#daystrom institute

[quasi-normalcy]

Doing a PhD at the Daystrom Institute, like

You wanted Dr. Maddox to be your advisor, but he disappeared, so you get Dr. Jurati

You find out a few years later that Dr. Jurati murdered Dr. Maddox, but she wasn't criminally responsible, so it's okay. You're okay. It's too late to change advisors now

(She is, however, clearly having a depressive spiral and keeps turning up drunk at your advising sessions over subspace)

(Whatever, just keep your head down; focus on how future hiring committees will react to seeing the words "DAYSTROM INSTITUTE" on your CV)

Except now you need to rewrite your whole "Research Ethics" section because it turns out that there's an intergalactic civilization of godlike machines who will annihilate all organic life in the Milky Way at the drop of a hat if they think that we're mistreating our AIs

It takes two years, and you need to go to Coppelius to do it, but you finally get the rewrites done; you just need Dr. Jurati to sign off on your final draft so you can do your defence; it's going to be alright. "DAYSTROM INSTITUTE", right?

Except it turns out that she's a Borg Queen now (and, due to a time travel accident, apparently has been for the last 400 years? No one can explain it to you in a way that makes sense)

Fuck it. Contact her anyway.

She's very apologetic, but says that she can't sign off on your dissertation because your theory was actually disproven by an alien cyberneticist that she assimilated two hundred years ago in an uncharted region of the Gamma Quadrant

She does, however, offer you a position as "drone"

You're honestly not sure whether this sounds better or worse than staying in grad school

25th century academia is a messed-up scene

[discoonthegrass]

The Ultimate Computer: Kirk and a sub-skeleton crew are ordered to test out an advanced artificially intelligent control system - the M-5 Multitronic system, which could potentially render them all redundant.

The Squire of Gothos: A being that controls matter and creates planets wants to play with the Enterprise crew.

Feel free to reblog in order to help this poll reach the most people! Remember to vote on the other polls in this round, listed here!

[scherzokinn]

I'm telling ya, Trek Tumblr is really sleeping on r/shittydaystrom. Ik it's r*ddit but still. check it out

[dougielombax]

Well I don’t think there was a worse first contact than that which went down between Peanut Hamper and the Areore people.

Okay it started off well…at least.

Then it all went to shit near the end (AFTER the Cerritos showed up!) and she got her ass incarcerated for trying to summon the Borg out of SPITE and she was sent to The Cupboard by the Daystrom Institute.

I would’ve preferred that she spent 10,000 years in jail myself.

[lacycardigan]

Just posted the first bit of a fic I'm pretty excited about, if anyone would like to check it out! ^^

Isolate, Integrate

Lal survived and has been taken against her will to the Daystrom Institute for further study. Lore isn’t happy with the idea of his niece being held captive by human scientists, and takes it upon himself to free her… but to what end?

[spectraspecs-writes]

Yeah, it’s probably a good idea not to contact the Daystrom Institute, with the romulan evacuation going on.

[rippleberries]

Jeffrey Combs on his first appearance on Lower Decks

from The 7th Rule

(In the full interview, we learn that Jeffrey likes black licorice and he gives us a Shatner impression)

[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]

RYAN T HUSK: Jeff, obviously your character [Agimus] is not dead. That little black box is locked away. By the way, shout out to the Daystrom Institute. That was really cool that they said that.

JEFFREY COMBS: Yes

RTH: So they've left the door open for your character coming back, possibly. Is that--I'm sure that may not have been something they've discussed. But have you considered that maybe you'll be getting a call in the future to reprise that role, or maybe another one, and how quickly would you say "yes"?

JC: Well, uh. [quickly] Let me think about it yes!

[Ryan and Cirroc Lofton laugh]

JC: Uh, I had a really, I had a good, I had a really good time. Uh, it's, uh. Who wouldn't want to do that again? Especially the way it turned out. So, uh, I'm here, I'd look forward to it. And, uh, you know. I'm happy that fans are happy. I'm happy they're happy. It's good. It's good to be back working in the Star Trek realm.

