#the women of picard deserve better

[tuttle-did-it]

I am also not American. But I echo all of this. They should have never brought Data back. They fridged Ro Laren - and only gave her 1 episode. The ONLY good thing about season 2 was the storyline with Q and Picard- and they shat all over it by bringing Q back. Jack Crusher was the WORST character- and the idea that Q would be interested in Jack is laughable. Also Jack was dreadfully cast- the actor is nearly 40 and looks it, and he’s playing a 23 year old and it is distracting and ridiculous how bad of an actor he is. 

Seven just literally listens to the men trauma-dump the entire time. Beverly exists to moderate her son’s feelings and his father’s feelings- nothing about her as a person. Riker’s storyline is also about trauma over a son. 

They turned all the women into wallpaper, where they only exist to support and further the men on the rare occasion that they step out of the shadows. They break up Raffi and Seven up for no reason. Raffi spends season 3 being told to control herself by men. They spend 9/10 of the season dead-naming Seven and forcing her to put up with abuse from Shaw. They screwed the Queer characters completely. 

Oh, and 'the robot's right'??? Seven is half bionic!!! Her best friend on Voyager was a hologram! She specifically says on Voyager that she is more bionic than she is human. She has crippling loyalty to Picard, who is in an android body. She spends an entire season getting deadnamed by Shaw, she is the last person who would negate Data's identity like that. Seven would NEVER say that- and that's just one example of many where they re-wrote the character to be nonsensical and ridiculous.

Geordie manages to re-build a huge ass space ship by himself, the size of a city? BY HIMSELF??? in just a few days so perfectly that he manages to replicate the carpet just right- but the original Enterprise D took over 1000 people to run??? How are 7 people taking that huge ship into battle? He had time to source the perfect carpet? Where was he hiding this massive project? How did he manage to even find the components to put the ship together and give it power, let alone the perfect carpet? We've seen the shipyards where they build these ships- it takes hundreds of people years to screw down every bolt, every panel. The ship hasn’t been tested. The entire crew of Voyager spent days flat-out building a shuttlecraft, and that wasn’t even a star ship. And the ship wasn’t perfect when they made it- they had to make a lot of corrections. What, besides nostalgia, is powering this bloody ship? 

It was bad enough on the finale of Enterprise when they brought on Riker and Troi to finish off the last 5 minutes of the show as a Holodeck programme because the cast of the Enterprise didn’t even get to finish their own show. But this show brought all the core TNG characters in to finish this show- an entire third of the show, a full season. 

Star Trek: Picard has retro-actively made me hate not only all of Picard, but TNG as well. 

THE ONLY PEOPLE I KNOW WHO LIKE SEASON 3 OF STAR TREK PICARD ARE CIS HET WHITE MIDDLE CLASS MIDDLE AGED MEN. Everyone else I know hates it for all these reasons (and more- we’re just hitting broad strokes, here). 

Maybe I’m just missing an obvious detail because I’m not from America but I thought Picard season 3 was the only good one? The first 2 seasons felt like bland slop that you could watch hundreds of hours of from any American network but the third at least felt like they were using Picard as a captain rather than a mouthpiece for the writers. I remember watching the original series when I was younger and the show under Alex Kurtzman felt like it had such a distain for the original I found it almost petty

(1) I am not American.

(2) I've already expressed my opinion in a great deal of detail in a great many places, but basically it boils down to this: When I think about TNG and what I liked from it, I don't just think about the characters. I think about the moral dilemmas; about the social commentary; about the thought-provoking science fiction concepts; about the contemplation of the human condition. The first two seasons, for all of their flaws--and I agree, they had flaws in absolute spades--offered all of these things. The third season, by and large, did not. It was an action movie, complete with quips, morally weightless violence, and a plot that was resolved simply by killing the bad guys. And you know what, I did enjoy seeing the old crew again; I grew up with TNG, I was literally obsessed with it for my entire childhood. I had comic books and action figures of the entire crew. But it all just felt so hollow.

And you say that the first two seasons felt disdainful. I entirely disagree. But I absolutely think that the third season was completely disdainful of the first and second. 80% of the original cast was pushed out and never even mentioned, not even when they were plot relevant. Data comes back to life and no one tells him that he has a daughter; that there's now an entire planet of Soong-type androids and he's no longer alone in the universe. The Borg come back and no one even mentions Jurati, who spent the entire second season becoming a Borg Queen. Raffi learns to swordfight from Worf and never feels the need to mention that her adopted son is a Romulan swordmaster. Rios's ship, La Sirena, is just casually dumped somewhere after the fifth episode, presumably alongside his chorus of holograms; the script can't be arsed to tell us what became of it. Laris tells Picard in the second scene of the first episode of the season that she will be waiting for him at some café. She's never seen or even mentioned again. Disdainful? The third season is positively contemptuous of the first two, of their characters, and of all of us fans who liked them.

Anyways, that's why I don't like it. Hope that helps.

[tuttle-did-it]

(a rant about Star Trek: Picard)

So I just watched an episode of The Ray Bradbury Theatre (S.2, e11), 'There was an Old Woman.' It aired in May of 1988.

In this episode, an old woman, Tildy, played by Mary Morris, is surprised when men come into her house with a wicker basket that is the general shape of a coffin. There's a strange man who is completely silent. Tildy talks to him, yells at him and eventually tells all the men to get out of her house.

Turns out, predictably, they've come to collect her body and she is dead. The silent man is obviously Death, and he seems to respect the fact that she's spent all this time yelling at him because he eventually just puts his hat on and leaves.

For 30 minutes, this 70+ woman essentially monologues about her life. How she had refused to marry, how she had refused to have children. How she had raised her sister's daughter (and loved her) when she died. How she had never compromised her needs and wants for men. And how proud she was of all of this.

In the end, Tildy screams at the men at the funeral parlour to give her back possession of her own body. Confused, they agree. She gets back into her body, and goes back to her house.

Tildy was the primary focus for the entire show. Her needs, wants and desires were paramount. Sometimes she talked about men, but most of the time, she talked about herself and her own life.

Tildy was allowed to be angry. She was allowed to be emotional. She was allowed to tell men to leave her space. Tildy demanded autonomy over her own body- she literally screamed at about 10 men and argued to get possession of her own body back. Tildy yelled at all the men to take her body back home, to pick her up and put her back over her body, and then SHE found a way on her own to take control back over herself. And then she kicked all the men out.

Raffi's entire storyline in season 3 has been Worf telling her to control herself and calm down, but Tildy, in 1988, was allowed to be angry and emotional the whole time.

