#like NO ONE on the enterprise thinks its Weird that this guy is So into wesley and knows exactly when to show up to help

[prettiest-thing-in-the-morgue]

THE HELL YOU MEAN YOU GOT A GIRL ?

summary : in which Tim's brothers find out he not only has a girlfriend but she's actually real and attractive and idk dating HIM of all people ???

Tim Drake is a busy man , his family knew that I meant come on ?? The kid is Red Robin, juggling Wayne Enterprises , solving cases, and not mention he attends college.

Not in a million years would they guess he of all of them would have a girlfriend and that he of all of them would have a functional relationship before any if them.

It started subtle at first - he'd finish patrol early , not really a big deal since they'd all assume he was busy with school and just had to go home.

Well truns out he was going home just not to do work just to simply have dinner with you.

The next sign was that he had a picture of you at the back of his phone - it's encased safely behind the clear casing . Dick saw it at first and shrugged it off, thinking it was a kpop idol or some model Tim liked alot - nope it was just him being in love with you and just showing it off.

Tim unironically smells better ? Damian doesn't know how to place it - its not that Tim ever smelled bad or had bad hygiene it's just that he's been particularly very into it as of late - he literally even has a skin care routine now but Damian writes it off as Tim being curious or weird.

Tim also starts dressing classier too like he wears good slacks or nice baggy jeans with fitted tops - showing off his slim but muscular figure as of late - he even asked Jason to borrow one of his old leather jackets and hey - Jason didn't mind lending his brother one - he just thought Tim was getting into the grunge style like him. Nope, it turns out Tim overheard you saying guys in leather jackets were hot, so of course, he had to get the real thing.

Flash forward to like a year and a half down the line and one day all three of them were talking about how Tim was glowing up and getting himself in shape .

Dick : " you know Tim's been idk dressing up as of late ".

Damian : " smh it's like he's pathetically trying to impress someone "

Jason : " I thought he was just idk changing his style ?"

Dick : " you think ? Plus he's been ending patrol early lately"

Damian : " he's a nerd Grayson , knowing him he gets home earlier to study or what not ".

Jason : *cackling* " and he wonders why he can't get a girlfriend "

*Tim who just walked in and overheard jason* : " I literally have a girlfriend. What do you mean ?"

Pin drop silence . Everyone stares at him, eye wide and then they burst out cackling.

Jason : " Timmy boy a blow up sex doll doesn't count a girlfriend"

Dick : *laughing* " Tim the day you get a girlfriend is the day the world would end"

Damian : " Timothy, that's the best joke you have ever uttered."

Tim scowls at them , " I LITERALLY HAVE A GIRLFRIEND AND SHES A REAL PERSON"

Damian *still laughing* : " Alright Timothy, let's meet your so-called very real girlfriend."

Flash forward to two hours later and they're at a local Lego shop at the mall , the batboys are all confused .

Jason : " Tim, when we said a real girl, we didn't mean a Lego woman figure"

Tim just rolled his eyes - annoyed because he can't fathom why they didn't think he can't have a girlfriend .

Not even two minutes passed, and you bolted out of the store and engulfed Tim in a big hug and began kissing him all over his face. Tim wore a big , smug smile as he wrapped his hand around your waist and pressed you a forehead kiss.

Dick's mouth is too the floor , Jason's eyes just widen so big you'd swear his eyes will roll out and Damian looks like he's gonna hurl.

Damian : " I think - I think I going to die "

Jason *still in shock* : " There is no way this is real - literally no way I've got to be imagining shit "

Dick : " Someone pinch me " *Damian pinches him hard* " OUCH WHAT THE FUCK"

Jason points at you and then at Tim , " Miss is he holding you hostage -"

Tim rolls his eyes , " SHES MY GIRLFRIEND"

Damian tuts , " She's too hot to be with the likes of you she should date someone better "

Dick : " Like me -"

Shutting him down immediately, Tim : " Fuck no"

You awkwardly laughing , " So you're Tim's brothers ?"

Jason : " unfortunately ". *dick nudges him hard* " OW WTF"

You : " It's nice to meet you all I'm Tim's girlfriend "

Dick : " yeah that's the part we are all processing"

Damian : " Are you sure you're not talking about another tim?"

Tim , scowling : " Shut the fuck up demon she said she's my girlfriend so can yall stop being so annoying now "

You : " They didn't think you'd have a girlfriend ?"

Tim : " no and I don't know why especially since they themselves don't have one either "

Jason : " in my offense I died -"

Dick : " Pack it up. It's been 4 years since you came back. You got no excuse "

Jason : " I know the man who has fumbled every relationship he touches is not talking "

Damian : " This is all pointless. Love is stupid and worthless"

As the both continue to bicker back and forth, you turn to Tim with a wide grin , " Who do you think is worse ?"

Tim , pulling you in closer , : " Definitely Bruce "

*in a very far distance*

You laugh as you grab his hand and left him off somewhere , " Let's go get milkshakes".

Bruce *sneezes* : " Someone is trash talking me "

ty for reading !!!

[k0nanharv3y]

OKAY I CANNOT LET THIS DIE

Robin Hood AU Part 2

Part 1 of this bullshit

"Hero? Villain? or misunderstood mind?", "Has he done more good for Gotham than its own inhabitants? What Wayne has to say about it", "The reality of the situation; Statistics of the recent attacks on Wayne Enterprise and Gotham City"

Tim didn't read the newspaper, it was boring, he didn't like it and he didn't have time to read the latest gossip from Gotham when he was most likely there. And he didn't need a piece of paper for that, that was contamination, he could get all the information he needed with just one search. So, yeah, Tim didn't read the newspaper

But then Riddle was imprisoned without even knowing it thanks to the newspaper and so Tim set himself the task of checking every single newspaper that ever mentioned him. And damn... Reddit was a thing when it came to twisting things, but this? This is blatant show-telling

Some called him a villain who didn't know how to do his job (in the first cases, really understandable, Tim barely knew what he was doing), but he had never set out to harm Gotham and apparently some people got angry...? Because... because he didn't kill anyone? (Joker doesn't count, he wasn't anybody) ...???. Others dared to lump him in with the Bats (And God bless the spilled coffee he spat out while choking reading that) saying how come; Apparently Tim was seen as a good guy and the explosions and cyber attacks on Wayne Enterprises had not been him but another rogue who was defeated by Tim???. But the others called it "The Evolution of Batman" and refuted his statistics. Batman's way was to go out and beat them until they calmed down, Tim's way was to cut them off at the root (Joker exploding in a building was nothing more than poetry. But the trafficking networks were eradicated by giving legal and stable jobs to those who distributed it, Tim didn't take their lives, not the literal ones at least, Tim changed them)

He finished high school early and dedicated himself to helping Gotham. It wasn't even illegal (stealing from the rich isn't illegal, their mere existence is illegal and unjust) Tim wasn't a villain, the citizens of Gotham seemed to love him just like they loved Batman; and if some building had to be blown up, at least nobody lived there and it was only to piss off the Bats

Batman's attempts to stop him seemed to cease... But Tim was greedy once... just once, and that led him to mess with forces he couldn't control. And then there was a price on his head, and Shiva and Deathstroke were after him. Because Ra's doesn't find it funny that a 14-year-old kid hacks into his systems and steals money to give to the poor. Shiva ended up being kind of... weird? She didn't kill him, but she threatened him that she would sooner or later, when Tim is a real threat to her (Tim learned to fight, thanks Shiva, but fuck it, it hurt) and Slade let him live because...??? I mean, he slit his throat and gave him enough trauma to last a lifetime, but he let him live... Tim doesn't think he's that lucky, this was already playing god

And then Ra's killed his mother

///

The irony is that Tim didn't WANT his mother, of course, she was his mother and he loved her deeply, but... it was like, a love out of responsibility, Tim was a child who was presented with, look, these are your parents and you must love them and respect them because they are your parents. That Janet's death hurt him so much... it was more a matter of pride, Tim didn't want revenge because Ra's killed his mother, he wanted revenge because Ra's killed his mother

And now he wasn't going to stop Gotham from burning. He was going to create the fire for Ra's to burn with whatever it took

If Batman stopped him, he didn't care, Tim had nothing to lose. His mother was dead and Ra's would pay for it

///

This is... actually before Batman's death, but after Damian became Robin, I'm working on this as I write, I don't have anything planned so...

Someone: Oh! Plot Hole!

I throw a brick at them and make sure they don't move anymore

Me: You didn't see anything.

Part 3 because i forgot to mention it

Part 4 i just did it

Part 5 wth am I doing?

Part 6 im actually thinking of making this a fic tho

Part 7.5 cuz it was too long

Part 8 have i told u im Canadian?

