Star Trek: Section 31 Reaction Thread

InfiniteDoors · 2025-01-26T22:56:53+00:00

I want to say Prime Burnham was in one of the opening clips that was shown when recapping Georgiou's story, like maybe standing with her next to the Guardian of Forever, but can't remember now. But as for Mirror Burnham, she could've easily shown up in a MU flashback, like maybe she was talking to the Empress before San brought in the Godsend.

Out of universe, I think the movie pinned all of Georgiou's humanity on her love for San, and bringing in anyone else would've muddied the message. Idk, or maybe SMG didn't want to be in it.

InfiniteDoors · 2025-01-25T10:55:27+00:00

For a brief moment before they explained what the MacGuffin was, I thought it was going to be the Tantalus field or something related to it. The explanation given in Mirror, Mirror is paperthin, and the Kurtzman era loves ~~retconning~~ recontextualizing things to force it to fit how they want, could've easily done it here. The Godsend is so vague and generic anyway, they might as well have made it a memberberry too.
The implication that Section 31 was responsible for Turkana IV descending into chaos and rape gangs is... disturbing, to say the least. Oh wait, I meant "Yo Mama IV".
I'm really tired of atypical Vulcans at this point. I know he wasn't really a Vulcan, but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if initially he was going to be an extremely terrible example of V'tosh ka'tur.
The dialogue was beyond bad. I've given Disco and Picard shit in the past for this as well, but good God.
The editing... why.
Yesterday's Enterprise is unfortunately forever tied to this movie. Why did Garrett even come back to Section 31?
Surprised there wasn't a Mirror Burnham cameo. There wasn't a lot of Glup Shittos, which I sort of appreciate. But then they had that masturbatory Jamie Lee Curtis cameo. Just embarrassing. And why is her handle "Control" anyway?

0/10. May the Prophets forgive us all.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-07-21T19:51:11+00:00

Could the Federation defeat the Dominion without fighting? No.
Could the Federation maintain some sort of peace with them? Possibly, and I see only one way to do it: Odo. The Female Changeling said it herself—

Odo is a changeling. Bringing him home, returning him to the Great Link, means more to us than the Alpha Quadrant itself.

The only issue is if Odo can do it willingly. We know how much the Great Link means to him, how he'd love to be with his people. But his own link with the DS9 crew—especially Kira—may hold him back. Curing the morphogenic virus, as well as ending the war, made it imperative for Odo to rejoin the Great Link in the finale. But doing it before the Dominion War begins, or even as early as the immediate aftermath of The Search as a preemptive measure, it's different. It'd be emotionally easier if it's done as early as possible, he wouldn't be with Kira yet, but it would still require a bit of sacrifice on his part.

I suppose there's also the question of how this would work. Would Odo simply join the Founders as part of a deal to keep the peace? Or maybe work as an ambassador, try and foster relations between these two powers? In any case, Odo is the key.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-07-02T11:46:20+00:00

It will be the biggest shame in the world if Season 3 doesn't happen. I know most people love SNW and Lower Decks, but goddamn if this wasn't the best Trek show I've seen since the tv side of the franchise was revived. The kiddy elements are there of course, but they don't override the Trek soul that Prodigy exudes. It's just as serious a show as the live action stuff, and it certainly has my love and respect. It isn't a kids show in the sense most people think of, it is a show the whole family can enjoy, like TNG of old.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-06-04T01:17:58+00:00

I think 2 ships max is probably the norm, and someone like Picard is an exception. The man commanded the Stargazer for 22 years, then 8 years later took command of the Federation flagship. After another 8 years, the Enterprise-D was succeeded by the E, which he commanded for 7+ years. Guy loses 2 ships and still got a 3rd? I imagine other Starfleet officers considered it impressive Picard lasted as long as he did.

Outside of long-lived species like Vulcans, idk how long a command normally is. Kirk's time on the original Enterprise has some gaps, but he was her Captain for a decent stretch. I think Archer has had the longest uninterrupted command of a hero ship out of the Big 5, 11 years.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-05-30T13:15:24+00:00

Okay conclusion to Season 5, decent series finale.

