Spoilers Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1x08 – “The Life of the Stars”

[Manticore]

It's a shame that there couldn't be two separate polls for people who have and who haven't seen/studied Our Town, as I'm curious about whether that has an impact on the score.

For what it's worth I'd never heard of Our Town and I didn't enjoy the episode.

(Edit: fixed the title as I thought it was called Old Town.)

I've never seen Our Town and was utterly confused by that plotline. I think that I generally got the gist, but that plot left me cold. One caveat: this was literally the first episode in all of Star Trek where I liked Tilly.

I was mostly watching for the Doctor, Nahla, and SAM, though, and that was stellar.

 

[Ceridwen]

I am aware of Our Town by reputation but haven't read it or seen it performed.

The episode really worked for me. The Doctor and SAM's story is essentially a distillation of the play, recognizing the importance of all these little moments in a life.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I've never seen Our Town and was utterly confused by that plotline. I think that I generally got the gist, but that plot left me cold. One caveat: this was literally the first episode in all of Star Trek where I liked Tilly.

I was mostly watching for the Doctor, Nahla, and SAM, though, and that was stellar.

I've never seen it either. But as the episode unfolded I understood what the play was about and how it related to the plot.

 

[Mr Awe]

I'm unsure how that violates "show don't tell."

I've explained how it violates that several times in this thread. I won't do it again.

Of course, you're always free to disagree. No big deal.

 

[Manticore]

I've explained how it violates that several times in this thread. I won't do it again.

Of course, you're always free to disagree. No big deal.

It told us what the play was, sure, but it used that exposition to show how the characters were reacting to their recent traumas.

 

[Mudd]

It's an extension of "show, don't tell."

It's really not. Familiarity with Our Town is, for Americans, basic cultural literacy - and Trek is in its essence an American product aimed at American audiences.

 

[OopsAllTribbles]

It's a shame that there couldn't be two separate polls for people who have and who haven't seen/studied Our Town, as I'm curious about whether that has an impact on the score.

For what it's worth I'd never heard of Our Town and I didn't enjoy the episode.

(Edit: fixed the title as I thought it was called Old Town.)

I apologize for speaking out of turn, but I think the whole episode was technically the play? Definitely not a 1:1, but I think it was paralleling the plot? Ofc this might be obvious, so ignore me if I'm being needlessly pedantic...

 

[fireproof78]

I've never seen it either. But as the episode unfolded I understood what the play was about and how it related to the plot.

Yup.

Despite multiple art and theatre classes I have not seen this play nor read it.

 

[OopsAllTribbles]

I just started reading the synopsis of the play on Wikipedia, and honestly, based on what I've read so far... it feels like it served the episode really wall. The play is, according to what it says here, "in the actual theatre where it is being performed. The main character is the stage manager of the theatre who directly addresses the audience, brings in guest lecturers, fields questions from the audience, and fills in playing some of the roles. The play is performed without a set on a mostly bare stage. With a few exceptions, the actors mime actions without the use of props."

So yeah, I think it is a really useful vehicle for the episode's plot!

 

[Nerys Myk]

I've explained how it violates that several times in this thread. I won't do it again.

Of course, you're always free to disagree. No big deal.

I do, because the things you mentioned do not support your premise

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I apologize for speaking out of turn, but I think the whole episode was technically the play? Definitely not a 1:1, but I think it was paralleling the plot? Ofc this might be obvious, so ignore me if I'm being needlessly pedantic...

I haven't done any research on the play, so all information is new to me and nothing is obvious!

 

[Guy Gardener]

I haven't done any research on the play, so all information is new to me and nothing is obvious!

I think it's fairly obvious that your avatar is a Terminator from the James Cameron Universe.

Every three years the Doctor, because he is a ghoul, has to consume a near sentient hologram to keep his program stable. This method probably would have worked for SAM? In which case the "play" they should have been studying would have been Interview with a Vampire.

That also means that the Doctor killed 6 alien holograms while trapped in that time fold.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I think it's fairly obvious that your avatar is a Terminator from the James Cameron Universe.

It's from the 2005 Lionhead film studio simulator The Movies.

Also the Doctor only had to consume another hologram once to acquire immortality. SAM kind of did the same trick, only she merged with herself.

 

[Guy Gardener]

It's from the 2005 Lionhead film studio simulator The Movies.

Also the Doctor only had to consume another hologram once to acquire immortality. SAM kind of did the same trick, only she merged with herself.

If he stopped growing as a person.

Near the beginning I ran out of room on my lap top hard drive, so I bought an external ssd.

15 years later I have 30 external ssds.

 

[The Wormhole]

Makes you wonder how they enforced that ban. You would think after the burn there would have been plenty of violators of that rule.

The idea is that it doesn't have to be enforced because the Temporal Wars were so horrible everyone has become so scared of time travel to even contemplate using it again.

 

[Tuskin38]

Interview: ‘Starfleet Academy’ EPs Talk “Sam 2.0” And Honoring The Doctor’s ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ History

We spoke to Noga Landau and Gaia Violo about episode 8 and what it means for the show in season 2.

trekmovie.com

 

[Michael]

Interview: ‘Starfleet Academy’ EPs Talk “Sam 2.0” And Honoring The Doctor’s ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ History

We spoke to Noga Landau and Gaia Violo about episode 8 and what it means for the show in season 2.

trekmovie.com

Sounds like the plan is definitely to have SAM be noticeably different after having grown up for 17 years with the Doctor as her father. Will be interesting to see what that will mean, although they make it sound like it will be more of a thing in season two. And I like how they planned this storyline right from the start. So cool to see how it all fell into place for this episode.

The stuff they say about Kasq is also interesting and makes me wonder if they plan to visit it once more in season two.

 

[Greg Cox]

I apologize for speaking out of turn, but I think the whole episode was technically the play? Definitely not a 1:1, but I think it was paralleling the plot? Ofc this might be obvious, so ignore me if I'm being needlessly pedantic...

I think that saying that the whole episode is just the play is wildly overstating it. The play and its themes are a part of the story, but it's not just a sixty-minute adapation of the play, in Star Trek drag. We get some scenes of the characters reading excerpts from the play and discussing it, but it's not just the play verbatim.

I mean, I'm pretty sure I don't recall Emily getting drunk and trying to seduce George in the play, let alone any space voyages, telepathy, time-distortion fields, or encounters with ancient photonic aliens.

 

[The Wormhole]

I'm pretty sure I don't recall Emily getting drunk and trying to seduce George in the play, let alone any space voyages, telepathy, time-distortion fields, or encounters with ancient photonic aliens.

I agree, that play has plenty of room for improvement.

 

[Manticore]

I agree, that play has plenty of room for improvement.

I'll be honest, from what I've read online and saw in the show, the play sounds remarkably tedious to me.

I'm glad that I didn't study it in High School.