#TnG Duo

[cutesyname]

elementary, dear data

[buffyspeak]

My kid's in there! Can I please just make sure he's okay?

[dilsdelights]

data and geordi are like two blokes who do a lot actually.

[isthereintruthnobeauty1968]

i think im going to watch birthright tonight

[aquamonstra]

No offense to OP but you're going to stop the clip before it gets to the "those android reflexes" part?? Come on that's ULTIMATE DaForge right there 🥵

data worrying about him...

[stargatesimp]

Can I just talk about how much I love Star Trek friendships?

Shipping is fun and all, ship whoever you like! (Starship? I don’t know if that’s a term used in this fandom but if not it should be)

But I don’t think platonic friendships and platonic love are talked about enough. God I love adorable friendships in shows. Give me two best friends who would die for each other. Found family is where it’s AT.

Like,

VOYAGER: So. many. Good ones.

Janeway and Tuvok. Tom and Harry. Chakotay and B’lanna. The Doctor and Kes. The list goes on!

I just love them all dearly. Voyager has such a great found family dynamic. I grew up watching this show with my family every day after school and it holds such a special place in my heart. I could spend a million hours talking about it.

Not to mention DS9.

Sisko and Dax, Miles and Julian, Kira and Dax, Jake and Nog, Odo and Quark (best frenemies. Sheriff and outlaw)

DS9 is my absolute favorite of all Star Treks. The writing and development is insane. If you told me what these characters would go through after watching season one, I don’t think I’d believe you. Another one I could talk hours about but this post is long enough just listing the dang names.

Those two are the majority of what I rewatch, but man, the others have amazing ones too.

Enterprise was just Archer being a father to literally everyone on the ship. And him and Trip being another of my favorite friendship duos.

TNG is a classic, a lot of people’s favorites. I always loved Geordi and Data. Guinan and literally everyone. I think I need to go back and rewatch it soon to fully appreciate everyone in the crew.

And as controversial as it may be, I never really got into the original series. But obviously some great friendships there too.

But man, I love Star Trek. The feeling of hope it gives you, the despair, the moral quandary, the wonder and magic. The wonderful mix of witty and fun humor balanced with severe stakes and serious narratives. A balance I feel a lot of modern sci-fi lacks. And I just love the characters that go through it all together. The journey they take.

Tell me some of your favorite Star Trek friendship moments! Let’s talk about em.

[v-e-l-v-e-t-g-o-l-d-m-i-n-e]

Since tumblr only allows ten options, some duos had to be left out, but feel free to mention them in the tags!

[3bugsinatrenchcoat]

when i started watching tng a few months ago i was looking at the imdb of john de lancie because i recognised him from days of our lives but i misremembered him as being on frasier (?????????) and my very jumbled thought process led me to a set of glorious hypotheticals that i started asking everyone i knew who had seen tng/ds9:

1. if there was a star trek version of cheers, would it take place in guinan's bar (tng) or quark's bar (ds9)?

2. if there was a spin-off of that st cheers that was an analog to frasier, who would be the frasier equivalent?

3. what would the theme song of that st frasier be?

the answer to 1 is complicated; it's subjective, both would be amazing. i think guinan's bar would be more similar to cheers, but quark's would be way more entertaining to me.

for number 2, and i cannot stress this enough, EVERYONE I ASKED (including myself) HAD THE EXACT SAME ANSWER FUCKING VERBATIM: q and/or lwaxana troi (i say and because, let's be real, frasier and niles are practically the same character so q and lwaxana could easily be both of them.) so now imagine how fucking good they would be as a duo. and then having a spin-off of that.

for 3, it turns out most people are not as autistic as i am and could not answer without help, so what i did was play a series of songs that i thought could maybe work and again the answer was unanimous: fuck me pumps by amy winehouse. it's classy, it's elegant, but it's also ridiculous and slutty (that is a compliment, i love that song) and somehow perfectly encapsulates both lwaxana and q????

anyway i encourage you all to come up with more insane hypotheticals because it's been 6 months and i still think about this constantly. it brings me such joy

[greenleaf4stuff]

Glad you like my tags @systemadministratorclu <3 These two are just different shades of the Golden Retriever Friend and noone can convince me otherwise. Of course they would get along great.

