#tng a matter of perspective

[filmjunky-99]

r e m e m b e r i n g

Mark Margolis

26 November 1939 – 3 August 2023

⚘️

[pic: margolis as dr. nel apgar, a matter of perspective, tng]

[stellarred]

I find it very interesting that the TNG episode, A Matter of Perspective, which *follows Deja Q,* opens with Picard painting a nude figure. The nude figure is a woman with short dark hair, and while the two other art students are painting the nude woman from a lateral view, albeit in different art styles, Picard's painting features the woman looking directly at him.

Ok, this may not be anything at all significant, but it seemed strange to me that Deja Q had Q presented in the beginning of the episode naked and facing Picard, and in the beginning of this following episode, Picard is painting a dark- haired nude woman with red lips; her face looking directly at him.

👉I don't recall if Picard ever painted anything in any other episodes. 🤔🤔🤔

One could say he could have been either: trying a new hobby, or he was using the painting class as an outlet for his hidden feelings/ attraction for Q.

Think about it. All of a sudden, our favorite grumpy, stodgy, and repressed Starfleet captain is all of a sudden exploring painting--nude painting.

Knowing that Picard does have a deeply hidden attraction to Q, and that he is struggling to acknowledge and embrace it, he may have been thinking of Q in the class. Maybe he just wants to process some thoughts. Picard saw quite a bit of nudity in these two back-to-back episodes, didn't he?

[yoshimickster]

...so do we just... NEVER resolve how the doctors wife from "A Matter of Perspective" LEGITIMATELY believed Riker tried to assault her?

And even weirder, according to Troi, neither her NOR Riker were lying, what the hell happened?! Screw the legal plot holes, what about that INSANELY big regular plot hole?!

[startrekplotnthemes]

S3 Episode 14 A Matter of Perspective

CW: SA Mentions

Riker in this episode is accused of murder of Dr. Apgar by Tanguan investigator Krag. In lieu of direct testimony Riker's guilt is tested in the holodeck based on testimony. The episode explores themes of accused guilt and a woman falsely accusing a man of SA. Manua, Dr.Apgar's wife comes up with a narrative where Riker attempts to show his affections.

In the meta, the watcher knows that Riker is innocent. He behaves violently and directly, assaulting Manua and her husband in her version of events. The crew discovers that Dr.Apgar was attempting to kill Riker with said Krieger waves rather than Riker attempting to murder him, proving Riker innocent. Riker is proven innocent and it is a happy ending, but a contemporary understanding of the episode potentially leaves something to be desired. A woman accusing a man of such an act only for it to be a falsehood is a rather questionable plot points looking back.

[spockvarietyhour]

Hey Hector!

[leesargent]

Li'l TNG season three

I was going to space these out a little more but meh it's nice posting here again :) In this season I experimented with the eyes because that's what you do LOL.

Evolution

The Ensigns of Command

The Survivors

Who Watches The Watchers

The Bonding

Booby Trap

The Enemy

The Price

The Vengeance Factor

The Defector

The Hunted

The High Ground

Déjà Q

A Matter of Perspective

Yesterday's Enterprise

The Offspring

Sins of the Father

Allegiance

Captain's Holiday

Tin Man

Hollow Pursuits

The Most Toys

Sarek

Ménage à Troi

Transfigurations

The Best of Both Worlds, Part I

[stra-tek]

WARP CORE DEEP DIVE!

Where it all began. So much so, that they never quite nailed down what anything in engineering was. We know the thing in the middle was a "matter/antimatter integrator" and it had a dilithium crystal in it. But it didn't appear until later on, the floor was originally empty. There were also large transformer-ish things that moved about as the plot demanded. The big thing behind the mesh? That's the pipe cathedral. Maybe it was an impulse engine (as per the old Star Trek Blueprints by Franz Joseph) or perhaps it was part of the warp drive. Originally the idea was that the warp nacelles generated their own power. But that would change soon...

The Animated Series gave us something very similar to the TOS engine room, with the pipe cathedral and one BIG transformer, but instead of the matter/antimatter integrator we got a glass tube with what looked like measurements on it. Maybe it's a proto-warp core a la TMP, especially since it's in a similar spot to Strange New Worlds'. Or maybe it's a coolant pipe like the 2009 movie. Who knows? We also saw inside the "antimatter nacelle" in one episode, which is generally assumed to mean inside one of the warp engines themselves but it's all a bit vague.

The Motion Picture gave us the original Big Blue Lava Lamp, the physical set was 3 stories high but augmented with forced-perspective, in the form of a painting at the bottom of the shaft and a truncated horizontal intermix chamber crewed by children at the end of the main level. The engineering crew on the main deck now wear radiation suits, adding to the idea this big blue thing isn't your friend.

This was also the Big Retcon, making the intermix chamber the power source for the warp nacelles. Every Trek regardless of era would follow this route.

In Wrath of Khan, they'd add a very important side room with dilithium crystals in for Spock to self-sacrifice in. I always found it very amusing this room, where the most important part of the engineering machinery was, was in no way physically connected to the intermix chamber. Nor did it exist in the previous movie.

The Next Generation gave us a pot-bellied stove, with neon segments glowing one-by-one up and down to give the impression of pulses of energy colliding in the middle then being fed to the nacelles. No more radiation suits needed, and the room has a nice carpet. This was also the first time "warp core" was used, a phrase that would retroactively be applied to all the prior ones.

