#This Geordi one is one of my favorite moments in all Star Trek. Look how happy he is! What a cutie

[overseer-picard]

Final Thoughts on ST: Picard Season 3

I loved it. All of it.

I was filled with anxious dread when it was announced that the entire cast would be back. The first two seasons were not for me and I was worried all of the things I disliked would bleed into this season and infect ALL my beloved characters, not just Picard (who is my all time favorite fictional character).

But those fears were quickly quieted and I found myself looking forward to each new episode in a way I haven't done since the days before streaming.

There are still things I personally would've done differently, but just because I dislike something doesn't mean it's inherently bad (and vice versa, if I like something it doesn't mean it's objectively good).

I feel that the characters behaved in ways that made sense for their history (which was a pleasant 180 for Picard from the first two seasons) and they came together in organic ways that were integral to the plot rather than just thrown together for a reunion show.

I loved how they brought Data back, I thought it was fresh and creative, and it was fun to see him become the thing he always strove to be: human. I loved seeing Riker and Troi and their love for each other, Picard and Beverly as they navigated the very human emotions of reconnecting and saving their son, seeing Geordi as a dad to his adorable daughters along with his joy at seeing Data again. And Worf being the most Worf he's ever Worfed.

Every note I needed was hit with perfect pitch and tone.

The story was tightly woven with ample plantings and payoffs of key details (I'm excited to rewatch specifically for this reason). The stakes were high and had personal connection. The tension was well paced with solid structuring and anytime things DID slow down, it was to allow some breathing room for the characters to develop and exist. The characters were proactive rather than reactive, they had to actually make choices with no easy answer (a staple of Trek storytelling).

I loved the themes of family, both biological and within friendship, and the importance of loving and appreciating the people who truly matter in your life. I loved that the Trek universe felt connected again with the callbacks to the other shows, cameos from old characters, and our main seven recognizing that their most important years were the years they spent not just with each other, but with us, the audience. You can call this fan service with as much spite and venom as you want, but I call it universe cohesion.

After the first two seasons of Picard that could've taken place in any fictional universe because they were so brazenly disconnected from the key aspects that make Star Trek, Star Trek, I am grateful this team of writers took the care and effort to give these details back in meaningful and narratively useful ways.

And most of all, I loved the countless moments where I felt genuine, heartfelt, emotion. I am not a weepy person by any measure, but I teared up multiple times. Seeing these characters I've loved for so long be happy, connected, and moving forward brought me more satisfaction than I could've ever imagined.

I'm genuinely filled with so much gratitude towards the hundreds of people who came together to create this season of television. The care, dedication, attention to detail, respect, and reverence it holds towards the franchise that I love has brought me deep, lasting joy.

It is not the best show I've ever watched, and maybe I'll break down its flaws one day, but it's easily become a favorite that will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Not many shows get this kind of goodbye 30 years later and for that, I am incredibly grateful.

Sorry to those of you who did not enjoy it, you are not wrong to feel the way you do, we all enjoy media in ways that are unique to us.

#picard spoilers #star trek picard #sorry that I am not brief in thought nor word

[sshbpodcast]

Doublemint, Doublemint, Doublemint Trek: Doppelgängers in Star Trek (Part 2)

By Ames

Our blogtivity for character doubles in Star Trek obviously needs double the posts, doesn’t it! Continuing on from our batch from last week, A Star Steer Her By is reviewing the doppelgänger of that batch here! The topic had about fifty instances that we listed in last week’s podcast episode, so it was just too much for one post. You can follow along below and see if you can tell the real deal from the cheap carbon copy.

Some SPOILERS for new Trek (including season 3 of Picard!) under the fold.

[Images © Paramount/CBS]

“If Wishes Were Horses”

Update 3/13/24: How could I forget this awful Deep Space Nine episode? For simultaneously two reasons at once, there are two Jadzias at once! Bashir’s horniness for Dax is so strong that it conjures one straight out of his imagination, and she is thirsty AF! Also, it’s an alien being simply taking on the form of a familiar being, like Rumpelstiltskin and Buck Bokai, for some freaking reason. Sigh.

“Aquiel”

Update 1/28/24: There are even more character doubles than I even remembered! Now that I’ve been doing another rewatch, here are a few more additions, starting with Maura, Aquiel’s dog who turns out to be a coalescent organism that has taken on the shape of this very good puppy. We also learn that this organism apparently perfectly mimicked Aquiel’s superior officer, Lt. Rocha, for who knows how long?

“Interface”

Update 1/28/24: One more from TNG that totally fits this increasingly long list is the subspace creature that takes on the shape of Silva La Forge in order to communicate with Geordi (or at least the probe that Geordi is controlling at the time) and try to get him to help them while they’re in some kind of distress. Why they didn’t just ask normally, who knows? There’s also one more update that I was able to cram in show order! Go find it below!

“A Man Alone”

Should've mentioned this one last week, but I literally just remembered it right now. That rat Ibudan makes a clone of himself just so he can murder it and frame Odo in a scheme so convoluted a Romulan must've helped. And THEN Bashir makes another clone, like a freakin' mad scientist.

“Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night”

One more Deep Space Nine episode I should have mentioned last week when we did that batch, but listen. I'm only one person, not two like all of these people! In this case, we have two Kiras who briefly meet and shake hands when our Kira goes back in time to watch Dukat romance her mom, and then things get weird.

“Faces”

Okay, finally on to Voyager, where we’ve already got Torres talking to herself, quite literally. Like in “The Enemy Within” or “Second Chances” from last week, the drama in this episode is all in the interpersonal conflict between, well, one character. It’s also a lot of excellent work from Roxann Dawson in both a lot more and a lot less makeup than usual!

“Deadlock”

“Deadlock” duplicates the whole Voyager and crew, and not for the last time either! In this one, the two crews are occupying the same space while in different versions of the same ship and need to work together to escape some damn Vidiians. Luckily, they’ve got the expertise of not one, but two Janeways, so half of our two crews make it out okay.

“The Thaw”

One of Janeway's most badass moments is technically not Janeway herself, but her holodouble that was swapped in for her to torment Fear the Clown for all of eternity, and I am 100% here for it. It's such a sneaky little character swap that I have to give both of these Janeways a ton of credit.

“The Swarm”

The Doctor is a hologram so it’s pretty common to have multiples of him running around. You’d think he’d just make a crew of nurses that look like him, but alas. Instead, we’ll have to make do with the hologram diagnostic program, which of course has Zimmerman’s face. We’re used to it already from the whole Soong family, so it only makes sense.

“Relativity”

In one of my personal favorite time-travel episodes (if not one of my favorite episodes overall), we demolish the temporal prime directive by not only involving several Janeways, but also letting Seven interact with her alternate self to save the ship from the bullshit of one of the Braxtons (it doesn’t matter which one). And she looks great doing it!

“Demon” and “Course: Oblivion”

I’m clumping these two together for my own sanity, as the silver blood duplicates we meet in “Demon” provide quite the twist for “Course: Oblivion” in a revisited plot no one saw coming. And good on them because it provides quite the little identity crisis for all of the crew members to learn they aren’t the real thing and are fated to possibly the bleakest demises of the franchise.

“Equinox”

More double EMHs and we’re not even done yet. Being a hologram makes it easy for the Doctor to meet copies of himself since that’s exactly what he was built for. Sure, he wasn’t built to be the Voyager’s chief medical officer, and neither was he built to be the Equinox’s chief medical officer, and yet here we are with both of them in “Equinox.”

“Virtuoso”

The Qomar are super into the Doctor’s singing, so they find an excuse to duplicate him and provide us with yet another instance of multiple EMHs running around. Their copies range from the tiny tapedeck version of their opera-singing superstar, to a full-sized singing program that can hit an absurd range of notes but have none of the bedside manner clogging up the works.

“Fury”

Finally, a non-Doctor double to feast your eyes on, this one a future Kes that travels back in time to save herself from… herself. It’s kind of confounding since they rather rewrite the whole Kes character to make this reappearance work, but we were indeed missing Kes so much that even one version of her would have been a sight for sore eyes, and here we have two!

“Author, Author”

Like in “Living Witness,” we start off “Author, Author” with the some excellent alternate members of the crew, all slightly more exaggerated than their normal characters for the sake of the EMH’s story. We also get to see the Doctor get a taste of his own medicine when Paris confronts him with his own fictional doppel, and wrap things up with so many Robert Picardos in one room that it’s a thing of beauty.

“Renaissance Man”

Update 1/28/24: Sadly, we missed this one when we first made this post, so enjoy this great moment from “Renaissance Man” when the Emergency Medical Hologram created a full holodeck of himself to distract Tuvok just long enough to continue his ploy of taking over the ship for the Hierarchy. Like a simp. And with this update, we've maxed out the blogpost again!

“Endgame”

As we’ve seen, we love a good time-travel paradox in which someone gets to meet themself. Sure, you should normally try to avoid confronting yourself out of time, but that’s not the Janeway... way. At the end of a series, you get a pass to just break the timeline as a treat, almost certainly pissing off the Bureau of Temporal Investigations entirely.

“Dead Stop”

Enterprise is usually a more meat-and-potatoes kind of show since a lot of the great duplicaters like the transporter and the holodeck are still in development. But even they get into the act when we find a dead Mayweather lying around and determine that he’s actually a near perfect forgery. He does about as much as Mayweather does in the series, so it’s a miracle they could tell!

“Similitude”

When Enterprise sinks its teeth into a big moral conundrum that rivals the induced rage of something like “Tuvix,” it really goes for it. It’s heartbreaking to watch the spare Tucker come to accept his fate as mere organ donor for his original self, and Connor Trinneer really nails that level of simultaneous hope and vulnerability that he’s great at. But boy do some of these characters piss you off.

Star Trek (2009)

We've got another time travel instance to bring up from the reboot movies, because in the first Abrams movie, Leonard Nimoy is back as prime timeline Spock while we already have Zachary Quinto Spock running around and making out with Uhura all over the place. It is only logical.

“Kayshon, His Eyes Open”

We’ve mentioned back in our transporter accident post how this Lower Decks episode is an ode to “Second Chances,” with direct references to the classic TNG episode to boot. I also complained last week how The Animated Series didn’t capitalize on its cartoon nature to create really impossible-to-film scenes. Well, this animated Trek makes up for that and then some, as you’ll see below!

“An Embarrassment of Dooplers”

This second season episode is so full of duplicating (or should I say, dooplercating) characters that they literally can’t fit any more in the episode without causing a singularity. It’s a decent gag and Richard Kind is absolutely in his element as the voice of all the overly sensitive beings we see so many of. You get a Doopler. You get a Doopler. Everyone gets a Doopler!

“Reflections”

It’s tough being a cybernetically enhanced humanoid whose forgotten past self is literally fighting to get out and take over your body. Rutherford’s backstory continues to be one of the most intriguing elements of Lower Decks, and the episode in which we literally get to see him fighting with himself in his own mind is one of the most visually mesmerizing and intellectually fascinating yet!

“Broken Pieces” et alia

Hey fam, we hear you like Santiago Cabrera. Well season one of Picard has all the Santiago Cabrera you can stomach and still you’ll be wanting more. All the Rios holograms are a fun addition to the show and also provide some great comedic moments and some Moon-worthy compositing that might be the best we’ve ever seen on Trek. And what can I say, they’re easy on the eyes too.

“Et in Arcadia Ego”

Our definition of doppelgänger somehow includes golems that take on the form of the… I’m gonna say engrams because why not… that get inserted into it. In an uncharacteristically unselfish move, a Soong doesn’t create something that looks just like Brent Spiner and jams Picard’s consciousness into a Picard-shaped robot suit. The future is weird.

PIC: Season 3

Sorry for the spoiler (you were warned!), but by season three of Picard, the changelings are back and goopier than ever. Their ability to blend in has gotten way better, again they’re everywhere, and now they’re here for your children. We’ve seen changelings tons before, so I’ll not go further into detail here save to say that it's great to see more Tim Russes!

“Surrender”

What we’ve never seen before is a Data-Lore battle inside the head of… well, Brent Spiner mostly playing himself but it’s such a great scene that no one’s complaining. Like in the Lower Decks episode “Reflections” with Rutherford above, it’s a great use of the mental battle of someone with all kinds of circuits in their head and memory problems out the wazoo.

“Mindwalk”

We already had a ton of double Janeways acting across from herself in Voyager, but the holoJaneway of Prodigy gives us the opportunity to do it again in CGI form! I’ll not be a broken record going on about how much we love Prodigy (well, unless you count saying that as such), but it’s some great work from Mulgrew playing two very unique Janeways, plus Dal a little!

“A Quality of Mercy”

Last one, I promise. For now. I’m sure upcoming seasons will give us even more doppels, but the final one I have to show you was not one we were expecting from season one of Strange New Worlds! Of course the time crystals from Discovery are back since Pike has interacted with them before, and now it’s up to alternate reality Chris to convince himself to embrace his beepy, beepy fate. Beep!

—

After such a long, long list, I’m seeing double. 120 Star Trek doppelgängers! Oh wait. Next week, we’re back on course, so keep up with us on the Voyager on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast, communicate with our alternate selves on Facebook and Twitter, and join me now in just doubling over.

#star trek #star trek podcast #deep space nine #voyager #enterprise #star trek 2009 #lower decks #picard #prodigy #strange new worlds #doppelganger #shapeshifter #transporter accident #holograms

[emchovy]

WHAT I READ IN JAN/FEB/MAR 2023:

This wasn't originally meant to include March but I procrastinated so long that it can! Anyway, here we go!

LIGHT NOVELS/NOVELS:

The Case Files of Jeweler Richard by Vol. 2

I like these light novels, but I don't have a ton to say. Would recommend if you're REAL into jewelry, or you like descriptions of pretty boys.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Sins of Commission by Susan Wright

This ended up being a really enjoyable book! I read it mostly because I wanted info about one random minor character, (Jono Endar - star of a single TNG episode) and I heard he was mentioned in this one. He was, there was a touch of lore for him, loved all of that, but I ended up really loving the plot of this book, as well. It's a very tense story about the Enterprise going to assist a planet with an environmental crisis, which all gets worse when aliens who have an uncomfortable control over emotions come to stay on the Enterprise. It's a great book, with really good characterization of Riker and Beverly. Also at one point Geordi is pissed at Data and Data calls this experience "exhilarating". Hoo-boy.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Q Continuum by Greg Cox

I enjoyed this one as well. Set post-finale, this is a trio of novels (I read it all in an omnibus) about a foe from Q's past returning to plague the universe once again. The Picard/Q relationship here really shines, but I think Beverly gets a lot of great character moments too.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - A Stitch in Time by Andrew Robinson

Not to hardcore flex on anyone, but I've got a physical copy of this one. Thank you to my brother who got it for me.

