New Worlds (Capt. Pike, Una Chin Riley, young Spock etc.)

The Original Series (Capt. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, etc.)

The Animated Series (TOS but animated and not as good)

The Next Generation (Capt. Picard, Data, Crusher, LaForge, etc.)

Voyager (Capt. Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, Tom Paris, 7 of 9 etc.)

Deep Space Nine (Cmdr, Sisko, Kira, Bashir, Quark, Garak, etc.)

Lower Decks (Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, T'Lyn)

Prodigy (Capt. Dal R'el, Gwyn, Jankom, Zero, etc.)

Picard (Same characters as TNG but later)

Discovery (Capt. Burnham, Stamets, Saru, Tilly, etc.)

I would say the best place to start is either The Original Series, The Next Generation, or — and hear me out — Prodigy or Lower Decks.

-Prodigy is a great place to start because, as a kid's show, its whole goal is to introduce people to Star Trek who've never seen it before and don't know what things like the Federation or Prime Directive are. It's also fantastically written, it's one of the best Treks ever made. Don't sleep on Prodigy because it's a kid's show, trust me.

-Lower Decks is basically where I started out (other than watching TOS when I was like fifteen). It works really well as an intro because 1.) it's written to the comedic sense and pacing of our generation, 2.) it drops you directly into the world and introduces you to a ton of things with just enough explanation to get what's going on, but not so much it bogs down the story, and 3.) it's only ten episodes a season.

You won't get all the references and that's fine, they're funny enough jokes on their own, and when you go back and rewatch after seeing some of the other shows the jokes will be even funnier. (Also you will hate Mariner for the first three episodes or so. You're supposed to and it's on purpose, don't worry she gets better.)

-If you choose to start with The Original Series, just be aware that it is very sixties and you will cringe a lot at how sixties it is. They also didn't have all the lore full worked out yet.

-If you choose to start with The Next Generation, just know that the first two seasons suuuuuuuck and then it gets good. Use this guide to help you know which episodes you have to watch from S1 and S2. After that, ditch the guide (the writer's ranks are very all-plot no-fun-downtime, which is annoying to me on a personal level).

I wanna get into Star Trek but it seems like One Piece with the amount to catch up on

[writergeekrhw]

Hey, hope you are well. I was wondering what you considered your finest contribution to the various shows you have worked on? The character/character moment/plot point/favourite line that, if someone invented a time machine and tried to go back and erase that specifically, you would end up fighting them on a rooftop in the rain to protect?

Oh man, that one is pretty much impossible to answer. I've written over 80 episodes of TV and worked on over 300, so it's hard for me to pick my favorite episodes let alone my favorite moments or lines, etc. I'm most proud of the body of work and how deep it is, but let's see if I can think of a few highlights:

TNG:

"A Fistful of Datas" - The title is really good! I'm happy I got Picard to play his flute. The Worf/Data kiss was me, though I wrote it on the lips.

DS9 (A lot of these are with Ira):

"Q-Less" - "You hit me. Picard never hit me." "I'm not Picard."

"The Wire" - "My dear Doctor, they're all true." "Even the lies?" "Especially the lies."

"Past Tense 1&2" - All of it really.

"To the Death" - The whole "Victory is life" bit and O'Brien's response

"In Purgatory's Shadow" - "Lying is a skill like any other. And if you want to maintain a level of excellence, you have to practice constantly." "You Cardassians are all alike. You talk too much." "How can I forget it? It was the only day."

"By Inferno's Light" - Dukat's big speech. "That space station you're so fond of was built by Cardassia." "Funny. I thought it was built by Bajoran slave labor." "I yield! I cannot defeat this Klingon. All I can do is kill him, and that no longer holds my interest." "Armageddon will have to wait for another day."

"Call to Arms" - The end with Sisko's baseball.

"Field of Fire" - Snipering the melon. Who the bad guy ends up being and what his motive is.