The Enterprise-E and DS9's Defiant would have bigger and smaller warp cores that were variations on the same theme as TNG.

Voyager brought back the classic Motion Picture big blue lava lamp, just without the horizontal tube this time. It does the nifty swirly thing too. Q Junior makes it do club lighting one time.

NX-01 Enterprise is just kind of this big industrial tank with some glowy bits. It's weird that in the classic movies they needed radiation suits to work in engineering, but in the series set 100 years earlier they didn't.

The 2009 reboot filmed engineering in a thinly disguised Budweiser brewery, which made the area look enourmous and extremely complex, but lost all the high tech clean room vibes prior shows had. What in real life were giant brewing tanks housed the intermix chambers which made up the warp core, which were ejected through a hatch in the roof at the end. This look was extremely controversial with some, but personally I loved it.

In Into Darkness the warp core looks like an almighty piece of kit, and that's because they shot on location at the Lawrence Livermore National Ignition Facility. It's a real-life fusion reactor. And then you can climb inside it and it turns out that inside is one very important laser thing, some dilithium crystals you barely see and lots of deadly radiation. At least the self sacrificing happens inside the core itself and not a weird separate side chamber this time. The brewery from the last movie was still there, implying this was all along even if we didn't visit it. But that complicates things because the bits they called the warp core are very different. Perhaps the intermix chambers ejected last movie and core seen here are all part of the same huge warp core system.

Strange New Worlds reboots the original... sort of. They put a vertical intermix chamber in there and instead of a mesh and forced perspective they've got an AR wall with an enourmous array of high tech pipes. But weirdly, the writers guide says the big AR wall with the updated pipe cathedral is the deflector dish machinery not the warp core. I guess the confusion makes it more authentic TOS.

[multiverserift]

I really like Kira Nerys. Let's discuss her and organized religion A hothead, experienced freedom fighter, child soldier, passionate, kind, really good at self-control. In [DS9 S01E19: Duet], she learns that life can be complex and difficult and ultimately learns to forgive Marritza. She learns that hate has to end at some point to make peace. But there is one aspect of Kira that I always find unnerving: Her absolute blind spot when it comes to faith. And DS9's handling of organized religion. 01. Bajoran Culture and Cultures in Star Trek Because Kira is the Bajoran character we see most, and the only fleshed out character where "being Bajoran" is a major character trait, we mostly experience the culture through her. Yes there's Leeta, but there is just a single instance where it plays into the story that she's Bajoran. [DS9 S05E20: Ferengi Love Songs]. Leeta wants a Bajoran wedding, while Rom tries to hold onto what's left of his Ferengi identity. Rom ultimately lets go of all the Ferengi stuff. Good for him. Of course there is also Kai Winn, but her stories mostly circle about her being Kai Winn, not her being a Bajoran. There is a single instance here too, where her Bajoran identity plays into the story, and her past during the Occupation. ([DS9: S05E10 Rapture]) She explains that she teached the faith of the prophets and was imprisoned for it. The other Bajoran characters are less fleshed out characters. Shakaar, Lupaza, and Furel. Even Li Nalasm remember him? Ro Laren is there of course, but her job was to create conflict in the perfect world of the Enterprise-D. Not being Bajoran, primarily. Star Trek does this more than once. Experiencing a whole culture through a single character. For a long time, Spock was the only fleshed out Vulcan we got to see, besides one episode with Sarek. Plus Sarek in the movies. It took decades until Tuvok showed us more than Spock's perspective. And ENT with T'Pol and the Vulcans arc finally fleshed out the species more. Jadzia is the only Trill that matters. Kind of a one trick pony species. The people with the symbiotes. And when Ezri finally shows up, we learn a bit more about them when they're not centered about their symbiotes. Cardassia is a good counter-example: We have Dukat, Damar and Garak to show us Cardassian culture from various perspectives. Plus the Tribunal episode, TNG's torture of Picard ("There are four lights!") We learn a lot about Cardassia. The DS9 treatment of the Ferengi will always be top notch.

02. Kira and Religion So back to Bajor, Kira and religion. Hehe, Bajor Kira. Sorry. As a non-religious man, I have my problems sharing her point of view. Trusting in faith, even when it contradicts rationality. There are two main storylines that illuminate this problem: 1. [DS9: S04E17 Accession] 2. Kira's relationship with Kai Winn. In Accession, Akorem Laan takes over the job as Emissary and installs himself as a conservative, even reactionary, religious leader. Bajorans are told to follow their d'jarras. A caste system. And Kira as our PoV Bajoran, simply....does it. Her D'jarra is Ih'valla, the artists caste. She actually had to struggle with this before. In [DS9: S02E02 The Circle] she tried living in the monastery with Bareil. She tells him she sucks at being an artist. Kira really tried. So when Akorem takes over the religious leadership (maintaining a good working relationship with Kai Winn, what a red flag), Kira shows us how Bajor reacts. They simply.....comply? Odo even tries out the sceptical, rational PoV. Kira just brushes it aside. DS9 does this a few times, actually. Respecting their characters' choices rooted in faith. Odo fighting Weyoun calling him a god on every occasion. Worf and Kira agreeing on Sisko's choice of trusting the Prophets in [DS9: S05E10: Rapture]. Weyoun 6's sacrifice. Even Quark's little prayers to his piggybank. What I really dislike about the plot of Accession is the Deus Ex Machina. The characters are not confronted with their choices. Akorem Laan and Vedek Porta don't go to jail for murdering some guy. Kira doesn't have to deal with supporting a regime that got opressive in a heartbeat. What I would have really liked to see were the Bajorans that disagree. The ones Akorem threatens with deportation. Sorry, our 45 minutes are up, the Prophets endorse The Sisko, Akorem is gone. Kira even still likes his poetry! Yay! Pity. I would have loved to see the consequences. And see if Kira finds a way to deal with blind obedience. Which brings me to my second point. 03. Kira Nerys and Kai Winn

