The problem I had with that scene (and the whole series, really, especially season 3) was that it framed human culture of the future as being generally oppressive and backwards. Acceptance shouldn't be portrayed as radical or exceptional. It should be normal and taken for granted among humans in the future. Like in TOS, Uhura's role was a big deal for viewers specifically because it was not a big deal for the characters. They just showed us a better future, where a black woman in a respected professional position was normal.
Discovery didn't show us a better future. It showed us a shitty future with a handful of decent people in it. This is just one example, but it's one that stuck in my mind as well.
It was presented as exceptional in-universe, from Adira's perspective. The fact that Adira felt weird about it at all paints the culture they grew up in as backwards.
How so? Perhaps I'm misremembering, but they were born on Earth and raised among humans, right? Does that not say something about the human culture of their time?
I don't know whether it's a popular opinion or not, but I think Dr. Pulaski was a great character and I found her much more interesting than Dr. Crusher. I don't know if it was down to the writing or the performance but Pulaski is one of the best parts of season 2 and I would have been happy to see her character continue....
Pulaski had interesting dynamics with almost every other character. I think she was written very well, especially for such a short tenure. Crusher was largely neglected by the writers.
Whenever I see a conversation along the lines of "what episode should I show my friend/partner/etc. to get them hooked on Star Trek," the suggestions are pretty predictable - your "best" episodes that are regarded to represent the franchise at its peak....
I came here with exactly this episode in mind. I think it is representative in a few ways:
It involves an alien of the week.
The alien species is culturally similar to human societies we, as viewers, are familiar with.
It demonstrates what the Federation is all about, including the Prime Directive, respectfully dealing with less developed civilizations, and solving problems without violence (especially when the problems are your own fault).
It's more or less self-contained. Whether this is "representative" is debatable, I guess. I think it's a big part of Star Trek even though there's a larger focus on season-long storylines in later series.
I forgot tupperware was (...or still is??) an MLM scheme. I remember hearing about "tupperware parties" when I was a kid and thinking adults needed better toys, like Legos or something.
This is true for pretty much any franchise. If you’re going to watch it all, you can’t go wrong with release order. That way you have the same context that original viewers did, and what the writers likely had in mind.
That doesn’t mean TOS the best starting point for newcomers, though, since they’re probably not committed to thousands of hours of Trek right out of the gate. They’re gonna bail if they don’t like the first few episodes they watch.
And regarding the Jurati Borg…I don’t know, I never found that confusing in the slightest. I think their intent came through just fine.
Yes, I was surprised to read that there was any misconception. It seemed pretty clear to me that nothing they did in the past would have altered the history of TNG/Voyager/etc.
As I recall, the order of events played out like this:
Picard and crew entered an alternate timeline in the Picard era (25th century, ~20 years after TNG era).
Picard took that timeline’s Borg Queen into the shared past of the two timelines.
Jurati merged with that Borg Queen.
They fixed the timeline and returned to the standard Star Trek timeline. Queen Jurati remained in the past. At this time, “Borg Queen Prime” (the one we know from First Contact) was still in the Delta Quadrant, unaffected by any of this.
In the 25th century, Queen Jurati re-appears with her own collective, entirely separate from the Prime Collective we’ve known throughout TNG, Voyager, etc. From the 21st century up the 25th, Queen Jurati just stayed out of history’s way to avoid a time paradox, ensuring that the chain of events that led to her creation would still happen.
I really enjoyed Jurati’s story in season 2, and was a bit disappointed that we didn’t see her at all in season 3, since she and her collective should no longer be required to stay out of history’s way. But at the same time, they set that up at the end of season 2 pretty explicitly. I just felt like if they were going to bring the Borg back again, they ought to least mention that there’s a whole other collective of friendly Borg who are possibly much more technologically advanced than the Prime Borg and are kinda-sorta part of the Federation.
They were the same species on the same planet just a few thousand years ago, which is the blink of an eye in evolutionary terms.
It might be more accurate to say that Vulcans are just Romulans with impulse control. Before the split, Vulcans were more like modern Romulans than modern Vulcans. Vulcans at that time were highly emotional and violent. Then they had a sort of cultural revolution, which involved controlling emotions and focusing on logic. This led to some traditionalists leaving Vulcan and founding Romulus, carrying that emotional and violent culture with them.
Lower Decks is an animated comedy. It’s Star Trek in a new genre. They speak very fast, very loudly, and try to make every line at least a little funny, often sliding in obscure references to Trek lore. Think Futurama or Rick and Morty.
Strange New Worlds is a modern take on classic Star Trek, which is much more buttoned-up. It’s true to the more serious tone of previous live-action Trek series.
This is from the crossover episode, where two Lower Decks characters appeared in Strange New Worlds. The contrast between them and the Enterprise crew was a riot, and IMHO they didn’t overdo it; they got it just right. It’s everything I could have hoped for as a fan of both of these two very different series.
Why are so many people in Starfleet, but especially Picard, hell-bent on not raising shields and just generally insisting on pursuing the solution most likely to lead to the most drama?