Tildy, as a ghost, got more respect from all the men in the room than Shaw has shown Seven in every scene.

The final scene is her in her chair, Tildy happily muses that the coroner's sewing up of her chest during her autopsy was 'decent sewing, for a man.'

Tildy had more agency and identity in a show from 1988 than ANY of the women from Star Trek: Picard have had in season 3 in particular.

All I could think about when watching this was how much more progressive this episode was compared to what I've seen from Star Trek: Picard.

How, in Picard, they keep everyone (but especially the mature women) in dark corners so you can barely see their faces. Picard's age is one that feeds directly into the plot at various points- sometimes there are light-hearted jokes, but for the most part, we're encouraged to relate and understand what life is like for man 'past his prime'.

Where is this discussion of age for Crusher? For Troi? For Laris (remember she exists?)? For any of the women? Riker gets to complain that his knees are shot- where's Crusher talking about her shoulder replacement? Oh, wait, that's right- Crusher's barely allowed to speak. Instead, she has to have long meaningful glances. And Gates does this amazingly well, but the men are allowed to monologue whilst the women are stuck in dark gloomy corners with ~meaningful glances~.

Tildy had her own unique storyline and identity that had nothing to do with the needs, wants and trauma of all the men around them. Because Seven, Crusher and Troi in particular have each been denied independent storylines, forced instead to orbit the men and mitigate the men's trauma and stories. Even Sidney's plot revolves around Daddy issues and a love interest with Picard's son.

And all I could think was how sad it was that this 70+ year old woman had more agency and identity in a show from 1988 than ANY of the women from Star Trek: Picard have had in season 3 in particular.

How we're allowed to SEE her -- LOOK at these lines.

Picard keeps all of their characters, but especially the ~women of a certain age~ in dark shadows. Gates McFadden literally said that she couldn't even see Patrick Stewart during filming for their scenes.

The saddest thing is, this episode from 1988 is not that groundbreaking; rather, it's just that Picard is that much of a failure when it comes to women.

In DS9, they gave Keiko her own storyline, and she wasn't even a main character. They gave Grilka her own storyline and she was in two episodes. So why can't Picard bother to give Seven something more to do than sit there and listen to abuse from Shaw and trauma-dumping from Picard and Jack? Oh, and wax lyrical nostalgia. Not enough.

And this isn't just a Star Trek: Picard thing. Yes, hands down, TOS was awful toward women and rarely let women even speak to each other. TNG only let Crusher and Troi talk to each other when it was about men and they were in leotards. But by the time they reached DS9, things were better. Kira is allowed to be angry when we meet her- and she stays angry for a long time. There are storylines about her anger. Keiko hates DS9. She's allowed to have a storyline about that. And for Voyager, Janeway has plenty of chats with B'Elanna, Kes and Seven that are not about men. B'Elanna is, like Kira, allowed to be angry (though VOY often takes a step backward saying that she is 'out of control' with her emotions-- notice the white woman (Kira) is allowed to be angry, but the woman of colour (B'Elanna,) is out of control. Some racial bias there, I think). Janeway is allowed to be occasionally batshit crazy, and that's okay.

Point is, by the time DS9 and VOY came on, they figured out that it was okay to have women as a focus for a story, and they were allowed to have their stories and plots and identities and needs and wants and mistakes of their own. There was room for improvement, but it was the 90s and it was better than TNG. Kira and Dax were allowed to be together to talk about nothing significant. They did this well on DS9, and although they could have done better on Voyager, the women were still autonomous and had their own identities.

So if Janeway, B'Elanna and Kira were allowed to be angry and emotional more than 2 decades ago, why is Raffi is treated as defective for her emotions? Why is she treated as a time-bomb who can't be controlled-- who is so out of control, by the way, that they have to separate her and Seven?

Dax (and Evil Kira!) are allowed to have romantic relationships with women and a career at the same time- something Seven and Raffi are not allowed to do because Matalas doesn't think you can have both simultaneously.

Star Trek: Picard has NO EXCUSE.

Gates McFadden, Jeri Ryan, Michelle Hurd, Michelle Forbes, Marina Sirtis and Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut have done amazingly well with the tiny crumbs they've been given this season. They've managed to make what are completely forgettable and insignificant moments realised just through brilliant acting- to move their characters beyond what few bits there are for them on the page. They deserve so much more than to only exist in order to further the needs and wants of the men in the show, and to give the men a sounding board to process their trauma.

But here's what I'm asking myself...

WHY IS AN EPISODE FROM A SHOW FROM 35 YEARS AGO MORE PROGRESSIVE IN ITS DEPICTION OF WOMEN THAN STAR TREK: PICARD?

In conclusion... tl;dr

The petrol of Nostalgia that this show [Picard] is currently running on is not enough because the very era they're being nostalgic about was more progressive than the current show.

[thegeminisage]

star trek update time. i realized when i went to type updates on enterprise that i never posted my notes about the 4th and final tng film so that's what this post is

first of all, this move was in fact bad, but the most hilarious part of it was trying to convince us that tom hardy was sir patrick stewart's clone. i'm a little bit face blind and even EYE can see the difference there

secondly, the planet remus introduced so much confusion. why are the alien planets naming themselves after earth mythology? what is a reman? this was the only thing i really felt curious about and they never explained ANYTHING

audible reaction when picard came onscreen the first time. perfectly synchronized cries of "gross!" we're professional haters. luckily, we don't have to see him again until picard. i won't miss him.

when he told data to shut up at the wedding toast :( WHY DOES PICARD HATE AUTISTIC PEOPLE

we did use the mexico filter in this movie. really something.

it's always funny when we find a disembodied data head and despite my low opinion of tng i do appreciate that they jumped on that opportunity whenever possible

"why is your head shiny" also good. get his ass

riker's beard is back. thank god.

WEPT when captain janeway showed up. it should have been the janeway movie. i wanted to know everything about how she was doing!!!

giving data's memories to some random robot we found on the ground is so stupid. what if that guy is lore. what if he's rigged to blow

"she's a predator!!" i don't remember what this means

the viceroy looks like nosferatu

BALD TOM HARDY IS SO FUNNY. bald on bald violence. solas ass looking motherfucker. the clone reveal makes total sense when you consider tom hardy is also bald. thats the big similarity. don't worry about the lucious lips on tom hard picard lost them because of a lifetime of diplomacy or whatever. even his hs pic was bald

sexism against deanna was rampant in this movie as always. picard as like hey can you get mind raped again for us? like in the line of duty? fuck off

data licking that nasty shit like connor dbh. please.

