#that episode reminds me of when my dad showed me the episode of tng where data makes a daughter

[disneyfan4868]

So my dad convinced me to watch SNW and like holy shit. Not expecting it to be as good as it is. I had little confidence in new Trek and like oh my gosh it GOT ME. I’m crying.

#star trek strange new worlds #star trek snw #I just watched the Elysian Kingdom #it killed me #people always show Star Wars and sci fi and as a father son thing but Star Trek will forever be a daddy daughter show #that episode reminds me of when my dad showed me the episode of tng where data makes a daughter #this franchise has been my dads life long special interest and it was one of mine

[thegeminisage]

oh boy IT'S tng update time. last night* we watched "imaginary friend" and "i, borg."

*tonight. it's 1am. whatever. it's posting tomorrow when i'll be awake but busy. anyway im gonna have to start splitting these up so tumblr will stop FUCKING me re my character count

imaginary friend:

what i like about this episode and indeed tng as a whole is that the little girl was fucking adorable. tng fans, your show has at least one point of validity. whenever there was a child on tos i wanted to throw them out of the airlock because they acted possessed. all the children on tng inspire within me motherly concern.

HOWEVER. THERE SHOULD NOT BE. CHILDREN ON A STARSHIP.

we've gone over this at length. we don't need to do it again. i am sick to death of hearing myself talk about it. i want to stop. and yet. every. and i mean EVERY. SINGLE. PROBLEM. in this episode. happened because there were children on a starship.

problem #1: child is making up a fake imaginary friend instead of making real ones = it's because her dad hops from starship to starship

problem #2 her imaginary friend is real now and wants to drown her in the pool like in that one episode of s*pernatural = this is because an alien, from space, read her mind, which it could not have done if she wasn't in space on a starship

problem #3: the alien HATES the grownups and thinks they should die = because she is seeing the ship from a child's pov, because there are children on this starship

and on and on and on.

aside from this huge and ongoing point of contention it was solidly watchable. i liked the little girl. i like guinan. i like worf being a big old softie when he found them out of bounds. i like people not undermining deanna's counseling work. i liked the horrifically unsettling imaginary friend with laser eyes who definitely absolutely inspired 2.11 playthings.

can anyone tell me if the other star trek shows just let them have kids on the ships? ds9 i get because that's a space station but are there kids on the ship in enterprise? voyager? discovery? genuinely please write in i can't take living like this

i, borg:

ooooooh. ooh i am twirling my hair and kicking my feet and giggling about it. OHHH finally we get a good tng episode. and not just a good episode a GREAT episode. the liz community has forgiven tng. oh baby where do i even begin

okay, firstly, beverly. she so instantly sees someone injured and HAS to help, i mean HAS to, it's so good. it's very bonescore in a way that doesn't feel like they're trying to make her a cheap bones knockoff but rather a spiritual successor. he would have also helped his enemy rather than watching him die. hell, he DID do that and got quite literally mind-raped for his trouble, and he'd probably do it again. i was really really lukewarm on poor bev at first but she's come into her own so well and i'm proud of her

the borg himself - third of five, aw, just like seven of nine - but no, hugh - the name is dumb but whatever i'm glad he has one - was well-cast. it would have been easy to make him uncanny and an unpleasant presence onscreen (this was my biggest issue with data's daughter even though the ep DID make me cry, deeply sorry to data whomst i love the most). his "you will be assimilated resistance is futile" song and dance was actually really funny when played off of geordi's wry indifference. "ok, but before we get assimilated, can we please finish x test?" so true king

geordi's a natural choice to pair with this guy because when he's not being the creepiest person on earth to holodeck girls he's sociable, outgoing, and patient. PLUS he has experience befriending machines because of data. hugh actually reminded me of data in some ways because of his general lack of understanding re: humanity but - and this is critical to me - HE IS HUMAN

like, i feel like the episode didn't quite nail the point home hard enough possibly because they were afraid of the implications but the cold hard truth of the matter is that each and every person on the borg cube IS A PERSON. they have been assimilated, but we've twice now seen that it's possible to unassimilate them with only a few days of effort. picard (and guinan!) consider the entire collective their enemy but the collective is comprised of brainwashed prisoners. those fucked up little borg babies they found in the cube were assimilated as INFANTS - i assume they weren't born on the cube bc if the borg could reproduce on its own it wouldn't need to assimilate - but even if they were born on the cube, they had no choice but to be this. you know.

which is whyyyy it's so fucked picard was like yeah give hugh some digital poison let him carry it back to his cube and we'll kill them like ants <3 like, oh my god his lingering borg trauma or whatever. MWAH. when he told deanna he didn't wanna talk. when he and guinan had to trauma-bond while fencing. when he told geordi that he needed to unattach himself because it was nothing more than animal experimentation. STONE FUCKING COLD BY THE WAY. he is fighting in the war on animal experimentation on the side of animal experimentation. he was going to let his cre heal and feed that kid and then send him back laced with poison. diabolical <3

and, of course, when he didn't want to speak or associate that borg kid at all because that's who he used to be AND WHO HE STILL IS in some corner of his brain (!!!)

LIKE. WHEN HE WAS FINALLY CONVINCED TO INTERROGATE THIS KID. and IMMEDIATELY broke out the locutus voice. he still remembered all the protocol! the way of speaking! everything! i was so shocked and thrilled.

i love also how everyone who spoke to hugh came away extremely unsettled but also totally convinced of his humanity. even guinan, which was so fun, because she was even more anti-borg than picard at first and they were bonding over trauma and fantasy racism. that bit where hugh, who had only known about the concept of loneliness for like an hour, immediately pegged her as lonely after like three lines of dialogue. oh my GOD???

i was decently satisfied with the ending - obviously they couldn't send him back with poison nor could they protect him from the borg, but i wish they had informed him of the inevitable memory wipe before he made his choice. (a selfless choice! he loves geordi!!) still i think he mostly walked into it with eyes open. very sad but very proud of him.

my one tiny nitpick with this episode is that for all beverly's genuine and justified concern about hugh, i don't think theyre ever gonna address the fact that she shot and possibly killed some of the borg in the episode where picard got assimilated. i feel like after realizing they are all people, like hugh, she should also realize she's broken the hippocratic oath, and have a little crisis about it. i have no idea why we had the DOCTOR shooting and killing anybody but let alone if we aren't gonna get into that. i don't think anyone cares/cared except me though.

but tbh, for me this is one of the main draws of the borg. they're ALL brainwashed cyber-assassins and they're ALL prisoners and in theory ALL of them could be saved if only they would stop attacking first. sure, yeah, in fights you gotta do what you gotta do because your own life has gotta come first, but the unique scifi horror aspect of all of those guys being perfectly innocent people fucks and they should utilize it a little more!!!

NEXT TIME: "the next phase" and "the inner light."

#personal #star trek blogging #tng lb

[dragontamerno3]

DS9 S2E16 - Shadowplay

This episode was so sweet! I'm not sure if I'd say this is my favorite of Odo so far but its definitely one of the top five. I am a little unsure on how much "Odo is a real boy" that I can take, though, especially since we just did that whole deal with Data. It feels different enough that I'm not actually too bothered by it yet but it is sorta pulling my out of the story each time so we'll see if I get sick of it lol

I hadn't considered a whole society of holograms and the folks really took it extremely well, all things considered, but it was overall a nice episode, I think. Personally if someone said I was living in some kind of simulation or if I wasn't real I'd probably start walking around screaming "end program" to shut it down, but that's very much just a me thing.

Because of the weird acceptance and a few other things (Kira's investigation/hunt to stop Quark, Kiara's sex life, etc) that made the pacing on this episode to me. I mean, it was fine, I was engaging with it no issue but it did feel like it jumped around a bit.

On a side note: Bashir mentioning how Garak is teaching him spy stuff made me squee. The boyfriends are too cute.

Before the reveal of holograms, I kind of thought they were in some kind of city with an invisible barrier and the others had left. By force, by weird subconscious impulse, or completely voluntary, that part was uncertain, but I would not have guessed holograms.

Odo with Taya was adorable af and it started out so subtle. He seemed more or less indifferent towards her just like he is with most people and then she basically made him her best friend and he melted into the goo he is. It was super sweet. And I'm glad he shifted for her eventually. Even if she wasn't real, he grew attached.

In a way this episode kind of reminded me of the TNG episode where Data has been communicating with the alien child and he saves her from the erupting volcano planet but then has to wipe her memory of him. This time, though, Odo gets to keep his friend (that we'll probably never see again lol)

On the subplot side of things, I want to once again shout from the rooftops how good of a man and dad Benjamin Sisko is. He may have been pushing for Jake to get a job, which I find to be a little ick but experience is a great thing to have and a station like DS9 really can use all hands on deck sometimes, but he listens to his kid. Jake had every right to be nervous about admitting he didn't want to follow in his dads footsteps because life changing conversations like that are scary, but the way Sisko reacted? He didn't yell, his questions were all gentle and none of them were aggressive, leading, or accusatory, and it was clear that all of his attention was directed towards making sure Jake was happy. I love their relationship so much.

I also want to say Miles is a great dad/going to be a great dad when Molly is old enough for these kinds of conversations too. The way he helped Jake find the courage to talk to Sisko was sweet. And he was super patient with him while he learned a skill he knew next to nothing about.

All episodes should be character building but there are sometimes specific ones you can point to and show where the dynamics change and I think this is one of them.

7/10 - I was hesitant with this one but the character stuff was too good to mark any lower, I think

#shadowplay #star trek #star trek ds9 #ds9 #watchalong #star trek deep space nine #odo ds9

[cicaklah]

strange new worlds!!!

I watched the first seven episodes of strange new worlds and I'm here to TALK about them incoherently.

Look, after disco season 3 and picard season 2, I had basically had my heart broken twice. Make me love a show, make me bond with a crew, then fuck it all over with bad writing, poor decision making and shoddy showrunning.

Is it happening again??? oh, probably. But much as in 2017 when I was at rock bottom disco provided me with what I needed, in 2022 it did it again, just what I needed this time was some by the numbers star trek.

some of the perennial problems of modern trek are still present: characters have to have big secrets as well as tragic backstories. too many coincidences that just happen to tie into classic trek a little too evenly. However, a lot of that is excused: these are characters we know and they are connected.

