#yesterday i watched all of star trek picard

[the-oracle-of-the-lost]

I watched every Star Trek episode & here are my opinions.

as the title says – i finished all the Star Trek shows as of today yesterday and since i watched most of them while i wasn't using tumblr, i want do do some mini-reviews – both what i think are objectively the best shows and which are my personal favorites. i might make a couple more "ranking" posts for theme song/pilot/finale/favorite epsiodes/etc eventually but this post is already long as hell. i'll also probably do a movie post sometime but i want to rewatch the AOS movies first since i haven't seen Into Darkness since it came out (before i was actively a Trekkie).

also just as a note, these are fully my own opinions & tastes. i'm not trying to argue that any of these shows are bad (nor are any flawless), i'm just Some Guy giving my opinions.

continued under the cut. apologies for how long this is but there sure is a lot of Star Trek.

Watch Order

my opinions are probably a bit influenced by the order that i first watched these shows in so just as some background – i watched sporadic episodes of TOS & TNG when i was a kid which was enough to be familiar with the characters, general vibes, & world but not enough to really get into it. in late 2020/early 2021 i watched DS9 per a friend's recommendation and really loved it and decided to give all the different shows a shot. i watched all of TNG summer 2021, watched some of Disco & (what was then all of) Lower Decks in fall 2021. i started Voyager spring 2022, was interrupted because of Life Stuff and finished it spring 2023. i watched the first season of snw & prodigy sometime in between then. watched Picard spring 2023 just before s3 aired. watched Enterprise summer/fall 2023. finished Disco spring 2024 (just before s5). did a slow march through TOS between summer 2023 and summer 2024. and finally i watched TAS this past month. and i've been keeping up with all recent releases since 2023.

i've also rewatched a large amount of Trek either with my mom or friends at various times so i've ended up seeing most episodes twice (or more in the case of DS9 & Voyager).

Somewhat Objective Ranking:

there's a large difference for me between shows that i think are objectively good & ones that i'm personally attached to so here's just my attempt at ranking Star Trek shows by how good i think they are from a critical lens, not necessarily my favorite.

for me – a good show, and specifically a good Star Trek show, should have in my opinion a) a diverse & strong cast of characters, b) have unique & compelling plots whether they're based in science fiction, politics, or philosophy, c) has a strong moral center & explores the nature of humanity in some way, d) allows the audience to believe in a better future, e) is consistent (both with continuity and episode quality), f) does something to differentiate it from other shows, and g) is actually entertaining.

i don't think any shows come close to fulfilling all of those qualities but some do better than others.

11. The Animated Series: probably not a surprise that it comes in last. it's a fun show by the standard of kid's cartoon in the 70s and i genuinely do like it but it has a lot of the flaws of TOS (lack of continuity, lack of character depth, flimsy plots) with few of the upsides. though i do like how the secondary characters get more of a focus than in TOS.

10. Enterprise: big jump up in quality here from TAS but Enterprise does fall flat compared to the other shows. the Vulcan & Andorian stories are almost always good but so much of s1 & s2 lacks creativity and a lot of the a plots end up feeling generic & reused (though the b plots are often great). s3 falls into an obvious & uncomfortable 9/11/war on terror metaphor that has not aged well. and s4 is a huge improvement but doesn't make up for the faults of earlier seasons. additionally, i think returning to "the Trio + secondary characters" was largely a mistake as characters like Hoshi & Travis remain horribly underdeveloped (and what a coincidence that they're characters of color...) all in all. some great ideas and a handful of great episodes but it doesn't make up for how meh large swathes of the show can be.

9. The Original Series: i'm going to be honest that it this is the hardest show to objectively rank just because it's the first and it's so hugely impactful not just on the Star Trek franchise (obviously) but also on science fiction, pop culture, TV production, and American culture. its impact is quite literally immeasurable and i think unfortunately it means the show will always feel small in comparison to the shadow it casts. don't get me wrong. some episodes are great even by today's standard, not to mention by the standard of the 60s. but so many episodes, especially as the show went on, end up being pretty mediocre, poorly paced, misogynistic/racist, and have thin plots. TOS is enjoyable for me because of the camp & exploring the foundations of this fictional universe i love so dearly but i'm not going to pretend that it's objectively better than other shows on this list just because of its legacy.

8. Picard: now i could pretty easily judge each season of Picard as its own show and each season would get spaced out in entirely different places on this list. i genuinely believe s1 of Picard is one of the best seasons of Star Trek. the writing fumbles a bit at the end but the characters, direction, & acting is some of the best of the franchise. unfortunately the choice to present each season as a separate anthology reallllly let's it down because of the lack of continuity between seasons. the pandemic definitely threw a wrench into the show but s2 (while i enjoy it), has a very messy meandering plot that feels insecure in its skin. s3 (which i also enjoy) has tighter writing but suffers majorly from having been outlined before the end of s2 therefore having a weird discontinuous transition between seasons and unfortunately excluding so many great characters from s1 & 2. i love it dearly (not to foreshadow my personal favorite ranking) but it is a mess.

7. Discovery: most of the critiques i have of Picard also stand for Discovery which also opted for the "anthology" style series which i think fundamentally doesn't work. Discovery took awhile to find its voice and after s3, still sung somewhat off key. Michael is easily one of the best & most well developed Star Trek characters and the rest of the cast is good but are painfully underdeveloped as its hyperserialized format doesn't really leave time to get to know the characters unless it's essential for the plot. like Picard, it also got screwed over by pandemic-era production leaving some episodes clumsily written. some seasons, in my opinion, end up with an overcomplicated plot that becomes difficult to follow. nevertheless, there are some episodes and scenes that are stunning and somewhat make up for the mis-steps. and ultimately, the later seasons of the show really do understand the heart of Star Trek.

6. Strange New Worlds: going back to an episodic style for the next live action show after the mixed reviews of Picard & Discovery was definitely a good choice. the writing is much tighter, the characters generally feel more whole, and there's more to grab onto compared to entirely serialized shows. and after a lot of the darkness in Discovery and Picard, it feels like a breath of fresh air to have a show that feels joyful & fun. however. so much of SNW is built off of pre-existing Star Trek (mainly TOS) that it struggles to form its own identity and when it tries to be a new show, it gets caught in the trap of betraying existing continuity. the episodes focusing on La'an, Uhura, M'Benga, & Una are great – some of the best of new trek – but episodes focusing on Spock, Chapel, and Pike end up feeling... off with messy writing and being Kinda Weird about disability/genetics. since it's only had two seasons, i definitely think SNW could ascend or descend in the rankings in the upcoming season(s).

5. The Next Generation: TNG wasn't quite as hard for me to rank as TOS but it sometimes struggles with a similar problem that its legacy in pop culture sometimes overshadows the show itself. it's also tricky because when TNG is good, it's phenomenal; when it's bad, it's really bad; but most episodes land somewhere in the middle. s1 is borderline unwatchable, s2 is just a step above, and from there it gets a lot stronger after behind the scene problems were worked out & it found a stable writing staff. it ends up striking a good balance of stories between straightforward science mysteries, deep explorations of philosophy, space politics, and fun romps. it ends up getting dragged down more than a little by Roddenberry's lingering insistence to have the characters avoid long term conflict and the very episodic style resulting in less ongoing story arcs. characters like Geordi, Wes, Beverly, & Troi also end up feeling somewhat underdeveloped in comparison to characters like Picard & Data.

4. Voyager: this is probably one of my more controversial picks (judging by how others tend to rank the series) and maybe i'm biased but i do genuinely believe that Voyager deserves its place this high on the list. Voyager is an inconsistent show which certainly pulls it down a little but manages to strike a better balance in episode quality and is able to have more dynamic characters & more ongoing narratives than TNG. Voyager still has its share of bad episodes and gets off to a somewhat shaky start (particularly struggling in early s2) but finds its groove more easily because of the experienced writing team that already had years of Star Trek under their belt & an excellent cast. Voyager's biggest stumbles are definitely in regards to under-serving some of the characters (especially Chakotay, Tuvok, and Harry) in later seasons.

