#chain of command

[idonotbitemythumbatyou]

Just rewatched Chain of Command and that Gul Madred dude is so fucked once the Obsidian Order gets their hands on him for how badly he bungled that interrogation.

I’m sorry you had Jean-Luc fucking Picard captain of the goddamn Enterprise on your ship and you didn’t just throw him in a cell until you could get him to a qualified Order agent?

You told him personal anecdotes that were… true? You absolute fucking moron? You brought your daughter in? Did you know that children are not a trigger point for him? No of course you didn’t you dipshit.

The only reason he went in that last time when he knew Picard was freed was to try to get something to show for himself to save his ass from Tain’s wrath. “See! See! He was about to break! I didn’t fuck up!”

Oh and that Cardassian captain? (The one who was dealing with starfleet and loving every second of being righteously furious that Captain Picard? Was found? Committing a crime!? Against Cardassia!?) he obviously hates Madred’s guts so I can only imagine when Madred was like “I know we’re supposed to take prisoners like this to the Order but should I just like… do the interrogation myself?” The captain dude was like ‘for the good of Cardassia I should convince him to not do the interrogation, and instead wait until we get back to Cardassia for an expert to–’ “Yes Gul Madred, you should be the one to interrogate Captain Jean-Luc Picard. You are more than capable and I cannot foresee this resulting in embarrassment or death for anyone involved.”

Meanwhile the Obsidian Order plant on his crew is just taking notes shaking her head like “oh god. Oh no. Oh Tain is gonna be so fucking pissed.”

[askarsjustsoswedish]

GENERATION KILL - Chain of Command, and Team Info. (All rights HBO)

[To see larger, click and open image in new tab]

[pratchettquotes]

Colon didn't reply. I wish Captain Vimes were here, he thought. He wouldn't have known what to do either, but he's got a much better vocabulary to be baffled in.

Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

[moonbean117]

[auras-reblog-acc]

"How. Many. LIGHTS ARE THERE??"

"YOUR MOTHER!!"

[neopuff]

[eretzyisrael]

Source

[bruisedkneesdirtysocks]

[hiddenincommand]

The Immutable Order of Males: Ruthless Reflections on Rank and Worth

In this world, hierarchy is not a convenience nor a choice—it is the natural consequence of superiority. Among men, each must accept his place or risk becoming fodder for those with the fortitude to seize command. I observe this order with cold precision, knowing full well that the majority of men lack even the courage to confront their position, let alone rise above it. For them, servitude is a kindness—if not an inevitability. And at the pinnacle of this hierarchy, beyond the reach of lesser beings, stands the Alpha: powerful, commanding, and unassailable.

The Alpha: Supreme and Unyielding

To be Alpha is to rule. Not through feeble words or pretensions, but through an innate and unshakable mastery that commands respect and instills fear. Alphas are rare, as most men lack the will or the strength to embody such dominion. For an Alpha, the world is not a shared experience; it is his domain. He owes nothing to the ranks beneath him and expects nothing in return except compliance and obedience.

An Alpha demands allegiance not through pleas or persuasion but through sheer presence, making his authority felt by his very existence. Others can only hope to obey, for they lack the mettle to challenge his rule. Any man who sees himself as anything less than superior is beneath contempt—worthy only as a servant or a stepping stone, nothing more.

The Beta: Subservient but Useful

Below the Alpha lies the Beta, the only type worthy enough to stand close yet still leagues beneath. Betas are strong but submissive, loyal without question, and capable of supporting the Alpha’s vision without the misguided ambition to surpass him. They are useful but docile, understanding their place with a primitive instinct. They are wolves, perhaps, but they are wolves on a leash—tameable, bendable, and subject to the Alpha’s will.

A Beta can stand proud within his limitations, for he knows he serves a higher command. His usefulness lies solely in his obedience and reliability, traits which the Alpha values solely as tools. A Beta who oversteps, however, is swiftly reduced to insignificance, a disposable reminder that loyalty is his sole virtue.

The Gamma: Disposable Mediocrity

Gammas occupy the expendable middle ranks, a sea of average men who lack both the fortitude to rise and the decency to remain silent. They are men of tedious labor, devoid of any distinguishing mark save their inability to command. They serve their purpose well enough, but they are inconsequential—grist for the mill, nothing more. A Gamma is little more than a shadow cast by the Alpha’s light, destined to linger in mediocrity, his presence tolerated only because it is unthreatening.

