#what was the episode of Star Trek you felt truly seen?

[tuttle-did-it]

First time you felt seen by Star Trek?

The episode: DS9-- ‘Rejoined’

What I knew: I knew I was queer, had since I was four years old.

What I saw: A trans person! Who wasn’t a psychotic criminal! who had a lover of the same current gender. And her friends were fine with both of these things!! They loved her anyway!! On tv!!!! On my favourite Star Trek show, with the character I understood the most. I’d never seen that before!! I’d never seen someone talk about gender so fluidly as Jadzia. I’d always felt represented by Dax, but seeing her wlw relationship accepted by everyone around her blew my mind. Many things clicked into place for me the night of 30 October 1995. I cried. Teenager me was in puddles. Adult me puddles every time.

Director: Avery Brooks

Writers: Ronald D. Moore, René Echevarria

Story by: René Echevarria

Thank you for that moment, DS9. You made me felt seen for the first time, possibly ever.

[t0ast-ghost]

So the thing is I wasn’t going to comment on the sixth episode. I just got home from a hella good play and I’m tired so I relax with Star Trek but holy shit

What IS that

With that HELLO and welcome to my first thoughts on the sixth episode (The Enemy Within) of the original Star Trek series

Here we go:

- that is a fucking dog

- IS THAT BLOOD?!? On Star Trek???

- so he got transporter cloned.. WHY IS HIS FACE LIKE THAT THO

- I like the fact it’s told a bit in retrospect, like it starts off with the star date and saying that at the time they didn’t know he got cloned

- MCCOY! His friendliness and then the “I have no sympathy for clumsiness” bro wha

- DONT YELL AT MCCOY

- McCoy not knowing what to do about Jim so he goes to Spock lol

- what the fuck is that fuckin thing, it’s rabid man.

- anytime someone is holding the creature there is literally no reason for them to be holding it. Like Kirk is just holding it and then HANDS IT TO SPOCK.. WHY IS THIS NORMAL NOW

- so do people casually just sit on tables here? First we had McCoy, now Spock. Is it just science/medical officers?

- Vulcan nerve pinch for the win

- POV your boyfriends are deeply concerned for your wellbeing (side note: bones looks so soft in the first pic. He cares so much)

- “you have a point, Spock.” “Yes. Always, doctor” STOP FLIRTING

- “If I seem insensitive to what you are going through, you must understand it’s the way I am.” HE SAYS THIS WITH ALL THE CARE IN THE DAMN WORLD. Spock is the most emotional character I have ever seen

- uh oh the circuits

- nooo Sulu! Do they not have better cold protection?

- YEAH I HOPE YOU’RE IN PAIN FUCKER

- so I think what they’re trying to promote is the idea that there’s the kind and indecisive side and the animalistic “sinful” side that has all the impulses and power to make decisions and together they work so that the former side can calm the latter to be more… civilized?

- “god forbid I have to agree with Spock” they’re married and you cannot convince me otherwise

- was that dog okay? Like it was really fuckin angry at something

- HES DEAD JIM MOMENT! WE HAVE A HES DEAD JIM MOMENT

- “for once I agree with you, doctor” THEY ARE MARRIED

- Spock is so riled up rn (every time he shows emotion I’m commenting on it because I think he is so so emotional but then his whole thing is he isn’t)

- SPOCK YOUR LOGIC ISNT LOGICING (having a human half and Vulcan half I think is a bit different than literally being split into two people, but what do I know)

- they are literally the angel and devil on his shoulder, but married, and also in love with him

- what no no bring Sulu back. That was such a good delivery of lines I am so

- this episode shows the power imbalance between Kirk and Janice and that messaging could be more powerful if they really wanted. Like showing how Janice felt forced to say she was okay with it and wouldn’t tell anyone because it was the captain I feel was a big step to take in the 60s (because it was rarely if ever talked about especially on tv) but it still wasn’t enough and was treated horribly in the end. They brush off her experience and also let Kirk be near her which is not okay. I know they wouldn’t but I wish they’d actually addressed the fact that Kirk can pretty much get away with anything and the crew wouldn’t/couldn’t stop him unless they deem it truly necessary (which would be way to far)

- I think the Kirk stuff could be more impactful

- some of those close ups on Kirk are crazy

- Bones is so damn worried about him in the transporter room

- SPOCK IS STRESSED AND HE HESITATES

- “the imposters back where he belongs, forget him” but isn’t the thing is that he is you? Like he’s still there and apart of you, Kirk

Okay, that’s episode six. I don’t have much more to say about this episode.

Ep 1

All other episodes

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Star Trek SNW finally settles decades-old canon issues (spoiler commentary for S02E03)

(Image credit: Startrek.com)

I say spoiler right in the headline, and I mean it. Read no further if you have yet to see Star Trek: Strange New World’s latest episode, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. (The image above is a publicity image and is also in the trailer, so it’s not really a spoiler.)

The TL;DR is: one single line of dialogue fixed nearly 30 years of canon issues. I am not exaggerating. More under the break. And this will be a long one:

To “cross the streams” a moment, it is undeniable canon (not shipping wishful thinking) that not only did the Eleventh Doctor in Doctor Who have feelings for Clara Oswald, he even considered her not his companion, but his girlfriend. That was made undeniable canon in a couple lines in “Deep Breath” when the Twelfth Doctor said “Clara, I’m not your boyfriend,” Clara replied, “I never thought you were.” and Twelve said “I never said it was your mistake.” That was in stark fact. One line of canon dialogue confirmed what many speculated and the show hinted at. This is separate from what came after, any retcons later writers did, and all that. 

Well, one line of dialogue from a guest character in last night’s episode of Strange New Worlds put into canon something I and many others have felt not only about SNW, but the current breed of Trek shows and indeed there were signs of this going back to both Star Trek DS9 and Star Trek Voyager in the 1990s.

The Romulan time agent, Sera, played by Adelaide Kane who some may remember from playing Mary Queen of Scots in Reign, states that the Eugenics war involving Khan was supposed to happen in 1992, but was delayed 30 years due to temporal wars and other interference from the future. (To be precise she’s likely referring to Khan’s birth since he was in his 30s or 40s by the 1990s, the time TOS established the Eugenics Wars took place; here he’s a kid - possibly even a Canadian kid!  The war itself is still some years away.)

That explains a lot. Why since DS9 the Eugenics Wars were redated to the mid-21st century. Why SNW’s pilot episode last year confirmed the Eugenics Wars were part of WW3, not a separate conflict.  Why the Voyager episode where they go back to Earth on 1996 featured no mention of the Eugenics Wars. Why Kirk and everyone else already knows the name Noonien-Singh (even if La’an hadn’t introduced herself by name to “Prime” Kirk at the end, he would have seen her testimony about being Khan’s descendant at Una’s trial. There is no way in this timeline that Kirk, Spock or anyone else would not recognize Khan’s name instantly when the events of Space Seed happen. Heck, even the fact the SNW Enterprise doesn’t match up with the 1960s designs that were also featured in TNG, DS9 and Star Trek: Enterprise. Or even stuff like people like Uhura knowing who T’Pring was years before they were supposedly first introduced to her in “Amok Time”. It even gives wiggle room for the fact this time-travel episode actually breaks canon with the time-travel-based episodes of Picard Season 2! (Laris would have known about Sera and stopped her, right? Sean at TrekCulture had a gripe about this in his Youtube review)

Sera basically admitted that because of people farting around with time and the temporal wars (recall that it was strongly implied in Enterprise that the Romulans were involved if not responsible for that) that the timeline has been changed. 

It can’t be denied anymore and it’s such a liberating thing. Now, SNW is free to truly tell reimagined stories (like the retelling of Balance of Terror last season, albeit that was another alternate timeline), to make T’Pring a vital character and build her, to accelerate the Spock-Chapel romance that was only hinted at in TOS. To truly let Paul Wesley develop his own version of Kirk, not to mention Ethan Peck’s Spock and whoever next plays McCoy (you know they will bring him in eventually and if SNW avoids the fate of Prodigy and lasts a few years, they’re going to have to start getting lined up for a new TOS-era series). Hell, the door is now open for Kirk and La’an to establish a “prime-era” romance - imagine a retelling of Space Seed with La’an in the picture (or at least Kirk remembering her).

