As a matter of policy, how do you expect anyone to know that (outside of those who happened to read your post here)? I had never heard of this person before yesterday, so how would I or anyone know we are violating a rule?
Spoilers Star Trek: Lower Decks 4x04 - "Something Borrowed, Something Green"
- Thread starter Commander Richard
- Start date
Because I'm telling you. I didn't expect any of you to know Probert was a poster here. Discussing other posters’ personal lives is frowned upon. Post not poster and all that.
That said, it's generally discouraged to bring up politics at all in the “upstairs” Star Trek-themed subfora. Anyone who's been here a while knows this. But it's not a hard and fast rule, which is why we would almost never hand out warnings, unless someone is doing it repeatedly and after being given a friendly warning.
To be honest, I'm a little confused why someone that's been here for two decades isn't aware that moderators have some necessary discretion in how rules and guidelines are applied and communicated to posters and that not every last thing is codified somewhere in the board rules.
Apologies. I was genuinely curious, not trying to challenge you. I'm sure as a mod that is commonly what someone asking about policy is doing, but I have no issue.
As someone who, as you point out, has been here for two decades (on and off) I haven't ever spent much time thinking about the rules or mods. No double-post, don't get personal, etc., has been easy enough to follow. I inferred from your post that Probert's identity as a board user was somehow easily assessed. You have corrected my misperception. I wouldn't say that means I have some kind of special ignorance of moderators' discretion. But maybe I do? If so, I can live with that.
First, this episode gets a solid 8 for me. We get to see more of Orion culture, and why Tendi left to join Starfleet.
Secondly, depicting Orion culture is very tricky. Personally, I have always saw the aliens from any of STAR TREK shows as a fragment of the human condition, but taken to extremes for the sake of crafting a story. Klingons went from Cold War adversaries to Space Vikings; Romulans represents Authoritarianism while the Ferengi represents capitalism taken to its logical conclusion. The Orions? Hedonism taken to extreme, and not just on matters of sex. I seriously doubt that it is the intention of the producers, including the ones behind the ENT episode "Bound" wanted to inject misogyny into the story, but rather, wanted to give a twist on the Orion "animal women" trope from "The Cage", which really was misogynistic. Regardless, LD does a balancing act of making Orion culture both interesting AND silly at the same time, via Tendi's interaction with her old haunts. This taught a valuable lesson: where we come from doesn't dictate our choices in life. IRL, white, black, brown and other...we all have to deal with racial and cultural stereotypes, some warranted, mostly not. However, our respective cultures does not make us, well, us. And, above all, our respective cultures should be respected, not dissected for "further" study, which is another wall that separates us. Just appreciate the differences on their own merits. But, I digress.
Anyway, good episode. Kudos!
Secondly, depicting Orion culture is very tricky. Personally, I have always saw the aliens from any of STAR TREK shows as a fragment of the human condition, but taken to extremes for the sake of crafting a story. Klingons went from Cold War adversaries to Space Vikings; Romulans represents Authoritarianism while the Ferengi represents capitalism taken to its logical conclusion. The Orions? Hedonism taken to extreme, and not just on matters of sex. I seriously doubt that it is the intention of the producers, including the ones behind the ENT episode "Bound" wanted to inject misogyny into the story, but rather, wanted to give a twist on the Orion "animal women" trope from "The Cage", which really was misogynistic. Regardless, LD does a balancing act of making Orion culture both interesting AND silly at the same time, via Tendi's interaction with her old haunts. This taught a valuable lesson: where we come from doesn't dictate our choices in life. IRL, white, black, brown and other...we all have to deal with racial and cultural stereotypes, some warranted, mostly not. However, our respective cultures does not make us, well, us. And, above all, our respective cultures should be respected, not dissected for "further" study, which is another wall that separates us. Just appreciate the differences on their own merits. But, I digress.
Anyway, good episode. Kudos!
