#so far i actually do Not like picard's captaining style

[thegeminisage]

ok we watched the tng pilot. let's get into it

data is my best friend on this show and i love him

i liked riker but jonathan frakes looks like a baby without facial hair. he's gotta grow that in. also, at one point he asked someone a question and i got really excited. he should ask more people more questions i think thats what jonathan frakes was born to do. that and sit in chairs with style

also liked geordi even though we only saw him for 3 seconds and worf even though same.

the sections with q draaaaaaagged. ik people like q and whatever he has going on with picard but i'm just not there yet. this "humans are NOT savages anymore" plotline has been played out in tos many times to better effect

actually shocked picard was such a dick. idk why i was expecting him to be more kind maybe i was projecting professor x onto him?? but he kinda sucked lol like what was EVEN going on w his little pissing contest with riker

love and light, there should not be children on a starship. space is fucking dangerous. they're literally boldly going where no one has gone before. these kids could get hurt

the ship??? splits?????????? IS THAT LEGAL????

ok, furthermore, sorry, speaking of kids, not to be a misogynist but out of the 3 ladies (troi, crusher, and yar) i dislike 2 of them. love and light to deanna troi but i really hope she gets something to do besides emote and go OH THE PAIN...her look was slay. i understand completely how she turned women gay. give her something to do. give her a chance. i know she could be good.

i didn't mind dr crusher until she let her kid on the bridge even though you're not supposed to do that and they told him to touch nothing and he proceeded to touch everything and then she got mad when picard got mad. picard spent 70% of this episode being a dick and the one time he was justified she was like :/ wow you're such a dick. lmao. girl come on he literally said don't touch anything he was already being nicer than he had to be. the child was in the wrong children shouldn't even be on this ship

also they talk about wesley like he's their affair baby. idw if its true but nobody tell me. let me believe it. wesley crusher destined to suffer through male pattern baldness

also, i can see now why you're not supposed to date your ship mates. dating them is fine but being exes with them is excruciating and we had TWO PAIRS this pilot

anyway. tasha yar was rad i DID love her.

it's weird though how many of them use first names...in tos sometimes they didn't even use last names, only titles. spock called bones "doctor" almost exclusively. so riker calling geordi geordi after like 5 minutes of knowing him was a little weird

i cried when bones showed up. sue me. his prosthetics were terrible and i already miss him so much.

SPACE JELLYFISH. that part was good

overall both the adventure and the interpersonal stuff was a little ????? which is like. you can flop on one or the other. i DO have faith it will get better but i feel kind of lukewarm on it so far

there's a lot of direct counterpoints to tos, but it's shuffled JUUUST enough so it feels like it isn't copying tos's homework word for word but rewording it to trick the teacher. for example, data is like spock in that he doesn't understand emotions or whatever, but it's actually the inverse because spock understands and pretends not to, while data truly doesn't understand but wants to. then you have deanna troi who's sort of filling in for the other thing spock used to do, which is give us general impressions about unknown alien life, but she SPECIFICALLY does it through emotions so she doesn't resemble spock too much. the captain and first officer have a lot of scenes together but they're tense so it doesn't look too tempting to the slash fans. the doctor is still a bit grumpy but she's a woman this time. they don't use tricorders but geordi's special prosthetic helps them see all that shit anyway. it's tos but shuffled. lmao that it took 2 people to replace spock <3

anyway my favorite part, aside from the part bones was in, was when riker and data talked in the holodeck. and riker was like actually yeah the fact that you're a machine DOES make me uncomfortable. and data is like well i am superior but i'd like to be human actually! and you could see the little gears in riker's head turning and later he called data friend. i liked that and i love data. i love data he's very important even though the pilot wasn't good i think i would keep watching no matter what for data. and i knew it would be like that.

[seaphoam-writes]

A Father's Duty (34/?)

A Father's Duty on AO3

Summary: An encounter with a quantum fissure leaves Picard with more responsibility than he asked for, but he'll do what he always does—his duty.

Chapter 34

Will Riker didn’t always want kids of his own. Initially, he believed that he probably shouldn’t have a family; Will’s father was garbage at being a parent, so what if Will was garbage at it too? He didn’t want another kid to go through what he went through, and he didn’t want to find out that he’s just like his father after all.

He discovered, eventually, that interacting with kids is easy—and that he likes it and that he’s actually pretty good at it.

Deanna attributes it to his “youthfulness”, a trait Will tried very hard to suppress for most of his career because that description had usually been wielded as a critique and not a compliment. Deanna was the first to use it positively, to encourage him to not only embrace it but hone it into something useful: a unique command style that complements the captain’s and makes the Enterprise the most desired posting in all of Starfleet.

It's the Enterprise that changed Will’s mind about kids, but up until recently he thought he had more time. He thought he could continue to focus on his career, that kids could come later once he finally got his own ship, that maybe then he’d be able to settle down enough to focus on finding the right someone to share a life with.

But Captain Picard’s advice has been weighing on him.

“Don’t let your career stand in the way of starting a family.”

He thinks the captain meant that Will could have both, not that it’s necessary to sacrifice one for the other.

Not that there’s anything holding back Will’s career at this point besides Will himself. His goal was to become captain before he turned 35—a deadline fast approaching—and he’s been offered the opportunity to achieve that goal more than once, but he’s not ready to leave the Enterprise.

He’s not ready to leave Captain Picard.

Will has stayed put because he believes that what he still has left to learn from the captain is more valuable than the prestige of his own ship, and recent events only renewed that belief.

He glances over his shoulder at Louis, realizes Louis is so far behind that he can barely see him, and stops walking. Will forgets sometimes how long his legs are, but he also forgot how used to this particular holodeck program he is—he could walk to Curtis Creek in his sleep, but Louis is straggling. When he catches up, however, he grins.

“This is fun,” he declares, bright-eyed.

Will grins back. “Do you want me to walk slower?”

“No. I’m okay.”

Will walks slower anyway. “It’s just a little bit farther,” he says.

He knows it’s not physical ability causing Louis to straggle—the kid’s got energy and he’s surprisingly sure-footed, he’s just completely unfamiliar with nature. The path is uneven, full of rocks and exposed roots, blocked in one place by a fallen tree; often it’s narrow and flanked by tall, wild greenery. Louis steps carefully, as if he’s afraid to harm even a single blade of grass.

It’s reverent.

And it breaks Will’s heart a little. He loves space, he loves exploring the galaxy—but sometimes he thinks that the kids who grow up on starships are missing out.

“This is a real place?” Louis asks.

Will can tell by his voice that he’s keeping up. “Yes. I used to come here when I was younger.”

“It’s in Alaska?”

Will chuckles. “You know about Alaska, huh?”

“I know that you grew up there. Are we by your house?”

“We’re about two kilometers north of where I lived.”

“That’s far!”

“It’s not too bad.” Will used to walk even further sometimes, just to get as far away from his father as he could.

“You came here a lot?”

 “All the time.”

Curtis Creek isn’t a place Will ever went to with his father.

His father doesn’t know it even exists.

Curtis Creek is where Will once stumbled upon an elderly man named Eugene who didn’t mind sharing his favorite fishing spot. It’s a place Will went whenever his father disappointed him, which was often. It’s a place Will continued to go to even after Eugene passed away, because it was peaceful, and it reminded him of a man who was kind and patient and taught him that fishing didn’t have to be about sport.

“I suspect there’s much you can teach him that I can’t.”

When Will went to Deanna for guidance, Deanna told him to just be himself, and that what Louis needs most right now is just to feel safe.

Curtis Creek is a place where Will feels safe, so it made sense to him that Louis might feel safe here too.

“Well, here it is.”

Will stops and sweeps his arm in a wide arc, indicating a wide swathe of grassy bank guarded by a small copse of balsam poplars.

He could have made the program open onto this spot directly, but the walk is part of it; even after all these years, even though Will knows Eugene isn’t here—that this is a holodeck program—it’s always a little disappointing to round the bend and not see that gnarled little old man bent over his tackle box.

Louis steps around him to survey the area. “It’s pretty,” he says. “I like Alaska.”

Will’s about to tell him about the long periods of continuous light and endless dark around the solstices, but then he realizes it wouldn’t be that shocking to Louis; his entire life he’s lived in an environment where there’s no noticeable different between night and day—the windows are always black, and the hallways are always brightly lit.

“Are there bears?” Louis asks.

Will raises an eyebrow. “Why? Are you afraid of bears?”

Louis gives him a flat look. “Yes. They can eat you.”

Will laughs as he leads the way towards the stand of trees. “In the real Alaska, there are bears. But there aren’t any here on the holodeck.”

“Have you ever seen a real bear?”

“A few times, yea.”

“Were you scared?”

“Yes,” Will admits.

“Really?”

Will halts and turns, regards Louis seriously. “Of course I was scared. Bears can eat you.”

Louis laughs and follows Will to the tree closest to the waterline, where there’s a tackle box and two fishing rods waiting for them. Just before they plunge into the shade, Louis pauses and lifts his face to the sky, letting the sun warm his cheeks.

It breaks Will’s heart all over again. He knows he doesn’t need to be involved—Captain Picard seems to be handling fatherhood quite well—but he wants to. Will really likes the kid. He’s curious and polite and he has a sense of humor.

But aside from that, Will feels almost…obligated.

The other Will Riker—Louis’s “Uncle Will”—abandoned the bridge to find Louis and make sure he got into an escape pod; he even gave the other Data an order that he must have known would eventually put Data in direct conflict with Starfleet.

Will feels like he owes it to his other self, to that other Data, to help make sure Louis is okay.

“Alright, come here,” he says, beckoning Louis over to the tacklebox and its array of fluorescent lures. “I’ll show you how to rig your line.”

-/-

Aside from his parents, the person Louis missed the most was his Uncle Will, and the way this Will treats Louis feels the same.

It feels like they picked up right where they left off.

“Can we eat the fish?” Louis asks. He never went fishing with Uncle Will before, but he remembers Uncle Will talking about it.

“Unfortunately, no,” Will replies. “These fish are just holographic simulations. If we tried to take one off the holodeck, it would disappear.”

“What if we cooked it on the holodeck and ate it?”

Will frowns. “Huh. I don’t know. I never thought about it. We’ll have to ask Geordi.”

He reels his line in and then recasts it, sending it deeper, towards where he said the fish like to hide because its deeper and colder.

“Maybe when we get to Earth,” Will says, “we can go fishing for real.”

“In Labarre?” His father told him that after they talked to Starfleet, they were going to Labarre.

Will chuckles. “I don’t think I’m coming with you to Labarre. Maybe you and I can go before Labarre—or maybe your dad can take you.”

“Papa said he doesn’t know how to fish.”

“I guess you’ll have to teach him then.” Will reaches out and ruffles his hair the same way Uncle Will used to. “When’s the last time you visited?”

Louis shrugs. “I was very little. I don’t remember it.”

He saw pictures. His parents took him to Labarre once when he was a baby, and once right before they joined the Enterprise.

“When’s the last time you went to Alaska?”

“I haven’t been back since I left for the Academy.”

“Do you miss it?”

Will sighs and makes a weird face, like he’s sad but being sad hurts. “Sometimes.”

Louis never had a home on a planet like Will. Or his father. His home has never been somewhere that stayed in one place. Home was his parents. Home was the Enterprise. Home was Data, their stolen shuttlecraft and their borrowed quarters.

Home has always been space. He wonders if he’ll miss being in space when they’re on Earth.

The thought of Earth and what might happen there makes Louis suddenly nervous. He doesn’t want to think about it, so he goes back to watching the red bobber he’s supposed to be paying attention to. He already got one “bite” but lost the fish (Will said it was alright, it happens, just try again and be patient) and while he stares out at the creek, he feels a tug on his line.

“I got one!” he gasps, and leaps to his feet.

Will jumps up next to him. “Ok, reel it in slow and steady, just like before. You got it.”

The fish fights him. Louis grits his teeth against the burning in his arms and shoulders, and when he finally pulls it out of the water, he’s surprised by how small it is—it felt like it was ten times bigger.

Fish must be really strong.

But then Will grabs the fish and pulls the hook out and holds it up for Louis to see, and it doesn’t look strong, it looks…pathetic. And scared.

