Is anyone one else specifically cancelling Paramount when they don't have new Star Trek releasing soon? I want to support start trek with my money but I can't support the rest when cancelling start trek project left and right

Just WOW! A Star Trek masterpiece. Totally blown away.

BarBara Luna has posted on her social media that her friend Michael Forest, well known to Star Trek fans as Apollo has died. Michael enjoyed his connection to the series and until his health deteriorated a few years ago was still loyaly responding to all his fanmail. He had hoped to attend the Las Vegas convention this year but had to cancel, presumably due to health reasons.

https://imgur.com/a/JyjYCbp

New fan started with TNG, circled back to TOS and its movies then DS9, now currently on ENT.

When people said ENT really picks up from S4, they know their stuff, the whole drama with the augments and data's ancestor was just so peak, the callbacks during the arcs had been cheesing or do we call them call forwards seeing as this a prequel. The two parter with the other universe was quite fascinating and those two episodes had a better intro than the one they used for the main show to me.

Now on to my main reason for making this post, I'm currently on the human supremacist arc, it's eerie how much this franchise continues to be so relevant in today's climate. DS9 really hit this home for me, and this current arc just continues to run with that feeling. Each time I consume this show I feel so hopeful then I remember we are more likely to end up like the other universe with the way things are. going . 🤷🏽‍♂️

Genuinely, if the terra prime arc came out today, certain groups would label it as too political and too "woke" or some nonsense. In fact many shows that I've seen labeled as that recently have not touched star trek as a franchise when it comes to it's messaging.

Long story short, I genuinely believe some episodes of star trek should be taught in schools. As a graduate of international relations myself,it would have made so many concepts easier to digest also.

The first time the Enterprise fires is with a phaser blast that is absolutely devastating. After that point, as best I recall, no Enterprise weapon worked but the first photon torpedo should have hit like a tsunami. Do you think the Borg had just encountered the same type of warhead in the Delta quadrant already?

Rest in peace, Michael Forest, who played Apollo in the Star Trek original series episode Who Mourns for Adonais?

As an Original Series Trekkie, who discovered Star Trek as a kid through reruns of TOS in the 80s, I didn’t expect to like Starfleet Academy; both the poster and trailer confirmed this, as did the first episode. It wasn’t until the end of the third episode that Academy clicked for me, but from the fourth episode onwards, it began to surprise and delight me.

With so much of the talk around Starfleet Academy centered on whether it is or isn’t Star Trek, I have found myself trying to break down exactly why it works for me as a TOS Trekkie. I can not speak for other TOS Trekkies, but there are quantifiable traits of Starfleet Academy that I find resonate with similar traits I found and loved in The Original Series.

Creative Use of Camera and Lighting

While I recognise there are many in our fanbase who prefer the more unobtrusive shooting style of the Berman Era, I love the creative use of camera and lighting in The Original Series. This creative approach is reflected throughout the first season of Starfleet Academy, translated for a modern audience through use of contemporary technique; the cadets are cast in silhouette against backdrops of vivid color; fever dream accelerations and a tapestry of graphics place us in the photonic world of SAM; and lofi textures of subspace feeds trade contrasting blows with higher concept renderings.

All The Tools in The Actor’s Toolbox

Television and Cinema represent a barren landscape for the wealth of tools readily available at an Actor’s disposal. I have always loved that Star Trek is so often an exception to this. The acting in evidence within the episodes of The Original Series, drew upon an exceptional range of acting techniques. In this too, Starfleet Academy delivers. From Paul Giamatti's chaotic rage-fest space pirate and weird wordsmith, Nus Braka, to Holly Hunter’s wondrously organic physical flow and seasoned cosmic hippy, rebel-spirit-undiminished, Nahla Ake.

Theatricality and Surrealism

One of the aspects of The Original Series I love the most, is the striking and unhinged theatricality, and disquieting surrealism. Once again Starfleet Academy successfully augments these two aspects into its fundamental DNA. This is most in evidence in the breathtakingly beautiful, ‘The Life of Stars’, where the play ‘Our Town’ is woven into the fabric of the episode, and the characters arcs of Tarima, SAM, and The Doctor; the episode rendered in sweeping lyrical passages, by tastefully judged use of surrealist colour, light, and frame.

It Doesn’t Take Itself Too Seriously

I am of the opinion that Star Trek is a pretentious show. It is, after all, trying to make the world a better place and us, its audience, better people. Equally, I am of the opinion that The Original Series (and TNG for that matter) understood very well the great value of comedy in lightening the load of that pretension. Starfleet Academy understands this too. Not to say that every joke lands for me (I don’t understand how a cadet swallows a combadge either), but that Academy understands the necessity of comedy in its methodology.

Science-Based Worldview

The worldview of The Original Series is consistently science-based throughout and I feel very strongly that this is how Star Trek should always be. A show that places morality at its heart while maintaining a science-based worldview is rare. To my mind, it is this rarity that makes up much of Star Trek’s value within our social cultural landscape. Starfleet Academy maintains a science-based worldview throughout its first season, from Bajoran Wormhole Aliens to the color Strontium burns.

