#ep: kobayashi maru

[thegeminisage]

ok it's star trek update time. once again. i've fallen behind 💀 tuesday we did voy's "the cloud" and "phage" (out of order bc plex numbered them incorrectly/user error), wednesday we did ds9's "dentiny" and voy's "eye of the needle," and last night we watched ds9's "prohphet motive" and voy's "ex post facto."

the cloud (voy):

man this one sucked ass

well, i did like janeway's personal log. i love women getting to have the same normal problems a man would. i like janeway a lot, even if she still feels a bit stiff to me sometimes

actually, WAIT, why is the academy TEACHING captains they need to maintain a certain distance? like sure yes it's a bad idea to fuck your subordinates (even though picard said there was NO?? regulation on that...) but surely you're supposed to like. care about them. between this and deanna winning the kobayashi maru by killing geordi i'm starting to wonder if starfleet expects captains to simply not CARE about people. there's something larger at work in my brain re: this thought, like, kirk was always going on missions himself to protect people despite that putting him greater danger, and now they don't want captains to leave the chair or care about people...hell universe. and since picard never left the chair or cared about anyone it may have made for good policy but it made for BAD tv

ANYWAY.

accidentally got spoiled for neelix being the cook bc of reverse ep order lol

tom paris once again insufferable bc he's like dont invite the captain to poker night or whatever. for a rebellious felon he's really toeing that starfleet line. also, the LAST thing in the world i want is more holodeck but ESPECIALLY if i have to watch tom paris make out with realfake holo women on it. HOLO PEOPLE ARE ALIVE YOU FOOLS

i thought this episode was gonna be about coffee and it wasn't :( it was just a few jokes here and there

the nebula plot was stupid. you ram a hole in it and you're gonna fix it by ramming more holes? neelix is the only mfer that gets it. that said, i DO support women's rights to ram ill-advised things through holes - whenever, however, and as often as they like.

chakotay teaching janeway to find her animal guide (complete with the medicine bundle...) being played TOTALLY straight and serious just about ended me. like i knew they werent gonna be like "haha just kidding you are a REALLY gullible white person" at the end but watching them not do that was really really awful

harry kim just casually dropping he remembers being in the womb. alright.

janeway muting the doc when he is trying to speak :( holo-racist

i do like that firstly harry was like fuck tom paris im inviting janeway and secondly that she can play pool really well. those were nice touches. the non-racist janeway stuff was good! i just wish the rest of the episode had been good too lol

phage (voy):

i liked this one MUCH better. first of all, neelix in the cave about to get his lungs stolen very "mistew obama pwease hewp me" core. then perish. rip in pieces poor neelix :(

secondly, what an interesting ethical dilemma...can you kill a person to save a person? not in starfleet ig but if i was janeway i would have been real tempted. neelix is great

kes giving up one of her lungs to neelix was so sweet, actually. kes has grown on me a HUGE amount in a very very short time. i absolutely love her kindness, which was boring at first because i didn't really feel like she was being kind in a way that stood out from any run of the mill compassionate character. but her scenes with the doctor bring out the best in both of them, i think - like, he kicks her out initially, and then asks her to stay because he's in over his head. and rather than dismissing him she stays and asks if he wants to unionize. the fact that she's DETERMINED to treat him as a fully realized person when he doesn't even treat himself that way...she recognizes unmet needs and works to fix them, just because that's who she is. AUGH she's such a good personnn she;s gonna make a GREAT doctor

lung stealing aliens are way cooler than the slaver aliens even if they are horrible to look at. i LOVE how mad janeway got at them. she was like if i EVER see you again its on sight and i believe her. and she scared them so good they fixed neelix <3 kinda goes to show compassion wins...and that kind of compassion/adherence to morals in the face of personal loss and righteous anger IS a kirk move honorific. and winning because of those qualities is a kirk move. ugh i like janeway so much

"one day i'll surprise you mister tuvok" i love them. wah. tuvok reminds me SO much of spock...he's got that eyebrow thing happening

also, neelix getting his lungs removed totally makes this the spiritual sequel to spock's brain

destiny (ds9):

the whole time i was watching this i felt like sokka in that one atla episode. "can your science prove why it rains" core. like just because there are three cardassians and some river went somewhere...it's especially galling to me that kira buys into it completely. i always forget she's religious, and she's so SMART i didn't think she'd get caught up in the prophecy of it all.

recited the 35th rule of acquisition alongside quark which felt. bad. i still haven't forgiven him but i'm trying

cardassian lady accidentally flirting with obrien was EXTREMELY funny. that's twice now he's banged his head on the ceiling and it's incredibly charming

kira and sisko being buddies 🥺 kira like it's had to work for space jesus!!! so true girl. though she literally was sleeping with a space priest. their bits were sooo good though, you can FEEL how much he doesn't want the enormity of his role, and how much kira believes in him - and i personally get the sense it's because she's SEEN him work. like she believes in him on a professional level, as well, because he ALWAYS has her back. man i would totally believe he was space jesus too who can blame her he's amazing

i did at least like the rational explanation for the prophecies- that nonlinear aliens simply just tell people things. i do wonder why they can't just knock on the wormhole and ask those guys some questions, though

anyway, firmly mid. normally i love kira-heavy episodes but i just had such a hard time not going full sokka in this one. sorry, kira!