Louis feels sick. “Can we put it back?”

Will’s eyebrows shoot to his hairline. “Of course.”

He kneels and lets the fish slip out of his hands into the water. “See?” he says, smiling. “No harm done. It’s going to swim back to all its friends and tell them to watch out for neon yellow worms.”

Louis swallows. Something is trying to crawl up his throat.

He’s not in Alaska anymore. He’s on the shuttle, watching a Borg cube overtake the Phoenix, knowing everyone on there—his friends, the music teacher that let him come to her quarters and play her baby grand piano, the handful of people who were nice to him and didn’t care what his last name was—are being assimilated.

Knowing they’re scared and in pain and that they can’t escape. Not like he can. Not like he always does.

There are hands on Louis’s arms, turning him away from the creek, and then hands cupping his face. Big hands. Louis blinks. Will’s very close, his eyes big and round and worried.

“Do you want me to take you back?”

Louis feels bad for making Will worry. He shakes his head, but it makes him dizzy so he puts his arms out to steady himself and grabs two fistfuls of Will’s flannel shirt. It’s soft, and it’s real.

Je ne suis pas là-bas, je suis ici. I’m not back there, I’m here.

“Are you sure?” Will asks.

“Oui.” He tightens his fists until his knuckles hurt. He’s with Uncle Will—non, just Will—and he’s safe. “Je vais bien. I’m okay.”

Will drops his hands and Louis lets go of his shirt.

“We don’t have to fish anymore,” Will says. “We can just sit.”

“Can we see a bear?”

Will grins. “Sure.”

He clears the fishing gear out of the way so they can sprawl on the grass close to the water, and then he orders the computer to create a bear on the opposite bank. It’s huge and brown, and even though Louis knows it’s fake, when it lifts its head to look at them, he still feels a thrill of fear down his spine.

“Louis, sometimes we must do things that frighten us.”

Louis frowns. What if being safe and happy is what frightens him?

[july-19th-club]

i think picard needs to snap at data less. sir he is not babbling let him complete a thought!

[thegreaterlink]

Reviewing Star Trek TNG - S1E11 “The Big Goodbye”

THE PREMISE

The Enterprise is en route to open diplomatic ties with the Jarada, an insectoid race who are unusually strict in protocol, to the point where even a single mispronunciation in their complex language could start a war.

Eager to take a break from the understandably stressful preparations, Captain Picard immerses himself in a holodeck program, taking the role of fictional detective Dixon Hill. On a subsequent visit he is joined by Dr Crusher, Data and visiting historian Dr Whalen. However, a scan from the Jarada causes the holodeck to malfunction, preventing the doors from opening and cutting off any communication, trapping Picard and the others inside.

MY REVIEW

Holodeck episodes are usually good fun - "Our Man Bashir" and "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" from DS9 come to mind - and this episode is no exception.

I have to give massive credit to the production team for doing such a thorough job on the film noir style of this episode's set and costume design - the episode's costumes even won it an Emmy. It often felt like I was watching an entirely different series which just so happened to feature a lot of the Next Generation cast... as long as you ignore Brent Spiner's android makeup.

Picard and Co's almost childlike sense of wonder and curiosity at the unfamiliar setting is a lot of fun to watch. While being interrogated on suspicion of murder, Picard can't help but marvel at the accuracy and detail of the program. Data also has fun getting into character, dressing the part and speaking the 1930s lingo.

Even when Whalen gets shot, the others applaud him at first for his performance... until they realise that he's actually been severely wounded due to the holodeck's safety protocols being disabled.

This episode also does a good job of maintaining tension - the ship's captain is trapped right when important negotiations are set to begin, Whalen gets shot and will die if they can't get him to sickbay, the others are held at gunpoint by a mob boss and his goons, and even when a solution is found (by Wesley Crusher, to give credit where it's due) there's a danger of the holodeck's occupants being outright disintegrated - a bit far-fetched if I'm being honest, but it gets the job done as a threat.

The holodeck's mob boss, Cyrus Redblock (a bit cheesy, but the program is based on a series of pulp novels) is played by what was probably Star Trek's biggest guest star at the time: Lawrence Tierney. He absolutely steals the show, almost making you forget that he's just a hologram... something which he and his lackey find out the hard way.

Speaking of guest stars, we also get a brief appearance from the always welcome Dick Miller. Good stuff.

The negotiations with the Jarada are little more than a plot device for the Enterprise to be heading somewhere important and to get the characters into the holodeck, but fortunately they're not the focus here. Hell, the Jarada never even appear onscreen!

This is the second episode written by Tracy Tormé, who previously wrote "Haven." I'm glad to see such an improvement from his first outing.

7/10 - Fun episode. Would recommend.

Previous Episode | TNG Masterpost | Next Episode

[ansonmountdaily]

New interview with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showrunner Akiva Goldsman! He talks about the show's style of storytelling, new sets and uniforms, filming episode 1, etc.

Q: So you've started filming Strange New Worlds, how does it compare and contrast to the other Trek shows so far? It's unlike the other shows in that it's really episodic. If you think back to The Original Series, it was a tonally more liberal — I don't mean in terms of politics, but it could sort of be more fluid. Like sometimes Robert Bloch would write a horror episode. Or Harlan Ellison would have "City on the Edge of Forever," which is hard sci-fi. Then there would be comedic episodes, like "Shore Leave" or "The Trouble with Tribbles." So [co-showrunner] Henry Alonso Myers and myself are trying to serve that. We've all become very enamored, myself included, with serialized storytelling. And I'm talking to you from behind the stage where we're shooting Picard, which is deeply serialized. But Strange New Worlds is very much adventure-of-the-week but with serialized character arcs.

You're directing the pilot, which is always a major privilege and also a lot of pressure. How has that gone so far and what were you looking to bring to that?It was super fun and I've finished almost all of it. There were certain scenes that we couldn't shoot in Toronto because of quarantine — in terms of limits on the number of extras [in a scene] — that I'll back and finish pretty soon I hope. But there's something extraordinary about, uh, a bunch of folks coming together to do a new thing; you're surrounded by people who would be perfectly happy to be on the floor of a Star Trek convention, which is a little different than a typical show.

Were there any changes to the Enterprise set design and uniforms compared to what we saw when we were introduced to these characters in Discovery season 2? Yeah. It's a fine line because obviously we want to keep continuity with the storytelling and the style, but we also want Strange New Worlds to be a different show. It's not Discovery. There are a few more reach-backs (to The Original Series) and the uniforms have been adjusted slightly, the sets are slightly different. Remember the Enterprise existed as a little piece of [the show Discovery] but now its its own object. When you close your eyes and think of the key sets and situations that you think of The Original Series, that's what we're looking to do.

What was the turning point moment when the producer or CBS began to seriously consider spinning off Captain Pike into his own show? There are few things I will take credit for in the Star Trek universe but this is actually one of them. When [executive producer] Alex Kurtzman called about [joining the Discovery team], I was wildly envious of any involvement in Star Trek because I love it so much — my very first Star Trek convention was in 1975. I had no idea what his show was about, so I went online and I started reading that it was clearly going to be about Captain Pike and Number One. So that's what I thought I was going to join. Then I got there and it couldn't have had less to do with Captain Pike and Number One. So I started agitating for them because the timelines overlapped with Discovery and the Enterprise was out there. When the Enterprise appeared at the end of the season one, and once Anson and Rebecca and Ethan started living those characters in season two, I think it sort of became this wonderful inevitability.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter - April 12 2021

[discotreque]

LwD 2.05: An Embarrassment of Dooplers

So I was a little nervous about this one! I hadn’t heard any spoiler-spoilers, but screeners have been out for weeks now, and I’d heard a bunch of individual, vague, non-spoilery hints about (1) big character moments, on the scale of a mid-season finale even though the show’s not taking a mid-season break; and (2) an ending that would make me cry.

I guess I imagined something relatively serious and dramatic, like “No Small Parts”? This show makes me cackle with laughter and giggle with nerdy glee and “d’awww!” at heartwarming friendships every week, but it’s only ever made me cry once—and then I was impressed that they were going to get there from the wacky hijinks we saw in the brief teaser.

The lack of a cold open made me apprehensive too—in my experience, that’s typically a sign that there’s so much plot in the rest of the episode that they need that extra scene—but after ~21.5 minutes of aforementioned hijinks, I was having so much fun that I’d completely forgotten about the alleged tear-jerker at the end…

…and they were not the tears I was expecting.

I didn’t think I’d be smiling and crying!!!! That was wholesome as SHIT!!!!!

I almost can’t believe they earned that—but they totally did.

After a Mariner–Tendi episode and a Boimler–Rutherford episode, we’re back to the “usual” Season 1 pairings… except the relationships between these characters have changed since Season 1. Mariner still feels thwacked in the abandonment issues by Boimler bailing for the Titan, and Rutherford’s having a tiny little existential crisis about losing an entire year of his life.

Both of which are extremely understandable and very heavy situations—and both of those situations get resolved because everyone in them is vulnerable with each other and honest about their feelings—AND that honesty and vulnerability brings both pairs of friends closer together. Are you kidding me?? I would watch SEVENTY seasons of that shit. Put it in my veins.

Onto the notes:

So basically Dooplers are Tribbles, but for cringe comedy instead of slapstick? Ohhhhh boy.

Look at Ransom the diplomat, tossing his own fork on the floor! I like that he’s actually a pretty competent Starfleet officer, despite also being a completely ridiculous person.

Wait a second, is that—OH HOLY SHIT, THE DOOPLERS ARE VOICED BY RICHARD KIND.

It makes sense that B. Boimler would find William annoying—who likes seeing their own flaws reflected back at them? And who could be a better reflection of one’s flaws than one’s literal duplicate?—but most interesting to me is that it implies on some level, Bradward knows the stick up his butt is a flaw. (Does William?)

Why does the Cerritos model have working phasers?!?!

I’m loving hot pink as the currently en-vogue colour for “dangerous sci-fi energy” in animation (cf. almost every previous episode of this show; Into the Spider-Verse; other stuff I can’t remember right now). As a former child of the 80’s, I’m living for it… but as a former teenager of the 90’s, I can’t help but wonder if it’s going to age as poorly as the harsh neon green of The Matrix, every Borg appearance on Voyager, and like 80% of the websites I made in high school…

SKANTS! SKANTS! SKANTS!

That fake-out joke with the fly-by over the Cerritos model was in the season trailer weeks ago, and I was so enthralled by that handsome lady that the sticker coming into frame still got me good 😂😂😂

BECKY Mariner????? omg yes

Some top-quality Boimler screams in this one. Poor Jack Quaid must drink gallons of throat-coat tea when he records.

One of the great things about Star Trek to me is that you never know what you’re going to get from any random episode. A murder mystery? A road trip? A spooky thriller? A cheesy romance? Broad comedy? Body horror? Didactic political screeds shrouded in tissue-thin science-fiction metaphors? Brain and brain, what is brain??? And after this many years of watching, you’d think I’d be hard to surprise. But if I ever told you I thought I’d see a Blues Brothers–style car chase through a frickin’ shopping mall on an episode of Star Trek, I would have been straight-up lying to you. I loved it, it worked for me, my jaw was on the floor and I was clapping with joy—but I’m definitely comfortable calling this one “unexpected.”

It’s CAPTAIN SHELBY!!! And an ancient babydyke crush rose from the depths of my childhood subconscious… (Also I think her Number One is based on the original makeup—eventually deemed too complicated—for Saru? Now that’s a deep cut.)

In 20th-century Trek, you almost never got to see what was going on inside a starship from the outside. Even after they switched from physical models (where it was next to impossible on a single episode’s budget) to CGI (which was still in its infancy, still not exactly cheap, and still broadcast in SD anyway), it was a rare thrill to see any meaningful interior details in an exterior shot. Disco’s modern VFX have given us some tasty, tasty treats in that department, but nothing quite as sublime as all the pink Doopler light glittering through the Cerritos’s windows.

Mariner says she’ll take her contact Malvus down with her, and threatens that they’ll end up “in the same cell.” Malvus is a Mizarian, a species introduced in TNG’s “Allegiance,” in which Captain Picard is held in a mysterious prison with one. I think I see what you did there, McMahan?

