Star Trek Social Club

Ooh, just followed my first lemmy community from Mastodon. Seems I just have to replace the "!" with "@" when I search for them. They seem to show up as a "Group" here. Nice!

First out was @startrek 🌌

#Mastodon #Fediverse #Lemmy #StarTrek

Didn't actually realise that the #StarTrek subreddits of /r/StarTrek & /r/DaystromInstitute had a #Lemmy community @ https://lemmy.world/c/startrek@startrek.website @startrek.

Given Trek fandom are often the first colonizers of online spaces in internet history (eg newsgroups) losing major Star Trek communities is big L for Reddit.

EDIT: Not permamently locked subreddits, got that wrong I think!

I was just watching DS9 and saw Tuco Salamanca being as intense as ever. I love spotting actors from other shows in these old episodes.

The same swooping blue frame, the same diagonal branching timeline visualization, the same hub-and-spoke layout ... chef's kiss.

I spent the morning listening to the Fall Out Boy version of "We Didn't Start the Fire". Since Star Trek in the Kelvin timeline and elsewhere often re-uses songs from our time, I thought it would be hilarious if "We Didn't Start the Fire" ended up being updated every 35 years or so, till the 32nd century.

So, hit us with your best take on "We Didn't Start the Fire" for the final episode of your favorite Star Trek series!

Hopefully those servers aren't literally aflame...

Uninstalled my RiF and have been using Jerboa. Any suggestions for your favorite app? It has some issues with crashing but seems to be getting better with each update.

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Update: jerboa double posted all my comments, so giving liftoff a go. So far so good!

I'm curious to see how the show approaches the timeline implications of Una staying on the ship instead of getting locked up in a penal colony. I hope they throw in some tidbits about it, preferably as a running gag. For example, she ends up doing another enterprise bingo that Kirk admires or something. Maybe an episode where they have to go that penal colony and she gets dejavu or something. Like Olivia from Fringe type of dejavu

With all of the language models (ChatGPT, LLaMa, Bard, etc.) popping up, I wanted to rewatch Voyager due to the character development of the doctor and Seven to reawaken my imagination.

I found first season available (with ads) but can’t stream other seasons except on something called Paramount+. I read through the fine print and won’t ever be subscribing to that abusive service. Anyone know where else I might be able to stream the show? Looks like about $80-90 to buy the complete series… ugh

We've been investigating some recurring issues with the user experience on the instance, and have traced it back to the way Lemmy handles language settings.

Here's the TL;DR on how to ensure you see all of the content on this instance:

In your user settings, make sure "Language" is set to both "English" and "Undetermined". You can select additional languages as well, but they aren't currently allowed on this server.

On desktop, you can use CTRL+click to select both options.

This will allow you to see content for which the author has not set a language, and content which has been set to "English".

We've been investigating some recurring issues with the user experience on the instance, and have traced it back to the way Lemmy handles language settings.

Here's the TL;DR on how to ensure you see all of the content on this instance:

In your user settings, make sure "Language" is set to both "English" and "Undetermined". You can select additional languages as well, but they aren't currently allowed on this server.

On desktop, you can use CTRL+click to select both options.

This will allow you to see content for which the author has not set a language, and content which has been set to "English".

From writer Aaron J. Waltke:

WOW! Congrats to #StarTrekProdigy for its Television Critics Association Award nomination in the category of OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN FAMILY PROGRAMMING.

Our passionate cast and crew is working tirelessly on this show, and this means the galaxy to us.

https://deadline.com/2023/06/tca-award

If the strategy was to get mainstream profile for SNW by including Jim Kirk as a recurring character, it seems to be working. Esquire has an interesting take on Wesley’s Kirk as a kind of ‘best of’ everyman captain.

Wesley’s version of Jim Kirk is a microcosm of the entire series. He is Kirk, sometimes from a different timeline, sometimes found just a few years before taking over the Enterprise, but don’t worry about it too much. He’s the guy you trust, because he believes in people when no one else will, and he’ll always do the right thing, even if nobody notices or remembers.

Personally, I’m coming round to Wesley’s Kirk (still a name combination I’d never expected to be using). Not sure I buy that “his performance reminds us that all of us could be Kirk if we wanted to be. Kirk isn’t a legend—he’s just a guy. A very competent and cool guy, but someone you’d want to hang out with all the same.” YMMV

Gizmodo’s James Whitbrook has yet more to vent on Paramount+‘s cancelation and erasure of Prodigy.

I hadn’t considered the cancelation from the perspective of systemic misogyny, which Whitbrook effectively is carating.

However, given that Janeway was surely chosen as the legacy captain for Prodigy because Voyager had proven itself to be an effective gateway for younger and new viewers on Netflix, Whitbrook’s inference Paramount views her less important to the franchise than Picard is biting.

Paramount wouldn’t dare treat what it’s done for Patrick Stewart and Jean-Luc Picard as a tax break. Casting aside everything that Prodigy stood for, and in the process doing the same to Mulgrew and Janeway’s legacy, is a cruel twist on what is already a cruel fate for the show.

I noticed that this instance is on 0.17.4 instead of 0.18.0, which prevents login through Jerboa (the most popular android lemmy app atm).

