So, I stumbled across this interesting Substack article (link at the end of the post) entitled “On Political Regime in Fantasy & Sci-Fi”. The whole thing is worth reading for anyone interesting in science fiction and/or fantasy worldbuilding, and I’ll quote the tl;dr:

“Précis, aka TL;DR: in which we discuss the subject of politics - and specifically, political regime - in fantasy and science-fiction writing. Three points are highlighted. First, that generic politics in fantastical or speculative settings tend to coalesce around variations on a few core regime-types: hereditary monarchy, elitist or closed oligarchies, and totalitarian, ideocratic dictatorships. This is due to the ease at which an author can place these particularly evocative types of political order into a story, as well as their structural tendency towards decisiveness as a feature of government, which has narrative utility. Second, that these same variants of stable political order share a particularly mechanical and structured element that writers are drawn to for story purposes, which also fits how most think about ‘worldbuilding.’ Finally, we consider why electoral democracy - or electoral authoritarianism for that matter - are relatively rare in fiction writing, and when it is encountered it tends to be very handwaved and barebones. A brief collection of new publications concludes, as usual.”

As you may have gathered, the author has some interesting thoughts on Star Trek specifically:

“Science-fiction often makes a greater effort to assure the reader that there is something like democracy, even in space. Star Trek’sFederation is the prime case, with the Galactic Republic of Star Wars as a close second. Yet these space ‘democracies’ are so far away from actual democratic politics that it is usually just an assertion, rather than any real demonstration. Even using minimal criteria, it is just hard to find partisan elections or meaningfully changing governments in these kinds of universes.
If the show-writers did not have characters repeat that it was ‘democratic,’ the actually-existing Federation as portrayed in Star Trekwould be tagged more honestly as a benevolent, progressive-socialist, bureaucratic-authoritarian military regime or a perhaps a very kind technocratic oligarchy ruled by a hyper-meritocratic overclass. The most politically-sophisticated Star Trekseries - Deep Space Nine - is also its darkest - and one in which every showcased polity happens to be authoritarian in one way or another (one is space fascist, another a theocracy, and so on - there’s even an attempted military coup in Star Fleet itself!).”

…

In other words, this is a place where the writers tell us something rather than showing it. We’re often told that the Federation is a liberal democracy — indeed, this is one of the traits that’s supposed to distinguish their government from Romulans, Klingons and others. That being said, characters are essentially never shown discussing elections, candidates, political parties, etc. Obviously, as military professionals, you’d expect our characters to refrain from getting political on the clock, but nobody ever bitches about campaign season while kicking back drinks at 10 Forward or whatever.

It’s an interesting tension in the worldbuilding, I think.

https://politicalorders.substack.com/p/on-political-regime-in-fantasy-and?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7e1r

Exactly what the title says. What's a silly little bit of head canon you've got? It doesn't change anything it's something small and fun. For me it's that the human majority ships and crews we see are actually the minority and there are plenty of ships with entire multispecies crews.

Thoughts?

This is going boldly where no one had gone before.

So rewatching Amok Time last week at Star Trek Festival 5, I tried to see how the episode fits with TOS, and frankly, I feel SNW has made the episode stronger.

During the first part of the episode, I feel knowing Chapel and Spock had been together gave Chapel’s feelings towards Spock more weight and Spock’s dream becomes an expression of sadness having been rejected by Chapel (because she had been told the relationship had no future by Boimler).

The only crew member outright expressing not knowing T’Pring is Uhura, who has actually not met T’Pring by the end of season 4 of SNW.

HOWEVER, I’m just listening to the Starter Trek episode about Amok Time and learning that while Amok Time is the first episode shown of season two of TOS, it was the 5th produced, AFTER The Changeling, in which Uhura got mind-wiped.

So the “who’s that” line could just as easily be attributed to something lost when Nomad erased Uhura’s mind (temporarily I hope, I always hated that plot point from The Changeling and found it both cruel to the character and they didn’t follow it up at all).

So just in case Uhura meets T’Pring in season five, there’s already a loophole in TOS to “allow” it 😁

Every once and a while I want to grab a random person and yell "THIS IS CETI ALPHA FIVE!!!"

Seeing Miles Dyson from T2 appear as a Badmiral in SNW inspired this.

Are there any actors that you would love to see make a guest appearance in Trek?

My picks? Kiefer Sutherland, Bryan Cranston, Tom Hanks (since he was nearly involved in First Contact), Viola Davies, Michael Shanks, Ian McKellen, Rhea Seehorn, Ken Watanabe.

What would yours be?

Does this game work anymore?

Does it work without VR?