"romulans aren't women" i love tng. just kidding, i don't

tom hardy freeing slaves like solas lol. this movie is way more fun when you pretend its dragon age

speaking of, that whole telepathic assault bit with the sex scene was wretched and vile but it was VERY rook and solas

she was so hot in her nightgown by the way. please free her but she was so hot

her revenge was also SO hot. in a better movie all the sexist stuff would have been worth it for that. just once she deserves to fight back. it was so cathartic.

i miss geordi's visor. the blue eyes are racist

they mentioned the borg in this movie and it made me miss 7

"life is meaningless if you're still alive" i also don't remember what this means

"tom hardy neck bad" i don't remember this either but i believe me

data neck pinch! i also miss spock

the little cgi squirrel or whatever was so cute. i had to check doesthedogdie

picard little spooning in this gd movie. hey also why is he cheating on beverly again didn't they get together fr in the tng finale? i hate him

tom hardy went out so sexy. impaled himself on that spear. this is the worst movie ever made and he still put his pussy into it

the scene where data had to shut down that other data :( that genuinely got me, like he's so lonely

data's princess leia moment...i can't believe they killed him fr. i know he's in picard so i was shocked when they ended the movie w him still dead

also, wasn't this movie about putting down a slave rebellion? because tom hardy was helping free slaves? granted i wasn't paying a lot of attention but captain picard, what the fuck?

also, picard being sad while geordi has to work...geordi was his bestie you bitch!!

my final note here is "WORD CUCK CHAIR" which i think i typed after worf watched riker and deanna hold hands. never forget that they dated. also, someone needs to ask him about his dead wife.

[jesternene]

The Women of Star Trek: Picard

It is that time of year and the Emmy buzz is loud and proud among the different outlets promoting certain shows and actors that made an impact during their season. I agree with a lot of the articles that I have seen. However, there is one thing that is missing in their spotlight: The women.

As a Star Trek fan, the hype of the Final Season of Star Trek: Picard not only succeeded in their approach but they went above and beyond. The nice mix of new and nostalgia to the story was blended well and it deserves “Outstanding Drama Series” in the upcoming Emmys. The problem that I am having is not what we saw in the Season but how the Women of the series seem to be missing in that hype Star Trek: Picard is getting.

I agree that Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Levar Burton, and Michael Dorn were fantastic this season and do deserve to be recognized for their new approach to their characters, but the women were just as equally if not more deserving because the story mostly revolved around them.

Let’s start with Jeri Ryan. The beginning of Seven’s story started with controversy due to how they approached her character during her time in Star Trek: Voyager. As much as fans wanted to see the former Next Gen characters when Picard was announced, it was nice to see another character outside of that particular show, as all the characters in the Star Trek universe are important to the story. Seeing Seven as a rogue Fenris Ranger, going outside the law to do the greater good, was fantastic. It showed a different side to the character and the way Jeri approached that character was a breath of fresh air to those who adored her on Voyager. With the series ending, It was nice seeing the conflict with Seven on wanting to do the greater good but being stuck with regulations. Her performance in showing Seven’s struggle was brilliantly done. We knew why she did what she did and didn’t question her one bit. That was based on how Jeri approached it and seeing now Captain Seven, and wanting more of Captain Seven, is all to Jeri’s credit.

Michelle Hurd was new to the franchise but you never would have known. Her character Raffi worked so well with Picard, that you forgot she was never around during the TNG days. You bought that she had a history with Picard, even if we didn’t see it. The emotional turmoil her character went through brought Star Trek to a new level and it was character development that fans longed for. I give that credit to Michelle's approach to that. She embodied the struggle that Raffi was going through. The emotional roller coaster we saw was not only entertaining on so many levels, but it invoked emotional and tear-jerking scenes that the fans could feel and understand. When fans can relate to a character, you know the actor and the writer are doing their job.

Of course, fans not only wanted to see past and new characters in the franchise, but we wanted great stories as well. During the TNG days, some stories fell flat as they didn’t bring the characters to the level that the fans felt they should have. What was interesting about the final season of Star Trek: Picard is the writers decided to not only take that extra step but put the characters through those emotional scenes that the fans waited 35 years for. Gates McFadden was a fan favorite to return and she did not disappoint with those types of scenes.

Giving her character a complete 180 backstory, allowed Gates to showcase just how great an actress she is. With over 40+ years under her belt, Gates brought everything she had ever done in her career and embodied it in the character of Dr. Beverly Crusher. A character that she holds dear to her heart, she wanted to make sure that the fans understood the love and heartbreak of Beverly. She had scenes that required no words but it tugged on the heartstrings of the viewer that we wanted to see more. Her chemistry with Patrick Stewart only highlighted his scenes for the better. Ed Speelers, who plays her son Jack Crusher, mixed well with how Gates approached this side of Beverly and it was the Mother Son scenes that fans longed for. This season not only went down as one of the best in the Star Trek Franchise but for Gates as well. The emotion she played, minor details of a chin quiver, or even a small smile, really brought out why Beverly Crusher is the fan's character. They can relate to her on so many levels and it is that acting that deserves to be recognized among her fellow peers and the industry.

And let's not forget, more powerhouse women showcased their chops in every scene they were given. Amanda Plummer as the new villain, Vadic, made fans delight in her sarcastic demeanor. Even though it was one episode, the return of Michelle Forbes as Ro Laren, was the highlight as her character was redeemed in a way that fans always wanted. Seeing Deanna Troi, played by Marina Sirtis, was more in tune with her empathic side, and being one of the instrumental heroes of the season was also a highlight we wanted to see. The industry can not forget how much the women impacted this season and with an award season causing so much buzz, It is important we focus on why. 

All in all, the entire cast of Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard was the best mix anyone could hope for. We already knew that the TNG cast was perfect, but adding the new characters just focused more on that. We love these characters and we love the actors that play them. Let’s give them the attention they deserve because, without them, Season 3 wouldn’t have been what it was.

J

[leighlew3]

For some reason I couldn’t send the link of this post but I could download the picture and send it (hopefully)

This is what I was references in that ask to you lol

Ah. And... yeah. A painful and unnecessary creative choice.

Look, overall I'm loving Picard, despite quite a few issues with some creative choices and contradictions, because this nostalgia is incredible and so appreciated and being able to witness these characters in action again has been WONDERFUL.

That being said... well, I'm about to launch into a ramble.

Buckle up, and keep reading if you'd like...