While Gul Dukat is mainly Sisko's antagonist, Kai Winn is Kira's. She basically killed Kira's boyfriend, cashed in on his accomplishments and literally stole his fame, after she cheated her way to becoming Space Pope. Which would have been him. Bareil. Interesting side story: Bareil does the same thing Kira does. He blindly trusts the religious system. Bareil doesn't question Kai Winn's authority. Well, then she kills him by overworking him, and he lets her. Gladly. He decides to get killed. Because he trusts the Prophets. There's another side question here. Are the Prophets to be trusted? Are they doing good things for Bajor? or are they selfish? I basically think they're selfish af, and I can explain. But that's a story for another time.

So Kai Winn did a terrorism in [S01E20: In the Hands of the Prophets], gets people killed, supports an insurrection (but to be honest, her support never got public), cheats herself to be Pope, nearly starts a civil war because of Shakaar. Kira is in a powerful position. She is one of the most trusted advisors to the Emissary of the Prophets, is an administrator of DS9, was a member of the famed Shakaar Resistance Cell. She obviously has power. Military power, political power. She knows how to play politics. There is a dialogue about this in [DS9 S01E13: "Battle Lines] And she obviously knows Kai Winn is horrible. Dangerous. When does she talk back? Once. She does it once. In [DS9 S02E24: The Collaborateur], she is snarky and gets scolded by Winn. She never openly defies her again. Kira is complicit with a religious organisation that constantly punishes her for it. That would force her into a career she hates. That killed her boyfriend and robbed his dead body. Kai Winn even gloats over it a few episodes later. And in Accession, we see the climax of this: Even when the religious regime gets captured by bad people, she complies. 04: Fazit I would have loved to see Kira deal with the contradictions. See people who don't comply with Kai Winn's church. Who challenge that system. Because like in our world, organisations can and will be captured by bad players, in bad faith. The ability of political structures to withstand capture and abuse is essential. This always starts with the people being able to recognize it and fight back. I don't like it. I'm more like Odo. Rational, naturalistic. I don't understand how one can think with religious faith. Especially because Kira has such a temper and a sense for injustice. She challenges Winn from within the system, yes. With Shakaar. For a while. Then Shakaar loses steam as a character and we don't delve further into the matter. Simply DS9 having enough depth to allow such discussions about their characters is one if the reasons I love it so much. Stay safe out there, people. Stay vigilant in the face of powerful people. Thank you for reading.

[electronickingdomfox]

"Memory Prime" review

Novel from 1988, by Garfield and Judith Reeves-Stevens. It's strange that the title says "the new novel by...", since as far as I know, this was the first Star Trek book of these authors. Chaotic, crazy, convoluted, at times campy and hard to follow, it's also a lot of fun. Even the cover is a "what-the-fuck" moment, with that Spock looking tiredly at the viewer, wearing the trademark Kirk-ripped-shirt.

The story mixes several TOS elements: a conspiracy to kill someone aboard the Enterprise; a mission to rescue Spock that puts everyone's careers in danger; and an obnoxious Commodore that hinders the heroes' efforts. All mixed and enhanced to cinematic level. Apart from all that, the novel expands on the story from "The Lights of Zetar", showing the aftermath of Memory Alpha's destruction. And has Mira Romaine (the guest from that episode) as one of the main characters.

The titular Memory Prime is the new center of knowledge and research for the Federation, and the main node in a network of similar centers, each in a different asteroid. Selected as the place to hold the Nobel prizes, the Enterprise is tasked with bringing scientists from all over the Federation to the ceremony. But things get awry when Starfleet intelligence discovers that one or more of the scientists are targeted for assassination. And to everybody's surprise, the main suspect is... Spock!! On top of that, Starfleet has lost confidence in Kirk, and orders a Commodore to take over the Enterprise during the emergency. So Kirk now has to recover both his First Officer and his ship, while confronted with a thickening web of conspiracy. There's something of pulp fiction about the cackling villains, killer robots, and constant plot twists and cliffhangers. But surprisingly, there's also an element of more serious science fiction, with the introduction of the Pathfinders (artificial intelligences that have developed their own worldview), and the discussions about computer science. The chapters dealing with the Pathfinders show a fascinating and alien perspective, that may very well be classified as "cyberpunk". It's possible that something of this owes more to TNG than TOS. The final reveal about who was behind the assassination, the real target of it, and the motives, were actually unexpected.

