Amph [NERRRD] Observations, rhetorical questions, comments & 55 Years of Star Trek (General Thread)

Q mentions the difference between Sisko and Picard.

 

Sisko was much easier to provoke.

 

Sisko uses up all of his patience on his family members, crew, and stupid Bajoran political blunders, I'm kind of amazed he has any left for antagonists in the first place. You don't see Picard having to deal with 99% of the people he's protecting joining some weird death cult every other week.

 

Sisko did not assassinate the Romulan senator. Garak did, and Sisko decided to go along with the cover-up because he thought if he did not the Federation, the Klingons and the Romulans along with others would be defeated. Still bad, but he didn't murder anyone himself. Also, he poisoned the planet's atmosphere specifically for humans 1. so the Maquis would have to leave and 2. in retaliation for them planning to do/doing the same thing to Cardassian-inhabited planets. Cardassians could settle the planet fine, which was the point. I think people play up Sisko's misdeeds and take them out of context.

Similarly, yeah, Sisko punching Q is often portrayed by fans as "badass," but in actual context it played right into Q's hands. The guy's basically a god anyway. A punch isn't going to affect him.

 

That's because he delagates it all to Riker.

 

It's because no one wants to face the ugly truth that the real reason Sisko is so great and relatable is he's an affable turbo-nerd. "Hi guys I built this extremely accurate replica of an obscure artifact by hand. Perhaps we can fly it - and then I'm thinking afterwards we'll play video games based on a sport that hasn't existed for centuries."

 

Sisko is by far my favourite Trek captain. I know people like to debate Kirk vs Picard, which is totally understandable, but I think Sisko is the better contrast. Both perfectly encapsulate what their respective series' is all about. Picard is pretty much perfect, as is right for the commander of the Federation's top ship. Sisko on the other hand starts off the series as a Commander sent to take charge of an abandoned station out in the space boonies. He develops over the series to become a top Starfleet captain. Yes Picard softens, as does Sisko tbh, but I think there's a greater degree of character development in Sisko's story. He's a family man, a pragmatist and bloody good cook by all accounts and for that reason I love him.

 

Picard was deeply traumatized by his experience with The Borg, like a good stiff Captain he seems to bury it (even though there's a councilor sitting right next to him). but it comes out in weird ways, "It's not a person, dammit! It's a Borg!" Or how damn easily / creepy he slips back into being "Locutus" when he has to talk to Hugh. Or when Sisko tells him "They met in battle at Wolf 359" Picard's face just drops like he's seen a ghost for the rest of the scene. So I totally buy his actions in First Contact, even his "ARGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!" machine gunning of the Borg in the Holodeck. Hell, especially that. Hugh and Lore's crew aside, he hasn't really been face to face with the bona-fide Borg in years and it's been festering. The fact he can literally hear the Borg in his head the entire time they're around isn't really helping either. Telling his crew to fight hand to hand and calling Worf a coward is all of it boiling over which eventually comes to a boil with his conversation with Lilly (thankfully, Picard's love of literature snaps him out of it). The moment where he breaks the neck of the wriggling robo-head/spine of the Borg Queen at the end is downright cathartic. He's been sitting on it for years. Closure!

Borg ep I think Picard is out of character is Descent. I mean, what the hell is Picard doing in Descent anyway? I'm not a fan of Descent really at all, it's only kind of interesting for the Hugh fallout, some Lore campiness and I always see it as a Ron Moore (who co-wrote the ep with Braga) basically a Beta-Test for what he would flesh out as the Cylon cluture in Battlestar Galatica. But Picard isn't served very well as a character in that episode. Or maybe he just wrote these Borg off as freaks and it didn't bother him as much. Or apparently at all.

 

To me, Descent seems like one of those 2-parters where they wrote the first part and then tried to figure out where to go with the second part. It just doesn't end up going anywhere interesting.

 

I think my opinion of Descent is the same opinion I have for every Lore episode - there's a theoretical kernel of a good Data story in there but they sure didn't deliver on it.

 

I disagree. The Lore episodes are worth watch purely for Brent Spiner playing evil Data.

 

I don't see how that makes them good Data stories. Like, at all.

 

Random observation: The Last Jedi is one of the most Star Trek-y Star Wars movies I've ever seen. : No, really! Don't want to get too deep into it in a Star Trek thread and spoil anyone about it but .... there's definitely a bit of Star Trek in this Star Wars, moreso than usual!

 

Lest we forget...

 

Lest we forget.

 

It's been reported by the UK Daily Mail that Jon Paul Steuer, the first actor to play the Klingon, Alexander Rozhenko (Worf's son) in TNG, has died.

Cause of death unknown.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...ctor-Jon-Paul-Steuer-passes-away-aged-33.html

R.I.P.

 

It's sad that he died young, but I find it hilarious that most people are "paying tribute" by posting images of Brian Bonsall who is the Alexander everyone remembers.

 

Yeah... This is why I wrote "first actor".

 

So I haven't watched Black Mirror simply due to not wanting to add yet another to my growing, formidable Netflix queue but I had to cave and watch one, it's a sci-fi anthology series without (as far as I know) any continuity between the episodes, thankfully (although someone tell me if there are connections). But there was an episode as a Trekkie I felt I HAD to watch so I jumped into the USS Callister Episode, Season 4, Episode 1.



It's a great, dark remix of TOS God-power with no moral compass and the sets are thisssss close to TOS to be pretty awesome (think how Orville is more legally not TNG, the look here is legally not TOS) And the VFX are pretty fancy even if it is set on a visually blocky 60s style TOS ship. And it's super funny and very dark and pretty foul-mouthed at times, which is oddly hilarious and totally works to subvert some standard Trek tropes. Jessie Plemmons puts in a great performance, on the Callister he's very close to Shatner's Kirk but with some sinister underpinnings. It's not ALL set on a spaceship but a significant chunk of it is (even if it is a virtual space ship). And it got me thinking that maybe an R-rated Star Trek could work in the standard setting but you have characters who gleefully play with the tropes of what Trek is. Great fun for TOS nerds and I do recommend checking it out, if only you watch one episode that's about an hour and 15 minutes.

And, maybe, they'll be a USS Callister TV series! (the ending does lean towards possibly more) but only actor talk right now and not real talk. But if it happens it'd be the 2nd Trek remix show out there.

http://tvline.com/2018/01/09/black-mirror-uss-callister-spaceship-tv-series-netflix/

 

There are some connections, continuities and consistent themes in the earlier seasons of Black Mirror, and I expect they turn up in the Netflix one too, which I have not seen... Each episode is self contained though; the slices of continuity (including the odd recurring character) are there more as a treat for the observant fans.

 

On this date in 1968, this was broadcast on NBC-TV:

 

Yes!

Plans trip to beta Antares IV.