Bartender… so hot… lesbian circuits… overloading…

The Tendi and Rutherford C-story was, well, a C-story within a 22-minute episode, so there wasn’t much to it, but the one scene that mattered actually mattered a lot. I’m ambivalent on whether they should end up romantically involved—I’d prefer they don’t, but they’ll be one of the cutest couples in Trek history if they do—and as long as they keep that pure, sweet friendship between them at the heart of whatever else happens, I’m on board.

Carol Freeman was already one of my favourite captains before this season, and she’s been steadily moving up the list. The quiet throughline about her ambition to be on a better ship has been fascinating so far, and it’s starting to actually make me feel a little conflicted: I’m of course rooting for Captain Freeman to recognize her worth, make Starfleet recognize her worth, and become the ass-kicking captain of a hero ship that she’s clearly ready to be—but that almost surely means she’d be kicking ass off-screen, because LwD isn’t about those kind of adventures, and I’d be devastated not to have Dawnn Lewis on the show every week. So I’m kind of on the edge of my seat about this one!

I had so many favourite jokes this week I put them in a separate list:

“Even the replicated water on the Titan tasted better” is a low-key brilliant dunk on people who can’t shut the fuck up about the cooler places they used to live.

“Ooooh, they have a Quark’s now! That used to just be an empty lot where teens would make mistakes!” ← That’s literally me every time I go back to where I grew up. I felt so Seen™ I almost hid under a blanket.

“I would never go down the stairs!” (evil grin) (goes up the stairs)

The “well, shit” expressions from Mariner and Boimler as their crashed car sank right into the water… which started to bubble innocuously… and then the bottles of Data bubble-bath popped up, paying off a joke I thought had already been paid off—that was the one that woke up my poor cat this week. Just exquisite timing.

“YOUR PAGH IS WEAK, AND IT DISGUSTS ME!” “I don’t even know what that is, but I don’t like your tone!”

“Okona’s in there? He’s not even Starfleet! This is outrageous!” made me shout “NO!” at the screen like I was scolding my cat for scratching furniture. (She did not wake up that time.)

Best background joke: the neon sign at the dive bar advertising FREE SHOTS & BEERS. (Get it? Because they’re on a Federation starbase? Where nobody uses money?)

And of course Quark merchandised DS9.

This wasn’t just a standout episode of Lower Decks, this was a brilliant episode of Star Trek, period. The Dooplers, though extremely silly, are nevertheless also a clever sci-fi metaphor for real and relatable personal/interpersonal issues, and an effective plot catalyst for meaningful character growth from all four of our ensigns and the captain.

The jokes were hilarious, the action was kinetic, the A-, B-, and C-plots linked up thematically, the visuals were consistently and thoroughly gorgeous, the character beats—between Mariner and Boimler, Tendi and Rutherford, Mariner and Capt. Freeman—were all genuine, heartfelt and wholesome, and the references to other Trek canon were both deep and deeply affectionate.

Only 15 episodes in, and this series knows exactly what it is, exactly what it wants to do, and knows that it can knock our socks off doing it. Mike McMahan has said in recent interviews that the back half of S2 (and the apparently almost-fully-written S3) is a straight line uphill in quality from here—which surprised me at first, because McMahan seems like a pretty chill dude who doesn’t normally brag about his own work like that.

But then the Prophets sent me a vision of my space dad Ben Sisko, who reminded me of the words of 1930’s baseball player Dizzy Dean:

“If you can do it, it ain’t bragging.”

[Thanks to cygnus-x1.net for the screenshots this week—I was too lazy to do my own.]

[buglife]

How about festivals and celebrations? Not only the regal, noble type, but the ones of common bugs too.

Here are a couple I figured out with a quick overview. I may expand on these later with illustrations or more depth depending on time and interest.

PART 1 - Pre-Infection Holidays

The Cast Off Festival: Something akin to a new years resolution. Once a year the citizens of Hallownest make an effigy of something they want to ‘cast off’ of themselves so they can improve. Example, they may make a figurine that represents self laziness or something that represents a nasty temper. Some folks may make tokens or figurines to sell that people can purchase if they cannot or don’t want to make their own. Celebrations include food and rituals indicative of purifying yourself to allow the new you to get a foothold over the old. Everyone gets together at the end of the celebration to throw said effigies into a communal fire and let the wind carry the ashes away. Just like how the Pale King cast off his previous form of a Wyrm to walk among the people and lead them to a much better existence, so too would common bugs follow that example to better themselves as well. Bugs may just have one effigy and some may have a whole box of them, the point is to give yourself a fresh new start and leave your old baggage holding you back as mere ashes. In general, it’s a very happy celebration in that you have a new chance to make the changes you want and if you have to do the same thing again next year, that’s okay. It takes time to change. The important part is that you recognize something about yourself that does need improvement and make a promise to work on it. 

Feast of Fellowship: It’s not far fetched to imagine that even after granted Sapience, some bugs that were regularly preyed upon may have lingering instincts that may make interacting with carnivorous citizens a big nerve wracking. To counter act this, there is a yearly feast where folks are encouraged to share company and food with each other to not only celebrate the bounty from the harvest, but also the fact that many different kinds of bugs worked together to produce it. Spiders, Millipedes, Flies, Moths, ect ect, can all have a feast together and enjoy each other’s company. Takes place after the biggest harvest of the year so there is an abundance of food to go around that can be eaten up fresh before they must be preserved. Entire villages would just have one communal feast where everyone can share and enjoy. In big cities, usually these are more private with friends and colleagues being invited but I wouldn’t put it past a crown funded feast for everyone in the Capital. Citizens that are happy after all, are less likely to cause any trouble when they are busy sleeping off the biggest meal of the year. Lol.

Life Festival: A celebration for those wanting to be parents, those that have children, and those that have parents they love. It’s a day of fond wishes and hopes to be able to have healthy young. Different species have children in different ways, but it all comes down to the same thing, the want to reproduce. The day is spent lighting candles and leaving little offerings in the hopes to become gravid if trying to be. It is also a day for current parents to honor their offspring and be grateful to be blessed with them. Some take this day to grieve and honor any lost children and thank them for being there, even if it was for a short amount of time. Parents to be take the nights to be ‘extra sure’ their wishes will stick, if you know what I mean ;3. It can be rather bittersweet but it is important to many people. Children, however, take the day to honor the parents that gave them life, and there’s usually gift exchanges between parents and children. In general, it’s a celebration of life given and the gratitude of it all. 

Birthdays are dependent on species and specific culture. Some celebrate when the egg actually hatches as a birthday. Some celebrate the day they emerge from their pupa an instar molt as the ‘birthday’. Still, there would be some sort of celebration where a child gets a celebration to mark another year of life. Complete with sweets and presents. It’s a big deal, as bugs before rarely made it past the nymph stage of life. It certainly is something to celebrate. 

Celebration of Flight: For flying species, where the young take their first ritual flight to mark an important moment of their development. Non flying bugs are present as well and participate by offering support to their friends and family taking their first flight without any help. 

Celebration of Weaving: For Spiders to show off their very first silk weavings and crafts and getting the praise they deserve. Primarily a Deepnest holiday. 

Celebration of ____: If a species is known for a thing, you better believe they are going to have a cellebration around it! Digging, rolling, fighting, spitting, climbing, ect ect. There’s so many different kinds of bugs!

Mate Day: Bring your mate offerings so they don’t get cranky and try to bite anyone. Especially you. You better make them feel like the most special bug in existence. 

King/Queen’s Day: Two days at different times of the year to celebrate the King and his lovely tree wife. Queen’s day is in ‘Spring’, and King’s day is ‘Winter’. Think of ‘Captain Picard Day’ in the TNG for the idea. Kids make little dolls and pictures and costumes and run around while parents buy them little King/Queen shaped sweets and participate in events run by the crown. Tours of the Palace take place in order to bring more transparency to the public. Both days would involve charity work depending on the ruler’s taste. Example, the Queen might sponsor a beatification effort by planting flowers and bushes around the kingdom and the King may just ask for groups to go around and clean up litter. Citizen bugs outside the Capital/major cities still would have their own home celebrations, perhaps just saying prayers of thanks or just cleaning around their village. Dolls and plushies are typically sold a lot and it’s not uncommon for children to have at least one doll of either the King, Queen, or both. There is a lottery where any citizen can participate, where winners may go before the Royals without having to fight through normal court to request some sort of help for either themselves or another organization. Royalty and Nobility have a separate feast afterwards, where there is a lot of ass kissing and the monarchs just want to eat their din dins and go the hell to bed please.

Day of Spirits: A day to honor and remember the dead. Offerings are set out for deceased loved ones and graves/memorials are carefully cleaned and put to order. It’s a time to remember those you love that are gone and give them honor by showing that you are continuing to live and remember them. There are usually parties where representations are included so the spirits of those gone are invited to participate in said party. It’s a day for laughter and love, not for grief. It’s said on this day the veil between the living and dead and thin, so you can directly tell your gone loved ones whatever you like and they have the greatest chance of hearing it. 

Honey Festival: All things Honey. The Hive makes SO MUCH GEO during a week long Festival. They may not be part of the Kingdom but boy howdy, does everyone love honey and wax products. 

Remembrance Days: Days to remember any well known person, such as visionaries, inventors, people who generally did a lot of good, and others. Bugs that did a lot of good for bugkind are remembered and honored in their own little celebrations. Usually it means that government offices shut down to give their workers a much needed break. 

OF COURSE: There doesn’t need to be a reason for a celebration. Dances and ‘Ho Down’ style celebrations can spring up for any reason. Some villages have their own little celebration days and all it takes is one person setting up some music and drinks and you got a party.  For moral, it’s common for there to be at least one celebration every ‘month/moon/cycle’ to keep up spirits and have at least a bit of time to relax. 

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek Doctors, Ranked By Crankiness

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This Star Trek: Lower Decks article contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 3.

In the very first filmed episode of Star Trek: The Original Series — “The Cage” — Captain Pike drinks itty-bitty martinis with the Enterprise’s chief physician, Dr. Boyce (John Hoyt.) And although it remains to be seen if we’ll be seeing Boyce in Stranger New Worlds, the tradition of the cranky — but wise — Starfleet doctor was started right there. After Boyce and Piper, Star Trek set the standard for cranky, wise-cracking doctors in space with the introduction of Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy; as played by the wonderful DeForest Kelley. 

While Kelley passed away in 1999, the spirit of Bones lives on. Not just in the Karl Urban version of Bones in the reboot films, but also in the foul-mouthed, utterly hilarious Catian medical officer, Dr. T’ana (Gillian Vigman) on Star Trek: Lower Decks. In the most recent episode of Lower Decks, “Mugato, Gumato,” T’ana demonstrated some next-level crankiness, as she avoided her own physical examination, something Bones had to prod Kirk to do all the time, including his first-ever filmed episode, “The Corbomite Maneuver.” But is Bones actually still the crankiest Star Trek doctor? Has T’ana dethroned him? 

The only way to find out is to rank all the Trek doctors from least cranky to most cranky, and find out who is the hardest to please, and as a result, possibly the doctor we paradoxically love the most.

(Note: With some exceptions, we’ve excluded characters who were Starfleet doctors who weren’t regular recurring characters. This is why Dr. Selar from TNG isn’t on this list, even though as a Vulcan, she’s inherently cranky.)

10. Dr. Tracy Pollard (Discovery)

The least cranky doctor on this list is easily Dr. Pollard on Star Trek: Discovery. This woman even puts up with Georgiou, a dictator from an alternate universe who wants to die. As played by the fantastic Raven Daudu, it’s very possible Dr. Pollard is the best doctor on this list. She also may never be recognized as such, because she’s really even-tempered, kind and way too busy saving people’s lives to complain.  