As for the characters, Kirk gets the spotlight and most heroic deeds (so it's no wonder that these same authors got to co-write the Shatnerverse novels later). And of course Spock is central to the plot, though absent during a good chunk of the story. But Scotty also gets a larger-than-usual role, and picks up his romance with Romaine. While Uhura has one of her most badass moments when confronting the Commodore. Also, everyone has crazy, crazy fight scenes: from Kirk defeating a robot with bullfighter techniques (and utterly annihilating his shirt in the process), to Spock locking in a mind-meld combat, or McCoy... attacking with hypos.

In summary, a pretty exciting action adventure, with humorous scenes that are actually funny, and some food-for-thought concerning AI and the fainting distinction between human and machine. Even if the plot can get messy and even ridiculous at times.

Spirk Meter: 9/10*. Kirk is really distressed by Spock's framing and incarceration, and spends most of the novel focused on rescuing him no matter what. Even if this means the end of his career and losing the Enterprise; Spock comes as his first priority. He doesn't doubt his innocence for a moment, either, while others in the crew have some reservations. And whenever Spock's in physical danger, Kirk is the first to jump to protect him (even if he himself is a wreck). Kirk is also the only one who truly seems to understand Spock, he can anticipate his thoughts and see his logic, where others only see crazyness. Besides, there's a scene where Kirk faints, and the first thing he says upon waking up is "Spock, Spock...?". And yeah, Spock is there, hovering over him and pushing him gently to lie back in bed.

Though this is clearly a spirky novel and McCoy has a lesser role, there are a few moments with him too. At the beginning, both he and Kirk devise a convoluted plan to keep Spock in the dark about the Nobel ceremony, in the hopes of seeing him smile or at least react when the surprise is revealed. While at the end, McCoy wants to know EVERYTHING about Spock's years in the Academy, once he learns from one of his teachers that he was a bit of a "class clown" back then (for Vulcan standards). And despite Spock's apparent annoyance, Kirk notices a warm expression on him, because of the doctor's antics. Kirk also jumps in front of McCoy and Spock to take a lethal phaser shot instead of them. With the hilarious result that the shot wasn't neither that lethal, nor he took it all that well, considering both Spock and McCoy also end up groaning in bed after a stun.

*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.

[biblioflyer]

Discovery's character drama logic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[aerospas]

Hello! :) I've really enjoyed all your posts so far. It feels like you understand these characters on an incredibly intimate level, and so many of your headcanons and characterizations hit the spot for me. Thank you so much for sharing these beautiful things you create with us! Looking through your writing brightens up my day every time.

If possible, I'd like to request a Star Trek matchup. I've only watched TOS, AOS and a bit of DS9 and TNG, but I'm completely open to any character that comes to mind regardless of series and gender.

I'm a transmasc enby and lean towards masc or androgynous presentation. I have dark brown eyes and wavy hair. I have a bit of grey hair from stress and a single dimple that shows when I smile or purse my lips. My height and build are on the lower end of average and I've been told I have fairly broad shoulders.

My MBTI is INFP. I'm reasonably sure my enneagram is 4w5, but I could be wrong. I'm neurodivergent and that factors into a lot of my personality and worldview. I'm an old soul. I have a variable social battery, but I am always there for people when it matters the most. I feel things quite deeply, but I strongly believe that emotions and logic go hand in hand, and as a result have a pretty high EQ.

I'm very easygoing and approachable, and like to make lots of friendly acquaintances in my daily life. I try to connect a bit with everyone I can strike up a conversation with regardless of age. I care a lot about people and I think people would generally consider me sweet or easy to get along with. With my closer friends, I'm maybe the dad friend counterpart to our other mom friend. I'll be silly with them but am usually the first to go no-nonsense when they need a voice of reason. My brand of humor is quite deadpan, but I laugh a lot at my friends' antics. I will only sass or give a ribbing to people I consider fairly good friends, but make sure to avoid any sore spots.

I'm passionate but not really competitive and thrive in environments where everyone really loves what they do. I have no problem taking on leadership roles or otherwise. I generally serve as a mediator for conflicts, and don't mind speaking up for other people's needs. Otherwise, I'm somewhat easily embarrassed and prefer to deal with problems myself instead of asking people to go out of their way to help me.

I gravitate towards creative mediums like art, reading and writing, music and theatre, but also have a soft spot for anthropology and biology. I really like talking to and connecting with other people. It is pretty easy for me to find beauty in all sorts of places and people and things, and one of my favorite things to do is to take things slow and focus on the little things for a while.

I'm demisexual, sex-positive, and probably ambiamorous. My love language is words of affirmation then physical touch, in that order. Gender doesn't really factor into my attraction for someone and I find people attractive because of who they are as a person, not how they present. I'm most drawn to people who are fundamentally kind but are unafraid to push me to think about things from more perspectives. I feel like the basis for my attraction is first and foremost the capacity for a strong bond built around trust and communication.

-🪁

from the original series, i'd pair you with, spock!

with your introspective and empathetic nature, spock would find himself drawn to your depth of understanding and your unique perspective on life. initially intrigued by your combination of logic and emotion, he would appreciate the way you balance your feelings with rationality, much like he does himself. your gentle demeanour and quiet strength would complement spock's reserved nature. your capacity for understanding others' emotions, despite your own occasional struggles with vulnerability, would resonate with spock's own internal conflict between logic and emotion; he would admire your ability to navigate the complexities of human interaction with grace and compassion.

from deep space nine, i'd pair you with, kira nerys!

kira would admire your courage and resilience, seeing in you someone who understands the importance of fighting for justice in the face of adversity. initially, she might be cautious around your easygoing nature, unsure of how to reconcile it with your deep sense of purpose, but she would come to trust your sincerity and reliability. your willingness to mediate conflicts and support those in need would resonate strongly with kira, who shares your dedication to protecting others.

