#i never got around to watching tng until now

[happyflux]

Star Trek posting again because oh man I am rotating stuff in my mind so much. Putting it under a cut because this turned out really long but it’s about Data and autism and how much I love this funny little android.

So I know that these days, when we talk about autism representation, a lot of people will talk about the long-running sci-fi trope of the autistic coded alien/robot. Specifically they will talk very negatively about it, about how it’s dehumanizing and alienating and, to use a word that I’m aware has absolutely zero meaning these days but that’s kind of the point, problematic. Up until very recently I used to agree with that viewpoint- in the abstract it sounds reasonable, it makes sense, so being the 99 gen z I am, I just... sort of bought into it, went along with it, started complaining about it whenever i saw it without giving it much thought.

And then I started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and oh. Oh. Oh, Data.

Data feels more authentically autistic, more relatable to me as an autistic person, than any other character I’ve seen in any production, especially in productions of this scale. The only other character I can think of who comes close is Raddagher from Find Us Alive, an extremely niche indie podcast that started airing in 2019. Data was out there in the 80s, more than a decade before I was even born, and while yes he’s an android, and yes he’s not explicitly autistic... He is the first character I’ve seen on TV to actually make me feel that hey, that’s a person like me-feeling that good representation is supposed to give.

See, Data doesn’t just fit all the typical autistic coded boxes- not getting jokes, speaking overly formally, being emotionally constipated to the point of being convinced he doesn’t experience emotions at all despite very clear evidence to the contrary, et cetera. I mean- he does fit all of those criteria, but so do all those more recent autistic characters that I don’t feel this way about.

Data infodumps; whenever asked a question he will, unless interrupted, be happy to tell the asker everything he knows about the subject. He always makes sure to be as clear and direct as possible when explaining something, he doesn’t want to leave anything out, even if others might find that annoying. No matter how many times he’s told off for this, he doesn’t change.

Data has special interests, that aren’t “useful”; usually with autistic characters in media their special interests will be something like their field of science or maths or something like that, but Data’s special interest is Sherlock Holmes. He will cosplay and drag his friends into re-enactments and will quote the books and walk around with a pipe (until told off for that) and imitate Sherlock’s mannerisms in a way that is just, so familiar.

This might be a small thing to some, and it might just be because I don’t watch enough stuff, but before Data, I have never seen a character practising expressions in the mirror. Never. 

And- and this is the thing that really makes me love Data as autistic representation- Data is loved, by the entire crew, not just in spite of his autistic traits but because of his autistic traits. Even though he is not technically human, his colleagues, no, his family, never once treat him as lesser for being the way he is. There are times when he is dehumanized, for sure, but that is always coming from someone who is an outsider in some way, and it is always rejected wholeheartedly by the people who know him. Data, as he exists in the show, is a statement that autistic people are worthy of love and respect, and that it is the duty of those around us to fight for our rights to be treated as human.

I am not by any means saying that Data is a perfect analogy for an actual autistic person; he’s not, there’s a lot about him that isn’t accurate to that experience at all... but despite all that, he feels more relatable to me than a lot of characters who on paper should be better representation. And he’s been on TV since 1987.

[elephant-in-the-pride-parade]

Prodigy Recap

I love it I love it I love it I could watch it forever

I'm truly irrevokably in love. I'm done for. I'm probably going to rewatch this all month before I am satisfied I've fully taken it all in. I NEED to rewatch Mindwalk and Supernova again ASAP because knowing what I know now about the memories HJ had just recovered. I know it is going to wreck me to watch her in those episodes with S2 in mind.

My ship HELD HANDS GUYSSS. HE TOLD HER SHES HIS HOME. HE DIDNT FEEL LIKE HE BELONGED ANYWHERE UNTIL THEY MET. SHE BROKE TIME FOR HIM AGAIN AND AGAIN. HER EYES GOT SO BIG! THAT HUG LOOKED SO GOOD. (I'm getting off topic a lot but i need to get the "my ship is canon - in a way i don't hate!!!" fangirling out of my system.) breathe. breathe. okay gonna keep going.

Its gonna take me a few more watch throughs to fully wrap my head around the paradox. And around how you fit a humpback whale in the original ISS Voyager (seriously. has that been there the whole time? does OG Voyager have a whale? was she retrofitted in the AQ? did Mirror J steal a whale from 1996?) And if that timeline where KJ was lost on the infinity means shes also trapped on future solum with Chakotay or just dead. and and and... so many things. so many fic ideas. so many plot bunnies

(wait no -- shoves the plot bunnies away -- go away. not ready for more wips yet)

There. was. so. much. that I loved. it was such an ambitious story to tell in 2 seasons and oh my god, i really feel they mostly pulled it off. They brought back Voyagers legacy characters and put them to work in a plot that fit them, and it was such a joy to see them again. They stay true to who they were on Voyager - thoroughly wonderfully 100x better than on Voyager in Chakotays case. and i really believe theyre the same characters with a few more years of life since ive last met them.

And the new characters too. I love Dal and Gwyn and Rok and Murf and Zero and Jankom and Maj'el to pieces. (Majel!!! is such a perfect tribute!) I want to see so much more of Noum and Tysses. I am in tears over Adreek. God how much i want Season 3 just to see how their stories continue.

But I think... what strikes me most and what I appreciated the most was how much this show wholeheartedly respects its fans!!!

It never dumbs things down or babies it's younger audience. its very mature for a kids show. it is a great introduction to star trek and the universe without over explaining. there are storylines in these 40 episodes that would be right at home in TNG or Voyager. it's really more of a fun for the whole family show than a kids show in that way. (it says something that it's the first "cartoon" my parents have ever cared for and they are watching it wholely for themselves.) It really manages to tell the story in a framing thats aimed at kids without taking anything away from the story its telling for all ages.

And it's adult audience...

I worried about how it would feel to have enjoyed such a rich fanon universe in the 3 decades since the show ended. There were advantages to having a ship with very little canon. the fan universe thrived on how much room there was to work within. After that - having headcanoned and written and imagined so many futures for the characters - I feared having some new canon come in and make a new story for them that would invalidate so much if that imagination, or create something so unsatisfying or rigid or antithical to their last canon encounter that nothing new would be inspired by it. (P/C in Picard was like that for me)

Prodigy didnt do that. Prodigy made no grand sweeping canon for the years in between Voyagers homecoming and the new show. Prodigy didnt shoe horn any character into a rigid relationship status. Prodigy picked them up, set them on a new adventure, sprinkled in tantalyzing new details, and left a wealth of room around the events of the season and the relationships between the characters for so much fan imagination to thrive. The possibilities before and during and after the seasons for the characters are bountiful and perfect for imagining their other adventures. I couldnt have imagined my ship becoming canon (or maybe affirmed by the canon is a clearer way to put it) in a better way.

And then they went and added Tank Top Action Janeway in there as a treat.

Truly a masterpiece. i'm so grateful for this show. i hope it gets the 3rd season it so dearly deserves.

[ensignsimp]

Games: TNG Taurik x GN! Reader (One-Shot)

A/N: This is such a cute request I made it into a One-Shot.

Prompt: You teach Taurik to play different Earth games, tonight is one of great skill! (Takes place before TNG S7 EP15: Lower Decks)

It was your turn to pick the game for game night again. This had become your Friday Night tradition with your friends. One of you would pick a new game to play at the Ten Forward. Last week Sam brought Monopoly which ended badly. So it was put on the Banned Games List. Sito wanted to try to play a Table Top Role Playing Game but only you and Alyssa seemed interested. (That became your Saturday Night.)

You were digging around in your locker looking for something to do when your fingers gripped a little box. You pulled out the box and looked at it. It was the size of a deck of cards, red, with a black stripe across the front reading, "UNO".

"Perfect." You laughed, thinking of the looks on everyone's faces.

Later that day you joined your friends at the Ten Forward. You were met with a few casual waves by Sito and Sam, Alyssa was already sipping on a pink cocktail, while Taurik gave you a familiar nod.

"What have you got for us this time?" Sam asked "Can't be as bad as your last pick."

Alyssa playfully slapped Sam's shoulder.

"I figured after The Monopoly Incident, we could play something more fun." You said pulling out the deck of cards.

"A card game, how old are we?" Sam asked, "Next time you'll want to play poker with the Senior Officers."

"Are you afraid you will lose again like last time?" Taurik asked raising an eyebrow.

Taurik always found ways to defend your choice. You always did the same for him. He would usually pick strategy games that would take forever to finish because Sam would insist on playing until he beat him.

