#like NO. you are not a trekkie if you don’t like wesley | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

readinginthereadyroom · 3 years

Text

one if my absolute favorite fandom things is when a show references another show that a guest actor was on.

think the children of the gods (stargate sg-1 1x01) when carter says they macgyver’d a supercomputer to make the gate system. it’s an in-joke only for fans of richard dean anderson, whose previous role was the eponymous macgyver.

so seeing wil wheaton get a star trek shoutout on leverage has thrown me into a nerd frenzy.

he’s playing colin mason. aka chaos. aka the kobayashi maru. a hacker and hardison’s mirror.

and yeah, wheaton’s pretty well known for his stint as wesley crusher (in this household we stan our ensign king). so it’s not quite an easter egg.

but it also is. that is, if you are trekkie. because then you know it’s a hint that colin mason is the exact opposite of wesley crusher.

see most people, not in fandom (like the cia who give colin the alias) know that the kobayashi maru is a star trek reference. maybe they even know it’s a tos reference and not tng. but that’s fine! it’s an easter egg. they laugh and move on.

but a trekkie connects the dots. knows the original kobayashi maru was in st II the wrath of khan. where a young james t kirk hacked the character-defining no-win training scenario. training meant to teach loss. to prepare future starfleet officers for the burdens of command.

a trekkie knows that wesley had his own kobayashi maru. in the first duty (st tng 5x19) when he’s pressured into a cover-up of a flight training accident that claimed the life of another ensign. an accident where he and his friends are at fault.

but unless you’ve actually seen tos and tng and the movies. if you’re not a trekkie and not in the fandom then you’re not going to understand that the kobayashi maru isn’t about cheating to win. it’s about never giving up—no matter the odds.

kirk’s point in cheating on the kobayashi maru was not to win for winnings sake. he’s making a point. he’s making it into the definition of a character-defining moment. a first duty. he’s saying that he will never accept a no-win situation when it comes to the lives of his crew. he’ll protect them anyway he can. he turns the kobayashi maru into a synonym for truth and hope and persistence.

wesley though, has already lied. he’s particpated in the cover-up. and it’s not a test. it’s real life with real stakes. and one of wesley’s friends is already dead. there’s no winning. no outcome that could possibly make the situation better.

that’s why it’s his is his kobayashi maru. his character-defining moment. his first duty. he has to choose to tell the truth, hope he can be forgiven, and persist on his moral course. because it’s the right thing to do.

wesley is kirk’s mirror, but not a dark one. but only a trekkie is going to understand how similar kirk and wesley’s choices are. the nuance of how they do and not mirror each other.

and all of our leverage characters (except sophie because she’s “dead”) have a mirror on the other con team. a counterpart. nate has starke. parker has apollo. eliot has mikel. and, of course, hardison has colin.

but because of a reference to tng that itself references wrath of khan we get a preview of the outcome. we get a nod that colin is the bad guy. he’s kirk—if kirk had cheated only to win. he’s wesley—if wesley had lied to save his reputation. he’s the kobayashi maru—when you don’t understand the kobayashi maru.

he’s the dark mirror.

and that, my fellow nerds. my fellow trekkies. that is the secret language of fandom.

and yeah, this ep aired in 2009. a good dozen years ago. but I’d like to think that wil wheaton got the reference. that he understood the implications of that easter egg line. because he’s always spoken fluent fandom and he’s a trekkie, just like us.

32 notes · View notes

chernobog13 · 2 years

Text

STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS

As we get closer and closer to the debut of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds the initial excitement I felt when the series was announced is souring.

First, I began to lose enthusiasm when I read that a few characters on the show, besides Spock, would be crew members we’re already familiar with from The Original Series: Nyota Uhura and Christine Chapel.

Big mistake, I thought. It was pretty much established in TOS Season One that, at least in Uhura’s case, that Spock was a relative stranger, suggesting that they hadn’t served together for long. Given that Strange New Worlds is reportedly taking place some seven or eight years before TOS, that unfamiliarity seems unlikely. Also unlikely is that junior officers would be serving that long on a single vessel.

I have no objection to these characters being introduced in later seasons of the show, as we get closer to the Kirk era. It would make sense, and be more realistic. The entire crew does not get replaced when a new captain takes command.

Then there was the reveal that another crew member is the descendant of Khan Noonien Singh. You know the producers wouldn’t have done that if they weren’t planning to introduce Khan sometime during the series, long before his sleeper ship was originally discovered by the Enterprise in the TOS Season One episode Space Seed.

Both of those reveals just smack of pure fan service.

And now we have the news, as of yesterday, that Strange New Worlds Season Two (which is already in production) will introduce this guy:

That’s actor Paul Wesley as Captain James T. Kirk.

Really? They’re going to introduce Kirk years before he took command of the Enterprise? They’re going to ignore the fact that he and Pike never met prior to Kirk taking command of the Enterprise at the beginning of his five-year mission?

It looks like that’s exactly what they’re doing. I have to agree with the the person on the Interwebs (I can’t remember the source or I’d cite it) who stated in a video post that Star Trek: Discovery and Strange New Worlds are not true prequel series; they are instead a soft reboot of the entire franchise so the producers

This brings back to me bad memories of Star Trek: Enterprise. I had some hopes for that series, but when the series pilot immediately showed us a Klingon on Earth, long before humans and Klingons had met, I gave up those hopes. I kept watching the series, hoping that things might get better, but they didn’t. By the time of the Temporal Cold War storyline started I gave up on Enterprise completely.

