I noticed this with cyberpunk stuff, too. The genre has been incredibly prophetic. It just sucks that it’s all the stupidly bad shit and not a single one of the super cool sci-fi things.
This is very true. I use iSH on my phone to run python scripts and ssh into servers, I use Working Copy to make git commits from the toilet or my bed. Like for all intents and purposes, my phone is a cyberpunk “deck,” but I suppose cyberpunk is literally named “The Dark Future” for a reason, considering all else that is going on.
The problems lie in the “punk” part. Just like cyberpunk’s prophetic bad stuff isn’t the cyber. Pretty sure solarpunk is still about the societal issues existing in what could be a utopia if they didn’t. Wealth inequality, bigotry, etc. You’re just not polluting the planet because everything is green.
I mean that those things still exist in the world. The stories are about fighting those things, usually as John points out. Unless you’re saying the status quo is without inequality and bigotry and the heroes are trying to be a counter to that?
No, there may be inequality and bigotry in some solarpunk fiction but unlike cyberpunk it’s not about “our heroes fighting the system that will almost inevitably crush them”. Solarpunk is innately hopeful, and there’s conflict (kinda intrinsic to storytelling) but it doesn’t require the existence of inequality or bigotry, and a lot of solarpunk fiction explicitly doesn’t have any bigotry in it period.
Cyberpunk might be about “our system sucks, and our heroes may or may not want it to change”, but solarpunk is about “the system of the modern day was bad, and so we replaced it entirely”. The “punk” part doesn’t require that the heroes are individually punks within the context of their own world, it’s called punk because it’s in contrast to our modern system. Also because -punk is kinda a generic term for genres at this point.
“Meanwhile, Black Mirror presumably got back to the work of its horror-based arms race, as the show continues to try to find a doomsday prophecy that tech giants might still view as a warning and not a corporate benchmark for [next fiscal quarter].” – AVClub
The more I think about the Chapel plot, the more I think it was a blunder.
If she survived the initial attack on the Cayuga, it’s likely that others did, too - at the very least, it should give Spock a reason to look before hot-dropping the saucer onto the planet.
Agreed, the entire saucer section was on the Federation side of the line of demarcation, they could have openly had rescue teams checking for survivors
Which does raise the question of why there was a Gorn aboard the wreck of the Cayuga.
The Gorn drew up the demarcation line and broadcast it to the Federation, held their fire as promised, and did not consider the arrival of another Gorn ship as a hostile action.
So the Enterprise sending a shuttle to check the parts of the Cayuga’s wreckage for survivors is something that appears permitted and even expected, so long as it doesn’t cross the line.
But any such rescue party would then bump into this lone Gorn who was very clearly violating the demarcation line that they themselves proposed.
Sort of feels like the attack on the colony was unplanned, and that the later Gorn ship was playing damage control while trying to figure out what happened.
Sort of feels like the attack on the colony was unplanned, and that the later Gorn ship was playing damage control while trying to figure out what happened.
That’s consistent with what they theorized regarding the solar flares causing the first ship to attack the colony.
That’s the best explanation I’ve heard, and I’m going to stick with it until a better one comes along
@JohnnyDelirious@Zoboomafoo One moment Spok is frantically trying to find Chapel on the Kayuga, but then doesn’t even mention survivors when they plan to crash it. It’s too much of a stretch. There must be some key plot here they deliberately didn’t show us. We don’t see the initial attack on the Kayuga at all. Why was the lone Gorn (stuck?) on that side of the line trying to access command codes on a destroyed ship? I think we’ll get a revealing flashback in S03E01.
Agreed about the survivors part, it seems like a major oversight that I hope they can explain in a satisfying way.
As for the Gorn on the ship, I presumed it was just a crewman trying to gather intelligence on the Federation by picking through the remains of the saucer section
Gotta agree, it seems like an unforced error. A good chunk of the audience knows she shows up in TOS, which robs the whole idea of any tension it might have, and on top of that it feels plot armor-y to have one person survive and then not check for anyone else.