3. Deep Space Nine: a somewhat obvious pick for top three Trek shows. DS9 has deservedly been getting its praises in recent years for its darker narratives, its bold approach to some of TV's first serialized stories, its exploration of politics & religion, and the masterful way it can bounce between nuanced episodes on serious topics & fun comedy. it flails a little bit in the first two seasons while finding its voice but compared to some of the other shows, it starts off strong and the quality is generally consistent with seasons 4 & 6 being the obvious highlight. however despite the strength of the characters, actors, and writing, there are certainly times when the show fumbles: episodes that get a bit too dark to bounce back from (and aren't followed up on), stories that present some troubling ethics without much pushback, and its fair share of the mediocre scifi mystery episodes seeded throughout 90s Trek.

2. Lower Decks: based on its first season, Lower Decks is a fun but non-serious entry into the Trek pantheon. so it was surprising when what seemed at first glance like a typical irreverent adult animation show, developed so much genuine heart for both the the Lower Decks characters & the wider Trek franchise. Lower Decks could have been an excuse to string together a bunch of fan-servicey references but it becomes genuinely heartfelt with great new characters, fun worldbuilding, actual insightful commentary on existing Trek, and the ability to laugh at itself while still being made with love. while the first two seasons drag it down a little bit (i think they went in too hard with the raunchy comedy vibes), season 3 and especially season 4 are really great especially with the exploration of Mariner's PTSD that strengthens her into one of the best character in Trek.

1. Prodigy: plenty of people have been singing Prodigy's praises since its untimely cancellation and no joke – it is, in my opinion, the best Star Trek show. it is more of a kids oriented show than the other entries on this list (except TAS) but that doesn't mean it lets up on having complex plots & characters. it might be the only Star Trek show that i genuinely believe doesn't have a bad episode (albeit a couple in s1 that are just okay) and s2 as whole is a masterpiece. the only things that let it down in my opinion are: somewhat clunky animation on close-ups (though the background animation is gorgeous) and the plot getting so over complicated by s2 that i had to draw a diagram to keep track of the time travel (and this is coming from someone who loves over complicated time travel stories.)

My Personal Favorite Star Trek Shows:

11. The Animated Series: as i said before – it's fun, i'm glad it exists, it doesn't really offend me, but with the exception of the episode Yesteryear, it doesn't really do anything for me.

10. The Original Series: yeah... i'm sorry. i just don't click with TOS that much (or TOS era in general as you can tell from the rest of this list). i can recognize its importance and there are definitely some episodes i really enjoyed (either for the camp factor or because they're genuinely good) but the majority of the episodes i either don't have much of an opinion on or i think are genuinely bad (in a not fun way). i'm also fine with looking past some of the bigotries of the time but even so the misogyny & racism in the show was just too much for me. sorry.

9. Strange New Worlds: i enjoy SNW for the most part but it's definitely dragged down because 1) i strongly dislike how Spock is written, 2) while i definitely like episodic Trek more, the short episode order does make the episodes i dislike stand out a lot more, 3) a lot of the show is built on nostalgia-bait for TOS era which... i just don't really have. there are great episodes but as a whole, i'm just not attached to it.

8. Discovery: i really disliked the first two seasons of Discovery when i first watched them and though they've grown on me, it's just too dark for me to really get into. seasons 3-5 i like a lot more and i appreciate how earnest & hopeful it is (especially compared to seasons 1 & 2) but the writing can be a bit heavy handed. and as much as i do really love Michael, i definitely prefer shows with a stronger focus on the ensemble as a whole. that said, i am definitely attached to the characters and really love the 32nd century worldbuilding that's done.

7. Enterprise: i'm honestly a bit surprised that i ended up liking Enterprise this much but the fourth season (with the exception of the finale that definitely doesn't exist) is banger after banger. and while the episodes of earlier seasons might be a bit uninspired, the general worldbuilding is genuinely interesting to me with the exploration of Vulcan politics, the Vulcan-Andorian War, the Temporal Cold War, the pre-Federation politics of Earth, and more. i'm also greatly endeared to all the secondary characters (Hoshi & Phlox particularly) which means it's also a shame that the non-Archer, Trip, & T'Pol characters get so little screentime. and while so much of the first two seasons is kinda bleh, the B plots & runners to those episodes end up being really fun and ends up creating a world & characters that feels worth exploring.

6. Prodigy: i think with time (and a possible third season...) Prodigy could become one of my favorite Treks and as i already said – it's very very good. the core cast of characters is really strong with all of them (except for maybe Murf & Jankom Pog) being well developed and compelling. the plot is interesting and feels relatively unique while still feeling like Star Trek at its core. it's also the rare example of a series that has a lot of fan-service while still retaining its identity and the strength of its own characters. ultimately, it ends up ranking lower on here than my more objective tier list because some of the angst & darkness i enjoy in stories doesn't quite deliver (which is very much not a fault of the show since it is a family show), the way Janeway is written doesn't always quite line up with my own view of the character (again, not a fault of the show), and the fact that i just haven't spent as much time with the show & characters yet.

5. The Next Generation: TNG is very much a comfort show to me. i don't have all that much to add from my objective review (there are very bad episodes, very good episodes, but most are somewhere in the middle). i really like all the characters and the behind the scenes friendships really translate well to the screen but none of them really compel me the way characters do further up on this list. i do give the show a lot of credit though for continuing the worldbuilding established in TOS and taking it in a new direction and a new vibes (rather than continuing the space western format) that is hugely influential to all of the shows that came after it.

4. Lower Decks: pretty much the same as my objective review – it's a fun show that ends up finding a good balance of humor, strong characters, and pointed commentary at past Trek shows. it's a show obviously filled with a lot of love for the franchise and i'm very glad it exists. aside from Mariner, i'm not quite as attached to the other characters but i do love them all.

3. Deep Space Nine: as i said before, DS9 is undoubtedly one of the strongest shows in Star Trek. it has the most recurring characters, pretty much all of which i find compelling, and a fantastic cast of regulars as well. the overall plot of the show is incredibly strong and allows it to have a lot of good commentary on imperialism, war, religion, race, and more. it has my two favorite episodes in all of Star Trek (The Visitor and Far Beyond the Stars) and so many other bangers as well. it's the show that first hooked me into Star Trek & the Star Trek fandom and it really is fantastic. the reason it doesn't rank higher here is entirely subjective in that i just don't feel as compelled to explore the characters & fandom as the last two shows on this list. other people have talked about how shows that are too objectively good aren't necessarily the best for fandom and that's how i kind of feel about DS9. it's great. i love it. i'm not necessarily compelled to feel like i have to add to it.

2. Picard: i can recognize that in many ways Picard kinda fails as a show (for reasons i've already stated) but that absolutely does not stop me from loving it. it's extremely messy and i've wanted to fix it ever since i saw it. it might be an unpopular opinion but the worldbuilding developments in s1 (the destruction of Romulus, the synth ban, the general darkness of the Federation) are incredibly compelling to me and i really do like deconstructing Picard as a character (even if i wish he was in the show a little less). and despite some major inconsistencies between seasons, i find the characters wonderfully rich and well written and every time i watch an episode, i feel like i want to explore them more and more. (not coincidentally, it's also the Star Trek show i've written the most fanfic for.)

1. Voyager: Voyager has enthralled me mind, body, & soul. i've never had such a fast turn around from a show that i was meh about to one that constantly consumed my thoughts. it's undoubtedly imperfect but it's imperfect in a way that i feel compelled to want to study and fix. with the exception of maybe DS9, Voyager has the strongest cast of characters and one of the strongest premises of any show. i firmly believe that Kathryn Janeway is the best (and certainly my favorite) Captain in all of Star Trek and most of the characters rank among my favorite Trek characters of all time. even if there aren't a ton of obvious ongoing narratives, the subtle ways the characters change over the 7 years is great and leaves the door open for fandom to explore so much (which as you can tell is definitely something that draws me to a lot of shows). and while DS9 might have my favorite episode of Star Trek, Voyager ends up having more stories that rank amongst my favorites (Year of Hell, Latent Image, Endgame, Barge of the Dead, Bride of Chaotica, Riddles, Survival Instinct, Timeless, etc).

anyways.... that sums that up. i'll probably type up my list of favorite episodes sometime in the next few days because i need to milk the "i watched all of Star Trek" thing for a little bit.