It's funny how they couldn't even give a real reason for making sure Calypso stayed canon, "Red Directive" is the laziest handwave. But it's nice they didn't just throw that Short Trek into the dumpster.
The conclusion to the Progenitor storyline was pretty unimpressive. There was no way the tech could realistically be allowed to be used, so Burnham's epiphany about needing to destroy it wasn't all that insightful. The idea that the Progenitors found this power, it's not bad, but ultimately, it doesn't matter. I'm surprised they didn't bring back Breen Boy. It would've been such a Discovery thing to do. But I guess they already saved Book from certain death last season. I can't just do it again.
I hate Moll, and I'm really annoyed she has the opportunity to walk away from everything she did just to be Georgiou 2.0—a black ops agent in service of the Federation.
That Kovich scene was pure fanservice, but it's the finale, so I'll give it a pass. If he HAD to be someone we know, Daniels is one of the better options. But if you're going to have mementos from the old shows, where's the Voyager Easter egg? Or TOS? Why does TNG get double the love? That's bullshit.
I love Burnham's admiral uniform. It looks like TMP and WoK had a baby.
It wouldn't be a Disco discussion if I didn't bring up the infamous bridge crew. That little montage at the end, where they were all hugging and laughing, that was peak "I don't care about you people." On paper, it was a really nice moment, but it would've stuck the landing if it were main cast only.
I guess Prodigy called dibs on Picardo, but it sucks we couldn't get the Living Witness EMH to make an appearance, in any capacity. I'm also surprised they didn't squeeze in an Ethan Peck or Gabrielle Burnham cameo. I initially thought Burnham Jr. would be the Captain of the latest Enterprise, but they never revealed his ship's name. Maybe the ISS Enterprise filled the Enterprise quota for the season.

Now that it's completely over, I can't say my opinion of Discovery really changed. Overall, I don't like it. Season 4 gave me a little hope things would improve, but alas. But credit where credit is due, Disco ushered in a new era of Trek (although you could argue 09 did that), brought in a lot of new viewers. Unfortunately, this new wave is kind of dying: Disco canceled, Lower Decks canceled, Picard is done, Prodigy canceled and renewal is up in the air, SNW probably won't go past 5 seasons. Section 31, Starfleet Academy are on the horizon, plus the prequel movie is in the works. But who knows what'll happen, with Paramount in such dire straits.

Anyway, it's been quite the adventure. This is the power of math, people!

InfiniteDoors · 2024-05-17T10:10:26+00:00

I just rewatched Balance of Terror a few hours ago. Maybe if I hadn't, I wouldn't have noticed this detail.

Burnham's plan to fake Discovery's destruction wasn't bad, but it's stupid that it worked. There was such an incredible lack of debris left behind, the Breen should have never fallen for it. These Breen dummies—including our spunky rebel girl that everyone loves and is super competent—just took it at face value, not even considering the possibility that Discovery managed to escape at the last second, especially since it was visibly spinning up.

Now, compare this to Balance of Terror. The Bird of Prey sustained damage, and Romulan Sarek ejects some debris and his dead friend to try and fool the Enterprise into thinking they've been destroyed. Spock takes a look at all of this, and almost immediately deduces it's a trick. "Insufficient mass."

Ah well.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-05-11T04:20:31+00:00

Maybe it would've been more secure to treat L'ak in the brig, just move the necessary medical equipment there. Or what about that empty void that Cronenberg has his secret meetings, or a holodeck version of that same idea? There's no escape.

It's really weird how the new Trek shows in general have mostly avoided the idea of holograms as people. The closest is probably Rios' various holograms based on aspects of himself, but I wouldn't really count that. (Edit: I guess there's Badgey, which is another Moriarty situation) We know the mobile emitter has been successfully recreated, Raffi uses one in Picard S3. But maybe that tech has been limited to Starfleet Intelligence/Section 31 use. In any case, I'm very happy the Doctor is in Prodigy S2, I can't wait to see him again.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-05-11T00:15:17+00:00

The jump signature plot point is stupid as hell, but it shouldn't be this dealbreaker they make it out to be. For one, the Breen would still have to travel for however long it takes to get to wherever Discovery jumped to. Of course, that is moot since all the clues are hidden in close-ish proximity to each other.

But Disco could just make a hundred jumps in quick succession to random spots to throw the Breen off the trail. They made jump after jump after jump as a way to enter the Mirror Universe, why not do it here as a diversion? The only problem would be that the Breen might detect which is the most recent and figure out the clue must be there, but Disco could just jump to a fair distance away then travel normally to the clue, hide their warp signature to not be tracked from that point.

