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Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 3x09 - "Võx"

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Actually it is legible. On the HD CDs you can clearly see the scale. Better if you have a zoom feature on your DVD player. So it's canon. Really nice drawings.
May be canon, but it might no longer be in continuity,
Some the things on the screens are pretty crazy when you get to TNG. :lol:
 
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The mission of the NX-01 Enterprise did not lead to the birth of Starfleet.

Starfleet already existed for 20 years when the NX-01 Enterprise launched.
The NX-01 Enterprise was a Starfleet ship.

The mission of the NX-01 Enterprise lead to the birth of the Federation.

The Star Trek Picard season 3 writers continue the proud tradition of NuTrek writers not knowing the difference between "Starfleet" and the "Federation".

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"Federation Headquarters" LOL.
This is so bad nitpicking I thought it had tobe a joke for a moment. Okay. Sit down... time for a lesson.

Sooo, what year was the US Military, which Starfleet is most directly based on, founded? Well turns out the US Army says they were founded June 14th 1775. It's even on their flag. They proudly say they were founded before the US But is that ACTUALLY true? No it's not.

The Continental Army was founded June 14th 1775. The Continental Army was disbanded (after some debate about having a standing, regular national army) in 1783 after the US won the Revolution. What followed was a series of standing armies that came and went. The first was the Legion of the United States in 1792-1796, which was renamed the United States Army. This was followed by the Provisional Army of the United States from 1798-1800 that operated along side the US Army until it was disbanded.The US Army started to take a more instiutiionalized shape after the end of the War of 1812, which saw the US unable to defend itself within its own territory from the British.

Organization of this institutionalized US Army was an uneven thing for much of the 19th century. It leaned very heavily on State forces before and after the Civil War, consistent with the very federalized nature of the country at the time. The standing Federal force was uniformly very very small and only had combat potency because of those State forces.

This started to change in the 20th century. Technological and political changes in the 1900s and 1910s in advance of World War I lead to a reorganization of the US military that was happening simultaneously to that process occuring in European countries. The Federal United States Army really grew as a consequence of conscription in World War I in 1917 (the National Army) and after the war was glided into a smaller, but larger-than-ever federal standing force, that became the framework around which the enormous "Army of the United States" formed for World War II. It is that Army, when demobilized, that formed the basis of the post-World War II "United States Army" that has a direct lineage to the present.

So when was the US Army founded?
->1775? (Continental Army)?
-> 1796? (Legion of the United States, aka United States Army)
-> 1814? (Reorganization into a truly national force)?
-> 1917? (Birth of the National Army, that created an organized national army as we think of it in modern terms)
-> 1947? (Reorganization of the US Defense establishment into a sustainable post-War national standing model)

The answer is all the above, because the Army is an idea and an instrument of the state, and not a person. It could never have one birthday, because the current idea of what an Army is, is barely 100 years old. It certainly isn't nearly 250 years old.

Now let's consider Federation Starfleet and what we know of the creative intent behind Star Trek: Enterprise. We know that Earth Starfleet is not Federation Starfleet. But we do know that the creative intent behind Earth Starfleet was that it would become the backbone around which Federation Starfleet would form as the Tellarites, Andorian Imperial Guard and Vulcan fleet were integrated into it. Earth, as Enterprise made clear, was the only one trusted by all three. So in a sense, this is even a simpler path than Continental Army-> US Army. And that is what you are seeing in this episde. Just as the US Army claims its creation on the date of its factual direct prdecessor that it has no direct linkage to, so to now, does Federation Starfleet. It is a distinct entity from Earth Starfleet, but Earth Starfleet is the heritage it claims. So what you see, what Shelby did, wasn't a mistake or "NuTrek" forsaking established precedent. It was ENTIRELY in line with creative intent of Enterprise in 2005.

And let's just recall, to further the point, that the Coalition of Planets, created in Season 4 of Enterprise and as the Government that, in the Enterprise retcon, partially (but not entirely) fought the Earth-Romulan War, was designed by Enterprise producers to be analogous to the Articles of Confederation-era US, or League of Nations era international community before the United Nations formed. Or perhaps more relevantly, the United Colonies that predated the United States in 1775. It was designed to be a looser, prototype political relationship, that was a stepstone on the road of to the United Federation of Planets. In a very smart and accurate real world sense, the species of local space would have to discovery how inadequate the Coalition of Planets and relying on 6 or so different fleets was, via the Earth-Romulan War, before in the wake of their victory, consolidating politically and militarily into a stronger, far tighter alliance. Does that sound familiar? Because that is what the first 25 years of America's founding was, more or less. Enterprise Producers were telling that story, but for the Federation.