9. Dr. Phlox (Enterprise)

Phlox isn’t just one of the nicest Star Trek doctors ever, he’s actively one of the most likable characters in the entire franchise. Played charmingly by John Billingsley in all four seasons of Enterprise, Phlox projected a childlike curiosity of the universe combined with a ton of knowledge and wisdom of having seen more of the quadrant than most of the other characters. Phlox is also, perhaps, the most tolerant Star Trek doctor, insofar as he never pushes his cultural views onto others, even though, in some episodes, like “Dear, Doctor,” he’s torn apart by his own set of ethics. Oh, and he saved the life of Porthos, Captain Archer’s dog in “A Night in Skybay,” AND while doing so, managed to make a joke that Porthos would develop lizard-chameleon powers in the process. That’s bedside manner!

8. Dr. Hugh Culber (Discovery) 

Who doesn’t love this guy? Since Season 1 of Discovery, Culber has put up with shit from everyone, and very rarely has he snapped. Yes, in Season 2, after coming back from the dead, he was pretty pissed off at everyone. But, as he said in Season 3, “My murderer and I are good now!” In episodes like “Su’kal” and “Die Trying,” Culber is one of the kindest and simultaneously most practical Star Trek doctors of all time. He doesn’t lie to anyone, but he does know how to make you feel better. Out of all the Discovery regulars, Culber feels cut from the same cloth as someone like Deanna Troi or Guinan. He’s smart, insightful and empathic. 

7. Dr. Beverly Crusher (The Next Generation)

Crusher certainly has the ability to sass her patients, but she’s basically a nice person. Whenever Crusher freaks out on anyone it’s always because she’s either in love with a ghost that lives in a candle (“Sub Rosa”), her feelings are being manipulated by a nearby Vulcan (“Sarek”) or Jean-Luc is messing around with her emotions. (All of The Next Generation.) Crusher suffers the fools she works with, but she does it with grace and dignity. That said, you kind of know she hates certain people in certain moments, which can probably just be attributed to Gates McFadden’s flawless talent.

6. Emil, Rios’ EMH (Star Trek: Picard)

Rios has a lot of cranky holograms in Season 1 of Picard, but his medical hologram is not even close to being the most difficult of all of them. In fact, he’s pretty cordigal, and reasonable, which is odd considering the situation he’s in. Clearly, among the holograms on the La Sirena, Emil is one of the most well-adjusted. You wouldn’t want him as your primary physician in real life, and because he’s basically connected to the personality of Rios the possibility that he might become super cranky is certainly there. But, so far, he’s right on the line.

5. Dr. Julian Bashir (Deep Space Nine)

Okay, we’re crossing over into slightly cranky territory here. Bashir began his journey on DS9 as a cocky jerk, which isn’t the same as the kind of crankiness we’re talking about here. The Bones-style of crankiness is the kind of crank we can get down with. Bashir’s off-putting personality was  — at first — not something anyone admired or liked. That said, as Alexander Siddig evolved the character, Bashir didn’t become more cranky, but he did develop righteous indignation. When Bashir got his indignant buzz on in episodes like “Past Tense,” or “Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges,” he was really at his best. To be clear, Bashir isn’t a nice doctor, and this is where we cross the threshold. 

4. Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (Star Trek: The Original Series)

Although he set the standard for crankiness, in the entire canon of Trek, Bones is somehow not the most cranky Star Trek doctor. The reasons for this are threefold: First, there are three characters on this list who are much crankiner than him. Second, Bones is actually a sweetheart deep down, and demonstrates his love for Spock over and over again, despite his terrible, terrible comments. Finally, Bones can’t be the crankiest doctor on this list because Dax heavily implied in “Trials and Tribble-ations,” that one of her previous hosts — Emony Dax — totally hooked-up with him. For some reason, this detail makes it seem like he’s a lot nicer than he comes across. And again, The Search for Spock exists.

3. Dr. Katherine Pulaski (The Next Generation)

In 1988, Pulaski would have easily been number one on this list. She mispronounces Data’s name, doesn’t feel bad about it, and proceeds to kind of make everyone else on the ship feel awful. Pulaski is a pretty good doctor, and not remotely a bad person, but she’s pretty damn cranky. The brilliant Diane Muldar plays Pulaski like someone who has been transferred to a job she doesn’t really want, which is sort of amazing considering at this point, Roddenberry didn’t want Starfleet characters to have interpersonal conflict.

In “The Icarus Factor ” (which the latest Lower Decks also referenced) Pulaski also thinks Riker’s deadbeat dad is hot and tells Riker this point blank when he’s reminding her that his dad is the worst. This alone gives her deeply strange tastes, and makes her super cranky and weird AF. Don’t mess with Pulaksi! If you talk about how your friend is mean, she might throw it in your face and say she likes them better than you anyway! 

2. Dr. T’ana (Lower Decks)

Okay. So Dr. T’ana is almost the most cranky Star Trek doctor ever. Combining the best qualities of Bones, with that weird go-shove-it-vibe from Pulaksi, Gillian Vigman turns it all up to 11. It helps that T’ana is a cat-person (I.E. the Catian species) but her crankiness is more than that. She’s kind of sadistic, and isn’t afraid to use boulders to knock “strange energies” out of people when the time comes. T’ana is sort of burnt-out, but also, is kind of unflappable too. Like, you get the sense that she’s sick of all this space sickness stuff, but she’s got too much proffensionality to say she can’t do something. The secret crankiness of Dr. T’ana is that seemingly she can fix anything that is wrong with anyone. But, she’s going to make fun of them for it, and get pissed off if you look at her the wrong way.

That said, like Bones, you get the sense that none of it is personal. Which is what makes her Starfleet all the way. 

1. The EMH (Voyager)

Robert Picardo’s Emergency Medical Hologram is the best cranky Star Trek doctor. There are many reasons for this. His arrogance. His constant complaining. The fact that he has good reason to complain, considering he’s a hologram that has to do other people’s bidding. But the reason that tops all other reasons is the way that Picardo can make his crankiness clear with the simple inflection of his voice. It’s not what he says. It’s how he says it. And if you need proof, all you have to do is go back to the very first Voyager episode ever, “Caretaker.” When the Doctor has to start triage on the wounded crew, he asks somebody to hand him a tricorder. He looks at it, and realizes it’s not the right kind of tricorder, and hands it back and says “medical tricorder.” The amount of venom in this comment cannot be communicated in print. The way Picardo says medical tricorder is so dismissive and frustrated, that he basically created a new level of crankiness with one single utterance. 

T’ana may be creeping up the EMH from behind, but this cranky crown will be hard to swipe. Especially from a hologram.

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Lower Decks airs new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+.

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[inkofamethyst]

August 15, 2021

Me: I think Jean Luc Picard confuses emotional maturity/having control over his emotions with his abhorrence for being vulnerable with other people.

Also me: Confuses emotional maturity/having control over my emotions with my abhorrence for being vulnerable with other people.

Now, the question is whether I’m projecting or whether I’ve found a character I relate to.

Update: I think I’m projecting.  Cpt Picard can be vulnerable, but he puts his position as captain first and believes that a more stoic appearance allows him to best perform his duties.  At least, that’s what I’ve gathered so far.

--

I have a week left to finish the final few episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation before I head back off to school and hhhhhhhh there are so many things that I am just not looking forward to :D

I don’t want ST:TNG to end because I love it so much.  The only consolation I have is that apparently there’s a movie for it too.

I honestly am not looking forward to moving into the apartment.  I am 68% sure that everything will turn out just fine.  That leaves almost a third of me which is convinced that this living arrangement will devolve.  I know that I’m not particularly argumentative and will generally try to avoid conflicts as best as possible, but I can be passive aggressive, and I am hardheaded.  

I have to start and finish the dang paper to complete my internship.  I’m going to start on a draft tonight.  Right after I complete this entry, I... promise(?).  Doing it will be fine, it’s just starting it.

I have to wash and style my hair this week.  I intend to buy some hair this week sometime.  It’ll take a while, I’m sure, because I’m doing medium-sized twists this time instead of jumbo ones, and I don’t intend to blow dry my hair (idk, maybe I’ll get my mom to do it for me, but I’d really prefer to not resort to heat again so quickly, you know?).  I’m taking hair stuff with me, but I don’t actually want to take out the hair for a solid six weeks.

I also need to pack and I need more shorts and this is actually a legitimate issue.  Like, I stopped wearing super short shorts (for a few reasons: they’re super modern-looking lol, I was always self-conscious about the ~hair down there~), so now I’m down to like, four pairs of decent shorts.  I wish I’d made some skirts that end right below the knee (I only have one and it doesn’t fit quite right plus it’s a bit warmer), but alas.  

I need a to-do list and a to-buy list. (update: I’ve started a to-do list an a to-buy list)

Kinda want a teacup lol.

Anyway back to my worries.

I want to bring the waistcoat with me to school as a project that I work on before bed or something.  But I’d like to have the lining fabric and I need more cotton drill because the yard I bought seriously shrunk.  I also need to get some bias tape to finish off quite a few projects and some buttons and I honestly just need Joann to come in clutch for me this week with their sales.  (pretty low on the list of worries btw)

Back to the shorts issue, I’m considering both buying and making some shorts, actually.  One of those pairs being from linen.  I only need two yards of fabric to make a pair of shorts, and it’s honestly not a very time-consuming project,, so (the most complex part might be getting the pockets right, especially since I intend to use French seams and would like to have a side button placket since I’ve no clue how to do a zipper fly (though, I intend to try a different pattern (a vintage one!!) than Simplicity 8447 (a roomy repro), so that means a mockup which will eat up an afternoon/evening)).  Of course, that all depends on whether I’m able to get every other pressing matter fixed this week (mainly the paper and my apartment purchases and my hair). ://

It’s been quite a while since I’ve procrastinated a paper lol.  Not the first time, won’t be the last :/  I’ve written plenty of decent papers post midnight, what’s one more?  I need to make it look like I’ve edited it though which will be somewhat tricky, I think.  Eh, my writing ability tends to be good enough that a first draft for me can pass as a second draft for many, so a reviewed first draft might pass as a third draft, perhaps?  Looks like I’ll be up ‘till 4 again (funny thing is, for the past two weeks I’ve been waking up at 9:30 every day without an alarm, so we’ll see if that holds up).

Also, I only have two Halloweens left on campus (assuming we don’t get sent home by mid-october this year lol (actually not “lol” because I’d be losing money on this apartment)), and I have no idea what I’m going as bruhhh.  I’m a whole sewist and I ain’t made a costume (tbh I’d probably do something Star Trek related and all (I’ll be hanging my Starfleet banner in my apartment which is, at least, something to look forward to in the move, I suppose), but I feel like that’d come off as sorta lame lol), shameful.  This, compared to the other things I’ve mentioned, is quite low on the worry list, I’ll be honest, but it’s there nonetheless because who am I without my unnecessary worries :) (yes I recognize that I should not have unnecessary worries in the first place,, let me be; as y’all can see I’ve got bigger fish to fry than my mental health rn).

AGH I’ve got a couple of big emails to send tomorrow.

I also need to start on my Notion.  Maybe I’ll do that while I’m on campus.  It takes a solid few hours to do, but I’ve got a decent idea of what I want which is good.  I also need to finish that Witcher prequel that I started on vacation.  I wasn’t hooked on the plot, per say, but I do really like Geralt as a character.

Ok ok ok today I am actually thankful for the motorized face brush I managed to find today for a decent price because I’ve been looking for one for ages and I managed to get one today :)  My skin has been pretty clear these past few months, but now that I’m stressin I gotta make sure it stays that way feel me?

I hate that moving back to campus gives me an icky feeling.  With covid and the apartment and note-less exams... it’s probably nothing.  This whole upcoming week gives me an icky feeling.  I just don’t like uncertainty.  No one does, I suppose.

I wanna find a place on campus or close to campus where I can just chill out with my uke next week with no one around.  Ain’t no way I’mma just hole up in my room until the freshmen show up and the uni starts putting on events.  Gotta fill the day some way, especially since I won’t have access to streaming services (@ my dad who hoards the passwords).

Oh!  Oh!  I do think I wanna try joining the archery club this coming semester (if they decide to continue this sem)!!  They say they welcome beginners who don’t even have equipment, so !!!  I think it could be cool!

Aight I’ve put off starting this paper long enough bye.

[timeclonemike]

I recently ended up watching some Star Trek TNG, including part of the two-parter Chains of Command. A key part of that episode is that command of the Enterprise is shifted to another captain, Jellico, in anticipation of a major conflict with the Cardassians.