And we all know what happened to Enterprise eventually.

These are only my opinions, of course, but I’ve been a Star Trek fan almost from the very start. And I think a lot of other fans (Trekkies, Trekkers, or whatever they want to call themselves) don’t want to see the continuity/canon/history - call it what you will - from the last 55+ years thrown out or ignored for the sake of fan service or gimmicky stories.

There are plenty of tales Strange New Worlds can tell, and already established crew members that can be spotlighted, without having to poach from the other series.

The whole idea, supposedly, of Strange New Worlds was to tell the story of Pike’s Enterprise. The man commanded the ship for 15 years for crying out loud! That’s one hell of an accomplishment, and Strange New Worlds can show us how he did it.

But, on the other hand, if the producers are just going to introduce all the TOS characters then they should have just done a TOS show instead!

That’s my rant for the day. Apologies.

#Star Trek #Star Trek: Strange New Worlds #Captain James T. Kirk #Paul Wesley

6 notes · View notes

stardatewiththedevil · 3 years

Text

A cursed spreadsheet

You know when you talk about something too much to not do it? I don’t. If I did I would be in 100 bands, have read War & Peace, have a medicinal herb garden, and probably have a baby or something, maybe. But I am really good at following through with watching TV! Even if it means STARTING with ENTERPRISE.

I am also really good at making 100% useless spreadsheets when left to my own devices. Enter: Star Trek in stardate order. As a Star Trek fan, I know we are all assholes, so I know there will be some quibbling with this. My basic methodology here is taking every Trek film and season and sorting by available stardate first, airdate second. We can quibble all we want about time travel, but I don’t think it’s necessary to watch the tribble episode of DS9 at the same time as same in TOS. Yikes, see, I’m already getting in to the weeds.

Here is the cursed spreadsheet. I’m sorry.

Anyway, I made this spreadsheet, so naturally I have to watch one billion hours of television in painstaking order.

While I’m pretty obsessed with Star Trek—and I’ve been generally familiar with the lore for as long as I can remember—my actual commitment to the series started pretty late, joining my partner on a DS9 marathon midway through the first season about a decade ago.

I’d tried marathoning TNG in order, because that was what all my nerdy ass friends liked. In high school, I caught whatever was on. With the advent of streaming I tried to start from the beginning, but the dry first few episodes always lost me. I was never really sure when to jump in, although I kept watching ‘em out of order whenever they were... on.

But nothing hooked me like DS9. It was my gateway drug into everything else. I cared deeply about Captain Sisko and his commitment to the safety of his crew, the legacy of Bajoran culture, his supremely sharp and talented son Jake (who is leaps and bounds better than dumbass Wesley), and his deep friendships with the crew.

While I am now a very annoying trekkie, I do have some real gaps. I still haven’t completely mainlined TNG in order, because damn, overpowered Q is annoying. Like many of you, I have never watched Enterprise. As someone who didn’t really go out to many movies as a kid, I also have a lot of blind spots there!

So, fuck JJ Abrams, I’m gonna buckle in and do the original timeline in order. For as long as I remember to. Sorry in advance.

#star trek

3 notes · View notes

theeternalspace · 3 years

Text

So I made the mistake of thinking about Star Trek.

I’m ill okay? I’ve got a persistent cough, I’m self isolating and my brain is running riot.

I love Star Trek. I’m an unashamed trekkie. But, I have thoughts about it. It might be a franchise I love, but that doesn’t excuse it from having issues. So many issues.

Things I mentally ranted about tonight in my head. (an incomplete list because I’m tired)

Why didn’t ST: Picard have Geordi?

Speaking of Geordi, what is UP with his character development?

Back on ST: Picard, did I actually like it? Jury still out.

Was ST: Picard even worthy of being trek or did the weight of the universe drag the story down?

Hand waving story threads in ST: Picard is dumb.

An Unpopular view on Wesley Crusher.

I listed the captains and I have thoughts about it.

I’m still salty about the waste of opportunity that was Geordi.

Picard makes mistakes too you guys.

What the hell was that ‘twist’ in the final episode of ST: Enterprise.

The lack of faith in ST: Enterprise was a self fulfilling prophecy

And hey, while we’re on the subject, why killing off ~spoiler~ in ST: Enterprise was lazy writing at its worse.

I wish the mirror universe had been in ST: TNG.

I wish the mirror universe hadn’t been in ST: Enterprise.

ST: DS9 and Babylon 5 are not the same idea and people need to stop hating one because of the other. (yes I know the links from where it all started)

Can we talk about the huge moral issue that is Vic Fontaine?

Mirror Vic - interesting history or lazy writing?

Seriously, is nobody going to address the AI issue with Vic?

Where are we at with hologram sentience in ST: Picard? Is that not a synthetic life form?

I don’t have thoughts on ST: Discovery. The fact I don’t is a thought in of itself.