This will be a hot take for some. But my rebuttal comes from Doctor Who: “Time can be rewritten.” Finally, nearly 30 years after what was thought to be an erroneous dating of the Eugenics Wars in a throwaway line in an episode of DS9 (I believe the producers even said it was a goof back then), and 22 years of people griping about how the prequel series were not lining up with what came before, either esthetically or storyline-wise (Enterprise, Discovery, SNW, and Picard S2 to a degree), we have a firm, canonical explanation. People will still gripe about politics, general quality, casting, whatever, of shows - that’s a separate argument - but at least in terms of canon, this has changed everything. In a good way.

I only wish they hadn’t killed off Sera. I got very strong Sela vibes from her (Sela/Sera? Coincidence?) and I would have liked to see her become a recurring nemesis. Then again, as I just said, time can be rewritten. 

[thegeminisage]

STAR TREK UPDATE TIME! last night we watched voy's "vis a vis" and ds9's "in the pale moonlight."

vis a vis (voy):

i really liked when tom paris didn't fuck b'elanna, but my goodwill is wearign thin. in a way he and b'elanna make a good couple bc theyre always both kind of shitty to everyone when they're struggling emotionally, i guess. sigh

like, aside from tom paris's emotional arc not being...clearly outlined at all in this episode, which made it confusing boring and difficult to care about, this episode ALSO makes b'elanna look bad. she's always yelling at him for """no reason""" and then she falls for a fake apology from a fake tom, and even kisses the fake tom, which is a kiss without consent on her part since she doesn't realize this guy isn't her boyfriend but a total stranger

in fact, most people seem incredibly stupid in this episode not to realize tom is faking it...seven even caught him red-handed trying to download tom's information and nobody put it together, not even tuvok

three points of merit for an otherwise boring dredge of an episode: 1. evil janeway hot 2. i figured out from looking that b'elanna's actress is really for real pregnant in this episode which explains last episode a bit 3. that one scene where the fake tom paris said to the emh that he just wasnt coming in because he felt his skills could never compare to the emh's skills which then prompted the emh to wax poetic about how great he was without realizing this was the most un-tom paris thing anyone had ever done. that was genuinely so funny and IC for the emh i was cracking up the entire time. would that the rest of the episode was that good

in the pale moonlight (ds9):

HOLY SHIT!!!!

SO I LIED

I CHEATED

I BRIBED MEN TO COVER THE CRIMES OF OTHER MEN

AND THE MOST DAMNING THING OF ALL

I THINK I CAN LIVE WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LIKE..........................

like i've seen the speech memed so many times i could quote it cold without ever having seen the ep and i more or less knew what was gonna happen but god DAMN the mark of a truly great episode is that none of that mattered...it still blew my fucking mind

obviously garak is incredible in this episode. his willingness to get his hands dirty and do what needs to be done for the greater good, the loss of his old favors and old friends that he takes with total equanimity

but the real star of this show is my best friend benjamin sisko. speech or not i had no idea he was gonna LOOK AT THE CAMERA. i felt like i couldn't blink when he did that shit. he's not supposed to look at me!!! he's making me complicit!!!

HIS DESPAIR AT THE WEEKLY CASUALITY LIST. THE PACING IN HIS QUARTERS AS HE DELIVERS THE PERSONAL LOG. HITTING GARAK (TWICE!). THE MONLOGUE AND THE TOAST AT THE END. GOD!!!!!!!!! he is so FUCKING talented he should have been a movie star. he should have been more famous than. think of the most famous person you know and triple it. he is SO fucking talented it's insane

and i mean in the end. romulus enters the war. damn. just like they wanted. and everyone will think it's because the dominion was gonna betray them and sisko and garak will take the truth to their fucking graves. jesus.

TONIGHT: voy's "the omega particle" (nobody fucking say it) and ds9's "his way," the summary of which looks...sketchy. potentially bad, even. fingers crossed i guess

[variousqueerthings]

You like Doctor Who AND Black Sails???? Absolutely chef kiss, cannot believe we share a brain

yeah, I did for a hot second have a separate blog for Black Sails because I actually made this one to be specifically not fandom-related (3 years on and... well.....) so I'm slowly bringing my black sails posting over here instead, fuckit!

thing about Black Sails for me is that on the whole I find it such a perfectly constructed bit of storytelling, with critique that has already been formulated better by other people, that I never know quite what to say about it that hasn't been said, youknow?

it's the show that I've watched that has felt the most like reading a book, with every season leading into one another and the themes introduced in s1 wrapping up in s4, and every piece interacting with one another, and you have to trust that the questions and thematic concepts raised at the beginning have real weight and will go places, which in this day and age of TV is a big ask, because most of the time a TV show has to work one season at a time/doesn't plan that far ahead, lest it get cancelled and/or stretches into depressing perpetuity

(or it's Doctor Who of course, which is just its own monster/mythology at this point, moreso than perhaps any other show, I'd say including Star Trek perhaps...)

but yeah, Black Sails. that's a journey that really matters, you get to the end and you've been holding your breath since probably s2, and you're realising that this is something that TV can do -- I think other shows that have manage the closest (for me) have been miniseries like Chernobyl or Pride & Prejudice and the like, because they've had that clear knowledge that this is the episodes they have, this is where it starts and ends, these are the ways everything talks with one another (Chernobyl and Black Sails especially have in common that the ending makes one want to go back to the beginning, because it's a realisation of OH THIS IS WHAT YOU'VE BEEN SAYING FROM DAY ONE!), but I've not seen it as strongly or as well-constructed (or... finished for that matter) in anything that had multiple seasons like this

+ youknow. multiple polyamorous relationships in different structures, multiple ways of discussing connection and love none of which are more important than the other for being a specific kind, multiple deconstructions of masculinity in popular mythology (pirates), banging sea battles and sword fights, plot moments that take your breath away, political commentary that makes you punch the air, and bits that have you going "OH I READ THIS BIT IN TREASURE ISLAND!!!" (but also you don't need to have read treasure island to watch it... potentially OH YEAH THIS GUY WAS A CYBORG IN TREASURE PLANET 😂)

Black Sails is kind of special. Truly one of a kind

EDIT: ALSO WANTED TO SAY HELL YEAH HIGH FIVE FOR BLACK SAILS AND DOCTOR WHO!

[all-the-fun-of-the-cirkus]

okay, so.

waltz.

rarely have i watched an episode and immediately come here to talk about, but i have a lot of thoughts i need to get out

so firstly, the title. obviously a callback to duet from the first series (still the best single chunk of star trek i've seen yet). that one was a two-hander between kira and marritza, the former already having condemned the cardassian and the latter struggling to work through what he did in the occupation, and this is the same with sisko and dukat. except marritza felt genuine remorse, accepted he was wrong, and that's what dukat can never do

he's awful, i know, but he's a fantastic character, because he is a character. he has a sense of humour, soft spots, humanising (so to speak) moments, he's a real, fleshed out person, who just happens to be, as sisko says, true evil. and that works because he truly, genuinely believes he isn't. and what's more, he needs everyone to see that too. we saw that with his relationship with kira, his banter with sisko, his constant bemoaning that the bajorans didn't accept him, it wasn't just posturing, or pr, he genuinely needs to be liked, and he can't understand why people don't, because as far as he's concerned, as people so often point out, he's the hero of the story in his own mind, and he can't be wrong

that's played out superbly in his hallucinations here; weyoun is his cold and clinical side, dumar his arrogance and pride, kira his doubt and self-loathing, and they criticise and needle him throughout, but in the end, crucially, they're all telling him the exact same thing - what he really thinks