Jellico is a dramatically different leader compared to Picard, far more aggressive and militaristic, and his leadership style AND command decisions rub a lot of the bridge crew the wrong way. However, when the dust settles, he does have the upper hand and forces the Cardassians to back down.

The thing is... I saw a clip of this episode on YouTube and made the error of reading the video comments, and as far down as I scrolled it was nothing but praise for Jellico, that he was the right man for the job, and a lot of the commenters wanted him to stay on as captain after that episode. And that got me to thinking. There’s a scene in the second part, where Jellico and Riker have a fairly civil exchange of insults, culminating in each one saying they are unfit for their assigned roles. And honestly, I think Riker was the clear victor in that exchange. At one point, he says to Jellico, “You don’t provide an atmosphere of trust, and you don’t inspire these people to go out of their way for you.”

That might be the most damning condemnation anyone can give a Starfleet Captain. This is an organization that is constantly pushing the limits of everything; it’s in the opening narration of the show. People have to pull out all the stops six days out of every seven just to stay alive. As a quasi-military organization with direct and obvious parallels to the operations of naval vessels, a starship crew has to possess a certain of discipline; they have to be willing to follow a captain’s orders even if they don’t understand the reasons why the orders are given, even if the orders will get them killed.

But at the same time, the crew has to be able to trust the captain enough to follow those orders. They have to trust the captain’s judgment enough to listen even if they disagree. They have to trust the captain’s judgment enough to believe that if they are ordered to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the ship or the mission, it’s because there was no other way, because there’s something at stake much much greater than one life. If the crew doesn’t trust the captain, they might hesitate. Or outright refuse to follow orders, resigning on the spot. Or mutiny. The latter two can result in numerous personal and legal consequences, IF everyone survives, but the ship and everyone on it can die just from the first one, somebody second guessing the captain for a split second. That’s all the Cardassians / Romulans / Borg need to blow the ship to kingdom come.

This comes up in a roundabout, indirect fashion in the series finale, when a Picard who has just recently met his new crew due to timeline interference is ordering them to do something incredibly dangerous and they aren’t having it. He gives them a speech, and because he is THAT kind of leader, they follow his orders, and the spacetime continuum is saved.

Jellico would not be able to get the Enterprise crew to do the same. They don’t like him, and they don’t trust him. Like Admiral Hackett says in the Mass Effect Trilogy, you can’t order a soldier to believe.

Presumably, there are crews and ships perfectly suited to Jellico’s command style; that’s why he’s actually a captain, and hasn’t been reduced in rank after too many fuck ups... or official grievances filed with the Starfleet equivalent of JAG. But the Enterprise wasn’t that type of crew. If he had stayed on as captain after the current crisis was over, like so many of the commenters wanted to see, the Enterprise would have been on borrowed time.

[kncrowder88]

I’ve done a lot of thinking about Janeway in Prodigy. And while its rather disappointing that the only female Captain (that is only - so far - lead female Captain) is returning to us in an animated format (though admittedly in Nemesis we saw her briefly as an Admiral) while Picard has returned to his own live action series ..... I am rather pleased with this. This is gonna be long so ...

First, let me point out that while yes Riker also appeared in Picard so did Troi. And likely so will others from TNG (not to mention Seven was in the first season). This to me indicates that Star Trek isn’t gonna do one of those Hollywood “female actors can’t return to their past parts” things that we can see happen. In fact, if you watched Lower Decks they are also willing to give us returns in regards to animated as well. Basically: all the new Star Trek we are getting are willing to give us returns in as many ways as possible and I am still going to hold out hope that now she is back for Prodigy we may get a guest spot on Picard.

Okay .... onto the good stuff ....

When they were picking out the cast and story line for Prodigy they could have gone with many things. They could have done a simple Starfleet Academy story. They could have even done a Vulcan Academy or any other of the trillion planetary schools out there for this coming of age style thing they seem to be going for. I mean, its a show designed for kids which begs for that coming of age but for Star Trek. Yet, instead of going for the easy ‘‘everyone would love a starfleet academy” story line they went for it. They grabbed a bunch of teenagers, juvenile delinquents out in space, and tossed them at a ship. These kids can’t just be running around on their own though, no. They need someone. They gotta have that parental figure. That guiding light to help save them, teach them science and engineering, and everything else under the sun. That figure who isn’t going to just drag them back to their actual parents and shame them into staying home - because maybe home wasn’t actually the best place for them. No, they need that figure who will take one look at them and go “Mine Now” AND WHO BETTER TO DO THAT THAN CAPTAIN KATHRYN JANEWAY OF THE USS VOYAGER.

Now, I know there will be a lot of debate on who is the best mom/dad/parent style Captain out there at this point. But for everyone who watched Voyager really think about it. This woman traveled the DQ and was constantly taking people under her wing. Seriously, need I share the image of that moment she saw Kes as someone she could protect? Or the way she just opens her arms to Kes in the hospital wing and Kes runs to her? Or maybe you need to see the way she looked at the Borg baby again? Or perhaps the way she is like “what do you mean i have crew members struggling? I shall personally take them on an away mission!” Or perhaps .... okay look this list could go on and I really dont want to get into the debate on the different ways of viewing J7 (because even I can I who sees it as maternal can see how people don’t and that’s a whole other post okay). Anyways, yes Sisko would have also been another great choice. But then you have to contend with all the prophet stuff again and honestly I think the show made the right choice on this. When Janeway was cast, when Voyager came out, Kate Mulgrew had to put up with SO MUCH CRAP. Like, to the point that even the mere idea of having a relationship on Voyager for Janeway was something Kate Mulgrew pushed back against because at that time she knew, she understood, how it would be taken.

This, right now, is the time for the Janeway character to truly shine. And for Kate Mulgrew to, as she said, embed in the character things she couldn’t do on screen before. Because now she will be in her own room doing voice. Which, in its own way does allow for such things. On top of that, we get to see Janeway in an entirely different arena. This isn’t gonna be Janeway The Starfleet Captain. This is going to be Kathryn Janeway, Captain to CHILDREN.

Like, I’m sorry but I can’t see her being that pulled in by protocols and guidelines anymore if she is not personally walking these kids back to base for STEALING A STARFLEET SHIP. Like, your telling me that Kathryn Janeway somehow comes across these kids who commandeer a Starfleet ship and she, PROTOCOL AND REGULATIONS JANEWAY just runs with it?

Look, not saying she wouldn’t but for her not to there has to be a reason. Janeway isn’t strictly all about protocol and regulations. (she is when its something extremely personal like ‘i may get hurt by this’ - i.e. if I allow myself to get to close to this person i love and let them in i may get hurt so time to pull protocols). This is the same person who broke the temporal prime directive to save her best friend and her entire ship. This is the same woman who violates other rules for her crew. She is willing to break protocol ... but for reasons.

Which tells me one thing ..... one of these teenagers (or all of them) is going to have extreme emotional value to our Kathryn Janeway either at the immediate start or by the end of the first episode. I’ve had a couple thoughts on this and I like the idea of it being Miral or one of Tuvok’s grandchildren. But honestly .... I also love the idea of them all being complete strangers she is completely ready to drag back to Starfleet for a firm lecture but then by the end of the ep she’s adopted them so she’s gonna raise them now.

[kartoon12]

What Does God Need with a Space Station?

Okay guys, this is probably going to sound like the weirdest post I've ever made, as this is a subject I don't talk about too often---that being dreams. Most of the time, I don't remember having any, or I'm able to recall tiny snippets here and there, with the rest disappearing into a fog. There's really only a handful of very long, very vivid dreams I can remember having, and all of them were wacky, but mostly funny thinking back on them. And they almost always involve fandoms in some way. If anyone's interested in hearing more about those, feel free to message me. (The one where me and the bridge crew of Star Trek: TNG were trying to escape a hospital with Captain Picard yelling at everyone because we were making him late for a party is a particularly fun one.)

 However....just a few nights ago, I had a dream that....REALLY takes the cake, which is putting it mildly. This is one time I really felt the need to make this public, as I seriously, really want to try and see if anyone out there can help me analyze this, as this dream contained subject matter I've almost NEVER dreamt about before, and certainly not to an intensity and specifically detailed degree such as this. I wouldn't call it a nightmare, but neither was it fun. It was spooky...but more for the oddity and sheer level of "what the f**k?!" -ness to it.

 I also feel the need to open with a disclaimer: I was raised in a Catholic household, and though I haven't attended a mass in quite some time, I still at least say my prayers every night. But I have friends of many different sections of faith; I totally respect other people's religious beliefs, and I'm not trying to force mine on anyone here. I try to keep my mind open to other interpretations of "what lies beyond" and such. Why this disclaimer? Well, you're about to find out.  Strap in, folks. This is gonna' get lengthy....

 So the dream opened in third person view, as though I were watching a movie. Somewhere in the middle of outer space, two giant robots are just sort of hovering there, fighting with each other. (I'm talking like mecha in the style of Transformers or Gundam or the like.) It's also worth mentioning that this whole opening section of the dream was presented like a cartoon. (The art style of "My Life as a Teenage Robot" is the closest I can get to describing what it looked like.) One mecha was an orange/red color, the other was blue and white. Note that I said they were fighting WITH each other, not attacking one another. That's because the "camera" (for lack of a better word) then shifted to show this HUGE spaceship off in the distance, slowly making its way towards a space station. (But not like, a realistic NASA space station or anything---this looked all sci-fi/future-y like something out of Star Trek.) The Star Destroyer from Star Wars is the closest I can get to describing what this starship looked like in terms of size and scope. Although it wasn't outright firing lasers or anything, in dream-world, my mind already knew the backstory that that Star Destroyer thing was on its way to attack the space station.

 So naturally, red and blue robot have been sent out to stop the thing. Except the two of them were bickering amongst each other, arguing over the best course of action. Blue Robot keeps insisting they have to work together; Red Robot won't listen to reason and thinks his plans are better. Finally, Blue Robot gives up trying to argue and flies off to fight the Star Destroyer thing alone. A voice over the radio (probably someone back at the station) pleads with the two to work together and that Blue Robot doesn't stand a chance and can't do it alone. Blue Robot responds with, "Well I'm gonna' have to try." And disappears into the distance.

  Considering my love for movies and comics and stuff, so far, this is par the course for dreams I've had in the past. But THIS is where things take a turn for the truly bizarre.

 The "movie" then cut to inside the space station (very futuristic and high tech looking. All white walls, furniture and equipment. Very slick and clean looking.). Everything's now in first person view, so obviously from my viewpoint now. There's a guy frantically typing at a control panel (I'm assuming he's the one communicating with the robots.) All sorts of alarms are blaring and going off. The entire station is shaking and vibrating as it starts coming under attack. I think to myself, "I gotta' get out of here!" So I race to the nearest automatic doors and have to pry them with both my hands just to get them to slide open.

 The second I crossed the doorway, everything stopped being an animated cartoon, and from here on out, for the rest of the dream, everything is now normal/live action/real world. I started running all through the station trying to find help, until eventually, I hit upon an idea.  I kid you not, the only thought that came to me at that point was, "....I have to find God."

 Yes. You heard me. "I have to find God." Hang in there. It only gets freakier.

 So I head off, trying to find anyone who can help me look for God, as by this point, He's the only one who can get us out of this mess. Couple important things to note here:

1.) Despite being on a space station, none of the people aboard are in any sort of discernible uniform. Everyone I encounter is wearing normal clothes like jeans and T-shirts and stuff (save for one person, but we'll get to HER in a second....)

2.) The deeper I go into the station, and the farther I get away from that docking bay area I started off in, the less the station shakes, and the alarms gradually get quieter, until eventually, the attacks stop completely.

And 3.) A large portion of the crew (or passengers?) I initially come across are all Chinese (or of some Asian descent thereof). Whether this station was built or funded by China, I don't know.

 In any case, no one seems to be able to speak English, and no one seems to be scared or bothered, or even aware of what's going on outside. But they can tell I need help, so they point in the direction of this lady that I'm assuming is the leader or figurehead of some sort.  I assume so, because she's the only one dressed differently from everyone else.....and she's dressed like something out of the Feudal Era. A geisha, I think they call it. A red robe with gold flower patterns. Hair done up in a bun. Face painted white. Red lipstick. The works. Queen Amidala look, ya' know?