Anyway, Andrew Robinson's famed chronicle of Garak's life, told in his own words. I think I'm gonna need more time to digest this one properly, but I really enjoyed it. (Also, Garak's slams on Dukat were funny. I clapped when the Cardassian with the super long neck was introduced.)

MANGA/COMICS:

Killing Me by Akiyama, Vol. 1

A fun vampire yuri comedy. A vampire hunter finds herself entangled with a vampire that goes to school with her, unable to kill her, no matter how hard she tries. Short 'n sweet. I don't think I'm going to pick up volume 2, but volume 1 ends on a nice note, so that's fine.

Phantom of the Idol by Hijiki Isoflavone, Vol. 4

Another volume of my favorite current comedy manga! POTI consistently manages to bring in great new elements and evolve relationships in interesting ways. Huge recommend.

On or Off by A1

This is a Korean webtoon, adapted to print form. A manager of a company that's creating an app for a much larger company ends up sexually and then romantically involved with the Large Company's CEO. A cute story, good art, and notable for BL, features lots of women, which always makes me super happy.

Ordinary Crush by Hyouta Fujiyama, Vol. 1

A BL anthology. It kinda sucks, as a lot of the old JUNE manga kinda does. I don't know why I keep buying these.

Oshi no Ko by Aka Akasaka

The story of a gynecologist who ends up doctoring to his favorite idol during her pregnancy. This story, however, goes so off the fucking rails I can't even describe it. Don't look this one up, just read it. It's insane.

Requiem of the Rose King by Aya Kanno

A weird manga, a historical fiction about the Real War of the Roses that Really Took Place. I enjoyed this manga, the art was beautiful, but perhaps the most interesting element was learning that the author was the creator of one of my roommate's favorite shoujo manga, Otomen. Cool!

Sotus by Bittersweet

A BL about a Thai university which features hazing as a major part of it's culture. This was a little uninspired, so we'll see if I read more.

Tokyo Alien by NAOE, Vol. 2

Pretty generic shonen sci-fi action, but I'm gonna keep reading! It's got enough there to keep me hooked.

Witch Hat Atelier by Kamone Shirahama, Vol. 4

Another volume of Witch Hat Atelier! This story is always fantastic, and I really enjoyed the character development in this one.

NOVELS/LIGHT NOVELS:

The Case Files of Jeweler Richard by Vol. 2

I like these light novels, but I don't have a ton to say. Would recommend if you're REAL into jewelry, or you like descriptions of pretty boys.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Sins of Commission by Susan Wright

This ended up being a really enjoyable book! I read it mostly because I wanted info about one random minor character, (Jono Endar - star of a single TNG episode) and I heard he was mentioned in this one. He was, there was a touch of lore for him, loved all of that, but I ended up really loving the plot of this book, as well. It's a very tense story about the Enterprise going to assist a planet with an environmental crisis, which all gets worse when aliens who have an uncomfortable control over emotions come to stay on the Enterprise. It's a great book, with really good characterization of Riker and Beverly. Also at one point Geordi is pissed at Data and Data calls this experience "exhilarating". Hoo-boy.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Q Continuum by Greg Cox

I enjoyed this one as well. Set post-finale, this is a trio of novels (I read it all in an omnibus) about a foe from Q's past returning to plague the universe once again. The Picard/Q relationship here really shines, but I think Beverly gets a lot of great character moments too.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - A Stitch in Time by Andrew Robinson

Not to hardcore flex on anyone, but I've got a physical copy of this one. Thank you to my brother who got it for me.

Anyway, Andrew Robinson's famed chronicle of Garak's life, told in his own words. I think I'm gonna need more time to digest this one properly, but I really enjoyed it, if only for Garak's slams on Dukat.

--

Anyway, that's the wrap-up for these three months! Feels really good to get that all accomplished! I still wonder if I should change up the review format somewhat, or maybe just start doing actual "what I read this month" vids on YouTube or something, but for now this is good.

#em noise #em reads

[aroaceandetc]

Aro Head Canons for ASAW

Since I haven't had the time/energy to do something big for Aro-Spec Awareness Week like I would like to, I thought I'd at least do a little something and talk about some Aro-Spec Head Canons that I enjoy. So let's get started!

Lt. Commander Data and Geordi La Forge (Star Trek: The Next Generation) - Data and Geordi have always been two of my favorite characters from TNG. They both have such likeable personalities and a lot of great moments/episodes. Data also is as close to a canonically aromantic character as you could get from the 80s/90s I feel like? He and Geordi are, prominently, best friends. Data states that the desire for companionship is not one of the Human Things he finds confusing. But the only time Data attempts romance it's obvious he doesn't get it, far more than he doesn't get other Typical Human Things, and the end conclusion is him deciding to just Not Do romance because there is no 'real him' he can give to a romantic relationship specifically. And that never changes! Not even when he gets a Human Emotion Chip! So even he's not quite canonically aro, I feel like he also slightly is. xD He's also just a major fave, so I enjoy him being aro-coded A Lot.

As for Geordi, there's not really any canon 'evidence' as such other than 'I like him a lot and his main relationships with the crew are all platonic'. He has a few one-shot romances, but they're all so intensely awkward. In part because one-shot romances tend to be awkward and I think the writers sometimes didn't know what to do with Geordi in episodes centered on him. But I enjoy thinking it's partly because he just doesn't realize he's alloaro. xD Maybe gray-aro, I'm not sure. But aro-spec in some kind of way.

Aziraphale and Crowley (Good Omens) - These two notoriously aren't canonically anything. And it's probably best it stay that way. xD But the first time I watched the show (knowing very little about the book other than the fact it existed, and knowing a similar amount about the fandom), I was pleasantly surprised by how much these two resonated with me, both individually and as a pair.

Nothing they do is inherently romantic, and aside from the whole 'our superiors would kill us if they find out about us being friends' bit, a lot of what they do together seems like the kind of thing I really enjoy in close relationships. They go out to eat, they spend long hours discussing the arts and various other things, they go on walks/feed ducks, and they're always excited to see each other (sans the whole 'this could get us killed' anxiety stuff again lol). And that's it! Their happy ending as far as we see is them just being able to do those things freely and without guilt or fear anymore, it's not really implied anywhere they want 'more' from the relationship, just to be able to experience more of it, and safely/without having to come up with excuses to meet.

And then just individually, neither of them really show interest in specifically romance either. And also I like them both and just enjoy the thought of them both being aroace, it's nice to be able to connect with characters you like a lot. X)

Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin (The Lord of the Rings) - Look, The Lord of the Rings, in particular the book, just has aro vibes. xD None of these characters have a love interest other than Sam having a very minor one (I call grey-aro) that isn't emphasized anywhere near the way he friendship with Frodo is. It's a friendship-heavy book in general, and only one of the end couples actually got screentime or development (Eowyn and Faramir were also written in a way that they're one of a small group of romantic pairings I actually quite like?) compared to all the Fellowship friendships getting heavily centered.

I don't even know where on the aro spectrum to put all of these fellas, but I feel like they have a lot of potential to cover a number of bases? (Gandalf didn't have a romance either actually, I'm claiming him too. Why not. xD) Merry randomly strikes me as aroflux for no particular reason. Pippin I could see as frayromantic? I'd have to think more on the specifics for the others, but case in point: LotR is a great book/film series and most of the characters can be read as arospec in some kind of way so I'm just gonna go ahead and do that. xD

(Gimli is especially a childhood favorite though, so. Him and Legolas get top tier from me lol)

Sherlock Holmes (Various iterations? But especially ACD and Granada?) - Holmes just is a big mood in general, but also an aro mood. xD And while being aro on its own isn't about being reclusive or anti-social or constantly raising your brow at how others do relationships, these are things I associate with my own experience of aromanticism for just me, and I relate to some of that in Holmes as well, which makes the headcanon extra appealing. He is also an eccentric and I enjoy that a lot because he just so much isn't trying to be 'normal', he just does his detective thing and I love it.

Also, while I'm not as dead set on it. I do like Watson as aro-spec too! He did seem to genuinely find Mary attractive, but marriage clearly didn't suit him (and I wonder if he didn't do it in part because he did try to seem 'normal' even though he's also frankly weird), since he ultimately returned to just living with Holmes and was happy with it.

James (Team Rocket/Pokemon) - This is a head canon that both stems from 'James is a long time favorite of mine so I want him to be aro Just Because' and 'he actually has very strong romance-repulsed vibes in canon'. His backstory involves him running away from home to escape an (admittedly toxic) arranged marriage, every time a one-shot character expresses romantic interest in him he's horrified (unless there's some kind of mystical thing involved), and he was completely appalled at the suggestion he and Jesse could be together romantically despite them unambiguously being best friends and/or partners for life (he said he'd rather DIE, which yes was for comedy/exaggeration, but he so consistently has this kind of reaction to romance aimed at him).

Elsa (Frozen) - There's been plenty of discussion on this one before, but just. Elsa has the biggest aro moods in both films (she's also genuinely content being a bit more solitary at the end of the second one, staying in close contact with her family but living alone/single, which is pretty great). She's also just very relatable in general, which adds to the head canon appeal. And her being aro while Anna is super into romance, the possibilities of them learning to navigate that together? Big fan.

Moana (Moana) - This is another case of 'there wasn't a romantic interest and I adore the character, so to the aro bin you GO'. xD Her whole 'I am Moana' song being her Big Moment is powerful in general, but I really like how the movie centers on her individual growth, and how she has this big moment while she's alone and That's Okay.

Noe (Vanitas no Carte) - I know Noe is, in general, oblivious. But he's just SO oblivious to the most overt crushes on him (and there are more than one), doesn't get what 'love' is (which just, makes me think of all the conversations trying to define romance in the aro community that are very thought provoking but don't really get anywhere as far as a 'proper answer' goes xD), and just does not seem romantically interested in anyone. I also just like him a lot lol.

Sonic, Blaze, and Rouge (Sonic the Hedgehog) - Sonic is just never truly interested in romance, and even when he 'is', it doesn't feel like very...allo romance on his end? And that only happened one or twice anyways. Mostly, he's annoyed or repulsed or exasperated with Amy's crush on him and doesn't seem interested in others. And he's always described as a 'free spirit', which doesn't mean anything technically, but the way it's done here has prominent 'single for life' vibes, and he's very happy with his free spirit life style!

Blaze I fully admit the hc is just 'she's cool and doesn't have a canon love interest' lol. Because she is cool and should really be in the games more, and she doesn't have a canon love interest, so why the heck not?

Rouge I just enjoy the the thought of her being aro. She flirts and stuff, but sometimes just as a 'tactic', and sometimes just I think for fun, but that doesn't necessarily mean she has real crushes or wants a romantic relationship. Another case of 'hey why not, it's fun!'

Bow and Glimmer (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power) - I am like 98% sure the writers were trying to make these two an end game couple. But they gave such IMMENSELY POWERFUL platonic vibes from the very beginning, and kept it that way the whole show as far as I'm concerned, so I read them as platonic all the way to the end. And I loved that about them! Both are such fun and cool characters in their own respect, and they got to have an epic friendship that was given time and weight! Also I am so so into platonic m/f epic duos. They feel so rare, and they make my brain so happy. xD

#aromantic #aromanticism #aromantic spectrum awareness week #ASAW #asaw22 #fandom #head canons

[wiihtigo]

If you're still doing the number thing, pick a random number you haven't answered yet! I'm curious to see which one you would!

Love all of your art btw! Never fails to brighten up my day!

snm ask game here

THANK YOU.....similarly, your comments on my posts always brighten MY day i always smile when i see them >:)

well umm lest seeeeee. yes. will you let me talk for a minute (...) about GAY PEOPLE and why i think sam and maxs relationship is so entertaining to watch..would you be mad. no. ok thank you

10.Favorite ship?

well take a guess. its sam and max....the reason i think sam and max are so charming and like. they just drag people in is because individually theyre great characters but theyre definitely better together, very much a set piece (do not separate) and i feel like in a mainly comedy series that sam and max is its easy to write best friend characters who kind of miss the mark of “these characters are BELIEVEABLE as best friends” like...ok i need to give credit to brain waves where they are due what triggered this line of thought was listening to dear dimwitty (a ducktales podcast hosted by two friends of mine its great btw you should listen to it) and monty (one of the hosts) was talking about how he enjoys it when characters laugh at each other (his examples were a bit in the dt episode they were discussing where dewey i think laughed at a joke louie told in the bg of a scene, and also the crew in star trek....i dont remember which one it was the one with data and geordi i think and he just talked about how its nice to watch because you can really feel like the crew are really friends with eachother through small details in the show like how they have a game night and thigns like that)! like in sitcom series like friends those guys..are not even friends..which is fine the characters dont have to be deep and have fleshed out relationships in a sitcom but just for an example...ive gone on a bit of a tangent but all that talk while i was listening made me go “hey!! thats why i like sam and max!!” (you see? all that talking was related to my point and not just advertising my friends podcast) even though comedy is the main factor in the sam and max series what really ties it all together is the relationship between the two titular characters...and i truly truly believe sam and max wouldnt be nearly as good and funny as it is if sam and max werent written so well as two  individuals who genuinely and whole heartedly care about each other. Theyre best friends and theres no question about it! and its not even written in a way where in chapter one a narrator has to say “this is a story about two best friends” you just have to fuckin LOOK at them for a minute to see, and their office especially which is usually the starting place for each series (its where we first meet sam and max in both the cartoon and games and i BELIEVE the comics...somewhere in the real early ones?) Like they have photos of themselves and eachother plastered all over the walls, they have family photos and pictures of themselves together as children, you see maxs doodles everywhere in the office, he scratched his name into sams desk, its a very LIVED IN if not NASTY space that tells you right away “ok these guys have known eachother for years”, dialogue really helps push this too (now im mostly referencing the games) like sam commenting “i bought this punching bag for max.”, “hey max whered you put this”, “hey max did you feed hubert”, etc etc, when looking at the photos they reminisce, their banter with eachother is just. VERY believable as best friends talking. especially when its sprinkled in with dialogue of them just casually chatting. Most of the time when you talk to max he just says something funny or gives a hint or whatever but sometimes theres dialogue where they just talk to eachother and its like “oh no punchline. they just wanted to chat. ok <3″ and its just very sweet. the “whats your favorite color max?” “orange!” “hey mine too! after all these years theres still so much we dont know about eachother :)” dialogue comes to mind...it made me smile...I think whats also sweet is that sam and max are very OPENLY affectionate with eachother! Sam calls max cute a LOT theyre very touchy feely with eachother, sam is constantly holding onto or touching max, max compliments sam a lot...they tease eachother and max clocks sam to wake him up every morning and sam loves to throw him out the window but well. thats how they show affection <3 also how when sam and max are separated theyre so blatantly miserable and especially sam is super overly worried about max every time something happens to him LOL and i think THESE moments hit all the better because of their well written friendship! its why the rare serious moment in sam and max works and doesnt feel out of place. its because you already know so hard that sam and max love eachother (and like, only each other theyre pretty self centered and dont give much of a fuck about anyone else) so like you as the viewer will be like “oh no! max got kidnapped again! sam is gonna be worried sick!!” and then he is. Because the public already knows how much they care about each other...its not a secret...you cant hide it....i KNOW you care the max

TLDR sams friendship is really well written great job mr purcell youve made some great gay people

#asks #long post #my excuse for writing all this is that i have autism

[calliecat93]

ST: The Next Generation Season Two Episodes 19-22.