Hugh/3 of 5 from Star Trek.

[sk1fanfiction]

(ch. 11 review) — tom not knowing the pupils in the year below him.. he was so me as a prefect im dead. ahhh i absolutely love the tom x ruby duo sm, im glad their back to their mischief 😙 tom wanting her to speak to someone about what she saw, what do you know about not bottling things up??? also the calming drought potion moment mirrors remus and harry’s moment with the chocolate it’s so cute (but also hello indirect kiss??). tom being petty over the malfoys pt. 34, we love to see it ! riddle taunting harry… (hot.) bloody riddle… (hot.) omg harry managed to expelliarmus him, good job hazzah!!! ugh nott is so annoying can you just butt out, you’re 15/16 bro, focus on your owls ALL OF YOU !! but lowkey harry not rising to dracos bait… slay king or wtv

(also idk if this was your intention but i’m lowkey lowkey shipping ruby and tom 😬😬)

I love Ruby and Tom's dynamic as well and had some nostalgia for them being on their collective bullshit from TNG so that was my motivation for that scene. And yes, what would Tom know about not bottling things up? I didn't think of that as an indirect kiss while writing but you're right.

I'm glad you enjoyed the duelling scene! I'm finding out that's what takes me the longest to write (even more than Quidditch scenes). Tom swears up and down that he *let* Harry disarm him though. Sometimes I wonder if there's too much blood in RFMD and then I realise it's reaching its intended audience lol.

"Focus on your owls" -- yes, this (what Daphne said to Nott and Malfoy, too)! You know how much Nott loves to stick his nose into everyone's business (as the self-proclaimed #1 eavesdropper). And yes the *character development* from Harry as he very slowly learns to deal with his anger problems, we love that for him.

Mmmm... yeah... shipping. Full disclosure, in very, very early drafts of RFMD, that was originally a thing I experimented with, but I ended up scrapping that because it felt like making dolls kiss when I wrote it, but that might be because I'm not a romance writer at heart. So they definitely have that lingering in the DNA of their dynamic.

[leighlew3]

Xena really is unmatched, damn what a fantastic show (* excluding literally everything about Joxer - he was a mistake!!). But Xena and Gabrielle's relationship was everything and the show was epic.

No one can match Rene and Lucy, but I really do want a streaming or network *gritty* reboot, where it's just the story streamlined and with Xena and Gabrielle allowed to be even louder about their relationship (let them kiss some more!) xD

The best.

I will say that a dream project for me would be to do a Xena movie that fixes how the show ended and brings back the original actresses for one last adventure… BUT ALSO passes the torch to new young blood that can then be parlayed into a new series (or series of films) from there.

I’ve already got the concept and everything in a treatment, in fact.

But the last time a former manager looked into that world for me years back, turns out the rights/ownership dynamics were an absolute shit show of a situation. Next thing you know, they tried to do that TV reboot, but it was tanked.

So now I’m just hoping over the next year or two maybe I can circle back on my idea with somebody…?

My new team is a lot more connected and powerful and with my new projects coming up, maybe it’s some thing I can make happen. But even if it’s not me, I just hope somebody can bring this duo to screen in a way that truly captures the heart of the original (and preferably with the original actresses, at least one last time, even if it’s just an episode of a new show).

I just think it would be a disservice to go ahead and do a straight up reboot with entirely new actresses just yet I think that should be something that should be done and maybe 5 to 10 years for the next generation of fans, but I think there’s still time to bring back the original actresses for one last hurrah. I know Lucy Lawless has some limitations on things she’s willing to do at this point, but I’ve got a great workaround on that front as well. 😈

Look, if 50-something Seven of Nine from Voyager and elderly TNG actors can have an action-packed adventure 25+ years later on Picard… there’s no reason Xena and its middle aged leads can’t. If everyone can just stop being tricky as far as the rights and creative conflict is concerned, anyway. 🥴

[hollowslantern]

What do you think gay men are attracted to in men that they can’t be attracted to in women?

It can’t be anything about femininity or masculinity obviously. That’s both sexist, and cultural so can’t be what drives men-only attraction.

