#if your star trek isn't about characters loving each other so much they save the universe i don't want to watch it

[stitching-in-time]

Finished Star Trek: Prodigy season 2! Overall, I loved it, it was everything I hoped for, and then some. I love time travel paradoxes and alternate universes and that kind of stuff, so this season's story arc was right up my alley, and I think they did it just right. From story, to visuals, to character development, this whole season was just mindblowing the whole way through. The very ending leaves me trepidatious for the future, unfortunately, but I still very much want another season, and I want to celebrate what a monumental achievement season 2 is, both as thing unto itself, and as an epic expansion of what Star Trek can be.

Thoughts and analysis (with major spoilers!) below!

The biggest things for me this season were how Dal and Gwyn grew as characters, Janeway and Chakotay's relationship becoming even more of a central thing, and my boy Wesley Crusher returning as basically a Time Lord to help the Protostar kids save the timeline. As a Next Gen fan, I can't begin to describe how much it means to see Wesley again, and know that he's still out there, doing good in the universe, like I always knew he would. Beverly Crusher raised a good kid! As fans, we always joked about how Wesley Crusher is a Time Lord now, and now Prodigy said, yeah, he really is! That's what the Travellers do! They're literally like the Time Lords in Doctor Who, but with more hands on helping and fixing things, and I'm like yes, perfect!! I couldn't have asked for better, honestly, and Wil Wheaton does a terrific job as manic pixie Time Lord Wesley (there's no other way to describe him lol) without losing the essence of the Wesley we knew. After the horrible, hurtful disappointment of what they did with Picard and the rest of the Next Gen crew in the Picard series, seeing at least one of my first Trek crew getting the respectful treatment their character deserves means, so, so much to me, I can't even begin. My boy Wes! I love him!! (But dude- call your Mom ffs! Janeway is such a space mom herself for calling him on that. The scene at the end where Wes and Beverly hug was EVERYTHING to me. I cried. 30 years I have waited for that!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!)

Gwyn and Dal's character arcs this year were great too. Gwyn always had the commanding presence that said 'captain' to me, from the beginning. Much as I like Dal, I felt like it didn't make sense for him to be the captain, given his personality and experience, and it kind of seemed like they gave him that because the lead character always has to be a boy, by default, in any children's media that isn't explicitly aimed primarily at girls. But seeing how it shifted this season was really wonderful. How Gwyn stepped up to be a leader, and how Dal realized that being the right hand of someone you trust and respect is just as important a role as being the one in charge, was lovely, and paralleled the relationship between Janeway and Chakotay. Gwyn and Dal are kind of coming from opposite ends of the childhood trauma spectrum; Gwyn being forced to ignore her own judgement, and obey her father's commands without question; and Dal, being undervalued by his surrogate mother, being told and shown by her that he's unimportant and uneeded. The positions that they came to here, as a Captain and her Number One, and are the direct opposite of the roles their parents forced on them, and the exact places they need to be to overcome those negative beliefs and let their true natures shine through. It's so good!! And they actually talked to each other about their relationship! (or at least tried before they got interrupted.) That's honestly way more emotionally mature of them than almost any other romantic pairing in Trek! The kids are all right!! And I love that Gwyn is taller than Dal, and nobody cares. I can't think of the last time I saw a show where a girl being tall wasn't presented as a problem for her boyfriend to be insecure and crappy about it. Not making girls feel bad for being tall, and not making boys insecure about being short, is so important, especially in a show aimed at kids. Way to break down those gendered stereotypes!!

Janeway and Chakotay got so much to do this season, and I loved every minute of it. I love that Prodigy is basically a Voyager sequel. Janeway in the Captain's chair on a new Voyager is like, a dream come true, and seeing Voyager characters again is a special thrill for those of us who grew up with them and love them. (Ngl I was thrilled that my boy Tom Paris got namedropped twice! And so much yes to having him design the Nova Flyers!!! I've always headcanoned that Tom and B'Elanna stayed on Earth after Voyager and designed ships and warp engines and stuff at Starfleet HQ so they could give their kids a more stable childhood, and I'm beyond thrilled and thankful to have that somewhat canonized!!) I kinda wish it had been Tuvok rather than the Doctor along for this voyage, since he's Janeway's best friend, but the Andorian guy (Tysis? Why can't I remember his name??) does remind me of Tuvok a lot, so it might have been an odd vibe to have two similar characters. And anyway having the Doctor along did prove useful to the mission later on. (Though I don't know what it is, but the voice Robert Picardo uses for the Doctor on Prodigy is off, somehow- it's higher pitched, and the cadence is different. If I didn't know it was him, I'd think it was a different actor, and it's pretty distracting. But luckily the Doctor was mostly just there to be comic relief, and didn't have a ton of scenes.)