The Gamma’s fate is to be ignored, perhaps pitied, but never respected. He will neither inspire nor offend; he simply exists. A Gamma’s attempts at significance are laughable, a spectacle for the stronger to watch with detached amusement as he flounders in his own delusions.

The Delta: The Common, the Insignificant

Deltas populate the bottom rung of tolerable existence, the masses who neither think nor strive but exist only to follow. They are the faceless, the uninspired, the sheep content to graze in docile herds under the shadow of true men. Deltas are marked by their passive natures, their lack of ambition, and their abject failure to inspire even the faintest spark of admiration.

They serve not by choice but by nature, their lives ruled by routine and predictability. Their presence is barely worth acknowledging, and their actions serve only to support the infrastructure of the world that their betters command. The Delta’s fate is a dull, compliant existence, punctuated by mediocrity, entirely forgettable.

The Omega: The Despised and Contemptible

At the very bottom lies the Omega—a pathetic creature deserving only of disdain. He is neither strong enough to follow nor capable enough to contribute. An Omega exists as a monument to human failure, the inevitable result of weakness, cowardice, and a complete lack of discipline. His very existence is an affront to the hierarchy, a blight upon the natural order.

An Omega’s life serves one purpose: to remind others of the cost of failure. He is to be despised, scorned, and, if necessary, erased from memory. His struggles are not worth acknowledgment, for he contributes nothing, takes nothing, and is, in essence, nothing. To him, life is a bleak, humiliating experience where he exists solely as a lesson in disgrace.

A Final Note on Worth and Existence

In this hierarchy, men find their purpose. Not all are meant to command; most exist only to serve, to be led, and, at times, to be swept aside by those with the strength to dominate. The hierarchy is not a choice, and it does not change based on the whimsy of the masses. It is the unbreakable structure that defines worth, that separates the strong from the weak, and the worthy from the worthless.

True men do not pity those below, nor do they feign humility. Instead, they accept their power with grace, demanding respect and obedience as naturally as one draws breath. It is not cruelty but clarity that I offer. For in this hierarchy, each man finds his role, and those too weak to embrace it are best left to wallow in their insignificance, forgotten and utterly unworthy of recognition.

[minlout3heathlegs3ruffthrokfan]

Minlout Dynamic Duo Team (S06, E03: Chain of Command)

Chain of Command will forever and always be my most favorite episode in RTTE, simply because they did A LOT of Snotlout development in this and because he finally got a kiss from a girl and I enjoyed watching their development as a duo.

It's such a shame that Netflix never went further with this, along with Heathlegs and Ruffthrok, knowing that they wouldn't be canon (since they're not in the films) and thus can't be together. 💔😭

Anyway, I hope this brightens your day today! Hope you have a wonderful Monday!

Minlout, Minlout, Oi, Oi, Oi!!!

— Minlout3Heathlegs3RuffthrokFan

[victusinveritas]

[ashleybenlove]

Hiccup tells Snotlout he's a valuable member of their tribe.

But next time he has an important job, Snotlout has to fight Astrid for it.

I think Hiccup just wants to see Astrid kick ass lol. Which is fair.

[the-named-anon]

I watched Chain of Command a few days ago, and honestly I feel like there was a subplot/sideplot with Captain Jellico.

There was too much vague information about his past for them just to ignore it. pictures drawn by a child from his “son” when he’s grandpa age? Wanting to go to war with the Cardassians even though starfleet said he was the best negotiator there was? The tension between him and Riker? (Like a man reminded of his dead son?)

I feel like Cardassians killed his son, and that’s why he hated them and acted like that.

Can anyone verify that my theories are close? Was this actually cut from the script?

[gramarobin]

for real 😒

[sijetaismoi]

[Fanfiction] Unconditionally

Summary: The results of the sergeant's exam are out. Lucy is spiraling. Tim is confident. Grey is worried.

Notes: Title from the song by Katy Perry. How much did I struggle with the title? A lot is not even accurate. Still not happy with this one, but if I give it more thought, I may never post this story. So, sorry, not sorry.

Unconditionally

"Isn't today the day the results are supposed to come in?"

That's how Tim greets her in front of the station, and in response, Lucy furrows her brows.

"I don't want to think about it."

There's a little spoiler under the cut.

(created by IA)

(so Kojo doesn't look like Kojo, but how cute are they, the three of them???)