Manhunt: Lwaxana is back… yay. Yeah I made it no secret that I thought that she was uttery obnoxious in her first episode even if Majel Barret played her very well, and when I read the description for this I became even less enthused about her return. I’ll give her points in that she does seem to be a better mother towards Troi this time around. But… yeah this episode did nothing to make me like her better, if anything her advances on Picard who clearly didn’t feel the same way only made me dislike her more. Admittedly Picard calling in Data to ramble about different cultures was funny, but still I am NOT liking Troi’s mother at all, coming off as more obnoxious and forceful than sympathetic. Looking for a new husband is perfectly fine, but it’s not funny at least to me and no the explanation about a Betazoid woman’s s*x drive increasing at middle age doesn’t make it any better especially when she tries to make Riker marry her. I guess it was funnier than the last one since only the ‘can you continue the petty bickering’ line got me to laugh, but somehow this one annoys me more. I like the dress uniform being an actual dress though and the men wearing it with no complaints. In your face gender norms! Otherwise outside a few amusing bits like the holodeck scenes and me feeling bad for Picard and Troi, I very much disliked this episode and it may be my least favorite thus far this season. 1/5

The Emissary: More romance, yippee… this time it’s Worf and a half Klingon, half human emissary. I really liked K’Ehleyr. The actress was freakin’ excellent and her character, a woman struggling with two sides and seems utterly afraid of her Klingon half as well as a general distrust f Klingons makes her very interesting. It feels kinda bigoted but still adds character. Or I just really like tough women and that’s why I liked her, but still. Also she was totally flirting with Troi. You cannot convince me that she wasn’t. As far as her and Worf being old flames go… didn’t really feel it? Maybe I’m just not into the whole old flames dynamic or the flirting with Troi got to me, but eh. Not sure how I feel about Worf’s part of it. It kinda feels like he wanted to force a marriage thag K’Ehleyr made clear that she wasn’t ready for, but I guess his insecurites about being a human-raised Klingon out of touch with his culture remains if I’m reading things right. And the climax shows how his experience in Starfleet has done good for him and his Klingon knowledge ultimately saved the day. All in all, it was an okay episode. No strong feelings or opinions. I liked it better than the last one, that’s all I’m certain about. 3/5.

Peak Performance: So for this episode we have Riker, Word, Geordi, and Wesley undergoing a simulation/training exercise against the rest of the Enterprise with Riker leading the former. Also on board is an asshole who is supposidly a master strategist and even beats Data in a strategy game. It’s an okay episode. No real strong opinions. I liked seeing Riker’s group being competent and being able to match the Enterprise. The asshole guy insulting Riker’s competency annoyed me because the odd mo ment aside, Riker is a very capable First Officer and leader and if anything his charming, jovial personality makes him someone to inspire others. Data is also down after losing and becomes worried about failing, especially as he’s the acting First Officer with Riker on the other team. It felt like Pulaski kind of relapsed I feel, but she DOES apologize to Data so that’s still better than earlier. Oh and the Ferengi came back, been a while. I think this also shows how being knowledgeable about strategy and using it in a game is NOT the same as actually using those skills in a battlefield or having the experience. Hence why Riker is awesome and the asshole is not. Again, a fine episode. No strong feelings. No strong positive or negative thiughts. It was just fine, and sometimes that’s all I ever ask for. 3/5.

Shades of Gray: Season finale, hooray! I made it~! So how do we end the season? Riker hurting himself on a planet that they know nothing about and is now dying! Of course, wouldn’t be Star Trek if the First Officer didn’t hurt/almost kill himself! So how does this potential for an emotional episode about the loyal, devoted First Officer clinging to life and Troi and his friends/fellow officers facing losing him while trying to find a way to save him? We have… Diker reliving his memories over the past two seasons. That’s right folks, it’s a clip show! Umm… yeah I’m… disappointed? I don’t necessarily hate clipshows bit this could have been a really good episode for Riker and allow some emotions, even show how far things had come since the start. Which tbf a clip show can still allow, but as it’s Riker just dreaming through old memories and not the crew reminiscing or talking to him whole he’s sleeping about those memories, the effect a clip show could have… well, fails. It impacts Troi I guess since she’s sensing his emotions, but that’s ot. Also since I know she just gets dropped without even mentioning her, this is Pulaski’s final episode… and she just does her usual doctor thing. Bjt considering the reception towards her that I’ll go into in another post, maybe this is the best sendoff for her. Overall it’s not a bad episode and not even a bad finale necessarily, but it doesn’t really do much. Though I guess it reminds me of why I like Riker at least and remember a few moments, so there’s that XD 2/5

And thus, Season Two is oficially done! It took FAAAR too long to finally get to it and… well I’ll delve into my feelings in the overall thoughts post that I’ll hopefully have ready for tomorrow. For now, let’s just say you never knew what you were getting. It’s been a ride though, that’s for sure. I’ll begin Season 3 on Tuesday and we’ll see what awaits us thrn. Until then, it may have taken a while to get back underway, but the S2 journey is complete. But there’s still much more to go.

#st watchthrough

[daleisgreat]

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season Five

-Greetings and thanks for joining me for my semi-annual coverage of marching through Star Trek: The Next Generation. Today I am covering season five (trailer) of the BluRay collection that I continue to ever-so-slowly progress through at one or two episodes a week. I started season five off in February and wrapped it up a couple days ago by watching at this rate. Part of the side effect of that was taking advantage of extended free trials of CBS All Access and binging through all of Picard and the first two seasons of Discovery within two months while keeping up with an episode or two a week of season five of TNG. There happens to be a couple episodes of this season of TNG that play a notable role in Picard, so the timing of it all gelling together was a lucky coincidence. I gave brief recaps of both Picard and Discovery in my annual TV season recap blog that can be found by click or pressing here. I apologize in advance for the questionable-in-quality pics in this entry from my ancient Samsung Galaxy S7 which makes it worth it to grab so many subtitle moments from this season! -The only notable cast change this season is the addition of Ro Laren (Michelle Forbes). She becomes a recurring character this season as someone who is essentially introduced as coming off work release after a court martial and working her way back into Starfleet in the lowest rack of Ensign and serves primarily at the helm of the bridge. Forbes is fantastic as Ro and she has a few landmark episodes this season with my favorite of hers being “The Next Phase” where Ro and Geordi (LeVar Burton) are de-moleculed and appear as ghosts to the rest of the ship who responds by throwing a funeral for them in the form of a Mardi Gras-esque party at Ten Forward. Forbes is absolutely sublime here in Ro’s pining curiosity at how Riker (Jonathon Frakes) will eulogize her.

-This was a big episode for other recurring characters this season too. That is kind of a big deal considering season five is the only season of the series without a Q (John de Lancie) episode. I like how they find new ways to bring back Denise Crosby, who was shown as a mysterious cliffhanger to the end of the two-part arc of “Redemption” that finished off season four. It picks up in a big way with how Denise Crosby’s new character is connected to Tasha, and how the Romulans get involved in the never-ending civil war of the Klingons that eventually has the gratifying conclusion of Worf winning back his honor among Klingons. Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) has her biggest role yet in the series this season in the two-parter “Time’s Arrow” that has the first part wrap-up season five where we discover the origin of Guinan in the 1890s as the Enterprise crew time travels back then and also encounters an antagonistic Mark Twain in an intriguing episode. Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) returns for two episodes this season. One is an oddball episode where all on the Enterprise but Wesley and Ensign Lefler (Ashley Judd) are mind controlled by a mysterious augmented reality game. The other episode is much better as Wesley and a few of his squad mates deliver prepared depositions as they are ruthlessly interrogated on the death of one of their peers. The annual Lwaxana (Majel Barrett) episode is about the expected chore to get through in her continued struggles to find a partner where she sets up an arranged marriage that is doomed from the beginning. Props to Chief O’Brien (Colm Meaney) having a kid this season! -Season five marks the addition of two major personal belongings to one Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). One is the iconic jacket he dons throughout most of the season. I have no idea yet if he wears it in the remaining seasons, but it is a slick jacket and gives him a space cowboy type of vibe to him! I bet it sold boatloads in merchandise! The other item is a special flute that is gifted to him in “The Inner Light” when Picard’s mind engages in a Inception-like lifetime of memories in the span of under a half hour where he experiences an all new culture and life. It is a delight of an episode I appreciate the more I reflect upon it. I later learned in the bonus interviews that this flute melody became a common occurrence at weddings.

-I want to make sure to give kudos to some of my other favorite episodes this season. I loved seeing Spock (Leonard Nimoy) finally make an appearance on TNG. At this point of the show, appearances from the core Original Series crew has been extremely rare and limited, but TNG gets the most out of Nimoy with him playing a major role in another two-part arc where Spock tries to reunite the Romulans back into the Federation of Planets. One of the top episodes this season is “Ethics” where an accident leaves Worf (Michael Dorn) paralyzed and according Klingon ritual must self-sacrifice himself for the greater good. This results in some of the best speeches of the season where Riker and Picard implore Worf to reconsider before Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) impresses with her surprisingly improving doctor skillset to resolve Worf’s paralysis. An episode that initially appears to have a silly premise, but I outright loved by the end is “Darmok.” Picard winds up stuck on an island with an individual of an undiscovered species that only speaks in metaphors. Picard is as baffled as me trying to decipher the metaphors at first, but gradually picks up on it and by the episode’s end forms a kindship with him as the duo team up against a new threat. “I, Borg” is an episode that plays into Picard later on that sees the Enterprise take in an injured Borg and give it the ability to have independent thought again.

A guilty pleasure TV theme of mine in recent years is the time loop episode theme in the form of Groundhog’s Day. Discovery had a terrific rendition of it in its second season. I was thrilled to see TNG do their version of a time loop episode in “Cause and Effect.” It has a banger of an opening that sees that Enterprise exploding and eventually the scenes start to repeat that sees the crew start to recognize their situation and attempt to find a way out of the time loop. I came to discover in the bonus interviews that this episode preceded Groundhog’s Day by nearly two years, and unlike that film and all the TV shows that have pay homage to it over the years, TNG plays it in a serious manner and not as a comedy, but the writing for it is so well done that it works and is pulled off in a way that had me invested until the end! -While there were a fair amount of standout episodes this season, I would be remiss if I were not to go this far and fail to mention there were several clunkers. Some of the ones I recommend skipping is where Riker falls for an androgynous being that has a non-committal ending and the episode plays out totally differently today than it was intended then. Another dud is where them dang Ferangi are up to no good again in failing to kidnap a seductive being that has a strong desire for Picard. The biggest abnormality this season is where according to my notes I surmised the episode as ‘imaginary friend comes to life, blargh!’ Trust me on that being all you need to know on the astutely titled episode, “Imaginary Friend.”

-I want to once again give a shoutout to the podcast, Star Trek: The Next Conversation. Hosts Andrew Secunda and Matt Mira breakdown every episode of TNG and help provide ample background, facts and insight with their analysis of each episode. Because of re-watching TNG and combined with their podcast I have been able to better pickup on countless TNG references in other TV shows and podcasts over these past couple years. Click or press here to give them a listen if you have not already. -There are nearly four and a half hours of extra features that are nicely spread out across all six discs. In addition, there are also four episodes that have commentary from cast and crew with one noteworthy highlight being Orville creator, Seth McFarlane guesting on the commentary for “Cause and Effect.” A lot of the bonus extra are carried over from the original DVDs, but like previous seasons there are a couple of new HD bonuses for the BluRay. Mission Overview deep dives into the production of a couple of my favorite episodes of the season, “Darmok” and Spok’s return in “Unification.” Tribute to Gene Roddenbury has clips of speeches from various Star Trek luminaries at a building dedication to Gene and has fond memories from the cast and crew of Gene. Intergalactic Guest Stars interviews many of the aforementioned recurring characters on why they keep coming back on.

These next two are new HD bonuses for the BluRay. The Music of TNG is an in-depth 75 minute discussion with three composers from the series that I truly appreciated hearing the composers dissect some of the most memorable scores and melodies of TNG history. Finally, Requiem is a two part, hour long look about writing the controversial conflicts that have been touched on throughout the run of TNG, and also has additional tributes and testimonials on Gene Roddenbury. Both are excellent thorough takes on both subject matters, and if you dig bonus features as much as I do, then I highly recommend both of them! -Season five of The Next Generation continues the success of seasons three and four. I would only mark it a notch under those two strong seasons because there seems to be a few weaker episodes this season than in the previous two. I gathered from the bonus interviews that it seemed that this season tried to go all out exploring new conflicts and themes, and sometimes it worked exceptionally well in the cause of “Cause and Effect” but other times it worked against them a few more times than usual this season. Overall though I would still rank this in the upper tier of TNG season and hope to see the final two season keep up this high bar of quality. 

