#tng the best of both worlds part 1

[filmjunky-99]

s t a r t r e k t h e n e x t g e n e r a t i o n created by gene roddenberry [the best of both worlds part i, s3ep26] 'Captain's log, stardate 43996.2. The Enterprise remains concealed in the dust cloud. And to my surprise, the Borg have maintained their position, waiting for us to come out of hiding. I have no explanation for their special interest in me or this ship. We continue to prepare our defences for the inevitable confrontation, but I must admit, on this night I contemplate the distinct possibility that no defense may be adequate against this enemy.' - picard

[klingon-for-dear-life]

The cliffhanger at the end of the last episode of TNG season 3 is one of the cruelest things I've ever seen lmao

If I was a fan and watched that on tv back when it first aired I would've been so upset at having to wait for part 2 to premiere to see what happens. Just diabolical 😂

[starkiller1701-a]

I made a thing for Pride! 🖖

[andyoullhearitagain]

Top Ten Least Bad Outfits in TNG

I'm gonna be honest and say that the non-uniform outfits in TNG are not my favorite costume design in the world, but there are some looks that stick with me:

10. That Girl Who Kissed Data That One Time's Outfit:

I can never decide if I like this look or I think it's ugly, but I love the pants and tall boots combo. Her blouse is bad and the bouclé jacket is both too heavy and too fussy for this outfit, but I love the belt and suspenders combo, and the chevron embossing on the suspenders. This costume and all the others except #9 is a Robert Blackman design.

9. This Jumpsuit On That Girl From "The Dauphin":

This is the only William Ware Theiss design on this list. I love his TOS stuff but most of his TNG designs leave me cold 🤷‍♀️. But I love this is extremely 80s jumpsuit. Love the pretty drape, love the ruching on the sleeves, love the harem pants silhouette. Only note is that the whole bodice should be a structured corset bodice instead of the kind of odd structured panel it has now.

8. Picard's Shorty Pyjama Set:

TNG is absolutely full of the strangest pyjama choices you can imagine and Picard is no exception but I love this bold look. Would kill for this pyjama set. He also takes a work zoom wearing this one time which is insane.

7. Data's 1890's Looks But Specifically This One With The Shirtsleeves And The Blue Shirt:

The best part of "Time's Arrow" is that Data isn't a fish out of water in the 1890s, he's absolutely killing it, and I love that the only real Casual Data look we get is this one. I prefer the blue shirt to the pink because Data should really wear more blue, it's a nice contrast with yellow. Please also note his emerald watch fob, which was 0% necessary to blend in, he's just having fun with it.

6. 12 Year Old Keiko's Linen Overalls:

The paperbag waist! The bow! The little bows at the shirt cuffs! I can understand why she replicated a miniature copy of this outfit.

5. Beverly and Guinan's Dixon Hill Holodeck Costumes:

I'm counting these as one because they're essentially the same design in different color pallets but what color paletts! Bev is pulling off the very difficult pink+red+red hair and the mint green on Guinan is 🤌. I particularly love how Guinan's hat is so 1940s yet also echos the silhouette of her usual costume.

4. Deanna's Teal Dress:

Like all of you I prefer Deanna in the uniform, but this dress slays, ok? The space age asymmetrical neckline. The drop waist. The structured bodice. The slit almost all the way to the hip. And of course the matching tights and shoes CANNOT BE BEATEN. Also one time I saw a dude on a Star Trek forum call this a "ballgown" which baffles me to this day, this is clearly a slightly fancy day dress.

3. Picard's 1890s Look:

You'd think Picard would go full posh in the 1890s but instead he gives us this working-class Shakespearean director look and he 👏 looks 👏 incredible 👏. Way to mix textures, Jean-Luc.

2. Lore's Turtleneck and Giant Vest:

You and I know that Lore stole these clothes from the Pakleds because we pay a lot of attention to Star Trek costumes, but to a normal viewer Lore shows up and this is just his outfit!! It's giving, like, space-age goblincore and it's incredible. I want wear this oufit every day. I want to make a little doll Lore wearing this outfit to express my love for it. It's only not #1 because the pants are too orange and a strange weave.

Deanna's Ancient West Holodeck Outfit:

Deanna!!! The pants! The hat! The calico! She looks 10/10 hot in this outfit. For sure the superior version of this is before she gives her neckerchief to Worf (it really benefits from that cool highlight) but either way this is the best anyone's ever looked on that holodeck.

[quasi-normalcy]

My mom informs me that there was one specific night when I was three years old and staying in a hotel room in Grand Forks, North Dakota, when I saw TNG's "The Best of Both Worlds, part 1" on television and then immediately followed it up with the Tom Baker Doctor Who serial "The Seeds of Doom" about evil plants, and was too terrified to sleep for the rest of the night. I have no memory of this occasion, but it is very possible that it was the single most formative event of my entire personality.