I am very glad that this is it though, there isn't a big overriding mystery yet. Disco especially couldn't work out whether it wanted to be a show with a big mystery or lots of small mysteries and instead just piled mystery upon mystery until everyone was just suffocated.

I love the decisions that have been made: the gorn being the token scary baddies is a good choice. Fleshing out Spock and T'Pring's relationship is delicious, T'Pring is glorious. I'm waiting for her to ask Spock to fuck her like a human and how much that will bsod his brain to the point I will probably write it.

I ADORE Una and La'al. I didn't think I'd like La'al, mostly because I'm sick of everyone must be one degree of separation, but I love her so much. I love Una and Pike's relationship. I am BESOTTED with Chapel. Baby Uhura is adorable. Ortega is great. Hemmer is...you don't need me to spend ages talking about Andorians/Aenar because I read all those beta canon books (DRINK), just to say though I love him.

So far all seven episodes are great, probably the weakest was the pilot, though it was good. The commitment to self contained episodes and the old A/B plotting just is a reminder that the structure is a classic for a reason. Also, they did body swap!!! Body Swap and Enterprise Bingo! In one episode!

Quick reviews of each episode:

strange new worlds: pike's beard is awful, spock's body is incredible, light touch tie into disco, I miss Michael too, and a retconning of star trek history that would have been better coming before picard but that I'm still mildly annoyed about because it still doesn't really make sense to pretend that the diversion point between us and star trek is yet to happen but also not ugh just FINE BE THAT WAY.

children of the comet: could be mid-tier forgettable tng episode and I mean that as a compliment.

ghosts of illyria: echoes of tng episodes past collide with beta canon and two characters having secrets. genuinely loved this episode, una being illyrian is something I was annoyed was apparently changed but nah. Also discussing augments and eugenic war legacy oh my its like christmas.

memento mori: SO GOOD just so good. Ambushes! Gorns! Cat and mouse in space! Character development!!! Creepy shit!!! Hemmer!!! Creative uses for things!! Mind melds!!!

Spock Amok: BODY SWAP!!!!!!! ENTERPRISE BINGO!!!! Interesting diplomacy B plot! The solarsail ship! A definite great.

lift us where suffering can't reach: this is just an adaptation of 'those who walk away from omelas' but I am glad they did it, even if now the show is doomed to be sued by ursula k leguin for plagiarisms. but does her story have topless pike? no. so this episode is obviously the superior 'powered by a forsaken child' story.

the serene squall: shipbait and a great villain who overall sells a filler episode. good job. also: sybok!!!!!! the return of sarek: galaxy's worst dad maybe???

anyway this show is good I don't know why people aren't talking about it. also there's loads of kissing, absolutely loads of it. it didn't cure my depression but it did make me feel a bit better to lie in bed, watch star trek and eat crisps.

#star trek #star trek snw #strange new worlds

[discotreque]

LwD 2.05: An Embarrassment of Dooplers

So I was a little nervous about this one! I hadn’t heard any spoiler-spoilers, but screeners have been out for weeks now, and I’d heard a bunch of individual, vague, non-spoilery hints about (1) big character moments, on the scale of a mid-season finale even though the show’s not taking a mid-season break; and (2) an ending that would make me cry.

I guess I imagined something relatively serious and dramatic, like “No Small Parts”? This show makes me cackle with laughter and giggle with nerdy glee and “d’awww!” at heartwarming friendships every week, but it’s only ever made me cry once—and then I was impressed that they were going to get there from the wacky hijinks we saw in the brief teaser.

The lack of a cold open made me apprehensive too—in my experience, that’s typically a sign that there’s so much plot in the rest of the episode that they need that extra scene—but after ~21.5 minutes of aforementioned hijinks, I was having so much fun that I’d completely forgotten about the alleged tear-jerker at the end…

…and they were not the tears I was expecting.

I didn’t think I’d be smiling and crying!!!! That was wholesome as SHIT!!!!!

I almost can’t believe they earned that—but they totally did.

After a Mariner–Tendi episode and a Boimler–Rutherford episode, we’re back to the “usual” Season 1 pairings… except the relationships between these characters have changed since Season 1. Mariner still feels thwacked in the abandonment issues by Boimler bailing for the Titan, and Rutherford’s having a tiny little existential crisis about losing an entire year of his life.

Both of which are extremely understandable and very heavy situations—and both of those situations get resolved because everyone in them is vulnerable with each other and honest about their feelings—AND that honesty and vulnerability brings both pairs of friends closer together. Are you kidding me?? I would watch SEVENTY seasons of that shit. Put it in my veins.

Onto the notes:

So basically Dooplers are Tribbles, but for cringe comedy instead of slapstick? Ohhhhh boy.

Look at Ransom the diplomat, tossing his own fork on the floor! I like that he’s actually a pretty competent Starfleet officer, despite also being a completely ridiculous person.

Wait a second, is that—OH HOLY SHIT, THE DOOPLERS ARE VOICED BY RICHARD KIND.

It makes sense that B. Boimler would find William annoying—who likes seeing their own flaws reflected back at them? And who could be a better reflection of one’s flaws than one’s literal duplicate?—but most interesting to me is that it implies on some level, Bradward knows the stick up his butt is a flaw. (Does William?)

Why does the Cerritos model have working phasers?!?!

I’m loving hot pink as the currently en-vogue colour for “dangerous sci-fi energy” in animation (cf. almost every previous episode of this show; Into the Spider-Verse; other stuff I can’t remember right now). As a former child of the 80’s, I’m living for it… but as a former teenager of the 90’s, I can’t help but wonder if it’s going to age as poorly as the harsh neon green of The Matrix, every Borg appearance on Voyager, and like 80% of the websites I made in high school…

SKANTS! SKANTS! SKANTS!

That fake-out joke with the fly-by over the Cerritos model was in the season trailer weeks ago, and I was so enthralled by that handsome lady that the sticker coming into frame still got me good 😂😂😂

BECKY Mariner????? omg yes

Some top-quality Boimler screams in this one. Poor Jack Quaid must drink gallons of throat-coat tea when he records.

One of the great things about Star Trek to me is that you never know what you’re going to get from any random episode. A murder mystery? A road trip? A spooky thriller? A cheesy romance? Broad comedy? Body horror? Didactic political screeds shrouded in tissue-thin science-fiction metaphors? Brain and brain, what is brain??? And after this many years of watching, you’d think I’d be hard to surprise. But if I ever told you I thought I’d see a Blues Brothers–style car chase through a frickin’ shopping mall on an episode of Star Trek, I would have been straight-up lying to you. I loved it, it worked for me, my jaw was on the floor and I was clapping with joy—but I’m definitely comfortable calling this one “unexpected.”

It’s CAPTAIN SHELBY!!! And an ancient babydyke crush rose from the depths of my childhood subconscious… (Also I think her Number One is based on the original makeup—eventually deemed too complicated—for Saru? Now that’s a deep cut.)

In 20th-century Trek, you almost never got to see what was going on inside a starship from the outside. Even after they switched from physical models (where it was next to impossible on a single episode’s budget) to CGI (which was still in its infancy, still not exactly cheap, and still broadcast in SD anyway), it was a rare thrill to see any meaningful interior details in an exterior shot. Disco’s modern VFX have given us some tasty, tasty treats in that department, but nothing quite as sublime as all the pink Doopler light glittering through the Cerritos’s windows.

Mariner says she’ll take her contact Malvus down with her, and threatens that they’ll end up “in the same cell.” Malvus is a Mizarian, a species introduced in TNG’s “Allegiance,” in which Captain Picard is held in a mysterious prison with one. I think I see what you did there, McMahan?

Bartender… so hot… lesbian circuits… overloading…

The Tendi and Rutherford C-story was, well, a C-story within a 22-minute episode, so there wasn’t much to it, but the one scene that mattered actually mattered a lot. I’m ambivalent on whether they should end up romantically involved—I’d prefer they don’t, but they’ll be one of the cutest couples in Trek history if they do—and as long as they keep that pure, sweet friendship between them at the heart of whatever else happens, I’m on board.

Carol Freeman was already one of my favourite captains before this season, and she’s been steadily moving up the list. The quiet throughline about her ambition to be on a better ship has been fascinating so far, and it’s starting to actually make me feel a little conflicted: I’m of course rooting for Captain Freeman to recognize her worth, make Starfleet recognize her worth, and become the ass-kicking captain of a hero ship that she’s clearly ready to be—but that almost surely means she’d be kicking ass off-screen, because LwD isn’t about those kind of adventures, and I’d be devastated not to have Dawnn Lewis on the show every week. So I’m kind of on the edge of my seat about this one!

I had so many favourite jokes this week I put them in a separate list:

“Even the replicated water on the Titan tasted better” is a low-key brilliant dunk on people who can’t shut the fuck up about the cooler places they used to live.

“Ooooh, they have a Quark’s now! That used to just be an empty lot where teens would make mistakes!” ← That’s literally me every time I go back to where I grew up. I felt so Seen™ I almost hid under a blanket.

“I would never go down the stairs!” (evil grin) (goes up the stairs)

The “well, shit” expressions from Mariner and Boimler as their crashed car sank right into the water… which started to bubble innocuously… and then the bottles of Data bubble-bath popped up, paying off a joke I thought had already been paid off—that was the one that woke up my poor cat this week. Just exquisite timing.

“YOUR PAGH IS WEAK, AND IT DISGUSTS ME!” “I don’t even know what that is, but I don’t like your tone!”

“Okona’s in there? He’s not even Starfleet! This is outrageous!” made me shout “NO!” at the screen like I was scolding my cat for scratching furniture. (She did not wake up that time.)

Best background joke: the neon sign at the dive bar advertising FREE SHOTS & BEERS. (Get it? Because they’re on a Federation starbase? Where nobody uses money?)

And of course Quark merchandised DS9.

This wasn’t just a standout episode of Lower Decks, this was a brilliant episode of Star Trek, period. The Dooplers, though extremely silly, are nevertheless also a clever sci-fi metaphor for real and relatable personal/interpersonal issues, and an effective plot catalyst for meaningful character growth from all four of our ensigns and the captain.

The jokes were hilarious, the action was kinetic, the A-, B-, and C-plots linked up thematically, the visuals were consistently and thoroughly gorgeous, the character beats—between Mariner and Boimler, Tendi and Rutherford, Mariner and Capt. Freeman—were all genuine, heartfelt and wholesome, and the references to other Trek canon were both deep and deeply affectionate.