Picard had an ICONIC legacy female character in an interracial wlw relationship with a dynamic new Black female character -- both women over the age of 50 no less, an amazing thing to explore on screen -- and it worked. And so many fans loved it and felt represented and thrilled to kingdom come. And it fit with the Star Trek brand of inclusion and acceptance in a modern society. It also made Voyager fans of 25 years feel vindicated and seen, having Seven not only confirmed as sapphic, but actually exploring it on screen and finding love, even if a "happy ending" for Seven was never in the cards for many reasons, they could have explored why instead of just sweeping it under the rug off screen and reducing it to one awkward glance between them, a joke from Worf, and that was it. Seven and Raffi deserved better. Queer fans deserved better.

Alas, they tossed it in the trash for no valid reason at all, and at the worst possible time in our current social and political landscape of an outdated and frighteningly dangerous resurgence of homophobia, transphobia, etc. Life imitates art, and art imitates life. And thus, now we see conservative-run media companies catering again to the vocal, hateful little groups and extremist far right fear mongers. There is a very obvious bias of late again against LGBTQ content (especially wlw due to the frightening rise in misogyny yet again lately) across nearly every channel and streamer and studio.

For that matter, even beyond LGBTQ stories, there's also a significant reduction in the exploration of ANY sexuality on screen across the board lately, even for cishet couples. We somehow went from Hollywood being absurdly and unfairly exploitive towards women and putting actors in uncomfortable and unnecessary situations, to some sort of bizarre, puritanical, utterly sexless exploration of romance on screen. And even a reduction of romance entirely in many cases, for that matter. We went from one extreme to the other, and it's absolutely nuts.

Anyway, back on the topic of Picard, the two actresses who previously were captains of the ship and ALL about the pairing have since seemingly now had to backtrack, make excuses for this bizarre decision, or just not speak on it at all. And that's beyond sad.

And again, it makes me concerned that if Seven does get her own spin-off or is a part of a new spin-off again, they'd likely not include Raffi nor explore Seven being with women further. Which would just be LITERALLY going backwards in time to the days of Voyager where many (not all) straight male fans tried to claim her as theirs and theirs alone while reducing her to just "the hot Borg in a cat suit" even though everyone else knew she was three dimensional as hell, one of the best written and acted characters in franchise history, and inherently representative of the LGBTQ community.

Anyway, I really really hope they prove me wrong and Saffi get a satisfying ending in this show, and if nothing else, even if they don't have a future together in other series, any other shows at least continue to embrace Seven's pansexuality. It's important.

Alas right now my trust in creatives in the TV space who are under the pressures of conservative-run media conglomerates... is limited. Even once seeming allies are showing sides to themselves lately that are... concerning, to say the least. People who previously would tell incels to F' off, and weren't afraid to stand up to and block phobes on Twitter are now blocking queer fans for just asking "WTF?" about queer favorites being sidelined or ships being tossed in the trash. People who previously seemed to truly see and value queer fans are now bordering on just using them for clicks and stringing them along on likely hopeless efforts regarding show survival. And people who actually do mean well and usually stand up loud and strong for LGBTQ audiences are suddenly growing very, very quiet if not even in some cases TURNING on their queer fans entirely as TPTB remove more and more wlw content from airwaves and streamer services.

It's all very disheartening. As a writer who has had this conversation so often with producers and executives, I GET IT. The fight is NOT an easy one. And most the time inclusion efforts are flat out shot down. But it feels like so few people are walking the talk anymore. People who capitalized heavily on LGBTQ characters and ships and fans for a few years when it was hot are now turning their backs when the going has gotten rough. And that's frustrating for us all.

But, the good news: these things are often cyclical. So if everybody can hang in there, stay strong, and fight the good fight online and IRL, rock the VOTE, etc and drown out the hateful voices that want the LGBTQ community silenced or worse, then I believe we can set (or force, in many cases) the misguided, fearful, extremist-rightwing-catering media companies back to the proper side of history.

[worldcatlas]

TNG: Encounter at Farpoint

Following Star Trek’s cancellation in 1969, fans demanded to be returned to their ship for nearly twenty years before The Next Generation hit the airwaves. With it, we got a new Enterprise, a new captain, and a whole new decade of fashion to space-ify.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard, in many ways the polar opposite of Kirk, shows off the uniform of a more civilized Starfleet: they’re stiffer and more tailored than their predecessors, neat and militaristic, with sharp lines and metallic accents. The first of which is, of course, the comm badge, now a functional (and highly futuristic) use of the Starfleet insignia. The other, metal pips at the collar to indicate rank.

A 24th century captain: Distinguished. Educated. French.

The uniform’s pants are still black, which creates a nice slimming effect with the bottom of the shirt. As well, the pant legs are slit at the hem where they meet the boot, allowing a jauntier gait when crossing one’s luxury sized bridge.

It’s strangely easy to imagine a musical number about to begin…

Hold on a minute, didn’t Command used to be gold?

Pictured: The audience, demanding an explanation

Yes! But in the 24th century, we’ve moved beyond valuing material things like gold, so it has been demoted from Command to Operations. Or something. Anyway, captain red now. Not to worry – old school fans of the show are reassured that this is still the Star Trek they remember, and yes, we will still be sexualizing a selection of women serving on board the Enterprise-D.

At least it’s not a skin-tight catsuit or anything.

I will say, though, I do like that Deanna gets to wear interesting (and definitely non-regulation) accessories with her uniforms, such as this headband of braided metallic fabric.

It’s actually keeping the intrusive thoughts out.

Before the viewer has had time to digest the new uniforms and their lovely jewel tones, however, everyone’s favourite trickster god shows up to cause shenanigans in some serious medieval digs, complete with polished breastplate.

Heed me, mortals, for I am shiny.

When that fails to impress the boy he’s flirting with, he tries a different tack, demonstrating his knowledge of Terran historical costuming.

Hello, fellow humans. I, too, like to shoot gun and breathe poison.

But Starfleet captains are not so easy to provoke (anymore), and the unflappable Picard just wants this magic dingus off his bridge. We get one last costume from a time when, according to Q, “humans learned to control their military with drugs.”

I always dress like this when taking drugs.

With extra pockets (for more drugs).

One last accessory I need to mention before we leave the bridge is the lovely brass-coloured sash on Worf, which won’t survive to season 2. It has a neat little fringe and some kind of presumably-Klingon emblem, but looks a bit odd where it joins at the hip.

Do not look at me from that angle.

Oh, there’s also a story happening, and emergency circumstances force most of the crew to evacuate to the saucer section, which detaches and flees to safety – a very useful maneuver I’m sure we’ll be seeing plenty of times! 