[spnscripthunt-inactive]

Star Trek: TNG Scripts

TNG Writers/Directors Guide 

Season 1 (September 8, 1987), Roddenberry Vault

1.01 & 1.02 - Encounter at Farpoint 

Story Draft, The Trek Files

Outline, Roddenberry Vault

Final Draft, Roddenberry Vault

3rd Rev. Final Draft, Script Zone

1.25 Conspiracy 

Story Notes, Roddenberry Vault

3.10 - The Defector 

Story Outline, Roddenberry Vault

3.13 - Deja Q 

Preliminary, Roddenberry Vault

3.16 - The Offspring 

Revised Final Draft, Roddenberry Vault

3.23 - Sarek 

Second Draft, Roddenberry Vault

3.26 - Best of Both Worlds, Part I 

Story Outline, Roddenberry Vault

Final Draft, Roddenberry Vault

4.01 - Best of Both Worlds, Part II 

Final Draft, Roddenberry Vault

4.02 - Family 

Story Outline, Roddenberry Vault

First Draft, Roddenberry Vault

4.21 - The Drumhead 

Final Draft, Roddenberry Vault

4.26 - Redemption, Part I

Second Draft, Roddenberry Vault

5.07 - Unification, Part I

First Draft, Roddenberry Vault

5.23 - I, Borg

First Draft, Roddenberry Vault

5.25 - The Inner Light

Second Draft, Roddenberry Vault

6.04 - Relics

First Draft, Roddenberry Vault

6.10 & 6.11 - Chain of Command, Part I & II

First Draft, Roddenberry Vault

Final Draft, Roddenberry Vault

6.15 - Tapestry

First Draft, Roddenberry Vault

6.18 - Starship Mine

First Draft, Roddenberry Vault

7.15 - Lower Decks

First Draft, Roddenberry Vault

7.25 & 7.26 - All Good Things 

First Draft, Roddenberry Vault

Second Draft, Roddenberry Vault

Final Draft, Roddenberry Vault

[staringdownabarrel]

I've seen a couple of posts where people are getting caught up on the time travel aspects of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow because they aren't really sure how it's meant to work. This is an aspect of Picard's second season that people got caught up on as well, so I want to go over how time travel works in Star Trek.

I think the part people are getting caught up on is that time travel in Star Trek is largely based on two rules, but neither of them are explicitly stated in canon. They've both largely gone unstated.

Rule 1: Time travel doesn't make a difference unless it causes a difference

What this means is that just the act of going back in time isn't enough to cause huge changes in the timeline. This isn't the kind of franchise where you can go back in time and move a leaf and suddenly cause all of history to drastically change. It's only if you actively go out of your way to change things--e.g., killing one historical figure or saving another--that it makes a difference.

This is the reason why in The Voyage Home, when Kirk and co. go back and save the whales, they're not presented with this drastically changed Federation when they get back to the 23rd century. Bringing two whales and a marine biologist to the future isn't enough to cause drastic changes to the timeline. It's not enough of a difference to make a difference, essentially.

It's also why Sisko was able to take the place of Gabriel Bell in DS9's Past Tense two-parter without it causing issues down the line. While Bell not being there and doing what he did cause a ripple effect, as long as someone was there to fill that role, things would all go according to plan. Sisko playing the part of Gabriel Bell during the Bell riots kept his timeline intact because while it was a difference, it also wasn't enough of a difference to make a difference.

The third example of time travel by itself not causing a difference is something like TNG's Time's Arrow two-parter, where just the TNG crew going back to the nineteenth century isn't enough to cause ripples down the line. It just means they're there.

Rule 2: When it does make a difference, it overwrites everything that happens afterwards

The best example of this rule in practice is Voyager's Year of Hell two-parter. Annorax's temporal weapon ship is built to be able to cause changes in the timeline that ripple out and change everything afterwards. He's also obsessed with restoring the timeline to what he considers its proper course, and that's an ongoing thing during the story.

There's other examples of this rule in practice, too. The other obvious example of this is TOS's The City on the Edge of Forever, where if Edith Keeler survives, the Nazis win World War II and cause the Federation to never exist. In DS9's Past Tense, if the Bell riots don't happen, the Federation never exists. In VOY's Endgame, Admiral Janeway going back in time causes Voyager to be able to get back to the Alpha Quadrant years earlier than it had in her timeline.

This doesn't mean that the timeline splits off and causes a new universe to form. It means that everything that happens after the significant change in the timeline, everything after that change is different.

This is why Guinan didn't remember Picard during the 21st century scenes in Picard's second season. Because the timeline had been changed so that the Federation didn't exist, it'd also been changed so that he probably hadn't been to the nineteenth century in this version of the timeline. There wasn't an evil Federation version of Time's Arrow in this timeline essentially, so there was no reason for Guinan to have met Picard because from her perspective, they hadn't.

This is also one of the reasons why the 2009 movie tends to be such a contentious thing in some circles. Its presentation of time travel causing a change in the timeline so bad that it causes it split off and create a new universe isn't really in line with how time travel has traditionally been presented in the franchise. The flow on effect of this is while the writing team for the Kelvinverse films are pretty adamant that Enterprise as shown is canon to both the Prime universe and the Kelvinverse, there are fans who don't really buy into that idea.

Keep in mind that during First Contact, when the Enterprise-E is chasing the Borg sphere through the temporal vortex, nobody's saying, "Oh, we're in a new universe now." What they do say is that the Borg assimilating the Earth in the past is a major difference and therefore needs to be prevented.

That's in direct contrast to an episode like TNG's Parallels, where when Worf goes to each new universe, they're able to run some tests on him and find he's not meant to be in that universe. Stuff like that wouldn't work if there wasn't a difference between going to a different universe and traveling in time.

So the opening scene of the 2009 movie, where the Narada came in and destroyed the Kelvin, is really better explained by one of two options. One is that this was a different kind of time travel that hasn't been expanded upon since or even replicated in canon that caused the new timeline to split into a new universe, or the Kelvinverse was always a separate universe. Either would be fine, in my opinion.

How this is all relevant to Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is that this episode is another example of how a change in the past was enough of a difference to make a difference. While there is room for debate on where the line is for what constitutes enough of a difference, this episode clearly framed this set of changes as enough. This is a pretty straight example of how time travel is supposed to work in Star Trek.

