Ask me about Star Trek, SC edition

[Hotarubi]

Seeing as very few people understood the machinations of a positronic brain, I would have little doubt that Lal's "headflap" would have been opened on the first day. I kinda got an underlying nefarious menace or "threat" to Lal from from that episode. At least that was my interpretation of it.

I got more of a social worker "We can take care of her better than you, and study her at the same time" vibe. The threat was being separated from her "father". Not everything they would have wanted to do would involve disassembly.

Haftel arrives too quickly.

[sparks]

It's only TV.

[Hotarubi]

Most of ST:TNG wasnt anything like television.

[Grammatron]

Considering how many times Federation scientists wanted to take Data apart, they had "rights" at best.

... once? In the very episode where his rights were established.

I'm opening up myself to getting out geeked if there is another episode I forgot.

Once is correct. There are some instances where some Admirals (current and former) threaten Data.

And there there have been other instances, including the Lal episode, where Data was not viewed more than an object. Even Picard himself forgets about Data as a being sometimes (btw I think it's very cool of the show to show that). During the Klingon Civil War when Picard is organizing the blockade he neglects to give Data a command of his own until Data points it out.

Data is consistently a very well written character.

[gnome]

Yes--they were even pushing at times into him having emotions of his own kind... which is why I never liked the "emotion chip" shortcut. I wanted him to effectively program himself with emotions relating to how he reacts to things. He clearly does experience reactions that are analogous.

[Hotarubi]

Considering how many times Federation scientists wanted to take Data apart, they had "rights" at best.

... once? In the very episode where his rights were established.

I'm opening up myself to getting out geeked if there is another episode I forgot.

Once is correct. There are some instances where some Admirals (current and former) threaten Data.

And there there have been other instances, including the Lal episode, where Data was not viewed more than an object. Even Picard himself forgets about Data as a being sometimes (btw I think it's very cool of the show to show that). During the Klingon Civil War when Picard is organizing the blockade he neglects to give Data a command of his own until Data points it out.

Data is consistently a very well written character.

Yet badly acted. Stan Laurel as an Andriod? Embarrassing at times.

However, it is true that the some of the Data and Picard focused episodes were the best of TNG. The other character focused stories just sucked. Hard.

[gnome]

Three out of five total actors to portray Lurch from the Addams Family have been featured in Star Trek media. That is a thing that you know now.

[gnome]

I mean, he basically PLAYED Lurch in "What Are Little Girls Made Of".

Ruk: "YOU RANG?"
Dr. Korby: "Not you... send me my other assistant, the one with her tits falling out of her outfit. I'm bored."
Ruk: (disdainfully) "UUUUURRRRRRHHHH"

[gnome]

[gnome]

I agree, with three active shows and potentially two more on the way, it's time to again have a place where people can get some answers from a self-appointed expert.

If Trek were to be "cancelled" for cultural offenses, the Next-Gen episode "Code of Honor" comes to mind as the most egregious, but TOS had its share, of which the casting of Khan is but a minor entry.

As for the question of timeline divergence--a question is, how strictly do you want to take that? For example, a Federation ship definitely did not land at Roswell with a Ferengi on board. If, perhaps, we want to make allowances for the Star Trek "version" of familiar events, there is an excellent "Eugenics Wars" series by Greg Cox which took place in the 1990s, and could plausibly, if you squint at it, occur not significantly differently than what most people believed was going on then.

So I might reframe the question as what was the first divergent event in Trek's history, that definitely would have been known to all in the real world. I think the Millennium Gate episode of Voyager is a good candidate for that. I am however interested in what you have come up with.

[gnome]

Also, to get the usual questions out of the way:

Of the Discovery cast, Emily Coutts (Lt. Detmer) and Rebecca Romijn ("Number One") have appeared naked in stuff.

Of the Picard cast, Alison Pill (Dr. Jurati) has.

[gnome]

Using Rule34 on Star Trek is cheating. Star Trek fandom practically invented slashfic.

[gnome]

It kind of works with how much they argue all the time but continually hang around each other.

[robinson]

So Spock is a vampire?

[Hotarubi]

Well gee whiz

https://rule34.xxx/index.php?page=post& ... tags=spock+ <== NSFW

Tentacles.

Theres always tentacles.

[gnome]

Oh well that's easy, everyone on the Enterprise (either version) was always so amazing in bed that their exes would purposely get assigned nearby so that they might run into them.

[gnome]

These are SPACE cave people, from the FUTURE. They'll shave and do their hair up, but can't manage but scraps of clothing.