So really the mistake is yours here, in thinking that you are the authority on canonicity on what Federation Starfleet is and is not from a historical perspective in terms of heritage claimed (not in terms of literal specific institutional founding). That was never established firmly in canon, because Enterprise was the last series that clearly dealt with the issues of Federation founding and political relationships in that period. But now it has been. Star Trek Picard, via Shelby, just created new canon for you: Federation Starfleet claims the heritage of Earth Starfleet as its direct predecessor, and like the United States Army, claims its founding predated the founding of its government.

We should be happy this is the case, because this is an interesting worldbuilding detail.
 
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I think Shelby's line is fine, because clearly a United Earth Starfleet with a single ship capable of warp 5 and almost no interstellar presence is a totally different thing from the large, well-developed fleet and starbase infrastructure of the Federation Starfleet. "What would become Starfleet" is an acceptably simplified way of expressing that for a general audience who are not ST trivia nerds like us.
 
We should be happy this is the case, because this is an interesting worldbuilding detail.
I agree.

When I was 18, I was considering joining the Army when I was thinking about things I wanted to do with my life. I didn't join (let's not get into that), and my parents were really against the idea anyway (to put it mildly), but I remember the Recruiter telling me, as a point of pride, that the US Army was founded before the United States itself.
 
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The dialogue they used left enough room for interpretation.

"That led to the birth of what we know today as Starfleet"

Refers to the Federation branch of Starfleet, not the pre-charter one.
 
I’m a huge PS fan and never even heard of Blunt Talk
It's a good show that aired on a bad network (Starz) as the streaming era was just gathering pace (2015). Terrible timing. It's one of those shows where the show wasn't the problem (Stewart was great). It was where and when it was.

Stewart left stage for the first time in years to return to TV in that show. I think once it failed, it convinced him (along with his emergency heart surgery) that one last return of Star Trek was in order. As I said, he had complicated feelings about Star Trek and Picard. He was always respectful and appreciative, but it wasn't all roses for him. It wasn't always an easy time, no matter how proud he was of the work. And it did have an impact on his career outside of Star Trek. Remember, it's different for an actor than an audience.

I think from his interviews, we can conclude that after Blunt Talk, he more or less accepted the central role Star Trek and the Picard character was always going to be in his career. Blunt Talk wouldn't exist along side it, and Professor X would be overshadowed by it. I understand why that's hard. That's accepting that your career doesn't have another peak ahead of it. The person who dealt with this somewhat poorly, on the flipside, was Avery Brooks, who was also always respectful and proud of his work, but has been very much in "DS9 and Sisko were just a good gig in the 1990s" mindset since at least 2002.
 
The Borg cube actually looked scary in the nebula. Also it looks like it as transmitting equipment or something on the top of it.
Nebula scene should have been in the Badlands, it seemed like that was where that was.
I am not sure I buy this partnership between the Borg and Changlings.
Still don't know who the talking head is, but it seems to be the Borg queen if I was guessing.

Nebula scene:

It's not a nebula: https://twitter.com/TerryMatalas/status/1646890376933052418
maybe badlands then?

talking head is the BQ: https://twitter.com/TerryMatalas/status/1646891357167054850

and in a recent interview, Matalas said we'll see the front of the borg queen, but she's messed up or crippled in some way after janeway's neurolytic pathogen.

other thoughts - the borg "activation signal" generator device looked really cool / scary, in contrast to the derelict messy borg cube.

not sure why this episode was called võx (o with the tilde). what a weird spelling that makes no sense. it should be 'vōx' (with the flat macron above the o)... which is actually pronounced 'wokes' in latin, although obviously no one pronounces it that way anymore.
 
Nebula scene:

It's not a nebula: https://twitter.com/TerryMatalas/status/1646890376933052418
maybe badlands then?

talking head is the BQ: https://twitter.com/TerryMatalas/status/1646891357167054850

and in a recent interview, Matalas said we'll see the front of the borg queen, but she's messed up or crippled in some way after janeway's neurolytic pathogen.

other thoughts - the borg "activation signal" generator device looked really cool / scary, in contrast to the derelict messy borg cube.

not sure why this episode was called võx (o with the tilde). what a weird spelling that makes no sense. it should be 'vōx' (with the flat macron above the o)... which is actually pronounced 'wokes' in latin, although obviously no one pronounces it that way anymore.
I doubt it’s the badlands since that’s pretty distant from Earth and they were just an hour away from Sol.
 
