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[damnredthing]

Destination Star Trek Germany – My recap (long post warning)

I attended the DST Germany last weekend (23rd – 25th of September 2022). It was my second convention ever (my first one was the Expo Con in Hannover in 2000). So I am really not an expert in attending conventions.

What was my motivation to go to this specific convention? 2022 has been and continues to be a horrific year for my family and myself; the horror started in October last year. In all honesty, I wanted to go to a place that surrounds me with things I enjoy in the hopes it would shake me out of my numbness. I wanted to see people, even if not to interact with them, but just to watch people and to see life. I hoped for some of that life to rub off on me again. I considered going to Fedcon, but that was too soon for me to accomplish after the horror climaxed in January 2022. I booked the tickets for DST Germany in May, thinking that September would be far enough in the future to handle it. Little did I know that just a week after I booked my tickets in May, the second wave of horror would wash over my family. I was very close to cancel DST, but eventually I went through with it anyways.

I am glad I did, although I am not sure it really helped me. Time will tell I guess. But as I went to the con, I can give my personal recap now. Sorry that I didn’t make many photos.

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Facts first

The convention took place in the Westfalenhallen, hall 8 in Dortmund, Germany. The Westfalenhallen is a complex of multiple exhibition halls. They are right next to the Signal Iduna Park, which is the home stadium of the famous 1. Bundesliga football club BVB (Borussia Dortmund).

The Westfalenhallen are located perfectly for visitors. There were hundreds of parking lots all around the area. For those who come by train, there is a subway station right next to the Westfalenhallen with direct connection to Dortmund central station.

The exhibition area of hall 8 is 5,000 sqm small (which equals 70% of a football pitch or roughly 90% of an American football pitch).

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The floor plan looked like this (plan):

Sorry, I only have this in German. But:

Vorstellungszone = Screening room (where episodes were shown on a small flat-screen TV)

Voyager Bühne = Voyager Stage (free for all stage)

Autogramme = Autographs (I guess you figured that out by yourself 😋 )

Info Karten = Info Tickets

Enterprise Bühne = Enterprise stage (main stage that required for the most part paid tickets)

The big purple area in the middle had a couple of vendors (which I’ll comment on later).

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Floor plan (how it really was):

The southern fan zone and autograph zone in truth were switched.

Next to the voyager bridge photo zone was Café Acht, which was a seating area on floor level 2 (open only for Admiral ticket holders). Café Acht is part of the exhibition hall equipment. However, some benches were placed on ground level for everyone else by the con organizers. There was just one crèpes (sp?) booth in the corner, which resulted in very long queues because the booth was serviced by one staff member only. I am not sure who the booth belonged to, the con organizers or the exhibition hall owners.

Between the screening room and the autograph section in the north there was an exit to get to an outside area. There was one food truck (again, no clue who that belonged to) and a couple benches. Prices were astronomic:

“Fritten” are French fries. 0.5l soft drink bottles went for €5 on both booths. Again, I don’t know whether these prices were set by the con organizers or the exhibition hall owners (I heard it’s the latter but don’t nail me on this).

The time table kept changing during the event. With Ethan Philips canceled his attendance, his free for all talk on Sunday was replaced by Marine Sirtis’ one (which I missed). Connor Trinneer joined Anthony Montgomery’s free for all talk on Sunday (which I also missed).

All talks took place on the main stage, the secondary stage was for fan made talks like podcasts, auction, cosplay contest, audiobook presentation, quizzes etc.

There was one Voyager bridge setup which you could have your picture taken on (only you) or at specific times with the Voyager cast (which sadly only consisted of Kate Mulgrew, Robert Picardo and Finton McKeown).

And there was a photo op booth with a green screen setup.

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Accommodation

Several hotels are located near the Westfalenhallen. I picked the Dorint Hotel (4 HRS stars) which is the closest and in view of hall 8. The hotel was very good, which is to be expected for the prices you had to pay there.

The hotel is a conference hotel. I arrived on Friday, which is when a conference took place in the hotel. It was funny to watch business people mix with Star Trek fans. I absolutely admire every fan who ran around in cosplay in the hotel and also on the exhibition compound. I lack the courage to cosplay. Whoever says that Star Trek fans are nerds and losers have no idea how courageous they are to show their love all in public, knowing that they might be ridiculed by idiots. Luckily I did not see any idiot in the hotel. But I did see some on the exhibition compound. A huge car components exhibition took place on the same weekend and some of those visitors obviously had to prove their masculinity by laughing at fans and calling them big childs or losers. IMO a loser is who has to ridicule another person in the hopes to appear strong themselves.

Anywho, to get from Dorint to the convention there was a huge obstacle to overcome:

This is the so called BVB-Bridge, which on Bundesliga game days is used by fans to get to the Signal Iduna Park. As you can see the slope is insane (I learnt while talking to locals that the bridge is going to be replaced because it is not considered barrier-free). Even for me the bridge was a challenge even though I am not disabled. Walking up the bridge wasn’t so much a problem, but if you suffer from arthrosis in your ancles and knees, walking down this bridge is like torture. I have no idea how people in wheelchairs (and there were a couple at the convention) managed to get over this bridge.

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The con organization

Look, I know there has been a lot of discussions about the organization of this event and a lot of disappointment and anger. But I do not want to join into the bashing.

I had the misfortune of paying €1k for another convention 3 or 4 years ago (not Star Trek related) that got cancelled and for which I was never refunded. THAT is what I call a scam.

Even though a lot of guest stars cancelled their attendance for DST Germany and the whole convention setup appeared very low budget, I am still grateful that the convention took place after all and I was able to meet amazing guests.

I didn’t run into any staff member who wasn’t super friendly.

I heard on Twitter that the organizers even apologized on stage at the closing ceremony (I left the con around 1pm after Kate’s panel on Sunday) for how the event was not how they wanted it to be. To my understanding it was the last Destination Star Trek under official umbrella. There might be conventions in other form in the future, but not with official ties to Paramount/CBS anymore.

Tickets came either in packages or day or weekend tickets. I had the commander ticket which had 5 talks and 5 autographs included, plus a green screen and bridge photo (without guest star). Additional tickets could be purchased on the venue, but often the queue was way too long to service everyone in time.

On Friday I had the impression this is going to be a small and cozy convention with not too many visitors. When I came into hall 8 on Saturday morning though, it was jam-packed with people. I figured out later that the Lieutenant package only included entrance for Saturday and Sunday, so when they all showed up the numbers exploded.

My Corona warning app already blew up like a Christmas tree, so far my tests have been negative. Fingers crossed. But home office is in order this week. Better safe than sorry for my colleagues at work. 🥴

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The guest stars

THEY.WERE.FRICKIN.AMAZING!!!

Every single one of them.

The guests stars saved the whole convention IMO. Even though each panel was only 30 minutes long (which I didn’t understand, because if so many guests cancelled, they could easily have doubled the length of each panel, especially as the guest stars themselves seemed disappointed when they ended so soon), the stars managed to get the audience excited in no time. The atmosphere was energetic and a lot of questions were asked.

I’ll try to stress my memory a bit with just some excerpts that stuck in my head.

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* Kate Mulgrew

She is fantastic on stage. Funny, witty, self-confident and not shy to state her opinions.

She repeatedly (because she was repeatedly asked) stated that she doesn’t think it’s impossible anymore to see Janeway again in a live action project and that talks about this have increased. But she does not want to play second fiddle. It has to be THE Janeway show. She also reflected this when she answered a question about whether she would join The Orville season 4 as a guest star (if asked); she said let the 4th season of something be for other people, she would only do the Janeway show.

Kate also got very private and talked about her mom who had Alzheimer’s disease. She comforted the audience members who also have relatives with this horrible disease. Her advice is to stay with them, love them, never give up on them. But she also didn’t mince words when she said that this disease will not go easy, it will get worse and worse and end horribly.

In Kate’s opinion, Star Trek fans are the best fans of all franchises. They are the smartest, the most loyal ones and one more thing which I forgot (sorry, my memory is also ageing).

Kate hates her photo being taken. To assure us that this is a very human feeling, she asked the entire audience who likes to have their photo taken. By far the most hands stayed down, proving her point.

She also talked about why she opposed having a love relationship with anyone, especially Chakotay. She wanted Janeway to be a person of integrity. She can have friendships, even close friendships, but no relationships and especially no sex. She joked that it would give the ready room a whole new meaning “Chakotay, to the ready room!”.

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*Robert Picardo

He is also fantastic and super funny on stage. He has the witty humor which I like so much.

I also had the impression that he remembers every take and every episode of Voyager. He often started with “Do you remember that scene when… “ or “Do you remember that episode where…”.

Bob often talked in German to us (which left all the non-German speaking folks in the audience a bit helpless, but moderator Benjamin Stöwe translated some of that, at least at the opening ceremony. Benjamin was an awesome moderator btw!). He joked how every time he speaks in German, people automatically assume that he also understands German (because his pronunciation is really good). To which he usually replies with “Ich kann Deutsch sprechen, aber ich kann es nicht verstehen.“ (I can speak German, but I don’t understand it).

He joked that he was on Star Trek and on Stargate. If he gets a role in Star Wars, then he has the trifecta completed.

He told the story how he suggested that the doctor should be a passionate opera fan and that he should listen to operas in sickbay. Months later he got a script in which he was supposed to sing an opera. He freaked out and protested, but he was told to just try it. If it works, it works, if not, they’d voice over the part with a professional singer. It turned out that he wasn’t too shabby at all. Of course he demonstrated some of his singing on stage, and the man still got it.