eye of the needle (voy):

THIS ONE BLEW MY TITS CLEAN OFF!! best voyager episode yet imho

firstly we are still sending things through holes. fantastic.

also, kes went from "eh she is boring" to "i would die for her" at warp speed......her scenes with the doctor are all SO good. kes recognizing his humanity when most people in starfleet don't know holograms are alive/don't care that holograms are alive, when HE HIMSELF does not think of himself as being alive...mwah. david cage wishes. it feels like an inverse of the data situation, because data WANTED to be alive but struggled to fit in with humanity, whereas the doctor didn't give two shits about being treated like a real person until kes started talking to him about it, and would in fact fit in effortlessly with "real people" were he not confined to the medbay.

and the doctor's bitterness! no one speaks directly to him despite asking him to function as an entire medical staff. no one remembers to turn him off, leaving him to suffer through hours of boredom, or people turn him off when he isn't ready, leading to problems with his experiments. and the existential dread of being abandoned on the ship alone while everyone else potentially transports home through the wormhole...and someone potentially forgetting to deactivate him first.

i really like how janeway reacted to the news that the doctor might be alive. she was like "girl no way" and then kes was like "yes way" and she decided to investigate herself rather than be dismissive about it. she was very good in this episode overall but i like that she showed compassion to someone/something she wasn't even sure was alive. it was very siskocore of her.

and finally...that sweet a-plot. letswatchstartrek, my least favorite website that is absolute essential to my functioning, GAVE THIS A TWO. because "well it's season 1 we all know they aren't getting home this episode." those fucking idiots, that's WHY this episode is good!! it's about hope. do they understand nothing

like, everyone trying SO HARD to curb their expectations at first because the wormhole is so small and so decayed and the absolute MOST they can hope for is to get a message through...the agony of the wormhole going back to where they need to be but them not being able to get through and the only person picking up the phone being a FUCKING romulan who think they're prank calling him

and the way that like this predicament utterly humanizes everyone involved. janeway answering the phone in her nightgown. asking about this romulan's family. the barriers between starfleet and romulus breaks down instantly under the shared connection of being adrift without one's family. what a perfect illustration of the compassion one can have for strangers because deep down even aliens are made of the same stuff as we are.

and then of course by the end janeway is like it doesn't matter! secrecy doesn't matter! let's have hope for a minute let's believe this will work! and then IT DOESN'T WORK. or, actually, what's worse is that it could work, they could theoretically go back to the alpha quadrant 20 years ago, but it will fuck everything up if they do, and they can't even prevent themselves from getting stuck out here. all they can do is send the romulan home with their messages and then..........

............have no idea if he found a way to send them before he died ahead of schedule. like. ALL THEY HAVE IS HOPE. like of COURSE you know theyre not gonna get home in season 1 but THAT IS WHAT MAKES IT INSANE.

also, hi, b'elanna not having anyone at home who cares if she lives or dies...this retroactively makes chakotay's protectiveness of her so much more meaningful. everyone who loves her is already on this ship :( aaaagggh

prophet motive (ds9):

god this one sucked so bad. rare L for ds9 and a major one at that

i spent most of it googling whether or not people actually liked the ferengi episodes (to my dismey: yes, people on reddit think they're funny), but i also spent some time googling how many more episodes we had to suffer through this grand nagus bullshit (4) and getting my little guys stolen on chess.

i have been wanting to see the wormhole aliens again FOREVER and wondered why you can't just go and talk to them and then they show up in this of all places...they so nicely let people go through their wormhole and then this dude disrespectfully bothers them...

also, to SELL an orb back to the bajorans...i hope he dies. i hope kira specifically kills him and loots the orb off his corpse.

the only two moments of note in this episode were 1. quark talking ancient unknowable aliens into letting him and the nagus leave unscathed through a combination of fast thinking and being annoying, which would be charming were i not in such dire anti-quark straits 2. rom robbing the nagus blind LMAOOO good for him. i hope he shared exactly zero of it with quark

on a final note, the space station, unlike tng's enterprise, does NOT seem to be self-cleaning. thank god for that.

EDIT I NEARLY FORGOT JULIAN BASHIR B PLOT!!!!! he wanted to win so bad even though he knew there wasnt a chance 🥺 my poor HORRIBLY competitive fella. and then it was three days of marinating in the fact that he was never gonna win

also odo cold reading him about the acceptance speech lmfao. love that

ex post facto (voy):

i would have liked this episode a LOT if it had happened to anyone but tom paris. imagine if a guy you liked had special brain torture every 14 hours even though he was totally innocent and only a mind meld from tuvok could save him. like, picture almost any other trek character in this situation. bashir. riker. even bones. any of them could maybe perhaps do a little kissing of a married woman and get themselves into trouble and it would be one of my favorite episodes of all time. even the plot twist of WHY he was falsely accused was fun and clever. unfortunately, i simply cannot bring myself to care about tom paris.

tuvok my best friend tuvok. he DID HIS HOMEWORK! the eyebrow movements, the way he did the mind meld from the same position that spock melded with dr van gelder in dagger of the mind my beloved. all these things are unmistakably vulcan because leonard nimoy did them first and SPOCK is unmistakably vulcan, despite all his lifelong insecurities. now that i've met other vulcans properly i know that better than ever and i wish he could too.

