warpcoreweirdness

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hhmm might try wean myself off tumblr again, i feel like i'm a ragey person and this place is a rage machine??? bad combo

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STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS 1.05 “Cupid’s Errant Arrow”

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it's 2024, why are there still people on the internet justifying their preferential focus on male characters and dislike of female characters as a critique of bad writing / creator denial of popular fan slash ships 😭

I'm queer, and i crave queer representation and get hurt when it's avoided - buuuut as i am also a woman (and i like to think i've resolved most of my internalised misogyny)...hhmmmm yeah no sometimes people in fandom just hate women, even (or especially) when they're women too.

....please leave AOS Uhura alone...she's fine (actually she's amazing and way better than fine, but it's fair to wish she was given more).

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Beverly & Wesley Crusher | 2370 & 2385

Star Trek The Next Generation | 7x20 "Journey's End" Star Trek Prodigy | 2x20 "Ouroboros - Part 2"

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– You don't know what any of this is about, do you? You work here, you see these people every day, how they live, and you just don't get it. – What do you want me to say? That I feel for them? That they got a bad break? What good would it do? – It'd be a start.

STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE (1993–1999) ⤷ Paste Tense (parts I & II)

+ bonus

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STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS (2022- ) ↳ Every character in every episode: Chapel in The Elysian Kingdom, 1x8

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Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) with her Lego spaceman ring at a NASA/Lego outreach event.

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“If I pass, will you tell me your first name?” “No! Good night!”

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"And for those of us from communities with historic collective trauma, we must understand that each of us is already science fiction walking around on two legs. Our ancestors dreamed us up and then bent reality to create us." Walidah Imarisha, Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements

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Women at Warp Podcast: Episode 242 - Bajor as Allegory

This was a wonderful, nuanced discussion of how Bajor is used in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine to comment on contemporary and historical peoples' experiences of colonisation, genocide, and occupation.

The crew is joined by guest David Seitz as we begin unpacking all of the many allegories of Bajor that reflect real world atrocities. CW: genocide, military sexual servitude, extreme sexual violence, forced labor, political starvation.

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L’tak Terai. You must have been so lonely.

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I keep having this, like, image of you. You’re holding a dandelion and you blow on it, and the seeds, they…go. You let us go, didn’t you?

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just finished season 2 of Lower Decks and i'm SO glad i tried this show again

i actually started the show a while ago, but the constant easter eggs put me off.

(i still don't know how non-Trekkie viewers are meant to get the jokes where the punchline is "reference!! 😂", but lots of people enjoy it so ymmv).

i stopped a few minutes into episode 2 after Rutherford agrees to quit his job as an engineer so he can watch the Trivoli pulsar with Tendi.

i honestly thought it was going to be a storyline about a guy giving up a job he loves and making his boss angry so that he can spend time with a female friend he has a crush on, because that's the plotline i've been conditioned to expect from tv. i wasn't feeling excited about the show, so i put it on pause.

but if i'd watched for about two more seconds before noping out for a few months, i would've seen this:

when i started watching again, i realised that the episodes never bog themselves down in drawn-out, uncomfortable storyline or character staples - they're actually incredibly well-written, tightly paced, and tell their stories in just the right amount of time. Rutherford wants to be Tendi's friend (at least for now), his boss Billups is really supportive, and Tendi brings a PADD into the Jefferies tube so they can both do what they enjoy, separately but together.

another great part about that scene with Rutherford and his boss is something that Lower Decks does a lot, which is make jokes that actually rely on subverting audience expectations. a big example - and a way of referencing other parts of the Star Trek franchise that does work for me - is when the creators gently poke fun at or subvert common story beats, emotional arcs, or dramatic moments from other parts of Trek.

like when Rutherford loses his memory and Tendi is excited to get to know him again, rather than devastated that he doesn't remember her.

or when they save themselves from being smooshed by Dooplers by dramatically ejecting the warp core of their tiny model starship.

or when Tendi goes on an arc of significant personal development over the course of one (1) whole episode.

they're general enough that even people who haven't seen other Star Trek shows (or movies) can still recognise and appreciate them.

beyond this, the show also has great moments where they (lovingly) cast a light on some of the flaws and foibles in the franchise, often in subtle or comedic ways.

like showing people in beep chairs living their best lives (in contrast to TOS and SNW's view of the beep chair as a tragic, doomsday fate for Pike).

or using Tendi to comment on Trek's depiction of Orions specifically as all pirates and slavers, and alien cultures more generally as monocultures.

or even just acknowledging that Trek shows mostly focus on the bridge crew doing heroic first contact-esque adventures, when that can't be all there is to Starfleet.

heck, they even have Rutherford go on a journey of acceptance and self-discovery after a permanent memory wipe (in contrast to Uhura in TOS, where it's never mentioned again).

another reason i really appreciate the show is that the creators have taken the time to think through what a more inclusive future could look like, in ways that are noticeably lacking or absent in many other Trek shows:

beyond exploring diversity through explicit identity representation (which is still very important), it does this through its world building as well.

i love this communal sonic shower scene for what it says about gender and body politics in Trek. in the future, why would we still separate bathrooms and changing rooms by gender? and why would we have the same views and expectations around bodies that we (by "we" i mean Western countries) do now?

this short scene dismantles the idea that nudity is inherently sexual, that gender is binary and biological, that some genders can't be trusted around other genders while naked, and that heterosexuality is the default (and when you bring dozens of alien species into the mix, why wouldn't we have more and newer ways of thinking about gender?). it even has a little mention that Boimler prefers not to shower with others, leaving space for people to act however feels most comfortable for them.

it's such a little thing, but after years spent (lovingly) yelling at the screen during TNG, TOS, DS9, etc saying, "why are they assuming everyone is straight? WHY would people be this sexist?", i noticed it immediately and appreciated it immensely.

(this isn't related to the storytelling, but i also have to say - the animation in Lower Decks is so pretty???):

this isn't a perfect show, but it's funny, has fantastic storytelling, and it loves the source material without worshipping it. (which is not something i expected to say, given how it started).

plus i love these characters SO MUCH.

so far, so very good 🤞.

(image descriptions in alt text)

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SUPER DARK

oooh yeah, that's a trauma.

(id in alt)

this was 0.5 seconds of super fucking dark, i feel bad for laughing?? but he just vaulted over the Borg babies and kept going 😂😂.

stay classy Boims.

at least he went back for them in the next simulation round.

(id in alt text)

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this was 0.5 seconds of super fucking dark, i feel bad for laughing?? but he just vaulted over the Borg babies and kept going 😂😂.

stay classy Boims.

at least he went back for them in the next simulation round.

(id in alt text)

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Precisely.