Only 15 episodes in, and this series knows exactly what it is, exactly what it wants to do, and knows that it can knock our socks off doing it. Mike McMahan has said in recent interviews that the back half of S2 (and the apparently almost-fully-written S3) is a straight line uphill in quality from here—which surprised me at first, because McMahan seems like a pretty chill dude who doesn’t normally brag about his own work like that.

But then the Prophets sent me a vision of my space dad Ben Sisko, who reminded me of the words of 1930’s baseball player Dizzy Dean:

“If you can do it, it ain’t bragging.”

[Thanks to cygnus-x1.net for the screenshots this week—I was too lazy to do my own.]

#star trek #star trek lower decks #lower decks #lower decks spoilers #lwd spoilers #amy's episode notes

[fictionadventurer]

If you're still taking the fictional asks, how about Star Trek (I know you occasionally talk about TNG, but would be curious about any of the rest as well)?

Star Trek: I love how tactile everything about the spaceship is--all the very sensible '60s knobs and switches. I like the over-the-top sense of adventure. I love the Tribble episode (which is one of the few full episodes I've seen, and I've seen it several times because it always seemed to be on TV).

Next Generation: Data! Oddly enough, the machine is the most interesting person on the crew. His fascination with humanity and struggle to connect with them, his innocence and wisdom, his love of his cat and Holmes stories--I care about him so much. I've finally seen enough episodes to appreciate the other characters, but back I was struggling to connect to their bland competence, Data was what kept me coming back, and he's always going to be one of my favorite characters of all time.

Other things to appreciate include: Picard's captaining and speech-making skills; the incredibly relaxing background hum of the spaceship; the occasional appearance of Q, the holodeck (I know all the cliches of the holodeck stories can be contrived, but I'm obsessed with the possibilities it provides for storytelling), the Picard vineyard, whoever finally decided to give Troi a real uniform, the astonishingly well-formatted structure of the finale. And ever since I saw I, Borg, I think about it constantly.

DS9: I've seen, like, an episode and a half of this show. (One was the Tribbles crossover event. Very well done). But I also saw a bit of the episode where it crossed over with TNG, and Bashir + Data was a friendship dynamic that I never knew I needed.

Voyager: Janeway. For reasons that I can't explain, I just like her. Possibly because she reminds me of Katherine Hepburn, who I also instinctively like for unknown reasons. (This is so funny to me, because whenever I mention Voyager to my dad, who was a ST fan when these were actually airing, the first thing he always says is that he could never get into this show because he didn't like Janeway. The gender divide, perhaps?) She's just a fun captain to watch.

This crew also has more races and species and genders involved among the main crew, and even if it's not all handled well, it provided a nice change of pace from the rather samey-feeling TNG crew.

Enterprise: I've definitely only seen an episode and a half of this show, so I can't say much. But I like the more rough-and-tumble frontier atmosphere--these people don't know what they're doing, and they're just trying their best. I like that they don't have all the Star Trek tech, so they have to do things like have a linguist to help with translation issues. And one of the episodes I've seen was the one where Trip and T'Pol go to Vulcan, and I loved the gentler exploration of dealing with domestic life in an alien culture.

#answered asks #talking about stories i like #valiantarcher #star trek #star trek: the next generation #star trek: deep space nine #star trek: voyager #star trek: enterprise #thanks for asking! #even though i don't have much experience outside tng i liked the opportunity to talk about the other shows

[gowronhateclub]

I’m in a mood so I rated star trek dads from best to worst. Ive only see tos, aos, tng, and I’m halfway through season 5 of ds9. This may be my opinion but it is also correct.

1. Ben sisko

I mean. Come on. This man loves two things - his son and baseball. I’m an adult but if he wants to adopt me I’d be ok with that.

2. Rom

He supports Nog’s dreams no matter how much quark gives him shit. Really he’s just doing his best and I support him

3. O’Brien

I feel like we barely see him being a father but what we do see he seems like a good dad idk

4. AOS sulu

Idk he picks up his kid in that one scene

5. Kirk

I mean he barely knew he was a dad or got time to be one so I feel like I can’t fairly judge him but this placement feels right

6. Worf

Where to even start. I feel like him being a bad dad is just a lot of bad writing choices on behalf of the showrunners like ignoring Alex’s existence for nearly the entirety of the TWO SHOWS Worf is in. Would I want Worf as a dad? No but I sure would take him over the rest of the people on this list

7. Kyle Riker

I had to look up his name and on his memory alpha page it says will is his only son and I wonder how Thomas feels about that. I feel like if he just went to therapy he would have at least been ok but I def don’t want him as my dad

8. Dr mora

Oh man FUCK this guy. He’s the reason I’m making this list. I just watched the episode where odo and him reconcile and shit. I’m just here to remind you that you absolutely do not have to forgive your abusers

9. Sarek

Ok ok ok I know some people would disagree with this but hear me out. When has sarek literally done anything at all to move the plot of the show forward. He’s completely useless. If he wasn’t in the show nothing would be different. He’s a useless character so therefore he’s a useless father.

#ik juliens dad is bad too but i havent gotten to that episode yet no spoilers please #star trek #tng #ds9 #aos #benjamin sisko #sisko #rom #obrien #miles obrien #hikaru sulu #sulu #kirk #worf #kyle riker #dr mora #sarek #mine

[thefirsthogokage]

Time to Hate-Watch Turner and Hooch, Episode 5

Because I am bored. And I hate myself. Of you aren't ok with me hate-watching and commenting, well then this is not the post you are looking for. Please move along.

Ah, yes, reminder of the love triangle they put in a kids copaganda show for the parents. Again. Because reminder: they did that last week.

Ew, bad shaky camera work.

Oh god she was listening to that music as a personal stake out sound track by choice? Like, why?

"You're all hopped up on juice boxes and I don't like it." I did like that line.

Laura is 5 years old.

I do like the theme song.

You know what also is weird about this supposed kids show? The episodes are nearly 50 minutes long. No kid is going to pay attention to that long of an episode.

So much natural lighting and making Hooch very yellow in some scenes and not others.

I'm probably too tired to watch this tonight.

Honestly that poor girl. Such a big crush on a very oblivious dipshit.

Branden is a fucking gift to this show. Again, I am just so glad he kept acting after Power Rangers SPD. Not many former PRs stay in the business, let alone get steady work. I'm really proud of him!

Rain. This show must be filmed in Vancouver. Actually, I vaguely remember hearing it was shot there. ... (Googles)... Haha

I mean, air cold enough mid-day to see their breath + rain had to = Vancouver. I mean I guess Portland too. But either way, California my ass.

Dreary natural lighting. Classic Vancouver. I can't believe anyone could actually think this would look like California.

Having Laura recognize a lot of people so that they could give her information to make her getting the information super easy is certainly a choice... by writers who don't want to work to hard. Then again, I think this is supposed to be a a family friendly show...kind of. Line, this isn't a straight up specific demographic this is targeted towards. They just have done a few things I absolutely would not put in a kids show this day and age. Like, it honestly so bizarre to watch.

I'm not fond of stories like this. Guy is getting married, all aspects of the case have a relation to weddings. It's just too much happenstance in this episode. And I'm tired, I should have very little ability to notice most of the is shit tonight.

Oh god, this would be so painful if I wasn't so sleepy. Like, what the fuck are you doing, Laura. Well, at least this is showing Lyndsy's versatility and expressiveness. My god this is such a different character then Alex on Nikita.

Tired sidenote, my watermelon is very good.

Laura gets up to leave after getting this woman to hang out with her. The woman has to remind her that she doesn't know where she lives. I liked that.

"Thank you for your never-ending aquatic references." Ok, this show does have some good lines.

(This is honestly like kind of watching Lucifer. I hat the show, but occasionally there are so lines that I really like. Though I did stop watching Lucifer because I just hated it too much. I was only watching it out of boredom.)

I am really glad that they have a Native guest star. It's nice to see more Native rep on shows the past couple years.

Messaging: Kids, you gotta stand up for other kids being bullied because you are just as bad as the bullies if you just stand there. I'm really ok with this messaging. Good job, so that I mostly don't like.

I'm sorry, I'm so tired.

"His name was Jean-Luc-" Me: stares at camera in 'Robert Duncan McNeill directed this episode and is the primary Executive Producer on this show.'

For those of you who don't know, RDM was Tom Paris in Star Trek Voyager and a character who's name I can't remember that he also played on Star Trek TNG.

Fun fact, Tom Paris was initially going to be the same character he played on TNG, but something about rights blah blah blah, made that a no-go.

Sorry, back to me hate-watching while tired.

Oh god there are 21 minutes left.

Why is Laura holding a guinea pig? And why does she have a karaoke machine?

Why is Branden's character having a romantic time with his fiance while on a case? Ugh, the unprofessionalism. Like, aren't they only a two hour drive from home? Why is this happening? Do they think of distance like the British? Or people who live in Saint Louis? (Seriously, in Saint Louis some people think 20 minutes is a long drive. Granted, ten minutes is a long drive for me, but the position I have to sit in to drive really aggravates my Interstitial Cystitis (meaning I have to pee so, so bad the whole time I am in the car)).

I want to take this moment to apologize. I am very sorry about the tangents and the personal health and whatnot. But at this point I'm too tired to go bad and delete things or care about what else I'm going to write, so I'm just going to keep going without my filter on. Of you make it through this whole thing with me, bless you you sweet, sweet, probably bored soul.

🎶Ooo Heaven is a place on earth 🎶

Oh god, so much tomato stuff. All over the bathroom. The very white bathroom. Good luck with that...Scott? Is that our main characters name? Scott? I don't care to look it up at th- yeah it's Scott, Laura just said it.

Uh, shouldn't that have been made of metal? Either way, shitty craftsmanship if the dog could break it that easily.

That can't be how you train a bomb sniffing dog.

No way someone who's been a police officer for a few years wouldn't know that there are drugs on literally every bill.

Again, family show why?

Neither of them thought there would be a back door?

This while thing is insane. Not in anyway that I find entertaining. But I'd probably be more pissed if I it was more conscious. You should probably be reading all of my angry sounding things as just very tired and a bit sedate because of the tiredness.

I'm sorry Branden's character was a soldier in combat and he's never been shot? Unless I'm misremembering. But seriously, he doesn't know what getting shot in the vest fells like.

Oh look, the girlfriend fires at vehicles driving towards her too. In the same episode..I hate when things are related like that. Not upper level writing.