ALSO, HI, MARRIED 67 YEARS??? lowkey sad he and janeway can't get it now but also, do we think he has BABIES? do we think he has GRANDBABIES?? grandpa tuvok my best friend AAAGHGH. also, since this series is 7 years long and also because of a spoilery gifset EYE happen to know pon farr is inevitable. but i bet his wife had to fix it herself back home too so ik she will forgive him

anyway, if i was innocent, there's no one i'd rather have on my side than tuvok. he went above and beyond the call of duty there. i was really surprised he powered through the meld and experienced being murdered so well. i mean he took that like a champ. that's on vulcan stoicism...also AUGH janeway INSISTING he not do that bc she knows it will be horrible and the long time she spent searching his face before finally agreeing to it. i would never want him to cheat on his wife but they could also theoretically hypothetically get it.

and finally, CUTEST dog in the world this episode. it's so odd looking it does such a great job at jumping around everywhere

TONIGHT: ds9's "visionary" and voy's "emanations"

[sleepymccoy]

@myriadism

Well this is my game for the day!

The Hawk and The Dove is one of those on planet episodes where there's a rebellion group vs the government in some way. I think the hawk dove stuff is not textual in the ep, but you get this vibe that the rebellion are peaceful whereas the government is cruel. But as the ep goes on we discover that the rebellion are the hawk parallel and the government are actually good, and we had shutters on as viewers because we were only exposed to one version of the story at the start of things. I think there's gotta be a scene at the start where Spock is like "we don't know anything about this planet, we need to observe before we go down" but they don't cos something important happens (hot woman in distress) and Spock gets a bit of an I told you so in at the end

Stratagem is an episode that shows us Kirk's Kobayashi Maru skills. It's some powerful alien group that put the enterprise in an impossible choice situation to judge humanity and Kirk pretends to take it at face value while secretly deploying people to fuck with the wiring behind the scenes. I think it would be a cool Scotty-led away mission while Spock and Kirk run a distraction performance with the aliens so Scotty can get his work done

At the end of eternity... I'm not sure, there's a few ways to go with this. Could have a character live out their life like Picard did in that ep with the whistle then have to come back to the ship. Devastating if it's McCoy.

Actually, a cool kinda idea would be coming across a generational space ship that doesn't have warp. Get a good ethics talk about first contact, space faring vs warp capacity vs they're gonna die. They of course board and meet the generations crew and the generation people have this view of the meeting as the end of eternity cos they were prepared to live in their cylinder for ever. I reckon the planet they left has collapsed, they're the last survivors of their race. I think the enterprise'd help them repopulate a random habitable moon, I think that's a star trek vibe. Get some assistance from starfleet to set up, but try to leave the culture unprodded too much because they technically haven't reached warp capability yet so shouldnt be contacted. It would be a fairly psychological episode with McCoy and Spock arguing about the cultural impact of living on a ship, and coming to terms with some of the more distasteful things they'd do to survive with minimal resources (is cannibalism something 1960s star trek can discuss?)

I dreamt last night that I had to come up with as many star trek episode titles as possible. Let's see if I can remember my list

For the world is hollow and I have touched the sky

The corbomite manoeuvre

The man trap

The gamester of rapscallion

The ex wife

I've never been here

Spock's head (I mean, cmon, I was so close. This one does have different vibes tho)

Jesus take the wheel

In the dream they were all correct

[doitforstamets]

Jovar Tal loved birds, so.

[weyounbathwater]

There’s something about Star Trek letting ferengi and even non ferengi use ferengi tactics to their advantage in unique ways I just saw the nog beats the kobayashi maru post again and I love him for that also the various ds9 eps where quark is relied on for being good at lockpicking, debating, bargaining, and he’s taken on missions for that reason it’s like all these skills that give the ferengi a ‘bad’ reputation are useful and good actually people are just judgmental and I love the characters like sisko who Get that

[weerd1]

Someone talk me off the Star Trek: Discovery ledge.

OK, I want to open with the fact that I was a VERY early defender and fan of Star Trek: Discovery.  Realizing the entire first SEASON is the pilot episode really, I liked where they went, and I found the second season to be a delight with some wonderful callbacks.  I am very pleased to be getting “Strange New Worlds” as a spin-off.

I really liked the Michael Burnham character, and the dynamic particularly between her and Ash. Indeed, though these Klingons looked different, the L’Rell/Voq story really worked for me (and Mary Chiefo was a delight!).  There were some things I wouldn’t have done, but I can say that about all the Treks.