[staringdownabarrel]

I feel like with the Kurtzman era's obsession with bringing in old species and characters for the sake of it, there's one that's been overlooked: the Zalkonians from TNG's Transfigurations.

They were beyond the bleeding edge of the frontier in the 2360s, but by the early 25th century, that'd just be the regular old frontier. Because of that, it'd be simple to base a very traditional Trek show around them: here's the main antagonists, they'll get 2-5 episodes a season, but then the rest of the season will be the Hero Ship just fucking around with local anomalies and local forehead of the week aliens.

The Zalkonians would also make a great deal of thematic sense, though. In Transfigurations, they were on the bleeding edge of a major societal transformation: a minority was being persecuted for the terrible, terrible crime of being different. The Zalkonian government was presented as isolationist, authoritarian, and willing to crush opposition.

All of this would mirror current, real world politics. The non-corporeal, John Doe segment of society could be read as an allegory for LGBT+ people, racial and ethnic minorities, etc. The Zalkonians could be read as an allegory for authoritarian figures at home and abroad. There's also a lot of room there for discussions of dissent even among the political elites, some of whom would argue that actually this or that position on the non-corporeal minority would be more in line with tradition or the need for progress, and so on.

Just on that level, it seems like it'd be very easy to do a traditional Star Trek show with these guys as part of the main focus. It wouldn't need to be a clever deconstruction of the franchise because it'd be a very traditional Trek show on that level. The fact that it was a traditional Trek show when the Kurtzman era has tended to shy away from that could be read as the deconstruction in some ways.

However, there'd still be room for the CGI spectacles. LaForge speculated the Zalkonian warship had a similar firepower to a Galaxy-class and a similar maneuverability. It was explicitly established to have a higher top speed than the Enterprise-D (its was at least warp 9.72; the Enterprise's was 9.6). It also had an exotic weapon--the asphyxiation weapon used towards the end of the episode.

So there'd also be that military threat which could be leaned into. This would make sense from an in-universe perspective as by the early 25th century, the Romulan Empire had collapsed, the Borg had been defeated, and the Dominion were still in the Gamma Quadrant. The Cardassians were most likely still reconstructing, and what was happening with the Klingons was an open question.

So to have the Zalkonians come in and be the new regional rival at this point would make sense. The Federation would still be recovering from the attack on Mars to some extent, so it might not be ready for a new regional rival, but a lot of the top brass and the starship captains were people who were relatively battle hardened due to the Dominion War. Meanwhile, the Zalkonians had mostly been focusing on internal issues so maybe weren't as prepared for an external threat, but still had their advantages.

Really, the only reason why this couldn't happen is because it sorta feels like I'm the only one who actually likes the Zalkonians. In any other world they'd make for a good antagonist for a new show, though. It's just a matter of getting someone to, you know, actually write it.

[thegeminisage]

ok, tng update time. i'm quite behind! monday we did "deja q," tuesday we did "a matter of perspective," and then wednesday was "yesterday's enterprise."

deja q: NOT as bad as i feared but still not great. turning q into a human was a fantastic idea because in general it helps facilitate empathy when you see a character suffer, which worked a little on me, and then also i greatly enjoyed seeing him suffer because he was so annoying before, lol. guinan and worf kicking him when he was down were the best <3

another smart choice was to have data be the only one who had any sympathy for him - precisely because data's "feelings" ""can't"" be hurt and he's less likely to hold grudges. also, because data is wonderful and it's easy to get behind his cause of reforming q into some kind of functional being

AND it was good that the first time q felt shame it was because data almost died for his ungrateful fucking ass...correct response

unfortunately i still have many problems. during that section right before data's sacrifice move, all of the goodwill q generated by being fun to laugh at kind of evaporated because he was being annoying

SECONDLY, i have realized the reason i dislike q is because his main two personality traits have aged horribly. firstly is the "randumb~ XD" humor (the mariachi band at the end of this ep, the random napoleon soldiers from the other ep, his various costumes...). i think the only person who could ever do that kind of humor well was robin williams and they didn't cast him as q and also he's dead now, so knock it off. his second personality trait is that he's smarter and more powerful than anybody else in the room which he (and the people writing him) seems to think is a license to be an asshole to them, as long as it is charming assholery. think t*ony st*rk, house, bbc sh*rlock. this of course is a deeply flawed premise to begin with, but he doesn't even do it WELL. nothing about his assholery is charming. specifically i am thinking of all the "worf is dumb because he's a big brutish klingon" jokes, which are for sure fantasy racism and border on ACTUAL racism, because they're derivative of horrible antiblack stereotypes. not that q is the only source of this kind of stuff aimed at worf, but it's really damning that it's ALWAYS the first thing out of his mouth and played for laughs and made his "but worf i'm a klingon at heart too!" bit extra unfunny

anyway, bringing in a SECOND q to praise him for his "selfless" act is eeehh considering one q is already one too many and the act wasn't even that selfless. it would've been better if he said the only reason he was doing it was for data, specifically, so he could stop feeling shame - that's more genuine than trying to get me to believe he'd give himself up for that ship of people even if really what he was mostly doing was committing suicide.

nonetheless i DID really enjoy getting to see data laugh at the end. GOOD for him <3 also lmao, the moon is falling, so true. JUST like majoras mask

a matter of perspective: the one thing i don't understand here is the bit where picard is a horrible painter and then data insults his art. like yes it was funny but i thought it would have something to do with the main plot. riker sees events this way and that lady sees them this way. not unlike in the art room where everyone interpreted the nude model in a different manner!

