TREK!

[m o l l y]

Ok, last one (for me)? please?

Data, Tuvok, The Doctor (holographic medical program)

[yourfriendclaire]

Fuck Data (you know he's a freak)
Marry Tuvok (I think we've established he's a committed partner)
Kill The Doctor (what is death to a hologram?)

[m o l l y]

I'd Fuck Tuvok (total fox)
Marry Data. His curiosity would be a constant delight.
And yeah, switch off the Doc.

[m o l l y]

Wait though, is QAnon a Star Trek reference? (Actual question)

[yourfriendclaire]

....what if Q was Q??? HE WOULD

[m o l l y]

My thought exactly.

[yourfriendclaire]

And the reason he's disappeared from Reddit is because the Q Continuum finally got wise to what he was up to and whisked him back into the multiverse

[m o l l y]

Help, I finished Voyager and I feel lost and alone! What do I do next?

[yourfriendclaire]

Welcome to the end of the rainbow, my friend. That's it. Everything post-Voyager is (in my humble O) positively no bueno. The best you can do is remember the good times, until you've forgotten enough of the good times that a rewatch is in order. We're almost ready to begin the cycle anew.

[alex]

For all of their tricorders and scanners, does it seem to anyone else that the Federation has a lack of video cameras throughout their ships? It seems like they never know what is going on in loading bay 3 or the hallways of deck 7 without doing a scan for life signs or troy sensing "much anxiety". Does the Enterprise have CCTV? Why don't the away teams have body cams or google glasses or whatever? Did Roddenberry fail to predict this feature of futuristic societies..or perhaps the federation has intentionally chosen to not use it?

[m o l l y]

That is very fair. I have also noticed that their scanners have a LOT of trouble with "interference" in space.

[m o l l y]

Welcome to the end of the rainbow, my friend. That's it. Everything post-Voyager is (in my humble O) positively no bueno. The best you can do is remember the good times, until you've forgotten enough of the good times that a rewatch is in order. We're almost ready to begin the cycle anew.

I'm devastated.

[yourfriendclaire]

Yeah @alex I feel that inconsistency! Video screens only exist on the main bridge and in the conference room? I guess it probably serves a narrative function (we need a good reason to go and inspect the Jefferies tube when something seems off with the readings) but it's fun to imagine a Starfleet system-wide privacy policy implemented after the great Video Wars of 2021...

Another thing they totally biffed is tablets. Why would you need one tablet per piece of information? I always have a laugh when I see a Starfleet captain with five different iPads in arm.

[alex]

Agree re: narrative device, would be very different show if they had cameras everywhere...i like the retcon of Video Wars. They might have biffed how many tablets, but they got the *existence* of tablets right, which is something?

[m o l l y]

What about the movies, though? watchable?

[yourfriendclaire]

YES! All the TNG-era movies are fun as hell

[alex]

I would also recommend Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, despite not being a huge fan of the original series. A lot of fun San Francisco stuff..golden gate bridge, riding MUNI, space whales...this sort of thing!

[m o l l y]

SCORE!

[yourfriendclaire]

Molly when you’re in LA this summer we should visit the wastewater treatment facility/Japanese garden in Van Nuys that serves as the location for Starfleet Headquarters in all the Trek shows & films. It’s been closed during pandemic times (we’ve tried) but maybe it’ll open soon...?

[m o l l y]

Whaaaaaat. Yes! I hear celebratory air-horns in my head!

[m o l l y]

Just hit play on "Generations." Champagne bottle in space intro!

[m o l l y]

My neighbour, Cameron (Alan Ruck)!

[m o l l y]

omg baby Tuvac

[m o l l y]

Insane elaborate tall-ship holodeck promotion scene.

[yourfriendclaire]

Is this live-tweeting??

[m o l l y]

I decided to regain control of myself 10 minutes in.

[m o l l y]

Just finished the second half. Big explosions budget! Data says, "oh shit." Good to see the gang again.

[yourfriendclaire]

The TNG movies are trippy because they have a noticeably larger production value than the show itself. It's like seeing your friends from high school all grown up

[alex]

Attached is a photo of a book I picked up yesterday. It is very good. The premise is that in an attempt to understand himself and how he was created after meeting his father/creator, Data begins extensively researching the origins of computers on earth. After seeing this research, Picard suggests that Data send it to a teacher at Starfleet Academy to have it turned into a curriculum for starfleet students, and also print it as an actual physical book in order to see how information was often presented during the historical period in question. The book is written by a starfleet teacher, based on Data's research. There is commentary by the crew of the Enterprise related to their various expertise, for instance Worf comments on security in early computer systems.

You not only get to see what people in the past think people in the future will think about technology, but also what people in the 90s got right/wrong about where technology was heading. For instance, they say that IBM will make the original starfleet computers in 2060. We will see!

[m o l l y]

Wow, what a find! This looks like fun from cover to cover.

[yourfriendclaire]

Incredible...I love when an official companion book goes hard like this. I'm reminded of the excellent Twin Peaks companion books, The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, which was written by David Lynch's daughter, and "Diane..." The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper, which was written by Mark Frost's brother.

[m o l l y]

I read The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer while working my first bookstore job in North Hollywood. All hiding in the stacks of The Iliad, trying not to get caught. Sigh. (I read Courtney Love's "authorised" biography, written by a vampire novelist, the same way)

[matthew]

i watch the tng ep “the inner light” recently and just like wept, it’s like maybe the best episode of television ever? such a classic sf vibe executed so good

[yourfriendclaire]

Oh yeah, that's an all-timer. Picard wistfully playing his little flute at the end? Waterworks. Someone told me once that doing DMT is like living a whole life in just a few seconds, and so maybe by that logic "The Inner Light" is the most psychedelic episode of Star Trek...?

[m o l l y]

This episode is so tender. I love how living this alternate life keeps touching him throughout his Enterprise life for the remainder of the show.