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

[Tuskin38]

Jörg Hillebrand (@gaghyogi49.bsky.social)

#StarfleetAcademy's "The Life of the Stars" features some graphics about Andorian/Aenar theatre and Bajoran drama. Most intriguing, I find "Nausicaan Murder Mysteries": "Focus on physical and combative elements versus dialogue driven plots." 🧵 1/2

bsky.app

Jörg Hillebrand (@gaghyogi49.bsky.social)

"Miminal dialogue und highly improvised, to the point where it is unlikely to see the same performance twice". Nicely goes with this line in #StarTrekTNG's "Tapestry": "Coward, like all Starfleet you talk and you talk, but you have no guramba." 😉

bsky.app

the new stuff is just streaming slop

No

 

[Mr Awe]

When I discovered that nothing I watched, read, played or cared about counted as 'high art' I realised that high art was entirely irrelevant to me. Give me the mid tier art any day.

"High art," whatever that is, is overated.

Further, each person will draw the line in a different place. In my book, if a piece moves you, makes you think or reflect, that's high enough art for me.

 

[Mr Awe]

Well, what do you expect from people of low standards?

I'm not sure what you're getting at? Just saying that I've seen evidence that suggests otherwise.

 

[Mr Awe]

Drinking half a bottle of Jack and watching Bob Ross does have a tingly feel.

If you had said "marijuana" and Bob Ross, well there's your definition of high art!

 

[fireproof78]

I'm not sure what you're getting at? Just saying that I've seen evidence that suggests otherwise.

I'm sure you can figure it out

 

[Mr Awe]

The thing is, SFA is pretty clearly a move back towards thematic storytelling - perhaps engaging with theme more strongly even than SNW. I might not have particularly liked this episode, but I cannot deny the ambition to tell a thematically woven story within a largely self-contained episode here.

Agreed. This episode wasn't good but at least it tried doing something. I didn't care for the writer's crutch approach the episode used to develop the theme, but I give them credit for trying.

 

[Commander Troi]

That was an interesting 34 pages to get through!

I gave this ep my first 10 of the series/season. I found it beautiful and the ending had me in tears.

Tarima's breakdown was perfect, and I loved that Caleb didn't take advantage of her in that state. It was wonderful to see Tilly again, and her interactions with Reno and Ake were great.

I was actually a little worried they were going to kill SAM. I'm not familiar with the VOY ep(s) they referred to, but Picardo was excellent.

I had heard of Our Town but never seen or read it. However, I didn't find that made the episode hard to understand in any way. It was all about how it affected the cadets, and I loved seeing them get more engaged as the ep went on. Each of them got some nice moments.

 

[OopsAllTribbles]

Even if Star Trek wasn't 'high art' (which is already subjective on its own), it's a cultural touchstone?? It made a massive impact on entertainment media and inspired a lot of modern sci-fi tropes.

 

[TRON JA307020]

That was an interesting 34 pages to get through!

I gave this ep my first 10 of the series/season. I found it beautiful and the ending had me in tears.

Tarima's breakdown was perfect, and I loved that Caleb didn't take advantage of her in that state. It was wonderful to see Tilly again, and her interactions with Reno and Ake were great.

I was actually a little worried they were going to kill SAM. I'm not familiar with the VOY ep(s) they referred to, but Picardo was excellent.

I had heard of Our Town but never seen or read it. However, I didn't find that made the episode hard to understand in any way. It was all about how it affected the cadets, and I loved seeing them get more engaged as the ep went on. Each of them got some nice moments.

I read the play and our teacher showed us the
1940 movie as a follow up when I was 12. The movie is on tubi. It follows the written play very closely.

 

[Farscape One]

It's her opinion and preferences. There are people who actually like "Code of Honor. Again, their opinion.

Yeah, I get that it's her opinion. Just like my opinion is what I stated. Not trying to say otherwise.

