FriendOfDeSoto

As far as I’m concerned, that and PIC S2 NEVER HAPPENED!

Ro’s decision is understandable if you consider her life experiences.

The Maquis are not created in universe to be good or bad. They are not black or white, they are gray all the way. Because that’s how all freedom fighters/terrorists are in their time. They get their marks from history. Some upstart colonists in the 1770s tend to get a more favorable score from history. For the communists in Cuba it depends who you ask.

Reality is a clusterfuck and politics is the art of what’s possible. No one designed the situation to place colonists on these planets, to have a war in the neighborhood, and then have to come up with a compromise to end the killing. It happened and now they have to deal with it. I’d like to see the SWOT analysis of each colonized planet, just to see if they considered risking setting off the stereotypical fascist race in the neighborhood by their presence. That is to say the colonists may not be entirely blameless either. But regardless, the federation made an agreement to end the killing in a big war. They drew a line on a map and that’s never not caused other problems in history. In the middle east, in Korea, in Europe, etc. It’s often the best solution to end or prevent the fighting but it’s still a shit solution that doesn’t solve all problems. Indeed, one might argue it may only be a temporary reprieve. So the Maquis are borne out of gray, they do things that are gray, often more on the darker spectrum, and then the authorities come in and also react in dark gray when they poison an entire planet’s atmosphere. The writers even threw in some native American tribes having to relocate or accept Cardassian rule to perfect the clusterfuck.

The way some of the Maquis stories are told in late TNG and then DS9 is not the best Trek has to offer. But if you zoom out, the overall situation they’ve created is realistic and believable. The Maquis are ambiguous, the role of the federation is ambiguous. It’s all just gray. And while I don’t think it’s super unrealistic that they just get wiped out by the Ketracel White addicts, I thought it’s a lazy writers’ end to a great scenario they had created.

Just do what all other writers have done and choose a starting point and then increment the numbers a bit every time. That horse has not only bolted, it ran past the horizon, had a fulfilling family life, and died of old age.

The semi-established canon in second wave Trek was that 10 could not be reached. Semi-established because there were higher numbers in TOS iirc. So Tom Paris went too far, in more than one way.

I have the feeling Star Trek writers just forget about this.

Occasionally we get the reverse retcon where they realize they made a mistake and then try to never speak of it again. Breaking the warp 10 barrier, turning into cuddly and horny komodo dragon fish, is another example of this (although Lower Decks made fun of it later).

It’s all based on navies here on Earth. They chose the language to make certain ships this-or-that class. There are no definitive rules so far as I’m aware. A certain class of submarines would be designated something class because they shared the same weapons or the same propulsion system. So when sci-fi writers picked up this ball they played fast and loose with already fast and loose rules.

You may need to clarify what you mean by canon in this context exactly. If this Walker class appeared in a live action TV show I would say it’s canon. If it’s in a novel or an animated show I’d say it’s not or not necessarily. Trekkies can spend weeks debating this sort of thing.

The naming convention is vague.

LD’s California class is a dig at what the writers perceive as shit or boringly average California cities nobody knows if you don’t live there.

DS9 had some consistency with naming all runabouts after earth rivers.

All other names are up to the writers. So you get a Crazy Horse next to a Shenzhou, a Hood next to a Defiant.

Canon probably runs along the Memory Alpha/Beta divide.

Allamaraine!

Starfleet is not good at operational security. Why does the landing party contain half or more department heads? I would start there, either by revamping their guidelines or as viewers suspending disbelief.

I think the shuttle solution is elegant and I’m sure a writers room has discussed it. Today this would be (comparatively) trivially easy to CGI; I suppose during TOS it would have necessitated extra work days for the model unit and a permanent shuttle set, which I don’t think we get until TNG.

Several aspects of the universe were developed over time and several writers will have been involved. The insane scarcity of spots for the academy is something from early TNG that pretty much falls by the wayside later on and goes unremarked. Like Chief O’Brian starts off as a nameless con/nav officer with lieutenant pips and then somehow becomes a non-com with a rich war history, a wife that hates him, and a child lost in time temporarily.

They needed to keep the Wheaton out lukewarm in case the child actor wanted out or had to go for another reason. So they dangled his acceptance to the academy in front of us so it wouldn’t be a surprise when they finally got rid of the boy (the boy?). It’s a bit far fetched that super warp genius tapped to become a traveler of space and time would not get in as many times as he didn’t, for various questionable reasons.

I fear there won’t be a solution that doesn’t cost money somewhere. Please don’t buy 3 burner phone numbers at once. I would feel bad if it didn’t work and/or you get suspected of being a criminal.