[END TRANSCRIPT]

[autisticburnham]

Podcast also said that Leah Brahms was originally written to be Daystrom but there was somehow such a massive miscommunication with the casting department that they got a white woman and had to change it to her just being a graduate of the Daystrom Institute. And I know that if I fact checked this and it was true it would mean the whole plot of the episode would have been radically different. But I am simply choosing to believe Geordi has a crush on historical figure Richard Daystrom

[pundus]

"Thinking With Portals"

Armed with a portal weapon built from experimental quantum tunneling technology from the Daystrom Institute, Vadic traps the crew of the Titan-A in the Ryton Nebula.

[biblioflyer]

Discovery's character drama logic

Occasionally trips to Reddit are actually informative. Credit to MalleusManus of the Daystrom Institute subreddit for unpacking this in a way that finally gelled. I'm kind of kicking myself for not seeing it sooner. I always understood Discovery was more of a character drama than an adventure show. Yet the piece I was missing, the piece I think a lot of Trekkies are missing is that Discovery has always been a character drama first. Whereas most previous Treks were mystery/procedural/"competency porn" first.

The specific mix of characters involved rarely actually mattered (except in DS9) and you could lift the outline of the story and transplant it into more or less any Trek series or even an entirely different anthology series like Twilight Zone or Dark Mirror and only need to fudge some of the details. That isn't to say that the individual characters and their quirks didn't make us love them, but the characters were never the point of TOS & TNG except when it was a showcase episode written specifically to do a bit of character development. The point of the characters was to have the plot happen to them, to wax philosophic about the particulars of the ethical or conceptual conundrum, and then solve the problem. The problem, once resolved, largely leaves them and their fundamental conditions unchanged.

DS9 is what happens when you ditch the anthology style storytelling but are still largely plot driven rather than character driven as a first priority. The writers of DS9 had grand visions of things they wanted to happen to both the setting and characters, but the characters still evolved rather slowly.

Discovery started from the perspective of what sorts of situations it wanted to put specific characters in in order to have them react in a very particular kind of way, what sort of emotions they wanted to see emoted, and what mindset the showrunners wanted the characters to have when it was all said and done. The relationships between characters are what ultimately matters and the particulars of the plot and worldbuilding come after that.

I would have liked more attention to the particulars of setting and plot, but recognizing that Discovery's plots are the character journeys not the puzzle of the week, I definitely understand it differently now and why its always been a little tedious. Namely because I've never liked any of the characters all that much. I don't really dislike any of them, but other than Saru, I can't honestly say I have any favorites. Ariam, for obvious reasons, and Owo because of her past as a luddite I was always curious to learn more about....only to have the first one die in her first and only point of view episode and the other to only talk about her life outside of Starfleet when she needs to manifest a special talent related to her history to save the crew.

But again, its an insight that was on the tip of my proverbial tongue and I couldn't quite articulate it before. I finally get what I don't like about Discovery and why in a way this is more than just "bad show bad." It has never really worked for me precisely because the central focus isn't really why I watch Trek and what it was trying to make me feel, it didn't succeed at.

I'm still sorry to see it go, because I think it was starting to think bigger and try to situate itself better within the Star Trek storytelling tradition, its themes, and rhythms and it just got cut down as the ugly ducking was showing swan like tendencies.

[timelord-of-the-moon]

Who the fuck at daystrom institute listened to Soong when he said "yeah let's add Lore"

[quasi-normalcy]

My only complaint about Prodigy season 2 is that there was a bit where the Doctor almost called the Daystrom Institute but didn't and I was disappointed that we didn't get to see young Agnes Jurati.

[samthetrekkie]

this episode is great for being quite relevant today when it comes to ai technology, no doubt. but as usual I liked some other things about it more...

first of all, it was pretty unexpected to me that daystrom is a black man. of course I've heard of him before, and the institute, and the prize, but I didn't actually know who he was. it's great actually that the star trek universe is so big and rich with history that a name feels so familiar while not knowing where it actually came from. anyway, I didn't think 60s tos would make the greatest scientist of the time to be black. so kudos to that!

and of course I have to point out the little spock love confession scene to kirk. I think, in general, they were super close in this episode. really a little more than usual and it felt a little less platonic. that was probably not intended, but you never know with star trek. I'm definitely sold when it comes to spock/kirk now, though.

[ncc-101017]

Personal Log

Star Date: 75010.2

I return to duty after three months of intensive integration and recovery on Trill at the Symbyosis Commitee Campus.

Well, one month tense negotiation and interrogation followed by two months of intensive recovery.