Also: "Hard Time" "For the Uniform" "Little Green Men"

ANDROMEDA:

Proud of creating my first show. I think the cast I had control over (everyone but Dylan) is pretty great.

"Under the Night" - "Oh, he's the guy who retired. Didn't you say he bought a farm?" "The farm. Bought the farm, Trance." "What's the difference?" "Torn pressure suit and a bad emergency seal." Tyr's entrance.

"An Affirming Flame" - "I don't care if we wake up when the suns have all burned out and the universe is winding down to die, as long as I'm there to watch."

"Angel Dark, Demon Bright" - Harper's big speech. "Those are my mathematics. I'll leave you to yours." I like the way time travel works in this one.

"Music of a Distant Drum" - Tyr correcting the kid's shooting grip

"Harper 2.0" - "My pain belongs to the Divine. It is like air. It is like water."

"It's Hour Come Round at Last" - "To hell with the odds. All that matters in life is that we try. Promise you'll try."

THE TWILIGHT ZONE:

I'm proud to have written a Twilight Zone even if it wasn't in the original run.

THE DEAD ZONE:

"Descent" - Triggering a JohnnyVision by having him brushed by a passing bat.

THE DRESDEN FILES:

Underrated show in my opinion. I'm proud of co-developing it. Production was rough so I'm proud I got the episodes done and the show on the air. I think the cast is really good. The moment when Harry has to get a wasp to sting him in the eye to use it as a spy drone is pretty memorable.

THE 4400:

Richard Tyler in the diner seeing how much the world has changed. Ali is so good in that scene. We knew we had lightning in a bottle with him.

THE GATES:

"Little Girl Lost" is pretty good.

ALPHAS:

I wrote a lot of Gary's off the wall lines. "Left!" "Are you sure? Heart left, Gary?" Gary puts his hand over his heart. "No, right!" "Respect the badge!" Also casting Tatiana Maslany before she blew up was a really good call.

STAR-CROSSED:

I came up with a lot of how the Atrians culture and biology worked and I think that was all cool stuff. I loved Teri's "hold my gold" moment in "And Left No Friendly Drop," which was something that Chelsea Gilligan came up with in blocking, but I'll take credit for it. Teri punching the drone in "What Storm is This That Blows So Contrary" was fun.

(Elementary later)

[the-lavender-clown]

I’m rewatching DS9 with my mom rn and it’s just reminding me how much I love Nog. I already forced my followers on Instagram to listen to my thoughts on him and y’all are my next victims

Nog is a great example for us to see the Ferengis and their culture in more depth. It's so interesting to me to watch his character develop as well as Sisko's viewpoint with him. Starfleet (specifically humans) wants to preach that they're accepting of all life forms and have left prejudice behind them but it's simply not true. In TNG we know that Worf definitely experienced his fair share of prejudice for being Klingon and Data for being an android. For the Voyager cast B'Elanna faced prejudice as a child for being half Klingon and the Doctor for being a hologram. Nog is DS9's best example I think of this kind of character. Even Worf was suspicious of Nog when he joins the DS9 crew despite having been in Nog's very situation as the first of his species (which doesn't have a very good reputation either) to join Starfleet. When introduced to the Ferengi in TNG we are lead to think that they are lying, greedy, cunning little gremlins and that's not entirely wrong but it's not entirely right either. An individual person is more than their race and culture. When they first get to DS9 Nog is one of the closest people to Jake's age and who wants to hang out with him. They became fast friends and got into some trouble for pulling pranks, tho they were never really very harmful if we're being honest but it certainly doesn't put Nog in a very good light. It looks like Nog is a bad influence and Sisko is convinced he is. He tries to convince Jake to not be friends with him and even bans him from hanging out with Nog but it doesn't work because the two boys are committed to their friendship. Jake teaches Nog how to read and Nog gives him (terrible) advice on girls. They're friendship has some bumps from the cultural differences but they always make up and push through. Ben has to admit that he was wrong about Nog and about their friendship. Ben even sticks up for Rom in an episode simply because their sons are best friends. He's able to see the Ferengi in a different light. Sure he still doesn't like Quark very much but who does? Quark is important to the station tho so they have to deal with him. (I could go into Quark’s character too but this is about Nog rn.) Then eventually Nog decides to join Starfleet and since his species isn't part of the federation he has to get a letter of recommendation from a command level officer to be able to go to the academy and he asks Sisko to sponsor him. Sisko spends the episode testing Nog to see if he's trustworthy and serious about this. At the end he tells Nog he won't write the letter because he doesn't understand why Nog wants to join and he needs to understand before he writes that letter. Nog tells him he wants to join Starfleet because he knew he didn't have the "lobs" for business just like his father doesn't and he doesn't want to end up like him. His father is brilliant but he's stuck working for his brother in a bar. Nog doesn't want that life for himself and he knows that if he's goes into business like a "good Ferengi" then that's where he'll end up. But he has his father's hands and smarts for machinery as well as his uncle's tenacity. He wants to do something worthwhile with his life and in Starfleet he can. Plus he looks up to Sisko, you can't convince me he doesn't, and Sisko is in Starfleet so that's another reason he wants to join (but that’s just my opinion).That speech gets him his letter and sponsorship. He gets to live out his dream of doing something with his life. He gets to be the first Ferengi in Starfleet proving that not all Ferengi are obsessed with profit and greed. I am so proud of him for that.