"No, let's play." Same said

After reading the rules, and dealing out the cards it wasn't long before a few rounds had passed. You had gone through three synthehol drinks before you were completely dizzy and unable to focus.

"Gin Rummy." You said throwing down your plus four card to Sam.

"You mean Uno." Sito giggled watching you sway slightly in your seat.

"Yeah, that." You laughed while Sam begrudgingly took four more cards to his massive stack.

You saw Alyssa get a big smile on her face before writing something down on a blank card and then passing it to Taurik. He looked back at her and then to you only to look back at her. You could feel her swinging her feet underneath the table. She was up to something. You watch as Taurik then pulls twenty-five cards out of the deck only for Sito to let out a snort when she sees the card Alyssa played.

"What's so funny?" You asked playfully narrowing your eyes at them.

"Nothing." Alyssa said innocently, "Just playing to win."

Sito drew a card from the now diminished deck. You looked down and noticed you also had to pull one as well.

"So much for your winning streak," Sam said laying down a card.

Alyssa played another card, "Color change blue."

Then suddenly Taurik was slapping down cards. Before you knew it he was completely empty-handed.

"I believe I have won yet again." He stated proudly.

You all let out a groan throwing your remaining cards in a pile.

"How does he do that?" Sito asked, taking a few sips of water.

"Every time." Sam banged his head on the table.

"I was so close." Alyssa sighed, "I was hoping that card would work."

"You tried your best." You consoled laughing "Let's face it, we're never going to beat him."

"Whatever, let's go again," Sam said but before he could gather up the cards Guinan walked over.

"Time for bed you guys." She said, "Almost everyone else has left."

"She's right, I don't think I could play another round." You said picking up the cards and putting them back in the box.

"You'll have to wait until next Friday, Ensign Lavelle," Taurik said rising to his feet.

Sam let out an annoyed groan, "I think I already know what I'm going to bring next time."

You chuckled and walked out of the bar with your friends. Just as you were about to split up to say good night Sito grabbed Alyssa and Sam's sleeves and called over her shoulder.

"Hey Alyssa why don't we help Sam feel better and grab a quick late-night snack at the Replicator, we'll see you guys later." She said before quickly pulling your other two friends away leaving you a Taurik alone.

You questioned why the sudden change in plans, "I better be heading back to my quarters. I have an early shift."

"Allow me to escort you while the Synthehol wears off," Taurik said, you noticed a light green tint to his cheeks and ears.

You nodded and started walking together. The two of you talked about the game. It wasn't until you were just outside of your quarters you decided to ask.

"What did that card say?" You raised an eyebrow feeling more sobber.

Taurik stood in front of you sheepishly. He folded his hands in front of you and the corners of his lips twitched slightly.

"It was of a personal nature that was illogical to share." He said looking down slightly.

"Oh, well, it is always logical to tell me." You said, your curiosity was burning.

"It may compromise a relationship with someone I hold in high regard." His face was turning a dark shade of green.

"Please, don't play with my curiosity." You said pulling on his arm, "Who is it?"

"(Y/N)," He said unfolding his hands and placing one over yours.

You were shocked this was the first time he'd ever called you by your first name. He looked deep into your eyes. His sweet umber eyes were filled with so much emotion, sadness, longing, and admiration.

"I declare koon-ut so'lik, my desire to be your mate." He shut his eyes tightly, and he gripped your hand as if he was afraid you'd slip away.

"You're not playing games with me are you?" You asked reaching your free hand up to caress his cheek.

"I would never play games with you like that, Tal-kam." He said releasing his grip slightly and leaning into your touch.

[themirokai]

Hi! I know we've interacted before. I live in the States (the boring Midwest, ugh) and used to work as a Japanese translator. Now I work part-time for an estate planning attorney, so I'm marginally a part of lawblr. I used to watch a lot of the Law & Order series so I guess it does interest me -- though not enough to go back to school for a degree or anything. I also enjoy Criminal Minds and other detective/sleuthing type shows. Person of Interest was my passion when I came to tumblr. Also, I'm a Trekkie -- TOS and TNG and Voyager mainly, since I don't have cable -- and a belated member of the BBC Merthur fandom. I used to write until my meds interfered with that ability, but I'm trying to adjust them so I can hopefully write again. Mostly fanfic, although I did publish one MM romance book around 10 years ago. I edited for the publisher back then, and I still do for some of the writers I got to know through that. I have two dogs: Mr. Cuddles (black maltipoo) and Miss Pearl (white terrier mix). And lastly, I spend wayyy too much time on tumblr..... ;)

Helloooooo! And thank you for answering my request for interaction! I love the rundown! (No pressure, but would you consider sharing a picture of your dogs?)

I feel like estate planning work has little enough in common with criminal law that the wild inaccuracies on tv might be tolerable. Is that right? I’ve never practiced criminal law and only clerked in criminal court for like 6 months so a lot of that doesn’t bother me. But I do business law and can only watch Suits by actively turning off law brain or just hollering to my husband or the internet about how dumb it is.

Pretty sure we are mutuals because of Person of Interest. I only have like 7 episodes left of season 5! 😭

Thanks again for the note! Always lovely to hear from you!

[mandatory-blog-stop-asking]

Star Trek Is A Failing Theme Park

Much like many others I used to be a bonafide Star Trek Discovery hater, and even though I thoroughly enjoy it now, I honestly don't regret that time in my life.

I think Discovery season 1 and most of season 2 were a little ashamed of having to be an old sci-fi show, so they kept trying to be a show about violent, impulsive, very special unique people that happened to go to space every once in a while. Which Star Trek has been, on occasion, but never in a way I personally find better than what it usually is -- philosophizing and talking about real world or allegorical drama for 40-50 minutes until a solution arises that doesn't really make anyone super happy and not everyone comes out unscathed, but the compromise means there's hope for a better solution tomorrow, and the day after that, until it works.

The personal dramas usually related to their reactions to storylines, but were ultimately secondary to the bigger pictures, and acted as bows you tie the narrative with at the end. If Kirk did not make it through the episode unscathed, that's cool, but the episode was rarely only about his demons. It could heavily relate to his demons but that wasn't the whole source of the spectacle. The Naked Time works as a way to examine characters in crisis, not necessarily as a Kirk episode where it's all about him.

Because of that, I was basically the audience for seasons 3 and 4. While Season 3's ultimate plot wasn't the most interesting thing in the world, the idea that they were now dealing with their "own version" of the galaxy, writing their own plots that didn't have to come before everything else and figuring out their own threats that didn't have to eventually connect back to Star Trek canon was a massive improvement.

The decision to interweave character drama into storylines as opposed to making the storylines about the character drama also greatly expanded upon people's roles in the ship, and you finally got to see people like Detmer or Owosekun doing shit and being useful, instead of just being on the bridge nearly unnamed. I genuinely think Season 4 of Discovery is one of the best seasons in modern Star Trek; even if it trips and falls sometimes, I think it's well worth the creative risk and I was left very satisfied after watching it.

So when Discovery season 5 turns around and tells me it's about an episode of TNG I watched once, and then they start going to a planet from an episode of TNG I watched once, and then here comes another episode where they go to an episode of DS9 I watched once, and there's more 24th century-specific stuff that's gonna happen, it's...

It's very hard to feel like we're not regressing? I realize at this point the show is very, very cancelled -- they weren't even told it was happening until they were filming the finale, but at the same time, is this really what the plan was? To not boldly go into something original, instead picking up threads from episodic shows released decades ago? What are we, Star Trek: Picard?

Now for the sake of transparency, I feel like this is might be more of a personality problem than a media consumption problem for me, because I am genuinely allergic to nostalgia. I have no respect or attachment for media whose only mission is to remind me of things that existed, and franchises that have made that their entire MO have basically died for me. Like, I can't watch Star Wars anymore. It stopped mattering how good or bad it is for me because all I see in stuff like Mandalorian season 2 is pilots for shows I'm not gonna watch, and cameos from characters I don't want to see right now. The stories are no longer the point, the point is the brand and how easily recognizable it is.

So when Discovery tells me that their last hurrah is going through the Star Trek theme park, pointing at rides I've already gone to and saying "Isn't it cool we get to say these words again? That we get to see this thing again?" I'm left cold. I don't want to see the Progenitors again. I don't want to see the Promellians again. I like seeing the Trills again, it's one of my favorite species in the franchise, but we have seen so much of the Trills between DS9 and DIS, I really feel like this is... not the way forward. This theme park is not the reason why I think about Star Trek.

