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What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

If Airiam was introduced in an episode of SNW and killed off there, everyone would be like, "That one episode where we see her story is all we need!" "It's SNW, it's awesome, bite-sized tasty morsels!" "Best thing since sliced bread!" "800 episodes and this was the BEST EVAR!!!!!"
Even TOS did that too. So, yes, while I think there are legitimate complaints, i.e. not connecting, the one episode problem isn't one I find very persuasive.
 
With "Project Daedalus" it also shows Burnham facing that she can't save everyone. I feel like she should've realized this long before that point, but it was nice to see her having to face that anyway. And they do address this flaw later on in the series, when Vance and Rillak question whether or not Burnham has what it takes to hunt down Book, and assigned Nhan to make sure she does. I think if Starfleet was in better shape, they wouldn't have promoted Burnham to Captain so quickly. They promoted her because they needed her, not necessarily because she was the Perfect Model Captain. I think it emphasizes the less-than-ideal situation Starfleet is in. It's reinforced when Rillak says she doesn't think Burnham's ready to take command of the Voyager-J.

EDITED TO ADD: I think Burnham was moved up the ranks too quickly because Captain Georgiou saw things in her she wanted to see. And, with Burnham having been raised on Vulcan, it probably didn't even occur to Georgiou how Burnham would have to wrestle with certain situations: what happened in the pilot of the series is an obvious one, but what happened with Airiam is another.
 
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Not as familiar with VOY. Did she ever have to live among Klingons?
She lived her parents: Human Father, Klingon Mother. She preferred her Human half. Her father leaves them, and then she's raised only by her Klingon mother. Torres' mother seemed very Klingon in flashbacks and hallucinations we saw. Except B'Elanna Torres hated her Klingon half, even though she had a Klingon temper. So she wants to seem Human, including wearing a headband to cover her forehead, but everyone sees her as a Klingon.

Whereas with Spock, he was raised Vulcan and everyone saw him as Vulcan. The Human half was always there, but it was always bubbling underneath and only peaking out sometimes.

With Torres, the two halves are always at war, same as Spock, but -- unlike with Spock -- it's always on the surface for everyone to see.
 
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I think this is exactly what happened. The actor would've rather that her face be seen, if there's no compelling reason to cover it up and be stuck in that makeup chair for so long whenever she was on set.
My understanding is that she was allergic to the prosthetic makeup, the appliances are probably latex based, so probably not terribly surprising.
 
13. The phrase "Closer to TOS!" needs to be retired, because it doesn't actually mean anything, even though it sounds like it does.
  • TNG was "closer to TOS!" by going back to the exploration the movies had abandoned.
  • DS9 was "closer to TOS!" by re-introducing serious character conflict between the main characters and by being out on the frontier.
  • VOY was "closer to TOS!" with Voyager being all alone with no backup.
  • ENT was "closer to TOS!" by taking place when everything was largely unexplored. And by duplicating the Kirk/Spock/McCoy trio.
  • DSC was "closer to TOS!" by taking place closer to TOS than anything else up to that point and bringing back TOS characters.
  • PIC was "closer to TOS!" by having the TNG characters be less stoic and having the TNG Era not look sterile.
  • SNW is "closer to TOS!" by showing Pike's crew, going back to episodic stories, not being dark, and loving primary colors.
Notice a pattern? Every series is supposedly "closer to TOS!" But how many of them actually are? Or is it really that there are different parts of TOS in each of the later series? And whatever part someone identifies as the most like TOS will determine which of those later shows is "closer to TOS!"

13. It has meaning. TNG was closer to TOS in some ways but much further away in most others. For example.
"Closer" doesn't mean a lot - it's too vague. And yes, there are parts of TOS in each later series. What we can do is use TOS as a point for comparison and discussion. For example, TNG did have the exploration aspect. However, people often compare Data to Spock, whereas I would say Data is the opposite of Spock because Data longs to be human. And so on.
 
I guess I must be bland because I enjoy Saru thoroughly and identify strongly with him. The most recent clip for Season 5 reaffirmed this.
Being bland is not always a bad thing. I see Saru as a "straight-arrow" character that's reassuring in his transparency. He's a good person with no hidden motives or dark hidden depths.
For me, Pic season 3 was more laughably contrived and out of character than anything I've ever seen in Trek's history, in addition to having zero ambition, zero character development, a totally non-sensical plot and generally boring villains and guest stars.

I mean the set-up alone...
Not only does Beverly's fear of Jack growing up as Picard's son make very little sense ( 9 times out of ten, her life on the Enterprise was dangerous because space is dangerous and Starfleet is a target as well as a volunteer service for shouldering dangerous responsiblities, not because Jean-Luc was on the ship), it still shouldn't require her to cut off all contact with literally every friend she ever had. And her 'solution' is to raise Jack alone in space in a tiny ship while still actively involving him in dangerous encounters with smugglers and criminals, because that sounds totally safe. And when she finally calls for help and explicitly says 'No Starfleet!' the supposed tactical geniuses Picard and RIker immediately agree she probably has a good reason to say that but also instantly decide to bring an entire Starfleet ship anyway because they can't think of any other way to travel through space.
Such 'organic' and totally not contrived storytelling that.
Here's a question: How is any of what you mention fundamentally different than the character motivations in the first 2 seasons of Picard? Whether it be Picard's actions since we last saw him, or Seven of Nine going off to the Romulan border, or Rios, who himself suffered a bad spot in his life where he decided to abandon a life with Starfleet and jump in his own ship being a privateer, having hit a place where they decided that being within the sphere of the Federation and Starfleet was no longer for them? At least for a while.

