Spoilers Star Trek: Discovery 2x02 - "New Eden"

[Longinus]

That was a pitched as an idea for DS9's TOS 30th Anniversary episode, the Iotians would have been imitating the Enterprise crew similar to how they were imitating gangsters in TOS.

That's such a cool idea!

 

[Lord Garth]

I tend to ignore the numerical rating polls for episodes because I don't think they're useful unless everyone is on the same page. Not only do you have to know what does a 5 mean but is a 10 obtainable or the flawless height of perfection. Is the scale in comparison to other episodes in the series or compared to television programs as a whole? Often times despite there being a 1-10 scale in reality everything is judged between say 6 and 9 or whatever.

I think it can be useful once you learn how a particular individual or organization scores and thus you can interpret the scores. Someone not used to video game reviews may see a 7 as an above average game whereas a veteran gamer might not even bother reading a review of such a poorly received game.

The problem is exasperated with reader polls is it's difficult to narrow down what logic is being applied to the judging criteria by the participants. I think it helps when a site has its own reviewer(s) who applies scores in a consistent way. Readers seem to pick up on those scores and scale their scores against that rating instead of just throwing out 9s and 10s and its more useful.

The veteran gamer sounds snobbish if they won't bother with anything that's only a 7. "I want only the best!"

I used to read Tim Lynch's Star Trek reviews in the '90s. He used a 10-scale, so I modeled my system after his.

I personally don't agree with people who make 10 an impossible pedestal. If it's beyond reach, what's the point in having it? I don't think anything made by a human will ever be perfect. I personally look at what I think will be a high-water mark for that particular season, and make that a 10. So my 10-scale is somewhat curved.

7 = I liked it.
8 = I really liked it.
9 = This is as good as it gets without having some sort of magical spark. It can be well-constructed but if it doesn't have that special something, it's not a 10.
10 = Something in there resonated with me. Something in there made me have a strong reaction. I got angry at a character because I cared that much ("Vaulting Ambition"), I liked it so much that I instantly wanted to rewatch it ("Despite Yourself"), or there were such masterfully crafted scenes that worked on so many levels that I appreciated even more afterwards with the hidden layers of subtext ("Lethe"), then there are the episodes that just feel like magic ("Calypso").

But, yeah, not everyone rates the same way. That's why I try to say as much as I can about what I think of the episode, so you can see where the rating is coming from.

"The Escape Artist" only gets a 6 from me because it felt like "it killed time" and it was kind of wonky. Nothing wrong with it, but it's like, it wasn't my thing. "The Brightest Star" was extremely solid. The cinematography was great. The writing was great. Everything was there. But it was missing the magical spark. Whatever the special something was, it was missing it, so I gave it a 9.

So, though I can't speak for everyone else, I have a method to my madness.

I've also retroactively gone back and rated all the episodes of TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY. I haven't posted them here because they're based off faded memory. But even with my faded memory, the averages for each season more or less confirmed what I thought overall. It was interesting to see how my opinion of everything looked when it was quantified on a 10-scale.

 

[CorporalClegg]

It's already been two centuries since they were deposited on Terralysium. I think they'd need incentive to develop the type of rocket/explosion technology necessary to get into space and then develop whatever power source they need just to get to the point of being able to warp space. And they same pretty fine with where they are. So I don't think they'd develop warp drive.

Maybe, maybe they might be visited or observed once Starfleet perfects slipstream drive and can easily travel between Quadrants. So it might be a thing at the time of the Picard Series. But I'm not holding my breath on ever seeing them again.

But that's the thing. The lightbulb (and that one Edison dude) are sort of the universal symbolic beginning of the technological revolution. It's also the universal symbol of being inspired or "I have an idea": The 'Eureka! moment,' as I said.

 

[Jackson_Roykirk]

It's already been two centuries since they were deposited on Terralysium. I think they'd need incentive to develop the type of rocket/explosion technology necessary to get into space and then develop whatever power source they need just to get to the point of being able to warp space. And they same pretty fine with where they are. So I don't think they'd develop warp drive.