I was looking to post this in a general forum, but I guess this is as general as it gets?

Despite the impact of the WGA strike on promotional activities, and the lack of the boost of a major sports event trailer release, SNW placed well against other original streaming shows in the week ending June 16th. Opening in sixth place in the top ten with 33.4 times average demand is promising.

Hopefully way Prodigy’s cancelation and removal dominated the media and social media after the second week will not adversely impact SNW’s run too much.

On my first watch-through and this episode was great, I love time anomaly episodes. Also really appreciated how, as the show comes to a close, this episode asks the question "Was the journey worth it? If they could go back and undo getting stranded in the DQ, would they?" And of course we discover through Chakotay's dialogue with Janeway that the journey has ultimately been worth it.

Anyway at the end, Janeway remarks that she knows where Chakotay hides the cider and cites the temporal prime directive. So does this imply she remembers the whole thing? If so that really kind of changes things for the whole show prior to this, for example she would have already known they were going to be stranded in the DQ from episode 1. So while I like the idea I'm having trouble reconciling it?

*********** SPOILER OF SEASON 1 OF SNW **********

Couple of days ago I finished the 1st season of Strange New Worlds.

Disclaimer: I did not see or read any reviews on it, and avoided all trailers. From the new trek, I watched only Discovery. All being said are my opinions only, I do not expect you to agree, but any discussion is more than welcomed.

I will separate this review in three parts. The positives, the negatives and finally a hope for the future.

Positives

By far, the biggest positive is the return of a more episodic format. Where each episode has its own story, a problem to be solved. No season long arcs.

This allows to "dedicate" each episode to a different character and develop that character. So naturally, the characters are interesting, fairly likeable. To me, the most interesting character is Pike. I think the actor did a great job, and his struggle of knowing his own death is very well done in my opinion. Additionally, Spock has been explored quite a bit and I actually like the direction they are going with him. Exploring the boundary between Vulcan logic and Human emotion is obviously a difficult task for him and a very enjojable experience for us.

Some episodes gave us something to think about, a moral question which often does not have a clear answer. In episode 6 (Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach), we see a world celebrating a child which will suffer for life in order for the civilization to survive. A dialog between Pike and Alora at the end was probably peak of the season for me. "Tell me there are no poor children who starve and work in order for your civilization to work. The only difference between us is that we dont look away." (paraphrasing) No matter your stance on the morals of this, its a cool point to stop and think, and that is what ST is all about. Similar moral problem is presented in episode The Elysium Kingdom (ep 8), where Doc has to give away his daughter if he wants her to live. A decision not easy to make for any parent.

The Gorn. I honestly love what they did with the gorn. They made this mysterious, evil, terrifying villain. I like that they are "teasing" us with them, not giving us a lot to keep this sense of fear and unease. I was not a big fan of the "alien" episode, I thought that could have been done a bit better, but it was still a decent episode.

Negatives

As any show, or anything in life really, it has its negatives.

10 episodes in a season is too short. This short of a format seems to forced the writers to solve some "problems" they presented early on. Such as Pike knowing his end date, or Una being an Ilyrian or La'an having trauma from the Gorn. They decided to solve or resolve all these problems which could have been explored much further. This way, it felt rushed and the payoff was kind of meh. For comparison, things like Bashir's genetic modifications, or T'Pol's addiction to trillium-D were plot lines that were stretched out, allowed to mature and felt significant when resolved. La'an and her Gorn trauma seemed more like only hate, and not a PTSD as i thought it would happen. She seems more calm than any other person facing the Gorn, when she really should not.

The aesthetic of the show, while big improvement to Discovery, still does not seem like it belongs in a Star Trek show. Everything is too shiny and lights looks more like neon lights than normal natural lighting. Why is the future so shiny and full of lens flares? There is no way they have a cleaning person who is polishing the floors every day. This leads to some weird scenes, where the bridge, altough half destroyed, still looks new and good, just because its so damn shiny. You dont have a feeling that half of the bridge or ship is destroyed.

Killing of Hemmer was completley unnecesseray. I asumme they want to bring in Scotty to replace him. But he was a great character, who was non-human (Andorian) which we dont see often. He was a really cool character that did not get what he deserved. The reason behind most of those kind of decisions is that they are trying to hard to pay homage to TOS.

Personally, i have had enough with paying homage to older shows, i want something completely new. Literally, best ST shows are the ones which brought something completely new. TNG brought a completly new era, DS9 was the first to gives a station as a setting. VOY practically seperated us from the federation. New character, new settings, new stories. While here we have, old character, old setting, old stories. While I think the new Kirk is really cool and I like the character, give him a rest. Introduce a new character that we will love. I really hope this does not go to some kind of a TOS reboot.

Final thought and future hopes

I know i wrote a bigger section for negatives than positives. But I really do think this is a great show, a show I was hoping to have when they announced Discovery. I look forward to watching Season 2. I hope they continue this episodic format, and I hope they dont reboot TOS. And please, for the love of god, stop polishing the floor.

Any comments, thoughts and discussion are welcomed. That is the point of this, after all.

P.S. If you think I overlooked something and want my opinion on it, just ask :)