Star Trek
r/startrek: The Next Generation
Star Trek news and discussion. No slash fic...
Maybe a little slash fic.
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All posts/comments must be thoughtful and balanced.
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It is important that everyone from newbies to OG Trekkers feel welcome, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, religion or race.
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Utilize the spoiler system for any and all spoilers relating to the most recently-aired episodes, as well as previews for upcoming episodes. There is no formal spoiler protection for episodes/films after they have been available for approximately one week.
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Upcoming Episodes
| Date | Episode | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 11-21 | LD 5x06 | "Of Gods and Angles" |
| 11-28 | LD 5x07 | "Fully Dilated" |
| 12-05 | LD 5x08 | "Upper Decks" |
| 12-12 | LD 5x09 | "Fissue Quest" |
| 12-19 | LD 5x10 | "The New Next Generation" |
In Production
Strange New Worlds (2025)
Section 31 (2025-01-24)
Starfleet Academy (TBA)
In Development
Untitled comedy series
Wondering where to stream a series? Check here.
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The Burn being caused by a magic baby having a tantrum kinda ruined the whole setting for me. There's a lot of potential with moving to the 32nd century, but if that's the quality of storytelling we're gonna get, it doesn't seem worth it. I'd much rather see a 24th century setting that follows up on the galaxy post Dominion War and the return of Voyager. There's a lot of untold story there that would be great to see... Although I'd hope it's not more magic baby style stuff.
I think the cause of the Burn is a nearly-perfect example of Star Trek's humanist values, and find it interesting when people feel the need to go out of their way to misrepresent it with words like "magic" in an effort to justify their dislike of it.
We can replace the words "magic" with "strongly telepathic" and it's basically the same problem.
It's a great idea to fuck warp travel right on its head as a concept, but the execution was majorly lacking for me. I would have much rather had a continuation of the plot from Force of Nature where warp had significantly damaged subspace gradually (like a climate change allegory), rather than a universe-wide explosion that happened all at once in a flash.
I don't know that I agree that "telepathic" is quite the right word - Su'Kal was a polyploidal mutant whose genes were affected by the dilithium in the environment - a sci-fi extension of a real genetic phenomenon that can occur when extreme environmental stresses are present. The explanation they gave was more scientific that many of those that we've had across the history of the franchise.
At the end of the day, if it doesn't work for everyone, that's fine - I personally think it's a very TOS/TNG idea, sort of a "Charlie X" by way of "The Survivors", and I think it's pretty obvious that the producers wanted the source to have a "human face" if you'll forgive the expression.
I think putting the face onto the source is what made it lose the value, unfortunately.
My comparison is what they did with the Borg and the Queen. Wolf 359 is a terrifying, tragic ordeal, made all the more serious by the fact that it was done by one cube that could not be negotiated or reasoned with. As soon as the Borg had a way to negotiate and reason, they became less scary because they had understandable motives and goals that could be bargained with, as excellently demonstrated by Janeway.
Ultimately, I agree with you that it's kind of more of a TOS-y sort of plot device. I do feel like back then they really followed the science being indistinguishable from magic logic, and we've progressed over time to wanting more hard and serious technobabble. I think that's kind of a disconnect for me, personally, is that they had to dip into a serious explanation for something that effectively functions like magic.
Oh boy, one day we should probably have the Great Borg Queen Debate - it would be a thread for the ages...
That's the thing, I think the technobabble surrounding Su'Kal is actually pretty good. I will grant that the episode has a lot going on, and it's easy to miss, but it's solid enough that it's had me doing some light genetics research on more than one occasion.
I'm rewatching season 3 now, and the themes of trauma and mental health are so pervasive that I think it was really appropriate that the burn would be the result of a mental health crisis in one way or another. In that context, I think putting a face to it works. The "Force of Nature" or old-school Borg route could work great, but for a different show/season.