 

[Greg Cox]

FYI: Just as a personal reality check, I asked my girlfriend if she had heard of "Our Town."

Her response? "Of course! Who hasn't heard of 'Our Town'?"

Mind you, we're both senior citizens.

 

[Nerys Myk]

FYI: Just as a personal reality check, I asked my girlfriend if she had heard of "Our Town."

Her response? "Of course! Who hasn't heard of 'Our Town'?"

Mind you, we're both senior citizens.

I believe the proper term is "oldsters"

 

[Greg Cox]

Or "old people from olden times," apparently.

 

[Farscape One]

Or "old people from olden times," apparently.

Elder Grups?

 

[SpockOfNine]

This was such a good episode. It brought a tear to my eye.

 

[Tallguy]

1) I have not posted on any of the SFA episode threads. (If I have, sorry, I forgot.) I had to post on this one.
2) I was a gibbering wreck for the last, what? Third of this episode? Half?
3) Maybe the Doctor story was fan service. I don't know this episode of Voyager. I just know Picardo knocked it out of the park. I know there are times where if you don't get the reference the episode doesn't land. (I might argue the Jake Sisko episode is like that.) But this was not like that.
4) Maybe it's because my kids just watched Duet, but this was Duet class good.

We'll see how it ages. This might be top 10 Star Trek for me. I've enjoyed tuning in every week. Star Trek is an obsession. This is a show. There's a difference.

But I think I'll come back to this one.

I'm sure it's been revealed or at least speculated... Wasn't this show set up as The Tilly Spin Off? Why is she only in this episode? Will she be in more? (I mean, Michelle Forbes was supposed to head up Deep Space Nine but didn't want to.)

My daughter has never seen Disco and she LOVED Tilly.

"You are sailing dangerously close to the wind" is now one of my favorite Star Trek lines EVER.

Seriously, when this episode was over the whole family could barely talk. We were very English / Irish and cleaned up the dishes without talking. Maybe just me.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

3) Maybe the Doctor story was fan service. I don't know this episode of Voyager. I just know Picardo knocked it out of the park. I know there are times where if you don't get the reference the episode doesn't land. (I might argue the Jake Sisko episode is like that.) But this was not like that.

It's possible that it actually works better if you haven't seen the Voyager episode it's referring to.

I know that Real Life is quite well regarded, but after that reveal I just couldn't take his plot seriously any more. It's like if Picard season 2 revealed that Picard's trauma was due to guilt because Dixon Hill's friend from The Big Goodbye never got to see his wife and kids again after he turned the program off.

 

[fireproof78]

Empathy is tough apparently.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

It's possible that it actually works better if you haven't seen the Voyager episode it's referring to.

I know that Real Life is quite well regarded, but after that reveal I just couldn't take his plot seriously any more. It's like if Picard season 2 revealed that Picard's trauma was due to guilt because Dixon Hill's friend from The Big Goodbye never got to see his wife and kids again after he turned the program off.

It's heavily implied in 'Real Life's that the doctor views his holo family as real as flesh and blood. At the end of the episode the Doctor is deeply affected by his daughters death and it's his first true experience with grief. It was not the SFA writers who failed here, but the writers of Voyager by never bringing it up again and exploring it.

The Doctor is a hologram and he should be deeply affected by the deaths of his kind. The notion that the Doctor's flesh and blood connections should matter more is terribly anthropocentric and ignorant take.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

The notion that the Doctor's flesh and blood connections should matter more is terribly anthropocentric and ignorant take.

Star Trek has made it clear that there's a difference between regular holograms and beings like SAM, Moriarty and the Doctor, and the Doctor took a long time to prove he'd crossed that line. Belle had as much consciousness as Chat GPT does.

I can get behind the idea that the Doctor's experience with his fictional family moved him as much as Picard's vision in The Inner Light, or O'Brien's implanted prison sentence in Hard Time, but it wasn't real and Starfleet Academy could've built the Doctor's reluctance to form connections on a much better foundation.