#I know I know there’s no prodigy and no Picard

[frommybookbook]

Earlier today, some friends and I were discussing one of those Star Trek captains memes. You know the ones I’m talking about, the ones that pit the captains against each other with pithy descriptions that glorify and champion the men and shit on Janeway. The ones where Picard is describe as the wise teacher and scholarly diplomat; Kirk is the brave trailblazer and lovable rogue; Sisko is the take-no-shit commander and more-than-human uniter; Archer is the quick thinking explorer and the avenging do-gooder; Pike is the empathetic Boy Scout and the quippy everyman…and Janeway is an irrational murderer and erratic loose canon. And, as usual, I went on a bit of a rant. They (looking at you @redsesame, @epersonae, and @emi--rose) told me to share it here so, if you trudge through this whole thing, blame them.

Does Janeway make some questionable decisions throughout VOY (Prodigy!Janeway is a different conversation for another time)? Yes, absolutely. But here’s the thing: every captain does. What I still love about her though and will champion until I'm blue in the face is that Janeway owns her decisions more than I think any other captain does.

Picard and Kirk hide behind the Prime Directive a lot. That's the reasoning Picard gives for not interfering in the drug running in “Symbiosis” and leaving the Ornarans trapped in dependence on the abusive Brekkans. His line, “Beverly, the Prime Directive is not just a set of rules. It is a philosophy, and a very correct one. History has proved again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilization, no matter how well-intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous." is a cop-out we hear from him time and time again, especially to Dr. Crusher, as she is the one who most often calls him on his bullshit.

Kirk does the same thing. We still this when he leaves Shanna and the other thralls behind in "The Gamesters of Triskelion" and when he forces Elaan of Troyius into a marriage she clearly doesn't want because it's "for a greater good." And all the while, he's got Spock at his side giving him confirmation bias that he's following regulations.

And Sisko, Sisko makes some of the most horrific and destructive decisions of any captain and uses not only the Prime Directive to fall back on, but he's got the Dominion War to blame. He poisons an entire planet to get back at one man he feels betrayed him in "For the Uniform" and don't even get me started on his actions in "In the Pale Moonlight".

Enterprise is so unjustly shat on by the fandom that I almost hate to bring some of Archer's questionable choices into this conversation but I'm going to do it anyway. Similar to Sisko and the Dominion War, Archer has the threat of the Xindi in his back pocket to excuse some of his worst behavior. If Tuvix is the worst thing people can point to for Janeway, then we have to talk about Archer and Sim, the simbiont created solely to be a living tissue donor for an injured Trip, a procedure that will kill the living, breathing, sentient Sim. Archer orders Sim created against the arguments made by Dr. Phlox. He rationalizes his decision with the same argument for the greater good that we see from all the others. He says to T'Pol before Sim is created "…we've got to complete this mission. Earth needs Enterprise. Enterprise needs Trip. It's as simple as that." And it doesn't end there. When Sim is grown enough for the procedure and has figured out what's going to happen to him, he challenges Archer himself, arguing for his own right to live, and Archer sticks to his guns. This exchange directly between Archer and Sim is haunting.

Archer: I must complete this mission; and to do that, I need Trip. Trip! I'll take whatever steps necessary to save him. Sim: Even if it means killing me? Archer: Even if it means killing you. Sim: You're not a murderer. Archer: Don't make me one.

Not only do all of these captains (except Archer, who arguably writes the damn thing himself at the end of the series) have the Prime Directive to fall back on, they also have Starfleet/the Federation/Vulcan High Council right there on speed dial to validate their choices and hear their excuses and give them another commendation. They all know that ultimately, they can turn to someone higher in command to turn to for help.

Janeway is alone. She is alone with her crew 70,000 lightyears from home with only her training and her own moral compass to guide her. Yes, she claims the Prime Directive a lot but she also goes with what she feels is right and she is clear about that with her crew. When she makes the decision to split Tuvix, despite what everyone else says, she sticks to it and more importantly, does the procedure herself. Picard would have forced Beverly to do it, saying Doctor I gave you an order, your conscience be damned, and Archer does the same to Phlox with Sim, but Janeway takes the tool out of the Doctor's hand and says it's my call, I'll do it. When everyone is angry and mad about her destroying the Caretaker's array, she stands up for her decision and says yes, I did it, because it's what my Starfleet training said to do AND because I think it was the right thing and it's on me to make the hard choices.

She also can admit when she made the wrong decision, which isn't something we see from the other captains. In the season 5 opener, "Night", we see her in a depressive state because she's questioning her decision to effectively strand her crew in the Delta quadrant but she comes out of it when she's reminded by her senior staff that the crew believes in her and trusts her, she should do the same for herself. When the Doctor has a mental crisis in "Latent Image" after questioning his own choice to save the life of Harry Kim over that of another crew member, Janeway admits she did the wrong thing by first deleting his memories of it so he could get back to work and then sits with him for days while he works through it because that's what captains do.