Past TV/Web Series Blogs 2013-14 TV Season Recap 2014-15 TV Season Recap 2015-16 TV Season Recap 2016-17 TV Season Recap 2017-18 TV Season Recap 2018-19 TV Season Recap 2019-20 TV Season Recap Adventures of Briscoe County Jr: The Complete Series Baseball: A Ken Burns series Angry Videogame Nerd Home Video Collections Cobra Kai – Seasons 1-2 Mortal Kombat: Legacy - Season 1 | Season 2 OJ: Made in America: 30 for 30 RedvsBlue - Seasons 1-13 Roseanne – Seasons 1-9 Seinfeld - Final Season Star Trek: Next Generation – Seasons 1-7 Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle Superheroes: Pioneers of Television The Vietnam War: A Ken Burns series X-Men – The Animated Series: Volumes 4-5

#star trek #star trek the next generation #Patrick Stewart #jonathan frakes #gates mcfadden #Marina Sirtis #levar burton #Wil Wheaton #Leonard Nimoy #whoopi goldberg #Michael Dorn #Ashley Judd

[houseswolo]

Day 7 - ‘Tis The Season To Be Thirsting

“That star belongs to me!”

While Rey and Kylo tussle for the star, here are today’s Thristies!

LostInQueue

(Tumblr: @lostinqueue-ffa​ | Twitter: LQffa | Ao3: LostInQueue)

What got you into Star Wars?

Hubs. I never watched it until after I was married. Let's just say my parents were against us watching TV... "go play outside" was all I really knew until hubs and I were married. Heh.

What made you a Reylo? Lightbulb moment!

That was a surprise actually. I mean, I noticed it in the movies, and hoped it wasn't just actor to actress interests there... but I'm a fabric designer and was looking for references for a handful of characters including Kylo to morph into a specific art style (I can't really contractually talk about) when I came across a Reylo anime style piece and that solidified it for me. The more I researched that the more I realized it wasn't just me that thought Reylo was a thing. I'm still squealing about it every time I read reylo fanfic. <3

Why do you write / make art?

Because it is fun and I'm usually inspired by others to go forward with it. I like the excitement it brings to others too :)

Which part of Adam do you like the best? 

His drive. I can get behind that. He's got the looks and that is wonderful, but the drive to be the best and the intensity he's been said to have on screen and on stage is admirable. I'm scared stupid on stage. lol...

Favorite Star Wars Movie

The Last Jedi

What do you like to write / draw / paint the most?

Action in all three. I love the angles, the way the world reacts to cause and effect, all of it. There's an intensity there that I can’t quite explain but I love it!

Your TRoS Prediction

That I'm going to drink too much soda and miss something important.

If you were an aesthetic... (colors, images, feels....)

I'd be warm fuzzy socks and a warm blanket. If I had to be a place though, I think I'd be a tall cliff looking over the ocean at sunset.

If you were a candy bar, what would your name be?

(no idea - totally open for what you guys think)

What's your ideal environment for writing / creating? 

A nice warm room - but not too warm because I will fall asleep.

Are you a dom or sub? 

Dom in life, sub in the bedroom. If I never met you guys, I would NEVER have had the courage to write that. :P

What's the most exotic/wierd place you've gotten intimate?

Field hockey fence... yes... outside at night...

What's your kink?

arms... eyes... hair... yep, definitely arms. Can't go wrong with feeling safe.

Use three words to describe yourself.

Kind, Optomistic, Strong

Meaning behind your nick / ID name

Oh, I always went by another one and sort of wanted to distance myself from it because it’s my gaming ID. But May is my slow month for work and I just finished a huge project by then, because of this I sort of fell down the fanfic hole and started writing in between projects. When I finally had the chance to make an Ao3 LostInQueue was born. It literally means I'm between work and play.

Are you a big spoon or little spoon?

little spoon.

Do you like it rough or soft? 

Rough. I put my all into life, I better get his all... O_O I'm just sayin...

Favorite toy

I can’t honestly say.

Favorite fic you read

Rolling the Dice by our very own MizuPhoenix  - It mixes all of the nerdy awesomeness I never knew I needed in a fic.

Favorite fic you wrote or favorite art you made

While I absolutely love Stars... It's a solid tie between Rey's Mechanics and Triggered. Rey's Mechanics was my first go at an AU and that opened up my nerdiness with Triggered. I've had fun in the craft ever since.

Favorite SW character besides Kylo and Rey

Rose, then Finn, can I have both of them as a favorite?

_________

Kaybohls

(Tumblr: @kaybohls​ | Twitter: kaybohls | Ao3: kaybohls)

What got you into Star Wars?

I was raised by a die-hard trekkie. Watching Star Trek was a weekly occurrence and something super special in our family. I have vivid memories of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and pretended to be Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge with plastic headbands over my eyes acting as my visor. When I was still a little girl, I begged and pleaded with my Trekkie single dad to let me see "the space one with the princess" and the rest is history. Headband visors became braid and hair buns, and "make it so" turned into "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope." Let's save the discussion of my teenaged obsession with Han Solo for another time...

What made you a Reylo? Lightbulb moment!

I'll admit, I had the tiniest inkling of a feeling during the interrogation scene in The Force Awakens that was instantly forgotten the second that Kylo Ren, hot as he may be, killed my first true, love - Han Solo. It took time and many more viewing to understand more about the character, and by the time The Last Jedi rolled around, the INSTANT the first force bond started, I WAS ALL IN.

Which Adam look do you like the best?

It's hard to say, I love when he's in full Swolo mode, but I really can't describe how much I am loving his slimmed down, "normal" Adam look he's been sporting lately.

Which Adam avatar/ role do you like the best?

Kylo Ben, forever and ever. There's some characters I love as well, some I love to hate, but Ben will always be my top pick.

Which part of Adam do you like the best? 

Easy. Dat mouth. His voice. His hands, and his eyes.

Favorite Star Wars Movie

I love ALL Star Wars. Really, I do. They all endlessly fascinate me in their own ways. I can narrow down a favorite from each trilogy, but I am SURE that The Rise of Skywalker will end up at the top of the list.

Your TRoS Prediction

I love to speculate. My friends will agree, and my family will roll their eyes, but the ONLY thing I can predict with absolute certainty, is that I will love it, no matter what. After all, it's Star Wars.

If you were an aesthetic... (colors, images, feels....)

This is probably a question best asked of someone else because, while I am a weaver of words, I find it impossible to do it for myself, haha!

What's your ideal environment for writing / creating? 

My Star Wars shrine of an office and zero interruptions. Music is a must. I get an astonishing amount of work done when I’m locked in a dark room with noise-canceling headphones on.

Are you a dom or a sub?

Dom, definitely.

What's the most exotic/wierd place you've gotten intimate?

A charter bus. How, when, and what is a good story for another time.

Use three words to describe yourself

If I hyphenate, can I use more? Awkwardly-charming. Protective. Clever.

Meaning behind your nick / ID name

It’s a combination of my middle and last names because, for a creative writer, I couldn’t come up with anything more interesting. 😂

Are you a big spoon or little spoon?

BIG SPOON. I can't fall asleep without cuddling my husband's ass. I HATE being the little spoon - don't stifle me with your love!

Do you like it rough or soft?

Wouldn't you like to know? Hehehe....The romantic writer in me wants to say soft...but I'm a naughty girl...

Favorite toy

Lelo Sona - The OG Goat!

Favorite fic you read

I've read so, SO many amazing fics, but there's a few that really stand out. The Sword of the Jedi (Like Young Gods/To Kingdom Come) will FOREVER be glued to my heart.

Favorite fic you wrote or favorite art you made

Stardust. Forever and always. I could write a hundred things and this one would still be at the top.

Favorite SW character besides Kylo and Rey

Can I pick two? Yes? Okay good. HAN and LEIA.

____________

Meet the Other Thirsties! Thirst Order Advent Calendar Day:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

cc: @tazwren​ @drnucleus​ @ashtyntaytertot​ @deadlikemoi​ @nite0wl29​ @thereylowritingden​ @housedadam​ @houseplaidam​ @house-crylo​ @housereysistance​ @my-jedi-life​ @shestoolazytologin​ @koderenn​ @thoseindarkness​ @areylofan​ @lostinqueue-ffa @queenoferebor @kaybohls @cosmo-gonika @roguesinside @wilsonthinks66 @dangertaylor​

#reylo #reylo fam #reylo fanfic #reylo fanart

[by-ilmater]

devilmaytrans replied to your post: i could talk about star trek for literal hours, do...

Do it :)

alright, dammit, it’s time for today’s edition of “jesus, ash, please shut the fuck up how do you have this many feelings about fucking star trek what the fuck”

behind a cut cuz it got long lol

i already talked about this a bit on twitter, but i have more room to elaborate here so here’s a short list of my favorite tng episodes in no particular order and why i love them:

tapestry: this episode. THIS EPISODE. basic synopsis: picard is hit with a blast the fries his artificial heart and he “dies”. q takes him through the moment in his youth where he got that heart after a bar fight and challenges him to change the past and stop himself from getting in that fight to save his future life. but when picard does this, he returns to a future where he never accomplished any of his greatest feats and is stuck as a crewman just going through the motions. it’s all q’s very roundabout way of telling picard that, despite what he views as the mistakes of his youth, he’s a great man that is perfect just the way he is and that he shouldn’t look back on what made him this way with regret. the dynamic that they have in this episode is so different from all the other times they interact, it’s so soft and casual and it’s so much of q wanting to learn about picard and this is rambly and probably makes no sense but fuck i love it so much.

measure of a man: short synopsis: a starfleet scientist want to dismantle data to continue his research into creating more androids like him. data refuses, as does picard, and after starfleet tries to force data into it by claiming that he’s “their property” picard demands a trial in which he needs to prove that data is sentient and therefore not anyone’s property. this is the shit that i adore star trek for. i am such a slut for discussions of morality pertaining to the sentience of robots and ai and this episode is so fucking raw and poignant. i rewatched it the other day because a lot of the plot of the picard series references this episode and it just makes my heart swell with how much i love this show and these characters.

best of both worlds: this is a 2 parter in which picard is assimilated into the borg. fuck, this episode makes me cry every single time i watch it, without fail. years ago they did a big even for tng’s anniversary where they showed it at movie theatres and eli and i went and i was like “fair warning, i will weep like a baby”. it is just so devastating watching picard have his humanity basically ripped away from him as he’s assimilated and literally used as a weapon against starfleet and the federation. you can feel the fucking raw trauma and ache in his heart after he’s rescued. the episode after this one he takes shore leave to earth to visit his brother and that one also makes me cry, fuck

the next phase: this one is just fun. geordi and ro are in an accident where their bodies get phased between planes, so they can see each other but no one else can see them. the enterprise crew assume they’re dead and data throws a big funeral party and it’s just a lot of fun shenanigans. 

frame of mind: i just like this one cuz it’s dark and fucked up. riker is falling in between hallucinations that he is either in a play on the enterprise or in a mental hospital. turns out he is neither of those things at the end, but what a good mindfuck of an episode. the later seasons are full of this shit and i love it

menage a troi: i just love this one cuz it’s my queen lwaxana troi at her best

q-who: i love all the q episodes, but aside from tapestry, this is my favorite. q forcibly introduces the enterprise to the borg long before they should meet. this episode is tense and full of q and picard having smoldering staring contests and i love it so fucking much. q’s single minded focus on picard in this episode gives me life.

the outcast: this episode is so imperfect, but i love it anyway. riker, known ladies man and big beardy hunk, falls for a member of an androgynous, agender race of aliens. it should be obvious why i love this episode. jonathan frakes has said that they fucked up by not casting a male actor to play his love interest soren and i completely agree and i love him for that. but it’s still pretty good.

chain of command: picard is captured by the cardassians and tortured. if you can’t tell, i am a slut for picard whump. this episode is pretty classic and well known (THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!) so i won’t babble too much about it. it’s just really dark and tense and well written. i recently read an older article on slate comparing this episode to the torture scene in the ‘09 trek movie. here it is, give it a read.

the big goodbye: this one is just simple, good, old fashioned holodeck shenanigans, and that’s all there is to it.   

#devilmaytrans

[tsaomengde]

Tiny Viewing Guide to Star Trek: The Next Generation

Just found out one of my oldest friends, a huge sci fi guy, has never actually seen TNG, or indeed any Trek. He asked if I wouldn't mind writing a viewing guide. Not all that tiny, but the blurb for each episode is tiny. YMMV.

S1

Encounter at Farpoint - Goofy but iconic, series premiere

The Naked Now - Bad but hilarious and a little important

Code of Honor - terrible racist horseshit

The Last Outpost - first time we meet the Ferengi, they're not impressive

Where No One Has Gone Before - interesting enough

Lonely Among Us - I have no memory of this place

Justice - terrible outfits, Wesley episode

The Battle - Picard episode, not terrible

Hide and Q - Riker-centric Q episode, not the best Q episode, not the worst

Haven - first time we meet Lwaxana, don't remember anything else

The Big Goodbye - first of many holodeck episodes, pretty good

Datalore - important!!!

