Hmm, my take has been that Stamets is offering advice that he thinks is helpful, but is more glib than what Culber seems to need right now. It's interesting.
I've been really enjoying Culber's journey this season. I don't know if it will dovetail with the main plot, but I'm optimistic they'll wrap it up.
I'm not sure I'm completely on board with the role Stamets is playing in it, though. He went through a spiritual experience of sorts in season one, so I'm surprised Culber doesn't feel like he can turn to him. Maybe Stamets is just too chill to provide the kind of support that Culber needs.
I don't know specifics, but I think STA took that from some of the novels - they're pretty good about drawing from existing material.
I was referring to Discovery specifically, but I have heard good things about that doc.
I'm a big believer in "stardates are nonsense, and should remain nonsense," but there were efforts made to standardize them in the '90s. They weren't particularly consistent efforts, though. The full history can be found here.
In early TNG, this was the explanation:
A stardate is a five-digit number followed by a decimal point and one more digit. Example: "41254.7." The first two digits of the stardate are always "41." The 4 stands for 24th century, the 1 indicates first season. The additional three leading digits will progress unevenly during the course of the season from 000 to 999. The digit following the decimal point is generally regarded as a day counter.
By TNG season 6, they were going with:
A Stardate is a five-digit number followed by a decimal point and one more digit. Example: "46254.7". The first two digits of the Stardate are "46." The 4 stands for the 24th Century, the 6 indicates sixth season. The following three digits will progress consecutively during the course of the season from 000 to 999. The digit following the decimal point counts tenths of a day. Stardate 45254.4, therefore, represents the noon hour on the 254th "day" of the fifth season. Because Stardates in the 24th Century are based on a complex mathematical formula, a precise correlation to Earth-based dating systems is not possible.
One day, I'd really like to get an oral history of the making of this show, particularly those tumultuous first two seasons...
My expectations for this one were low based on the preview, but I enjoyed this one more than I thought I might. A very "traditional" Star Trek plot in many ways.
Watching the Culber/Stamets interactions, I wonder if they're going to address the "awakening" that Stamets had following his genetic modification. That's something that's been mentioned a bunch of times (as recently as two episodes ago), but I don't remember them ever digging really deep into it. It seems like there are some parallels there that could be explored.
I think they use that name for the AR wall facility - they stuck a sign on the door and everything.
The episode was dedicated to Allan “Red” Marceta, a set dresser who passed away in 2022.
I wonder if the bar is named after him, too.
art