 Of course, dream-me doesn't question this at all, and I plead with her to take me to where God is. I then started repeating the phrase, "you know?! Heart, mind, soul?!" to her, over and over again. During which, I'd point to my heart, then my head, then trace a circle in the air with both index fingers for emphasis, hoping she'd get what I was asking her. Please note that in real life, I have NO clue what Chinese religion or mythology entails, nor have I ever studied it, and I'm 100% sure what I just described is completely wrong and total bulls**t. But apparently, this is how it worked in dream world, and apparently, I knew just the right sign language to make, because Geisha Lady finally got a look of understanding on her face, smiled and nodded, and said something in her own language that gave off the message of "oh, okay. I'll take you to Him."

 So she takes me by the arm, motions for me to follow her, and I let her lead me through the rest of the space station. All the alarms and chaos from earlier has totally stopped by this point. Her dress/kimono thing is so tightly wrapped around her that she had to take fast little baby steps, and you'd think with her penguin-walking it would've taken forever, but it actually took no time at all to get where we were going.  During which, I look around, and notice that, at that point, the hallways of the station started looking more and more like the isles of a department store. She weaves me through rows and rows of shelves stacked with all sorts of stuff. Some shelves are full, others have some stuff but were clearly picked through, and some shelves are completely empty.

 At long last, Geisha Lady shows me into a large waiting room of sorts, bowing and sweeping her arm out as if saying, "well, here we are." I look around, and there's a long line of people all waiting to get into an adjoining room where God is. Only then do I finally start seeing other races of people besides the Chinese from earlier. Black, Hispanic, Japanese, White---a mixture of all sorts from seemingly all over the world are in line. And every single person has some kind of item in hand. Books, potted plants, a wooden spoon and whisk (guess that person liked cooking?); any kind of knick-knacks you can think of. (Which I guess sort of explains the department store place from earlier and why stuff was missing.) I then walked past the line and peeked into the adjoining room to see what everyone was waiting for, and.....

 Well.....um.....I found God.

 The room was a very plain looking bedroom, with beige-colored walls, a queen-sized bed, and a single nightstand, but nothing else, not even a lamp, which would explain why the room was so dimly lit, with the only available light coming in from the doorway. I took a step closer to try and better see the....well....'being' occupying the bed. Or pair of beings I guess I should say (more on that in a second). At the foot of the bed was, what appeared to be, a Hispanic man in his 20s or 30s, with short scruffy black hair and tanned skin, and wearing nothing but a plain, white T-shirt....because he had no legs. His body ended at the torso, and he was propped up with a ton of pillows so he could see the visitors better. More pillows were situated on the floor for the people to kneel on, and at that moment, a lady and her kid were kneeling in front of Him, and everyone was speaking in super hushed tones, so I couldn't really hear what they were talking about. Though, every so often, I'd hear the amputee guy (that I'm assuming was God) speaking in a calm, reassuring tone, saying things like, "Don't worry. You're going to be okay. Everything'll be fine." And so on. No stereotypical big booming voice or anything like that.

 But I probably wasn't paying much attention to what they were saying because I was then focused more on the OTHER being occupying the rest of the bed. Lying at the top of the bed, directly behind the Hispanic guy, was another humanoid shape cut off at the torso. I say humanoid because this....thing....was more hidden in the shadows due to its position in the room. I could make out a head, neck, arms, hands, and chest....but no discernible clothes. It was more like....a dark blob that took the rough shape of a human....and it had no face. Or maybe it did, but....anytime I tried to look directly at it, its head seemed to be encased in a kind of fog, with the face area constantly shifting and blurring. If you've ever watched police or crime shows where they interview someone who wants to remain anonymous, and they blur their face out, that's basically what it looked like. And seeing this half-a-humanoid lying above the Hispanic guy, making it look like they were stacked on top of each other, almost kind of reminded me of Vishnu a bit. (The being from Hindu mythology who looks like a human with multiple arms.)

 Anyway, so I'm just standing there, taking this all in, when someone who was waiting in line (can't remember if it was a guy or lady) came up next to me, and they must've saw my confusion, because they leaned in and whispered, "Every couple of years, they pick a new person to represent Him." This is the only wording I SPECIFICALLY remember, EXACTLY. Whoever the "they" is that this person was referring to, I have no clue. The robots? The Chinese? The people waiting in line? Who knows.

 The person then explained a little more, and unfortunately, I can't remember the exact wording, but they basically said something like, "It's strongly recommended that you bring Him a present." Guess that would explain why everyone in line was holding stuff. Finally, this person whispered to me, "I hear that books are His favorite." And I remember thinking to myself, 'Considering this dude's got no legs and is probably stuck in bed all day, yeah, he probably needs something to do.'

 And though I can't remember whether I thought it, or said it out loud, my last thought was, "Damn. I should've brought my books with me." (And if you know anything about me, I was most likely thinking of my self-published comic books.)

 And that's when, quite suddenly, I woke up.

  No, I'm NOT on drugs.  I have NEVER taken any drugs; recreational or otherwise,  nor do I drink. Thanks for asking.

 So.....what in the name of all that is holy does this all mean???

 Like I said in the intro, this is something that is SO far out of my wheelhouse when it comes to what I normally dream about that I felt that I HAD to put it out there somewhere. I mean, I've gotten a bare-bones taste of other religions and cultures, mostly via movies and stuff, but it's not like I'm actively studying Feudal Era China or Hindu legends all the time, nor was I reading up on any sort of material right before bed or anything. I guess what I'm getting at is that the whole religious aspect of it is what really threw me, to the point of almost feeling prophetic in a way. I had goosebumps upon waking up, and I just couldn't stop thinking about what I experienced for the rest of the day.

 I've managed to come up with just a few theories, though this could totally be off base, so bare with me.

 The only part I'm really sure on is the beginning part with the robots, since one was red and the other blue. And that whole part was in the style of a cartoon (while the rest of the space station was in "live action/real world"). My guess is that the robots are representing the Democratic and Republican parties, and how both of them have been reduced to blathering, cartoon caricatures who can't work together at all to fight something that's threatening everyone. (With the star destroyer as a stand in for the virus, I guess?)

 Then, what's with the people lining up with gifts and the section that looks like Wal-Mart? Is this supposed to mean that society's become super greedy and materialistic, to the point of thinking we can buy favor with someone? Or bribe our way into Heaven?   Then again, at least in the dream, I had little doubt that the beings in the bedroom WAS God, since He seemed like a pretty chill dude who spoke kindly and was being comforting.  So maybe the gifts people were bringing were like....representations of their hobbies or something? Maybe the vibe was supposed to be more like, "Hey! Thanks for creating me, God! Here's something I made with the talents you gave me!" Like a kid showing off their macaroni art to their parent or something like that. OR, maybe it was supposed to mean something like, "In order to follow Him, you have to give up your love for material things?" I don't know.

 And then there's that weirdly specific line that still haunts me. "Every couple of years, they pick a new person to represent Him."   I have a feeling the humanoid blurry shape that I wasn't able to clearly see the face of was the real God, while the Hispanic guy was His avatar of sorts.  Still don't know who the "they" is, though.   Or was this meant to mean something along the lines of, "Society has become so focused and desperate for a savior that they're starting to see celebrities and politicians as false gods? Thinking that one guy can fix everything, when really we should be bettering our inner selves?"

 "Every couple of years, they pick a new person to represent Him." I mean, with phrasing like that, and with a certain presidential election coming up.....

 *sigh* I'm just going to end it here before I start opening up a whole other can of worms. Thanks to anyone and everyone who stuck with this all the way to the end.  The whole dream actually felt like it lasted all of ten minutes---it just took me a bit to explain all the details is all. I haven't had any similar dreams since. But still.....if anyone out there can help me interpret this thing, I'd love to hear from you, as I have the biggest gut feeling this all means SOMETHING important. I just don't know quite what. But if this IS a premonition of some kind, I just hope to God it's a good one.

[tedlyanderson]

Annotations for Adventure Time: Beginning of the End issue 3!

Did you enjoy my annotations for issue one and issue two of this miniseries? If so, good news! (If not, shove off!) I have annotations for the third issue, right here waiting for your lovely eyes! Obviously, as with the previous posts, this will have great big massive spoilers for the issue, so take that into consideration. Please enjoy, my pals!

Pages 2&3: Okay, there’s a lot to unpack on these pages, haha. First and foremost is a reference to something other than Adventure Time for once: Jake’s monologue on these pages is a loose reference to one of the very best issues of classic Fantastic Four, number 51, “This Man ... This Monster!” In that issue, among other events, Reed Richards travels through the Negative Zone and muses to himself about the nature of reality:

There are cameos on these pages from a bunch of the “cosmic” things of the AT universe, including the Catalyst Comet, the Lich, a copy of the Enchiridion,  Glob Grob Gob Grod, the Finn Sword, and Prismo (in a rare 3-dimensional appearance). There’s also a herd of Time Lards with clocks on their bellies.

Also in this image, note the most minor and in-jokey reference in this entire series: the satellite on the middle-left with the word “FELIS” on it. In the episode “Fionna and Cake and Fionna,” someone asks Ice King where he gets the ideas for his Fionna and Cake stories, and he replies that they’re “beamed into [his] melon every night.” Later that episode, we see him sleeping as a pink laser zaps into his head, carrying images of Fionna and Cake. I chose to interpret this as a reference to one of my favorite authors, Philip K. Dick, who believed that he was receiving knowledge in the form of an information-rich pink laser beam from a satellite called VALIS. So this satellite, FELIS (get it? like cats?), is the source of the Fionna and Cake stories—in my version of the universe, anyway.

Page 4, panel 4: Chronologius Rex declares that he is the lord of Time, not meatloaf. Meatloaf has been established multiple times as Finn’s favorite food.

Page 5: And here we come to the crux of this issue: Finn’s possible futures. Issue 1 of this series was about Finn’s past, issue 2 was about his present, so naturally issue 3 is all about his futures. Obviously none of these should be taken as “canon;” I just came up with three possible paths Finn might take based on what we’ve seen him do throughout the series. I’ll explain my thinking after the third sequence.

All three of the futures are color-coded—the Candy Knight future is pink, obviously.

Page 6: I love Mari’s designs for Queen Bubblegum—the high ‘80s shoulders are great! My suggestion for Old Peppermint Butler was that he be smoother and shinier, as if he’s a candy that’s been sucked on for too long.

In panel 2, the “Dinner Kingdom” is kind of a half-reference to the Breakfast Kingdom in present Ooo.

And in panel 5, note old Finn’s Jake medallion.

Page 7, panel 4: I am not sorry for the “bunch” of banana soldiers joke.

Page 8, panel 1: Beards are indeed a factor in many of Finn’s futures: pretty much every time we’ve seen an older or artificially-aged Finn, he’s got a beard of some sort. I continue the trend in this issue.

Page 8, panel 5: This is a futuristic version of Founders’ Island, the main human settlement outside of Ooo, fixed up and fully repaired. The implication is that Finn not only returned to the human islands, he also helped fix the place up.

The color scheme for the Teacher Finn future is blue, connecting with the water and sky surrounding them.

Page 9, panel 2: I love Teacher Finn’s design so, so much, you guys. I described him as a lovable old professor, someone with his mother’s compassion and his father’s roguish charm, and Mari knocked it out of the park. Note his Jake hat.

Page 9, panel 3: “Homies help homies: always!” is the Adventure Time philosophy in a nutshell.

Page 9, panel 5: Note that Finn is still using his old, trusty sword Scarlett in this future. She’s even more nicked and battle-scarred, but I’m sure she’s still good in a fight.

Page 10, panel 2: Dodging eggs while fighting was part of Finn’s training from Rattleballs in his eponymous episode.

Page 10, panel 2: When it came to Finn’s human wife, I told Mari to make her look a little bit like a human version of Flame Princess. I figured Finn if has a type, it’s her!