Then, along came season three, and I was left very, VERY cold by it.  Now, I have not seen this week’s (episode 3) ep for S4, but a lot of what I didn’t like in S3 is compounding here.  There are things I DO still like, but the problems are really starting to overwhelm my appreciation for the show, and I was hoping I could express what doesn’t work for me, and some of you here on Trek Tumblr could help me out.  There WILL be spoilers for S3 and S4.

Issue 1: Michael Burnham 

I have no issue with secret Spock sister, or with the storyline involving the Red Angel and who that was.  Groovy, all good.  The first two seasons take her through some really impressive arcs and growth and at the end of S2 she gets the captaincy she now des....or wait, no.  She gets to be right back where she was, XO to a starship Captain.  All the development just to put her really kind of where she was seems a bit much, but OK, because I love her interaction with Saru, and now the character is ready to be Starfleet.

Except no. She blasts into the future and the Discovery doesn’t show up for a year, and all that good character work gets undone...OFF SCREEN.  All what she goes through with Book (who I do also like, but not as much as Ash) changes her, and we don’t get to see it. We just get a Burnham who is ONCE AGAIN judged to be incapable of holding her position.  I have a real issue with a Star Trek show’s main character being iffy.  But we get through S3, and finally, FINALLY she’s made Captain of the DISCO, and huzzah, now we get to see this character shine, right?

No, now she’s somehow a Starfleet captain who was unable to divine the reasoning behind the Kobayashi Maru and who is AGAIN judged by the Federation president of being not good enough for a job.  Yes, I know Kirk “didn’t believe in the no win scenario.”  That’s also a lesson Kirk got a whole movie about learning, and Kirk also stated many times things to the effect of “risk is our business.”  Yeah, do all you can, but falling apart because you lost a crew member in a dangerous situation doesn’t sit well with me.  Let Michael Burnham be the hero; don’t make her a heartless monster, but I never got the feel from the other captains that they were considered lesser officers so damn much.

I’m thinking of when Kirk started acting weird in “Obsession.”  That is an episode that works dramatically because Kirk’s misbehavior IS out of character.  It’s weird he’s suffering these doubts, so we know the drama is real.  Burnham’s primary existence seems to be just trauma after trauma and never getting to be THE CAPTAIN.

Issue 2: Sylvia Tilly

I really love Mary Wiseman, and I love Tilly’s quirkiness and wonder, but there are just too many times she comes off as an amateur in space.  She can be quirky, or have a green personality (TOS Chekov, TNG Wesley, DS9 Bashir S1), but she’s also an officer.  There is a certain professional decorum, particularly given that she started serving in the era of TOS DURING A WAR.  What was interesting was in S3 when SHE is made XO, having not at all shown the type of behavior an officer should demonstrate to get that job, they suddenly really tightened up her writing, so the character WAS now demonstrating that kind of confidence, so OK, we’re all good. 

Nope, we’re going to promote her and then regress her back some, and by the way we’re not even going to acknowledge that she’s not the XO anymore and Saru is, but we are going to have her be awkward in the middle of a crisis again.  Gah.

Issue 3: Is this really the time for this?

I want character conflict.  I want development and arcs where characters have struggles both within and without to get to grow. But you’re also professional Starfleet Officers...can we wait to have our cathartic conversations until AFTER THE SHIP HAS STOPPED BLOWING UP?  IN S4E2, Book and Stamets are flying into the accretion disc of a five light year wide black hole, and that’s when they have to have their heart to heart.  That’s when Michael has to go into therapy mode on Book to get him through this.  And somehow, the timed countdown crisis seems to slow down enough to let these things happen. 

Yes, there was plenty of interpersonal conflict going on with the other shows.  Seldom did that play out in the middle of the action.  And that leads me to my next point.

Issue 4: Space amateurs

Julian Bashir was occasionally winey, periodically insufferable, and one of the best doctors in Starfleet, to include being a consummate professional when people were dying. When Tom Paris went through his rebellion stage, he got 30 days from Janeway in the brig. When Worf let his personal life override his professional duty, Picard made it clear he was unlikely to ever command a ship in Starfleet.

Here’s the thing: like it or not, and I know people keep arguing against this, Starfleet is a military organization.  It is an organization with a rank-based hierarchy that punishes people for not following the instructions of higher-ranked individuals; it is an armed force that defends its nation’s (the UFP) borders and fights its nation’s wars; it recruits from its civilian population, and designates a difference between enlisting or attending an academy to be an officer.  This is a military.  And before you say “militaries don’t have an exploration mission,” please take a look at who Lewis and Clark were when they sought the Northwest Passage or the Antarctic mission of the USS Vincennes.  The military doesn’t do as much exploration now because there isn’t as much to explore. Humanitarian missions?  I will certainly fault HOW the government uses its military for humanitarian missions, but Army engineers have shored up flood zones and military airlifts have brought food to many natural disasters.  When the MACOs and Earth Starfleet combined to form the core of the Federation Starfleet...well, that’s a military.  