Angel One - totally forgettable

11001001 - meh

Too Short a Season - weird, generally meh

When the Bough Breaks - Wesley episode, don't remember it much

Home Soil - no clue

Coming of Age - more Wesley (can you tell Gene Roddenberry liked the character?), but not bad

Heart of Glory - first time the Klingons get real character, important

The Arsenal of Freedom - automated weaponry is bad, mmkay

Symbiosis - nope, no idea

Skin of Evil - dark, nasty, generally unpleasant episode, important for character reasons

We'll Always Have Paris - genuinely do not remember this one but wiki says there's time travel and that's always fun

Conspiracy - real mixed feelings about this one, it's tense and interesting TV but not really good Trek and it has huge implications that are never revisited

The Neutral Zone - Romulans are reintroduced, pretty cool

S2

The Child - pretty decent Troi episode

Where Silence Has Lease - interesting space puzzle episode sprinkled with Picard philosophizing

Elementary, Dear Data - first Sherlock!Data holodeck episode, excellent stuff

The Outrageous Okona - weeeaaaak, but kind of funny

Loud As A Whisper - cool deaf character, cringey late-80s implementation

The Schizoid Man - Data episode, good acting, cringey dialogue

Unnatural Selection - Pulaski-centric, and I dislike Pulaski so this is a pass for me

A Matter Of Honor - Riker serves on a Klingon warship, some good stuff

The Measure of A Man - Easily a top 10 Trek episode of all time

The Dauphin - Wesley has a crush, receives terrible romantic advice from entire crew

Contagion - interesting lethal archaeology

The Royale - love this episode, it's terrible and bad science but I love it

Time Squared - weird time-travel stuff, not one of the best

The Icarus Factor - lot of good character stuff, terrible future martial arts

Pen Pals - excellent Data episode, thoughts about the Prime Directive

Q Who - WATCH THIS ONE

Samaritan Snare - bad episode, funny moments

Up The Long Ladder - holy shit the Irish racism

Manhunt - Lwaxana Troi at her best, love it

The Emissary - Amazing Klingon stuff

Peak Performance - good episode, lots of fun character bits

Shades of Gray - TERRIBLE CLIP SHOW AVOID AVOID AVOID

S3

Evolution - Wesley episode, not bad but not great

The Ensigns of Command - Mediocre Data episode

The Survivors - space puzzle episode, OK

Who Watches the Watchers - more prime directive stuff, mildly interesting

The Bonding - interesting stuff about grief

Booby Trap - another space puzzle, high stakes, cool payoff

The Enemy - Pretty good, Romulans

The Price - fun episode

The Vengeance Factor - ehhhhhhhh

The Defector - More Romulan stuff, is good

The Hunted - will 100% make you scream at how terrible security is in the future, not a bad ep though

The High Ground - ugh, just not great

Deja Q - good Q episode

A Matter of Perspective - let's use the holodeck to prove Riker couldn't have committed this crime!

The Offspring - WATCH THIS BUT BRING TISSUES

Sins of the Father - first of many Klingon Politics episodes, I love these with a fiery passion and my wife is bored to tears by them so YMMV

Allegiance - space puzzle, not a great one but not bad

Captain's Holiday - WATCH THIS, IS AMAZING

Tin Man - literally put me to sleep once

Hollow Pursuits - First of many Barclay episodes, my beautiful autistic space boi

The Most Toys - alright, worth one watch

Sarek - SO IMPORTANT WAAAAAAAAAATCH

Menage a Troi - bad episode, worth it for the payoff

Transfigurations - Jason Ironheart called, he knows he came after this episode chronologically but he was better

The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1 - YAAAS

S4

The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2- YAAAAAAAAAAAAAS

Family - So important

Brothers - Very Important

Suddenly Human - meh

Remember Me - very interesting space puzzle, one of the Crusher episodes where she gets to be awesome

Legacy - not the most jaw-dropping ep but important

Reunion - KLINGON POLITICS YEEES

Future Imperfect - interesting enough

Final Mission - Wesley episode, not bad

The Loss - v. good Troi episode

Data's Day - fun, wholesome Data times

The Wounded - SO GOOD AND SO IMPORTANT

Devil's Due - I love this episode even if it's not that important or good

Clues - Awesome space puzzle

First Contact - eh? okay? sure?

Galaxy's Child - fine, whatever

Night Terrors - uuuuugh, no

Identity Crisis - this one scared the fuck out of me as a kid and may be responsible for my deep-seated body-transformation-horror triggers, now it's just kind of weird

The nth Degree - BARCLAY, LOVE HIM AND THIS EP

Qpid - YES SO GOOD

The Drumhead - This is Michael Dorn's favorite episode and it is worthy of the title

Half a Life - Lwaxana is great, the episode not as much

The Host - introduction of the Trill, kind of cringey almost 30 years later

The Mind's Eye - brainwashing stuff, meh

In Theory - Data tries to date, hilarities ensue

Redemption Part 1 - GIVE ME THE KLINGON POLITICS

S5

Redemption Part 2 - MOOOOOOOOOORE

Darmok - One of my top 5 episodes in the series

Ensign Ro - so important, introduces the Bajorans and Ensign Ro

Silicon Avatar - important for Data, not a terribly interesting episode otherwise

Disaster - Troi gets to shine! cool episode

The Game - by far the worst Wesley episode. everyone is seduced into acting like a brainwashed idiot by a terrible space future video game. fuck this episode and everyone who wrote it but especially Brannon Braga.

Unification 1 - WATCH

Unification 2- THESE

A Matter of Time - So good, waaatch

New Ground - I am not a fan of Alexander but he is so important to Worf's growth, so... yeah

Hero Worship - more stuff about grief, eh

Violations - I don't remember this one that much but I do not think I enjoyed it

The Masterpiece Society - read the above description

Conundrum - amazing space puzzle episode. easily one of my favorites in the series

Power Play - meh

Ethics - very important, good Trek

The Outcast - THIS EPISODE COULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER IF THE LOVE INTEREST WAS MALE. JONATHAN FRAKES PUSHED FOR A MALE ACTOR. watch it anyway

Cause and Effect - fun space puzzle, a little repetitive but totally solid

The First Duty - one of the best Picard Speeches ever, watch

Cost of Living - fun Lwaxana episode

The Perfect Mate - pretty meh but Famke Janssen is fun as Kamala

Imaginary Friend - so bored

I, Borg - INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT

The Next Phase - interesting episode about the afterlife

The Inner Light - THIS IS MY FAVORITE EPISODE OF THE ENTIRE SERIES AND I CRY EVERY TIME

Time's Arrow 1 - Such good time travel

S6

Time's Arrow 2 - Such great Mark Twain

Realm of Fear - Yay more Barclay!

Man of the People - bad Troi episode

Relics - WAAAAAAAAAATCH

Schisms - space puzzle, kind of lame payoff due to effects limitations but the journey is worth it

True Q - By far the worst fucking Q episode ever written

Rascals - uuuuuuuugh. half the crew is regressed into children. Ferengi are involved. you are missing nothing.

A Fistful of Datas - amazing dumb holodeck episode, watch

The Quality of Life - boring episode, good message

Chain of Command 1 - So dark, so difficult, so totally riveting and important

Chain of Command 2 - See above

Ship in a Bottle - Sequel to Sherlock!Data, amazing

Aquiel - could have been written much better

Face of the Enemy - by far the best Troi episode, Marina Sirtis was incredibly happy when I told her it was one of my favorites

Tapestry - fantastic Q/Picard episode

Birthright 1 - Basically exists to set up DS9 but is pretty good and has important bits

Birthright 2 - See above

Starship Mine - DIE HARD ON THE ENTERPRISE

Lessons - Very important Picard episode

The Chase - amazing space puzzle episode, has one of my favorite one-off Klingon characters

Frame of Mind - is Riker's entire life a delusion he has created to mentally escape his imprisonment in a mental asylum? spoilers: no

Suspicions - Good mystery episode, Crusher gets to do stuff

Rightful Heir - Very important Worf episode, good Klingon stuff

Second Chances - uh, kind of bad, but it gets referenced later in DS9

Timescape - super interesting space puzzle, amazing character bits

Descent 1 - WAAATCH

S7

Descent 2 - as above

Liaisons - okay. not great. not bad.

Interface - OK Geordi episode

Gambit 1 - Amazing stuff

Gambit 2 - More amazing stuff

Phantasms - Psychological horror? in my Data? it's more likely than you think. watch

Dark Page - one of the few Lwaxana episodes I don't love

Attached - great Picard/Crusher episode

Force of Nature - environmentalism! is! good!

Inheritance - important Data episode

Parallels - SUCH A GOOD WORF EPISODE

The Pegasus - very important Riker episode

Homeward - Interesting Worf and Prime Directive episode

Sub Rosa - so cringey and terrible, oh my God

Lower Decks - a fun change of pace from the main cast

Thine Own Self - I don't love it, but it is good character stuff

Masks - weird space puzzle episode, I love it but I wouldn't call it Great

Eye of the Beholder - space mystery, it's not fantastic

Genesis - look. this episode is not good. but it has amazing costumework by Michael Westmore. and has some great Picard/Data stuff. watch it.

Journey's End - super important stuff. sets up a lot of stuff for DS9 and VOY

Firstborn - Good Worf/Alexander episode

Bloodlines - More Ferengi stuff, kind of lame

Emergence - space puzzle, weird but interesting

Preemptive Strike - So so so so important

All Good Things... - it's the series finale. and some of the best Trek ever. obviously you're going to watch.

#star trek #the next generation #star trek the next generation #st:tng #tng #viewing guide #blurbs #ymmv

[redcoded2]

my favorite tng episodes in no particular order because i said i might do this and i have given up on all my core values and beliefs

(in no particular order)

all good things

my 100% favorite

science !

this is what got me into star trek so yknow

q is highly good in this ep

data + contractions

Future Everyone is very important to me

tapestry

y'all know what's up

it needed to be on here

chaotic neutral q is chaotic

angel one

i actually hate this episode

riker titty

the measure of a man

theres a lot of eps on this list i have nothing to say that hasnt already been said. theres a really solid list of the objectively best episodes and ill only have things to say about ones that Aren't on that list

data good

what is more important than data

deja q

q is petty

10/10

yesterday's enterprise

tasha yar :((

the offspring

i am SOFt on MaiN about this ACTUALLY

:,((((

they deserved better and i am so so so sad lore didnt get to appear and revive his NIECE

im sad about this

sarek

sarek

brothers

i like lore

noonien suck

i like data as well

data's day

keiko and data both make me soft on main

so what's not to like

also who is going to listen to these logs? how does this help anyone

other than me, who has seen this episode. more than once

qpid

this episode wasnt my fav q episode but

its called "qpid" and the netflix description was "an old flame of picard's appears again" and when i first read that i kind of just Stared For A While because that really sounds like its q, right? like im not crazy here? thats what it sounds like?

anyway this gets to be on here because the netflix description is bad

the host

beverly has gorlfreind

in theory

this episode is bad actually

its in here on principle because i dont feel like im legally allowed to leave out a data episode

but i actually really hate this one ngl

ensign ro

ro laren

unification

spock

hero worship

god im soft

everyone shut up i just wanna sit here and look at data

the masterpiece society

geordi gets rights

10/10

cause and effect

cinematic POETRY

i LOVE THIS

THANK U FRAKES FOR THIS EPISODE

i, borg

yeah im soft for hugh, what of it

the inner light

its the inner light

am i supposed to not put it on here??

times arrow

period clothing period clothing pe

a fistful of datas

holy shit

is it considered horny on main if i say hollander made me a sub

i dont care, actually

ive said it and theres no going back

chain of command

its really good

light

frame of mind

more cinematic POETRY

riker deserved better but also he didnt really

riker does theater

like canonically!

descent

i like lore

lore deserved better

i like part ii better than part i

phantasms

[checks notes] bird

sub rosa

ahhaha just kidding

fuck sub rosa

lower decks

TAURIK AND LAVELLE

i love this ep actually

it gave this real uhh different perspective of the show!

insight into characters

taurik and lavelle have the exact same dynamic as k/s. except lavelle is more of a bitch so its a bit less gay. but taurik (the actor said) is framed directly off of spock. so

turns out every single vulcan/human relationship is in fact centered around Weird Gay Banter. can you believe it? i cant.

thine own self

data almost kills an entire village

he saves them tho

did you know that if data doesnt believe he doesnt have emotions, he has emotions?

he spends this episode believing himself to have emotions and hes! ourtwardly emotional for a lot of it!

really beautiful ep. he stares at the stars and swears theres somewhere out there where there is no need or pain. really nice moment

he learns himself to be "different" and hides himself so as to not scare a little girl :(

i lvoe him

masks

must an episode be good

is it not enough for brent spiner to do funny voices

elementary, my dear data

home of sexual

#star trek #tng #i Hate Myself #i talk a lot a bout data

[armada-of-ships-against-antis]

Gush about some of your favorite ships please

Sorry for the long wait, but I think I might be ready for this now. (and before anybody wonders, of course it is in the middle of the night and I should go to bed now! Cause it’s the best time to gush over your ships!)

Okay lets begin with Spirk - man I was raised being a Trekkie and to be honest I never saw the great appeal of Kirk, cause my fucking younger than 10 year old heart already belonged to that vulcan! And I bailed my eyes out when he died! But after Kirk and the crew did everything to bring him back, I was like: Okay Kirk is a good one, okay! Nobody will ever be able to seperate them, only over my dead body. Back then it was more about the friendship but I’ll be dammned if I didn’t become a Spirk shipper some 10 years later when rewatching it. But why stop there, get Bones into the fun, too! Try to provoke that human side of Spock, trigger some unlogical feelings, try to beat him in 3d chess!

Okay bear with me there are three other Star Trek ships I wanna gush about!  I pretty much watched the series in the order they came out, so next was TNG that I saw, and although I loved data to every bit and byte of his android being, I was at a loss for a love interest for him. Okay there is always Geordie I guess or Picard, but TNG never hold a deep appeal for me in that field. So on to DS9. When I saw it as a kid, is was boring shit with all that politics and religion. I was around 18 when I rewatched and then in only the fourth episode I became suddenly aware of how motherfucking much Garak flirted with Julian Bashir! And I fell so deeply in love for their weird dynamic of a young and easily impressible human doctor with a mysterious cardassian spy tailor. I ran around showing scenes with them to people who were not shippers and they agreed, that there was tension. And right there was my first time finding background informations about my ship. It was there! I didn’t just interpret too much!  Andrew Robinson, the actor said himself he thought of Elim Garak as an omnisexual character who had a certain interest in Julian. It was absolutely mindblowing to me (also I started to google what omnisexual meant and found about pansexuality, so this is kinda part of finding my own identity, thanks to the closeted representation of a queer alien in sci-fi show from the 90s)

Okay two more and I’m done with Star Trek. But both are from Voyager. Throughout the series I loved the chemistry between Janeway and Chakotay. The slightly forbidden, the pressure, the loneliness of being captain of a ship so far away she probably would never see her husband again. Tragic shit and so perfect set up.  And then came Seven of Nine and manged to shake things up. Suddenly I was a multi shipper, because I couldn’t decide if she or Chakotay should be with Kathryn. The one was loving, supporting and the other was awkward, learning new things about finding humanity again. One was frowned upon because of their ranks and the other because Seven was still more borg than human in how she behaved. So pretty cold, while also confused a ton of times and Janeway ALWAYS had the time and nerves to explain it to her. Just like the doctor (who speaking between us is also a solid shipping option for Seven!)