#star trek #yes I know #I'm a nerd #such a nerd #so tired

3 notes · View notes

tessatechaitea · 4 years

Text

Star Trek: The Next Generation, S1, E5: "Where No One Has Gone Before"

I'm a cynical reviewer first and a fan second and the first part of me believes this episode was written simply to tell the audience that Wesley Crusher was important. This was the episode that said, "Look. We know you Star Trek fans have a lot of theories about everything and take everything way too seriously. You all know Picard hates children and, even if he wants to appear likable to them, you can't understand why he keeps letting Wesley on the bridge. Well this story should shut you up!" I don't know if it shut anybody up because the "I hate Wesley Crusher" Trekkies are pretty vocal about hating Wesley Crusher. Sometimes they're so vocal about hating Wesley that they convince themselves that they hate Wil Wheaton too. Which is weird because haven't they heard of acting and writing and television shows before? Who watches an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and thinks, "I don't like that Wesley Crusher. Why would Wil Wheaton invent the character and write all of this dialogue I hate and wear such ugly sweaters?" Obviously Wesley Crusher was meant to have an important role in the show. While Star Trek has always been touted as being a show which embraced diversity (even if, at times, it stumbles in the execution), it completely left out the youth. And while many kids watched and were inspired by the show without needing a gateway character that represented them, you can't argue with the Robin Effect (no matter how often and vehemently you'd like to). Introducing a younger character that kids can identify with works. I don't know why it works since even as a small child, I identified with old men. George Burns and Art Carney's Going in Style was one of my favorite movies. I used to ask my mom if I could go play with John, the oldest person on the block on which I lived. My favorite teacher in elementary school was an old man who taught the Speech Therapy class (which I was in but I have no memory of why. Did I lisp? Was I just so non-verbal that somebody thought a little individual instruction would help? Or did I notice this old guy teaching a special speech class during regular class and just decided to be nearly incomprehensible so I could get into his class? We'll never know because my memory for detail is terrible! But that's just my own individual anecdotal evidence that the Robin Effect is shit. The real evidence is that fans of Batman comic books loved Robin when he was introduced and didn't instantly think, "Well this is weird and awkward and highly inappropriate. What is this rich old guy doing dressing up a kid in a suggestive outfit and taking him out into the dangerous streets of Gotham late at night?" No, most kids just thought, "Cool! I could hang out with Batman too!" But even if Wesley was a way for growing kids to see themselves as part of the crew of the Enterprise, a shitload of viewers were still going to need to be convinced that he had a place on the bridge. And that's what this episode does. And even if Wesley dresses himself like a 13th century bard who happened to have purchased his wardrobe from a time traveler from the 80s, you can't deny he's a fucking genius. I mean, you might have been able to deny that before this episode. But this episode is all, "Look at this alien! He has powers and abilities far beyond that of human beings. And he understands the relationship between time and space and thought. And guess which character totally gets what this super genius alien is saying? It's Wesley! Wesley noticed the alien was behind the impossible travel. Wesley understood what the alien was doing with the warp drive. And Wesley was all, 'I get it! Thought and space and time are, like, the same thing!'" Some viewers probably rolled their eyes and, entrenched in the adult cynicism that, years ago, had murdered their childlike sense of wonder, thought, "That Traveler fellow wants to fuck Wesley so hard." And those viewers might have missed the point that Wesley was intuitive and smart and special. So before the Traveler disappears into the realm of thoughtspacetime, he pulls Picard aside and says, "That Wesley is a special boy. You know, like Mozart but maybe even more special. You have to encourage him because remember how I just said he's going to be super duper important and special? But you can't tell him or anybody else! This message is just for you and the old fart viewers who can't stop wondering why you'd constantly let this kid on the bridge or come with you on away expeditions or let him tinker with engineering and the holodeck. Every future episode of the show should just continue as normal, as if I'd never revealed this secret that totally needed to be revealed because the writers and producers of this show know how fucking vocal their Goddamn overzealous fan base can be. Without this aside to you, Picard, they'd be writing letters about Starfleet protocol and how that dumbass weird sweater wearing kid shouldn't be anywhere near a photon torpedo launch button. But now they have to swallow it because it's canon that Wesley is special and being groomed for my bid dick. That's a metaphor for his future place in the world of thoughtspacetime! Everybody will be so surprised by the arc we have for this genius kid! Hoo boy! That is, if he survives the free sex planet episode. Which he somehow will due to a super anti-climactic ending which we'll get to." As for the actual plot of this episode, it's barely worth mentioning. The crew of the Enterprise wind up in the far flung reaches of the universe where their every thought can suddenly transform reality. Picard understands the import of this and, to get home, encourages the crew to think about nothing but getting home safely. Which is really odd because as soon as it seems like maybe they won't be able to get home, Picard says, "We're not going to make it!" What the fuck, Picard?! Thoughts become reality in this place and you're on the bridge spouting out negative shit like that! Holy fuck, I'd relieve you from duty immediately if I were Doctor Milf Crusher! I was mostly disappointed by this episode because everybody was making their thoughts real and yet we didn't find out who the horniest crew member of the Enterprise was. Sure, Worf made an old pet real and then Tasha made an old pet real (before she then made the Rape Gangs real! Sheesh, Tasha! Think of something other than Rape Gangs for once! Although, I suppose if I were constantly chased by Rape Gangs my entire childhood, I'd definitely never shut up about it ever. "Oh, you're sorry my soup is cold? Well I fucking had to evade Rape Gangs my entire childhood so I'd hope being sorry for cold soup is the least you could fucking do!"). But how come nobody made a bunch of naked people sucking and licking them all over real? I suppose it wasn't needed since we already know Tasha Yar is the horniest member of the crew. One crew member made the hallway erupt into fire and the Non-Certified Spouse was all, "Why was he thinking about fire?" Good question! We now know which crew member to investigate when the Ten-Forward lounge burns down.

#Star Trek #The Next Generation #ST:TNG #Where No One Has Gone Before

3 notes · View notes

thecaffeinebookwarrior · 7 years

Note

Hello there! I love your blog, and I especially liked your tropes to avoid about writing male or female characters! I have a question: what do you think of Mary-Sues and their male counterparts? The first character that popped into my mind about it was Harry Potter. I know a lot of people love those books, but I could never got over how Harry Potter was too much of a Mary-Sue. Your thoughts about characters who have everything rotating around them?