As everyone moves about the ship, we get to see quite a few interesting ideas of what civilian clothing might look like in the 24th century:

Shortcut to futuristic clothing: angles.

Including the pleasant surprise that, on this Enterprise, men finally get to wear skants too!

Those legs deserve no less!

Unsatisfied that the crew is trying to get on with the episode, Q makes his new friends play on his terms, zooping them to his courthouse. As the presiding judge, he wears an incredible ensemble: floor-length black and red robes, red leather gloves, a beautifully ornate necklace, and a very silly hat.

His gathered audience, however, appears to be clad largely in scraps and bits of rope.

Someone mentioned there would be craft services?

At least the court’s bailiffs are better dressed, in cool hats and robes with metallic details. There’s a lot going on with these costumes, and it’s a shame they don’t get more screentime.

A six-foot staff goes with any outfit.

Elsewhere, oblivious and unbothered, some of the crew visit Farpoint Station, where things are suspiciously magically perfect, and everyone has good taste in fabric.

A silk blend, at this price?!

Except for the sketchy guy in charge, whose flawlessly sci-fi name is Groppler Zorn. Zorn mostly just drapes himself in brown gauze, and doesn’t even do anything with his hair. He does accessorize with a tasteful necklace/chest piece, however, which appears to be made of nacre. Also, he is definitely up to something.

Me? Nothing! …What was the question?

In a surprisingly touching passing of the torch, DeForest Kelley makes a cameo, reprising the role of Dr. Leonard McCoy to get one last Vulcan insult in before retirement. He wears a cozy grey sweater with interesting epaulets that probably have nothing to do with his rank over a black shirt and trousers. I love the detail of tucking the pants in over the boots in a poofy way like the TOS uniforms.

Back in my day, boy, androids could only be plot devices.

Last but absolutely not least, the pilot episode gives us a peek of the REAL reason we’re all here: Wesley sweaters.

Magnificent. Breathtaking. Exceptionally brown.

It’s giving 2364 – and yet – solidly 1987.

[aenslem]

Of the new star trek shows which do you recommend I start watching first? I started Picard when it first came out but only the first couple of episodes and i've seen most of the first season of Discovery... and you seem to love SNW, spoiler free opinions?

I love all of the trek shows, so, expect to waste your time reading this and getting absolutely nothing but me yelling about how much I love women, a lot of words and wrong use of commas.

if you want specially one of the newest shows, I suggest starting with discovery and then watch snw. But dsc is kinda fast, the story just starts right away and it's not one story per episode show, like snw, so if you want to start from something to get to know the world, love this universe, then snw is the best choice, but if you have seen some old shows, dsc is fine to start and you will meet snw cast there too and then you will already have an idea who they are, also Pike's story is more understandable if you have seen dsc.

Picard is good, mostly, well, I am not picky lmao, but I would not suggest starting with it if you never saw the next generation. Because, i don't think picard will be easy to understand and love if you never saw tng, and I guess it will be less enjoyable if you do not know the story from the beginning. I would even say last season is specifically for those who love tng and it's all about nostalgia, I enjoyed it, but I am not that sure I would enjoy it as much, if I have not seen tng.

I love Jean Luc, I love all of the tng cast, but I really wish they would use new characters along the way with the old ones, like, use them more and better. Raffi is amazing, I am so happy they at least showed her, because I love her, she is badass, beautiful, gorgeous woman

and I really wish they would actually make a seven/raffi show, because I would die for it. Seven in picard is so much more for me than what she was in voyager, I never felt that much love for her back then, even though I loved her, I just could not connect to her somehow, but when she appears in picard, I am sold out lmao yeah, maybe it's my love for middle aged women speaks right now, but can you blame me lol, have you seen Jeri?? exactly! But I love her as a character right now so much more, and I want her to have the best life ever. and the ship and crew and family and love and i want her to smile more, she deserves it all

Picard is somehow fading away after watching it, like, I can remember what it was about, I remember scenes, but it does not stay with you after, if you ever remember cast of picard you remember tng time, then what was in picard. Well, at least for me that's how it is. I would prefer if they actually used those characters they brought in first season more, then losing them along the way and showing mostly old cast. Like, I love nostalgia stuff but not when it's all about nostalgia, new characters have to be there, new stories have to be told, and there is always a place to tell a story of an old character as well, you just don't have to create entire show just for it, or at least give life to something new also, there were great new characters, but some of them were lost by the end of the show and i don't even know what happened to them, if they ever mentioned it, i guess it was so brief that you hardly notice it. Also, it's not one story per episode show like tos, or tng, so you will have to watch entire season to get the full story.

New characters - I love Disco so much more because of that, it has so many great characters which we never knew before, while it also brings old characters who I love, and they are awesome. and new characters are main heroes

Michael Burnham!

I LOVE HER I LOVE HER SO MUCH she is one of the reasons you will love dsc, like you see all those captains getting all tired by the end of the shows needing 6 months' vacation twice a year? we all love it, so she was not even captain but already needed that much and more lol

She is great, you will hear people yelling she is not, well, you have to punch those people and move on, they are not worth of your time, because Michael Burnham is amazing. She did everything to save the universe, she went through hell and back few times to do it, and yet, she is still a good, caring person, wanting to save everyone, sacrificing herself for everyone, believing in the best of the people she meets, you will admire her. I also love her in 3.01, I am trying to not spoiler here, but that episode is the funniest shit you will see and I want Michael to have a day off, she deserves it.

it also sums up the show pretty well, cos you have crisis on crisis and more crisis going on every second of this show

dsc has so many more great characters, like Saru! I love him, he is awesome, also Stamets, Hugh, Adira, Jett Reno, PHILIPPA!!!!!

there is MICHELLE YEOH MICHELLE YEOH MICHELLE YEOH in this show

just women

the story... well, it's kinda hard to start explaining it without spoilers, so I won't even try, better watch it, but do not expect to go and have fun holodeck episodes and all, we are all serious here and facing the death of everything like all the time, but you will enjoy it if you love this universe.

SNW - well, if you have not seen tos or discovery, it's still a good start tbh. I would say it's the best start to know this universe out of these 3 shows

I am huge tos fan, so when these characters appear in disco i was like OMG NUMBER ONE THIS IS NUMBER ONE AND SHE IS PLAYED BY REBECCA ROMIJN ??? ARE YA KIDDING ME I AM GOING TO *SCREAMING YELLING RUNNING AROUND THE HOUSE* you get the point.

did not believe im getting it for real??? until i saw the first episode of the show lol. but since the moment it was announced I was waiting for snw so much, and I was not disappointed when I got the first season. It had everything I loved about tos and more, it's really good and it's not as other new trek shows, it is that old simple one story per episode show. it has it's 'not the best moments' and 'could be better moments' but overall, i enjoyed it the most from the new shows.