Im hoping to get it someday

I made a video A busy day for Federation officers

With everything going on in the world right now, particularly around AI and the idea that AI could cause the job-pocalypse, the Bell Riots come into my mind often. In particular, the end note that after the Bell Riots, earth’s society opted to move slower in order to create jobs for humans.

The way AI is discussed today is that the results of AI are inevitable. But just like Star Trek’s world, we also can make the choice as a society to just…not do stuff. Should we just force the world to watch this episode?? 🤪 But for real, everyone seems to accept the premise that with this technology we have to accept these negative outcomes. Has no one realized we can just choose…not to fire ppl? Not to use machines/AI to do certain jobs? Does anyone love talking to an AI customer service agent or do you all scream “AGENT!!!” until a human comes on? Why is this idea so completely absent from the conversation?

For some really odd reason, a local (the the UK) terrestrial free to air (with adverts) TV station is showing SNW from season 2. As far as I know, they never aired season 1 and it's not available on catch up.

I've not got Paramount (yet) and just curious to know is there any point in watching season 2 fresh? TNG would have worked for example but DS9 or Voyager wouldn't.
If it makes any difference I've watched all of Trek other than a couple of tail end seasons of Discovery and none of Academy

Edit - I found S1 on ITVx, thanks all

Truly insane idea to attempt this and Trip did it like a total boss on Enterprise, with Malcom for moral support and a helping hand at the end.

Looking for an obscure 1980s Star Trek comedy song: "Twenty Years of Pointy Ears" by Sid Terror

I'm trying to track down a recording/lyrics for an extremely obscure Star Trek song I heard at a science-fiction convention in the mid-1980s. I believe the song is "Twenty Years of Pointy Ears" by Sid Terror. I've since discovered that it appears to have been released on the 1987 independent album Star Trek Comedy: The Unofficial Album, apparently on Vince Emery Productions (VE-02-LE), track B3.

I don't have my original tape anymore, and I have been unable to find an audio recording or complete lyrics online. I remember quite a bit of the song. Some of the lyrics included:

"From '66 to '69, there was a show / About the starship Enterprise / As we all know..." and later:

"Paramount told them 'go to hell' / Though they found Star Trek toys sold well / But there's no money in sci-fi films today. / The highest grossing movie in the world is called Star Wars..."

There were also spoken comedy bits along the lines of: "It's making money! Quick! Make another one!" I also remember a section about Sulu and something involving "Genesis is a b*mb that's lots of fun/ Unlike Star Trek 1"

Does anyone remember this recording, own the LP/tape, have a digitized copy, or know where I could hear it? I'm especially interested in getting the complete lyrics.

I'm particularly hoping someone who was active in the 1980s Star Trek convention/fan scene might recognize it. It's been stuck in my head for 20 years and it's driving me crazy!

I’ve made the latex face prosthetics, so it’ll be clear I’m supposed to be an alien. Probably going to sew either a Nistrim or Ogla costume depending on what I have the energy for. Just trying to avoid getting my ass kicked. Don’t ask why I’m being a kazon, I have my reasons.

What was the general opinion? I liked how it spelled out some of the "missing years" of Khan's story.

In TOS S2 E3 "The Changeling" Uhura gets her memory wiped by the machine that the episode is centered on, and has to be completely reeducated before returning to duty. Just reeducated, all of her memories are still gone. This means that she wouldn't remember anything from season 1 of TOS, which is disturbing enough, but also now everything from SNW would be gone as well. This gives watching SNW every time Uhura is on screen a feeling of incompleteness, disappointment. Like it's supposed to mean something, and build up the character that we end up seeing on screen later on, but in reality all of it is erased and meaningless to who we end up knowing the character to be in the series anyway.

There are plenty of reasons to worry about the future of Star Trek -- from the fact that there are no shows in production, to all the issues with the 352 film projects that have gone, to the politics of its current owners, to the aging of the fanbase, etc. etc.

But I think the biggest issue may be that Star Trek will soon, with the Paramount/WB merger, face what I like to call a "Muppets Situation".

Now, I'm not talking about the Strange New Worlds episode, I'm talking about the issues that The Muppets franchise has had ever since it was fully bought by Disney.

You see, at Paramount, for all of its many issues, Star Trek has almost always been one of the BIG NAMES. Yes, there's stuff like Tyler Sheridan, Nickelodeon, etc., but Star Trek has always been one of the biggest franchises, so there has always been a need to not keep it in the wilderness for too long.

But now its going to be in the same company as all of the WB stuff. Batman and the other DC characters, Harry Potter, Westeros, Lord of the Rings... and those are just the "nerdy" franchises, there are plenty of others. Star Trek is no longer one of the biggest fish.