First and foremost, thank you so much! Compliments/ego stroking are always welcome here.

Ah yes, Mary Sue and her male counterpart, Gary Stue. Mary made her debut in a Star Trek fanzine parody story by Paula Smith entitled “Trekkie’s Tale,” satirizing the unrealistic characters in Star Trek fanfiction of the time (and keep in mind, this was 1973 -- if you think the nuances of fandom culture began with the internet, you are mistaken; people have been wonderfully weird as hell long before Ebony D’arkness Dementia Raven Way made her debut.)

Mary was “the youngest lieutenant on the fleet -- only fifteen-and-a-half years old.” Later, the introduction of Gary (or alternatively, Larry) Stue came about at approximately the same time Wesley Crusher was introduced, and fits roughly the same criteria: a quote-unquote “poorly developed character, too perfect and lacking in realism to be interesting.”

I think Mary Sue/Gary Stue-esque characters are certainly something to look out for in our own writing, as unfortunately, they do happen. However, I think a lot of people also use the term too liberally, and frequently apply it to basically any female character who shows competence and benevolence typical of male protagonists, such as Rey from Star Wars. And though gentle, kind-hearted male characters, such as Luke Skywalker, Spencer Reid, or Superman, don’t fall victim to the term quite so much (Gary Stue is certainly a lesser known variation of the trope) they are frequently accused of being “wimps” or “boring” by male fans; basically, people seem to have a tendency to equate characters who are good with boring wish-fulfillment, which I find unfortunate.

As for Harry Potter, I wouldn’t personally consider him a Mary Sue/Gary Stue, as I personally found the challenges he faced in life too relateable and realistic for him to fit the criteria: child abuse, the fickle nature of fame, PTSD, etc. However, fiction is subjective, so it’s totally valid if the story doesn’t work for you.

In any case, thank you for giving me the opportunity to bombard you with fandom history, as I live for that shit.

83 notes · View notes

jodybouchard9 · 6 years

Text

Tacky Lawn Ornaments, Take 2: Have We Learned Nothing?

Summertime is not just an excuse to dive into pools and fire up the grill, but to deck out your lawn with lawn ornaments! But let’s be honest here: The options aren’t all that tasteful. Think: pink flamingos, or ladies bending over in polka-dot skirts.

We’ve covered tacky lawn ornaments in the past, and as this latest wave of options makes all too clear, little progress has been made to make lawn decor more aesthetically palatable. If anything, it’s gotten worse. So in case your taste is questionable and you want some guidance on what not to put on your lawn (or some great gag gifts to give your lawn-loving friends!), check out these weird choices below.

A peeing dog

Manners, please!

Grandin Road

It’s bad enough when your real dog sprays your potted begonias or picnic-table legs, but to install a shrubbery version frozen in midair is really the limit. It’s also quite pricey, at $169 (for sale at Grandin Road, in case you care). And yet, not to be a total downer, per the product description, there are many perks to having a fake bush shaped like a dog: It’s “hassle-free, mess-free, and the neatly manicured look lasts without worry or pruning. Just place, and unleash the instant personality.” “Personality” is one way to put it, for sure.

‘Star Trek’ gnomes

Beam me up!

ThinkGeek.com

Sure, “Star Trek” mania is all-consuming and can span universes, but to put this love on display in your lawn? Not good. Even the most die-hard Trekkie should think long and hard about putting these little guys within plain sight of their neighbors. And besides, the only characters on hand are Wesley Crusher, Geordi La Forge, Q, and Deanna Troi, as they all hail from “The Next Gardenation” collection. A classic like Spock, we’d give a pass … almost.

Naked Venus statue

Get this lady a sweater…

Designtoscano.com

Can’t get to Italy to visit the classic statues? Please try to save up rather than purchase this Venus ($139, DesignToscano.com). With this likeness on your back lawn, the neighbors’ kids will gawk all day.

Faces on trees

Pucker up! This tree is ready for a smooch

Amazon

Sure, those talking trees in “The Wizard of Oz” are a hoot, but that’s no reason to plaster your own elms with this monster visage ($40 on Amazon, in case you beg to differ). In our humble opinion, trees are beautiful things all on their own; there’s no need to gimmick them all up.

Randy rabbits

Just say no to X-rated rabbits in the garden.

gruntzooki/Flickr.com

This photo (grabbed off Flickr so we don’t know how to help you buy your own—sorry!) is kinda funny, but animals humping is just hard to explain to a 4-year-old. Yes, birds and bees do it, and the term “breed like rabbits” is a cliché for good reason, but that doesn’t mean it belongs on your lawn.

Zombie gnomes having lunch

Bloody good fun? Think again.

Imgur.com

Here’s one way to satisfy your love (or hatred?) of both gnomes and flamingos. Little men gorging on the innards of an innocent bird take the cake when it comes to poor taste! Sadly, someone actually snapped this pic on someone’s lawn, so we don’t know where you can buy your own. But perhaps that’s for the best.

Wacky hobgoblins

He’s hairy and sorta scary—and must be banished from your lawn

Lowe's

There are no words to describe this cross between an ogre and Cousin Itt from “The Addams Family” ($51, Lowes). Suffice it to say that you should not go there. One is bad enough, but a whole herd? Worth trying only if you want no visitors, ever.