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Jean-Luc Picard

By Ames

Since you all enjoyed our spotlighting of all the characters from The Original Series, we’re going to continue onward by spotlighting all our mains from Star Trek: The Next Generation as well! Of course, we were going to do it anyway because we’re having a blast going officer by officer and reminiscing on their high and low points, but I wanted you to feel special.

And what better way to start things off than with one of the fandom’s favorite and most ethical characters, and the one who sparked his own [deeply flawed] spinoff series, Captain Jean-Luc Picard! So join us on this week’s A Star to Steer Her By as we put on our captain’s bomber jacket, whip out our Ressikan flutes, and drape our Mintakan tapestries over the backs of chairs. Read on below for when Picard was at his best, and subsequently at his worst, and listen to the banter over on this week’s podcast episode (jump to 1:08:49 if you're not here for Enterprise chat). Make it so!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Not now, Doctor. Please. I already foresee talking about “The Naked Now” quite a lot over the next couple of weeks because everyone’s character ends up exaggerated by the polywater syndrome. And Picard is no exception. We do admit that it is good of him to fight his intoxication and also Bev’s advances, and it also gives us that little horny chuckle and skip that are just so endearing.

Prove to the court that I am sentient Picard becomes known throughout the series for his excellent ethical and philosophical speeches, and the first really big one comes in “The Measure of a Man” and it’s a doozy. It’s no small feat determining sentience (really, sapience) of a being, and Picard standing up to Bruce Maddox to fight for Data’s rights is something to take pride in and aspire to.

The time cops would be proud Picard’s relationship with Guinan is intriguing throughout all of TNG, and his trust in her abilities is enough for him to believe that it is best to send the Enterprise-C back to their rightful place in history in “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” As his alternate-timeline ship is crashing down around him and his crew is dying all over the bridge, he heroically gives the C their best shot.

Sarek <3 Spock In our Top 5 TNG Episodes list, “Sarek” ended up being the only episode that made all four of your hosts’ lists. And for good reason! Picard compassionately helps Sarek through a bout of Bendii syndrome by mindmelding with him so he can get back to his ambassadorial work, and we end up with some of the best Patrick Stewart acting in the whole show for it!

Bedtime for Borgo Picard has a rough time throughout all of “The Best of Both Worlds,” spending most of the two-parter as Locutus, as you’ll see in just a moment. But at the end of Part II, he’s able to fight through the Borg programming just enough to give Data the one-word cue “Sleep,” which turns out to be the undoing of the Borg in that Battle of Wolf-359.

Mev yap! I’m always a big fan of watching Picard speaking Klingon in their ceremonies. It shows how seriously he takes their customs. And in “Reunion,” when he breaks out the ja’chuq while arbitrating the Rite of Succession and also looking into K’mpec’s murder, it’s so ballsy that you’ve got to respect the guy. Or, at least anyone who isn’t as dishonorable as Duras has got to respect the guy.

With the first link, the chain is forged Yet another in a long line of great Picard speeches comes in “The Drumhead.” Admiral Satie gets more and more power hungry to convict people throughout her Red Scare hearings, even through unscrupulous means. Picard rightly puts her in her place by throwing the just words of her own father in her face. No wonder she’s on Jake’s Evil Admirals listicle.

Sokath, his eyes uncovered! Picard befriending Captain Dathon in “Darmok” is so Picardy that I’m swapping it in for that great line from “Peak Performance” I mentioned on the podcast (which is still great, but the screengrab was more boring). And I’m just so impressed with Picard’s patience in learning the seemingly nonsensical Tamarian language and his willingness to trust another being who just wants to communicate with him.

Resistance is not futile While it could be debated that this moment be prime fodder for Picard’s Worst Moments list for not getting rid of the Borg when he had the chance in “I, Borg,” we’ve got to admit it’s such a good moment for Picard to connect with Hugh and save his life. After having been forced into the role of Locutus, Picard has got to feel some small triumph that he didn’t commit genocide this day.

There! Are! Four! Lights!  More absolutely stellar Patrick Stewart acting comes in “Chain of Command, Part II.” Say what you will about Part I (Picard had no reason to be on this mission, there, I said it), watching Picard retain his humanity and resolution while being tortured by Gul Madred is riveting stuff. And no matter how many times I see it, I get goosebumps at his “four lights” defiance every time.

Yippee-ki-yay Here’s another kinda late addition to this list but how can one not include all the sabotaging of the ship he does in “Starship Mine”? It’s clear that Picard knows his ship like the back of his hand (the one that wasn’t briefly a Borg hand, more likely) when you watch him outsmart a bunch of terrorists as he John McClanes all over the Enterprise-D.

How many people does it take, Admiral, before it becomes wrong? Insurrection may not be anyone’s favorite of the Star Trek movies (here’s ours, for reference!), but Picard’s ethical debate feels so immensely right. Between standing up to Dougherty (another evil admiral!), to fighting for the rights of the Ba’ku, to his great line to Gallatin, “I’m not pleading for my life; I’m pleading for yours,” this is the most Picard has ever Picarded. Period.

—

Worst moments

Shut up, Wesley While we were tempted to also include this moment in our Best Moments list, it’s true that no matter how obnoxious Wesley is being (and he so often is; just wait until our Wesley spotlight), it’s never right to tell him to shut up. Even less so when he is literally the only member of the crew who is actually giving you pertinent information to save the day, as he was in “Datalore.”