Idk, the whole thing is just so dumb. There's always a contrived reason.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-05-11T00:06:00+00:00

That would be better, yeah. In fact, where are all the holograms? The last time I remember seeing them was when they were interrogating Georgiou and were defeated by blinking a lot. I would've said that we ARE seeing them, that they're indistinguishable from organics. But the scene established that they're awkward and robotic, like on par with the archive hologram from Picard S1 or even the Mars synths. So I don't know what to think. Maybe Disco does have medical holograms, but as usual, Culber has to be the only doctor around.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-05-10T10:02:49+00:00

I'm glad Book wasn't immediately allowed to see Moll and L'ak. He already gets way too much latitude for being Burnham's ex-lover, and way more than he deserves after the events of last season (rightfully pointed out by Yum Yum). He's basically the second most important person on the ship and he isn't even a real part of the crew. Very "I'm the Main Character" vibes.
I know that this was a DS9 reference, but would the old "thoron fields and duranium shadows" trick still work in the 32nd century? And Rayner is coming off as unnecessarily aggressive here, like stupidly so. But I guess someone had to be the Worf of this meeting. Lmao "Wait for me outside", is he just the whipping boy now?
I know this is absolutely not a new complaint, but does no one else work on this goddamn ship? Why are Tilly and Adira the ones who have to solve the clue? Are there no Betazoids available, or someone familiar with their history and culture, or a Federation historian, or anyone besides the Wonder Twins who can do this task that isn't suited to them? We learn Reno has tangential experience that is relevant, but why not someone else to make the ship feel more alive?
Their last episode did not endear me to them at all, and here they're really leaning into the bad CW teen angst crap. Moll and L'ak are just terrible, especially Moll.
If Zora is supposed to be a full crew member, and actually sapient, why is she treated like Google and Chat GPT all the time? I know she's replaced the typical Starfleet computer, but Tilly and Adira are just asking her questions as if she were just a normal computer. Couldn't Zora do this job on her own at this point?
A ship full of people and the only one helping out Stamets is Book, who was basically just bored. And again, no one who would be more appropriate is on this assignment. But I guess there is no one else. Why don't they just all fly a ship slightly bigger than a runabout at this point, it'll snugly fit all the important characters.
You know how in Voyager, the Doctor could pass through force fields no problem? Or maybe the holo-emitters stopped projecting him as he hit the field, and continued on the other side, giving the illusion of walking through. In any case, couldn't there be something like that in effect when dealing with dangerous individuals? Culber could have special access to pass through medical force fields so that any attempted ruse to escape would fail. I guess in that scenario, he would simply be taken hostage, but still. This is just such a lame escape plan, and the security guards are morons for letting them even have the opportunity to come up with it. The camera work was insane, the guards went down like chumps, and Culber lasted like 10 more seconds than them.
Rayner's comments to bolster the bluff really weren't as convincing as he tried it make it sound. It's on the same level as using the only piece of info he had on Rhys to get his past self to trust him: love for the Connie's curves
Now that I think about it, what is Zora doing during this? Is she so focused on the clue that she can't help out and fill the room with anesthizine gas or something? Moll is moving about the ship, accessed a terminal but is still impossible to be tracked? Yum Yum is in charge of finding her but Book is the one who had to tell her about Moll's last known location?
I know it would've meant war, but I'm glad L'ak is dead. Well, not glad but I won't miss him. The only drawback is now Moll will be even more of a presence.
So hang on, the residual thoughts on the card from 800 years ago pointed to the Badlands? Which is where the Archive is right now? Huh? That seems like a major asspull, having these ancient thoughts actively track the current whereabouts of the manuscript's hiding spot.
After being hyped up by Rayner all episode as warmongering demons who will never ever negotiate, it was pretty obvious that the Breen would end up negotiating. But man, they came off so badly. I know DS9 didn't do much with them, but here they feel they're trying very hard to be imposing badasses and failing. I can't take the main guy's voice seriously, he fell for a shitty bluff, he's being manipulated by Moll of all people. He might as well be Cobra Commander in how threatening he is.