It can’t be anything about stated identity because someone could lie just as easily as they could tell the truth in such a statement, and it makes no sense because homosexuality and heterosexuality exists in other species with no stated identities. It’s not like other animals without gender are all pan.

Saying idk it’s the vibes or some indescribable trait men have that women can’t but “I can’t explain” is a nonanswer.

Soooooooo what is it? Or do you think any sexuality but bi/pan is just cultural performance or an identity rather than an inborn orientation?

- [ ]

thanks for asking! I think Q and Data's friendship, particularly as seen in Deja Q, is one of my favorite relationships in TNG. they complement each other so well, as two nonhumans who have both demonstrated an intense interest in humanity, but from opposing perspectives— where Data openly admires humans, Q openly abhors them¹. by virtue of this shared fascination, and by being the only two "outsiders" to mortality (excluding the plot of this episode), they form a very fun duo to watch. in Deja Q, Q is cursed with Data's greatest wish: to become a human. this provides an excellent dynamic between them throughout the episode, where through Q Data is able to see what it might be like to adjust to being a human, and is one of the reasons why i think Data was such an inspired choice for who should be looking after Q as he adjusts to his new form. the other big reason of course is Data's own beautiful self. Data's kind, objective, non-judgmental approach to Q throughout this episode is refreshing, and I feel that Data gets through to him in a way nobody else could, just by being himself. he explains everything thoroughly, but not condescendingly (hes data, I don't think he has condescending in him), and offers valuable insight. he's able to put his observations of humans to good use, here, and is able to explain human behavior to Q in a way Q can understand, and he doesn't expect Q to intrinsically know how to act, and I really think that makes all the difference ². they have a mutual respect and sympathy for each other and I would watch 500 hours of their interactions.

¹or, at least, he says he does. personally I think that if he hated them so much he wouldn't be so obsessed with them, but that's an essay for another time

²having just come out of TOS, i can tell you this has happened several times in star trek. usually involving kirk actually. E.G. Charlie X, where kirk is unable to give a "Don't smack women on the ass" basics of consent talk without resorting to vague gestures and "well you see, when a man, and a woman," mumbling. it's literally painful to watch. use your words you stupid bitch. this is why charlie tried to kill you with his mind.

[thegeminisage]

sigh it's time for a star trek update. i'm behind because i've been busy thinking about lucanis dragon age. all of these are voyager episodes!! i don't have to separate them anymore :(

i don't remember which days we did what but the lineup is "equinox part i," "equinox part ii," "survival instinct," "barge of the dead," "tinker, tenor, doctor, spy," "alice," "riddles," "dragon's teeth," "one small step," "the voyager conspiracy," and "pathfinder." tragically, these will be short because there's too many and i want to go back to thinking about lucanis dragon age.

equinox parts i & ii:

TEAR THE BITCH APART!!!!!! i have never been so thrilled to see janeway ready to rip into somebody. that other captain was vile and reprehensible

delicious when janeway and chakotay fight. kind of distressing but also very fun and sexy

seven is always so good but she was GREAT in this episode

the doc's ethical program being taken away :( im glad he and seven had that little moment together...ik theyre not canon or anything and it wouldn't be my first pick for seven ships but i wouldn't have been mad about it at all. their relationship is very sweet

survival instinct:

SEVEN OF NINE MY BELOVED

damn she really did drag 3 other people back into hell so she wouldn't be there alone. i love that

the philosophical debate was kind of weak though...like literally nobody is sitting here thinking being alive as a borg is better than being dead. what even was that

also, that isn't how this works. that isn't how any of this works. the borg don't get cut off and develop feelings on the fly. they don't remember who they are when they're magically removed from the amnesia collective. picard remembered who he was and knew what was happening to him the WHOLE TIME. the horror was in not being able to do anything about it! i really and genuinely hate to say it, but tng did it better

barge of the dead:

I LOVE WHEN B'ELANNA GETS COOL STUFF TO DO

she looked hot as fuck in that armor

i do like that in this episode you can hardly blame tom paris for being alarmed. 90% of the time i am like tom paris nobody asked you but if i a hardcore atheist woke up from a coma one day and started talking about how you guys needed to kill me so i could go rescue my mom from hell i would hope someone would have the compassion to hit me on the head again until i went back to normal

i like the idea of jadzia on this little boat until her friends got her into stovokor :')

tinker, tenor, doctor, spy:

this episode was bad when they showed seven's tits but everything else was really good

i wasn't sure about it at first because of all the adoration fromt he ladies but like it's ridiculous on purpose, you know? it was funny.

i liked it! i liked that the doctor got more rights and that he got something scary and dangerous to do

bonus of the borg transformations. hot.

also those little aliens were horrible to look at but i did like that one guy stanning the emh and then realizing he had his shit all wrong and he was cooked. really funny

alice:

this one sucked so bad. like idk there's nothing else to it. it sucked bad. b'elanna, dump him. i could be your man

riddles:

AAAAUGHGHGGH TUVOK

i really like neelix when he isn't with kes. i always forget until there's a good neelix episode and then i'm like oh yeah neelix! he and tuvok make such a good duo sometimes

tuvok in this episode...damn did we know tim russ can act? like he can fucking act

it's v much like the tos episode where spock gets jizzed on by that flower and learns to feel happy...but at the expense of his logic and his duty

the ending KILLED me. tuvok gave him so little except that one pun but thats like all you need

as fun as this was, it would have been even better if seven was the one walking tuvok through it all

dragon's teeth:

i liked the myth this one drew the title from. very fun

but also, What Prime Directive

we DID get good seven of nine content out of it though. i love when she and janeway are gay

one small step:

i started out feeling skeptical about this one because of the 23andme episode. i was worried they were going to be Too excited about history

nonetheless i did absolute shed tears during the funeral section at the end. i get it .gif

are they laying some chakotay/seven groundwork here? i kind of enjoyed it. did not like him telling her to knock off the attitude but it was otherwise very fun. i won't be mad about it

the voyager conspiracy:

i'd heard a lot about people either loving or hating this one before we watched it but i LOVED it

at first i was bewildered but even though the plot is a little weak there were so many good character moments i just can't get mad about it

the j/c candlelit dinner...mwah. they just do this on the reg??

also their mutual suspicion of each other. i would have been annoyed or perhaps distressed if it had gone on too long but it was the perfect amount of time to be just a little angsty and establish how well they know one another and how much they trust each other

AND bonus janeway/seven at the end that had me welling up. OOOUGH i love gay people

pathfinder:

THIS SUCKED SO BAD I HATE BARCLAY WHY WOULD THEY BRING DEANNA BACK JUST TO PROP HIS LAME ASS UP I HATE THE HOLODECK I HATE TNG GET IT OUT OF HERE

TONIGHT: "fair haven" and "blink of an eye."

[aurora-nova-fic]

Things I Wish I'd Known About Star Trek Conventions

I finally made it to a Trek convention (Creation Trek to NJ) and learned a few things I wish I'd known ahead of time, as it would've made the experience more enjoyable. So I am sending it out into the ether in the hopes that it will help someone else be savvier than I was.

BRING CASH. Most of the actors were selling autographs and photos directly to fans at the vendor tables, and I did not see a single one taking cards for payment. The convention center's ATM ran out of cash, and Mr. Nova, who sweetly went to a nearby bank, reported long lines there as well, so I wasn't the only one who expected to pay with my card. This is important information which ought to be on the convention website.

How much to bring? We saw prices ranging from $40-110, as each actor sets their own pricing structure. If you want to get multiple autographs/photos from the big names, bring hundreds of dollars cash.

Skip most official photo ops. Creation sells photo ops, and they do warn on the website that it last seconds. What they don't mention on the website is that most/all of the actors selling autographs directly to fans at the vendor tables will add a selfie/photo on your phone for an additional fee (amount varying by actor). Unlike the production line of the official photo ops, these are more relaxed and fun. Again, it will depend on the actor, but there's a greater opportunity for interaction.

I paid $60 for an autograph/photo combo with Terry Farrell, and it was more fun than the $100 official photo op with Jeri Ryan, plus I got to actually speak with Terry for a minute. The picture is better too - sure there are people in the background instead of a neat blue screen, but I'm clearly more excited and Terry is much more relaxed.