And she does all of this without the backup and support of Starfleet. She doesn't have anyone higher on the chain of command. She's 70,000 miles away from the admiralty and her support system. There's no one higher than her to give her a break from making every decision.

To quote my fellow Missourian Harry Truman, for Janeway the buck stops with her in a way it doesn't for any other captain and she is painfully aware of that and owns that and that is why I love her and she's my captain.

[quasi-normalcy]

Star Trek series rated by Canadianness!

The Original Series - Shatner's from Montreal; Doohan's from Vancouver; John Collicos (the guy who played Kor, the first Klingon) is from somewhere in Canada; and, um...yeah. 4/10

The Next Generation - So, in the episode "Lower Decks", Lavelle tries to bond with Riker over being from Canada (he's actually from Alaska). Also, Matt Frewer and Saul Rubinek are in episodes. 2/10

Deep Space Nine - I was going to rate this one pretty low since it has pretty much only Nicole deBoer and that one scene where Eddington mentions having a "lucky loonie" to go on, but then I realised that the series was literally premised on a brutal colonial project aimed at mineral extraction, and that's like...the *most* Canadian thing. 7/10

Voyager - WTH is this? No Canadians; nothing particularly Canadian. 0/10

Enterprise - Hoshi Sato wants to take leave in Canada after getting tortured with heat. 1/10

Discovery - Points for being filmed in Canada, and most of the extras and personality-less bridge bunnies being played by Canadians (though points off because the one Discovery novel that I've read keeps emphasizing that Detmer, who has the most personality out of all of them, is from Düsseldorf). Callum Keith Rennie's in the last season. 4/10

Picard - um...Alison Pill is there! 1/10

Lower Decks - Let's see...two of the ships have been named the Vancouver and the Toronto. The plot with Barb Brinson is riffing on having an imaginary girlfriend in Canada (one of our most famous exports). Also, I know this isn't canon, but the comics are done by Ryan North, which has to count for something. 4/10

Prodigy - Man, this series doesn't even air in Canada! -1/10

Strange New Worlds - Filmed in Toronto: actually *set* in Toronto in one episode; retroactively makes Khan Canadian (Khanadian?) which...sure. I'll accept that. Points for casting Edmonton's Bruce Horak as Hemmer, who comes from an ice planet and, as an Aenar, has a generally laid-back, pacifistic attitude towards life (which I think is how a lot of Canadians like to think of themselves); points off for killing him off 9 episodes into the first season. 9/10

[t0ast-ghost]

If you could serve with any star trek crew what one would you choose?

Feel free to explain why below

[trekkie-polls]

For bonus points share one thing you wish would have happened in that extra season

Edit: So many comments about Prodigy not being on here! Well, I am a Prodigy fan too. But I left it off because last I heard Netflix picked it up. Now I don’t have faith it will happen, but nonetheless there is at least one more season planned and maybe more.

On the other hand, even though the last seasons of discovery & lower decks haven’t finished airing, they both have planned end dates.

[xchronicles]

Brett my beloved, you deserve the world... but everything else ... help

Listen, we all know Janeway's not going anywhere since she's alive in Picard S3, but I always had this dread that the reason why no one mentioned Chakotay is because he's.................... And I am very much going to NOPE that. There is a reason people weren't big fans of Picard and it's because it was heavily leaning on tragedy in a franchise that's supposed to be about a bettter future.

Brett deserves S3 and beyond. Kate deserves to take time off from giving (outdated) ideas.

Read the full interview here.

[cantsayidont]

If I seem overly harsh about STAR TREK, a big part of my problem with it has less to do with my criticisms of its values than with the franchise's attitude toward its own ideology. From a storytelling standpoint, the fact that the franchise's stated values (optimism, tolerance, diversity) are often at odds with its actual values (colonialism, American nationalism, assimilation) is not necessarily a bad thing, and the franchise is often most interesting where these contradictions are clearly expressed and examined. Where it becomes galling is when the franchise and its fans become so invested in those stated values (which are sometimes admirable, but often threadbare even on their own terms) that they elide or outright deny the obvious contradictions and hypocrisies the actual narrative presents.

In the recent shows (DISCOVERY, PICARD, LOWER DECKS, STRANGE NEW WORLDS), this has begun to manifest in a peculiar kind of heavily sentimentalized faux-nationalist propaganda, where simply depicting the symbols associated with Starfleet or the Federation is expected to produce an emotional reaction the narrative doesn't necessarily support. The way "We are Starfleet!" has become a rallying cry throughout all four of those shows is particularly unsettling to me. Obviously, Starfleet is a fictional military organization in a fictional interstellar empire in a pop sci-fi postapocalyptic future that hopefully won't come to pass (at least not the way modern TREK says it does, which involves, among other things, the nuclear devastation of our world and the systematic extermination of every single Jew and Muslim on Earth), and even within the narrative, Starfleet's actions and motives have never been without stain, up to and including the very recent canon. So, who or what does that slogan really serve, and why are the writers and producers pushing it so hard? My perhaps cynical assumption is "to promote real-world military recruitment," but at best, it's indicative of a weird determination to sell the idea of STAR TREK rather than STAR TREK itself.