[marciaillust]

Recently in order to detox after work I've been playing yakuza like a dragon and woooooo its such a step up from yk1,yk2 and y0 the biggest shock for me is how much im enjoying the side missions? previously they felt really flat and goofy but now they are still able to retain that trademark yakuza weirdness but they have a lot of heart too. And idk if im misremembering or if i never paid attention to that but people from the side missions now.... introduce themselves? was that a thing previously? regardless of if it was, now i notice it and it furthers the sense of connection and intimacy in the side missions, like im really helping a "person" and not just "man with glasses" or what have you im also really loving the cinema minigame and the enterprise running minigame, sometimes i dont push the main story for sessions on end because im running a cookie shop......... but its soooo fun! though i will forever miss the dance minigame from y0....... i know i know people hated it! but I LOVED IT!! I love rhythm games and that one was so weird and quirky i havent seen anything like it before. And the songs from y0 were bangers. I used to have y0 on my laptop just so i could pop it open occasionally JUST to play the music game. It was that good for me......... THE KARAOKE IS SHIT! I have no idea why they do nothing to improve the interface (though i gotta admit this one is the best one yet) and it doesnt feel or sound satisfying at all......... also 3 songs at best. And they made the MVs so serious.... i mean its fine ig....... the characters are having an introspective moment........lowkey bakamitai..... but you gotta give me some Judgement swag. Some 24-h Cinderella! Come onnnnnn!! Speaking of things that dont impress me... the game is soooo lowkey sexist it's so eyeroll inducing. Like you KNOwwwWW there were no women in that writers room. There are only two female characters with only real plot importance and when they meet each other they start insulting each other in such a. oh such a specific way that tells you all you need to know "shut you you uggo" "ha ha, don't frown like that or you're gonna get wrinkles!" "you're not pretty when you grimace like that" "you're so old it's surprising you look this good" "watch out or youll get wrinkles and no man will want you!" like. like. head in hands. head in the fucking hands. then again yakuza was never known for its uh "normal" portrayal of women so it's not like i had huge expectations. the funniest part tho was when (spoilers!!) nanba comes back to the team during that one fight and I was thinking "aw! they're a team! they're nakama! hell yeah! the four of them against the world!" AND INSTEAD OF REPLACING HAN JOONGI (antagonist that got added to your team 5 mins ago) SO THAT YOU CAN DEFEAT THE BAD GUY WITH YOUR 4 MAIN GUYS THEY REPLACE SAEKO (the only woman on the roster). I was pissing myself laughing! That's cartoonish!!

the core fighting mechanic is also pretty whatever i'd say. It feels hilarious to me that sometimes I put the game on auto mode so i can scroll my phone or go make tea? a good shouldn't make me want to do that ig. but im thankful they have the auto mode nonetheless

despite the unimpressive aspects the game is just swimming in sauce. It's goofy, it's got heart, there's some fun minigames, the ingame music is made out of some stellar bangers, it all somehow keeps me coming back for more. I want to see how the big intrigue folds out too! the mystery got me good! Also do not. get me started on Zhao. I- listen. LISTEN. He was made for me in a lab ok he is like the perfect. man shaped thing I wanna dip him in milk and throw him against a wall. He would make a beautiful splat sound. Nepo baby discount dollarstore majima bedazzled shoes wearing teenager looking ass!! ARGH!!! ZHAOOOOOO

[mandatory-blog-stop-asking]

my favorite stand-alone star trek episodes

someone in bluesky asked around my sphere what are the best Star Trek stand alone episodes for each show and I thought it was a cool exercise. My list and specifications are below. Long post so click the button to check it out.

Rules: Can't be super dependent on other episodes of the show, can't be a two or multiple-parter, can't just be every season finale just because it made me cry or anything; it has to be something that showcases how the show works its own individual aspects in a relatively ideal stage. Think of it like the episode you could show someone to prime them to like any of these shows if they don't even know the show exists.

The Original Series - The Corbomite Manuever

It's one of the first times Star Trek talks about peacemaking and looking before shooting as something you're supposed to do even in a situation where an overwhelming power is bullying you. Kirk comes out of this as a genius who knew better than to take a situation at face value, and has one of my favorite lines in the show:

What's the mission of this vessel, Doctor? To seek out and contact alien life, and an opportunity to demonstrate what our high-sounding words mean.

Banger idea, banger execution, iconic alien, cool shit all around, 10/10

Runner ups: Balance of Terror, Court Martial, The City at the Edge of Forever. Didn't make it because I like this one more.

The Animated Series - The Magicks of Megas-tu

I think it's probably the wildest episode in TAS? Kirk & Crew meet the devil and he's like, a swell guy you should be friends with. Spock learns magic. The devil tells the audience of mostly children to not have prejudices against those oppressors have deemed unworthy of attention. There's a magic duel at the center of the galaxy that is then tailored after the Salem Witch trials. If you haven't watched TAS, it goes fucking crazy.

Runner ups: Yesteryear, The Lorelei Signal, The Time Trap. Overall just think Megas-tu is more interesting and more incredibly fucking wild, how did that air in the 80s, oh my god.

The Next Generation - The Measure of a Man

While it is pretty early on, I think it's a very good example of what TNG does best: single-issue stories using its main cast as a vehicle for drama. This has a little bit of everything people love TNG for: Data's struggles as an android, Picard's struggles as a reinassance man occasionally having to face the dumbest motherfuckers in the entire Federation who would be burning witches at the stake if they could, a Badmiral, Riker vs Picard, Guinan taking Picard by the hand and gently reminding him the human condition includes some unpleasant elements, a farcical trial...

it's not perfect but I do think it holds up, and whenever I recommend Star Trek to people, this is always an easy case study to check if they're interested in the project.

Runner ups: Elementary Dear Data, Yesterday's Enterprise, Sarek, and honestly a lot of other episodes that just don't quite work if you don't have all the context of watching more of the show. Either that or they have weird characterizations that I don't think work super well for the episode.

Deep Space Nine - The Ship

I think Deep Space Nine has a ton of great episodes, but I do believe that show shines brightest when everyone involved is stuck in a bottle episode having to fight their way out of it. In TNG they would talk, in VOY they would trick people, in DS9 they use violence!

I think The Ship is the best version of a good DS9 episode that doesn't need so much preamble to understand. You have a tight cast, a very clear drama point, and the slow build up into a horrific ending where nobody is happy and everyone wishes war wasn't such bullshit.

While there's literally better episodes, I think this works really well for this "challenge."

Runner ups: This list literally had Homefront/Paradise Lost as my pick, but I ended up deciding two-parters don't count. Other than that, The Wire, The House of Quark, Badda-Bing Badda-Bang and my favorite episode of Star Trek of all time, It's Only a Paper Moon, that unfortunately only works if you've spent 7 seasons watching Nog go from the worst character in Star Trek to the best character in Star Trek.

Voyager - One Small Step

I think Voyager is very flawed and that season 4 is the highest peak the show comes to, but even then, I think One Small Step is my favorite episode. It has the BIG VOYAGER THINGS: Seven of Nine trying to wrap her head around human emotions, an old-timey feel (literally, it's about an old Mars mission), it has the Delta Flyer, and it ends with an absolute emotional gut punch that I haven't really recovered from to this day. It's a love letter to space exploration that really fits a show named god damn Voyager a lot more than it would any of the others. I really love this episode.

Runner ups: The 37s, Living Witness, Death Wish, and DISTANT ORIGINS, OH MY GOD, THE LIZARD PEOPLE ARE REAL; all episodes i like but that either don't quite get me where I want to go, or I just personally feel aren't as strong.

Enterprise - Dead Stop

So like, this list is awful for Enterprise, because every single episode of that series builds on the previous ones somehow. Season 3 is impossible to watch out of context so I can't use any of it, and my no-multiple-parters rule means Season 4 (which I don't even like anyway so I guess it doesn't matter ) is mostly out. But I really do think Dead Stop excels at what Enterprise is good at: making the galaxy look fucking weird again.

Dead Stop feels like a really good sidemission from a game you've played a lot but never did 100%. It proposes some things about the state of the galaxy that you never really consider and never comes back, and it acts like this really interesting bottle episode that, while relatively predictable (this is Enterprise), is also effective. I think everyone shines in this and I think the situation is very unique. Worth a shot if you've never seen Enterprise.

Runner ups: E², The Catwalk (lol), it... look, I'll be real, Enterprise is not made for this.

Discovery - Unification III

Speaking of shows that aren't made for this, Discovery wouldn't have made it if it didn't get a soft-reboot halfway through. I'm one of the people who likes the second half of Discovery, sometimes a lot even. And while I think it should have gone way crazier with its own stuff instead of wasting its time with references (season 4 is probably the moment I was happy saying I like Discovery), I think Unification III is the first time I actually liked Michael's character.

It still has Discovery's major problems of being overly melodramatic in the wrong places, wasting a little too much time with dramatic camera shots and monologues that don't always hit, but I think Unification III is Discovery deciding it can stand side by side with other shows: it fundamentally changes the Romulan/Vulcan dichotomy, it takes something old and makes it new again, and it for the first time in years doesn't feel embarrassed of itself.

I don't know if it would make a Disco hater become a Disco enjoyer, but hey, I enjoy the episode, and it's my list.