Bob shared with us that the episode “Life Line”, in which he met his “creator” Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, was his pitch, and he was very proud to share that it was the first time ever an actor’s pitch went all the way to a full episode and that he was credited for the story.

It was also his idea to teach 7 of 9 human social behavior after Kes was his mentor before. He said he thought it was a funny idea that of all people on board the Voyager, it was the only non-human entity to teach 7 of 9 human behavior. At a time when more and more people had their first personal computer in RL, it was a computer program that would teach human behavior on a TV show.

It is no secret that many Star Trek actors aren’t Trump fans and many are vocal about it. Bob is no exception but he had a very funny and charismatic way to formulate it. He said that the last time he was in Germany for a convention was 2018. At that time Trump was president. The next time Bob will be in Germany again, Trump will be in jail…. or he’ll be president again; that’s how crazy things are today.

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*Marina Sirtis

She did one hell of a job to make this convention successful. She had by far the most panels. She had by far the most photo ops. And when she wasn’t at photo ops or on stage, she was constantly available to give autographs. She even prolonged her stay to Sunday, which wasn’t the original plan.

Marina is also not a Trump fan (to put it mildly) and she explained a bit why that is so (not gonna repeat it all, this is not meant to be a political post).

I honestly don’t remember much from all the Q&As because they came in like rapid fire. Some questions I remember are who is the better kisser, Worf or Riker (Marina complained about Worf’s teeth 😂). Marina also talked about how Troi’s relationship with Worf came out of nowhere and made no sense to her, and how she was glad to get back to her Riker. Worf later hooked up with Jadzia so he should be happy (“but oh yeah, we killed her off”).

I remember her funny statement that she is Greek, and no way she can be vegan. A Greek being vegan is an oxymoron.

Sorry I don’t remember more, I don’t know why. Marina’s was the first panel I attended on Friday, maybe that’s why I don’t remember most of it anymore.

*Chrissy Chong

I don’t think there was ever a moment when she didn’t look cheerful and smiley. She did an amazing job representing SNW all on her own and it was such a pleasure to see her being in the focus. It was also her second convention ever which IMO you’d never guess.

She was also very thoughtful and clever not to spoil critical parts of episodes as she was aware that the show hasn’t debuted in Germany yet. What she talked about was very interesting nonetheless. She talked about working with the AR wall and how it was a pain to wear the EV suits. They cost USD 100k each, which is why they were borrowed from the Discovery set (and thus didn’t fit perfectly). They were very heavy and hurt so much that they got painkillers (!).

She talked about having Runa on set and how that specific episode was so much fun to do because everyone had such a blast to goof off. She said especially for Babs it was difficult because he was the only one who was “normal” in the episode. He often had to laugh at the silliness of everyone else, which then resulted in laugh fits for all.

She told us that she lived in Germany, Essen for 2 years in the past when she was part of a theatre ensemble. She forgot most of her German skills though, but still had some bits for us.

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*Armin Shimerman

What a funny and classy guy. He began his panel with a serious topic though when he remembered Louise Fletcher (who sadly just had passed away on the day the convention started). He and Louise were long time friends. He told us that when she auditioned for the role of Kai Winn, she asked him how much make up would she have to endure. She only wanted to accept the role if she didn’t have to sit too long in the make up chair. Armin told her not to worry as she’d only get a very small nose silicone piece. So she accepted the role. On set she then stormed to Armin and was complaining how he was right about the nose, but the damn wig and hood took 2 hours.

Armin also remembered Rene, who he considered his closest friend on set, and Aron Eisenberg and he thanked the audience for sharing this moment with him.

After this he turned into entertainer mode and took questions.

He told us how he involuntarily influenced the Ferengi to become more of a comedic species. He played the first Ferengi on the TNG episode “The Last Outpost” in a comedic way. He high pitched his voice and played his Ferengi like an idiot. The other actors followed his lead, which kinda cemented the species as a comedic one. The Ferengi were supposed to be as scary as the Klingons though. When Armin accepted the role of Quark, he wanted to correct this error.

During auditioning for Quark, he and Max Grodénchik were the only ones left to be considered for the role. While Max played Quark in a comedic way in his audition, Armin played him in a dramatic way and explained why he did that. The producers decided to go with Armin’s way and gave him less comedic situations than Rom. IMO it worked out perfectly for both roles.

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*Connor Trinneer and Anthony Montgomery

Sadly I missed their panels. Connor’s panel on Saturday was not included in my package. I tried to get a ticket for it, but the queue for the ticket counter was INSANE (many folks tried to get tickets for Kate’s panel at the same time). I ran out of time.

I missed Connor’s and Anthony’s Sunday panel because I left the con around 1pm (I was too exhausted, mentally and physically, to stay one minute longer).

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Photo sessions

I cannot tell you much about the photo sessions as I didn’t book any of those with the stars. Just like Kate, I also hate having my photo taken. It doesn’t help if I stand next to an awesome looking guest star. And I also honestly didn’t get the time table for the photo ops. One slot was sometimes just 10 or 15 minutes short. When I compared that time slot with the queue that built up for that slot, my mathematic brain couldn’t bring both together. I sincerely hope that folks who paid for an op and ended up in a long ass queue weren’t shooed away once the time slot ended before they got their chance.

The only two photos of me are me on the bridge alone and me in front of a green screen scene alone. I managed to sneak into both photo sessions Sunday morning, when the hall wasn’t busy and only very few peeps could have witnessed me with my mask off.

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Autographs

The queues for Kate and Marina were at times very long. But with the right timing, you could catch them with a reasonable small queue. I tried to go to all guest stars when their queues were relatively small, so I could chat a little bit with each of them.

Again, I produce this all from my swiss cheese memory, so apologies in advance. I thanked everyone for attending and wished them all a great weekend, so I’ll not repeat that in all recaps.

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*Kate Mulgrew

Before it was my turn I watched Kate talking to the two fans before me, who I think were a mom with her teen daughter. I didn’t overhear the conversation, but I noticed that after Kate signed their photo, the mom asked Kate to sign a red Starfleet uniform as well. The staff member next to Kate immediately kicked in and demanded them to pay extra for the additional autograph, but Kate signed the uniform for free and when the fans left the table, she told the staff member something along the line of I know you are just doing your job, but I don’t have the heart to say no.

When it was my turn I told her that I am very looking forward to Prodigy as it hasn’t been shown in Germany yet. Kate was surprised by that (despite the entire hall having billboards of the Nov 4th premiere date for Prodigy, but they were all in German so she maybe didn’t make the connection that the billboards were for the premiere).

She said she hopes that I’ll enjoy the show, to which I replied I am sure I will.

The queue was still very long, so I didn’t want to take too much time from all the other peeps waiting.

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*Robert Picardo

Told him with me attending this convention, it’s coming full circle for me. The first con I attended was the Expo Con in Hannover in 2000, and that’s where I had seen Robert Picard for the first time. And now I see him again, 22 years later.

He said woooow! You look all the same, but I look older.

I replied that he looks the same, but I got older.

I forgot what he said next, sorry. ☹️ He seemed very jet laggy.

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*Armin Shimerman

I said I am surprised that I didn’t have to pay (for the autograph) in latinum.

Armin laughed (I bet he heard this 'joke' a billion times already) and said well, the banks don’t accept latinum.

I replied well not here anyways!

Armin signed my picture with “Alles Gute”, so he noticed by my dialect that I am German. Very thoughtful guy!

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*Connor Trinneer and Anthony Montgomery

They both sat at the same table with a staff member in between. So I could get both autographs at the same time.

I first talked with Connor and told him I love Enterprise (that’s the truth!) except for one thing. In my headcanon Trip never died.

To my surprise Connor didn’t know the word. Or he made fun of me cuz with my German accent I probably pronounced it as “headcannon”. I am not sure. But he looked over to Anthony and asked him whether he knows the word headcanon. Anthony said no. I didn’t even get to explain it cuz Connor got it, he said it’s like canon but like what’s canon in your head. Anthony’s face lit up and he said oh that’s awesome!

I then went over to Anthony and asked him whether he’ll one day be in SNW as guest star in some time travel episode or some such (Anthony looked amazing btw, he could jump into his role right away and would look all the same).

He said I don’t know, but I wouldn’t mind. If we fans want it, we should let the studio know.

I said it would be cool to see you in a helmsmen match with Ortegas.

He said I haven’t seen the show yet, is it good?

I said it is absolutely fantastic, I love the show. I love it as much as I love Enterprise. I told him how sad I was that the series ended after just 4 seasons and that I didn’t understand why after waiting so long for a new Star Trek show, it ended so soon.

I noticed that Connor looked over at that. Both looked sad. Anthony said the cast also didn’t understand it and they were sad about it. But he’s happy that the show lives on in our hearts.

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*Marina Sirtis

The queue was a bit smaller than a day before, but still considerably long so I only got a few words in.

I told her I am very curious about Picard season 3 compared to TNG. Marina said it’s going to be totally different.

That honestly surprised me, and I said OH! Now I am even more curious.

She said she hopes I’ll enjoy it and called me sweetheart. 😊

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*Chrissy Chong

I was very much looking forward to meet Chrissy. Surprisingly a lot of fans queued up for an autograph with Chrissy (surprisingly because most German fans haven’t watched SNW yet). I noticed that a lot of guys got extremely excited when they talked to Chrissy. *grins*

I must say Chrissy is a fountain of joy. Her positive spirit is infectious. She also allowed fans to take photos with her at the autograph stand (I’ve seen Connor and Anthony do the same).