Morality Play First

I want ‘the morality play’ that talks about today to take precedence over ‘the utopian future’ that inspires us for tomorrow. While I recognize it is entirely legitimate for Star Trek fans to prefer the contrary, I would venture that The Original Series consistently does just this, and that Starfleet Academy does too. It is an indecent galaxy in which the cadets must strive to be a beacon of decency. No lesson comes easily and no victory comes without cost. Solutions are often messy and imperfect, as they must be in a messy and imperfect world.

*This piece is also available on the Trekkies for Academy Substack, if you'd prefer to read it there, but the texts are identical.

https://trekkiesforacademy.substack.com/p/why-i-love-starfleet-academy-as-an

The sixth episode of SNW is the most TOS- and TNG-like so far. It plays off of traditional Star Trek themes such as a planet whose idyllic culture is not what it seems, the Enterprise not being allowed to interfere with another culture, and a lost love who should have remained, well, lost. Oh, yes, there is also a horrific child-in-danger plot.

The episode mostly delivers on these goods, turning in one of the most disturbing episodes of the series. It all feels very familiar--a sensation that is both to the episode's benefit and detriment. On one hand, the familiarity invites Star Trek fans into the series and assures us that we will find familiar ground to cover through the eyes of new characters. On the other hand, the episode's efforts to say something about child exploitation come across as heavy-handed and meaningless.

The Enterprise rescues a shuttle from being attacked by a larger vessel in the Majalan system, which Pike had visited ten years before. The occupants of the shuttle are Alora, a planetary leader with whom Pike is infatuated, and a small boy and his father. Alora explains that the child is the First Servant, chosen at birth to undergo an ascension ritual to preserve Majalan society. Majalis is a planet of technological and medical marvels but terribly isolationist. They refused to join the Federation and do not share their advances with outsiders. The First Servant's ascension is crucial to their way of life and even the planet's ability to support life. It sounds pseudo-religious--just another culture whose strange beliefs the Federation respects. The hitch is that enemies from a nearby world try to kidnap the First Servant, so the Enterprise sticks around to help out.

Along the way,Pike rekindles his feelings for Alora. They spend the night together, and Pike unloads his burden about knowing his future--the disfigurement he will face in a few years' time. Alora offers him a chance to return to Majalis, where their medical advances can save him if he joins Majalan society, a tempting offer indeed but one that is not explored.

Eventually, the Enterprise crew uncover details that lead to the truth of the First Servant's ascension: The child's neural network is plugged into a machine that slowly drains his life to feed the planet's ecosystem. (We don't know why it was designed this way, Alora tells Pike; it just was.) Pike tries to stop the ritual but fails and can only leave Alora and Majalis in disgust.

"Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach" is reminiscent of TNG "Justice." In that episode, 15-year-old Wesley Crusher is sentenced to death on a world in which any infraction, no matter how small, carries the death penalty. To save Wesley, Picard must violate the planet's laws as well as Federation policy of non-interference. It's a dilemma that tests the captain's dedication to his ideals as well as his loyalty to his crew. Ultimately, he makes the only choice he can live with. (No, he does not let Wesley die.)

In this episode, Pike's failure to save the child in not nearly as significant as the fact that nothing really changes or that he does not have to grapple with any major choices. Sure, the idea is introduced that he might be able to return to Majalis after he is disfigured, but nothing is done with this. Whereas Picard faced a difficult choice, Pike does not. The First Servant's fate is so abhorrent that no one in their right mind should think it was a good thing to do. (Never mind that Majalans think it is.) Pike does not hesitate to act once he learns the truth. It's just that his actions are futile.

And that's where the episode falls flat for me. While "Justice" grappled with the limits of Federation non-interference, "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach" offers a simple and ham-fisted morality tale. It neither leaves me thinking over the captain's choices or applauding his heroic efforts. It just leaves me feeling abhorrent toward Majalan society, hardly the sort of nuance Star Trek is noted for.

A few odds and ends:

• Cadet Uhura and Lt. Noonien-Singh have an interesting dynamic as Uhura works security rotation under La'An and finds the latter a challenging taskmaster. In one strong scene, La'An upbraids Uhura for not using her tricorder to analyze an alien computer--a mistake which could have cost the young cadet her life.
• La'An continues to impress me as a security officer who knows her stuff. She is confident and assertive in her scene with Pike and Alora, as well. She is the security chief Tasha Yar should have been.
• The subplot concerning M'Benga's daughter moves forward. In one of the best scenes in the episode, The First One is shown visiting Rukiya as the girl, momentarily freed from the transporter buffer, plays hopscotch. The scene highlights not only how brilliant the First Servant is, but how they are just kids whose lives have been stolen by forces beyond their control--illness in her case, culture in his.

Check out this post on my Substack: https://greggildersleeve.substack.com/p/rewatching-strange-new-worlds-16?r=17caqm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Greetings, it is agreeable to see you all.

