Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 3x04 - "No Win Scenario"

[jackoverfull]

Not impossible. Just stupid.

just like my real world examples above.

 

[Tuskin38]

Trust me, I know plenty about the history of words. But it’s not just the words, but how they are used, alongside which, and in which situation, that define their usage and how it all fits.

Well none of the usage in Picard has been particularly odd or out of place.

 

[jaime]

We all know the f-bombs and such are there because the show isn't on network TV. I swear too much myself to be bothered about it in TV shows but there's a line. If the f-bombs etc are forced or the use is just stupid and juvenile ("Oooh, we can say fuck now! Let's fucking do it!"), that's dumb and pointless. If it's natural and unforced, fine.

Having said that there are people who say "fuck" every third word in every sentence. (I find that rather stupid, but each to their own.) There are others who don't find it necessary (for lack of a better word) to swear at all. Describing people who aren't comfortable with it as "pearl clutchers" and the like is unnecessary. It's not a matter of being prudish or outdated or anything; it's just a personal preference. And after 50-plus years of nothing "worse" (again for lack of a better word) than "bastard", it takes some getting used to.

It’s code-switching (see the expanse for that being done properly) in fiction as in real life, and that’s why in Treks relative-utopia it often doesn’t work. In real life, when I am in one place my accent, slang, and how often I swear is *completely* different to when I am in another place, or with another group. I am code-switching by class and age, for the most part. People even do it because of the racial mix of people around them at times. (Again, see the expanse.)
Trek doesn’t really have those distinctions often, for good reason — because of its setting. It’s post scarcity utopia. (I find it hilarious how London has kept its accent into the 24th century, with the version in use already being almost lost now — though older, and posher types adopting it, may be keeping it around)
Certainly, a professional person, in a professional setting — in this case a starship and Starfleet, as it has long been established — would talk and behave to a certain standard. Trek itself still adheres to that concept.
The dipshit stuff, in context, would probably be fine — if dipshit wasn’t such a Hollywood word, and horribly dated. In the context of Trek and its use ‘I’m a grease monkey, an ass from chicago’ ‘Even though you are an ass from chicago’ would work better, as the quasi Shakespearean use of language is long established in Trek.
It would sound less like Beverly Hills Cop for a start.

 

[jaime]

The guy who says "merde"? That Picard?

Yes, that no-longer-pretending-to-be-French Picard xD

 

[thribs]

The language on this thread is atrocious. I should report it to the moderators.

 

[jaime]

The language on this thread is atrocious. I should report it to the moderators.

I carefully used asterisks. Queynte I know. I mean quaint. Slip of the tongue…

 

[Gilora]

About the bucket: we know that Changelings don't need a bucket to regenerate, but I think that the Titan Changeling figured out that the best was to do it was in a bucket instead of oozing about the quarters - in case someone broke into Transporter Guy's quarters like Seven did. And, of course, the Changeling got the idea from Odo.

Seven just got lucky that the changeling wasn't "at home."

 

[TRON JA307020]

About the bucket: we know that Changelings don't need a bucket to regenerate, but I think that the Titan Changeling figured out that the best was to do it was in a bucket instead of oozing about the quarters - in case someone broke into Transporter Guy's quarters like Seven did. And, of course, the Changeling got the idea from Odo.

Seven just got lucky that he changeling wasn't "at home."

Yeah. He probably studied how odo lived in ds9 and then constructed his own bucket.

 

[jaime]

Changelings are from earth anyway. Just sentient Marmite.

 

[Tuskin38]

If you put the bucket designs side by side they're not identical, but it was still clearly inspired by Odo's.

 

[TRON JA307020]

What I love about Mad Men is that it showed what was really going underneath the image of Midcentury Americana. I think a lot of people want to go back to that, but an image was all it ever was. Something to make people feel better after the Depression and World War II to get back to some "normalcy". And our entire Culture War today is based on what things really are versus getting back to that unsustainable image that looks down upon or marginalizes anyone who doesn't fit it.

They sure did dress better back in those days. Now it's all giant shorts, t shirts and gross flip-flops. Lol

 

[Farscape One]

I want a Quentin Tarantino Star Trek movie... but I have to use a qualifier here. I would never take it seriously. I'd be treating it like an over-the-top joke and take it in that spirit.

I'd also do what whoever put this together did and use out-of-context clips stitched together from TOS to make something totally insane.

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OH! MY! GODS! That was AWESOME!!!!

I had never seen that before. Thank you so much for sharing that!

 

[Campe]

Trust me, I know plenty about the history of words. But it’s not just the words, but how they are used, alongside which, and in which situation, that define their usage and how it all fits.

I see no issues with what has been said in the series. It felt perfectly normal.

 

[Tuskin38]

The Star Trek novels have used the occasion curse word for decades.

 

[TRON JA307020]

If you put the bucket designs side by side they're not identical, but it was still clearly inspired by Odo's.

Well the Titan challenging probably wanted a personal style for his bucket as well as for personal comfort.

 

[Yistaan]

Well the Titan challenging probably wanted a personal style for his bucket as well as for personal comfort.

Nah, the bucket was an alibi for an alibi.

Shaw: Caught you, you changeling scum!

Changeling: Yes, I am a changeling, but I'm not a villain honest. I'm, uh, your friendly neighborhood Odo on a visit to Starfleet. See my bucket? Only Odo uses that. Er, is Kira here?

 

[jaime]

I see no issues with what has been said in the series. It felt perfectly normal.

Like I said, the dipshit stuff in particular would be fine if the word wasn’t already dated. Dude was high on pain meds first time, Picard was making a point the second time. ‘Dumb bastard grease monkey from Chicago’ fine ‘asshole, grease monkey, from Chicago’ also fine. In context. Still a bit iffy given the established ‘double dumb ass on you’ world-building, but it works. I guess.
The other stuff? Not so much. This is a Starfleet vessel, not a dive bar on T’Matalas IV. Apparently they speak more politely there…

O’Brien alone would sound very different if Trek adopted a more varied approach to its colourful metaphors but it’s always so Californian, and usually quite clumsy with it. It has to be careful, given its audience as well as its setting.
Funnily enough I remember dropping a Trek book (DS9 Fallen Heroes) because Molly was complaining the deck was burning her fanny. Which reads very differently in the Uk, trust me. Slang and colloquial speech has rules in Trek, albeit rules set in a different time, and some stuff doesn’t travel well, either across the world or through the ages.
I can guarantee these episodes will date harder than most of TNG itself as a result, because it’s language is already dated.

 

[fireproof78]

It all feels dated.

 

[Mr Awe]

Not impossible. Just stupid.

Right, that's exactly it. Plus, we know the subcomponents use compatible energy.

 

[TRON JA307020]

It all feels dated.

What does? Odos bucket?