Breaking the cycle Since we first watched it, we’ve been simply perplexed by “Time Squared.” There’s a reason it made so many of our Worst Time Travel Episode lists. Picard, at an entire loss for ideas, decides to kill the other him who’s been bonking around to see if that stops the time loops, and then leaves the corpse there for Pulaski to find without telling anyone which him it is! WTF?

I don't know if I want to be Eve I’ve also got to give Picard some guff for making the Bringloidi breeding stock for the Mariposans in “Up the Long Ladder.” Brenna even chastises Picard in the final scene for deciding this with only the male leaders of each society without consulting the women, who will have to basically become baby incubators, and even more annoyingly, she ends up being into it!

Resistance IS futile! While we can’t exactly blame Picard himself for being turned into Locutus in “The Best of Both Worlds,” resulting in huge losses for the Federation, we do have to admit it’s one of his lowest points as a human being. There’s a reason why Picard actually needs to take a mental health vacation in “Family,” something we tended to never see in Star Trek of that era.

Another orphan for the Rozhenkos You could tell by the look on Picard’s face after he accidentally killed Junior’s mother in “Galaxy’s Child” that he knows he screwed up. Couldn’t they have just left her alone in space instead of provoking her to attack them and then finding it necessary to shoot her dead? And now poor Junior has to be raised by his asshole aunts and uncles, thank you very much.

Now now now now! I mean, we were bound to dislike “Rascals” regardless because of its terrible child actors and obnoxious plot, but when you think about it, Picard was also entirely out of character. And it’s not just because he was supposed to be prepubescent: it was because he suddenly couldn’t lead his crew, and being smaller and whinier is no excuse for ignoring all his past experiences!

Mystery solved: Picard did it! If we picked on Kirk back in one of our earlier character spotlights for never checking in on Khan when he marooned him on Ceti Alpha V, then you’re damn right we’re going to pick on Picard for not checking in on Moriarty between “Elementary, Dear Data” and “Ship in a Bottle.” In that time, the holographic mastermind got rightly impatient and took matters into his own hands.

Play dom-jot, human “Tapestry” portrays how brash and short-sighted and tail-chasing Picard was in his years at Starfleet Academy, and how his willingness to get into scrapes got him into a fight with Nausicaans that really should have killed him if it weren’t for future technology. Thank the Continuum for JL’s artificial heart that allowed him to become the man we saw him become.

So it was gik'tal after all While we get that Sito Jaxa had a lot to atone for after the incident in “The First Duty,” we are still uncomfortable with how much Jean-Luc guilted her into going on the very dangerous mission that got her killed in “Lower Decks.” Picard definitely abused his power over her in this instance because he knew how badly she wanted to save face and he exploited it.

Kill the Dorvan V native, save the man Indeed, one of the worst decisions we see Picard make is when he just acts on Necheyev’s orders (hey, another of Jake’s Evil Admirals!) like a little sheep and coordinates moving the inhabitants of Dorvan V in “Journey’s End.” It’s shameful to watch Picard go the route of the Trail of Tears, and then only come around when he’s shown who his ancestor was. 

I think it’s time to try some unsafe velocities We talk a lot about how the Prime Directive isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but that’s still no excuse for all the dunebuggying antics Picard performed in Nemesis. Especially in front of all the natives of the planet (or what we assumed were natives). What a pathetic scene in a pathetic movie. It’s so clear they just wanted to race around in an ATV for a little excitement, but it was absolutely stupid and out of character.

The triumph of the echo over the voice Fittingly, we have even more Nemesis moments to lament since it was such a detestable movie. All movie long, I don’t understand why Picard is so conflicted about the clone situation, as if Shinzon is literally Picard himself and it would reflect poorly on him somehow. That’s not how clones work, dude! There’s no saving this asshole. And unrelatedly, but here we are: stop ordering Worf to go naked to the wedding on Betazed; that’s just gross!!!

—

Well, our Earl Grey tea has gotten lukewarm, and that means we’ve got to wrap things up. Make sure you join us next week for more character spotlights, this one of the bearded variety, and also keep following along with our watchthrough of Enterprise over on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast. You can also discuss diplomatic relations with us on Facebook and Twitter, and let Worf keep his clothes on if he wants!

[galderthefuzzy]

Hugh (Third of Five) has been a long time favorite since I first saw him in "I Borg" at the age of 12. Has it really been that long ago? Before that, I had always been fascinated with the Borg. In fact, it was "The Best of Both Worlds" episodes that got me hooked on Star Trek: TNG. When Hugh was introduced, it not only showed hope for those who had been assimilated, but a different side of a threatening enemy. Later the episodes Descent part 1 and 2 aired, I was ecstatic that the writers had not forgotten about Hugh and showed the consequences of the decisions made by the Enterprise D crew. The return of Hugh in Picard gave me all the feels, and seeing him help other Borg to become "free" was amazing. Just wish his death hadn't of been so lame. Description courtesy of the client. I had the pleasure to work on this exciting project for the wonderful PheonixxFoxx. It consists of two version of Hugh and then a final touch - an animated transformation that took a while to do, as I've done it only in Photoshop. The animation upload is coming right after this one! I hope you like the final version, it was quite a welcome and interesting challenge. Thank you for commissioning me!

