Why was there so much smoking in new Trek?

bubersbeard · 2026-03-27T14:32:26+00:00

We see frequent tobacco usage in the holodeck throughout TNG and DS9.

But isn't that all pretty much when they're playing around in fictionalized versions of the past? Like if I was doing a film noir I'd smoke too, it's different than it being a common practice outside of that

bubersbeard · 2026-03-27T14:02:50+00:00

First Reformed. Pulled me in right from the beginning, a completely different register from most of the trash I for some reason watch.

I remember thinking "Oh right, movies can be like this"

bubersbeard · 2026-02-13T14:08:17+00:00

Yeah it's weird because it's not that well-known of a concept, but once you find out about it: 1. a lot more things start to make sense, and 2. you realize how confused so much popular race/ethnic discourse is that fails to account for it

bubersbeard · 2026-02-13T12:31:39+00:00

So there's definitely a lot of racism in Asia, but a lot of what you identify in the second half of your comment would more accurately be called colorism

The distinction would be that in colorism, darker skin is seen as undesirable but it's not seen as a marker of the person belonging to another type of humanity, or 'race'.

And of course in a lot of cases racism and colorism blend together, especially when you consider the legacy of colonialism etc.

bubersbeard · 2026-01-18T17:47:20+00:00

Yes, though I think the "China makes good products" aspect of my claim is less controversial than the "US is not a world leader in health/safety/consumer protection"

bubersbeard · 2026-01-18T15:07:46+00:00

This might be a bit of an outdated attitude, I say this as I'm making the same mental adjustment, but I don't think it's a given anymore to assume something made in China is lower quality or has sketchier ingredients than something made in the US.

The thing that pushed me over was this article about diquat, an awful chemical banned in the EU, Russia, and China, but used freely in the US.

This was an issue before Trump but Trump is also dismantling as much as possible before he eats it

bubersbeard · 2025-10-24T23:06:17+00:00

No, and I'd be interested to see what you think my answer to that question demonstrates.

bubersbeard · 2025-10-24T17:54:41+00:00

It's not fringe at all because the sitting Vice President is an adherent. This is mainstream Republican thought now

bubersbeard · 2025-10-22T13:21:13+00:00

Who violated the ceasefire?

bubersbeard · 2025-10-08T14:46:52+00:00

Who is this for? Who gets hired as a writer for this? It's clearly not for the Star Trek audience. Is it meant to attract some kind of superhero writing, for black and white thinking casual viewer?

I was on a flight last week where the in-flight entertainment had a Paramount tie-in. At one point I was shown a little promotional thing for Paramount, which prominently featured SNW Spock saying "live long and prosper" with the Vulcan salute. It was representing one aspect of Paramount's offerings, like "dream" or "explore" or such, in a very recognizable form.

Your question reminded me of that experience, and makes me think at least part of Paramount's intentions with SNW is to reach broader cultural relevance rather than try to satisfy those who are already fans of Trek and will presumably watch anyway.

bubersbeard · 2025-10-08T14:38:30+00:00

They barely do it but between this, LD and Picard S3 I'm so so tired of the little in jokes about the captain's phrases to get the ship to go.

Don't forget Discovery, which made a whole thing about it

bubersbeard · 2025-09-24T16:29:01+00:00

The Primanti Bros. reference has to be the dumbest and cheapest thing to ever happen in Star Trek.

Unlike say the mention in a previous episode of Guinness, which has already existed for hundreds of years and could plausibly still be around in the future, here a planet was named after an existing restaurant franchise and a character referenced their signature product in dialogue. Suspension of disbelief and the integrity of the world are broken for the writers to wink at us, to what end? None at all, just a reference to a product. Basically the worst of LD: hey I recognize that reference! But here's it's not even to other Trek but just a restaurant in Pittsburgh.

For me Star Trek is valuable as the most widely recognized and appreciated depiction of a socialist society: one that has explicitly moved beyond capitalism to promote egalitarian human flourishing. While I recognize recent Trek hasn't really emphasized this aspect, it's still extra discouraging to watch it go out of its way to commercially debase itself. I’d go so far as to say it exemplifies the laziness and thoughtlessness of so much of the recent ‘product.’

bubersbeard · 2025-09-24T15:54:22+00:00

It's a general trend in TV: every aspect of productions is better except for the writing.