Beyond that...
The last we had seen Beverly before Picard season 3 was Nemesis, where Picard was the target of a Romulan plot that ended with Troi mind raped and Data dead. So there was some reason to believe being in Picard's life might be somewhat dangerous.
I felt it when Airiam died.
I thought that was one of the best episodes of season 2. In that little bit of time we spent with Airiam, I thought they conveyed the tragedy of Airiam's life.

One of my biggest issues with Discovery is that they haven't used the time and opportunity they've had to develop the cast of characters they had. Similar to how TNG built up the characters around Picard to the point Mile O'Brien had some depth, or DS9 had Garak, Rom, and Nog become characters like Detmer and Owo and Airiam could have been fleshed out. But, instead, its largely been the Michael Burnham hour instead.
 
Being bland is not always a bad thing. I see Saru as a "straight-arrow" character that's reassuring in his transparency. He's a good person with no hidden motives or dark hidden depths.
I've yet to hear "bland" describing a character as a positive thing. So, you'll forgive my confusion at this assertion that this is somehow a good thing.

"I like Saru. He's just so bland." :wtf::shrug:
 
I've yet to hear "bland" describing a character as a positive thing. So, you'll forgive my confusion at this assertion that this is somehow a good thing.

"I like Saru. He's just so bland." :wtf::shrug:
As defined by Merriam-Webster:

bland, adjective
1a: smooth and soothing in manner or quality
1b: exhibiting no personal concern or embarrassment : UNPERTURBED

Data is "bland" in some ways. Doesn't make him a bad character.
 
I would never call Saru "bland" but it is possible to find something colorless and bland but still love it. Plain rice cakes. I've loved them since childhood. And they have almost no substance.

So no, Saru definitely doesn't fall into the "bland" categorization.
 
Here's a question: How is any of what you mention fundamentally different than the character motivations in the first 2 seasons of Picard? Whether it be Picard's actions since we last saw him, or Seven of Nine going off to the Romulan border, or Rios, who himself suffered a bad spot in his life where he decided to abandon a life with Starfleet and jump in his own ship being a privateer, having hit a place where they decided that being within the sphere of the Federation and Starfleet was no longer for them? At least for a while.

Beyond that...
The last we had seen Beverly before Picard season 3 was Nemesis, where Picard was the target of a Romulan plot that ended with Troi mind raped and Datadead. So there was some reason to believe being in Picard's life might be somewhat dangerous.

How is it in any way the same?

I honestly don't even know what your description of Rios even has to do with this entire conversation at all. Picard and Seven being disappointed by Starfleet and taking different, sadder lives may not have been what everyone wanted to see but there was nothing inexplicable about it. Picard just didn't know what to do with himself without Starfleet and Seven just found a different way to make a difference.

Neither one of them cut off all contact with everyone they ever knew out of baseless paranoia. Nor did they build their entire new lives around doing the exact thing they were supposedly afraid of. And those stories didn't trip all over themselves with blatant contradictions like 'No Starfleet!' followed by 'Ok, we'll just bring the entire USS Titan.'

As for Nemesis: if you count up every single story in which Picard was personally the target, rather than Starfleet, the Federation, the Enterprise, etc, that's still 1-5% at most of the danger faced by the Enterprise and its crew. And even in the vast majority of that 1-5%, including Nemesis, Picard himself was only a target *because* of his position in Starfleet. Shinzon would never have existed if the Romulans hadn't thought Picard was a good means to an end for attacking the Federation as a whole. Just like Daimon Bok would never have wanted vengeance if his son hadn't attacked the Stargazer unprovoked in the first place. Just like Picard would never have met Q if he wasn't fulfilling his Starfleet duties to explore and expand the Federation's sphere of knowledge. Just like the entire concept of Locutus' existence only mattered as a means of helping achieve the end of assimilating the entire Federation. If Jean-Luc Picard had died in infancy, all those stories would just transfer to some other person because they were all ultimately aimed at the Federation, not just Picard.
 
Airiam was a piece of bridge furniture

No more than the rest of the middle decks cast in the first two seasons. No need to single her out.

She probably would have done a bit more in S3 (helping her fellow middle deckers in the Osyraaa arc) and S4 (where the middle deckers were allowed to contribute more) if she stayed on the show.

In addition, she was one of the few characters that indicates how Starfleet deals with debilitating injuries pre-TOS. There needs to be more like her in SNW. I’m sure they could write an Airiam-like character a lot more interestingly.

Nobody was contacted. Nothing was planned. It was a thought and then gone when ENT went.

RTD is a very clever person who has a lot of 'thoughts' that go nowhere.

In no way does that equate to a crossover being planned. Don't allow yourself to be misinformed.

Yet you say right there...

I'd have loved to have done a Star Trek crossover. The very first year, we talked about it. Then Star Trek finally went off air.

I don't see the misinformation.
 
No more than the rest of the middle decks cast in the first two seasons. No need to single her out.

She probably would have done a bit more in S3 (helping her fellow middle deckers in the Osyraaa arc) and S4 (where the middle deckers were allowed to contribute more) if she stayed on the show.

In addition, she was one of the few characters that indicates how Starfleet deals with debilitating injuries pre-TOS. There needs to be more like her in SNW. I’m sure they could write an Airiam-like character a lot more interestingly.



Yet you say right there...



I don't see the misinformation.

Nobody on the Star Trek team was contacted.

It was never “planned”. Planned implies a plan was made. It wasn't.

Anyway, have a nice day. I am loving the new avatar.
 
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Nobody on the Star Trek team was contacted.

It was never “planned”. Planned implies a plan was made. It wasn't.

I’m not sure how you think people plan things before coming up with a solid, concrete plan. But in the real world, it usually involves discussion.

They were planning a crossover, even if it was rather informal.

I know you have zero respect for me, but stop with the lies already.

I am loving the new avatar.

You should. It means I get to go away from TrekBBS and I'm not longer active here.
 
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