[mylittleredgirl]

Least favorite Star Trek character in each series?

i love all my children equally how could you do this to me!!!!

slightly more rational answer: i have been thinking about this since yesterday when i got the ask and it's like every time i think i have an answer i immediately go "oh but i love them for XYZ" and they move up in the ranks. ultimately most treks are ensemble shows and removing anybody from the ensemble makes it all fall apart!

gun to my head, though, bearing in mind that i love all of them:

tos: gun to my head it's chapel i'm afraid and i feel bad about it. she doesn't really get to grow much and the other most-static character is probably chekov and i had a massive crush on him. in 1967 when they went "you know this show should add a mop top for the teenyboppers out there" they were talking specifically about me 30 years later.

tng: i would take the bullet for real.

ds9: man i'm going through main characters and then secondary characters and then tertiary characters and how are they all so essential and good????? literally i have gone thru a list of characters and a list of episodes and am coming up blank. even the villains are fantastic. eddington is annoying but he's supposed to be and his episodes are all great. sloan himself is fun it's just what section 31 did to star trek in general that sucks. like????? there's not a single name that shows up in the credits that doesn't make me go YEAHHHHHH.

voy: if we can count recurring characters i'm saying barclay. i liked him a lot as a character in tng and but go "for fuck's sake" whenever i see "guest star dwight schultz" on the voyager credits. i dislike pretty much every earth-contact episode after "message in a bottle" so maybe i don't like voyager-barclay because he just happens to be there?? for main cast it'd be neelix shut up shut up i love him in the ensemble but sometimes when they give him his own episode it's too much.

ent: sorry malcolm lovers this was the only show that was an easy choice. like we SHOULD dig into the fact that essentially his greatest wish is to sacrifice himself and he won't be happy until he dies on the job. klingon behavior but not at all for the fun and glory of it just because he kind of just doesn't enjoy being alive???? archer is terrible in so many ways but he's also much more enjoyable to watch being terrible.

disco: this is actually a very weird show to even know who to choose from. the cast changes every year! we barely even know the bridge crew! who is interesting enough to count as a main character?? of the main title cast i'm kind of hot and cold with adira. i like them but the sheer amount of anxiety radiating off them at all times makes me tense up whenever they come on screen. (i just realized it's kind of ironic to say adira because they're basically a mix of wesley and ezri, who would probably make this list for most other trekkies but are two of my absolute faves.) (i will think long and hard about this)

snw: i don't know that i have enough of a read on any of them? i still haven't finished it. chapel (again?? oh no) is the one i had the hardest time warming up to early on because she seemed the most wink-y and out of place in a franchise that usually takes silly things very seriously, but i did warm up to her!

lower decks: if we can go with guest characters i hate badgey (only one on here that gathers the "hate" rating!!). i don't find him (it??) funny and i know i SHOULD find it funny which means whenever it shows up i am both not having a good time and feel bad about not having a good time. the main characters are all brilliant. gun to my head it's boims but it's a close one i love them all.

i don't even know what other shows we have i've run out of steam???

oh right picard. captain shaw??? why is such a large subset of fandom so horny for him??? and shipping him with seven of nine of all things???? is it just White Guy With Trauma because there are like. a lot of other white guys with trauma in this franchise to choose from.

[stellarred]

CAUSE VS. CANON: Making the Case for Qcard

*Warning: May trigger some Qcard shippers*

I had an interesting conversation with a friend yesterday about loving certain dynamics in stories, like Star Trek's Qcard for example, and how nitpicker fans and shippers analyze the writers' work, the actors' performances, etc. to show that a dynamic/relationship is true/canon.

She insisted that if you look hard enough to find proof that a relationship between two characters is canon, or has validity, you will find it "*simply because you want it to be true, even if it's not.*" 😡😡😡

She called it "nitpicking for a cause."

As a devoted and longtime Qcard shipper, I bristled at her comment, and I proceeded to explain how writers intentionally weave dynamics into their scripts and stories through devices, including: parallels, such as STP S2's Q/Picard and Teresa/Rios, and through lines, such as STP S1: the butterfly motif, (Q)ueen cards, (Picard's unusual luck in surviving the explosion), which led to S2 Q's butterfly comments, the S2 trailer (Q)ueen card, The Sun/Q motif, Q, of course, and his lesson to Picard about opening himself up to love, so that he could be chosen by someone else to be loved in return. Then, in S3, we had Q's last minute return signaled by the Sun, and Picard allowing himself to love Jack and being accepted by Jack.

I also pointed out that Trek writers choose very specific words for actors to use at unusual times to indicate dynamics, too.

Ex: Picard (S2): I always filed Q as *unknowable.*

@porgthespacepenguin and @celestialholz both have meta-analyses on Qcard that beautifully prove Qcard as canon by the writers.

She still insisted at this point that I was nitpicking, intellectualizing dialogue, and over-analyzing all because I WANTED Qcard to be real.

Finally, I told her that writers, such as Cindy Appel, producers, like Akiva Goldsman, and Ron D. Moore, as well as actors Patrick Stewart and John de Lancie backed it up, too.

She then said, "Well, De Lancie was told to act a certain way and read the script."

I then pounced, saying that although actors follow scripts, they do have some agency in their performance. John de Lancie and Patrick Stewart both made deliberate choices in their portrayals, using certain types of body language, voice inflections, facial expressions that added credence to Qcard.

At this point, she gave up the fight and smartly so.

I mean for her or anyone else to suggest we Qcard shippers find those nuances/subtext/indications woven into a script and performance out of a desire or desperation for it to be canon irritates me.

My friend then asked me, "Why can't you just casually watch something, like Star Trek and enjoy it for what it is? Why all this analysis?"

It's a fair question.

I guess it's because while I can casually watch something and enjoy it at face value, other things, such as Qcard are like finding gold dust on the ground. You see gold on the surface, and it's great. You could make some money from selling that gold dust, sure.

But, if you dig just a bit deeper, you find a rich gold mine worth much more. Much more satisfying.

So, what do you think?

Was my friend correct in saying we Qcard shippers analyze and nitpick for The Cause?

Or, are we actually on to something?

[starfleetisapromise]

Some thoughts on Picard Season 2 and why it's unpopular.

So I had a bit of an epiphany yesterday. I'm rewatching Picard Season 2 in preparation for a discussion about it with a colleague next week and I was constantly reminded that a lot of fans are very visceral in their dislike of this season.

To be honest, there are parts of it that I don't like. I think the whole Soong/Kore story was a totally unnecessary distraction and was only done, once again to shoehorn in Brent Spiner and the Picard/Data relationship - which I never found compelling in the first place. But that's just me.

However, I realized that Picard Season 2 does something that no other season (or show) of Star Trek does, it centers the entire narrative on humanity. By making the protagonists AND the antagonists humans, there is no subtle (or not so subtle) use of alienation to map contemporary adversaries or conflicts onto the Federation's adversaries. This is important, because, as I have argued in a multitude of research papers, Star Trek is very, very guilty of framing future conflicts through the lens of contemporary adversaries. This was done very explicitly in TOS - both Roddenberry and Coon overtly asked for the Klingons to be modeled on an "Asiatic Communist" trope. Communism was again the enemy in TNG, through the medium of the Borg and "assimilation" and loss of individuality. DS9 has its Cardassian "Nazis"; Voyager and Enterprise the chaotic post-Cold War existential threat of non-state actors and by the time we get to Discovery, the Klingons have been recast as Jihadist extremists.

The fundamental problem with this is that no matter how much Star Trek might talk about the Federation being a "future better us"; by casting recognizable real world adversaries as the Federation's foes, it automatically casts the contemporary US as the Federation (that's just how TV works, especially through the manichean lens of US culture).

So, if you don't want to think too hard about the ways in which the US interacts with the world. If you don't want to think too hard about American exceptionalism and Neo-imperialism and the misuse of force (and capital) without and within the US. If you cloak it all in the surface progressiveness of visible diversity - and I'm not claiming that diversity and representation isn't important, of course it is, but diversity does not equal progressive politics - then you can happily watch Star Trek without ever having to grapple with the uglier parts of the American experience. If we are the Federation, and clearly we must be because the Federation's foes are recognizably our foes, then we are already the galaxy's "good guys"; the Federation is just a future extension of the American now.