The character who surprised me the most here, though, was Chakotay. I like him a lot better on Prodigy than I ever did on Voyager. It's not even that I disliked him before, so much as that I feel the writing wasn't always there for him, and that they didn't really care to fully flesh him out and make his characterization consistent. His love for Janeway was one of the only things about him that was consistent, and they really highlighted that aspect here. I've never been much of a Janeway/Chakotay shipper, but I'm shipping it now. I know the die hard J/C shippers are probably livid that we didn't get a kiss or a direct acknowlegement of their feelings this season, and from the way it was going, I don't blame them, I expected it too. But I feel like Prodigy's writers aren't dumb enough to tease it so heavily without paying it off- I'd wager they're playing the long game and saving it for later, what with all the insanely shippy stuff going on between them here. The pda! The longing! That reunion scene! Heck, even Starfleet command knows they have a thing going on, and that Janeway can't be normal about Chakotay! Even the kids give them looks like they know there's something going on between them! The parallels between them and Dal and Gwyn, who already are a romantic couple, make it pretty obvious that Janeway and Chakotay are like a template for them to emulate. I didn't care one way or another about whether Janeway/Chakotay became a thing when this season started, but now I'm invested. They're in love, just admit it!

I love that they added Ma'jel to the Protostar gang, it's nice to have another girl to balance things more. And the fact that they named her after Majel Barrett hits me straight in the heart. So much love for the OG queen of Star Trek!!

I really appreciated Gwyn getting the chance to meet the younger version of her father, and get the chance to recieve some kindness and care from him, at last. I hope now that the timeline is different, she'll be able to have a better relationship with him at last. (I'm still not entirely sure how Gwyn can exist now that he's not going back to become the Diviner in the new timeline, but I think maybe it's some sort of alternate timeline/parallel universe stuff?? That's the one part of the timey wimey plot I was a little fuzzy on, but honestly the rest of it is so awesome that I don't even care that much.)

One of the few things that I disliked this season was Voyager A having a 'cetacean ops' tank on board. It was fine on Lower Decks because it's a comedy, so I don't take anything that happens there too seriously. (I just thought it was a SeaQuest joke, tbh.) But for a drama series, it really bothers me that Starfleet would take wild animals from their homes and plunk them on a starship. Even though they can communicate with the whales now, so we infer that the whale consented to be there, it seems incredibly unlikely that any wild creature would chose to live in a tiny tank away from their ecosystem and others of their kind. Animal captivity is not a cool thing to be promoting in this day and age, so I hope that will go away, and we won't have to see any more of that.

The biggest problem I had with this season though, was all of the references to stuff from Picard at the very end. Worse still than animal captivity was Picard's horrible storyline about using slaves to build Starfleet ships. It's like the writers on that show had never seen an episode of Star Trek in their lives, and had no idea what it's even about. They literally referenced the Next Gen episode 'The Measure of a Man', so they must have seen it, and yet they totally ignored it's message that androids aren't property, and it's assertion that creating an army of android slaves would abominable, and against everything the Federation stands for. The whole point of that episode was that they established the legal precedent to prevent that. To turn around and have that happen is a huge betrayal of the optimistic spirit of the show, and a shows a deep misunderstanding of all of the characters. You cannot sit there and tell me that any of the characters we know would sit idly by and let the Federation institute slavery. You can't convince me that they would just go on with their lives like everything was fine while that was happening around them. You can't tell me Starfleet wouldn't have a wave of resignations in mass protest, that there wouldn't have been protests all over Earth to stop it. Just casually dropping something as horrific as 'oh, our android slaves rebelled and blew up the fleet we forced them to build for us' in the middle of a show aimed at children is deeply disturbing, and deeply wrong- allowing slavery in the Federation negates everything it is, and demolishes Star Trek as a beacon of hope for the future.