It reminds me of why I stopped caring about Star Trek Online. The practical reason was me not liking the minibuys and the combat, and the game's only mode of operation being to attack -- it's a fine ship combat game and a mediocre but working third person shooter, I just don't care enough to play it forever. But the secondary reason, and the reason I think about the most, is because every single storyline is less a story and more a Star Trek reference.

It's always someone coming back, or an alt universe version of a character being introduced, or picking up on a random episode that I already watched, making the action figures fight instead of anything else. Instead of using fanservice to broaden the appeal, the only appeal is the fanservice; there is very little to Star Trek Online that isn't just the equivalent of going to Star Trek Land and looking at the Harry Kim bust again.

I keep looking at Burnham, a character I have come to like in spite of her place in the franchise, in spite of the fact that her entire conception was made to connect her to Spock, and to Sarek, and to Pike, and to all these characters I already know, in spite of the shortcomings of her original character arc -- I look at her and I see a character who has built her own path after being allowed to exist separate from the others, after being given the same chance everyone else was to be more than a Star Trek reference, and then she just knows to go to the planet of the Booby Trap aliens because that's Star Trek, we're going on the ride.

I'm so sick of going on the same rides. Specifically, I'm sick of going on rides after they just proved that they can do something different, that doesn't need Star Trek references to exist. Please I am begging you stop showing me Picard's face, I get it, I like TNG too. But I tuned in to watch Discovery. I am not into this brand because I am into the brand, I am into this brand because it's fucking good, stop acting like I'm here for nostalgia's sake.

"Hey, what about Lower Decks? You love that show!" eh Lower Decks can do it, don't worry about it.

[walkman-cat]

hands up tell me abt Your star trek au right now!! on the double bro. what are the tensions it all looks too kind & magical i don’t trust it yet

(if it is literally kind & wonderful i am grateful i am thankful i am honored i’d just like to hear more)

-@jack-kellys

i'm ngl my star trek au au is mostly running on vibes wbwbwb so it is pretty kind and happy and warm (i just really like how much everyone in the enterprise's crew has such a respect and care for each other yknow. found family and all that innit).

that being said, here are some funky things about the characters ive been thinking about lately (under a cut because i'm incapable of being concise):

the stars were essentially jack's santa fe. he grew up surrounded by stories of starship captains and space and it became his lifelong dream and ambition to captain a starship, something which he dropped everything to attain. now he is captain of a starship– one of the youngest in starfleet's history– and it's wonderful and fantastic and he's never felt more alive! but there's always something gnawing at the back of his mind (he's based his entire life up until this point around this moment, it was a driving force and a beacon to look up to when times were tough. what if the experience is nothing like his dreams and he ends up disappointed? what happens when the mission's over? what'll become of him?).

also starfleet's assigned him a galaxy-class starship with families onboard and he's having a Time because of it (what if they get hurt under his watch. what if he gives the wrong order and a child dies. starfleet officers know the risks of space travel and are aware of this but the families. the children). other than that he's having a great time !!

kath's half-betazoid on her mother's side, but she never knew her mother nor has she ever been to betazoid (i really went woe! being mixed and only connected to one of your cultures but still being unable to fit in even there because of the fact that you're mixed be upon ye!). she's trying real hard to learn more about betazoid and who her mother is even though she knows she won't really feel like she "belongs" in betazoid either. she's working on understanding and using her empathic/telepathic powers more.

oh also!! pulitzer is a notorious and not-well liked admiral, when kath joined the acedmy she officially had her name changed to plumber and has since told no-one that they're related (this surely won't backfire terribly on her in the future)

also because this is the spot (cat) show, kath loves spot (cat) and wants to babysit her and play with her but alas. she is allergic to cats

race cannot catch a break– he's got a massive losing streak at senior officer poker night, spot (cat) hates him, he can't grow a beard but every time theres an impostor/clone/mirror universe situation the other version of him always has a beard (this is half in jest but also it amuses me wbwb)

jokes aside, i've been having a whole bunch of race as first officer thoughts (and a lot of riker and race parallel thoughts but. that's another story). i don’t really know how to explain it other than the way riker acts in the last episode of tng season two (yes, the riker montage episode) when facing death (joking around and keeping up the appearance of flippancy and courage in the face of agonising death because he’s first officer and there are people who look up to him and he has to set an example) seemed very race and very kony to me, in a way. (youve got this to blame for riker beard race. im not sorry)

race is also one of the first people to advocate for les becoming acting ensign. he makes it very clear that he's in les' corner and makes himself responsible for his studies and sometimes his training (and he teaches him poker).

OH ALSO! sarah and davey didnt know les ws going to be onboard and only found out about his presence after they'd set off. did he sneak onboard?? mayyyybeee (he just really wants to be a starfleet officer). after the initial shock (and notifying their parents) sarah and davey start the Let Les on the Bridge campaign (letting him watch the bridge from the turbolift, helping out in sciences and engineering, etc etc) the that eventually leads to les becoming acting ensign. it reaches a point where most of jack's senior officers would probably mutiny all for this kid.

there's more stuff but i'll stop rambling now because, again, i have a problem with being concise wbwbw. thankyou soso much for the ask rizz once again i love your star trek au so much and am always eager to hear more wbwbw!!! :D

[candybatwings]

Got too excited about Art Fight and only now realized you can have max six pictures per character… I just really like drawing my little OCs. I promise I’ll get back to Star Trek requests soon I just need to watch like seven seasons of TNG first bc I straight up have not watched it since middle school :’) I’m a tos trekkie lol anyway below the cut is some meaningless information about my OCs that you absolutely do not have to read I just don’t have anyone else to talk to about it lmao

Okay so these are my OCs Bailey and Laime who I’ve talked about before. Lemme go through each outfit bc I love yapping.

Formal - this is like what they’d wear to go to an event or something. Bailey wears this when she occasionally teaches college classes too. Laime is often mistaken for a man in this outfit (especially because of her height).

Cold weather - if you’re about to say “Laime doesn’t look very warm in that outfit” she’s from Lithuania it’s absolutely freezing there. She’s good. Bailey is from the southern USA so she gets colder.

Warm weather - Bailey likes crop tops when it’s hot. Sometimes she’ll cut the stomach out of her shirts. Laime gets hot real easily but refuses to wear shorts lol

Work - Bailey is a stay at home mom and a househusband. She works from home as a writer so her “work” outfit is just her autism comfort hoodie and when she needs to go out she throws some jeans on (she usually sits around in her underwear at home lol). Laime is an ER surgeon (again she’s often mistaken for a man in this outfit)

Pride - I wanted them to have really obnoxious and ugly pride outfits lol. I love those ugly high camp pride looks they’re my fav thing so here’s my take.

Younger - Bailey wasn’t allowed to have short hair (or her classic half shaved look) when she was young so she usually put her hair in a hat. In Laime’s family it was traditional for the oldest daughter never to cut her hair so she had extremely long, dark black hair until it was forcefully cut and she’s kept it short and dyed ever since.

Older - This is about five years out of the current timeline maybe? (Maybe seven. I haven’t really nailed down the timeline for them having kids.) Bailey and Laime ended up having three kids. The oldest is named Marlene (after Bailey’s mom) and the second is Alex (Aleksandras) and the third I don’t have a name for :’)

Yes Bailey owns like three pair of shoes and has since she was 16 lmao

[jvstheworld]

The Buffy Re-watch: S2E6 (part 2)

Halloween

Buffy looks good in her costume, as does Willow.

Correct reaction Xander on both counts.

Cordy is confusing, Oz thinks so too.

Who gives toothbrushes to kids on Halloween? And how many did they buy to be able to give out to kids? Like did they buy a few shop's stock of them? Are they dentists so they are able to get them in bulk, if that's a thing? Just get candy, it would be easier and cheaper.

What was the point of Ethan's plan? Just complete chaos with no actual goal? Just doing it for shits and giggles. Not judging, just curious.

Willow is a ghosty, Xander is an army man, and Buffy is an 18th century noble woman. This is going to be fun.

To someone from the 18th century a car would seem like a demon. Sort of reminds me of the Star Trek: TNG episode where Picard had to convince a group of proto Vulcans that he wasn't a god. Specifically, the conversation he has with one of the villagers about how technology has advanced and how it might appear to others from the past. To an 18th century woman, a car could be seen as something horrible and evil because she can not comprehend the technology, just like in Star trek where Picard was believed to be a god because his crew saved someone's life. Does that make sense? Because it does to me, but I know that not everyone might follow what I'm saying.

