thelesseroftwoweevils

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

Now, that's what I'm talking about! Strongest episode so far this season I think.

Maybe I just love Ma'ah and LD's take on the Klingons? I don't know all the Klingons being so down on the Federation is kind of silly but it works and it's not universal as K'orin being back but not over the top proves and it was a nice continuity nod.

Boimler and Mariner getting a great win on klingon terms via Boimler's love of klingon bureaucracy was just fun.

Migleemo's one of my less favourite characters and his b-plot was fine if a little predicatable.

Holy hannah, the klingon woman that was into Ma'ah though! Pity she didn't reappear at the end.

Anyway, very much enjoyed.

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

Well fine, I guess.

I wanted a Mariner/Jennifer coda for ages but kinda underwhelmed when it arrived. It felt like they were kinda crapping on the concept? oh this was clearly worked out why do you want it. And just them actually having to officially break up and become civil exes rather than Mariner having to face the command isues and so on that came with that situation.

Really appreciated t'lyn's part of the A plot simple but fun.

Boimler's better as a subordinate than trying to a cool commanding officer.

The ongoing plot is involving the fissures is pretty cool, interesting to see where that can go.

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

New Lower Decks season! Just finished the second episode.

Both episodes are fine. But only fine. I appreciated the first episode a little more after seeing the second because I thought the alternates was an underused premise. But seeing the next episode, they do set up Boimler and Mariner's apparent character arcs. Boimler's alternate is someone he wants to be and Mariner's is who she wants to avoid. She wants to gain command but still be true to herself.

Still their plot in the second episode wasn't great.

Tendi's is good but doesn't entirely gel with s4 finale. (The deal wasn't "serve until you've paid for the ship") Then again s4 finale didn't really gel with D'Erica's first episode and it's nice to see her supportive of Tendi so a bit of a wash there.

The Rutherford/T'Lyn C-plot was super nice and cute combination we've not seen a lot of and that I very much approve of despite the simplicity of it.

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

So I most use this star trek reactions but i also write extremely bad smut HP fic on Ao3.

On a whim, I google what's a good kudos to hits ratio and saw old discussion from about 2014 that 10% was usual.

Surely this is BS right? 10%? Mines more like 1%. Of course, again, extremely bad fic. lol.

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

(Not trying to contradict or argue with the above post, just using it for a springboard for my own thoughts)

I don't want to speculate on other people's reasons but for me La'an is more dodgy than Erica and Hemmer, conceptually. Because she's a Noonian Singh. It's a 'violates the spirit of canon rather than the letter' thing.

No-one ever explicitly said Khan didn't have descendants but as I recall Space Seed (and it's been a long time I could easily be wrong) Khan was a rather obscure that Kirk didn't know and Spock had to fill him in. Him having descendants that struggle with his rep because everyone remembers him as a later day hitler or whatever doesn't quite fit.

I feel this way about a lot of the SNW to be honest. When I first saw the cast of characters, I just wondered why they'd gone out of their way to make so many of them TOS references. M'Benga, Uhura as a Cadet, Chapel. But the Noonian Singh was an additional step to make this a TOS connection it didn't need to have. It was in s2 it really became relevant at all.

(M'Benga, Uhura and Chapel make the Mengarie where iirc only spock has a Pike connection weird. And M'Benga going from CMO to back up Doctor. Again by the letter of the canon it doesn't break anything but it does feel weird)

I like all of the cast (the actors and the characters) really (aside from the sheer focus and time Spock/Chapel takes up) but conceptually they're a little off.

Apologies for this random essay that's only tangentially connected to what it's reblogged from.

#1133

I think instead of creating La'an Noonien Singh, whose character messes up the TOS canon, the SNW writers should have expanded more on the characters of Phillip Boyce, Janice Rand, and J.M. Colt.

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

Sorry, does that last sentence mean you revised this response to be less confrontational? lol. If you think this one isn't confrontation...oh boy. No, worries I'm not offended. I don't think 'rose coloured glasses' means what you think it does though. I'm not nostalgic for last year's episode of Strange New Worlds.

No, not all genetic modification is inherently eugenics. You've not even come close to proving that point.

However you want to describe the eugenics war. The fact that 20th/21st centuries humans misused something (shortly before nuking themselves to death) doesn't mean that everyone, everywhere, forever can't ethically use it. It's weird that the other three races of the Federation didn't tell them to knock that shit off.

You've come up with a laundry list of flaws. None of them mean that there are no ways to ethically do genetic engineering. None of them have been shown to apply to Illyrians.

It's funny but if an alien naturally had a glowy immune system and could breath where human's couldn't. No-one would have any issue with it would they? What's the difference there?

Would have the episode been better with more Grey? Maybe. Does it mean it's pro-eugenics? No.

Transhumanism actually does include genetic engineering. It's still technology it's just one step removed. Geordi is a great example, if they fixed his eyes genetically, he wouldn't have to use a device that causes him constant pain to see.

I don't see any advantage of Miral having to undergo surgery rather than have a quick genome edit that stops that (though that episode is a great study on designer babies that would bolster your point I admit)

But hey as you won't change you mind, this will be my last response. Get the final word or not as you please.