I'm very worried for Prodigy's future if it's going to take place in that awful reality, for which there is absolutely no excuse or explanation that can be had to justify it. I'm absolutely horrified to think that it might become the status quo that we're just supposed to accept, but conversely, if they don't gloss over it, if they look at it head on, in all it's horror, there's no way to deny that everything that Starfleet and the Federation stand for is a lie. There's just no good way forward with it, I fear. If the Protostar gang were to find out that someone was messing with the timeline to create that reality in the first place, and that they had to go back to stop it from happening, and erase that timeline from existence, then I could be okay with it, but I doubt they'd do another time paradox plot so soon. I'm just afraid that I won't be able to love Prodigy anymore either, because it will have let me down, just like Picard did.

I desperately hope this season wasn't Prodigy's pinnacle, and that it will continue to believe in hope and kindness and the possibility of a better future, and to fight against the cruelty and cynicism that Picard's writers poisoned the Star Trek universe with. I care about these characters, and this world, and I want to see more of them. I would love a third season, but only if it lives up to Star Trek's ideals of love and equality and compassion. Prodigy has been such a bright spot for me, I've come to love this new crew, and being able to see my beloved Voyager crew members still out there being heroic, and being happy. I hope it can continue to be that bright spot. Based on what wonderful things I've seen overall in these first two seasons, I'm going to choose to have faith that it will.

Here's hoping we get a season 3 that's just as amazing!

[fellfirst-fellharder-fight]

Round 2: Fight 6

Kotetsu T. Kaburagi/Barnaby Brooks Jr (Tiger & Bunny) vs James T. Kirk/Spock (Star Trek)

Propaganda under the cut!

Kotetsu T. Kaburagi/Barnaby Brooks Jr (Tiger & Bunny):

My silly little guys I don't want to rant your ear off but that dynamic can be agrued either way because they are rival to lovers 10/10 My favourite pookies

I could rant your ears off with the propaganda for Barnaby Brooks Jr. and Kotetsu T. Kaburagi from Tiger & Bunny but because tumblr asks have a character limit I'll try to keep it brief.

(Spoilers for Tiger & Bunny of course)

They're the definition of fell first x fell harder. Barnaby and Kotetsu are of the rivals to friends to lovers trope, they absolutely despised each other at first, but even when they couldn't stand each other they felt inexplicably drawn to each other.

Barnaby fell first, he was the first to feel something romantic for Kotetsu, warming up to him as soon as episode 3 (when they're deactivating a bomb and Kotetsu refuses to leave him behind on principle he smiles when Kotetsu isn't watching) but he fully acknowledges his feelings in episode 8, when Kotetsu takes a direct hit from a dangerous villain to protect Barnaby. This is seen in the post credits scene as he reminisces of the events of that day and smiles to himself alone in his apartment. When they have a fight in the climax of the first half of the season, the only way the conflict is resolved is by Kotetsu going out of his way to put his trust in Barnaby, and after the day is saved, Barnaby finally allows himself to smile in front of Kotetsu.

Kotetsu fell harder. He was in denial about his feelings for almost all of season 1; he is a widow, and through the series he is shown to not have truly grieved his wife's death, and as of season 1 he is not ready to move on and accept he could have romantic feelings for anyone after Tomoe (his wife), and he is also afraid to fall in love again and lose them too. During the second half of season 1, Barnaby is brainwashed and no longer remembers him, believing Kotetsu was the one to murder a person he was close with. Kotetsu tries everything he can think of to make Barnaby remember him, and when it doesn't work he breaks down (crying in front of another person for the first time in the show) and stops fighting back, he kneels down and lets Barnaby deliver the final blow to him...

Luckily for him, Barnaby remembers just in time! They can go back to pining hell!

But not long after (since the main conflict isn't resolved yet) Kotetsu is fatally wounded, which triggers the most fucking glass biting nail scratching absolute fucking insane Technically Not love confession in which neither of them say "I love you" but it's very clear for anyone with two functioning eyes and a couple braincells that it is indeed a declaration of love. I will link it down here so everyone else can suffer with me. https://youtu.be/CWizW_6AgQY?si=UNsyhF-yJX1bT78r

While not explicitly in a romantic relationship, the creators of the show have said the nature of their bond is "Up to interpretation", which (considering the history of the studio regarding gay relationships) sounds more to me like "Everyone here wants to make them kiss so bad but they'll cancel the show if we do"

Sorry if this was too long

(this would take up too much space so for the ver with images you can go check it out here -mod)

James T. Kirk/Spock (Star Trek):

Kirk fell first, Spock fell harder

[adoredmarigold]