It also has its fun holodeck style episode, with them dressed as other characters. I love that shit honestly

it also shows that star trek universe has it's flaws and it is not all perfect, but they are trying

and snw shows more about the characters who were in tos, but we never get to know them for real, like the main cast. like M'benga, Chapel. but it also brings so many new great characters, like Erica, La'an, even those we do not know well yet, who appear for a short time, such as Pelia <3

Stories are also good. So yeah, go for it.

oh, and male characters are also great

[tuttle-did-it]

You could digitally erase Raffi and Seven and references to them from all of S3 and almost nothing would change about the plot.

Seven is there to do as Picard says, Raffi is there to be told by Worf to calm down.

I wish Seven and Raffi had been written out at the end of season 2.

There… said it.

[cicaklah]

star trek picard posting like its 2020 (bear in mind I am Not watching it I just have a lot of FEELINGS about something that ISNT EVEN A PLOT TWIST REALLY but cutting to save your eyes)

OH FOR FUCKS SAKE

bev deserves better. she deserved better than most of her plotlines lets be very real but her and picard dancing around each other was PART of why tng was Different and I genuinely love the episode where they get psychically linked and she realises that he's been in love with her for YEARS but is too Picard to do anything about it. Picard being bad with women is a plot thread I genuinely love, I find it very relatable, very unkirk about him. it is the subversion of the trope of spaceman with a lady on every planet!!! it is his hamartia! Apart from all his other flaws, which he has many!!!! because hes actually kind of a terrible person!!!!! but it is what makes him sad!!!!

THAT SAID....

if this ends up pressing any more of my stupid romance buttons I'm going to be forced to watch it???

OR AM I????

no. a line must be drawn!!!!! this far and no further!!!!!! I really loved s1 of picard in all its flawed glory for painting a picture of a federation and a starfleet that was starting to buckle under the strain of bad decision making and its ideals when it bit off more than it could chew. the glory days are gone. there is rot there. the federation went headlong from the dominion war into saving the romulans and it ruined them, it ruined everything, and we SAW this, we saw it in the new characters, in good officers and heroes outside of the system who should not have been there, old threads picked up and pulled on and unravelled, it stretched itself too thin. now, as with modern trek they still managed to do TOO MUCH, but on the whole...yeah. it worked enough. but much like disco s1 (which had very similar problems but ultimately wasn't bad) they ruined it with season 2.

anyway we know from the trailer that there is going to be holodeck shenanigans and Lore and other UTTER BULLSHIT and we probably will not have the nice nuanced 'how the fuck did we get here' minimum 3 episodes, explaining howe 50-something beverley crusher has a fling with picard and it goes so badly that when she gets pregnant she...never mentions it, literally runs away, no one either of them knows ever mentions it, she drops off the face of the galaxy to go do what I assume Seven was doing??? does seven know?? did she know??? doesn't the federation have some kind of MSF type of shit that she should be RUNNING?? THE WOMAN IS NEARLY 80 SHE SHOULD BE RUNNING THIS SHIT BY NOW.

(ALSO I KNOW I YELL ABOUT IT EVERY FUCKING TIME BUT THE LAST BEST HOPE WAS BETTER CANON THAN CANON SORRY I AM YELLING BUT LIKE A DECADE AGO BEVERLEY WAS IN A PLACE WHERE SHE WAS THE BEST CANDIDATE FOR JOINING THE VERITY BUT PICARD COULDNT GET OVER HIMSELF ENOUGH TO ASK HER AND I'M SORRY BUT THERE ARE OTHER JOBS IN THE GALAXY OTHER THAN NOBLE SPACE COASTGUARD OR SEXY SPACE PIRATE)

(IF SHE WAS A SEXY SPACE PIRATE SURELY RAFFI KNOWS ABOUT HER, OR RIOS, BUT OH WAIT HE DIED IN WW3 BECAUSE FOOD WAS BETTER BACK THEN)

(I AM STILL VERY ANGRY ABOUT SEASON 2)

anyway the only thing worse than all this isn't that somehow both troi and crusher are love interests whose plotlines revolve around the tragedgy that happened because they had babies with their strong space coastguard love interests, because that is bad, its not that once again the noble space coastguard man has been spermjacked by a woman like wot happened to worf and many other dudes across the series, the only thing worse that this is that its probably going to be a fakeout and they never actually did have sex.

(yes i realise that is a very stupid ending to this extremely stupid rant but sorry I will continue to be a complex idiot when it comes to star trek for as long as I live so help me god.)

[kcscribbler]

ST Ask: 6, 11, 49!

Disclaimer: I'll freely admit my answers will be biased in favor of TOS/possibly AOS, with occasional TAS, TNG, VOY additions. Haven't seen any of the rest other than the odd episode of DS9 and the 3rd season of Picard.

Full Ask Link for reference

Answers under the cut!

6. Character you feel a show (movie) could have done without? Ooh, interesting.

I want to avoid any appearance of sexism here, because my answer has nothing to do with gender: so don't crucify me before I'm finished. But AOS Uhura I could have done without, in the initial movie.

NOT because she's a bad character (in either TOS or AOS), or because she's played by a bad actress, because neither is anywhere close to true.

But because she was sidelined to very little purpose other than a love interest at the start, and this is not the way. I dislike when a movie or show is trying so hard to scream THESE TWO DUDES AREN'T GAY OKAY YOU CAN LET YOUR PRECIOUS CHILDREN WATCH THE MOVIE that there's inevitable collateral damage to really good, typically female, characters, in the form of poor writing. (Looking at you, Loki writing room.)

Powerful women can be powerful on their own merit, thank you very much. And if you can replace the character with one by any other name, and have it not affect the storyline that much? It's a writing problem, not an acting problem.

TLDR: Shoehorning her in as a substitute for McCoy in a totally!platonic!distortion of the TOS-era Triumvirate was not a good move, either to bring in old-school fans or to develop new ones. She deserved better, and so did we.

I like STID-era Uhura, and I adore Beyond-era Uhura. But before that, it's a toss-up for me.

/rant

11. Top 3 OTPs? I'll assume it's cheating to just give the 3 possible pairing permutations of the TOS Triumvirate, lol.

I'm definitely in the camp of "other people write sex, and much better than I would, so I'll happily stay in my little gray/gen/labels-are-overrated niche," but in that niche, my favorite relationships are:

TOS Kirk & Spock TOS McCoy & Spock Purely platonic: AOS Jim + Uhura, particularly post-STID Special mention: I have a lil soft spot for late-life relationships, so I'm going to throw movie-era Scotty/Uhura in there, just for fun.