Runner ups: Forget Me Not, and.... that's it actually. Don't watch Discovery on random, it doesn't work. Picard isn't in this list.

Lower Decks - wej Duj

Lower Decks rules and wej Duj is the best episode of Star Trek released in the year it came out. It takes its premise and allows it to breathe, shows you parts of the universe you'd never see, introduces great characters you could make a mini series about if you were crazy, and it looks and sounds great. Lower Decks was too good for this world and cancelling it characterizes cruel and unusual mistreatment of an audience.

Runner-ups: First First Contact, Empathological Fallacies, a couple more but Lower Decks is so referential in nature that it also makes it hard. But this wasn't really a contest. I wrote wej Duj without looking up other episodes.

Prodigy - Time Amok

Prodigy is a weird one because it's less "Star Trek" and more "Voyager 2". It has a different idea and execution for what it wants to do, so it doesn't really adhere to structures other shows have. That being said, I think Time Amok is the first time the crew really comes together and shows why they're a good cast, what their specialties are and why you should like them. I would probably not have continued the show without an episode like Time Amok, and genuinely, it goes great places. Season 2 is one of my favorite seasons of current Star Trek. It just, you know, isn't the same.

Runner-ups: Honestly for my specific rules, this is it. But I want you to know Prodigy fucking rules and you should watch it. "Now... go boldly" still gets to me every time I think about it.

Strange New Worlds - Ad Astra per Aspera

I like Season 1 of SNW a lot more than Season 2, but the S2 opener really is the show at its best. It doesn't pull any punches when exploring the subject of what's essentially Federation-approved apartheid, and it might have the best performances in the show so far. It would have probably interested me more if this wasn't another prequel that can't change things too much, but, still. If you've never seen SNW and don't want to just watch it from episode 1, give this one a try.

Runner-ups: Strange New Worlds the pilot! It's a very good pilot! Also "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" and "Those Old Scientists", but like, a crossover wouldn't really fit here very well.

And there you go, that was a fun little exercise. How about you make your own? Add any of the shows you want, I just happen to be a freak who wanted to do it with all of them.

[gaykarstaagforever]

TAS "One of Our Planets is Missing"

I guess the guy who usually writes profound Star Trek episode titles was off this week.

This one is good and interesting, though more for how it relates to the rest of Trek than as an actual episode. It's a pretty standard TOS procedural about the Enterprise tasked with saving a colony world from a giant cloud about to literally eat it.

They fly into its cloud-guts, use part of them to repair the energy drain the ship experienced trying to fly through ravenous cloud-guts, and then decide to kamikaze the Enterprise into its cloud-brain to stop it from eating the colony.

I know what this looks like. And it's also located suspiciously close to the "end" of its cloud-intestines. But it's the cloud-brain.

Hey. This is a 1973 childrens' cartoon. ...Yes. I know they made it pink. We all know. But it's the cloud-brain and they need to explode into it real hard to make it settle down.

...I KNOW. Stop it.

But before they do a desperate suicide run, Spock wants a chance to psychically talk the cloud down, because if it's a sentient lifeform, they are obligated to try that. He somehow has the sensors tied into his brain, and spends the last third of the episode doing this:

Look at the TrekCore gallery if you don't believe me about how long this goes on:

Not unexpectedly, it works. Spock lets the cloud-brain fully penetrate him (I KNOW), and it uses him as an avatar to look at the Enterprise computer and learn about Federation life. This convinces the cloud that humanoid life is too valuable to nonchalantly eat, and it backs off. End of episode.

The best part is us getting to see what the TOS warp core actually looks like up close. We always only ever saw it through that red window down in Engineering, next to Scotty's console.

It's huge and made up of weird piston-tubes that shoot lighting, after you put a matter / antimatter combo in a cute little furnace.

It's great.

Now here's the interesting park (aside from the pink bulbous cloud-brain penetration thing). If you are a Star Trek fan, you may have noticed how INCREDIBLY SIMILAR this story is to the plot of The Motion Picture.

Like, maybe suspiciously so. And that came out 6 years after this.

I honestly don't know if this influenced that. The stories were written by different people, and The Motion Picture was a mess that sort of barely fell together from the remains of a new live-action TV show they were supposed to do. But they couldn't figure out a script they liked until the very last minute, and the V'ger one was apparently based on an original idea Gene Roddenberry had in the late 70s.

Was Gene and everyone else subconsciously or intentionally ripping off that plot from this episode of TAS? It's possible, but I honestly don't think so. How significant was TAS to the franchise even in the 70s? Sure, some of the same people were involved, in some capacity. But they went through a bunch of ideas for the movie before the actual plot was locked down, and those didn't work out for a bunch of reasons. Ending up with "let's just redo one of the lesser cartoon plots" seems unlikely. Plus, how many ways can you really do "the Enterprise has to stop a giant Space cloud that eats everything in front of it", while being true to these established characters? Like, obviously Spock is going to mind-meld with it, it's going to need a humanoid body to talk to the crew, at least some of the people producing this story are going to get weirdly sexual about all this, etc.

And these WERE only six or seven years apart. I really think it's just similar people working on similar ideas for the same IP, ending up in similar places.

Not to be too dismissive of the episode itself, here. There's actually a nice couple beats where Kirk warns the colony's leader about their impending doom, and that only gives the guy enough time to launch a ship with 5,000 of the colony's children. Out of a colony of a whopping 80+ million people. And the leader decides to keep his own child with him. It's hard to work this kind of relatable emotional touch into a 24 minute episode, but they did it.

...Also hey Federation, maybe not settle a massive colony on a planet at the very edge of the know galaxy? At least not without a couple of starships posted nearby, to deal with any potential hungry Space clouds.

Of course, none of those would have had a Spock, and this would have probably gone badly for everyone until he got there, anyway. Hell, he's ON the Enterprise, and Kirk and McCoy still very nearly decided on a suicide run.

Into the cloud-brain.

The pink, round, cloud-butt-adjacent cloud-brain.

They probably would have aimed right for that round part in the middle. Looks like the good spot.

[saltineofswing]

ANOTHER EARTH, FILE 003 – KILLER MOTH

And Here We Find That Most Noble of Nature's Creatures... The Moth

Providing a service to all the people on the internet who think that Killer Moth should wear thigh-high boots. That's, like, everybody, right?

Writeup & gadgets below.

Each page of the file above has its script in the alt text for the image! I thought this would be a fun way to spruce up the write-ups. They won't all be this long, but the format I chose for this gimmick gives me a lot of room to run. Plus, this one is a pretty dramatic deviation from baseline. If you are a Drury Walker fan... I'm sorry for what I did to your boy.

I just thought it would make a really cool concept to bring Killer Moth back to his roots as a Batman hard counter – long before Hush, or Prometheus, or Wrath, or any 'a those fucking jabronis. And I thought, what better way to do that than to mirror Bruce's life experience? What if Cameron Van Cleer never got retconned into Drury Walker? What if Cameron Van Clear had a son?

I mostly go over that in the file above. What I will tell you here, is that I originally did this design for him to appear as an 'NPC' in my fiancé's superhero tabletop campaign (the one with Visage, also ultimately the genesis for me starting the Another Earth project). It is sort of a beautiful risotto of all our favorite superhero genre tropes, settings, and characters.

I wanted to swing his costume all the way in the opposite direction from the unserious throw-up of jumbled colors and patterns (which I love) – make it melodramatic and 'intimidating', which I think becomes goofy in its own way.

I gave the character some traits that I feel make him more of an 'anti-Batman' than, like, Hush or Prometheus or the Joker; Batman's 'Dark Mirrors' tend to just boil down to 'this guy is CRAZY and he's JUST as CLEVER as BATMAN, but he KILLS PEOPLE!' I don't really feel that's an 'Anti-Batman', though, it's just a crazy guy who is super clever and kills people.

This version of Killer Moth shares Bruce's core 'dead parent' motive and 'wealth allowed him access to high-level training' means, but where Bruce is selfless and brave but violent, angry, self-destructive, Cameron is not at his core a violent person; he takes good care of himself; and he is highly pragmatic and will usually bail when things get too tough.

Cameron killed the man who killed his father, and in doing so he achieved closure for himself; Bruce couldn't do that, and so he will never know whether or not it would give him peace. Ironically I think that Cameron is probably more stable than any of the 'Anti-Batmans'. All this isn't quite a job to him, it's more like a priority hobby he is very passionate about (running CleerCorp is his 'job', which he takes seriously – again, where Bruce doesn't even really engage with the management of Wayne Enterprises beyond where it can serve his needs as Batman). Making him a businessman who believes in the idea that the cape community is a market system unto itself, and therefore requires balance on both sides, was a cool way to justify him being sort of morally flexible... again, mirroring Bruce's moral rigidity.

Five songs off of my Killer Moth playlist:

I'm Designer – Queens of the Stone Age

Mojo – Peeping Tom

Dog Eat Dog – Weird Al

Madcap – clipping.

