Welcome Fellow Trekkies! The GTD Get to Know You thread

[DevilEyes]

Tora Ziyal wrote:

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Nerys, I don't think your theory is half crazy. I always thought Dukat had potential.

It's far from crazy. I also think he had some good qualities and potential to be a good person - which makes it all the worse and sadder that he actually was what he was... "What is it that makes a man a man? Is it his origins, the way things start? The way he comes to life? I don't think so. It's the choices he makes. Not how he starts things, but how he decides to end them. "

And apparently even Ron Moore agrees:

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Dukat
"I don't think of him as being completely evil through and through to the point where every thought, every impulse is shaded by a nefarious agenda or horrid motive. We've seen other aspects to this guy over the years. He can be charming. He can be generous. He can do the right thing. All of that somehow makes his "evil" actions all the more despicable, because we know that there was the potential in there for him to be a better person. But sometimes the clichés are true: Hitler loved his dog. No human being (and by extension, no Cardassian) is one hundred percent pure evil. But there is a "critical mass", if you will, where the dark deeds attributed to one person become so overwhelming that they swamp all the redeeming characteristics. Dukat is a bad guy. A very bad guy. He has a lot of blood on his hands and it's hard to see how his smile and innate charm can wipe that clean." (AOL chat, 1998)

[issreliant]

Greetings, my names mark, i have been a fan of Trek and sci-fi in general for allmost all my life. i just recently found trekbbs and have to say i feel right at home. along with trek and sci-fi, i love fantasy movies and books, and am a huge comic book nut. Im so glad that there is a place to geek out and not be ashamed of it, always open to chat about trek or any the other subjects i mention, MAY TREKBBS LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!!!!!!

[Sector 7]

Welcome aboard, Mark! We are glad to have you with us. Have fun!

[Penta]

I know, I know, there are getting to know you threads, but what I have to say applies across so many different boards one thread feels confining.

Hi, I'm Penta.

I've posted intermittently on TrekBBS for a while now, but never felt motivated to really introduce myself til now.

I get a lot of questions re my approach to Trek, so I'll explain where I come from.

Before DS9, I was only mildly a Trek fan. It was on TV, I was young enough that I'd watch it...But TNG (I was born in the early 80s and TOS didn't often appear) felt preachy even to 9-10 year-old me. It was too perfect; I could spot holes in fridge logic too easily.

DS9 got me hooked on Trek, it's fair to say. More than DS9, though, was roleplaying.

MUSHes and MOOs, old telnet-based forms of RP, have been my main hobby for well over a decade now. Naturally, in the early 90s, a lot of RP was Trek.

I happily admit that my thoughts on Trek may be heretical, absolutely heretical, to many.

For example, I don't see religion among humans as dead. Decreased in adherence, yes. Even your most devout crewmember aboard a 24th century ship is going to be less devout, by our terms, than the same person might be today. But I do not see the traditional human religions as dead. Hence, I still believe Starfleet could have chaplains, possibly posted to starbases (with lay leaders handling day to day stuff, like aboard USN subs today). Why?

Because to me, it makes the world feel more textured. It enables new perspectives. Fundamentally, to me, it makes for better writing and better roleplay to imagine that.

I believe Starfleet probably does use fighters and bombers and carriers (and am a fan of the concept of the Akira-class as a carrier) - not often, but they have a strategic role. May be absolutely heretical to think of Starfleet being so militaristic, but to me? I may never be backed up by canon, but it opens new possibilities.

Even I waffle about ground forces. But I'm willing to submit they might exist.

Why do I focus on realism, then? What place does realism have in Trek?

I am, at heart, a deep skeptic of the "evolved humanity" idea of TNG. In my personal canon, humans have not evolved.

They're still, at heart, the same humans we know and...deal with...in our time. They're examples of a possible future. But nothing's really changed in our psychology or sociology.

Which is why I get grumpy when people tell me "But you aren't being futuristic enough!" or similar.

Maybe not. To me, the tech makes Trek sci-fi. All the claims of an enlightened philosophy are fundamentally bullshit, and more often an excuse for decidedly wishful thinking.

States will always act according to the interest. People have morality...But not organizations.

I don't mind my Trek being dark at all.

I was happy when Sisko did what he did in "In the pale moonlight", and Section 31 made me cheer.

Because to me, it represented something special. Trek was losing its naivete.

So...I dunno where to go with this.

Therefore, I'm ending it.

[Admiral Shran]

I don't see religion among humans as dead. Decreased in adherence, yes. Even your most devout crewmember aboard a 24th century ship is going to be less devout, by our terms, than the same person might be today. But I do not see the traditional human religions as dead. Hence, I still believe Starfleet could have chaplains, possibly posted to starbases (with lay leaders handling day to day stuff, like aboard USN subs today).

I agree completely. Just because we haven't seen it, doesn't mean it's completely gone. I mean, Chakotay is obviously a spiritual, I'd even say religious, man. And we know, thanks to Enterprise, that Human religions are still around at least by the mid-22nd century.

May be absolutely heretical to think of Starfleet being so militaristic

I don't see why. Starfleet has always been shown to be the armed forces of the Federation. I can accept that military action isn't the primary job of Starfleet, but they are, in the end, the military.

Even I waffle about ground forces. But I'm willing to submit they might exist.

I agree that they exist. The Siege of AR-558 shows that, IMO.

I am, at heart, a deep skeptic of the "evolved humanity" idea of TNG. In my personal canon, humans have not evolved.

They're still, at heart, the same humans we know and...deal with...in our time. They're examples of a possible future. But nothing's really changed in our psychology or sociology.

