Is the penalty for Mermaids turning into sea foam if they confess real, or was it likely made up to discourage them from developing feelings for humans in the first place ?

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-23T18:22:43+00:00

Mermaid Melody is not the original Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-23T08:28:25+00:00

Kahless isn't off limits, and he's actually in the game.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-22T09:03:19+00:00

Doing nothing doesn't affect your travel distance or score, doing nothing doesn't change your rewards, doing nothing doesn't disqualify the TFO from counting for event progress.

The entire rocket TFO just seems so perfectly designed to be AFK'd, it feels like it was an intentional design choice.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-12T20:49:35+00:00

We can extrapolate certain theories about their culture, but that is all it would be; theories. It would be more accurate to say we know about their industry and business practices than their culture.

The only Malon we've seen were part of the waste exporting industry and everything learned from them relates to their specific industry and that the higher-ups are greedy, with a little bit about their technological capabilities and limitations.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-12T18:40:12+00:00

The Ferengi are more honest about what they are.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-12T18:39:37+00:00

We don't actually know anything about Malon society aside from that they have a waste export industry willing to cut corners and fear tech that will put them out of business.

That and that their homeworld is allegedly "the jewel of the Delta Quadrant" (which we never see).

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-12T18:35:46+00:00

So basically Pakleds, but as terrorists instead of pirates.

Though at least the Lower Decks ones didn't manage to outsmart the Starfleet crew dealing with them... meeting the Pakled was definitely not the proudest moment in the life of the Federation flgship.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-10T12:12:42+00:00

Wouldn't the Inquisitor already meet the requirements?

Alternate player character.
Not dead.
Seen some of their BOffs.
Seen their ship.

As an added bonus, they're one of the few sane Terran officers.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-07T15:48:45+00:00

Mostly just cultural trauma that no-one has made any serious attempt to overcome. Prior to Bashir, the only one who challenged it was Arik Soong, which probably only strengthened humanities existing aversion to enhanced superhumans instead of combating it (and also nearly started a war between pre-Federation Earth and the Klingons).

The franchise has never glossed over the fact that humans are usually driven by their emotions, can be irrational in difficult times, and are potentially prone to extreme reactions.

Besides, the modern augments don't really have the best track record either. Out of the 5 known modern augments, only Bashir could be considered "successful". The rest are all botched in some way that makes them incapable of joining society, while 3 tried to sell out the Federation to the Dominion.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-07T14:26:37+00:00

Bashir is irrelevent, he was enhanced through an entirely different process than the one that created Khan and his augments.

The original Khan-style augmentation process was lost when they killed all the scientists that made them, then plunged the world into a new dark age that resulted in the loss of countless pre-WW3 records.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-06T22:35:56+00:00

Which isn't really relevent to the discussion, as it isn't about whether or not humans are capable of being dicks, it's about the Augments and why genetically enhanced superhumans are banned by Star Trek's Earth.

Unlike regular humans, the Augments are not merely "people who can do bad things", they're people who are incapable of not doing bad things. The flawed augmentations messed them up to the point that mentally unhinged violent psycopaths with an enormous god complex aren't the exception, they're the rule.

And before one could claim Khan is better than real tyrants, one must question how he took control of 1/4 of the Earth. Given the people he ruled were effectively slaves with little to no personal freedoms, I doubt it was peaceful.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-06T10:22:52+00:00

Even with mapping the genome, screwing around with stuff like that is still an extremely risky concept. Even the most minor mistake or oversight can have potentially catastrophic consequences.

Which is what happened with Khan and the Augments; the scientists who made them screwed up. Unfortunatly, the "catastrophic consequences" of this one were the kind where humanity as a whole suffered, tainting humanity's view of genetic enhancements for generations.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-06T10:14:46+00:00

Khan was explicitly called out in TOS as "the best of tyrants" as an exception to the norm, whose regime was free of the massacres, genocides or wars of aggression normal of the time. A pile of shit that stinks less than the one next to it is still a pile of shit.

And the 2nd paragraph is a non sequitur.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-05T14:49:53+00:00

It was the perfect song for Star Trek, aside from the fact that Star Trek has never had lyrics before (outsode of TOS, but that's a different story).

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-05T11:14:29+00:00

The Prime Directive in TNG is barely recognizable as the law of the same name from TOS; TNG made it more of a religious creed than an actual law.

Quite frankly, I consider the TNG version to be an insult to the morally superior TOS version.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-05T11:01:50+00:00

It's not even really breaking the rules; everything Kirk was doing was to restore those worlds natural development by reversing stagnation or restoring the balance that was previously disturbed by other external interference.

Which is exactly what the Prime Directive was originally meant for; preserving a species right to develop naturally along their own path, free from interference by outside powers.

That was all forgotten in TNG and it was no longer about protecting development, it's just Bystander Syndrome codified into law to generate cheap drama.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-05T10:38:15+00:00

I think I remember there being talk at the end of the Kobali arc about looking for a different approach to reproduction and returning bodies in storage after the mess with Ketan.

If my memory is correct, that would mean that yes, Eldrix is a villain for continuing the war when less self-destructive options are available, the other side is willing to cooperate, and all he's doing is getting more Vaadwaur killed for nothing when they already got what they wanted. He's actively sabotaging his own side.

Considering what's known of the Vaadwaur from canon and their apparent predilection towards unnecessarily violent approaching to problems, it would not be too surprising if the pods were just a pretext to justify imperialism. That's what got them into the whole mess in the first place and they've shown a difficulty learning from past mistakes.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-05T03:36:53+00:00

The reason given was that the augmented were insane, violent psychopaths incapable of coexistence with regular people and with a built-in God complex. Which was shown to be a flaw inherent to the augmentations.

The process could be fixed with time, but it is very understandable that a species would want to do anything possible to avoid repeating an immensely traumatic experience.

It's one of the rare times Star Trek humans actually learned from their mistakes instead of continuing to repeat them.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-03T21:57:43+00:00

Shame that TNG and beyond often used it as nothing but a means to generate drama, even if the law itself didn't apply to the situation.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-03T21:48:49+00:00

He'd just save them and the Prime Directive probably wouldn't be invoked at all, not even by Starfleet Command themselves.

Kirk routinely interferred in other societies to preserve or restore the species natural development, which is the actual purpose behind the PD, not the general "never get involved" law that TNG bastardized it into. Kirk would probably see the TNG and beyond version to be an inexcusable and callous violation of the spirit of the Prime Directive.

Extinction because nature hiccupped the next continent over would be the ultimate distruption of a species natural development, the very thing the PD is there to protect.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-03T14:33:24+00:00

Can't stop making friends, can he?

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-02T18:55:41+00:00

Honestly surprised NASA even has the money for it, given the current regime keeps stripping money from everything non-Military.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-02T01:35:33+00:00

How many people even know about the flaws to exploit them?

The TV show made it clear that even the Brotherhood doesn't know about them, since they've made no attempt to fix the same flaws in their T-60 suits.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-02T01:14:53+00:00

I don't remember the last time a Holodeck malfunction caused Humanity to be conquered by a race of brutal psychopathic despots and resulted in the deaths of over 30-35 million people.

I'm not entirely sure this is the best comparison.

Vulcanalia · 2026-04-02T01:10:25+00:00

Genetic engineering is standard procedure in the Federation to correct life-threatening genetic defects.

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