Answer: the Federation’s post-scarcity economy has utterly eliminated traditional economic corruption of meritocratic systems. This creates a problem. When everyone is hyper-competent and healthy, ambitious people are desperate for anything that can set them apart from essentially equally qualified candidates. With socioeconomic barriers demolished, it comes down to something else - who has the better story. Thus, a perverse incentive is created for people to manufacture the maximum amount of drama that they can possibly escape from by the skin of their teeth.
Hence, the lesson Picard takes away from Tapestry is not that diplomatically disengaging from unreasonable potential assailants with lethal weapons would be a wiser course of action. It’s that responding to such hostility with “hold my beer” and nearly throwing his life away over a bar game demonstrates that he’s willing to die for his career with a story that makes him unforgettable, not to mention earns him lifelong fascination of the nearest emotionally stunted god-entity.
Similarly, he could have also been quietly respectful of said god-entity. Instead, he’s openly grating and arrogant, practically daring him to throw anything at him - consequently prompting Q to make an introduction to the Borg - a connection which eventually makes Picard even more notorious and unforgettable to the entire Federation.
This is perhaps why the Federation ends up getting along with the Klingons so well. Klingons look at the tech that Starfleet utilizes as woefully inadequate. And yet, they completely miss that the reason that Starfleet officers are engaging in battle wearing no more protection offered by a pair of pajamas, rather than deploying a platoon of force-field-equipped mobile infantry, is because their only chance at promotion or a better posting is by pulling off some balls-to-the-wall stunt that they can brag about at their next performance review.
Meanwhile, Klingons are performing similarly idiotic stunts for glory, Sto-vo-Kor, or the chance to end up in a lyric in a song.
And so Worf winds up being the only one incentivized to suggest sane, rational approaches. Casual self-centered speciesism in the Federation means that kind of reckless behavior gets perceived negatively as just average Klingon militancy by his human crewmates. Even as they obliviously enlist his help to threaten to embroil the entire quadrant in a war by charging across the Neutral Zone in the Federation flagship, with children and civilians on board, accompanied by cloaked Klingon warships, taunting the Romulans with an eloquent “come at me bro”.
This is probably also why the crew and especially Riker despises Captain Jellico. The man has no more fucks left to give and just wants to get home safe and sound to his grandchildren by exhausting every possible resource to stack the deck in his favor to prevent interstellar war. Meanwhile, Riker is having a crisis trying to maintain his tinder dates’ interest when he’s on the Cardassian front tweaking the duty roster so people don’t have to request an extension for the art class they were taking, rather than clutching someone’s bloody heart in his bare hands while the doctor desperately tries to save their life, or grappling with lifelong PTSD from killing for the first time to rescue women and children.
Star Trek’s level of medical care is far more advanced than today’s. As Beckett says in LD, “Doc will wave a light over it.” Yet, in Star Trek people aren’t shown doing hobbies and pastimes that are much different from what’s done now. Still, I wonder about differences in a society where people know they won’t be...
That’s my thought. There are a few things I can think of that come with a significantly higher risk of injury than death, though. I’d go hiking and camping more often (and in more places) if I didn’t have to worry about ticks and mosquitoes spreading disease. And if I could carry an effective antivenom, that would open up more of the world as well.
I’d try some harder mountain bike trails if broken bones were easy to fix. Of course you could still suffer a fatal head injury, but with a good helmet I’m more afraid of smaller (but still life-altering) injuries.
Star Trek Is Showing More Love To Scott Bakula’s Enterprise ( screenrant.com )
Dr. Pulaski Appreciation Post ( startrek.website )
I don't know whether it's a popular opinion or not, but I think Dr. Pulaski was a great character and I found her much more interesting than Dr. Crusher. I don't know if it was down to the writing or the performance but Pulaski is one of the best parts of season 2 and I would have been happy to see her character continue....
Searching for the "most representative" Star Trek episode
Whenever I see a conversation along the lines of "what episode should I show my friend/partner/etc. to get them hooked on Star Trek," the suggestions are pretty predictable - your "best" episodes that are regarded to represent the franchise at its peak....
Multi-level marketing model ( lemmy.ml )
Star Trek Coffees Launching In May With Several Blends ( trekmovie.com )
Ultimate Chronological Star Trek Viewing Guide ( www.startrekviewingguide.com )
This was created by Reddit user /u/JohnKFisher, and I think it’s a neat uncluttered guide for all Star Trek that’s especially useful for newbies.
‘Picard’ Season 2 Was Rewritten After Paramount Deemed It “Too Star Trek,” Says EP ( trekmovie.com )
Are Romulans just Vulcans with emotions?
I died. This made me laugh for 5 minutes. I couldn't breathe. ( lemmy.ml )
This post is not shitty at all. 0/10 ( hexbear.net )
Would You Try New Pastimes If Star Trek Level Medical Care Was Available?
Star Trek’s level of medical care is far more advanced than today’s. As Beckett says in LD, “Doc will wave a light over it.” Yet, in Star Trek people aren’t shown doing hobbies and pastimes that are much different from what’s done now. Still, I wonder about differences in a society where people know they won’t be...