I had the longest conversation with Chrissy.

The moment I asked her “How is Runa?”, her already smiley face exploded into a supernova. You can tell she truly loves her pupper. She said she misses her so much as she was travelling a lot and bringing her to Germany was too much stress for her. But she hopes and plans to bring Runa to the Wales convention (hint, hint people!).

I told her that unfortunately I cannot go to Wales. I said I was hoping for her to sign my picture and have Runa add a paw print on the photo. Chrissy said she has special ink for that for Runa. So maybe you peeps who can go to Wales con… look out for Runa!

I asked Chrissy whether we gonna see Runa again (sorry, I fell in love with the pup). Chrissy said not in season 2 because the only (crazy) episode where Runa would have fit in had the same director (Amanda Row) as in Elysium Kingdom. The director was fine with having Runa on set for Elysium Kingdom but didn’t want to have the same stress again for the season 2 episode. Having a pet on set is more work apparently.

But Chrissy hopes (and pitches for) to have Runa in an episode in season 3.

I grinned at her and asked “Sooooooo, we do get a season 3?”.

Chrissy answered that nothing has been confirmed yet officially but come on, it would be a surprise if we wouldn’t get renewed, would it?

I said absolutely, and Paramount could expect a lot of fan protest.

Chrissy said if they get renewed they’ll start filming in April and it will take approximately 5 months to shoot the season.

So I said we’ll probably know by February 2023 whether there’s going to be a season 3 and Chrissy said yeah, around that time.

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The vendors

There weren’t many vendors. Which is sad because they were one of the reasons why I was looking forward to the con. At such events I’d expect to find the most and rarest stuff.

The largest vendor was from Filmweltshop who had by far the most items, including many rare ones. I got to talk with the shop owner Martin Netter (who has been in the business for decades and organized the first DST event before management changed). I am not going to repeat what we talked about because that is his story to tell (he has a facebook page if you are interested). Just let me say that it seems to become more and more difficult for fans to collaborate with Paramount. Filmwelt also presented some exhibits from their Star Trek Exhibition, including the original Ensign Mayweather uniform (which Anthony spotted ).

There was also a shop in a trailer that seemed to be officially associated with Paramount (as they handed out Paramount bags) but I wasn’t sure what you could buy there as the presented goods were very limited. There was a book stand where you could buy all the novels and encyclopedias and whatnot. There were two vendors where you could get ship models (Revell and Blue Brixx) and Playmobil had a display with the Enterprise. That’s all there was for vendors.

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Other things I’ve learnt

For DST being an official Star Trek convention, there was remarkably few branding and support from Paramount in the exhibition hall. The only advertisements I could see were for the Prodigy premiere on Nov 4th on Toggo (not even a Paramount company) and Timelines billboards.

There was no advertisement at all for the upcoming Paramount+ launch. There was no advertisement at all for the upcoming SNW premiere. Nada. Considering that Paramount+ is around the corner with a launch in December (though, I only believe it when I see it), this was a fatally missed chance to promote it with hundreds of Star Trek fans on the venue.

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I was shocked how most peeps didn’t wear masks. I wore a mask the entire time. I had to at least try to stay healthy because I want to visit my very sick dad in 2 weeks and I don’t want to bring Corona to him. Maybe 5% tops of all peeps wore masks. Even the guest stars didn’t wear masks except for Robert Picardo, Armin Shimerman and his wife Kitty Swink.

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Germans aren’t criminals. 😋 To my surprise, during Chrissy’s panel the audience was asked how many had (illegally) watched SNW already. Only very few hands rose (yes, mine too. I admit it). So most peeps in Germany haven’t seen SNW yet and will get the chance (hopefully) from December 2022 on. Wow. That astonishes me. I thought we were more savage fan folks.

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I wasn’t by far the only one who is super introvert and visited the convention alone. And I am by far not the only one who has trouble connecting. I saw a hell of a lot of folks who were walking around all on their own and never joined a group of people to chat. This – in a very odd way – made me feel like I belonged.

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I noticed a few visitors with bags from car parts manufacturers on the DST con. I guess some guests from the car parts exhibition sneaked into our con to have some real fun. 😂

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The cosplay was amazing. I didn’t make any photos because I would never make photos of peeps without consent (except for the panels, because taking photos was allowed beforehand, filming btw wasn’t). But if you check out Twitter with the #DSTGermany hashtag, you’ll find lots of pics showing amazing cosplayers.

[damnredthing]

Countdown to Destination Germany

Beginning to prep for DST Germany. I haven't been to a convention in decades, so I feel like a newbie.

The ticket is confusing me. The time plan is confusing me. The floor plan is confusing me. And of course my train ticket has unplanned changes because Deutsche Bahn sold me a ticket for a route that doesn't even exist (which they noticed 3 weeks after they sold me the ticket). 😒 But hey, I will figure it all out when I am there. Or not.

Either way, I plan to chill through the con and not think too much about it. As it looks like, it's going to be a small con anyways because there will be just 13 guests. Hopefully this means it's not going to be as stressful as say... Fedcon would be. This suits me quite a bit as I am very introvert and I travel alone.

I am very looking forward to Chrissy Chong! She's going to rock the SNW-Panel all on her own as she is the only SNW-guest.

I think I have some autograph tickets included in my package (not 100% sure though) so I might use those if the queues aren't too long. I don't think I'll find the courage for photo ops though.

I'm mostly interested in the panels and all the fan stuff anyways. I'm just sad there aren't more folks from SNW and absolutely nobody from Discovery (I know they are filming). Makes me even more sad cuz I won't be able to go to Wales in December. 🥺

Anyways, wish me luck that I won't get lost!

LLAP 🖖

[damnredthing]

Dragoncon SNW Panel popped up on Youtube

First of all a big thank you to ashwar007 who uploaded the SNW panel to YouTube. I don't know who you are, but the Trek community owes you big time. 😊🖖

I love panels that only have a few guests and not the whole cast. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore the entire cast. But smaller panels have a much more personal atmosphere and the people on stage are a lot more relaxed.

I loved all the great questions that triggered so many great and funny answers. Anson's story about his convo with Shatner is hilarious.

My absolute highlight of this panel is watching Garrett's reactions. I totally can relate to him. 😂

[damnredthing]

[damnredthing]

Am I the only one who is not overly excited about the crossover with Lower Decks?

I love Lower Decks. I love Strange New Worlds. Each on their own.

Is Pike just a joke to the writers?

I'd much rather see a crossover with Picard, Discovery or one of the new shows. With time travel everything is possible.

Ah well, I guess I just have to wait and see next year how this goes. At least I have Una's story arc to still look forward to.

Going back to my forced hiatus. LLAP

Mel out.

[damnredthing]

Did my wishes come true? – Season 1 recap

This post will of course contain spoilers for the entire season 1 of Strange New Worlds. If you haven’t watched the show or all episodes yet and don’t want to get spoiled, please don’t read any further.

I might not be able to write long ramblings right because -> 👀 my eyes are still kaput, but I can check off my wish list which I wrote before season 1 started:

I’ll not repeat the entire text here, just the headlines. Please check out my old post (link above) if you’d like to read more details about my wishes.

Different tones in different episodes

CHECK! Definitely CHECK. And I love it! The writers even went so far to take the big risk of going full comedy. As expected the Elysium Kingdom and also the Serene Squall have gotten a lot of review bombings, but you’ll see as the months and years fly by, the rating will improve. Comedic episodes in Star Trek often turned out to be classic episodes which received the proper appreciation years later.

Tribbles!

Naw. ☹️ We didn’t get any tribbles in season 1. But there is not to say we won’t get them in the future! Especially as they already teased them cute fluffy balls…

Pike being the hero

Check, he did have his moments when he was allowed to shine. His hero moments came with tactics (Memento Mori, Serene Squall) and diplomacy (Strange New Worlds, Spock Amok). It never felt over the top or dominating to me. His crew got their own moments to shine as well. Pike is not part of every landing party. I think the show found a good and realistic balance.

Don’t let Pike act like a reckless invincible madman

Check. Thank God, check! I wasn’t the only one who feared that with Pike having the knowledge of his future, he feels like he is invincible and can do the craziest things and still survive them. Especially with the season finale this is not possible anymore. Pike now knows that he CAN change his fate. That means he now also knows that if he throws himself in unnecessary danger, he CAN get himself get killed and that WILL change the future and puts his fate upon Spock.

Let Pike learn a hard lesson

Only partly check. He did learn a very hard lesson in the season finale when he learnt that he cannot save all cadets and that no matter how he’d change his fate, it will always end up in Spock getting killed. But I had hoped for a hard lesson that falls upon himself if he had risked his life over and over thinking that he’s invincible. As this did not happen, this point is kinda obsolete now.

Psychological evaluation

Nope. This point is also obsolete now.

Don’t let Pike have a girl on every planet

Le sigh… nope. In just 10 episodes Pike already has one Captain with benefits (although not anymore me thinks), and one alien flame he met years ago and who seduced him way too easily. I mean I get it. He knows his fate, so he knows he will cause his partner a lot of grief should he be in a serious relationship. It makes more sense for him to just enjoy the time he has left without boundaries. I personally just think having changing affairs doesn’t fit his character. I just hope the writers keep it at a reasonable level.