Page 11: The third and final possible future is the Space Captain Finn future, which is green-themed for no particular reason. This future is based on the idea that Finn and his Candy Kingdom pals team up with the remaining humans to build a spaceship to take them away from Earth, which is about as likely as anything else in Adventure Time, haha.

Everything in this sequence is of course heavily inspired by Star Trek: the Next Generation, a show that I love and grew up watching. The Minerva A.I. is the ship’s computer, obviously, warning of “excessive sparks detected on bridge.” Jake is Finn’s right-hand-man, just like Riker was to Picard (and Finn even calls him “numero uno,” like Picard’s “number one”). Lady Rainicorn is the equivalent of counselor Troi, Fern is a bit like Data, and Jake’s skateboarding granddaughter Bronwyn is the hotshot kid pilot, like Wesley. Princess Bubblegum is the engineering chief—she always struck me as preferring the role of scientist rather than royalty, frankly—assisted by Frieda and BMO. Flame Princess, upgraded to Plasma Princess, powers the ship as a whole. And Finn himself sports a beard similar to Commander Riker’s—which is appropriate, as a future version of Finn was voiced by Riker’s actor, Jonathan Frakes!

When coming up with these futures, I thought about what the Finn we knew might be most drawn to doing, and boiled it down to three major options: fighting and defending (the Candy Knight future), teaching and training (the Teacher Finn future), or exploring and leading (Space Captain Finn). For what it’s worth, I don’t really have a preference, or any opinions on which future is most likely—one of the strengths of Adventure Time has always been finding ways to surprise its audience with something that makes total sense in retrospect. If Finn does have a “canonical” future, it’s probably something I would never have thought of, but which makes perfect sense.

Page 11, panel 4: Princess Bubblegum yet again mentions “zanoits,” which are maybe some kind of mysterious particle? It’s a funny word and deserves to be used more often.

Page 12, panel 1: I mentioned in my annotations for the previous issue that I felt bad making Susan revert to her simpler speech patterns, since by this point in the series she’s perfectly capable of using big words. I tried to make it up to her by making her the ship’s communications officer, who would use big words all the time.

Additionally, the “Tuffbone sector” is a reference to Meredith Gran’s Adventure Time miniseries, Marceline: Gone Adrift. In that series, Marceline explores space and meets other races, including the Tuffbones, dog-like alien critters.

Page 12, panel 2: Note that Shelby (the worm who lives in Jake’s viola) is wearing a bandolier similar to Worf’s. I was particularly proud of that idea, haha.

Page 12, panel 4: Jake’s exclamation of “Outrageous!” is a reference to another role by his voice actor, John DiMaggio: it’s the catchphrase of Aquaman, from the Batman: the Brave and the Bold series.

Page 16, panel 3: A “dead world” is another bit of unexplored Adventure Time lore: they’re apparently where people go when they die, but they’re not quite the afterlife as we think of it? Or it is, but there’s a lot of them, like at least fifty? Unclear.

Page 16, panel 4: I had to work in the title of the show somehow.

Page 17, panel 3: I wanted to make sure I referenced my favorite song from the show, “Everything Stays” by Rebecca Sugar, and this seemed like the perfect time to bring it up, as Jake discusses the inevitability of change.

Page 17, panel 4: When I described this panel in the script, I specifically mentioned the series Neon Genesis Evangelion, one of the weirder depictions of the end of the world you can find. I love the image of the enormous stone blocks sinking into an endless sea.

Page 18, panel 5: Chronologius’s epithet for Jake, “starchild,” references Jake’s actual origin as a half-alien creature. I checked the dates, and apparently I finished the script for this issue just a couple weeks after the episode “Jake the Starchild” aired, in which Jake’s parentage was fully revealed.

Pages 20-21: Finn’s final “confrontation” with Chronologius might feel a bit underwhelming—essentially, all he does is convince Chronologius to give them an opportunity to escape. There’s no big battle, no war of wits; it’s already been established that Chronologius is basically invulnerable, so it’s not like Finn could beat him in a fight. It’s not terribly exciting, but that’s kind of the point: over the course of this issue, Chronologius becomes more sympathetic to Finn and his plight, particularly after seeing all the good he did (and might have done) in the world. So it’s less about beating up some big bad dude, and more about convincing someone to act like a pal. In a way, Finn beats Chronologius by making him into a friend.

Would it have been better if the ending was more exciting, action-packed, crazy-style? Maybe! Looking back on it, I feel like I could have given Mari more chances to do cool art stuff—the first half of this issue has some pretty far-out sequences and nifty new things to draw, but the second half is basically three characters talking against a mostly boring background. Thematically I feel like it’s better to have Finn succeed by befriending the villain, rather than just punching his lights out, but it definitely doesn’t have the same visual impact. Overall, I’m still proud of it, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be improved.

That’s it for issue three! Join me next time for—issue four?!? Yes! This three-part miniseries is in fact a four-part miniseries, ending with Finn and Jake’s adventures through time! Look forward to it, my chums!

[discotreque]

LwD 2.04: Mugato, Gumato

This show likes to hop back and forth over the line between “high-concept sci-fi adventure with plenty of laughs” and “frenetic slapstick comedy with plenty of sci-fi tropes,” and I enjoy both sides of that line, but it’s hard to find as much to say about an episode that lands as far into the slapstick zone as this week’s did. I’m not on a deadline or a word count here; I don’t need to fill space just listing all the jokes you probably laughed at too—and don’t get me wrong, I laughed a lot—but, you know, I might still list a couple.

FOR EXAMPLE: The joke about the many, many ways to pronounce the titular beasts got to me every. single. time. Shaxs says “these mugatu are endangered” on the transporter pad, then materializes on the planet and within seconds starts scanning for “gumato life signs.” 😙👌 (He also says their genitals are vulnerable to phaser fire, which, uh... same?)

I couldn’t help wondering if the spoooky bartender’s thick Maine accent was a Stephen King reference.

Not so many gorgeous space setpieces this week, but the colours in this one blew my whole damn mind.

Oh, okay, when Boimler and Rutherford just fuckin'.... threw their tricorders at Mariner's face? And of course she failed to catch them, because she’s not actually the Starfleet version of the Winter Soldier? I literally laughed so loud I woke up my cat. I love those dumb idiots <3

One of my very favourite episodes of DS9 is “The House of Quark,” where Quark resolves the plot by literally bringing spreadsheets in front of the Klingon High Council, so the resolution to this one—with Rutherford deploying a Captain Kirk–style handmade bamboo cannon... which turned out to be a holo-projector... to explain why the Ferengi would be better off running a nature preserve—had me just howling.

Two running threads seem to be establishing themselves in S2: Mariner slowly lowering her emotional defenses and being vulnerable with her friends—so I'm gonna cry at some point!—and the question of whether Freeman is a good enough captain for a better ship—which, I think she is, and I think some of her struggles as the captain of the Cerritos come down to an impulsive streak that might actually be an asset on less routine assignments.

And I am so much more invested in either/both of those character arcs than I've been in any of Disco or Picard’s season-sized puzzle-boxes. (Disco S3 was a marked improvement in that regard—was Picard S2 taking notes? We shall see...)

Lingering thought: is shovelling mugato shit really better than whatever that guy would have been doing on a Federation penal colony? Yikes.

[calliecat93]

ST: TNG S5 Watchthrough Episodes 2-5

Darmok: AKA, The Arena 2.0. Albeit the only similarity is that the captain and an alien get transported onto a barren planet with the Enterprise struggling to save him. While Kirk and the Gorn got forced by a God entity to fight, Picard and the other being, Dathon, look like they’re going to… but in actuality, they have a much more diplomatic interaction. There’s also a unique issue: the language barrier. The Tamarians essentially speak in metaphors that no one can understand, which with Picard missing… well it’s causing issues for The Enterprise who are about ready to go into battle. If we're gonna repeat episode ideas, I think that this is a good way to do it. Use a similar set-up, but do something different. In this case, Picard makes an effort to figure the Tamarian language out, at least enough to allow some form of communication. Like when Picard talks to Dathon after he’s been injured to learn more about him? That was a nice scene. Showing one trying to understand the other despite the obvious communication issues, and it is this effort and understanding that ultimately allows Picard to save the day before bloodshed can occur between the two sides. It was hard to keep up with at points because I could not at all understand what The Tamarians were saying and I’m far too slow to pick it up like Picard did. There’s a small, petty part of me bummed about having no people in cheap lizard costumes, but it was still a good episode. Certainly a much calmer one than Redemption which offers a nice cool-down from the premiere. It’s not as exciting as The Arena, but still a nice change of pace… but seriously, bring back the Gorn one day ST, and you better use the cheap costumes if you do! 3.5/5.

Ensign Ro: Alright, I’ve heard some about this one and I know that The Bajorans are gonna be a bigger deal in DS9. So Ensign Ro has been assigned to the Enterprise… but no one’s really happy about it as she had both been court-martialed and only recently released from prison. But they need her as the Bajorans are rebelling against The Cardassian Empire, yep those guys from The Wounded are back again. The treaty allows the Federation o act on behalf of the Bajorans, but that does nothing to ease the tensions between Ro and the Enterprise staff. So… one, Riker is an asshole in this episode. I mean making Ro take off her earring due to Starfleet uniform code… despite Worf being able to wear his sash (IDK the official name of it) that is clearly signifying his Klingon heritage and Troi having three regular outfits that she switches between, none of which are the standard uniform. Is it a seniority thing? Yeah IDK what that scene was about except as a tension builder, but way to be a hypocritical asshole Riker. But to be fair, Ro isn’t exactly the nicest person either. She’s very cynical, anti-social, aloof, and brutally honest, a huge contrast to the usually hopeful, optimistic cast. But as the episode goes on and when Guinan starts talking to her, it becomes clear why she is the way that she is. We learn about the horrors that the Bajorans have endured due to the Cardassians, Ro being used by an asshole admiral to give weapons to terrorists, and how it all caused Ro to feel ashamed of her own heritage and her struggle to settle it even after realizing that she shouldn’t feel that way. Needless to say, Ro has some pretty good reasons to be as she is, and she ultimately was trying to help her people and broke the admiral's orders when she found out that things weren’t on the level. Ro’s a really interesting character and I’m glad that Picard came around to her and allowed her to stay on the Enterprise, even allowing her to wear her Bajoran earring again. Hopefully, everyone else comes around as well. But yeah,t his was good! A good female character, the introduction of the conflict between the Bajorans and Cardassians, and an overall good plot. Again, I hate how much of an ass Riker and some of the others were to Ro with none of them ever asking her side of how she got court-martialed, but still, it was good~! 4/5.

Silicon Avatar: You all remember The Crystalline Entity? The one from Datalore? The being that killed a whole bunch of people because of Lore and would have killed everyone on the Enterprise had Lore not been beamed into space? Yep, they never actually defeated the thing so… it’s back. After it ravages a colony (thankfully all but two citizens survive), the Enterprise calls in Dr. Marr, who has studied the Entity, to help… but she has her own personal intentions for studying it. She is mean to Data, but it’s less because he’s an android and more because of his connection to Lore though she does loosen up fairly quickly. This is very much a revenge tale. Marr lost her son to the Crystalline Entity, and she has been trying to find him. way to kill it once and for all. We’ve seen this kind of story before, but hey that doesn’t mean it can’t be good, and bringing the Crystalline Entity isn’t a bad idea either. The sadness of Marr is done we'll and when Data read back a journal entry of her son’s in his voice... God that was just sad. Then... let’s talk about the moral debate. Marr wants to kill the Entity due to the devastation it keeps causing and to avenge her son… but Picard wants to try and communicate with it. Now I do understand what they’re trying to do and to an extent, I agree with it. The Entity may very well just be some kind of mindless animal just doing what it has to do to survive. Or it may indeed have its own thoughts and consciousness. Maybe it doens’t even realize the horrors it causes or the difference between right and wrong. If they could communicate, maybe they could understand it more and find a way to resolve the matter and stop the devastation peacefully. I certainly see what Picard is getting at… it’s just that along with no one considering that plan back in Datalore, the Entity IS still causing countless deaths and if Picard is wrong, they may very well die. But Marr takes matters into her hands, thus meaning that we’ll never know and that may be the true tragedy of the episode. Was Marr right to do what she did? It’s certainly hard to blame her, but she also cost what could have been valuable progress and knowledge. Either way, she was a heartbroken mother who wanted to avenge her son, and it only lead to a sad life that her son would have never wanted her to have. She accomplished her goal… but what now? The moral debate could have been handled better, but still a fine episode. 3/5.