49. A favorite ST fic? I don't tend to read much fanfiction anymore, because I have very little free time, and I try to stay well out of it (outside of specific recs by trusted people) while actively writing for a fandom, to avoid any subconscious idea-stealing.

But Loyal Unto Slaughter by Swiss Army Knife has always been a favorite of mine from the old-school ff.net days. What can I say, I'm a sucker for the five-and-one format and Shakespeare quotes.

For a longer story, The Dragons of Veyga by Closet Scrawler has always been one of my favorites. I love fics that take throwaway lines from the series and build beautiful stories from them.

This was fun, thank you for asking!

[thegeminisage]

tng update time. last night we watched "datalore" together and this morning i caught "angel one" on my own

datalore: not terrible!! i felt really bad for data the entire time of course. kind of delighted to find out he is amnesiac-adjacent in this episode, at least as far as not knowing where he comes from or why. i've gotten used to thinking of him as friend-shaped but lore reminded me of just how creepy he actually does look because he was making the creepy faces

the planet and lab were cool though it was hilarious that one of the pieces was just an ass with the crotch faced away from us to protect data's modesty lol

i liked the bit about data having an off switch.it is ironically such a human vulnerability. we have those too! it's called head trauma.

ik what i said about picard not being a dick anymore but i noticed he IS still a dick sometimes and it's mostly to either wesley (valid) or data (may he DIE). i was glad data told him not to call lore "it" and that he APOLOGIZED. he should apologize to data more often

lore is literally just a data who is better at masking btw. like thats all it is. he thinks using contractions makes him allistic and he's like ha ha look at me i'm better than you meanwhile he has to use a little laser to remove his own facial tick and his special interest is murdering humans and good for him

one thing i HATED about this ep was once again wesley made a valid point and everyone told him to fuck off. meanwhile whenever hes fucking around they let him do whatever he wants. this is making me CRRRAZY. all this stuff about you would have listened to me if i was an adult!! i'll kill the little brat myself

however the episode was immediately rescued by the appearance of this meme:

which sent me immediately into screaming hysterics because i was NOT expecting to see it in its original format here. i quite literally had to pause the episode and explain this meme to catherine with tears running down my face

angel one: not as bad as the skip/watch lists led me to believe (i didnt have to play it on 2x speed for example) but still pretty fucking terrible. oh what if WOMEN were in charge wouldnt that be WEIRD AND SCARY? meanwhile the women are wearing what pretends to be "no makeup" in 1987 and theyre super fucking hot

i thought that blonde chick was rthe one from tos's backdoor pilot and even looked it up but no she just moves her face the same way

riker's slut outfit really was something. he was such a good sport about it that i thought it was kind of mean of deanna and tasha to laugh at him but considering how women are treated on this show they deserve to actually. tasha especially.

absolutely bonkers that he tried to turn the head woman down and she slept with him anyway. close encounters of the space babes riker version??? quite literally the man said i'm not an object to be seduced and then he got seduced. wild

anyway, the morals of this were all over the place. they cant remove these people bc theyre not bound by the prime directive but they literally are interfering with this planet's system of laws etc...also the fact that like everyone is arguing for gender equality when the genders are reversed is all well and good when they live in a utopian society where genders are equal but we live and star trek was made in the real world where the genders are NOT equal so it just comes out sounding like but what about the meeeeen?? i mean. what about them?? sorry.

i. HATED. the b-plot of this episode. everyone's like oh no i wonder how this virus spreads! and then they allow worf to stay on the bridge while he does those dad sneezes. maybe this episode should have been before the other to explain data's sudden hyperfixation on learning to sneeze lol. like ik all infectious disease media hits different post pandemic but jesus christ we had more sense than that even BEFORE the pandemic

tonight we do 11001001, and then i'm doing the next FOUR on my own...rough.

[tuttle-did-it]

I feel like it would have been less cruel to Seven and Raffi and all of us to just let them both leave at the end of season 2. Ride into the sunset for their own adventures together.

this show has been awful to them. but season 3 has turned them into cardboard stand ins. The men come in and complain about their trauma. They insult the women because of their past or their emotions or their loyalty, and then the men leave.

No talks between Seven and the other women. No talks between Raffi and the other women. No talks between Seven and Raffi. They are part of the furnishings that come with the ship. All women are in this show

at this point it would have been kinder to kill off these characters.

my expectations for saffi this season were low but holy fuck

anyway, i've gone insane, so have some crackvid 🫶 happy countdown to episode 10, saffi friends! 🤠

[girlbosslrell]

gossshhhh okay seven of nine has just been introduced and on one hand, i think her plotlines are gonna be awesome. a human rediscovering what it means to be human?? i live for that shit!! 

on the other hand, i am very, very wary. i don’t think i’ll be able to get over the fact that seven’s whole reason for existence was to boost ratings for straight male audiences. like i’m already SO fucking pissed about it. obviously that’s not jeri ryan’s fault, who was just doing the best she could with her character, nor is it seven of nine’s fault. i mean, she didn’t exactly choose to be written as a piece of meat. and like, i actually love seven’s character in picard. she’s hardened, she’s tough, she’s been all alone for so long and does what it takes to survive. i love her in picard, but voyager is a different story. knowing that her character was literally only made to parade around in a catsuit, get into romantic entanglements with half the male crew, and – not to be crude – get male audiences off, has reeeealllyyyy soured her character for me. 

and i know that’s such an unfair thing to put on a character; again, seven of nine didn’t choose to be written that way lol. and when she’s put into the hands of writers who actually see her as a person and not just a sex symbol, she really shines. but i’m worried that i’m gonna spend the next 4 seasons of my FAVOURITE star trek show, my comfort show, stewing in resentment towards the misogynistic writers & costume designers instead of actually enjoying the show like i did before. 

[july-19th-club]

geordi mystery/adventure/action episodes are some of the most interesting, exciting ones in the show ‘the enemy’? ‘the mind’s eye’? chilling! thrilling! he’s engaging to follow deeply likeable im loving it. geordi romance episodes are like ‘take a moment out of your regularly scheduled laforge to hang out with a hapless, bumbling man who doesn’t respect women or himself . eat up it’s good! enjoy!!!!’ and i sit there like sarah paulson in american horror story with that sandwich mmmm tasty yes of course it’s good

[tuttle-did-it]

I've spent almost 40 years giving her many, many chances. She could have been completely removed from the majority of episodes and they would barely change.