In conclusion, Nog is my brave, sweet, precious son and an incredibly complex character 💛💛💛

[sshbpodcast]

Star Trek Parents Just Don’t Understand (Part 1)

By Ames

Who’s got the bigger daddy issues: kids from Disney movies or kids from Star Trek? Many writers’ cheat code to give a main character depth of any kind starts with killing off one or two parents, or perhaps giving them terrible parents that will scar them for life. The futuristic world of Trek is no different, featuring guff with one’s parental unit in so many characters that it makes being raised by the Borg seem like a luxury!

That’s not to say we don’t get some good ones, or ones that, at bare minimum, try a little bit. Break out the greeting cards and flowers this week as A Star to Steer Her By spends some quality time with the folks of many characters across the franchise up through all the classic series. Check out all the family trees below and listen to us rattle off a bunch of honorable mentions on this week’s podcast episode (discussion at 54:08). Some of these apples fall pretty far from their terrible trees.

[images © CBS/Paramount]

He’s my number one dad!

I’ll just go category by category and start out with the best of the best. The positive influences in our characters’ lives often made them more well rounded people, and frankly it’s always good to see moms and dads putting their kids’ interests over their own. There are some great examples in Beverly Crusher who’s just a straight-up solid mom to Wesley throughout TNG, supporting him even when he’s messing things up, and in Worf’s adoptive parents Sergey and Helena Rozhenko who took in not one, but two Klingon children, and raised them in what turned out to be a very balanced way. And I can’t praise Ishka enough for bringing up two relatively progressive Ferengi boys in a society that doesn’t put much value in their females.

Let’s hear it for these single dads who gave their kids the choice to do what they wanted with their lives and threw themselves behind them 100%: Rom whose development throughout DS9 grew in tandem with that of his son Nog, and Data who let his daughter Lal choose her own body to express herself just as she wanted. And don’t forget Joe Sisko, a classic sort of father role who is caring and comforting, and even willing to trek across a desert in his old age for his kid.

But the easy pic for best parent in Trek is obvious, so I’ll not spare you the suspense. Benjamin Sisko, yet another single father (and a single Black father, at that) because writers LOVE killing spouses, has the tenderest, sweetest, most loving relationship with Jake that it’s almost nauseating but you adore every minute of it. And when Kasidy and he are going to have a baby and the Prophets come calling, the very reason why it is such a debilitating sacrifice for him to abide by their plan is because of how much he loves his family, but we’ll touch on that again in a bit…

