#podcast discovery

[thedurassisterspod]

Tumblr Text posts + Star Trek

[theoutcastrogue]

In 1584, Reginald Scot published The Discoverie of Witchcraft, a book that sought to debunk the whole idea of magic – though not the supernatural in general [it ain't a witch or a fairy, but it could be a miracle from god!]. He said that people who claim to be witches are either frauds, fully aware that they don't possess any supernatural ability, or mentally ill, suffering from "melancholie" due to an imbalance of the humours. This was mostly about people concocting herbal remedies and potions and such, or casting curses and "an evil eye", claiming or thought to invoke fairies and assorted supernatural elements in the process. But there was another kind of magic.

"After dismissing the belief in witchcraft and related supernatural ideas, he then described how certain people employed tricks to deceive people. Though the discussion was intended to reveal what he considered to be frauds and cheats, it was really one of the first textbooks on the art of magic, and the tricks he described are still performed by modern magicians on stages all over world. He didn't call it magic. It called it juggling, using that older and broader sense of the word juggle as a magical or incredible feat [N.B. as opposed to the modern sense of tossing objects in the air]. For example, he described the sleight of hand used in card magic like the use of false shuffles and the way a card player manipulates the deck to control the location of certain cards in the deck. He described how people made coins and little balls disappear in their hands through misdirection, and he described an early version of "cups and balls" where the conjuror makes balls appear and disappear under various cups through misdirection and sleight of hand. He also described how to make a coin appear to pass through a table or disappear into a handkerchief. He described how conjurors used boxes with false bottoms to create an illusion in which one type of grain in the box appeared to change into a completely different type of grain. And he even described how to use a fake blade to give the appearance of passing a knife through a persons arm or tongue. Throughout the discussion, Scot emphasized that these were merely tricks, and not actual magic or witchcraft." – Kevin W. Stroud, The History of English Podcast Episode 168: "Witches, demons, and fairies"

In the book, the chapter on "the art of juggling" presents several categories of magic tricks:

cups and balls (a precursor to the shell game)

coin tricks

card tricks

fast and loose

various illusions and cons

various sleight of hand tricks

body horror: fake sword swallowing (there's a very real version, which is not examined here), passing a knife through your hand or a ring through your cheek, presenting someone's head on a plate, etc (see pics!)

The Internet Archive has the 1584 edition here, and a much more easily readable 1886 edition here (chapter starts at page 321).

[the-one-and-only-duckduckgo]

Posting that here because I don't want to be attacked by my sadistic mutuals on main, but I've just started reading the transcripts of The Magnus Archives (couldn't focus on the audio), and I need to present:

The Magnus Archives (But I've Only Read a Few Chapters and Am Very, Very Confused.)

There's an archivist. His name starts with J and he talks a lot.

There are weird things happening to various people.

Every chapter is a different experience. Am I supposed to make connections between the stories? Who knows. They don't make a lot of sense so far.

Many different people and English names. Seriously, do you want me to die because I can't make the difference between the Jons, the Johns, the Joshuas and the Johnathans ? Do you know any names that don't start with J ?

Speaking of names, why am I hallucinating a Harold? I re-read the thing twice and don't see any Harolds. This doesn't feel right. There should be a Harold. These statements give Harold vibes. Give me Harold or give me death.

No sense whyyyyy?

There's a very cool guy named Gerard and I want to steal his wardrobe. He burns stuff.

No main guy lore ? Like, bro straight up announced that he lives a fantastic life reorganizing files in Dream Princess Abandoned Archives with two and a half co-workers and totally changes subject without further ado? Why, Josh, why? I want to know why you hate that guy.

Wait wasn't he John?

Who is that poor Martin and why does Jyouknowwho hate him?

What's happening with the recordings? Do you just put them away in boxes, Gabriel "not my department" style? What's the point?

GERARD KEAY GERARD KEAY GERARD KEAY

Is someone else going to speak or did Main-Guy-Probably-Jake lock himself with the mic ?

My friend who wanted me to listen to it teased it by speaking about romance and good queer rep. Where's the romance? Am I going to witness Jalapeño slowly falling in love with the tape recorder?

Eldritch books are an absolute slay.

Burning them is an even more absolute slay.

I made the mistake of opening a Pinterest board. Are you guys okay?

Well, obviously, no. But why is there a perfectly normal and decorative vase which isn't homophobic at all?

Also, who is the (gorgeous) blonde with long hands? Is he okay?

Shout-out to J-something-not-main-guy who managed to live with an eldritch soprano coffin for eighteen months. You get it, man.

