Spoilers How literal is LD in your headcanon?

Not just the Excelsior, the Enterprise also featured triple bunks (shown when luring Valeris to Sickbay)

 

Weirdly I never noticed the Starfleet jammies until right now.

 

I don’t dispute that LD is canon, just that its detailed continuity translates literally into live action (audiovisual changes only where live action can’t physically follow).

That’s just a way of asking about the show’s relationship to the live-action iterations of the franchise. I could have compared it to animated pre-visualization or even TAS, which maps fairly closely to live action.

I don’t see their ranks here, and besides, the main comparison should be with ensigns of the late TNG era in their respective starships. Remember, the Cerritos and Voyager are in the same scale ballpark, and yet Harry Kim doesn’t bunk in a corridor. Can we imagine an ensigns’ corridor on Voyager? And then there is also the smaller Defiant, with no more than two per cabin. Even on TOS, why does Ensign Garrovick get his own quarters?

Taking this seriously simply means seriously explaining ensigns’ accomodations in the late TNG era.

 

Different ships, different accommodations.

 

Harry Kim was a bridge officer (operations officer) and among the senior staff, it's likely he had officer privileges. It would also explain why Chief O'Brien also had proper quarters too.

 

Harry Kim was only a couple of months out of the Academy, so in what specific way(s) was he more amazing than a corridor full of Cerritos bunkmates? He was content to remain an ensign for seven years, even though he could have become a lieutenant commander or even a commander if he was that accomplished, without the promotions costing Janeway anything.

 

He was a department head. And, yes, he should been promoted. Especially given the circumstances.

And the Intrepid class was one of the newer ships of the line so the accommodations may have been outfitted differently. The California class is specifically referred to as being older, and designed with utilitarian processes in mind.

 

But ensigns can’t accept such stark differences in accomodations without also perceiving them as indicative of their status, so we are back to asking what accomplishments (at the Academy) made Harry Kim so different from ensigns bunking in that corridor.

 

They can't? They are there to serve in Starfleet and where the need is. California is one type, stations like DS9 another, and Intrepid class still another. Not a matter of status as much as a matter of need.

 

The problem is, even the live action fudges things and gets it wrong visually or in sound here and there. There have been production errors on every show, as well as compromises made in order to present things on television (and in film).

We are also in the position now of having two canonical and differing visualizations of Pike-era people, places, and things, including the Enterprise herself, both inside and inside. Just as before how suddenly Saavik looked like somebody else.

None of it translates literally; none of it could, because it's all made up by humans.

I'm so over the idea that it's as if we are looking at historical documents. That's so last millennium for me.

Ergo, the question of what the Pike-era bridge really looks like is completely irrelevant.

By extension, whether the show is live-action or animated is also irrelevant.

 

We know it’s not totally arbitrary whether one is assigned to the Enterprise-D or elsewhere. The ship was said to be a premium posting. Riker didn’t want to move. O’Brien went to DS9 so he could be the equivalent of chief engineer there.

That was brought up earlier in the discussion, but as noted, I never compared LD to the real world or even creative perfection by any standards. The reference is simply the rest of the canon franchise, which is either live-action drama or TAS. Since LD is also canon, how exactly does it slot into the shared continuity?

Yes, and those have to be reconciled in their own ways if there is an interest in maintaining the shared continuity. The specific question here isn’t so much about actors and production design as it is about the situations LD characters are placed in with reference to their counterparts in the late TNG era.

I’m asking about literal translation to adjacent live action. If you see an animated hand phaser on LD, you know what it would look like on TNG. If you see the Cerritos itself, you also have a pretty good idea of the likely live-action model design. The live action is always there as a framework because it’s so omnipresent in this franchise with a shared continuity.

It’s always been a shared continuity regardless of the level of realism in a particular iteration.

Nobody said that’s relevant, just the question of how it fits when a legitimate artistic choice is made to follow in the tradition of prime-time animated comedy.

 

And the California class is not premium posting. So, when one is assigned to such a ship then the accommodations will be such. So, it's either lesser positing due to inexperience (as in everyone does the night shift in their career) or it is simply that based upon ranking in the Academy and academic achievement. Or a combination of factors.

No, it's not totally arbitrary but the evolved sensibilities of humanity would certainly not make them go "Oh, this is a assignment."

 

No, they don't.

It was better when the answer to the question of different Klingon appearances was simply, "We do not discuss it with outsiders."

Explaining inconsistencies leads to navel gazing, which leads to diminishing interest and diminishing audiences.

One thing that LDS did repeatedly was to draw attention to inconsistencies, not to resolve them, but to embrace them. See, for example, the way that money was talked about.

 

If new Trek series continue, inevitably there will be some kind of reference.

Instead of dismissing it all as parody, it's easier to square inconsistencies either by my previously discussed 'Different historians' theory or by calling it 'Embellished'. All of it's real, except for the parts that don't make sense in a less humorous universe. Like leaving Peanut Hamper floating alone in space forever.

Maybe, Peanut Hamper was actually recovered and court martialed for abandoning her post, but this 'Historian' left her floating in space because it was funnier that way.

 

It's a comedy. Comedy can often involvement of hyperbole, or exaggeration for the sake of effect. I would recommend reading Patrick F. McManus and his outdoor humorist stories from his childhood. Most are exaggerated for the sake of comedy, but have an element or kernel of truth to them, or relatable component that the audience can enjoy, like shop class, or first time hunting, or miserable day fishing, etc.

@JirinPanthosa is on to something with different historians telling different stories in different ways. That's the beauty of storytelling. In Star Trek, it could all happen but not as literally as portrayed on screen.

 

I don't see LD as a parody.

A comedy, yes....very much so. But the term "parody" implies disrespect, and LD sure hasn't done that. On the contrary, I see LD as very much respectful of the Trek ethos. It does so in a funny way, of course, but there is always respect.

 

Parodies can be done with respect. Indeed, the best parodies are done by the person who knows and loves the original material. Again, I speak as a veteran parody writer, though not in this fandom.

 

The same ones that made Kelvin Timeline Kirk a captain before he graduated and

Spoiler

Tilly an XO after a brief time as Ensign and a probably incomplete Command Training Program under Pike

Rank has never made a great deal of sense in Star Trek. Maybe you get your rank by how many posts you make on the Starfleet Subspace Message Board and Harry was just one of those log-in-and-read-once-in-awhile-types while Kirk was actually @cooleddie74 and it has nothing to do with assignments. I am going with that.

 

I wish I had his swag.

And hair.

Either Kirk.

 

If I may be so bold, it was a mistake for you to briefly lose the afro. Commanding a starship as Carl Spock is your first, best destiny: anything else is a waste of afro.