Season 2 of Picard blows that all apart. The bad guys are the Confederation and, by going back to the 21st century and exposing the roots of the Confederation in all the ugly, racist, greedy, unequal, venal, corrupt layers of 21st century America, the Confederation is a direct consequence of that present (our present) being allowed to play out into the future. We are the enemy in the 21st century and we become the enemy in the 24th century.

And the show pulls absolutely no punches. We get ICE brutalizing detainees and explicit discussions of people being disappeared because they are dehumanized as "non-people". Homeless encampments and immigrant clinics amid glittering towers and sumptuous parties. We get quips about the ridiculousness of pledging allegiance to a flag (thank you Ríos) and monologues about exchanging white hoods for suits (thank you Guinan). Some of the despair is directed to the behaviors of everyone on the planet - climate change - but the vast majority of the political commentary is explicitly about the contemporary US.

Not only that but it's done by a diverse cast that speaks Spanish, and is brown and queer and female and empowered (thank you Queen Agnes) and where the only white men are aging and feeble.

It is (the wandering Soong/Kore storyline notwithstanding) fucking brilliant television and it's the first time that Star Trek is ever explicitly - textually AND subtextually - progressive. There is no ability for the audience to elide the message by hiding in the fiction that we are the Federation and THEY are the bad guys (the Klingons, the Borg, the Romulans, the Breen, the Cardassians).

So no, let's get rid of the bullshit that people don't like Picard Season 2 because of "the writing", the writers room for Seasons 2 and 3 is almost identical (Matalas, Appel, Monfette, Maggs and Okomura) and the writing for both seasons was taking place almost at the same time.

Whether it's subconscious or not, the disproportionate degree of hate leveled at Season 2 (often by the same fans that love season 3 for it's "great writing" and overt nostalgia) exists because the storytelling in Season 2 leaves fans no place to hide. Because for the first time Star Trek really dives into the core of science fiction, which, as many, many sci-fi writers have explained (Margaret Atwood most recently), is not to predict the future but to critique the present.

I may come back and edit or extend this later, but right now I'm going to leave it as is and post.

Edited to clarify that you can hate Season 2 for any reason you want to, personal taste is just that, personal - but the (for the first time) explicit social commentary cannot be divorced from the unusual levels of vitriol hurled at this season by a substantial group of very vocal fans.

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Jean-Luc Picard

By Ames

Since you all enjoyed our spotlighting of all the characters from The Original Series, we’re going to continue onward by spotlighting all our mains from Star Trek: The Next Generation as well! Of course, we were going to do it anyway because we’re having a blast going officer by officer and reminiscing on their high and low points, but I wanted you to feel special.

And what better way to start things off than with one of the fandom’s favorite and most ethical characters, and the one who sparked his own [deeply flawed] spinoff series, Captain Jean-Luc Picard! So join us on this week’s A Star to Steer Her By as we put on our captain’s bomber jacket, whip out our Ressikan flutes, and drape our Mintakan tapestries over the backs of chairs. Read on below for when Picard was at his best, and subsequently at his worst, and listen to the banter over on this week’s podcast episode (jump to 1:08:49 if you're not here for Enterprise chat). Make it so!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Not now, Doctor. Please. I already foresee talking about “The Naked Now” quite a lot over the next couple of weeks because everyone’s character ends up exaggerated by the polywater syndrome. And Picard is no exception. We do admit that it is good of him to fight his intoxication and also Bev’s advances, and it also gives us that little horny chuckle and skip that are just so endearing.

Prove to the court that I am sentient Picard becomes known throughout the series for his excellent ethical and philosophical speeches, and the first really big one comes in “The Measure of a Man” and it’s a doozy. It’s no small feat determining sentience (really, sapience) of a being, and Picard standing up to Bruce Maddox to fight for Data’s rights is something to take pride in and aspire to.

The time cops would be proud Picard’s relationship with Guinan is intriguing throughout all of TNG, and his trust in her abilities is enough for him to believe that it is best to send the Enterprise-C back to their rightful place in history in “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” As his alternate-timeline ship is crashing down around him and his crew is dying all over the bridge, he heroically gives the C their best shot.

Sarek <3 Spock In our Top 5 TNG Episodes list, “Sarek” ended up being the only episode that made all four of your hosts’ lists. And for good reason! Picard compassionately helps Sarek through a bout of Bendii syndrome by mindmelding with him so he can get back to his ambassadorial work, and we end up with some of the best Patrick Stewart acting in the whole show for it!

Bedtime for Borgo Picard has a rough time throughout all of “The Best of Both Worlds,” spending most of the two-parter as Locutus, as you’ll see in just a moment. But at the end of Part II, he’s able to fight through the Borg programming just enough to give Data the one-word cue “Sleep,” which turns out to be the undoing of the Borg in that Battle of Wolf-359.

Mev yap! I’m always a big fan of watching Picard speaking Klingon in their ceremonies. It shows how seriously he takes their customs. And in “Reunion,” when he breaks out the ja’chuq while arbitrating the Rite of Succession and also looking into K’mpec’s murder, it’s so ballsy that you’ve got to respect the guy. Or, at least anyone who isn’t as dishonorable as Duras has got to respect the guy.

With the first link, the chain is forged Yet another in a long line of great Picard speeches comes in “The Drumhead.” Admiral Satie gets more and more power hungry to convict people throughout her Red Scare hearings, even through unscrupulous means. Picard rightly puts her in her place by throwing the just words of her own father in her face. No wonder she’s on Jake’s Evil Admirals listicle.

Sokath, his eyes uncovered! Picard befriending Captain Dathon in “Darmok” is so Picardy that I’m swapping it in for that great line from “Peak Performance” I mentioned on the podcast (which is still great, but the screengrab was more boring). And I’m just so impressed with Picard’s patience in learning the seemingly nonsensical Tamarian language and his willingness to trust another being who just wants to communicate with him.

Resistance is not futile While it could be debated that this moment be prime fodder for Picard’s Worst Moments list for not getting rid of the Borg when he had the chance in “I, Borg,” we’ve got to admit it’s such a good moment for Picard to connect with Hugh and save his life. After having been forced into the role of Locutus, Picard has got to feel some small triumph that he didn’t commit genocide this day.

There! Are! Four! Lights!  More absolutely stellar Patrick Stewart acting comes in “Chain of Command, Part II.” Say what you will about Part I (Picard had no reason to be on this mission, there, I said it), watching Picard retain his humanity and resolution while being tortured by Gul Madred is riveting stuff. And no matter how many times I see it, I get goosebumps at his “four lights” defiance every time.

Yippee-ki-yay Here’s another kinda late addition to this list but how can one not include all the sabotaging of the ship he does in “Starship Mine”? It’s clear that Picard knows his ship like the back of his hand (the one that wasn’t briefly a Borg hand, more likely) when you watch him outsmart a bunch of terrorists as he John McClanes all over the Enterprise-D.

How many people does it take, Admiral, before it becomes wrong? Insurrection may not be anyone’s favorite of the Star Trek movies (here’s ours, for reference!), but Picard’s ethical debate feels so immensely right. Between standing up to Dougherty (another evil admiral!), to fighting for the rights of the Ba’ku, to his great line to Gallatin, “I’m not pleading for my life; I’m pleading for yours,” this is the most Picard has ever Picarded. Period.

—

Worst moments

Shut up, Wesley While we were tempted to also include this moment in our Best Moments list, it’s true that no matter how obnoxious Wesley is being (and he so often is; just wait until our Wesley spotlight), it’s never right to tell him to shut up. Even less so when he is literally the only member of the crew who is actually giving you pertinent information to save the day, as he was in “Datalore.”

Breaking the cycle Since we first watched it, we’ve been simply perplexed by “Time Squared.” There’s a reason it made so many of our Worst Time Travel Episode lists. Picard, at an entire loss for ideas, decides to kill the other him who’s been bonking around to see if that stops the time loops, and then leaves the corpse there for Pulaski to find without telling anyone which him it is! WTF?