Questions!! Yay!!!!!! I've got a lot to ask about, I'm sorry

1. What are your favorite ships other than david and lingard (tbh in some way that ship reminds me of kirk x bones, not sure if youre into star trek tho xd)

2. Ava or Tripp?

3. Favorite S2 characters? Do you have any S2 ships?

4. What do you think are the best possible and your favorite endings of S2, S3 and S4??

5. And of course, I wanted to ask, whats your opinion on Bonnie.

I feel like I've been asking you some questions before but I dont remember excstly what it waasszzzzzzddsdszs if I already asked some of these questions IM SO SORRY but I cant say no to asking twdg questions

hello :) 1. VIOLENTINE!!!! It's such a lovely ship I will defend it with my life, istg Violentine haters have yet to bring up a valid point as to why they don't like it. I have some crack ships like Eleanor x Kate or Eleanor x Ava, I don't have much to say about them I'm just gay and wanna ship my girls together lmao. hmmm, I've been seeing some Mark x Lee stuff to and that looks pretty cute. Ermmm this is making me realize I actually don't ship much in twdg lmao, I guess I also ship Clouis and Gabentine Clouis is sweet and has good moments but I just don't find them as compelling as Violentine (sorry Clouis shippers). As for Gabentine I guess I would say I ship it, but more so in a "first crush/puppy love" kinda of way, The relationship never becomes anything serious they're just kids with a crush on each other and honestly I don't need them to become anything more than that. aaaannnd I know nothing about Star Trek but you're gonna make me look into Kirk x Bones now, thanks. 2. Well if we're just talking about the characters in general then Ava, she's so underrated imo. BUT, if we're talking about whether I choose to "save" Tripp or Ava during the execution, I always choose to let Tripp live. I'd rather have Ava die here than get that stupid fucking death she gets in ep 5, Tripps death in ep 5 is a lot better cinematically and writing-wise. 3. Sarah :) She's been my fav season 2 character since the season first came out and I will never forgive the writers/fandom at the time for how they treated her, SHE DID NOTHING WRONG. As for ships I guess I don't really have any for season 2, I mean Alvin x Rebecca I suppose though I'm not particularly invested in either character. Never been a Nick x Luke fan, I get the appeal but it ain't for me. 4. I can't really say which ending for each season is the best cause it's all pretty subjective, but I will give you my favs :) I guess I don't really have a fav ending for season 2? I choose the alone ending each time just cause I can't deal with Jane and Kenny's bs, don't hate either character but Clem doesn't deserve to put up with their bullshit anymore, she's the main character it's fine let's just ignore the logistics of an 11-year-old going off alone with a newborn. I also like the Wellington ending alot though! Not only because it's the best location for Clem and AJ to end up at but it also gives a satisfying conclusion to Kenny's character imo. Kenny spent all of season 2 trying to keep Clem and in the end AJ by his side for ultimately selfish reasons and he became extremely violent and unhinged in the process. So to see Kenny finally be selfless and be willing to give them both up to ensure their health and safety really redeems him for me. Kenny loves Clem and AJ but I really don't think he's fit to take care of them, this is the best possible Kenny ending for me. 5. Bonnies cool. It's been awhile since I've played season 2 and 400 days so I am in a desperate refresh of her character, but from what I remember she was interesting. I def think the fandom goes WAY too hard on hating her, from what I remember she's not really any worse or better than any of the other adults in season 2, she's extremely flawed but hell who isn't in The Walking Dead. I get being frustrated with her but the lengths people go to shit all over her character is kinda insane to me. So overall I guess I don't have much of a strong opinion on Bonnie, she's an interesting character with alot of flaws but I don't think she's evil or cruel. I hope her and Mike where able to get away and join a community or something. Also, I distinctly remember her being my fav 400 Days character and having a crush on her when I was a kid lmao. wowie okay that's all I gotta say, and don't worry you're all good! If you (or anybody really) send me a question and I don't reply it's probably just cause I forgot to or I'm stumped on what to say. CRIES

[cicaklah]

star trek picard posting like its 2020 (bear in mind I am Not watching it I just have a lot of FEELINGS about something that ISNT EVEN A PLOT TWIST REALLY but cutting to save your eyes)

OH FOR FUCKS SAKE

bev deserves better. she deserved better than most of her plotlines lets be very real but her and picard dancing around each other was PART of why tng was Different and I genuinely love the episode where they get psychically linked and she realises that he's been in love with her for YEARS but is too Picard to do anything about it. Picard being bad with women is a plot thread I genuinely love, I find it very relatable, very unkirk about him. it is the subversion of the trope of spaceman with a lady on every planet!!! it is his hamartia! Apart from all his other flaws, which he has many!!!! because hes actually kind of a terrible person!!!!! but it is what makes him sad!!!!