They could’ve just contrived to have Spock and Chapel be the best persons for the saucer deorbiting-- Spock as the precise vulcan/science officer to place the thrusters, Chapel as medbay’s lead in case they could bring anyone back from the Cayuga.
I’m fine with Chapel being stuck there - I think the tension comes from the overall Spock/Chapel emotional arc, rather than wondering whether she will survive - but the sequence practically demands a second scan with the newfangled tricorders to verify that there are no other life signs on the ship.
Isn’t the point though that the Gorn interference field was preventing any scans, comms or transport? The tricorder wouldn’t have worked there. And sending rescue teams would have been dangerous given Gorn belligerence, demarcation line or not.
True, but that’s on the ground and short range. There’s specific dialogue to show that it’s interfering with signals between space and ground.
SPOCK: I detect a counter-frequency emanating from the planet. It appears to be negating all scans, communications, and transporter signals between here and there.
Spock can’t even scan for life signs on Cayuga. The best they have is passive sensors like spectrometry.
UNA: Still trying to scan for life signs?
SPOCK: I theorized I might be able to find a frequency gap through the interference field, but I have not managed to discover one yet.
UNA: Spock, I don’t think anyone’s alive over there.
SPOCK: Spectrometric analysis suggests there are still pockets of oxygen on board. It is possible someone could have survived.
That’s why they had to do a visual confirmation and discovered Cayuga’s sickbay had been blown away.
I was just trying to answer the technological criticisms about why Spock didn’t search.
I see where the criticism is coming from, but I can also see there are all sorts of extenuating circumstances around it (not to mention lack of time) and to take the plot there for a search would kind of kill the story momentum.
It’s not invalid as a criticism, just saying that tech reasons are covered.
I see where the criticism is coming from, but I can also see there are all sorts of extenuating circumstances around it (not to mention lack of time) and to take the plot there for a search would kind of kill the story momentum.
This is a blunder on writer's/producer's/etc. They could have written a one-off line where Spock cold-bloodedly says "the needs of the many outweighs the needs of the few." They could have sent rescue shuttles to search the wreckage since it was on the right side of the line early on in the episode. They could have chosen an entirely different solution (seems like flying a shuttle disguised as wreck worked well, toss another stuffed with torpedoes).
“Shuttle stuffed with torpedoes” wouldn’t work because it’d be obvious it was weaponized - a single shuttle likely couldn’t take out that beacon on its on.
At least the saucer section of the Caygua was big enough to provide plausibility. Even if they found pieces of the rockets later they’d have no real proof - the rockets could be claimed to have been standard equipment or part of the RCS or impulse systems.
I was making a very obvious joke and you didn’t even respond with a comment, you just dropped a link with no context. You’re the one taking things overly serious here and broaching “dick” territory for absolutely no reason.
Which is literally so outrageous of a statement that idk how you could take it as anything other than light hearted, like most other peoples comments on this post.
I don’t know. I generally like the fun episodes and I think I like this one overall (and there are some incredible voices in this cast), but most of the songs just plain missed for me. Most are rhyming words set to music but not enough structure. I’m not sure how often I’d want to see this episode.
Yeah same, I am only posting here now since it took me a bit to actually finish the episode. I really don’t like musicals much in general so this was a hard watch.
I am not saying it was not well done, for what it was they really put their soul into it which is great. Just not at all for me. And I loved the Lower Decks crossover, so its not about it being silly.
It’s funny to think that the return of Trek in 2016 had Klingons eating captured Federation officers and Starfleet commiting war crimes out the gate in the first episode and now we’re getting an animated comedy series and musical episodes. Trek shouldn’t be afraid to be a bit silly and camp sometimes and I’m glad it’s free to be again.
• ”Have you noticed their references are weirdly specific?” Number One is also concerned about my going way over the character limit on this post.”