[a-prawn]

Prawn, what's your favourite Data episode (or moment)? My personal favourites are Phantasms, just for the shot of data answering his own phone, and Thine Own Self. x

OOKKKKKKK i started answering this last night and it took me so long bc i have brain problems re: data and i had to go to bed before i could finish it so i saved it as a draft and tumblr deleted it so ok here we go again thine own self fucking slaps, it's like top three data eps for me if not top three tng eps. his little tights. getting his face ripped apart. getting murdered in the town square <3 wow i love that for him!!! datalore/brothers/descent 1/2 OBVIOUSLY bc anytime data and lore are on screen together i'm in a frenzy. noonian being there in brothers is an added bonus. the first 10 minutes of brothers when he's taking over the enterprise is, like... erotic... that sounds insane but it's true. i love it when androids malfunction, it's hot. any episode where data is malfunctioning or being opened up or ripped apart or plugged in to something is like... (chef kiss)

measure of a man (FUCK BRUCE MADDOX).

the offspring :^( clues is an underrated data classique. picard threatening him that he'll be stripped down to his wires? ummmm-

best of both worlds when he's plugged in to locutus? "processing.... processing..." LOVE IT. obsessed with that scene.

fistful of datas. actually any time data and worf get screentime together i'm psyched. especially if worf ends up having to carry him around bc he got his shit wrecked. which reminds me that the iconia episode is great in season 2, whatever it was called. i'm too lazy to look it up. contagion?

i also love any time data and riker get screen time together bc riker is obviously in love with that android. data's day is great, i love just seeing him be a weird little guy. calling geordi lunkhead. ruining o'brien's day. "i am not nervous. i AM confused." uhhhh whatever the episode is where he starts dreaming. birthright. if we're talking about data dreaming episodes, i actually prefer this one to phantasms, even though phantasms also rules. i loooove watching him and julian create a category 5 autism event on the enterprise. also data being like i had a crazy vision, please electrocute me again so i can give it another shot. and even though i hate noonian and want to smash his head with a brick, he is beautiful and i love getting to see him.

hero worship is great. as with the offspring, it's another, "wow data would be a great dad" episode.

love quality of life just in general. it's obvious that picard cares about data like all of his crewmen but they do frequently end up at odds with eachother, so this episode along with measure of a man really stand out to me bc i love seeing picard so enthusiastically being on data's side. he can't even make small talk with data on the turbolift but by god is he ready to die so data can prove some little robots are fellow sentient beings.

the most toys </3

SPEAKING OF TURBOLIFT SMALL TALK, i know starship mine is technically a picard episode but data's parts in it are all great. love that statistically data is either the only guy who can solve a problem or is the guy directly responsible for the problem.

the episode with his mom is sweet even though in my mind it's non-canonical bc i don't believe that noonian soong is capable of um... caring about a fellow human being enough that he could convince someone to marry him (i hate noonian soong. have i mentioned that? actually i hate the entire family except the androids, they're just all terrible people).

uhh and then any episodes that feature data getting his mind hijacked and the entity who does it being like, "this body rules i'm going to beat the shit out of/choke the shit out of picard specifically". thank you... good stuff.

deja q gets 1000000 bonus points bc it is a great q episode AND a great data episode and i wish we got more of them being bfffs.

masks sucks so bad but the, "what does it feel like when one is losing his mind?" scene breaks my heart every time.

also this is not episode specific but data's fascination/love of therapy is awesome i love it i love that he wants to go to therapy every day and i'm glad that (even though picard the tv show sucks) data got his wish of daily therapy sessions with troi in season 3. good for him. GOOD FOR HIM!!!

this post is deranged sorry. this is not even a complete list i am sure i'm missing something. (i know the sherlock data episodes are like fan favorites but i don't... care for them. i'm glad he's having a good time though. sorry :^()

[isagrimorie]

A little bit of a soft pushback on this post. re: curatorial fandom etc on Star Trek Picard season 3– I don’t think it's pure nostalgia and fan service.

Because I don’t think the characters we revisited stayed in one place, they weren’t who they were before. Some of them were rougher than others and some have had it done well.

I know most people were happy about Picard having almost nothing to do with the elements of TNG, and I do agree some of it was refreshing but for me, Trek is a starship and a crew -- even DS9 falls on this despite being a station, and it was always a little sad Sir Patrick Stewart was reluctant to include his friends in Picard.

He might have been a big part of the draw in TNG with Brent Spiner's Data as the other big draw but Picard wasn't the only reason why people watched TNG.

I also wanted an update on Beverly, Geordi, and on Worf.

And I know it's unpopular but as a show, Picard felt incomplete without his friends. (Also, knowing Sir Patrick Stewart was riding off the high of Logan for the reasoning behind Picard it made sense now. Logan was an excellent movie!)

But Picard not keeping in touch with the people he served with and considered family, it felt disappointing. Especially since I specifically went into the show expecting Picard to have kept in touch.

Ultimately, after returning to season 1, I did enjoy aspects of Picard s1 with a lot of niggles in between because season 1 had a LOT of big ideas and 10 episodes didn't serve the story well.

There were so many good ideas there that just didn't fly and most of season 1 was spent talking with not a lot of forward momentum on both plot and character.

I think in an ideal world there should have been 16 to 20 episodes per season to round things out. Season 1 had intriguing concepts that went nowhere and the Borg were just— there. They introduced the concept of ex-Borgs and did nothing with them.

Also, it was mentioned how S1 of Picard is very close to the plot of Mass Effect -- which is okay, good sci-fi shows share similar ideas and plots all the time! It's just funny, is all but again goes to how the show should have, at least 16 episodes.

Going on to season 3:

1. I really liked Nepenthe but I was also okay with Will and Deanna professing dislike for the planet where Thad lived and died— because sometimes the place where you spent grieving and healing isn’t and shouldn’t be the same place you should be if you’re going to move on from grief. And I doubly agree that Kestra should have been discussed or shown more. This actually reminds me of a Chibnall quote where RTD taught him: It shouldn’t just be “Don’t show, tell” but it should be “Show and Tell”.