ALSO, WHY IS THERE A NUDE MODEL. does that woman not live and work on this starship. does she not have to command respect from her coworkers the rest of the time. they didn't even do this in the holodeck where that sort of thing would have made sense!! the one time you WANT the holodeck around...

anyway, i thought this episode veered dangerously close to dud territory. trial drama is fine, even though it begs the question of why no lie detector in tng. holodeck recreation also fine in this instance, as was the murder mystery

but why ON EARTH did they feel the need to show a fake version of riker attempting to rape this lady and then have deanna go well that's the way she remembers it because i sense no dishonesty from her :) this is just the true way each of you remembers it :)

LIKE THERE IS A CANYON OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RIKER'S VERSION AND THAT LADY'S VERSION. it's not like they can both partially be true. in one instance she flung herself at him despite his clearly being uncomfortable and in the other he forced her despite her asking him to stop!!! like in this case what you do is believe the woman except because riker's our protagonist we know he didn't do it except they never CLARIFY that he didn't do it??? obviously i don't think for a minute that he did, but of all the fucking things to leave open...

anyway i hated it. i actually hated it more than catherine did which may be a first for tng

yesterday's enterprise: TASHA YAR?????????????????????????????

ok, the premise of this was kinda confusing at first, but i don't give a single fuck. TASHA YAR!!!!!!

i was so happy and confused to see her but the more scenes she had...man. like, ok, they did not HAVE to have her make out with this guy. even in death they will not stop doing this to her. but the whole thing where guinan was like your death was meaningless and empty in this timeline so she decides to go back and die in the past instead...GOOD for her

also, i'm a little confused on my canon - i think the battle that other enterprise went back to die in was the one that worf's parents were killed in? which is why he wasn't on the bridge because he fuckin DIED at age 6 or whatever? i guess they must have done enough good to save at least some people??

anyway, ABSOLUTELY adored this one. tasha yar redemption arc. that was the LAST thing i EVER expected to see on tng but here we are. they even made that other captain a woman although lmao in the end they refridged tasha nd this other captain. STILL. if shes gotta die let it be better than the death she got in canon. i'll miss you queen

my one gripe, aside from her boyfriend, is that she and data had a lil scene in the elevator and im mad we could not infer from it whether or not they had fucked in this timeline. rip :(

NEXT TIME: "the offspring" and "sins of the father," which is a normal title that does not at all match the title of a merlin episode i wrote a 130k coda about

[sodiumlamp]

Picard

When you're Captain Shaw's XO and Raffi's former(?) girlfriend, "very annoying" is a not term used lightly.

This is Season 3 Episode 6, and the first one to feature all seven of the TNG main cast. If you want a machete cut of Star Trek: Picard I would recommend watching a gifset of Picard hugging Q, then start with this episode. I think you'll be a bit confused about who Alton Soong is, but Season 1 didn't try very hard to introduce him either. Besides, if you're a big enough TNG fan to want to check this turkey out, you're probably already used to them tossing out hidden Soongs and secret androids.

Let's see if I can sum this up quickly: Picard (1) gets a distress call from Beverly Crusher (2) so he contacts Will Riker (3) for help. They try to sneak to her location using the USS Titan, but end up in a long, drawn out battle with a bounty hunter ship called the Shrike. After escaping, Ro Laren sacrifices herself to warn Picard of a Changeling plot that involves his and Bev's son, Jack Crusher. She leaves him records of her investigation, which leads them to her field agents, Raffi and Worf (4).

In this episode, Titan attempts to seek answers at the Daystrom Institute, but the security is tighter than they expected so they can't retrieve the away team that they send to the station. So Picard goes to the fleet museum to get help from Geordi LaForge (5). Together they rig up a cloaking device on the Titan, which enables them to beam out most of the away team, including the Daystrom manifest, which is stored inside Data (6) in a new body. We'll come back to that. Riker gets captured by Starfleet security, but then he gets double-captured by the Shrike's Captain Vadic, who reveals she's a Changeling, and also she's holding Deanna Troi (7) captive.

See, this is why I'm writing all this down, because the show is so unbearably tedious that I need to record my understanding of the plot. I learned some time ago that a sure sign of bad storytelling is when you write down what happened in a given episode or chapter and you realize the answer is "not much". I've watched about two or three movies' worth of content from Season 3, but very little has actually happened. Let's put that into perspective. You could watch Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock, and the first leg of The Voyage Home in the time it takes you to watch the first six episodes of Season 3. A lot of stuff happens in those three movies. Hell, even that first chunk of Voyage Home has a lot going on in it.