Do Not Go Quietly Unto Your Grave – Morphine

Next... how about somebody who ain't in the Batfamily, huh?

[electronickingdomfox]

"Planet of Judgment" review

A novel from 1977, by Joe Haldeman. It begins with a rather generic "stranded on dinosaur planet" plot, but then the story becomes far more unhinged and entertaining. By the end, I was wondering what drugs was the author taking. So yeah, recommended novel, for sheer insanity.

As usual, Spock is gay. Also, McCoy is probably gay too.

Spoilers under the cut:

The Enterprise arrives at a strange rogue planet, with its own artificial sun. Of course Kirk has to investigate the anomalous planet (aptly named "Anomaly"), and he lands there with some security guys in a shuttlecraft. The fact that the transporter doesn't work, should be hint enough that this planet is trouble. They encounter giant beasts similar to dinosaurs. Also pterodactyls. And soon discover that the usual laws of physics don't apply as they should. Their phasers only work on stun, they have no communications, and the shuttlecraft is dead. So far, no redshirt has died, so the Enterprise sends another shuttlecraft with more redshirts just in case. At last, since it's obvious everyone is trapped on that planet, Spock decides to send three more shuttlecrafts with a ton of people (including himself, McCoy, Chapel and Uhura) so the party can begin.

The first part of the novel deals with the crew trying to survive in the wild environment. There's also two strange, stream-of-consciousness scenes to show Kirk and McCoy's dreams. The crew spots some hominid creatures that they take for cavemen. Also, two redshirts finally die. One being half-eaten by a giant flower, in a surprisingly gory scene. There's more body horror ahead, as one injured redshirt vanishes suddenly, and returns the next day significantly changed. He has no eyes, ears or nose, as if they had never been there in the first place, and hair is quickly covering his whole body. It's discovered then, that the supposed cavemen are actually a very advanced telepathic race, and have mutated the crewman into one of their own, to better communicate and study the humans. (By the way, the crewman is very happy with the changes.)

The aliens, called Arivne, only need the scientists (Spock, McCoy and three others) for their experiments, so everyone else is sent back to the Enterprise. Then, they force them to relive traumatic moments of their past, in order to learn things like "decision-making" or "betrayal", which their species, living in perfect unity, doesn't know. There are interesting glimpses into Spock and McCoy's past, as part of these visions. Such as Spock being bullied by his human cousins as a child, or McCoy's divorce. It's finally revealed that the Arivne are doing all this to prepare against the attack of other, insectoid aliens, that will soon invade the whole galaxy (McCoy describes one as an "ugly son of a bitch"). The aliens, called Irapina, are sending first three champions to test the waters. If Spock, McCoy and Kirk (who's been returned to the planet to not miss the fight) can defeat the three Irapina, they'll withdraw to invade another, less interesting place (like the Romulan Empire).

This is where things become really, really weird. As the battles against the Irapina take place inside hallucinations, that can nonetheless kill the loser (a bit as in "Spectre of the Gun"). Come to think of it, something similar happened in "Spock Must Die". These early novels truly loved their hallucinations... We have McCoy battling the baby Irapina in a poker game, set in the Wild West. Which ends with McCoy decapitating the alien with a card. Yeah. Spock takes a math quiz on a sinking game board. Then Kirk fights in a naval battle against pirates, while Spock is busy inside a star, trying to make it go nova (Spock has practice with this, as earlier he had created a volcano by pushing to the surface from a planet's core).

Anyway, it's all gloriously crazy. Even though the ending seemed a bit rushed. There are also some seemingly abandoned plot threads. For example, the love triangle between a female scientist, another guy and a professor. I thought that these three characters would have more relevance later on, but eventually, nothing is done with them.

Spirk Meter: 7/10*. I was determined to give this novel a low rating, even a zero. After all, how slashy can it be if Kirk and Spock barely interact? It turns out, it can be fairly slashy... For starters, the most traumatic experience in Spock's past that the Arivne could find, was his battle against Kirk in Amok Time and the thought he had killed him (the whole sequence is taken from Blish novelization, which is a rather lazy way to fill pages, if you ask me). Relieving the scene makes Spock cry actual tears. Then, what is Spock's biggest worry while stranded on the planet? Being eaten by dinosaurs? Nah! The greatest danger for him is that Chapel would try to seduce him! Even though poor Chapel doesn't even interact with him in the whole novel, and has been nothing but professional. He goes as far as suggesting that McCoy seduces her, to get rid of Chapel himself (too bad for Spock, McCoy's gay too; more on this later). So far, this isn't much. But then, near the ending, it's Spock's love for Kirk that saves the whole galaxy once more. During the final confrontation, the Irapina cheat at the game and merge the two hallucinations: Kirk battling on the pirate ship, and Spock creating a supernova. If Spock succeeds at his test, the heat from the nova will kill Kirk. Of course, he chooses to fail his test and die himself, so Kirk has a chance. He does it out of "logic, morality, and a vestige of an emotion he might deny: love" (direct quote). The Irapina hadn't predicted such sacrifice in the name of love, so they declare the battle null, which gives Kirk and Spock another chance.

This is as far as Kirk and Spock are concerned. Now, what's the deal with McCoy? For starters, during his dream sequence, he wonders about the fact that he has never been truly interested in a woman, not even his wife. Later, Spock asks McCoy to explain sex and love to him, since he doesn't understand why Chapel is so interested in him. McCoy explains that women (and men) are attracted to power, which Spock has; intellect, which Spock has in spades; fairness, which is congenital for Spock (these are his words); and of course, that mysterious aura of strangeness, that is so very Spock's... And yeah, it doesn't seem AT ALL that McCoy has reflected a lot about Spock's appeal... After this, Spock asks him to seduce Chapel himself. McCoy refuses as he doesn't see Chapel that way. Spock assures him that he won't ask him to do anything against his nature, to which McCoy becomes very defensive. There's a long passage then, where McCoy ponders about his reasons to prefer the other female scientist in the party (all very un-romantic, practical reasons) over Chapel. As well as the fact that, despite being familiar with the female body because of his work as a doctor, he kind of fails when it comes to women. Something that he can't confess to Spock, but has confided to Chapel; the reason why he can't see her as a lover, and why Chapel can't be attracted to him either. What does Chapel know? It's also noteworthy, that this whole scene serves absolutely no purpose for the plot, since Chapel disappears from the story quite early and nothing happens between her and Spock. Last but not least, during the re-enactment of McCoy's divorce, we learn that a major reason for his wife abandoning him is that she was sexually frustrated. And neither of them were happy in their marriage. McCoy doesn't take it so bad, joining Starfleet right afterwards... So yeah, in my opinion, there's something about all this that screams "closeted homosexual".

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[datadegroove]

my rankings of the star trek uniforms (warning super nerdy):

TOS uniforms: silly looking but iconic. a simple shirt and pants. the women's uniforms are insulting cause it was the 60s

uniforms in the TOS motion picture: like almost everything else about the motion picture, everybody shits on them but they're pretty ingenious at taking you into a world where space travel is so perfected and lax that military personnel wear these comfortable looking ass uniforms and can still do their jobs effectively. this is part of what makes star trek a utopian society. I believe this effect is what the original uniforms were going for and in the first movie it's like perfect. i want to wear those uniforms as my pajamas. they're also the perfect bridge between TOS and TNG

Other TOS movie uniforms - very cool and stylish but they look uncomfortable as hell. probably what one would wear as like a dress uniform. plus you get sick of seeing them over every single movie from wrath of khan on. plus the flap that goes over the neck is just weird

TNG, early ds9 and voyager uniforms: in season 1 and 2 they look awkward. after the redesign you'll think in your head that they look stupid but you'll secretly come to love them

late DS9 and TNG movie uniforms: the worst things ever committed to the screen. ugly gray disgusting with the color on the neck poking out. plus it looks like the tops are made of fucking corduroy or something. they look very uncomfortable. it's the worst connective tissue to try to plant between the wrath of khan and TNG era for paramount to attempt to make a bigger profit

Abrams movies and strange new worlds uniforms: like everything else abrams and co. do, there's an attempt at a modern cool style that exists solely to be modern and cool, having no identity or forethought of its own. they take the original uniforms, bump up the saturation, and add this disgusting like sweat wicking pattern things on there for no reason. they look horrifically uncomfortable and it gets worse as the trilogy goes on, becoming more and more rigid until the characters look like action figures. they look like amazon delivery uniforms. in the beyond movie chris pine gets a jacket that again is overly cool for cool's sake, making him look like havoc from the x-men for no particular reason when it's never been required for any other adventure so that they'd have something to put in the trailer.