[gnome]

There's some handwaving about universal translators. It's an interesting idea, though I think it's unlikely for one to be as effective as portrayed.

But generally speaking except in situations where a universal translator could not be availalble, the fact that they don't take it out and listen between lines of a conversation can be taken as a narrative shorthand, I figure. In fact they did it quite elegantly in Star Trek VI--the courtroom scene started in Klingon with people shown listening to translators, then it swapped into English for the sake of the audience.

[sparks]

ST: TNG "Darmok".

[gnome]

ST: TNG "Darmok".

The translators could handle the words and short phrases, but wasn't prepared for meme language.

[robinson]

I wonder how the current AI Programs do with memes and image macros

So much online com is done with them

[robinson]

It’s a great story

[sparks]

"The Paradise Syndrome" TOS episode that I watched last night and one of he few I had previously missed.

Injuns in space, not one of their better efforts. Probably not rerun much.

Miramanee was worth the cheese.

"I AM KEEROK!!!"

[sparks]

She had a great set of stems.

[gnome]

"The Paradise Syndrome" TOS episode that I watched last night and one of he few I had previously missed.

Injuns in space, not one of their better efforts. Probably not rerun much.

It has one benefit--it introduced "The Preservers," a source of many stories and a lot of world building in beta canon. Arguably all that world building is an influence behind what eventually appeared in TNG's "The Chase", though it has not been confirmed on-screen that the two are the same.

[sparks]

In the ST universe there are humans and humanoids everywhere because there wouldn't be a story to tell without them.

Grow up, get a job, stop jerking off so much, move out of your mother's basement, find somebody to love and get on with life.

It's...perfectly...simple.






"It's a COOK BOOK!!!!111"

[sparks]

No no no: They spoke Swahili. Because you're white on one side and black on the other.

[robinson]

Very astute observations

[sparks]

One of the three times Chekov got laid.

[robinson]

The future is a foreign country

[Grammatron]

What do you think about the current Star Trek gnome?

[gnome]

In general I'm very optimistic. With several projects going on or proposed, each of very different approaches, the chances of something truly memorable are high. We could be approaching a renaissance of the franchise as significant as 1991.

I'll give a basic run-down of what I think of each:

Discovery: I was very disappointed with the first season, found myself grudgingly enjoying the second season more, and actually quite optimistic about the third.

Short Treks: Excellent experiments in short-form storytelling, and even helped me appreciate Discovery and Picard a little better.

Picard: All in all I was pleased with it. A feeling that they didn't make the best choices on a few things but overall I'm glad it was made.

Lower Decks: Absolutely love it. It's funny and has the mood and aesthetic all but perfect. It's candy for the brain of a Trek fan.

Strange New Worlds: Despite past disappointments, I'm really excited for this show based on the premise, and how much I liked the Enterprise-based characters in Discovery.

Section 31: Feeling a little meh about this one. The best I can say is Michelle Yeoh is talented enough to make even sub-par material enjoyable. But I'm pessimistic about the premise.

Star Trek Prodigy: I may not be the target audience for this, but I like the idea of attracting younger fans. New Trek needs a bigger tent with both Discovery and Picard moving it in a less kid-friendly direction, so we'll see.

Other projects are too speculative and tentative for me to have a definite opinion.

[sparks]

I enjoyed 'Picard', but I'm an old school asshole. Haven't seen much of 'Discovery', but if Rebecca Romijn is in it, I'll have to make the time to see it.

[Grammatron]

Thank you for the write up gnome, I appreciate it. I feel you are a bit too optimistic, but then again it's in the spirit of Stat Trek to be optimistic. Could use more of thst.

[gnome]

Ok this was too good a find not to share: a fanzine from the earliest days of Trek fandom (1968). PDF at link.

https://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/157232

In June, we learned from Star Trek's Associate Producer, Robert H. Justman, that the tentatively scheduled season opener (September 15th) will take place, in part, on the planet Vulcan. We have since learned that the show, "Amok Time," was written by no less an author than Theodore Sturgeon. In the course of the program, Spock will meet his assigned wife, for the purpose of satisfying the Vulcan septennial mating drive. Vulcans - or at least Vulcan males (at the moment, we're not quite sure which) must experience sex every seven years, or die. We have been told that the story is handled with the same care and skill that made Star Trek our favorite program in its first season. Look out, September 15th - here we come!

Warning: They like Spock. They really, really like Spock. The short version of this zine:

Spock:
Once upon a Spock,
Spock Spock Spock Spock Spock Spock Spock
The Spock.

[Grammatron]

https://old.reddit.com/r/funny/comments ... e_show_oc/

[Rob Lister]

that wins the thread