and what he wants to hear is that he's the good guy, which is where the political metaphor gets interesting. this whole time i've interpreted the occupation of bajor as a holocaust allegory, obviously, the cardassians are the nazis, bajorans jews. and that is of course a big part of it, but the connection i didn't make until now is the british empire

dukat's big speech is fully "white man's burden," the bajorans as savages centuries behind cardassia, following backwards religion, no technology, who clearly needed civilising by their superiors, bringing into the light, and dukat was the kind father helping guide them into the light. and he really believes it's for the best! he tells himself he doesn't despise them, that he doesn't want to wipe them off the face of the galaxy, it's their fault for being too stupid to appreciate him, to see what he's trying to do for them, how he only wants to help them if they'd only stop resisting and submit to those who know better than they do

part of this is that he insists that he's "one of the good ones," that another prefect would have been harsher, crueler. and this is where it gets interesting, because he's probably right. a leader who didn't care about being liked might have killed more bajorans, worked them harder, starved them more, executed them more. dukat may, indeed, have been the lesser of the evils, and that's not really in dispute. what's really compelling about this is that the story never lets this be an excuse. so death rates dropped by 20%? that's great! why didn't they drop by 100%? so labour camp output dropped by 50%? cool, you were still keeping people in labour camps and enslaving them

and i find that uncomfortably compelling in the current climate. i'm not american, but i see full well what's going on there, and it disgusts me. because there's several genocides going on right now, and i'm going to focus on palestine, because the democrats are gleefully funding that genocide and protecting its perpetrators from any repercussions, brutally coming down on any protests. and when people understandably say "hey what the fuck," they remember there's an election this year and go "well is the republicans were in power this genocide would be way worse! you gotta pick the lesser of two evils!" and you know what? they're right! the genocide would probably worse if the republicans were in power! but the democrats committing a less-bad genocide doesn't mean they aren't still committing genocide! because the lesser of two evils is still evil, and sometimes there's no shade of grey

[star-trek-fandom-confessions]

#664

Say what you will about the rest of the season (and I have) but s03e03 of Star Trek Picard might be one of the worst episodes in a vacuous season. That whole segment with Vadic/the Shrike and their portal. The portal itself isn't the problem -- that's all well and good. But the response from Picard et al on the Titan! You have got to be forking kidding me! These are highly experienced, savvy, intelligent Starfleet officers with track records of ingenuity and tactical acumen, and they don't stop to think "If we fire, obviously the Shrike will use the portal to turn it back onto us?" Give me a break! It was just so deeply idiotic, something most people could have seen coming before even recommending it: you can't convince me most Starfleet cadets wouldn't have realised it pretty immediately. I honestly just felt the bottom fall out of the show in that moment. It had been tenuous already, but that level of utter moronic ineptitude was such garbage and a horrible entry to Star Trek canon broadly and Picard, Riker & co's specifically. There's a great deal I hate about that season (particularly after really enjoying season 1 -- it at least had something to say) but this moment stands stark as when it truly jumped the shark.

[rivertalesien]

The more I see positive media about Picard season 3, the more I want to vomit.

Beverly Crusher was the least gross relationship Picard ever had (maybe Vash was the least) and they managed to fuck that up.

From the beginning of TNG, Picard was clearly not going to be Kirk (that was for Riker to emulate), but they did their best and it was terrible.

From episodes where we see him playing his younger self and having a romance with a girl barely out of her 20s, to the Perfect Mate, where, even though characters in the show acknowledge the grossness of breeding a person to be a "mate" for someone else, it's okay because Picard is Good and loves Shakespeare and is therefore Worthy.

He also gets a romance with another crew member (with a strong resemblance to Beverly, even in the same uniform), and when he has a problem with giving her an order that might lead to her death, *she* decides to leave the ship to spare him the difficulty of ever going through that.

Dude.

[Pausing here for the folks who wanted to see him hook up with Ro Laren and felt there was some palpable sexual energy there even though she was considerably younger and looked up to him like a father figure]

Even the relationship with Beverly was plagued with his guilt over Jack Crusher and just when it seemed these two could be Friends without benefits and not have all of that hanging over them, the show decided Nope, this will always be a thing, then shared a possible future of them...divorced.

In a way, this potential future for them was spot-on: of course these two could never make a romance work. They are both too-much married to themselves, their careers and, in Picard's case, at least, far too stubborn to be a committed partner to anyone. Interesting.

In the film Generations, we get another level of the Victorian fetishism that seemed to revolve around Picard: his fantasy family includes a red-headed wife who is seen but not heard, just there to be the doting mother of his doting children, while he sits comfortably by and watches (Picard season 2 came close to acknowledging that Picard was truly Fucked Up because his mother, of course, was mentally ill and into that Victorian stuff and Women are the Problem, Jean-Luc. Stay away).

Besides Beverly, Picard's other significant romance with someone close to his own age was with the rogue archeologist, Vash, but she took off with Q and that was that. Good for her.

Picard next has a doomed romance with Anij in Insurrection, seemingly an affect of her planet's "metaphasic" rings (that give the Baku immortality), one that helps Troi and Riker hook up again, but seems to have no affect on Picard and Beverly's long,-not-so-hidden attraction (in fact, leaving her out of the equation, again, so he can have a romance with someone else, always felt like Someone at Paramount never liked Gates McFadden and knowing what we know about the sexism she dealt with early on, was probably true. No one was left out of the films more than Beverly).

Anji, as it turns out, is the first older woman Picard has a romance with, so while she looks younger, she's over a hundred years old. How convenient.

Maybe it's no surprise nothing came of it and the series went on to just give Riker and Troi their long-awaited nuptials (before, y'know, she got violated by Picard's clone).

Thanks to Picard season 3, we're told Beverly and Picard's romance was given a shot after the events of that film, but clearly didn't last very long, because Beverly got pregnant and decided to keep it secret from everyone. Because, you know, Beverly was always a controlling worry wart who never really trusted anyone.

Easily, easily, one of the worst, laziest writing decisions anyone ever made for a Star Trek character and that is saying a lot.

Because it's practically continuing a tradition that puts the heroism and nobility of the patriarchal figure above all else. Picard: the older, seasoned officer, mortified at the public advances of Lwaxana Troi (still slut-shamed by fans even years after her passing), is always worthy of the Best Women: young, attractive, intelligent, mature, but never really available. Which is good, because neither is he.

And then there's Laris.

Independent, adventurous, forceful, brilliant. Just as he would have her be.

In his 90s, weakened and frail, Picard is still a catch for a younger, attractive, intelligent, mature woman, who conveniently lives with him, takes care of his house, his dog, his vineyard, his appointments, his security, etc. Season 1 didn't really hint at this being a Thing (since she is, essentially, his housekeeper), so when it was brought up in season 2, it once again bore the striking resemblance to all those past non-loves that came and went and weren't really appropriate for him then, either.

Not that we needed to worry.

Laris was as easily written out of the story as all the rest had been, just so Picard could go on to have the "legacy" of a family without ever having done anything to actually achieve it (beyond the sex bit), much less earn their love and respect (Beverly's passionate but convoluted reasoning for keeping their child's existence from him aside, ignoring that the only reason Jack Jr. exists is because Someone needed Picard to have a Son. It's Important].

Agnes Jurati had Picard's number from the start and, to date, is probably the only woman to really tell it how it is (from a fan perspective, at least): being stuck wanting him to be your dad and still think he's an asshole.

After all, that same Someone had Picard declare, about the Enterprise no less

Right before he receives a message from the long-lost Beverly.

To whom he shows absolutely no real affection to or receives affection from, during the entire third season.

Oh, but there is one other character Picard was close to but never even had a hint of romance with: Guinan.

Now I wonder why that was.

Oh, we know why.