discovery: all denomination of rank is out the window. again there seems to be more inspiration from like corporate uniforms than anything military or even creative. the sparkly bits look like literal glitter like a little kid's arts and crafts kit. when people from the enterprise come on board they have different versions from the abrams movies that are so thick they look like biker jackets. what's the point? everything in terms of costume design on this show looks like it just got ironed and put onto the racks at a spirit halloween. apparently they changed them to be more star trecky later on to appeal to older fans - you know the people who actually watch star trek - but everyone already stopped watching their trash show so no one cares

star trek picard: they're only in there very briefly because patrick stewart is such a little bitch he's been going on about how he doesn't like wearing a star trek uniform for literally 30 years now. but they're primarily black because black is more coolerer and they have lots of pointless jagged lines because that's more coolerer. their entire idea was "take the tng uniforms and change very little about them so that we can do less work". and then they just use the tng uniforms anyway they jump all over the place in terms of what starfleet is supposed to look like so what's even the point? but it's probably because patrick stewart - the guy who made 750,000 dollars an episode for one of the worst series of all time - didn't want to wear the tng-looking ones so continuity is out the window

lower decks: similar thinking to picard, "just take what's popular and make it look slightly different so that people will be like 'that's what i know' and watch it". so just add a bunch of pointless lines on it and add a neck flap that opens to the side - again, going back to wrath of khan. could it be that they're just repeating elements from the two biggest hits of the franchise over and over and over again even though it's been FORTY YEARS since star trek 2 came out?? this couldn't possibly be true. what's the point of having an animated show if your art department will even be lazy there? have you seen some of the uniforms that are in spacefaring anime? you have literal scouters in your show so i know you've seen anime before. why be so lazy about it? USE YOUR IMAGINATION STAR TREK!!!!!

[pyromaniacldrt]

Damn, just realized I forgot Jimmy in my headcannon list.

Which is embarrasing, since he´s one of my faves.

He is a csi-fi movies nerd, specially of Pixel and Back in the Future.

He has defeated Tetris once, and to this day that´s the achievement he´s most proud of.

He is a Harry Potter fan thanks to the influence of his weird, on the run and probably a mafia memeber uncle, who has enough debts to sink Mark Zucchenberg in poverty. He has a boat tho:)

Jimmy comes from a HUGE family full of Gingers™, and at some point the Wild Kratts theorized he could be a Weasley, but it was descarted because JZ is VERY rich.

His wardrobe is full of the Adam Sandler´ aesthetic. That, and a sinlge Gala Suit that no one is sure how it got there.

When looking where to apply for a job after graduating, at first he had thought on joining the air force ,since he didn´t want to go to a local airport to get experience; but then Chris (a dude he met playing minecraft online and later on became friends) offered him to work as a pilot in his older brother´s proyect for an academy.

He couldn´t belive it when he met Koki again, and they pretty much tackled eachother into a hug.(See Koki's headcanon list)

He has a power suit, but Jimmy never uses it (plus, it has malfunctioned so many times that Aviva is impressed its still working)

bro is great at social events, but he has to be dragged in to participate.

Jimmy thinks very little of Gourmand to a professional perspective, if not as a decent human being, and finds his recipes disastrous, and not only because they are made with endangered species.

Back when his grandma wasn´t in the nursing home, she had a five star restaurant that she later on lost to a bet, in which she would teach enterprising chefs her recipes and different cooking skills, including a teen Jimmy, who wanted to be just like her if his dream of becoming a pilot didn´t work out. Between those enterprising chefs was Gourmand, the so called "prodigy", who even got to become the main cheff when Grandma Jimmelda retired. He also won the restaurant when betting with the old woman (he probably cheated, but there´s no evidence)

Jimmy went there regulary and even worked there because his parents wanted him to be hardworking (didn´t exaclty work, but ok)...

Until he found out about the cooked endangered animals and reported Gourmand, making him loose the restaurant and his cooking liscense. Yeah. They don´t get along.

He has a shark stuffed plushie that Martin gave him on christmas. (Jimmy gave him a new pair of socks. He needed those.)

He likes to make pastries a lot, specially if it´s one of his gandma´s recipes.

Grandma Jimmelda has some very deep lore stories from her youth, including marrying at 14 and going to war twice (don´t ask which one though, not even she knows).

Jimmy has had thought of letting his hair grow long, and I personaly belive he would have it very long to try to make the Rapunzel fight moves(he can´t).

Still, he has to go and have a haircut every time he visits his parents and Zach.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that: Grandma Jimmelda has a niece, Aunt Jaminet, who is the cousin of the mother of Zach´s grandma. Somehow (I don´t want to know how), they´re almost the same age.

The family meetings are just something else, specially when there´s a whole bunch of gingers on the table and a singe black haired guy that only comes once every two christmas because he lives across the state and no one likes (Jimmy also rarely shows up, but he´s the cool cousin/uncle, so he´s been forgiven by the little ones, unlike Zach)

Tbh, nor Zach or Jimmy know they are related. I mean, they are distant second cousins(?), but they are still family. Somehow.

He has played World War Z and finished it in three days.

He has also bested with full stars Cooking Mama, ofc at the extent of his emotional stability, but pshh Who needs it?

Martin´s - Chris´- Aviva´s - Koki´s

[thewomancallednova]

The Measure of a Man

whoa that was great

ironically, just two episodes after what I called TNG's worst episode so far, we get TNG's best episode so far.

This is the first time I'm watching this post-Picard (and tbh I think it's the first time I've watched it in its entirety since like 2010), and it hits just a little worse, knowing that what Picard and Guinan feated about a slave race of Data-like beings is exactly what is gonna come to pass. But that's for my eventual Picard rewatch in approximately 2027.

Bruce Maddox is such a hateable character. Possibly the least likeable person who has appeared on TNG so far (yes I'm counting the parasite queen nesting inside of poor Remmick). Excellent acting!

Speaking of unlikeable people, Picard's ex sure seems like a horrible person. "She likes the adversarial nature of the justice system more than getting to the truth" is a not so great quality for anyone, but especially horendous for someone who's gonna be a judge.

I'll say, for all my usual ragging on Picard, he did great here. Just amazing, from his early timid court room appearances to his final speech, just breath-takingly good.

I gotta say it's a bit weird that Starfleet regulations apparently concluded that Data's property. Like, he is likened to the Enterprise computer, but he is never treated like it. He wears a badge and a uniform, he has quarters and a private life, hell he had a (brief) life before Starfleet. If Data voluntarily entered Starfleet (because he was inspired by the officers who found him), how could he be Starfleet property?

I also very much liked how they portrayed Data's dislike of Maddox at the start. Like you can tell he hates his guts.

Also god poor Riker. Having to fight your friend's right to live has to be one of the worst possible things ever.

It did feel contrived, like why can't Maddox himself do it, or Louvois's ensign? But it was totally worth it for Riker's character here, obviously.

That scene at the end between Riker and Data is everything.

Also completely unsurprising after The Outrageous Okona I cried a lot during this one

Also Data's farewell scene with the crew was wonderful. As was like every other scene here, really just go watch the episode, nothing I can write here is gonna be more interesting than that.

Maybe one thing that I didn't love is the final conversation between Data and Maddox. Like, it's a bit tainted by what I know from later episodes, and Data here really only expresses interest in the general research that Maddox is doing, but I find it a little gross how Maddox and Data will become friends later on. Like this isn't a Pulaski situation, where she never encountered someone like Data before, initially disrespects him, but learns that he isn't so different from her and becomes his friend. This man has opposed Data's entry into Starfleet, has maintained for decades that he is not a person, calls him it, tries to either kill him or turn him into the progenitor of a slave race. Back in my day, we used to give everyone who'd enter the same sector as that guy the death penatly. And Data is shown to dislike him too throughout the episode. So I don't love that they become friends later on. Honestly, not this episode's fault. But I just wanted to say that.

oh, also the start of the Enterprise poker game. I know nothing about poker. at all.

[raisinchallah]

like enterprise is almost terminally generic like even the "good" episodes dont have like a distinctive vibe or theme that really grabs me like voyager i think is at its strongest when its being kind of weird a lil gothic with a focus on like memory and being inherently changed by your surroundings like meld the raven barge of the dead and gravity they commit to being character studies of like kinda weird stuff and are willing to blend ideas of imagination and reality in ways that enterprise seems frankly far too conservative to attempt not that it has to be like that but even the better episodes are stunningly generic sci fi that i think feels a bit afraid to be truly odd that like it feels like competent execution of square one sci fi concepts which feels insane as a star trek product at the end of like over a decade of pumping out every possible imagined episodic sci fi story under the sun and inspiring so many imitators ur now competing with ratings from ur own knock offs you cant keep doing like bomb diffusing crashed shuttlepod evil computer stuff guys or like extended homages to beloved star trek episodes nobody really wants to commit to a distinctive voice in the first two seasons of enterprise and its just kinda sad... like nothings even been spectacularly bad of the episodes ive been watching its all just fine... and its like its been 13 years of continuous star trek broadcasting you cant just be turning in these halfassed assignments idk nothing feels like engagement with say older beloved sci fi media that inspired this or was inspired by star trek it doesnt feel like a critical or weirdly reverent eye to old trek its just going thru the motions and too often has very little to say about itself or what star trek or sci fi of its nature even is or aspires to be

