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

Oh good, I always like reasons to go looking for this clip:

 

In the Pale Moonlight is, like, one of the top 5 Trek episode endings ever. Off the top of my head, "Let's get the hell out of here." from City on the Edge of Forever and "Five card stud, nothing wild, and the sky's the limit" from All Good Things. I'm sure I can think of two more eventually. (most Trek endings are the Captain making a moral quip on the bridge anyway but those stand out)

EDIT: Oh, Unification Part 1 "And you have found him, Captain Picard."

Wouldn't place this in top 5 territory but Discovery actually had a badass ending this year (in a Frakes directed episode) where the robo-crewlady was shot out into space and that was it! (they had the funeral at the top of the next episode but shot out into space is pretty great ending)

Okay let's go with Trials and Tribble-Ations as #5 where the dang tribbles have taken over the station.

Ah snap, wait, best ending ever is obviously "Mr. Worf.... fire."

okay I'm good for now.

 

"He's Cardassian. That's reason enough."
"No, it isn't."

 

I’ll check it out.

 

The Trouble with Edward's funny post-credit scene:

Spoiler

 

Question: does Data have complete free will or he is generally constrained to follow the orders?

 

So I have finished Voyager. In many ways I think it peaked in the middle of its run and then was just dependably fine for the rest of it. Seven's children drones had some interesting moments. The Doctor had some good hologram rights moments but it should have been much more developed throughout the show. Chakotay and Seven getting together was nice though I wish we'd gotten more of that because it finally gave him something interesting to do. The show just became meh, too set in its ways and obviously pining for the end. Good stuff here and there, and the good moments are quite good Trek.

So funny that I'm watching Voyager limp to the finish line while DS9 is absolutely hitting its stride.

I have to start with Far Beyond the Stars. What a fantastic episode, loved seeing all the characters in their 50's guises, and the tragedy inherent to the story still hits hard, seeing a young black man killed by cops is sadly still very relevant. Avery Brooks plays the breakdown at the end of the episode big, but he does it for a reason. Fantastic episode.

There's a run of 4 episodes that are all great for their respective characters: Change of Heart made me really invested in Worf and Dax's relationship so much it brought me to tears, Inquisition is a cool episode for Bashir and an interesting origin for Section 31, Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night, while a bit more soap opera-y in conception (lol) than I'd think this would be still manages to ground those events in a realistic way.

The fourth episode is In the Pale Moonlight. I had been told beforehand to expect this one to be great....but oh my. Probably my favorite episode of Trek ever. To see Sisko compromise on his ideals one thing after the next, have it all blow up in his face and then get saved and and be the overall plan of Garak....when you get involved with dirty people, you gotta stick your hands in the mud alongside them. The episode begins with such a great opening, both letting us know we are gonna go deep and grounding the whole thing in the cost of waging this war, something Sisko has to see daily. One of my favorite episodes of TV is the Leftovers, and amongst those the Matt episodes where he makes similarly risky decisions and compromises to get what he needs. This was exactly in that mold, and I adored it. This was not only a great episode of Star Trek, it's a great episode of television. I can live with it.

ITS A FAAAAAAKEEEE

Nice to see Odo and Kira finally together, the end of Season 6 with Dax's death was sudden but effective since I'd grown to love her and Worf together. Sisko taking the baseball with him and working in his father's restaurant is pretty powerful stuff.

Then the next season brings back Benny! So delightful to see that revisited.

It's interesting to see Ezri in this cast that's so great together. They had to have known they'd be introducing a new character for one season, and so far they're using her well.

I'll probably post again when I'm done with DS9...it just keeps getting better. Love this show. Starting Enterprise soon.

 

He's constrained to follow orders from legitimate authority. He doesn't have to follow orders from those not in his chain of command. Even then, especially after he got his emotion chip, there's a degree of flexibility.

"I believe I speak for everyone here when I say - to hell with our orders."

 

Even before the emotion chip Data shows an independent streak. Pen Pals and Redemption II come to mind. And of course, The Most Toys.

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Data chooses to be in Starfleet. There's nothing in his programming saying that he must follow orders especially if they conflict with his sense of morality. He wasn't built by Starfleet. He can resign his commission if he wants to. He follows the chain of command because he's an officer.

 

We will never know if Data has free will unless he exercises transcendentally radical freedom by killing himself rather than conforming to the illusion of choice. Even in Nemesis he failed to do this.

 

yah that was totally unexpected, complete non-sequitor, I actually let the credits for Star Trek play out because I just dig the music so it was great to stumble upon the first Trek post credit scene ever

The episode was a hoot, it was written by someone who worked on Office and a whole lot of Portlandia and it has some great comedic moments that doesn't quite break Trek style, just sorta bends it a bit. And bits like the Captain (played by the lady who played Battle Angel Alita) clapping her hands at Edward to get his attention, the crewman stuck in a overflowing Jefferies tube screaming overcome by tribbles, the guy with the giant vacuum, all pretty great. "He was an idiot" was an amazing punchline. If Short Trek S2 is just going for more quirky instead of small trek episodes in 15 minutes like S1 I can dig it.

I actually thought the episode would end with Mudd picking up the Tribble-ship, and it was cool to get their origins, even if it turns out that Edward was just screwing around and it wasn't his fault anyway cuz "he was an idiot". (although it does explain how Locra could have had a Tribble hanging out in his Ready Room in S1 without them taking over the ship if they were docile before Edward starting manipulating them, and apparently Pholx had one too on Enterprise) They replicated really, really fast, moreso than we've seen before, but maybe that's what the later stages of a Tribble infestation would look like if it goes completely unchecked.

 

"Most Toys" is actually one of the reasons why i can't help myself thinking that he had at least rudimentary emotions before the got the chip, but didn't realized it...

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Oh for sure. Even ignoring everything Data does in the episode, that little hologram of Tasha that Geordi and Wesley found showed some sentimentality.

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So when is Picard on ?
When I read about it earlier this year they said it would be on in the summer.

 

Picard is on in January. The 23rd, I think

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" could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing. "

Hahahahaha Data is awesome hahah

 

"Data's Day"?

 

I'm watching the episode in which the Betazoid is about to get married. The parents have an argument and the woman goes away angrily. Data, on the other hand, is very curious about the way humans behave.

 

The life form song. You’re welcome.

 

Sometimes I really wish Generations was better.

 

Sometimes I wonder if Generations should have been the last episode and All Good Things should have been the movie.

 

That would be hard since the Enterprise was destroyed in Generations, and I don't see how it would be destroyed in the storyline and resolution of All Good Things.

 

Well, you would have to tweak the plot of Generations slightly, but that wouldn’t be hard. In any case my point was more that AGT was written in a weekend and it turned out to be the better story.

 

Far better than Nemesis.