Anyways, leaving you on this, answering my asks, and avoiding Tumblr to stop being spoiled. I'll come back whith more info in a few days.

[ai-innova7ions]

Neturbiz Enterprises - AI Innov7ions

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[blazing-dynamo]

Hey Star Trekblr, I have an ask for the community. On our podcast’s members only feed, we are playing a bunch of the space themed games, in a sub series we’re calling the Escape Pod.

As a part of these episodes, we play a game called “Two Treks and a Lie” where I list three weird things that are canon to Star Trek, but one of them is entirely made up.

My cohost Bernard is a lapsed Trekkie, and loves the concept but hasn’t watched anything but season one of TOS in the last decade and a half. So it’s a fun way to break the ice before the episode starts.

I have made it through one season just picking a random Memory Alpha page and reading it for the weird stuff, but I realized, I should open up the mic to the audience, and ask you guys for your favorite, most unhinged thing that’s canon in Star Trek.

So let me know the crazy things, and drop sources when you do.

[fakedtales]

It’s Monday and that means it’s time for Casual Trek!

We’re three years old now, and are we still casual Star Trek fans? You bet, and we prove it in this episode! We also go into what we’ve learnt in the last year, what we’re looking forward to and even answer some questions from folks!

We’re found on all good podcatchers and here: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/Qu3z7XFHbMb

[startrekucast]

News, Conspiracies, Hopes and Theories!

We're catching up on news -- castings, character announcements, sad cancellations, wonderful renewals, and a silly conspiracy that could be cool if they did it right! It's a whole lotta episode, maman! Put the wash cloth in the water basin, maman. Squeeze a bit out, then rub it on my face. I got such a fever, maman...

On this episode:

Paramount Chiefs to Staff: We’re Cutting $500M in Costs After “Unacceptable” Profit Drops (61%)

Prodigy Season 2 Trailer: https://youtu.be/zXh5TLAeJqw

Netflix To Release All 20 Episodes Of ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Season 2 In July

Anson Mount: ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Season 3 Takes “Bigger Swings”

SNW Season 4 Filming Set For 2025

Alex Kurtzman: Why ‘Starfleet Academy’ Is Set In The ‘Discovery’ Era

Kurtzman on Avoiding Star Trek Fan Service And Explaining Floating Nacelles In ‘Starfleet Academy

Starfleet Academy series is set to go into production at the end of this summer in Toronto.

Holly Hunter is the Lead of the Show

Paul Giamatti Boards As Main Villain

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 Does Not Feel Like the "End," Says Showrunner

Two Big Projects Could Keep "Legacy" From Happening

Star Trek Origin Movie Set to Add X-Men Producer

'Star Trek: Discovery’ Season 5 And Complete Series Box Sets Coming To Blu-ray And DVD In August

'Star Trek: Section 31' Casting/Character News

Director Says Section 31 is a Little Different

‘Star Trek: Section 31’ Actor Teases His “Very Intense” Character

Dave's Wild, Conspiratorial Theories and Unbridled Hope Section

[spock-in-awe]

Ethan Peck's ST Discovery wrap speech

Ethan: [Chuckles] Cast: Speech! Ethan: Oh, god. Um. [Chuckles] This has been, uh, such a surreal experience. I can’t believe this is over now. Um. This seemed like an impossible task. And what happens here is so special, every day. What you do here is magical. And it means a lot to everybody in the world, that watches it, I think. And uh, I feel so moved and grateful to have been here. And I look into your faces, every single one of your faces every day, and it makes me feel special. [Chuckles] And I mean, I have... [Pause] I’m playing Spock so I have that going for me. [Chuckles] [Group laughter] But I think I’ve been myself enough around you. And I feel safe to be myself and uh, for the first time in my life, I feel like I belong. Um. And that’s, that’s a big deal for me. So thank you all so much. It’s been such a pleasure. [Group applause]

From Anson Mount's podcast The Well

[notanothertvpodcast]

No matter what, Discovery is a show we’ll miss

[treklongisland]

What is your favorite creepy Trek episode?

[thedurassisterspod]

When someone asks how I am

[earlgreyandanime]

The gothic history podcast I'm listening to:...this wine is said to be buried deep within the catacombs of Paris and is so ineffably delicious that a man died trying to get it....

Me, immediately: Matthew de Clairmont snuck down into the Paris catacombs decades ago and took every single bottle...

[the-one-and-only-duckduckgo]

Heyyyy how's tma going?

Just finished reading episode 12, planning to read more tomorrow after exposing. Going nicely, thanks for asking!