Why was the Secret Service also looking for those people? What? That can't possibly be their preview.

(Before I finished the episode, I discovered that for the second time this week, I did not get to the litter box fast enough (as in since this morning) to prevent my cat from moving the liner enough to pee between it and the box. So, at 11pm I had to go clean that out.)

Like this guy wouldn't know that he was copping to extortion by saying that.

God, why are they making this case the dad was working on (stupid arching plot in a family tv show why? For the adults who can tell this show is bad already?) even more complicated? Like, is this going to get Heroes level stupidly complex? Because that shit killed that show. Ok, so it probably won't be that bad...just the kids show equivalent of that bad.

Oh good for you, girl who's name I never learned! Quit the job with the evil boss! Please let her be OH NATALIE! Once again, thank you Laura for saying the name of the character whose name I wasn't sure of. What was I saying... Of yeah, I hope Natalie comes back and wasn't just on one episode. More native characters on TV please!

Oh wait, am I just realizing the girls in the live triangle were both on Glee, or did I remember that in a previous post? I know they were both on Glee from the moment I saw them in this show, but, like, I somehow didn't realize it was a very mini Glee reunion when they were in the same scene?

Wait, where did Scott wash Hooch if it wasn't in his own place the first time? Where was that bathroom? Wait, unless this isn't the bathroom in him home? I was definitely too tired to watch this. That might be saving me on the anger level, but it's certainly making it a bit difficult to keep track of some stuff.

Oh bad edit/consistency moment with the foam on Scott's face. Always hating to me.

Episode over.

Closing Thoughts: This show is still driving me insane with it's not on point demographic aiming and just silliness that isn't really good-silly, more like bad-silly. Also, I'm tired.

#turner and hooch #turner & hooch #disney plus #riley watches tv #long post #even though it's not that long I'm sure some people still consider it as long

[thebeauregardbros]

Can you tell me about Yakuza 0? I've never played it before and would like to read your thoughts on it.

YOOOOOOOOOOO LES FUKIN GO (thank u!!)

This review is spoiler-free!

Despite what you might assume a game about a bunch of tough muscley fighting dudes, the amount of moral philosophy in this game could rival a 3-part episode of Star Trek: TNG in terms of surprisingly deep and emotional thought. The struggles the protagonists go through has a huge emphasis on honor, keeping your word, taking responsibility for your actions, standing up to things you think are wrong and persevering no matter how much pain, suffering and threat you personally go through all in the name of trying to be a good person, and emphasizing that the mental fortitude to stand for your convictions is the true strength, not just brawn. Character development is absolutely fantastic and I feel like it’s impossible not to fall for these main characters by the end of the game, no matter how weird or even pigheaded they might seem to you at first.

(Trust me, moral philosophy is probably my biggest autistic hyper-fixation. They did this shit GOOD.)

Another major reason I really love Yakuza 0 is that it takes an unusual setting to the normal person - the incredibly political, dark, yet surprisingly realistic setting of organized bullies, criminals, and the uneducated brawn and bad-attitude baddies of the world and try to show them as worthy of more as humans like you and me than just trash that should not be seen or touched. The amount of humanitarian outlook on these people and the humanitarianism of our protagonists is absolutely heartwrenching and beautiful. Despite appearances, anyone can be a good person - this seems to be a major message in this story which I just find absolutely beautiful.

The yakuza definitely have different rules to their world, and that is one that’s built on violence over paperwork, especially when it comes to showing eachother the extent of their passion about something. I feel like it’s an excellent way of portraying the difficulties any normal person goes through with their mental health while struggling to do the right thing in a very direct and relatably painful way that anyone can understand.

The story deals with not only the importance of preserving life and protecting it with surprisingly pacifist ideologies, but the aesthetics in align with the idea that no matter how dark the world or your life feels, happiness is always an option.

Why you might love Yakuza 0 even if the plot doesn’t sound that interesting to you:

Tons of minigames - I think about 28~30 total. That includes 4 actual vintage SEGA arcade games! There’s also tons of gambling games like black jack and shogi, fishing, rhythm games, bowling, fighting tournaments, pool, darts, stock car racing, doll dressup.. It’s very hard not to find at least one you’ll like!

Tourism. Yakuza 0 has such an incredible amount of visual detail to every nook and cranny of every corner and unseen alleyway in the town maps that it feels just absolutely insane to me. The devs didn’t need to put in all this detail but they did. I could legit spend hours in first person mode just looking at everything. On top of that, every restaurant in town has a detailed menu describing each item despite the fact that all food items are just generic healing items. I think there’s even a bar where the bartender will go on a spiel talking about certain drinks after you order them. The atmosphere really makes you feel like you’re truly taking a vacation in another place. Great for when you’re longing to see new scenery while being stuck at home all the time during COVID.

The amount of optional side quests is absolutely insane. According to a wiki there’s a total of 100 side quests in all. If you’re a fan of JRPGs or a fan of completionism, completing them all gives you a ton of extra content and side-stories that can sometimes be just as gutwrenchingly wholesome or tragic as the main plot, or otherwise be great comic relief.

Speaking of comic relief, this game is notorious for it. The main plot can be incredibly serious and stressful and the devs know that can really wear down on the mental state of the player after awhile, so seeing Kiryu dance at a disco in the most lame awkward embarassing dad way possible, or see him pick up a phone in the most ridiculously over-dramatic way for no reason, or see Goro sing lovey-dovey pop songs is just something that will absolutely kill you with laughter and joy and give you a refreshed break you need to help you be able to keep continuing on.

Big fan of seiyuu (Japanese voice actors)? The karaoke bar lets you hear your protagonists’ gorgeous singing voice. You can even invite some side characters and hear their voices too!

NOW THE FAIR CRITICISMS:

Despite the plot having a huge emphasis on how important the morality is of not killing, fighting animations are often totally lethal. Goro canonically fights with a knife and a bat by the end of the game. Both characters can use guns, swords, poisoned knives, baseball bats and other lethal items as a weapon. One of Goro’s main fighting animations is snapping a dude’s neck. Kiryu threw a dude out of a high window. Kiryu shoots at dudes with a gun in a high speed chase at some point and none of these instances are ever addressed in canon plot as having blood on the hands of these characters - no matter what, the people hurt by these things seem to be able to stand up fine later on like nothing happened. Even the main characters can get shot by an actual gun 20 times in a row and shrug it off by shoving convenience store food down their throat. It’s super dumb but absolutely hilarious in it’s unaddressed B-Movie esque hypocritical nature and became a huge in-joke with the fandom. Despite these Goofy Video Game Logic instances, the main plot (specifically the cutscenes) are all extremely realistic and well done. Actual members of real-world Yakuza say the story is pretty accurate to reality.

One of the minor characters is obviously a trans woman but is misgendered constantly by other characters, including the protagonist (though this may be a translation problem), and is the only female character in the game you can fight and have to fight in order to unlock Kiryu’s endgame fighting style (though he remarks he only fights her because she looks like she can handle herself in a fight). She does end up joining up with you as an ally afterwards without changing anything about herself so that’s a positive, I guess? SEGA is aware of fans’ dislike for transphobia and have removed a lot of transphobic content from their re-releases of future Yakuza games, as well as shown the protagonist, Kiryu, as a huge LGBTQ+ ally.

-----------------

Things you might like or otherwise want to check out relating to the same story style of Yakuza 0 I personally highly recommend:

Kyou Kara Ore Wa!! (aka, "From Today, It's My Turn!!"): Absolutely hilarious gag comedy with surprisingly heartwrenching drama and incredibly lovable in-depth characters. It’s about highschool delinquents in the late 1980s (same era Yakuza 0 takes place!). The two main characters remind me a lot of the protagonists of Yakuza 0 in that one is very straight-laced and honorable while the other is more prone to dirty tricks but still does the right thing in the end. I personally recommend reading the manga above all because adaptations cut out a lot of details that I feel add a lot of depth to the characters, but the OVA anime is pretty good on it’s own and there’s a hilarious live action TV show adaptation if you like slapstick.

Rookies: A story about an impossibly determined formerly disgraced highschool teacher doing absolutely everything he can to be the best teacher he can be. Part of his journey is helping reform a group of delinquents who have self-sabotaged themselves into having their baseball team - the one thing they cared about - disbanded. The delinquents constantly fight the teacher off, believing him to just be another adult putting on airs instead of truly caring, while the teacher perseveres no matter what to prove them wrong. A manga and live action drama - both extremely good.

#yakuza 0 #review

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Thoughts on The Orville 2x03 “Home”

In case you missed the headline, I’ll be giving some thoughts about the latest episode of The Orville, so I’m going straight into a spoiler break since this was a watershed episode for the series. (Also, it’s a long review.)

The non-spoiler tl;dr - The Orville delivers its best episode to date - beautiful, intense and sad. If this was a Trek episode it’d be ranked in the top echelons.

“Home” was the episode some Orville fans were dreading. That’s because since last summer there had been rumours that Halston Sage, who plays security officer Alara Kitan, would be leaving the show early in the season. Lots of rumours as to why - some negative ones connecting it to her briefly dating the show’s creator and star, Seth MacFarlane; other, more realistic ones, suggesting it was due to her being committed to movie work - there was some talk last year about her possibly having been cast as the Dazzler in an upcoming X-Men Universe film (far as I know that has not been confirmed). The rumours were further amplified by reports of new cast members coming on to the show.

Regardless of the behind the scenes reasons, “Home” was the The Orville for the first time arriving at a moment experienced by Star Trek and Doctor Who and others - the departure of a major character who had become beloved by fans. Fortunately, Alara is not killed off. She is given a medical condition that makes it literally painful for her to remain aboard The Orville, but, while her departure is sad, it is still hopeful and of course the door is left wide open for her to return someday (Captain Ed Mercer pretty much says this on screen). So this wasn’t The Orville’s “Face the Raven”, but rather more its “Hell Bent”, to compare with the last departure that impacted me this much, that of Clara Oswald in Doctor Who Series 9.

Except the episode is in some respects far darker than “Hell Bent.” After a first half that proceeds at a leisurely pace and continues the show’s trend towards introspective, character-driven storytelling (which may prove to be its undoing if the ratings are any indication; the Nielsen families appear to be disinterested in a science fiction version of This is Us), the episode does one of the most abrupt 180-degree tonal turns I have ever seen. It goes from a rather straight family-dynamics drama as Alara tries to reconnect with her family - having returned home after learning that exposure to Earth gravity threatens to leave her unable to withstand the crushing gravity of her homeworld, a plot point springboarding from real-life issues astronauts have experienced after spending months in space - to a violent, revenge-horror story straight out of a Stephen King novella.