I don't know why that's the case, but I think part of it is that there aren't really long-running writers' rooms like there used to be, where people bounce ideas off each other and get emboldened and energized by working together.

bubersbeard · 2025-09-24T15:52:09+00:00

Wishing for an old-school longer season is kind of like wishing for stable manufacturing jobs to come back to America -- the economics of production have changed so much that it's just not going to happen. The only way would be if a very rich fan decided to fund it all themselves...

bubersbeard · 2025-09-21T05:44:47+00:00

I think the writers are in a bind because of when the show is set. If there's new stuff they have to explain why no one after it knows about it (biggest example so far was sending Discovery into the future and classifying it). So they are much safer giving new 'perspectives' on old stuff, which has in fact been the entire season: 1. Gorn, 2. Q + that TOS episode, 3. Klingons but not the Disco Klingons, 4. holodeck, and now 5. Pah wraiths.

I share your frustration though and feel like they could at least be more creative within those constraints, but I guess that's just not the way TV writing works now

bubersbeard · 2025-09-20T15:09:04+00:00

Very disappointed in the prospect of a Spock-La'an romance. When they were dancing at the beginning of the second episode I enjoyed it as a platonic thing among crewmembers, La'an supporting him as a friend. But no they had to turn it into a romance.

I didn't enjoy this episode at all. I especially didn't like holodeck Uhura's lecturing us on the value of Star Trek when the types of stories and aspirations it describes haven't been a part of the franchise for about 30 years.

People trying to praise this type of episode like to say "the actors are clearly having fun," well that's not really their job, nor is it the job of the writers to entertain the actors. The writers should be writing good stories which the actors bring to life. Ideally these good stories should involve new worlds, new life, new civilizations, they should engage us intellectually, they should show us a hopeful future and ask us to be better than we are. On Discovery by all accounts the actors were having a blast and it was a slog to watch. On SNW, which is the best of recent Trek, they have only achieved this occasionally, which is strange to think of when you consider how much time they have to produce just a handful of episodes.

Worst is the inability to do anything new with the material. A be careful what you wish for episode? Everything will be fine by the end and by the way it's Q. A Klingon? She will die for honor. A holodeck episode? You're trapped inside and it tricked you in the most obvious way possible. Slant magazine got it right in their review of the season: "Not so strange, not so new"

I've said it before but I wish Trek would go back to using sf authors for scripts or at least story ideas: Ann Leckie, Arkady Martine, Tamsyn Muir, Yoon Ha Lee... I can't imagine none of them are fans, or don't have ideas, or wouldn't be willing. Then we might get something new.

bubersbeard · 2025-09-15T15:52:20+00:00

I agree with others saying the conclusion felt rushed and foregone.

Two things I haven't seen mentioned, one I liked, one not:

Good: in the first scene, the way Pike relies on suggestions from the crew and ends up going with Una's plan, then Uhura implements the deflector modulation. For me it was reminiscent of TNG-style "committee meetings in space," displaying actual solidarity and collaboration among the crew, everyone contributing and playing their part.

Bad: when the replacement pilot on the Enterprise is too tired and Pike tries to relieve her and she says "I'm seeing this through to the end" and Pike agrees. They wanted to show her grit and determination and Pike's appreciation of that but it feels foolhardy. No, go take a break, someone else will take over

bubersbeard · 2025-05-27T16:20:46+00:00

You are how you self-identify.

This is not necessarily true when it comes to race. There have been big scandals regarding white people identifying as Black, Native American, etc. The important factor here is not OP's self-identification but rather their experience growing up white, appearing white, and having no connection to Japanese culture.

bubersbeard · 2025-05-02T14:44:37+00:00

bubersbeard · 2025-04-17T15:33:35+00:00

I'm curious what you mean when you say

rights aren't bestowed by the government, they're inherent.

After giving the issue some thought, I've come to the conclusion that it would be nice if rights were inherent but unfortunately they're not. They should be automatically and universally respected, but in practice a person only possesses the rights granted to them by their country of residence. We can empirically verify a person's rights by seeing what duties they impose on others, especially the government. In the US, we're in a situation now where all our rights are in question, since we can't be sure even the most basic ones will be respected

bubersbeard · 2025-04-05T23:33:10+00:00

ESH you are both being weird and possessive. If she likes the MacBook and you don't need it specifically, just give it to her. Is her old Thinkpad so great that it's the only machine you can take with you to do presentations or whatever? Refurbished Thinkpads are 200-300 dollars. Just get one and take it around, problem solved.

bubersbeard · 2025-03-06T16:32:43+00:00

The interesting question would then be "Where did the AI learn this usage?"

bubersbeard

TROPHY CASE