The post Tacky Lawn Ornaments, Take 2: Have We Learned Nothing? appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

0 notes

aion-rsa · 4 years

Text

Star Trek: Lower Decks Episode 4 Easter Eggs & References

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Star Trek: Lower Decks article contains spoilers.

With most new Star Trek shows, locating the Easter eggs and references takes probably at least two viewings. But, with Lower Decks, you can watch an episode four times and still be missing references and Easter eggs. This is saying something when you also consider that these episodes are half as long as episodes of Discovery or Picard. So, with that in mind, like in the previous episodes, there is almost certainly something we missed in trying to gather all the Easter eggs and references from Lower Decks episode 4, “Moist Vessel.”

From a surprise guest star (Haley Joel Osment) to a heartwarming story about Mariner and Captain Freeman (briefly) becoming allies, this episode was about a lot more than just Easter eggs. But that’s not why you’re here. You came for the Trekkie eggs and you shall have them!

Here’s all the deep-cuts and references we caught in Lower Decks episode 4, “Moist Vessel.”

USS Mercet

This episode finds the USS Cerritos teaming-up with another starship of the exact same class, the USS Mercet. Like the Cerritos, the Mercet is a California-class starship, and, just like the Cerritos, is named for a town in California. We can only imagine what the USS Berkley is like.

Ancient generation ship

The concept of a “generation ship,” is a super-old sci-fi trope, which has appeared in everything from the Robert A. Heinlein novel Orphans of the Sky to the Doctor Who episode “The Ark in Space.” Generally speaking, generation ships carry multiple generations of people, because faster-than-light travel is not possible. Sometimes this also means the ships are sleeper ships, too, i.e. containing people in suspended animation. The earliest generational ship in Star Trek appeared in the TOS episode “For the World Is Hollow I Have Touched the Sky.” In at least two alternate realities, the USS Voyager (“Shattered”) and the USS Enterprise NX-01 (“E²”) both became generational ships, in which the crews’ decedents became the new crew in the future.

Terraforming Emulsion

Much of the conflict in “Moist Vessel” happens because an inert “terraforming emulsion” is let loose and begins turning parts of the ship into self-contained biospheres and/or ecosystems. Like generation ships, terraforming is a pretty big sci-fi trope that doesn’t appear in Trek all that often. The most famous piece of terraforming tech in Trek history is easily the Genesis Device from The Wrath of Khan and The Search For Spock. Like the terraforming emulsion, the Genesis Device had an instant effect. In “Moist Vessel,” the terraforming emulsion is described as something to the ancient aliens had “to “to use it on a dead planet they could call home.” In The Wrath of Khan, Dr. Carol Marcus uses a “moon or other dead form,” as the ideal place to use the Genesis Device.

Tellarite

Captain Durango is a member of the Tellarite species. He is also the first Tellarite we’ve seen in the TNG era. The first Tellarites appeared in the TOS episode “Journey To Babel.” Like the Andorians and the Vulcans, the Tellarites are founding members of the Federation. Star Trek: Discovery has given us several 23rd-century Tellraties in episodes like “The War Without. The War Within,” and the Short Treks episode “The Escape Artist,” which was, of course, written by Lower Decks showrunner Mike McMahan.

Hull colors on the Mercet and the Cerritos

Since its debut, fans have noticed that the Cerritos has gold/yellow ring on its saucer. Meanwhile, the Mercet has the exact same stripe of color, only blue. Just before the launch of Lower Decks, McMahan explained that because the Cerritos is a second-contact and engineering vessel, that its outward color is yellow, which mirror the yellow/gold colors worn by engineering and security officers. “In the California-class [line], there are three types of hull painting: there’s blue, red, and yellow,” McMahan. This means we can infer that the Mercet is more of a science vessel than the Cerritos, despite the fact the ships are the same class.

Sarcastic Vulcan salute

As Mariner is leaving Captain Freeman’s Ready Room, she flashes the famous “live long and prospers” Vulcan salute. Freeman yells, “Don’t give me that sarcastic Vulcan salute!” Interestingly, we haven’t seen the Vulcan salute used sarcastically or ironically all that much. Although, in Star Trek 2009, Spock did say “Live long and prosper,” with such venom that it almost scanned as “fuck you.” In Discovery, we also learned that “The Vulcan Hello,” was not the Vulcan salute, but instead, firing upon a Klingon vessel without checking first.

Beings of pure energy

This one was easy. When Tendi is talking to Rutherford about a crew member named O’Connell (Haley Joel Osment) who is going to try to ascend into a higher plane of existence, Rutherford says, “Oh, like a Q! Or, the Traveler!” The Q obviously references the Q Continuum, first seen in “Encounter at Farpoint.” In terms of a “regular” person becoming a Q, that happens in the TNG episode “True Q,” in which a woman named Amanda Rogers realizes she can become a being of pure energy. The Traveler refers to the alien of the same name from the planet Tau Alpha C. (Though sometimes, this was said to be Tau Ceti.) The Traveler himself didn’t exactly become a being of pure energy, but he did help Wesley Crusher “ascend” beyond the physical realm in the TNG episode “Journey’s End.”

However, in Nemesis, just one year before Lower Decks, Wesley Crusher was glimpsed at Riker and Troi’s wedding in a Starfleet uniform, implying he was, in fact back in Starfleet. (Wesley also had a new rank of Lieutenant, which seems to indicate he had returned to the service.) So, does Rutherford know about Traveler stuff from Wesley? And is that because Wesley is actively a part of Starfleet again — an officer who is also a being of pure energy?