A pet for Pike

Nope. ☹️ And I know I am just wishful thinking here. It is unrealistic. But I’d die for him to find a planet that has mini horses, maybe the size of a cat and one of them horsies befriends Pike and doesn’t wanna leave his side and… okay I’m getting carried away.

Spock mind melting with Pike

Check! Although it didn’t happen after all. But Pike remembers everything from his alternate future, so he also remembers that. The whole scene was just too fast and too meaningless though. So I hope we’ll get to see it again in the prime timeline, but this time with a bit more effort?

No retconning Pike’s fate, but continue thereafter

First part check, second part unknown.

I think the season finale pretty much sealed Pike’s fate up until the Menagerie. Whether the show will go even further than that will have to be seen. But I certainly hope so! Because otherwise it would be a fatal message that disabled people cannot participate in our community and all we can do for them is sending them to exile and to live in an illusion. I’d much rather see the show deal with how to aid Pike in a way that grants him a choice again. We have seen what is possible with Airiam, and we have learnt that other species are further developed in medicine. Fully recovering Pike would be over the top and would send another wrong message out, but it would be nice to see him getting aided with medicine and technology that it allows him to be included again. And also Vina! If they both then choose to stay on Talos IV and help the Talosians to rebuild, fine. But at least then they truly have a choice!

Time travel to Earth in the year 202X

Nope. We might get to see it in season 2 as there seems to be a time travel episode. But we’ve only seen leaked photos from Earth with La’an and Kirk so Pike might not even be part of it. We gotta wait and see.

Let Pike be the alien in one episode

70% check. They made him an alien right in the first episode and I loved it. But it’s not quite the way I’d hoped for. I thought Pike was more hellbent on the prime directive, and here he was sending it down the drain right in the first episode lol. I am still hoping for a shuttle crash episode or some such where Pike is the only human on a planet, and he’s very clearly the alien. I keep my fingers crossed for this.

Horses

CHECK!!!! We cannot have enough horses around Pike. I hope the show is going to drop more of his horse names. Sir Neighs-a-lot? This had me in stitches.

No Kirk please

Yeah, I know, I know. This is a lost fight on all levels. He even showed up in season 1 already. Look, this topic is like a red rag to a bull for me that I just cannot write about it in an objective way. I don’t want to cause bad feelings for anyone. So what I’m saying now will be the last time I’ll address this topic until I’ve seen it unfold in season 2:

I hope that SNW will remain focused on Pike as Captain of the Enterprise and his crew which I learnt to love in season 1. I hope the writers will keep in mind that 10 episodes per season is not much time and that we already have a lot of characters to cover who haven’t been covered enough in other shows. I hope that the intro will remain as “These are the voyages of the USS Enterprise”. I hope we won’t see a transition of captaincy for at least another 4 seasons, preferably even later. I hope the show will not just end with a handover to Kirk, but rather go even beyond the Menagerie.

Do not turn the Pike show into a Kirk show

Same gist. I’m not going to repeat myself here.

A black collar for the uniforms

Nah. Not in season 1 anyways. And as it looks like, not in season 2 either. And if the sneak peek to the future is a reflection of what is to expect, the uniforms will not change at all until 2266 except for gold rank stripes for all uniforms (instead of gold on gold, red on red and blue on blue, which is stupid). 🥺

Pike shutting down technobabble

Hmmm… I am not sure to be honest. I cannot recall a moment when he did that in season 1. So I’d go with nope. But maybe I missed something.

Bring back Tenavik

Sadly nope. Not sure it would even be possible, but there also isn’t a reason for that story wise anymore. The season 1 finale pretty much wrapped up Pike’s fate. There is no need for the Klingon monks or the time crystals to show up anymore.

Bring back Ash Tyler (and continue the rivalry with Pike)

Also sadly nope. And I don’t even get why they missed that chance? Did Section 31 go all undercover again? It was such a big and important story arc in Discovery, why is that a complete non-topic in SNW?

Please no Mirror Universe

Check! And I hope it stays this way (although I know this is wishful thinking).

Tholians

No. ☹️ And this makes me extremely sad. The Tholians would fit perfectly in this point in time. And they look so very alien that it would be so much fun to watch. But I guess production costs are too high for that. There is still hope for future seasons though!

Forced recruiting

Okay I admit I was led a bit too much by the book “The Enterprise War” for this. I am not hellbent on this wish anymore. It would be an interesting story sure, but I feel the writers have other plans with SNW that involves a certain other future Captain which will use up a lot of the limited time we have.

Robert April

CHECK! And I hope we’ll get a lot more of him. Hopefully already in the season 2 starter when it’ll all be about getting Una back. Can we also see April in action please? I want to see his command style. I want to see him team up with Pike so we get to see how well they click.

Gorn

Check! Altho we didn’t get to see Pike fighting one. ☹️ Will we see them again? Will we get to see a fully grown Gorn? Will we get an explanation why the Gorn in “Arena” looked like he came straight from an old people’s home in comparison?

Novel “Burning Dreams”

Nope. So far I haven’t seen anything from the novel built into the show. But I still keep my fingers crossed. Now that the whole Pike’s fate thingie is out of the way, the writers can focus on telling us a bit more about his past.

Family background

10% check maybe? But overall nope, which is very disappointing. Do we really have much background about Pike? We know a lot more about La’an, Una and Uhura. All we know is that Pike had (or still has?) parents, that his dad was (is?) religious (which we learnt in Disco, mind you!) and that they had to put one of his pony’s down. That’s all. Does he have siblings? What are even his parents’ names? Is any of his family background in the novel “Burning Dreams” canon?

Surprising reveal

Nah. As we got no background information about Pike, there’s of course also no surprising reveal about him. But we did get a surprising reveal about Una though. So, wish come true but for another character… sorta.

Spiders

Nope, and I am surprised this wasn’t picked up at all. Not even in a mention. I am hoping for an episode sometime in the next seasons in which Pike has to face his arachnophobia, but it turns out the spiders are the good guys (I’m actually writing a story about that as we speak… although I had to pause on that because -> 👀).

I’m suffering from severe arachnophobia myself so this is a heartfelt wish for me.

Pike’s Nemesis

Nope. And with the episodic nature of the show I am not sure the writers will ever go that route. I think he should have one though. Every great Captain in Star Trek has one. Season 2 would be the perfect moment to introduce Pike’s nemesis, so there’s enough time in later seasons to develop that ill relationship.

[damnredthing]

WTF?

I wanna say so much, SO MUCH!

But damn my eyes, why do I have to have eye surgery right now?

I still cannot be on the PC for too long. But I've already scribbled notes left and right.

The good (bad) news is, I have weeks and months now to write my ramblings because we won't get new episodes until sometime next year.

But damn, it sucks when you itch to write stuff and you just can't cuz your eyeballs feel like they want to escape your sockets if you stare too long on a screen.

Fuck me!

[damnredthing]

Ramblings for the last 2 episodes will come with a couple weeks delay (if at all, demand seems to be low anyways).

I got eye surgery on my left eye and will get surgery on my right eye on July 20th. I can only look on my phone for short moments before I get pain. Watching TV or working on my computer is a no go right now. I'm sorry. 😔

But I wanna say one thing about the last episode and one thing about the trailer for the season finale:

SPOILERS BELOW!!!

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WTF killing off Hemmer???? After they finally got his antennae moving they take him away from us?

And could we see Nero in the season finale? We know he created the Kelvin timeline. But what happened to the Nero who travelled back in time and remained in Prime timeline? I am wondering about Nero cuz the trailer showed a huge map with the Romulan empire. And I have a feeling the episode has to do with time travel (Uhura with Lieutenant uniform, Pike talking about doing something to save the kid).

It's just a hunch. Hopefully I'll be able to watch the episode. 😟

[damnredthing]

Fairy tale ramblings – SNW S1E08

This post – naturally – contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the episode yet and do not want to read spoilers, please do not read any further.

This is not an episode review but rather just a bunch of ramblings which I’ve tried to at least sort a little bit into categories.

Season 1 – Episode 8 – The Elysian Kingdom

My ramblings will be a bit different this time, mostly because I have done something I usually don’t do. I’ve read critics (and instantly regretted it. Thankfully I kept my hands off the vitriolic youtube reviews). But no worries, I’ll not just beat on a dead horse, I also have other things to say about this episode. But to get the unpleasant part out of the way (just skip to the next headline if you don’t want to go through the stupid criticisms):

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I’m sorry but I have to ask

What is wrong with Star Trek fans? Why does this episode get so many shitty reviews? What is it you want from a Star Trek show that pays homage to TOS, what? Because I don’t get it. You want serialized episodes, yet people whine when one out of 10 episodes gets “wasted” to a comedy episode.

You want story arcs resolved, yet people whine when a story gets resolved but it happens within a comedic environment.

You want the silliness that turned some TOS episodes into classics, but when SNW goes exactly that, people whine that it’s cringy?

I don’t get some fans anymore.

I tried to understand them by doing what I usually keep my hands off, I read some of the reviews. I don’t want to comment all of them, but some just stand out that I really don’t get at all.

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A comedic episode should not have been done in season 1

Some critics claim that a comedic episode came too soon, and that the characters had no right to be comical when they weren’t even properly introduced yet.

So that means we are only allowed to watch serious episodes in the first season until every single character has enough depth to show other sides of themselves? That doesn’t even make sense. The other shows also goofed off already in season 1. Remember a certain pregnancy in Enterprise? Or a batshit crazy game in DS9’s Move along home?