Damn I tricked you by forgetting myself, that I did develop a shipping crush on Q x Picard. Damn have you ever seen those two interacting. The cockiness in the room, the mocking tone, the resistance. Have you seen those scenes you could perfectly take out of context and already have a “morning after sex” scenario?

Good now let’s take a deep breath and come to the Harry Potter fandom. Or in my case Severus Snape’s playground to be shipped to literally everybody! If it had Snape in it, I would read Everything during that time. Snarry was my most favourite, followed by Snape x Lucius, Remus, Sirius. But I also was looking into x Hermione, Draco, Lily, James, McGonagall, Dumbledore, Ron, Neville (Oh what a small and angsty ship), Bellatrix, Voldemort, Narcissa, Tonks, hell I even read one with Hagrid! (Okay I admit I didn’t enjoy that). Snape was my shipping bitch. Beside that I was of course loving Sirius x Remus.

Okay we move a tiny bit backwards in my life timeline, because before I started to excessively ship my ship bitch with everybody that was breathing, I had a rare ship in Final Fantasy (VII to be more precisely). Hojo x Vincent. You know just your ordinary crazy, mentally instable old (as in probably 60 years old) mad scientist having his way with a young agent from a special task force who canonly had a love interest in his wife… yeah. You know the totally normal stuff you ship every day!  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

I mean I also had the regular Cloud x Sephiroth, Cid x Vincent, Cloud x Tifa, Tifa x Aeris, Reno x Rude or Rufus and so on, but hell yeah I wrote one of my longest fanfictions with most of my OCs for Hojo and Vincent and someone commented on it. That person became my fucking best friend for now over 13 years who went with me through so much shit but is still my shipping partner in crime till now.

Together we discovered the movie Megamind and watched it more than 10 times in one week! We were so instantly on board with Megamind x Roxanne that it nearly hurt. And when we started an rpg, we shipped the fuck out of them, gave Minion a mermaid to love and that was the most perfect and sweet shit. They are just adorable! He’s such a goofball, sick with love only hold back because of his supervillain image.

I also met my second girlfriend via fanfiction comment. I had written a smut one shot about Tarrant Hightopp, the mad Hatter with ‘his’ Alice. That was also the first one I attempted to translate into English. When we met for the first time, we also watched Alice in Wonderland around 10 times together and we were in love with the lovely dynamic. We were frustrated when we found out, there was even a kiss in the script that never made it to the fucking screen! It was outrageous! I started to learn how to write a scottish accent and strew in some scottish words in our rpg to make it more authentic.

(And after that I managed to pull her into the pit of the Harry Potter fandom, hell I even pulled her into the pit of shipping mlm which she didn’t like until Snupin. But our main ship was suddenly Snape with her OC and we wrote a lot. Like between 2-8k word for one single post in our rpg! In the end we had enough to fill two books. We did even cosplay as them.)

Let’s get back to the Final Fantasy fandom a bit and let me gush over the other ships I had over the years. I’m still a huge Squall x Quistis shipper from part 8 and Laguna x Kiros! I also have an eye on Cifer x Fu-Jin (hah one eye, cause she has a an eyepatch, urgh I know that was a bad joke). And while I started as a big Auron x Tidus shipper, it shifted more to Auron x Rikku. I shipped them when I was about 15 (her age) and I thought I wasn’t allowed to do that, so I made a whole fucking AU where she was older and it developed into a totally original story of my own, which I have never ever written down even one page). With X-2 I satisfied myself with Paine x Rikku, they were such cute opposites of each other, I couldn’t resist! Only some years ago I played FF 15 and damn it was a shipping paradise again for me. Like all of the four protagonists are a match for each other! And then Ardyn appeared and made me weak in the knees. So Ardyn x Noctis but also just because those the truly most favorite characters: Ardyn x Ignis. Not exactly the fluffy happy stuff, I can tell you that. Manipulation, angst, abuse it had it all.

I can’t talk about Final Fantasy and leave Kingdom Hearts out, so yeah I started as a typical Sora x Riku (not Rikku from FF 10) fangirl and with part 2 I also feel for Axel x Roxas. I know, I know but at least with Organisation 13 you had a whole bunch of shippable characters. Just make one or two of them your shipping bitch, in my case Xemnas and Xigbar and ship the shit out those guys with everybody you can think of in the organisation.

And when we are already talking about Kingdom Hearts, I just jump into Disney a bit. Like every girls dream was to find their prince, ect and I was like: yeah Mulan and Shan Yu seem to fit nicely… Frollo is a fucking ass creep, but damn that scene in the cathedral when he sniffs Esmeraldas hair… Jasemine you look good in that red slave outfit for Jafar to be honest and dear Adam, you should have stayed a beast for Belle. Happy ruining your childhood. You’re welcome. :D Not that I shiped those during seeing those movies the first time, but you know I rewatch stuff!

Good okay let’s check the watch… good 1 hour later…. I’m not gonna finish this any time soon…. I’m sorry. I just tried to make a list of ships that seem important to me and I would probably write another hour or two. I just hope this satisfies you for the moment ;)

If you or anybody else wants to hear about more video game, movies or series ships and me writing an essay about that shit… feel free to ask I guess LMAO

Good Night dear people (or maybe not I see 15 messages on my dash)

#ask me #armada #too many fucking fandoms to tag!!

[bareilles-tveit]

Raleigh Supercon 7/15/17- Morning through LeVar Burton Panel

Day two aka the day I meet LeVar Burton and Michael Rooker

I met up with my friends and headed towards the convention center around 10:30.  This was the day that I did my cosplay, so I got up early and my sister helped me with my hair, cause I’m horrible with trying to copy youtube tutorials.  It didn’t turn out how I wanted it exactly, but I still think I looked pretty good.  

Two of my friends had to get their passes this day so my other friend and I just went inside the door and people watched while we waited for them.  While we were waiting we watched as this guy unfolded this suit out of his bag and got inside it.  It inflated and he became Baymax, it was so cool.  Naturally we couldn’t resist getting a photo.  

We went upstairs to the ballroom for the LeVar Burton panel.   We managed to all find seats together and settled in for the first panel of the day.  I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that his panel mostly centered around “Reading Rainbow”.  There were a couple of questions about Star Trek, including one person that asked about fanfic.  Which is my personal pet peeve, but LeVar took it in stride and actually got kind of excited talking about the fact that he just learned about people writing Geordi/Data fic.  The questioner made a comment about disliking the trend to make people gay that turned the line of questioning in a whole new direction.  And the moderator basically made a comment along the lines of “we don’t judge here, you do you boo boo”.  One funny moment was when he was asked if Geordi’s visor was modeled after a woman’s banana clip.  He confirmed that it was and then asked for a show of hands how many of us ran around the house with clips over our eyes to pretend to be Geordi.  Side note you know you are among your people when more than half of the hands in the audience go up.

There were a lot of great questions including one about which theme song he preferred the original or the Chaka Khan.  He basically said that Khan version was a big deal for him because he loved her, but the original would always hold a bigger place in his heart.  (This question also got a shout out for being one that he had never heard before).  

He talked so much about books and reading.  It was so nice to hear from someone who loves books as much as I do.  There were several points during his panel where I literally got goosebumps because what he was saying was so powerful.    His passion for reading and his desire to share that love with others was so palpable.  The more he spoke, the more I realized what a huge impact he had on me growing up.  I can remember coming home from school and being so excited to watch a new episode of “Reading Rainbow”.  I remember the excitement I had when a teacher announced that we would be watching it in school.  I’m so thankful for all the books that show introduced me to that I never would have had exposure to.  How amazing was it that a black man in the 80′s hosted a show about reading and got to choose from a variety of books.  Books that meant a lot to him and expose them to a wider audience.  

He talked about his podcast “LeVar Burton reads” where he reads short stories every week.  I would highly recommend checking it out, I came home and downloaded almost all of them.  My personal favorite question came from a girl who asked what book he would memorize if he was living in a Fahrenheit 451 world.   His response was anything by Octavia Butler.  And Kindred is one of my favorite books ever.  So my friend Liz and I started cheering really loudly.  The moderator heard/saw us and pointed us out to LeVar saying “there are two girls back there that are really big Octavia Butler fans”. Giving how far back in the crowd we were, it was pretty cool to be called out like that.  

Overall, I left the panel feeling really inspired and feeling as though LeVar Burton was an absolute sweetheart.  If you have a chance to attend a panel with him, I would highly recommended it.

#texty texty texty #Raleigh Supercon #LeVar Burton

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek: Lower Decks Episode 1 Easter Eggs and References

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This Star Trek: Lower Decks article contains spoilers for “Second Contact.”

Individual episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks will only be about 30-minutes, sometimes a little bit less. But don’t let that fool you. This series has Trekkie Easter eggs the way the Deep Space Station K-7 has Tribbles. Just when you think you’ve found the last one, there’s another one. The new animated comedy series is clearly lovingly crafted with the fans in mind, and showrunner Mike McMahan has slipped in more than just a few loving nods to the giant Trek canon. 

Because Lower Decks is so meta and self-referential, it’s very possible we didn’t catch everything. But, just like Mariner and her buds, we tried to be scrappy underdogs and do our own research. So, at the risk of being wrong, here’s (probably) every Easter egg and reference we spotted in Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1, Episode 1, “Second Contact.”

The classic Spacedock

The opening shot of Lower Decks shows us a style of Spacedock that should be very familiar to longtime fans. Though this exact Spacedock is not supposed to be the same one that is in orbit of Earth, it looks identical to that specific design of space station. First seen in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, this style of Spacedock would reappear in stock footage for several episodes of The Next Generation and was referenced in the Voyager episode “Non Sequitur.” In the Discovery Season 1 finale, “Will You Take My Hand?” we saw the classic Spacedock under construction above Earth, but it’s been a very long time since we’ve seen this exact design in canon.

Romulan whiskey

This one you know. Mariner is drunk on Romulan Whiskey, which seems to be as potent — if not more potent — than Romulan Ale. Starting with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Romulan Ale had a reputation for getting you so drunk that it was made illegal. Boimler suggest that Romulan Whiskey is “against regulations,” which is close enough. But, Mariner’s comment that “you’d think it would be green,” might reference all the green Romulan ships, but could also be a reference to Scotty getting drunk in the TOS episode “By Any Other Name.” In that episode, when Scotty found a bottle of booze he couldn’t identify, he just said: “It’s green.”

Mariner swings a TNG-era bat’leth

Like the old-school Spacedock, it’s actually been a while since we’ve seen the classic version of the bat’leth. First appearing in the TNG 4th season episode “Reunion,” this curved sword became a staple of Klingon culture throughout the franchise. And though we’ve seen bat’leths in both seasons of Discovery, and in the film Star Trek Into Darkness, it’s actually not been since the Voyager era that we’ve seen this classic design. 

Klingon with an eyepatch

Mariner says she got her bat’leth from an “Old Guy with an eyepatch.” While this could be a random reference, most fans probably think of the Klingon General Chang, from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Chang, of course, is dead (maybe?) so Mariner can’t be talking about him. General Martok from Deep Space Nine has one eye, so maybe it’s him?

Black hole is from Discovery (and real science)

The opening title sequence of Lower Decks obviously pays homage to the openings of both TNG and Voyager, but that yellow oval-looking spatial disturbance is actually a black hole. In fact, this is how an illusionary black hole looked in the Discovery episode, “If Memory Serves.” The design of this black hole is based on physicist Kip Thorne’s conception of black hole, and the design was first seen in a big sci-fi production in the 2014 movie Interstellar.  

The USS Cerritos pulls a Voyager 

The moment where the Cerritos skims the surface of an icy planet is very reminiscent of the opening of Voyager. The difference here is that Voyager didn’t actually scrape the ship on the planet.

Space creature is a TNG shout-out

When we see that there’s a little (actually huge!) space critter attached to the back of the Cerritos’ warp nacelles, this feels like a reference to the TNG episode “Galaxy’s Child,” in which a space bourne lifeform attaches itself to the Enterprise because it thinks the starship is its mother. 

TNG era font and the name of the episode actually listened in the credits

The blue font is instantly recognizable to most fans as the exact same kind used throughout TNG. But, on top of that, this is the first new Star Trek series since Enterprise to actually put the name of the episode in quotes, and in the on-screen credits. Other than Short Treks, none of the post-Enterprise Trek series have shown the name of the episodes in the opening credits.

Shuttlecraft names reference DS9 and the name of the Cerritos itself

All the shuttlecraft on the Cerritos appear to named after forests in California. We see shuttlecraft with the following names: Redwood, Yosemite, and Joshua Tree. The Cerritos itself is named for the city in California of the same name. Later in the episode, we see that Captain Freeman has the state flag of California in her Ready Room. And, naming small spacecraft after locations comes from a solid Trek tradition: In Deep Space Nine all the runabouts were named for rivers on Earth; i.e the Ganges, Orinoco, and Yangtze Kiang.

Several classic Trek aliens are seen throughout the ship

When Tendi arrives on the Cerritos, we see crewmembers who are Benzite, Andorian, and possibly a Napean. That last one might not be familiar, but there was a Napean named Daniel Kwan who was central to the plot of the TNG episode “Eye of the Beholder.” The Benzites first appeared on TNG in “Coming of Age,” and the Anodrians first appeared on TOS in “Journey to Babel.” And, of course, Tendi is an Orion, who first appeared in “The Cage.”

At least two crewmembers are rocking VISORS

When Tendi first boards the Cerritos we see a crewmember wearing a VISOR just like Geordi’s from TNG. Later in the episode, we see a second, different crewmember also wearing a VISOR.

“Banana, hot”

The replicator malfunction, which is causing it to spit out bananas, seems to reference Picard ordering “Tea, Earl Grey. Hot” in The Next Generation.  

