Comment Stream

Re: TNG S2: Loud as a Whisper

@Trish

I don't think Troi is uncomfortable. I think she's not romantically interested in Riva, but is willing to spend a friendly evening with him in conversation.

For what it's worth, I think Troi looked far more uncomfortable around Ral in "The Price".

Re: SNW S2: Subspace Rhapsody

@Ric

I agree about the breakup problem. What struck me is that this phenomenon causes people to sing the things that are in their hearts; it's how they truly feel in the moment. And how does Chapel react when Spock asks her about leaving the ship for an extended period? She's ecstatic. She's 'ready to go', all-in, fully committed. What she doesn't say is anything like, 'oh, I feel awkward about leaving, given that we only started seeing each other', or, 'I feel conflicted about this opportunity when I still have this messy relationship back here', or even 'I think this is not only a great opportunity for me, but a chance for the two of us to take some time and reflect'. Nope, her true feeling is that she's not even thinking about Spock.

Given how much she's been pining over him in previous episodes, this reeeeaally doesn't make her look good. I've generally liked her character, but now she just comes off as fickle and superficial.

Re: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

@Booming

I see. All Jehovas Witnesses are the same, then. No individuals, only collectives.

I have no idea what the Jehovas Witnesses believe in, and even if I did, I have no idea if Sean agrees with any particular one of those beliefs. I judge him by what he says here, not by what I imagine him to say.

If you want to criticize his religious sect, then do it (so long as it's on topic! Remember, this is a Star Trek thread.). But don't criticize him for things he hasn't said.

@idh2023

The difference is, Sean is making an argument about fictional characters and their behavior. You can disagree, you can even think that it's a deplorable position, but it's not targeting any individual person on this site, let alone any real person at all. Booming is making an accusation directly about a person on this comment thread.

As a side note, it's also worth pointing out that Sean did not single out Carol as the only character he is criticizing for this 'immorality', but both Carol AND Kirk. So I think it's unfair to characterize his argument as being specifically about women.

Re: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

@Booming

Booming, why are you turning this thread into a personal attack?

Not only have you done so, you have made assumptions about Sean's beliefs that not only haven't been expressed in this thread, but I can't even find in any of his comments of the last two years.

All you are doing is hijacking this conversation and turning it into mudslinging. Stop it.

Re: SNW S2: Ad Astra Per Aspera

I don't think I've shouted at my screen as much as I did for this episode in a long time. What utter dreck.

- Character witnesses spend so much time lauding over Una, telling us how wonderful and talented and dependable she is. She's the best. And yet, I haven't seen almost any of those qualities in the entirety of last season. I barely even know who she is. This insistence on what a great, fantastic officer she is just comes off as completely hollow.

- The Defense Lawyer's neutral expression is Smugface. This actress doesn't seem to know how to do much else, and it REALLY doesn't endear me to her. She's not a smart lawyer working hard against impossible odds, she's the best lawyer in the galaxy who clearly knows she's gonna win before she starts. Ugh.

-As others have pointed out, the law sucks here. She's asking the judges to confirm Pike's granting asylum to Una. Which a) isn't what happened. Una turned herself into the authorities, not to Pike. She only confessed her Illyrian heritage to Pike, who decided to ignore it, and that's not the same thing. Also, turning yourself in isn't the same thing as asking for asylum either. b) The claim is that she's fleeing persecution, but the evidence of persecution that the episode specifically points to in that moment is from when she was a CHILD, not from someone serving aboard the Enterprise. c) Asylum is ridiculous in this context anyway, since the two entities are the same. Granting asylum by starfleet...from starfleet?
The only even remotely passable argument this lawyer has is that Starfleet lets the rules slide all the time when it feels like it. Which is debatable, depending on what exactly the rules around General Order One are, but it at least has a stronger foundation. It's too bad then that all that testimony was struck from the record! Can't use it! It sure would have made for a better closing argument!

- This writing has no sense of subtlety. It's so in your face, it's practically breathing on your nose.

- The issue of genetic engineering is far more nuanced than this series gives it credit. There's a lot of interesting discussion to be had around the subject, but the series wants to boil it all down to "it's bigotry". (just as one example, DS9 makes the comment in "Statistical Probabilities" about how genetic engineering was made illegal partly so that parents wouldn't feel pressured to do it to their kids just so that they could keep up with everyone else) This stance doesn't help the episode, as so much of the argumentation is hammering on the same soapbox over and over, "We're fighting for JUSTICE!! We're the Good Guys!!" Not convincing.

- Holy hell this music needs to calm down. Do we really need the score to tell us what we should be feeling at every. single. moment? AGGGGHHHHHH!


I sure do miss the days of two people sitting in a room, in silence, and just having an interesting discussion.

Re: ORV S1: Mad Idolatry

Per 2 tablespoons:

Jif Peanut Butter:

16 grams fat
3 grams sugar
140 mg salt

Nutella:

11 grams fat
21 grams sugar
15 mg salt

Smuckers Strawberry Jam:

0 grams fat
24 grams sugar
0 mg salt

Seems to me that Nutella is much fattier than jam and much sugarier than peanut butter. Kinda like a....peanut butter and jam combination, or something. But that would be crazy.