When did some Trek fans turn into people who have to go outside to laugh?

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Captain Pike was damaged

I have read some really disturbing critics, some went even so far to be flat out homophobic. It seems to some people that being a whiney weakling fairy tale figure equals to being gay. Some critics claim that Pike is now “forever” damaged and cannot be taken seriously anymore.

Really? Rauth is not Pike, how is it so difficult to understand that? Pike did not exist while his body was possessed. Pike, just like everyone else who was possessed, did not even remember any of what happened. Just because the body of Pike acted all differently, people now cannot take the real Pike seriously anymore?

And what’s with all the homophobic shit? EVEN IF Rauth was gay, what’s the problem with that? Are you so scared Pike might be gay or bi that this little fun gig already made you lose your masculine coolness? But the firm conclusion that Rauth is whiney and weak, therefore he MUST be gay speaks volumes about some fans.

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More LGBTQ+ phobic critics

There are really people who bitch about Una’s and Erica’s characters supposedly being in a relationship and call that “preaching”.

Heaven forbid there is a little girl who was raised with an open mind and who dared to ship two female characters. This was such a short sequence in the entire episode that it hardly qualifies as “preaching”. It’s not like it was forced down your throat. It was just a tiny remark followed by a tiny “oh we know” smirk. That’s all there was! If anything, I applaud M’Benga for having his daughter raised so open minded that it felt like a completely normal thing for her.

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Gender swap crap

Some critics bitched about the gender swapping of Sir Adya and claim it preaches feminism in our faces!

Oh cry me a river! The characters were matched solely by choice of a child! And if the child would have wanted a space amoeba to be Sir Adya, we would have seen an amoeba in a shining knight armor!

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The story was childish and the characters were overacted

I’ve read many critics in which people claim the actors were so bad and were over acting, so that the whole episode seemed to have been written by children.

They almost understood the plot. But still missed it terribly. Of course the characters were over acted and of course the story seemed childish, BECAUSE THE ENTIRE STORY WAS TOLD FROM THE EYES OF CHILDREN!!! It’s like kids playing with dolls.

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M’Benga’s story arc was destroyed by comedy

People wanted Rukiya’s story arc resolved (which I agree with). But there is a bunch that is now pissed off because it was done within a comedic setup which disrespected M’Benga’s sacrifice and tragic story.

Look at these two fellas, who represent the oldest story telling art in the world.

Comedy and drama have always been a classic to shock people. You feel safe and entertained, until the hammer drops. It’s a classic storytelling format.

What these people don’t understand is that the entire story was Rukiya centred. SHE drove all the characters. She was taken out of her isolation to have the best time she had in a long while. The fact that every character was so over the top hilarious just showed what a joyous person was hidden in the transporter buffer. We were shown a child’s world, which is actually a gift. Too many of us adults have forgotten what it’s like to be and think like a children (obviously!). For M’Benga it must have felt like salvation to see his child enjoy herself so much, even if it was at the cost of his friends, whose bodies were borrowed for a while. I am almost certain each and everyone of the crew forgave Debra for using them, because they all knew the gift they had given to Rukiya. This was a bittersweet story, seen through the eyes of a child to say a heartfelt goodbye. This is a dramedy to its core. I am sad so many people failed to see that.

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The writers destroyed their own story they built up two episodes earlier

In Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach, M’Benga saw a chance to heal his daughter when Elder Gamal shared some of his advanced medical knowledge. Some critics don’t get why just 2 episodes later M’Benga “sacrifices” his daughter to live in the nebula. They even go so far to call this lazy writing.

The thing is, M’Benga did NOT sacrifice Rukiya. He gave HER the CHOICE to decide what she wanted. Big difference.

So far, M’Benga had decided for his daughter what is best for her, by keeping her inside the transporter buffer. Rukiya grew increasingly upset with that and voiced it louder and louder. M’Benga might have improved his research with the help of Elder Gamal, but he did not find the cure yet. At the begining of this episode M'Benga said in his personal log that Rukiya has just little time left.

So for Rukiya the choice was either stay in the transporter buffer and hope for a cure (that might never come), or live a happy life within the nebula together with her new friend and with endless possibilities. She chose the latter. SHE chose, not M’Benga. And that’s why the solution (which wasn’t one just yet) from 2 episodes earlier became void.

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-- ENOUGH WITH THE CRITICS --

From here on my real ramblings begin.

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Why did Rukiya and Debra match Rauth to Pike?

I can only guess here as only the writers can really tell why Rukiya matched the characters as she did. But guessing is fun, so here I go.

Why did Rukiya and Debra match the least appealing character with Pike? Amand is a whiney coward and an opportunist who only thinks for his own advantage. He has no backbone and if given a sword, he probably would stab his own foot with it. No wonder he is scared of Sir Adya, he wouldn’t stand a chance against a skilled sword fighter.

Pike is the crass opposite of Rauth. Pike is brave, courageous and caring. He puts the well-being of everyone else above his own.

Were Rukiya and Debra mean spirited to match Pike to Rauth, as some critics claim? I cannot estimate the characteristics of Debra, but I don’t think Rukiya has any mean bone in her body. I think as for Rauth, the matching was done or pushed by Debra, but not in a mean spirited way.

Rauth had to be matched to someone. When going through the available people on the enterprise, I am sure the kids focused on the bridge and sickbay personnel. We know from Rukiya’s return as an adult that minutes in the “real world” can be months and years in the nebula. We also know that for Debra it is no problem at all to alter the appearance of the Enterprise and its crew and to even add new items, such as the costumes, twines and yes, even hair

(I am looking at you Spock)!

Debra was also able to shelf all personalities except Rukiya’s, M’Benga’s and Hemmer’s, everyone else was literally stored away. Not even the slightest glimpse of their true selves or their consciousness was allowed to the surface.

Is it so far off to assume that to do that, Debra had to invade everyone’s minds to then keep them subdued? One can argue that this alone was abusive. But it is also the behavior of a child who does a thing without realizing it’s a wrong thing to do.

Most likely, what Debra found in Pike’s head was his sad future and his mind constantly circling around it. Maybe Debra wanted to see Pike let go of that for a while and act completely differently. We have to remind ourselves that this story unfolds from the eyes of children. Imagine you’d have been told this story when you were 6 or 7 years old. Wouldn’t you find the character of Rauth extremely funny? Wouldn’t you want that character to pay the price for his selfish behavior? Children have a great sense of fairness and poetic justice, but they are not mean spirited. Rauth was never meant to be punished in a way adults would think. He was only meant to be pushed around a little and get his butt kicked (which happened in this episode, LITERALLY!).

I think the kids chose Pike for Rauth because they saw in him the best match for a funny result. They wanted to see him disconnected from his sadness for a while. They wanted him to be the character they could laugh about the most. It’s like when a child asks its dad to play the tickle monster. There is no hidden agenda, no mean spirit behind this choice. It’s just a kids choice.

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Erica’s and Pike’s banter continue even when they are not themselves

I absolutely loved this comedy duo. I had a moment in episode Memento Mori in which I was unsure about Ortegas, because she was cracking jokes and remarks non-stop without really being helpful. I now understand it was her outlet to deal with the angst and stress of the situation. I wish we could get a backstory episode for her because that would give her character even more depth. But at least she got away from her usual “helmsman problems” (as Melissa keeps calling it fittingly) in this episode and she could shine as badass knight.

She is one of the few characters that got matched without changing much of the real person behind it. Ortegas is a badass and strong character, and so is Sir Adya. Ortegas is witty and so it Sir Adya. And both love to banter with Pike/Rauth.

Rauth was so whiney that I wished Adya would really have slapped him around a bit. He so had it coming!

I also think that these two had the best comedic timing of all characters, individually and in scenes together.

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Some Randoms

M’Benga’s first name is Joseph

Hemmer’s antennae DO move!

M’Benga did not tell Pike about Rukyia. Maybe they aren’t as close friends as I thought. I suppose Pike also didn’t tell M’Benga about his secret. It is a bit of a missed chance that we didn’t see how Pike reacted to this closing report and learnt what secret M’Benga had kept from him for so long. As the Captain he is responsible for every person onboard. How can he care for a person whose existence he isn’t even aware of? A person that’s stuck in some piece of technology that can give out during a power outage? I also think it was a missed chance not to show us how Una and Pike resolve this, because Una knew about M’Benga’s secret but didn’t confide in Pike, even though just some episodes earlier Pike proved to her that he is willing to risk his career to protect her own secret.

Little blooper when Pike called for the Jester, in one take he had his right hand up, in the next take it was his left. Oopsie

Was every character the exact opposite of what their true selves are?

Tough and reserved La’an turned into a pampered princess diva - check

Kind and helpful Uhura turned into mean spirited queen bitch - check

Courageous and empathic Pike turned into a wuss - check

Badass Ortegas turned into badass knight – miss

Tough Una turned into tough archer – miss

Logic driven and unemotional Spock turned into conniving witcher – check

Independent and witty Chapel turned into a witty psychic – um… check and miss?

I consider Lt. Mitchell main cast now, she keeps popping up in episodes so often and even played a bigger part in the medieval episode as one of the knights. I am sure Rong Fu had a ton of fun bossing Anson around and kicking his butt. 🤭😂 It was also a bittersweet little pun for Rauth to cry out that he was “too young to die”

Why didn’t M’Benga go with his daughter? What was keeping him in the real world? I understand that his wife is also dead. His daughter was offered a life in eternity with these nebula being, he could have gone with her, why did he not? The answer is plot armor, M’Benga was part of TOS for a few episodes. But I think it would have been a very brave choice if the writers had let him go with his daughter.