Disaster: They were on-point with that title, though ‘Utter Insanity’ would have also been acceptable. So let’s just run down the list. The Enterprise has a power failure and it results in multiple insane scenarios. Picard is both injured and stuck with children on the Turbolift, Worf is stuck in Ten-Forward with a pregnant Keiko giivng birth, Crusher and Goerdi are stuck in cargo, Riker and Data try to get to Engineeirng, an Troi is stuck in Command as the only senior officer still alive on the Bridge. Yeah, it’s a wild episode. I really like the idea though. It’s essentially a Bottle Episode, but still uses various sets and uses the power outage plot to create a lot of chaotic scenarios. Most of them are really good. I liked Picard with the kids, which is as awkward as you’d expect it to be (albiet he’s over his asshole phase so it’s not as bad but still awkward) and, dare I say it, really cute! Worf having to play midwife was hilarious. I feel bad for poor Keiko, but still hilarious. The Data/Riker and Crusher/Geordi plots were also pretty nice. The only plot that I felt wasn’t that great was the Troi plot. Honestly… she shouldn’t have been given command, senority or not. She’s a counselor/psychologist, not a commanding officer. I’d have just had Ro and O’Brein stuck together and forced to take command of the Bridge. Not only were their interactions actually pretty interesitng to watch, but they clealry knew what they were doing faaaaar better than Troi did. I get they were trying to show her out of her element and apparently they do take this and use it as character development later from what I read, and her choosing not to seperate the ship incase others are alive even though it could lead to more death is very much IC for her. But it makes Troi, Ro, and O’Brien all look like idiots for putting Troi in a position thats she is unqualified for with her not at all arguign against this and the other two not pointing it out either even when she outright says that she doesn’t know certian protocals. Heck if they wanted to keep Troi on the Brdge, have Ro and O’Brein bickering Spock/McCoy style (which the they did a FAR better job emulaitng that here than when they tried with Pulaski and Data) and Troi playing peacemaker and putitng her counsling skills to good use. That’s right folks… Troi could have been Captain Kirk for a day XD That aside, I really enjoyed this! I liked seeing everyone out of their element, they made effective use of a power outage plot, and while no means perfect it was still fun~! Oh and O’Brein and Keiko have a baby girl now, yay~!!! 4/5.

Alright, we’re off to a decent start. So next round we have Wesley returning… but far more importantly, SPOCK IS COMING BACK FOR A TWO-PARTER! I’M SO EXCITED~!!! But for now, five episode down, 21 to go.

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 4 Easter Eggs & References

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This Star Trek: Discovery article contains spoilers for “Forget Me Not.”

Although Star Trek: Discovery was positioned as a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, the edgier nature of the series immediately drew comparisons to Deep Space Nine. And, now that Discovery has jumped well beyond the 23rd century, it’s in the strange position of being a prequel that is now a sequel to all of Trek.

In Season 3, Episode 4, “Forget Me Not,” Discovery doesn’t just seem like a sequel to DS9 in its style or grittiness, it literally revisits one of DS9’s most famous planets, the Trill homeworld. So, if you felt like you were watching a far-future DS9 sequel, you’re not wrong! Here’s all the Easter eggs and references to the entire canon of Trek (but mostly DS9) in “Forget Me Not.”

Senna Tal’s name

The Starfleet admiral whose message Burnham intercepted is named “Senna Tal.” In episode 3, we learned that Adira carried Senna Tal’s symbiont inside her, which means the symbiont itself is named “Tal” and the male Starfleet Admiral was Senna. This is just like the difference between Jadzia Dax and Curzon Dax. Of course, Adira doesn’t start the episode as “Adira Tal,” that comes later, when we also learn about Grey Tal.

Culber’s medical scanner

Though this isn’t exactly a new Easter egg, Dr. Culber uses a classic spinning TOS medical scanner to check over several members of the crew, including Adira. This is the same kind of scanner Bones used in TOS, which is kind of interesting only because according to Jadzia in “Trials and Tribble-ations” she knew Leonard “Bones” McCoy when the Dax symbiont was joined as Emony Dax. 

Bajoran Hasperat

Adira says she knows how to cook a “mean Bajorian Hasperat.” This is a spicy Bajorian food featured throughout DS9, but first mentioned in the TNG episode “Preemptive Strike.” So, if you seem to recall Ro Laren talking about Hasperat on TNG before Kira did on DS9, you’re right! That said, we never actually saw Hasperat until DS9, at which point it appeared to look like a burrito. On some level, saying “Bajoran Hasperat” might be a little redundant, but we can forgive poor Adira; her memory is really scrambled! 

“There’s no precedent”

Dr. Culber says “There’s no precedent” for a human having a Trill symbiont in their body, but TNG Trekkies might be upset because they know there totally is. In the TNG episode “The Host” (the first Trill episode ever) Will Riker took on the symbiont of Ambassador Odan. So, did Discovery ignore this? Nope! In fact, Culber saying this makes perfect sense. Dr. Crusher helped put the Odan symbiont in Will Riker in 2367. Dr. Culber’s medical records come from the year 2257, plus the Sphere Data, which is considerably older. So, although Discovery now takes place in 3188 (or 3189), the information Culber has is from 2257 or older. With that in mind, it would have actually been weird had Culber known about Riker. 

The planet Trill and the caves of the Caves of Mak’ala

It’s been a minute since we’ve visited the Trill homeworld. In Deep Space Nine, Jadzia had to return to the planet Trill in the episode “Equilibrium.” The caves that Burnham and Adira visit, complete with symbionts floating in those milky pools come from that episode. 

The tardigrade on the Glenn

Talking to Tilly about the Spore Drive, Stamets mentions he was unable to find an interface for making the hub work “before we discovered the tardigrade on the Glenn. This references the episodes “Context is For Kings” and “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not For the Lamb’s Cry,” from Discovery Season 1. In those episodes, the crew found a giant mutated Tardigrade nicknamed “Ripper” on the sister-ship to the Discovery; the USS Glenn.

“932 years of technological advancement”

How long has it been since the Spore Drive was made operational? 930 years or 932? Well, Discovery Season 1 mostly took place in 2256. Then Season 2 was in 2257. Then we were told that the crew was going to jump ahead 930 years. But, we also know that there’s been one extra year in there — Burnham’s gap year. So, 932 years work: you’ve got the 930-year jump, plus the year prior (2256) and then, the gap year, and that makes 932. Still, it’s a little confusing if at this point we’re at the end of the year 3188 or starting to cross over into 3189? If Burnham arrived at the beginning of 3188 in “That Hope Is You Part 1,” then we could still be in 3188. Or maybe not! So, is it actually 933 years of technological advancement? 

Tilly loves Dark Matter

Tilly wants to use a dark matter interface to make the Spore Drive work. She loves dark matter. In the Discovery Season 2 episode “New Eden,” Tilly also wanted to try and use some dark matter to make a new interface for the Spore Drive.

“A subspace domain”

Stamets mentions that the mycelial network is a “subspace domain,” meaning that it’s inherently not part of “normal space.” While subspace domains are made-up sci-fi, dark matter is closer to being real. What Stamets is kind of saying is “Dark matter exists in real space, and all the spore drive stuff happens in not-real space.” He’s not wrong.

Culber and Burnham compete for who has had a harder time at life

When Culber suggests that Burnham go with Adira to the surface of Trill, the convo goes like this.

Culber: “She’s had everything she knows stripped away, I think you understand that.”

Burnham: “I think you do too.”

Culber’s comments that Burnan “understands that” probably references the idea that Burnham was once court-martialed and sent to Federation prison, way back in the episode Discovery Season 1 episode “Battle at the Binary Stars.” But, Burnham’s retort “you do too,” references the fact that in Season 2, Culber came back from the dead and had an entirely new body reconstructed from the mycelial network.

DOT bots

The DOT bots are back! Two episodes in a row! These little maintenance bots come from “Such Sweet Sorrow,” but also from the Short Treks episode, “Ephraim and Dot.”

Burnham and Adira take a shuttle down to the planet

Why don’t Burnham and Adira beam down to the surface of Trill? Well, in the TNG episode “The Host,” Trill couldn’t use the transporter because it could damage the symbiont. But, in DS9, Dax beamed up and down all the time. We also saw Adira beam onboard Discovery in the previous episode. Are they slightly more worried now? Just being careful? 

No records of a joining between a human and a Trill symbiont 

The Trill guardians say that in “2,000 years there’s no single recorded instance of a joining” between a human and a symbiont. Next Generation fans know this is slightly wrong. Riker was joined with the Odan symbiont in “The Host.” Seems like the Trill government didn’t want anyone to know about that, hence it not being a “recorded instance.” In this scene, it’s also mentioned that “forced separation could kill the host.” This idea was established in DS9 numerous times.

“We are not Federation members”

The Trill guardians mention that they are not part of the Federation, which seems similar to the status of Earth in Episode 3. There’s just one difference, although we’ve seen several Trill serve in Starfleet throughout the years, it was never explicitly stated in onscreen canon that the planet Trill was part of the Federation. (Though some non-canon books do put it in the Federation as of 2285, the same year as The Wrath of Khan.)

Viable Trill hosts

Not all Trill are “joined.” In the DS9 days, we were mostly told that it was very hard for humanoid  Trill to be suitable to carry symbionts. However, in the DS9 episode “Equilibrium,” we learned that this was a myth, and that actually there were plenty of viable hosts. Is it possible this myth has been perpetuated even further? One of the Guardians says Adira could be the future because “We no longer have enough viable hosts.” If this is the truth, then something has radically changed with Trill biology. 

That wasn’t Federation protocol!

Adira notices that Burnham takes out the Guardians pretty quickly with her phaser. Burnham says “they’ll be fine.” This means her phaser was on stun, and we know that because it had little blue light illuminated and not a red light.

The return — or origin of — Zora

When the USS Discovery computer starts getting a little personal with Saru, the voice changes and we briefly see a graphic of the Sphere data. Annabelle Wallis reprises her role as the voice of “Zora” the sentient Discovery computer from the Short Treks episode “Calypso.” In real life, Annabelle Wallis has supposedly been dating Chris Pine (Captain Kirk!) since 2018. 

What’s you and what’s all the other hosts?

In the flashback, Adira asks Grey (Ian Alexander) which parts of his personality are coming from him and which parts are coming from the previous hosts of the Tal symbiont. When Ezri Dax was first given the Dax symbiont, she had similar questions about what she was really like. In fact, on some level, the origin story of Adira is similar to Ezri: Both became joined Trill because of an emergency.

Medical bots were foreshadowed in the new credits

The emergency medical robots that help perform the surgery on Grey to put the symbiont in Adira were previously glimpsed in the opening credits of Discovery Season 3, starting with “That Hope Is You Part 1.” This Easter egg is similar to Discovery Season 2 when the Red Angel and the time crystals were both teased out in the opening credits.

Previous hosts of Tal have various “new” Starfleet uniforms

Counting Admiral Senna Tal, at least two other of Tal’s previous hosts were Starfleet officers. We see one woman in a teal-colored Starfleet uniform that appears to precede the era of Senna Tal’s uniform. But, we also see a man in a Starfleet captain’s uniform who is very much from the era of Star Trek: Picard. This seems to imply that the Tal symbiont is at least 789 years old, but actually, probably much older. Did a previous host of Tal know characters from TNG or DS9? Is Dax still around? 

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Also, seeing a Starfleet uniform from Star Trek: Picard on Discovery is certainly not a crossover anyone could have imagined when Discovery first debuted. But this small bit of continuity might foreshadow more crossovers to come. If Adira has memories that go all the way back to the era of Picard, then suddenly, there are a myriad of possibilities for what they know about the history of the Federation. Or, if you’re someone living in the Picard timeline, Adira’s memories tell the future. Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 airs new episodes on Thursdays on CBS All Access.

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