—

Technically good: the best kind of good

Moving on to a group of parents who we may not understand: we see a lot of aliens with different cultural norms but who are great for their kids in their own ways, literally. Who comes to mind specifically for this category is Endar from the TNG episode “Suddenly Human,” a Talarian who is raising a human child orphaned from the war. In his own culture, this is perfectly normal even though to us it might seem barbaric, but it’s clear he really loves Jono, so who are we to judge? Q, for that matter, is the first parent in all of the Continuum, so it’s hard to judge his parenting style save to say that he’s going about it in that specifically Q way of his, usually involving some kind of elaborate test. Similarly, I think of some Cardassian dads like Gul Madred and Tekeny Ghemor who might seem like hard asses in a fascist regime to us, but who are decent and doting fathers to their daughters in that lizardy way of theirs.

Speaking of lizards! While we’re here, let’s throw in some love for the seriously unhumanlike parents we meet who do exactly what they need to do because it’s their biological nature. I’d toss Mother Horta on this kind of list, along with Spot and her kittens, George and Gracie and their whale calf, and even Janeway and Paris when they’re in salamander form. I hope their lizard babies are okay.

But the more I think of it, the more I actually think the Borg might be some of the best parents on the list, but only if you consider this argument from the perspective of their own culture. Think about it: all their kids get just the right time in the maturation chamber as they need, they have the whole hive mind to support them, they’re never lonely because everyone’s voices are in their heads. Sure, if you’re not already in the Collective, getting assimilated is not pleasant (wait for our final category for more of this!), but when you’re assimilated, you’re family.

—

Everyone makes huge, huge mistakes

Most parents, however, make mistakes. Lots of ‘em. Some are bigger and harder to forgive than others, but these are the kinds of things that are understandable because their hearts are in the right place, right? Like, how easy is it to forgive Miles and Keiko O’Brien for literally sending their feral daughter to live in the woods? They meant well and it worked out, after all. Or to forgive Amsha and Richard Bashir for genetically augmenting their struggling son when they knew that the illegality of their actions was teeming? Or to forgive Kira Meru for bedding with the enemy to ensure subsistence for her family? Okay, that one she really had no ability to consent in, but it still messed Nerys up for quite a while.

Other parents in this clump just don’t gel with their progenies because their personalities clash. Odo’s parental figure Mora Pol is a proponent of using the stick over the carrot, especially if it’s a stick with some kind of shocking device built in. Tom’s got a big chip on his shoulder from his treatment growing up under Admiral Owen Paris, who is made out to be the kind of dad who just expects so much of his son that there’s no way anyone could possibly live up to it. And speaking of great expectations, Noonian Soong literally made his kids to be better than the sum of their parts and seemed way too hyperfixated on his own legacy to care about their individual needs. It doesn’t help matters that he built them to look just like him.

But let’s dig into our feature character in this category, Lwaxana Troi. She might be a fashion and feminist icon, but her relationship with Deanna is strained at best and insufferable at worst. For most of The Next Generation, she’s portrayed as just a busybody mom who butts into her daughter’s life all the time, constantly meddling and focused only on how it reflects on HER that her daughter not only left Betazed for Starfleet, but is still unmarried. Deanna chose her own life and Lwaxana just doesn’t get it. Luckily, we later get episodes like our Tops pick “Half a Life” and “Dark Page” that shine new light on their relationship and bring them closer together, but there are still many fans out there who detest the character because of these first impressions she made as a parent.

—

Where can I stow all this baggage?

So many of the main crew members have parents or ARE parents in this lowly category that it was probably the toughest one to make the cull for. These parents are the reasons so many characters are left with a foundation of mommy and/or daddy baggage that follows them around wherever they go. Look at Kyle Riker, a single father who Will has nothing but apprehension for, especially for cheating him at anbo-jyutsu all his life. Then there’s Miral Torres for whom her daughter B’Elanna was never Klingon enough, giving her a sense of racial dysphoria that formed the base of her character; and on the other hand John Torres for whom B’Elanna was TOO Klingon and he freakin’ left, giving her abandonment issues on top of that! Ezri’s mom Yanas Tigan falls into this category as well for how little she supported her daughter during her transition to joined Trill and also, ya know, for all the general crimes and shit. And let’s round this out with Chakotay’s dad Kolopak, who just didn’t listen to his son’s desire to not follow in his footsteps, and died never having made up – though I guess they also talk after death now sometimes, so who the hell knows with them?