I don't know if I want to be Eve I’ve also got to give Picard some guff for making the Bringloidi breeding stock for the Mariposans in “Up the Long Ladder.” Brenna even chastises Picard in the final scene for deciding this with only the male leaders of each society without consulting the women, who will have to basically become baby incubators, and even more annoyingly, she ends up being into it!

Resistance IS futile! While we can’t exactly blame Picard himself for being turned into Locutus in “The Best of Both Worlds,” resulting in huge losses for the Federation, we do have to admit it’s one of his lowest points as a human being. There’s a reason why Picard actually needs to take a mental health vacation in “Family,” something we tended to never see in Star Trek of that era.

Another orphan for the Rozhenkos You could tell by the look on Picard’s face after he accidentally killed Junior’s mother in “Galaxy’s Child” that he knows he screwed up. Couldn’t they have just left her alone in space instead of provoking her to attack them and then finding it necessary to shoot her dead? And now poor Junior has to be raised by his asshole aunts and uncles, thank you very much.

Now now now now! I mean, we were bound to dislike “Rascals” regardless because of its terrible child actors and obnoxious plot, but when you think about it, Picard was also entirely out of character. And it’s not just because he was supposed to be prepubescent: it was because he suddenly couldn’t lead his crew, and being smaller and whinier is no excuse for ignoring all his past experiences!

Mystery solved: Picard did it! If we picked on Kirk back in one of our earlier character spotlights for never checking in on Khan when he marooned him on Ceti Alpha V, then you’re damn right we’re going to pick on Picard for not checking in on Moriarty between “Elementary, Dear Data” and “Ship in a Bottle.” In that time, the holographic mastermind got rightly impatient and took matters into his own hands.

Play dom-jot, human “Tapestry” portrays how brash and short-sighted and tail-chasing Picard was in his years at Starfleet Academy, and how his willingness to get into scrapes got him into a fight with Nausicaans that really should have killed him if it weren’t for future technology. Thank the Continuum for JL’s artificial heart that allowed him to become the man we saw him become.

So it was gik'tal after all While we get that Sito Jaxa had a lot to atone for after the incident in “The First Duty,” we are still uncomfortable with how much Jean-Luc guilted her into going on the very dangerous mission that got her killed in “Lower Decks.” Picard definitely abused his power over her in this instance because he knew how badly she wanted to save face and he exploited it.

Kill the Dorvan V native, save the man Indeed, one of the worst decisions we see Picard make is when he just acts on Necheyev’s orders (hey, another of Jake’s Evil Admirals!) like a little sheep and coordinates moving the inhabitants of Dorvan V in “Journey’s End.” It’s shameful to watch Picard go the route of the Trail of Tears, and then only come around when he’s shown who his ancestor was. 

I think it’s time to try some unsafe velocities We talk a lot about how the Prime Directive isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but that’s still no excuse for all the dunebuggying antics Picard performed in Nemesis. Especially in front of all the natives of the planet (or what we assumed were natives). What a pathetic scene in a pathetic movie. It’s so clear they just wanted to race around in an ATV for a little excitement, but it was absolutely stupid and out of character.

The triumph of the echo over the voice Fittingly, we have even more Nemesis moments to lament since it was such a detestable movie. All movie long, I don’t understand why Picard is so conflicted about the clone situation, as if Shinzon is literally Picard himself and it would reflect poorly on him somehow. That’s not how clones work, dude! There’s no saving this asshole. And unrelatedly, but here we are: stop ordering Worf to go naked to the wedding on Betazed; that’s just gross!!!

—

Well, our Earl Grey tea has gotten lukewarm, and that means we’ve got to wrap things up. Make sure you join us next week for more character spotlights, this one of the bearded variety, and also keep following along with our watchthrough of Enterprise over on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast. You can also discuss diplomatic relations with us on Facebook and Twitter, and let Worf keep his clothes on if he wants!

[fundiscrimination]

To make up for missing yesterday as a treat here are all the Star Trek characters who are ace:

(dang maybe a some point they should branch out from STEM huh?)

Seven of Nine-Voyager (Not Picard)

also winning the coveted A4 spot (asexual, aromantic, agender, autistic) Seven could not catch a break, just 4 seasons people constantly telling them she's doing humanity wrong and pressuring him to conform. It could not be a more relatable character tbh.

My favorite character, always iconic

Billups-Lower Decks

Come on. seriously. we all know this man is asexual. just watch the show it's not subtle. If you disagree you're just wrong.

Odo-Deep Space Nine

Another A4, if there's one thing you can rely on Star Trek for it's the A rep (in infinite combination). (btw I also support trans masc readings of Odo, also whatever's going on between him and Quark)

Yes he has canonical romances and relationships, yes I am ignoring them they're weren't good. Odo started the show just completely baffled and a bit judgey about sex, romance, and gender roles and he should have stayed that way.

Jean Luc Picard-The Next Generation

Remember when Riker tricked him into getting a I-wanna-fuck statute on the sex planet and instead Picard went on an archeological scavenger hunt while dealing with multiple scammers and thieves?

I love him for his genuine hatred of/discomfort with children, his various hobbies, and his lack of time or interest in relationships.

I apologize for finding Q's stalking and sexual harassment of him funny.

Data-The Next Generation

Honestly I'm just going to point In Theory (4.25). The most annoying thing is the show trying to act like it proves Data doesn't have human feelings. When we all know he has friends he cares about. He's close with various members of the crew including Troi and Geordi. He gave Keiko away at her wedding. And look at that picture, that's Spot and Data loves her very much.

In summary, Data doesn't need to want sex or romance to "be human" or "have feelings". He's fine with friends, and his cat, and his autisum.

Tendi-Lower Decks

Because I want her to be.

Ok, I do think it'd be fun to explore an asexual Orion and validate her close relationship with Rutherford as important AND platonic. And we need more femme-presenting/assumed ace (coded) characters on Star Trek. And it'd be really cool to have 2 ace characters on a show.

Also cause I want her to be.

Spock-Star Trek

Did you think I forgot him? The original? The blueprint?

Now, obvious sidenote, I believe in the premise and it's very embarrassing of Star Trek to keep avoiding confirming it, and also I just think Kirk/Spock/McCoy is the ideal dynamic and basically what's already going on. And maybe in either of this ships mentioned, they fucking nasty (or whatever)

However, none of that prevents Spock from being asexual. Which he is.

Please feel free to share your other Star Trek Ace headcannons with me

If you disagree or feel offended by anything on this list please feel free keep that shit to yourself I don't care

[entireoranges]

A bit of a mess but here are my thoughts

I was hesitant to watch because I was never into the Goosebumps books and the other shows; always respected them and what they represented (represents?) but it's never been for me. Different strokes for different folks! However the preview/trailer for the new Disney + (Hulu?) series did look pretty good and I enjoyed Isa Briones in Star Trek: Picard, so it was on the back burner of a maybe. Yesterday during his infusion where I like to watch things that take awhile and didn't feel like taking twenty minutes of picking something I went with Goosebumps. Did not regret.

Best ever? No. Overall I am enjoying. I think it helps since I'm not familiar with the lore/history of the books I don't know what's gonna happen. Though I have a pretty good idea, but it's not enough to make me not want to watch more. And I'm sure that holds true for those who do know because this version is unique and has its own spins.

The cast is amazing, though it's painfully clear those aren't high schoolers and if you focus on that while watching it can sort of take you out of the experience.

PS The first thing I did this morning was watch the new episode that's how much I have been enjoying it.

I do find it unrealistic that all the kids from the 90's events all had kids at the same time. You'd think one or two would be childfree, or some have babies earlier or later ... but all had their kids within a few months of each other? Sorry but I don't see that happening. Plus they all still in the same town; with the semi exception of Sarah? Again not buying it LOL.

I am loving the soundtrack. Curious if on Spotify...

[tinderbox210]

After watching the Picard finale yesterday for the 2nd time, and tearing up just as much as watching the first time, I think my brain is finally functioning enough again to pen down some of my thoughts.

Season 3 – what a ride!!!

