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In the pilot, they depict Mojave, California as being very terraformed from a desert to a lush parkland.

However, I find this a bit antiquated... this seems to be very much rooted in an atomic age scientific idealism that thought of how we could make the world work for us and bring it to more western standards of natural beauty.

I think this is in conflict with the TNG solar punk aesthetic and the general respect for nature implied by the Prime Directive - notice how there's no desert bushes in sight as if they wiped them out. This seems to be insane damage to the ecosystem.

I wonder if they'll ever revisit Mojavo on-screen, and whether they'll retcon this so that Mojave is a gorgeous desert town where they solved the problems of drought and extreme heat plaguing the southwestern US while working in tandem with and even boosting the local wildlife, rather than just razing everything and plastering grass and non-native trees over it.

I'd bet we probably only have 3 seasons for it to happen, considering that 5 seasons has tended to be the length of most recent Trek shows (except poor old Prodigy). The only thing giving me hope is that SNW seems to be a decently successful series.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/21256834

I just threw this together. I felt it was a very relevant song, though I also could have put Riker clips to it and had it work just as well.

I just threw this together. I felt it was a very relevant song, though I also could have put Riker clips to it and had it work just as well.

I have a feeling “Severance” has a different connotation with Klingons.

I have a feeling “Severance” has a different connotation with Klingons.

I was especially trying to imitate Prodigy's styling of him.

I don't know that it looks like Jellico, but it does look like an experienced officer circa 2381.

The stardates are just there to fill in the document - I got them from event years on Memory Beta and then just put a random date into the stardate calculator.

I was looking at references of both TNG and Prodigy Jellico to try to make an LD-style Jellico, when I found how they styled his face varied a lot between episodes - I count about 4 significant variants.

For reference, here is TNG Jellico:

This was his first Prodigy appearance in S1 E15 Masquerade:

Definitely a bit yikes, but I also slightly dig the "old man who will bite your hand off if you get within one mile of him" look.

They totally changed his face for his second appearance 4 episodes later, in S1 E19 Supernova Pt 1:

I like this look - it feels very Clone Wars. However, I can see why they might have gotten right of it - it makes it difficult for the face to show anything but aggression.

They dialed back the clone wars for his next appearance in S2 E5 Observer's Paradox:

I think it was also largely the same in S2 E9 The Devourer of All Things Pt. 1:

They might have enlarged the eyes a bit, but I think the other differences are mostly because of perspective differences and facial expressions.

The final, and longest-lived Jellico variant first appears in S2 E14 Cracked Mirror:

This model leans on the more realistic side. This one is probably the most recognizable as Jellico from TNG. It also allows much more expressiveness (not just an aggressive scowl), as seen in these images from E15, E16 (It looks like a different variant, but if you go a bit before, it's actually the same one), and E20:

Overall, I think my favorite Jellico is probably S1 E19, but I can see why they had to switch.

Still, I wonder why it took so long for them to make up their mind on the face and why they didn't get it right the first time.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/19850319

If life's going to be this crappy, at least cast Jeffrey Combs as Elon Musk, Mr. Universe.

If life's going to be this crappy, at least cast Jeffrey Combs as Elon Musk, Mr. Universe.

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/19819038

I'm ParticleMan. This is the #concert-chat channel on the tmbw (This Might Be a Wiki, the main fan wiki for They Might Be Giants) Discord.

I'm ParticleMan. This is the #concert-chat channel on the tmbw (This Might Be a Wiki, the main fan wiki for They Might Be Giants) Discord.

What is Las Vegas, Nevada like in the 24th century?

It seems to be implied that Vegas still exists (not just some legendary destination of the past like Vics) and is still associated with gambling - Chakotay's hallucination of Tom Paris in VOY:"The Fight" mentions Vegas along with Mars and Orion III when mentioning the odds in a fight.

I think the fact that this is a hallucination of Tom in Chakotay's mind, combined with the fact that it was mentioned with contemporarily active places, heavily suggests that Vegas is alive and still has some form of active gambling.

However, I would imagine that a lot would still change for Vegas. Modern-day Vegas has Nellis AFB in it and Creech nearby, so it would have probably been a major target during World War III and as a result been heavily damaged. For urban planning, this probably gave a largely blank slate during redevelopment, so in many ways, Earth probably ended up becoming a typical 24th century city or town with vastly improved public transportation.

It's also important to consider the potential impact of drought - has Vegas significantly downscaled as a result of its water issues, or did they get that sorted out in time and Vegas is still a moderately large Earth city in the 24th century?

Also, what does gambling look like in a post-scarcity society? What are the laws on the books for United Earth? I'm imagining people mostly do it for the thrill, like how Jadzia plays Tongo.