If Hemmer was able to block the entity from manipulating him due to his telepathic abilities, why couldn’t Spock use his? Was his human side maybe still too strong in his pre-TOS years?

Another funny pun: “do I have to commandeer a ship?” *makes a disgusted face*. This pun would also have worked with Sir Adya. But Adya would have gone head first into the adventure, so it had to be Rauth.

Rukiya got another of her wishes fulfilled. She got to see her dad’s quarters and the whole ship, just as M’Benga promised her. 😊

I love the ruse we were given about the chemical cloud that went off in M’Benga’s head. I bet I wasn’t the only one who thought he was hallucinating after he got affected by the chemicals.

Bonus-Gif! 😊

[damnredthing]

Ohhhh, great observation! I haven't noticed that but now that you mention it I feel silly for not noticing it!

Do you know what I’ve noticed about Captain Pike that I absolutely love that most other captains don’t tend to do?

He has absolutely NO chill, at all, about seeing people get hurt (unless there’s something else extremely pressing going on). Like no letting medical handle it, no somebody else go running after them first. Just, NYOOM!

I mean SERIOUSLY

The guy should’ve been an EMT! He keeps B-lining it to injured people before anybody else can get there and he’s Very Stressed About It.

Full on protective dad mode every time! And Pike can get his ass kicked and be like ‘I’m totally fine pay no attention to my very bruised up face it’s fiiiiiine’ no it’s not my guy!

The budding PikeUna shipper in me kinda wishes he’d been there when Una got her shit rocked in Memento Mori, she probably wouldn’t have almost bled out in sickbay because she’s worse than he is lmao!

Anyway, as if I needed even more reasons to be madly in love with this guy! Good lord…

[damnredthing]

What a whiney wuss, I wanted to slap him myself. 🤣

Captain Christopher Pike Sir Amand Rauth, the King’s chamberlain

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS 1x08 “The Elysian Kingdom”

[damnredthing]

Yeah, fuck you, too Paramount.

[damnredthing]

Just some mindless, happy ramblings – SNW S1E07

This post – naturally – contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the episode yet and do not want to read spoilers, please do not read any further.

This is not an episode review but rather just a bunch of ramblings which I’ve tried to at least sort a little bit into categories.

Season 1 – Episode 7 – The Serene Squall

This episode was hilarious. It is a nice break in tone compared to the last episode and it was so great to see Anson goofing off and showing his comedic talent. He hasn’t done many comedic roles in his career, which is why I am happy he’s catching up now. This entire episode looked like he had a ton of fun making it. I honestly don’t know how the cast and crew could finish shooting this episode, there must have been a lot of laughing fits.

I’ve also worked a bit on my gif-skills and trying a new approach with my ramblings by adding more gifs. I hope you enjoy.

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A lot of T’Pring in the series

I am surprised how much we get to see of T’Pring in this series, especially if you compare her screentime with Hemmer, who is supposed to be main cast. I am even more surprised that I don’t mind at all seeing her that much! She is a breakout character for me who I didn’t expect to see much of, but now realize how much I like to see her.

In this episode I was even more surprised that we even get to see her at work. For a recurring character that is a lot of insight. But luckily the episode gave the reason for this and it all falls into place for me now. Especially with the last second reveal in the episode, SNW is going to focus a lot more on Spock’s family (if not in season 1 already, then for sure in season 2).

What I found funny was her suggesting human sex to Spock. I just wonder why Spock was so shocked about that. What exactly were they planning to do in the pilot episode during their “special night” when Pike interrupted them? That looked very much like what humans do, too! 🤔

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Did Dr. Aspen / Captain Angel hit on Pike?

Or was it just part of their tactic to get Pike on their side?

During the dinner when they told Pike he’s known in Starfleet for being their (!) boy scout, the teasing and charming grin felt genuine. And what I find even more interesting is that Pike seemed to be intrigued.

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That boy scout comment tho!

So here I was squirming around in my last ramblings not to flat out call Pike naive, and they drop the bomb in episode 7 with the boy scout. Next time I guess I should just stick with my gut feeling and call it as what it is.

But was Una just teasing him that it was even in his file? I mean… a nick name in a Starfleet file? That would be weird.

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Remy had a thing for Pike

Nobody can tell me otherwise. Sure, he’s an Orion slaver and most and foremost saw Pike as a prime meat that gets him lots of latinum. But the way he eyed him up, felt for his bicep and patted him while only sideeying La’an and literally disregarding her… tell me I am not the only one who saw this?

And later he tells Pike he doesn’t want to wreck a great jawline (hello???) and then also calling him handsome and witty. I cannot say that Orion had bad taste.

It’s so funny how Remy tried to dominate Pike when his helpers were doing the dirty work for him, but later Pike turned the tables and played Remy like a fiddle.

I wonder if we ever get to see Remy again and how their second meeting will be, after Pike caused his crew to mutiny against him.

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Why did nobody help Pike up when he was tossed inside the cell?

Okay I admit it, I laughed my butt off at this scene. Anson played this so hilariously funny!

But uh, something irks me about this scene. Pike has been the care bear for his crew. Always wants their best. Always puts them before himself. Surely by now his crew must appreciate him as being an awesome captain, no?

So how come when that lizard guy tossed Pike into the cell, none of Pike’s crew made even the slightest attempt of helping him up? They all just stared at him – admittedly in shock about how much he had been roughened up – but they just watched him hauling his butt up all by himself.

I know it was done for comedic reasons (and Anson was so great), but I still find that remarkably weird. There was only one guy in the cell (the one with the gold uniform, kneeling on the right side) who at least offered Pike a bit of a hand. M’Benga at least checked his head (after Pike got up on his own mind you). But Ortegas and Una? They just watched him go down.

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Hints for the big twist

I admit I didn’t see the twist coming, but I was very pleased to watch Jesse James Keitel turning absolute evil as Captain Angel. As they were able to escape, I sure hope we gonna see them again. Especially as they are married to Sybok who I am sure we will see more of. If not in season 1 then in season 2.

Only when I watched the episode a second time, I noticed there were hints that Dr. Aspen was the pirate leader, or at least associated with them.

During the dinner, when Spock mentions the Serene Squall, you can see Aspen stop in their movements for a brief second.

They also tell everyone how the pirates are outsiders, fiercely loyal to each other, which turns out to be not true. But as Angel was their leader, this is certainly what they wanted to believe to be true.

Dr. Aspen also knew the solution how to get out of the net trap. It was a very scientific solution, something one wouldn’t expect from a counselor.

Remy knew exactly that Pike is the captain. How else would he know if not from Angel beforehand? At the time Remy was torturing Pike to get the codes, Angel was still in their Dr. Aspen cover.

Dr. Aspen urged Spock to use the escape pods and abandon the ship.

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Angel and Sybok

Angel isn’t just married to Sybok, they also share the belief in allowing emotions to unfold. Multiple times Angel encouraged Spock to rely on his emotion. Just when they asked him about Kolinahr (which is the Vulcan ceremony to detach themselves from all emotions) and were all excited to learn that Spock hasn’t underwent the ceremony yet, or when they pushed Spock to follow his gut feeling to decide which asteroid to fire on to destroy the net trap. Not to mention the dialogue they had with Spock about Spock’s true self (which was beautiful!).

Angel might have chosen a vile way to get their husband back, but they acted out of love. I don’t think they are purely evil. I think Angel is truly believing in Sybok’s ways and as such, I am almost certain we will see both again.

Sybok on his path to find Sha Ka Ree is going to gather quite a following. He will collect many followers by using his telepathic abilities to heal people from traumatic experiences. I am curious if we’ll get to see any of that in SNW and who all Sybok will try to win over. I mean, there are a couple of people on Enterprise with traumatic experiences…

I am also curious how his relationship with his half brother Spock will unfold.

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Star Trek writers know exactly what the fans want

Not only did we get a non-binary character, who kicked ass!

But whumpers also got their happy day!

Still some unchecked boxes though. But I am certain the show will deliver.

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Some Randoms

This is very random, but I loved the boing sound the Enterprise made when it kicked the rock away that set off the trap

I cannot wait to get my hands on the season 1 blu ray and watch the outtakes for this episode. How could they all pull this episode off without getting caught in endless laughing fits?

Holy shit was Spock badass or what? And he’s just half Vulcan. How much stronger is a full Vulcan? 😱 I was squealing when I saw that.

Pike wearing an apron over his combat gear (!), and to top it off, the apron is also gold just as his gear? This had me in stitches. 🤣

The oversized steering wheel… in a spaceship… like wtf? Lol

Did Chapel seriously aim a hypospray at Spock and Dr. Aspen in engineering? 🤣 This episode was pure comedy.

The Serene Squall under Remy was about to separate from the Enterprise and leave part of their crew behind when Remy announced they would set course to Qu’Vat to sell the Federation crew to the Klingons. So, was this actually a double mutiny? Fran turning against Remy on the Serene Squall, after Remy turned against Captain Angel? Well played Chris, well played indeed!

“Spock, you are failing to communicate effectively.” Bahahaha, I love this. Vulcan’s being funny when trying not to be funny.