The characters with the biggest chips on their shoulders can also have just plain absent parents, who messed up their upbringing by just never being there. I can give James Kirk a little bit of a pass since Carol Marcus asked him to not be in their son’s David’s life (which is a little iffy on its own, Carol), but how much anger David harbors for him just proves this was a bad move. A super tenuous relationship is also on full display across several series between Spock and Sarek because daddy Vulcan judges Spock for being half-human when he’s the one who bred with a human in the first place! We’ll see more of Sarek next week when we see how good he does in nu Trek too.

Of course, the poster boy for shittiest parent in Trek tends to be Worf, and though that’s partly a joke among fans, there’re also some sound reasons. K’Ehleyr was rocking it as a single badass mom when certain Duras things happened and put Worf into the role of deadbeat who pawns his offspring off on his own parents (already mentioned above!) when he can’t handle it. Which is understandable; he didn’t sign on for this, but every interaction between father and son is begrudging, Worf does nothing but try to jam Alexander into a Klingon mold that he so clearly doesn’t fit, and he never listens to what the kid wants or needs. It’s no wonder Alex is so bitter towards him when he returns in Deep Space Nine!

—

Creatures who eat their babies

Terrible, terrible parents in Trek are easier to spot because they’re ones who really just don’t care if their kid gets harmed, killed, assimilated by Borg, etc. Or even try to do it themselves! A pretty big example of this is Gul Dukat who fully intended to murder his bastard daughter Ziyal to cover his lizard ass. And then he does it again in “Covenant” when he has another half-Bajoran kid! How many more of these Dukat babies are there? More bad Cardassian parenting comes from Enabran Tain who nearly gets Garak killed so many times it’s no wonder the poor guy has so much trauma. And who can forget Eleen from the TOS episode “Friday’s Child” who was straight up going to kill her newborn once she got it out of her belly until McCoy talked/slapped her out of it?

Not much better were parents who are just cool with sacrificing their children for whatever reason. We see this in the TOS episode “The Mark of Gideon” when Hodin volunteers his daughter Odona to contract Kirk’s Vegan choriomeningitis to thin the herd of her people, or on the podcast this week where we featured “Child’s Play,” in which we learn Icheb’s parents Leucon and Yifay whelped him specifically to get him assimilated and infect the Borg with a virus. In that same vein, Magnus and Erin Hansen were negligent and downright careless enough to bring their tiny daughter with them on a Borg observation survey, getting all their asses assimilated.

But you know what? I’m gonna give the worst of the worst to the Prophets, specifically that absolute weirdo who possessed Sarah Sisko just to get impregnated and create our boy Space Jesus, I mean Benjamin, knowing full well it would be torturous to him throughout his life until he ultimately threw himself into the fire caves for whatever weird wormhole alien, nonlinear shenanigans they were pulling. Was it all just Sarah knowing it was fate? Screw that. You’re the worst, Prophets, and you should be ashamed of yourselves in whatever nonlinear way works best.

—

Come back for seconds next week when we see if parents in newer Trek movies and series are any better than their predecessors. Also, come back for more Voyager in our full series rewatch over on SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also give us your alien parenting tips over on Facebook and Twitter. And parents, heed this lesson: keep your children away from the Borg. You know, unless it’s futile.

[pedrocomicreviews]

Star Trek #32 (and, stealthly, Star Trek: Shax’s Worst Day Ever)

“Brother. Even in your cosmic power, you will never be able to make a perfect universe... because every universe you create will have you.”

Jesus Christ, Data, go for the jugular why don’t you. Full spoilers for both books in the title. 