Previous Star Treks--even Enterprise where they are SUPPOSED to be new at this--always leaned toward a certain professionalism, and I so often don’t see it here.  And I genuinely like so many of these characters, but I keep looking at the way they react to things, the way they interact, the way they come at problems, and just too often these last two seasons, I feel like I’m watching amateurs instead of Starfleet professionals. My wife checked out on this show. She was genuinely angry that she finally got a whole group of women on a Starship on Trek, and they were presented as so unprofessional.  Now, my wife would follow Jadzia Dax, Kira Nerys, or T’Pol into war. None of those women were characters without feeling (even the Vulcan), but they were professionals, confident, and you never doubted they belonged in their positions.  Early on, my wife started to refer to DISCO as “Woo-Girls in Space.”  I didn’t have that impression…until I did.  Until they just kept harping on Burnham or Tilly being unprepared.  Detmer having her breakdown; please let them do their jobs.  These.  Are. Officers.

Issue 5: Writing that doesn’t quite gel.

The whole “Burn” situation in S3 created an interesting milieu for the 32nd Century, but in the end the reveal being a weird psychic quirk from an under-socialized Kelpien kid, felt a little…”so?”  The Orion villain in S3 was an interesting outline for a character, but never felt like they were done developing that character.  Is there really any reason THE GUARDIAN OF FOREVER has to manifest here to save Georgiou?  I love the idea that the Guardian cares about various timelines’ purity, but I never get WHY mirror Philippa was so essential to anything.  “Oh, well maybe in HER show.”  Well, I’m not watching that show right now; give me something here that shows me the Guardian NEEDS to be there. A lot of good ideas, but a lot of dialogue for me doesn’t connect, character motivation doesn’t connect, like some of these scripts needed one more run through before being shot. 

There was a Short Trek called “Calypso” that takes place after the Disco from the first two seasons has sat for 1000 years, and the computer has become sentient.  Great little episode.  But as S3 plays out, that thousand year jump is not a scenario that plays right. The ship has been completely changed and upgraded, but now we ARE getting THAT sentient computer.  Perhaps there will be a story that brings this all together and I will be proven wrong, but it feels like Calypso was based on an earlier version of S2’s outcome, and then that was changed…but no one changed Calypso.  I don’t gripe about continuity in regard to holograms or appearance of tech…I understand the realities of production there in not making a show look like it precedes a 55 year-old set design. But this is continuity within a single production staff, and unless there’s a pretty magical explanation coming our way at some point it’s a pretty big gap.

SO:

There is so much here I like.  I do genuinely like Michael as a character and Sonequa Martin-Green is terrific.  I love the Culber/Stamets relationship and interaction.  Adira as the quirky ensign now under Tilly is a pretty great dynamic.  Jett Reno should have her own show.  

I sure miss Nhan, Lorca, Ash, and L’Rell. Saru is pretty terrific, and the Kelpiens are a neat addition to Trek, despite my misgivings on the Burn storyline.  But I feel like S4 has been doubling down on the things that didn’t work for me in S3.  I miss the dynamics of S1 and 2, and I want to see Michael get to be a Starfleet Captain in the mold of a Sisko or Janeway or Picard.

“Picard.”  Now that’s a whole other issue.

Anyway, I don’t want to write this show off, I just want so much more out of it…even what I was getting the first two seasons.  Is anyone else seeing these issues, and if not, please tell me why these things are working for you. 

[readinginthereadyroom]

one if my absolute favorite fandom things is when a show references another show that a guest actor was on.

think the children of the gods (stargate sg-1 1x01) when carter says they macgyver’d a supercomputer to make the gate system. it’s an in-joke only for fans of richard dean anderson, whose previous role was the eponymous macgyver.

so seeing wil wheaton get a star trek shoutout on leverage has thrown me into a nerd frenzy.

he’s playing colin mason. aka chaos. aka the kobayashi maru. a hacker and hardison’s mirror.

and yeah, wheaton’s pretty well known for his stint as wesley crusher (in this household we stan our ensign king). so it’s not quite an easter egg.

but it also is. that is, if you are trekkie. because then you know it’s a hint that colin mason is the exact opposite of wesley crusher.

see most people, not in fandom (like the cia who give colin the alias) know that the kobayashi maru is a star trek reference. maybe they even know it’s a tos reference and not tng. but that’s fine! it’s an easter egg. they laugh and move on.

but a trekkie connects the dots. knows the original kobayashi maru was in st II the wrath of khan. where a young james t kirk hacked the character-defining no-win training scenario. training meant to teach loss. to prepare future starfleet officers for the burdens of command.

a trekkie knows that wesley had his own kobayashi maru. in the first duty (st tng 5x19) when he’s pressured into a cover-up of a flight training accident that claimed the life of another ensign. an accident where he and his friends are at fault.

but unless you’ve actually seen tos and tng and the movies. if you’re not a trekkie and not in the fandom then you’re not going to understand that the kobayashi maru isn’t about cheating to win. it’s about never giving up—no matter the odds.

kirk’s point in cheating on the kobayashi maru was not to win for winnings sake. he’s making a point. he’s making it into the definition of a character-defining moment. a first duty. he’s saying that he will never accept a no-win situation when it comes to the lives of his crew. he’ll protect them anyway he can. he turns the kobayashi maru into a synonym for truth and hope and persistence.