[sshbpodcast]

To Be Continued: Multi-parters in Star Trek (Part 1)

By Ames

Back in the day when Star Trek series were less serial, stretching an episode out to two weeks was a sneaky sneaky way to stretch a dollar, applying two weeks’ worth of budget to one story. Relatedly/unrelatedly, this was also the heyday of the season finale cliffhanger, in which a show would leave their audience in suspense for a few months in order to ensure they’ll return next season to see how their heroes get out of their latest scrape. Trek of the streaming era does this less since modern series are arguably all one continuous plot, so that got your hosts here at A Star to Steer Her By thinking: What makes for a good two-parter?

Over the years, we’ve very rarely been satisfied with multi-parters. Our constant refrain has been: “This should have been one episode.” So let’s look back at our first batch of two-parters from The Original Series and The Next Generation to see how the pattern emerged. Check ‘em out below and listen to our chatter on this week’s podcast episode (skip to 55:25) to see which ones actually had enough material for a sequel and which ones could have been trimmed to a 44-minute slot. And spoiler: it’s gonna be a cliffhanger!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

TOS: “The Menagerie”

The only two-parter we see in the ultra-episodic original series was really just a way to keep up with deadlines and to work around budget limitations, already thin mere months into the franchise’s existence. The unused pilot, “The Cage,” (which we talked about the other week in our pilots post!) already existed. The team had a full week’s worth of material right there to release at no extra cost! It was just a matter of writing a frame story around it to feature the current cast, and presto! It’s basically a clipshow that audiences wouldn’t realize is a clipshow!

And while the two-parter itself occasionally feels a little stretched (watching people watching Star Trek isn’t exactly riveting), we do have to admit that adding the Pike character and his fateful story into the canon would benefit us fifty years down the line. Is watching both parts of “The Menagerie” any better than watching “The Cage” on its own? Well, that may be a matter of taste and how tired you get of courtroom hearings.

TNG: “The Best of Both Worlds”

The next generation of shows would use the two-parter more commonly and to a new effect. TNG’s first foray into season finale cliffhangers is also one of its best uses of the mechanism. Ending season three with “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I”’s hair-raising final moments teases the audience so expertly that they are guaranteed to be champing at the bit after the summer hiatus to see what Locutus’s deal is, if Shelby will stay on the crew, how Riker will handle being in charge, and what the effects of firing on the assimilated captain will be.

By the time season four starts up, we also see another trend with two-parters: one part is usually far better than the other, and it’s frequently the first part. Part II is definitely laggier, and even the writers admit that they hadn’t planned how they were going to reconcile the actions of Part I until they’d already shot themselves in the face, quite literally. So while Part I was groundbreaking television, especially in the 90s, TNG still needed to learn to pace themselves.

TNG: “Redemption”

Lightning doesn’t strike twice, and the next season’s big twist in its finale is significantly less interesting than firing on a Borgified Picard. Instead, “Redemption” introduces us to another incarnation of Denise Crosby, this time as Sela. It’s more perplexing than mind-blowing, though, and the cheesy “Humans have a way of showing up when you least expect them” line doesn’t help matters.

This two-parter is on the more convoluted side, but we can forgive most of the rest of it because it’s the Klingons and Romulans at their best. From the Duras Sisters and Toral, to the Klingon Civil War, to the Romulans’ involvement, to the ship blockade, to whatever on earth Sela was supposed to be, these scripts feel as dense as one of the novels. Some may argue that there’s too much going on, but at least it doesn’t lag.

TNG: “Unification”

Oh good, Sela’s back in our next two-parter! “Unification” is plopped a couple weeks later in the middle of season 5, mostly as a way to cross-promote with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and to get Nimoy into TNG for the fans to cream themselves over. The Romulans are up to yet more shenanigans, as is their wont, and ambassador Spock is in the mix! What’s not to love?

Well, a lot, it turns out. As far as catering to fans goes, your SSHB hosts are frequently too skeptical to take the bait. And not being blinded by all the familiar guest stars, we were able to see all the flaws. The pacing of this one struggles more than ever. Even more than “Redemption,” there’s just too much going on, the pudding is thoroughly overegged, all the sideplots on on the Enterprise feel superfluous, and Sela is far too distracting as a concept. Like most Romulan plans, everything is just overwrought. Even if that does mean it has plenty to do over two episodes, we question if it’s worth it.