And after only a few seconds of 18th century Buffy, Willow is already done with her shit.

'Who died and made her the boss?' Well, Willow technically died and since she was the only one who remembered her own name when she got turned into a ghosty, she got to be the boss.

Spike loves the chaos.

Has Giles been oblivious to the chaos this whole time?

Cordelia is good at recaps, Very succinct. Hey maybe she should do the intro recaps.

How and when did someone get in to the Summer's house basement? That made no sense to me. They just hide in there until someone happened to be around for them to come out and kill them? I know it's a fantasy, horror show, but come on. Because there's no way Angel would have left the door open when he walked in and he would never have let anyone follow him in. And before Angel got there, they locked the place down. So, someone give me a realistic answer to this, please. I'm struggling for one.

Giles is curious as to how Willow's costume makes her a ghosty. It's a fair question since he probably never saw her before the trick or treating started.

Giles goes quite at the name Ethan. He has good reasons to.

Spike rounding up mini demons to hunt Buffy.

Larry the Pirate from earlier is now an actual gross pirate.

Janus- the Roman God with 2 faces. In season 1 episode 3 of Sherlock, this particular god was used as the name of the hire car company that Sherlock and John investigate.

'Hello Ripper.' Damn, Giles has a dark past we don't know about. We'll find out in 2 episodes time.

Xander gets revenge on Larry the Pirate. Okay, but still needs to work on his issue of feeling inadequate.

Cordy still doesn't believe hat Angel is a vampire?

Angel just picks up Buffy, sweet.

Giles has been hiding a lot of himself from Buffy and friends.

Spike, if you're going to kill someone do it quickly, because at any second the tables could turn and you will get your ass handed to you.

'Hi honey, I'm home.' See, I get that you want to savour the moment but if your goal is to kill someone, don't talk, just do. Think of all the heroes who would have died if the villains didn't monologue. But also slight parallel here as Spike will being saying this to Buffy in season 7 episode 21.

Ethan disappears and Spike knows when to get the hell out of Dodge. Self preservation skills.

I like that after this entire night Willow feels confident to wear her outfit without the ghosty costume. It's a great look for her and Oz likes it too. It's the second time he notices her.

Angel hated women from his time. We could have saved so much trouble if we knew this earlier. The scene between Angel and Buffy is cute, I won't deny that. And Buffy is just as pretty in a tank top and sweatpants as she was in her costume.

Ethan is gone for now, but the look on Giles' face, damn that's dark. He really doesn't want people finding out about his past. I mean, you really wouldn't want anyone to find out if your secret was as bad as his is. Which we will find out about in 2 episodes time. I seriously thought that gap between these was bigger for some reason.

Okay, that's it for this episode. Tomorrow, Buffy has an unexpected visitor with some shady shit going on.

[wonderofasunrise]

...or at least I think I do.

Anyway, something tells me that it'd be neat to have a well-organised pinned post, so here goes.

I go by M around this place, and I've been back here since 2020 after almost a decade of absence from this hellsite. I'm a 28-year-old queer woman from Indonesia, and I spend around 30% of my fandom life writing fic, 5% being a connoisseur of...less-than-stellar and often obscure movies starring hot actresses that I like (Jeri Ryan, Gates McFadden, Denise Crosby, Laura Innes, Sherry Stringfield, Maura Tierney to name a few...), and the remaining 65% lamenting the fact that I'm a fandom participant from a non-Western country where English is not an official language which is...well, let's say it can be quite a lonely existence.

My two primary fandoms here are ER and Star Trek (The Next Generation, Voyager, Picard), so you'll find that most of my posts and reblogs are related to those two - with a dash of other stuff. I got into ER during lockdown in 2020, and it remains one of the best decisions I've ever made. It is my favourite show ever, and as of now Kerry Weaver is still the only queer character on TV that I can relate to fully as a struggling queer woman in a less-than-supportive environment. ER was also my entry to online fandom spaces, particularly Twitter and Tumblr. Star Trek is the one fandom I never expected to really get into, given that I was never too big on sci-fi, though according to my mum it runs in the family since my late grandfather loved The Original Series and was an admirer of Spock. So far I have watched TNG, VOY, and PIC, with VOY being my favourite - especially my beloved former Borg drone and half-Klingon.

As I said, fanfiction is my thing here and I've been into it since I was around 14 - though I didn't start writing seriously until I was an adult. Among other things, fic helped me learn English tremendously as a teenager, and though naturally I still make mistakes here and there I feel far more confident writing fic in English than in Indonesian, lol. So far I have 29 published works on AO3, all ER and Trek. My favourite characters, and thus the ones I write the most about, are Kerry Weaver, Susan Lewis, Abby Lockhart, and Carol Hathaway (ER); Tasha Yar, Data, Beverly Crusher, and Deanna Troi (TNG); and Kathryn Janeway, B'Elanna Torres, and Seven of Nine (VOY). My preferred ships are Kerry/Susan, Kerry/Abby, and Abby/Susan (ER); Picard/Crusher and Data/Tasha (TNG); and B'Elanna/Seven (VOY).

These are some of my personal favourites that I've written:

ER The Ache for Home (Kerry/Susan) When All We Have is Here and Now (Kerry/Susan) In a Sacred Place (Kerry/Susan) Like Nothing Before (Abby/Susan)

Star Trek In Salvo (TNG x VOY crossover; Seven, the Doctor, & Beverly) The Colours Are Bright (VOY; Janeway & Seven) One Hundred Hours (VOY; B'Elanna & Seven)

For more of those, here's my AO3 profile - do feel free to leave a comment if you enjoy any of my works! I also take prompts for the aforementioned fandoms, and if you have any please hit me up here. In case you somehow happen to enjoy my vibes, I'm also on Twitter as @lobsterbreaker and my ask here is (almost) always open. In addition, I'm a mod on two queer-focused Discord servers: que[ER] Fic and Fandom for all things ER fanfiction and fandom with a twist of gayness and Space MILFs for our favourite hot ladies in space - please let me know if you're interested in joining either (or both 👀)!

That's about it, really, so if you've been so kind to bear with me here you fucking rock, I love you, I wish you the best yadda yadda yadda, and here's to more medical and space shenanigans!

[thegeminisage]

tng liveblog of the day, because, plot twist, we went ooone more evening. this evening's episodes were "the battle" and "hide & q."

i thought "the battle" was GREAT actually. 38 minutes into this episode i told cathy it was watchable and i had to STOP so she could watch it with me but i was genuinely invested and i thought the premise and the effects were generally very cool. even wesley only had one annoying moment that was 5 seconds long. EASILY my favorite tng episode so far

things i loved: introduction of the picard maneuver, the implication that he had maybe fucked up a lil bit (even if they didn't have the spine to follow thru with it), the ferengi first officer relieving his captain of duty when he realized the guy was bonkers, the "ghost" effects during the flashbacks, the SCORE, the empty burned out little spaceship ambience!!

it was actually giving conscience of the king a little bit - something set entirely aboard the ship concerning the dark past of the captain. i really wish they had leaned harder into solving the mystery - i had to rewatch to understand that picard's "confession" voice log was indeed the one faked, and we never found out why the ship picard destroyed attacked them to start with

i feel like whether or not they had had a good reason, picard showing more genuine remorse to the feregi captain for having to take his son's life, especially if we knew he had lost some of his own people, would have really brought together the emotional arc they were trying to sell. it was really REALLY good compared to the other episodes so far it just felt like it needed another ten minutes

also i'm having this problem, and this IS a me problem, this is not any crime tng is committing, but whenever tng DOES do anything good i'm like "damn imagine if this had happened in tos" and so i'm now just imagining that the father of a captain of a ship kirk destroyed came back and gave him ptsd flashbacks to cause him to fire on the enterprise as a means to revenge and bones keeps trying to treat him and gets told to buzz off so he goes to spock behind kirk's back and then when kirk is brainwashed and crazy spock has to decide on whether he should FIRE BACK or LET THE WHOLE ENTERPRISE BE DESTROYED and and and and and.................

and i get lost in my mind palace wishing for an episode that doesn't exist. sigh. big task they had, those tng writers. i bet the housewives were doing this too.

"hide & q" was not good at all, although they had the bones for a good episode in there. i think hide & q could also have used another ten minutes at the end, but actually they did have the time! they just wasted it all on q wearing funny costumes and napoleon aliens. which. sure.

almost all of my problems with this episode could have been fixed with another ten minutes. for example: after getting q powers will went nuts too quickly. i think if he had gotten them at the start of the episode and remained steadfast and not cracked until they found the dead girl i would have believed it much more.