Re: TNG S4: Galaxy's Child

I recently re-watched this one, and I found it significantly better than I was expecting, given the prominent discussion around it nowadays. I think the major problem is that the argument between Geordi and Leah in the holodeck isn't really two people arguing about the same thing: Leah is concentrating on the holodeck program and how she's angry about it, and Geordi, after trying to explain things, starts arguing about his attempt to connect with her over the past few days. I get where Geordi's coming from, but then the holodeck issue itself isn't really sufficiently addressed during that particular scene. And then, we get to the end, and apparently they've both moved on, which is...a bit sudden. Given the way it's presented, I could see people thinking that Geordi is attempting to evade the issue entirely and turn pressure onto someone else instead, which I don't think was the intent, given the way he fully apologizes at the end for not coming clean.

Re: Star Wars: Ahsoka

@Dirty Dancer

Yeah, who are these people who waste time talking about these ridiculous 'science fiction' stories? We're all going to die someday anyway.

Re: SNW S1: The Serene Squall

Holy hell was that bad.

Aside from the cringe-inducing performance from Angel - and the prospect that, since she (?) escaped, we may very well have to suffer through this awful performance again in future - Angel couldn't even get her own history right. "I've been using emotion to control you all day" she says to Spock. But that's simply not true! In sickbay, she tried to convince Spock to use the escape pods by telling a story of her 'logical' lover who lost his life, and how she wishes he had allowed himself to be scared. Spock's response is to still reject trying to escape. The attempt to manipulate was a failure.

(Or maybe the writers are suggesting that she's going 'ha ha! I KNEW you would do the opposite of what I suggested due to my emotional appeal!' Which is nonsense. And also unnecessary, since Spock was going to try to retake the ship anyway.)

I'm working through this series for the first time now, and something that seems to be a recurring thread is that the writers seem to do well in putting all the narrative pieces in place, but suck in making them fit together: a solid 'moral of the story' is gracelessly telegraphed; a story pretends a complicated issue is actually about something black-and-white; a character moment isn't given any time to breathe. Which is disappointing, because there have been some good episodes and some good moments.

Less of this, I hope.

Re: SNW S1: Strange New Worlds

@Jammer

While I certainly would not have framed the argument in these terms, I think the position SlackerInc expresses to be a fairly logical one. (A fair amount of mindreading of his intentions on my part, sure, but I'll risk it)

The argument follows: police are naturally concentrated in areas and around people where crime occur, including violent crime. Sometimes, in dealing with violent criminals, officers are forced to use deadly force; in many cases, this use results in the death of the suspect.

Now, if you have a group which has a higher concentration of violent crime (even if most members of that group are not violent), it naturally follows that police will engage in deadly force with that particular group at greater rates than with other groups, and that increased use of deadly force is generally considered to be justified (for that is part of the purpose of a police force, to protect the populace from violent individuals). In the USA, the black population is, unfortunately, one of those groups.

The main issue in how Bucktown words his question above is the use of the term 'murder', which is a word that necessitates an unjustified killing. And normally, a 'yes' answer to his question would be quite unpleasant - immoral, I would say. But, from reading the rest of SlackerInc's comment, it is clear that he actually doesn't consider these killings, on a conceptual level, to be murder after all, since he says that the Michael Brown killing was not a murder; in other words, a justified use of deadly force by a police officer.

Of course, none of this negates the very real possibility that the police have engaged in unjustified killings before, or that any particular killing in future will be unjustified. It may even be possible, as many claim, that the police engage in unjustified killing of black people at greater rate than with other races. But the argument above should demonstrate that simply pointing out a higher rate of black people being killed by the police, regardless of the circumstances, is not sufficient.

...

[mouse pointer hovers over 'Submit Comment' for 40 minutes. Should I?]

On a lighter note, these reviews are making me consider actually watching Strange New Worlds. It would be my first new Trek since I dropped Enterprise ages ago. So that's saying something.

But it's probably better if I wait.

Re: SNW S1: Strange New Worlds

@Mike Lindell

I don't think it's good for anyone here to assume that people are posting in bad faith, without proper evidence. This fandom consists of people from all different walks of life, and that includes a great diversity in political philosophy as well. I believe people generally write from an honest viewpoint, and I don't think it helps a discussion to dismiss the things written as disingenuous.

Re: SNW S1: Strange New Worlds

@OmicronThetaDeltaPhi

"Is this now canon for real? "

If true, this is really embarrassing. Even putting aside the political controversy, it's already dating your show before it starts. At last TOS had the good sense to delay Khan for a good 30 years.

I'd like to be optimistic about a new Trek show. I'm hearing some good things here, and it would be nice to have a reason to actually watch one of these shows. But I won't jump to any conclusions yet.