• Boimler power walks away after being startled by Number One. He claimed that power walking is more efficient in “Envoys”. Apparently Section 31 does it.
• Mariner tells Uhura that while she’s known for being a super-translating space adventurer in the future, part of that reputation is that she’s carefree. In episodes like “Charlie X” and “The Man Trap” we see Uhura singing in the recreation room, and flirting with Spock.
• Mariner performs the Picard Maneuver when standing up.
• On her PADD, Uhura is looking at examples of the Bajoran and Cardassian alphabets, which are labeled as such. This is the first indication that the Federation had made contact with either civilization prior to the TNG era.
• There is a comatose Cardassian being held by the automated shipyard in “Dead Stop”, but no one actually really sees him.
• Starbase Earhart was first mentioned in “The Samaritan Snare” when Captain Picard tells Wesley the story of his being stabbed through the heart by a Nausican, and we first see the base in “Tapestry” when Q sends Picard’s consciousness back through time to that event.
• “Tapestry” is also the first mention of dom-jot.
• Mariner describes dom-jot as “A billiards game that Nausicans are terrible at, but love to bet on for some reason.” We see Mariner playing dom-jot against Nausicans at Starbase Earhart in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.
• Pelia and Boimler share a moment staring at the warp core. Boimler has a long established history of being a fan of warp cores, going back to his first episode, “Second Contact”.
• Pelia’s quote, “I always pretended to be someone I wanted to be, until finally I became that someone…or he became me,”* is paraphrasing Cary Grant.
• ”Don’t yell Q, they haven’t met him yet.” Q first reveals himself in “Encounter at Farpoint”
• ”They had kind of a Trelene thing going on.” Trelene appears in “The Squire of Gothos” and, so far no where else.
• The Enterprise crew starts expressing enthusiasm for the past, specifically the NX-01.
• Pike mentions that he would be excited to set foot on Archer’s Enterprise. In “These Are the Voyages…” we learn that he is the one who wrote the parameters for a popular holo-simulation where the user plays the role of the NX-01’s chef.
• La’an says she loves grapplers, which first appeared in the ENT premiere, “Broken Bow”.
• Ortegas claims, ”I’m a huge fan of Travis Mayweather. First pilot of the NX-01*.” Presumably there had to be at least one.
• Uhura mentions Hoshi Sato having spoken 86 languages. In “Two Days and Two Nights” it’s established that Hoshi learned 38 languages before having left Earth, and that she knows ”about 40” as of that episode.
• I believe this is the first time the Fleet Museum is referred to as the Starfleet History Museum, but both locations have the NX-01, as per “The Bounty”.
• We learn that Number One is featured on a Starfleet recruitment poster, including the words “Ad Astra per Aspera” which was the motto of the United Earth Starfleet and, we learn, of personal importance to Number one in the episode “Ad Astra per Aspera”.
• The poster featuring Number One was not seen among the recruitment material Mariner and Boimler took when they set up their booth on Tulgana IV in “Reflections”.
• It was established that Tendi is the Mistress of the Winter Constellations in “We’ll Always Have Tom Paris”.
• It’s Jack Ransom! From Star Trek! Ransom is voiced by Jerry O’Connell.
• “Oh, Numero Una, hottest first officer in Starfleet history.” Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell are married.
• Drinking the Orion delaq causes the Enterprise crew to experience visual hallucinations similar to what Mariner, and Boimler went through after being exposed to nitrous oxide in “Room for Growth”. Tendi was immune.
This is 100% the fault of the studio execs who don’t want their employees to have a fair wage. I can wait for my Star Trek if it means upholding the ideals that Trek stands for.
Star Trek is basically only available via streaming platforms or piracy these days.
One of the reasons studios have enjoyed such great profits on the move to streaming is because the contracts for the writers and actors cause them to get paid way, way, way less for a streamed show than with regular syndication.
