Spoilers Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 1x03 – “Vitus Reflux”

[Nerys Myk]

I think that's enormously underrating the ability of viewers to engage with sci-fi. The prank itself involved a completely fantastical concept (transporters), which obviously doesn't make it less comprehensible/relatable to viewers; there's no reason that character dialogue and gestures can't be similarly rooted in the show's fictional universe, and it'd probably be funnier if they were.

The episode even already succeeded at it with the Vulcan bully - the "attention cadets, we have done this because it is fun, and will continue to do it" taunt was genuinely funny in blending Vulcan stoicism with the high school bully persona the script was going for. Jay'dens reaction, similarly, relied on Klingon honour culture, and was more amusing for it. There's a lot of fun you could have with the idea of a Romulan jock.

Klingons and Vulcans are know entities. A lot of casual viewers get the basics of both. An alien gesture that has never been seen before requires some heavier lifting,

 

[TRON JA307020]

Well, we know the Academy gyms in Prodigy were holodecks, so it wasn't really that nothing changed for 1200 years so much as that they went back to the 1200 year old design for reasons.

Yeah. They got nostalgic. 10 minutes in I stopped. This show is so childish and dumb. I dont think I can get through it. The campus that we saw in tng even though we saw littke of it looked better. Especially the outside part of campus.

 

[Tuskin38]

Issue #4 at least attempts to explain this in that Federation drives move ships through space and the vessels are protected from time dilation (presumably the concept that warp drive folds space), whereas the Borg drive is a literal FTL drive with the ensuing dilation.

Heck, this comes from Voyager. IIRC Seven mentions something about Borg ships requiring protection from chronitons or something

The campus that we saw in tng even though we saw littke of it looked better. Especially the outside part of campus.

Lmao no, the TNG campus was boring and bland.

 

[fireproof78]

The campus that we saw in tng even though we saw littke of it looked better. Especially the outside part of campus.

It looked like every 21st century college campus I had been on.

 

[Fateor]

Heck, this comes from Voyager. IIRC Seven mentions something about Borg ships requiring protection from chronitons or something

What she actually said.

SEVEN: When a Borg cube travels trough a transwarp corridor, the temporal stresses are extreme. To keep the different sections of theCube in temporal sync, we project a chronoton field throughout the vessel.

Also as a point, Voyager traveled at/through Transwarp multiple times.

 

[TRON JA307020]

It looked like every 21st century college campus I had been on.

Im talking about realism. Also tng wasn't 1100 years from now.

 

[firehawk12]

Just started watching it. I see nithimg has changed for gyms in 1200 years. Even the construction looks like a 20th/21st century gym

On the one hand, at least they're filming on location and not entirely in a box. On the other hand, that means it looks like a place you can go to now.

Welcome to Star Trek. Most people aren't gonna get a reference from fictional "cultures and artistic productions." That's why we get Opera, Sherlock Holmes, Pulp Detectives and Shakespeare. OTH, we have Mariner's Sarcastic Vulcan Salute. But that's a bit "inside baseball".

I mean either you want to create lore or you don't. Why invent "Klingon Opera" let alone a Klingon language (and a Vulcan language) if they're not relatable? Why don't they have Klingon ships with English display panels instead? Why make Klingons shout Q'apla all the time?

This is all subjective I suppose - I'm sure there are people who are fine with people using bitches or using middle figure gestures (I'm still waiting for a British alien to call someone a "c-word" and use the wanker gesture) - but that also means that some people will find it odd that all these aliens act like 21st century humans.

Isolationist.

I guess I associate isolationism with something more peaceful, mostly because of their violent response to the Titan people, but that works.

 

[Fateor]

On the one hand, at least they're filming on location and not entirely in a box. On the other hand, that means it looks like a place you can go to now.

Honestly? I would have made the attempt to do parrises squares.

Because it should have been easily dooable with the right room setup and stuntrigs.

 

[Tosk]

I think we can profitably restrain our level of fuss-budgetry over the one kid who experiences a minor pratfall, yes. Literally every other indicator is that the plants are not dangerous or harmful, just inconvenient.

It throws a chair across the corridor nearly striking someone, and slams two different people up against the wall. One of them upside down.

 

[Starflight]

The War College accept the violent murder-by-plant of their members as the ultimate triumph in the Prank War. It is their way. Starfleet's extreme cultural relativism leads them to allow it.

 

[BigJake]

It throws a chair across the corridor nearly striking someone, and slams two different people up against the wall. One of them upside down.

Sorry, so assuming this is the case (I'll take your word for it on the chair) there are two minor pratfalls, nearly three.

Do you have any sense that any of this is being presented as a genuine threat of injury to anyone? I certainly didn't. Like if "someone was briefly upside down!" is what we've got to worry about, I can see why everyone is pretty chill in the wake of the event.

 

[Tosk]

Do you have any sense that any of this is being presented as a genuine threat of injury to anyone?

Not particularly. But I can see why it might for some. I personally wouldn't enjoy being pinned to the wall or almost catching a chair in the face.

 

[BigJake]

Not particularly. But I can see why it might for some. I personally wouldn't enjoy being pinned to the wall or almost catching a chair in the face.

I mean if someone wants to interpret all of this as a horrific act of violence in which lives were in danger of being snuffed out, I can't disprove that. That can be their interpretation. I just don't see much of anything in what's actually on screen to support it.

 

[NCC-73515]

Lmao no, the TNG campus was boring and bland.

The Japanese garden is beautiful, and the Tilman building iconic (used in several other shows as well).

 

[firehawk12]

Honestly? I would have made the attempt to do parrises squares.

Because it should have been easily dooable with the right room setup and stuntrigs.

I was going to say it might be a pain to actually make up rules for the game, but I forgot that they already worked that out in Prodigy.

I suppose laser tag allowed them to just reuse the atrium set though.

 

[Mudd]

Effectively like Moulin Rouge using modern songs with the same intent so audiences could more directly relate.

What would be the point of creating a new gesture that they then have to take up valuable storytime to explain.

Every time Trek tries to create some futuristic art or parallel slang - or even poltical details - to replace contemporary examples, it comes off as clumsy and lame.

 

[Fateor]

I was going to say it might be a pain to actually make up rules for the game, but I forgot that they already worked that out in Prodigy.

I suppose laser tag allowed them to just reuse the atrium set though.

They still had to build that entire set with the floor flamethrowers.

 

[Mudd]

I mean either you want to create lore or you don't.

The aim of storytelling is not to invent trivia for its own sake.

 

[firehawk12]

The aim of storytelling is not to invent trivia for its own sake.

There is still verisimilitude and world building consistency. And it's not like I'm the nerd who invented Klingon, someone hired Okrand to do it because I assume they thought that Klingons should have a different culture. The same reason why the characters in the show don't say Vulcans are constantly horny but say that they're going through "Pon Farr" instead.

They still had to build that entire set with the floor flamethrowers.

I kind of assume most of that was a combination of the volume and classic Trek styrofoam boulders. lol

 

[Mudd]

There is still verisimilitude and world building consistency.

This is certainly relative; Trek has never been Dune.

Star Trek doesn't do "world-building;" the creators improvise whike trying to keep up and pick and choose from all the contradictory stuff that's been established in one story or another over the decades. Some productions employ people to research that, but it's then disregarded when that's desirable.