[sshbpodcast]

The Worst Season of All of Star Trek?

by Ames

What’s the worst season of all of Trek? Season 3 of TOS? Season 2 of Picard? All of The Animated Series? Well your hosts at A Star to Steer Her By have a contender. We just finished our watchthrough of season 3 of Enterprise, and if we were mostly unimpressed by the first two seasons, we downright abhorred this one. For a season that’s ultimately one great big 9/11 allegory, it forgets what sci-fi in general – and Star Trek in particular – is meant to do with topical politics: use your imaginative medium to make people ask the Big Questions™.

This season doesn’t do that. 

Instead of pushing themes like what is moral and right during a time of terrorism and war, Enterprise spends most of the time letting Archer unapologetically commit war crimes with the underlying current of “it may not be nice, but it’s necessary.” Well, is it? It’s not until very late in the season that he even feels bad about all the people he manipulates, tortures, or kills. Among some truly, truly cynical episodes, there are still some diamonds, but we’ll let our Tops and Bottoms Lists make those arguments. So dive into the Delphic Expanse with us as we high- and lowlight this season below and listen to our scathing arguments on this week’s podcast episode (blast over to 38:19). America! Fuck Yeah!

[images © CBS/Paramount]

Top Three Episodes

That’s not to say the season is not 100% trash. There’s actually some good stuff in here – in fact, some of the best episodes of Enterprise we’ve seen so far, sprinkled throughout some otherwise drek concepts.

“The Shipment”: Ames One shining light in the early episodes comes in the one-off character Gralik Durr. He’s a Xindi-Arboreal who reminds Archer, as bluntly as he can, that not all Xindi should be considered responsible for the atrocities that are being committed by the Council, which is just what we needed to hear amongst a lot of episodes of Archer racially profiling people for things they have no control over. Thank you, Gralik.

“Proving Ground”: Caitlin You just can’t go wrong with a Shran episode. Jeffrey Combs was the breath of fresh air we pined for in a handful of bleak, exhausting, morally repulsive episodes we’d been saddled with. Is it contrived? Yes. Is there any good reason for Shran to be in the Delphic Expanse? Absolutely not. But what a freaking delight to watch Shran pretend to represent an Andorian Mining Consortium. Full marks; no notes.

“Azati Prime”: Jake It finally feels like something is happening in this season-long plot at about episode 18, when some consequential actions transpire. That’s three-quarters of the way through the season, mind you, but who’s counting? (I am.) We reach the Xindi weapon, Archer gets captured trying to kamikaze the thing, and there’s some really great ship battle. It’s also the first time Archer shows remorse for all the harm he’s caused.

“The Council”: Chris The homestretch of the season has picked up the pace in this whole Xindi War arc, and thank goodness. So much time was spent spinning its wheels that it felt like a success to have so much plot development in the last couple of episodes of the season. And finally (FINALLY), Archer switches this mission to one of diplomacy and collaboration instead of rage and torture. It feels like Star Trek for the first time in a while.

“Countdown”: Chris Same deal here as in “The Council.” We’re close to the end, so things are speeding to the resolution. Plot elements are getting tied up, the Xindi Council is way more fleshed out by now, and every decision has consequences for a change. Dolim and the other Reptilians also up the stakes by taking matters into their own hands, solidifying the realness of the threat of the weapon that was nebulous up to this point.

“Twilight”: Ames, Caitlin, Jake We get a good amount of agreement for this genuinely impressive, well-written, well-acted episode that deviates a little from the Xindi plot while also fitting into the season perfectly. The idea of the interspatial parasites causing Archer to lose his short-term memory is a great sci-fi concept, and the resolution is so clever that we’re fully onboard for a full reset ending that, in less skilled hands, would seem convenient.

“Similitude”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake But the episode that gets the vote of all of your SSHB hosts is a new twist on the “Tuvix” dilemma. Connor Trineer absolutely goes all out as his duplicate, Sim, and we feel devastated at the end when the inevitable occurs. Archer and Phlox are, frankly, monsters to do this to a person; there’s no debate on that. But what we walk away with is a heart-wrenching acting showcase for all the different Trip iterations we meet.

—

Bottom Three Episodes

And now, what we’re all here for: shitting on all the bad things from this morally reprehensible season. From all the war crimes, to the racial profiling, to the missed opportunities and even more recycled shots, this season just plain has so many low points.

“Doctor’s Orders”: Jake Like how “E²” is just DS9’s “Children of Time” but with Enterprise paint (and not as good), this episode is just Voyager’s “One” but with Enterprise paint (and also not as good). If you’re going to entirely rehash a story your franchise has already done, at least change it up a little. Watching Phlox and T’Pol wander around while everyone else is put under just makes you think, “Dang, Jeri Ryan did this way better.”

“Chosen Realm”: Caitlin Every so often, Star Trek tries to make a point about religion and faith as compared to the science and logic of its main characters, and this is one of those times it bungles it. Like with Voyager’s “Sacred Ground,” this one doesn’t quite make the argument it thinks it’s making. And then it manages to somehow make a joke of all of it by having the religious factions be at war over something purely trivial. Blah.

“Rajiin”: Caitlin We could have called a mile away that Rajiin was up to no good and saving her was going to be a mistake. And it’s not like we were really missing watching T’Pol getting sexually assaulted all the time like in “Fusion” – we really didn’t need yet another oversexed scene of her getting pawed at by some villain or other. Everything was just predictable, boring, and repetitive.

“Carpenter Street”: Jake As if we haven’t had enough mind-boggling time travel from the Temporal Cold War arc, Daniels has to drop by and stir up shit again. There’s just something dissatisfying about the Detroit plot. The Reptilians’ need for all the blood types is just contrived. Bringing T’Pol of all people is just begging for Vulcan shenanigans. The whole thing should be Daniels’s problem and he refuses to do jack about it!

“North Star”: Ames As an episode that’s “Spectre of the Gun” meets “The Paradise Syndrome,” this one probably belonged in The Original Series. A Cowboys-and-Indians story feels entirely out of place in the current era of Trek, and that’s all the more bolstered by the fact that we’re in the middle of the Xindi arc and take a week off to dress up in spurs and ride horseys. The anti-racist message also seems just too easy, especially considering how racist Archer is being the rest of this season.

“Damage”: Chris Archer makes a lot of deplorable decisions this season. From ordering the Sim clone made in “Similitude,” to memory-wiping Degra in “Strategem,” to torturing that Osaarian pirate from “Anomaly,” to treating the first Xindi we meet in “The Xindi” like trash, he’s a bad captain. But stealing from the Illyrians might take the cake because these people were innocent and Archer acts like it was necessary. Oh, and making T’Pol a junkie was a weird writing choice.

“Hatchery”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris For once Archer is in the right in this episode! Purely incidentally, he’s advocating for treating the Xindi-Insectoid babies like people and not letting them die, and the rest of the crew mutinies because he’s not committing enough war crimes. But the episode undoes what could have been a moral lesson by having Archer’s mind be compromised, and it makes me throw things because they were this close, people!

“Harbinger”: Ames, Chris, Jake When the constant sexualizing of T’Pol is actually the highlight of your episode, you know you’ve done fucked up. First, we’ve got Reed being a Big Baby™ about Major Hayes being insubordinate – something that comes entirely out of left field. But even worse than that is Archer finding a being in some anomaly and deciding to torture him. We’ve never even met his kind before and his first impulse is to treat him like the enemy with absolutely no proof. God, I hate this season.

—

Purportedly season four actually starts to pick up, so what do you all think? Was this the lowest of the low? Is it all [relatively] uphill from here? Find out as we continue to watch through Enterprise on SoundCloud (or wherever you podcast). Let us know your least favorite season of Trek overall over on Facebook and Twitter, and maybe commit a couple fewer war crimes than Archer. Just a couple.

[delta-pavonis]

How about 🤡, ✨, 🎶, and 💖 for the writer asks?

Thanks for the questions @tj-dragonblade!!

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

OK, I am going to give two, one recent, one older:

Hob also learned that Dream’s form in the Waking, human though it may appear and human though it might respond to Hob’s touch, was not human at all in its hunger for pleasure. He had seen hints before, in the months since Dream had revealed his true nature to Hob, that the vastness of his being was not always well-contained in human form. This was no different, Dream bleeding away from his humanness the further entangled they became.