Viewers are lulled into a false sense of security as we get to enjoy a Star Trek doctors reunion as Robert Picardo (Voyager’s EMH, and here playing Alara’s father for the second time) teams up with John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox from Enterprise) - I have forgotten the character names so I’ll use the actors’ names here. The moment Billingsley is revealed as a villain by forcing Picardo at gunpoint to stick his hand into a vat of boiling sauce (leading to graphic injuries) is one of the most chilling things I have seen - because it was so unexpected (remember this is still technically considered a comedy series, and within the same hour we had Patrick Warburton appear in a thankfully-brief B-story plot as “comic relief alien of the week”). Although I shied away from comparing “Home” with “Face the Raven” a moment ago, the twist in this episode was in many ways as shocking and unexpected as the moment we realized that, after a rather light-hearted adventure, that Clara was going to die. The mood change is that sudden in “Home”, too. And the episode offers several moments where it is legitimately uncertain that Alara would survive. Recall that TNG had its own security chief who was killed off - Tasha Yar - so history could have repeated if MacFarlane wanted to revisit this as he’s revisited so many other aspects of TNG.

The villains’ motivations are clearly defined, if perhaps controversial to some viewers. As previously established in the episode “Firestorm”, Alara’s people are primarily academics, and Alara’s dad caused a scientific report by Billingsley’s son to be rejected. The son committed suicide after, and Billingsley and his wife have plotted to basically murder Alara’s dad and her family in revenge - but not before Alara’s dad publicly recants his rejection and they perform a bit of torture on his loved ones. (Including threatening to cut off one of Alara’s sister’s fingers with garden shears - remember this is still technically considered a comedy series.) Fortunately, Ed chooses that moment to arrive on the planet; it’s a bit of a deus ex machina, to be sure, but it comes across more as a relief than a plot device.

The rest of the episode turns into a fight-for-your-life scenario which has an unusually violent resolution, with Alara and her family pretty much on their own, due to her crewmates being restricted by the gravity of her homeworld. Ed, in particular, is gunned down by Billingsley, rupturing a special suit he wears to keep from being crushed by the gravity. While Alara fights off the couple, it’s up to her dad, injured arm and all, to get Ed to safety in time.

And then there’s the ending. After killing off the bad guys - the show pulls no punches on that - we get a hope spot as the Orville’s Dr. Finn has worked out a way for Alara to stay aboard the Orville (even though its description makes it sound more cruel to Alara than helpful). You expect the episode to end there, with status quo retained, but it continues and we suddenly learn that Alara has decided to stay with her family - having reconciled with them after surviving the attack. This actually felt like it was a last-minute addition to the episode, perhaps supporting the suggestion that Halston’s departure wasn’t planned in advance. But it works really well. For those who shipped Ed Mercer and Alara, there are a few things to hang on to, but for those who oppose the shipping, the episode also provides an alternative interpretation of Ed being seen as a surrogate father to Alara due to her inability to connect with her own. I won’t get into shipping debates right now; I’ll just say over season 1 and the start of 2 there’s plenty of evidence to support both sides.

Regardless, the final scene in which Ed opens a gift Alara leaves him - a jar of pickles - actually made me tear up. The only problem is that the whole running gag of Ed asking Alara to “open a jar of pickles for me” whenever he called upon her super-strength had actually been abandoned by the midpoint of season 1, which aired well over a year ago, though fans had kept it alive through fan art, etc. If they’d had Ed make the joke again in one of the first two episodes of Season 2, or even earlier in “Home” (there’s a scene where it would have fit, or Alara could have mentioned the joke to her family), it might have had more resonance for people who perhaps had only recently started watching. Without the context, it comes off as a bit of a non-sequitur. But, for someone who knows the context, it was a beautiful moment.

One major kudo has to go to the special effects. Xelaya is, without a doubt, one of the most beautifully rendered planets I’ve seen in televised sci-fi, certainly on par with the likes of Caprica on Battlestar Galactica (and that was mostly just Vancouver repurposed; it looks like the Xelayan city was all-CG). I was reminded in fact of some of the beautiful alien cityscapes of the Mass Effect video game series, especially Andromeda. It made me want to see more of the city - I was rather disappointed when they quickly moved the story to a quiet vacation island for the “family under siege” part of the story. My hope is that if they spent that much time, effort and budget on rendering Alara’s homeworld, it’s a sign they’ll be returning there again before long. There is also a beautiful sequence where Alara daydreams about riding the Xelayan equivalent of a wild horse. I mean - this is a beautiful-looking episode, top to bottom.

“Home” wasn’t a perfect episode; I like Patrick Warburton but I did not like his “Alara placeholder” alien character. And I mentioned my issue with the jar of pickles reference. And despite the claim that the episode was airing with fewer commercials it felt like there were more interruptions than usual (this episode probably will play better on DVD or streaming). But I still think this was the best episode the series has done so far. It has set a high bar, and aside from having lost one of its stronger characters (Alara was the heart and soul of "Firestorm”, my previous choice for best Orville episode, and was also involved closely in many of the show’s best moments), the series is going to have to work hard to reach it again. I will say that if you’re still unconvinced that Seth MacFarlane can step away from the whole Family Guy/Ted thing and deliver an episode that, had it been a TNG episode, would have been ranked among the top instalments of that series, “Home” might be enough to convince you that the guy is on to something.

#the orville #home (orville episode) #alara kitan #halston sage #seth macfarlane

[jobethdalloway]

Degrassi TNG Rewatch

okay so all of Degrassi is on Youtube and I decided to do a rewatch bc it’s been YEARS since I’ve seen any of the episodes and watching them all in order from way back in the beginning has been A TRIP

I just finished s1 and here are some thoughts:

-most importantly, it taught me to confront my own homophobia!!!: I was a young devout tween when I first started watching this show, and was uncomfortable with having a gay older brother. “Uncomfortable” is probably a nice way of putting it. I never said or did anything mean to him, but I had uncharitable thoughts for sure. In this season, Ashley learns her parents got divorced bc her father is gay. She’s so upset (and upset about him “lying” to her about it, when lying = being in the closet) that she tells her friend Terri she’s made the decision to cut him out of her life. Terri, whose mother is dead, calls her out: “My mom’s gone, she’s not coming back. Your dad came back.” “It’s not the same thing, Terri.” “You’re right, it’s not. You have a choice.” BAM. Terri got to me. I hadn’t wanted a gay brother but I sure as hell didn’t want a dead one, and this episode forced me to confront my own cruel thoughts

-i had to skip the pilot bc it creeps me out too much

-why does the theme song end with a close-up on some girl’s butt? it’s so randomly uncomfortable

-the phones. oh my gosh all the mobile phones. 

-I FORGOT HOW AWFUL PAIGE IS, ugh, “hun” 

-all I’d really remembered about Terri was the devastating way she was written off the show. I’d forgotten how pure and sweet she was and I just love her so much?? What a sweetheart of a friend. Ashley doesn’t deserve her. Paige doesn’t, either. Does anyone? idk

-speaking of Terri’s sad exit, is it also weird that I get emotional thinking of the torture and/or death that awaits these fictional children? (WE DON’T TALK ABOUT JT, IT’S SO UNACCEPTABLE) but honestly. the shaming that manny will have to go through, liberty’s unwanted pregnancy, sean’s life, jimmy getting shot, spinner falling into the wrong crowd ughhh they’re all such BABIES here and i love them and want them to be ok bc rewatching this show reminds me of how i kind of grew up with them and it feels like revisiting former classmates, a lot of whom have also had sad endings 

-part of the power comes from casting actually kids. even if the dialogue is sometimes stilted, a lot of them are really natural (spinner, emma, manny, liberty, and JT are the most authentic imo). and like sean has acne??? aw

-I remember really not liking Emma when I was younger bc I thought she was preachy and annoying. Well I guess she’s still kind of preachy and definitely a proto-SJW (like a younger, Canadian Jessie Spano) but I actually don’t mind her as much anymore. I’m proud of her, actually. Same with Liberty. She’s so precious.

-I love this scene where Spike confronts a guy at the mall for saying something really inappropriate to her & Emma, which inspires Emma to shut down JT for teasing her about her period. Which Sean notices and is impressed by

-bby Sean is so sweet and I actually was like kind of ok with him and Emma? I hated them as a youth bc I was such a hardcore Sean/Ellie shipper (I think I’d missed the earlier seasons at that point) but I’m like, ok with them now

-interesting that this season focuses so much on Ashley & Toby, who are arguably the two least interesting characters in the show at least at this point imo

-JT Yorke looks like, idk, if Jamie Lee Curtis was a middle school boy??

-I love the unironic use of phrases like “surf the web.” And how Ashley gets a same-day, bike messenger delivery of condoms bc, as she tells Terri, “you can order anything on the Internet.”

-I’m obsessed with the fashion, the hairstyles, everything. It is so much more of a throwback than I ever could’ve imagined. I hope someday kids are able to dress like kids again.

#degrassi #degrassi tng #long post

[bluering8]

TNG S02

TNG S02 roundup let’s do this let’s make it happen!

Data - I still love Data!! That’s it that’s all you’re getting on the topic because I love Data so much that if you let me talk about him at all I’ll Talk Forever and there are non-Data things in this show which  need to talk about.

Geordi la Forge - I’m glad that Geordi’s the chief engineer now. Last season was kind of weird in that there wasn’t a dedicated engineer character so they were pulling out a new random yellowshirt every time they needed someone to explain a thing to the main cast. If I’m yelling something at the screen (use a shuttle! fly in a different direction! fate is bullshit shut up riker!) then usually Geordi will be the one to say it. This is like, one of the fastest ways you can possibly endear a character to me.

Anyway, I love Geordi and I love his friendship with Data and honestly, you could give me an entire show entirely about these two being bros and I would adore it. I forgot that Geordi likes to build model ships, but now I remember and it delights me that he’s just like, a huge fucking dork in his own right.