wesley though, has already lied. he’s particpated in the cover-up. and it’s not a test. it’s real life with real stakes. and one of wesley’s friends is already dead. there’s no winning. no outcome that could possibly make the situation better.

that’s why it’s his is his kobayashi maru. his character-defining moment. his first duty. he has to choose to tell the truth, hope he can be forgiven, and persist on his moral course. because it’s the right thing to do.

wesley is kirk’s mirror, but not a dark one. but only a trekkie is going to understand how similar kirk and wesley’s choices are. the nuance of how they do and not mirror each other.

and all of our leverage characters (except sophie because she’s “dead”) have a mirror on the other con team. a counterpart. nate has starke. parker has apollo. eliot has mikel. and, of course, hardison has colin.

but because of a reference to tng that itself references wrath of khan we get a preview of the outcome. we get a nod that colin is the bad guy. he’s kirk—if kirk had cheated only to win. he’s wesley—if wesley had lied to save his reputation. he’s the kobayashi maru—when you don’t understand the kobayashi maru.

he’s the dark mirror.

and that, my fellow nerds. my fellow trekkies. that is the secret language of fandom.

and yeah, this ep aired in 2009. a good dozen years ago. but I’d like to think that wil wheaton got the reference. that he understood the implications of that easter egg line. because he’s always spoken fluent fandom and he’s a trekkie, just like us.

[trekkersnews]

CBS Divulga Fotos e Títulos da Nova Temporada de Discovery

CBS Divulga Fotos e Títulos da Nova Temporada de Discovery

Agora no Trekkers News Network. Engage!

https://tnn.com.br/cbs-divulga-fotos-e-titulos-da-nova-temporada-de-discovery/

A CBS divulgou os títulos dos quatro primeiros episódios de quarta temporada de Star Trek: Discovery. Eles são: Episódio 401: “Kobayashi Maru” (!) em 18/11/2021; Episódio 402: “Anomaly” (Anomalia*) em 25/11/2021; Episódio 403: “Choose to Live” (Escolha Viver*) em 02/12/2021; Ep

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[zwentner]

Sega Mega Drive Super Medley

Sega Mega Drive/Genesis (enhanced) Chiptune Remix damals schon klassischer Games aus dem Jahr 2005. Das Teil ist seinerzeit auf CD erschienen und macht auch digital und heute noch eine menge Spaß!

12.08.2020

Sega Mega Drive Super Medley is an EP that consists of three medleys with musical selections from 24 Mega Drive titles depicted on its cover. Track 1 is an arrangement of these themes produced by Takayuki Aihara, whilst track 2 is the same medley albeit utilizing the original tracks. Track 3 is a different arrangement produced by Hideaki Kobayashi under the alias Dr. COVA.

Sega Mega Drive Super Medley is an EP that consists of three medleys with musical selections from 24 Mega Drive titles depicted on its cover. Track 1 is an arrangement of these themes produced by Takayuki Aihara, whilst track 2 is the same medley albeit utilizing the original tracks. Track 3 is a different arrangement produced by Hideaki Kobayashi under the alias Dr. COVA.

Order of Theme Appearance: 

01) Galaxy Desert (From Alien Soldier – Norio Hanzawa)

02) Step on Beat (From OutRun – Frederic Hahn & Hiroshi Miyauchi & Jason C. Brooke)

03) Harrier Saga (From Space Harrier II – Matt Furniss)

04) Dilapidated Town (From Streets of Rage – Yuzo Koshiro)

05) Stages 2 & 6 (From Bio-Hazard Battle – K.N.U)

06) Arabesque Court in Dream (From Monster World IV – Jin Watanabe)

07) Islands (From Wonder Boy in Monster World – Shinichi Sakamoto)

08) Shooting Ristar (From Ristar – Tomoko Sisaki)

09) Good Evening! (From Super Fantasy Zone – Naoki Kodaka & Hiroshi Kawaguchi)

10) Neo Tokyo (From Pulseman – Michael Nyman)

11) Ninja Step (From Revenge of Shinobi – K.N.U)

12) Opening Theme (From Ecco the Dolphin – )

13) Empire: The Final Assault (From Gunstar Heroes – Norio Hanzawa)

14) Title Theme (From Sword of Vermilion – Hiroshi Kawaguchi)

15) Ravaged Village (From Golden Axe II – Naofumi Hataya & Tatsuyuki Maeda)

16) The Ancient Temple (From Shining in the Darkness – Masahiko Yoshimura)

17) Youkina Machikado (From Shining Force – Masahiko Yoshimura)

18) Bustling Street (From Landstalker – Motoaki Takenouchi)

19) Opening Theme (From Phantasy Star III – Izuho Takeuchi)

20) Phantasy (From Phantasy Star II – Tokuhiko Uwabo)

21) Finale (From Battle Golfer Yui – Naka-Chan 3-Sai & Kenta-Kun)

22) Paradise Picture Scroll (From Shikinjo – Yada! & Maru-Chan Wa Omotta & Kyoporiran)

23) Crimson Praise (From Ninja Buraiden – Hiroshi Kawaguchi)

24) Fight, Rent-a-Hero!! (From Rent-a-Hero – Hannes Seifert & Werner Hink & Peter Melchart)

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[movedtosalamoonder]

Episode 53: Dirty Work

Alright, this is my first attempt at liveblogging, so here I go.