The short of it was that, in the shockingly brief time it took his dick to rally an interest in the proceedings again, Hob had been so filled with semen you could have mistaken him for a navy ship. -- from Chapter 3 of high enough (you got me good)

(Context for the next one is that it is an OC of mine, Mett, who is nonbinary and uses primarily he/him pronouns in the Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds universes. This is part of how he and Ash Tyler shack up. They end up in a committed triad with Chris Pike in a 48k+ fic I haven't finished yet. Whee!)

They collapsed on the couch, Ash’s full weight on Mett, who wriggled in delight, a wholly dopey smile on both their faces. Ash sighed, his nose buried in the back of Mett’s neck. “I think that went well.”

Mett giggled and then whimpered as Ash shifted out of him the last bit. He reached back to pat Ash on the hip. “Baby, if you think I am even halfway done with you after that performance…” Mett rolled his hips back and Ash gasped. “I’ve got some of my own tricks. Which I will gladly show you. Once I gather a few more brain cells back together.”

Ash laughed and rubbed his still-hard cock along the crack of Mett’s ass. “I am ready when you are.”

“Jesus. You…” Mett rolled his hips again to confirm. “Fuck, you’re still hard.”

“You’re welcome.” 

Mett snorted. After a beat, “Sorry about your shirt.”

“No you’re not.��� Ash’s voice was amused and light. “I’m certainly not.”

“Good.” Mett rolled his shoulders back and started to push up. “Gotta pee. Shove off or you’re gonna get wet.”

Ash stood and stretched, hands brushing the ceiling of the room. “Eh, not my kink.” 

He felt a hand patting his hip. “We are gonna get along just fine.”

“Because we weren’t already?” Ash quipped... -- from Chapter 2 of Sagitta

(this last one from Sagitta isn't that funny, but it tickles me pink, so there.)

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

JFC, I am ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE AT THIS. <Stitch eye-pulling GIF> OK, I am really really fucking happy with how a wrote first-person POV for Hob in i had a dream (i got everything i wanted). That is the first time I have ever felt really PROUD of my own fiction writing.

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

Usually not, although I have a few songs that specifically have inspired (very vaguely) fics. The one I am working on right now has its home in Veruca Salt's Seether, one of my favorite songs of all time.

💖 What made you start writing?

*shakes cane* Back in my day...

No, really, somewhere in the depths of some external hard drive are the fics that I wrote 100% for myself in middle and high school. Never published, ever ever, and will never see the light of day. These were places I explored my identity as bisexual and how I preferred power dynamics in relationships.

I have put fic up on AO3 when I have been truly inspired by some source. Episode 6 of The Sandman absolutely hit that button HARD for me. And then I got into the fandom, my first venture back into fandom since the early MCU, and YOU PEOPLE ARE SO FUCKING SUPPORTIVE AND AMAZING AND IT IS WONDERFUL. There was a HUGE response to my first less than 400 word Dreamling ficlet on AO3 and the Sandfam support just pushed me from there.

[trekkielibrarian]

Happy Blood Fever Day!!!

Oh Blood Fever, you glorious Star Trek Voyager episode! Blood Fever first aired February 5, 1997, when I was an impressionable teen with a huge crush on Tom Paris. I was already hooked on Voyager and was shipping P/T, so this episode was like seeing all of my shipping hopes and dreams come true.

It's easy to look at this episode and think of all tropes that make it so much fun. We've got sex pollen, fuck or die, trapped together (not only that but trapped with heightened hormones!), having to fight for your lover, flirting, witty banter-this episode has it all!

Yet Blood Fever is really so much more than that.

We've seen Tom and B'Elanna dancing around each other for some time now. They started out not quite as enemies, but they disliked each other. And slowly they came to see that they were very similar-they found in each other someone who understood and could see past their walls. They pushed and challenged each other and a friendship formed. And it was a fun friendship with lots of flirting and chemistry.

But Tom knew he had to take it slow. B'Elanna was not going to fall for his usual charms and that made her special. She was different. And B'Elanna was not going to let her guard down until she felt she could really trust Tom. But the attraction was there and flirting was fun.

So when B'Elanna gets stricken with Pon Farr, it makes sense that the person she would feel a bond with, that she would choose as her mate would be Tom. This wasn't simply a case of we're trapped in a cave and you're my option. It was more of a my inhibitions have been lowered and I'm finally letting myself admit what I've been feeling.

Yet when Tom is presented with what he has been wanting, he shows his true self. We've been led to believe that Tom is a ladies man, that he's out to flirt and sleep his way around. But this episode shows that has all been a cover and who he really is is a man who cares and who cares deeply. He tells B'Elanna that he can't accept because she's not in her right mind to give consent. That if he gives in now, it will ruin any chance of a relationship they might have in the future and he cares about her too much to do that. I also think he's starting to realize that he wants something more with B'Elanna-this isn't a fling, but the real deal and he doesn't want to do anything to jeopardize that.

His rejection stings. The way B'Elanna thinks he doesn't want her hurts. The way Tom thinks that she's only telling him she's interested because of the Pon Farr and not letting himself believe that she is finally telling the truth. Those walls come right back up. But for a moment we see what the two of them can't quite see yet-that they really, truly care about each other and that this is more than flirtation.

Sure, this episode has the first P/T kiss. There are so many great lines! And let's be honest, that whole cave scene, with the wrist lights-it's hot!

But more than that, this episode made a big impression on me for three reasons:

1. Consent is sexy: Tom says no because he doesn't have B'Elanna's consent and knows it would be taking advantage of her. He's even hesitant to comply with Tuvok's order to relieve her of the Pon Farr because he knows B'Elanna is not in the right frame of mind. He doesn't jump at this chance, but talks to B'Elanna, tells her he understands, that they don't have to do this. He waits until she gives the ok and even then, he's hesitant and waiting for her lead. This was huge, especially for the 90's when this episode aired. Tom puts B'Elanna first-her feelings, her thoughts, her consent. And that is very powerful and sexy.

2. Strong women are sexy: B'Elanna is often seen as a tough Klingon who is to be feared. So often strong women are presented in a way that is not attractive or that they can't be strong and smart and also be sexy. But B'Elanna proves all of that wrong here as she shows that strong women are absolutely hot.

(Also bonus, my girl punches Vorik who absolutely needed to punished in this episode!)

3. It's ok to be vulnerable: At the end, Tom says that B'Elanna is afraid her Klingon side was showing, meaning her strong-willed, forceful side. She's also embarrassed that she let her mask slip in the caves-she told Tom the truth (even if he doesn't believe it), she let her guard down, and she had moments of vulnerability. And instead of running away, Tom is right there for it, staying by her side, and encouraging this side of her-both her strong side and her softer, vulnerable side. He says he wants to see it again and in his flirtatious way, shows that it's not something to embarrassed or afraid about-it's something to be proud of.

This episode taught me that it's ok to be a strong woman who knows what she wants. And it's also ok to be vulnerable. I wanted to be like B'Elanna when I grew up and I hope that I'm doing her at least a little proud.

So let's raise a glass to Lisa Klink (writer extraordinaire) for creating this marvelous episode! To Tom and B'Elanna-the best Trek couple! Happy Blood Fever Day!

[itsclydebitches]

Do you like modern Star Trek? I'll be honest, I hate it. I know a lot of people do as well. I like cool plot heavy epic science fiction show and films. Stuff like The Expanse. But Star Trek was such a different kind of sci fi from a era of TV long gone. Modern Star Trek should be done in the same vein as old Trek, but with better special effects. It's just bland sci fi now.