(It was, in fact, not going nicely. At the minute when our brave antihero spoke, ze was holding onto zir last bits of sanity, doing anything to avoid crying because of Gerard Keay's reappearance. )

[sshbpodcast]

Some directives were meant to be broken

By Ames

[Edited to add: Since there’s a lot of debate on whether the Prime Directive only applies to uncontacted races or not, check out our post “Star Trek Prodigy fully defined the Prime Directive” for the canon rules in either scenario. Live long and prosper!]

To uphold or not to uphold, that is the question. Everyone and their grandmothers tend to confuse Star Trek’s guidelines for first contact and the Prime Directive, so let’s make things clear: this week on A Star to Steer Her By, we’re talking about the Federation’s capability to interfere with the cultures of other races, fullstop. That includes uncontacted, prewarp races and how we shouldn’t make ourselves known to them because it will affect their development; but that also includes races whom we talk to all the time and how we shouldn’t make them stop worshiping their gods or participating in their normal customs or engaging in their silly wars. Until we should…

And frequently, it’s a fine line that all depends on how any given captain interprets the situation. I whipped up a sort of Prime Directive Compass graphic (above) that is so arbitrary I’m not sure I could defend most of the placements of each episode in particular, but it does maybe give a decent overall look at scenarios in which captains maintain or break the first general order and how badly it impacts the alien culture.

Interestingly, some trends emerged, so read on below or listen to this week’s very in-the-weeds chatter on the podcast (discussion starts at 1:18:23) for some examples of brave captains going out of their way to help a struggling society and for other examples of stubborn morons entirely botching their dealings with other races. What harm could it do?

[images © CBS/Paramount]

Uphold/Good – Repairing Cultural Contamination

In the ideal scenario, upholding the Prime Directive has no effect on the other people. At all. Those would be points on the x axis with entirely neutral, entirely boring outcomes. But since watching things go swimmingly wouldn’t make for very watchable television, the episodes that I’d say fit this category tend to be ones in which the crew goes in to undo someone else’s breaking of the Prime Directive. The society is already contaminated, so these kinds of episodes skew the rules a little bit because someone needs to at least lessen the impact.

Spoilers follow a little here because the recent Prodigy episode “All the World’s a Stage” made for a really compelling example of this. When the Protostar crew happens upon the “Enderprizians,” it’s clear some contamination has already occurred but is actually benefiting the society. Dal and crew don’t just go in and fix everything; they empower the aliens to be able to fix it themselves and it’s so sweet I’m getting a sugar rush just thinking about it.

Other good examples of fixing someone else’s breaking of the Prime Directive include bringing some perspective to the gangster planet in “A Piece of the Action,” throwing a wrench into the workings of Nazi planet in “Patterns of Force,” removing the Ferengi taking advantage of a gullible race in “False Profits,” going to battle for the Ba’ku when it’s clear Admiral Dougherty’s plan is evil as hell in Insurrection, and I guess bringing a little bit of peace to the Yangs and the Kohms in “Omega Glory,” though I’d prefer that last one just not exist at all.

—

Uphold/Bad – Abiding by the Letter of the Law

Episodes about blindly upholding the Prime Directive even when it’s bad for the society in question are some of the hardest to justify. Frequently, it feels like the Starfleet representative is just being obstinate in enforcing the non-interference rule because getting involved and making things better would entail real work. The corrupt, endangered, or backwards society is left to fend for themselves instead of get better. This week on the podcast, we covered Voyager’s “Thirty Days,” in which Paris is punished for trying to help a people whose refusal to change their ways will result in planetary collapse. It’s agonizing to watch Captain Janeway not only tie her own hands in dealing with the Moneans, but literally shoot down their salvation. Pew pew.

Some may say (as Chris did in his DS9 fanfic as heavy-handedly as he could) that hiding behind the Prime Directive does more damage than good in these situations. The Federation’s intentions may be to allow for the cultural rights and unguided development of individual societies, but everyone also gets to wash their hands of any self-inflicted consequences because this group of savages did it to themselves. These kinds of episodes make for great points of discussion: Is Picard at fault when many Brekkians will ultimately die of withdrawal in “Symbiosis”? Should Phlox have given the Valakians the cure (that he already made!) for their disease in “Dear Doctor”? How much should we fully loathe Archer for chastising Trip when he stands up for the rights of an oppressed gender in the rage-inducing “Cogenitor”? (Answers: Probably; Why not?; and A lot!)