“We don’t wash our hands”

Mariner jokes that the ensigns in the “lower decks” “don’t wash our hands…we’re doing kickflips.” This might be a reference to the TOS episode “The Naked Time,” in which a “redshirt” crewmember fails to follow correct decontamination protocols, and, as a result, the entire crew is infected with a virus. So, Mariner’s line could reference both “The Naked Time,” and the rest of the episode, since the entire plot revolves around the ship getting infected by a zombie virus, partially because Commander Ransom didn’t really pay attention to a bug that bit him.

Pattern buffers and Cetacean ops

While Mariner gives Tendi a full tour of the ship, she mentions several things that should be familiar to fans. The “pattern buffer maintenance access,” is connected to how the transporter works. For example, in the TNG episode “Relics,” Scotty was discovered inside of a pattern buffer from a crashed starship. 

But, the more hilarious super deep cut here is the phrase “Cetacean ops.” This was heard over the intercom in the TNG episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” but in the episode “The Perfect Mate,” it was also mentioned that there were dolphins on the Enterprise. 

“We sleep in a hallway.”

Mariner points out that the ensigns on the Cerritos don’t have their own quarters, and basically sleep in a row of bunks in a long hallway. While this may seem spartan for the swanky 24th century, there is a precedent for this. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, we saw several young crew members sleeping in bunks in what looked like a hallway.

Sonic showers

Boimler mentions that the showers are musty, which shouldn’t make sense since they are “sonic.” The idea that the showers on Starfleet ships use “sonic showers” has existed since Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in which the V’Ger probe transformed into Ilia in a sonic shower.

Boimler appears to reference… Anakin Skywalker?

When Tendi, Boimler, and Mariner are on the beach in the holodeck, Boimler complains that sand “just gets everywhere and gives you a rash.” The idea that sand “gets everywhere” feels like a reference to the infamous Anakin Skywalker speech in Attack of the Clones in which he said “I don’t like sand. It’s rough and coarse, and it gets everywhere.” Is Star Trek clowning on the Star Wars prequels? 

Freeman’s secret assignment to Boimler is a wink to the OG “Lower Decks”

When Freeman pulls Boimler into her Ready Room to give him a secret assignment, it seems to reference the original TNG episode “Lower Decks” in which Picard gives Ensign Sito a secret assignment in much the same way. The difference, of course, is that Picard wasn’t asking Sito to spy on another crew member.

Freeman stole a hat from… Chris Pine?

In addition to the flag of California in Freeman’s Ready Room, she also has a sword, and what looks like one of the officer caps worn by members of Starfleet in the reboot movies. Did those hats exist in this timeline, too? 

Picard’s favorite ride is back

Previously spotted on a map of the ship, it appears that the Cerritos carries several versions of the “Argo” land vehicles driven by Picard in Star Trek: Nemesis. In that film (which takes place just one year prior to Lower Decks) the Argo seemed to be a new addition to Starfleet ships. So, by 2380, it seems like they’re fairly common. Either that or the Enterprise got theirs late?

Starfleet regulations

Boimler references regulations 498 and 756. Meanwhile, Mariner counters by alluding to regulations 25, 15, and 348. She also says Boimler is breaking “76 for just pointing that at me!”

As far as we can tell, all of these regulations have never been referenced in Trek canon before. We could be wrong, but it really seems that way.

“I was here for First Contact”

Mariner reveals that the reason she’s aware of the plight of some of the farmer aliens is because she was on the planet for the first contact, a year prior. This is kind of like in “A Private Little War,” when Kirk is familiar with the inhabitants of the planet Neural, having previously visited the planet during a scouting mission, years prior.

Klingon prison

Mariner says she’s “been in a Klingon prison where I had to fight a yeti for my own shoes!” This seems to reference the Klingon prison Rura Penthe, made famous in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. In that movie, Kirk had to fight a giant blue alien who wanted his coat.

General Order 5 

This also does not seem to be one of Starfleet’s rules that we’re already aware of. That said,in the TOS episode “Turnabout Intruder,” General Order 4 says Starfleet “forbids the death penalty.” But then again, General Order 7, says you can get the death penalty if you go to Talos IV, as we learned in “The Menagerie.” So, maybe General Order 5 has something to do with punishments? 

First Contact-style spacewalk

When Rutherford and Ensign Barnes take their date outside, their entire journey along the saucer section of the ship’s hull is a direct reference to the film Star Trek: First Contact. This is only appropriate since the episode is called “Second Contact.”

“I’m a believer”

Barnes mentions she’s really into a “classical band” called the Monkees. This, obviously, references the band the Monkees, but the idea that pop or rock music would be called “classical” kind of derives from Star Trek Beyond when Bones asks if the Beastie Boys is “classical music.” And, beyond that, the Monkees reference could be an indirect reference to the character of Chekov in TOS, who was accused on more than one occasion, of having a haircut styled to look like the Monkees. (Who were ripping off the Beatles.)

“Why didn’t the door recognize our com badges?”

Rutherford has a full freak-out over the fact that the automatic doors did not let he and Barnes into a specific area. He also mentions that it seems like the doors have a one 1 in 4 chance of even opening properly. This seems like a giant joke connected to the fact that throughout the entire canon of Trek, the doors never seem to open consistently or with any kind of consistent rules. 

Mirror Spock

For one instant, a Vulcan crewmember on the Cerritos is covered with black goo from the space zombies. This gives him the brief appearance of having a goatee like Spock from the Mirror Universe in the classic TOS episode “Mirror, Mirror.”

Admiral Mariner… we presume?

At the end of the episode, we learn that Mariner is the daughter of Captain Freeman and this Admiral, who, we have to assume is named Mariner, since Mariner’s last name is not Freeman. Either that or Mariner has a last name that is different from both of her parents for entirely different reasons. In fact, we don’t really have a good sense about how human naming conventions work in the 23rd and 24th centuries, mostly because we tend to meet humans that serve in Starfleet more than “civilians.” Although it’s not actually canon, the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (written by Trek creator Gene Roddenberry himself) features a prologue from James T. Kirk in which he explains that having a surname at all is old fashion in the 23rd Century, and that the idea of having a family last name is something people in Starfleet tend to do because they are old fashioned.

This idea is not supported anywhere in canon. But, the Admiral is not actually named Mariner, then it’s possible people in Trek canon can — and often do – just choose their names for themselves well after birth. 

“You’re gonna be Cha’DIch from now on”

When Mariner and Boimler become besties at the end of the episode, Mariner says Boimler will be her “Cha’Dich” from now on. This comes from the TNG episode “Sins of the Father.” A “Cha’Dich” is someone who fights for someone else. It’s an honorable title, but you know, Mariner also is saying that she expects Boimler to fight for her. 

Mariner’s rant about famous Star Trek characters

In a metafictional move, Mariner mentions several famous Starfleet officers, presumably to see if Boimler knows his stuff. Here’s a truncated version of what she says:

“Do you know about Spock? Dude came back from being dead? Got the Genesis device to fight Khan and some space whales. Sulu, he rocked a sword. That was his thing. That could be your thing, too. We’re due for a new sword guy. Do you know about Kirk? My man Worf?…Gary Mitchell? Do you know Deanna Troi, She went from a jumpsuit…”

So, in this brief triad, Mariner references Spock’s death in The Wrath of Khan, his rebirth in The Search For Spock, the events of The Voyage Home, Sulu fighting with a sword in “The Naked Time,” Kirk, Worf, and Gary Mitchell from “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” And, before the credits cut her off, Marnier is referencing the fact that Deanna Troi wore a jumpsuit on the Enterprise before switching to a standard uniform after the episode “Chain of Command.” 

Something funny about this rant is that Mariner gets some of her history slightly wrong. It sounds like she thinks that Spock fought Khan with the Genesis Device, and that the humpback whales were from space. They were, of course, regular whales! They only talked to space probes! This slight hyperbole feels right though. This is the year 2380. Mariner is mostly talking about stuff from the 2280s and the 2260s, meaning a hundred years plus in the past. She’s a fan of the history of Starfleet. But just like this Easter egg list, she can’t catch everything.

Star Trek: Lower Deck airs on Thursdays on CBS All Access.

The post Star Trek: Lower Decks Episode 1 Easter Eggs and References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[sshbpodcast]

Tales from the Holodeck: TNG Fanfic: Caitlin’s Story

A Star to Steer Her By is closing the book on Star Trek: The Next Generation with our much anticipated fanfic series “Tales from the Holodeck”! With our random draws for our special guest characters in hand, we’ve written new adventures for the crew of the Enterprise-D for you to enjoy! Listen to the whole episode here, or read on below for Caitlin’s story!

[images © Paramount/CBS]

“The Pulaski Maneuver”

by Caitlin

Random Picks: Katherine Pulaski, Leah Brahms

She wasn’t exactly what you would call a blonde bombshell, but she was no granny, either -  you could see from her bright eyes and sarcastic smile that she almost certainly broke her share of hearts in her heyday. One of those hearts was the subject of her interest for the evening, and she had dressed the part. Her black synthosilk dress fit just right (just as the slaughter of animals was largely a thing of the past thanks to replicators, they had long ago given up raising silkworms just for some soft, shiny fabric), and she had employed a touch of makeup to accentuate her already enviable features.

Katherine, you look pretty damn good tonight, she thought, looking around her. You could give these kids a run for their money…

She sat at a freshly clothed table in a small restaurant, a silently hovering but empty chair across from her awaiting its occupant. The decor was nothing spectacular, though the holo-chandeliers never ceased to impress new visitors - they cast beautiful pastel light and rotated around the room, creating a soft kaleidoscope effect. She had chosen the spot not just because it was one of her favorites, but also because she knew the lighting would give her that vaseline on a camera lens look, and tonight could be an important night...

Katherine was pulled from her thoughts and hopes for the evening by a familiar voice calling to her from across the room. She saw a handsome dark-skinned man approaching, with shocking bright blue eyes; his dress gave him away as a Starfleet officer, yellow for engineering. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t quite place him.

“Dr. Pulaski! Imagine running into you here!” exclaimed Geordi, leaning down to embrace the former CMO of the Enterprise warmly. “It’s so wonderful to see you - how have you been? How’s the on-planet life?”

“Geordi, how nice to see you,” said Pulaski, remembering at last as she returned his hug stiffly - she was not really a hugging person. “Things have been well - as well as they can be, trying to teach advanced medical courses to students who would rather be adventuring on a star ship already. Not as exciting as my time on board the Enterprise, but when Starfleet Academy calls, you answer. You finally took my advice and got the implants - I almost didn’t recognize you!”

“Oh, right - you haven’t seen me out of my visor!” he grinned. He decided to skip telling her about the time he grew new, fully functional eyes - Pulaski wasn’t the type to believe in something so far-fetched. “But say, have you heard the news? Deanna and Will are finally tying the knot!”

A wry smile crossed Pulaski’s face, and she shook her head. “No, I hadn’t heard - I think my invitation must’ve been lost in the mail. Though it’s interesting you ask, I’m meeting Kyle Riker here a little later.” 

Most people might’ve seen that as a tactful way to end a conversation, but Geordi wasn’t most people, and though he was one of the best in terms of engineering, tactful he was not.

Geordi grinned wide, and made sure to log this information away to tease Will. He had heard rumors that Pulaski and Kyle Riker had been… intimate friends, and he knew Will had heard the same ones. He could almost see his face now.

“I’m actually meeting someone for a drink here too,” Geordi offered. “Remember Leah Brahms?”

“Of course I do,” Pulaski replied. “Anyone worth their salt here in Star Fleet knows Dr. Brahms. But why is she meeting you for a drink?” Pulaski tried to keep her question on the right side of rude, but after the infamously embarrassing first encounter between Geordi and Leah, she couldn’t think of any reason, beyond fatalistic female politeness, that would have brought the two of them together in such an intimate fashion.

“Well, I’m sure you know we became great friends after meeting on the Enterprise,” said Geordi, settling into the chair across from Pulaski to continue their conversation. 

“I didn’t realize that, no,” said Pulaski, taking a long sip from her water and wishing it was something stronger. “Fancy that.”

“Well, yeah, we’ve run into each other at a few conferences, exchanged a few subspace communications - mostly when there have been changes made to how I’m running the Enterprise, but they’ve always been very friendly exchanges,” said Geordi, who Pulaski was beginning to think was definitely confusing politeness and mutual friendly interest.

“I see,” said Pulaski. “It’s… nice… that the two of you are able to continue as colleagues and work together with such a... rapport.”

“I thought so too,” said Geordi seriously. “And, I know she’s married, so I have no expectations, obviously, but I’m hoping to ask her tonight if she’d like to go to the Troi-Riker wedding as my date!”

“As your… date?” Pulaski choked on her water. “Surely you can’t be serious…”

“I am serious,” said Geordi. “And don’t call me Shirley.” He grinned, but his smile faltered when Pulaski didn’t respond in kind. “More of a friend date, really, not a date-date.” 

Pulaski fell silent for a moment, holding Geordi’s gaze with a hard stare, before sighing and taking another sip from her near-empty glass.

“It sounds to me like you are in need of a very serious medical intervention,” Pulaski muttered, serving Geordi some serious side eye.

“What? I don’t even feel unwell! How could you determine I need medical attention after what I just - “ 

“Trust me, you need it,” Pulaski said flatly. “It’s a procedure I created and perfected, and in lay terms it’s called the Pulaski Maneuver. It’s used for extraction -

“Extraction?!” Interrupted Geordi. “My god, you think I need to have an ORGAN removed because I suggested -”

“I never said an organ would need to be removed, Mr. La Forge,” said Pulaski. “What needs, in fact, to be removed, is your head from your ass. Are you really suggesting that, after your incredibly unprofessional run-in with Dr. Brahms on board the Enterprise, you would actually have the… unimaginable gall to ask her to be your date to a wedding?” 

“Listen, you don’t really know what you’re talking about here,” said Geordi, gently, like he might with a child mid-tantrum. “Leah and I had a good laugh about it after all was said and done, and besides -”

“Geordi, I can’t believe that, in the 24th century, I have to have this conversation with you,” Pulaski sighed. “We’re supposed to be beyond this now. Some perfect future.”