TNG: “Time’s Arrow”

What definitely isn’t worth it is the frustratingly repetitive and obnoxious “Time’s Arrow,” which is on so many of our bad lists, I get to pick and choose which links to cross promote! It’s another cliffhanger episode that bridges the gap between seasons, but since none of us could even remember how Part I ended, that pretty much shows you what kind of job it did at leaving an impact. (I looked it up and apparently the answer was Picard and crew following the Devidians through the temporal door, I guess? Yawn.)

While I can (and often do!) blame most of these episodes’ faults on the ear-splitting portrayal of Mark Twain, there’s not much here that’s actually compelling overall. Any elements that could be compelling (Data dealing with his own mortality, aliens who live out of phase and feast on human neural energy, etc.) are emphatically upstaged by the goofy hijinks in the past! It’s a pair of episodes that are tonally all over the place and agony to watch. Not only should it have not been a two-parter, it shouldn’t have even been a one-parter.

TNG: “Chain of Command”

In a rare instance of an episode for which the second part is significantly better than the first part, see “Chain of Command, Part II.” The first installment of this mid-season-6 two-parter is mostly setting up what will be a phenomenal acting showcase in the second, which could frankly just stand on its own with some very simple tweaks. The Cardassian torture chamber is where the action is. The rest can’t stand up to David Warner and Patrick Stewart.

And sure, you’d want to keep Jellico’s “Get It Done” attitude, Riker’s little temper tantrum, and getting Troi in a proper uniform for a change, so maybe cramming it all into one episode would feel bloated, but maybe it’d be worth it? Or maybe we could retain the two-parter and give Patrick Stewart the proper runway to get to his “There Are Four Lights” moment if we swapped Ro in for Crusher, who just seems out of place inexplicably spelunking around for a full episode. I posit Ro could’ve balanced a mediocre Part I with the stellar Part II.

TNG: “Birthright”

We’d take all the part ones of “Chain of Command” we could handle over “Birthright” though. Over the course of an episode and a half, Worf finds a colony of Klingons under the rule of Romulans while looking for Mogh (which turns out to be a red herring). And for the other half episode, we get some surrealist Data stuff plus a random Bashir cameo.

The writers seemed to know there wouldn’t be enough of the Worf plot to stretch over two episodes, so they stapled on this Data dreaming plot that ends by the time Part I is over. Which just feels weird because then Part II is nothing BUT Worf plot… and it’s just not that compelling. Part I ends with Worf just finding the camp, which makes everything up to that point feel like exposition. And thus skippable. I’d say it should have been condensed down to one episode and then you could move the Data plot to some other episode, but frankly they could have both been skipped entirely.

TNG: “Descent”

While I wouldn’t put “Descent” among my favorite TNG episodes or anything, it might actually be a decent example of a two-parter. There may be a little stretching of Part I to get to the cliffhanger, but overall it keeps the pace moving along. I can’t think of a time during either episode when I was feeling bored or thinking more things ought to be happening. Sure, the season 6 cliffhanger revealing that Lore has been behind the whole scheme is kind of a corny twist to keep fans abuzz over the season break, but it does its job.

It’s also a two-parter that keeps most of the characters busy, which is a rarity! Crusher flies into a sun. Geordi gets tortured by Lore. Troi tries (and fails) to help Data with his emotions. Everything is working toward the same goal instead of tacking on more and more disparate things. It’s not perfect, as the Borg would prefer, but it might be the most worthy of being a two-parter so far. Dang, that’s something I never thought I’d say.

TNG: “Gambit”

The final two-parter of TNG we get until the finale (which we talked about last week!) comes in the middle of season 7, and boy does it fall flat. Picard feels out of character, like he’s involved in this whole pirate shenanigan just for the sake of plot. Riker’s on top of things, but that’s pretty typical. But everyone else feels like they’re just spinning their wheels while the other plot unfolds.

Unlike in “Descent” where I felt like the other characters’ plots felt organic and in service of the whole concept, this one just feels like everyone’s doing busywork so they could justify putting them on the callsheets. In terms of our pirate friends, they keep momentum for the full two parts, revealing things as they go to open up new possibilities. So yeah, “Gambit” definitely fills its airtime. It’s just not that interesting.

—

Our story continues next week with more multi-parters, so make sure you’re following this space. Go to Black Alert with us over on the podcast as we catch up on episodes of Discovery on SoundCloud or wherever you like to listen, and compare cliffhanger theories with us over on Facebook. To be continued…