THAT SAID....

if this ends up pressing any more of my stupid romance buttons I'm going to be forced to watch it???

OR AM I????

no. a line must be drawn!!!!! this far and no further!!!!!! I really loved s1 of picard in all its flawed glory for painting a picture of a federation and a starfleet that was starting to buckle under the strain of bad decision making and its ideals when it bit off more than it could chew. the glory days are gone. there is rot there. the federation went headlong from the dominion war into saving the romulans and it ruined them, it ruined everything, and we SAW this, we saw it in the new characters, in good officers and heroes outside of the system who should not have been there, old threads picked up and pulled on and unravelled, it stretched itself too thin. now, as with modern trek they still managed to do TOO MUCH, but on the whole...yeah. it worked enough. but much like disco s1 (which had very similar problems but ultimately wasn't bad) they ruined it with season 2.

anyway we know from the trailer that there is going to be holodeck shenanigans and Lore and other UTTER BULLSHIT and we probably will not have the nice nuanced 'how the fuck did we get here' minimum 3 episodes, explaining howe 50-something beverley crusher has a fling with picard and it goes so badly that when she gets pregnant she...never mentions it, literally runs away, no one either of them knows ever mentions it, she drops off the face of the galaxy to go do what I assume Seven was doing??? does seven know?? did she know??? doesn't the federation have some kind of MSF type of shit that she should be RUNNING?? THE WOMAN IS NEARLY 80 SHE SHOULD BE RUNNING THIS SHIT BY NOW.

(ALSO I KNOW I YELL ABOUT IT EVERY FUCKING TIME BUT THE LAST BEST HOPE WAS BETTER CANON THAN CANON SORRY I AM YELLING BUT LIKE A DECADE AGO BEVERLEY WAS IN A PLACE WHERE SHE WAS THE BEST CANDIDATE FOR JOINING THE VERITY BUT PICARD COULDNT GET OVER HIMSELF ENOUGH TO ASK HER AND I'M SORRY BUT THERE ARE OTHER JOBS IN THE GALAXY OTHER THAN NOBLE SPACE COASTGUARD OR SEXY SPACE PIRATE)

(IF SHE WAS A SEXY SPACE PIRATE SURELY RAFFI KNOWS ABOUT HER, OR RIOS, BUT OH WAIT HE DIED IN WW3 BECAUSE FOOD WAS BETTER BACK THEN)

(I AM STILL VERY ANGRY ABOUT SEASON 2)

anyway the only thing worse than all this isn't that somehow both troi and crusher are love interests whose plotlines revolve around the tragedgy that happened because they had babies with their strong space coastguard love interests, because that is bad, its not that once again the noble space coastguard man has been spermjacked by a woman like wot happened to worf and many other dudes across the series, the only thing worse that this is that its probably going to be a fakeout and they never actually did have sex.

(yes i realise that is a very stupid ending to this extremely stupid rant but sorry I will continue to be a complex idiot when it comes to star trek for as long as I live so help me god.)

[mylittleredgirl]

♡ dear rare pair creator ♡

thank you for creating something for me! i hope you're excited about whatever we matched on.

i'm pretty easily delighted, so i'm sure i will enjoy whatever you create. i'm including likes/dislikes and a few prompt ideas below in case they are useful to your process, but i LOVE being surprised by things i did not consider, so if you have another idea, please run with it!

--

general likes/dislikes are the same as on the exchange request, broken out into bullet points for easier reading:

general things I love:

happy/hopeful ending

episode-related fic

canon divergence

fix-its

friends to lovers

new or deepening relationship

pre-ship friendship/ust

pining

hurt/comfort

healing and recovery

reuniting after time apart

working through complications (e.g. working together while having a relationship, emotional baggage, traumas inflicted by canon, etc)

including other canon characters in the fic

polyamory dynamics

5 times

all ratings are welcome.

kinks enjoyed

soft dom/sub

praise kink

edging

aliens made them do it (or local canon equivalent)

overindulgence

masturbation

body worship (especially related to body image/weight gain/aging)

i have never said no to a quality blow job or hand job fic

sweet i-love-you sex works for me too!!