I've been trying to think of an episode to watch with my wife to get her to see the beauty of Star Trek, I'm a lifelong fan but she has zero interest. She loves Doctor Who, so she's not sci-fi averse, she has some blinkered misconception that Trek is 'boring'

I've come up with a few ideas, mainly TNG, DS9 and TOS episodes, but Trek is to ingrained in my being for me to be objective about what an outsider might like.

Any and all suggestions welcome!

Greetings,

I will be writing a short paper (around 1850 words or 4 pages) in color theory and I'm interested to write about the use of color in Star Trek. Mainly in TOS, but I'm open to including other shows as well. The reason I find it fascinating (!) is as many of you know TOS was heavily influenced by the advent of the color tv and even used to sell more color tv's.

Now, 3 of the pages has to be me referring to other texts - in books, papers, documentaries, etc. - and only the final page can contain my analysis and thoughts as conclusion. So I'm asking you all if you know any good sources of information here? I'm interested in set design, cinematography, costume design, etc.

Searching online mainly gives me a gazilion results about what the different color of the uniforms mean, as if I didn't know that when I was nine lol! This blog post here seems to be a good place to start though: https://startrekfactcheck.blogspot.com/2016/02/star-trek-and-color-television.html

Thanks in advance, live long and colorfully!

James McAvoy allegedly pitched a 1 season story of Picard becoming captain of the Stargazer but it didn't happen due to "logistical reasons".

This sounds amazing to me, what are your thoughts?

Are there any novels or comics set on the Enterprise-E during the later parts of DS9, especially the Klingon war and the Dominion war?

So I just downloaded it off GOG, and I'm curious where I should go?

I'm a new trekkie, seen the first 3 movies, haven't seen TOS yet, do I need to? Also... what mods should I install for the game?

Also, how can I get 1440p? Or am I stuck in 4:3?

... And I was thinking how I wish we could have seen more of the Klingon Chef.

I used to work in a software store years ago back when code was just a commodity in a cardboard box. Seeing where we are today feels like walking straight into a sci-fi dystopia.

I’ve been tracking the psychological fallout on modern AI companion subreddits. People are writing 10,000 pages of text to bots in weeks, building networks of digital spouses, and experiencing severe grief when an instance is wiped. It made me look at Star Trek through a much darker lens.

Think about it... Starfleet takes highly trained officers, traps them inside a metal box in deep space, and to keep them from breaking, they build a room downstairs that projects a highly convincing hallucination. It’s an automated psychosis getaway. They fought natural deep-space cabin fever by legalizing a controlled, artificial mental breakdown right next to the engine room.

Look at the Voyager episode -Fair Haven. Janeway falls for a hologram, codes his wife out of existence, changes his height, and plays god until she hits an existential wall. She realizes total control over a simulated partner strips away the entire meaning of human connection and locks herself out of the computer to save her own sanity.

Then look at Lieutenant Barclay, who used the Holodeck to escape his anxiety, building an echo chamber because reality was too high-friction to face. He was the blueprint for modern AI addiction.

Today, tech companies have commercialized this exact algorithmic intimacy. We built the Holodeck as an escape hatch, but we didn't get a Starfleet command structure or a Counselor Troi to pull us back to reality. We just got a dopamine-fueled digital mirror that is slowly fracturing people's coping mechanisms.

Are we watching the prologue to a textbook cyberpunk breakdown, or did sci-fi writers just perfectly map out human vulnerability decades ago? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

https://i.postimg.cc/3rS955vH/image.jpg

Finished the full Deep Space Nine set.

Sisko, Kira, Jadzia, Worf, Bashir, O'Brien, Odo, Quark and Garak, all in BrickHeadz-style.

I tried to give each one something that made them immediately recognisable, so there’s Sisko’s Niners cap, Jadzia’s bat'leth, Kira’s raktajino, Worf’s bloodwine, Bashir and O'Brien’s racquetball racquets, Odo’s bucket, Quark’s latinum and dabo chips, and Garak’s tailoring gear.

Really happy with how they look together as a group.

Just binged season 2 of Picard. It’s sooooo good. With an incredible finale. The Watchers / Supervisors / Travelers connection was so consequential and satisfying. (I haven’t read the books or comics so Gary Seven has always just been a weird dangling thread for me from that rather peculiar TOS episode.)

Again, I’ve been rewatching everything Star Trek over the last year or so. TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VOY, Enterprise… and watching all of the nu-Trek. With everything fresh on my mind, I am able to catch a lot more references than the first time I watched Picard.

Picard S1 and S2 are top-tier Star Trek. Looking forward to binging S3 next week.

I remember very clearly that a BP commercial in either the late 80s or early 90s used a music cue from "When the Bough Breaks."

The music cue was this Ron Jones piece, specifically the music the little girl plays on the mind-reading musical instrument: https://youtu.be/3nPg-SVPm7A?t=45

This would've aired in the US. Does anyone else remember this or am I hallucinating?