Does this need further comments? 🤣🤣🤣🤪🤪🤪

[damnredthing]

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This suit is so dope! The level of accuracy is just amazing. Feige just HAS to bring Black Bolt to 616 in an own project. Hell, just bring him back in anything!

[damnredthing]

I agree! And if you haven't watched Hell on Wheels yet, I highly recommend it. You'll see what all Anson is capable of especially in that show.

I also hope he'll return as Black Bolt within the MCU. SNW keeps him busy for sure. But filming takes place from February to June/July with probably some reshoots later on. That opens a time window for other project in the off-seasons.

I also think Anson wouldn't be able to resist the temptation if he was offered to play Black Bolt again. After Gambit it's his second favorite Marvel character. It would depend on the script I think. Killing off BB in 838 is one thing, doing him dirty in 616 a whole other...

It continues to be a little surprising how good Anson Mount is as Black Bolt. I think just based off Star Trek and the Inhumans show alone (I didn’t watch hell on wheels, sorry), he is clearly a good actor

but the Inhumans show was such a mess and I truly was not expecting him to come back to this role (I don’t think a good portion of people who remembered that show were tbh), let alone to still be pretty affecting in it when all that’s changed is that his costume is accurate. I know he’s busy with Star Trek, but I hope they find a way for him to do this a few more times!

[damnredthing]

A lot of ramblings – SNW S1E06

This post – naturally – contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the episode yet and do not want to read spoilers, please do not read any further.

This is not an episode review but rather just a bunch of ramblings which I’ve tried to at least sort a little bit into categories.

Season 1 – Episode 6 – Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach

Okay, there is so much to say about this episode. SO MUCH. I don’t even know where to start, ugh.

I have so much to say that this is going to be long, apologies. Also, apologies for me being even more scatterbrained than usual and being a grammar kamikaze. My mind is constantly wandering elsewhere these days and I have trouble to concentrate. I hope I still make sense to you.

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Heart pain

This episode really left my heart in a lot of pain. Until the very last second, I hoped Pike could rescue the boy (who didn’t even get a name!). Especially when Pike went into berserk mode and clobbered the guards to get free from them, I cheered for him and expected a heartwarming rescue scene, followed by a heated discussion or an emergency beam out because Una and Spock somehow found a way to bypass the barrier.

But no! They did kill the kid! Okay, the boy didn’t die, but he will die, and he cannot be disconnected from the wires anymore. The moment Pike was knocked out I screamed, and I mean literally. I was even throwing a little tantrum. This felt so much like Hell on Wheels.

HoW-spoiler warning!

There are so many characters in HoW who die, some of them horribly, who Cullen cannot safe. And there were also situations when I fully expected him to rescue the person just in time, but then they died anyways.

This episode was just like that. And that it was a kid that had to die makes my stomach turn. Did you also see all the other wires in the background? Just how many kids did they have plugged in at the same time? Ugh!!!!

It is no wonder Pike was disgusted with Alora when he came to. Her comparison with kids suffering in the Federation was a weak excuse. There might be kids who suffer in the Federation, but not to such a degree that they have their lives sucked out of them in constant bodily suffering!

And they tried to find another solution for centuries? Give me a break. How about just colonizing another planet? I am sure the Federation would have gladly helped with that, without even demanding Majalan to join them.

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Pike’s inner demons - continued

Pike talking about his fate to Alora came out of the blue for me. At first, I felt it didn’t fit into the scene at all. Sure, I get it why the writers added it here, just so that Alora has another very convincing argument to keep the man for herself, if not now then maybe in 10 years.

But then I watched the episode again (yes I am that masochistic!), and my opinion about Alora changed. When I watched the episode the first time, I thought she was manipulating and playing Pike from the moment she appeared on the transporter platform. But when I watched it the second time, I realized her feelings towards Pike are genuine and she truly believes in the ways of her people. If she was anything like this 10 years ago when Lieutenant Pike met her, I can see why he confided his fate to her.

Around Alora Pike felt like he could let go and just enjoy life for a moment. He felt safe around her. There was trust (that was unintentionally betrayed… why unintentionally I explain later). He didn’t in the slightest assume Alora would be capable of doing anything bad, neither to him nor to anyone else.

Pike only has confided to people he trusts: Admiral Cornwell (a longtime friend AND counselor), Una and Spock. And now also Alora.

I think he also told her about his fate to be fair to her right from the start. By telling her, he let her know they have no future together.

What surprised me was how fast he came up with this. Sure, by now I got it that he carries his feelings on his sleeves, but it came out so unstrained and direct that it baffled me a bit. But then when the scene ended and he was holding up his hand for Alora, and she took it, I think at that moment he really considered whether Alora maybe was THE right woman for him. I think at that moment he really considered staying with her, or at least returning to her after his accident. Maybe that’s why he opened up to her, to see how she’d react, whether her love was real or whether she’d turn away from him if she knew what drama was coming and that he wouldn’t look as dashing anymore.

Or maybe it was just a moment of melancholia and it just spurt out of him. If you have nothing to lose anymore and your future is written, what purpose would it have to keep it a secret? Why would it matter if people knew or not? And also, does it really matter anymore what people think about you?

I’ve read criticisms that Pike tells too many people about his fate and that it makes him look a bit wimpy. But that to me is a stereotypical perception of masculinity. Always stay strong, never show your feelings yadda yadda. SNW already established that Pike is not like that. I think it is healthy to free your mind and thoughts and get it out of your system. It’s not like he’s telling strangers about it (in detail, yes I do remember episode 1), or people he just barely knows. He confides in people he trusts and considers friends. And it’s good that he does that because I’d hate for him getting eaten alive from the inside because he just keeps it all for himself.

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What the fuck were the doctors thinking?

Okay, warning. This is going to contain a rant because it really makes me angry.

But first of all, how much did Pike see (or experience) through the time crystal? We know that he saw a lot more than we did in Discovery – Through the Valley of Shadows. He told Spock in episode 1 that he experienced the entire time, every agonizing second of it. He knows what will cause the accident and how it will affect his body. He knows the names of all cadets he’s going to save. And now he told Alora that Federation medicine is insufficient to help him. So how far does his vision go?

It seems it goes as far as his time in the rehab center on Starbase 11, because at that time Pike was already in the chair and had gotten treatment, but before Spock took him from the base. If Pike knows there isn’t a cure, at least none that is known to the Federation, one can assume that the doctors told him that on Starbase 11.

Here is where my rant starts. WHY IN THE FUCKING HELL did the doctors not let him die when his time was up? Why did they have to give him an artificial heart to prolong his suffering?  

I am not ableist here (or it’s not my intention if people understand it as such). He already HAD DIED or would have when his heart stopped working which is why they gave him an artificial one. More so, they put him in a chair with lung support. Without the chair, he’d likely die. If Federation medicine had nothing else to offer to help him ease his constant pain (and he will feel constant pain from how I understood Pike) and free his mind, what exactly was the purpose to bring him back from the dead?

I don’t know how it is in other countries nowadays, but over here where I live you have the last say if you want your life prolonged with artificial help or not. Why can other people make this decision for you in the future and force you to live in constant pain and suffering without having the means to really, REALLY help you?

I always hoped the writers would explain why Pike was put in a chair that only could do beeping sounds for yes and no. I hoped they would come up with a story that this was just a provisional chair they could create relatively fast to give him a minimum level of conversation, and a more advanced version was in the making that would grant him the ability to speak using a mind reading device or some such.

I always hoped they would explain why the doctors kept Pike alive. I hoped they would explain that it was just a minor step of many for Pike’s recovery and many more would follow. That the process of the delta radiation poisoning would have to come to a halt first before the doctors could start to work on proper aids and scar removal surgeries.

The fact that Spock came in the way and brought Pike to Talos IV doesn’t even mean this process has to stop. I don’t see why a medical delegation shouldn’t visit Pike on Talos IV after he lived a while there in the Talosian illusion. It would give the doctors the time to find a cure, or proper aids. They could work on quality and not rush things. Pike would then get the choice to stay on Talos IV with Vina or return to Earth with her. At least he could leave Talos IV again if he wanted, if only for a trip, and wouldn’t be exiled anymore.

When Pike told Alora that the Federation has no means to help him, it sounded so final and it shattered my hope that the series (or maybe a movie after the series ended) would develop Pike’s story further after he was brought to Talos IV. I said it a couple of times already. To me the Menagerie is not a happy end, just a compromise which is dependent on the goodwill of the Talosians.

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Some people are too good for this world (or rather universe)

Pike is such a person, which this episode showed clearly to me. I am reluctant to call Pike naive for not seeing Alora’s true intentions and for having been manipulated by her.

Whenever I tell a person he or she is too good for this world, it is a mix of a compliment because they are amazing, caring, wonderful people, but also a warning, because they are in great danger of being taken advantage of.

Pike always assumes in the good in people. He can only be convinced otherwise if a person actually acts in a bad way. When he met Alora 10 years ago, he sure as hell had no idea about her society and how they kept their cities floating. She was probably very much the same towards him as she was in the episode: Gentle, caring, alluring, loving, flirting. We don’t know how much time they spent together when he was Lieutenant, but judging from the trust he has in her, it was probably some time. Although, I understand they did not have a love affair back then. But they probably already shared stories of their lives back then.