DNWs:

permanent character death

hurt no comfort

crossovers (except within extended canon universe, e.g. across star trek shows)

historical AUs

supernatural AUs where the characters are werewolves, etc (supernatural elements like telepathy/psychic powers/soulmates are fine)

vampires and zombies (ghosts and other canon-typical cryptids are ok!)

non-canon nicknames

bashing of characters or canon past relationships (except sam carter’s collection of questionable exes on SG-1, i can live with that).

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🛸 the x-files

i fell back in love with late-season x-files this year! doggett/reyes was my fic writing origin story, and i am fully back on my bullshit with those two. i also LOVE the dynamic of the three agents in season nine, as people and friends, and it would be so interesting to explore as lovers. random prompt ideas:

john gets knocked around a lot — so what if it's monica's turn to be hurt/in danger on a case, and john's turn to find her or care for her afterward?

doggett/scully/reyes would be so complicated and interesting!! scully learning to trust anyone except mulder; how would it feel for john to spend time around william; there's a good chance this isn't monica's first poly rodeo, but what about the other two... etc etc any little bit about their dynamic would be fun to play with.

the real prompt for the ot4 would be "okay, but for real, how do they not kill each other?" but in a fun way.

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🛰 babylon 5

this show is an old, old fave, so anything you write will feel like seeing beloved old friends again. pre-series, during, or post-series are all great, and i'm a fan of canon divergence! most of these characters get pretty traumatized by the narrative, and their relationships could be understandably fucked up as a result, but i like it when characters are good and loving at their core -- even if it looks messy while they figure themselves out.

i would love any fix-it that saves talia, with any combination of people involved

did lyta and talia know each other as young telepaths/psi cops interns?

for sinclair/sakai: i LOVE a reunion-of-exes-but-now-it's-right ship soooo much. anything along their journey, including a potential future where she goes with him to minbar or they otherwise reunite again, would be fun to read!

(note: i have read "to dream in the city of sorrows," so if you know it and want to use it as a backdrop for a sinclair/sakai future fic that's fine, but i'm NOT attached and would also love to see your canon divergence of choice!)

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👽 stargate sg-1

clone sam/jack: i love it best when these two are still themselves, working through some angst and alienation from both their past and their new lives, but also with hope for a sweet future together. there's such a good opportunity for tension between what they were and what they are, both personally and for their relationship.

what's something that used to be normal, but feels so different now? (e.g. if one of them is in danger or injured... but could be anything!)

after they survive high school, what's next? when do their lives start to feel like their own?

janet fraiser/daniel jackson: these two often fall together very easily in the background of sam and jack fics, but they have lots of fun complications of their own (their professional lives; daniel's past; janet raising a traumatized child...), and they have so much potential to be good and loving and maybe a little snarky together.

heroes canon divergence where she survives but it’s a close thing — how does that impact them (either pre-relationship or established)?

something set off-world, since janet so rarely gets to travel through the gate...

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👾 jake 2.0

this is an extremely niche pairing and so you are definitely not here to write this, but i love jake and diane sooooo much. if, by some rare pair miracle, you have seen this show (!!) i would adore ANYTHING about them!!

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⚾️ deep space nine

i love this floating bicycle wheel in space and everyone inside it so much!!

julian/ezri: the canon execution of this pairing was not great, but somehow i still really ship it. it's complicated, there's war trauma, there's joining trauma, but i think they could recover together and be friends and lovers for real. i'll take anything from silly fluff to a messy deep dive, totally up to you.

what if the war has lasted longer, and it had taken longer for them to get together?

they could do with some shenanigans i think

miles/keiko/kira: there's so much potential here for fun and healing and cultural exchange, and at the end of the day, i just want kira to keep her new family.

during the series: what if they just keep delaying kira's move-out after the baby is born...

anything about getting the family (the whole ds9 family or just this family!) back together post-series

jadzia dax/lenara kahn: truly the closest we get to a canon soulmate au. i love them and want them to be happy 😭.

what if lenara was telling the truth, and just needed more time?

(note: i haven't read the ds9 post-series novels, but if you have and want to use them, i'm happy to memory beta anything i need to know to appreciate the fic!)

