To Boldly Split Infinitives (star trek thread!)

*bursts in with 1000 shirtless pictures of Kirk* yes hello my friends i have arrived

i don't have much to add to this thread at the moment, since i haven't seen the newest movie, but TOS is one of my forever fandoms. i actually love all the Star Treks i've seen (most of TNG, some of DS9, a tiny bit of Voyager) but Kirk is my captain.

 

It's hard for me to pick, but for all the very good captains I saw on the show, I think Janeway has to be my favourite even if Voyager's writing was a bit all over the place sometimes. That miiight just be because I remember Voyager most clearly, but, like... there's coffee in that nebula.

Picard is a v. relatable survivor though, so I think he comes in second.

 

Janeway is my hero.
I want to be Janeway when I grow up. I don't know how I'll manage that as a boy but you CANT STOP ME ;)

 

i remember being a wee sprout and not super understanding what was going on re: Voyager when my dad watched it, but i knew i loved janeway and that she was the best

(picard will always be My Captain tho)

 

I also definitely wanted to be Janeway when I grew grow up. just. god. she speaks to my heart. i would follow her anywhere.

but otoh, p much everyone in the Trek universe is my love. aaaaauugh so good.

just got home from watching Beyond. was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it - I was tepid on the first two reboots, they felt off. this one, though, they've gelled and found their stride - it feels like a proper continuation of the 'verse, but it just happens to be a loop-to-AU (which lbr is not out of canon for Trek do you know how much timefuckery there is can you even measure these tachyons bro). the first two felt too much like "haha let's play in the sandbox and do this again but 'better'! and also let's shoehorn in some reason why it's canon". this one feels like they have an awareness that there was literally centuries in that other timeline, history that both is and is not. Q!Spock's reaction to N!Spock's death really sums that up for me.

also holy fuck am i glad to see way more Spock & Bones. FUCK. "oh he's gonna love that." etc. so many gems of lines.

and NOBODY WAS A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS.

Spoiler

Spock came closest

and that's a beautiful inversion of trope! Jaylah didn't need help to get back on her feet and beat the shit out of Manus!

also there was a better balance of crazy action and actual thinking plot. the scene where they figure out how to defeat the Big Bad is just beautiful, the passing-of-the-torch to each other, they're finally a crew.

(Shoreh Agadashloo as the Commodore threw me for a fuckin' loop right off the hop. y'r s'posed to be a quarian ma'am did you miss the memo)

for once in the reboot series i didn't see the plot twist coming. d'you know how bloody rare that is for me these days? i miss being surprised! this surprised me!

it's interesting to me how much younger everyone is. i was talking about this to J on the ride home - the original series(es) all were very adult/mature - they faced the same serious shit, and there was still hella action (tho mostly in the movies), but they were all adults, established, with lives and wrinkles and flaws. the new crew - they definitely have flaws, and we're starting to see lives - but they haven't got the wrinkles yet. a lot of that is obviously the younger actors and of course the Hollywood makeup, but it feels that way in-character too. i dunno how i feel about that yet. are they gonna continue and reboot the rest of the series? that feels ... weird? younger Picard and co.? (ho fuck younger Riker. i'll be in my bunk) DS9 really doesn't work as a premise with young untested folk. Voyager would have been even more of a shitshow. (god i love Voyager. just *clenches fist* i love it so much)

on a sadder note, i really hope they write Chekhov a good send-off, if they're not going to recast it. that's gonna hurt. i hurt already. he was always so ... happy.

 

so, does anyone here play star trek online? Its a free to play star trek mmo if people didn't know.

 

I have never heard of this but I might just play it.

 

//bursts into the thread

DEEP SPACE 9 IS MY LIFE

//disappears

 

"Find him, and kill him." is a regular family quote.

 

an excellent post

 

I thought the Wolf 359 thread was abt TNG/DS9 for the longest fUCKING time js

 

I got to thinking abt this from a Skype chat abt fusions and Malachite

Moving my rambles here bc it seemed more appropriate than continuing the spam the chat



Which is gonna lead me to researching the movie background which leads to me discovering that 1) the plot was meant to parallel the thawing of the Cold War (had no idea!! Holy shit!!!!) 2) the script near-directly quotes RL politicians. Regarding he line from Kirk and McCoy's trial "Don't wait for the translation! Answer me now!":

<<In Stevenson's presentation [about the then-current crisis in Cuba], which attracted national television coverage, he forcefully asked Soviet UN representative Valerian Zorin if his country was installing nuclear missiles in Cuba, and when Zorin appeared reluctant to reply, Stevenson punctuated with the demand "Don't wait for the translation, answer 'yes' or 'no'!" When Zorin replied that "I am not in an American court of law, and therefore do not answer a question put to me in the manner of a prosecuting counsel...you will have your answer in due course", Stevenson retorted, "I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over.">>

Anyway. Discussion abt Spock's morality in that movie would be cool if anyone is up for it! ^U^

 

SAME THO

 

Of Fusion and Star Trek: that one episode of Voyager, Tuvix. CW for somw the worst entitled creeping that they shove at Kes, and a hard gray morality ending... but Tuvix is an accidental fusion of Tuvok and Neelix, and other than their shared tendencies to harass the Doctor and seriously skeeve at Kes, he's a fusion of their better traits.

 

I thought that the behavior towards Kes was p understandable since Neelix's feelings for her seemed to transfer to Tuvix

It's been a while since I watched but IIRC he was trying to win her over again, albeit with Neelix's tendency towards... over-enthusiasm

 

i just got into voyager (been a fan of TNG all my life) pretty recently, and watched the tuvix episode a couple months ago! i think his behavior makes sense but still skeeved me out, IMO, especially since at the beginning his initial goal was to un-fuse

the ending made me real sad, though.

 

Yeah, it is very much Neelix's feelings and enthusiasm mixed with Vulcan intensity without the meditation grounding it, more openly awful than either individually ever is. But I have no sympathy for people driven by their passions into harassing and badgering others, nor pressuring people with how sad and wanting they are. For me, Neelix is an incomprehensible entitled dipshit in everything to do with Kes. I like him best in episodes where the two have little to nothing to do with each other.

 

the ending was super grey-area for me. i think i woulda respected the amalgamate to make decisions for himself? thinking abt sugilite, she didnt wanna unfuse either, but it was for the best since she was a danger to everyone around her. tuvix wasnt a danger.

that might be why i didnt find his behavior remarkably creepy: Neelix/Kes creeped me the hell out to begin with!

far be it from me to sound like an anti, but Kes is two years old and has known Neelix for most of her (very, very short at the beginning) adult life, yes? That sort of relationship is problematic.

 

Spoiler: Spoilers through the series

There's the age and experience difference, but also the awkward gender roles imbalance. I see plenty of Kes reassuring him with emotional.validation, and yet also seeking sucess with the food and being a medic and such. Neelix patronizes her when he offers reassurances, and only rarely seeks to improve his self worth or position. He's a part-time joke character, with thojghtless enthusiasm causing problems that people eyeroll about. He gets insecure when she succeeds and he doesn't, self-pitying when they take a break... and then her final appearence on the show is awkward and out of the blue in a lot of ways.


What I don't get is like. The reasoning for forcing Tuvix to split: they can't afford to lose more crew. But they also don't bother recruiting as they go, or forcing the cryofrozen people like Amelia to join. Why is this a gray decision Janeway makes? She misses her friend and she wants Kes to have respite from the intense creeping, and the rest is rationalization.