Very minimalist summary...

AAHHHHH THE SPECIAL I FORGOT!!! So excited ^.^

....Minkowski??/ Oh geez.....uh....um...is this...Maxwell....noooo, someone hug her....SHIT HILBERT

I’m getting Kobiyashi Maru vibes. Oh, yup, this is...basically the Wolf version of the Kobayashi Maru.

They sound like they’re arguing over an overexcited puppy, good grief. “Can you clean up your dog’s mess” “You mean OUR dog, why is he only my dog when he’s in trouble?”

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Eiffel’s character development?

JACOBI AGSKHL:LAGSJladh He got to TWO??? How long has this been going on (also: sidenote: Jacobi is actually me on long car rides)

Oh-oh no. Noooo. No flashbacks. This is gonna be painful. Oh wait he’s talking to her-that’s-that’s even worse. Also?? Jacobi and Maxwell confirmed Team Rocket.

LOVELACE. LOVELCA. ,,,that was,,,a sick burn.

(quick question: does Kepler’s call sign include whiskey...?)

Oh I think I know this piece.

oh nooo is this gonna be ep 4 all over again

ALLEGRO HE SAID ALLEGRO:::IM LOV

aw blessie ;_; wait why is kepler coming? also this ruins my hc that he and kepler are being held in the same place,,,wait,,,or were they?? idk

mr jacobi,,,,

EXCUSE ME WHAT

WHAT

WHHHHHHHHFUCK JACOBI.....WHAT ARE YOU DOING ;_; ;_; ;_;

0.0 Eiffel? YES FINALLY YEEES> GO INTO THE STAR

I have so many opinions right now Jacobi uhhhhh,,,,this is,,,this,,,Minkowski,,,,alright but this is,,,oh geez. That’s...surprisingly, horribly, wonderfully brilli-JACOBI

Someone calm him down,,,Minkowski do something,,,I mean I’m...glad he doesn’t want to kill her but it does prove my theory that he blames Kepler more than he blames Renee...uhh. calm. calm down

shit, i can,,,see her,,,MAYBE actually doing this?

Kepler sound scared this is,,,a first

???Lovelace??? ohh. Jacobi you bastard,,,oh,,,okay,,,

These sounds are very ominous. uhh. Oooo we got a Star Wars reference!! whoo! INDIANA JONES WAS THAT....YES IT IS INDEED AN INDY REFERENCE THANK U WRITERS

This is really not Kepler’s day is it. WHats pla-oh GEEZ

What, you shoot her is that it? NO NO NO NO NO NO NO FUCK NO KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPLEEEEEEER. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. WE ARE NOT DOING THIS WAIT HOW DID HE KNOW

what is that what uhh,MINKOWSKI

NO

N

oh honey,,,Jacobi,,,

...Minkowski...

This is the best possible follow up to their into the depths conversation

AW THIS IS :,,,,) I’M CRY.

nope,,,shut up kepler,,,

She called her dude :,,)

OH ARE YOU COMMANDING AGAIN

YEAS YES I’M SO PROUD :))

oh hi hera,,,HKFJLANFSKC:dhvbnAKX

EIFFEL. SHIT. EIFFEL. NO. YES. OH GOD.

is she crying if she’s crying im gonna cry oh geez oh geez uh,,,,,,

EMMA WROTE IT?? YES GOOD FANTASTIC GOOD JOB :,)

oh i knew i knew this piece. four seasons is good

alrighty well time to relisten anther 20 times.

[sashibunbun]

Hope it does. People wonder why I was more of a Trekkie. Sat for a long time back when I was asked why back when Trekkies were considered the fandom scum. And it was mostly how the remasters of eps 4-6 were criticized back in the 90s.

Sure the 90s Trek movies weren't high cinema, but the amount of people saying ruined 7ever and getting way too fucking mad about it ensured that Picard vs Kirk and the Kobayashi Maru were the things I'd rather discuss.

Y'all bag on movie critics but then believe them when they say the new star wars movie “killed the franchise”. They’ve said that every star wars movie is bad, including a new hope way back in the day.

They’re eager to get clicks and internet rep for bashing the new star wars thing, you know they say they hate em cuz they like the original star wars movies but I wonder how many of these critics actually saw the OT in theaters.

You know people actually hated “Empire” when that came out? Yeah the one universally revered as the best star wars movie? People didn’t like it cuz it was too dark compared to the original. For everyone who claims they love star wars, they don’t seem to understand why they love it or the public reaction of the films over the years.

TL;DR never trust critics on star wars movies, they’re either gonna bash it relentlessly or gush about it and get a check from the mouse. Ask friends who’ve seen it or see it yourself before you go saying this movie killed the franchise. And ESPECIALLY don’t trust rotten tomatoes, their system is skewed.