Holodeck waste removal

Throughout TNG and DS9 it is strongly suggested that people have sex with holograms. This is implied in TNG episodes like “11001001,” but pretty much stated outright in DS9, specifically the episode “Merdiain,” in which Quark is outright commissioned by a sleazy client to create a holographic duplicate of Kira for erotic purposes. Later in “Moist Vessel,” when Ransom and Freeman are talking about what Mariner is doing, they say Mariner is “emptying BEEP out of the holodeck’s BEEP filter.” We all know what they mean.

Debating the Prime Directive

When Mariner is called in to join a senior staff meeting, she jokes “Are you guys debating the Prime Directive again?” In fairness, most debates about the Prime Directive do tend to occur in conference rooms like this one.

Conference room chairs

Mariner quickly discovers the senior staff is debating about the furniture in the briefing room. “A beige chair with a strip of leather right down the middle,” is mentioned. This could refer to a chair Picard had in his personal quarters throughout The Next Generation, which had a strange piece of fabric running right down the middle. The briefing room chairs in Voyager also had at least two leather-ish sections at the top and in the middle.

Everyone folds at poker all the time

When Marnier joins the senior staff’s poker game, she is chastised because she decides to go “all in.” She also points out that most of the characters tend to fold, just when things are getting interesting. This references several episodes of TNG in which the senior staff play poker together and tons of people fold. In “The Best of Both Worlds,” Wesley folds only to discover, in the end, that he would have had the winning hand.

Taco Tuesday

When Tendi is talking to Rutherford about needing to be liked, it looks like she is having a taco. This could mean that the USS Cerritos has Taco Tuesdays in the mess hall, just like on the USS Discovery, about 120 years prior. In the Short Treks episode “Calypso,” the sentient computer of the Discovery, Zora, claims at one point, it is “Taco Tuesday.”

Tamarians

At one point, Tendi lists off an “ascension process for the Tamarians.” The Tamarians are also known as “The Children of Tama,” and appeared in the TNG episode “Darmok.”

Moriarty!

While Boimler is caught talking to himself, he briefly pretends to be talking to a non-existent hologram on the Holodeck, specifically, Moriarty. This references the sentient holographic version Professor James Moriarty (Daniel Davis), first introduced in Trek canon in the TNG episode, “Elementary, My Dear Data.” In that episode, Moriarty was accidentally brought to life when Geordi asked the computer to create someone who could defeat Data in a Sherlock Holmes simulation. Moriarty reappeared in the episode “Ship in a Bottle,” and attempted to take control of the Enterprise from the holodeck. At the end of the episode, Picard and the crew trapped Moriarty in an endless simulation, in which Moriarity believed he had won his freedom.

The character of Moriarty, of course, originates in the canon of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and novels, specifically the short story “The Final Problem,” and the novel, The Valley of Fear. Within Star Trek canon, it could be debated that Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty are not fictional characters, but rather quasi-historical ones. In The Undiscovered Country, Spock attributes a Sherlock Holmes quote to “an ancestor,” which seems to imply Spock is related to Sherlock Holmes on his human side. Or, maybe Spock was referring to Doyle, and not Holmes. Or perhaps, as many Sherlock Holmes fans and scholars have maintained for decades, Doyle was simply the real-world literary agent for Dr. Watson, and both things are true.

The notion of Watsonian (in-universe) and Doylist (real-world) viewpoints relative to canon originates, naturally, within Sherlock Holmes scholarship and fandom. However, these viewpoints also heavily apply to Star Trek, insofar as both viewpoints are often required to reconcile various canon discrepancies.

In fact, from a Watsonian viewpoint, the reference to Moriarity implies that Boimler is aware of the infamous holographic Moriarity from the Enterprise, and that, perhaps, that Moriarty escaped the “Ship in the Bottle” simulation and is terrorizing various holodecks throughout Starfleet. But, from the Doylistic standpoint, this is mostly just the Lower Decks writers making a fun reference to the TNG episode in which the holodeck goes bananas. Finally, any Sherlock Holmes references in Trek tends to be meta even when you don’t talk about Data and Spock. Both Nicholas Meyer (director The Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country) and Michael Chabon (showrunner of Star Trek: Picard) wrote their own Sherlock Holmes pastiches. In fact, in Meyer’s first Holmes book – The Seven-Per-Cent Solution — Moriarty turns out to be a hallucination created by Sherlock Holmes’ grief and cocaine addiction. So, in The Next Generation, Moriarty was a hologram. But in Nicholas Meyer’s Holmes canon, Moriarty is an outright delusion!

The voice of the Cerritos references… Captain PIke?

Though uncredited, the voice of the ship’s main character in this episode is played by Vanessa Marshall. The fact that the computer says “Hitting It” in reply to Captain Freeman saying “Hit it” could be a reference to Captain Pike saying “Hit it” on Discovery Season 2.

Also, the computer getting sassy in general has a precedent in the TOS episode “Tomorrow Is Yesterday.”

Captain Freeman’s first name is Carol

Not only is this the first episode that Mariner calls Captain Freeman “mom,” but we also hear Freeman’s first name spoken aloud: “Carol.” This entire episode is about terraforming, and the creator of the Genesis Device in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was named Carol Marcus. This seems intentional.

O’Connell becomes… V’Ger?

When O’Connell’s ascension actually does end-up happening, aspects of it visually look a lot like when Decker became part of the massive A.I. known as V’Ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. O’Connell also briefly has wings, which could reference the Red Angel in Star Trek: Discovery, but probably not.