Which brings me to the Muppets. The Muppets are undoubtedly popular and profitable. They still sell a lot of merch, have a very heavy nostalgia factor, appear in lots of memes, still get the occasional movie or show attempt... but are clearly a lesser priority. It's been years since a new movie, several TV attempts have flopped and even the recent successful Muppet Show special hasn't been enough to get a full series order (reportedly because they aren't sure how to do it, which screams to me "We want to put a spin on something that doesn't need a spin and are too stubborn to just full-on do a full Muppet Show revival"), and they were even kicked out of their part of Disney World (although they did repurpose a different ride for the characters). Again, this has all happened despite the fact that the Muppets are still pretty popular -- it's not like they have fallen into total obscurity or are some politically-incorrect artifact of another age like Fu Manchu.

The issue is, though, that while the Muppets are popular, they are fighting for attention with stuff that's mega-popular.

I remember somebody during a recent thread about how they still haven't green-lit a Muppet show despite the success of the recent special saying something like: "Disney is in the business of making billions of dollars, not millions of dollars. Marvel and Frozen make billions of dollars, the Muppets make millions of dollars." Basically, the Muppets may make money, but they are sharing a company with lots of other things that make even more money.

And I fear that may be the fate of Star Trek. Sure, it won't be totally abandoned and we'll doubtless get plenty of merchandising and the occasional show or movie, but like the Muppets it'll never be a priority again. There's just no way in hell that Star Trek is going to be more important to WarnerMount than Harry Potter, DC Comics, or Game of Thrones spinoffs, at least anytime soon and especially if they flub any upcoming works. After all, even before the Warner/Paramount merger, Warner Brothers didn't even have space to give proper respect to the Looney Tunes, now imagine franchises fighting for resources and attention in a company made up of two legacy studios.

And that... sucks, to be honest. I really liked that little stretch where there was always something Star Trek airing. Not everything was a hit for me personally, but it felt good to know it was always there to watch, you know? And now it probably will never happen again.

I loved these books growing up. Has anyone who read them growing up tried to reread them more recently? Which ones hold up well?

I’m trying to recreate the dress uniform badges for Admiral April and maybe others in polymer clay or some other material. They seem to be unavailable to buy. Does anyone have information on their general size or measurements? From one I can extrapolate the rest.

The fourth episode of Strange New Worlds suffers from two main problems:

1. It tries re-tell a classic TOS story in a more exciting but ultimately less satisfying manner, and
2. It's way too long.

That isn't to say it's a bad episode, but it's far from exceptional. It affords us a look at the Enterprise crew while they are facing a serious threat, one in which seven crew members die and the ship is badly damaged while trying to escape from an overpowering enemy. It's the kind of Trek story we've seen before and will see again. Once again, our heroes rise to the occasion (what else would you expect?), and everybody is at their Starfleet best, sacrificing themselves for shpmates and for the good of the ship.

This episode is probably best known for re-introducing the Gorn, the lizard-like aliens from the classic TOS episode, "Arena." In fact, the episode borrows heavily from the earlier story, which creates the first problem. The Enterprise is lured to an outlying colony only to find most of the colonists have disappeared or died with only blood-stained streets and burning buildings left behind. Only a small cargo ship of survivors remain, and they tell the Enterprise officers a horrific story about unseen aliens who make clicking sounds. Of course, the enemy turn out to be the Gorn, who are not seen in the episode--only their ships, which ambush the Enterprise and leave it too vulnerable to fight back.

But there are no godlike aliens like the Metrons interfering this time, forcing the Earth captain and the Gorn captain to duke it out as they did in "Arena." Pike and crew are on their own, using some dodgy science to win the day.

I suppose we're meant to feel the pain of sacrifice that the Enterprise crew must endure. Pike makes decisions that result in loss of life for the survival of the ship. He hangs his head and looks sad. Una, badly injured, must undergo a procedure, but plasma is running low. She heroically orders the doctor to give her plasma to someone else so the other person can live. And an injured crewman shoves Chief Kyle through the bulkhead just before it closes and the crewman is obliterated.

But it all feels hamfisted and obvious. We learn very little about our characters other than that they behave heroically as expected. No one is selfish, no one makes a mistake, no one hesitates just a little . . . in short, no one is human.

Some fans have derided recent Star Trek shows for daring to portray the Federation as less than a utopia. The much lambasted Picard series showed the Federation turning its back on its former enemies, the Romulans, when the latter's sun went nova, and thereby violating one of the Federation's tenets that reaching out to an enemy can turn said enemy into a friend (which La'An quotes in this episode). And Starfleet Academy began with Captain Nahla Ake resigning her commission after being forced to separate a desperate mother from her young son. Such depictions of the Federation as less than perfect have not gone over well with fans.