Maybe, maybe they might be visited or observed once Starfleet perfects slipstream drive and can easily travel between Quadrants. So it might be a thing at the time of the Picard Series. But I'm not holding my breath on ever seeing them again.

They've also had a population issue. It probably took them the 200 years just to get to 11,000 colonists. Fewer people means smaller workforce to produce things, not to mention less of a chance of having enough of the great minds needed to progress technologically.

 

[cooleddie74]

On the other hand, two scientists working in a shattered postwar community organized around a surviving nuclear missile silo in the state of Montana cobbled together meager resources in the immediate aftermath of the most destructive war in Earth's history up to that point and built a warp ship out of an unused missile casing and little more than scrap metal and salvaged technology. True, there's no existing missile on Terralysium to provide future inventors and scientists with a launch platform but Trek has shown that even in the middle of a global disaster one or a few people can create something truly special and change history for the better.

Their fundamentalist religious mindset will no doubt be a stumbling block for generations to come but at some point somebody who read Jacob's personal writings or other records handed down to his descendants will wonder why they hadn't bothered to go out there looking for Earth and be inquisitive and industrious enough to build their society's first spacecraft.

 

[Tuskin38]

I know nothing about electrical wires, but would they have been in good condition after 200 years to actually work?

Lightbulbs would probably still work, I don't think there is anything in them that would degrade.. Maybe moisture damage?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I took away from their expressions that they did realize it as the dematerialization process had just begun. While it shouldn't be possible to do that while being broken down to one's subatomic components, Star Trek has played fast and loose with that for years. I assumed that they did see the villagers witness them leaving.

Yeah, and we know from "Realm of Fear(TNG)" that Reg Barclay could see while suspended inside a transporter beam and even see outside the beam into the surrounding transporter room. So Pike or Burnham seeing the reactions on their faces just as they begin transporting back up to the ship wouldn't be out of line for the way the technology has been portrayed over the years.

Saavik is having a whole conversation with Kirk mid-transport in TWoK. And not-Spock and Kirk's girlfriend in TMP were screaming and writhing in agony inside the transporter beam.

 

[cooleddie74]

Saavik is having a whole conversation with Kirk mid-transport in TWoK. And not-Spock and Kirk's girlfriend in TMP were screaming and writhing in agony inside the transporter beam.

And Gillian Taylor was in mid-scream when she began rematerializing inside the Klingon Bird-of-Prey in 1986.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Wait. The second person in the TMP was supposed to be Kirk's partner?

I never knew that.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Wait. The second person in the TMP was supposed to be Kirk's partner?

I never knew that.

I think that was in the novelization. Moviewise she's just some Admiral.

 

[cooleddie74]

Kirk came onto every woman in a Starfleet uniform at one point or another, didn't he? Who wasn't Kirk's girlfriend?

 

[DaveyNY]

Kirk came onto every woman in a Starfleet uniform at one point or another, didn't he? Who wasn't Kirk's girlfriend?

My mother.


Damit!

 

[Nerys Myk]

Kirk came onto every woman in a Starfleet uniform at one point or another, didn't he? Who wasn't Kirk's girlfriend?

Helen Noel.

 

[cooleddie74]

The script said No but my fevered fanboy dreams fueled by too much cough medicine say Yes.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The script said No but my fevered fanboy dreams fueled by too much cough medicine say Yes.

Is that what the kids are calling it?

 

[CorporalClegg]

I think that was in the novelization. Moviewise she's just some Admiral.

Ah. Thanks. I could never get into the novel, despite having tried several times.

The script said No but my fevered fanboy dreams fueled by too much cough medicine say Yes.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Ah. Thanks. I could never get into the novel, despite having tried several times.

Was it the Love Instructors?

 

[CorporalClegg]

Yes.

Or maybe just the prose.

 

[cooleddie74]

Is that what the kids are calling it?

Not since they banned me from ever again setting foot on that campus...

 

[Nerys Myk]

Not since they banned me from setting foot on that campus.

You'll need to be more specific.