Lore War wraps up with two pretty satisfying stories– one where we follow our main characters as they take the fight to Lore’s doorstep, and a sidebar where we follow the newly restored Shaxs as he single-handedly destroys the entire Starfleet fleet with facts and logic, and also by doing what he loves doing best: ejecting warp cores.

The tonal shift between these stories is night and day, on purpose. Shaxs’s side-adventure has the tone (and words) of Ryan North’s Lower Decks book, but it’s still canon, which makes it very funny when you get to see how horrifying his actions actually are when portrayed in the regular book. 

And North does know his stuff– everything Shaxs does would in fact fit in with a regular Star Trek adventure, even if it’s obviously exaggerated in scope and size, as to allow him to actually do what he needs to do for the purposes of this story. It’s fast-paced, funny, thrilling, and ends perfectly. A little too tongue-in-cheek sometimes, but hey, that’s North’s humor, people seem to like Squirrel Girl well enough. It’s that, again. 

But let’s focus on Sisko this time: the Emissary and Worf plunge deep into Lore’s central station. With the Quadrant Minds freed, the Borgfied Maquis attacking all of Lore’s infrastructure, and Shaxs having destroyed Earth and most if not all of the fleet, it is up to Sisko to open the wormhole he spent all that time building and use it to defeat Lore… only for it to not exist!

This is not a book about an easy way out for the heroes. Lore does what any psychopathic God would when faced with a godkiller who he can’t just wipe away: he tempts him with what he wants. A version of his family he can keep, who aren’t going to go through so much strife like they did in the prime universe.

The character of Benjamin Sisko is, first and foremost, a family man. He is a husband, he is a father, he is a shepherd, and then he is a Starfleet officer; and this exact conflict is what makes him so compelling. When he perceived himself as failing as a husband and a father after his wife died, he became deeply conflicted about who he actually was. 

He was told he was a demigod and that it was his role to guide Bajorans into tomorrow, and he went through all five stages with that one. He was told his son wasn’t going to be a Starfleet officer, and he didn’t know what to do. His best friends started to betray Starfleet; first for the Maquis, then for a failed coup, and he didn’t even know if his uniform meant anything anymore. By the end of the original show, he has compromised nearly every single value he has ever held, or seen them challenged in ways he never really managed to answer to in full.

So to see this conflict brought back, in such a tangible, real form, and demanding an answer in a way his scuffles with the Mirror Universe or Dukat or the Dominion never did, is great. It’s the singular moment Sisko never experienced– if you could stop it, if you could just forget about it all and live the life you wanted, with the people you wanted, would you compromise too? Is this worth it? When your answer to everything else you’ve ever done to compromise your morals was “I can live with it”, could you do it again? Could you do it against the whole of existence? 

And he says no, because of course he does, but Benjamin Sisko, specifically, says no to the thing he wants the most. Because he finds out he already has it. Turns out the Orbs were the friends we made along the way all along!

And it’s… it’s fine! It’s fine, it’s a cute twist, and it’s a fun, saccharine idea. I sure wish Kira was in this story more instead of being relegated to basically cameo appearances, but as far as a 5-chapter plot goes, this is probably the best way to do it. I do love the irony that Lore is ultimately defeated by sheer the emotional weight of a bunch of people he deemed to be too weak to ever really go against their base needs, although I kinda need to wonder about the true scope of his powers if he couldn’t even fight back.

Lore War was a good experiment as far as figuring out whether or not Star Trek can do these Age of Apocalypse-style stories, and I’d say it passes with flying colors. Some of the art could have been better and some of the story beats could have been more expanded upon, but I don’t know if that could have happened without two other books running parallel, or maybe a few more issues than IDW was willing to give them. 

It is ultimately a high note to end a great book on, and I have high hopes that Star Trek: Omega will serve as a good epilogue. I’ll leave most of my feelings on the full book for that review, and since Lore War was mostly an action-packed series of references and cool moments, I don’t have that much more to say on the writing aside that it was very satisfying, and I don’t have anything more to say on the plot aside that it was, well, good Age of Apocalypse. Which, hey– I don’t like AoA, so this already scores higher in my head.