She folded her hands over her water glass and stuck Geordi with an unflinching stare. “Geordi. Your behavior towards Leah has been incredibly inappropriate. If she had reported you to your superiors, you would have been stripped of your rank and probably black listed from Starfleet altogether.”

“I think you’re making this too big of a deal,” said Geordi nervously, glancing at the parties at nearby tables and gesturing with his hands for her to keep it down. “Please, Katherine, if you could just lower your voice -”

“If it’s not a big deal, why do you care if these people hear about it, Geordi?” spat Pulaski. “Your inappropriate relationship with your Holo-Leah Brahms is not unknown among some of Starfleet, though because she didn’t want to file a report, it’s largely gone ignored. That much is bad enough. To then treat Dr. Brahms with such disrespect when you found she wasn’t who you thought… it is absolutely disgraceful.”

The diners at nearby tables were looking around, trying to not seem obvious in listening to the quickly escalating “friendly” conversation. 

“Now I’ll tell you what you are going to do when Dr. Brahms walks in here to meet you,” continued Pulaski. “And you are going to ask her something, Geordi, but do you know what you’re going to ask her? You’re going to ask her for forgiveness for your disgusting behavior. You are going to do so after acknowledging that you have behaved, frankly, as a cad, and that you are ashamed that things happened the way they did. If I hear from anyone that you actually asked her to attend the Troi-Riker wedding with you, Geordi, I will reverse the Pulaski Maneuver and stick your head so far up your ass you’ll be able to see your vocal cords. Do we have an understanding?”

Geordi leapt up from his chair, blushing a deep crimson red. “Katherine, I-I had no idea,” he stammered. “Le - Dr. Brahms has always acted so friendly when we talked, I had no clue she was so upset.”

“No, you wouldn’t, would you, Geordi?” scoffed Pulaski. “Too wrapped up in your own hurt pride to think about how she was feeling, and what a horrible position you put her in. Did you know that in the 21st century, brilliant women in science and technology fields went through this kind of disgusting harassment regularly? Brilliant minds were forced to flee from their fields because they were the subjects of mockery and gross misconduct from their male colleagues and worse, their superiors.”

Geordi stood, mouth agape, in shocked silence. “Katherine… you’re right,” said Geordi. “I’ve been such a fool, a disgrace to my uniform.” He buried his head in his hands, and Pulaski thought she spied a glimmer of gathering tears in his unearthly blue eyes. “Thank you, Katherine, for making me see the truth, the reality of how I’ve behaved. I will tell Leah -”

“Tell Leah what?” asked a cautious but friendly female voice, from behind Geordi. 

Geordi jumped, visibly startled by the arrival of his intended dinner partner, ran a thumb across his eyes to slick away the threatening tears, and turned to look at Dr. Brahms, who stood before him with an eyebrow raised. “Leah! I, uh, I was going to tell you that Katherine sends her regards, but now you’re here and she can send them herself, can’t you, doctor?” He turned back to Pulaski, eyes pleading for her to not rat him out.

Pulaski cleared her throat and straightened her shoulders, shooting Geordi one last quick glare before turning her attention to Leah and smiling. “Dr. Brahms! Wonderful to see you. How are your husband and the children?” 

“They’re doing well, thank you,” said Leah warmly, crossing to Katherine and greeting her with a quick kiss on each cheek. Leah was dressed in what looked like her usual work clothes, with one of her signature turtlenecks, her hair scooped back into a loose twist at the back of her head. To look at her, you would think her ready for a fight, not feast. “Always lovely to run into you. Geordi, did you still want to grab that drink?”

Geordi looked at the two women, and saw them as both wearing battle armor - one for love, one for war. He smiled. “I would like that, Leah, if you are willing. I… would really like to talk to you about something important. I… realize what an ass I’ve been, and I owe you an apology. Can we find a quiet table to talk?”

Leah looked shocked, and Pulaski looked smug. Another successful use of the Pulaski Maneuver. Now if only Geordi could keep his head on his shoulders and not up his - Well. She would give him the benefit of the doubt. For now. “You two enjoy, it seems like you have a lot to talk about,” said Pulaski, craning her neck to see around them. It was then that she spotted Kyle Riker walking into the bar, and smiled. As tall and handsome as ever, she thought, a smile curving one half of her mouth. “Besides, my visitor has just arrived. Go on, you two, before you make yourselves a nuisance.” She gestured as if to hurry them along, and then smiled and waved at Kyle. He saw her, smiled, and started on his way over.

As Geordi and Leah walked across the room to find a quiet spot, Geordi overheard Kyle say, “Katherine, did you hear about Will? He and Deanna are to be married. And I wanted to ask… would you be willing to join me as my guest for the blessed event?” 

Geordi hid a smile. He knew the conversation he was about to have with Leah would be unpleasant at best, but at least he had some serious dirt to throw at Will next time he saw him. But he knew he had learned something more valuable than romantic gossip that day, and he vowed, silently, to be a better man for it.

—

We’re moving on to new Star Trek and Star Trek–related series we’re sure you’ll enjoy, so be sure to keep listening on SoundCloud, follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and pull your head out of your ass, Geordi!

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[daleisgreat]

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season Six

-I am indefinitely grateful for your patience awaiting my semi-annual Star Trek: The Next Generation season recaps. Today I bestow upon you all my thoughts for the penultimate sixth season (trailer) of TNG. It is already a little jarring to realize I am down to one season left on this series I have gradually-yet-steadily been picking away at the past three years. Once again, all the screens here are courtesy of me pointing my outdated Samsung Galaxy S7 phone at the TV screen so you have my apologies for the questionable fidelity of the pics! -For notable cast changes, there are several I want to make sure to address. Transporter Chief O’Brien (Colm Meaney) departs midway through this season to be a regular cast member on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine which started in January of 1993. I knew of Colm’s switching shows during this season for a while now and was anticipating some big episode or climactic scene explaining his departure from TNG. While there was a crossover episode introducing some of the new Deep Space Nine characters right before its debut, there was never a scene this addressing O’Brien leaving the Enterprise….unless it was a quick passing line of dialogue that went right over my head! Another notable change is halfway through the season Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) gets chastised by a new interim commander for her unorthodox uniform and makes her fall in line wearing matching Enterprise uniforms with the rest of the crew. In the bonus interviews on the BluRay, Marina states how she had to fight for a matching uniform for many years and it was one of the few things the higher ups finally granted her.

-I am glad TNG compensated for the lack of a Q (John de Lancie) episode last season and had him in two episodes in season six. The first episode is a middling affair where he steals a Starfleet prospect who discovers she is a long lost member of the Q Continuum. The second Q episode fares much better where Q helps a stuck-in-purgatory-Picard (Patrick Stewart) after Doctor Crusher (Gates McFadden) has a return of poor doctoring and loses Picard on the operating table. The two travel back to pivotal moments in Picard’s younger days to see if he would change the past in order to get a second chance at the future in an investing episode. Speaking of Crusher’s poor doctoring, there is another episode this season where it feels like the writers are in on the joke and have an episode where Crusher is disbarred after some major bad doctoring again on her part….but of course Crusher manages to change that by the episode’s end. If my notes are accurate (no promises!), than I believe this is the first season with no appearance from Troi’s mother, Lwaxana (Majel Barrett)! I would not be surprised if she has two episode next season. Season six also does not feature an appearance from Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton), but I understand he will return in time for the series finale in season seven. A recurring character who does return is everyone’s favorite engineer, Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz), who is in a couple episodes this season, with him playing a key part in a holodeck episode with another long overdue returning character I will touch on soon.

Not only does Worf has some killer episodes this season, he also demonstrates his prowess at Yoga this season....while Crusher continues to demonstrate her prowess at poor doctoring. -There are a pair of excellent holodeck episodes this season. The first one is easily the best named episode of the entire series in “Fistful of Datas.” It sees Troi, Data (Brent Spiner), Worf (Michael Dorn) and his son, Alexander go on a wild west adventure where problems with the holodeck causes Data to take over nearly all the AI personas in the simulation. Swashbuckling hilarity ensues! The other holodeck episode sees the return of Professor Moriarty (Daniel Davis). This was long anticipated since Moriarty’s last appearance in season two as the Sherlock Holmes antagonist who became self-aware and whose consciousness became trapped in the holodeck in the following four years. In “Ship in a Bottle,” Moriarty attempts a master plan to connive his way out of the holodeck as a program and as an actual living being. The twists and turns that lead up to the gratifying resolution for everyone was a memorable ride and sadly Davis’s last guest appearance on the show. Daniel Davis and Patrick Stewart have a natural chemistry with each other that shines whenever those two share the screen, so I highly recommend tracking down and viewing both of his episodes!

-The flute that Picard was gifted in the previous season once again returns for a couple of memorable scenes when Picard starts courting another crew member who plays keyboard. Naturally this leads to the two having an emotional duet together that starts off kind of hokey, but by the end the pair had me reeled in all the way! Just click or press here to see for yourself. -Worf has a few notable dedicated episodes this season. A two episode arc sees him track down a long lost colony of Klingons imprisoned by Romulans that has Worf encouraging them to relearn and embrace Klingon customs. Another episode has Worf dealing with the fallout of seeing the return of the Klingon god, Kahless, and the fascinating drama that unravels with another satisfying conclusion for all conflicting parties involved.

-Even though by season six nearly the entire cast and writing team was firing away on all cylinders, I would be lying if there were not a couple clunker episodes. Riker (Jonathon Frakes) portrays a mental patient in a play he is rehearsing for, but the play starts going to his head and he starts losing it for real, but the way the plot unfolds is a mess and a half to follow along with. The other dud is TNG’s homage to The Thing which sounds promising on paper, but instead features lousy CG of its “Thing” and a groan-inducing twist that was not entertaining whatsoever. -As much as I enjoyed Leonard Nimoy returning to play Spock last season, I was delighted even more with The Original Series star James Doohan dusting off his communicator to portray Scotty. Watching him overcome his differences and exchange engineer expertise with Geordi (LeVar Burton) was a treat. The scene with Scotty and Picard sharing a drink on a holodeck reimagining of the original Enterprise gave me nostalgic goosebumps throughout.

-Season six started off with the conclusion to “Time’s Arrow” that saw the TNG crew time travelling back to the 1890s where they first encountered Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) and were forced to alter the timeline to rescue Data, and win over an aggressive Mark Twain. While not on the level of the “Best of Both Worlds” two-parter season finale, it was still a highly entertaining two-parter in its own right, and as I alluded to earlier, I am all for seeing the TNG crew in an old west setting. Season six ends with another cliffhanger that sees the Enterprise encounter the Borg again, and they manage to convince Data to flee the Enterprise to seemingly join the Borg as their new leader. Suffice it to say, I am intrigued to see how this pays off in season seven! -I referenced a few times before here how I was keeping up with podcast reviews of every TNG episode with the show, Star Trek: The Next Conversation. It looks like I have finally caught up with where hosts Andrew Secunda and Matt Mira have recorded their latest shows just a couple episodes before the end of season six. It looks like they took a few extended breaks this season, and I cannot fault them for that at all when dealing with everything the pandemic has wreaked upon us all this past year. I still enjoyed their takes as usual, and plan on going back and listening to whenever they post new episodes to catch up with their remaining casts covering TNG. I understand they have a Patreon companion with exclusive podcasts dedicated with them marching through both Deep Space Nine and Voyager now, so who knows, I may have to start working my way through those series down the line.

-You know the drill by now, this BluRay is loaded with carried over DVD extra features and all new ones for the BluRay. Not including three commentary tracks for this season, there are just over three hours of behind-the-scenes interviews and documentaries. Almost all of them are informative, but I will only recommend a few of the must-see ones here. Mission Overview: Year Six has introspective reflections from Whoopi on “Time’s Arrow” and James Doohan on “Relics.” Bold New Directions has some fond insights on “Fistful of Datas” and fascinating memories from Stewart and Burton from getting their shot at directing episodes this season. Beyond Five Year Mission – Evolution of Star Trek: The Next Generation is the headlining all-new bonus feature. It is an hour and a half, and split into three parts. Part one has plenty of love for being the cast and crew’s personal favorite season of the show, debuting Deep Space Nine concurrently during this season and trying their best to work within Gene Roddenberry’s “no conflict” framework of the series. Part two is themed around TNG being more serious when compared to TOS, and highlighting how several episodes were scored. Part three stands out the most with an awesome story from Whoopi on what lead to her becoming involved on the show, Sirtis dealing with a lot of pushback from studio executives and Spiner’s love/hate relationship with the cat that played Spot.

There may be many hours of bonus interviews to sift through, but most of it is worth it for endearing moments above like Burton and Frakes sharing a laugh, and Spiner sharing his disdain for a certain feline. -Season six is a step up from the minor-yet-noticeable dip in quality from season five, and brings it back to the high bar established with seasons three and four of TNG. The highs were remarkably prominent this season with some standout holodeck episodes, memorable two-parters, and a scintillating season finale that has me anticipating the kickoff to the season seven. I cannot believe it, after a few years of starting this, I am finally down to just one season left of this legendary show. Please join me one last time here in a few months for my thoughts on the final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Past TV/Web Series Blogs 2013-14 TV Season Recap 2014-15 TV Season Recap 2015-16 TV Season Recap 2016-17 TV Season Recap 2017-18 TV Season Recap 2018-19 TV Season Recap 2019-20 TV Season Recap Adventures of Briscoe County Jr: The Complete Series Baseball: A Ken Burns series Angry Videogame Nerd Home Video Collections Cobra Kai – Seasons 1-2 Mortal Kombat: Legacy - Season 1 | Season 2 OJ: Made in America: 30 for 30 RedvsBlue - Seasons 1-13 Roseanne – Seasons 1-9 Seinfeld - Final Season Star Trek: Next Generation – Seasons 1-7 Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle Superheroes: Pioneers of Television The Vietnam War: A Ken Burns series X-Men – The Animated Series: Volumes 4-5

#star trek #star trek tng #star trek the next generation #Patrick Stewart #jonathan frakes #Marina Sirtis #levar burton #gates mcfadden #dwight schultz #daniel davis #james doohan #colm meaney #Michael Dorn #Brent Spiner #Wil Wheaton