But also, Matalas should have really included a line or a scene showing Kestra was safe in the Academy. I don't care how clunky it would have sounded or the scene would've been!

2. Geordi. I love that we see Geordi with Data, Geordi was someone I missed seeing in season 1 of Picard especially in regards to Data's death because as much as Nemesis and Picard s1 & s2 would like to show it— Geordi and Data were the two best friends in TNG. And for the majority of TNG Picard held Data with a certain distance. I didn’t even realize what a missing ingredient Geordi was in Picard until I saw Geordi with Data. LeVar Burton sold Geordi's grief of losing his best friend and the possibility of getting Data back.

Also, I like that Geordi, who was a little, uh, problematic with women (he had a romantic attraction for) grow up and then learn to become a good dad to two daughters. I love that LeVar Burton specifically requested this because he was also not fond of how Geordi was written with women.

3. Beverly. I love Action Beverly and I love Gates McFadden got that, I love that she basically worked in Doctors without Borders under the Mariposa. The medical emergency organization Teresa and Rios set up in the past. But also finally addressing all the ways losing Wesley fucked her up, losing Wesley the way she did was the straw that broke the camel’s back for her. In TNG, losing Wesley was something that was never brought up again but Wesley was a big part of Beverly’s life. (To be clear, Wesley is alive but by the Time Lord-like rules set by the Traveller, Wesley and Beverly can never meet again or communicate). I love that despite not being in Starfleet Beverly still can’t help but want to help people, especially out in the border worlds outside of the Federation. It’s no wonder Seven has heard of Beverly!

I love that she figured out what was happening in the 'nebula' and how her knowledge helped save them, leading to one of the more wonderous scenes in season 3.

4. Ro Laren. But most of all I love that Ro Laren returned— and it’s such a big thing to get Michelle Forbes back, she has famously demurred a lot of attempts to get her to become a show regular. I love the button to Picard and Laren’s relationship which festered on both sides for almost 30 years. The episode where she appeared is possibly my favorite episode of all Picard.

If only money and time weren’t an issue Picard and Laren’s relationship would have been a great foil to Janeway and Seven’s. Or even Laren and Seven interacting would have been so good.

Also, Janeway is the phantom that haunts Season 3 because it feels like Janeway should have been in Season 3. Again, money and time. But man a lot of the plot stuff in season 3 would have smoothed out with Janeway in the show.

5. WORF!

This brings me to Worf, who I adored in season 3 and I am so glad we see how he is doing after DS9. I mourn the loss of Jadzia, and even though she wasn’t named, I can’t help but feel her presence was felt, even Ezri. I feel like the comment about how Worf shouldn’t be passive-aggressive, felt like a very Ezri thing to say.

But as I’ve said before, Jadzia would adore zen, white-haired Worf. She would be with him through this shenanigans. She would enjoy Worf’s mentorship of Raffi! And she wouldn’t even be fazed with Worf waxing poetic about Deanna’s advice. Jadzia would know what Worf meant.

Worf seeing himself in Raffi and truly enjoying Raffi’s company was also such a boon. I love that he passed the torch on being a Klingon badass to Raffi— a non-Klingon.

But also this heads on to one of the things I disliked -- how Raffi's story went in the first episode. I wasn't into how alone Raffi was in scenes. I wish they could have gotten Elnor as a hologram or even Seven-- just so she could bounce off someone else, and maybe even hit on why they broke up.

I do love Worf burning Raffi’s cover. Raffi hated deep-cover work, and it only made her miserable. This way, Starfleet Intelligence won’t be compelled to use her expertise this way again. He’s seen what it's done to Miles O’Brien. But also, it's the Klingon high-handedness at work and I hope Ezri verbally head-slapped him for it.

I loved the idea of a true Borg collective and community, where one becomes Borg by choice in season 2 but its been so divorced from Seven, who could have interacted more with the idea, and the Borg Queen— who had spent, in another life, a large amount of resources to get Seven back and even indulged Seven on occasion.

Season 3 isn’t exempt from this, while I adored Season 3– I do know it wasn't a perfect season and there are things it could improve on.

One of them is that Seven should be more connected to the main bad guy plot than she was. This is where Janeway should have been in the show more because the Hirogen story? Should have been Janeway's story if we are honest, the final blow to the Borg Queen? should have been Janeway's. In a way, Picard was shafted on his own show because those were all Janeway's achievements and not Picard's.

Also, I know that people are burned by the Borg being ever present but I will be sad if they never bring up the Borg in the form of the Jurati Faction of the Borg, the xBs, and some Delta Quadrant Borgs as both allies and threats in Seven's (possible, please god) show.

The Borg is a big part of Seven’s life more than it was Picard’s. I am always a little side eye when the show tries to tell me Picard has more expertise on the Borg than Seven.

So yeah, I hope Seven gets to tackle the tricksy complicated idea of xBs and Jurati Borg.

(/edited)

[filmjunky-99]

s t a r t r e k t h e n e x t g e n e r a t i o n created by gene roddenberry Captain Jean Luc Picard as Locutus of Borg [the best of both worlds, part ii, s4ep1] "I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service us.' - locutus

[raisinchallah]

star trek: 20, 21!!