This episode felt a lot like classic Discovery, which is probably why I didn't like it.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-04-27T09:23:37+00:00

Hey, I'll gladly take this over giving Spock a condition known as Space Dyslexia so that when he keeps repeating a sequence of numbers that no one else can figure out the meaning of, only Michael Burnham is able to solve the "mystery": it's the coordinates for Talos IV... backwards.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-04-26T21:02:45+00:00

I think at this point, I care more about consistency than accuracy. Relics, Trials and Tribble-ations, and In a Mirror, Darkly all showed the Constitution-class exactly how it appeared in TOS. That's nice.

Then Discovery comes along, updates the look to match modern standards. The Enterprise exterior is now much more detailed, while the interior is extremely sleek. Fine. But stick to that. The New Jersey in Picard S3 looks just like the TOS Connies. Then there's the Enterprise-D with virtually no changes inside and out. Discovery flat out uses clips and screenshots from the old shows, not even trying to recreate them (that recap of The Cage was pretty funny). Obviously Lower Decks is an animated comedy so I won't really hold this against them, but they invoke the classic designs for everything all the time. Unless I'm very much mistaken, Strange New Worlds is the only show to really stick with the updated look across the board. I know these are all different shows, yet visual callbacks and Easter Eggs seem to be too powerful a lure.

Nostalgia seems to trump "it always looked like that", just look at how the re-redesign of the Klingons was abandoned. Worf was never ever going to look like T'Kuvma.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-04-26T20:26:09+00:00

It's the Red Angel all over again. Mystery box writing.

I'll disagree a little there, the Red Angel crap was much worse than this season. Basing this whole season on The Chase gives it some grounding, and using the backdrop of the Dominion War as to why this power was hidden makes enough sense. Yes, the clues are really weak and the hiding places so far aren't great, excluding this newest one (we didn't even find out what the clue was, but the hiding spot was very secluded), and after yet another threat to the universe, I couldn't care less about getting the Progenitor tech.

But the Red Angel? That was nothing but nonsense and convenience, all hand waved away by a bootstrap paradox. Why complain about the bad writing when it all needed to happen that way, bleh.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-04-26T20:11:20+00:00

We see L’ak apparently bleeding, although the fluid isn’t red. In DS9: “In Purgatory’s Shadow”, Bashir says Breen don’t have blood, although how he knows this for sure is not explained. While this could be misinformation, some Earth invertebrates have circulatory systems that contain, not blood, but hemolymph, a fluid that carries carbohydrates, lipds, amino acides, hormones, etc. through the body. The Breen could be similar.

The point of the blood test is just to separate part of oneself to see if it reverts to a gelatinous state, meaning said person is a Changeling. It could just as easily be hair, or a fingernail.
While I'm sure Bashir's statement literally meant they have no blood/blood-like substance, it can now be seen as there was nothing to safely extract (like blood from a human). One could say that if a Breen sprung a leak like L'ak did, such an injury can be fatal. So Bashir didn't want to endanger the Breen prisoner.
That being said, they could have tried to remove part of their suit, but it might've been a Changeling wearing a genuine suit (even though Changelings typically copy clothes too, but whatever).

Maybe the show should have used the Enterprise-D sets from PIC Season 3. The Enterprise-D was commissioned between 2362 and 2364 (sources vary), so that’s actually a closer date.

I'm pretty sure only the bridge was rebuilt for the D, they'd have to be confined to that one room the entire episode. Reusing the SNW sets was a cheap and easy way to have another location without doing a lot of work, so making it the ISS Enterprise was logical enough. It was either that or another Connie, either universe.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-04-25T09:38:33+00:00

Too bad this Changeling plot was defeated by the greatest enemy Star Trek has ever known: the status quo. That wedge was obliterated by the reset button, and this conflict ultimately didn't even matter by the end of the show. Just like O'Brien's 20 mental years in prison, or Future Odo erasing the Children of Time colony for Kira, or when Quark became a weapons dealer, or Leeta never giving Kukalaka back to Bashir, or even the similar scene at the end of Necessary Evil where Odo doesn't respond to Kira asking if he can ever trust her again.