[quarktrinity]

quark watches star trek season 1 episode 23

planet sends out a "dont fucking come here" code

obviously evil ambassador says go there anyway

kinda dont think this dude should have command over kirk

i was about to ask why star trek brings up the threat of interstellar war so much and then i remembered The Events of the 1960s

"im taking some security people with me" theyre going to die

this planet looks like this meme

/checks off the "background music indicates sexiness" square on my star trek tos bingo card/

The Unspecified Danger

this dude has an evil goatee

theyve been at war for 500 years?

theyre pretty casual about being attacked

are these people just making up the war. whats going on

i. what the fuck ok let me explain this

they dont actually launch any bombs or do any real attacks. they pretend they do with computers and basically roleplay this war, and when people are simulated to die they just kill them irl.

this is absolutely about the cold war

the enterprise has been "classified destroyed" so they all have to go into a disintegration machine. because war roleplay.

that is so stupid and im extremely impressed with this plot

the computer lady voice just sounds like shes yelling from across the room

scotty big brain

since when did vulcans have weird psychic powers

not even 20 minutes in and ive already got bingo

escape from weird roleplay land

spock says "there is a multi-legged creature crawling on your shoulder" shortly before knocking a guy out

wasnt there an ambassador guy before. whered he go

oh there he is

scotty says fuck diplomacy lets fight. dont say that scotty the cold war era writers will hear you

yes scotty go insubordinate king

evil goatees never lie

hey kirk. why are you, as a man, pinning another man to the wall

hey evil guy. why are you, as a man, offering a drink to the man pinning you to the wall

yes kirk beat their asses

yes kirk get damseled

spock says "among us"

spock tells a woman to knock down and sit on another woman if necessary

spock refers to extreme violence as a peculiar kind of diplomacy

"let us go or we explode your planet :3"

whoever wrote this one had some unique opinions on the cold war

some real moral ambiguity in this episode

star trek says FUCK computers

i dont even care what the intended message of this episode is. i love it. its messy. it commits. its ballsy.

"why, mr spock, you almost make me believe in miracles" WHAT???????????

[weerd1]

All right, I feel it’s time to dig into my new comfort show, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Let me say up front, I love this show, so if you’re looking for someone who’s been watching Star Trek since the ‘70s to gripe about new Trek, you won’t find it here. Is this show perfect? Of course not. Is it Deep Space Nine good? Not yet, but I see potential. Episode by episode look and a long chat after the break! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!

What it DOES feel like is TOS. From the variety of genres used to tell stories, to some downright weird plot points, to some remarkable social commentary, this really feels like what would happen if they just made TOS now. I lament a bit that we have 10-episode seasons instead of enough in a season to allow for some MORE variety the way TOS had more than 25 episodes a season.

So how about visual continuity?

This show looks like the way I would see this universe when I read novels or played the RPG: effects have caught up with the way I brain painted the Blish adaptations or those early novels. It works for me.

What about character continuity?

Barring the fact the show has canonized the idea that even the “Prime” timeline can shift a bit due to the influences of time travel across the universes (which I love), I think the nuances this show brings do nothing but enhance my understanding of TOS. The Spock/Chapel moments now on TOS? Christine now asking Spock, “have you ever been in love?” in the episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” becomes a bit of gut punch! What does it mean to her when he begins to lose control due to Ponn Farr? Does she think he might be reverting back to the Spock of a decade before who chanced to unleash emotion?

Visually and character-wise, we have not changes but expansion. Honestly, most of these perceived “changes” reminds me of Gene Roddenberry taking the opportunity to enhance the Klingons when he had the budget in The Motion Picture. Did he care that the Klingons weren’t bumpy? Did he care to come up with a solution? He didn’t: He was a creator who now had more tools to work with. SNW does that.

My sole complaint, which honestly stretches across many modern shows, Trek and otherwise is about language. TOS and its progeny up until Enterprise used a more stolid, slang-free method of writing which to me added to the timeless nature of the show. When characters in modern Trek use modern vernacular it ties the episodes for me more to the present rather than allowing me to suspend my disbelief that this is the future. This is just my personal preference, and is certainly not something that torpedoes my love for the show or characters.

So, if you’re still with me, let’s get into the nitty gritty, each episode rated from 1 to 5 LLAPs. 🖖

SEASON ONE

“Strange New Worlds” 🖖🖖🖖🖖

After DISCO S2 gave us a Pike which made Spock’s actions in “The Menagerie” entirely plausible, we pick up here with him knowing his destiny and he’s having to work on that. As it plays out, we get some great explorations of what Star Trek and Starfleet within the universe is about. We also get a pretty pointed commentary on our present and what allowing politicians to appeal to and encourage the baser, xenophobic impulses of their constituencies leads to. Solid start, solid introduction of return and new characters, and wow is this show gorgeous.

“Children of the Comet” 🖖🖖🖖

A solid episode which feels a little long in places. However, showing Sam Kirk is this universe’s Guy Fleegman is terrific, and we get some great Uhura moments. Also, fly, Erica, fly!

“Ghosts of Illyria” 🖖🖖🖖🖖

About as TOS as you can get! Crewmembers trapped on a planet below as danger approaches, a strange disease threatening the crew. Plus, a couple of good character revelations that start threads which will continue well into Season 2.

“Memento Mori” 🖖🖖🖖✌️(That’s a half)

The beginnings of expanding on the Gorn while giving us more background on La’an Noonien Singh (whom I originally was none to happy that she was Khan’s descendant, but S2 really uses that beautifully). She’s a terrific character and this episode helps us know why. Also- see my comment above about making the Klingons “more” because you have the opportunity as SNW picks up the way ENT showed us the Gorn were more than just a slow moving dino allegory and kicks it into high gear.

“Spock Amok” 🖖🖖🖖

A very fun episode which continues to show us that TOS’s T’Pring was more than just a diabolical woman who dared mess with our heroes. Have greatly appreciated what they have done with her. Also, Enterprise Bingo!

“Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach” 🖖🖖🖖✌️

Credit here first of all for a very TOS title. Then a TNG style morality play, but one that does not end happily. Dig it.

“The Serene Squall” 🖖🖖✌️

The Orion pirate captain and Pike’s mutiny was a little too…well silly for me. However, Captain Angel and the Sybok name drop, plus Christine being badass? All in there. Also, this sets up some Spock/Chapel stuff for S2 and I dig all of that.

“The Elysian Kingdom” 🖖🖖✌️

Again fun, and a neat way to deal with M’Benga’s daughter storyline. A bit indulgent in places, but everyone seems to be enjoying themselves so much, and we get Christina Chong’s dog Runa. VERY TOS when it all comes down to it. Bonus points for the DS9 reference.

“All Those Who Wander” 🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖

Oh- the Gorn are warp capable Xenomorphs. How HORRIFYING. Also, some real stakes as we lose Hemmer, and Spock really starts his S2 arc here.

“A Quality of Mercy” 🖖🖖🖖🖖✌️

Terrific method of tying in some more TOS to contextualize the show, a modernized TWOK uniform, and a new Captain Kirk. I didn’t walk out convinced by Paul Wesley’s Kirk, but he wins me over early in S2. My real complain here is Ortegas falling into the role of the bigoted Styles from “Balance of Terror.” Did NOT seem like her style. Kudos to a bit of a cliffhanger, even if it does feel a little tacked on to the episode. Also, they missed a bet not having James Frain (DISCO’s Sarek) playing the Romulan Commander.

(Also, the show misses a bet not having Rebecca Romijn or Jess Bush voice the computer.)

Overall S1 is a solid start that ties itself plenty to what has gone before, without resorting to simple, overwrought nostalgia baiting to tell a story. Like some other recent Star Trek.

SEASON TWO

"The Broken Circle" 🖖🖖🖖🖖

Spock stealing the Enterprise on a semi regular basis is now in my canon, and I am grateful. Pelia, I am convinced, is actually Carol Kane’s character from “Taxi.” M’Benga rolling out the stimulants didn’t make a lot of sense to me on my first viewing, but in context with the season, this is actually setting up a really interesting—and dark—bit of character development.

“Ad Aspera per Aspera” 🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖

This. This is Star Trek. ‘Nuff said. (Ok, also, THOSE DRESS UNIFORMS!)

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow “ 🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖

Here, HERE Paul Wesley’s Kirk wins me over, even if it is an alternate version. Earning money (and apparently a lot given the remarkably nice apartment they stay in) by playing CHESS, recognizing that La’an’s universe should stay because Sam’s alive, the slow seduction…yup, that’s Jim Kirk. Plus, This episode acknowledges that time is fluid, referencing how TOS tells us the Eugenics Wars SHOULD have been in 1992, but it keeps shifting. Elegant solution that opens so many doors to future stories. Also, baby KHAAAAAAAANNN!

“Among the Lotus Eaters” 🖖🖖🖖🖖

Nice callbacks to “The Cage,” yes. But this episode BELONGS to Erica Ortegas. “My name is Erica Ortegas and I👏🏻fly👏🏻the👏🏻ship!” And let’s add “thread the needle” to awesome starship tricks, shall we? Erica makes this good episode great.