The storyline in this season isn't bad on a conceptual level. It's a bit derivative, since we've seen Changeling infiltration stories before, and crew reunions are a regular thing in this franchise, but it's solid. The problem is how they keep dragging things out with all this stuff that doesn't matter: Captain Shaw, Worf mentoring Raffi, Picard asking Laris if he should go help Beverly or not, 90 percent of the battle with the Shrike, Raffi arguing with her handler, Worf and Raffi arguing with Worf's handler, the scene with Sneed, the scene with Krinn, Jack Crusher's hallucinations, all of the pointless flashbacks. None of it matters, but they threw it in to make this take longer. They threw it in to fool you into thinking these diversions were clues instead of filler.

This is how they kill time in this episode. The gang does to the Daystrom Station to burgle the place, but their magic space key doesn't work. The away team gets in the station and they can move freely, but Titan can't get close enough to extract them when they're done, so they have to leave and come back. That's a waste. If this story were better paced, they would have gotten all their ducks in a row ahead of time. It would still be a suspenseful touch-and-go heist, but it would have taken half the time to tell it.

Instead, they get split up and have to go ask Geordi for help. But he's worried about the bad guys coming after his family, so Picard has to talk him into this. Then his daughters have to talk him into it, and it becomes this weird thing where Geordi was a pilot and an engineer in his youth, and one daughter's an engineer, and the other's a pilot, and for some reason he feels slighted by that? "How could you follow in my footsteps like that? Why couldn't you be like your sister, who followed in my footsteps?"

He comes around in the end, but it takes forever. I see now that this is why all the characters in this show are always mad at Picard all the time. Before I thought the writers were just too lazy to think of a second character dynamic, but now I see it's a stalling tactic. Each character they bring in who has a beef with Picard is another insta-conflict they can introduce and resolve to pad out the piece. It doesn't even have to be rational. Captain Shaw's the one guy who still blames Picard for what Locutus did. Beverly ghosted Picard for the unspeakable crime of being a responsible public servant. Geordi's mad at Picard for getting his daughter into this crisis even though it was Beverly who called him, and I'm pretty sure the bad guys were the ones who started it. Ro was mad at Picard for not being supportive enough of her whole "traitor" phase.

Most of these characters come around, but it's so dumb. The whole reason this show got made was because Picard is such a popular character, but the entire formula of the show is "What if everyone hated Jean-Luc Picard?" Starfleet brass tell him to shut the fuck up. Old friends point guns at him. His son blames him for the genetic brain disorder that killed him. His friends hate him for being too dedicated to his work. The people he helps hate him for not helping them more. His adoring fans won't even let him eat his lunch!

Let's move on, since I'm sure we'll have a chance to come back to "Everyone hates Picard" later. Apparently Jack's whole berserker rage thing comes from him having the same genetic abnormality that gave Picard prophetic visions of Data. Also it killed Picard, so Jack is kind of bitter that he may not live past the age of... [checks notes] ah yes, ninety-four. Jack Crusher sucks. Still he manages to look past his bitterness long enough to get the big idea to steal the cloaking device from the "HMS Bounty" the Klingon ship from Star Trek IV. He and Geordi's kids think they can use it to get the Titan close enough to save the away team.

Geordi has kittens over this, because hooking up a cloaking device to a Federation starship is a treaty violation, but if that were true then why does the Federation still have the Bounty in the first place? Also, it's a 115-year-old cloaking device. How effective can it still be? You'd think 2401 tech would be able to detect that sort of thing. Besides, they have to uncloak anyway to teleport the away team back on board.

Wait, no they don't? That's not how it worked in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. The Bounty was cloaked for most of the movie but they used the transporters multiple times. You know what other ship could operate the transporters while under cloak? The alternate timeline version of La Sirena, from this obscure show from a few years ago. What was it called? Oh right! It was Star Trek: Picard!

I mean, it's a silly thing to nitpick, but the point is they spent most of the episode on a fetch quest for the cloaking device, and then it barely helps at all. They could have just warped away from the Daystrom Institute and then doubled back an hour later and swooped into get their pals in the nick of time. That's basically what they did anyway, but with more hand-wringing from Geordi.

Back to Data. So the big idea here is that the bad guys swiped a portal gun from the Daystrom Institute and used it to destroy a Starfleet building somewhere, but this was only a distraction from the other thing they stole, which must be part of an even bigger plan. So Picard sends Riker, Worf, and Raffi into the station to steal the station's manifest, which will show what that other missing item is. As it turns out, the manifest is contained inside the "AI security system" that protects it, and both of those things are contained inside an android body wired into the station. A hologram of Alton Soong explains that he was planning to transfer his mind into an android body, but decided against it after meeting Picard, so instead he rigged it up to contain the minds of Lore, Lal, B-4, and mostly Data. Then he died before he could finish, and.... Starfleet took it? This doesn't make much sense.

The gang try to turn this new android on, and it gives Brent Spiner a chance to switch personalities like he used to do all the time back in the day. Data's in there, but so are the others, and he can't think straight. Then he projects a hologram from his eyes, which is... weird. I mean, could Data do that before? And I thought Alton said this android was biological like Picard's synth body. Can Picard display holograms with his eyes?