I did have my ups and downs with the show. While I overly enjoyed s1, I was frustrated and disappointed with s2, mainly due to the way most of the new characters got sidelined (Soji, Elnor) or written off (Rios, Jurati). I always expected for Picard and the new characters to part ways eventually, to let the hatchlings have their own adventures, but I didn’t expect it to happen like this. Apparently it was a budget decision (also the reason why there weren’t more cameos) because they couldn’t afford keeping the new characters while bringing back the old TNG crew, which imo is a real shame. Especially the Raffi/Worf interaction this season showed that more new and old characters interacting could have been fantastic, and no lying, I would have loved so much to see the Stargazer under Rios’ command aiding the Titan last minute against the assimilated fleet – seeing those two legendary ships fight side by side... it could have been even more spectacular than what we got!

This all lead to me being very torn with reservations prior to s3. TNG was the first Star Trek show I’ve watched as a kid, it introduced me to the franchise and shaped me growing up. The show and the characters will always have a special place in my heart and I was very worried they would mess things up like other shows had (*cough*GilmoreGirls*cough*). But thankfully for me, that wasn’t the case – while I’m still sad for what we lost and could have been, I’m also very happy and grateful for what we got.

I loved season 3 and I think the finale was incredible on many levels and a more than worthy send-off for my beloved TNG gang.

There were so many moments I choked up with emotions while watching, so many impressions that stayed with me even after the ending. I think both DISCO and SNW delivered amazing season finales, but neither got the same reaction out of me like this one – from the mind-blowing cinematic action sequences to the intense emotional beats, it had a very natural flow and felt like the fitting accumulation not just of this season but of a lot what came all those years before.

Was it a perfect season/finale without any flaws? Of course not, because nothing is ever perfect and peoples’ opinions/reactions will always be subjective, but I hate the developed culture in fandoms that everything is black and white – that it’s either holier than thou and you’re not allowed to find a single flaw in it, or it’s the shittiest shit to ever exist with people trash talking every chance they get. I understand where some people are coming from being disappointed with this season and I share some of the criticism, but neither the show nor the finale deserve the hate it gets from some parts of the fandom imo (neither did the previous seasons, especially s1).

Vadic was an amazing villain (Amanda Plummer killed it in every scene) and bringing back the Borg made absolute sense to me. The Borg have been such a huge part of TNG, its legacy and Picard’s personal journey, but they’ve also been a strong focus point in Picard since the beginning. S1 had the ex-Bs, s2 had the alternative collective, so it didn’t feel contrived at all but rather inevitable for the prime Borg to be the final boss villain. And seeing that monstrous Borg queen in her nest (with the chilling voice of Alice Krige!), which reminded me lot of the xenomorph queen scene in Aliens, was truly something else! I think the whole plan to team up with the rogue changelings to infiltrate Starfleet so that they can assimilate the fleet via transporters was quite clever, unique and terrifying as transporters were never weaponized like this before.

I loved the emotional beats between the characters and that everyone got their moments to shine in the finale. Of course, I loved that we saw the Enterprise-D back in action and all its glory, taking one final flight to save the day (and what a mind-blowing flight it was!) before it got the well deserved resting place among the other legendary vessels at the fleet museum. I feared the ship would get destroyed along with a few familiar characters dying in the end, but thankfully that didn’t happen as I don’t think I could have handled it (Shaw’s death was heartbreaking enough). I’m actually glad the show decided against the common “kill half the characters in the finale to show it’s the end” trope to give everyone the happy ending they deserved.

Additional, some things I absolutely went feral and emotional about:

- Seven taking command of the Titan with Raffi right beside her and her speech to the bridge crew

- the Titan going berserker on the assimilated fleet as the last bit of Starfleet left (I wondered why no one else came to help despite the warning of staying away, because that felt a little weird considering Earth’s importance to the Federation, but since Prodigy already did that version, I can understand why they chose a different way here)

- the nods to Anton Yelchin and Majel Roddenberry

- seeing the TNG gang operate their old stations, with addition of Beverly taking over tactical and her raining fire and fury on the Borg cube!

- the flight of the Enterprise through the cube reminiscing Star Wars

- Riker and Troi’s epic love help save everyone and Deanna flying the Enterprise again (I loved that scene with the ship showing up above Picard and co. so much!)

- the chilling inside of the Borg cube and the Borg queen giving such strong Alien vibes

- Picard letting himself get assimilated again to save his son and their emotional scenes in the collective were just so powerful (Ed Speleers delievered so much!)

- the real human love of his family breaking Jack out of the queen’s hold

- the final shot of the Enterprise-D’s bridge reminiscing the ending in Generations (sleep tight, my love, you deserve it!)

- Seven getting promoted to Captain by Tuvok (I know, we all hoped for a Janeway cameo, but I’m happy Tuvok survived) and Raffi becoming her No. 1 (I was sad they broke up, but now the future seems full of possibilities with them finally staying on the same ship)

- Raffi and Worf’s goodbye (I really enjoyed their interactions) and Raffi finally getting the second chance with her family she worked so hard for

- the Titan getting renamed Enterprise-G (though I can’t recall what happened to the Enterprise-F – was it destroyed or renamed or do we have 2 Enterprises now?)

- Jack stepping into his parents’ footsteps (with Beverly being Admiral!) and joining Seven and Raffi on the Enterprise-G (now we need for Elnor to get transferred, because I really want him and Jack to become brothers!)

- the setup for the potential spin-off (give me Star Trek Legacy now!!!)

- the wholesomeness of final scene with the TNG crew at 10 Forward bar just reconnecting and playing poker

- the soundtrack!!!!

[thegeminisage]

rushed tng update bc i am in a HUGE HURRY. monday we watched "q who" and yesterday i caught "samaritan snare" and "up the long ladder."

q who: had been looking forward to this one for WEEKS. and we were SO SO SO CLOSE. i loved every single thing about the borg. i loved their look. i loved the buildup. i loved their creepy little borg babies. i love their creepy cube ship because getting menaced by cubes is the natural state of the enterprise.

BUT NO ONE. GOT. BORGED

they had the perfect opportunity, too...that ensign, gomez? she could have been beamed out of the ship instead of those 18 people dying and they could have seen her when they beamed onto the borg ship. it would have been a wonderful way to impress how different people are once they get borged. that said i did love gomez and i was glad to see her pop back up in another episode. ms motormouth she's so funny she literally just has adhd thank you star trek for the Woman

like, the climax of that was so...anticlimactic. q just warps them back? that's so boring. i was getting ready to give q another chance despite him being SO FUCKING ANNOYING in all his other appearances because he was kind of funny here. like, i see why you guys kept telling me he had something going on with picard. i find it completely horrible just to be clear but i cannot deny that it is going on

AND i loved whatever he had going on with guinan...she was literally ready to get his ass. i loooved her expanded role in this episode and getting to find out more about her

but to have the episode end by q just being like ok i win i;ll take you back now :) come on. we were doing SO well. i was THRILLED. what a case of blueballs. and i checked and apparently only SIX tng episodes deal with the borg? that is so much less than i thought. huge letdown. oh well.

samaritan snare: i really dont understand what they are trying to do with pulaski and picard...is this supposed to be a romantic thing...idgi and i do not like it. like, what's the point of having him almost not survive this operation and then needing HER HELP SPECIFICALLY when he already stated he was uncomfortable with her doing it? the entire thing just rubs me the wrong way.

largely this episode was annoying and i nearly had to stop and close the tab when wesley tried to daddy issues his way into getting picard to parent him

however 2 good things did happen. firstly was the story picard told about getting his ass stabbed when he was an ensign. "a certain giddy warmth actually i laughed out loud" that was something actually.

and the other good thing as when worf was like "you will die without honor. you will never attain the 24th level of awareness" to geordi like i fucking cracked up for real. i wish tng had less unfunny bad humor and more of that because it was hilarious

up the long ladder: this episode was so bad it's UNREAL.

first of all, did worf and pulaski fuck? did that actually happen? they keep trying to make her romantic will picard and then will's dad and now WORF? what is GOING ON on this fucking ship??

i was actually kind of into whatever she and worf had going on when it was just a "let's be reckless idiots and drink the tea" thing because it was just that fucking stupid that it worked its way around to being endearing but every time i make emotional progress with her i am set back. i'm sorry women.

the rest of this episode was also unspeakable bad way to do clones in the most boring way possible and LMAO at them all hating sex or whatever. because it's a way to make them appear more unnatural <3 ok.

even riker slutting it up with that one irish chick couldn't save it because. and i feel insane saying this. every time those guys were onscreen they played like the funny music. you know. when irish characters get the little jig music and it's funny because they're irish? 90s tv did this a lot. shore leave in tos did it too. i'm so exhausted

ALSO LMAOOO TURNING THIS POOR WOMAN INTO BREEDING STOCK...not even asking her...misogyny wins again. i'm sure we can find another woman somewhere dot meme. good fucking god

i don't remember what episodes come next and i don't care because i'm going in release order and guess what was released next. final frontier. spock movie. it's finally time to see him again.....................