The person who dealt with this somewhat poorly, on the flipside, was Avery Brooks, who was also always respectful and proud of his work, but has been very much in "DS9 and Sisko were just a good gig in the 1990s" mindset since at least 2002.
Brooks has done a perfectly fine job of it, and by all accounts he's doing what he wants to do now. He doesn't owe anyone anything.
 
I think Shelby's line is fine, because clearly a United Earth Starfleet with a single ship capable of warp 5 and almost no interstellar presence is a totally different thing from the large, well-developed fleet and starbase infrastructure of the Federation Starfleet. "What would become Starfleet" is an acceptably simplified way of expressing that for a general audience who are not ST trivia nerds like us.
Here's something to wrap your head around.

Consider, the United States Space Force. It exists! It's a thing! Now let's say 200 years hence, it's analogous to Starfleet in some way. Okay, so now when was it founded?

  • December 20th 2019, when it was created as service branch (under the US Air Force) by law?
  • September 1st 1982, when US Air Force Space Command was founded. It was one of many commands but USAFSC formed the core - over 80% - of the independent service founded on December 20th 2019.
  • September 18th 1987, when the US Air Force was founded. No space travel in 1947, but an independent Air Force (as distinct from the one that was under the US Army) lead directly to the creation of a space command, then a space force.
  • August 1st 1907, when the Aeronautical Division of the US Signal Corps of the US Army was founded. This became the US Army Air Service in 1918, then Army Air Corps in 1926, then Army Air Forces in 1941, before becoming the independent USAF in 1947.
Basically even this simple case of "the real birthday" of Space Force that has, by law, existed for less than 4 years just shows how ridiculous the quibble about Starfleet's founding is. Heck if it's anything like the real world, Federation historians probably don't have complete agreement on this topic because "heritage" is an amorphous thing. Technically speaking, given the training of Continental Army Commanders, you can make an argument that major aspects of the US Continental Army splintered off form the colonial forces that fought as British Soldiers during the French and Indian War in the 1760s. That vets of that war, George Washington being one, decided to build an army and gain their own country, a decade later.

History is weird.
 
Brooks has done a perfectly fine job of it, and by all accounts he's doing what he wants to do now. He doesn't owe anyone anything.
Correct, I don't believe he does either.
But what I am saying though is that fan and actor relationship with a character and a show are necessarily different and Trek fans sometimes forget that. And also not all actors feel the same. For Trek lifers like Tim Russ, others have seen it as "just a good gig". And that's fine. Nothing wrong with that.

With regards to Patrick Stewart though, he was working his way through that all through the 2000s and 2010s, up right until Season 3 of Picard evidently.

And even now, he still won't throw on the uniform for more than 90 seconds. He doesn't owe us that. But it does explain why some things are the way they are.
 
Nebula scene:

It's not a nebula: https://twitter.com/TerryMatalas/status/1646890376933052418
maybe badlands then?

talking head is the BQ: https://twitter.com/TerryMatalas/status/1646891357167054850

and in a recent interview, Matalas said we'll see the front of the borg queen, but she's messed up or crippled in some way after janeway's neurolytic pathogen.

other thoughts - the borg "activation signal" generator device looked really cool / scary, in contrast to the derelict messy borg cube.

not sure why this episode was called võx (o with the tilde). what a weird spelling that makes no sense. it should be 'vōx' (with the flat macron above the o)... which is actually pronounced 'wokes' in latin, although obviously no one pronounces it that way anymore.
Repeating myself here, but I think it's a riff on the Azure Nebula from Star Trek Destiny and it's a Transwarp conduit to the Delta Quadrant. There are 1000 cubes waiting to come through soon as the signal is given.

I also think that similar to how Catatoms in Destiny freed the Borg, Jack as a transmitter will go rogue vs the Borg Queen and "free the Borg" (in a different way), unmaking them in a sense.

It's fitting in a way. Star Trek Destiny was written as the unproduced "mega-crossover movie we never got" and served that purpose well. Picard Season 3 is that too, more or less, but canon and on film. So it lifting some of Destiny's plot points in the most general sense, which it has already, would be pretty cool.
 
This is so bad nitpicking I thought it had tobe a joke for a moment. Okay. Sit down... time for a lesson.

Sooo, what year was the US Military, which Starfleet is most directly based on, founded? Well turns out the US Army says they were founded June 14th 1775. It's even on their flag. They proudly say they were founded before the US But is that ACTUALLY true? No it's not.