...it occurs to me that I’m better-disposed to characters when I know what their hobbies are. Part of the reason I love Data and Geordi so much both as individuals and as a brotp is that the show devotes a lot of time to showing them fucking around and getting into shenanigans outside of their duties. Contrast that with the characters I’m more ambivalent towards, such as Riker or Dr Crusher, and it becomes really obvious that part of the reason I’m ambivalent towards them is that I have no real idea what they do when they’re not doing their jobs.

Kate Pulaski - I hated Pulaski the first time I watched TNG and now, several years later, it turns out that I still hate Pulaski!! I talked about her before and tl;dr: my issue with her isn’t how she treats Data or that she’s decided he isn’t a person, but that she thinks treating someone that way is acceptable as long as she’s decided they’re not a person. Listen, mate, I’m not here to insist that everyone should be a perfect morally-pure cinnamon roll (all my faves are problematic as Hecke). I hate Pulaski because it would be so so easy for me to love her as a character, but she simply doesn’t fit the universe. In a grittier setting? Fantastic, splendid, superlative, I’ll take ten. In spacefuture utopia? I can believe in Pulaski as a person who might exist, sure, but I cannot believe that the rest of the Enterprise crew would stand there and watch her treat Data the way she treats Data, and not respond by hauling her off for sensitivity training. I hate Pulaski not because there’s anything wrong with Pulaski, but because the way the rest of the characters let her get away with it feels like a betrayal of everything I believed in about Star Trek.

Wesley Crusher - Alias FUCKING WESLEY THE WORST CHARACTER, because he is the absolute worst. Why is he wearing a uniform now? I am not usually a guy with strong opinions about wardrobe choices, but I actually really liked his collection of ugly-ass sweaters. If Wesley adds anything to the cast it’s his identity as someone who, despite all his smarts, is still just a teenaged civilian, and as a result lacks both the experience and the training of the other characters. Once you stick him in a uniform you start to lose the impact of that difference. I mean yes the difference will inevitably be lost as he embarks on his Starfleet career but at this point he’s still not even a real cadet yet, let me have the one thing I actually kind of like about the character.

Also why is he on the bridge. Seriously why. Why why why. Stop this!!

William Riker - Somehow it took me until halfway through this season to realise that Riker is mostly just a clone of Kirk? I think this contributes to how bland I find him, all Kirk’s philosophical inclinations got given to Picard instead so Riker ends up feeling super flat and underdeveloped. He’s, like, generally a decentish person (sometimes), and he’s good at his job (sometimes), and he flirts with pretty ladies (often), and his dad is a piece of shit? That’s all I’ve got on him. Dude could use another personality trait or three.

S02E02 Where Silence Has Lease - I have very mixed feelings about this episode. The first half was excellent horror, the kind of thing I love about the SCP Foundation or the Sick Land, that scenario where you’re trying to look at a thing from the perspective of a researcher but you’re in a situation where research simply doesn’t work because the thing is a fundamental violation of the way you interact with reality, and you’ve reached the point where all you can do is look at it and describe what you’re seeing and hope really, really hard that someone will figure something out eventually maybe. (The exploration of the Yamato reminded me a lot of House of Leaves, which also has that delicious sense of nightmarish slowburn reality-breakdown even if it lacks the desperate attempts to Do Science to something which completely resists the application of the scientific method.) Horror is an incredibly subjective genre, but for me a vital part of it is denying me any explanation while maintaining the illusion that if I go just a little further, learn just a little more, suddenly I’ll have my explanation and everything will make sense.

This episode not only gives an explanation, but salts the wound by giving an incredibly shitty explanation. See, something something rats in a maze and then there’s a face in the sky and I don’t give a shit. It was Whatsisface all along!! All it achieves is making me super super confused about what are Whatsisface’s capabilities even. He can make fake ships and fake people and instakill a dude, but he can’t deactivate the ship’s autodestruct or prevent Picard from activating the autodestruct in the first place?

S02E03 Elementary, Dear Data - What the fuck is up with the holodeck? My friend pointed out that “bear in mind they probably have a thousand problem free uses of the holodeck for every freak issue” but like, that’s not the fucking issue here, the issue is that regardless of how many problem-free uses they’ve had, they’ve also had an alarmingly high number of potentially-fatal malfunctions in a relatively short span of time. Why is overriding the mortality failsafe even a thing which is possible?? I can completely buy the holodeck being too useful as a training tool to get rid of it, but they should really have some kind of restrictions or guidelines on the thing for recreational use. You’ve had it demonstrated to you multiple times over that holodeck malfunctions can end in corpses, why are you not doing something about this! Why is there apparently no Health & Safety department on this ship!!

S02E07 Unnatural Selection - Philosophical argument time: do transporters kill people? Normally I’m happy to put this question in a box labelled “let’s not think about that too hard” but the ending of this episode makes more sense to me if the answer is yes. Instead of some bullshit technobabble de-aging nonsense, what they’re actually doing is replicating a new body using the hair as reference and jamming Pulaski’s memories into it then destroying the old body.

S02E09 The Measure of a Man - See, Bruce Maddox is Pulaski done right. I’m straight-up incandescently mad that this episode was Pulaski-free, because whenever she never misses the opportunity to remind Data that he’s not a person, and I super wanted Pulaski and Maddox to interact. Pulaski’s absence here makes the issue with how casually the show treats her attitude towards Data even worse. I feel like if you’re going to spend an episode debating whether Data counts as a person you should at least have the decency to acknowledge the cast member who comes down firmly on the “no” side. You can’t have Data’s personhood as a serious topic for serious debate while simultaneously shrugging your shoulders and going yeah well Pulaski’s just Like That I guess nbd. It doesn’t work that way!

S02E10 The Dauphin - “She’s perfect, absolutely perfect,” says FUCKING WESLEY THE WORST CHARACTER about a girl he’s only met once and barely exchanged a dozen words with, and then he gets super super mad when it turns out she’s a weird space alien shapeshifted into a human which just goes to prove that her personality mattered to him not one iota and he only liked her because she was hot and gave him a boner. And... that’s it, that’s the episode. There’s no subplot, nothing else happens, the entire episode is about FUCKING WESLEY THE WORST CHARACTER having a crush. In conclusion: FUCKING WESLEY THE WORST CHARACTER.

S02E15 Pen Pals - If anyone ever attempts to fight me on the topic of Does Data Is Emotions?, this is the episode I’m pointing them to. I’m pretty sure there’s not a single action Data takes in this entire episode which can be justified from a completely unemotionless point of view. He goes from “I’m too focused on my personal project to spend two seconds stacking this crap neatly so I’ll just leave it lying around as a trip hazard” to “hey Captain remember when you said I could break the Prime Directive a little bit, is it okay if I break it twice that much? actually I broke it ten times that much sorry not sorry” to “so I know this kid has no memory of me or our interactions now but I stole Pulaski’s weird space rock to give to her anyway because sentiment is important to me”.

S02E17 Samitarian Snare - The a-plot of this episode is that multiple people tell Riker that sending their chief engineer over to some random alien vessel is a bad idea while Riker tries to insist that it is a great idea and will be totally fine and then is completely fucking blindsided when it turns out to have been a terrible idea. I’m pretty sure this is the first time Troi’s said anything useful so of course Riker ignored her because she’s not allowed to be a worthwhile character.

The b-plot is that Picard and Wesley take a shuttle trip together and Wesley is so incapable of taking a fucking hint that even when Picard gets up and moves seats to be away from him Wesley doesn’t realise that his constant stream of personal questions might not be welcome. In conclusion: FUCKING WESLEY THE WORST CHARACTER.

S02E18 Up the Long Ladder - Oh my god it’s like they listened to my complaints about S01E17 and somehow managed to fuck it up even worse!! WHY ARE YOU ALL SO WEIRD ABOUT CLONING.

tl;dr: Direct from my liveblogging of S02E03: “DATA CHANGED HIS OUTFIT data my boy my son my precious cinnamon roll how many sherlock holmes cosplay outfits do you own”. I know the reasonable explanation would be that he replicates one fresh each time, but I choose to believe that Data owns an entire closetful of Sherlock Holmes cosplay outfits.

#star trek #star trek tng

[thegeminisage]

tng update time. last night we watched "datalore" together and this morning i caught "angel one" on my own

datalore: not terrible!! i felt really bad for data the entire time of course. kind of delighted to find out he is amnesiac-adjacent in this episode, at least as far as not knowing where he comes from or why. i've gotten used to thinking of him as friend-shaped but lore reminded me of just how creepy he actually does look because he was making the creepy faces

the planet and lab were cool though it was hilarious that one of the pieces was just an ass with the crotch faced away from us to protect data's modesty lol

i liked the bit about data having an off switch.it is ironically such a human vulnerability. we have those too! it's called head trauma.

ik what i said about picard not being a dick anymore but i noticed he IS still a dick sometimes and it's mostly to either wesley (valid) or data (may he DIE). i was glad data told him not to call lore "it" and that he APOLOGIZED. he should apologize to data more often

lore is literally just a data who is better at masking btw. like thats all it is. he thinks using contractions makes him allistic and he's like ha ha look at me i'm better than you meanwhile he has to use a little laser to remove his own facial tick and his special interest is murdering humans and good for him

one thing i HATED about this ep was once again wesley made a valid point and everyone told him to fuck off. meanwhile whenever hes fucking around they let him do whatever he wants. this is making me CRRRAZY. all this stuff about you would have listened to me if i was an adult!! i'll kill the little brat myself

however the episode was immediately rescued by the appearance of this meme:

which sent me immediately into screaming hysterics because i was NOT expecting to see it in its original format here. i quite literally had to pause the episode and explain this meme to catherine with tears running down my face

angel one: not as bad as the skip/watch lists led me to believe (i didnt have to play it on 2x speed for example) but still pretty fucking terrible. oh what if WOMEN were in charge wouldnt that be WEIRD AND SCARY? meanwhile the women are wearing what pretends to be "no makeup" in 1987 and theyre super fucking hot

i thought that blonde chick was rthe one from tos's backdoor pilot and even looked it up but no she just moves her face the same way

riker's slut outfit really was something. he was such a good sport about it that i thought it was kind of mean of deanna and tasha to laugh at him but considering how women are treated on this show they deserve to actually. tasha especially.

absolutely bonkers that he tried to turn the head woman down and she slept with him anyway. close encounters of the space babes riker version??? quite literally the man said i'm not an object to be seduced and then he got seduced. wild

anyway, the morals of this were all over the place. they cant remove these people bc theyre not bound by the prime directive but they literally are interfering with this planet's system of laws etc...also the fact that like everyone is arguing for gender equality when the genders are reversed is all well and good when they live in a utopian society where genders are equal but we live and star trek was made in the real world where the genders are NOT equal so it just comes out sounding like but what about the meeeeen?? i mean. what about them?? sorry.

i. HATED. the b-plot of this episode. everyone's like oh no i wonder how this virus spreads! and then they allow worf to stay on the bridge while he does those dad sneezes. maybe this episode should have been before the other to explain data's sudden hyperfixation on learning to sneeze lol. like ik all infectious disease media hits different post pandemic but jesus christ we had more sense than that even BEFORE the pandemic

tonight we do 11001001, and then i'm doing the next FOUR on my own...rough.