So, when she showed up again, there was no reason for Pike to think she would play or betray him. He trusted her, even confided his future fate to her. He felt comfortable around her and wanted nothing but her well-being. Was he blinded? Yes, but he wasn’t completely blind. When Uhura and La’an told him about the colony being originated of Majalan people, Pike did question Alora during the ascension ceremony about it. He didn’t press her to answer the question at that moment though, probably out of respect for the ongoing ceremony and because all the time the boy did play along with the whole ceremony willingly. When he asked Alora in the throne room how one child could save the entire civilization, it was too late.

The fact that he didn’t realize the guards at his sides were there for him, to keep him from interfering, also shows how he is unsuspecting of people. That in fact was maybe naive. If I had been in the same situations and I had 2 armed guards flanking me, all my alarm bells would go off.

The trailer was maybe too revealing for the audience in this case, because we as audience knew what was coming. Maybe not exactly how it happened, but that the boy was to be sacrificed somehow. But from Pike’s point of view, how could he know that?

The boy’s biological father missed his chance to put his cards on the table. Probably because he noticed right away how Alora had such a huge influence on Pike that he feared he couldn’t confide in the Captain. But he could have talked to La’an or Una instead. Yes, he did talk to Una, but WAY WAY too late.

The boy himself did not ask even once for help or to be relieved of his duty (which turned out to be a sacrifice). He even begged Pike on the Enterprise to be brought to the surface, so the ascension could start. Even down in the throne room, he still agreed to give himself freely.

Alora appeared to Pike as being in danger herself from separatists. I don’t think she played him knowingly. She truly believes in the ways of her people, and she truly fell in love with Pike and hoped to convince him to stay. In the end she didn’t understand how he cannot see things as she does, she was shattered when she saw how disgusted he was.

But all in all, she did manipulate Pike, knowingly or not. And that was also because Pike was too unsuspecting of her, the guards and yes, also the boy.

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The betrayal

When I watched the trailer, I already had the feeling this episode would break Pike’s heart. And it did. Not only did he have to watch 2 kids being sacrificed, which must have been like a dagger right through his heart, but he also learned in a shocking way that the woman he just shared very intimate moments with is a leading figure in this scheme.

Pike’s disgust was very visible when he woke up on the bed after he was knocked out by the guard. He just barely came to and the first thing he sees is Alora smiling down on him. His reaction was so swift, he tried to get away from her as fast as he could. He was probably also creeped the hell out (I know I was!). Not only was he carried and laid on the same bed he and Alora were intimate in before, but Alora was also watching him the whole time. When I saw that I was literally shivering with disgust, ugh how creepy!

In the following argument with Alora he was always so close to losing it. I could see the helplessness in his eyes and the realization that he brought the kid back down on the planet to be sacrificed. This was a very hard lesson for Pike. I am curious to see whether this will change him and make him more suspicious of people.

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Are the writers hinting at an addiction?

We have seen in I think 3 episodes how Pike is drinking Saurian Brandy. I don’t think at that time Starfleet already discovered synthehol, so I think it is real alcohol. He also drank Brandy in Discovery. So far it didn’t bother me at all. It always appeared to me like he was just enjoying a drink after his shift. Nothing wrong with that.

But the way it was shown in the last episode felt like they put an extra emphasis on it this time around. The scene could have just ended with Pike looking out of the window or looking at the coin and then tossing it in the recycler or anything like that. But it ended with the camera zooming out, so the half empty bottle became visible, and then showing Pike drinking a glass. To me it felt like they are hinting at Pike losing his control over his alcohol consumption and it might even lead to an addiction.

It's very possible that I am imagining things here though, as alcohol addiction is a very sensitive topic in my family, but I cannot shake the feeling off.

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The elephant in the room

Yes, I do have eyes in my head! Yes, I did see THE bed scene and yes, I also noticed how amazing and fit Pike looked. I already noticed in Doctor Strange 2 that Anson was in excellent shape at the time of shooting, and I was pleased to see he was also for SNW. 😇

(WTF, are those arms even real?)

I wouldn’t like him any less if he wasn’t tho (as I am sure most here wouldn’t). I am also still a huge fan of Russell Crowe for example, I don’t care for the weight, really. Awesome people are awesome because they are awesome, not because they have a specific weight or are fit. 😛

However, I must say kudos to Anson for staying so fit, and I mean that in all honesty! His workout plan must be very ambitious. Combine that with the insane shooting hours each day and a little baby at home and I cannot say enough how impressed I am that he doesn’t fall asleep in the middle of his lines (I must say he does look tired in some scenes though, and I heard stories about him falling asleep on set when he’s given the chance).

I’ve already read and seen a lot of posts about THAT scene on Tumblr and all the discussions that just had to come from that. I am sure the writers giggle when they write such scripts because they just KNOW what they kick off in the fanfiction world. 😂

I am not sure I should get myself on the slippery slope of discussing Pike’s sexual orientation and preferences, but I am beginning to get an idea in my head. But I keep that for myself… for now.

The entire route that led to the bed scene was initiated by Alora. She is the one who took matters in her hands and flirted with Pike to the point where she jump kissed him and flat out asked him to stay with her overnight. If she hadn’t done that, I think nothing would have happened except some friendly, maybe even a little bit flirty hanging around each other.

The whole after sex scene felt very gentle and soft, and as a woman I must admit I felt like the scene was tended towards my desires and likes. I can at least speak for myself that I like to see a guy being soft every now and then and allowing the woman to take the lead. This doesn’t emasculate a guy at all. It also shows how much trust Pike has in Alora, and how much he sees women as equals. I actually think Pike sees everyone as equal, which is why he doesn’t force a situation. The after sex scene could very well be the other way around with Alora snuggling up in Pike’s lap, and that would have been just as fine. It just so happened it was the other way round this time, and that is no big deal for him. I have to admit I love that.

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In yo face!

Here is a message to all the people who whine that Star Trek is too woke and that the white guy is always the baddie or weakling.

The guard with the broken coin was a white guy. He was neither weak nor the baddie. He was a separatist who opposed using kids as batteries and who fought the selfish civilization of Majalan.

So there, your theory stinks.

*drops mic*

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Some Randoms

Finally we got a Pike centered episode! (sorry for being a bit salty here, but his screentime in some episodes were just meh)

Minor nitpick, but how did Una beam Pike up so fast? She had no idea what was going on planet side. And if she noticed that the barrier was removed, she would have called Pike already long ago, or beam him up when she didn’t get an answer. Or beam a team down to look for him. But she beamed Pike up almost instantly after he called her through his communicator.

No Robert April and again no Hemmer. 😕

I guess Captain Batel is a friend with benefits, which makes sense. When she left in episode 1, she told Pike she hopes she won’t see him when she returns in one month, meaning she hopes he overcomes his crisis and goes back to his own ship. A relationship between two Starfleet Captains is very difficult to maintain I suppose. Both are married to their ships and duties, both know the risks, both might not return. If Pike had retired, it might have worked out. But not if both remain on duty. So, I guess I am fine with this.

I still hope Pike won’t turn into a second (or first?) Kirk as in fooling around with too many women. I get it that he needs some relief, too. He’s not a monk. The issue is that with just 10 episodes per season, you cannot squeeze in too many affairs without turning Pike a bit into a slut (there, I said it!). I think I’d rather have him in a relationship on the enterprise with someone than having him sleep around. We’re just 6 episodes into season 1 and he already had 2 different sex partners. Dayum!

Also, where is Vina? 🤔

The guards were sloppy. They vowed to protect the first servant. But when they were in the chamber guarding Pike, the two guards weren’t able to restrain him. Pike got himself loose and would have gotten to the boy if not for the last guard who was pretty much the last line of defense (at least that guard wasn’t sloppy). I am glad it worked out this way though in a weird, twisted way which requires some explanation. I hate it when in the movies or tv shows people are being restrained in a way that it is so obvious for the audience that the captive can escape, but for some weird reason (bad writing, bad acting, low budget maybe so the director doesn’t want to do another take) they don’t and instead act all helpless as if the restraints were inescapable *big groan here*. For example, every normal person would wiggle out of sloppy tied rope, especially when the knot is at mouth’s reach. When I saw how the guards were holding Pike, I was facepalming inwardly because it looked like Pike could wiggle himself out easily. To my surprise he did just that! This pays into the kind of realism I prefer in productions and I really appreciated that.

Okay here is a funny one, but I noticed that Anson’s stunt double is a little bit too slim, especially around the shoulders. I can clearly see when it’s Anson and when it’s his stunt double. 🤭

Why was Pike not bruised when he came to in Alora’s chamber? He got a hefty blow in his face with the lance weapon. My guess is that Alora’s words were true, that the least she wanted was for him to be hurt. So, I guess his wound was treated while he was still unconscious, and with the Majalan’s medicine being that advanced, the healing was done within minutes, if not seconds. It would also explain how Pike could get up so fast without falling flat on his nose from nausea.

Also, Pike can take a beating! Notice how he didn’t pass out right away? He was still there for a moment. After that blow that’s quite an impressive thick skull material!

My OCD was going apeshit when I saw Alora’s headdress not being exactly centred…

On a funny side note, I wait for the first fanfiction story that has the following lines “What did you do to that boy?” – “The last thing I wanted to do is hurt you.” – “So, I am your prisoner now?” – “YES!” 🤭😈

I know I keep repeating myself, but Anson’s acting was amazing. The repertoire of facial expressions he can pull off is stunning. When he asks Alora whether the boy will suffer and she answers with yes, the sheer hurt and horror in his expression was heart wrecking.

[damnredthing]

I need counseling after the last episode 😟