Check your current phone subscription if you have one. There might be a way to get an additional number for free or very little extra. And it might be a good backup emergency service to have just with your parents maybe even if you go down a different route for the rest.

Anything other than Signal seems unadvisable from a privacy POV. Do you have a way of talking to them live on the phone, at the same time? You can try and register their Signal on a burner phone wherever you are. As they sign up, you sit on the call and give them the phone number and security code when it comes through. Unless having Signal on the phone is itself a reason to get arrested in Russia, which frankly wouldn’t surprise me either.

I don’t know if this will work. I did it on a different service using the number on a dumbphone to register for use on a tablet once.

The simplest answer might be that not all people who reviewed it there liked it as much as you do. I would say it also doesn’t matter. Even fans like different things. You like what you like. The internet will never agree with you 100 per cent. I feel 7/10 is about right for SNW and the plant zombies. But I also don’t completely hate Nemesis so my taste is at least questionable.

I have a feeling if he had always turned into a Tarkasian bear for battle, fans would have complained that he is too much like the Hulk.

I think they landed on this idea and the sufficiently large budget for the CGI too late but the tentacle throwing golden blob is an interesting battle form.

Isn’t it funny how the production technology informs the storytelling? I heard that TNG in the first two seasons had a price tag of something like 5000 dollars per hand phaser beam so they used almost none. In S7 they shoot 100 times willy nilly in Gambit and hit almost nothing, no problem. Odo in S1 morphs in the pilot and then almost never on screen for a long time. And by S6 or 7 they’re like, sure, morph him into fire, fog, or an emu, wgaf!

Maybe it will be for the best that in the future we’ll all create our own holodeck stories. It will rid us of having to separate artists (or co creator/producer) from the work. Reading Berman’s name in the credits is a bit like Weinstein’s in movies. Immediately lessens the enjoyment. Thanks for taking the time to answer.

Thanks for writing that. It’s quite long but I can see your point. I’m relieved that you didn’t just read two headlines and sent him to the digital gallows. Personally, I don’t reach the same conclusion as you. If you’d say in reply my standards were perhaps lower I would not disagree with you. As I wrote before, this is not enough for me. Weir is not a saint. I heard hin trash talk his own follow-up to the Martian in an interview when Hail Mary came out. He knows he’s not Asimov or Dick. Or Shakespeare.

In terms of what science fiction is best at doing, we don’t appear to be that far apart. Allegorical storytelling is great. That’s why I mentioned Picard S2 where there is none of that. They have characters sit in ICE detention or looking at the burning mountains in 2020 and say this is shit (which, of course, it is). Zero allegory, all in our face virtue signaling. Virtues that I find valid but in a sci-fi story told in a very literal (read: shit) way. Politics overrode good story telling. (Then again, it was the pandy, there are extenuating circumstances.)

You don’t have to answer this; I’m just curious. How is your enjoyment of 90s Trek knowing that Rick Berman was involved? I’d argue he’s a far bigger sob than Weir.

He is a huge hypocrite in your opinion. Which I don’t find convincing.

I just read up on the woke comments. What do you find so terrible there? That he writes avoiding an agenda? Or that he criticizes works that plainly have one?

It’s his opinion. I don’t wholly disagree with him. Science fiction often works best when they don’t hang a giant lantern on what the lesson to be learned is. When the politics override good storytelling. Like in Picard S2. ICE is shit and so are climate change denial and the burning mountains around contemporary LA. But to me that came across as preachy, not a great story.

If anything you have to respect the man for not mincing his words at all. That doesn’t mean I agree with him but in this outrage driven world that’s almost a baller move.

I don’t think he has alienated as many people as you suggest. And I haven’t heard enough to be worried. He might be a prick but these two stories are not enough to build a case just yet IMO.

The man has a vested interest to be in the headlines. Media take an interest in him because of the movie. It’s the perfect climate to turn a statement of not much importance into a news headline.

I haven’t listened to the podcast. If anybody has, maybe they can comment on the tone of the conversation. Seeing it just in writing makes him seem a bit petty and adversarial. But the way it happened it could just as well be isolated, throwaway jovial comments where the “fuck them” could be much less pointed and we are left feeling this was a nothing burger.

This is of the same quality journalism as any actor of the fantasy lightsaber universe being asked if they world return to the franchise. Sure, if the script looked promising, said Daisy Ripley. “Ripley to return to Star Wars!” reports niche media site struggling to get eyeballs in front of their ads.

If you like LD I think you’ll find stuff to like in Academy as well. Tawney was in the writers room. I’m glad to hear you’ll give it another shot.