“Charades” 🖖🖖🖖🖖

Vulcan shenanigans are back with a fully human Spock, and indeed, this one is funny. Ethan Peck’s comedy chops are great here, especially with Sam Kirk’s mess. Anson Mount delivers in the funny department too as Pike serves up Vulcan food. Very poignant stuff here for Christine though, and though I was initially, “oh no,” continuity-wise, I really ended up liking what this MEANS to what we saw on TOS.

“Lost in Translation” 🖖🖖🖖

A bit cliche, but a good Uhura episode, and though it seems like they're trying a little TOO hard to bring Kirk in, the Lt. Kirk/Ensign Uhura dynamic here is really good. The Jim/Sam thing also something I enjoyed. What makes this episode for me though is when Uhur figures out what's going on, Pike trusts her. Blows up a whole-ass mining station on the word of one Ensign. Go, Nyota!

"Those Old Scientists" 🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖

Just perfect. From the seemless merger of Lower Decks animated characters, to the meta commentary about "oddly specific references" and people talking "really slowly and quietly" this just works. Also ENT love! Uhura and Ortegas geeking out over Sato and Mayweather just made my day. So much fun, nothing could wipe the smile from my face! (Spoiler alert: The next episode will gut me.)

"Under the Cloak of War" 🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖

Holy crap. You thought DS9 played around with questionable moral decisions in a war setting, SNW here shows us they're not afraid to travel into Moore/Behr's space and take a whirl. The weirdness with M'Benga pays off here, and as a veteran myself they way this episode delves into our inability to provide the emotional context to what war does to us to someone without the same frame of reference? Fantastic. I was pretty uptight for most of this episode, because I felt it. I cried in places, was made uncomfortable in places, and what a set of reveals for both Christine and of course M'Benga as we see those flashbacks.

"Subspace Rhapsody"🖖🖖🖖

I WANT to give this one another LLAP, as I love musicals, and I love the fact they were bold enough to do one. The cast pulls off their numbers wonderfully, there's some great moments, especially between Jim and La'an (HE'S BACK???), and they conceit that makes this work is though a hair silly, pretty consistent with Trek and it's quantum/multiversal/anomaly episodes of times past. The only thing that doesn't work for me are the songs themselves. A couple are OK, but they just didn't stick with me. And I made sure I watched a couple of times, just to see if it was my mood. I can't help but compare this to Buffy The Vampire Slayer's "Once More With Feeling" though, and there are three songs from that I keep on my permanent playlist, and can sing pretty much the whole ep verbatim. This didn't make me want to do that; I just really enjoyed it. I wanted to love it. (Shout out though to the "Once More With Feeling" Easter Egg.)

"Hegemony" 🖖🖖🖖🖖

As soon as they gave Captain Batel a first name in the musical, I got worried, and sure enough these Gorn bring that to fruition. She's not dead yet, but she's in trouble, and this is a tight action episode. I appreciate that this new young Montgomery Scott is a) played by a Scot, and b) something of a mix between the Doohan and Pegg versions of the character. My only fear now is we have this cliffhanger, and between the writer's strike and modern TV's general refusal to follow seasonal schedules, we may be in for a far worse wait than the summer of 1990 left us with William Riker's "Fire."

So that's my take. Yes, there are missteps, or things that don't QUITE work, but if I want to compare this to the glory days of 90s Trek, we're only 20 episodes in, and already having a great time when TNG, DS9, and VOY all took at least a season or two of 24 episodes each to find their way. Sure, classic Trek all but hit it out of the gate, but again, we don't have but slightly more than 2/3 of their first season of episodes. We’re 20 episodes in and the worst ones are JUST good, there hasn’t been a bad one yet. SNW has found a way to be a prequel without suffering from their audience’s foreknowledge, and fit themselves firmly into Trek lore without just relying on playing Trek Trivia Madlibs to write their scripts (though Kirk KEEPS showing up!). I'm a little worried as I was really digging on DISCO for the first two seasons as well, and season 3 was a huge disappointment to me. Let's hope whenever we get back to this, they keep up the good work. I am more than ready to again boldly go.

[jennawynn]

Chronotrek: Strange New Worlds Part 1

I've now finished Enterprise and Discover seasons 1 and 2, as well as all the Short Treks up to Children of Mars.

For those of you who are just finding this (sorry for invading your SNW tag), when I started this 'project', I had only seen a handful of episodes of ANY Trek content and the JJ Abrams movies. I decided to watch all the Star Trek canon in in-universe chronological order. Well, simplified. I watch typically while I'm working, so not only might I miss a few things when I get focused, but I also can't just switch episodes on the fly, so I'm only switching at the ends of seasons. No "this episode had time travel and they went back 300 years, so it should be between these two episodes of a different show" stuff. But I am splitting Disco at the end of season 2 so I've finished Season 2 and will pick up 3 after I finish ALL THE REST OF TREK :scream:

You can follow me on this journey (or block it) with the tag #chronotrek.

Ok! On to Strange New Worlds Season 1!

Interesting intro... retro but modern, very colorful (like they said their uniforms were when Pike was introduced on Disco 2x1 :joy:)

Tell me Number One never has a name. I think that was an excellent running gag.

Pike looks like Chris Pine with that beard. I thought that was the former Admiral Cromwell until they showed her face, like it was a flashback. I don't actually know what the dates of everything are, so the date flashing on the screen means nothing. lol

I thought she looked a little familiar, but did not recognize Melanie Scrofano.

At first I thought it was flashing all the way back to Archer's dad and the warp engine. That was in Montana too, right? Were Pike and Archer both horse guys from Montana or am I confusing the two?

Aww Spock guessed right, her name IS Una. Which... is number one :Joy: omg I thought I wouldn't like her being named but the name is a PUN?? I take it back.

Shuttle Stamets?? They named a shuttle after him?

So I guess they retconned the last tiny bit of Disco season 2? Where Spock shows up without a beard and they go off doing things.

And a ship named for Archer.

Mentions of Lt Kirk along with Uhura on the bridge... I know those names.

That should be 'you have the conn' not the comm. >.>

So Pike is scared of what he saw in the time crystal. Not issues with the Discovery 'disappearance.'

Jumping right to the 'another civilization is following the same kind of historical story beats' so we're going down to Alien!World War II or Alien!Civil War Part 2.

Spock looks like Cumberbatch :joy:

lmao using footage from Jan 6 as documentation of the beginning of WW3.

Now there's black side panels to the women's uniforms that look like dress tunics instead of shirts? And Kirk is Samuel, not Jim? idk who Sam is.

Episode 2 Children of the Comet

Shades of Hoshi Sato there- the comms officer who knows way too many languages and is afraid of away missions. It's weird because I know that Uhura is an OG character, so Hoshi came after her, but this show is after Enterprise (and I haven't seen OG Trek) so to me, she's Sato II not the other way around.

Why would you take a man's helmet off after a blow? One, you're wearing the helmets for a reason. Can you breathe? Two, if he had a head or neck injury the helmet could be the only thing keeping him from getting injured even worse.

She has a pretty voice.

I mean... the comet _let them go_ shouldn't the Shepherds respect that?

There is a reason things like 150 and 180 are said 'one-five-oh' or 'one-eight-zero' and not one-fifty or one-eighty. It could cause miscommunication, confusing it for 115/118.

"Maybe don't judge our faith next time." Pike's smirk saying 'we made your god change its mind.' ...so then they explain how the comet is precognitive? It is fate and not science? That seems antithetical to Trek? I thought science was the god Trek worshipped.

I don't like Spock's little curls on the ends of his sideburns.

Episode 3

Yet another reason that the highest level officers shouldn't be on away teams- when someone gets infected with something at impairs their decision making and such who is in charge of the ship, bad things can happen.

Oooh what's M'benga hiding?

Number One has a last name too? And not just one but two!

She just fuckin' carries a full grown man over her shoulder like it's nothing. That's a dummy :joy: Why she so strong? Oh, the strength is even remarked on by the nurse. It's A Thing. She's not human? And nobody knew that? I feel like that would have been a thing noticed in all the many times Starfleet surely scans you. Like... species _has_ to be a thing that they know for medical reasons.

Rukiya means 'she rises up' in Swahili. I used that name for an NPC trans princess in my D&D game. She's The Chosen One.

[laranoa]

Nobody asked but I just watched season 5 of star trek the next generation and heres my thoughts on every episode

1 Redemption Part 2

I really am not good with the Klingon politics, I find the characters hard to follow however the duras ladies are kind of serving. Yar daughter is kind of cool but it's funny how Picard just kinda accepts its true despite it being literally impossible.