[cicaklah]

star trek picard episodes 1-3 thots

THE THOTS ARE BACK

So this post directly follows on from the angry freakout I had earlier this week where I live incepted myself into watching picard season 3 ride or die, because sometimes you've just got to go down to the highway and watch the car crash in person.

also, I reminded myself that I dont care about other people's star trek opinions, only my own. therefore, I needed to have star trek opinions.

here are my thots, here be spoilers

first off: gates mcfadden's face lift is fucking spectacular, the woman looks amazing. Her eye sockets are so sculpted, her cheeks are so taut, her jawline is so sharp, and yet she still looks her age. this is what growing old in the socialist utopia promises: you too can look like a woman who has not actually had to work since the early 90s. also credit to everyone looking great in their 60s, 70s and 80s.

second: jack crusher (the second??!?! how does that work anyway), is so fucking hot.

third: I went into this knowing broadly what happened in episode 1 and 2, and that episode 3 the twist is changelings, because I saw a spoiler yesterday on una mccormack's tumblr. changelings is interesting, because to do a ds9 plot in tng is bold, especially when you can't bring odo back since ya man rene audeboujournois died a few years ago. worf doesnt even mention him by name: ffs worf raffi was alive during the dominion war, she'll know who fucking odo is. he's odo.

fourth: the moment I was like, I am here for the long run was Worf's whole introduction and his everything. I think its always hard to give credit to michael dorn for being so great because he has to act stoic through SO much makeup and he just is worf, but honestly, it felt like if they'd just put the black hair on him he would have looked exactly the same as he did thirty years ago. Like they had to make his hair white just to make time have passed. The man is so well preserved, maybe he also has a very good surgeon, but I am down to believe that he just Is Like That. Damn.

five: worf is the best thing that happened to raffi, I love them together, they are the best team.

six: all of this is going to fall apart when brent spiner comes to Lore it all up, as that is obviously what was stolen from the daystrom institute alongside the portal gun.

seven: so episode 3 won me over because I had kind of forgotten how good an actor patstew is when he really gives it?? because fuck me the scene between beverly and picard where they talk about how the whole baby thing happened was so good, so subtle, so emotive. It also crucially made sense: they had tried to be together. they had failed to be together. crusher was tired of his shit, he's always been a terrible partner and it just didn't work, but then she was pregnant and ready to leave anyway, ready to move on, so just went, fine, breakup over, beverly out. Also, reminded picard that the universe keeps trying to kill him, that he'd basically killed her husband and her son, and she had no other family....thanks for the sperm donation, I'm gonna go retire and have a redo. I was already 100% team bev but now I am 200% team bev, also fuck off picard with your 'oh yeah actually I wouldn't have been my horrible abusive father fuck you for taking me at my word, my whole /r/childfree carefree bachelor attitude, how could I have known anything about myself in my early 60s, I was but a boy, we could have had it all, rolling in the deep' etc. Father and husband fuck the fuck off you traditionalist old bastard you just told us you had broken up for the FIFTH TIME.

eight: should have reserved point seven for seven herself but: SEVEN!!!! I am fucking going to do it, I'm going to write the seven of nineifesto. She is so fucking deep waters, shes been so betrayed by authority figures none of who actually give a shit about whats best for her, just for what is best for the story, she is not meant to be in starfleet ffs, she got the worst possibly mentors in janeway and picard. also seven and raffi just need to hang out with worf and tell the rest of them to fuck off.

nine: captain shaw was right and he should say it. He was having a nice time, just running his ship, doing his duty, when he gets fucking hijacked by two guys who literally are mavericks and crash ships all the time, who are manipulating seven, who MUTINIES, and they literally destroy his ship and ruin his life in the space of about 12 hours and he saw through their bullshit within 30 seconds of the 'surprise inspection' gig. justice for captain liam shaw, only sane man on the titan.

ten: look, the show is never going to stick the landing, but like all star trek, it is a journey. there are changelings, there is worf, there is raffi, there is my forthcoming 200k seven of nine fix it fic, there is so much to enjoy, and also there was the absolutely awful deaging makeup, please stop doing it, it made me feel seasick.

anyway these are my thots on yaoi kthxbye

[procrastinatorproject]

I posted 1,878 times in 2022

48 posts created (3%)

1,830 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@tehriz

@regionalpancake

@thelaithlyworm

@jazzfic

@stra-tek

I tagged 1,875 of my posts in 2022

#star trek picard - 443 posts

#funny stuff - 442 posts

#cristobal rios - 152 posts

#star trek picard season 2 - 115 posts

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#cats - 76 posts

#tumblr - 75 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#and how else are you going to share bits of stories that you won't post for months or years if ever because finishing things is hard 🙈😅

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I spent quite some time yesterday yelling about Star Trek with the wonderful @regionalpancake and @curator-on-ao3, and I need to share their comedic genius with the world!

We were talking about how, if the Zhat Vash are so extremely opposed to synthetic life and any form of AI, could they possibly manage to hack the androids on Mars and to cause them to go rogue? To which Curator commented:

“I’m an iPhone user and I couldn’t hack an android!”

This was followed some time later by a discussion about how in recent Trek, there has been an increasing distinction between People Who Matter and Those Who Don’t. And how its encumbent upon the people who are less significant for the fate of the world to sacrifice themselves for the Important People.

With regards to this, Pancakes observed of Rose (from Dr Who), a character who thinks she is unimportant and whom the Doctor tells that There Are No Unimportant People:

“If she were a Star Trek character, Rose would have been cannon fodder.”

Curator: “You mean... canon fodder? :D”

I don’t know if these are funny to anyone but me, but I laughed so hard I had to go find my asthma spray. So I needed to share XD

59 notes - Posted July 30, 2022

#4

Holo-Tech Database

Over the last seven or so months, I have watched through every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s the first time I’ve seen the entire series, there were quite a few episodes in the later seasons I’d never seen before. Quite an enjoyable experience on the whole.

But because I’m me, of course I didn’t just watch TNG. Instead, I took notes every single time the holodeck or any other piece of holo-technology played a part in the plot, were the setting for even the briefest of scenes, or so much as got mentioned. Essentially, I’m building towards a database of every little scrap of canonical information about holo-technology that I can get my hand on. And this was a start.

I haven’t had the time or energy to look through all of my notes in detail. There is a lot of information in there already. Of course, I’ll only be able to draw any real conclusions once I add in all the data from DS9, Voyager, and PIC, (since I’m interested in the state of technology at the time La Sirena is in operation, because of course that’s what this is about), but it’ll be quite a while before I get there.

So, in lieu of any detailed analysis, here are some quick impressions of my first foray into holo-episode-tracking!

[Image ID: a table showing the number of total holo-episodes for TNG is 58, and breaking that number down for each season. Season 1 has 10 episodes, season 2 has 8, season 3 has 6, season 4 has 9, season 5 and 6 both have 8, and season 7 has 9 episodes. /end ID]

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65 notes - Posted January 27, 2022

#3

30 Days of Picard Postivity

With just over 30 days to go, the premiere of Star Trek: Picard season 2 (3rd March in the US, 4th March internationally) is fast approaching, and I for one cannot wait to get back into the world I fell in love with two years ago. Thirty days is quite some time, however, and even though new trailers and promo pics seem to be dropping daily, I felt like we could use something to tide us over until March.