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✨ voyager

b'elanna/kes: i believe that b'elanna loves and wants gentleness, even if she doesn't know what to do with it at first. i also adore kes as a character. her kindness! her powers, and how she is both drawn toward them and a little scared of them! her brief and vibrant life!

kes has no preconceptions about klingons, so how does that impact how b'elanna sees herself?

anything at all to do with kes's developing powers (and maybe how b'elanna reacts to them...?)

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🍻 cheers

diane chambers/sam malone: this couple is an absolute disaster, but i would like them to annoy each other til death do they part. ideas:

how do they support each other (well or very badly) in their ongoing mental health/addiction challenges?

what if they stayed in touch on her writing retreat and/or she came back as promised?

if they did get married, diane would co-own the bar and i'm sure she would have ideas about what to do with it...

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thank you again!! i hope this was useful and not overwhelming. you are totally welcome to toss it out and surprise me 💕 anonymous asks are turned on for this account if you have follow-up questions.

[thegeminisage]

STAR TREK UPDATE TIME. quick fast im in a hurry. last night we watched tng's "the chase" and ds9's "the storyteller"

the chase (tng):

this episode didn't commit any major crimes (aside from picard disobeying orders to go on an archaeology hunt - kirk took disobeying even trivial orders so seriously he only did so to save spock's life and was certain his would end his career over it...ANYWAY)

however it was. very. boring

wait sorry i just remembered yes it did commit a crime. aside from that other thing. we're all humanoids bc of that bald lady's alien race seeding us on every planet they could find? isn't that kind of violating the prime directive? like yes ik they didn't have that back then but to let no life develop naturally...we all got grown out of test tubes or something?

to be honest, i might not have been following the plot of that episode wholly i was playing ch*ss on my phone with catherine. cathy, if you're reading this, it's your turn.

i also maybe played a game of solitaire or two...it was REALLY boring

credit where credit is due though because i strive to be as fair as i possibly can with tng: i did out loud laugh when the romulans showed up. we got cardassians, we got klingons, then we got romulans. everyone is here! JUST like super smash bros

really lame they didnt let that girl cardassian talk to beverly though. i think beverly is seriously bicurious and as we know all cardassians are gay so maybe that lady could have fixed her and it's lesophobia that she didn't

i also notice that two-timing mf picard is back to sharing breakfasts with beverly. smh. girl i would MAKE you breakfast. i could be a better man than him. all he did was leave you high and dry with the affair baby

actually, i did feel pretty bad for picard initially when his old teacher (who picard said was "like a father that understood me") was like, if you don't drop your entire job and career right now this instant and go to me i will leave your ship early and run straight into a photon torpedo and it will be ALLL your fault. bye forever! like, what a bitch. then he did something to ruin it pretty much immediately but i don't remember what because i was looking at my phone.

the storyteller (ds9):

CHARMING. absolutely charming start to finish. i fucking loved it

here's the thing about ds9. the plot of this episode fucking sucked ass, but i don't mind in the least because the characters are all so good and actually get to do stuff and form bonds with each other! wild how that works!

like, "we have to defeat a made-up cloud with the power of positive thinking so we don't all go to war?" girl, what on earth. but it literally doesn't matter because it's just an excuse for o'brien to be longsuffering and julian bashir to be most delightfully cringefail twink that ever existed and then do whatever it is together that they do. SURPRISING chemistry from those two. i know they wind up being besties later and i CANNOT wait

like, that guy was like "who can i pick to replace me...not this stupid airhead twink, are you kidding me? bring me the irishman." real.

the b plot of this also sucked. "jake and nog harass a teenage tribe leader because nog thinks she's cute" sounds bad But Actually. i like jake and nog hanging out a lot, i've grown quite fond of them, and the girl wound up needing a little outside perspective due to inexperience/was probably perfectly capable of getting rid of them had she wanted to

plus, it was an excuse for jake to be like my dad is a GREAT dad and then to have mister great dad tell jake and nog they were gonna clean that oatmeal off the walls with a fucking toothbrush

also. as a brand new odo stan i admit i was in considerable distress when they talked about stealing his bucket. but. i also really really really wanted to see the bucket. and he caught them anyway :')

him telling them to stop dangling and then they get up and immediately sit back down when he leaves and also he smiles at them when they aren't looking :')))

i think odo would be great with kids. absolutely he wants nothing to do with kids but he'd be great with them.

anyway, wonderful episode. i cant believe letswatchstartrek gave it a 2, what's wrong with them

TONIGHT: tng's frame of mind, which i have been looking forward to for MONTHS. i know it's gonna be good. i KNOW it is!!!