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring

i feel like there are too many things to mention like every star trek show has like at least one period of absolutely interminably bad episodes but like thats not really controversial to say tos season 3 or tng season 1 kinda suck i found the weird period in ds9 season 3 that was just miss after miss to really take the wind out of my sails on my rewatch my more controversial opinion is i dont really care for most of the star trek movies in general i love the voyage home but dalafjkd most of the rest of them im like ok well id rather watch an episode

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

well i am known around these parts as a bit of tng hater this is may be my most controversial to random average star trek fans opinion but it really doesnt do much for me theres definitely some really good individual episodes but most of the show kinda leaves me cold and jdfasj;k i do think best of both worlds and first contact terminally overhyped

[starrybouquet]

I posted 3,100 times in 2022

129 posts created (4%)

2,971 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@captaincarriekathryncoffee

@sunnysideeggers

@sententiousandbellicose

@mylittleredgirl

@i-am-a-stupid-robot

I tagged 2,384 of my posts in 2022

Only 23% of my posts had no tags

#trek - 547 posts

#stargate - 465 posts

#sg1 - 450 posts

#sam x jack - 174 posts

#bridgerton - 141 posts

#voy - 141 posts

#tos - 108 posts

#tng - 108 posts

#fanbinding - 90 posts

#snw - 82 posts

Longest Tag: 125 characters

#anyway someone once said that chris judge makes the rest of the cast just look...small...when all the guys are taller than 6'

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Tag 9 people you want to get to know better

Tagged by the amazing @i-am-a-stupid-robot - thank you!!

Favorite Color: Blue! Any shade but baby blue, really.

Currently Reading: Uhh I think now is the time to announce to the fandom world that I've fallen into a horrible, full-on Regency romance novel obsession. I swear I've read probably 10 of them in the past week. And then I went and read fanfic. It's INSANE. But somehow I find it hilarious and I can skim parts so I don't need to pay attention all the time, and it's giving me fic ideas, so no complaints I guess? Just hoping it doesn't last too long?

Last Song: Right Hand Man, Something Rotten

Last Series: NCIS (2003)

Last Movie: Honestly not sure. I don't watch too many movies somehow

Sweet, Savory, or Spicy: Sweet, but you can win me over with potato chips too

Currently Working On: An NCIS AU fic that makes me giggle constantly, and the Sam/Jack SG1 WIPs that are always ongoing.

Tagging @sententiousandbellicose @sunnysideeggers @captaincarriekathryncoffee @spacey-iris @agentkalgibbs @carothepoet @mylittleredgirl (no pressure, ofc) and anyone else who wants to play!

57 notes - Posted January 15, 2022

#4

Happy 25th anniversary to Stargate SG-1

I have nothing to offer in the vein of fanfic or gifs today. I can only say, well, thank you. For your hope, your humor, your humanity. For catalyzing such a wonderful fandom. And thank you especially, especially, especially for creating my team: Jack, Sam, Teal'c, Daniel. I'll always love you for that. No matter what. 💙💙💙

60 notes - Posted July 27, 2022

#3

Are there bredlik poems out there for Stargate?

I can’t believe I’ve never thought of this before.

I need to have them

98 notes - Posted May 30, 2022

#2

#an otp that can do both for @mysg1spacemonkey ft. Sam/Jack

215 notes - Posted February 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

best stargate quotes

“Is there any chance you can get the Russians to give us their DHD?”

“Not without giving back Alaska.”

224 notes - Posted January 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[n1cks]

The USS Enterprise-D separated its saucer section four times on screen: 1. Encounter at Farpoint (TNG S1E1-2) 2. The Arsenal of Freedom (TNG S1E21) 3. The Best of Both Worlds, Part II (TNG S4E1) 4. Star Trek: Generations (1994 movie) Credit: Tiberius Jim #StarTrek #GalaxyClass http://dlvr.it/TBMRTX

[quasi-normalcy]

Best Episodes of Star Trek by season (Revised and Expanded).

TOS:

"The City on the Edge of Forever" - Still probably Trek's best time travel plot. Would have been interesting if there had been more episodes by Harlan Ellison.

"The Trouble with Tribbles" - The fact that it manages to be hilarious and have good commentary about ecology and taking animals out of their natural habitat makes it peak Star Trek.

"Day of the Dove" - Kang is a formidable antagonist, and the commentary about how hatred and violence can seem to feed on themselves and become their own justification is evergreen.

"The Slaver Weapon" - This one's maybe a bit clunkily written, but I like the novelty of adapting Larry Niven's "known space" to Star Trek

TNG:

"Where No One Has Gone Before" - This one does what Star Trek so rarely manages: to make the universe seem huge and mysterious and full of wonders

"The Measure of a Man" - Like the best science fiction, this one takes a novum (the idea of a mechanical man), traces its implications legally, socially, and philosophically, and ends up shedding new light on the human condition. Brilliant.

"The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1" - This one is just an absolute master class in tension-building and enshrines the Borg as one of the greatest villains on television. There has seldom been such a good cliffhanger.

"Family" - What's interesting about this one is, it really doesn't have any science fiction trappings at all; it doesn't need them. Because, by this point, we're all so invested in the characters that we can watch an hour-long story about the captain recovering from trauma. It's also a major turning point in that we see that actions can have lasting consequences on episodic television.

"I, Borg" - Here, we establish a fascinating tension within the Borg: collectively, they're absolutely terrifying; individually, they're as innocent as any entity ever could be. Plus, we just get brilliant performances and a nice little story about not letting trauma lead you to commit evil acts.

"Face of the Enemy" - Troi was mostly ill-used, so it's really nice to see her kicking all kinds of ass here. Also, it gives us Commander Torreth, a character who is noble, virtuous, sympathetic, and heroic, but who is cast as a villain simply because politics place her in opposition to our heroes.