I feel very, VERY strongly that Star Trek needs to be episodic with a few season/series arcs to hold it all together (the borg, the changelings, we're trying to get back to the Delta Quadrant, etc.) It's Star Trek's episodic nature that allows for a) lots of different Sci-Fi ideas — look, new planet! New species! New tech! New problem! — b) a lot of different social commentary attached to those ideas, and c) the ability to try some truly insane, balls to the wall, unflinchingly creative ideas because — this is really important — you're only committing to it for 45 minutes. First Officer's brain is stolen? Ship's doctor falls in love with the alien ghost her grandmother was seeing? Helmsman turns into a lizard creature and successfully mates with the Captain? Star Trek has all that and more because no one is keeping that insanity around for more than an episode! (Maybe two if it's a series finale.) Star Trek as a franchise needs the ability to tell 20+ largely self-contained short stories under the assurance that the crew will (mostly) reset at episode's end because it's that freedom that allows it to stretch its creative wings, resulting in both, yes, truly terrible episodes... and truly great ones too. Things like The Trouble With Tribbles, Pale Moonlight, Measure of Man, and City on the Edge of Forever. With only Pale Moonlight as the exception there, the lion's share of great Star Trek episodes rely on the story's ability to reset: quietly sweep the tribbles away before the next episode, take a break from long-running plots to discuss Data's soul, get Kirk and Spock to the past and back with minimal fuss. You can't do that kind of work in long-form storytelling, not without a lot of filler episodes that, crucially, modern TV is moving away from on the whole. It's that format that makes it feel like Star Trek rather than, as you say, another #GenericSciFiShow. There's nothing wrong with Generic Sci-Fi Shows... but they're not Star Trek.

I haven't given Picard a go yet, but Discovery felt like a Generic Sci-Fi Show to me and I ultimately dropped it. Does it try to follow in old Trek's footsteps in regards to diverse casting? Yes. Does it pull from classic Trek plot points like Klingons, the Mirror Universe, and the like? Yes. Does it feel like Trek when 95% of the focus is on Burnham, the war, and the obligatory modern twists the show is setting up? Not at all. I need episodes devoted solely to the other 10+ named crew members and their equally weird lives. I need scathing political commentary boiled down to a not so subtle metaphor that leaves me feeling both gutted and hopeful. I need filler episodes where the crew has stupid shenanigans on the holodeck, or are trapped and spend their time debating the ethics of their situation, or just experience something so downright weird that it makes you go, "YEAH they're exploring SPACE. Anything could be out there!" Modern Star Trek (particularly the movies) are like, "What if we fought a singular Big Bad because they're ~evil~ with lots of explosions and fight scenes like every other blockbuster out there?" and I'm going, "NO Star Trek should have the best special effects currently available AS WELL AS the stupidest fight choreography you've ever seen in your LIFE, bracketed by philosophical discussion. Stop being a coward and actually explore strange new worlds! Emphasis on the 'strange'!"

So no, I don't really like modern Star Trek. I'm planning to give Picard a fair shot though and I have very high hopes for Strange New Worlds. As this post has made abundantly clear, I'm over here pulling a Jerry Maguire with, "You had me at 'episodic'😍"

[spockshocked]

On “This Side of Paradise”

Watching the original Star Trek many decades after it aired, I cannot help but feel as though the conclusions I draw from certain lines, scenes, and even entire episodes must not be exactly as initially intended. Despite the caginess, both in canon and in external commentary, that Roddenberry and others employ in their discussions of the nature of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock’s relationship, and the subtext often burgeoning on text especially to a gay viewer, Spock’s perceived gayness extends beyond his ambiguous relationship with his Captain. Many of the cues that might cause a gay viewer to feel reflected by Spock come via the quirks of his Vulcan nature.

One episode which deals particularly with Spock’s internal conflict vis a vis his mixed heritage is “This Side of Paradise,” the 24th episode of the first season. Spock falls under the influence of alien spores that cause him to break down in what appears to be immense pain, before he confesses his love to a woman named Leila Kalomi, whose love for him had been unrequited for six years. Spock spends the majority of the episode under the influence of these spores, canoodling with Kalomi and giggling while hanging from a tree branch, until Kirk roughly snaps him out of it and the stoic science officer returns to himself. The spores appear to render their hosts relaxed, blissful, and dazed, an effect which can be undone through displays of strong negative emotion.

The most striking result of his time spent under the influence is the melancholy that seems to overtake him once the effect is broken. Once he has his bearings and realizes that Kirk has intentionally riled him so that the spores lose their hold, the first thing he says is:

SPOCK: The spores. They're gone. I don't belong anymore.

In the context of the episode, “belonging” is the eerie, almost cult-like description for one under the influence of the spores. Taken at face value, Spock’s comment is merely an observation that he is no longer being affected by them; Spock often makes somewhat banal comments seemingly for the benefit of the audience’s comprehension. However, this one seems to carry a double meaning. Consider Spock’s heritage: half-human and half-Vulcan, Spock constantly finds himself torn between two clashing cultures, truly “belonging” to neither. A substance that enables his full emotionality, effectively tipping the delicately balanced scales of his identity, provides a sort of relief. With the negation of its effects comes a return to the inner turmoil he experiences every moment of every day.

Spock felt like he belonged when he was able to feel and express romantic love for a woman. A simple reading of this might be that the ability to process emotion gave Spock a sense of belonging, but there is once again another, deeper analysis to be made. The assumption that gay couples would likely be commonplace by the 23rd century aside, the fact remains that the show was produced in the 1960s and there are no canon gay couples to be found. Therefore, it is possible to work within a metric where one might have a reason to remain closeted. If we approach Spock as a closeted gay man, then the female object of his affections becomes a key element in his feeling of “belonging.”

In typical Star Trek fashion, the exact effect produced by the spores is never elucidated. The implication seems to be that it provides some lowering of inhibitions and propensity for leisure. However, the spores could also be seen as pushing their hosts to pursue their ideal lives. Doctor McCoy gets notably more Southern, his accent thickening as he walks around singing the praises of the mint julep. It seems as though, while under the influence, he pursues things that remind him of the comforts of home. 

Spock, however, has no such comforts. Instead, he becomes something he could never be: able to reciprocate the feelings of a beautiful young woman who has pined after him for years. Once the effect of the spores is broken, he must then break the news to her:

LEILA: I love you. I said that six years ago, and I can't seem to stop repeating myself. On Earth, you couldn't give anything of yourself. You couldn't even put your arms around me. We couldn't have anything together there. We couldn't have anything together anyplace else. We're happy here. [crying] I can't lose you now, Mister Spock. I can't.

SPOCK: I have a responsibility to this ship, to that man on the Bridge. I am what I am, Leila, and if there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else's.

Spock’s response is cool, as we have come to expect from him, but notably more candid that most of his observations about his own experiences. He starts by claiming a responsibility to not only the Enterprise, but to Kirk himself. This could be a simple declaration of loyalty to his captain, as it would almost certainly appear to Kalomi, or an allusion to some repressed feelings that would only register to him. His next line, however, carries some serious weight. “I am what I am” refers to his Vulcan heritage, but as is often the case, it could also easily be in reference to his own homosexuality. Either way, he is explaining why he is incapable of loving Kalomi; the difference is whether he is incapable of love at all, or of love for a woman. His “self-made purgatory” is both his entrapment between his Vulcan and human halves, and his repression of his sexuality. 

Spock rarely speaks about his mixed heritage and the internal conflict it causes him, just as he rarely speaks of his own emotions at all, but it takes its toll on him. Briefly finding relief from this conflict only makes the return to it that much more difficult, causing him to be even more terse than usual. Kirk even points out that Spock has been quiet about the experience:

KIRK: We haven't heard much from you about Omicron Ceti III, Mr. Spock.

SPOCK: I have little to say about it, Captain, except that for the first time in my life I was happy.

Spock has spent his entire life trying and failing to completely repress his human emotions in an attempt to become fully Vulcan. When he finally has the chance to experience them in full, he breaks down in pain at the wave of repressed emotions before he finally experiences untainted joy “for the first time.” However, that is not his authentic self either. Neither a logical Vulcan nor an emotional human, he is eternally trapped between worlds, and was only able to find joy in a brief and unattainable fantasy. He is so discontent with his own nature that he cannot be happy as he is.