Sonan's death was--still is unthinkable. However it was no question that in that moment I would accept Baz, the symbiont. To turn him away would be to turn away Sonan and seven other souls. To not accept would be against everything I worked for as a qualified Host. To protect them in times of crisis is an honor, even if temporarily. Re-association would not be tolerated long term. I knew this.

I did not know that Baz was not onboard with 'temporary'. The first feeling I remember was relief. Not quite mine, not quite not-mine. Then an overwhelming rush of resolution. I knew then that Penn Te'are was gone. That my name was Penn Baz. My husband and former host Sonan Baz was dead.

And this was not going to go over well.

To their credit, The Symbiosis Commission was only doing their job. They were persistent that I should relinquish Baz. It was not too late by medical standards. And, truth be told, I might have agreed, if it wasn't for the insistence of Baz bubbling within me that this was what was wanted. After a month of tense negotiations, the committee was forced to agree. A representative of Starfleet was called to perform a mind meld with the symbiont. It expressed that this experience was highly prized for this individual symbiont, irrelevant of the hosts. While I'm not sure yet if I myself completely agree, I accept this honor and adventure. Even if it complicates my grief...

After some integrations and orientation, I was deemed fit to return to duty. I was not to return to The Valentine and reassigned to The Hardaway with orders pending. 820 personnell, heavy weaponry and regenerative hull, I'm pretty sure we aren't about do be doing milk runs. Suits me fine. You don't become Starfleet for the mundane.

The crew is definitely an interesting mix.

The only one I've been able to meet personally thus far is my 'Number One'. Commander Orlal Oronat had been kind enough to provide me with a detailed report regarding my senior staff. She seems most adept at maintaining morale onboard. She has also populated my calendar with crew events and organizations. Goodness. For a ship with no family support, it seems that we do not lose the ability to care for our crew.

Captain Kovek. Helmsman. I'll say I'm shocked. The Vulcan who performed our mind meld doesn't captain his own vessel; He is flying mine? Not a coincidence clearly, but I'll leave it. His service record is nigh legendary. Replimat talk is that he outstripped a Vesta in a Galaxy class. Let them "observe" me, I look forward to seeing his performance.

Let's see, Chief Engineer. LT. Commander D'yan Jrooi. He's just completed a fellowship the Daystrom institute hosted by Temporal Affairs. I'll admit to being curiously disturbed. Something about Daystrom and time evokes the sound of the Prime Directive shattering. I'll keep an open mind, I imagine that a Sikaran is more interested in automation than auto distruct.

Lt. Commander Niri. Oh..a Tamarian. A freshly minted Chief Science Officer. Exolinguistics specialty. It seems she's working on a Standard Tamarian for Terrans as a part of her continuing studies. Per her status update the project is "Mother-in-Law, her visit extended". I guess that means "a nightmare".

Dr. Fuya has recently taken over the position of Chief Medical officer. He's by all accounts an exceptionally well loved man. Glowing recommendations from the Kais overseeing the orphanages on Bajor and commendations from Starfleet medical for courage under fire. There's some mention here of ruffled feathers due to the current organization overhaul in Sickbay. It seems the doctors impeccable bedside manner may be reserved for the patients.

Let's see, and to round it all out my Tactical Officer, Commander Sivalaa Maata has recently returned to ship duty after completing an intensive security training detail with former KDF and Ex-Borg Personnel. Her file also shows various leaves and assignments to all corners of known space. Though I'm seeing a conspicuous absence of Orion or her larger colonies in that list.

All told, it appears we are well suited to handle whatever Starfleet wants to throw us into. We've got one more night in space dock before receiving our orders and it seems that everything is running smoothly. I'll spend some time unpacking before I make my rounds and get familiarized with the faces.

Sonan, I'm not so sure that we should be doing this. I really hope this isn't a giant mistake. Of course, if it is a giant mistake, at least it's a historic one. Who doesn't like making history?

Right....big smiles everyone in there. Here we go.

[janeway-lover]

oh wow all that stuff's going to the daystrom institute

[speedygal]

A reddit thread mentioned Jim Kirk having a plague so i went to putlocker and did some sleuthing to see it myself.

The Daystrom institute does in fact have---wait. .. another user mentioned the life sign beeping. i just checked, behind the TOS theme. There is the sound of a beeping. He's alive. 0.0. He's alive!

Upon checking on TV, there is the title Project: Phoenix at the very bottom of the plague.