[mascara-pyjama]

My one compliant with Prodigy is that Zero said math.

They are British! They smoke fags behind Tesco! They won't drink tea made in a microwave! They eat beans on toast!

They'd say maths! They know it's a plural word, they know mathematics contains multitudes! They wouldn't say math!

[aceofwands]

idk man I just think of all the franchises you could try to make the Next Big Thing by creating a bunch of new shows and movies, maybe don't pick the one with the notoriously nitpicky obsessed with canon fandom ?? if you don't plan on applying any sort of consistency to the world, characters, alien cultures, entire ethical and moral framework of the universe, etc etc ????

[a-demonic-duck-of-some-sort]

“Hey, boss, we’re finalizing the scripts for the new season of our family-friendly Star Trek show. You know, the one that’s meant to be accessible to people who have never seen a Star Trek show before?”

“Did you remember to include a pivotal plot point pulled from each season of our least family-friendly, least-accessible show? It has to be a discreet, unrelated thing from every season, remember?”

“Of course, boss, and we threw in a whole bunch of characters from and callbacks to a 170-episode show from the 90s just to make sure it’s extra-accessible to the kiddies!”

“Great, now just put it on a different streaming service from literally every other Star Trek and we’ll be good to go!”

[comradecowplant]

*sniffle* well, that's that then. voyager has made it back to the alpha quadrant (albeit i'm not the biggest fan of the "timey whimey antics save the day" means utilized but i've seen similar plots play out far worse so i'll accept it with minimal brow furrowing), my mind & heart are full with a new sci-fi obsession, and while i know i said i'm diving into TNG asap, i do think my little ticker needs a minute to process & say goodbye to the star fleet captain who-- no matter how good picard/other captains i can't wait to meet are-- will now forever be My Captain(tm), and her intrepid crew (i'll even miss the doctor!) of the U.S.S. Voyager o7

[youngpettyqueen]

been thinking about the viewing order for my remaining Treks and I think ive settled on

Discovery

Strange New Worlds

Voyager

Prodigy

I have seen Voyager, but only most of it. I havent seen all of it, so I want to do a rewatch so that ill have seen everything, like I did with TOS leading up to TAS + the movies. I also need to watch Nemesis at some point because ive been avoiding watching that movie forever but if im gonna be true to my goal of watching every single Trek, I need to watch it, so maybe once im done Enterprise ill put that on and then move on into Discovery

[autismtrek]

Upcoming Poll!

Hi everyone! I’m going to be running a bracket in the format of other tumblr character polls for the best autistic Star Trek character.

Please tell me your favorite autistic-coded Star Trek characters so they can be added to the bracket! I will wait a couple days to start it because I want people’s input, especially since I have only watched golden age Trek but want to include characters from all series if possible. You can submit characters through asks, replies, reblogging the post with a comment, or submissions.

The ONLY RULES FOR SUBMISSION are that the character has to be in Star Trek at least once and you need to consider them autistic-coded. You are welcome to submit characters that aren’t widely considered to be autistic but you think they are. Side characters and one-time characters are also welcome - I will include as many of them as necessary to have a big enough bracket.

I went ahead and made a sideblog for this so that people who want to see the poll won’t have to see other posts too.

Characters I have already decided to include in the bracket are under the cut, so if you don’t see your favorites here, make sure to submit them!

Main Cast (Definitely Will Be Included):

B’Elanna Torres

Benjamin Sisko

Data Soong

Deanna Troi

Elnor 

Emergency Medical Hologram

Geordi La Forge

Jean-Luc Picard

Julian Bashir

Katherine Pulaski

La'an Noonien-Singh

Odo

Samanthan Rutherford

Seven of Nine

Spock

Sylvia Tilly

Tuvok

Worf Rozhenko

Zero

Important Side Characters (Next In Line For Inclusion):

Lwaxana Troi

Reginald Barclay

Rom

Side Characters Who Appear Rarely (Included If There’s Not Enough Other Characters):

Jack

Lauren

Patrick

Sarina Douglas

Tam Elbrun

[quasi-normalcy]

The Borg Queen has now been killed at least 4 times on screen. 5 if you count the time that Agnes shot her. She has become the Davros of the Star Trek universe

[acatwithstockings]

One of my favorite things to do is to talk to fellow Trekkies on the english side of the internet and just sprinkle in some agressive german pronouciation of names .

It's not that i like the german pronouciation quite far from it, i just find it hilarious.

[xchronicles]

If you want to feel good about J/C in Prodigy, I suggest listening to this interview which is great and has the completely opposite vibe from what's Kate been saying.

[a-fistfull-of-datas]

I am very curious about how people go about watching star trek since there is so much of it

I am also curious about the order in which you watched the series as a whole, so let me know!

please reblog for a larger sample size