AND ANOTHER THING: giving everybody their heart's desire. this was easily the best scene in the episode and we rushed right through it. the worf stuff was fucking horrible - this snarling woman in fishnets who gets slapped around and has no dialogue - but his line, "that world is now alien to me," was REALLY intriguing and we got nothing else about it. also we got a throwaway line talking about the klingons being defeated? girl since when?? i'd looove to know anything about worf ever. unfortunately.

it's a particularly cruel trick with geordi and data - data at least got to refuse and explain why (i did love his momentary panic though), but geordi's whole shit got rocked. he's gonna be thinking about those 30 seconds of sight for the rest of his life and kicking himself for turning it down. if this episode had leaned into that moment of cruelty, even done with good intentions, it would have held up the moral a lot better. instead we got weird klingon sex rituals and also whatever was going on with tasha

here's the thing. i kind of like that she cried despite being so stoic all the time otherwise bc it gives her depth, right? in spite of how horribly they treat her she's definitely my fav female character rn. but firstly the reason she cried was kind of dumb and SECONDLY when picard was like "tears on the bridge are excused when one is in the penalty box" in the kindest most fatherly tone ever and REALLY endeared me to both of them they immediately ruined it by having her FLIRT with him???

anyway, that episode could have been better. conceptually it kind of fucked. execution wise it sucked. also lmao riker didn't grant any of the women's wishes <3

[fictionz]

New Fiction 2022 - December

The Chimes at Midnight by Geoff Trowbridge (2008)

It takes its time to get to the meat until there’s more to chew on in the latter half. Most of these TOS alternate histories were mildly interesting but this one is a cut above.

A Gutted World by Keith R.A. DeCandido (2008)

"What if the Cardassians discovered the Bajoran Wormhole?" This is the question that got me reading all these Myriad Universes novellas in the first place, but because I’m me and a completionist, I couldn’t just skip past the others in the series to get here. I come to Star Trek expanded universe stuff with a DS9 first approach so I was keen to read how the author spun out this alternate history in which the Dominion gets their foothold in the alpha quadrant if they met the Cardassians first. It had a little too much TNG cast for my taste (especially since those characters dominate so many of these stories), but it’s a worthy DS9 tale.

Brave New World by Chris Roberson (2008)

Now we get to a whole lot of Data, so more of TNG. The courtroom stuff doesn’t hit the same way in these stories as it does in the TV episodes, and then all the implications of androids woven into the fabric of the galaxy is strangely not that compelling.

The Embrace of Cold Architects by David R. George III (2010)

Another Data-heavy story. I think these novellas introduce interesting directions with how the Federation will absolutely exploit artificial beings if they have the slightest excuse, but this particular one needed to be its own novel. It ends just as things get interesting.

The Tears of Eridanus by Steve Mollmann & Michael Schuster (2010)

A TOS story that deviates from the prime universe thousands of years before the era we know. It revels in an alternate history in which the Andorians made first contact with Earth, and the Vulcans and Romulans never parted ways.

The Last Generation by Andrew Steven Harris, Gordon Purcell, Bob Almond, Terry Pallot, Mario Boon, John Hunt, Robbie Robbins, Chris Mowry, Neil Uyetake, Andy Schmidt, Scott Dunbier, Justin Eisinger, Mariah Huehner, Bill Tortolini (2009)

I could’ve done without Data and the TNG cast at the center of things (again), but it’s cool to see Sulu flying around being a badass in his Excelsior ship. All these TNG tales feels like the higher-ups asking “Ey, where’s my TNG (money)? I gotta have my TNG (money)!”

Strange World dir. Don Hall (2022)

I loved it, but then I’m a sucker for perilous adventure tales across strange new lands.

Violent Night dir. Tommy Wirkola (2022)

Die Hard meets Home Alone with a blend of Bad Santa and maybe God of War?

Empire of Light dir. Sam Mendes (2022)

I was there for it all the way. Sometimes I remember I’m a normie-ass man but that part that feels like I’m a distant weirdo never goes away, and this movie’s for that guy.

Demon Wind dir. Charles Philip Moore (1990)

I watched this movie within a video game along with its MST3K-style commentary at 2 AM with my youngest brother and what a thing to do and write down.

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio dir. Guillermo del Toro (2022)

I mean, of course it’s great. I haven’t read the original story and it sounds like this hews closer to that than the popular perception from Disney’s takes.

Babylon dir. Damien Chazelle (2022)

This could've been dry but instead it’s constantly running at full charge, and even when we slow down to the granular level of filmmaking commentary it’s still a high pressure romp.

Jack and Jill dir. Dennis Dugan (2011)

Eh, I suppose the most impressive thing here is that Sandler sells the idea that’s he's own twin sister to the point that you consider them separate people.

The Whale dir. Darren Aronofsky (2022)

This had the potential to be bleak but instead it’s just genuinely hopeful. The performances come across a little too staged, as does the whole movie I suppose, so it’s no surprise to learn than this was originally a stage play.

The Outer Limits - "The Sandkings" (1995)

Here we go! I’d been thinking about watching the entire 1995 reboot of The Outer Limits and it’s everything I could’ve hoped for. All the 90s actors I remember from Saturday afternoon sci-fi TV, dated effects and production techniques, stories about man’s reach exceeding his grasp. This first episode even features three generations of the Bridges acting clan. The thing about intelligent alien bugs isn’t so compelling, but the overall production makes up for it.

The Outer Limits - "Vanishing Act" (1996)

I was looking for an episode that features New Year’s Day and found this story about a man who time jumps forward by ten years every time he falls asleep. It’s a sci-fi sort of twist on It’s a Wonderful Life and very reminiscent of something you’d see on Star Trek.

Tales from the Crypt - "And All Through the House" (1989)

And since I plan to also watch Tales from the Crypt after TOL, I skipped over to this story about a bad Santa stalking a bad mom.

The Outer Limits - "Valerie 23" (1995)

Here’s a reminder not to fuck around with robots. Don’t do it! Especially not if they’re hot! There’ll more fucked up robot tales in the seasons ahead...

The Outer Limits - "Blood Brothers" (1995)

We get a few stories here about rich assholes trying to live forever. This one does also present an interesting idea: what if we could all be cured of all ailments and live twice as long in the process? What happens when no one’s dying and the population count explodes? In any case, that’s more thought than what goes into the episode’s story. It’s mostly about a rich guy jumping the gun on proper medical testing and getting screwed as he should.

The Outer Limits - "The Second Soul" (1995)

Oh man, I was definitely on the paranoid side of this story as the events unfold. It was nice to get one of these where it isn’t a bleak or worst case ending.

The Outer Limits - "White Light Fever" (1995)

Another rich asshole who literally wants to live forever. And that’s it. Spoiler: he doesn’t get to.

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared - Series 2 (2022)

I wanna love this because I loved the original web series, but binging a bunch of TV-length episodes just felt like too much of it. I liked them when they were shorter and spaced out more. Binger beware, I know.

[ramshacklefey]

Oh yes, and in general, these books are an excellent example of "if your characters act like the world is normal, the audience is probably just gonna roll with it."

There's a lot to be said about how/why to make that work, but it mostly boils down to, "Is this something the average reader of this genre is familiar with?" and/or "Is it similar enough to real-world concepts that they'll get the point?"

Governor Module... Hm don't know that one, but 1) it was hacked, so it must be a computer thing and 2) its purpose is pretty obvious from the name and what the character said it can do once it's hacked.

The feed? That's a new word, but okay, it says "entertainment feed" and you can watch shows and stuff with it. That sounds like a kind of internet thing, I know how internet thing works.

Streaming media at work? Everyone knows this! Oh, we can stream media directly in our brains here? Baller.

Giant sand worm? Everyone knows giant sand worm!

There's that feed thing again. Oh we can also send messages using it! Definitely an internet thing.

Laser guns? We fuck with laser guns. Laser guns in arms? Gotcha, character is either a robot or a cyborg, let's keep reading and find out which.

Hopper? New word but obviously a flying vehicle based on what they're doing with it.

Etc.

And really, we see this all over in fantasy and science fiction writing!

Star Trek didn't get around to explaining how warp drive works until TNG, but it's clear from the beginning that it's how spaceships go fast (and remember, this was a pretty new idea at the time).