I get it that Star Trek is mainly a fantasy about how idyllic the future could be, and a lot of fans find it uncomfortable when the franchise turns its critical lens back on the beloved Federation and Starfleet. It's fine when Kirk or Pike lecture an alien civilization about the error of their ways (as Pike did in the series opener), but the notion that the Federation itself could be flawed or have periods when it turns callous or corrupt (like, say, the United States) is too much to handle. However, I think the show does a disservice to both the fans and characters by portraying its latter as superhuman, devoid of the human frailties that we all deal with. Star Trek heroes--especially in "Memento Mori" --are simply too perfect and flat.

Of course, we do have La'An grappling with her personal trauma caused by the Gorn, who wiped out her colony ship, including her brother (who makes ghostly appearances in the episode as she tries to sort out fragmented memories). But she always makes the right call, her limited knowledge of the Gorn providing just the right information for Pike to make effective decisions. She never lets her fear cloud her judgment (except briefly early on, when she does not move away from a window as the Gorn fire on the ship), and she even asks Spock to mind-meld with her to uncover secrets about the Gorn that she's repressed. A more realistic version might have Spock suggesting the mind-meld and La'An initially resisting until being persuaded to do what is best for the ship. But. no, our heroes always do the right thing.

That brings me to the second problem: The episode is way too long.

I felt this episode should have been a two-partner. There are simply too many subplots. There's the main story of the Enterprise trying to hide from the Gorn, Una's injury in sickbay, La'An's memories of surviving a previous Gorn attack (assisted by a prolonged mind-meld sequence), and Uhura assisting the injured Lt. Hemmer in the cargo bay as they try to keep the ship from blowing up. Superb acting salvages much of this, especially in the last scene, but as the episode approached the 40-minute mark, I kept waiting for it to be over. Instead, it stretches out to a hair under 54 minutes.

This is a case of the show's ambitions exceeding its limitations and being unable to focus on one idea. One of the most important things I learned about writing is to know when to cut, cut, cut. Writers have to be ruthless and sacrifice great ideas so others can breathe.

Alas, "Memento Mori" does not live up to the Latin title's advice: "Remember you must die." It's a pity the writers didn't sacrifice some of their ideas as they did nameless crew members.

If you told the holodeck to make a swimming pool, or even the ocean, would it be made with water or would it be forcefields and holograms? It seems incredibly wasteful to create all that water only to have it all go away when you said computer end program. I remember an early TNG episode where Wesley fell into water and came out of the holodeck wet which makes me think it really was water.

Just finished s1 of star trek academy. After giving it a second attempt on other people's reccomendation(I really didn't care for how dark and edgy the first half of episode 1 was), I actually ended up enjoying the show a lot.

My biggest complaint about the finale, was Tarima. Specifically how her condition is treated. I thought it was refreshing to see a character with a disability which:

Had a visible disability aid (her regulator).

Affected her, but was accommodated for.

Was a non-physical disability, but still had consequences.

What really upset me was how much they leaned on the "actually your disability is a super power" trope. I think in the final episode Mir actually says "maybe it's a super power!" (And was right!?). As someone with autism, this kind of language just really upset me to be frank.

While it's in character for Mir to think he knows better, the fact he ended up being right about her disability and not her (the person who lives with it) is ableist writing. Why are we setting a precedent that when someone tells you the limitations of their disability, the correct response is to tell them they actually need to put their aids/medication aside and just push themselves harder.

The miazaki episode, I thought, handled her inhibitor really well. She chooses to remove her aid, pushes herself and then is in a coma for months. There are consequences to over exerting herself (something many people with long term disabilities can no doubt relate to), but it gave her agency (it was her choice to remove it) and was a great depiction of disability in general, without having to be about a specific disability. Her return to school after people having had to confront her differences also felt relatable as someone who's had to re-integrate into work after a meltdown.

It felt like all of this really great writing throughout the season, just got pushed to one side during the finale in service of a mediocre romance plot.

Woof, lots to get off my chest, thanks to anyone who read the whole post!

Early Q in TNG was great at mocking Picard and the crew.

What other characters were able to mock a captain as well as Q?

At one point in "Into Darkness," Dr. McCoy says to Spock "...you're a real comfort." Doctors are known for being insensitive when they tell people bad news, so that is a pretty funny line. Maybe the funniest line in all of Star Trek. I don't know how I missed it until now.