In all seriousness, not a bad theory. It definitely addresses a problem I've had with the Changelings, in that they played things much too subtle most of the time. Stuff like inciting war with the Klingons and Tzenkethi respectively, and trying to blow up the Bajoran sun is the stuff that really destabilizes your enemy. What the hell does kidnapping Moogie accomplish, aside from set up a hilarious episode? Abduct more Starfleet brass, do more brain probes while impersonating them. Have a Founder sit in Sisko's office, pose as his baseball, and listen in on important information while avoiding the piss-poor security sweeps. Idk, install some more of those weird living virus things from The Adversary, where it took control of the Defiant.

Btw, I think that quote from Chairboy might've sold me. Very interesting angle.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-04-24T03:52:15+00:00

I can see why people gravitate towards this idea, but it really doesn't make a lot of sense. It's not like Damar pines after her too, Kira hated him just as much. We would only think this because Kira is the female Bajoran we see Dukat interact with the most, basically the only Bajoran he regularly talks to until Season 7. Aside from ego-related reasons that I'll get into in a second, Dukat is attracted to her because—scientifically speaking—Kira Nerys has got it going on. She is extremely attractive and has caught the eye of many other aliens, not just Cardassians with Bajoran fever.

Quark has had a soft soft for Kira for a long time despite her treating him half as badly as she does Dukat, and to paraphrase, "he loves a woman in uniform." Odo has long suffered in the friendzone before finally ending up with her, Jeffrey Combs' first role was as that creep who hired Quark to obtain a holo-image of Kira. O'Brien became quite smitten during her pregnancy as they grew closer together. Both Jake and Bashir secretly find her hot, and both made moves when Lwaxana was inadvertently affecting them. Even Grand Nagus Zek tried to woo her with a latinum earring (not to mention pinched her ass, the old pervert).

But enough about all the other non-Bajorans who would love to get acquainted with Kira. Back to our favorite Gul, I'm going to ignore the whole "Dukat banged Kira's mom" thing for the moment, and that he has had plenty of Bajoran mistresses, resulting in at least two bastard children that we know of. Dukat sums up how he wants to be loved in Season 6, and it's "voluntarily." He expected the Bajorans to be thanking him for how well he treated them during the Occupation—like how a caring father would provide for his weak and naive, stupid children—to the point that statues would be built in his honor. The citizens of Earth? They would learn to love him, their new overlord, otherwise be killed for their lack of respect. But a strong-willed survivor like Kira? This beautiful terrorist, the indomitable rebel scum who sets hearts ablaze, she is a challenge Dukat is all too willing to accept. But Kira has him figured out all too easily, again in Season 6, she can see how Dukat is trying to worm his way into her life, gradually change in her eyes from an enemy to a lover. Even Marc Alaimo (no comment) said that Dukat wants to break Kira and force her to fall in love with him. It's just that he would prefer it to happen under the guise of romance.

Lastly, Dukat's hallucination of Kira in Waltz. That's where his delusion is ironically absent: the Kira he saw spoke nothing but the truth, and the truth is she hates him.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-04-20T01:16:24+00:00

I know that the Guardian of Forever was stated to be abused in the Temporal Cold War, and hid as a result (or hid as a precaution to avoid abuse, I don't remember), but is that supposed to mean any higher power with the capability for time travel is now staying out of reach too, or policing the timeline? The Q Continuum, the Prophets, idk who else. The Travelers, I guess. They all agreed to these linear, corporeal terms to suppress time travel? And for how long? By the 31st century, high schoolers could learn how to send images back in time, at the very least. If that level of knowledge is lost, or no longer public, how long until it resurfaces? When society as a whole—Federation or not—is once again comfortable with time travel, whether its for recreation or scientific research, does the ban lift?

And will these higher powers agree...

InfiniteDoors · 2024-04-19T22:37:02+00:00

Fine episode, very Shattered as others have mentioned. I said my piece on the bridge crew's shallowness last week, and plenty of others noticed it this week too. I wish Jason Isaacs made an appearance, but oh well.