Spock visors

Just before Mariner and Freeman meet-up with an admiral in the conference room, we see Cerritos crew members vacuuming-up the terraforming emulsion. But, they’re wearing red visors while doing it. This seems like a reference to Spock’s red visor in the TOS episode “In Truth Is There No Beauty?” In that episode, Spock wore the visor to prevent himself from going insane by looking directly at a creature know as a Medusan. The Medusans were last referenced in the Star Trek: Picard episode, “Broken Pieces,” when Rios’ engineering hologram talked about “Medusan astrogation.”

Starfleet medals, DISCO-style

The medals that Mariner and Freeman receive at the end of the episode are almost identical in style to the medals that the entire crew of the Discovery were given in the Season 1 finale episode “Will You Take My Hand?” This is most likely the “Starfleet Medal of Honor,” which is given for acts of valor. The insignia on the medal is a little different than the DISCO versions, but that blue stripe on the fabric is unmistakable. Interestingly, in “Will You Take My Hand?” the vast majority of characters who received medals, were, not primary cast members, and, it could be argued, were part of the “Lower Decks” of Discovery, even if they worked on the bridge.

Star Trek: Lower Decks airs new episodes on CBS All-Access on Thursdays.

The post Star Trek: Lower Decks Episode 4 Easter Eggs & References appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2YCHL8W

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

1 note · View note

ishouldreadthat · 7 years

Text

Happy Monday, you guys! As I mentioned last Friday, I have been in a little reading slump, so I don’t have a review prepared for you today. So instead, I thought I’d bring back one of my favourite posts. It’s time for Part Two of the Beginner’s Guide to Science Fiction!

If you’d like to check out Part One, you can find it here. What I try to do is recommend science fiction books that you might like based on your favourite books, themes, etc. There won’t be any young adult books on this list – I’m still so new to the genre and quite frankly, someone else will have better knowledge of YA sci-fi than me. Here we go!

I love Star Trek, particularly the Original Series

Redshirts by John Scazli

We all know the jokes about red shirts – the crew members who always seem to get bumped off by horrible space monsters on away missions with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. But what if those characters had their own story?

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory.

Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that:

(1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces

(2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations

(3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.

Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.

I make no secret of the fact that I’m a huge Star Trek fan. I grew up on the Original Series and have since been working my way through all the series. I can safely say that Red Shirts is the perfect book for Star Trek fans. It gets a bit weird further along in the plot, but it is just so funny, moving, and incredibly meta. You can tell that Scalzi is a huge fan of the show.

Bonus points for Trekkies: Wil Wheaton does the narration of the audio book.

Shut up, Wesley

I love Star Wars, particularly the original trilogy

The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn

I’m going to go ahead and throw out a controversial nerd opinion: the Star Wars expanded universe is pretty much all garbage. I’ve read many of the books – old and new – and they’re just not very good except for nostalgia. However, there is one exception to this rule, and that is the Thrawn trilogy:

It is a time of renewal, five years after the destruction of the Death Star and the defeat of Darth Vader and the Empire.

But with the war seemingly won, strains are beginning to show in the Rebel Alliance. New challenges to galactic peace have arisen. And Luke Skywalker hears a voice from his past. A voice with a warning. Beware the dark side….

The Rebel Alliance has destroyed the Death Star, defeated Darth Vader and the Emperor, and driven the remnants of the old Imperial Starfleet back into barely a quarter of the territory that they once controlled. Leia and Han are married, are expecting Jedi twins, and have shouldered heavy burdens in the government of the new Republic. And Luke Skywalker is the first in a hoped-for new line of Jedi Knights.

But thousands of light years away, where a few skirmishes are still taking place, the last of the Emperor’s warlords has taken command of the remains of the Imperial fleet. He has made two vital discoveries that could destroy the fragile new Republic—built with such cost to the Rebel Alliance. The tale that emerges is a towering epic of action, invention, mystery, and spectacle on a galactic scale—in short, a story that is worthy of the name Star Wars.

Timothy Zahn is a legend in the Star Wars expanded universe. He has written a number of books in the Legends (pre-Disney canon, read more here) universe, but the Thrawn trilogy reigns supreme as some of the best. Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command take place five years after the events of Return of the Jedi. If you have any interest in Star Wars, I so highly recommend these books. Zahn has such a knack for getting the dialogue just right – you really feel like Luke, Han, Leia, and others are actually speaking and interacting. It feels just like a new Star Wars adventure in the spirit of the original films and is just so much fun.

If you need even more convincing, the Thrawn trilogy has had a huge impact on the franchise. It is credited with revitalizing interest in Star Wars in the 90’s, leading George Lucas to show there was an audience for a prequel trilogy (I’ll let you decide whether or not this was a good thing or not). Zahn came up with the name Coruscant, which is the seat of Imperial power and the location of the Senate and Imperial Palace/Jedi Temple. This name stuck when the prequel films came out and the name Coruscant became canon even though the books technically were not – cool, huh?

I’m a big fan of Game of Thrones, particularly the politics and family saga

Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald

If you’re anything like me, the best part of Game of Thrones/The Song of Ice and Fire is the political machinations, family saga, and incredible cast of characters. Fantasy novels are great for this kind of plot, but what about science fiction? It turns out that Luna: New Moon is pretty much Game of Thrones in Space, at least as far as I’m concerned.

The Moon wants to kill you.