Anyway, Data finally shows the gang what else was stolen from the Daystrom Institute, and it's Picard's corpse. I guess that was also confiscated by Starfleet when Alton Soong died? So Picard's original body is some sort of deadly weapon now. I bet the next episode has a scene where people are mad at Picard for this. "How dare you! That dead body of yours is going to kill all our loved ones, and it's all your fault!"

Fuck this show.

[archivewilliamrikerstblog]

So what is your biggest annoyance with Will?

I haven't really found anything frustrating about Riker's character as much as I am frustrated with how the show treats him.

I am going to put this under a read-more. I don't like dropping long posts over difficult subject matter, feels insensitive of me.

Sometimes it seems the TNG cast was too large. Several characters didn't get the time they deserved to be fleshed out and when they tried it was often to the character's detriment.

I think Geordi was lucky if he was the main plot to a single episode a season and that is a crime. Deanna only seemed to be paid attention to when the plot needed to hurt a women. I don't think Worf had a real character arc until DS9.

Early TNG especially was a mess, need point no farther to Matter of Perspective for that. It was a huge oversight from the writing team on an episode already proving to be troublesome to write. An oversight that has ruined Riker for many people.

It's been made clear I'm a bit of a prude, but Riker being the horny guy isn't a problem for me either. It is completely fine because he lacks both desire and reason to be aggressive.

You could tell him no and he would thank you for the consideration. Or maybe it's just more sad that it can be listed as a character perk when that is just how things should be.

I am incredibly defensive about people labeling Riker as aggressive in this way. This is a hill I will die on -- he's not that guy.

My only problem with it comes from how the show and people treated what Riker went through in the episode First Contact like a joke. It isn't funny what happens just because it is happening to the guy who likes sex. It isn't funny at all.

[kris-and-the-pnictogens]

What does this actually MEAN? (reflecting on timey-wimey stuff)

Hm? I should know. You'd think I would know, if anyone would know. But I don't.

When I was quite a bit younger I used to fear Death as the "undiscover'd country". I remember reading Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich and feeling haunted: what did it really mean to die? How could one possibly screw oneself up to confront Death's approach? But that was a long time ago and now Death no longer seems nearly so terrifying as this other eventuality: the death of an entire Universe.

I consider myself a relatively educated person for my milieu, here in this corner of the United States on what seems to be Earth, 2024. I've acquired a reasonable lay understanding of a number of important academic subjects, enough so that I'm not confused or intimidated by advanced topics in these subjects. But Time and cosmology? Oh I have never gotten a handle on those, beyond a rudimentary grasp of special relativity and some of its implications. (Magnetism is one of them but I couldn't tell you how to derive that.) I feel instinctively that a multiverse makes sense but I have no definite knowledge to back up that intuition.

Hence what notions I've acquired about destroyed timelines or dying Universes are strictly fictive in origin. It's remarkable to me in retrospect that even though "timey-wimey" sci-fi stories have a bad reputation for being slipshod and devil-may-care, a mere excuse for sloppy writing, I feel like some general consensus has emerged about what's a "plausible" time-travel or time-magic story, and what's merely shoddy (e.g. J. K. Rowling's careless use of a time-travel gadget in one of her Harry Potter books.) All the same...can you honestly say that you'd know with any certainty how such things work in "real life" just because you'd consumed a lot of sci-fi?

Earlier on today I re-watched a famous timey-wimey episode of Star Trek: TNG, "Yesterday's Enterprise", which I might well have seen when it first broadcast. TNG premiered roughly in parallel with my RL high-school years and for a while it was my favorite ever TV show. I think most TNG fans would agree that "Yesterday's Enterprise" is among the show's best. The episode doesn't dance around the difficult question about how wild a chance Picard and both Enterprise vessels are being asked to take, trusting only to the strength of Guinan's convictions and Picard's faith in her. Picard assails Guinan with an obvious question: how can one possibly say, from one's limited and mortal perspective, that one timeline is "better" than another? How can one issue life-and-death orders on so tenuous a chance, one whose probability can't even be defined? Yet the chance is taken. Fate protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise; the "bad" timeline seems to end without anyone noticing except Guinan.

But it's fiction. (But I, too, am fiction, am I not?)

It's saving lives that matters most to me. My own life is of lesser importance—but I've been living here in this place that seems to be Earth 2024 for a number of years now, I've got family here now, a household I'm trying to help them uphold, I've got friends near and far (all of whom are weary and ailing and in danger of completely foundering), and I've been trying in my pitiful and inadequate away to resist the tide of U.S. fascism, because it's what my RL mother taught me to do, decades ago in what seems like another lifetime, as indeed it was. I have had more than one of those.

If I had any clear notion that ending a timeline, whatever that even means, could somehow save everything and everyone that I care about, then sure! I would move in that direction. But for the moment, the prospect befuddles me. I feel that I've been straitjacketed by the simplifying assumptions of my science-nerd education and upbringing, in which time is simply "elapsed seconds", an independent variable on an infinite number-line.

One might as well equate this simplified model of time with the Sacred Timeline trope one sees in the Loki show and elsewhere, as if all existence were a straightforward function of t. Modelling physical phenomena as functions of t (i.e. elapsed seconds) obviously works quite well for most practical purposes, and thus it's in all the textbooks—and very difficult for my mind to get past, as it happens. Trying to conceptualize non-linear time or branching time or whatnot? (*faceplants*)

~Chara of Pnictogen