Exceptions: if you want the duo or group photos with multiple actors, and have the money to splash out on them (they went up to $400 for a group with 5 TNG actors), you'll need the official photo ops for that. Also, the official photos might be your only option for some actors - it was for Jeri.

Tickets can be bought last-minute online. I was making a game day decision, and Creation's website said that ticket purchases will be emailed within 2-3 days, with tickets available at the door as long as they aren't sold out. When we got there, we were advised to buy tickets on our phone and told, "Oh no, you'll get it instantly." Not the end of the world, but I'd have liked to have just walked in with the tickets ready had I known I could buy ahead of time.

The schedule is a guideline. I'm not just talking about delays, those happen. What I found very surprising was the chaos of the panel schedule. A group of Lower Decks actors crashed and basically took over the end of Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner's time on stage, and that was after Marina Sirtis dropped in for a few minutes. Todd Stashwick crashed Jeri Ryan's for a conversational detour into discussing Dungeons & Dragons. Some people in the audience seemed to enjoy these unscheduled appearances. I was not one of them, so if you're like me and you prefer adherence to the plan, moderate your expectations.

Everything is expensive. No, I did not expect bargains, but neither did I expect $23 price tags on magnets. If you have your heart set on souvenirs, budget extra. (All the vendors selling wares took cards at least.)

Final thought: don't get your heart set on too many 'must-dos.' This is one that I think I did right going in. There are a lot of moving pieces, different events at different times which can clash with the slightest delay in the schedule, etc. If you go in with a list of several autographs you'll be crushed if you don't get, multiple photos you have to take to be happy going home, and panels you must see, you're going to experience more stress than fun. Pick a couple and otherwise go with the flow - you will enjoy yourself more for it.

[nebulouscoffee]

I was tagged by @fancy-a-dance-brigadier to list 5 comfort characters then tag 5 other people. Thank you for tagging me!

I also don't really tend to think of characters this way; I'm more likely to take comfort in dynamics between characters than the characters themselves, if that makes sense? So I might cheat a little. I'll also keep this to Star Trek, since that's the theme of the blog and there are sooo many characters in Trek already :)

Sisko & Dax, DS9 - yes, both Daxes! I was going to say Ben & Jake, but honestly there's something about the way this friendship transcends linearity and corporeality that makes me insane, and as someone whose friends are all quite far away from me right now the way they keep coming back to each other in every lifetime brings me a lot of comfort <3

Nyota Uhura, SNW - look, I know Nichelle Nichols will always be the most important and influential, but Celia Gooding Uhura is just like me fr I'm sorry!! I see a character whose whole arc revolves around her struggle to accept change and loss and her difficulties opening up to new friendships because the people you love always end up becoming the people you miss, and I latch onto them like a barnacle. Then tear up a bit when they sing a song about realising they have everything they need by themselves after years of feeling like a husk of a person. Like... I just wanna get there someday

B'Elanna Torres, VOY - hmm, is this about the way she struggles to open herself up to intimacy because she knows it'll hurt later when people leave? Yes, yes it is, so I'll spare you lol

Kira Nerys, DS9 - ugh she is SUCH a comfort blorbo to me I don't even know where to begin! The sheer amount that she has been through, and yet still manages to get out of bed every day and face the world around her and smile like That is so inspirational. She is so scarred and flawed and has lost so much and yet she isn't afraid to love people. Are you sensing a theme here

The whole entire next gen crew! Yes, this is massively cheating, but some years ago TNG helped pull me out of a dark place and made me insane about Star Trek, so as a result to this day I still find all their faces and voices and friendships so so comforting. Look, sometimes a bitch is feeling vulnerable and lost and just needs to turn on the TV and hear Patrick Stewart telling them things will eventually work out okay!!

(Honourable mention to O'Brien & Bashir from DS9, this was a huge comfort duo of mine back on first watch. I love them so much <3)

I'll tag: @lorenzobane @sapphosewrites @enterprisery @trillscienceofficer and @wanderingwriter87 - no pressure of course!