Spoilers Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x08 - "The Elysian Kingdom"

Yeah, that's the rub with those kinds of scripts. They reach conclusions that might be logical on their face, but in the wider context could lead to different solutions. It's a bit forced, but I don't think in this case it hurts the episode.

 

as opposed to the many energy entities Starfleet has already encountered in the past.

I’m not opposed to the concept, I don’t like when the writer just decide that characters know something they shouldn’t. Like when they decided on discovery that the universal translator wouldn’t work with the 10c with no reason at all.

didn’t the q evolve to “godhood”?

much better.

this could still happen.

or piper.

 

This was funny and silly campy fun I love it

 

Behold the Magic of science!

 

Most of the episode was weird and non-sensical, kind of like TNG's Masks, and I liked them both. But it got serious at the end. I think it was a good resolution to the Rukiya plot line. Good to see Hemmer back.

 

Why not? I think it's entirely plausible that the Prophets might have inspired him by giving him visions of the events of Sisko's life, which he then wrote as novellas. And then the Prophets did the same in reverse -- inspiring Sisko to keep going by giving him a vision of Benny's life.

I like to think that Benny wrote The Elysian Kingdom some time in the 60s after he was released from a mental hospital (hopefully as a result of a judge finding that he was admitted improperly as a result of racism).

They didn't do anything. His pronunciation hasn't changed. You just got more familiar with his accent and developed a better ear for it -- same way anyone learns any foreign accent.

 

not really. I don’t think it’s really the pronunciation, but the vocal paste. Maybe they improved the mix, I was hardly the only one to complain about this. And interestingly, where this is most evident, and I can understand perfectly, is in the opening log, elsewhere he’s not as clear (but still way better than in previous episodes).

 

I see no reason to think the sound mix has changed -- for that matter, why would they have gotten the sound mix right for the later episodes and not fixed it for the first? I don't think anything has changed except you. You've gotten more exposure to his accent and you're better able to understand him now, that's all. Same thing happened to me -- I had trouble understanding Babs's dialogue at first, and now I'm fine with it because I got used to his accent. Go back and re-watch episode one; you'll probably find you understand him better this time around.

 

Perhaps they recognised the issue and tried to fix it.

i’ll try that for sure sooner or later.

By the way, something similar also happened with Grey: I find him hard to understand in season 3, no issue at all in season 4.

 

This episode was much less annoying than I feared it would be. My favorite bits, without question, were Pike being such a chickenshit, and...well, Hemmer being Hemmer.

What does his real voice sound like?

And on a completely unrelated matter: Where, on the ship, is the Queen's "throne room" supposed to be? At first I thought it was engineering but it clearly wasn't that.

 

been wondering the same.

By the way, I’m having issues understanding M’Benga again in the ninth episode. Go figure.

 

I hope we get to hear La'an sing again. She has a great voice. And is off-the-charts hot in that dress.

Edit: Is there any particular reason Memory Alpha doesn't give Rukiya a last name? Surely it's also M'Benga?

 

It turns out this was astonishingly accurate.

 

Why assume?

 

Why not?

Transporter buffer or no, Rukiya DID live on the Enterprise with her father. So I honestly don't think it's that much of a stretch to suggest that she might, just might, have the same last name as he.

Now with Debra, I can totally get that. Even IF she and M'Benga were ever actually married, she might not have taken his name . But Rukiya, I think we can be more sure about.

 

After working with many different families of a variety of backgrounds I will be comfortable not assuming anything.

 

And it's not like the practice of family names continuing through marriage has been completely abolished. Yvette Gessard took the name 'Picard' when she married Maurice. Beverly Howard did the same with both of her husbands (Jack Crusher in the regular timeline, Jean-Luc in AGT). Deanna Troi did the same - hyphenated, anyway - with Riker.

 

On the other hand, there's a strong chance that when my fiancee and I have children, they will take her surname and not mine. And not every culture passes the father's surname down instead of the mother's. So I think not assuming that Rukiya's surname is M'Benga in lieu of canonical evidence is reasonable.

 

Where I live a spouse CANNOT automatically take on the family name of the other upon marriage. To do so requires a very expensive legal name change costing many thousands of dollars. Been that way for the last 45 years.

 

Where?