Also, hey, congratulations on getting me to love Worf. He gets the best lines and does the coolest shit in this story. 

What a voice to give that dude who hated sex so much he wanted to destroy Risa.

[jimclassicstoycollection]

Toy lot (loose & Incomplete)

Star Trek & Star Wars

On 10-03-21 my gf and I went to a Punk Rock Flea Market and one of the vendors we came across had some old Playmates Star Trek toys, and another one had some old Kenner Star Wars toys. So naturally I bought them.

Star Wars (Kenner)

You can’t have enough Imperial stormtroopers or TIE fighter pilots, or AT-AT pilots for that matter.

R5-D4 was in pretty good condition so I had to grab it, even though this is my third Kenner R5. I always wanted R5-D4 as a kid, but never got him. He was always a minor grail for me, so every time that I see one, I pick one up.

Romulan Warbird

The Romulan Warbird is from Playmates ‘The Next Generation’ toyline.

This was my first one (I own a second one now). It’s in pretty good condition, however there’s some discoloration around some of the sculpted wing details, and at the forward section of the ship.

But otherwise I think the sculpting on the ship is nice, but simple, and the painting is almost nonexistent...Actually forget the almost part, it IS nonexistent; the entire ship is a cast in green plastic, aside from the transparent blues of the warp nacelles. The does have lights and sounds but so far I haven’t bothered to see if they actually work yet..

Now moving on to the 4inch figures.

All the figures are loose, in good condition and mostly missing their accessories.

Starfleet Cadet Data:

The Cadet Data was part of a later series of Playmates trek figures supposed to be featuring all younger versions of the TNG cast. I think this is one of he few times Playmates strayed away from creating screen accurate (Star Trek) toys and making and creating their own things which was never featured in any of the shows.

Three Datas and a Lore

Kruge (Star Trek III):

The antagonist from ‘Star Trek: The Search for Spock’ played by Christopher Lloyd, and I have to say Playmates did capture the look of him really well!

Gowron (TNG)

How can you not recognize ‘Ol Crazy-Eyes?

Kahless (TNG):

Kahless...or should I say his clone is the least interesting one in my opinion. But he stands well.

Benjamin Sisko (as a Klingon):

I had to do a double take on this figure. When I first got all these guys I really didn’t give this figure much attention. At first I though he might be Worf’s biological brother, but thee I was holding the figure in my hand and just the right right angle and said to myself, ‘Wait; is that Sisko?’ And sure enough it was him from that one DS9 episode some of the DS9 crew infiltrated the great hall to expose a Changling.

Spock (Mirror Universe):

[lady-sci-fi]

Star Trek Bake-Off

What would they be like and how would they do on a show the style of the Great British Bake-Off? Let’s assume they all can bake/cook despite replicators :P

Feel free to add on with your thoughts :D

Joseph Sisko- one of the judges. Gives subtle advice and hugs when people need it.

Jake Sisko- one of the show hosts. Snarky but supportive. (Nog as co-host? They’d be fun together.)

Data- Flawless at the technical stuff. Chooses recipes based on what he knows from studies. Chooses “unusual” stuff based on science says should work, whether its been tested or not. Always finishes a few minutes early and offers to help anyone struggling.

Geordi- Comes in with plans, but is definitely open to being improvisational once he starts. Which usually ends up good.

Riker- Is very “experimental” with his flavors, which is either unexpectedly really good or expectedly really bad. There is no in-between.

Picard- Sticks to French stuff. Not a food snob, but definitely likes his fancy recipes.

Troi- Chocolate in everything she can put it in. Is always the first to comfort another baker, even though a couple times that led to her accidentally leaving something in the oven a little too long.

Worf- Has many good “grandma” type recipes from Eastern Europe and sticks to them to the letter. Protective of family “secret ingredients”. Doesn’t understand why people think he’s cute when he tells little life stories that go along with the recipes.