To a closeted viewer, this final line of the episode, delivered as dryly as always, is heartbreaking. The first time in Spock’s life that he was happy was when he ignored an integral part of himself that brought him pain in order to live a moment of a life that he could never have. To those who have repressed their sexuality, convincing themselves that they felt attraction to those of another sex because it was what would make them belong, watching Spock find joy in this fantasy only to be crushed when he must return to reality is painfully familiar. 

Analysis of Spock and Kirk’s relationship is generally sufficient to read them as a gay couple. When Spock is viewed in isolation, however, he still comes across as gay to many viewers. Spock’s innate perceived gayness relies not on his attraction to men, but on his repression of his true self and of the emotions that he cannot bring himself to face. While chalked up by the show to his half-Vulcan heritage, it still strikes a chord in a very human gay viewer. 

[megsironthrone]

Meg's Game of Tales: Tale 13

*Familiar Characters are NOT mine! The original tale of "The Snow Queen" was written by Hans Christian Andersen! As the story is actually 7 parts, I took inspiration from one particular part and a little from the Snow Queen episodes of OUAT.*

Warnings: The Snow Queen AU, magic. I think that's it.

Pairings: Jon Snow x fem!reader

Jon stifled a laugh as Arya glared at Theon defiantly. "You're lying! The Snow Queen doesn't take naughty children! Besides, I'm too old for children's stories. There's no such thing." For years, Theon liked to tease the younger Stark children with stories of the Snow Queen to scare them. It was only a story and Theon had changed it. Still, the real story was one of Jon's favorites. He had no idea that everything he thought he knew about the story was going to change.

*time skip*

The wind howled outside and the cold seeped through the stone walls of the holdfast. Even the fire roaring in the fireplace could only shut out the chill so much. It was the worst winter storm in years. "The Snow Queen is certainly angered tonight," Jon thought to himself then laughed, "It's a story, Jon. Nothing more."

He stopped at the mirror to check his face for injuries. Robb had gotten a bit aggressive during training as he was irritated at the prospect of having to remain indoors. When Jon gazed in the mirror, his brow furrowed. The mirror was cloudy. He used the sleeve of his tunic to wipe down the glass, jumping when he saw the reflection of a woman in the mirror. Jon whipped his head around to see an empty room behind. When he turned back, the reflection was gone.

As the dark-haired young man leaned closer to the mirror, he felt a chill run up his spine. Not the chill of a man suffering in the cold, but the chill of man who was frightened of something that had not even occurred yet. Cracks began to form in the mirror and an almost ethereal voice spoke. "You will see. You will be shown the true nature of people. You will see how they truly are and how they truly fell. And then you shall come to me. You shall rule by my side forever."

The mirror suddenly shattered, sending shards of glass flying at Jon's face. Jon closed his eyes, prepared to feel the stinging cuts, but none came. When he opened his eyes, the mirror was back to normal. There were no cracks to be seen and even the cloudiness was gone. Jon was confused, but shrugged it off after a moment. He went to bed feeling as though someone was watching him.

The next morning, Jon made his way down to breakfast with his family and stopped short. When he gazed upon the faces of everyone but the youngest Starks, he recoiled in disgust. They were themselves, but their eyes were almost demonic, dark and menacing. Their mouths were twisted in feral grins, showing razor sharp teeth. The sight was horrifying. But that wasn't the worst of it.

With their mouths, the family wished him a good morning, but that wasn't all Jon heard. It was if they were speaking in his head. He could feel hatred and malice pouring from them, weighing him down until he could bear it no more. Without even attempting to eat, Jon fled back to his chambers. Every person he passed shared the same terrifying face and same oozing hatred. It was too much. As soon as he was safely in his chambers, Jon slammed the door and barred it. No one was getting to him until he was prepared to leave.

In the back of his mind, Jon remembered the eerie voice from the night before, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He had to leave. Suddenly, as if summoned, the voice spoke again. "I know, young Snow. It hurts. People often hide themselves, but they cannot hide from me. I can help you. I would accept you no matter what." Jon glance over at the mirror to find the same woman staring back at him.

"Y-You're the Snow Queen. The stories said you could use mirrors." The woman chuckled lightly. "I suppose you could call me that, though I prefer Y/N. As I said, come to me, Jon and I will be there for you. Forever." Jon's brows furrowed. "Why?" You let out a sigh and explained that you, although powerful, were lonely. "You aren't afraid of snow or the power it possesses. You could easily be my king, if that is what you wish. You need only follow the brightest star and you will find me. Or remain forever plagued by the demons that pretend to love you."

Now, Jon wasn't a coward by any means, but his visions that morning had shaken him to his very core. Not to mention, his curiosity was piqued. After all why should a powerful being such as you take such an interest in him? He glanced back at your figure in the mirror. You were watching him struggle to make up his mind. After a moment, you sighed. "As I said, the choice is yours. But understand this, I cannot always control what the snow does. It is ruled by my emotions. The longer I wait for your answer, the worse the storm becomes." Before Jon could reply, you disappeared.

True to your word, the storm outside kicked up, harsh winds accompanying the bitter cold as more and more snow began to fall. If it continued too long, Jon wouldn't even be able to leave the castle if he wanted to. Still, he couldn't just up and leave. Could he? Would it even be worth it? He could die before he even walked ten miles. As if in answer to his worries, a particular hard wind blew nearly breaking the glass of his window.

"Alright. I get it. Hurry up," he muttered to himself. It really shouldn't have been such a difficult decision. He should stay with his family. Jon knew that. But at the same time, he couldn't live with seeing them like that every day for the rest of his life. And you were offering him the chance of adventure. Of being something greater than what he was. With that in mind, he glance back at the glass.

"Are you there?" Your vision appeared once more and you smiled, as if you had been just sitting around waiting. "I will find you." Your smile grew and the storm outside began to quiet down. "Then follow the star until you find my castle. It looks to be made of ice. I will look after you on your journey." Once more, Jon was left alone with his thoughts.

The young man quickly threw some things in to a pack, grabbed his sword and snuck out of the castle. The journey was long and hard as he navigated his way through the snow and ice, passed all manner of creatures and more demon-looking people. But even as he trekked through the nasty weather, Jon didn't feel cold or frightened. He knew he should be. After all, snow was beautiful, but deadly. That was its nature. Perhaps he didn't feel afraid because you were watching over him as you said you would.

Jon lost count of how many days he traveled before he finally came upon your castle. It was just as you'd said. White and shining, like ice. It wasn't until he climbing the steps that Jon felt anything even close to fear. Still he kept on. He was too close to turn back now. When he reached the doors, they opened like magic.

Jon wasn't sure how he knew where to go, but he entered the castle and made his way to where he was certain you were. The castle, despite being one of the Snow Queen, felt warm and welcoming. Jon felt at home. So much so that he simply knew just where to go. Sure enough, another set of doors opened to reveal a throne room. You were perched on a throne of what looked like ice or glass and you smiled upon seeing him enter.

He watched as you rose from your seat and made your way down to him. You stopped right in front of him and gazed into his dark eyes. "Why me?" he asked quietly and you chuckled, "Because you believed. No matter what you told others, you always believed I wasn't some story. And now, we shall rule the winter together. Welcome, Jon Snow, my new Snow King."

(a/n: Here you are! Tale 13! We've got 5 more to go!)

[whydoeseverythinghurt]

Someone tell me Lower Decks gets better

Edit: So I am hearing good things from very angry people, and I think that means that it’s fine.

I know that a lot of people like Lower Decks, and I think in isolation, I would be one of them, but this is supposed to be Star Trek, right? I like Rick and Morty’s particular brand cynicism, and hopelessness, and I know a lot of the people working on Lower Decks come from there, but that just isn’t Star Trek.

Disclaimer: I only saw the first episode, so most of this can be discounted if that isn’t an accurate depiction of the show as a whole.