Yes, that's a general failure of TNG in particular, but especially for Troi. Nearly every one of her storylines revolved around with whom she was fucking. The show never took her seriously, the show never allowed her to turn into anyone more than that, and that's is a terrible thing.

But they had many similar storylines for Tasha and Crusher, cos sexist writers. But I cared about Tasha. I was devastated when Tasha died. I cared about Beverly. Beverly was the primary reason I continued to watch the show. Gates and Denise managed to imbue their roles with something more. Something beyond the sexist stories and four words they were allowed to say. Because, frankly, I think they were far better actors than Marina. All three women had way too many moments where they were over-sexualised. They all deserved so much more. But Beverly and Tasha managed to move beyond that, for me. Because of Gates and Denise. And Troi never did.

There are a handful of episodes where Troi is significant-- that don't include her in lingerie. Where her existence matters to the story and I vaguely care if she is in the story. Maybe one or two where I cared if she was in the room. But for the most part, I couldn't have cared less if they killed her character off when they killed Tasha. In fact, I probably would have been happy about it. And almost nothing would change except a very cringy romance with Worf that never should have happened.

As far as I'm concerned, Troi was a cringy character who only *started* to get a personality was when she was forced into a Starfleet uniform by Jericho and started to have any ambition or... anything of value to offer. Yes, it helped that she was less sexualised in these episodes, but at least she started to do... something. Something besides saying 'well what do you think?' And 'how did that make you feel?' And telling the captain that a screaming person in the view-screen was 'angry.' So glad we have a betazoid. Thanks. Could have never known the screaming alien was angry or the Romulans were untrustworthy.

After nearly 40 years of watching ad nausea, I just couldn't get the energy to care about her. And I still cannot. I have rewatched TNG dozens and dozens of times. I've tried to like her. I've tried. I've tried to care about her. But more times than not, I honestly wish she was not in the show. I think the majority of the episodes would have been better without her there.

I have nothing against Marina, and I think she did as much as she could with the nothing she was given. But I don't think she was a strong enough actress to layer the character with more the way Gates and Denise did. The way Michelle Forbes did for Ro Laren. Or hell-- even the way Diana Muldaur did for Pulaski. You know, I knew more about Pulaski, And liked her 10x more in her single season than I ever cared about Troi in her 7 years plus movies plus Picard. Same with Ro. The vast majority of the time Troi was on screen, I wished it was any other character because she was almost as annoying her mother. If I could have traded to keep Ro and get rid of Troi, I wouldn't even think twice. Or Pulaski to drop Troi.

I'm glad you like Troi. Keep liking Troi. We can all agree all the women on the show deserved so much more. I am glad she has defenders, and I'm glad she has people who see her value. But I'm never going to come around on her. I'm never going to care if she is there. There are episodes where I dislike her less. And even a few where I don't care if she is there. But I cannot think of a single episode where I enjoyed her, was glad her she was there, or felt anything for her character more than annoyance or just downright dislike. And's especially if her life was in peril, not a single episode where I cared or hoped she would survive.

Again-- I am glad she has defenders, and I'm glad you enjoy her. Yay! Honestly, I really do-- not being sarcastic. But after dozens of rewatched-- maybe hundreds-- I just cannot care about her.

Oh-- PS- Picard made me hate her so much more. In fact, it made me hate all of them so much that I never want to watch TNG again. But I was apoplectic when they fridged Ro Laren. As in, I can never forgive them. Troi? Couldn't have cared less if they'd killed her.

star trek characters will literally go through the most life changing traumatic multidimensional extrasensory eldritch hell torture imaginable and then they're fine and the next episode they gotta deal with a guy who is bald

[joshuaalbert]

harry kim… ive missed your voyager posting but i want to hear your thoughts on dear harry boy…

favorite thing about them

he's my most favoritest guy. i love him. if like .03% of the things that had happened to him happened to me i'd be out there murdering bitches or something and he's still just out here being a nice friendly guy who tries his best for the ship and for other people. like sometimes they do a rly good job of making it clear that there's this very deep well of resolve to him and he is an incredibly hard person to break despite experiencing the horrors so so so often. BUT i also love it when he's unhinged like he absolutely deserves to get to go off the rails sometimes. and i like it when he's making little petty comments he deserves that too.

least favorite thing about them

i mean we all know this but he's SO fucked over by the writers/showrunners. there's literally no reason for the no promotion/left out of major storylines/frequently sidelined in favor of other characters deal except some like. racist bullshit. writers will be like "well we just don't think he's an interesting character" bitch then make him interesting lol that's your job.

brOTP

harry and b'elanna literally the single most important dynamic in the show to me. every episode that they don't have a scene together i think about committing unfathomable acts of violence. i really enjoy that they genuinely feel like friends who care tremendously about each other (although i wish we saw them hanging out more off duty or in the mess hall or whatever).

also like idk if it's a brotp because they're not like Bros but the harry and janeway dynamic makes me feel uhh vaguely insane. now that you're here someone can understand what i mean when i say it's kind of the inverse of picard and wesley in a lot of ways lmao.

OTP

honestly i cannot deny the weird gay thing he and tom have going on. with tom and b'elanna i can be like yeah she deserves better but a) he's usually better to harry than b'elanna because the writers don't seem to know how to write romantic storylines without some bullshit and b) it lowkey doesn't matter if harry deserves better because regardless of my opinions they just Do Have a weird and compelling fucked up gay thing. the chute literally exists.

also my beloved friend @aberfaeth who was my source of voy knowledge before i started watching voy is a ptk enthusiast and i like. very much see that in some arrangement i like whatever they've all got going on

nOTP

uhhh. hm. i dont know that i have one in terms of things that people actually ship? i am very not fond of the show's trend of giving him like tall blonde traditionally (western) beautiful women as like short term love interests that we're clearly supposed to assume he has absolutely no chance with because he's a lame nerd. in a vacuum him always going for like women that fit a specific mold of Hot Girl that he basically never actually has chemistry with would give comphet but i do think in this case it's far more representative of, again, the racist bullshit and it being very clear that they don't see him as being a viable romantic option.

random headcanon

i have not been rotating him in my mind long enough to have a ton of these but i do very much stand by my harry and b'elanna undefeatable battle bots build team headcanon

unpopular opinion

im not immersed enough in the voy ecosystem enough to know what opinions are popular tbh but i do think any headcanon that has harry like pining after tom is simply not a correct interpretation of events imo

favorite picture of them

like I said. I like it when he’s unhinged and when he’s petty.