After the long hiatus, I think this is the perfect time to revisit all the things we enjoyed about season 1. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has forgotten a lot of the details of those episodes, and who would love to see some of the wonderful characters, locations, and stories back on my dash. So, without further ado:

ProcrastinatorProject Proudly Presents:

30 Days of Picard Positivity

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70 notes - Posted February 1, 2022

#2

Massive Picard Season 2 Spoilers Ahead

So the latest episode of The Ready Room, the Star Trek recap show hosted by Wil Wheaton, had a preview of Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard. It's interviews with all of the main actors and they explain in some detail where they're characters are at at the beginning of season 2.

It puts a lot of shots from the trailers in perspective and I have a lot of thoughts that I want to share, but because this is a very, very explicit spoilery preview, I'm putting both the video and my initial reaction under the cut.

Anyone in the US (or with a decent VPN): You can find the full Ready Room episode on the Paramount+ youtube page, but I'm not going to link it here, because, youk know, tumblr 😋

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73 notes - Posted February 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I just had a realization about why Agnes Jurati’s story in Star Trek: Picard season 2 feels so wrong to me, and I am going to inflict it on all of you!

Spoilers for the entirety of season 2 ahead! CW: Mention of depression, PTSD, anxiety, and emotional manipulation

Also: CW long post

(NB: I’m going to completely disregard the discrepancy in Agnes’s character between seasons 1 and 2. I think when you take Agnes’s story and development from the first season into account, her “arc” in season 2 falls apart completely. But for the sake of this argument, I’m going to meet the season 2 writers on their terms. I’m going to ignore the character of season 1 Agnes, and instead will simply look at season 2′s Jurati to explain why I think the story the writers gave her falls flat.)

I was taking notes for a way-too-long essay about my problems with PIC season 2 (which I may or may not write eventually), and I was trying to put into words why it always irks me when people say merging with the Borg Queen was a satisfying end to Jurati’s arc.

What I was never able to put my finger on until now is that when the Borg Queen and Jurati merge at the end of episode 9, that’s not actually the culmination of Jurati’s arc. It’s the Queen’s.

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74 notes - Posted May 20, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[mylittleredgirl]

so i've been thinking about this, and come to the conclusion that i was successfully prepared for star trek picard at a young age, when i cried for like seven hours after seeing the enterprise-d get totaled in generations until my mom said "you can just decide that something else happened instead :)"

which probably meant "every story is just somebody's version of what could have happened in a fictional world and isn't reality" and also "please stop crying and go to school," but i had watched a lot of star trek by this point and was like ohhhhhh, of course!

alternate timelines!

and generations didn't even really look like tng, because of the dramatic movie lighting (which was reminiscent of the way they lit "yesterday's enterprise" to show that it was A Different, Wrong Timeline).

so in my head, picard is so far down the alternate dramatic-movie-lighting timeline (which is fully temporally divorced from the brightly-lit we-all-keep-adventuring-as-friends-forever timeline promised at the end of "all good things") that i'm somehow wet-duck un-botherable by whatever inconsistencies and devastating reveals that have or will happen in this trek.

i want it to be good! i want it to be entertaining!! but whenever something happens that grinds the gears of canon or good taste, there's part of my brain that has been eating canned goods in a denial bunker for a solid 2/3rds of my life going "interesting! but damn, thank goodness that would never happen in The Real Timeline."

[hawkeyefrommash]

Tag game

I was tagged by @thebreakfastgenie

I was driving all day yesterday and am only on my computer now lol so I won't be tagging anyone else -- it's a whirlwind of a weekend

Last song: Slow Dancing by Aly & AJ -- it's on a playlist I had on in the car when we had to go BACK into town today to get bug spray after realizing how bad it is here rn

Currently watching: Well we just watched two episodes of Star Trek Picard so I'll count that atm

Currently reading: Fen by Daisy Johnson - Hawk @colemckenzies lent it to me and I haven't read it yet but want to finish before they come visit so I'm using the long car hours to start it. I had a different book I was reading and finished yesterday, which was Firewatching by Russ Thomas. I am really gonna try to finish Fen, maybe even before we drive again.

Current obsession: we all know 911 has my brainworms in a frenzy ok

[subbyfoxelf]

star trek tng: series wrapup

i frankly don't have much to say about this series that i haven't already said in my individual episode reviews, but it still felt wrong not to acknowledge concluding this rewatch of the series in some fashion. so here's a little post listing my favorite and least favorite episodes and all that tacky shit, and then closing with some final thoughts/feelings as i say goodbye to this show once again. feel free to skip this if that doesn't sound interesting to you i guess?

so, first of all, here are the final rankings of each season by average episode rating.

1. season 6: 3.65 2. season 5: 3.62 3. season 4: 3.31 4. season 3: 3.11 5. season 2: 3.04 6. season 7: 2.96 7. season 1: 2.23

next, my top 10 episodes.

1. “all good things…” (season 7) 2 (tie). the best of both worlds (seasons 3 & 4) 2 (tie). unification (season 5) 4. yesterday’s enterprise (season 3) 5. cause and effect (season 5) 6. preemptive strike (season 7) 7. a matter of honor (season 2) 8. the measure of a man (season 2) 9. the inner light (season 5) 10 (tie). chain of command (season 6) 10 (tie). lower decks (season 7)

my 10 least favorite episodes (ranked from worst to least worst)

1. too short a season (season 1) 2. man of the people (season 5) 3. code of honor (season 1) 4. up the long ladder (season 2) 5. hide and q (season 1) 6. the child (season 2) 7. symbiosis (season 1) 8. genesis (season 7) 9. journey’s end (season 7) 10. justice (season 1)

my 10 favorite relationships/friendships

1. riker & worf 2. data & spot 3. guinan & picard 4. guinan & ro 5. riker & troi 6. riker & picard 7. ro & riker 8. data & geordi 9. picard & worf 10. picard & crusher

and lastly, my top 10 favorite characters.

1. picard 2. riker 3. worf 4. guinan 5. ro 6. data 7. dr. crusher 8. troi 9. geordi 10. wesley

i always feels like such a privilege rewatching this show. it’s not a perfect series–its first and last seasons alone made sure of that. but it has one of the strongest cores of any show out there. although my first exposure to star trek was the tos movies and i glommed pretty hard on to them, tng long ago surpassed tos as my baseline for what “star trek” is, the version i subconsciously compare everything else to.

it’s bittersweet saying goodbye to the show once again. this is now the third time in the last decade or so that i’ve intentionally sat down and watched the entire series from start to finish. but i know i’ll probably find myself another excuse to rewatch it again in a few years. i just always seem to find myself back here, and i’m frankly pretty grateful for that.

for now, though, hailing frequencies closed, sirs.

[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

[duhragonball]

Janwum IV Update: 16,742

All right, so the writing both is and isn't going very well. I went into the weekend expecting to write up a storm, but my fanfic annual isn't progressing much at all. On the other hand, I've made a lot of progress hatewatching Star Trek: Picard, which you can check out at the mothership, if you weel.

So I'm calling an audible and folding that liveblog into my writing project. That gets me up to 16k, which is about where I would have been if I'd managed to get my butt in gear on this fic. I am about 2000 words into the story, which is good progress to be sure. It's especially good that I'm that far in by January, since the thing doesn't have to get posted until the end of the year.

I could just modify the writing goal to give myself more time, or make the word count smaller, or delete it entirely, but this seems like the best play. One thing I found out in November is that I can rack up a lot more words when I'm not forcing myself to follow a single track. I had toyed with writing Yellow Christmas in November, because I thought I would have the time, but the problem was never time, it was me, to paraphrase the gosh-awful dialogue from Star Trek: Picard.

So instead of calling Janwum IV a failure or forcing myself to play catch up, I'm going to accept the situation and encourage the flow of words that I'm actually writing. Yellow Christmas will come to me when it's ready. I've broken the ice on it, so now it's just a matter of time, and I have plenty of that. So we'll get this white whale called Picard figured out, and go from there.

I suppose I could challenge myself to finish Season 3 by the end of the week. Now that I'm no longer dividing my focus, I should be able to make that happen. I just need to watch... two episodes a night until Sunday. Well that's easy! I knocked out four of them yesterday. Well, watching it wasn't easy, but writing about how bad they are is pretty soothing.