Maybe it will kill you when the per diem for your allotted food, water, and air runs out, just before you hit paydirt. Maybe it will kill you when you are trapped between the reigning corporations-the Five Dragons-in a foolish gamble against a futuristic feudal society. On the Moon, you must fight for every inch you want to gain. And that is just what Adriana Corta did.

As the leader of the Moon’s newest “dragon,” Adriana has wrested control of the Moon’s Helium-3 industry from the Mackenzie Metal corporation and fought to earn her family’s new status. Now, in the twilight of her life, Adriana finds her corporation-Corta Helio-confronted by the many enemies she made during her meteoric rise. If the Corta family is to survive, Adriana’s five children must defend their mother’s empire from her many enemies… and each other.

This book is so good. Unlike Game of Thrones, it is a very slow burn but the payoff is incredible. You have your family, the Cortas instead of the Starks, who range from the flippant to the dedicated. You don’t only get the point of view from the Cortas – one of the best characters in the book in Marina, who is plucked up from absolute poverty by Ariel Corta after a chance encounter.

The world building in this book is absolutely stunning. Everything from the oxygen allowance to the Cora homestead of Boa Vista is just incredible. The stakes are so high not just because of the tensions between ruling families, but the environment they live in. The ending of this book is explosive and so incredibly good. Fortunately for you, the second book is out now too.

I read a lot of literary fiction and want something to ease myself into sci-fi

Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber or Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Book of Strange New Things and Never Let Me Go are two incredibly different, but beautifully written examples of literary science fiction from two of the best authors out there. First, The Book of Strange New Things:

It begins with Peter, a devoted man of faith, as he is called to the mission of a lifetime, one that takes him galaxies away from his wife, Bea. Peter becomes immersed in the mysteries of an astonishing new environment, overseen by an enigmatic corporation known only as USIC. His work introduces him to a seemingly friendly native population struggling with a dangerous illness and hungry for Peter’s teachings—his Bible is their “book of strange new things.” But Peter is rattled when Bea’s letters from home become increasingly desperate: typhoons and earthquakes are devastating whole countries, and governments are crumbling. Bea’s faith, once the guiding light of their lives, begins to falter.

Suddenly, a separation measured by an otherworldly distance, and defined both by one newly discovered world and another in a state of collapse, is threatened by an ever-widening gulf that is much less quantifiable. While Peter is reconciling the needs of his congregation with the desires of his strange employer, Bea is struggling for survival. Their trials lay bare a profound meditation on faith, love tested beyond endurance, and our responsibility to those closest to us.

I loved this book so much. It’s weird and wonderful and a new take on the space exploration narrative. Peter is the first Catholic missionary to be sent to another planet. Oasis is galaxies away from Earth, but the USIC is willing to shoulder the cost of sending him to preach to the native population. His wife Bea is his anchor in life and, while they can communicate via messages, she must stay behind. Life on Earth begins to crumble as life on Oasis flourishes, and two people separated by a huge distance must rely on each other as their lives take completely different turns. Ugh I love this book so much. It is so powerful, raw, emotional, and gorgeous.

Now for Never Let Me Go:

As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were. Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life, and for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special—and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.

This doesn’t sound much like science fiction, does it? I promise you that it is! If you haven’t had this spoiled for you, run out to the bookstore and pick this up right away. If you have, go pick it up anyway. Ishiguro is an incredibly talented writer across multiple genres – The Remains of the Day is one of my all-time favourite books – and his take on sci-fi is no exception. This book dives deep into so many ethical issues in a way that only a sci-fi novel can. Grab your tissues, y’all. This book made me cry so hard.

Show me some sci-fi that messes with gender norms and expectations

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

To only recommend Ancillary Justice on the basis of the book’s gender bending does it a huge disservice. This is an absolutely incredible work of science fiction that’s exciting, fast-paced, and mind-bending:

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest. Once, she was the Justice of Toren – a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy. Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.

You read that right. Breq is a person, but once was a starship. Technically, Breq was the sentient artificial intelligence that inhabited the starship and all the ancillary soldiers that were part of that ship. There are parts of the book where she flashes back to the past and says things like, ‘I was in the room with the general. I was also down the hallway guarding the room. There were two of me patrolling the square’ and so on. It takes awhile to get used to this, but it becomes very natural.

The main thing people talk about when discussing this book is that there is no real gender differentiation. The Radch, the culture Breq served as an AI, refer to all persons as ‘she’. Again, this is confusing at first (especially for Breq, who cannot tell if she’s speaking to a man or a woman when she’s outside of Radch space and people care about these kinds of things) but you get used to it. This gendering is not done with any kind of social justice behind it. It is not something that the author uses as a message. It is an incredibly well-executed aspect of a culture she creates. I really, really enjoyed Ancillary Justice and plan to read the rest of the trilogy. It is fast-paced, well-written, and deserving of all the praise it has received.

That’s it for The Beginner’s Guide to Science Fiction: Part 2! Have you read any of these books? Do any grab your interest? Let me know if you’d like me to do more of these beginner’s guides – I really enjoyed putting them together!

I’m also thinking of pulling parts 1 and 2 into a video – what do you think? Let me know in the comments!

It's back! The Beginner's Guide to Science Fiction Part 2 #bookbloggers #scifi Happy Monday, you guys! As I mentioned last Friday, I have been in a little reading slump, so I don’t have a review prepared for you today.

#Blog #Book blog #Book Blogger #books #Fiction #Geek #Genre #novel #Reading #Recommendations #Redshirts #Reviews #sci fi #Science Fiction #Space #Star Trek #Star Wars #Thrawn Trilogy #Writing

0 notes