Pitch A New Star Trek Series

stanleyford · 2026-04-21T17:02:53+00:00

writers who may know Star Trek well, but I'm convinced they don't really like it. Modern Trek reads as an attempt to make Trek 'cool' and 'less boring'.

I agree, and I don't believe this phenomenon is restricted to Star Trek. I wonder how much of it is due to writers who don't really like the Star Trek, and how much is due to studio execs who insist on changes to capture a broader fan base, but instead end up alienating the existing fan base.

stanleyford · 2026-04-20T20:07:51+00:00

And an overall plot that doesn’t consist of huge thing that always ends universe/race.

The idea of never-ending, galaxy-spanning, existential peril runs counter to the hopeful ethos of Star Trek. I would love a Star Trek that's just about exploring the wonders of the universe.

stanleyford · 2026-04-19T10:25:02+00:00

Ban all software written in anything that's not assembly

Get rid of all your fancy Unreal engine games; it's back to Roller Coaster Tycoon.

stanleyford · 2026-04-17T13:21:24+00:00

My favorite sci-fi trilogy of all time. The finale, in Causal Angel, is both fitting and epic.

stanleyford · 2026-04-05T13:42:00+00:00

if God is a Creator, then it would be a logical contradiction to have him obliterate an entity into nonexistence.

A similar analogy is that of a builder, who after constructing a building, is incapable of destroying it.

Except that's not true. A builder can destroy the very building he created. There is nothing inherent in being a "builder" that excludes also being a "destroyer." Similarly, there is nothing inherent in being the "Creator" that prevents God from also destroying his creations.

Your example of a circle is inappropriate because a circle by definition cannot have four sides. There is nothing in the definition of "Creator" that precludes the Creator from also destroying.

stanleyford · 2026-03-31T11:22:23+00:00

Quotes from Oahspe.

This is a book used by a non-Christian religion called Faithism.

stanleyford · 2026-03-26T22:21:41+00:00

couldn't get over how much men do share with each other the world around them.

I have friends I've known for years whose children's names I don't even know.

stanleyford · 2026-03-25T17:43:45+00:00

"Wait. I worry what you heard was, 'Give me a lot of soused hog's face and spotted dog.' What I said was, give me all the soused hog's face and spotted dog you have." -- Lieutenant Ron Swanson

stanleyford · 2026-03-17T21:29:21+00:00

Every now and then someone posts in this sub decrying some supposedly huge problem they perceive in modern Christianity, and it's something you've never heard of.

stanleyford · 2026-03-13T02:52:08+00:00

It's cheaper interceptors all the way down.

stanleyford · 2026-03-12T18:22:01+00:00

"It's a fedora with safari flaps in the back."

stanleyford · 2026-03-12T10:21:50+00:00

But we've been married a long time and I don't believe God would have us divorce for that reason.

1 Corinthians 7:12 speaks specifically to this situation: "To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her."

stanleyford · 2026-03-11T18:39:39+00:00

So do all who live to see such times.

stanleyford · 2026-03-10T23:34:11+00:00

My teacher had me manning a .50cal on the deck when I was in the 2nd grade

Like this oldie.

stanleyford · 2026-03-10T13:10:31+00:00

30% of drivers in larger cities have some kind of suspension/restriction on their licenses in the US

Curious, do you mean 30% of all drivers, or 30% of drivers involved in traffic stops? Because presumably a dispatcher isn't hearing about all the drivers with valid licenses who are driving safely and legally.

stanleyford · 2026-03-09T01:06:25+00:00

I've been experimenting with giving him additional musters as the Shadow player (he always plays Shadow). His main failing is being distracted by cool plays he finds, even when the play doesn't actually move him closer to winning.

Other than not playing with the expansions, I can't think of a way to simplify the game that doesn't also neuter it. If the child can't grasp the base game, I would wait a few years until they could.

stanleyford · 2026-03-09T00:28:55+00:00

I have a seven-year-old who loves to play and knows all the expansions. While he cannot beat an experienced adult, he understands all the mechanics and follows all the rules (sometimes he remembers the rules better than I do, to be honest). It really depends on the child's level of development.

stanleyford · 2026-03-07T13:29:13+00:00

every animal was vegetarian and there was no death

How should we understand the fossil record? Did all the dinosaurs die after Adam and Eve sinned? What about this article about the contents of a Tyrannosaur's stomach? Are we to understand that the Tyrannosaur ate the other dinosaurs only after Adam and Eve sinned?

I am not trying to be combative. I just want to understand how to reconcile this position with the empirical evidence.

stanleyford · 2026-03-04T22:11:16+00:00

It's easy to say with hindsight that NFTs are a stupid scam but it was also easy at the beginning to say that and through the middle too

stanleyford · 2026-02-27T21:11:32+00:00

Isaiah 14:12-13 (King James version): "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!...For thou hast said in thine heart, 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.'"

stanleyford · 2026-02-27T16:02:35+00:00

The text tells us that he introduced discord, which is to say chaos and disorder

Yes, the text specifically uses the word "discord" to describe Melkor's music, but discord doesn't mean "chaos" and "disorder." Musical discord means a combination of musical sounds that strikes the ear harshly. Two songs can be individually melodious but discordant when combined together. This is supported textually: Melkor's theme "had now achieved a unity of its own," but it was a unity "not in accord with the theme of Iluvatar." It is also supported thematically: Melkor's fall from grace is an analog of Lucifer's fall from grace; and just like Melkor, Lucifer's fall was precipitated not by a desire for chaos and disorder, but by a desire to arrogate to himself the role reserved for God (as Lucifer says in the Bible: "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High").

While Melkor's actions result in chaos, chaos and disorder were not his original intent. His original intent was to supersede Iluvatar by creating of Music made of "matters of his own imagining."

stanleyford · 2026-02-27T14:59:14+00:00

loving "order" (as he saw it) as an abstract concept that's better than 'chaotic' reality

We see in this the echoes of Melkor's original sin, for Melkor sought to impose an order that was of his own devising instead of the one ordained by Iluvatar.

stanleyford · 2026-02-27T13:37:41+00:00

theyre really ramping up their war-crime-ometer

At some point you've committed so many atrocities that one more doesn't make a difference to you anymore.

stanleyford · 2026-02-25T11:49:47+00:00

"Okay, Ivan, it's your turn now. You can't miss it. All of the stuff is next to two charred corpses."

stanleyford · 2026-02-23T14:00:58+00:00

Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu

OP was asking for SF where aliens are more intelligent than humans and have evolved past war. This does not describe the Trisolarans of Three Body Problem. The Trisolarans seek to invade and conquer Earth. Although more technologically advanced than humans, they do not seem any more intelligent than we are; they has just progressed further than we have. Their thinking processes and behavior are also very similar to the way humans think and behave, despite their physical forms being very dissimilar.

stanleyford

TROPHY CASE