[rogue428]

QFD Ep. 26 -- Star Trek - TWOK Pt5. - Kobayashi Maru

In which I go on about the storytelling power of Nicolas Meyer and how much he accomplishes in just 5 minutes during the Kobayashi Maru introduction to Star Trek: TWOK....among other things.

► If you would like to support the podcast, find out how by following this link: https://www.patreon.com/QFD

► Music and cues, used with permission, by: TheFatRat - Monody (feat. Laura Brehm) https://youtu.be/B7xai5u_tnk

Check out this episode!

[thegeminisage]

ok tng update time. this one is four episodes because i let it get away from me. i at some point watched "manhunt," then we caught "the emissary" and "peak condition" together, and finally i sped my way through "shades of gray" earlier today

manhunt: not even majel barrett could save this one. not only did deanna not take a stand against her mother like she did in the last lwaxana troi ep, she went back to acting as though she never had at all. so much for my favorite deanna moment ever. i'm sorry women

riker carrying the suitcase WAS funny. i love how down he is to do literally anything. he is rapidly becoming one of my favorites he's finally coming into his own

husband hunting bc of menopause bad. holodeck WORSE. combine them and i am in agony

the jokes about how ugly those stasis aliens were were also kind of unfunny. the twist about them being assassins and lwaxana knowing all along because she's psychic WOULD have been funny if 1. they hadn't established her telepathy was off and 2. she hadn't been so annoying this episode

i hate when she scolds people for "having naughty thoughts" when it was established last episode that she's making that shit up or at the very least sharply exaggerating it to embarrass them and then it WORKS TO EMBARRASS THEM. shouldn't everyone in the room by now know that she's just inflating her own ego...

anyway it was unwatchably bad.

the emissary: this one was ALMOST good. they got really close. i really liked the half-klingon woman when she was hanging out with deanna...they had genuine chemistry and they should have kissed about it. unfortunately all her scenes with worf were INSUFFERABLE

like, this woman DESPISES klingons. she doesn't say one thing about them that isn't completely derogatory the entire episode. she hates her own klingon half, she hates other klingons, why on EARTH was she 1. put in charge of this mission 2. made to work with WORF even after he asked picard to pick someone else?

like, worf literally spent the entire episode trying to do his job, and she kept bringing up their past drama so she could provoke him into fucking her

and then when he tries to """do the right thing""" by marrying her (WHICH MAKES NO SENSE WHEN COMPARED WITH PREVIOUS LORE...BUT WHATEVER...) she's like haha no silly that's what those silly backward awful KLINGONS do, but EYE am a way more evolved human

and then we don't examine that at all ever.

like, she could have been a fascinating character when foiled with worf - both of them are klingons who operate in a world of humans and feel isolated and othered as a result, but she HATES her klingon half and worf wants to connect more closely with his own klingon heritage. they could have been good for each other but instead she was super annoying and then just left.

i DID like the scene at the end though where worf got dressed in full klingon captain regalia and bluffed his way into captaincy of a klingon warship. GOOD for him. that was fun and sexy of him and for once i didn't mind them using the woman as eye candy.

THAT SAID IF SHE HATES KLINGONS SO MUCH WHY IS SHE THE ONE ABOARD THAT SHIP. IT MAKES NO SENSE. anyway it missed the fucking mark. i loved the poker game though

peak condition: i loved this one. it was so funny and full of shenanigans and hijinks. this is actually the most i have ever liked wesley, who used his dumb annoying kid persona as a cover to CHEAT a metaphorical kobayashi maru. i genuinely unironically thought it was great. eveyrbody was rolling their eyes at him bc he had to go back for his experiment and then meanwhile he's loading antimatter onto the hathaway with a PERFECT fucking poker face behind their backs

i loved the little npc this episode, he was such a ham. he truly was doing the most he was so funny

best plot twist ever is when worf fakes the first enemy ship and then the second enemy ship is the real one. the comedic timing of that was HILARIOUS and riker finding a way to make it work even when that strategy guy said it was impossible bc he had too much charisma was great

my one sour note was pulaski setting data up to do that video game match. she realized her mistake and apologized but i still wanted to kill her. i would have hated it less had data volunteered on his own, because i DID like his little arc about learning sometimes he will make mistakes even if his solution to beating the guy in the end felt like a little bit of a copout. anyway, stellar episode despite that little hiccup, i wish tng was that fun all the time

shades of gray: actually much less horrific than i expected given its clip show nature. some of the clips were ones i liked and the ones i fucking hated i felt no shame in speeding up or even skipping through entirely (i can't believe they wanted us to watch tasha yar die again LMAOOO and that fake girl on the holodeck like come ON).

that said, the part before the clipshow was very VERY charming. riker living it up while everyone else is having kittens about his impending doom, his determination to keep both his dignity and sense of humor while facing death...unironically some of the best riker content hiding in that episode. i feel like i got to watch 12 minutes of cool riker stuff and then a few cool clips.

i guess that was pulaski's last appearance? rip girl, you tried and again women i am so sorry.

anyway, that's it for season 2. we literally fucking made it. tomorrow night we're starting season 3 and doing every episode together until we hit three duds in a row lol.

[doitforstamets]