The Continental Army was founded June 14th 1775. The Continental Army was disbanded (after some debate about having a standing, regular national army) in 1783 after the US won the Revolution. What followed was a series of standing armies that came and went. The first was the Legion of the United States in 1792-1796, which was renamed the United States Army. This was followed by the Provisional Army of the United States from 1798-1800 that operated along side the US Army until it was disbanded.The US Army started to take a more instiutiionalized shape after the end of the War of 1812, which saw the US unable to defend itself within its own territory from the British.

Organization of this institutionalized US Army was an uneven thing for much of the 19th century. It leaned very heavily on State forces before and after the Civil War, consistent with the very federalized nature of the country at the time. The standing Federal force was uniformly very very small and only had combat potency because of those State forces.

This started to change in the 20th century. Technological and political changes in the 1900s and 1910s in advance of World War I lead to a reorganization of the US military that was happening simultaneously to that process occuring in European countries. The Federal United States Army really grew as a consequence of conscription in World War I in 1917 (the National Army) and after the war was glided into a smaller, but larger-than-ever federal standing force, that became the framework around which the enormous "Army of the United States" formed for World War II. It is that Army, when demobilized, that formed the basis of the post-World War II "United States Army" that has a direct lineage to the present.

So when was the US Army founded?
->1775? (Continental Army)?
-> 1796? (Legion of the United States, aka United States Army)
-> 1814? (Reorganization into a truly national force)?
-> 1917? (Birth of the National Army, that created an organized national army as we think of it in modern terms)
-> 1947? (Reorganization of the US Defense establishment into a sustainable post-War national standing model)

The answer is all the above, because the Army is an idea and an instrument of the state, and not a person. It could never have one birthday, because the current idea of what an Army is, is barely 100 years old. It certainly isn't nearly 250 years old.

Now let's consider Federation Starfleet and what we know of the creative intent behind Star Trek: Enterprise. We know that Earth Starfleet is not Federation Starfleet. But we do know that the creative intent behind Earth Starfleet was that it would become the backbone around which Federation Starfleet would form as the Tellarites, Andorian Imperial Guard and Vulcan fleet were integrated into it. Earth, as Enterprise made clear, was the only one trusted by all three. So in a sense, this is even a simpler path than Continental Army-> US Army. And that is what you are seeing in this episde. Just as the US Army claims its creation on the date of its factual direct prdecessor that it has no direct linkage to, so to now, does Federation Starfleet. It is a distinct entity from Earth Starfleet, but Earth Starfleet is the heritage it claims. So what you see, what Shelby did, wasn't a mistake or "NuTrek" forsaking established precedent. It was ENTIRELY in line with creative intent of Enterprise in 2005.

And let's just recall, to further the point, that the Coalition of Planets, created in Season 4 of Enterprise and as the Government that, in the Enterprise retcon, partially (but not entirely) fought the Earth-Romulan War, was designed by Enterprise producers to be analogous to the Articles of Confederation-era US, or League of Nations era international community before the United Nations formed. Or perhaps more relevantly, the United Colonies that predated the United States in 1775. It was designed to be a looser, prototype political relationship, that was a stepstone on the road of to the United Federation of Planets. In a very smart and accurate real world sense, the species of local space would have to discovery how inadequate the Coalition of Planets and relying on 6 or so different fleets was, via the Earth-Romulan War, before in the wake of their victory, consolidating politically and militarily into a stronger, far tighter alliance. Does that sound familiar? Because that is what the first 25 years of America's founding was, more or less. Enterprise Producers were telling that story, but for the Federation.

So really the mistake is yours here, in thinking that you are the authority on canonicity on what Federation Starfleet is and is not from a historical perspective in terms of heritage claimed (not in terms of literal specific institutional founding). That was never established firmly in canon, because Enterprise was the last series that clearly dealt with the issues of Federation founding and political relationships in that period. But now it has been. Star Trek Picard, via Shelby, just created new canon for you: Federation Starfleet claims the heritage of Earth Starfleet as its direct predecessor, and like the United States Army, claims its founding predated the founding of its government.

We should be happy this is the case, because this is an interesting worldbuilding detail.
A lot of words to say the United States does not like academic consistency. On that we can agree.
 
A lot of words to say the United States does not like academic consistency. On that we can agree.
First it's called context. Secondly, the point is that "consistency" is really an eye-of-the-beholder kind of thing. History is rarely consistent.

But if your really want to cut down to it, I'm happy to. Federation Starfleet claiming the linage of Earth Starfleet wasn't a discussed topic before. Now it's a canon fact. The end. If that seems weird, there is a buttload of real world precedent and it's directly access the creative reason for Earth Starfleet and the Coalition of Planets in 2005 on Enterprise.
 
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