And sure, sometimes our heroes try their hardest to break the Prime Directive but it just doesn’t do any good. TNG’s “The Outcast” and “Half a Life” and SNW’s “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach” come to mind in portraying attempts by characters to convince a race to stop being assholes that ultimately have no effect. The results are the same: more people will suffer because all we could do was stand aside and watch.

—

Break/Good – Taking a Moral Stand

On the exact opposite side of the spectrum are those instances in which our upstanding crewmembers stand up for what’s right even if it technically means getting involved in the affairs of another race. These are the episodes in which we say “Screw the Prime Directive! These people need our help!” If Tom had actually gotten away with altering the Moneans’ status quo, “Thirty Days” would have flipped over to this side of the compass, but certain Tuvix-murderers felt like upholding the law for once.

The series premiere episode “Strange New Worlds” of the show with the same name (why, Star Trek, why?) does a great job of putting morals first and shoving the first directive someplace else. Sure, there’s a little bit of cultural contamination due to the [spoiler redacted spoiler redacted] in the season 2 finale of Discovery, but Pike gives up on just trying to fix things and throws any semblance of coverup out the podbay doors, utterly annihilating every word of the Prime Directive because the Kiley were at the brink of a nuclear war that could destroy the planet. There aren’t many better reasons to break the Prime Directive than that...

...but I’m gonna list some more anyway because you’re here. It’s nice to save races from extinction even if the Prime Directive dictates that would be their natural course and people like Phlox can go screw themselves. So we see: Data advocating to save the volcano planet Drema IV in TNG’s “Pen Pals,” Janeway closing the Malons’ nuclear dumping site in “Night,” and Georgiou fixing a well in the teaser of the Discovery premiere “The Vulcan Hello.” We also witness smaller victories like freeing Tosk in DS9’s “Captive Pursuit” in which Sisko pretends he’s abiding by the Prime Directive when he’s totally not, Janeway sneaking telepaths through a checkpoint in “Counterpoint,” and Nikolai Rozhenko relocating some Boraalans from their dying world in “Homeward,” among several others you can look up yourself.

—

Break/Bad – Interfering with Primitive Societies

Let’s wrap things up with all the times everything goes completely off the deep end. These are cases in which not only is the Federation putting their nose where it doesn’t belong, but it’s also sneezing all over the alien race to boot. Most typically, we see these episodes surrounding more primitive societies because it’s so easy to entirely upend their ways of life with our advanced ideas and killing contraptions.

We’ve given Admiral Jameson shit before (he’s in Jake’s early blogpost Top 10 Worst Starfleet Admirals), but he’s worth kicking a few more times since what he does in TNG’s “Too Short a Season” is that effed up. This is a man who negotiated a hostage situation by giving a revenge-obsessed tribal chief on Mordan IV all the weapons he wanted. Then Jameson thought a good loophole around the Prime Directive would be to give weapons to the rival tribe as well, providing for a costly civil war. It’s only fair that way! Right?

Starfleet just can’t stop interfering with bands of people in developing societies! We see it also when Kirk notices Klingons giving weapons to one tribe on the planet Neural so he gives weapons to the other side in “A Private Little War,” when Peanut Hamper selfishly uses the Areore for her own advancement in the recent Lower Decks episode “A Mathematically Perfect Redemption,” and when the Federation trades with the Rutian government during a time of social upheaval in “The High Ground,” and many more! There goes the neighborhood!

—

There are way more episodes to mention and arguments to make about where they align in the chart, but I’m ready to let a negotiator handle the rest of this. Suffice it to say that breaking the Prime Directive is about as Starfleet as putting deltas on everything, but about fifty percent of the time it blows up in your face.

Keep your duckblind facing here for more blogposts, and make sure you’re matching speed with us in our watch-through of Voyager over on SoundCloud or wherever you unencrypt your podcasts. You can also break the Prime Directive by communicating with us on Facebook or Twitter, but use your best judgment because we’re still developing warp drive.

[oldnetreasures]

Can someone unpack this for me?

Jodi Arias murdered Travis Alexander because he would not commit to her. She was infatuated with him and would have happily spent the rest of her life by his side. This murder was the result of a scorned woman seeking revenge, she was not a vigilante. Give your support to the women and men who have murdered predators because they wanted to protect others.

This man is just one example of someone who took the law into his own hands for the right reasons.

[dconscreen]

Is Warner Brothers About to Die?

Dave's still under the weather and Jason is ailing a bit himself, but we wanted to talk about the 9 billion dollar write-down WBD just took and what it might mean for the studio and the IP we care so much about we dedicated a podcast to it...

Join Our Riotous DC Debauch!

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