No need to apologize. All is good. Sorry if I was being a bit snarky. Blame it on a shitty day at the office. Being curious and asking questions if something is unclear is always a good thing.
To me the ship looks like a whale while in the horizontal position. It's energy dampening power is also similar to the whale probe which was added to the opening battle. I feel there must be a connection
Well, starting in season 4, the whale probe is now in the space combat section of the opening theme segment, complete with its sound effect indicating it's overpowering everything in its vicinity. So, there might be a connection. 
Yes! I like this! Whales are scooping up humanoid life forms for their menagerie. Those silly things are blundering about in the dangerous vacuum of space in their fragile ships (which can be left behind as scrap, they aren’t going to need those things again!), it’s a great kindness to corral them! Maybe they can be taught tricks! Or help whale scientists understand the universe better! What higher purpose could there be? 
I can see that, but I think the message of the episode being that everything we saw shouldn't be taken seriously - having T'Lyn throw away her "research notes" on what she saw - makes me think the writers knew that they were playing up the tropes/cliches too. It was just awkward to me, compared to the representation of a certain other well-known species in episode 5 of this season.
Sure, presumably they let her go to Starfleet. But they also apparently basically bred and trained her from birth to be a "stereotypical" Orion.
(Or course, I still don't get how the Orion syndicate exists in a post-scarcity society. lol
At least in the 31st century, it's because Dilithium is exceptionally rare I suppose)
I mean the answer has always been there that no society other than the Federation is post-scarcity. It's like the United States in that the fact that it is the richest one in the galaxy.
Star Trek cultures don't really make sense because they're all mono cultures as depicted on screen with few exceptions. How do the Klingons, Romulans, Orions, etc. develop any technology if they're all busy finding different ways to kill each other. So are humans I suppose, but apparently we decided that a nuclear holocaust might be enough to get us to stop for a bit.
It'd have been nice if they played against trope, rather than have an episode that confirms Federation prejudices, but I suppose that's also not that funny.
I mean, it does kinda make sense? Unless you have a long-form series which spends a ton of time with a given culture (like say DS9 did) you have one of two options when it comes to sci-fi cultural worldbuilding.
1. You do the "planet of hats" thing, and have each alien race depicted as largely monocultural - a stand in/allegory for particular Earth nationalities.
2. You ignore culture altogether, and just have the alien races essentially be goofy costumes put on actors who could just as easily be anything else.
I'm really expecting the ship to open up along the hull lines at some point. Like a transformation effect, revealing its true nature/origin.
IMHO it's the best of the season so far, in a season teasing a shiny new big bad as well as a ton more in-jokes and exploring new takes on ideas that feel independently new as a result.
T'Lyn continues by leaps and bounds to be my new favorite character. From her initial line in the first episode about hydrogen seeming out of nowhere year also somehow works in a comedic vein, she's quickly getting more to do and just at the right times.)
The marinated Mariner shoulder routine didn't get old, amazingly.
Tendi's subplot was terrific.
The Rutherford/Boimer bickering led to a lovely tie-in with the other plot (Freeman and Coqqor vs the nebula scan) and a great twist to its conclusion.
9.867530/10
T'Lyn continues by leaps and bounds to be my new favorite character. From her initial line in the first episode about hydrogen seeming out of nowhere year also somehow works in a comedic vein, she's quickly getting more to do and just at the right times.)
The marinated Mariner shoulder routine didn't get old, amazingly.
Tendi's subplot was terrific.
The Rutherford/Boimer bickering led to a lovely tie-in with the other plot (Freeman and Coqqor vs the nebula scan) and a great twist to its conclusion.
9.867530/10
I see what did there with that rating.
Fun episode.
Fun -- and relevant -- commentary track. Lots of discussion about the degree to which LD has, with this episode, expanded the canon about Orion culture. By at least an order of magnitude.
Fun -- and relevant -- commentary track. Lots of discussion about the degree to which LD has, with this episode, expanded the canon about Orion culture. By at least an order of magnitude.
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