Star Trek started off as a ‘perfect’ utopian future, that was about what its creators thought we should aspire to. But from the get go we are shown that there are many issues with it, and that it is a utopia because someone is always fighting against the bad actors, working to improve life, and deal with all those issues. Star Trek is about reform from the inside.

Kirk and Spock both think the Admiralty, the Starfleet Code of Conduct and even the Prime Directive are needlessly restrictive, so what do they do? They find loopholes.

Spock tells Commodore Decker that he won’t stand for the endangerment of the crew, and if he wants to call it mutiny he can do so the second they get back to civilization, where Spock will be allowed to plead his case. Kirk is told that all the Court Martial business can be swept under the rug if he’s willing to give up his pride, and he says no. He forces them to have to go through the process, so that he can plead his case, but also to demonstrate that the system should work, it shouldn’t ignore issues.

Picard and River find out that the Admiralty are being controlled by worms, and take it upon themselves to stop the damage that they are doing. (Such a Star Trek sentence, I know.)

Deep Space Nine as it progresses makes the show about how the ‘utopia’ is based on colonialist ideals, and leaves behind the most vulnerable in society. In the beginning this is done with the justification that if they help the people suffering and being discriminated against, then they may lose a potential ally, or gain an enemy. The government decides that it isn’t worth the risk, and let’s people suffer.

But Deep Space Nine is not just as amazing as it is because of the Holocaust metaphors, its also because it pushes at the moral fabric of the Federation. It asks the question “What happens when push comes to shove, and your perfect society descends into war?” And it shows the fallout, and it shows the toll on people’s lives, and it shows that even when you aren’t living in a perpetual state of war it’s very difficult to go back.

Voyager asks “What happens when no one is looking? What happens when all you have are your ideals and morals that come from a society you are no longer attached to (that we as the audience know, no longer exists)? Do you sacrifice your morals so that you can get back to your utopia? In fact, do you sacrifice your ideals for your utopia as a whole. Or would sacrificing them make it something other than a utopia?”

Haven’t seen all of them yet, so: Discovery says “What happens when you make the wrong moral judgment (or depending on interpretation, the right one, but no one allows you to go far enough)? What happens when you are the scapegoat that they blame an entire war, on? Even one that has brewing since before you were born. What do you do when they place the blame squarely on your shoulders, and solely at your feet? What do you do when the one person who gave you a chance to prove yourself turned out to be lying the entire time, and actually wanted you to be what everyone else thought you were? 

“What do you do afterwards? How you trust someone again after that kind of betrayal? What do you do when some goodie two shoes, who has never seen the horror that you have, comes waltzing in and trying to apply their morals to your life? How could they possibly win your trust?” That one gets a definitive answer, they show their convictions, even when no one is watching, they say, “we have to do the right thing.”

It goes on to ask several others, (from what I know) which are in some ways similar to later seasons of Deep Space Nine, “What do you do when the utopia you loved and fought and bled, and that people died for, is gone? How willing are you to fight to get it back?”

Lower Decks introduces a character who sees the moral failings of Starfleet, shows them to other people and then encourages them to give up, and not try to make the situation better. They have influence, and could easily seize power, but what do they do? Nothing. They watch as people who should not be in charge remain in power and do nothing about it, and discourage anyone who wants to try. They don’t want things to be different, they want to rebel against their parents. And that’s it, not corrupt institutions, not bad protocols, or worse people in charge. They want their parents to notice them.

That is not Star Trek. Star Trek is about hope in the most dire of circumstances. It’s about persevering and going against the odds, even when you know you’re probably going to die anyway, but you still have to try. 

It is about not just fighting for yourself, but for your family, your people, your crew, caring about the faceless and the nameless, the ‘lesser’, those that cannot fight for themselves. Standing up to and against the institutions which did the wrong thing, which did not protect the people they should have. (The waters get muddy with the different framings of the maquis, but you are meant to be sympathetic to their ideas, and morals, if nothing else.)

Nihilism has its place in Star Trek, (a cynical outlook can be seen as one of the most common character traits across series.) Existential dread has its place too, but it has to be tempered with that hope. And that hope isn’t unwavering, in fact most characters at one point or another lose it, briefly or for longer periods of time, but in those moments they rely on those around them to keep the faith. They continually pass the torch of whose responsibility it is. One of the most important things is that there is always someone who has hope. 

And I would probably like Lower Decks if it seemed at all willing to explore the idea, “Well, what do you do when hope is completely lost? What do you do what there is no one left? And the thing you love is a shell of either what it used to be, or what it aspired to?”

Instead, all that is left of a green character who has never encountered that adversity and has their ideals forcefully beaten out of them. The central authority in their life tells them how they are wrong to cling to them (and then that person is demonstrated to be right.) I would be interesting to see the story if they wished to explore a slow dawning realization that hope is really lost, or even asked, “What do you do when there is nothing to hope for? And no one left to have that hope?”

To me it seems like they heard about Star Trek from parodies, and wanted to make jokes, so they set its central themes on fire, and then didn’t want to explore the implications. Just play in its dead carcass, and don’t you dare think about what it once was.

I know that Enterprise had its issues, but most people say that it improved greatly with the last season (besides the last episode), and say that it could have done more and been better if the network would have just kept it around a bit longer. People have their criticisms of Discovery and Picard, but I get the impression that they truly are labors of love.

Lower Decks gives me the feeling that it is just a blatant cash grab made by people who didn’t know, or understand the property and just had to do something with it. I know that their is diversity in the series, but I wish that I could say definitively that that the woman in the burka was actually meant to show the same sentiments as Chekhov in the Original Series. (As I remember seeing someone suggest as a viable option for how the New movies could handle Anton Yelchin’s death.) My thoughts right now is that it’s just an attitude of “Well, Star Trek is about diversity in thought, culture, and race, so we should make the characters diverse, because it’s a utopian future, right?” With no intention to to continue the way of dealing with current issues through allegory.

I hope I’m wrong. As far as I know it is a good show, but right now I don’t think it’s a good Star Trek one. 

(Although again take that with a grain of salt, because I have seen so little, and I didn’t particularly like the Orville, or what I’ve seen of it. Mostly, because it felt clunky, unnatural, boring and like they took half remembered plot points/storylines and placed new characters into them. The heart was there, but the thought didn’t seem to be.)

Tl;dr: Can someone tell me if Lower Decks has the characters fight back against Starfleet, or the bad elements in it? Or even if it explores why that isn’t an option? Why they have lost all hope?

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

Okay so there's an episode of Star Trek nextgen in which a member of a non-binary alien race identities as a woman and falls in love with Riker. It's meant to be a metaphor for homosexuality but its horribly botched in metaphor and messaging. Still I feel like the episode's heart is in the right place. I can not say the Loki Series who's "Representation" feels clueless at best distasteful at worst.

Oh man, I have no idea about Star Trek because I have only seen one movie and I didn't even finish it (guess which one. Yes, the one with Benedict lmao)

The rep in the Loki series is downright laughable because it's not even that, it's visibility at most. They thought one line in which Loki says "a bit of both" or one word on a file would be enough because the only audience they do care about is the larger one, the conservative and nuclear families who might think they're progressive but don't want sexual orientations or gender identities in their media (they think a man and a woman kissing is nothing, but anything that deviates from that is not kid-friendly. Talk about discrimination).

Like, I'm cis and I struggle to talk about non-binary and genderfluidity because I'm scared I might say something wrong, but if my job was to write for a series and I truly wanted to talk about those two I'd do some research, ask queer organizations, see what people are saying online. It could take what, a couple hours?

They consult the military when it comes to guns and riffles or whatever weapons they want to mention in the movies but they can't take a couple hours to research queer discourse? Nah they just don't want to. We're still a minority and they know it, just like they knew after that godawful ep3 there would be dozens of articles talking about Loki coming out in Pride month.

Like you say, it felt distasteful because the purpose of that visibility wasn't to help or portray the queer, all they wanted was to be patted on the back for minimum effort.