[trek-tracks]

Raise your hand if you've ever accidentally saved an entire planet because your best friend looked sad when you started walking away

[starship-imzadi]

S2 E9 The Measure of a Man

The very first game of poker! There are a number of arguments as to why Riker should never win poker against Geordi, Troi, or Data. They each have individual capabilities that could easily gice them an advantage (vision, empathy, and computing respectively). I agree these are valid, but I like that off the bat the show starts to look at idiosyncratic disadvantages as well. (We don't actually know if Geordi can see through the cards or not.)

These chairs look like taller versions of the chairs in ten-forward. I can just imagine Riker trying to step over one.

This adversarial flirting with Picard makes me really uncomfortable.

(Oh f***. I didn't realise Bruce Maddox was in TNG...I didn't do a full rewatch before watching Picard; this makes so much more sense.)

The different admiral costume looks more like the starship uniform

I really like this shot with the noticeable reflection in the conference table and the space station in the background. It's a very visually engaging composition.

Seeing Picard defend Data is fabulous, both because Patrick is a great actor and Picard is a very likeable, noble character. It's also fabulous because seeing Picard support Data this passionately really starts to show the personal loyalties and relationships the crew has.

Maddox seems to regard Data as amazing enough to want to study but unimportant enough to risk destroying. It's a very delicate line to walk.

"I shall miss you Geordi" I'm less attentive to Geordi and Data as a pairing but I feel like the is the first overt acknowledgement of their friendship. It almost felt like Geordi wanted to hug him.

When Riker says Data is his friend it makes me think of their first interaction on the holodeck when Riker said "you're going to be an interesting companion, Mr. Data." It establishes the change from Riker first meeting him, regarding him as interesting, to his now regarding Data as personally valuable.

This episode is not only about rallying behind Data, recognising Data's personal value to each of the crew (highlighting what he means to them when they're faced with losing him) but it also gives the crew a "them" to rally against. Defining "us" against "them" or "the other" is a substantial means of establishing mutual bonds of loyalty, of family or belonging.

I wonder what that is Riker is drinking. I think it looks like a chai tea latte....

I frequently have to remind myself that iPads, touchscreens, voice activated computers, and all similar technologies were advanced concept in the 1980's. I remember a time before they were everyday, but that everyday has been long enough it takes me a second to desensitize myself and marvel at their imaginative and ambitious nature.

I have mixed feelings about Webster's Dictionary still existing in the 24th century. I much prefer the OED.

When Riker cradles Data's hand/forearm so carefully, in addition to his apology for taking it in the first place, the tenderness makes it obvious Riker cares about him. Before I commented that I was reminded of Data and Riker's first meeting but now Riker makes a specific reference to it, either for his benefit or the viewer's; or both. (only he and Data were present for the original conversation). "Pinocchio is broken. Its strings have been cut." The way he says it is so brusque almost loathing, towards what he has done, not Data's existence. In his very first conversation with Data he calls him Pinocchio as a joke.

Did the entire crew know about Tasha and Data? From Picard and Riker's reaction, they seem to have known. Picard already knows because he prompts Data to reveal it. Riker doesn't exhibit any surprise, in fact his response is one of avoidance, like shame, as if he knew and regrets that, even against his will, he is a cause of Data having to reveal this secret.

As much as I criticised the use of Tasha, and Data, in "The Naked Time" I appreciate that the interaction is viewed retrospectively with reverence. For Data it is an important, meaningful, and significant event not just because of physical intimacy but because it was such a personal and, most importantly, human experience.

There are larger ramifications to this episode that only feel partially realised. It's probably for the sake of time, but there's a lot of debate that could be had about sentience, free will, and rights. It does feel kind of late in the show to begin wondering if Data ought to be treated like all other individuals deemed "self aware". It even harkens back to "Elementary, Dear Data" when Pulaski brought up questions akin to the Turing test. Even as AI has developed the contemporary query has changed: what happens if AI can, pass the Turing test, convince us it is sentient even if it isn't?

Picard's ending argument doesn't really address whether Data is sentient any more than Riker did in proving Data is a machine. Instead Picard effectively asks "can we live with ourselves if we we risk enslaving a race that might be sentient?"

I really love Riker and Data's exchange at the end.

"That action injured you and saved me. I will not forget it."

"you're a wise man, my friend"

"not yet, sir. But with your help, I am learning"