Does It Get Better???

[teacake]

MacLeod wrote:

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But I think that for a ships name to have an impact, we have to be aware of the person/event/place/idea.

To me it has impact to not know the person. It points to a future not all filled in for us yet. We might find out someday in a passing comment by a character who that person was. Recognizing the name of every single ship is a bit cheesy because it wouldn't actually happen like that.

[tighr]

How about the ego of the Federation to have all ships registries and names printed on the hull in English/Arabic Numerals. Those aren't even the only systems on Earth, and we expect the rest of our galaxy to comply?

I do like that modern sci-fi discards the antiquated term "earthling" and instead calls homo sapiens "Terrans". The balls on our race to think we've got the only sentient race, sun, moon, star system, etc in the galaxy!

We're Terrans. We live on Terra. In the Sol system. We have a moon, Luna. We are in the Milky Way Galaxy.

[Guy Gardener]

We only think that it's all in English.

The universal translator (TOS Metamorphosis) has a telepathic component to it.

(It's actually all in French.)

[tighr]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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We only think that it's all in English.

I was referring more to the characters rather than the language. The English alphabet. Which is remarkably close to the French alphabet (minor accenting changes), both of which are among the dozens of alphabets derived from the Latin Alphabet, itself derived from the Greek and Phoenician alphabets.

[teacake]

Starships have Tardis material in them that makes everything seem in your own native script.

[Guy Gardener]

tighr wrote:

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I was referring more to the characters rather than the language. The English alphabet. Which is remarkably close to the French alphabet (minor accenting changes), both of which are among the dozens of alphabets derived from the Latin Alphabet, itself derived from the Greek and Phoenician alphabets.

The universal Translator effects text as well as spoken language. It's always been a telepathic device that changes how your brain receives information... which is what I tried to say so unsuccessfully before and Teacake made a little joke about because of the Christmas Invasion and a couple other episodes of Doctor who where they tried to explain their universal translator...

"So I'm speaking English, and they're hearing Latin, but what happens if I speak Latin? Will they hear Latin or English?'

The Romans listening to Donna heard "Welsh".

[AdmiralScreed]

Dark Frontier: An enjoyable episode, although I feel like the Borg are suffering from overexposure. I have no other complaints though. This is a well-executed episode with good visual effects, the welcomed return of the Borg Queen, and some nice development for 7 of 9. The flashbacks to her youth were particularly interesting.
7/10

The Disease: A powerful and moving episode about love, and just about dealing with emotions in general. If you've ever felt a deep and passionate love for someone this episode is sure to resonate with you.
8/10

[You_Will_Fail]

teacake wrote:

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Yep we've had a few. But we need more than a few. Would also be nice if we have earth ones to have names from our future.

I agree, there are way too few non-Earth related ship names in Trek, I find it kind of annoying.

Dark Frontier - One of my absolute favorite Star Trek episodes. I personally don't like the concept of the Borg Queen but I think the episode was handled really well despite all the illogicalities (yeah its not a word) that can creep in when the Borg are involved. I particularly like how they don't do the whole "We can just wander around a borg ship willy nilly if they don't see us as a threat" bullcrap that they did with First Contact- they actually plan to disable the sensor grid initially before deciding to use the Hansen's camouflage technology. All the borg stuff was great - especially the assimilation of that alien colony, and I loved loved loved the insights into Seven's family and her life before they were assimilated. The scene where Seven remembers the attack and then her father steps out of the shadows, holy crap, that was some great stuff right there. A solid 10/10 for me.

The Disease is meh for me, the whole "consult with the ship's medical officer before engaging in inter-species mating rule" is so very clearly just pulled out of the writer's ass to set up this whole contrived conflict between Harry Kim and a really obnoxious Janeway. The scene with Harry and Janeway at the end in sickbay always creeps me out, its like Harry suddenly becomes resigned to being Janeway's bitch and she's broken him. I also cringed at Wang's "angry" acting although it wasn't as bad as Siddig's.

[AdmiralScreed]

I actually watched Dark Frontier on my laptop at school. Maybe I should have watched it at home with surround sound and a big screen for the full impact? Still an enjoyable episode, though.
And about The Disease, there was clearly a good reason to consult the medical officer before engaging in sexual activities. There's no way of knowing what will be passed between two species. Didn't bother me.

[You_Will_Fail]

The only problem is it doesn't seem to gel with anything we've seen before in Trek.

[AdmiralScreed]

You_Will_Fail wrote:

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The only problem is it doesn't seem to gel with anything we've seen before in Trek.

Maybe the rest of Trek got it wrong.

[You_Will_Fail]

It just seems like a silly rule to have in this enlightened future.

[AdmiralScreed]

You_Will_Fail wrote:

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It just seems like a silly rule to have in this enlightened future.

Seems like a pretty enlightened rule to me. As Janeway and the Doctor pointed out, species can transmit viruses/diseases between one another if they don't know who or what they're dealing with. Even though I sympathize with Kim, Janeway made the right call on this one.

[teacake]

It's only silly because we've never seen it before or since. It makes perfect sense.

[AdmiralScreed]

teacake wrote:

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It's only silly because we've never seen it before or since. It makes perfect sense.