#924

I don’t get how people think that the episode Ad Astra Per Aspera was pro-eugenics when the message was meant to be that Una shouldn’t be barred from being in Starfleet because of something that was out of her control. Her parents chose to have her genetically modified when she was a child, and she didn’t understand that it was wrong then because she was raised in an environment where it was normalized. Her story is actually pretty similar to Julian Bashir’s and he doesn’t seem to receive the same scrutiny by fans.

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

You're right about the point of the episode. What you haven't done is explain where the eugenics comes in

Because the Federation's ban on genetic engineering is bigotry. Nothing more nothing less. They decided that a branch of science was forbidden to everybody else because humans had a bad experience from it. That's awful and that's what the episode is showing.

Julian Bashir is a perfect example of the problem with their attitude. Superior abilities, no superior ambition, one does not inherently come from the other.

Luckily by Ds9/Vgr time they are allowed to use it strictly for medical purposes like Miral's spine.

But there's nothing really to suggest that that Illyrians praticse eugenics. Do they purge people who aren't genetically up to snuff? To the engineer everyone to be all the same? Not that we've seen that I recall, they're a perfectly normal decent species who... gave themselves a very cool, capable immune system. (the horror!)

They're not eugenists. They're transhumanists. (for lack of a better term)

#924

I don’t get how people think that the episode Ad Astra Per Aspera was pro-eugenics when the message was meant to be that Una shouldn’t be barred from being in Starfleet because of something that was out of her control. Her parents chose to have her genetically modified when she was a child, and she didn’t understand that it was wrong then because she was raised in an environment where it was normalized. Her story is actually pretty similar to Julian Bashir’s and he doesn’t seem to receive the same scrutiny by fans.

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

one of mine. Neatly combined!

I need to do a bigger post of prodigy season 2 but suffice to say Maj'el grew on me over the course of it. I don't think she was strictly necessary but she was nice nevertheless.

#816

I wound when the Prodigy team came up with Ma'jel, it seems interesting PRD and LDS both added vulcan women as re-occuring characters.

I previously confessed I wonder why Prodigy did Maj'el after Lower Decks had already done T'Lyn. 3/4s of the way through Prodigy I have to recant because Maj'el is simply a really solid Vulcan character who is fully vulcan, logical, heroic and nice (once she warms up the prodigies) without ever being seen a as a cultural rebel or 'not vulcan'. She's actually a great addition to the cast.

Posting these confessions back to back since they're the same op and the same subject.

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

Marvel proves Creative Bankruptcy

So I thought it was a joke when I read it this morning but apparently it's true.

Robert Downey Junior is going to be Doctor Doom. in Avengers 5: Doomsday.

Apparently it's going to have the same directors and writers as IW/Endgame because Marvel desperately wishes it was 2019 again.

I can't adequately put into words the sheer bewilderment I have at this move and how much of a step back it is: an admittance that they just can't succeed without RDJ for some fucking reason.

Just... why?

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

Holy crap, not so long ago at the end of last season, I opined that a Lower Decks version of Parallels would be great.

And guess what just show up in the lower decks season 5 trailer!

Captain Becky Mariner. (No sign of an AU Sito Jaxa yet though)

Either I am a genius or obvious plot was obvious, lol.

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

Kira and the Daxes weren't as extreme as say Seven or T'Pol who are the worst offenders but they did I believe end up in very tight-fitted custom versions of the uniform.

Memory alpha has section of kira's custom uniform: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Bajoran_Militia_uniform#Senior_officer_uniforms

They were still wearing actual uniforms though.

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As to OP when they mentions Fanservice I was more thinking the kind of fanservice that DISCO onwards are rife with. Continual callbacks and continuity nods and appeals to nostalgia and past shows rather than being their own thing.

#752

I love Trek so much and there’s so much it does right but it has a massive fanservice problem, or at least pre-DISC Trek does. Like the fact that literally every series has to have a designated Female Character Who Wears a Custom Uniform With No Purpose Other Than Fanservice (except TOS but that’s only because basically every woman gets stuck wearing those mini dresses) is pretty bad honestly. It’s just frustrating that it was such a consistent thing on every single franchise. It wouldn’t be such a problem if male characters got hit with it with the same frequency- yes sometimes they got used in similar ways (Kirk with his uniform rips, Riker being Riker, etc) but it’s only the women that get the Designated Fanservice Catsuit so it very much stands out as not an evenly applied thing

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

Star Trek Proidgy season 2 is out on netflix. You should be watching. I can't binge it as much as I'd like but I've seen until ep 7 and enjoying it a lot again.

Characters are still fun and charming, especially Rok, the references to other shows old and new are coming and thick and fast and the ongoing plot is decent. The only minor quibble I have is the The Doctor, now I like the Doctor and he's... fine but Janeway already had a Doctor, the tellarite Noum, who seems to have been retconned into a counselor. Plus the Doc's wearing the mobile emitter while also clearly being generated by the ship's own holoprojectors. Pick a lane!

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

Dawn of the final week. 6 days remain.

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

[thelesseroftwoweevils]

hear hear

friendly reminder that you can't judge a person's morals based on the things they like to read or write, and trying to make assumptions based on that with no other information makes an ass out of u and mption

[thelesseroftwoweevils]