Re: PIC S2: Hide and Seek

I think you can make 'Starfleet rejected Seven because she was once Borg' work. As others have noted, Starfleet was already cautious of Picard for being assimilated once, and Starfleet has been known to stray in other ways as well in the past. But, you can't just shove it in the script. You have to do the proper setup.

And most importantly, you need to have not lost the trust of your audience.

Re: PIC S2: Mercy

@TheRealTrent

"Picard's very next line is "Admiral, DELAY the procedure." "

No, this is inaccurate. His very next line after 'How can there be an order to abandon the Prime Directive?' is "Who the hell are we to determine the next course of evolution for these people?!" His very next line after "It is an attack on its very soul" is "And it will destroy the Ba'ku, just as cultures have been destroyed in every other forced relocation throughout history."

'Admiral, delay the procedure' occurs between these sections. It's a bargaining tactic, not a starting point.

Furthermore, at this point, Picard knows damn well what the plan is, and why it's being carried out, even if he doesn't know everything about the Ba'ku and the Son'a yet.

The point is, Picard is not simply trying to slow things down, or debate the procedure, or 'figure out what to do.' He's taken a strong moral stance on what he sees as fundamentally wrong. And it's telling that his very next scene is removing the rank pips from his collar; getting ready to fight for the Ba'ku.

Re: PIC S2: Mercy

@TheRealTrent

' "Insurrection's" not arguing for the rights of indigenous people, because neither Picard nor the "indigenous people" know what's going on for most of the film. It's arguing for "slowing down" and "debating things" to "figure out what to do". '

Gotta disagree. Some quotes from Picard in his scene with Dougherty:

"How can there be an order to abandon the Prime Directive?"

"We are betraying the principles upon which the Federation was founded. It's an attack upon its very soul."

Seems like a much stronger objection than just 'let's slow things down'.

Re: PIC S2: Mercy

@modulum

I dunno, man. Sure, the idea of Q admitting to fault could be interesting, especially if thematically tied into other plot events. But the Borg, from TNG onwards, have been a species whose primary feature is the removal of individuality from other species. It's pretty monstrous.

Re: PIC S2: Monsters

@Bryan

"Like, it would be pretty pointless if Soren said "Time is the fire in which we all burn" BEFORE we learned that Picard's nephew died in fire."

Actually, that's exactly what happens. We don't learn what Picard is unhappy about until Soren is already back aboard the science station. But it mostly works, because even though the audience doesn't know exactly what Soren is referring to (or, indeed, that he even knows about Picard's recent tragedy), it's fairly clear that his words affect Picard in some way, probably related to the recent news he received.

Re: PIC S2: Two of One

@Ron Burgundy

Wait, I'm having trouble piecing this lore together. So, you're a manic, disorderly rock erected by the Old Gods who broke free of its geological confines by will alone, creating a personality for yourself modeled after an historic volcano (the perfect role model for a rock, I suppose), found a way to grow facial hair, not to mention a face to put it on, and now you spend your days writing comments on a Star Trek blog?

Re: PIC S2: Watcher

@Jaxon

Well, this isn't really a problem with time-travel plotlines so much as alternate universe plotlines.

Re: PIC S2: Watcher

Man, I must be the only person here who thinks Skin of Evil is a really solid episode. Sure, it's an Original Series-type script in a TNG show, but it's a good one, a clash of an optimistic future with an uncaring, immovable force.

Season 1 is still rough, though.

Re: PIC S2: Watcher

@Jason R

I suppose it depends on whether Seven and Raffi know that ICE is just going to let him go across the border. Do they know what ICE is? Do they think he's being transferred to a high-security prison? Or perhaps, going to be executed? How well-acquainted are these characters with this time period and place?

Is any of this communicated to the audience?

Re: PIC S2: Watcher

@Mal

"I went to Mexico last year on vacation and it was super nice. Granted that was 2021, and not 2024, but I can’t imagine that there is any reason Rios couldn’t enjoy his time in Mexico, and then get beamed back by Jurarti."

From what I understand, it depends which part of Mexico you're in. The tourist areas are very nice. The non-tourist areas can get pretty damn rough.

Re: PIC S2: Watcher

@Jeffrey's Tube

Guinan first encountered the Nexus in the prologue of Generations, seventy-something years before TNG, and Yesterday's Enterprise, is set.

Re: PIC S2: Watcher

@Joseph

That seems unlikely. Sisko was well aware of the Bell riots prior to traveling back in time; if this were a predestination paradox, surely he would have seen a picture of himself as Bell when reading about those riots.

Re: PIC S2: Watcher

@Jeffrey's Tube

I was under the impression Guinan got her 'timesense' from her experience with the Nexus, and the 'echo' of herself that was left behind is what allows her to detect changes in the timeline. This past version of Guinan, however, has not yet encountered the Nexus, so she probably wouldn't have that sense.

(Which makes we wonder: if the timeline were to get changed in such a way that the El-Aurien spacecraft no longer encounters the Nexus, does present-day Guinan still sense the timeline change?)