Teleporter? Ok we've seen stuff where people disappear from one place and reappear somewhere else, now we have a device that does it.

Light saber? No idea how that works, but I know sword and I know light and it's glowing so ok cool.

If something is really new and really strange and really important to the plot, you can go back and give more explanation later. But you can get a loooong way by just. Showing characters using and interacting with things to explain what they are and how they work.

And if you really do need to explain something, a couple sentences will often do, and we can discover more about it as the story goes on.

Jedi?? No idea, but everyone knows knights. Yep and these are good knights, got it. Ohhh, there are evil knights too.

The force? Oh, it gives these Jedi people "powers," so like. Makes them superheroes or wizards. Some kinda magic field. That's neat!

Ah ok, this Darth Vader guy is one of the magic knights. Oh shit he just choked a dude out from across the room! So that's one of the "powers" the Jedi have.

(Martha Wells takes this to an extreme, but also by almost never explaining exactly how anything works, she leaves herself open to just go, "Oh yeah it does this too, but it can't do that" later on in the story.)

An important writing lesson I'm taking away from Murderbot is that you don't always have to ease your readers into the world and the characters and speculative concepts. Sometimes you can just start with the fun part where there's a sandworm trying to eat someone and that's fine too.

[potatoes83]

The obsession with race...

or The Race to the Bottom...

So, we've all heard of the Netflix thing, we've seen the memes, their obsession with fiddling around with race and/or gender when it comes to retelling time-honored stories. Mind you, Hollywood's doing the same thing, but Netflix has seriously doubled down...

Now, like so many, I had been bootlegging off my parents Netflix until such time as we couldn't do it anymore, so we went ahead and got our own. And much of the time, we're watching old shit, and generally not even made in this country. Kim's Convenience. The IT Crowd. Downton Abbey... Same deal with Amazon Prime. Suffice to say, I'm not exactly clamoring for original Netflix content. Home from work today, because Good Friday, and fasting, because Catholic, so I decided to go ahead and start into a series. It was a toss-up between The Crown and Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. I've said before, I really try not to sit in front of the idiot box, but I needed some decompression time. Lemony Snicket won the coin-toss.

The series generally has so far been... pretty good. I have not read the books, assuming there are indeed books to be read, but I did see the original movie, which combined and moved around several storylines, as the story is presented in chapter format. I enjoyed the movie, because having no knowledge of the story, it was not what I was expecting, and I like that. I figured with the title, and the cast, that these kids were palling around with their uncle Lemony Snicket, on a series of whirlwind and magical adventures...

Yeah no.

I like being surprised. It's not easy to do, and I enjoy it immensely when I can honestly say "I didn't see that coming".

Trouble is, several of Netflix's casting choices and character tweaks are in fact detracting from the series. Like the credited "Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender"... umm no. That's clearly a dude. Being played by a dude. Curious that there is the necessity to make the character, I don't know, "gender-fluid", I think is the made-up nonsense term? And then double down in the credits, which again, no no, he's a dude.

Or Uncle Monty being played by someone of middle-eastern descent. Interesting. Because when I think of Montgomery Montgomery, an avuncular Scottish person as presented in the movie, I think of a skinny middle eastern guy.

Meryl Streep and I will probably never agree on ANYTHING as far as politics or sociology goes, but damn, was she a great aunt Josephine. She knocked it out of the park. So imagine my surprise to see the character being played by a sassy black woman.

And I will point out that these actors and actress do not do a *bad* job in their depictions of these characters... but again, you've already established a universe here. You don't have the same actors as the movie, fine, but it would be like casting a Star Trek, TNG movie, and replacing Patrick Stewart with Laurence Fishburne... People are gonna notice that shit!

If you want to tell tales of persons of indeterminate gender (no such thing, but hey, TV is already make-believe), or middle-eastern persons, or black persons, go nuts. Write those stories, and tell those stories. But when you're telling a story that's already written, descriptively cast, and with its own universe already created, stick to your lane. Because the problem is, when you so obviously shoehorn race in because reasons, it's quite obvious to the viewer. And it does indeed detract from the storyline. 🥔

[atopfourthwall]

Ive only recently gotten into classic Star Trek so I don't think I can properly answer but what is it specifically about Discovery and recent Star Trek that classic Trek fans hate?

Putting this behind a cut because... it's a lot.

Well, first of all a big rejection of it is just on an aesthetic level. Up until the 2009 movie (which was considered a reboot, even with time travel elements), Star Trek tried to treat the original series and how it was portrayed as pretty sacrosanct. Sure, they might occasionally make jokes about goofier aspects of it and discard some of the stupider stuff (like how in the final episode, penned by Gene Roddenberry himself, that women weren't allowed to Captain starships), but how TOS looked? That's how the 23rd century looked. Buttons and multi-colored outfits and boxy computers and smooth, undetailed ships WAS what was appropriate for the time. When Scotty came back in TNG, they had him on the holodeck and it was the TOS bridge. When DS9 traveled back in time to that era for an episode? They went onto the Enterprise and visited it. When in an Enterprise 2-parter we had a TOS-era ship? It looked like a TOS ship. They even did a 2-parter on Enterprise to explain why Klingons had smooth foreheads when later (and earlier) they didn't. Star Trek up until then cared about maintaining that continuity of appearance. But Discovery is set in the TOS era... but nothing looks like TOS. Even when we got the Enterprise and those uniforms and we saw inside the ship, it was an upgraded form. The only logic I've seen people try to argue about WHY it doesn't look like it actually did was "Well, audiences won't accept something as cheap as TOS being futuristic." Well, then you've got a few responses there: -Don't set in TOS era, then. -That's horseshit, because audiences from the 90s through the 2000s accepted it just fine. Even a piece of dialogue from DS9 explained it perfectly: "I LOVE 23rd century design." It LOOKS cheap, but it was just the aesthetics of the period. And the Enterprise 2-parter it still looked good in HD. Hell, arguably it looked BETTER in HD because they knew how to light it and create mood and its own unique flavor. -It's even more horseshit because people are STILL going back and watching it even today, as indicated by you saying you've started watching it, so clearly it's not that much of a barrier. But what's even more egregious is the TECHNOLOGY. You might be able to accept updated aesthetics if at least matches what was present during the period... and it doesn't. Holographic displays and communication (holodeck technology AT ALL, frankly - it's possible it was there, but TNG seemed pretty adamant that the holodecks were fairly new, very impressive technology), weapons not looking or acting like they traditionally did, Enterprise and Discovery having R2D2-style repair droids that certainly did not exist in TOS, the wrong sound effects being frequently employed, replicator technology for good-looking food instead of food dispensers that gave out marshmallows and cubes, and honestly the tech level shown in Discovery looks just as advanced - if not MORE advanced than seen on TNG 100 years later. And this is a minor thing, but despite the attempt to make the future LOOK futuristic, from a cultural perspective, the future looks... way too damn similar to now. The excessive swearing (it was said in particular in Star Trek 4 that while they certainly did cuss, it was less common and they sure as hell weren't dropping F-bombs), a party on Discovery that looked like a rave (when previously it seemed like the most popular music and culture of the 23rd/24th century was considered fairly high-brow entertainment [classical music, Shakespeare, great works of literature and plays, etc.] - and while you could certainly argue that that snootiness and love of that stuff is a problem with Star Trek and a sign of how sterile and homogenized it is, THAT is the future they presented and a character in Voyager loving some of the goofier parts of 20th century culture like jukeboxes and old sci-fi serials was considered unusual), and just the general way people talk betrays the idea that the writers aren't thinking about how society changes in the future. It's just the modern day, but with cooler technology. But hey, let's set aside the general aesthetics - some people aren't going to mind that and find