Sisko- Is very focused once he starts. Loves his Southern US stuff, but up for mixing different things with it. Suspects Judge Joseph and Host Jake might have it out for him.

Miles- The most accident-prone, as in multiple finger bandaids each day. Decent and “average” baker. Tries Japanese recipes occasionally in honor of Keiko, tries being the key word.

Julian- Can sometimes be distracted by shenanigans. Very inventive when things go a little wrong.

Jadzia- Messiest station, barely-controlled chaos. Lacks decoration finesse, but good flavors.

Kira- Does one type of thing and does it very well. Anything else? Not so much.

Ezri- Decent, but needs to work on being flustered easily and her self-confidence. 

[thegeminisage]

it's time for a star trek update: finale edition. wednesday we watched ds9's "in the hands of the prophets" and tng's "descent part i."

in the hands of the prophets (ds9):

ok first of all it's fucking wack how relevant this shit still is like more than 20 yeasrs later. miss politician literally just pulled a r*n des*ntis trying to rile up her base about religious panic to get votes that she lacked

secondly they BOMBED a SCHOOL??? actually it works as a nice reminder of how the bajorans made their pleasure known under cardassian rule...for awhile there, federation was no different

LOVED o'brien being willing to beat a guy senseless for making his wife sad. good for him.

DID NOT LIKE kira and sisko fighting...........i liked that kira had that wake-up call at the end but i feel like ds9 has been a little unclear on whether or not she was a true believer til now, and i was a little surprised she thought the curriculum needed changin at first - then i was like well yeah i guess she was really upset when kai opaka died but then at the end she was like guess i'm not as much of a believer as i'd like to be! so a little hazy. but that might be a me problem

i liked that sisko took the time to sit down w jake and be like. people have a right to religion. lest this episode seem one-sided or unfair. it was a nice touch

the assassin being obriens little shadow was SUCH a nice touch but once they let you in on the joke she's like always suspiciously in the back and it kept cracking us up

the flirting scene was really good also. "on your toes o'brien" he read the room and headed immediately for the exit and good for him i love him sm. probably my favorite part of the entire ep i laughed really hard

overall felt like a weird choice for a finale, but not necessarily a BAD episode, just one of their weaker ones. i would have picked duet for sure but i guess it just doesn't involve as many characters, let alone Sisko, The Main Character

though side bar ther ehas been a disappointing lack of sisko-centric content in s1...........all he really got was the pilot and the plot with jake sneaking out to teach nog to read. fingers crossed for more of him in s2

descent part i (tng):

DATA....................................

the reason i was banned from reading the summary of this ep prior to watching was that it spoiled literally all 3 major plot twists 1. data gets an emotion 2. the borg 3. lore

i felt geordi was a little dismissive of data having an emotion here ("how would you know it's really anger") but i liked that deanna treated him really niceys. i thought his brainwashing at the end was a little scary but ULTIMATEL not his fault!!! somebody save my boy

i looooove seeing the borg again. even though these guys aren't the real borg i love the borg in any form <3

shoutout to hugh and that time picard DIDN'T experiment on a sentient being like a lab rat! and then this whole episode he was like damn i should have experimented on his ass. never change ig.

back to geordi, i think he should have helped data with the experiment. i don't know that it could have changed anything but it might have given them a clue...like yeah data is taking his life into his hands or whatever but geordi surely has a phaser. like he could say END PROGRAM at any time. furthermore, surely he culd ask data to step out and then tell the computer to PRETEND it was putting data's life in danger without actually doing it? it's wack that the holodeck can and nearly has killed people by the way. unethical horrific technology.

oh and i almost forgot how cool was it that the REAL LIFE STEPHEN HAWKING was in this episode, playing himself...and gambling :') i bet he was so stoked that was literally so fucking cool. i hope he had a great time

TONIGHT: tng's "descent part ii" and ds9's "the homecoming."