2 Darmok

I thought this episode was really sweet. it was small in scale compared to most others. No impending doom, no real conflict, just some friends learning a language. And an invisible monster but y'know. It is a bit laughable no one figured it out before with how simple it is, but I guess it had to be so audiences could understand

3 Ensign Ro

Oh hey I know her from homicide! I find it kind of annoying when shows are like "actually the freedom fighters never did a terrorism after all, so you're allowed to sympathize with them now!" Subverted a bit but still. Also starfleet is still rampant with corruption lol

4 Silicon Avatar

Wow I did not expect the crystal thing to come back. I have to admit the ending of this one really got to me. Like I felt genuinely sad for that thing and hatred for the scientist. I often get annoyed that there's too many data episodes but I didn't mind this one.

5 Disaster

This episode was fine, not a lot to say about it except it gave characters who don't normally interact a chance to, which was neat. Picard and the kids was cute too. It's funny how he's supposed to be bad with kids yet he is consistently very good with kids.

6 The Game

I kinda liked seeing Wesley again but I was too weirded out by the rest of this. The way at the end they just kinda go "aha villain we foiled your plan! Welp back to business" as if they didn't just all do horrible things. Also the data deus ex machina was unsatisfying.

7 Unification Part 1

I mean... I have no nostalgia for Spock so this means basically nothing to me. However, this is the first real exploration of who the Romans actually are, which was sorely needed, so I appreciate that.

8 Unification Part 2

Like I said on the last one, I'm glad Romulans are finally getting fleshed out a little bit. I also thought the conversation that Spock and data had was nice. Live long and prosper is super corny I'm sorry. I'm kinda glad they basically never say it on this show

9 A Matter of Time

I get what they were going for but the tonal difference between the dying planet plot and the archaeologist guy didn't do it for me. I don't really understand how the character knew so much about the enterprise to begin with but perhaps he was just very good at bluffing.

10 New Ground

Despite loving Worf I have to admit I didn't care for that many Worf episodes because I struggle to follow Klingon politics. This, however? I very much enjoyed watching him be a shitty father. I couldnt help constantly noticing how Alexander was clearly white. like not that its bad it was just funny

11 Hero Worship

I'm gonna be real this one made me cringe so hard I stopped halfway through. like I'm sorry but Troi saying they should encourage what is obviously super unhealthy behavior just bothered the hell out of me. Pass.

12 Violations

This was particularly dark for the show but I do kind of like it as an exploration of rape. they handled it pretty well. I don't like how ambiguous the riker scene is though. I don't think he actually did all that but you could read it that way.

13 The Masterpiece Society

"What if there was a society with customs we find repulsive but they liked it" is a pretty standard episode plot so this one is kinda whatever. The stakes felt too low in this, like I didn't really buy the idea that the society would collapse if they removed a few people.

14 Conundrum

A lot of missed potential here; they resumed their normal roles so quickly it felt like they never explored the amnesia except for with ro and riker. It went back to feeling like a standard episode pretty fast. I get that they had to move the plot along but still. Also picard just killed those people and went "oops sorry guys"

15 Power Play

I really enjoyed this episode, it was fun to see the characters behave so differently and for Troi to have a more assertive role. It's absurd that they don't have some sort of Data containment plan, he is simply too powerful... but not as powerful as O'Brien's "wife guy" energy, strong enough to completely derail a hostile invading spirit

16 Ethics

This episode was decent but I was really baffled by the lack of Geordi. The script was so concerned about the ethics of euthanasia that it never really stopped to critique Worf's views on disability. Idk I think it's a missed opportunity. Although I guess Geordi did have that same conversation in The Masterpiece Society.

17 The Outcast

I didn't really care for this one much, not because of gender politics but just because I found it boring & I did not think the character of Soren was very endearing. I'm sure there's a lot to be said about the episode's take on trans and nonbinary people, but I am not invested enough to unpack that

18 Cause and Effect

For the first half of this episode everyone *except* data experiences deja vu, which would be interesting as it's one of the only occasions he's actually at a disadvantage compared to the others. But then the solution ends up being "data can carry information to the next loop somehow" because of course data always has to save the day.

19 The First Duty

I mean I guess it's nice to see an episode where Wesley is in the wrong but man, this is just an incredibly awful situation. Depressing the whole way through. I didn't hate this episode, I'm mostly just shocked this is how they decided to conclude Wesley's storyline.

20 Cost of Living

This was roughly half of a pretty interesting episode about the relationship between Lwaxana and Alexander, which was left mostly unresolved in favor of a very uninteresting, completely unrelated plot in which data saves the day, again. I swear my contempt for him grows every day

21 The Perfect Mate

This episode is fine but it feels like everyone forgot that other women exist. Like it seems obvious to just have the metamorph attended to by women, but they don't even address it. Also I don't really like ferengi much, they are overly silly to the point where it detracts from the episode

22 Imaginary Friend

Another pretty unremarkable episode however I will say that I thought the actresses playing the two lead girls did an excellent job, they were really a cut above all the other child actors I've seen on this show.

23 I, Borg

I thought this one was great, It really subverted my expectations. I expected Picard to empathize with the Borg while everyone else hated it, but it was neat to see him be such an asshole and so completely wrong for once. Men will literally engineer a deadly virus instead of going to therapy

24 The Next Phase

Objectively this episode is nothing special however I am a sucker for this trope so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Rip to that one romulan, he just wanted help getting back to normal but instead he got launched into space

25 The Inner Light

The way this is an intensely traumatic experience that would take years to recover from and they're just gonna never mention it again? Oh my god? "Sorry man the family you dedicated decades of your life to is all dead. Now get up, you gotta captain this ship"

26 Time's Arrow Part 1

This feels really "small" compared to a lot of the past season finale episodes, not that thats a problem necessarily. Also i feel like the head would be the talk of the enterprise. i would be trying to get my buddy in engineering to sneak me in so i can see the head

[misireads]

Män som hatar kvinnor (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) by Stieg Larsson

[ audiobook, listened in finnish ]

an investigative journalist and the head of a magazine named millennium is convicted of publishing a fradulent article defaming some billionaire guy and decides to step down from his position. he's then hired by an elderly former CEO of a powerful family enterprise to travel to some tiny ass town in the middle of nowhere to investigate what happened to this old man's great niece who disappeared 40 years ago. mikael the journalist accepts the assignment, not expecting to find anything new at this point, but is drawn in deep into the vanger family's troubling history and broken relationships with each other. his research is eventually joined by a very weird young woman named lisbeth who turns out to be one hell of a hacker, and together they not only solve the lost niece's case but also reveal how that billionaire that mikael originally wrote about is even shadier than expected.

➕ this is really three stories in one: the story of mikael and millennium and the wennerström guy he wrote the article about; the story of the vanger family and the mystery of harriet's disappearance; and the story of lisbeth, her past and present, a total deep dive into what made her the kind of person she now is and how she operates. and i looove that, i really enjoy layered storytelling. when you go in, you don't know what to expect and there's the intrigue about mikael's sentencing, then you're thrown a curveball about this really complicated family, all while lisbeth's story kinda plays in the background seemingly unrelated. this captured my attention wholly and completely.

➕ i adore lisbeth's character. she's implied to be neurodivergent, a total bad bitch who doesn't take shit from anyone, defies all expectations, is independent and resourceful despite nobody having any faith in her. she gets back at her tormentors in the most satisfying way.

➕ the vanger family deserves its own plus point because i just love stories about weird families with internal conflict and tons of skeletons in the closet and the protag has to kind of dig it all out because nobody is willing to speak but it's obvious there's something very wrong about these people. though the truth about them turned out to be so gross instead of just weird, it's really off-putting but

➕ i liked that this was a mystery solved by a journalist and a… well whatever lisbeth is, because i'm not really a fan of police or detective novels. i mean i've read some good ones but i dunno, i always prefer stories about laypeople solving mysteries and crime.

➕ this is soooo swedish.

➖ could have been a bit shorter, some parts kinda dragged on. although i liked the ending, there were like 3 hours left of the audiobook by the time the harriet mystery had been solved which made me kinda… okay time to speed the audio up to 1.25x because this is gonna drag the fuck oooon.

➖ content-wise this gets really really gruesome. it was almost a bit much even for me.

➖ not a minus about the book itself but i find it in such poor taste that the english translation is titled "the girl with the dragon tattoo" which is a reference to a very minor detail about lisbeth and it just does nothing for this novel or anything in general. i can understand maybe they didn't want to call this "men who hate women" (which is the literal translation they kept for the finnish title) for international marketing purposes because it would deter so much of the male target audience lmao (i don't think it does in sweden and finland??? just saying). but the original title packs way more of a punch because that's exactly what this book is about, it's about misogynism. and that title is so self aware. but no, instead you make it "the girl with the dragon tattoo" and lisbeth isn't even the main character. she's a secondary one, a sidekick to mikael. this book isn't about her per se and most definitely not about her tattoos. what a stupid choice. i don't want to watch the film versions because i worry they made this way more about her than it should be.

⭐ score: 4- -- one of the better mysteries i've read in a long time for sure. i don't think i'll go for the sequels though, i had my share of mikael and lisbeth already. the audiobook was like 18 hours long.