ways to handwave away a lot of stuff (even Discovery season 2 TRIED to handwave away stuff like the holographic communications, but did a piss-poor job of it). This brings us to the problem of the WRITING. And the problem with the writing is a big Michael Burnham-shaped indentation. To be clear, I don't mind Michael as a character or her actress - there are interesting aspects to her, centering a Star Trek show around the science officer is a neat idea (though that means you should probably NAME IT AFTER HER and not around the ship, because it suggests this is a standard ensemble group and not JUST her)... but the actual execution is that it feels like the entire universe bends over backwards for HER. She has a unique relationship with a beloved longtime character that is retconned in. She has unique relationships with several important characters to the point where the fate of billions of people hinges on her and the decisions she makes. She is presented as almost always correct about everything, and those that oppose her are often wrong, naïve, or active enemies. Now, this is less of an issue in the third season - but that has its own unique problems - but in the first season, the resolution of two major storylines (mirror universe and the Klingon war) revolves around her and her relationship to the Terran Emperor and Lorca. In season 2, her mother trying to help or save her is the basis of the ENTIRE friggin' plot with time travel and the like, with special knowledge and history having to do with her and everyone ready to abandon their lives for her so she won't be alone when she has to go to the future when arguably they barely know her (the timeline of the show is debatable). Season 3 has a few different problems with her - the first is that she keeps being involved in things that don't concern her (why is she going down to Trill?) and she keeps violating orders. Now, her violating orders is a problem throughout the entirety of Discovery - in fact, it's kind of the instigating factor OF the series. And arguably, other Star Trek characters are guilty of that and they face no consequences, just as she faces none... and yet it's the brazenness with which it happens, and in those other series it's arguable because the series tries to avoid excessive continuity changes for its episodic nature, so the status quo MUST return to normal... but Discovery is pivoted as one of MAJOR continuity, so her lack of consequences (and indeed eventual PROMOTION) is baffling to the point of frustration. Now again, let me be clear here - she is not a bad character in and of herself. Honestly what it shows is that being the science officer on a starship is not where her talents lie. She should be in a position where she has a lot more freedom to act and not in a major command structure... but being in that command structure, what we see in season 3 is that she lacks the discipline, emotional maturity, responsibility, leadership qualities, and general other traits necessary to be a Captain. Only once during season 3 did she display such a quality - putting the safety of the Federation above a friend and colleague... but other times she will happily disobey orders and put herself and others in harm's way, creating potential new problems. Now, again, Star Trek is rife with characters doing that... but usually not the Captains. And, in fact, when this happened once on DS9 with one officer disobeying orders and putting their own personal feelings above the greater responsibility, it was made VERY clear that the incident would mean that they would never be able to command a starship because of the unofficial reprimand. What's even more frustrating about her is that the character is ALWAYS shoved to the forefront so much to the point where we just get sick of her. SHE is the one giving log entries (usually pretty piss-poor ones, at that - very flowery and nonsensical and kind of dumb) and not the Captain. SHE is the one given so much focus and how the plot of the episode affects her. Barely anyone else gets any focus episodes - I STILL can't

remember the names of some of the secondary characters because they're so rarely said, and a PTSD-related plotline in season 3 for one of the secondary characters basically gets resolved OFF-SCREEN. Michael would be fine if we actually had a chance to miss her... but we never do. Arguably one of the best episodes of the show is in season 2, when it focuses on Saru and his people because Michael DOES take a back seat. It's his story and his development and problems relating to him and his people. And even if, again, we forgave the idea of so much focus on her even in plots that aren't about her... she never seems to really change that much. She'll TALK about how she's changed, but I see no real difference in the way she acts (MAYBE season 1 to 2, where in season 1 she was stiffer and more Vulcan-like, but that's it). But hey, let's assume that's not a problem for you - you really, REALLY like Michael and are fine with so much focus on her. Simply put, the writing of the rest of the show... is just kind of dumb. The ship is powered by magic mushrooms that let it teleport everywhere because the universe has super fungus capillaries throughout it that nobody can see and also it's magic and can resurrect the dead. The time travel plot of season 2 doesn't make any sense when you sit down and diagram it. Well-established Trek lore is just kind of sprinkled in, but now in ways that doesn't match what it was before or at least in ways that completely recolor how it's supposed to work, because it needs to serve THIS plot. Everyone remembering a murdererous monster fondly after she leaves because "Hey, she was coooool." The explanation for the big mystery in season 3 is just fricking stupid and one of the two big reasons why I've finally given up on Discovery, because it's just so absurd, doesn't match how anything works, and just feels like the writers giving the middle finger to the audience because they care more about "YOU MUST FEEEEEEL THINGS!" instead of it making sense. And indeed, there is certainly a balance to be made of plot vs. emotion-driven storytelling - some stories are dumb, but are forgivable because the character writing and emotion are so strong that they override how goofy the plot is... but sometimes a plot is just so dumb it overrides anything I'm SUPPOSED to feel. And it would help if I already liked the show, already gave it some benefit of the doubt... but I don't and it hasn't done enough to impress me. A little thing that's a problem with ALL of current modern Trek shows is that whole sprinkling lore thing - I don't think a single episode goes by in ANY current modern Trek series that doesn't have a random reference to classic Trek lore. A name, a line of dialogue, etc. It comes across like the creators don't trust you to enjoy it on its own merits, but want you to like it because "Hey, remember thing? We know about thing! Like us because we mentioned thing!" But hey, I recognize that these are things that other people may not have any problem with or just disagree in general. But for me and my family, these are the big ones that keep us from enjoying it. Hell, my brother and dad still watch it for hatewatching purposes, but I was done after season 3. I gave it plenty of chances to impress me, and while each season MARGINALLY got better as it went along, I'm tired of waiting to actually like it and to stop feeling like it thinks I'm a fucking idiot. If other people still like it, great - it clearly appeals to them in a way that it doesn't appeal to me and they are free to enjoy it. Other people probably have their own issues, but this long, rambly bit is the major stuff for me.

[discotreque]

Prodigy 1.01/02: Lost & Found

That was so much fun, holy shit.

Started out interesting, got exciting fast, and ended up legitimately thrilling by the climax. And just unbelievably gorgeous throughout—I usually watch stuff on a 10-inch tablet, but this is not a show for anything smaller than an actual TV.

I didn’t really take notes-notes because I was glued to my screen, but I can already tell I’m going to have a hard time getting just 22 minutes a week of this world and these characters. Like, I want to cancel my plans for the rest of the day and binge the rest of the season now, and I can’t, and it’s bullshit.

#prodigy spoilers within:

Instantly loved all the characters, including the villains—the Diviner is intriguingly mysterious for now, and Drednok’s impenetrable chill made him soooo much scarier than some brittle bitch-boy with a toddler temper. (I’m not remotely prepared for how many people are going to want to fuck Drednok, though… Not judging! Just not ready for how valid you all are.)

Michael Giacchino’s main theme is��� good, I guess? It’s my least favourite of the current run of shows, but that really says more about how much I love Russo and Westlake’s work, and this may well grow on me. Nami Melumad’s score, though? Straight-up breathtaking (and impressively Giacchino-y in its own right—I heard shades of The Incredibles OST in there amongst the Kelvinverse movies’, the classic Trek fanfare, and the Voyager theme), and I honestly want to hear what her take on an opening theme for this show would have been.

I’m already a fan of the USS Protostar, and I like how the general silhouette feels like a whole bunch of different ships from VOY: the saucer evokes the Intrepid-class, the chunky main hull feels like the Dauntless, and the big dome over the bridge reminds me of the Relativity. I had my hands over my mouth when Dal and Rok were poking through the dark corridors, and I got full-body chills when the ship finally powered up—and THEN I heard the music and I got REALLY emotional, omg. (No Universal Translator until they got the ship online? Also a brilliant touch.)

The production design is just delicious so far—I can’t decide whether Pog’s multitool, Gwyn’s sword, or Drednok’s laser cannon was the coolest arm-mounted technology in this episode—and did you see how much meaningful, readable text they crammed into those LCARS displays? Including extremely specific pulls from the TNG Technical Manual? It felt like Christmas morning.

The ship escaping while Dal was still running around on the outside of the actual hull nearly gave me an aneurysm. That was some PERIL, please never do it again. The shields coming online between him and Drednok’s killing blow was one of several “oh SHIT” moments for me—although the action was, overall, directed and edited a little messier than I prefer, I was on the edge of my seat throughout.

It’s definitely “for kids,” but that’s fine; I’ll watch pretty much anything as long as it’s good TV, and some of my all-time favourite shows are Y-7 animation, albeit shows with a notoriously darker edge: Gargoyles, the recent She-Ra reboot, and the (very-not-recent) latter seasons of, uh, ReBoot. And Prodigy sure fits that mold, with its cast of escaped slaves—mostly orphaned child slaves!—one of whose immediate motivation for most of this episode is to avoid being tortured for information he doesn’t have, and another who was used (and/or forced?) to destroy and enslave other sentient minds.

In closing: banger of a premiere, but if they don’t go back and save that adorable little Caitian, I’m going to burn CBS to the ground.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 14 first part

(RR The Untamed Masterpost) (Canary’s Pinboard - more Masterposts) 

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Murder Turtle, Continued

Lan Wangji wakes up after a good night's sleep leaning against a rock wall, to find that his leg is no longer splinted, and his perfectly clean and unbloody headband has been put back on his head while he was sleeping.