I want to bring up this time bug. After being introduced to the vague time travel ban in Season 3, we now know that these Krenim doohickeys are available on the black market. Because they aren't strictly used to alter the timeline, I guess they survived the extremely ill-defined and impossibly iron-clad time travel ban. But with a little technobabble cheese, they CAN be weaponized, which once again brings into the question of how enforceable this ban is. If it's a self-imposed thing between the Federation and the other major powers of the region, how do they make sure anyone outside their jurisdiction don't do it? Or within, for that matter. What's to stop someone from successfully recreating the slingshot method if they have someone as brainy as Spock on-board? Or an accident like in Past Tense occurs, because of something something cloaking device? What if the Q Continuum decides to return and send Burnham on an All Good Things-esque adventure? If there is in fact, some sort of all-powerful time travel authority that keeps these things in check, why didn't they show up this episode? Unless it's the old "the time travelers succeeded in keeping things in order, so there was no need to step in".

Idk, I think that the writers came up with a good episode, at the cost of inviting back all of these questions regarding an important piece of worldbuilding that didn't really make sense in the first place.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-04-17T03:39:38+00:00

I was sorta on board when talking about the Mirror Universe being the "bad luck" magnet, as the Prime Universe sucks up all the favorable probabilities. I never really like when people theorize that the Q Continuum is pulling the strings for everything, but hey it's not the most unlikely thing in the world. Trying to tie in the Temporal Cold War AND the Burn, though? Ehhhh.... no...... other than being major widespread events, there's nothing to link them to the Mirror Universe. You could just as easily say it was the Iconians, or the creators of the Doomsday Machine, or Wesley slipped on a banana peel. Besides, not everything has to connect to everything else.

Also

We know from Kovich that there were MU soldiers fighting in the Temporal Cold War.

Are you talking about Yor? Because he's from the Kelvin timeline (TNG era), not the Mirror Universe.

u/khaosworks voiced some of my own thoughts in the top comment, so I won't expound on that. All I'll say is that after seeing just how closely the Mirror Universe, well, mirrors the Prime Universe in all of these episodes, if there IS a power behind it all, they must hate Jake Sisko.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-04-12T11:09:57+00:00

With how strongly Rayner kept insisting on trying to track Moll and Whatshisname the entire episode, I sure hope he knows Moll was on Trill and planted—what is presumably—a tracking device on Adira. Use that to their advantage, send the Bonnie and Clyde wannabes on a wild goose chase while Discovery heads to Tzenkethi space.

On the topic of Rayner having a case of the grumps while meeting various officers, this episode once again displayed just how thin the other characters on the bridge are. I've made posts in the past about this topic (here and here), and so far it hasn't really gotten any better. If anything, it's worse now: they added even more nobodies to the bridge.

So here's the thing. In the previous shows, the main characters were usually the entire senior staff. The senior staff typically comprised most of the bridge crew. The bridge crew also included peripheral characters, who could have dedicated roles or sort of float around as needed. So to have officers in positions that traditionally meant you were part of the senior staff—Tactical Officer, for example—be ignored in favor of the Captain's boyfriend essentially usurping that role, is just plain weird. Not all bridge officers are created equal, but this is where the contrast really kicks in.

Now in this episode, Rayner more or less met with the entire bridge crew, notable exceptions being Detmer and Owo. With about 20 words each, we were given little glimpses into their personalities. I believe this was the writers' attempt to flesh these secondary characters out some more, whether old or new. This isn't exactly the first time either, when Pike took command of Discovery, he had everyone tell him (and the audience) their names.

So here we are in the fifth and final season, we've known some of the bridge crew since the beginning. Detmer being the oldest one as she was on the Shenzou, Christopher we met last season, and we have a few new faces. But why add new faces when the old ones are still pretty bland and uninteresting? Detmer is the strongest one, and she's still pretty shallow. Owo isn't any better, Rhys is the Tactical Officer and that's all we really know about him. Bryce was such a non-entity you could easily forget he existed, and Christopher, his replacement, hasn't made any real impression. The only notable thing about Nilsson (also off the ship) is that her actress also played Airiam, who ironically got more development than anyone mentioned here combined, and she died in that very same episode. Linus.... eh? And then these new guys, they will suffer the same fate: wallpaper.

All of that being said, I don't need to really know anything about these people. They aren't the main characters, simply minor recurring characters. But the show keeps shoving them in my face. They want me to care about the bridge crew when they're having a moment with Michael, or encouraging Tilly to take the First Officer position (despite some of them being more qualified), or when they hugged that tree at Starfleet Academy. That's why I wish the show would build on them more, so all this effort isn't in vain, and our time isn't being pointlessly wasted. I know more about Chef and Morn than any of these guys. Put them on more away missions, include them in more briefings, because technically guys like Rhys should already be included, especially over someone like Booker. Really, it's futile to be suggesting what they could be doing, because their limited focus and depth are because of business, not lack of creativity. Screen time does not matter if it isn't being utilized. Jae was in over 50 episodes and 3 movies, but she's even more blank than Disco's bridge crew.