#personal #tng lb #star trek blogging #ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE KIND OF DEATH YOU'VE EARNED LITTLE MAN?

[maximelebled]

2017

Howdy! Time for the yearly blog post! There's enough depressing stuff that happened this year, so I want to try and not focus too much on that; talk more about the positive and the personal. (I am looking back on this opening paragraph after writing everything else, and I don’t think that ended up true.)

I find it increasingly harder to just straight up talk about things, especially in a direct manner. I think it comes from continuing to realize that so many things are extremely subjective and everything has so much nuance to it that I feel really uncomfortable saying a straight "yes" or a straight "no" to a lot of questions ("Nazis are bad" is not one, though). Or even just a straight answer.

I always end up wanting to go into tangents, and I inevitably run into not being able to phrase that nuance. You know that feeling, when you know something, you have the thought in your head; it is so clear, right there in your head, it is crystal-clear to your soul, yet you have no idea how to word it, let alone doing so in 140/280/500 characters. Frustrating!

I guess I could just put a big disclaimer here, "I am not a paragon of absolute truth and don't start interpreting my words as 'Max thinks he is the authority on XYZ' because you'd be quite foolish to do so"; but that doesn't help that much. Online discourse, let alone presence, can be so tiresome these days; not to be too Captain Obvious, but, there are quite a lot of people that delight in engaging those they see as their "opponents" in bad faith.

As a white man, I don't have it that bad, but still, I'll continue to tell you one thing: the block button is extremely good and you should feel no shame in using it. It drastically improves your online experience. (There are some very clear signs that make me instantly slam the button. I’m sure you know which ones too.)

Anyway, regardless, it's hard to get rid of a habit, especially one you've unwillingly taken on yourself, so I apologize in advance for constantly writing all those "most likely", "probably", "maybe" words, and writing in a style that can come off as annoyingly hesitant sometimes.

I started watching Star Trek this year. My Netflix history tells me: January 29th for TOS/TAS, March 26th for TNG, June 3rd for DS9, November 9th for Voyager.

TOS was really interesting to watch. A lot of things stood out: the (relative) minimalism of the sets and the directing was reminiscent of theater, and even though that was, generally speaking, because that's how TV shows used to be made, it was still striking. From a historical perspective, "fascinating" would still be an ill-suited word to describe it. Seeing that this is where a lot of sci-fi concepts came from, suddenly understanding all the references and nods made everywhere else... it was also soothing to watch a show about mankind having finally united, having exploration and discovery as its sole goal. I feel like it wouldn't have made as big of an impact on me, had I watched it a year prior.

I've always thought of myself as rejecting cynicism, abhorring it, but it's harder and harder to hold on to that as time goes on. I still want to believe in the inner good of mankind, of people in general, but man, it's hard sometimes. I think what really gnaws at me most of the time is how so many of the little bits of good that we can, and are doing, individually, and which do add up... can get struck down or "wasted away" so quickly. The two examples that I have in mind: Bitcoin, this gigantic mess, the least efficient system ever designed by mankind, has already nullified a decade's worth of power savings from the European Union's regulations on energy-efficient light bulbs. And then there's stuff like big prominent YouTubers being, to stay polite, huge irresponsible fools despite the responsibility they have in front of a massive audience of very young people. It can be really depressing to think about the sheer scale of this kind of stuff.

What we can all do on an individual level still matters, of course! I try my best not to use my car, to buy local, reduce my use of plastic, optimize my power usage, etc.; speaking of that, I've often thought about making a small website about teaching the gamer demographic in general quick easy ways to save energy. There is so much misinformation out there, gamers who disable all the power-saving features of their hardware just to get 2 more frames per second in their games, people who overclock so much that they consume 60% more power for 10% more performance, the list goes on. Maybe I'll get around to it some day.

All this stuff going on makes it hard to want to project yourself far ahead in the future. Why plan ahead your retirement in 40 years when it feels like there's a significant chance the world will go to shit by then? It's grim... but it definitely makes me understand the saying "live like there's no tomorrow". Not that I'm gonna become an irresponsible person who burns all their savings on stupid stuff, but for the time being... I don't feel like betting on a better tomorrow, so I might as well save a little bit less for the far future and have a nicer present. You know the stories of American workers who got scammed out of their own 401k? That's, in essence, the kind of stuff I wish to avoid. If that makes sense.

Anyway, going off that long depressing tangent: something I liked a lot across The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, was how consistent they were. The style of directing, framing, camera movement, etc. was always very similar. Now, you can argue that's just how 80s and 90s TV shows on a budget, a 4:3 aspect ratio, and smaller SD screens worked, yes, but I do believe there is a special consistency that stuck out to me. I jumped into the newest series, Discovery, right after finishing Voyager (I don't plan on watching Enterprise) and the first two episodes were confusing to watch... shaky cam, a lot of traveling shots, shallow depth-of-field, and the tendency to put two characters at the extreme left and right of the frame.It’s a hell of a leap forwards in directing trends. It all gets better after the first two episodes, though.

I remember alluding to the King of Pain project in my last yearly post. I'm glad I managed to finally do it. I'd talk about it here, but why do it when I've made 70 minutes of video about it? (And unlike my previous behind-the-scenes videos, it's a lot more condensed, and hopefully entertaining.) Unfortunately for me, I completed the video in late June, with only a month left to the TI7 Short Film Contest deadline. So I ended up making two videos back-to-back. I had to buy a new laptop in order to finish the video during my yearly pilgrimage to Seattle. It was intense! And thankfully, I managed to pull off the Hat Trick: winning the contest three years in a row. I would like to think it's a pretty good achievement, but you know how us artists are in general; as soon as we achieve something, we start thinking "eh, it wasn't that good anyway" and we raise our bar higher still.

While I do intend to participate in the contest again next year, I know I'll most likely do something more personal, that would probably be less of a safe bet, now that the pressure of winning 3 in a row is gone. I already have a few ideas lined up...

... and I do have a very interesting project going on right now! If it goes through and I don't miserably land flat on my face (which, unfortunately, has a non-zero chance of happening), you'll see it in about a month from now.

I'm pretty happy to have reached a million views on all three of my shorts; a million and a half on the TI7 one, too... it might reach two million within six months if it keeps getting views at the current rate. It surprises me a bit that this might end up being my first "big" video, one that keeps getting put on people's sidebar by the all-mighty YouTube™ Algorithm™. There's often a disconnect between what you consider to be your best work, and what ends up being the most popular.

This reminds me that, a lot of the time, I get people who ask me if I'm a streamer or a "YouTuber". My usual answer is that I'm on YouTube, but I'm not a "YouTuber". I wholeheartedly reject that subculture, the cult of personalities, the attempts at parasocial relationships, and all that stuff. It's just not for me. Now, that said, I do hope to achieve 100k subscribers one day... I'm getting closer and closer every day! The little silver trophy for bragging rights would be neat.

My office was renovated by my dad while I was gone. It's much nicer now, and I finally have a place to put most of my Dota memorabilia. He actually sent me this picture I didn't know he'd taken, behind my back, in 2014; the difference is striking... (I think that game I'm playing is Dragon Age: Inquisition.)

Tinnitus. I first noticed my tinnitus when I was 20. I vividly remember the "hold on a second" moment I had in bed... man, if I'd known back then how worse it'd get. Then again, the game was rigged from the start; as a kid, I had frequent ear infections because my canals are weird and small. What didn't help either was the itching; back then, they thought it was mycosis... and treatment for that didn't help at all. Turns out it was psoriasis! Which I also started getting on my right arm that year. (It's eczema, it's itchy, it's chronic, and the treatment steroid cream. Or steroids.) Both conditions got worse since then, too.

Tinnitus becomes truly horrible when you start the doubt the noises you're hearing. When all you have is the impossible-to-describe high-pitched whine, things are, relatively speaking, fine. You know what the noise is, and you learn, you know not to focus on it. But with my tinnitus evolving, new "frequencies", I have, on occasion, started doubting whether I was hearing an actual noise or if it was just my inner ear and brain working in concert to make it up. So I end up thinking about it, actively, and that makes it come back. I had a truly awful week when, during an inner ear infection, the noise got so shrill, so overwhelming, I lost so much sleep over it. I couldn't tune it out anymore. It was like it was at the center of my head and not in my ears anymore. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I'm not even sure that I'm in the clear yet regarding that. But, like I said, it's best if I don't dwell on it. Thinking of the noise is no bueno.

Really, the human body is bullshit. Here's another example. A couple months ago, I managed to bite the inside of my mouth three separate times. I hate when it happens, not because of the immediate pain, but because I already dread the mouth ulcer / canker sore (not sure which is the appropriate medical translation; the French word is "apthe"). Well, guess what: none of these three incidents had the bite degenerate into an ulcer... but one appeared out of nowhere, in a different spot, two weeks later. And while mouthwash works in the moment, it feels like it never actually helps... it's like I have to wait for my body to realize, after at least ten days, oh yeah, you know what, maybe I should take care of this wound in my mouth over here. And it always waits until it gets quite big. There's no way to nip these goddamn things in the bud when they're just starting.

But really, I feel like I shouldn't really complain? All in all, it could be much worse, so so so much worse. I could have Crohn's disease. I could have cancer. I could have some other horrible rare disease. Localized psoriasis and tinnitus isn't that bad, as far as the life lottery goes. As far as I'm aware, there's nothing hereditary in my family, besides the psoriasis, and the male pattern baldness. I wonder how I'll deal with that one ten, fifteen years down the line...