Leaving aside the "not waking up" part of things, how, exactly, did Wei Wuxian get his headband on without mussing his hair? Did he bring a crochet hook?

Wei Wuxian gives him a sitrep and then they cozy up and have an extended conversation about the nature and history of the Tortoise of Slaughter. Wei Wuxian is interested in everything Lan Wangji has to say, and Lan Wangji talks a lot more than usual; they are completely on the same wavelength here and are enjoying swapping obscure knowledge.

Lan Wangji: My lacerated leg and I are actually super aware that it has big teeth, but thanks for the reminder.

In the course of the conversation, Wei Wuxian mentions his plan to 1. sneak into the tortoise's shell and 2. drive it out of its shell so they can attack it. 

OP did a little tortoise research and learned that the only species of turtle that can leave its shell is the Koopa Troopa.

Good news for Wei Wuxian: If you jump on its shell in the right spot, you can rack up a pile of extra lives.

Does that make the Tortoise of Slaughter a giant Koopa Troopa? Perhaps...the king of the Koopa Troopas?

I'm gonna say yes.

(More after the cut)

Let’s Go Killing

Wei Wuxian is exhilarated by the idea of fighting a giant dangerous monster with Lan Wangji. Some day Wei Wuxian will found the Nike clan, because his motto is definitely "Just do it." 

It's sweet how, in his romantic notions about chivalry and Lan Wangji, he's completely elided the original reason they were (sort of) told to venture together. 

Wei Wuxian: I'm still on the "find the Yin Iron" quest; I'm just skipping the "suppress it" part.  

Wei Wuxian weighs up their chances against Bowser and tells Lan Wangji that even if they die, it will be badass to be killed by a famous monster, so they won't have to feel embarrassed.

This is the exact moment that Lan Wangji's feelings for Wei Wuxian go from "smitten" to "gagging for it."

Lan Wangji: as soon as we get out of here I'm going to borrow a whole lot of books from Nie Huaisang

The boys come up with a plan that involves a rather long montage of collecting archery equipment and deconstructing it. This potentially-dull montage is fun to watch because they are both very, very good looking.

Artists who want to draw Wang Yibo as an elven archer, this is your episode.

Now we suddenly have, with zero explanation, telepathy. Ok, sure. It seems to work kind of like a phone conversation, in which they say specific things to each other, rather than like Cherry Magic telepathy where you can hear everything the other person is thinking. Or at least, neither of them is embarrassed, so I assume they are maintaining some mental privacy.

Club Ruohan

Same, Wen Chao, same

At some point there is a boring sequence at Club Ruohan.  Wen Ruohan doesn't know where Xue Yang is, but really wants his hunk of Yin Iron. Wen Chao thinks that WRH's 3 pieces of Yin Iron should be able to beat Xue Yang's 1 piece, but apparently he is dumb and that is not how math works. O...kay? OP does not understand this either but whatever, Wen Ruohan is boring, moving on. This scene is really just here to make us think about Yin Iron before Wei Wuxian jumps into Bowser's shell.

Bigger On The Inside

So then Wei Wuxian climbs into Bowser's shell, which is, to quote The 12th Doctor, bigger on the inside.

Bowser’s shell is the approximate size of my entire house. It is also bathed in a hellish pure red photo filter, which OP has done her best to remove for these gifs, because it gives me eye strain and it obscures Xiao Zhan's hotness.

Camera Operator: What did I do? 

Wei Wuxian wanders around inside, finding random corpses encased in slime cocoons. Tortoise, spider, xenomorph, whatever. There are also random curtain things hanging all over, and then at one point Wei Wuxian stares into the face of a corpse, and then does a jump scare response at the camera operator even though nothing particular happened. 

I imagine the corpse was supposed to open its eyes and say "killl meeee" but it got censored. He also makes about 8 other faces at the camera operator, so we get that the inside of this TARDIS-like tortoise shell (must...resist...temptation...to...say...TORDIS) is yucky.

Lan Wangji waits outside listening to Wei Wuxian telepathically complain about the smell.  He is anxiously clenching a bundle of string and an arrow, and wishing he could clench Wei Wuxian Bichen instead.

Serendipitous Yin Iron

Wei Wuxian backs his way through the TORDIS until his butt bumps into a sword that is steaming with resentful energy. That's right: Wei Wuxian is about to pull a piece of Yin Iron almost literally out of his ass.

He grabs it and is overwhelmed by its screaming resentful energy and has to let it go again.

So this is what a vibrator with 4 batteries feels like

When Bowser comes looking for him, however, he quickly decides to go for it, grabbing the sword and singing "I've Got the Power (Gonna Make You Sweat)"

Wei Wuxian plunges the sword into Bowser's lower jaw, and Bowser pulls his entire head out of his shell with Wei Wuxian attached, while leaving the rest of his body and all rational laws of physics inside the shell.

Gamera Versus the Cultivators

What follows is one of the more ridiculous action sequences in the history of the world, and I say that as someone who likes Mothra movies. 

Wei Wuxian hovers in a perfect horizontal plank while “hanging from” the sword, which is held well below the level of his torso. While Bowser spins him around. For much of the time, Bowser keeps his head still and just waves his neck around.

Lan Wangji and the camera operator do everything they possibly can to make "guy pulls on string" look interesting. 

Everybody tries really, really hard and the actors are great at pretending something is there when it isn't, but this whole sequence is just horribly conceived.

What works well, though, is the Yin energy and Wei Wuxian's wrangling of it. He starts off being frightened and overwhelmed, and looking like it's too much for him; I dont' know if they made his face puffy on purpose or if that's just what happens when you spend days hanging from the ceiling fighting an imaginary monster. But he looks slack and unwell as he grapples with the iron sword.

Which makes this moment, when he gets control of it, deliciously creepy. He uses the power of the Yin Iron to stick a bunch of pokey things into Bowser's neck.

Lan Wangji has seen him struggling and now sees him...not struggling. Which scares the piss out of him, and he moves to finish the fight as quickly as possible, slicing up his hand and breaking the string. Combined with the pokey things, this does the trick and Bowser dies while Wei Wuxian faints and falls into the water.

Do the Whumpty Whump

Lan Wangji rescues him and wakes him up, and Wei Wuxian clutches the Yin Iron sword and tells Lan Wangji that he was knocked out by the screaming of disembodied voices.

This certainly sounds like a strange and dangerous phenomenon, so Lan Wangji carefully asks him to explain everything.

Ha ha ha j/k. Lan Wangji asks him exactly nothing about the strange sword or the black smoke or his weird evil smile or his new power over pointy objects. Lan Wangji appears to have a Star Trek: TNG level of unconcern about strange phenomena happening directly under his nose. But in fact he has noticed what's up, which is why he will be instantly distressed when he sees Wei Wuxian's flute moves at the Wen Corporate Headquarters.

Wei Wuxian has a fever (stay positive test negative) and comments on Lan Wangji's being so nice to him.

Wei Wuxian: I could never have imagined Lan Er Gongzi acting this concerned about me. Lan Wangji: what else have you never imagined me doing, while we're on the subject? 

Lan Wangji transfers a stream of spiritual energy to him. Lan Wangji has so much spiritual power he can be a battery for Wei Wuxian without breaking a sweat or, like, noticing whether Wei Wuxian has a golden core or not, for that matter.

Wei Wuxian basks in the nice feeling of gigajoules for a while but then decides he's bored. So then he pouts, whines, and cajoles Lan Wangji in exactly, EXACTLY the way he whines at Jiang Yanli.  I think this, while annoying of him, is a leap forward in his relationship with Lan Wangji.

He's letting his guard down and not just allowing Lan Wangji to take care of him; he's demanding to be cared for on multiple vectors, when he asks the guy who's already busy healing him to sing to him as well.

Lan Wangji obliges, singing him the song he composed about their love cultivation journey, while Wei Wuxian (or possibly Lan Wangji) (or possibly both) has a flashback to assorted sexy interactions that they've had so far.

Wei Wuxian memorizes the song perfectly on one hearing, before passing out.

Writing Prompt: Baldur’s Gate III / Untamed Crossover AU featuring elf archer Lan Wangji

I DARE YOU

Soundtrack: 1. Everybody Dance Now by C+C Music Factory 2. Paradise by the Dashboard Light by Meatloaf 

Wei Wuxian fainting tally (cumulative): 3