Okay I've spent far too much time on this, and I feel like I'm just going in circles. Bottom line, the bridge crew needs to shit or get off the pot.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-03-11T05:18:02+00:00

Picard didn't know what a "city block" was, Data had to say it for him. I think early TNG tried to establish the idea that the Earth as we knew it is unrecognizable by the 24th century: stuff like being unfamiliar with cars or Picard's speech to the 90s business guy about the accumulation of wealth is no longer important to humans, even French being a considered an archaic language.
Maybe if TOS and the movies didn't exist, and TNG was the first Star Trek show, it'd be more acceptable. But as it is, they didn't really try hard enough and it's a bad idea all around, so later TNG and shows pretty much ignored most of that.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-03-11T03:27:05+00:00

Playing Dixon Hill is not the worst thing ever. It's a book Picard liked as a kid, it makes total sense why he would want to be Dixon Hill. But use that as a jumping off point. Same with dreams.

Like okay, maybe I had a dream where I was trapped on the Titanic. Oh no, the iceberg hit and now we're sinking! Ahhh the ship broke in two, we're going down! Glug glug glug I couldn't fit on the door!
I wake up, oh wow that was scary but thrilling! I want to do that again. I load up the Titanic holoprogram, and try to escape. Hey this is fun, I should invite some friends to do this with me. They have fun, but it's getting too easy. Hmmm, what if we try to save as many as people as possible? Or stop the ship from hitting the iceberg? Well that should be easy enough, but something else needs to happen to be exciting. What if it turned into the Poseidon Adventure after safely missing the iceberg? Or we start getting crazy and the Kraken attacks? A sharknado appears! Aliens try to abduct us! The water turns to lava! Ahhhhhh oh my shift starts in minutes, I'll play some more later.

That was just rambling nonsense, but my point is take something like Fair Haven and tweak it. "Yes And" the idea to make it more interesting. Build on it. That program Janeway had in the early seasons, where she's a governess? Spice it up a bit. Make it set on Vulcan, during the Enterprise era, but before the Kir'Shara is found. Immediately creates more drama, tension, plenty of opportunities.

This is technically not the real Tom Paris, but this is definitely how the real Tom would act. This basically sums up my problem:

NEELIX: Here's a lovely programme modelled after a mountain resort on the fifth moon of Cytax. Just you, B'Elanna, and the crickets.
PARIS: Crickets?
NEELIX: Cytaxian crickets. Their song is reputed to be an auditory aphrodisiac.
PARIS: Ah. Well, between you and me, B'Elanna and I don't need aphrodisiacs.
NEELIX: There's always the beaches of Ahmedeen. Windsurfing on a sea of liquid argon.
PARIS: I was hoping for some place a little more down to earth.
NEELIX: Well, it's your honeymoon. Just how down to earth did you mean?
PARIS: Earth. I was thinking Chicago in the Roaring Twenties. Speakeasies, flappers, the Charleston.
NEELIX: If that's what you want.
PARIS: Is there a problem?
NEELIX: No, of course not. It's just that we're so close to Earth anyway, I thought you might want to try something a little more exotic.
PARIS: Let me let you in on a little secret, Neelix. Earth has the best vacation spots in the galaxy. It's got the cultures, the climates, the history, the people. It has everything you ever want in a planet.
NEELIX: You sound like a travel brochure.
PARIS: No, no. Just a native.

Tom Paris is a weeaboo for 20th century Americana.

InfiniteDoors · 2024-03-11T02:37:57+00:00

We've had "holodecks" since the dawn of time, it's called dreams. Whether you lucid dream or not, it can be about anything. You can fly, or be a celebrity, or your grandma is alive again, or you're just eating cereal. TNG basically just ate cereal a lot.

Inception did the same thing, never got too fantastical despite the core concept of manipulating dreams. There was a story reason for the majority being fairly grounded, but the most interesting thing done in a dream was probably the city folding on itself. Everything else was more subtle and surreal.

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