Again I agree. I believe Humans are only "evolved" because they live in a land of plenty. I think a quote from Quark, from The Siege of AR-558, shows it best....

"Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people – as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts... deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers... put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time... and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people will become as nasty and violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don't believe me? Look at those faces, look at their eyes..."

States will always act according to the interest. People have morality...But not organizations.

Exactly. Which is why I believe the Federation should have an agency like Section 31. I loved the introduction of 31.

I was happy when Sisko did what he did in "In the pale moonlight", and Section 31 made me cheer.

Because to me, it represented something special. Trek was losing its naivete.

To me In The Pale Moonlight, along with DS9: Inquistion and VOY: The Omega Directive, showed that Trek was finally leaving behind the dewey-eyed optimism of TOS and TNG, which I think was a major improvment.

[Misfit Toy]

Merging this into the existing thread...

[Teiwaz]

Hi I'm Teiwaz
I only discovered this site last night while looking for info on LCARS (while watching DS9 on DVD) - I've been playing around with thoughts about the interface for a while, playing around with HTML, Java and perl (I'm sure there are some here who are interested in the same concepts as myself RE: an LCARs interface for various OS's - I'll get around to that shortly). I got distracted and went off on several tangents though, and only logged off to go to work at 7:20 or so. I took the afternoon off as I (obviously didn't get any sleep last night) and here I am again - at least until this obsession wears off - if it does.
I usually run Linux, but I have a warp core overload (or somesuch) on my primary pc and I'm using my secondary backup windows machine (the one I keep for games).
MY interests include all Sci-fi, a fair bit of Fantasy. Mostly in tv series format, but also movies and books. Also Anime and manga and games (mostly RPGs and usually on console more than PC).
My 'bible' - my all time favourite book is Frank Herberts 'God Emperor of Dune' and my all time (so far) series is Babylon 5.

[muldwych who]

My name is Alex and I am a 32 year old father of 2 from Aberdeen, Scotland, I work in IT applications and have always been a massive Sci Fi fan.

I Mainly started to watch Sci Fi as a young boy in the 80’s with Dr Who and Star Wars but also love lots of others most recently Heroes and Star Trek.

I have recently made it my task/mission/journey to watch all of Star Trek in Chronological order as it is a programme I always wanted to watch but got a bit confused and never really knew where to start. I decided to just start at the beginning so joined this very forum to ask some nooby questions.

I have started to also write a blog on my Star Trek mission which if wanted can be found here or on my signature.

I am looking forward to contributing more to the forum as my knowledge of Trek expands.

[Sector 7]

Welcome Teiwaz and altogi to TrekBBS! There are lots of friendly people here to chat or even help.

altogi, I envy your journey. I watched them in order the hard way- as they premiered... LOL. The opinions on HOW to watch them are many and varied. Personally, I think chronological order is the best. You will be able to see how each series and movie progresses through the franchise. Many of the complaints people have about Trek will make more sense after viewing chronologically. Like: series X was an improvement/disaster from series Y, etc.

[trekchick]

Hi! My name is Joyce, but you can call me TrekChick. I have been into ST and other scifi all my life. I am looking to make some Trekkie friends, especially anyone also in Columbus, Ohio. Glad to be here!

[Aquarius]

Welcome to all the newcomers!

[Elzie]

Hi, I'm Elzie and I basically just got here. First off, I'm not English, so sorry for any mistakes I may do.

My first contact with Star Trek was when I was very, very young, like...4 or a little bit older. My dad showed me and my sis TOS, and I loved it! I guess I saw TOS movies 2-4 along the way, but don't remember much of it.

About a year ago we once again watched TOS all the way through, and I fell in love with it once again. And then the new movie came out, and even when didn't get the Spock/Uhura relationship, I liked the movie. We watched all the TOS movies from 1-6 and I was getting back to Trek big time.

Then (not long ago) my dad started re-watching TNG episodes. All I had seen earlier were these little glimpses, and didn't really care about it either. But since I like to hang out in our living room, I kind of...forgot all about TOS and became as big TNG fan as I could be! I'm still working on it, though. But I hope I can be forgiven; they don't really do re-runs of series like Star Trek in the country I live in, and I wasn't even born when TNG first started...(or ended).

I know only 1 other ST-fan my age, and now were trying to get my other friend intrested by showing her First Contact. (We figured it could be the best one since she likes horror movies...)

So, I'm far from being an expert on Trek but hopefully I one day will.

By the way, I've been thinking about joining this site for at least one whole week and now that I finally did I'm happy!
And thanks for the simple registering thing, I was afraid that I couldn't join because of some complicated, language-barrior related difficulty. Besides, the site seems very polite and nice.

[Misfit Toy]

Welcome, Elzie! We're glad you're here!

What country are you from? We have many international members.

[The Trekster]

Hey guys, just thought I'd make a semi-formal intro. I'm Sammi, into mainly TNG and VOY. You know the type.

Anyway as a gesture of good will, I brought a peace offering. Just something I photo-shopped up tonight based an idea/joke I thought of (thought of it because I was actually mispronouncing the movies name for a long time, until I realized what the plot was. lol)



Hope it made you laugh. I know they are supposed to have the ridge, but I guess I'm not good enough at photoshop, I couldn't make it look right....

PS: anyone know how you're supposed to get an avatar around here? is there a minimum of posts you need or something?

[greenguy]

I voted "let's get this party started" because I've actually partied with this user in real life, and she's one of my absolute favorite people in the entire world.