"All Good Things..." - Simply the perfect finale for this series.

DS9:

"Duet" - This is when you knew that Deep Space Nine was going to be a great series. Powerful performances and a great twist at the end.

"The Circle" - Really this is for the entire three-part arc of which this was the middle installment. It's a shame that they stopped focusing on Bajor later in this series, because it's so good here.

"Improbable Cause" - Garak at his most magnificent versus Odo as a great detective. Fantastic.

"Bar Association" - One really must admire an American TV series from the Clinton Administration that would favourably quote the Communist Manifesto.

"In the Cards" - One of Trek's best comedy episodes, and its embedded in such a dark story arc that it really stands out. Nog and Jake accidentally making everyone's lives a little better as they try to do something nice for Sisko.

"In the Pale Moonlight" - Easily the best 'subverting utopia' episode in DS9's run. We see that heroes do not emerge cleanly from war.

"Tacking into the Wind" - This one pays off two arcs--Klingon politics and the Cardassian/Bajoran conflict--that had been building across a decade's worth of stories, and does so brilliantly.

VOY:

"Jetrel" - This is why I have no time tor people who hate Neelix. The character is just heartbreaking here.

"The Thaw" - Probably the most surreal episode Trek has ever done, with a truly chilling (but satisfying) ending.

"Distant Origin" - This one just has a fantastic premise. What if there was a species descended from the Dinosaurs? What if there was a Dinosaur Galileo? Plus, it's so interesting to do a whole episode that's mostly told from the aliens' point of view.

"Living Witness" - This one has everything; action, social commentary, and a nifty little story about how commitment to historical truth is ultimately good for everyone. Possibly the best episode of the franchise overall, honestly.

"Bride of Chaotica!" - Neither the first nor last holodeck episode, but the holodeck episode par excellence; and such a loving tribute to 1930s sci-fi serials.

"Blink of an Eye" - Just a nifty little episode about a planet where time runs quickly. Voyager at its best is just really good sci-fi short stories.

"The Void" - A ship lost and alone, running low on supplies, and needing to make alliances in order to survive. THIS is what Voyager *should* have been like all along

ENT:

"The Andorian Incident" - Gives is one of Enterprise's best characters in Shran, and offers some much needed development for two of Star Trek oldest alie races. I also love that the Vulcans really were in the wrong here.

"The Minefield" - A tense character study for Malcolm Reed which also shows us first contact between Earth and one of Star Trek's best villains.

"The Forgotten" - One thing that Enterprise did better than any other series is how it handled death. Here, we get a nice meditation on grief, plus a deconstruction of the "Redshirt" phenomenon.

"Terra Prime" - What makes this one work so well is that the things that the yobs in Terra Prime are saying about Vulcans sound only slightly more extreme than some of the things that Archer and Trip were saying in the first season. Thus, Enterprise converts one of its worst aspects into an opportunity for growth. Still Trek's best commentary on the alt-right.

DIS:

"Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" - In the midst of the doom and gloom of the firstvseason, it was mice to see that Trek could still pull off a comedy episode.

"Through the Valley of Shadows" - Pike learns his fate and accepts it nonetheless. Because he's a hero, dammit.

"Unification III" - One of the things that Disco going a thousand years into the future allows is for *really* long-term story arcs to be paid off; here, we find that Vulcans and Romulans have finally merged back into one culture.

"Species Ten-C" - Just a very good science fiction story about learning how to talk to aliens who aren't even remotely human.

PIC:

"The Impossible Box" - Soji's identity finally comes to a head; we get some really nice world building for the Romulans and the XBs; and Picard learns to look at the Borg in a new light.

"Penance" - This episode had what the rest of season 2 so sorely wanted: a plot. Plus, we get a delightful scene between Picard and Q and the first seeds of the magnificent Jurati/Borg Queen pairing. What's not to love?

"No Win Scenario" - This episode had what I loved best about TNG: a bunch of really smart people solving a problem by being clever. Plus, we have Shaw's heartbreaking monologue, Seven being awesome, Riker throwing an asteroid at Vadic, and a nice moment of awe and majesty with the space babies. Also, Jack's stupid mystery box plot had barely started up at this point, so that helps.

LWD:

"No Small Parts" - Where Lower Decks excels is not in expanding the universe, but in deepening it. Here, we get one of the best "not so harmless" moments ever with the return of the Pakleds, some genuinely really impressive space battle scenes, and Boimler finally getting the respect he deserves.

"wej Duj" - What's great about this episode is that it could *only* be done by Lower Decks. Again, we deepen the universe by showing inside views of the Klingon and Vulcan cultures, resolve an ongoing story arc, and get some good gags and character development in as well. And the end-credits gag is absolutely hilarious.

SNW:

"Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus" - We use a holodeck gag to get a genuinely poignant commentary on humanity's search for meaning in the face of death. Plus, I also love the secondary message: it doesn't matter if everyone else hates a piece of media, it's good if it's meaningful to *you*

"Something Borrowed, Something Green" - Backstory for Tendi, the Orions become a top-shelf Alien race, T'Lyn gets some banger lines, and we get Twin Twains

"Children of the Comet" - We get a fascinating premise, a fascinating new alien race, and more character development in one hour than Uhura got in the preceding 56 years.

"Ad Astra Per Aspera" - A nifty and timely courtroom drama that shows us the complications of civil rights cases.

PRO:

"Let Sleeping Borg Lie" - I'm glad that a new generation will grow-up being horrified/fascinated by the Borg. As it should be!

(These ones were a lot harder to pick than the worst ones)