Just as I'm finishing writing this, the Meltdown & Spectre security flaws have been revealed... spooky stuff, and it makes me glad I still haven't upgraded my desktop PC after five years. I've been meaning to do it because my i7 4770 (non-K) has started being a bit of a bottleneck, that and my motherboard has been a bit defective the whole time (only two RAM slots working). But thankfully I didn't go for it! I guess I will once they fix the fundamental architectural flaws.

The Y2K bug was 18 years late after all.

Here's a non-exhaustive list (because I’m trying to skip most of the very obvious stuff, but also because I forget stuff) of media I enjoyed this year:

Series & movies:

Star Trek (see above)

Travelers

The Expanse

Predestination (2014)

ARQ

Swiss Army Man

Video games:

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Horizon: Zero Dawn

What remains of Edith Finch

Uncharted: Lost Legacy

Wolfenstein II

Super Mario Odyssey

Metroid: Samus Returns

OneShot

Prey

Music:

Cheetah EP by James Hunter USA

VESPERS by Thomas Ferkol

Some older stuff from Demis Roussos and Boney M.... and, I'll admit reluctantly, still the same stuff: Solar Fields, the CBS/Sony Sound Image Series, Himiko Kikuchi, jazz fusion, etc. I'm still just as big a sucker for songs that ooze with atmosphere. (I've been meaning to write some sort of essay on Solar Fields... it's there, floating in my head... but it's that thing I wrote earlier: you know the idea, intimately, but you're not sure how to put it into words. Maybe one day!)

I think that's about it this year. I hope to write about 2018 in better terms!

See you next year.

#year in review

[purplerakath]

The Orville - The First Five Episodes

So we’re at the fifth episode and I feel confident saying how I feel, and saying what people should look for going into it. I’ll put my detailed exploration under a read more but here are the things that I feel are best to keep in mind.

If you like:

Serialized Status-Quo series (STNG, STVoy)

Purposeful awkward dialog (Firefly, Family Guy)

The 90s

This show is probably one you should check out.

If you have issues with:

Seth’s work (Family Guy, American Dad, Cleaveland Show, Dads)

Lower quality visual effects

Crude/Bathroom humor

You should probably keep walking.

So the way I’m separating Star Trek Discovery (that’ll get a post later when we’re up to ep 6 because... not the point) and The Orville is based on which Trek Series you like. Orville is much more in line with TOS, TNG, and Voyager. Discovery has more in common with DS9, Enterprise, and the Reboot films. I’ll get back to that when I get to Discovery, but this is the divide I’m seeing.

Orville (either for budget reasons or for aesthetic reasons) is using a much less polished special effects set. Most effects feel very on par with what you’d get in a 90s era series. The set designs are on par with classic Trek and Andromeda. The opening credits might as well be a shot for shot remake of Voyager’s opening credits. The alien make-up is low work, no moving parts (compared to Andorians in Enterprise). Along side the wrting (non-dialog) it sets the tone at very specific homage to a very specific era.

The dialog is where things change, there’s a lot more of the post 2000s pop culture references writing, and the dialog takes heavy influence from sit-com interactions. When I said ‘purposeful awkward’ I meant that as a way to define the characters as more human than what Trek ever did. Trek made everyone as polished and utopic as their setting. Here we have flubbed one liners and calling species racist. It adds a level of approachability to everyone you need to really attach.

This is not to say I hate old trek’s writing of dialog, they just didn’t let people be awkward and mortal enough in retrospect. Except Tom Paris on Voyager.

Now if you’re not a fan of that humanizing dialog, you’ll hate the humor. I’m indifferent to it more than I’m amused. But I’d never claim to hate the humor being employed. Jokes like rewriting ‘non-copyright impeding holodeck’ characters to do something different like ‘amicable troll guy’ and ‘mexican bandit from the 1800s demands a dance battle’ worked really well. Ed Mercer being ever so awkward and ‘everyman’ works a little less, but if you look at Seth’s works this isn’t a surprise. And while I’ll admit I don’t generally appreciate bathroom humor, even I had to enjoy that Alara’s response to ‘being in charge’ was to get so nervous she threw up worked to remind everyone she’s the youngest member of the crew.

The plots all work, in the same way STNG episodic plots worked. They do their job and they end. It doesn’t seem to be building to anything it just is. Which is fine for the genre as Seth is distilling it. The species all seem to be thought out, and while the characters are mostly generic I wouldn’t say any of them are bad. I can easily play out brief dialog exchanges between any Orville character and any STNG/DS9/VOY characters as those are the series I have the best recollection of.

Is it the best series ever? Not at all. But it plays just the right amount of nostalgia while still giving me enough variation to be surprised and amused. I wouldn’t steer anyone away from it unless they find all three items I listed a problem.

#the orville #the orville fox #listen to Rakath ramble #Rakath Reviews new Shows

[canvaswolfdoll]

Canvas and Star Trek

A conversation I had with friends recently, and the bafflement I bestowed on one in particular, reminded me how I’m a little odd when it comes to Nerdity.

In particularly, I do not like Star Trek.

Mostly.

I’ve never been able to sit through the Original Series. It’s too campy, the sets too cheesy (and so on and so forth) to enrapt me or suspend my disbelief.

And I really hate the crazed tumbling everyone does whenever the ship’s under attack. You’re in space! Your gravity is artificial and limited to your ship.

How is an outside force transferring any momentum into your ship? There’s no way every phaser hit strikes whatever pump produces the Enterprise’s gravity. It’s ridiculous!

I did get through Wrath of Kahn. It was okay. The other films don’t appeal to me, since I have no interest or nostalgia for the characters, because, again, can’t sit through the original series.

Except one episode, and only because Spock killing Kirk is funny to me. Then the doctor guy Deus Ex Machnias Kirk back, so… eh.

Then there comes Next Generation. Admittedly, the production values are much better, the designs of the tech and aliens more varied and interesting. But the stories are so boring to me.

I often hear details about the universe Star Trek resides in. Traits of the aliens, details about Star Fleet, intriguing plot. But when I peek in, such details are usually throw away lines, or the plot execution is so uninteresting.

And, I’m just going to say it, Picard’s a dull stick in the mud who's not a good captain. He acts like a middle manager programmed on the company’s rhetoric, and no imagination to deviate. He will stand, and make big sweeping monologues about human nature and the spirit of discovery and so forth, but his actions are so small and cautious, and he rejects any deviation from normality.

I have never watched the entirety of TNG. Only a handful of episodes, so my view is predicated on one of three elements: 1. It’s focused on literally anyone except the main cast (who I hate). 2. It’s got a very unique premise. (IE, I really like Darmok. I like Darmok a whole lot.) 3. It has Q.

Because, as a child, Star Trek was the boring space show my Dad and Brother watched. I just didn’t care.

Then Discord appeared on My Little Pony.

‘Oh! He’s just like Q!’ fans cried, excitedly.

“Hm… I do like Discord. Maybe I can dig Q’s episodes,” I said.

So, I sat down with Netflix, and went through the Q episodes. Only one was boring enough to give up on (The one where the Borg get introduced), and I haven’t watched the finale because, well, I haven’t earned it.

And the common thread I found was that Picard, no matter the season, no matter the experiences he must have had outside the Q episodes, can not handle Q. And it’s so easy.

Q is puckish, and appears on the Enterprise for his own amusement. And he never causes lasting damage. Then, most importantly, whatever problem the Enterprise is having when Q stops in, Q fixes when he’s done.

Which means, instead of crossing his arms and harrumphing the entire time, Picard should just take a deep breath when he sees Q, and realize his day’s going toward entertaining this man. After which, Q will fix the issue of the week and go on his merry way.

But no. Picard’s just high and mighty, and won’t just enjoy himself.

Q gives Riker Q-powers in an episode, and Picard immediately turns on his second in command, upset the entire time that Riker, who didn’t ask for the powers, and uses them to save the life of a small child, would dain to possess and use Q’s abilities, the monster.

Like… Picard. Riker only used them to save the life of a child. Chill out. And how dare you put your pride over the life of a child.

Why are there even children on the Enterprise, by the way? That’s the stupidest decision! The spaceship is routinely in danger and exploring unseen and dangerous space, and you put children on board!? What is wrong with you, Star Fleet?

You know what episode I really liked, though? Tapestry. Picard gets stabbed in Tapestry.

I like when the Enterprise Captains get stabbed.

And that’s been my issue. I never could sit through the first two Star Trek series continuously. They don’t catch my interest, and the characters often annoy me.

However, there was one series, initially tried when I was going through the Q episodes, that I did enjoy.

Star Trek Voyager.

Yes, the series I enjoy is the most hated one. Fight me.

And my enjoyment should be pretty obvious. From the outset, Voyager had a goal and destination. It’s more than just a spaceship floating about doing whatever. It’s a group of humans, way out of their element, trying to get home from an unknown place.

And Janeway is actually competent and reasonable. When she gets flung through a wormhole with a terrorist cell she’d been hunting, she put the politics aside. This was no longer about that. Their political differences were back on Earth. Now it’s about the two groups getting back home, and they’d be better served working together.

And, frankly, the best Q Continuum material is in Voyager. We see more members than just our Q, there’s interesting moral dilemmas presented by the Continuum that are made into interesting episodes, and there’s an actual continuity and repercussions of their actions and the actions of the Voyager crew.

And gosh darn, if Janeway doesn’t do right where Picard doesn’t. She knows who Q is from his first appearance, having familiarized herself with Picard’s reports, yet she lets herself slip into just… going with whatever Q’s game is, though still standing up for herself and others when she needs to. In Voyager, Q learns to work as part of a team and develops beyond the ‘Omnipotent Antagonist’ role TNG stuck him in.

So, after watching a couple of the Q episodes, I decided to try watching from the beginning. And I could manage it. Sure, I didn’t know the backstory, but I was able to quietly ignore why Voyager was chasing the rebel alliance, and just enjoy myself. These were characters put into a desperate situation, with unforeseen problems, and an emergency computer program being forcefully promoted into the primary physician. The characters were interesting, there was just enough continuity to make you curious about how’d they fare, and Voyager just… was interesting.

So I guess that leaves Deep Space 9.

It…

Okay, so it had a single Q episode. In that one episode, the main cast only interacted with Q once, wherein Sisko punches Q and that’s the end of their interactions. They have separate plots that tie in at the end, but nothing interesting was done with Q’s guest spot.

Then I tried the first episode, and it was so steeped with lore from TNG that I found myself walled out.

And that’s my deal with Star Trek! It’s mostly boring!

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Until next time,

Kataal kataal.

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