Meaning the people making Star Trek are some of the ones who stand to gain the absolute most from the outcome of this strike. All power to them.
It's such a hilariously terrible idea. I've watched through all the series and movies and can't even recall ever seeing a single rover in any one of them. What need is there for a rover when you have shuttlecraft and transporter technology?
Even though the future fate of the model is uncertain, the username for the account and its other listings suggest that it specializes in selling artifacts found in storage lockers that end up without an owner, either due to failure to pay, abandonment, or death, perhaps giving a hint as to how the model was found.
Burton directed over two dozen episodes across the Trek franchise. While Frakes is more prolific, ironically Burton directed my two favorite Riker episodes, “Second Chances” and “The Pegasus”.
That's really a key point. Transitioning from a world where Dan Quayle got eviscerated for 'potatoe' to a Trump presidency (or Johnson, Berlusconi, Putin, Abbot, AfD, blablabla) has left scars and certain needs when it comes to entertainment.
Reverse that polarity on the deflector and match the harmonic frequency. Mmmmm.
They NAILED it. They, somehow, took the loving but self aware fan service of lower decks and jammed it into SNW which has been the most consistent reboot back to the core of this series. This was absolutely some of the best show writing I’ve seen in a very long time.
I actually think Lower Decks is closer to the core of Star Trek than SNW. I mean, you couldn’t do a “the enterprise got pregnant” episode in SNW
SNW has been continually frustrating me by almost being great trek but continually falling short. Like, that prime directive episode on the forgetting planet was great, right up until the captain decided to flagrantly ignore the prime directive and destroy a culture’s individuality
The danger with these "very special fun episodes" is that they can be confined to being just that. But what elevated this episode is how it used the time travel/crossover conceit to foreshadow, progress and pay off SNW character arcs, including Chapel and Spock's ultimately doomed relationship (something that I've previously said could be incredibly poignant, if handled right), Number One's legacy, and the way Pike confronts his fate. I hope the musical episode does the same.
They also tied in to Tendi’s story on LD (her constant reminding to people that Orions have a culture far beyond pirating), even though we didn’t see her in Live Action.
Are Orions now the designated species for calling out how essentialized Star Trek aliens tend to be? Because we have D’vana Tendi, the somewhat obscure Ensign Harral from Discovery, and now the crew of the D’var. You can argue the last one’s just an extension of Tendi’s character arc, but still, that’s three series that have touched on this.
TBH I think TNG did this very well with the Klingons (depending on who was writing the episode, of course). Like, some Klingons were Real Klingons™ but many others only gave lip service to those ideals and were actually as sneaky and cowardly as any other race. I think a lot of Worf’s inner conflict came from realizing and processing that fact.
And on the extreme end of that was the Duras family being more like the stereotypical Romulan (and even allying with them against their own people) than a Real Klingon™. It was disgusting how they managed to keep their house throughout the series, even though they were everything a Klingon wasn’t supposed to be.
The viewer naturally sympathizes with Worf and adopts his view of Klingon culture, but remember that he was raised by humans and most of his knowledge of Klingon culture came from very early childhood and books. Imagine a human child raised by another species whose knowledge of Human culture came from fairy tales and like Arthurian stories. He’d come to earth and be outraged that everyone isn’t following some virtuous code of chivalry. A politician broke his word? DUEL TO THE DEATH! That’s Worf.
There’s also the Orion on DS9 who likes to talk big game about being a pirate, but he’s actually from Cincinnati and has never pirated anything in his life
The hidden line in the episode is that the crew knows they end up as historical icons of Starfleet and thus the line ‘I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.’ this applies to the crew now. It allows them to be more confident in their decisions and become the icons they are meant to be. This episode likely has one of the largest impacts on the character direction of the crew going forward.
My face hurt by the end of the episode. I had no idea I was smiling the whole time. It really was that perfect mix of physical comedy but down to earth. It reminded me so much of The Orville. Definitely one of those I’ll go back to watch again.
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